Post by Marɨck Løcke on Oct 3, 2011 21:01:33 GMT -5
Most of this information pertains somehow to the site and we will try to implement as much of it here as possible as soon as we can. Also all but one or two commits here are confirmed. Doesn't mean it wont change before release however.
• All classes have an omni-blade supposedly as their light melee option. Heavy melee is unique to each class.
Soldiers apparently have a three hit combo which is different to whatever weapon they are holding.
Adepts have a biotic palm strike similar to what we have seen in cut scenes in previous games.
Engineer have a sort of fire omni-blade/ whip thing.
Vanguards are unknown so far, likely reveal this week, more about that latter.
Infiltrator has an electric omni-blade/rod. (I say rod as in the picture the blade section is clearly different and doesn't seem to have an edge.)
Sentinels have this lame double omni-blade animation where they just thrust forward both fists like a basic karate punch. Double blades could be nice, but that animation is just awful. Shepard even points his face downward, exposing the top of his head as well as completely taking his eyes of the enemy and battlefield. Still its better than what they had originally, which were these ridiculous looking pair of omni-fists which looked like orange glowing hulk hand toys. Why they don't have an omni-blade in one hand and biotic punch in another is beyond me. Many are crying out for this to happen, so hopefully bioware will listen.
• Powers now are dynamic in that at several points when you level them, you must make a choice between two effects. Such as the final evolution of tech armor is a choice between invulnerability and manual detonation. Fuckin' sexy manual detonation.
• Every class gets a new unique power.
Soldiers get Frag Grenade.
Adepts get Overpower, which allows you to cast two powers in a row, but puts everything on cooldown afterwards leaving your character tired.
Engineers get Sentry Turret, which Shepard "lobs a grenade at the location of your choosing which sprouts into a turret and harasses the hell out of your enemy. Later upgrades can give it Cryo or Disruptor Ammo, a shock attack to stop anyone getting close to it, and one of the final options is a flamethrower."
Vanguards get an ability called Nova, which is said to "combo with Warp that works with Charge or Shockwave. Should help on Insanity". There should be a reveal latter this week which talks about several things about Vanguard as they haven't been featured in any demos thus far.
Infiltrators are unknown leaving their class as the one we know the least about on nearly every front, but it is said that "Cloak is lot more useful now. You are able to toggle it off at will which shortens the cooldown. Nice synergy with big slow guns."
Sentinels have Amplification which sets biotics and tech abilities on two separate cooldowns. Given that they already have the best reduction on cooldown times, this means they could continually combo powers while this is active so long as they alternate. However it seems that the power may disable your tech armor for a short time.
(It's possible that frag grenade isn't the soldiers power as well as the turret for engineer. It seems that everyone may have a new unique grenade and a power. Others believe this as some powers seems to have a number over them, looking like a limited number of uses. Theses powers also do not activate the global cooldown, so that is a huge advantage.)
• Final evolution of concussive shot, one of the choices allows you to add the effects of your ammo power.
• The shotgun power carnage is back, but can be used with every gun. Apparently they compare it to concussive shot, saying carnage will have far more damage with little knockback while concussive shot will have little damage and large knockback. No word on what classes use it. Apparently James Vega, new character, has it so it may be a loyalty power.
• Cryo blast can chain freeze other enemies when you break a frozen guy. Likely a chosen evolution of the power.
• Rumor has it that Overload with arc between enemies. Likely an evolution. Also the weapon overheat function of it has been removed and Sabotage has been brought back to the game from 1.
• Every class has a passive power which increases their durability originally called Fortitude, but this caused confusion so they have renamed it Fitness. It also has different benefits for each class. Likely this means the the class passive is more focused on offensive matters.
• Not about powers, but there is a new customization system on weaponry and armor which brings back many of the rpg elements of the first game, but in a much better way. They usually have upsides and downsides, so your choice will actually matter. As well they all effect the appearance of the weapon itself. Apparently armor customization is much more in depth and you can even do this to your squadmates.
• Speaking of squadmates, Jack supposedly will have some sort of hair and be wearing some kind of armor. Doesn't mean the punk look is out the door though.
• Liara seems to not have lift, but instead something called Lift Orb. Which are limited in number just like grenades.
• Garrus has a new power called proximity mine.
These changes (like fitness and more unique powers) makes problems for the systems on our site, but we'll find a solution when we know more about this. Were going to go ahead and allow people to use the melee abilities, but I see no reason to restrict them to certain classes beyond common sense. It's kinda unlikely for a soldier to wear two omni-tools just so they can dual wield and the flamethrower melee seems like it would require a tech person to manage it. Ect.
You will need the passive skill to biotic melee though if someone were to suggest a new passive power that would be limited to Adept and Vanguard I would change that. I merely added that to balance things so limited powers were equal among classes.
Also since each class gets a new power in ME3 we could up the number of powers we get to pick to 7. Not sure if we should could it 6 for now and wait or go ahead an up it. Wish we knew more details on each of them so we could go ahead and add them.
Edit:
• Some general information...
Difficult has been increased, normal is the new veteran.
