I’ve played mass effect since middle school. It’s undoubtedly my favorite game franchise! However, I’ve always been in it for the story and lore and so usually only played on normal difficulty. A little over 2 weeks ago I decided to stop being a wimp and go for an insanity run. I decided to stick with my favorite class vanguard (although in my current position I wish I’d chosen engineer). Now I’m inexperienced, but not a fool. I knew going in things would be different and I couldn’t just biotic charge my way through every level. I’ve taken things slow, I’ve used my squad mates powers more and strategically positioned them, I’ve ducked and covered and taken pot shots. Ultimately I’ve had so much fun!
I breezed through ME1 no problem, ME2 was a little more difficult but still fun and I knocked it out in like a week, now I’m on ME3… holy shit. Right out the gate I noticed my health being cut down like butter, but like before I adapted around that and changed my style as needed. I got through the start and decided to get as much side stuff done as possible before starting the war summit and I think many of you may know where this is headed. Grissom Academy. Specifically the atrium…
Problem 1 is that squad mates won’t follow me into the atrium unless I manually order them to. Even then sometimes 1 of them won’t. The endless smoke bombs make it impossible to target, there’s so sooooo many engineers placing endless turrets, there’s the 1 shot grenades being constantly thrown, the ATLAS too far away to really do much about taking pot shots at you. Every time a turret stops shooting I try to peak out of cover and attack it, but then without fail a grenade is thrown and I have to run. Idk if it’s dumb luck or programmed that way. Every time I pick Cerberus troops off more and more keep coming and that damn door to the 2nd half never seems to open. I got to the 2nd half once but elected to restart the mission with different squad mates when I kept dying and they kept not following me. My best run in this 2nd attempt I killed all the engineers and then just died when the centurions decided to rush my position all at once. I’m literally trapped in this mission because I got to it in 1 go from starting the game and didn’t take a save file. So now my only load options are to restart the mission or load the last checkpoint. My only other option is to restart the game entirely it seems. I’ve been stuck for 2 days.
Idk what this says about my skill (or lack thereof), but I didn’t have this kind of trouble in ANY other part of the trilogy so far. Even the suicide mission I beat with little trouble. Does anyone have suggestions? Any strategies? At this point I’m ready to just start over from scratch and put this off until I’m actually ready later in the game, but I’d rather succeed if anything for my own pride.

In reintroduction and for sure messed up some stuff (dealing with stress from medical procedures so was more lax with reintroduction / trying not to stress about it on top of receiving some confusing suggestions)… will probably have to restart but also I think I have maybe figured out some stuff by messing up!
Prior to this I have been reacting negatively to every single fodmap group. I also developed stomach pain during reintroduction I never had prior to fodmap diet (yes was following the diet strictly at this time) , that didn’t seem to be correlated with the foods I was reintroducing (for example even a week or more in between reintroducing fodmap groups I would still be experiencing stomach pain). The pain didn’t correlate to my bloating (the initial symptom I had coming into this).
My dietitian suggested that I introduce a pro/pre biotic to see if this would help me. I emailed monash and they suggested to wait until after reintroduction.
As a result I thought would be good idea to start with low fodmap amounts of things like Sourkrout. I found two low Fodmap fermented foods in Whole Foods (one with green cabbage that didn’t have garlic or onion and one was beet krout which just had carrot, beet, and red cabbage). I was fine with the green cabbage one… but unclear if it caused me bloating or not but then I had an extreme reaction to the beet krout. I realized I was having a good amount of Avacado (in low formaps amounts) and papaya and upon researching am suspecting a potential histamine intolerance given the combination of these things might lead to histamine overload.
What is so confusing is that since adding in the fermented foods my stool improved drastically and my stomach pain hasn’t been present for over a week (no changes in things like caffeine intake, fiber intake etc).
Anyone have a similar experience??
I have a feeling I need to trial low histamine diet but I’m also confused by these conflicting effects . The brain fog is truly debilitating (feels like I took a bunch of drugs and I’m in a video game… not helpful for my job). I have been experiencing the brain fog intermittently for the past year or so and it does seem to be related to what I’m eating . I also have a condition (MS) that can effect things like this but my Ms specialists believe my food intolerances are a big driver is these symptoms.
I also noticed that I have dry spot on my two fingers/ knuckles that began around the time of my gut dysbiosis (at least a year or two ago). This also aligns with histamine intolerance and does not align with ms.
Fodmap seems to help with the bloat but not everything
If anyone has experienced anything of this nature please let me know! Any resources are welcomed to

I've finished og trilogy 2 times as renegade soldier and less renegade soldier, in both playthroughs Tali was my favourite companion and love interest.
My reasons were:
Soldier because only he could use assault rifles in ME1 and I hate spending the whole game with a pistol. Also only soldier can use heavy armor. Combined with all of soldier's skills you become a literal juggernaut with hp melting gun. No need for cc or right damage type, just shoot. Stuff like lock picking can be done by Tali. Also another reason I choose soldier because of Tali, she covers all the support stuff. As other companion I usually took liara or caiden.
In ME2 where damage types were more prevalent, soldier had different ammo types for every kind of enemy and could deal with every situation. He wasn't as tanky as previous iteration or as sentinel, but still the most versatile damage dealer in my opinion, which again makes Tali a preferable companion.
In ME3 they expanded power combos and compared to other classes soldier became boring as hell. Only thing that soldier has is increased weight limit and exploding shot. Also now everyone can use any weapon type.
I chose renegade path because in ME1 paragon is too idealistic and soft, unlike renegade options which are pragmatic and cold blooded. In ME2 Renegade was a fun chaose option with a pinch of jerkiness. In ME3 renegade options were straight up psychotic and evil.
Now back to the topic.
I've bought legendary edition this morning and spent whole day choosing between different classes and outlined some of my options and I need help choosing. If you don't want to read this wall of text just move to bottom line.
Here are some bullet points:
I'll play as male Shepard with same class through trilogy.
I want be a paragon but also want to do these renegade choices: killing a certain terrorist at asteroid instead of saving hostages, killing space bugs, not curing a genophage. Also I hate the council and usually left them to die, but it's optional.
Only paragon choice I like to do is making peace between geths and quarians. Also I don't want to lose any companions.
My prefered ending is a red one, but honestly endings don't really matter, they're just a cop out.
Now back to classes
Soldier - already explained it above, my favourite class, but I've done it twice and want to try something new. Pass.
Engineer - the ultimate support class in 1, underwhelming in 2, and completely chaotic in 3. Quite mixed feelings about this one. In ME1 only viable weapon is pistol and unlike biotics he can't make use of increased damage against ragdolled enemies, which sucks. Can only wear light armor but it's mitigated by increased shields and first aid/medicine combo. I don't like that most of his skills have mediocre damage at best, but I like how you can mess with opponents with said skills. As I said it's pretty much a support class which can be boring for many people including me. ME2 iteration got more offensive powers and cc ones got more interesting, only skill I don't like is combat drone. There is no armor types but still engineer is squishiest as ever in this game, no increased shields, first aid or barriers. Also weapon choice is very restricted untill mid game. In ME3 because of enhanced power combo system engineer became the chaotic god of destruction, sounds very fun but I don't like when I can't see most of my screen because of explosions. Also not a fen of "pet" skills like turret and drone, and weapon choice is restricted again unless you want to use your skills every hour instead of every few seconds. Interesting but I'll pass, too much things going for engineer and it makes me dizzy. Maybe later but not for this playthrough.
Adept - not a fan of mage classes, but ability to ragdoll enemies sounds fun and biotics in ME3 have the best visuals out of all skills. Adept suffers from same problems as engineer, but unlike engineer there are ways to negate said problems. For example in ME1 there's no need to upgrade pistol skills because you can kill enemies with only biotics and if you can't then you can use any weapon to shoot at then while they're ragdolled to get 4x damage bonus. In ME2 adepts are weakest class damage wise, especially at higher difficulties, but unlike engineer adept can use biotic barrier for increased survivability. Only saving grace is biotic combo, but it gets pretty boring using the same combo again and again. In ME3 on other hand adept is amazing even by visuals alone. More power combos and enemies less resistant to biotics, plus more weapon choices make adept quite fun class to play. Maybe, if I can stomach ME2 adept.
Infiltrator - very relieble, basically a soldier that is scaled more towards damage than defence and also adds some cc. Many people like this class for a reason but I'm not a fan of sniping. Pass.
Vanguard - amazing in 1 and 3 but underwhelming in 2. At it's core vanguard is high risk high fun class, very mobile and tanky. Same situation as in adept's case but ME2 is more tolerable because of shotgun/charge/incendiary ammo combo. Maybe.
Sentinel - A true tank class, starting with first game and getting better with every next game. In ME1 despite not having any weapon specialisation legendary edition adds ability to use any weapon, which is coupled with biotic skills can deal massive damage. Increased shield with biotic barrier and medicine makes you unkillable. In ME2 and ME3 sentinel gets THE DRIP. Also sentinel can deal every damage type and create some amazing power combos in ME3. Only weakness is longer cooldowns compared to adept and engineer, but unlike them sentinel has better weight limit in ME3.
Out of six classes I want to choose:
1) sentinel
2) adept
3) vanguard
Now when long and boring part is over here are questions.
First one "can I still have enough renegade level for: no genophage cure, killing space bugs and killing asteroid terrorist. And still have at least 75% or more paragon level?".
And second one "out of 3 mentioned above classes which you recommend to play as through whole trilogy?".
My main concern is how gimped biotics are in ME2, and unlike sentinel and vanguard who can use normal weapons, adept would be really painful to play.
In order from most to least desirable class for every game:
ME1: vanguard > sentinel > adept
ME2: sentinel > vanguard > adept
ME3: adept > sentinel > vanguard
Vanguard = 3 + 2 + 1 = 6
Adept = 1 + 1 + 3 = 5
Sentinel = 2 + 3 + 2 = 7
Mathematically sentinel is most desirable class by me.
Ok, I kinda answered second question on my own, but I still like to read your opinion about which of those 3 classes is better in whole trilogy. Or you can just ignore this post, it works too.

