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[Grisby]

Lol at Grunt drunk email.

SHEPARUD

Jeez, email spoilers c'mon!

 

[thetrin]

I was fine with accepting that there are "timed" missions, the galaxy is going to shit, make me feel like I need to hurry up and get stuff done. That is perfectly fine with me from a story standpoint. I usually do side quests as I get them, so it's not a big deal to me in that sense either I guess.

But the journal not really updating is just a strange and baffling UI decision.

It's not even the timed nature that bothers me. That's fine. I'm happy to do quests asap. What bothers me is getting quests that I can't even complete yet. Why am I getting quests that involve sectors I can't even go to yet? Coupled with the fact that some quests are not completable if you do a certain story mission, I'm constantly and feverishly walking around my ship, the Citadel and known space after every mission because I don't want to miss the small sliver of time I have to finish some random quest.

This really is elementary game design. Don't give me a task if I can't complete it yet!

 

[Lakitu]

Where the hell is

Spoiler

Jack? I rescued her and she's nowhere to be found.

 

[Derrick01]

Finished it.

Um....yeah. Please re-hire Drew Karpyshyn. That's all I'll say in the non spoiler thread.

 

[Solo]

Finished it.

Um....yeah. Please re-hire Drew Karpyshyn. That's all I'll say in the non spoiler thread.

Mass Effect 4, the epic fourth part of the Mass Effect Triology?!

 

[firehawk12]

Where the hell is

Spoiler

Jack? I rescued her and she's nowhere to be found.

You'll get an email. She's at the bar on the Citadel.

 

[KoreanBarbecue]

Yeah, I think I'm pretty much done with Bioware after ME3. I'm really enjoying the game, but the journal is INCREDIBLY bad, and it's actually making it harder to enjoy the game.

Why is there no ability to set active quest? Why can I not set a waypoint marker depending on what quest I'm on? Why are some waypoints bugged, and won't disappear even after I finish the quest? Why does the journal not update when I complete a portion of the quest I'm currently undertaking?

Yeah, this is becoming more and more of a problem for me. Did a mission on the Citadel last night and the journal info was absolutely detrimental to me actually finishing it. The only info I had was "look for clues in the Embassy area," even though like 90% of that quests wasn't even in that area. Bleh.

 

[FrontalMonk]

It's not even the timed nature that bothers me. That's fine. I'm happy to do quests asap. What bothers me is getting quests that I can't even complete yet. Why am I getting quests that involve sectors I can't even go to yet? Coupled with the fact that some quests are not completable if you do a certain story mission, I'm constantly and feverishly walking around my ship, the Citadel and known space after every mission because I don't want to miss the small sliver of time I have to finish some random quest.

This really is elementary game design. Don't give me a task if I can't complete it yet!

combine this with the journal and you really have the biggest mark against ME3 IMO. They could literally have lifted the journal wholesale from ME2 and it would have been better. At least that one had step by step quest updates.

 

[thetrin]

I want to know who decided that players should get quests that they cannot complete until later in the game. This is positively the dumbest thing to do, ESPECIALLY when other quests need to be completely asap, because doing so after a story mission will render them incompletable.

combine this with the journal and you really have the biggest mark against ME3 IMO. They could literally have lifted the journal wholesale from ME2 and it would have been better. At least that one had step by step quest updates.

What the fuck happened? The journal is awful in this game. I don't remember it being this bad in ME1 or ME2.

 

[Kem0sabe]

The whole thing was maddening until I realized the difference between those kinds of quests.

I'm horribly OCD when it comes to games, so ME3 is driving me nuts.



Yeah, I think I'm pretty much done with Bioware after ME3. I'm really enjoying the game, but the journal is INCREDIBLY bad, and it's actually making it harder to enjoy the game.

Why is there no ability to set active quest? Why can I not set a waypoint marker depending on what quest I'm on? Why are some waypoints bugged, and won't disappear even after I finish the quest? Why does the journal not update when I complete a portion of the quest I'm currently undertaking?