Combat is 10-15% faster and Shepard has been made more agile with swat turns, combat rolls, and the ability to leap gaps without first taking cover. Firing from cover has also been optimized. Fatigue while running has been removed.
Reports from the demo say that enemy AI has been majorly improved, with them dynamically trying to flank. No more just playing whack a mole, with them poping their heads out. Apparently you must always be on the move or in a defensible position. Enemies like Husks which force you out of cover have now been paired with "suppressor" enemies who try to force you into cover, making your life hell.
Grenades return and can be thrown as they are traditional round type unlike the first game. Personally I wish they'd kept the original ones as in the lore it was said you can turn on the hover function and simply throw them.
Any weapons you had from the previous game will be transferred over, but bonus powers will not sadly.
You will be able to take weapons on enemies and use them.
Every class can wield any weapon, but are limited on the number they can carry into a mission. Soldier can carry everything. This is something we will use on the site immediately.
• The new game will use Kinect's voice function so that you can command the squad, giving them the ability to use powers or take cover in specific places simply by saying so. It looks really useful. You can also use it for dialogue options, but it seems odd as like the previous games the option you select is not what Shepard actually says. Thus you say something and then Shepard will repeat it, but in a different way.
• Composer Clint Mansell who did Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain is doing the soundtrack. So that will be awesome. Unfortunately the previous guys will not return.
• Shepard will travel to Earth and Mars as well as...
Rannoch, the quarian homeworld occupied by Geth
Sur'Kesh, the salarian homeworld
Palaven, the turian homeworld
Thessia, the asari homeworld
Will also return to Illium, Tuchanka, and The Citadel.
Unfortunately no love so far for the Yahg, Batarian, Elcor, Volvus, Drell (which is now largely a uninhabitable desert), or Hanar (where most drell now live) homeworlds. I hate the constant lack of the other species. I want a Volvus with two shotguns and a jetpack! I'll settle for Blasto.
• A developer tweeted this...
"I love that in our fandom, "Virmire" is a verb."
"Can't wait to see how lexicon changes after ME3. "Man, next playthrough, (followername) is getting Kahje'd so hard..."
Now this could just be that he chose a random place and was not specifically referring to an event in the game on the Hanar homeworld. What we do know is Kahje is 90% covered in water, the Hanar and Drell live there. It is littered with Prothean ruins, the largest of which is located deep in the heart of an underwater Volcano. Sounds like someone could possibly activate that volcano... Could be nothing through...
• Cerberus Daily News was a daily update of ME lore which had all kinds of interesting stuff about the universe, even mundane things. Two things not so mundane was the discovery of two new races. The Raloi are a bird like race which now have some ambassadors on the citadel. We do not know what they look like, but expect to see them next game. The others are a race which stored their entire civilization inside a computer which was discovered on a meteorite. However the computer will die soon. They can enter into a willing persons body and many people have volunteered to switch places with them.
• Engineer's combat drone can now be equipped with a flamethrower or rocket launcher. I'll go ahead and even allow that on the site. Aren't I a peach?
• New falcon assault rifle which Bioware commissioned a guy to make a model one. Picture 1 and Picture 2.
• New enemies with fantastic armor. Cerberus Trooper, Cerberus Centurion, Cereberus Assassin and Atlas Mech. Some carry riot shields and batons, which you cannot take and use, best dealt with by biotically lifting and throwing them at the enemy.
• Here is the preorder bonus costumes. That guy you do not recognize is James Vega, a new musclehead party member with a stupid frohawk. There is a short 8 page comic about him which takes place right before 3, where he is in a bar fight defending Shepard's actions. Anderson retrieves him, though apparently he is in trouble for not following orders or something, to guard Shepard while he is in the brig. The costumes appear to simply be recoloring, as seen in other places and by their reflections which you can barely see in the picture. However Liara's is entirely different with it being more like what is seen in Lair of the Shadow Broker. Personally I think the Liara one is completely unfitting for her, wont use it. Meanwhile I just think it's incredibly odd that Kaiden, a sentinel, is wearing really heavy armor while Ashely, a soldier, is wearing practically cloth. This just further perpetuates this double standard where females must wear less clothing.
• Here is a short 8 page comic which takes place between ME2 and 3 starring Captain Bailey investigating corruption in the Citadel. It's somewhat important and will have an effect on the next game. Here is another one that is 8 pages long, set a week before ME2. Wont have an effect on the next game, but this is the second comic with Aria in it, this time as the main character. There has been a screenshot where Aria is in the squad, so this all indicates she may be a party member in the next game even if only for a short time like maybe a revisit to omega. However she may simply have been a placeholder, but I suspected she would be a party member even before all this evidence way back when she first appeared.
There will be a new comic made by Dark Horse that is an ongoing story unlike the others and will be set after ME2.
• And the biggest news, durmroll please.... Mass Effect Movie! It is already in the works, with screenplays being written. There was even a panel which spoke about it at the last big event, though it was mainly about just their vision of how to interpret the games. No real information. We do know it will not follow the games and will be an all original Shepard mission. I'm worried however with the past of video game movies. Hopefully they will follow the success of the last Star Trek movie and knock it out of the park.