Let's get this out of the way first, there are people out there who feel it's the weakest entry of the series and that's a valid opinion. Even fans of the game like me can admit it does very little to advance the main story of the trilogy. But goddamn!
I played it once back when it came out in 2010, replayed it once more in 2011. Never went back to it since then. Until now.
Couple weeks ago I started on the Legendary Edition and just finished the Suicide Mission. Over the years I've replayed many games, not all of them have aged well but good lord, ME2 has aged like fine wine!
The shooting still feels great, the fantastic art direction plus LE updates mean it holds up visually even in 2024. That story though! The big moments still hit hard. Here are some of my highlights (SPOILER WARNING)

• Archangel's Reveal: (I wish I could forget and experience it for the first time again)
• Jack: The buildup to her reveal and subsequent prison break. Fascinating character too.
• Miranda: How her facade of being a cold calculated Cerberus bitch gradually drops as she opens up and starts to trust Shepard.
• The Virmire Survivor's heartbreaking choice to turn their back on you.
• Mordin revealing a lot more guilt over his past than he initially lets on.
• The eeriness of the Collector Ship.
• All of Illium (I don't know why it's one of my favorite sci-fi locations EVER). Side-note, that Matriarch bartender at Eternity is fascinating! Imagine being old enough to have been alive while humans were still doing Crusades with swords and Quarians lived without masks with parents who fought in the Rachni wars and Krogan Rebellions!
• Thane's introduction and that silky velvety voice (the effects for his memory recall kinda fall flat for me now though, haven't aged well imo)
• Samara's theme and the tone it immediately establishes for her character.
• Grunt turns out to be surprisingly intelligent, self aware and nuanced.
• Legion's Reveal. A geth with N7 Armor on our side? Once you have him onboard the revelations he provides about the geth. It always felt off that they became sapient and fought for their own existence only to be generic robot bad guys in the first game. The lore dump that comes from this does so much to build on that and the whole concept is really cool. Legion's recording of the first creator to display fear towards the Geth and them having no answer to why they used Shepard's armor to patch themselves. Really drives home they too have a soul and are every bit as alive as the rest of us. Goosebumps.
• The Migrant Fleet: Getting an inside look into the world of the Quarians and their views and politics was absolutely fascinating! Bringing Legion to this is hilarious to boot! A rare complaint is that Tuchanka in comparison feels underwhelming and underbaked.
• Joker and EDI growing to trust each other.
• The Suicide Mission: Finally taking it to the Collectors. All the variables and possible outcomes, the speech that Shepard gives leading up to it, the feeling of having everyone involved in the mission. Having the diversion team calling out updates while you're in a hectic firefight to get to the next valve before your vent specialist gets cooked alive. The tension of that biotic bubble sequence. The joy of getting your team out alive or the horror of losing characters you've grown so fond of. That. Soundtrack. holy shit Suicide Mission and The End Run go hard! Bonus: Watching a Harbinger evaporate while he is still saying "Assuming Direct Control" feels badass and makes him look like such a chump!
• The Illusive Man's sheer charisma and presence. He commands your attention every time he's on screen. On that note pretty much every character is so well written and bought to life by the voice actors performances. All of them feel like real people with layers to their personalities that you peel back.

If you made it this far thank you! Cheers to you fellow Mass Effect fans! These are some of my highlights and moments that still resonate with me now same as they did on my first playthrough a little over 14 years ago. Do you love Mass Effect 2? Or do you feel it's the weakest of the trilogy? What are some of your favorite moments from the game or the trilogy at large? Sound off below!

Replaying Mass Effect 2, testing more of the classes with save editor, and playing any caster class is feeling significantly more painful than the 3 combat classes, at least pre-Collector Ship. Ability damage and cooldowns are just kinda underwhelming for what you give up in weapon training. Tempest helps a little, but still imo, SMGs and Heavy pistols fall quite short of Geth Plasma Shotgun with Charge and Snipers with Tac Cloak.
But especially Soldier just seems far and away the most broken in ME2. Having Mattock right off the bat, and maxing Adrenaline Rush asap for 240% damage, 70% time dilation, on a 3 second base cooldown, is just insanely overpowered in comparison.
In contrast, ME1 felt a bit more balanced. Pistols feel much more viable imo. Biotics are of course super strong, but between a bonus talent and squadmates, you can have fine coverage with any class.
In ME3, I feel the removal of weapon training and addition of the weight system and power combo system went a long way to equalizing the power levels of all the classes.
Am I missing something about the caster classes in ME2? I think it's a common sentiment online that Adept is underpowered in ME2, but is there something about Combat Drone or Tech Armor that I'm missing that makes them game changers? I've felt that Tech Armor is decent, but honestly not even as strong as the unique powers of the combat classes.

Edit: Okay, apparently I'm wrong and ME2 is the hardest, just replace all my examples from 3 with the appropriate version for ME2 vs Andomeda as the games play close enough that most of my points still apply, you want to be aggressive to remove pressure in Mass Effect 2 and 3 from your defenses ASAP so you don't die. Regardless here's my imgur post with my proof of my Veteran Adept vs Insanity Sentinel runs, my times are separated by 4 hours, I will chalk it up to double the saves on the Sentinel run which makes me feel like I made an active effort to reset less often from scratch or have to repeat long sections of game between auto-saves. Imgur files: https://imgur.com/gallery/trSZYEP
Edit 2: today is May 6th... I'm deleting this post on the 7th and reevaluating it after a different Insanity run through all 3 games back-to-back. I still say Banshees are must-kills due to insta-death but I recently discovered I can replay the entirety of ME2's first recruitment missions on Omega... I need more data and more recent data before I talk about it.
I AM APPARENTLY WRONG ABOUT WRITING OFF ME2, SEE THE EDIT UP TOP please and thank you.
Okay, I could technically say affects mindset in Andromeda, but I feel like, it's actually applicable from ME1 to ME2 and even 2 to 3...
So, I'm hopefully going to keep this brief and start at "Normal" and since I can't remember "Hardcore" I will just hop to "Insanity" and then to Andromeda based on what I've played so far (to the Nexus, I know I'm still in the tutorial).
Okay, so in Mass Effect I feel like there are 2 schools of thought amongst players that ME1 is either the hardest on any difficulty when you compare it directly over to ME2/3 or that ME1 is the easiest and the ME3 is the hardest.
I feel this comes from RPG oriented gameplay in ME1, as in, like, Dragon Age style, but with some differences, but the For- I mean Mag-, I mean Biotics...? Yes! Biotics... is the most busted thing in ME1, and uh... yeah, that means Liara is objective 1 and always your last recruit, but first story mission after the Citadel, since she is the most broken character in ME1 as far as teammates go.
With class and gameplay overhaul in ME2/3, Biotics were less powerful, more of a leveled playing field, no more Mako, the games are closer to each other than they are to ME1 and thus, you either think 2 is a cakewalk and 3 if fairly easy if you know what you're doing, or you think the big changes from ME1>ME2 are weird, but fine, ME2 is still simple and relatively easy, about as hard as ME1 tbh, and that ME3 is the hardest game in the series.
Now, I fall into the second camp, simply because of the existence of Banshees the game's "Delete" if they're near enough to you for too long. I know that BioWare is aware of how strong they are because you only fight them one at a time except in the second-to-last wave before the first missiles, where 2 show up at the wave start, and in missiles 3+4 case, 3 descend during the beginning of the timed survival section. That's Insanity Difficulty. You'd think there'd be more, but nope, BioWare knows what they did and balanced them out by using them sparingly.
And speaking of Insanity, I feel it drives that "cover, move up, cover, move up" style of gunning where you never let up on your powers, you always are driving bullets into your enemies and if you aren't you're using an Omni-Gel, waiting for shields, reloading, or using a skill. All very simple things to do... and it changes how you perceive the games and play them as difficulty goes up. You start playing like this more and more until it's second nature to you.
The reason why I put it like that comes from Andromeda... which I just went with "Normal" or "Standard" whatever the non-insanity difficulty is... and since the setup is different, that mindset doesn't work, it artificially makes the game harder simply by having to adapt to all the changes from ME Trilogy to Andromeda... and between losing 29-31/32yr old Shepard (I don't know their official b-day and what month it is by the time the games end, so, I'm just going with that range), and going to a 22 yr old character in Andromeda who sound like a 19 yr old... yeah... I can see, just based on those two changes really hurt Andromeda... not to mention the EA's interference... anyway, I'm gonna get back to Andromeda's tutorial... just wanted to decompress some thoughts. Hope it's not too much.