I think bioware has been regressing game design wise with each passing game. I seriously dunno how on earth can someone mess the UI (journal) and quest design (let´s stalk random npc´s and see if they say some shit i can obsess about) so completely from one game to another, same shit happen with DA2.

Despite all the flaws, im enjoying the game, but i think this is the last bioware game i buy on impulse, they went from a "sure thing" to pretty much being a "maybe ill buy it when it´s on sale".

 

[EatChildren]

Does Mrs. EatChildren?

Mrs. EatChildren was very nice about it. She packed some things, for a short vacation I assume, and left while I was out, leaving a lovely note that said if I want the game so much, I can have it all to myself for as long as I like. I'm glad she understands!

 

[Net_Wrecker]

Also, I took my discs out of my collector's case and put them into two jewel cases I had.

That collector's case is freaking impossible to take the second disc out, and I've already had to switch discs three or four times, so I'm nipping that problem in the bud. Kind of.

Why is it the second disc is always so unwilling to leave? It was like that for me in ME2, and I tend to have that problem with every freaking case designed with that overlayed disc thing. AUGH!
I'm always scared I'm going to snap the disc or something, haha.

Thissssssss so much. I'm actually just using the thing from the ME1 Collector's Edition until I'm finished with the game because I couldn't be bothered using a blowtorch to detach the discs every time I want to play.

It's not even the timed nature that bothers me. That's fine. I'm happy to do quests asap. What bothers me is getting quests that I can't even complete yet. Why am I getting quests that involve sectors I can't even go to yet? Coupled with the fact that some quests are not completable if you do a certain story mission, I'm constantly and feverishly walking around my ship, the Citadel and known space after every mission because I don't want to miss the small sliver of time I have to finish some random quest.

This really is elementary game design. Don't give me a task if I can't complete it yet!

This as well. Bad design choices all over this game. I'm still enjoying it, but man, they're doing some weird crap.

But LMAO @ the new results for getting drunk.

 

[ShaneB]

It's not even the timed nature that bothers me. That's fine. I'm happy to do quests asap. What bothers me is getting quests that I can't even complete yet. Why am I getting quests that involve sectors I can't even go to yet? Coupled with the fact that some quests are not completable if you do a certain story mission, I'm constantly and feverishly walking around my ship, the Citadel and known space after every mission because I don't want to miss the small sliver of time I have to finish some random quest.

This really is elementary game design. Don't give me a task if I can't complete it yet!

All valid points that I agree with. I was confused early on as well when I got a mission and began looking for the sector on the galaxy map and couldn't find it. I wondered if I was going crazy.

 

[suzu]

Yeah, I really dislike the journal and the way quests are obtained. Giving you quests you can't even do yet is so dumb!

 

[thetrin]

Yeah, this is becoming more and more of a problem for me. Did a mission on the Citadel last night and the journal info was absolutely detrimental to me actually finishing it. The only info I had was "look for clues in the Embassy area," even though like 90% of that quests wasn't even in that area. Bleh.

Just awful. I don't want the game to hold my hand, but god dammit, I don't have a photographic memory. I don't always remember how far I've gotten in a quest, especially if I take a break to cook dinner or make myself a drink.

I have to literally sit there, glued to the PC, until I finish a side quest, because the journal refuses to do it's primary function: TRACK MY FUCKING PROGRESS.

The whole "Hmmm...I just found these schematics, I have no idea what these are for, time to write a totally unhelpful journal entry" schtick is beyond aggravating.

"You found some schematics somewhere. Go find someone who can use them" is positively the WORST quest text I have ever seen. What schematics? Where do I look? Where did I find this? I can't even look at what I got after the first time you pick it up, because the game has no god damn inventory. It just goes into some magic lockbox I'm not able to look inside.

 

[BannedEpisode]

There are plenty of gripes that I can think of when it comes to this game (No choices for non-imports, odd party-member choices, framerate) but I'm still really enjoying it.

Its probably because I'm a sucker for recruitment themed games. It feels like Im really assembling a massive and diverse opposition. I like that. Kinda gives me a Peace Walker vibe in a strange way.

