Mass Effect 2 *spoilers around pg 29/30*

[Trippy]

If Jacob is already loyal have him go through the ducts.

Hmm...okay well that might screw things. And of course I love how they limit where you can save at the end so if you have to replay a section you have to go through all sorts of crap.

[Engels]

Ya, boo on the unskippable movies at the beginning of the game too. They sure aren't making replay appealing.

[tmp]

Easiest way to kill someone is not to bother with their loyalty quest and then take them in the final fight with you. They'll be dead when the dust settles.

[Ratman_tf]

Easiest way to kill someone is not to bother with their loyalty quest and then take them in the final fight with you. They'll be dead when the dust settles.

Scuttlebut is that if both your team members for the final battle are not loyal and die, there's no one to help Shep into the Normandy. TPW. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZY-sXrQeh0

[tmp]

Yeah, can't be too greedy with killing your own people 

incidentally that Shepard was a true badass; pulling a Krogan with just one arm like that.

[Venkman]

Jacob did annoy me, but not nearly as much as abrasive sociopathic Jack. Yea, sure, her upbringing and stuf, but she never even tried to acclimate.

ME Wiki has a list of the missions

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Assignments#Mass_Effect_2

I was level 25 when I did the Collector Base.

Damn you! I was going back to Dragon Age tonight too! 

[Venkman]

Oh, and another question: why do I have a section of Key Bindings for "vehicle control"?

Except for the (quite silly) spaceship "flying", I haven't used a vehicle yet. Certainly not one requiring the sort of keybindings that are mentioned.

[Ingmar]

There's a DLC vehicle coming (with missions specific to it.)

[Engels]

Just what everyone wanted!

[Ratman_tf]

Just what everyone wanted!

I'd take the Mako over the sucky scan probe minigame in a heartbeat.
But the new vehicle is called the Hammerhead. It's a hovertank. The game even mentions it in the description of the launch bay.

[rk47]

Please. Gimme a DLC to remove the scanning game and replace it with a one click scan button. PLEASE. I'll PAY!

[Bunk]

Part of the problem, is that people go over board on the scanning. You can actually wait until you need a specific resource and then jump to an empty system and just scan until you have enough. I scanned every planet dilligently for about 2/3 of the galaxy, and when I finished had over 40k/100k/100k/150k extra resources at the end, with every upgrade but two. One of my coworkers finished with over 500k of some of them.

Playing through the second time, at least I'll know enough to get the scanning and probes upgrades right away.

[tmp]

Some dev info on gear and power stats.

In this post I'm going to list any data we've released publically that is not listed in game. I won't duplicate other data that's already publically available (i.e. data deduced from parsing ini files, that doesn't mean I endorce those deductions as correct).

Weapon Damage Modifiers vs Resistances

• M-3 Predator: x1.5 armor
• M-6 Carnifex: x1.5 armor
• M-4 Shiriken: x1.5 shields, barrier
• M-9 Tempest: x1.5 shields, barrier
• M-8 Avenger: x1.25 shields, armor, barrier
• M-15 Vindicator: x1.25 shields, armor, barrier
• M-76 Revenant: x1.4 armor, x1.2 shields, barrier
• Geth Pulse Rifle: x1.15 armor, x1.35 shields, barrier
• M-23 Katana: x1.5 shields, barrier
• M-27 Scimitar: x1.5 shields, barrier
• M-300 Claymore: x1.25 armor, shields, barrier
• M-92 Mantis: x1.5 armor
• M-97 Viper: x1.35 armor, x1.15 shields, barrier
• M-98 Widow: x1.5 armor
• M-100 Grenade Launcher: x1.25 armor, shields, barrier
• ML-77 Missile Launcher: x1.25 armor, shields, barrier
• M-622 Avalanche: x8.0 armor, shields, barrier (low damage weapon)
• M-920 Caine: No bonus damage
• Particle Beam: x1.5 shields, barrier
• M-451 Firestorm: x1.35 armor, x1.15 shields, barrier

Power Damage Modifiers vs Resistances:

• Warp, Reave: x2 armor, barrier
• Overload, Shield Jack: x2 shields
• Concussive Shot: x3.5 barrier (note this is a low damage power)
• Incinerate: x2.4 vs armor
• Incendiary Grenade: x2 vs armor
• All other biotics: x1.5 barrier
• All other tech powers: x1.5 shields

Weapon powers always deal full damage to resistances they're described as good against, otherwise they deal no additional damage. For example, incendiary ammo deals no extra damage to shields, but does deal extra damage to armor.

