What Did You Do Today in Andromeda

I forgot to turn off my Ad Blocker and the damn site ate my post. 🤨 I guess I'll try again with greater brevity.

Scott returned to Eos, bringing it to 100% viability and clearing it of activities for the near future. He hit level 20 upon defeating the Architect. Seems about right. We'll swing by the Nexus before heading for Havarl tomorrow.

I posted a long-winded observation as to how one OP gun (newly upgraded at level 20 Valkyrie 4 Beam Emitter) and a combination of complimentary skills can easily break the game. There are a few skillsets/builds that can crack Andromeda in half. I think my level 20 Scott could finish the game as he is now, with the occasional death due to low hp.

The game is a blast to play, but it definitely needed a lot more tuning and balancing. As always when I play MEA, I find myself thinking of how great it could've been if so much time hadn't been wasted in the first 3 or 4 years of development (allegedly). I'm glad they managed to beef up the CC and patch in the R&D features before the plug was pulled. It has a lot if rough edges, but it's still fun to play. It would've been lesser without the patches we did receive.

Damn Element Zero now you have got me wanting to play again as well. Probably got at least 50jrs of ACOD to go plus DLC and worry if I stop I won't go back, Oh well maybe RL will settle down and I can split my attention but never been great at that.

I've reached Havarl and I'm really, really missing my old gear, skills and the like. I'm not deleting my current PT, but I'm going to start a NG+ with these twins and see if I'm more satisfied.

I feel like this game starts very weakly, so I hate to have to replay all of that stuff. That said, I'll have all of my goodies, so I'll just shoot/crush/explode swiftly through it all again.

This current PT sees me swimming in Bioconverters and Beam Emitters. It's odd in that bioconverters are typically scarce, regardless of what I do. Beam emitters are not usually abundant, either. It's another reason to save the file rather than hastily deleting it. It might be worth revisiting, if only to eventually build an entire arsenal of bioconverter weapons.

I think I want to build a Beam Emitter Incisor. The thing is insane when switched to full-auto. Adding the BE will essentially eliminate the stability issue. It would specifically be an anti-Architect weapon. Rifles and SMGs are already good tools for that, but I'm always looking for new things to try.

Yeah, I can totally empathise it took me 275hrs to finish the first PT and I am now at 430hrs I think and haven't finished my 2n full PT or LoTFB on this PT and haven't touched the two new DLC's. Maybe I should take a break but as mentioned I am definitely starting an NG+ but from one of my earlier saves rather than my 14th or 15th.

Yeah it truly sucks to not have am ME on the horizon or even the hint of one. God damn you Bioware, you could have at least chucked some people at a a DLC for MEA after the Anthem cluster-f#ck.


 

This was essentially my reaction when starting Mass Effect 3, and it took me a while to get used to that pithy Joss Whedonesque banter, especially with how tense the plot was otherwise.  Then Citadel happened and turned the snarky lightheartedness up to eleven without even attempting to give the story any emotional weight. It's the one DLC I plan to outright skip this time around, though I'll decide for sure when I get there in my trilogy playthrough.

I try to get into the spirit of it in Andromeda though. As you say, Professional/Serious Ryder offers the most even tone, and most of the party being young adults and technically outside military protocol at that excuses at least some of the inane chatter. A shame Ryder Sr. doesn't survive the start of the game. His no-nonsense attitude really helps focus the first hour.

And my reservations about being forced to play an overgrown teenager given the keys to the kingdom aside, I'm always surprised by how much I enjoy Sara Ryder. Her model is really well-made and looks like a fit young woman instead of some statuesque warrior dame, and her being physically smaller and shorter than most of the rest of the crew gives her an air of human vulnerability that Shepard certainly never had, man or woman. Her voice and acting is okay strong too, as long as you get her a less dopey-looking face to go with them.

That scene of the Archon viewing a recording of Alec interfacing with the weather thingy is really nice too. Very ominous, and I always like villains who express themselves with body language instead of monologues. Again, a shame the game doesn't do more with the notion of the Kett as part of the local power structure who feel threatened by us, instead making them irredeemably evil and monstrous.