Her everyone,
I don’t know if it’s ok to post this here, but I need to write a bit about my journey through the trilogy. It's my first post here at Reddit, so please tell me if thats a bit too much xD Also, I’m not a native speaker, so I’m sorry for mediocre English.
I just finished playing the first full playthrough of the Mass Effect trilogy. First full playthrough since I did play ME1 and 2 before legendary collection released. Exactly 2 months ago I started again, because I really wanted to experience the full story. This post is a combination of review what I did, moments I really liked a ranking and more.
Since I knew ME1 and 2 I mostly knew what to expect. The only things I didn’t know about were the DLC’s (more to those later). I knew I wanted to go paragon since I mostly find the renegade options way too hard for me and I thought Liara would be pissed if I go renegade (in a RP perspective). I began playing with full intention to romance Liara (since I did that in my first playthrough of ME1 and 2).
The first game was much as I remembered, nothing really surprising (although I forgot to put in the mod, so grenades don’t kill the colonist on Feros and killed about half the colonists before I noticed). I romanced Liara in ME1 just as I planned and got through the game fast, because I didn’t do the Planet search quests (Martriach writings, Prothean discs, Planet searches for gas). I did the secret quest for Thali which I didn’t remember doing the last time and also did the quests for Wrex and Garrus. I killed Kaidan on Vermire and overall finished the game while wanting to play the next ones as fast as possible.
In ME2 my planes got changed. I continued doing paragon choices throughout the game. Then the Jack quest came. I knew the quest and I knew Jack, so I didn’t think of much. But after that I began to really like her. In the past, when I did romance options on games (not only Mass Effect), I choose based on looks (I know its superficial, but I haven’t played many Singleplayer games with romance options in the last years and I played my first incomplete run when I was around 20, so I was a stupid boy). Now Jacks story hit me hard. I really became fond of her and wanted to help her. She became my favorite character throughout the game (more to that later) and I made the choice to romance her. The rest of ME2 was like I did before, just the difference that I had Jack on every mission possible. The ending was also a bit different because no one died this time in the suicide mission (on my first playthrough Mordin sadly died since I didn’t do all loyalty missions).
Now with Mordin alive and Jack as my partner I started ME3. I didn’t know much of what to expect, I just knew a bit from Youtube videos.
My first hard choice was to tell Liara that I want Jack and not her. At that point I nearly went with Liara, but Jacks story hit me way to hard and I thought I get her as crewmate again later in the game. That sequence made me feel really bad since I had to kind of reject her in which I have no experience in. So first hard choice in the first 2 or 3 hours great. I continued playing, scanning planets and googled when I will see Jack (even after googling I still thought I will get her as crewmember). In that time, I was really surprised that EDI got a body and that I could interact with her like a normal crewmate. I nearly rushed to get to her story quest. So, after having a great scene with her in the station, I saved her and the students and then she just left with them and I was like WTF. This annoyed me a bit, but I continued. It took me a while to get through the game. In the end I cured the Genophage, made peace with the quarrians and Geth and got 8192 war assets. In the end I had a hard decision which ending I wanna get when they got presented to me. All I knew before was that there were multiple endings, but I never knew what these endings are. I chose the destruction ending, because to me it was the paragon ending. I didn’t do it without consideration, because EDI would die, and EDI was so great in ME3. But in the end, I had to sacrifice her.

Now since I told you what I did in the games I wanna talk about the characters starting with my top 5 characters in the series:
1. Jack
2. Liara
3. Joker
4. Thali
5. EDI
Honorable mention: Steve Cortez and Kasumi
As I said before Jack is my no 1. She had to go through so much in her life and in the end (through Shepards influence) she got a teacher helping other biotics. Her character was on points when it comes to the perfect combination of craziness (mostly in ME2), kinkiness (mostly in the Citadel Dlc) and power. I like that she is a character you don’t want on your bad side but a friend who you can have much fun with when she is on your good side.
What really annoys me is that you had no chance to recruit her in ME3. It would be so much better if you had the option to recruit her like Ashley. Same goes btw to other characters like Samara, Kasumi and Zaeed. That is one of the major Rp moments I hate in the trilogy.
Liara is not only visual great, but she is also an archeologist. I really love history and it is a bit of a turn on for me when good looking female characters are archeologists (looking at you to Robin from One Piece). I love Liaras story arc from being a shy, introvert and lonely girl to a leady who does everything to get resources to save the galaxy. At first, I was annoyed that she cant join you in ME2, but the Shadowbroker Dlc made up for everything. It was hard broken to tell her there first that I’m with Jack, but to me it made perfect sense of her being the new broker.
Joker and EDI are such a good couple. I love funny characters and even bad jokes like EDI does. Their connection made me laugh and root for them. EDI surprised me most in ME3. I had a normal feeling of her in ME2. She was there, but you can’t really interact with her and even in other cutscenes she didn’t catch my eye. She was a bit blunt I guess. But in ME3 she has to be my favorite character.
Thali is my second option to romance in my next playthrough (next to Liara). I played with her through the whole of ME1 (because she is a tech and you need those to open the crates). In the other games I also played much with her. Character wise, I don’t really know how to feel about her. On one hand she became a great leader and her loyalty mission is my third favorite, on the other hand she doesn’t really stand out to me, I don’t know why.
To me Cortez is the bro character. I know Garrus is the bro for most players, but I liked Cortez storyline in ME3 and actually I like the dynamic with him and Shepard a bit more than Garrus.
Kasumi on the other hand is mysterious, teasing and funny. Her loyalty mission is my favorite, since its so different that the others. She is like a sister type, who you want to protect and play pranks with.

My next paragraph is about the Dlc’s. Normally I have a mixed feeling about paid Dlc’s (I know they are free but originally, they were paid ones). But the Mass Effect Dlc were great. Behind the Dlc you can see some of the best story content. Especially the ME3 Dlc are awesome. They made the worst game so much better.
My favorite DLC was the Citadel DLC from ME3. The Citadel is my favorite location in all the games. My biggest negative point in ME2 is that the Citadel is way to small. So, it was great to see another district I haven’t seen in the older games. Having a fun time with the crew before the ending was a great feeling as well. This DLC saved Jack in ME3 a bit too since its nearly the only part where you can see her (except her mission and one or two conversations in the Citadel in the main game).

After telling my story and praising the games I also wanna criticize them.
I know ME1 is the beginning and the team didn’t know how big the franchise will become, but my biggest problem in ME1 is the lack of missions. In my opinion ME1 made the best planets. They were big, you can explore them and have a few missions on most. But there were only a handful planets to do main missions on. The side missions were mostly outposts which become quite boring after you fought the 5^th outpost (this was actually the reason why I never finished my first ME1 run, because I like to do all quests in a game and the side quests in ME1 were just too boring).
ME2 is the best game but made everything I like in ME1 just bad. They made many different missions on different planets, but most missions were short and not important. You can’t visit a planet again, so you do a 30 min Mission on a planet and never see it again. Other than that, I like the concept of loyalty missions and I hoped to see those back in ME3 with the old cast from ME1 and the new from ME3.
ME3 is my least favorite game of them. Without the DLC, the game lacks character development with some of the older characters (like I mentioned with Jack). I like the fight for war assets, but it’s like ME1 too much boring side missions. Here is the same problem as ME2, that you do a mission and go away from the planet. I’m not a fan of it. The best mission was the whole Tuchanka and Rannoch part. Those felt like ME1 again, much lore, many missions on the same planet and meaningful and important choices.

I read many people don’t like the ending in ME3. I know there is the extended cut DLC, so I don’t know the original ending, but I have to say, I had mixed feelings too. And now after sleeping a night over the ending, I have to say, that I love it that way. You have the choice of killing an entire race, that you helped through the game (Geth) and killing the best character in ME3 (EDI), or doing what Cerberus wants (control), or manipulate the DNA of the entire galaxy without their consent.
In my opinion the control ending is the renegade ending. You may save everyone, but you serve Cerberus in doing that. It doesn’t fell right as Paragon. The synthesis ending is in the middle. You save everyone, but you also alter with their DNA. It’s not natural and is a bit creepy too. The destruction ending is my paragon ending. It was the mission from the start and even irl you can’t save everyone and have to do make sacrifices (even if it hits EDI :( ). The final ending where you do nothing is an ending which I certainly will never do on my own. It makes sense to have it in game, but you sacrifice everyone and don’t know if anyone in the next cycle can do the same things you did. So, you just kill everyone.

