Oh look, one more game with ugly chicks in funny costumes. Exiting indeed. LOL.

I never submit to interdiction. There is no need for it because it can be avoided by following the escape vector thing.

Hi,

I'm stuck in The Penitent Pleiades Sector HR-W d1-79 with a Python that is only good for Passenger runs between Robigo and Sirius Atmospherics. I cant get a tax out of there any ideas how I can get back?

I could transfer my Diamond Back Explorer maybe and use that to jump back then play around with moving ships?

Ah we did! I forgot that one though it was a good suggestion. We got to the point where we both had fully completed s rank freighters and a pantheon of cool sentinel fighters and kinda hit a limit. I don't know if the expeditions are worth doing but I do see those pop up from time to time

"Now that that digital presence is gone, the silence is almost eerie..." I remarked as I left the room and joined my companion in the corridor, which led us back towards the elevator.

As we walked, my thoughts drifted back to the encounter with the black ice in the security room. The program had been relentless, a digital specter with a malevolent presence. Whoever had created this had imbued it with a resilience and tenacity that was almost unsettling. I still couldn't shake the image of its distorted face from my mind - a twisted, nightmarish visage that mocked our every move. The moment it had screamed and faded into digital oblivion was both a relief and a chilling reminder of the power that such constructs could wield. This was no ordinary security program. It had fought with an almost human-like desperation, as if it had something to protect or a vendetta to settle.

"So, this hacking tool of yours," I said, breaking the silence that had settled over us while we walked on. "You made it years ago? It's impressive, you must have been quite the tech wizard. What do you think of this security program we encountered?"

As we approached the elevator, a faint humming sound caught my attention, a sign that the power had indeed been restored. I pressed the call button, and we waited for the doors to slide open.

Ah, the good old ME: Andromeda discussion again? I see, I see.

Don't worry, Aleks, noone blames you for not enjoying Andromeda.

Vasil, mentally multitasking, listened to the conversation between Maul and Seraphine while pre-planning the survey of the 150 systems Willow had found as possible Ophois locations, and also determining how he’d justify to Octavia the time and money he was spending finding the little lost Lord Pompadour.

It took a few seconds for his brain to register what Seraphine had said about the Ophois receiving orders to maroon Creamy. It would have been simpler if the pirates put a bullet in his brain, which is what Vasil suspected. With evidence of an execution order, the search would be done; the evidence could be turned over to the authorities and they would handle delivering justice for the murder.

However, marooning brought with it a literal galaxy full of complications. The possibility he could still be alive meant trying to find a single individual on a single planet circling one of four hundred billion stars. Though, odds were that the pirates dropped Creamy off on a planet in a nearby system.

Maybe no more than one or two jumps in a small craft, thought Vasil. So, probably within fifty to one hundred light years. But the system Serpahine mentioned was not from a near-bubble star catalog or sector Vasil immediately recognized.

Curious, Vasil looked for Dryo AOB UU-W B45-1 in the nav banks. “Of course,” he said, exasperated, once he found the system. "Why would I even think this might be less difficult than expected." What the hell were the pirates doing 5000 light years galactic west of Colonia?

Today is truly auspicious day for AXMCs, they earned me the decorated hero medal. The war with goids are coming to the end but I still hope to take down 2 more medusas and 1 hydra and whatever lesser goids come in between.

In which case it's an advantage that you submitted, the drop from super cruise is less brutal allowing you to initiate combat quicker, and no cool down on your drives just in case it goes pear-shaped on you.

Interesting. Maybe. I think it's possible.
Good news is, it earned me >250K for blowing up that clown.

If you zero your throttle during interdiction you will automatically submit. So is it possible you closed your throttle whilst you chased the escape vector?

Yep, many moderation actions simply aren't seen. Also posts may get removed when I feel it was "too far", but I do not want to be too heavy-handed, especially when it's a better punishment to keep documented how the posters made fools of themselves than to remove it and pretend it didn't happen.

Hell no.
But, I do not have any idea how to do that. I guess you need to miss the escape vector or something.

"Like a mother, Monty, I wish to teach Océan to behave. But like a child it must first make mistakes, so it can see consequences"

She sat back in her chair and crossed her legs, pushing her arms out in front for a stretch.

"This is what I do, Monty. I push the boundaries of AI so we can learn to spot and stop emergent sentient programs, and find the ones already out there. As for putting limits on it, no. It is an old argument, yes? Should the auto-turret not shoot because killing is bad? Or we will teach the bomb not to explode, hmm? I want to teach people not to need them in the first place, yes? Learning how to nurture an AI, to make that choice for it's self, is a big step, Monty."