 

[Lakitu]

You'll get an email. She's at the bar on the Citadel.

Thanks!

But LMAO @ the new results for getting drunk.

Spoiler

Aria's face makes it so good. She's brilliant.

Also echo the sentiments about the journal, just some downright lazy design in this game. Why even bother changing it?

 

[thetrin]

There are plenty of gripes that I can think of when it comes to this game (No choices for non-imports, odd party-member choices, framerate) but I'm still really enjoying it.

Its probably because I'm a sucker for recruitment themed games. It feels like Im really assembling a massive and diverse opposition. I like that. Kinda gives me a Peace Walker vibe in a strange way.

Don't get me wrong. I like the game a LOT. I'm enjoying it more than I enjoyed ME2.

The journal is so monumentally bad, though.

Also, I honestly do not understand why this game has no inventory. Why do I have to go to 5 different machines around my ship to take stock of what I have? Why can I not just access all this stuff from a holographic inventory interface with tabs?

I have no way to check what quest item I just picked up, because the game has no inventory. Why can I not just LOOK at something? Last night, I picked up a quest item, but I didn't know what I picked up, because an Origin "THIS FRIEND IS ONLINE" message popped up in the lower right corner, blocking the prompt for what I picked up. Now I will literally never know what I got, and I'll have to saunter around the Citadel until the game says "HEY GIVE THAT THING TO THIS GUY". After all, the journal didn't update, so that's not going to tell me if I got the right item or not.

 

[RedSwirl]

I beat the game in 25 hours with the best ending. I had 6500+ of Total Military Strength and the green bar to victory was full. Overall I enjoyed the game more than ME 2 because the gameplay was better and all the missions were at least related to the crisis at hand. Atmosphere and presentation were probably the best in the series. Unfortunately the deux ex machina twist and the awful, awful ending ruined the series for me.

Oh and Bioware lied, you need to play multiplayer if you want to get all the achievements. There is no way to raise Galaxy Reading without playing multiplayer and one achievement requires having max reading in all theaters of war.

That's one thing they did really well - finally make an RPG where all the side quests feel like something the main character would actually take the time to do.

 

[FrontalMonk]

"You found some schematics somewhere. Go find someone who can use them" is positively the WORST quest text I have ever seen. What schematics? Where do I look? Where did I find this? I can't even look at what I got after the first time you pick it up, because the game has no god damn inventory. It just goes into some magic lockbox I'm not able to look inside.

I can relate. I'm trying to find guns to get for C-Sec, but I might (side-quest spoilers)

Spoiler

just put the kill contract out on General Oraka and call it a day

.

 

[EatChildren]

The woeful journal is baffling given how much information other menus give you. Even the map, when on the Normandy or Citadel, explicitly states which floor/area and where a character is. Emails keep you up to date on essential information, and as said, the war room info desk continually updates with every change to a war asset's status. There's a lot of info there people don't even care about, but it's there.

Yet here we have a completely useless, to the point of confusing, journal, that functions worse than the previous two games.

On another topic (Quarian mission related spoilers):

Spoiler

The Geth dreadnought mission was incredible. Looked amazing, great fire fights, interesting set pieces, an amazing introduction.

 

[thetrin]

I can relate. I'm trying to find guns to get for C-Sec, but I might (side-quest spoilers)

Spoiler

just put the kill contract out on General Oraka and call it a day

.

Go to the Salarian gun dealer on the far side of the Commons marketplace. He will further the quest.

 

[Skellig Gra]

You guys need to stop discussing the journal you are all going to blow a gasket, lol.

 

[bigace33]

The map is the new journal in this game, I guess. Just pull it up and it will have a list of characters you can interact with or who you should talk to. It's not as good as ME2's journal, but it makes the quests so much easier.

 

[Red Blaster]

I beat the game in 25 hours with the best ending. I had 6500+ of Total Military Strength and the green bar to victory was full. Overall I enjoyed the game more than ME 2 because the gameplay was better and all the missions were at least related to the crisis at hand. Atmosphere and presentation were probably the best in the series. Unfortunately the deux ex machina twist and the awful, awful ending ruined the series for me.