Now the last part is something I have in my mind for a few days now. I thought about how I would continue the Mass Effect franchise if I had control over it. I would love to hear your opinion in it:
I personally think if a franchise wants to get bigger you must make sure the whole franchise can live without having a singular character on top. Therefor most of the projects wouldn’t involve Shapard. If you don’t do that you have the Harry Potter problem, that every media must have Harry in it or else it wouldn’t sell.
At first, I would hire a small group of fans/experts of Mass Effect who would oversee the lore. Their job would be to look at the new projects and see if they fit into the lore and help the creators with problems and questions about the lore. They should also participate on playing/watching/reading before things get published to see lore mistakes.
Secondly, you need to make money. So, to get the funds for other projects I would do a Candy Crush clone with Liara digging up artifacts on various planets. You could put some lore in there too for the fans and make some money of it.
Then with the beginning of the Candy Crush style game I would ask an author to write an outline for a whole saga of books related to the Prothean cycle. The idea behind is something like the Horus Heresy books from Warhammer 40k combined with the outline style of the Perry Rhodan series. So, the idea behind this is a small team (1 to 3 people) writing the outline of the entire story. Therefor many authors can write books at the same time and coordinate with the lore team and the story outline team. I would give the outline team the chance to write the first 1 to 3 books so everyone knows the style and beyond that different authors can contribute together. You can for example make a connection between the mobile game and the books if you feature events in one of these stories and build them in the other later. This would make a great connection.
Now with having a book series and a mobile game you need the audience. To get a higher audience I would create a series (live action or animated) with the story of the ME trilogy. I prefer a series since you got more time, and you need time for that.
I also have 3 ideas for new PC/console games. The first is an open world game set in the citadel. As I mentioned before the Citadel is my favorite location in all of Mass Effect. I would love to see a GTA or Assassin’s Creed like game set in the Citadel. In the Assassin’s Creed like game, we could play Thane and help the Hanar to hunt down enemies. In the GTA like game we could play a thug getting reputations for the Blue Sons, Blood Pack and Eclipse. The games would be set before ME1. We would have C-Sec as enemies with Garrus as an investigator. The main villain could be Harkin. At the end we could help evacuate the civilians from the Souverain attack.
The second idea is a RTS set in the time of the First Contact War. In missions like StarCraft we can fight against the Turians and pirates. That could have great potential in my opinion.
The last game would be centered around Jack. From her time with Cerberus until the end of ME3. This could also be a book, but I would love to get more info about her.

Now that I’m finished, I have to say this got way longer than I anticipated. I hope its even ok to post this much in a single thread. If the mods think its too much or doesn’t fit, I can understand. I hope everyone had fun reading all of it and I would love to get your opinions on some of the stuff I wrote.

I dunno I’m pretty early in the game so I have jack, Miranda, kasumi, zaeed, garrus, mordin, and Jacob. I find myself pretty much always taking Miranda and then swapping between kasumi, garrus and mordin. Jacob and zaeed seem useless. Idk this game seems to punish you way harder for not just camping in cover. Biotics are borderline useless except for warp. Idk it seems like you just being overload for shields and warp/ incinerate for armor. Idk am I missing something here. Would like to branch out and stop bringing Miranda because it seems she doesn’t have as much fun dialog on most missions.

Because I see a lot comparisons between Mass Effect 2 and 3's respective final missions. And even though Mass Effect 3 had a more epic, larger scale final battle on Earth, people would have rather Mass Effect 2's suicide mission because there was a lot more interactivity between your crew choices and the jobs you assign them to.
And yeah, by the time you land on Earth and counter-raid it against the Reapers, you don't see that many soldiers and biotics across every race in the Milky Way Galaxy fighting in much of the same way as Commander Shepard and their crew. Just the bare minimum amounts of Systems Alliance space marines, especially at Admiral Anderson's forward operating base, and that's it.
But even then, the whole thing was just Sword Fleet dropping a Hammer Team on Earth to reach the conduit, and thus the Citadel from the inside, so that a Shield Fleet could escort the Crucible to it and activate that thing against the Reapers, with no option to retreat at all until the game's ending. And it was mostly Admiral Hackett's plan, and the Mass Effect trilogy wasn't built to be an RTS, despite Shepard's gradually developing leadership skills being applied from a small crew to a much larger army and fleet. So of course you were going to have a lot less interactivity with your army and fleet in ME3's final battle than you would have your much smaller crew throughout ME2's suicide mission.
So was there anyone who was impressed by Shepard's fleet and army during Mass Effect 3's final battle, like they were with their crew of marines, biotics, and navy sailors for Mass Effect 2's suicide mission?

A long while back, I posted on this sub about not getting ting pulled into the Starfield world like I had other BGS titles. And at the time, I hadn’t yet. I took a long break from the game, and came back, with a different plan of attack.
This is the story of how I fell for Starfield after all.
From here on out, it’s my experience playing the game, so get ready for spoilers galore.
I started, originally, as I often do with BGS titles. I avoided the main story line. I pursued random stories, I joined Sysdef and played pirate double agent. It was cool. The ship building looked pretty cool, but I didn’t really want to deep dive in. I hadn’t yet recovered any artifacts or seen a temple. It hadn’t firmly grabbed me. And so I took a long hiatus, feeling entertained, but underwhelmed.
Later on, a good friend of mine told me that I should really do the main story. So I decided that I would change my ways, bee-line to the main story, and give Starfield an honest shot.
My Starfield experience resumed with a trip to Neon, and my Cyberpunk choom ass was delighted by what I found there. I did a few exploratory adventures, and reminded myself of my promise to continue my main story.
Riding that main story like a roller coaster, I was given a tourist’s vacation through the different central locations, and really, genres, throughout the galaxy. Exploring about (and the soundtrack especially) gave me some great Mass Effect 1 vibes, which I absolutely loved. Dreamy ass Sam Coe made me feel the space western vibe as he toured me around his home planet. My inner child felt like I was in a Star Trek dream at the heart of the Federation, in the heart of the UC on Alpha Centauri. The powers were cooler than I’d anticipated (though I WISH I could just have the biotic powers from Mass Effect). Andreja felt like she’d be right at home in the Star Wars universe, and I could have been on some shady outer rim world exploring the cutthroat side of the galaxy like Neon. I couldn’t let my wife die, and Barrett died when I rushed off to save everyone on the eye, and his death hit me far harder than I thought, especially during his funeral. I’ve never seen such an honest and interesting exploration of religion and meaning in a game, and I especially loved the way the atheist members articulated how a lack of anything else beyond our world just lends all the more meaningfulness to our own moral actions, and yet the game and the characters alike leave room for other beliefs to be respected and left to themselves.
And then I came to the edge of reality. And after many conversations about it with Sarah, we decided as much as we loved each other, we both knew that in the end… we’re explorers. And we need to know. I’d avenged Barrett and the Hunter wouldn’t ever kill anyone again. But though I had left so much left undone (like… almost ALL the rest of the game? I hadn’t finished a single full major other storyline, like the Sysdef one I’d started) but… It was time to move on.
But on the other side… she wasn’t there.
My character Elaira realized that this WASNT her world. What she saw was intensely beautiful in its true endlessness, but also made her realize how much she’d left behind. The ones she’d befriended, loved… they were on their own adventures through the infinite. They’d never meet again.
But THIS Barret was still alive. And THIS Hunter, would not take anyone from me. I used every tool, every bit of foreknowledge I had, and beat him. I saved everyone, but, somehow I was more alone than I’d ever been. I’d kept this Constellation at a bit more of a distance. I never got to know them as well as MY Constellation. It felt weird even to flirt with this Sarah… at first it was reflex, but then it felt like betrayal. I had rebuilt my tragically lost fortune and replaced my expensive arsenal and spaceship solitarily, knowing what I was truly up against. I turned to farming material to mass produce frames and magnets, that I sold unceremoniously in a dusty spaceport was how I got back on my feet in this new universe, knowing that I would soon be facing other Starborn once again, once the race started. I got the biggest particle shotgun I’d ever seen, and learned to modify it until it was nearly a war crime to use it was so powerful, I collected every bit of Starborn power that I could from this universe. And I hunter the Hunter.
He’s given me soooo much trouble in my universe (I’d been like level 25 and undergeared, it was harrowing). This time I mercilessly crushed that bitch. In slow motion.
I’d played by the Starborn’s rules this time. And I had crushed them. I was the space god now. I had saved everyone. And so… it was time to move on.
This time it was easier to leave the universe behind.
I became one of them.
I was obsessed with gaining ranks in all the powers, both as a player and a character. In my next playthroughs, I barely knew the Constellation crews, beyond what I needed from them to get to the artifacts. I no longer felt so bad solving problems with particle beams, because there are an infinite number of all of these people and none of this really matters, just give me the temples so I can melt pirates like a space wizard and dodge bullets like Neo. And dialogue just takes too long.
I find myself siding with the Hunter one time. He’s right, you know. I AM and god of space and time, as much as likely exists, and I can do whatever I want.
Once I decided to kill them both, and done with their schemes.
As I gain more and more power I lose my sense of connection to the multiverse. And it’s kinda starting to feel like a grind.
And I remember Keeper Aquilius’ story. He’d been like me, and he’d CHOSEN this universe.
I had one time ran into a Starborn trader, who had chosen to savor their journey, rather than race to ultimate power.
I could choose to do that too.
One new universe, I come to wearing the most beautiful silvery space suit. I totally save scum a bit to get one with desirable Legendary effects at this point.
I step into this Constellation for the first time.
I could stop him again. I could save them all. All I need to do is tell them all the secrets that I know, and I’ll be inches away from even more power. Just gotta hit that skip button again.
But I want to belong here.
I tell Sarah that I’m excited join Constellation and unravel these mysteries together.
This way lies loss. I know so, I’ve seen it.
I’ve never missed any of the people from the other universes. But I’ve lost my Barrett to Starborn greed for power. I’d lost my Sarah, and all my friends, to wander alone throughout the beautiful multiverse. I still missed THEM.
I finally let them go.
Perhaps these people can be my people now. I don’t think I could ever love Sarah again, not after the first, but there are plenty of other tantalizing fish in the skies, so to speak.
This is my home now. I can’t wait to see it all for the first time again.
And I set off not as a Starborn, but to try to make my way as though native, through what I think is to be my final, my “true” playthrough. And it’s really a much better story, without skipping the main quest.
This time, I’m playing the old me. The main quest can wait. I’m going to spend hours designing ships I intend to keep forever. Crazy legendaries will no longer be left behind. I’m going to scour the corners, do all the side quests, explore all the things, and l get the shiniest sniper rifle. That Andreja’s lookin pretty nice, as well.
I’m excited.
And that’s how I fell for Starfield when I gave it a second chance.
Thank you, Bethesda. Love it. M

