David Hingtgen Posted July 14, 2008 Posted July 14, 2008 The Mako was going to be upgradeable---that feature was cut. As for the re-load to repair shields: I use that just to save time. Why wait literally 5 mins to heal, when you can just save and re-load so much faster? I mean, you can't do it while under threat of attack or while being attacked, so it's not "cheating" at all---it just reduces the amount of time you sit there and state at the SLOW regeneration of shields. It wouldn't be bad if 60 or 90 secs restored shields, but it takes MINUTES of sitting there when fully drained.
JsARCLIGHT Posted July 14, 2008 Posted July 14, 2008 My shields always seemed to regenerate pretty fast and my "repair" action was also pretty fast... then again I had very tech savvy people in my squad, mostly to hack things and salvage stuff. The whole "upgrading the Mako" thing was a big complaint of mine. It seemed everything in the game was upgradable somehow except it... and it played such a major role in your exploration of planets.
David Hingtgen Posted July 14, 2008 Posted July 14, 2008 Repair is quick--shields are not. It's been so long since I had Tali in the party, maybe she affects shield regeneration rate on the Mako too, not just amount of shielding.
Duke Togo Posted July 14, 2008 Author Posted July 14, 2008 My shields always seemed to regenerate pretty fast and my "repair" action was also pretty fast... then again I had very tech savvy people in my squad, mostly to hack things and salvage stuff. The whole "upgrading the Mako" thing was a big complaint of mine. It seemed everything in the game was upgradable somehow except it... and it played such a major role in your exploration of planets. I'll assume we'll see something new with the Mako in ME2.
Duke Togo Posted July 15, 2008 Author Posted July 15, 2008 I tell ya, DH, if you can replace the red with grey, it would do wonders. What fiels are you editing and what software are you using to do it?
David Hingtgen Posted July 15, 2008 Posted July 15, 2008 Red with grey? Kinda bland, but I'll try it when I get it. (or more likely, learn to use the cheat console to acquire it, otherwise it'll be quite a while). I use GIMP for image editing, as it's free. I know several ways to swap colors with GIMP, and one always works for ME armor so far. PS--light, medium, or heavy Colossus? Also--I always mod female armor, as I tend to have FemShep more often, plus Liara and/or Ashley in the party.
Duke Togo Posted July 15, 2008 Author Posted July 15, 2008 Red with grey? Kinda bland, but I'll try it when I get it. (or more likely, learn to use the cheat console to acquire it, otherwise it'll be quite a while). I use GIMP for image editing, as it's free. I know several ways to swap colors with GIMP, and one always works for ME armor so far. PS--light, medium, or heavy Colossus? Also--I always mod female armor, as I tend to have FemShep more often, plus Liara and/or Ashley in the party. Male Human Heavy. Darker grey would be pretty sweet. But my question still is, what files are you editing?
David Hingtgen Posted July 15, 2008 Posted July 15, 2008 That's hard to answer. Do you have Texmod? If not, it's even harder to explain. As it is--you cannot dig through ME's files and find a file that is the texture for anything. It's not made that way. What the armor mods really are, are more like "interrupts" to the PC's own RAM while the game is playing---so that it looks for the altered texture, instead of reading it from the game's files.
Duke Togo Posted July 15, 2008 Author Posted July 15, 2008 So its done while the game is in use? And then saved? I downloaded texmod a few days ago, never opened it, though.
Duke Togo Posted July 29, 2008 Author Posted July 29, 2008 Patch 1.01 and Bring Down the Sky are out for PC.
Macross007 Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 There is more DLC on the way (for 360 and PC), and I believe (and please correct me if I am wrong) they are talking about a spring 2009 release for ME2. And I missed all the chatter in the 360 thread, as I am not a owner of one. Actually, I heard a December 31 2009 realase. Got that news from IGN website.
eugimon Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 Actually, I heard a December 31 2009 realase. Got that news from IGN website. oh... that sucks. I was hoping for more freqent releases since they don't need to work on the engine as much between releases.
