BioWare Shows Off Skills Trees and Weapon Mods for Mass Effect 3

[Cheesus333]

It's bioware fans, they complain about EVERYTHING.

the Bioware fanboys are going to baa along like the good little sheep they are.

It's weird that Bioware fans as a whole apparently have two separate and ccompletely ontradictory reputations.

OT: I'm looking forward to Mass Effect 3. I loved the first two, although I think the first was a lot better, and if Bioware are right to be so confident then this will be a great conclusion to the trilogy.

 

[DustyDrB]

Is it March 6, 2012 yet?

It doesn't really matter what they do to the game, the Bioware fanboys are going to baa along like the good little sheep they are.

God damn right I am.

The inventory was a mess, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone at all who disputes that.

I dispute. How was it a mess? You had tabs for every type of gun, armour and grenades. Mods were accessible through mod option on each weapon's tab. HOW IS THIS A MESS? It wasn't hard to navigate, you knew where everything was, and a quick rundown of what you had allowed you to decide what was sellable or not. Weapons and armour had easy comparison options to see what object was better to equip.

Again, it was only complicated to the current FPS crowd. And so it was dumbed down for ME2.

It wasn't complicated, it was just overcrowded without providing enough meaningful choice.
It was always straightforward which armor was better and which weapon was better. It was mostly straightforward which upgrades were better. What's the point in having all that stuff if 95% of it is meaningless? Mass Effect 2 actually took a better approach, though it was too stripped down. It offered you armor pieces with different advantages. That way, you had to sacrifice one thing (shield strength, for example) for another (Power damage).

 

[DEAD34345]

I loved Mass Effect.

I loved Mass Effect 2.

Perhaps you can see where this is going...

Do what you like Bioware, I've trusted you thus far and you have not failed me.

Well... this pretty much sums up my opinion. I'll also add that I have played almost every game Bioware has ever created, and I don't think a single one of them has been anything less than incredible.

Then again, one of the few Bioware games I haven't yet played is Dragon Age 2, so that opinion may change soon.

 

[matrix3509]

It's bioware fans, they complain about EVERYTHING.

the Bioware fanboys are going to baa along like the good little sheep they are.

It's weird that Bioware fans as a whole apparently have two separate and ccompletely ontradictory reputations.

OT: I'm looking forward to Mass Effect 3. I loved the first two, although I think the first was a lot better, and if Bioware are right to be so confident then this will be a great conclusion to the trilogy.

That indeed would be weird...were I a Bioware fan. I, however, an not. I've played a few Bioware games in my time, just like I've played a few Irrational, Valve, or Blizzard games.

 

[rsvp42]

I dispute. How was it a mess? You had tabs for every type of gun, armour and grenades. Mods were accessible through mod option on each weapon's tab. HOW IS THIS A MESS? It wasn't hard to navigate, you knew where everything was, and a quick rundown of what you had allowed you to decide what was sellable or not. Weapons and armour had easy comparison options to see what object was better to equip.

Again, it was only complicated to the current FPS crowd. And so it was dumbed down for ME2.

Has nothing to do with CoD or the "FPS crowd." The system was just a pain in the ass. Scrolling through the lists was a pain and they gave you too much crap, most of it redundant. So your inventory filled up like crazy and the utility of individual items was reduced. Sure I like being able to choose Shredder Rounds VII, but I don't need 5 copies of it on top of the 7 Shredder VIs I got. And that wouldn't be a problem if I could dispose of things easily, yet for some reason it goes to the top of the list every time you discard or convert to omni-gel. ME2 might have been too simple in comparison, but at least it wasn't a hassle.

 

[evilneko]

-snip-

Wat.

ME1 had four types of weapons, and within each type there were a half dozen or more different weapons.

Contrast ME2, which had.. what was it, five types of weapons, with 2-3 guns in each.

 

[BrotherRool]

It's not the side of RPGs I actually want (fixing the dialogue wheel and adding a mechanism for developing relationships better would be what I want) but I refused to play Mass Effect 2 as a shooter (I am that stubborn) and hardly used guns through most of it, so I do like this move and it's good they're trying, even thought they could just print money if they want

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

"Goddamn it, Goldilocks was a good metaphor!" -Logan Westbrook

I agree with these cool cats. Mass Effect did not have too many RPG features, it had poorly implemented RPG features. Apparently Bioware adheres to the Bethesda school of "when in doubt, toss it out" and just stripped down or got rid of the RPG features that didn't work well in the first game.

I haven't been very interested in Mass Effect III or Bioware games in general for some time. Tossing more RPG elements in will help rekindle my interest.

 

[Zhukov]

Also....heat sink ammo? Dumbest fucking idea ever in a world where they already established near ammo-less weapons.

The funniest part is, if they had put the ammo system in the first game then replaced it with the overheat system in the second, people like you would have called it dumbed down.

