Mass Effect Trilogy

[Qarthadqart]

I saved some of it.

Very nice. Old Hermes had it all saved once but I lost it. Anyone know what L'Etoile is up to now? Is he still in the industry?

I was searching for L'etoile's dev diaries on google and came across this post. Thank you for sharing, I haven't seen them anywhere else. Did he just write two or are there more out there somewhere?

There are more at the old F13 forums. But it's a chore finding them. He posted there under the nickname Stormwaltz.

http://www.f13.net

I need a (mod approved) account to look at his profile. Whenever that goes through I'll take a look, thanks.

It's pretty incredible how everyone trying to guess what the superweapon would be came up with an idea that's way better than what it turned out to be.

Literally just make it a Halo ring. Something so suicidally destructive it makes the Reapers back down and wait out your cycle. That would be a good final choice: stop the Reapers, or save your civilization.

 

[Volourn]

Are they are a force of nature? Or were they build by some ancient civilization? They can be defeated. That isnt news.

 

[J1M]

I don't want to be a debbie downer for a series that ended years and years ago, but Mass Effect's writers did not build the series to logically have a happy ending.

IMO the only endings that made sense were either a mass exodus to Andromeda, or another downer ending. The Reapers are a force of nature that has culled the galaxy "more times than your kind can fathom."

Should've stuck to the semi-lovecraftian theme they had going and given the series a properly dark ending.

Or it could have been a story of a space cop bringing his own brand of frontier justice to the colonies instead of three "dragon invades the realm" tales in a row.

 

[Technomancer]

Literally just make it a Halo ring. Something so suicidally destructive it makes the Reapers back down and wait out your cycle.

How does that work in your mind? How can you "wait out" a cycle? Whole point of 50k between each culling was to give organics enough time to evolve but not enough time to be killed by machines or become too powerful. If you just wait 100k years, you risk coming back to another slightly weaker reapers.

 

[Qarthadqart]

Literally just make it a Halo ring. Something so suicidally destructive it makes the Reapers back down and wait out your cycle.

How does that work in your mind? How can you "wait out" a cycle? Whole point of 50k between each culling was to give organics enough time to evolve but not enough time to be killed by machines or become too powerful. If you just wait 100k years, you risk coming back to another slightly weaker reapers.

In this scenario they would return to dark space and wait for a period of inevitable instability they could exploit. The Reapers still have agents in the galaxy that can track this cycle's progress, they don't have to wait another 50k years. Let organics kill themselves with war or synthetics or whatever, then sweep in before whatever is left can reconstitute itself. Basically they're delaying the invasion for as long as the Citadel Council system can maintain itself. From an organic perspective, even if you disagree with the premise that your race is on timer, it's clear from history that no civilization stays stable forever. Whether you agree with the Reapers or not, this option endangers future societies, but saves established ones.

 

[racofer]

 

[mediocrepoet]

This really should have been the Legendary Edition version of Shepard.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Mass Effect Still in Pre-Production, BioWare Passes Star Wars: The Old Republic to New Dev:​

https://wccftech.com/mass-effect-st...re-passes-star-wars-the-old-republic-new-dev/

 

[J1M]

After 6 years of pre-production they will run out of time and cannibalize a cancelled SWOTOR expansion to rush something out the door.

 

[Wayward Son]

I still love the series, especially now that they can be modded. I got back into them over the pandemic break from college and now I replay them every so often (like once every couple months).

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

I've been itching to replay it. I have all the DLC now. There's no way I'm playing the new edition though.

 

[Wayward Son]

I've been itching to replay it. I have all the DLC now. There's no way I'm playing the new edition though.

I’d recommend checking some gameplay mods. I play on Legendary so I don’t remember what was on OE anymore but I do remember that there were at least a few good ones.

 

[J1M]

I've been itching to replay it. I have all the DLC now. There's no way I'm playing the new edition though.

I’d recommend checking some gameplay mods. I play on Legendary so I don’t remember what was on OE anymore but I do remember that there were at least a few good ones.

I would argue that bullet sponge difficulty isn't necessarily the most enjoyable way to play. Though I did finish it on legendary without using guns just to see how difficult it would be.

 

[Wayward Son]

I've been itching to replay it. I have all the DLC now. There's no way I'm playing the new edition though.

I’d recommend checking some gameplay mods. I play on Legendary so I don’t remember what was on OE anymore but I do remember that there were at least a few good ones.