It would be amazing if Exotic Armorpieces, where applicable, display kill counts associated with their Exotic effect in the same spirit as weapons display their kill counts for different game modes.
This is a great way to show off dedication to a playstyle and a fun stat to look back on. Ideally these trackers would be global across different rolls of Armor so you don't lose your counter when you get a better stat roll of an Exotic since, unlike weapons, different rolls don't change their functionality.
Some exciting examples that immediately come to mind:

• Lucky Pants: Hand Cannon kills with its Damage Boost active
• Synthoceps: Melee kills with Biotic Enhancement active
• Sunbracers: Kills from Solar grenades thrown with Sunbracers Ready active

Due to the nature of some Exotics like Wormhusk Crown for example they can't support the feature but I think it's still more than worth implementing for those Exotics that can.

As title said I've completed Therum, Feros and Noveria (along side a bunch of sidequest like the ones dealing with Cerberus experiments, Garrus chase of that scientist, Wrex's family armor the rogue VI on the moon, etc.) and I will share my thoughts up to this point.
First I want to say that I am enjoying the gameplay, now that I have a couple of levels in and have a lot of skills already available I feel that being locked to light armor and a gun as a Sentinel is not that bad, there's a lot of crowd control with Push and Lift, having barrier allows me to keep myself alive while I try to find cover and the tech skills really help to keep te geth in check.
Now unto the planets, first I went to Therum because I wanted to get Liara and have the full squad before doing the other story missions, I always want to recruit everyone and bring different party combinations to missions see if they have special dialogue, that said Therum I feel was a really good planet to get use to the combat and the Mako, there was a lot of cover to hide and fight the Geth, my main problem was at the end the fight with the Krogan that comes with two Geth, not only I learn that Krogan rise up once you kill them, but whenever I had a good run the Geth Sniper on the back one shot me, I retry that fight like 5 times until I got it.
Feros was really fun I enjoy helping the colonist get their colony back up and running before going to the ExoGeni lab, not much to say outside that this planet teach me about bringing the right team with the right mods, I knew I was going to fight Geth mainly so I brought Garrus and Tali and the planet was a cakewalk until we reach the Thorian (I did save 10 out of 16 colonist, I ran out of grenades and I have terrible aim), The Thorian itself was challenging because the creepers really liked waking up as you pass by them and corner you with another wave coming from the front but other than that fun planet might be my favorite
Noveria is a thing, I brought Wrex and Liara for this one and I think it was good call, not enough Geth that needed a group of tech experts and by this point I was already well leveled up so I could handle them, I just didn't had fun with this planet, the Rachni dealt a lot of damage and the little ones could sneak up on you and blow up putting me on critical health, the fight with Benezia was interesting as you have to beat her waves of Asari commandos and then Geth until you can properly fight her (and when I did I cheese her by using push then the skill that destroy her shields and then just focus her until her health went to zero).
For the characters and companion I may do a post on another moment maybe when I finish the game, I like them so far had a shaky start with Ashley but she's getting better, I like Kaidan and his story about the biotics camp and his instructor is interesting to me, but Wrex and Garrus take the cake and eat it, they are my favorite companions and I can listen to Tali talk hours about Quarian culture, again, I might have to make another thread for the companions once I finish the game but so far I like them
Anyways, next stop Virmire!

Since a Mass Effect TV show was in consideration for Amazon a while ago, I thought I'd put forth how I think a show should go down.
It'd pretty much be a full-on retelling of the games' plot, but with some minor differences. You'll see the differences as I go along. Each episode would be an hour long or so.
Episode One: Origins of Shepard
Episode One begins with a cold open of some miners on Mars doing some excavation on their mine. They exposit a bit on how Earth is different in the future, the discovery of eezo, and we see biotics in action when one of the miners saves the rest from falling debris with their powers. Then they stumble upon the prothean ruins and that ends the cold open.
The rest of the first third would be a montage of humanity making technological achievements, developing their starships with FTL flight, discovering the Mass Relays, and beginning to colonize other planets. They discover they are not alone, have a bad first meeting with the turians, and the First Contact War begins. The First Contact War is most of the first quarter as we see humans and turians fighting each other, the attack of Shanxi, and it ends with Asari intervention (cameo from Ashley's granddad) and are then introduced to the rest of the galactic community. All of this is done in service to newbies who don't know Mass Effect lore. (If possible, I'd even get Neil Ross to do the narration.) The only big timeline change I'll make is that I'm moving the beginning of the war from 2157 to 2137.
The second third is an introduction to Shepard. Shepard is a male (because most players played a male), first name is Jonathan (as opposed to just John) and played by an actor who looks the closest to the default male model. He's a colonist on Mindoir and lives with his mom Hannah Shepard. Hannah is a single mom in this, and due to the lack of a father figure, Jonathan is very disobedient, and hangs out with the Reds. (Not 10th Street Reds, just Reds.) Batarians attack the colony, and only Shepard, Hannah, Zabaleta, Finch and Talitha survive. They're saved when an Alliance team of soldiers show up in the nick of time, and this inspires Shepard to join the Alliance Navy to make sure incidents like these don't happen again. This is also how he meets Anderson (who was leading the rescue), and Anderson becomes more of a father figure to Jonathan here than he was in canon. (Also Shepard will be called Jonathan by his close confidants at times, rather than just Shepard all the time.)
The first half of the final third is Shepard enlisting, reaches N7 training, and defending in the Skyllian Blitz (Jonathan does not earn the Star of Terra though) taking part in the assault on Torfan (Elanos Haliat is killed however) and the rest of the battle is interrupted by a Thresher Maw, and only Shepard and Toombs are the only survivors of that. As all that is happening, we're shown that he's a highly competent soldier (literally, his class is Soldier), he's NOT ruthless during the Siege of Torfan (he's NOT the Butcher of Torfan), and he has a serious problem with death and wishes to resolve problems with as little bloodshed as possible. Don't let that pacifism fool you, Shepard will certainly kill you if you try to kill him. It's just that he hates to see his friends and family die.
The second half of the final third is Shepard and Anderson reconnecting, and Anderson inviting Shepard to be a part of his crew for a shakedown run, testing out the stealth capabilities of a ship co-developed by humans and turians (the Normandy, of course). Shepard also meets Kaidan during this proposal. Shepard agrees, of course, and the next day he meets the Normdany crew. He's given a tour of the ship, and this is where he meets Adams (who gives a quick expo dump of the ships' engine) and Pressly. He meets Chakwas and Jenkins next, and Jenkins also points out that Nihlus (a turian Spectre!) is on board (Jenkins also briefly info dumps what a Spectre is.) Shepard meets Joker last, Joker endears himself in the only way Joker can. Shepard is initially annoyed at Joker though (don't worry, Shepard isn't going to hate Joker for the whole series).
And the final shot of the episode is the first shot of the first game: Shepard looking out over Earth, while Anderson talks over the comms with Udina and Hackett about making Shepard a candidate for Spectre.
And that's my premise for the first episode guys. If you liked it, didn't like it, think of your own idea, comment below, and I might make a 1x02 post pretty soon. Take care.

