What did you do today in ME?

I'm cruising along in Andromeda. I arrived on Voeld yesterday around Level 21. I finished Voeld today at Level 41. Combat gives a ton of XP, and I'm wearing a bunch of +XP gear. I generally wear that gear until I achieve level 50, and then jump into some more build-focused armor.

The build is filling out nicely, now. I have all of my Biotic skills set for the foreseeable future (Annihilation, Lance, and the Passives). I have all of the Tech Passives fully evolved, adding a ton of survivability to this character (who actively uses Energy Drain), as well as a lot of good stuff for the future.

I'm finally invested in some Combat skills, now. I've nearly maxed Pistols, and will then finish Combat Fitness and Turbocharge. The latter will give me some much-needed punch for melting Architects and the Progenitor. Then I'll pop back into Tech to add Tactical Cloak, Assault Turret, and Incinerate. Finally, I'll return to Combat, evolving the remaining gun skills.

I can't really recall how many skills I generally managed to fully evolve in an initial playthrough. I do recall that I usually finish the game at level 73 or 74. I'm not sure whether I'll do a NG+ right away, or if I'll wait a while; but I'll continue building via NG+ at some point.

In the meantime, the bulk of the game is about to open. I have to return the Moshae to Aya, and then I can start exploring more widely. I enjoy Kadara, aside from some bugginess, and need those Ai Research Points to get my armor and such researched. I mostly roll with Initiative gear, and those points are always too scarce before Kadara.

Shepard: Had you shot the guy when you had the opportunity, you might not being laying on your deathbed




Shepard: You need to get you head examined. Until then, I'm grounding you. I don't need a pilot having feelings for a robot. I should have seen this coming when you wanted to bake a cake.
Moreau: Damn Commander. That's harsh.
Shepard: Ask yourself this. Would you rather cuddle up to a human woman made of flesh? Or would you prefer to cuddle up to some cold steel?
Moreau: When you put it that way.
Shepard: Good. I now reinstate you to being my pilot

Finished ME1, so I post my summary for it

In Mass Effect 1, Hannah's a loyal Alliance soldier to no end and dislikes politics and corruption.
She doesn't trust most aliens because of her past and she only reluctantly lets Garrus join because he already investigates Saren, and after Wrex approached her at the C-Sec elevator, trying to convince her twice to let him join, she let him on board because krogan are supposed to be tough fighters and could be useful cannon fodder. She also did not want Tali to join, but ultimately had no choice when Udina made her do it.
After having Garrus, Wrex, Tali and Liara on board she decided to at least find out how they tick, in order to be prepared for battle in the best way. She learns very early that Garrus and she share some views and is pleasantly surprised by his goals in trying to take Saren down and his reasons to join C-Sec.
She barely talks to Wrex as he seems very untalkative, but when Garrus mentioned the genophage at some point she asks Wrex more about it. While thinking it's a sad thing, she also feels it is a necessary evil, seeing how krogan are usually very violent.
She's afraid Tali might spy on the Normandy, but she soon sees that Tali is no threat at all and even helps her on her pilgrimage by allowing her to make a copy of the geth data.
Liara strikes her as innocent right away and she's the first of the aliens that she wants to truly know more about. Despite Liara's fascination with Shepard, about which she is very careful, Hannah had taken a liking to Liara, on the path to a blossoming friendship towards the end.
She grew to like Ashley because of shared feelings on aliens and family.
During her talks with Kaidan she quickly finds herself interested in him, fully aware she lets her guard down. But she can't resist, she's lonely and she likes him a lot, even though they strongly disagree about aliens. She ends up spending the night with him before Ilos because she longs for some human contact, and stays with him until they're separated when the Normandy is shot down by the Collector ship.

She brings Liara to Noveria, because she thinks Liara can help when dealing with her mother. When they kill Benezia, Shepard feels guilty, she never wanted anyone to see their parent die, it hit very close to home.
Upon encountering the rachni queen, Hannah has no second thoughts about her fate. She kills anything that sounds dangerous to her, and she did not trust a word the queen said.