The missions being related the crisis at hand was good on one level but I also feel part of Mass Effect's appeal was being a space cop.

There's nothing like this in ME3

 

[UnluckyKate]

probably already asked, but where can I get the soundtrack after I bought my CE ?

 

[FrontalMonk]

Go to the Salarian gun dealer on the far side of the Commons marketplace. He will further the quest.

I did, but all he said was that he wants "raw materials" because he "doesn't deal in credits". I don't know if I've heard a vaguer request.

 

[REV 09]

can anyone point me to the save editor? i would like to build a save to move from ME1>2>3. I've played all three games but didn't play them all on pc, so I never imported.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I doubt Bioware will ever address issues like the lack of a proper journal or the fucking tedious experience of running all over the citadel trying to ease drop on other´s conversations in the hope you get a sidequest.

If you go over to the mass effect 3 forum´s @ bioware, for every person who complains about those features there are others that say "who the fuck needs a journal, thats old school".

Next time bioware, spend less time sending shit into space and producing useless CGI ads and work on the actually improving game features instead of removing them.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I did, but all he said was that he wants "raw materials" because he "doesn't deal in credits". I don't know if I've heard a vaguer request.

Go to the galaxy map, there´s a system with a note "get artifacts here" or something of the kind.

 

[thetrin]

I did, but all he said was that he wants "raw materials" because he "doesn't deal in credits". I don't know if I've heard a vaguer request.

Okay, this is going to be really stupid, but buckle up:

Go back to the Normandy, and check the map. The place you're supposed to check will be on the map.

No prompt. No heads up. it's just there now.

I doubt Bioware will ever address issues like the lack of a proper journal or the fucking tedious experience of running all over the citadel trying to ease drop on other´s conversations in the hope you get a sidequest.

If you go over to the mass effect 3 forum´s @ bioware, for every person who complains about those features there are others that say "who the fuck needs a journal, thats old school".

Next time bioware, spend less time sending shit into space and producing useless CGI ads and work on the actually improving game features instead of removing them.

To be fair, Bioware's MO on Mass Effect since the beginning is "If it doesn't work, remove it!", as evidenced by ME1->ME2. They might as well move on to removing things that DID work before.

 

[Shane86]

I remember starting Mass Effect 2 and not having my Mass Effect 1 save on the hard drive and it was somehow able to detect my progress. Not this time, got a new xbox last year and had to start a new game, not happy how some of the characters start off dead.

 

[bigace33]

I did, but all he said was that he wants "raw materials" because he "doesn't deal in credits". I don't know if I've heard a vaguer request.

Spoiler

there is a black market war assett that you have to gain by scanning with your ship. I forget which system it's in but I found it rather quickly without really knowing where to scan. lol it's pretty lame but that is how you solve that mission.

 

[RedSwirl]

Are you serious?



So wait, would that make the Batarians Poland? And the Turians England? (Largest fleet in the galaxy, but get hit hard by bombing). The moon of Palaven is the Turian equivalent of the English Channel.

Yes. The Volus are probably France, and as far as I can see (still not done) the Asari are the US. Cerberus = Empire of Japan?

 

[Mifune]

Christ, you folks complaining about the journal are too much.

"I'm done with Bioware."

Overreacting a tad?

 

[djtiesto]

combine this with the journal and you really have the biggest mark against ME3 IMO. They could literally have lifted the journal wholesale from ME2 and it would have been better. At least that one had step by step quest updates.

Yeah, I love reading the old journal entries that gave me a step-by-step on what I did with the mission... just in case I forgot any ins-and-outs of the quests down the line.

Also, The Witcher 1 had the absolute best journal I've ever seen in an RPG. You had so many options to filter by (via chapter, via "important" quests, via completed/in progress quests) and the journal would update as you would make headway into a quest... makes me wonder why no other RPGs have really copped the filtering methods used in that game. Not even Witcher 2 filters quests by chapter...