Look, I get it - ending discussions are old hat but I think at least Dark Energy and the Refusal ending are less discussed and could generate some new ideas about the series we could share with one another.
As you might know, the Dark Energy Ending refers to a proposed motivation behind the Reaper Cycle before Drew Karpyshyn left BioWare and Mac Walters took the reins. Karpyshyn provided some details on the proposed ending in 2013:

"Dark Energy was something that only organics could access because of various techno-science magic reasons we hadn't decided on yet," Karpyshyn said. "Maybe using this Dark Energy was having a ripple effect on the space-time continuum.
"Maybe the Reapers kept wiping out organic life because organics keep evolving to the state where they would use biotics and dark energy and that caused an entropic effect that would hasten the end of the universe. Being immortal beings, that's something they wouldn't want to see.
"Then we thought, let's take it to the next level. Maybe the Reapers are looking at a way to stop this. Maybe there's an inevitable descent into the opposite of the Big Bang (the Big Crunch) and the Reapers realise that the only way they can stop it is by using biotics, but since they can't use biotics they have to keep rebuilding society - as they try and find the perfect group to use biotics for this purpose."

While that might have been interesting to play out, I find it incongruent to the Original Trilogy's actual story. And that is a critical point when discussing the themes behind Mass Effect - the plot is not the story.
Mass Effect has always been about humanity - specifically, humanity's relationship with conflict. Why does conflict happen? How do we resolve it? These are questions and challenges the games throw at you constantly. In the plot, Shepard is made into a spectre - a figure that can be inserted into any situation and neutralize threats with violence if necessary. For the story, this means the player is given free rein to explore multiple examples of how conflicts happen and the sole authority to decide how they should be resolved.
Dark Energy introduces the idea of scarcity and diminishing resources to the story of Mass Effect. It could be compared to climate change, which could be interesting for the series to discuss, but it was never part of the design or experience of Mass Effect. Players never had to deal with diminishing resources in gameplay, while very few conflicts, if any, revolve around the idea of scarcity. So yeah, Dark Energy - cool plot idea that simply did not fit the story.
One could argue that the planet-less quarians and the krogan deal with scarcity all the time, but their actual stories revolve around the potential of conflict - not of scarcity.
If Dark Energy were to work, again, the elements of scarcity and resource management have to be part of the games. Quests where food or shelter against nature is the central point of conflict between two groups. Limiting the use of special powers per mission, forcing the player to use them only in the most critical situations. If these or similar ideas were part of Mass Effect's design, then maybe the Dark Energy Ending could have worked.
Alas, we have the ending we have because Dark Energy was ultimately incongruent with Mass Effect's design. Now, ignoring all of the plot-related issues of our true ending (let's call it the Catalyst Ending), something the Catalyst Ending does well is thematically summarize the story of Mass Effect.
Per the original ending script and variations based on High/Low EMS: https://www.reddit.com/masseffect/comments/rac5f/complete_text_from_me3_ending_pt_2_spoilers/
The Catalyst tells you, the player, based on your experience as the galaxy's Number One Problem Solver, that you decide how conflict ultimately ends. With Low EMS, the Catalyst regards you with doubt, as if your experience shouldn't be sufficient to determine how this ends, yet here you are. With High EMS, the Catalyst regards you with respect, believing you have the experience necessary to provide the final solution to conflict.
So, Number One Problem Solver, can you provide the Catalyst the ultimate answer to its ultimate question? Does conflict end when you destroy all opposing forces, when the opposing force is placed under the control or guidance of the correct people, or when everyone finds a middle ground or commonality? Let's be honest here - a video game is not going to give us the enlightenment to end all conflict, and a reasonable person would understand that declaring a definitive answer for such a broad topic can't be done because there will always be circumstances and context for every situation. However, the interactive medium lets us engage with this idea of conflict resolution directly, using our experience as the foundation for our final answer.
But these three choices have been discussed ad nauseam and I don't want that topic to take over what I really wanted to talk about - Dark Energy and Refusal.
The Refusal Ending, as the name suggests, is the player literally refusing to engage with the story and themes of Mass Effect or its ending. Now, some players believe this is a "Screw you" ending to the players - and maybe it was - but with a simple tweak it could properly reflect the player's journey and attitude towards the game without being such an explicit punishment.
The tweak? Make High EMS Refusal the other ending where Shepard gets to live. Like High EMS Destroy, Shepard's survival would be both a reward for the player's complete exploration of the trilogy's plot (the people you've met, the quests you've completed) and an extension of your thematic ending. For High EMS Destroy, Shepard survives because this is an extension of the idea of destroying opposition to resolve conflict - if I say conflict will always be a Me vs. Them situation, and the only way to resolve it is to remove Them from the equation, then it only makes sense that Me is left to survive.
If I refuse to engage with the ending but I have High EMS, what does that say? I love the experience of playing the game, I love the plot, and setting, and characters, and I do not want that experience to end. I want the plot to continue, I want to continue fighting, and I want to end the threat of the Reapers on my own terms - even if it means leaving it to the next cycle.
If Shepard could survive the Refusal Ending with High EMS, it would be as an extension of this thematic choice - to love the plot but hate the ending/story. Shepard survives to fight, waking up amongst the rubble of a dead and abandoned Earth. The players are rewarded for their experience of playing the game to its fullest with Shepard's survival while simultaneously punished for their refusal to engage with the story. Shepard survives, but to what end?
It should be made clear that Shepard's cycle (in Refusal) is most likely doomed, and Shepard's survival would only be as a means of preparing the next cycle for the next fight. Maybe they get picked up by other survivors, maybe they find a stasis chamber and freeze themselves to the next cycle, like Javik? Or maybe they are left alone in a dead galaxy with no one left to fight? Sure, it's still technically a punishment, but it leaves Shepard's fate to the hands of the player, which IMO suits the theme of Refusal better. Plus, think about all the fanfiction that could come out of it!

Let the flaming and ad hominem begin!
Recently finished ME1 for the umpteenth time, this time as an infiltrator. Starting out, Shepard is just utter shit at everything, from his swaying aim with the sniper, to barely withstanding any damage. As you level up, Shepard and Co. slowly become killing machines.
Maybe it's the progression from utter dog shit to a killing machine that makes ME1's combat so satisfying. Clunky? Sure, but sniping especially is just so damn fun in ME1, especially how enemies just rag doll everywhere; equipping explosive rounds is also a treat. I also think the sniper rifles' sound effect in ME1 is the best too.
Then there are the squadmates, who are pretty much Shepard's equals, each being an identical match with all the classes you can choose for Shepard. They all have an equal amount of powers, they all deal the same amount of damage if not more depending on their equipment, and they actually feel like teammates as opposed to sidekicks in the latter games where their powerset is drastically reduced, and deal less damage with weapons. Shepard in ME1 wasn't the be all end all on the battlefield, they could have a few handicaps that others could make up for. The squad felt more complimentary to one another.
Then the biotics... yes we had explosions in ME3, but it felt like they had that "oomph" in ME1. I just love seeing inanimate objects being caught in Liara's singularity, or finally being able to see Kaidan lift a Geth Colossus with his maxed out Lift, or Wrex just throwing enemies into shipping containers that shatter upon impact.
Yeah, combat may be better in the latter games, but it feels more... generic?