I would argue that bullet sponge difficulty isn't necessarily the most enjoyable way to play. Though I did finish it on legendary without using guns just to see how difficult it would be.

Legendary meaning the legendary edition not the insanity difficulty.

 

[502]

Any of you fine gentlemen know of a working anti-aliasing fix for legacy ME2? I found some old methods that involve NVIDIA Profile Inspector (and I remember using it a few years ago) but nothing works now.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Try uninstall.exe it'll look way better.

 

[ferratilis]

Why don't you use DSR? Render the game at 4k and it will downscale to your resolution, thus removing the jaggies.

Or even better, if you have an RTX card, use DLDSR at the factor of 2.25x with DSR smoothness set to 60%, for the best result.

 

[502]

Or even better, if you have an RTX card, use DLDSR at the factor of 2.25x with DSR smoothness set to 60%, for the best result.

Just tried it for a comparison shot and obviously it looks better, but DSR and DLDSR default my refresh rate and FPS to 60 unless I use the DLDSR resolution for the desktop, which isn't ideal.

 

[ferratilis]

Just tried it for a comparison shot and obviously it looks better, but DSR and DLDSR default my refresh rate and FPS to 60 unless I use the DLDSR resolution for the desktop, which isn't ideal.

Are you using DP 1.2 or HDMI 2.0 cable? It's probably because only DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 support 4k at 120fps, and for some reason nvidia doesn't allow higher refresh rate. Or it's a bug.

In that case, you could use a lower factor, it will still look better than native 1080p.

 

[502]

Just changed my desktop resolution too, otherwise in-game DLDSR kept defaulting to 60Hz and 60FPS. Set my main display with native 1920x1080 @ 144Hz to 2880x1620 @ 144Hz. Windows changed the text scaling to 150% and I reran the ClearType adjustment and everything seems fine, if a tad blurry and less... "crisp". I think I can get used to this, so thanks.

Now back to ME2 with less jaggies.

 

[502]

Some quick thoughts after revisiting the trilogy. I usually end up choosing male default face earthborn ruthless renegade soldier in ME1, and infiltrator in 2 and 3. I went with the same during this revisit.

TL, DR: ME1 >>> ME3 > ME2

ME1 is arguably the closest thing to a "conventional RPG" in the series, and of course the best game. No contest. The sense of facing the unknown before all the reveals and twists as the young champion of a young race, no less, is tremendous. The talk with Sovereign may be the trilogy's top moment. As far as the systems go, shooting is passable, the overheating system is okay in theory but can get annoying, auto sticking to cover is a tad tricky, and Mako hate is way exaggerated.

ME2 is always praised as the best of the trilogy by journos and normies. Back at its release I played it a ton. In their attempt to get rid of clutter and redundancy, they oversimplified everything. The upgrade system is a joke. Rubbing a firm, round planet for resources and the occasional quick mission gets old really fast. Getting to cover pretty much grants immunity as long as you aren't sticking to the wrong waist-high invulnerable object.

ME3 improved on ME2's oversimplified builds and itemization, however it's so transparent that it was done for the multiplayer mode which of course has those fucking loot crates, where the good rare weapon is just one crate away, and not in the name of are pee gee. Enemy AI is fine for this kind of game, with the implementation of smart flanking and grenade tossing, so getting to cover is not an automatic immunity to everything. Story-wise, there's disconnect between some side missions and the sense of urgency of the main story, which is the case in many games whose main story urge you to DO SOMETHING NOW while offering plenty of side content. On the bright side, everything ends up contributing to the big peepee points here.

 

[tritosine2k]

Both ME2 and 3 are some cookie cutter "visceral" trope shit not even on the same page as ME1.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilIsVisceral buttonawesome equivalent for shooters.

Not to mention originally ME2 had MSAA and was perfect for the tech (lightmap).

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

3's multiplayer mode also added points to your battle score, which needed to be up to a certain limit to be able to get the best ending. It is very difficult to get it without MP. There used to be a browser game you could play too. You have to do every single side quest with Good answers only if you want to get it. In the re release, they softened it a lot and now you can get it normally without much fuss.

 

[Modron]

Pretty sure it was just to punish pirates, I don't think you can max the guage without any of the online components.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Pretty sure it was just to punish pirates, I don't think you can max the guage without any of the online components.

I remember not doing any MP, and while the browser game was still operational, I never really completed it. And I got the good ending.