Found Cora and her people after exploring a bit. Then found daddy. Conquered a weird weather station and then stuff happened. Woke up the new Pathfinder for reasons nobody can figure out. Yay. On our way to the Nexus now.

Mission-relevant notes:

-Liam really does seem out of control sometimes. I'm glad we found Cora and I can lean on her instead. He's good in a fight, but relying on trigger-happy testosterone bombs is a loser move. Don't know what dad was thinking, recruiting him. He's usually a better judge of character.

-Those structures back on Habitat 7... Don't know what to make of them. They clearly didn't belong to our grumpy new neighbors, and after just 600 years we should be finding a lot more traces of any civilization capable of building them. It makes no sense. You don't build mega-structures on planets without a population. And why build something that just messes up the weather? Damn. I wish we'd had a chance to study them more closely. Maybe dad had some ideas before... well, before.

-I don't get why I have to be the Pathfinder. Cora was dad's second, and she's much better trained. And older. But she keeps shooting me down when I try to broach the subject. I don't know if she knows something I don't, or if she's just processing and needs to think about things. Which I'd respect, except that we're supposed to be meeting with the Initiative leadership in a few hours and I'm pretty sure she'd sound more confident defending our decisions than I will. Hope she pulls herself together and takes over soon. I need to check on Scott...

-Gaaaaah. So many questions. At least when we get to the Nexus we'll know more about the situation. I need a debriefing, a long night's rest in a real bed, a few hours staring at a ceiling with some music on and PROPER COFFEE before I can even begin to figure out what's going on with SAM being in my head all of a sudden.

Notes on the Nexus:

-Seems like people on the Nexus have been through some tough times. The chain of command was apparently screwed up from the start, and that always makes everything difficult. Add to that unexpected resource scarcity and people being stranded 2,5 million light-years away from home with reinforcements not showing up, and it's no wonder things are rough. If dad had been here in that time, he'd either have found solutions or been climbing the walls driving everyone crazy.

-That said, the leadership is clearly doing their best. The superintendent is a rock. Kesh is keeping the station running with a minimum of fuss, and I know enough about routing power through big orbital compounds to know her people are doing a good job. In fact, I've gotten to know a few of her technicians. Solid guys. Professional. Garson didn't hire slobs. The security chief - or "leader of the militia" - is a sensible and practical turian. Dad would have liked him. Not a proud old war machine, just a man of action exactly where he needs to be.

-The director seems to be unpopular, and I admit he's a bit sleazy for my tastes. But honestly, I'm not seeing what he's doing wrong. From what I understand, he stepped up big time when the original leadership were lost, and have been doing okay keeping everything going with very little to work with. That's a hell of a pressure, and he seems to take it on the chin when people aren't satisfied. He's down-to-earth and constructive when we discuss my team's objectives, too, and has good ideas for how to proceed. Not bad at all for a former bean counter. 

-Addison, the director of colonization efforts, is a bit harder to deal with. She's obviously really frustrated after all this time, and the people she's lost trying to get things running while waiting for the Arks to arrive. I get that, absolutely. I can't really fault her for not trusting me either. To be frank, I'm right there with her. Dad and his stupid arbitrary decisions. Sometimes I really, really wish he'd trusted people more, been better at communicating.

-I was lying when I told Dunn he wasn't good with people. He was. He was just too stubborn to slow down enough for a lot to understand his reasoning. It made them feel like he saw them as stupid and inconsequential. I don't think he did. He just... thought in a different way to the rest of us. I've met a few of his N7 buddies, and they're all like that. Hyperactive in command. Operating on information that the rest of us don't have access to, having to make decisions without hesitation and with no room for doubt, or it's all for nothing, and demanding that people toe the line for their own good. When I was younger it scared me. Now I'm glad people like that exist, and that they fight for the rest of us. I just wish we were all better at handling it.