"Now, zz-zz-zz" she said flicking her fingers at Maul. "We can talk philosophy, and social conditioning over wine, when you return with Creamy, yes? Maintenant va vite, he is out there somewhere."

Did you submit?

Has something changed in how Interdiction works? I had 2 weird interdiction where I was following the escape vector perfectly but just in few seconds, I was dropped out of FTL. Never happened before. Now I had 2 of those in 2 days. Firs joker is pushing up daisies somewhere and the second one was a no show.

Well, in any case, if the next ME turns out as being not so good or distinctly average, maybe we can look at this instead which is said to be made by the original Bioware Mass Effect team (or something of the sort, I haven't looked closely) -

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... this is also the same person I referenced above in my post/text wall somewhere. Just forgot to include this and a general channel link... probably because I should be asleep for a good few hours already.

The big issue with ME is probably BioWare itself. It's no CDPR, where the real interesting stuff regarding RPG storytelling is happening. And it's not just "capabilities", it's also determination. Just look at the amazing story of Cyberpunk 2077, a game so full ambition that fell flat on its nose on release day, only to came back over the following two years, culminating in an absolutely mind-blowing DLC, Phantom Liberty. The game itself was always good at its core (mechanics, story, characters, world-building), that was clear even in the beginning. It was just a big mess. And CDPR cleared it up, expanded on it, and added depth and nuance that it still blows my mind away. But with determination to get it right, regardless how hard seems, this wouldn't have happened. Just see how BioWare didn't care to make ME:A a really good game after its botched release, just a playable game. Another studio that I admire with my whole heart, and this is cliché, is FromSoft. Yes, it's an acquired choice, but if you love frustration and dense atmosphere (and a fundamental sadness to the world), their games are unbeatable (pun intended). Should they ever attempt to translate their gaming philosophy in a sci-fi setting, they get all the money they want from me. But that's basically it: do you understand, as a developer, what makes you and your games special? Then double down on it, build on your strengths. And if things go wrong, don't abandon it, throw your resources into it because that is what builds a legacy and player goodwill. And now we're back at the beginning: BioWare...

That is not "inside" a spire, they have a sort of landing pad which leads into a semi-open area beneath an overhang, with various small platforms leading to a larger one which contains an interactible storage container.

There is yet a chance Cocijo might reactivate two more of its spires next or second-next week, but the one that is currently active around it will remain so until Thursday (unlike other Thargoid-controlled systems spires do not turn off until Thursday, but activities there will also not contribute to war progress past 100%).

When are the powerplay salaries paid out, I should have got 10mil cr but i dont see it

In a way, you could say. (Unintentional rhyme)

I also only played MEA a few years after its release when it was brought to my attention that the Legendary Collection was a thing that existed (for better or for worse), while I had some interest in picking up Mass Effect, and so I went ahead and got that. After getting through its story , I inquired about Andromeda, not having heard much positive about it somewhere... because it's the internet. I was told that it was at least in a largely playable state but to not expect much from its open "world" since it merely contained lots of generally irrelevant filler activities (the only one that I can remember which wasn't entirely was that... AI memory reconstruction thingy), and only focus on the things I was interested in. Alas, I made the experience anyway because my brain's completionist urges have a tendency to kick in at inopportune moments. Were I to play it a second time (which is rather uncertain)... I probably would largely ignore those nonsensical filler tasks worthy of a Ubisoft title (but it's EA so not too far off).

But anyway... I won't go into the things I already mentioned because of reasons, but yeah, the characters... I can barely even remember their names. Not very memorable... maybe that Angara's personal story/quest had some decent moments? Also not sure what his name was again, Jaal? Maybe, something like that. Definitely plays a large role for me as well to have an investment in them.

Ryder twins? Uhh... yeah. I don't know. I think that's all I can say. About them, anyway. Says a lot I was more interested in some of the characters introduced in side quests that actually had some good motivations to what they were doing, than the ones you're exposed to throughout the main story. Like the one with the Krogan(s), which was an interesting callback to the originals without feeling too intrusive or in your face. Of course, I chose to let them have the Remnant drive core because you don't want Krogans to be angry at you. And their leader seemed reasonable enough...



It also speaks volumes of its own that the world and remains/background of a (presumably) dead species, and the cause of their demise, was more interesting than any of the living ones, not to mention tie-ins with the past were more interesting than most of the new, though I guess the Angara (to capitalize or not to capitalize... that is the question) have potential. Those morons turning everything into their species because they're morons, though, just dump them in the bin. Who is going to miss them? Certainly not me.