 

[thetrin]

I remember starting Mass Effect 2 and not having my Mass Effect 1 save on the hard drive and it was somehow able to detect my progress. Not this time, got a new xbox last year and had to start a new game, not happy how some of the characters start off dead.

You didn't transfer your saves off your Xbox before you replaced it?

 

[Net_Wrecker]

Ugh, this stupid Galaxy Map Reaper Ultra Meter thing is annoying me too. Who's idea was it to make scanning less tedious by making it more annoying?

I just want to enjoy you Mass Effect 3, STOP MAKING IT HARD TO.

 

[AzerPhire]

Reading some of these posts about Citadel side missions I thought I would mention a bug some of you are encountering on the mission with

Spoiler

Kasumi

.

If you leave the Citadel before completing the mission you will be unable to finish it as the

Spoiler

Terminals

you need to scan wont be selectable.

Happened to me last night but luckily I had a just before so I didn't lose any progress.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Christ, you folks complaining about the journal are too much.

"I'm done with Bioware."

Overreacting a tad?

In an... RPG... not having a clue if you complete a quest, advance a quest, if it´s on a system you know or in a system that magically appears out of nowhere, or what the hell does it all mean and what am i supposed to do? is kind of important... RPG´s after all are quest based affairs.

 

[K' Dash]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YEAAAAAAHH, Finally! can't wait to get out of work, aaarrrgh.

 

[GorillaJu]

I can't wait to see this awful, awful ending everyone is talking about. After my latest story mission of

Spoiler

ending the Jewish/Palestinian err... Quarian/Geth conflict

, I think I have one or two more major story missions to go, and I've got an EMS of 4400.

Can the ending really be that bad?

My prediction:

Spoiler

You find out that some race millions of years ago were the discoverers of the mass effect phenomenon, they built the reapers when they realized organic life would essentially destroy the galaxy, they let themselves get wtfpwned and the reapers have been keeping order every 50,000 years ever since

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Ugh, this stupid Galaxy Map Reaper Ultra Meter thing is annoying me too. Who's idea was it to make scanning less tedious by making it more annoying?

I just want to enjoy you Mass Effect 3, STOP MAKING IT HARD TO.

It's annoying but probably about as annoying as being invaded by Reapers. I think it captured it pretty effectively.

 

[Mifune]

In an... RPG... not having a clue if you complete a quest, advance a quest, if it´s on a system you know or in a system that magically appears out of nowhere, is kind of important... RPG´s after all are quest based affairs.

Yes, so let's avoid every other game the developer makes for the rest of time. A reasonable response. Nope, not an overreaction at all.

 

[Shane86]

You didn't transfer your saves off your Xbox before you replaced it?

That's the problem, I did, all the ME2 dlc is there, there's even saves from games I haven't played in years so I've no idea where the ME2 save is.

Might have been copy protected like the ME3 save is?

 

[Red Blaster]

Can the ending really be that bad?

Yes

 

[Solo]

Christ, you folks complaining about the journal are too much.

"I'm done with Bioware."

Overreacting a tad?

Maybe its the results of cumulative Bioware doings and not this particular issue? I know myself that ME3 will be my last Bioware game, and I haven't even started playing it yet. Since Jade Empire they've been on a path I don't jive with.

 

[Vamphuntr]

I can't wait to see this awful, awful ending everyone is talking about. After my latest story mission of

Spoiler

ending the Jewish/Palestinian err... Quarian/Geth conflict

, I think I have one or two more major story missions to go, and I've got an EMS of 4400.

You're almost at the end. You have 3 story missions to go. The game tells you the point of no return anyway.

To get all of the choices for the endings you need to have 3000 EMS (6000 TMS at 50% galaxy readiness). The green bar must be filled in the war terminal.

 

[Dresden]

Yes, so let's avoid every other game the developer makes for the rest of time. A reasonable response. Nope, not an overreaction at all.

Don't get in the way of RPG players and their OCD need to complete every misc. fetch quest, yo.

 

[Pollux]

Mordin is so boss.

Spoiler

I shot him. And I feel really bad about it.