Five Things BioWare Fixed for Mass Effect 2

[JemJar]

First they make futuristic guns with magnetic acceleration and infinite ammo. Then they realized they had to put some limitation on them, and added overheating, even though magnetic acceleration = no combustion = no overheating. Then they wanted to add the ability to reload, but because you have infinite ammo, you swap the heat sinks. Yeah, real smooth, Bioware. I would have preferred the tried-and-true ammo clips, to be honest.

But that's a trivial complaint, really, because everything else about this game looks absolutely bitchin'. When I first saw the trailer I had the impression they fixed every flaw that the first game had, and it looks like I got the right idea. Mass Effect 2 is right at the top of my DO WANT list of games.

Erm, are you really implying that combustion is the only source of excess and unwanted heat? I'm sure you aren't that daft. I felt it made a lot of sense set against the heat thrown out by transformers (not Transformers) in power supplies and stuff. Essentially you'd be asking a power pack to churn out a massive amount of power for a very short amount of time.

And personally I really liked the system, it was vaguely original and cruel - perhaps not the best thing for a game developer but it added a new challenge to learn to deal with. It's not inappropriate to compare it to the weapon degradation system in SS2, which was hated by casual players and loved by fans of the game.

 

[Dommyboy]

Susan, or anybody here really, do you know if Mass Effect 2 will be released in January for the PC as well?

 

[PlasticTree]

The last few days I've seen way too many 'read here what we experienced in Mass Effect 2'-articles. Most gaming sites don't seem to notice that people want to experience all that stuff by themselves, and just want to hear why a game is awesome, not what scenes exactly were awesome.

Ergo, nice article. I already couldn't wait, but now I can..eh..now I still can't wait. But even less!

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Susan, or anybody here really, do you know if Mass Effect 2 will be released in January for the PC as well?

As far as I know, there are no delays so far.

 

[Altorin]

Huh? People didn't like the combat in the first game? Sure, it was a pain in the ass to play a sniper, just ended up using a pistol almost all the time and sure, using cover just meant you would be in some awkward place when the enemy npc came running up but... but...

*shrug* Yeah, I guess it did suck and even though it was most of the friggin game, somehow I still ended up playing it to the very end, getting intimate with a blue alien along the way.

Are they going to DRM Mass Effect 2 up like they did the first? That will mean I just wait till it is ridiculously cheap on Steam again

sniping was fine once you mastered it, and by that, I mean the stat, not the act of playing the game and mastering how it worked.

I'll give you that it's impossible before that though

 

[Namewithheld]

First they make futuristic guns with magnetic acceleration and infinite ammo. Then they realized they had to put some limitation on them, and added overheating, even though magnetic acceleration = no combustion = no overheating. Then they wanted to add the ability to reload, but because you have infinite ammo, you swap the heat sinks. Yeah, real smooth, Bioware. I would have preferred the tried-and-true ammo clips, to be honest.

Except that magnetic acceleration still requires power and the power to accelerate hunks of metal fast enough to go through shields produces a LOT of waste heat.



Now, just to be a negative nancy, but there is a REASON why starships are sterile environments without a load of personalized clutter: MASS!

Its hard to schlep even trivial amounts of mass out of a gravity well. Even with mass effect technology, I don't think they'd have enough extra delta-V to bring up your goddamn fishtank! There are more vital things you could carry...like spare parts or other mission vital equipment.

I mean, for entertainment/keeping your crew sane, you need stuff that is small and cheap and flexible. Video games, properly balanced crew members (modern cosmonauts and astronauts undergo a LOT of psych evaluations to make sure they won't get space dementia), digital books and movies, and maybe some miniaturized plants for the greenery. Decorated walls and clever use of holographic imagery could make a ship feel more comfortable for extended missions (which the Normandy was made for, what with it being a long ranged stealth ship).

This might sound like a lot of 'wha wha realism' but one of the things I *loved* about Mass Effect that, save for the actual mass effects themselves, the science in the game was fairly solid. They took ONE 'magical' thing (I.E, Mass Effect Fields) and extrapolated an entire galaxy of semi-hard sci-fi out of it! It was fantastic!


