kaiotheforsaken

You and I fought multiple Valdore warbirds, they have a different name in the game, as Valdore was the the name of that particular ship in Nemesis. But we we certainly fought them.

That's exactly what I meant, which I thought was what was being asked...but rereading it proves that I read things wrong. My bad.

Actually you start at level 5 if I remember right. But unless you are planning a complete playthrough on insanity (or possibly hardcore) you wont level cap in a single run, especially a pure story one.

I think it largely depends on how you treated people in ME1. Ashley shed at least some of her xenophobia by the end. Wrex started out as being only in it for himself, but through his interactions with Shepard he finds something bigger than himself to care for. At the same time though, they all have their own agendas, as Joker said, they were Shepard's team, he was the glue that held that group together. Seriously though, one could at least theorize that surviving squadmates might have kept in limited contact. Everytime Shepard bumps into an old friend though, they are shocked he's even alive. It isn't perfect, because certain characters obviously know eachother, but I can let it slide for some of the specialty dialogue you can get with certain mission/team combos.

Yeah, opening scene armor was the old Heavy model. I don't mind if they don't include the light/medium, I always thought they looked lousy compared to heavy.

There is way more femsheps than I would have expected. I wish I could get decent pictures of Shepard from the console version.

In reality a cruiser functions as a "tank" type ship in group encounters, at least ideally, almost makes me want to buy the Klingon fed character and start over since I plan to be flying mostly cruisers. They have a nice +10% to threat racial. Still cruiser turning shouldn't really be an issue, if you can keep a broadside going and want to drop a few torps, just turn away from the enemy vessel, aft launchers will usually find their mark.

I basically have a similar strat, that plus attack pattern alpha, and the torpedo volley inflicts huge damage. I'd fly more escorts, but most of my favorite ships that are in game are cruisers. Akira, Defiant and Intrepid would be exceptions.

At first it's tough to tell because the ships don't bank as hard when you turn under lower speeds, but it definitely helps. In combat it shouldn't be a huge problem, especially if you are a tactical officer. Attack pattern alpha+evasive maneuvering (I think it's called) and a lower speed basically equates to turning a cruiser on a dime.

Adjusting your speed to 50% impulse for tight turns, or tighter anyways, it helps a lot. I really don't mind the turn radius on the lower tier ships at least.

Seen a few Sovereigns cruising around, crazy how fast one could go through 50 levels.

He did the same things for me, but I used him less and he died. The singing is quite awesome though. Interesting bits about Mordin in the thread. He does mention that "holding the line" is not his style. So maybe keeping him with you or sending him back with the crew is a good way to keep him alive.

There has to be some kind of random factor then, because I did the same things you did on my first play through and lost none of the crew (though I did select some different people). Mordin wound up randomly dead however in the final cutscene.

Having everyone loyal and having the Normandy upgraded are the two big things to keep people alive. If you assign non-loyal squad members to tasks in the base they will die, for every system you don't upgrade on the Normandy, you will also lose someone (this is major systems only, probes, fuel and medbay don't count). Other than that, there are rumors/unconfirmed factors, and there does appear to be some luck of the draw, especially regarding the team 2 leader.

I'll have a better idea about this in my post hardcore playthrough. I was able to get

Yeah I don't really like Jack, though I like to know everything about all the people on my team. I can't seem to find a conversation path with her post loyalty mission that doesn't lead to her to being open to a romantic relationship, then when you tell her no all I get when I go down there is "F**k off" They could do away with her in ME3 and I wouldn't mind a bit.

Weta+Gainax could be a really interesting thing. If it actually happens I'll go kill a few hours to see it.

Personally David

Indeed, but I imagine if you go Paragon for both games

To be fair though, based on what you can potentially learn about the Rachni (if you saved them) in ME2, it really becomes evident that saving them was the right thing and may have quite a lot of benefit in ME3. I wont say more than that for those who don't know what's up.

For my first playthrough I

That would be extremely helpful, I saw you online earlier, but kept getting sidetracked.

You know it probably is...I hadn't even thought about it. No worries David, I'd have tagged it if I had used my brain a bit more.

Well during the mission to recruit Tali, in the room at the end (where you meet her) there is a downed geth with an assault rifle you can acquire. It absolutely shreds armor and is substantially more accurate than the rifle from the , same ammo capacity too...and it seems like a higher rate of fire. Overall it seems much better, and the fact you have to be in a hard difficulty to get it seems to support that theory. I know the weapon choices are different based on what class you are. For my Shepard I had a choice between the Krogan shotgun (though it didn't seem to have restricted use), this very powerful red assault rifle with a unique model, and a sniper rifle with "anti-material" in the name. All were listed as substantially more powerful. David:

The problem is you can't get the strongest weapons possible, which is annoying. I played hardcore specifically to outfit Shepard with the sniper rifle from the and snag a few armor pieces I missed...but you cant get it. The Geth Pulse rifle available in hardcore and insanity is arguably the best assault rifle in the game...so if you picked the collector one, you basically wasted your choice. I just don't think there is enough variety. The story is solid, the gameplay and combat is too (mostly...the cover system has it's bad moments). Overall it's great...I'm just a little ranty cause I discovered I wasted 30 hours on hardcore just a little while ago. And just to clarify: Has anyone playing Paragon (that has finished) made it to the end with no renegade points? I'm starting to believe it's not possible.