Hello everyone.
Last week I came home from work and discovered my apartment absolutely covered in vomit. My cat, who is known for having a sensitive stomach/eats sensitive stomach food, was the culprit as he got into our other cats food. While he occasionally throws up his food, I have never seen anything like this from him. He continued to get lethargic and started drooling everywhere. Refused to eat. And continued to vomit until he was given an anti-nausea.
I make an immediate vet appointment for the next morning at a Banfield Pet Hospital. He generally goes there because he has a Wellness Plan set up and I expected many OTHER not included tests would be ran, so I cashed in on his included tests- which were routine blood and urine tests as well as a comprehensive exam.
Upon drop off the next morning, I explained that he has been non stop vomiting, has been lethargic and drooling and uninterested in food. I fed him the night before and he essentially licked it a few times and that was it. The receptionist asked me if I was interested in a rabies vaccine and I said no. I also told them if he needs x rays please don't call me to ask, just do them she said that regardless, they won't do them without calling me first. I also requested a GI blood test.
I got a call from the vet after his routine blood test. It was clear and he thinks it was just his stomach acting up. He prescribed me 3 different sensitive stomach foods to try. And told me they just collected a urine sample are waiting on that.
I go to pick him up later that day, and the receptionist tells me he has a UTI. I was a bit taken aback as I didn't expect that nor the receptionist to tell me this news, and it was all pretty casual.
I go home and look over his exam details. I find out that he was in fact given the rabies vaccine(despite declining) AND another vaccine that was NOT mentioned to me AND a dewormer, also not mentioned to me. He was not there for ANY of this and was purely in for his gastro issues. It was also stated that i "declined x rays" while never being asked about them again. He also received anti nausea pills and anti biotic for his UTI.
He is given his medicine and doesn't get at all better. He didn't want food but at least stopped vomiting.
The next morning he has diarrhea(he's never experienced diarrhea in my care) and he still did not look good. Later that day, I rush him to the ER.
He's not eating. Drooling like crazy. And is very lethargic.
The ER over looks his recent vet visit and performs x rays. While waiting for the x ray results, they explain to me that since I brought him in for serious gastro issues, NO vet should've given him any vaccines, any dewormer and absolutely no anti biotics as all of these are extremely harsh on their stomachs. And that his symptoms likely got worse because of all of those things. Also the ER doctor didn't see any indication of a UTI.
At this point I am upset and furious. Fortunately his x rays were clear and his exam was also clear. He was diagnosed with gastritis and was given an appetite stimulant and I was told to stop his anti biotics but continue anti nausea.
The visit at Banfield cost me $450, the ER visit was $800. I'm not upset about the money, i love him and would've spent more, but I am in fact very furious over Banfields seemingly idiotic game plan over correcting the issue he was experiencing and made him feel worse and could've put him in a very dangerous situation. Though we aren't even out of the clear yet and I am extremely worried.
I explained this and sent them an extremely long email and waiting on a response. Can I be expected to receive any care or help from them? This is the last time I am going to them. Or is there anything else I can do?
He is slowly recovering. He is still barely eating and is pretty depressed looking, but he shows glimmers of his normal self as the days go on. But if he doesn't continue to get better, he will need to be admitted to the ER for overnight/multi night stays.
Also if anyone has any advice on how to aid in this any further and make him feel better I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

Hi! I'm making a custom game and I need to disable Ana's biotic grenade. I have it disabled in the settings under her hero slot, but she's still able to use it. Does anyone know why? Or maybe a way to work around it? This is the first custom game I've made so I'm pretty brand new to this. Any help is appreciated!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect_3_ending_controversy#:~:text=Dark%20energy,writers.%5B4%5D
"The developers attempted to write a viable ending around the concept of dark energy and had considered a number of hypothetical theories surrounding it as the reason behind the creation of the Reapers: examples that were proposed by team members included curbing the use of dark energy by organic civilizations due to its cumulative entropic effect that would hasten the end of the universe, or preventing the universe's inevitable descent into the opposite of the Big Bang by focusing on organic species with biotic potential. The game was acknowledged to contain direct hints that the Citadel species and the Reapers would team up to stop a dark energy anomaly that threatened the universe with destruction, although this was not seriously discussed by the writers."
How would "curbing the use of dark energy by organic civilizations due to its cumulative entropic effect that would hasten the end of the universe, or preventing the universe's inevitable descent into the opposite of the Big Bang by focusing on organic species with biotic potential" work?

Because My Little Pony used to have a ton of fan-made crossovers at the time, most particularly Fallout. And I always thought that MLP's crossovers with Mass Effect were the most prominent. Especially since both Twilight Sparkle and Commander Shepard's respective journeys involved them rising to higher leadership positions as a result of their gradually developing leadership skills. In Twilight's case, going from uniting five mares around her age under her leadership skills, to spreading said skills to all of Equestria as one of its four alicorn princesses. And in Commander Shepard's case, going from leading a crew of marines, biotics, and navy sailors throughout the first two Mass Effect games, to leading a massive scale army and fleet against the Reapers during the climax of Mass Effect 3.
So were there really a lot of MLP/ME crossovers like I thought there were during the height of the brony craze?

hi moira mains, I am moira main. love our queen, but I feel like the s9 and s10 changes have made her completely lose her identity. she used to be a great duelist, but now the most effective playstyles on her are literally everything except dueling. I find that incredibly boring, and every time I've tried to play her in actual matches, I find myself completely at odds with a non-duelist playstyle because dueling is what her kit is designed for and that's what I learned when playing her.
and as we all know, people hate moira. a lot of their reasons typically boil down to "I don't know how to counter her and she usually punishes me for that," but I don't feel like every single person saying she needs more skill or utility is fully off the mark. in truth, she could definitely use some tweaks to make her more of a support while still enabling dueling.
unfortunately, moira was not part of the mirrorwatch crew, and I think this was a missed opportunity to explore a kit rework for her. with that in mind, I've decided to take a crack at my own kit rework for her.

design philosophy

to me, moira is at her most fun when she's capable of dueling. however, a lot of players have grievances with this for two reasons:

1. moira is a support, so why should she be capable of dueling dps?
2. moira is a support, so why should her focus be on dueling instead of healing?

the balance changes she's been given recently are an attempt to push moira players away from solo dueling and into amplifying damage on a target currently focused by a dps or providing distraction on off-angles. the problem is that these playstyles are dreadfully boring and woefully ineffective with her current kit. moira's kit is designed for dueling, and trying to use it as anything else just doesn't yield the results moira players or their teammates want.
when playing her, the main issue I notice is that you are constantly swapping priorities. if you focus too much on dueling, your team dies, but if you don't duel or contribute to damage effectively, the enemy team will eventually break through with enough cooldowns and ults. the dps passive especially fucked with moira's playstyle because it directly nerfed both her high healing numbers and her survivability.
to remedy this, my proposed solution is to make it so she doesn't need to decide between healing and damaging. if she can do both at the same time, she can still fill her support role while dueling, making her far more valuable to her team and less prone to accidentally dps moira tunnel vision.

biotic grasp

biotic grasp is undoubtedly the easiest part of moira's kit to use, the most boring part to use, and the main culprit behind her "no skill" accusations. but it's also central to moira's identity. she's one of the few mechanically forgiving characters and a great starting point for new players, so removing this would completely destroy what makes her unique in the first place.
to me, the real issue is with the healing form of biotic grasp. I've never seen someone say this, so I'll say it: I have no clue when I'm actually healing someone with biotic grasp, and no one I'm healing can really tell I'm doing it either. the tiny whine you hear when healing is practically inaudible in most fights, and there's no obvious visual cue that happens when healing that makes it noticeable. this is compounded by less overall healing going out due to the dps passive as well as the increased health pools giving the perception of less progress toward full on the health bars of your allies. usually my teammate's health bars look stalled as I'm actively healing them, and it makes me think I'm not doing enough, which leads to more trash healing overall.
moira is also one of the few supports that has limited healing. the other is illari, but her limited healing is mitigated by a turret that heals fast, doesn't move, and never runs out. moira's healing orb has a hard limit on the amount of healing it can do, and it's also constantly in motion, so it may hit some wonky geometry and fly into space. but giving her unlimited healing would make her much stronger, as we saw in the april fool's patch, to the point that you could actually healbot on her. moira's identity is themed around sacrificing damage or healing for the other, so how we do change biotic grasp's healing without losing that?
quick summary

• biotic grasp has two modes.
• mode 1 does more damage and creates a healing aura around a selected target while draining her resource meter.
• mode 2 does less damage but recharges the resource meter and deals more healing.
• once the resource meter is full, biotic grasp automatically switches back to mode 1.
• mode 2 is a cooldown so it can't be spammed forever for infinite heals.

full explanation
I propose an "anchor" system for moira's healing. she selects a target (or one gets automatically selected), and every time she does damage with biotic grasp, she heals the target and also creates a healing aura around them. as she does damage and dishes out this type of healing, her biotic grasp meter decreases instead of increases. this maintains her limited healing, preventing her from literally just holding one single button the entire game, but removes the need to sacrifice damage for healing or vice versa, providing more value for her team and reducing tunnel vision that could lead to unnecessary deaths.
to recharge biotic grasp, the player clicks a button and swaps to a version that deals less damage but recharges the meter and deals more healing. again, this maintains the similar theme of sacrificing damage for healing or vice versa without forcing excessive multitasking or risking tunnel vision. this also adds a bit more skill and nuance to an otherwise simple ability. to prevent infinite healing by keeping this mode on constantly, it can be on a cooldown, and it can automatically switch biotic grasp back to mode 1 once the meter's full.
by making it so moira can both heal and damage at the same time with her primary ability, she can be more capable of dueling without sacrificing her ability to help her team. this also can lead to visual changes and new UI that makes it much clearer when moira is healing someone so no one can say she's being a dps moira when she isn't and she can clearly see how her healing is working.

biotic orbs

orbs are, in my opinion, the most skillful part of moira's kit but also the most infuriating to use. trying to work with funky geometry to bounce them correctly is hard to do in the middle of a team fight, and they don't provide as much value now thanks to the health increases. being sustain healing/slow damage doesn't help either, as burst healing is still quite strong in comparison and a lack of burst damage makes securing kills as moira harder when enemies have more health. she also does not have utility with this ability even though she needs some.
quick summary