Hannah saved Terra Nova from batarian terrorists next, and she chose to sacrifice the few for the many and went after Balak. She grazed and wounded him before finally killing him off.

On Feros, Hanna helped the Zhu's Hope colonists back on their feet, then pursues her mission. She agrees to use the nerve gas on the colonists, but this changes as she sees how close the Thorian Creepers have come to the colony. She fears the colonists share the same fate and she doesn't want to take any chances, but Ashley raising her voice in favor to use the gas had her reconsider. Hannah agreed, but told her team to still not take any chances. 4 colonists were killed in the process. After dealing with the Thorian on Feros, she shoots Shiala, because she doesn't trust anything that has to do with that creepy thing or indoctrination.

On Virmire, Hannah tried to talk Wrex - who she also had warmed up to prior - down, but when he didn't follow her orders she felt she had no other choice but to shoot him. No one jeopardises the mission.
She didn't fully trust the salarians and sent Kaidan with them, knowing he's capable of taking care of himself if necessary. She took Ashley and Liara and they helped the salarian team by disabling various dangers. After leaving Ashley with the bomb, she was on the way to help Kaidan when his team was pinned down at the AA tower. When she had to choose between Kaidan and Ashley, she chose Kaidan because of her feelings for him, a choice that would haunt her for a long time, and she's shocked and mad at herself for letting her feelings interfere with the mission.
The salarian captain, Kirrahe, seemed like a decent guy to her after he expressed sympathy for Ash's death and that they won't forget what Shepard's team has done there for them.

She sacrificed the Council without thinking twice because she saw Sovereign as the greater threat. When being asked who should be the new human Councilor she leaves without picking anyone, because to her, the Reaper threat is what she has to deal with.

Pic dump


Highlights:
- It was the very first time that I did not scan the Keepers, but then later on went to Jahleed first instead. Interesting to see, and not the last time I'll do it that way around (no idea to be honest why it took me so long in the first place...)
- Got more Colossus armor than I could count, but only used it on Kaidan
- Had plenty of opportunities to snap at Liara, which is fun once in a while

Since I can't wait, I'll tell you what Jett Shepard has done to date. First, he's an earthborn, war hero and vanguard because I'm predictable. He romanced Kaidan, saved Kaidan, did all loyalty missions, didn't kill Wrex, saved the Council and put Anderson on the Council. Did the various little things that will have an impact in ME3. Made Saren kill himself because why should I have to do all the hard work?

In ME2, I have an okay relationship with Miranda. Dislike Jacob. Why? The ass-kissing salutes (me and Garrus), the "do you know what's going on guy who just woke up and you don't know why?" and other things. Oh, "he kicked ass in battle so obviously his mental state is perfect". He's such an ioiot. Recruited Zaeed. Recruited Mordin and kept Daniel alive. Recruited Garrus.

This is as up-to-date as I've got. Game just froze to the point that I had to force restart my PC.

Finished up Mass Effect 2 with my Adept, a lot of fun but also a lot of rage at times

Waking up, Hannah's confused, even more so when she finds out she's with Cerberus. She doesn't trust Miranda, Jacob or the Illusive Man and she's wondering if she is actually still herself.
She's glad to see Joker and Dr. Chakwas, but is distanced to the Cerberus crew at first.
When meeting Anderson she's angry with him for not offering more help, angry at the Alliance for leaving her behind, but sees that Anderson still trusts her, trusts what she's doing.
When having quiet moments she's in doubt about her relationship with Kaidan and reflects on it. She was never sure what exactly her feelings meant. Was that just a fling or something deeper?
Meeting Kaidan on Horizon was an absolute disaster for her and she feels like they would have needed more time in order to resolve things. They didn't have that time, and she thinks it might be better the way it is. Feelings involved on important missions never work out well. When she receives Kaidan's apology via e-mail she thinks about him again, about their time together, but feels she has already lost him and that their bond had been broken beyond repair anyway. In the end, she overcomes her feelings for Kaidan and lets go of him.