Shotgun Mechanics
All shotguns in the game fire eight pellets in variable spread pattern. If you shoot at a wall you'll only see 4 impacts because that's all we render, but in game there are 8 separate projectiles each which causes damage separately.

Blood Dragon Armor
In addition to the 15% power damage bonus noted, this armor also increases shields by 10%.

[Venkman]

There's a DLC vehicle coming (with missions specific to it.)

Ah nice.

Part of the problem, is that people go over board on the scanning. You can actually wait until you need a specific resource and then jump to an empty system and just scan until you have enough. I scanned every planet dilligently for about 2/3 of the galaxy, and when I finished had over 40k/100k/100k/150k extra resources at the end, with every upgrade but two. One of my coworkers finished with over 500k of some of them.

Yes. I fell victim to this. I kept wanting a buffer just in case I ran out of fuel, but never even came close to having a problem there either. I almost broke 100k on Element Zero at one point.

Now of course either the DLC or expansion pack is going to require 200k of each resource for the first upgrade 

[Tarami]

Now of course either the DLC or expansion pack is going to require 200k of each resource for the first upgrade 

Thank God for Cheat Engine!

[Trippy]

After going through the pain of completely mining two planets I downloaded a trainer to give myself enough resource to not have to do that bullshit anymore.

[Rasix]

I'd rather scan a thousand planets than ever drive that fucking Mako again.  However, I would pay $5 (PLZ BIOWARE) to never have to scan another planet (on the 360).

[Venkman]

Hmm, never had a problem with scanning, once I upped the probe capacity and speed of scanning. And especially after two planets Trippy? I thought I was inpatient Maybe it sucks worse on a controller but even on a super Rich planet, it's only a few minutes of work.

[Trippy]

It's a pointless time waster game play mechanic (the locating part, not the acquiring part as they are a necessary resource).

Even the Mako wasn't as pointless as it served a combat purpose.

[tmp]

Even the Mako wasn't as pointless as it served a combat purpose.

And it gave at least one cool cutscene and mad charge sequence, in addition to the cool dropdown animation.

"There's no other landing zone!"

[Venkman]

Bah, wish I had experienced the Mako now.

And yea, scanning is a worthless time sink. You'd think a ship with a full AI could just do the stupid activity itself.

But then, you'd think the ship would have a freakin' intercom and feed it's own goddamned fish too

[Strazos]

But it does have an intercom; that's how you make you booty calls. 

[tmp]

The scanning thing does look especially silly though, with like 20 regular crew members in your ship sitting there and doing nothing 24/7.

[Venkman]

That's another thing that, well, it didn't bother me as much as I always wondered about it. Particularly those two crewman in the Crew Quarters. They never do anything but advance the plight of his family on whateverworldthatwas.

But it does have an intercom; that's how you make you booty calls. 

Yea, I thought that was awesome, the newly active machine next to the laptop

[Furiously]

So...why was the base attacked at the beginning?

[tmp]

So...why was the base attacked at the beginning?

[Venkman]

Forgot all about that.

I did like that one mission where you're backtracking corrupted robots over a few planets. But the whole base-under-attack thing from the beginning, never did remember to care why it happened Guy's name was Wilson iirc, and Miranda shot him. They never established why he became a traitor though.

[ffc]

After going through the pain of completely mining two planets I downloaded a trainer to give myself enough resource to not have to do that bullshit anymore.

Wish I wasn't playing this on Xbox for this reason alone.

[tmp]

Scuttlebut is that if both your team members for the final battle are not loyal and die, there's no one to help Shep into the Normandy. TPW. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZY-sXrQeh0

Found out interesting bit/loophole about this.

[Ratman_tf]

So...why was the base attacked at the beginning?

Yeah. Apparently the Collectors were working to get Shepard's bod, and there was a lot of money involved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjFMPaSjAuo

[Trippy]

Interesting. I never got to see that part of the dialog.

[Nightblade]

Interesting. I never got to see that part of the dialog.

Most people don't, you have to do Liara's sidequest three or so times in order to unlock it.

[Ingmar]

I assume you won't see that unless you import a Liara romance?

[Trippy]

I assume you won't see that unless you import a Liara romance?

My game had Liara as the ME1 romance person.

[tmp]

I assume you won't see that unless you import a Liara romance?

Supposedly it's there for non-romanced Liara too. It's easy to miss though since like mentioned it opens after number of quests and there's only one chance to pick the line which opens it. Select something else and it's gone.