• press ability button to open the orb selection menu and use healing or damage orb as normal.
• orbs have slightly increased gravity and explode on impact with environment surface or a teammate/enemy.
• upon explosion, create a vision-obstructing cloud. moira and her allies can see through the cloud, but enemies cannot.
• moira and allies within healing orb's cloud take less damage.
• if healing orb collides with an ally, it burst heals them. if moira is within the initial explosion radius, she receives the burst heal.
• damage orb creates an aura that deals DOT to all enemies inside of it and for a few seconds after they leave the cloud.
• if healing orb collides with an enemy, it bursts damages them.

full explanation
to make orbs more effective, they need two things: utility and burst. the main utility comes from vision obstruction, which both provides opportunities for teammates to escape or reposition while also hindering enemy accuracy and providing protection for teammates that would otherwise be in danger. damage reduction also gives her more opportunity to heal teammates through serious damage, which is otherwise difficult thanks to the dps passive's healing reduction.
additionally, moira can use vision obstruction and damage reduction to apply more pressure during duels. now that dodging attacks is nearly impossible with the projectile buff, she can instead be more cunning and use her opponent's impaired vision to fight them out of their sight and increase how often they miss her, giving her more of a chance to survive as they won't immediately know where she is when trying to fight and won't take as much damage if they do manage to hit her. alternatively, using the damage orb for burst damage and DOT will provide her a faster TTK, bringing her power more in line with stronger supports that do burst damage.
providing burst healing/damage also solves the main issue of moira having no bailout button to help her teammates nor any way to easily secure a kill against a target receiving even minor healing. it introduces more skill into her kit by requiring good cooldown management for her orbs while reducing the frustrating aspect of wasting time to line up a good orb shot to ensure it stays where it needs to stay. it also adds an opportunity for more mechanical skill by rewarding directly hitting players with the orb versus slamming it into the ground/a wall every time.
because moira has to choose between damage reduction or DOT when using the orb, it also provides more nuance in the decision to use a specific orb. it also improves her dueling capabilities versus different characters. for example, you might choose to use healing orb for damage reduction when dueling reaper to counter his high damage while using damage orb to disorient and burst down an ana who can't escape you as easily.

fade

I personally think fade is already solid and provides a good avenue of skill expression. because the reworked orbs already have such strong effects, adding effects to fade would make moira feel overpowered. the only change I'd make is slightly decreasing her jump gravity so she's able to better reposition to certain high grounds without requiring environment jumping. she shouldn't be able to scale eichenwalde's castle or gibraltar's plane without environment jumping, but other smaller jumps should be just slightly easier.

coalescence

with all of these changes, how does coalescence fit into this kit? coalescence's main purpose is to be long, do a lot of damage, and do a lot of healing. it's great for securing kills... when it actually does enough damage. and it's great for outhealing serious damage... when it does enough healing. currently, I don't think it achieves either due to the dps passive and the health increase. but if it does too much of either, we end up with claims that she's too strong during ult. so how do we fix this without making this a numbers game?
quick summary

• when cast, any targets immediately hit by coalescence receive burst healing/damage.
• allies hit by coalescence take less damage.
• enemies hit by coalescence take more damage.
• coalescence no longer pierces shields but deals increased damage to them.
• coalescence is now a transformation ultimate instead of a channeled ultimate. moira can still be stunned or slept to pause the ultimate, but the ultimate will continue when she recovers. hacking does not cancel the ability, instead reducing its damage and healing.

full explanation
the main issue with coalescence is that it simply doesn't do enough healing or damage currently, but increasing the raw numbers could easily lead to a constant back and forth over what numbers are fair and balanced for both moira and her targets. moira needs to be able to secure kills and apply pressure with coal, but her targets still need some way to defend themselves from it. burst on cast makes it great for cleaning up kills on fleeing targets, which is where coal excels, and increased damage taken means avoiding coal is more important than it currently is, which is really not at all unless you have no living supports. it also provides more intuitive indications of when using her ult will be most effective.
making it a transformation ultimate lessens the impact of getting immediately stunned or hacked out of the ultimate while still providing some counterplay. to balance this, coal no longer pierces shields but instead just deals more damage to them. there can now be more counterplay against her than "stun/sleep/shatter her," and moira doesn't need to perfectly time every counterable ability just to get value from her ult, nor does it get wasted if a sombra is sitting in your backline waiting to hack you every time you use it.
reducing damage taken and increasing damage taken for allies and enemies respectively makes her ult more useful overall and better at protecting her teammates/pressuring enemies without tinkering with numbers. it provides simply utility to enable/hinder plays without feeling too overwhelming to counter.

melee

as a little treat, I thought it'd be fun to add an effect to moira's melee. her nails are pretty iconic, and I think it's a shame she doesn't have a special melee ability that highlights them. my suggestion is that when she hits a target with quick melee, the hit applies a light bleed effect similar to junker queen's knife. it's a little extra damage and a nod to the acrlyics we all know and love, which makes her identity even more memorable.
if you read all this, thanks! totally open to hearing your thoughts. I know this might seem strong given moira's current numbers, but I think with some tweaking, this kind of kit could bring back the duelist moira playstyle we all love while making her more useful to her team and reducing accusations that she takes no skill. :)

I'm about to turn 36 and have been treating my RLS with hydrocodone for the last decade. I originally started because an old coworker was selling norco (his extended family had presciptions for gout and stuff) and I found it really helped me get through the work day, mostly with anxiety at the time. I would say I was originally addicted to hydrocodone for the euphoria, but now I'm addicted to it for the restful sleep it provides me. Every once in a while when the conditions are right (light load with work, diet in check that day, properly exercised, etc) I will test myself to see if I can make it through a night without it, but I end up miserable waking up every ~2 hours with the RLS flaring up. It's like my body registers a REM cycle and then bam. Every once in a while when I’ve pushed my body beyond its physical limits and completely exhausted myself, I can crash on my bed without it and sleep for like 5 hours.
My RLS was not as pronounced in my twenties, it was less intense and intermittent. Now it is constant (at night and sometimes during the day) and only affects my left side, arm and upper leg. It is the live-wire sensation of electrical current pulsing in my bones and muscles... a persistent neurological itch. Strangely, activating the muscles on my right side scratches the itch on my left, but it's merely a scratch. Clenching a pillow between my legs provides a good scratch but the itch does not go away, in fact it can just add fuel to the wildfire.
It's getting worse with age, same for my dad. He takes mirapex religiously (cycles with .25mg increments, maxing out at 1mg then holiday and reset) and has been trying all sorts of stuff over the years (bromocriptine and other weird drugs). Mirapex is the one thing that has really stuck for him. He got addicted to running as a means of coping with it, and became an ultra runner who does 100 mile races. He'll sometimes wake up at 2am restless, put on a headlamp and hit the trail for a 14 mile run. He takes naps during the day when he's able. He says he remembers his mom doing weird stuff like cleaning the house in the middle of the night when he was a kid, and he's pretty sure he got it from her.
I do not like mirapex - .5mg kind of masked the itch but not completely. When going on or off it for "holiday", I get irritable with mild headache and nausea. I just end up taking the norco anyway which completely shuts it down, like a nuclear bomb approach. My routine is 5mg of hydrocodone at 9-10pm and I sleep through the night. I've been trying to tone it down to ~.3mg but it's not always getting the job done. I also recently quit cannabis for various reasons.
The norco is expensive and I need to buy in bulk. I'm getting anxious as my current supply is running low, but I expect to receive a large enough bonus from work soon to restock for another ~6 months. I'm paycheck to paycheck these days and could really use that money for things other than this addiction. I've talked to various neurologists at Kaiser and while they acknowledge opiates can be used as a last resort, they say I'm too young to start that treatment method and must first exhaust all others medications. I've tried them: requip, ropinorole, neupro, gabapentin, etc. They just don't shut it down while the side effects suck, and I guess that's to be expected. I gather they are a piece of the solution that involves other factors like pro-biotic for gut health (lot of dopamine is produced by the gut), avoiding sugar after noon, iron supplements (I have borderline low iron levels from blood tests and take a multi-vitamin with dinner), heating pads, lavendar oil, calms forte, avoiding caffeine (although my dad swears that a small dose of coffee at the right time has an unexpected reverse effect on his RLS trigger), etc.
I can't admit to my dad that I'm addicted to opiates; I don't know who else to talk to about this condition. Should I switch to PPO health insurance to get outside of the Kaiser network (in Los Angeles) to seek other neurologistics who might be open to prescribing an opiate? I see some posts regarding methodone and I'd be very willing to try that. Or what do ya'll do when you wake up restless in the middle of the night and can't sleep? Hit an exercise bike, do some stretching, play a video game/ watch TV while jittering? Is there a way to embrace the restlessness with middle of the night activities (like my dad's running) that won't interfere with my wife's sleep? My habits are unsustainable and acknowledging that stresses me out. Thank you for reading and any potential advice. Fuck RLS.