 

[josh797]

terrific! great! im still not confident in this game since the story in the last game was shit, the characters didnt have to do, and they are bringing back the same writer from ME2 to do this one. im still skeptical.

 

[ImprovizoR]

Logan, I swear to you.

Someone, somewhere is going to frecking whine about this. It's bioware fans, they complain about EVERYTHING.

I'm a Bioware fan. And I liked the new skill system since the first moment I saw it. I thought it looked a lot deeper than ME2 skill tree and a lot less annoying than ME1 skill tree. They seem to be heading in the right direction. I only wish the aim mode camera wasn't so close to the player. I was never a big fan of close-up over the shoulder view. They should make it more like Mafia 2.

 

[Sentox6]

Someone, somewhere is going to frecking whine about this. It's bioware fans, they complain about EVERYTHING.

I laughed so hard at this. 'cause yeah, Bioware fans are soooo unique on this count.

It's weird that Bioware fans as a whole apparently have two separate and ccompletely ontradictory reputations.

OT: I'm looking forward to Mass Effect 3. I loved the first two, although I think the first was a lot better, and if Bioware are right to be so confident then this will be a great conclusion to the trilogy.

That indeed would be weird...were I a Bioware fan. I, however, an not. I've played a few Bioware games in my time, just like I've played a few Irrational, Valve, or Blizzard games.

Uh... this makes no sense. Your status as a Bioware fan (or not) is completely irrelevant. You submitted one summation of the attitudes of Bioware fans, while a different poster offered an entirely different one. Hence Cheesus' comment about the weirdness of the contradiction. At least one (or both) of you must be wrong, and your self-identification has absolutely no bearing on that.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I would hope they would get it better than the first two for the trilogy's finale. They've had two games, both well received, with different systems and are in a fantastic position to see what worked, what didn't and what improvements can be made. BioWare don't make so many sequels compared with other games companies, but they are in the best position to improve on what they've done before, fan feedback, play testing and so on. Looking forward to it. I wouldn't be surprised if ME3 was better considering the experience they now have to draw on.

 

[Canid117]

The question I have is have they returned persuasion to the skills or is it still governed by your paragon/renegade rating?

 

[RanceJustice]

Overall, this is encouraging. ME1 had a deeper system, but pretty crappy inventory and a lot of redundancy and unhelpful arms and armor options. ME2 of course WAY simplified talent trees and armor, but added better weapon differentiation, but without customization. I'm hopeful that the increased options in skills/class will be beneficial and I like that they're bringing weapon mods back. I just hope they do it right and PLEASE alter the look of the gun and/or projectile when it is modified.

That said, ME2 brought the asinine amount of critical game content DLC to the table. The very best handgun AND SMG had to be purchased for additional money, along with one of the best shotguns (excepting Grunt/Vanguard-SoldierShep W300), while 2 of the best assault rifles were paid DLC (Collector's, high damage semi-auto) and one of the 4 sniper rifles (Incisor) which kicks the arse of the basic rifle and is used until you get the Viper or specialize with the Widow. The best armor kit in the game for general use also was an additional purchase (Kestrel pack), and one of the visors you had to drink Dr Pepper or something to acquire legally!

I can only hope that lots of these modifications, weapons,armors, and abilities will not require payment via paid DLC and can be earned and bought in game, like it is meant to be.

 

[JaredXE]

Also....heat sink ammo? Dumbest fucking idea ever in a world where they already established near ammo-less weapons.

The funniest part is, if they had put the ammo system in the first game then replaced it with the overheat system in the second, people like you would have called it dumbed down.

No, because a progression from disposable ammo to not needing any ammo at all makes sense. Establishing no ammo and then going to ammo does not make sense and is stupid. Now, if ME2 allowed weapons to fire without heat clips, just slower due to cooldown, that would have been fine story-wise.

 

[sindremaster]

I have never played a Bioware game I didn't like, they can do whatever they want and I'll still throw my money at them.

 

[Duskflamer]

I honestly don't get the people who say there were only four weapons in ME1. There were four types of weapons, and you got progressively better ones throughout the game, and there were choices to make. Some gun models had high damage at the expense of low fire rate and/or low accuracy, while maybe a certain brand of sniper rifle specializes in being extremely accurate at the expense of everything else. "Shotgun Model X Rank III" is going to be unquestionably superior to "Shotgun Model X Rank II" Yes, but there were decisions to make between models based on which stat or combination of stats you put the most emphasis in.

Also, as to "Why include so many things if 95% of it is useless?" In what RPG is there not an unquestioned "best" equipment set sitting at the end of a long road of marginal upgrades? You go from the wood sword to the iron sword to the steel sword before you get anwhere near the Arena Champion's Longblade or whatver, ME1 just had the same deal with less imaginably named guns.