Strike Team missions - Interview with Mike Gamble

Hopefully it won't just be friends, but like in ME3 where you can also join three other random people and do the mission, thus benefit from the extra rewards?

The way it's being implemented though I'm still not sure about. Ideally it won't break immersion too much if it ties into the "meta-story" whatever the hell that is.

Huh, sounds like it could be fun side distraction. Would be weird if it was friends only, there will probably be DA:I-like lobby too.

Thanks for the link. I do like how BioWare is trying to incorporate an overall narrative into the MP as a whole versus just Horde Matches with little to no tie-in with what's going on in the single player.

Although now I'm curious how this system will work in relation to your SP progression as well as with MP DLC.

So if you aren't too far in the campaign, does that mean that your choice of Strike Team missions would be limited? Would you be allowed to join a buddy's mission if they are farther in the main storyline than you? And if you do will you be privy to campaign/meta narrative spoilers?

What about MP DLC? Assuming Andromeda's multiplayer mode will be receiving post release content like ME 3 and DA:I did, will any new maps and character kits be included among the selection options dynamically or is this list static?


As for extra rewards, I can see the logic BioWare is going with in that more people + harder difficulty = better rewards, but does that mean that those players who do every Strike Team Mission with a full party will be able to unlock all of the best/end game gear and upgrade the Nexus halfway through the game? All the while those that choose to just play said missions in single player will be struggling to unlock everything even with a completionist play through?

is it possible to just access multiplayer from te main menu? and play it without beeing involved in a single player story mision?

i hope random people can join the strike team missions, i don't have enough friends in origin :s

.....So we can do these missions as a single player too? That's pretty awesome, especially if these strike team missions reveal bits of the story - I hate the idea that not doing multiplayer means I miss out on plot-related stuff within the main game (bonus equipment I can live without). Not that I'll never try multiplayer... it's just that I'm not that great at combat (or rather, I'm good at taking my time and strategizing but 'spray and pray' pretty much describes my shooting skills). And I don't want people getting mad at me because I suck or am taking too long to kill stuff.

Fair enough, but grinding away on horde maps for SP rewards isn't my idea of fun. After all the flack they took for MP affecting SP, I'm honestly surprised they'd go this route...

Maybe someone can try and pry some more info about this mechanic out of the devs over twitter?

It would be nice to get a proper Q&A session going to outline all the finer points of this feature as well as clear up any concerns people might have. I hate having to piece together developer intent and context based off a paragraph article

I'm counting too on not missing too much for not playing MP. I had my fun with ME3MP and I'm truly grateful for all the promotions that saved me from scanning for ever , but I'm not sure I'm going to touch the MP at all this time, and I'm certain that I'm not going to be doing it any time soon, because I want to make the most of the SP first and it looks like it's going to be a very long game...

But precisely because it looks like it's going to be a long game I doubt that I'm going to miss more XP or credits, particularly credits, because even in much shorter games I end up with more money that I can use when I'm doing a completionist pt... And XP, meh, I don't care much either... If that's all I'm mssing, I'm ok

I dislike MP as the next guy but if it is possible to do this mission with a quick matchmaking option with three random people to maximize the rewards and minimize the grinding then I'm ok with it.

This is an interesting question.
It may no longer be possible to play multiplayer only (or from the root menu) without playing some single player.

Now I'm wondering if the Strike Team Missions are entirely separate from standard MP. Is there even a "normal" MP mode anymore?

Can one load up a regular MP match and then select strike team missions from a list of possible scenarios? If so, will your selection just be limited to those that the host has unlocked?

What about after you finish the SP, are all those missions now permanently locked out of that save file? What if you really liked a particular mission but you have already beaten the game, are you going to be forced to search for someone else who happens to be hosting that particular run? Do you have to start a new save file in order to play through it again?


EDIT: 

In regards to you post, yeah now that you mention it, is multiplayer in general going to be "greyed out" until players have gotten up to the point in the campaign were Strike Team Missions become available?

There's something really appealing about MP in ME3 but actually playing it I always felt like I hit a dead end after just 2-3 sessions. I think I need more than just a rinse and repeat horde-mode to seriously bother with Multiplayer and I have no RL friends that play Mass Effect as their multiplayer title so that kinda takes the fun out of it. I never liked just randomly playing with strangers in grindy multiplayer games. I feel like I get nothing out of it. If the story/setting-ties in Andromeda's multiplayer are good then I'll stick around some more and if not then there's at least the novelty of playing as aliens again.

I really think BioWare's next big projects should take inspiration from Resident Evil 5 and 6 though. I had such a good time bonding with a random PSN user over RE6 and the sense of sharing a full-blown singleplayer campaign with a friend. I also played Haze and Halo back in the day with RL friends on a couch and there's just something about that sense of story-driven co-op that I love. BioWare titles being so character-focused it is the perfect format for co-op singleplayers especially if they integrate choices. The Bro and Sis Ryders is a perfect candidate too. They're both players but they're slightly different. There's an idea for Andromeda 2 maybe.