Smiley424 Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 Patch 1.01 and Bring Down the Sky are out for PC. Nice, I should be playing this sometime mid August. Looking for a new laptop and have my eye on the Gateway 7811FX. Somehow Bioware has been able to get me to either upgrade my PC or buy a game system to play their RPGs. Can't wait.
Macross007 Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 oh... that sucks. I was hoping for more freqent releases since they don't need to work on the engine as much between releases. Trust me my friend, the longer we wait, better the game will be. Well, I hope so ... Maybe it takes so long because they are working on new awesome plot twist like we saw in MEI.
eugimon Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 Trust me my friend, the longer we wait, better the game will be. Well, I hope so ... Maybe it takes so long because they are working on new awesome plot twist like we saw in MEI. well, I hope so. The bar was raised pretty high in ME and I have to say, it's been my favorite 360 game so far.
David Hingtgen Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 Maybe it takes so long because they are working on new awesome plot twist like we saw in MEI. I thought the "twist" in ME wasn't much of one---certainly not compared to KOTOR or even Jade Empire. More like a "sudden full explanation" vs "completely changes everything".
eugimon Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 I thought the "twist" in ME wasn't much of one---certainly not compared to KOTOR or even Jade Empire. More like a "sudden full explanation" vs "completely changes everything". I don't think that was the "twist" at all, it's probably in ME2 where we'll get the big twist that changes everything... since this story was planned as a trilogy to begin with.
David Hingtgen Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 Very true---Star War's big twist wasn't until near the end of the 2nd movie...
Duke Togo Posted July 31, 2008 Author Posted July 31, 2008 There was a twist? Anyway, figures they release this the day before I leave on a trip.
CoryHolmes Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 they don't need to work on the engine as much between releases. Speak for yourself, they still need to do a lot of work on that engine. Texture-pop and the slooooowest elevators ever devised by mankind need to go.
eugimon Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 Speak for yourself, they still need to do a lot of work on that engine. Texture-pop and the slooooowest elevators ever devised by mankind need to go. texture pop up isn't an engine issue, it's a hardware issue, 360 can't flush it's memory. And just go make yourself a sandwhich while waiting for the elevator
Macross007 Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 Speak for yourself, they still need to do a lot of work on that engine. Texture-pop and the slooooowest elevators ever devised by mankind need to go. Yeah, the slowest elevators ever devised by manking on a state of the art stealth starship. I bet all money was spent on the stealth system and not on the elevators.
Macross007 Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 texture pop up isn't an engine issue, it's a hardware issue, 360 can't flush it's memory. And just go make yourself a sandwhich while waiting for the elevator If those textures were loading from the hard drive, the problem would be solved.
eugimon Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 If those textures were loading from the hard drive, the problem would be solved. well, soon you can do that, problem solved.
Macross007 Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 well, soon you can do that, problem solved. Yeah, you are right. As I Spectre I can "get the done job".
Macross007 Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 (edited) I don't think that was the "twist" at all, it's probably in ME2 where we'll get the big twist that changes everything... since this story was planned as a trilogy to begin with. Actually, i heard that EA is planning on making Mass Effect a "franchise for a very long time" since EA own Bioware now. You better to not screw this up EA. Edited August 1, 2008 by Macross007
eugimon Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 Actually, i heard that EA is planning on making Mass Effect a "franchise for a very long time" since EA own Bioware now. You better to not screw this up EA. ugh. I was okay when EA was just going to be the money behind bioware, but if they're making creative decisions...