So, I'm going to be unpopular and say down with fishtanks!

EDIT: Oh, but I'm still buying this game. Oh hells yeah, its still fucking Mass Effect 2!

 

[Asehujiko]

Did they get rid of the retarded overheat bug they completely ignored last time because their precious xbox wasn't affected?

 

[psyconius]

Hopefully they'll change the inventory system. Basically, I had to scroll through my entire inventory, to figure out how many bullets I had, and what types.

+1

Furthermore, micro-managing which items were better for your crew took longer than the actual missions.

 

[psyconius]

Except that magnetic acceleration still requires power and the power to accelerate hunks of metal fast enough to go through shields produces a LOT of waste heat.



Now, just to be a negative nancy, but there is a REASON why starships are sterile environments without a load of personalized clutter: MASS!

....

So, I'm going to be unpopular and say down with fishtanks!

EDIT: Oh, but I'm still buying this game. Oh hells yeah, its still fucking Mass Effect 2!

+1million.
I think I just found my new forum buddy.

The science behind it all was incredibly fascinating and really not all that ridiculous. Taking science to that extra step is the freaking reason the whole Sci-Fi(NOT read: SyFy) genre exists today.

 

[Booze Zombie]

It seems like they really appreciated the comments of their fans and the critics, too, I like that in a company.

 

[dochmbi]

"Fans are clingy complaining dipshits who will never ever be grateful for any concession you make. The moment you shut out their shrill, tremulous voices the happier you will be for it."

Listening to fans only makes games worse...

 

[Dommyboy]

"Fans are clingy complaining dipshits who will never ever be grateful for any concession you make. The moment you shut out their shrill, tremulous voices the happier you will be for it."

Listening to fans only makes games worse...

Because I'm sure Yahtzee is correct 100% of the time, right? Listening to fans isn't what ruins games, it's how developers go about it.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

First they make futuristic guns with magnetic acceleration and infinite ammo. Then they realized they had to put some limitation on them, and added overheating, even though magnetic acceleration = no combustion = no overheating. Then they wanted to add the ability to reload, but because you have infinite ammo, you swap the heat sinks. Yeah, real smooth, Bioware. I would have preferred the tried-and-true ammo clips, to be honest.

And mass effect fields and magnetic acceleration generate no heat because....?

My computer has no combustion, it gets damn hot. Electronics can overheat as well you know.

it doesn't generate heat because there is no friction, a reason weapons overheat is that the bullets rub against the inside rifling creating friction, along with the heat of a small explosion of propellant. The reason your computer gets hot is from electricity heating up its components, hence heat-sinks and fans you need.

the way a magnetically fired weapon works is that it, well, uses magnets to propel the round, or in this case a mass effect generator, so the only heat being made would be friction, and even then it would be negligible. [using our world sciences here]


Also, I swear to god if you run out of thermal clips and you are no longer able to fire, I wont play this game. Thats what I liked about the first one, yes the game says you would eventually run out of ammo since your using a solid block of metal as a source, but god damn Bioware, couldn't you at least make us change THAT instead and kept a shred of continuation?

however, I might take a better look if it actually keeps it kinda like the first one, as in if you run out of said clips you would use the old system and have to wait for it to cool down, and the clips are just to keep a somewhat pro-longed fire rate.

Mmmmmmmm *general fiction thinking cap on* compact tech using mass rail, or advanced mag rail technology on a micro scale, I can't help but think due to power conversation,energy generation and field tensions you'd generate something unwanted either heat or energy flux that made the weapon unstable or un usable for a time.

I mean if they wanted to they could have re did ammo as all it is is shavings of alloy, common ammo(the INF kind) dose lil damage to normal enforcer/combat/army armor however enforcer/combat/army armor dose 10+ more damage the trouble is you go from inf to hundreds if not thousands of shots so another mechanism would be needed unless you want to go with something more contemporary(IE normal ammo,pistols having 6-22,assault rifles 22-60,shotguns 6-12,ect,ect) but I think ME would be better off not going is such worn and overly used direction....

