[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Fantasysci5

I heard from a friend about a really tetious "mini game", where you have to mine for minerals on a planet. He has the XBox version, but he says you have to hold down the right trigger, and it takes seriously up to 20 minutes. What do you guys think of this mining mini game? Is it really that horrible?

No, but it depends on who you ask. Most planets take an average of 5-10 minutes (I have the XBox version). Go for the planets with high or good levels of resources. You'll need the minerals for research into weapons upgrades, ship upgrades, better tech, and biotics (magic). So it's to your advantage to scan as many planets as you can between missions. It may save your squad mates' lives - and Shepard's life - in the end.

[hild]

I also bought it on 360 since that was the system where my ME1 saved games were and while it is very tedius its not to bad especially after finishing the game since you get a 50k boost to all your resources.

[UPtimist]

We already talked a bit about how to speed that up, actually (of course it was all obvious) but you don't really even have to do that with so many planets. After the beginning, you get so much resources that you don't really need to get anything but a couple big sweeps every now and then to keep you up with the upgrades. And you can do that with a much less precise scanning. I usually don't even bother going completely around the planet, unless I happen to be really low on something.

Of course, I'd still like it to be faster but you don't really have to trouble yourself with that.

Anyways, laughed out loud yesterday, when you get back to Tuchanka after Grunt's mission:

Spoiler:

EDI: "After killing the thresher maw there have been several breeding requests for Grunt. And one for Shepard."

Then again, I was rather tired...

I can't believe I'm actually running out of money. I guess I was so used to the way ME1 worked, as well as not having bought anything for a while that now that I bought a rather large batch of upgrades, I didn't think much about how much they actually cost. I'm right now under 100K.

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by UPtimist

We already talked a bit about how to speed that up, actually (of course it was all obvious) but you don't really even have to do that with so many planets. After the beginning, you get so much resources that you don't really need to get anything but a couple big sweeps every now and then to keep you up with the upgrades. And you can do that with a much less precise scanning. I usually don't even bother going completely around the planet, unless I happen to be really low on something.

Of course, I'd still like it to be faster but you don't really have to trouble yourself with that.

Anyways, laughed out loud yesterday, when you get back to Tuchanka after Grunt's mission:

Spoiler:

EDI: "After killing the thresher maw there have been several breeding requests for Grunt. And one for Shepard."

Then again, I was rather tired...

I can't believe I'm actually running out of money. I guess I was so used to the way ME1 worked, as well as not having bought anything for a while that now that I bought a rather large batch of upgrades, I didn't think much about how much they actually cost. I'm right now under 100K.

I think the fact that you can't *sell* anything, and that each upgrade costs about 50000, is awful. That way your only income is missions, and once those are used up, all you can do is bet on Iz in the Varren pits on Tuchanka. And at a rate of 500 credits per win, that takes time. >_<


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[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

I think the fact that you can't *sell* anything, and that each upgrade costs about 50000, is awful. That way your only income is missions, and once those are used up, all you can do is bet on Iz in the Varren pits on Tuchanka. And at a rate of 500 credits per win, that takes time. >_<

Are you telling us you ultimately couldn't afford to upgrade the Normandy, all of your tech and your mates', all of your weapons, and everything else to be maxed out before going into the Omega 4 relay?

I mean, I certainly did long before that, AND had at least 200 thousand credits and tens of thousands of minerals. Guess I loved scouting for resources on planets.

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

Are you telling us you ultimately couldn't afford to upgrade the Normandy, all of your tech and your mates', all of your weapons, and everything else to be maxed out before going into the Omega 4 relay?

I mean, I certainly did long before that, AND had at least 200 thousand credits and tens of thousands of minerals. Guess I loved scouting for resources on planets.

I did, but I didn't get a few things on Tuchanka and Illium, because I didn't have any more money...as for minerals, I had those en masse. Even Element Zero was not lacking.

It just felt like I had to scrounge together my money from pennies, every time I wanted to buy something at a store. Even though I started out with bonus money for importing a level 55 character.