-Cora says they're refitting his Pathfinder armor to fit me. Don't know how I feel about that. It's good armor, and it means something, and I'd be stupid not to wear it. But I'm not N7. I'm not walking around with that designation on my chest for the rest of my career. It'd be insanely disrespectful. Maybe I'll find something better to wear. If not, I'll have them cover it up or forego the chest piece entirely. Which would be a shame, I really like the collar. But that's just how it's going to be.

-Buuuuuuut... I went through his quarters after talking with SAM. A lot of interesting stuff. One thing in particular. He brought mom's coffeemaker! I'm having that thing set up in my quarters if I have to personally install the wall socket. Which I may. From what I'm being told, the ship we're getting is crazy advanced. I can't wait to see it.

I wasn't able to play as much as I'd hoped, but I got to wrap up Eos and head back to the Nexus today.

That included stopping by to see Bain Massani after wiping out the kett yesterday. Then, we explored the dunes. Lots of kett died. We stopped the kett from transmitting intel regarding Prodromos. We also found and coopted a kett study on Eos' wildlife. That data went to Prodromos and the Initiative instead of the kett.

Killing so many kett finally earned me a few more bioconverters. When I eventually unlock that extra augmentation slot, I'll be able to craft a couple more weapons I have in mind. I may craft prototypes sooner, but final versions will have to wait.

Not too much else to tell. We also found the final shuttle to escape from Resilience. The crafty turian pilot had managed to keep everyone alive. We found them running very low on power, but alive in stasis, in Eriksson System.

Tomorrow is going to be very busy in real life, but I hope to squeeze in some MEA. If I can knock out Havarl 100%, that will be great. That's probably too ambitious, but we shall see.

I got to play several hours of MEA, today. I completed Havarl from arrival through the vault activation, including all of the side quests available during that time.

Tomorrow I'll talk to Jaal and Evfra aboard Tempest, catch up with crew and head back out to finish Havarl's quests.

I wrapped up Havarl tonight, learning more about the roekarr and thwarting a crazy plot to poison multiple habitable worlds with an Ai presence. Fanatics are always the same, willing to cut of their own noses with their fool quests.

I enjoy how Jaal is very guarded when he first joins the crew, but fully embraces the alliance after Ryder and crew save his world. It just feels natural and believable. Evfra's dialogue is less well written, but that relationship likewise feels pretty believable. An extraordinary accomplishment justifies a leap of trust, even a scary one.

Cora caught word of Asari on Eos, and we got our first lead on their ark. So now we know that Natanus, Paarchero and Leusinia each made it to Heleus. We just don't yet know where any of the three are, or if they're safe.

The session was regrettably short, and I saved at the Resistance HQ on Voeld before initiating any conversations. Good spot to resume tomorrow.

The environmental hazards are idiotic in this game. I understand and like the idea, but it was terribly executed. Both the temps and levels of ionizing radiation should be no threat to someone in a hardsuit. I know the Ai is equipped primarily with civilian series armor and weapons, but come on! Are these suits just knit underoos with plastic shells? I play exclusively on Insanity, and Voeld's bugged hazards are a true irritant. I don't look forward to it. I imagine this is a gameplay feature that would've been patched had we been provided proper post-launch support.

Oh, well. Don't want to end on a downer. I am still loving my new Scott, and still enjoying the explosive mayhem of my Annihilation Bomber. Since I'm playing NG+, I also have all the gear and skills needed for the occasional change of pace.

dazk, he does say that. The line always seemed silly to me, but I guess it does fit this gameplay discussion pretty well. Maybe Scott was speaking across the fourth wall?

Why agonize over the CC? Just import the twins I linked above and let me know what you think! 😉

I'm the same way. I just wanted someone to see them in game. 😂

I stopped several PTs of earlier versions of this Scott. Something just wasn't right. He's finally okay, now. I love that Sara, funky hair and all. The face is most lifelike in game that I've seen from any ME character. There are options I wish I had for both, but meh. We work with what we have. This CC was never phenomenal. It allows for consistently good faces, but makes masterpieces difficult.