D.A. fan is back for an ME1 Text Only 'Let's Play' (page 51)

I believe this also has an impact going into ME2, giving you a starting bonus on P/R based on you ME1 choices. I really do miss the mechanics of upgrading that we had in ME1.

can't access the star map because I'm not the Commander? wut?

One of the doorman saluted Shepard, so I walked toward the other one to make him do it too. They know what's up.

Small team to grab the beacon? and what, we just leave the rest of Eden Prime to die?

Whelp, it's 1211 where I live and I work in the morning. Saren just shot Nihilis. I will have to troubleshoot the Controller mod tomorrow before I resume. I'm not too interested in being Pistol only the rest of the game along with not being able to pick what I level up in.

till next time.

The mechanics of P/R points in ME2 are just weird. You have to get the maximum amount of P/R points possible with where you're at in the game. Even if you start with a boost it doesn't ultimately help. I've heard it said that it's best to do the LMs for Miranda and Jack early on before the game mechanics start making it harder. That is, invest almost completely in Paragon OR Renegade to get the maximum benefits. Personally, in ME1, I have few instances where I'd take the Renegade option (love doing it with Admiral Mikhailovich because, let's face it, he's an entitled jerk who he thinks has the right to demand an inspection from a ship not under his command or part of his fleet it's become a Council ship for a Council Spectre).

Don't get me wrong. I'll still shove that merc out the window in Thane's recruitment mission. There are a couple of other places where I go Renegade even as a mostly Paragon Shepard. I just choose my moments carefully.

I had no idea you could regain the loyalty of Tali or Legion if one was lost during their argument.

Actually, I'm going to say now that the interrupt throwing the merc out the window is not a great example because it's one that does have a directly opposing Paragon option.  The conversation breaks down as follows:

Eclipse Trooper
> 2 Renegade for "I need answers."
plus
> 2 Paragon for "I've got an offer."
> 2 Renegade for "Listen carefully."
plus
> 5 Renegade for RENEGADE INTERRUPT
> Not using Renegade interrupt
o   5 Paragon for "Don't be stupid."
o   5 Renegade for "I hope you can fly."

So, for this entire conversation, there are a maximum of 7 paragon and 9 renegade available.  The freebie renegade is actually in selecting "I need answers" since you'll get 2 renegade points for saying that without missing out on any corresponding paragon.  If you use the interrupt, you cannot get the 5 paragon for saying  "Don't be stupid." so, in that case, you are forfeiting 5 paragon points by taking the 5 renegade ones.

The basic formula my spreadsheet uses is:  Total Points Taken times Reputation Bonus Divided by Total Points Available To That Point in the Game (expressed as a percentage).   In my most recent playthrough, I did fail to get the renegade option to settle the Tali/Legion argument even though my calculated percentage was still 103% (as I said, it's not footproof yet... other factors appear to be at work)... likely some relationship algorithm between the levels of paragon vs. renegade at that moment.  I know that, way back when, I had a similar problem so I went back and to an earlier save and redid Samara's loyalty mission (which has a paragon glitch).  I used the glitch a few times to increase paragon only... and low and behold both the paragon and renegade options unlocked to settle things between Tali and Legion (what I was expected was just for the paragon one to unlock).

Good question? I will give an answer after you have completed a certain part of the game

hahaha I wish that's what I was doing right now. I may have made a mistake in letting hubby work on the mods for me. He didn't bother to back anything up before trying to troubleshoot the controller mod, and now it won't come on anymore. We may lose an entire day with the need to uninstall everything and reinstall it. Isn't that a pisser? So much for him doing it as a present.

Yeah, I would have liked some indication of Anderson sending separate teams down to the planet to help and look for survivors of the attack we saw on the transmission.  The beacon could then have really been Shepard's top priority without feeling like the Alliance was just not bothering to search for anyone who may have still been left alive.  My head canon is that he did send other teams down to the planet and we just weren't told or shown that for the sake of moving the gameplay ahead, but an extra line of dialogue with another team and another drop point with another team departing wouldn't have hurt.