JB0 Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 texture pop up isn't an engine issue, it's a hardware issue, 360 can't flush it's memory. People keep saying that, and it keeps making no sense. If the 360 can't flush it's memory, there's no room to load anything. Period. End of story. Either someone's dumbed something down ENTIRELY too far, or this is random speculation that's become accepted fact. (Like PS1/2/XBox/Dreamcast/Gamecube/Whatever spinning disks backwards as a form of copy protection. Thank god THAT particular piece of fantruth doesn't get dragged out anymore). Especially given no other games have this issue, and Mass Effect had PLENTY of opportunity to load textures during the load screens. It's what load screens are FOR, and Mass Effect has some of the longest I've seen in a good while. Given the size and complexity of many of the maps, or lack thereof... I'm unsure what they're actually DOING during the load screen. I demand sources. Original, unabridged, programmer statements. Not some gaming blog's highly-misinterpreted summary of someone ELSE'S more-or-less-accurate summary of a THIRD person's speculation about what sort of problems Bioware MIGHT have had. Right now, all signs point to Bioware screwing up.
David Hingtgen Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 Using TexMod, you can actually see what loads, and when. For the PC at least. But here's some interesting things: First it seems to load about 1400 "generic" textures---as in, at the title screen. Many of these seem to never be used, but are required simply as part of the UT3 engine startup. Then it loads "environment and minor NPC's". Including some not used---for instance, it seems to ALWAYS load Liara and Benezia---even when they're not even on that planet, and haven't been onscreen yet at that point in the game. And the very last thing? Shepard and your other 2 companions--their gun textures just before their armor textures. IMHO it's what I suspected from the start with the 360---it simply loads the party last, which makes the loading so blatantly obvious. If it did Shep first, you wouldn't notice if some random rock off in the corner was missing the texture for a sec or two.
JB0 Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 Using TexMod, you can actually see what loads, and when. For the PC at least. But here's some interesting things: First it seems to load about 1400 "generic" textures---as in, at the title screen. Many of these seem to never be used, but are required simply as part of the UT3 engine startup. Then it loads "environment and minor NPC's". Including some not used---for instance, it seems to ALWAYS load Liara and Benezia---even when they're not even on that planet, and haven't been onscreen yet at that point in the game. And the very last thing? Shepard and your other 2 companions--their gun textures just before their armor textures. IMHO it's what I suspected from the start with the 360---it simply loads the party last, which makes the loading so blatantly obvious. If it did Shep first, you wouldn't notice if some random rock off in the corner was missing the texture for a sec or two. I almost always had terrain issues, even though that's at the front of the load cycle. Random rocks off in the corner would've been nice, but when EVERY rock was a blurry mess... The most blatant map issues would be when the ship took off. It would be a mess of untextured or barely-textured polygons until literally one second before the takeoff cutscene ended. It would've been hilarious if it wasn't a regular occurrence in a high-end game from a major developer. Though certainly, putting "minor NPCs" ahead of party members was a poor call.
David Hingtgen Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 Yeah, the Normandy consistently suffers the worst--I think ONCE I saw it "right" on screen for the majority of the scene.
Duke Togo Posted August 1, 2008 Author Posted August 1, 2008 Actually, i heard that EA is planning on making Mass Effect a "franchise for a very long time" since EA own Bioware now. You better to not screw this up EA. Its a trilogy, if that is what you mean.
KingNor Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 so.. I really liked where the story was going in this game but i had two major complaints: 1: the combat was chunky and way monotonous, maybe i was doing somthing wrong, but i found i could defeat any world by simply driving my mass effect buggy till i was just out of range, then kill pretty much anything with my sniper riffle. anyway the action sequences were meh. 2: the loading issues. after my second pivotal scene with no character mesh's and just floating talking guns, i stopped playing the game. does the PC version at least fix the buggy loading issues?
eugimon Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 I almost always had terrain issues, even though that's at the front of the load cycle. Random rocks off in the corner would've been nice, but when EVERY rock was a blurry mess... The most blatant map issues would be when the ship took off. It would be a mess of untextured or barely-textured polygons until literally one second before the takeoff cutscene ended. It would've been hilarious if it wasn't a regular occurrence in a high-end game from a major developer. Though certainly, putting "minor NPCs" ahead of party members was a poor call. how old is your 360? I wonder if the hardware revision has anything to do with it? I rarely had terrain issues and texture popup doesn't really start happening (once or twice when I first start the game) until after I've played for 2~3 hours at a time or until I've visited a few worlds.
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