She keeps things strictly professional with Miranda and Jacob at first, bonds with Jack, takes a liking to Mordin, is glad to see Tali and Garrus again as her views of both had changed drastically since first meeting them, likes Kasumi and accepts Zaeed until his mission, where he shows off his hotheadedness, but Hannah needs him. She's initially suspicious of the assassin Thane, but eventually grows closer to him, too. She respects Samara, and they have some interesting conversations. She eventually warms up to Miranda, Jacob and the rest of the Cerberus crew. She is aware she lets her guard further down by getting close to her crew, but doesn't regret it either.
The krogan they collected on the way is not let out of the tank because it's too risky, but she is curious about the geth taken from the derelict Reaper. Very careful, she decides to hear it out. After seeing it following her orders even when telling it to stop transmitting data from Tali, Hannah apologises to Legion and slowly builds up trust towards it.
Helping everyone with their personal affairs before heading through the Omega-4 relay is something Hannah deems as important, as she doesn't want to risk anyone being distracted, like she was on Virmire.
She also helps Liara become the new Shadow Broker, rekindling their friendship along the way.

Everyone except Zaeed and Miranda are loyal in the end. Miranda was pissed because Hannah sided with Jack in their argument, and her decision to save the refinery workers left Zaeed still longing for revenge.
When finding the rest of the crew inside the Collector Base, they had already lost some people from the squad, and Miranda presses Shepard to not jeopardise the mission by sending them back to the Normandy with someone who could further help them with the Collectors. Hannah's torn here, as she usually would agree with Miranda. But seeing all these lives, the people she knows and trusts, in front of her makes it hard for her to just go on. In the end she decides to send Jacob with them, trusting the rest of her squad will still be enough.
Shepard destroys the Collector Base and gets out alive, while Jack, Miranda and Thane give their lives to stop the Collectors.
Afterwards she breaks out Hackett's friend from prison and destroys a batarian system in the process to stop the Reapers for another few months. In the aftermath she meets James Vega, his job to guard her in the brig, and he is her only regular contact during her detention. She likes him, but as usual, she tends to keep to herself rather than talking a lot with him.
She aches to get out of there and fight for the galaxy and has more than a few restless nights.

Pics


Highlights:
- Saved the salarian with medi-gel on Thane's RM. Didn't do that the first time because avoiding interrupts and doing things differently and it was HORRIBLE
- Had Kal'Reegar survive this time. Did the end fight two or three times in the end because I had it in my mind him surviving when he helps was only about being fast, but then I read some more internet stuff and some claimed he'll survive if the Colossus doesn't shoot at him. In the 3rd run, I was quite fast, but the Colossus had shot what felt like 100 times at Kal, but then he was still alive So in the end, I still have no idea what really triggers him staying alive.
- Made it through the Collector ship without dying! I love the Adept so much
- Throwing enemies off platforms was a lot of fun! Never used Throw myself so far for an Adept, and it was hilarious at times. This game and combat is still so amazing each time I play it.

I thought with the Paragon interrupt you always have him live. If you go Renegade, you can have him live if fast enough Still things to figure out after all these years, haha. I took the Renegade option he did live, so it's possible in general

Had a chat with a Reaper, was a able to get Wrex to see reason, and RIP Kaidan Alenko. Next I am going to clear out some Geth in the Armstrong Nebula, and then head out to Noveria to investigate what is going on there.

Yeah it's been even a big break now since MELE came out and after 6+ PT's of that was bit burnt out.

Doing an MEA PT ATM so maybe an MELE PT after that but not sure a lot of other stuff on the list.

Fixed operation overlord by blowing up some geth, let cerberus keep David, went onto a dead reaper, made friends with a geth, blew up other geth, collectors abducted crew so I got mad and took them back and irradiated the collector base but everyone else thinks I should have blown it up. Tomorrow I am going to help Liara hunt down the shadow broker and then I will pay batarian space a quick visit. I am sure nothing bad will happen.

I have never imported a game into ME3 where I skipped arrival but my understanding is that it still happens, just that it wasn't Shepard who did it. Think it was alliance marines.