... I'm also not exactly fond of just skipping almost seven centuries ahead in time. Sure, some story items have potential, but then you end up having to ask yourself, how are they going to tie it in with the new Mass Effect. And speaking of.


I think they did drop one additional trailer between then and now, plus a couple pictures (one of which showed an Angara, if memory serves), but it was not exactly that much more conclusive. If anything it just... added more confusion. I thought I overheard some tidbit or speculation from someone that covers the subject (among others like Dragon Age, which I don't play), but can't remember exactly what they said or thought.

As for the characters - while I certainly agree that they should not focus too heavily on the old, given how under-represented some of them were in ME3, I'd be rather disappointed if they were just shoved aside entirely, like, Kasumi had a few minutes of screen time in 3 (a few more counting Citadel) and nearly got blown up by a crazed hanar indoctrinated by the Reapers. I'm sure things like that were in part due to the rushed development cycle which it went through, but it still means I would not exactly be too happy if most of the other characters' stories were just ended off-screen and detailed in some text or audio logs or recounted by... whoever. And most of them would not live a few centuries into the future - only ones I could imagine are Grunt, Wrex (maybe, not sure how old that tough bastard is by 3) and Liara - unless they went into cryo for some reason.

Of course, my bias lies with a certain thief who seems to like tight body suits. As you might guess by, you know, the profile (nick)name... though I would not mind me some Garrus either. Just saying. But especially Kasumi I don't see being willing to enter into stasis unless absolutely necessary for any particular chance to stay alive. And even then...

... but yeah, they shouldn't recycle too many of the old(er) story tropes that were already covered. Like, the trailer basically confirms to us the geth are - in some form - still alive, but the focus should really, ideally be on how they and quarians cooperate moving forward. And just leave the Reapers as their legacy, maybe a brief callback to that. I guess they have 'Leviathan' to play with as a story tool now, which will be curious on how they might - or might not - involve them, since those things kind of view themselves as superior to, basically everybody else. (And of course the obvious thing is to not rely overly on Shep, but for god's sake don't pull a Halo 5, that travesty of a game will remain a mark on my memory for as long as it can remember such things.)

I also don't know how they plan on reuniting Andromeda with the rest without involving a major time skip that glosses over an actually interesting phase of the post-Reaper galaxy - namely, the rebuilding, or maybe a few years into it, which I'd be fine with - but to say I'm a little skeptical about it is... an understatement. Sure, some people are absolutely adamant that they should just dump everything old and go a few centuries ahead, but I'm feeling like that's a great way to turn people off. Because that is what MEA tried and look how that turned out (plus the other issues which plagued it, unrelated to story and its execution/characters).

Is the scene at 2:17 in the video not inside the spire? (I just assumed since the previous scene was light that the darkness meant inside. Is it still outside?)
I've never explored one myself, but am quite interested in visiting one before they might go extinct.

Hey, Artie. Somewhat related to my earlier question about ground CZs: How is the Inara Merc rank calculated?



Edit: Keeping the initial text here, but hiding it under a spoiler tag because I found a fix. I forced an import of my game data. Odd that the percentage updated but the other parts did not. Still, the conflicts numbers both updated with today's numbers. I'm still curious what's considered a conflict. Is it each individual win/loss or does it need to be a different settlement/match-up each time?

Give No Man's Sky a go. It's been quite a long while since I've played it, but MP back then was a bit of a chore to link up with others, but it might be much easier these days to find each other. Just need to get past the tutorial section I believe.

Ultimately, I didn't care much of Andromeda's story or their characters. It didn't help that I played it Day 1 and it was nothing but a shit show. Raw, I know you said you came in later, post patches, but this video is one of the best highlighting ME:A's early days.

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Kas, it sounds like you had deeper issues with the game, lol. I'm in your corner when it comes to your points. As a guy that loves RPG's, I need to care about the story. Even more, I need to care about the characters. ME 1-3, I cared about both. It can't be overstated that the level of writing in those games was superb. M E3 is considered the weakest in the series, yet it could hold its own against ME:A in any category you want to put against it. I'm sorry, but I don't have any faith in Bioware's current writers. Bioware used to be at the front of the line concerning storytelling and writing, but they have long since been kicked down the ladder as far as CDPR and Larion. I might sound like a broken record echoing the praise for BG3, but I swear, every choice I made in that game over the 200 hours I put in it felt like it mattered. I don't think the characters were as compelling as early Bioware characters, but the storytelling was top notch.

It's been 3 years since the ME 4 trailer released, and it's been radio silence since then. I can only hope that this came doesn't fall into development hell, or fall into the trope of "running it back" with familiar storylines / characters.