If they wanted to bring in a clip mechanic why not just tweak the heat setup, something like first stage heat build up leads to slower fire rate and slower cool down 2nd stage heat build up locks the weapon until cool down is completed between that and clips you would have enough delay in weapon use to flesh out the gamepaly itself more than what ME offered.. whitch amy well how it will work when its all said and done.

 

[lobotoja]

so they overhauled every piece of shooting equipment in the galaxy to an inferior model that you might ran out of ammo for... i guess all the pirates and raiders were like YEAHH!!

 

[Susan Arendt]

Susan, or anybody here really, do you know if Mass Effect 2 will be released in January for the PC as well?

As far as I know, yep.

 

[Susan Arendt]

As to "Fish tanks" in the Normandy: Did anyone else think it was odd for a ship of about 25 crew members to have 8 "sleeping bunks" and no bathrooms/Showers? You could have at least put in a door that doesn't open that just says "Restroom" on it. I doubt the Normandy II is going to look like the Enterprise from NextGen, but anymore "Form over function" and you have the prequel to the next "Dead Space" game. (Deranged Crew Member wearing ear necklace: "Why are there no F**ing BATHROOMS!")

Oh, also, you have a bathroom with flushable toilet in your quarters.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

I'm just really glad I'm not the only one excited about the fish. It's a silly thing, I realize, but in between bouts of saving the universe and prepping for a suicide mission, I think collecting space fishies would be very appealing.

Ever since Captain Picard introduced us to Livingston (his lionfish) I've thought aquariums in space was a neat idea. I'm glad to see this one is coming to Mass Effect 2.

Now if I can just get in a pre-order for the Collector's Edition so I'm not staring at that lackluster box art during load times...

 

[Gestapo Hunter]

Had me sold at fish tank

 

[Souplex]

Spoiler: Snip

First they make futuristic guns with magnetic acceleration and infinite ammo. Then they realized they had to put some limitation on them, and added overheating, even though magnetic acceleration = no combustion = no overheating. Then they wanted to add the ability to reload, but because you have infinite ammo, you swap the heat sinks. Yeah, real smooth, Bioware. I would have preferred the tried-and-true ammo clips, to be honest.

And mass effect fields and magnetic acceleration generate no heat because....?

My computer has no combustion, it gets damn hot. Electronics can overheat as well you know.

it doesn't generate heat because there is no friction, a reason weapons overheat is that the bullets rub against the inside rifling creating friction, along with the heat of a small explosion of propellant. The reason your computer gets hot is from electricity heating up its components, hence heat-sinks and fans you need.

the way a magnetically fired weapon works is that it, well, uses magnets to propel the round, or in this case a mass effect generator, so the only heat being made would be friction, and even then it would be negligible. [using our world sciences here]


Also, I swear to god if you run out of thermal clips and you are no longer able to fire, I wont play this game. Thats what I liked about the first one, yes the game says you would eventually run out of ammo since your using a solid block of metal as a source, but god damn Bioware, couldn't you at least make us change THAT instead and kept a shred of continuation?

however, I might take a better look if it actually keeps it kinda like the first one, as in if you run out of said clips you would use the old system and have to wait for it to cool down, and the clips are just to keep a somewhat pro-longed fire rate.

Not necessarily true. First of all, the barrel in order to keep the round flying straight generally has some contact with the sides of the bullet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifling
Secondly, in order to use magnetic weapons, you generally need electricity, and electricity carries heat.
Thirdly, there are two current types of magnetic weapons being fooled around with, those that actually have contact with the bullet, and those that don't.
The kind that does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun
The kind that does not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coilgun

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Hang on, their biggest blueprint for fixing faults was looking at fan comments?

Uh oh. I seem to recall a famous ZP quote about this.

I'm just kidding (I hope, because I want this game so bad). I'm sure the professional designers haven't just listened to all the whining and bitching of a group of malcontents.

The more I follow this train of thought the less I like it.