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[UPtimist]

You should at least be able to sell minerals. They're a-plentiful and it's silly that you're low on cash when you've got loads of minerals that obviously are in their worth in the galaxy (just from reading many planetary descriptions).

[Lucien21]

I have the opposite problem.

I have a shit load of cash but not enough materials and the mining thing is tedious.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I guess I'm one of the few who actually found the planet scanning relaxing, particularly after exciting combat missions. It felt like a treasure hunt.

[AndreaDraco83]

Well, I don't know about ME2 yet, but I'm now playing ME1 and I found the surveying of different planets incredibly relaxing after the breath-taking main mission, so I guess that I'll find the process relaxing even in the sequel!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

"You ever had ramen? It's a delicacy back on Earth." - Chef, Food Stand, Level 26, Citadel


LOL!

EDIT: Love the dance music at Dark Star!!

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

I guess I'm one of the few who actually found the planet scanning relaxing, particularly after exciting combat missions. It felt like a treasure hunt.

Me too! That's why I had nearly 100000 Element Zero. ^^


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[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

Me too! That's why I had nearly 100000 Element Zero. ^^

Scared o' you, girl.

Imagine if Jack's biotic upgrade were unlimited and with that much eezo you could .... .... never mind.

[UPtimist]

Yeah, it's alright for like a planet or two, but when you go through several systems it tends to get quite tedious (which is also why I'm hoping for more sidequests). And if you don't do so many of them at once, at some point there's going to be so many of them left.

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

Scared o' you, girl.

Imagine if Jack's biotic upgrade were unlimited and with that much eezo you could .... .... never mind.

With that much eezo Jack could probably buy enough upgrades to save humanity all by herself...if she weren't Jack, that is.


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[Intrepid Homoludens]

"And tell the assassin to aim for her head. 'Cause she doesn't have a heart!" - Salarian worker talking about Nassana, Dantius Tower, Illium


LMAO!

[booB]

Well, it's official... I will certainly be playing this game after I finish ME1.

The reason is because I found out that Yvonne Strahovski ("Sarah", from the show Chuck) is in the game, in likeness AND in voice... and you get to romance her.

[Ugignadl]

The aussie chicky... hmmm... maybe I play this after my next playthrough of dragon age. Thank you thread!

[Zack]

Well, I finally bought Mass Effect 2 two days ago, and I have been playing it, mainly in the late evenings since then. When, I started the game, I imported my Soldier character, Michael Sheperd, from the first game, and was surprised on how easy it was. It showed me the profession I had, and the choices I made, which apparently sequed very smoothly into this game.

I gave my character a new face, because I felt his previous face was a little creepy, and I have chosen the Sentinel Class.

Spoiler:

Already, I have four teammates:

1. Miranda
2. Jacob
3. Garrus
4. The Salarian Doctor

Right now, all I can say is that this game is so dang cool! It's been great seeing characters that I became fond of in the original game. I'll let you all know when I finish it, which hopefully will be a couple of weeks.

[UPtimist]

Still the same problem as with the first ME, the dialogue options are sometimes much too vague, giving you almost no idea how the character will actually respond.

For example (again, barely a spoiler but I'll put it in the tags just in case):

Spoiler:

With Jack (in building for the romance-subplot), she asks if I'm just looking to get into bed with her, which I'm not, I'm just trying to be friends with her since I'm trying to get a thing going with Tali (and Miranda as far as one can before having to choose ). The options are something like:
1. Yes
2. That's not what I'm after (I don't remember exactly what it was, but something that to me mainly suggested just being friends)
3. No

So yes is obvious and no is on the bottom so it might very well be the renegade option (you can't always tell though which is even more disturbing) and so you don't know if in fact you'll just start laughing at her or something. So, I took the middle one, the one that to me clearly suggests that I'm just looking to be friends with her.

Suddenly it's that I first want to get to know her, then sleep with her. I didn't want that! Then later she got mad 'cause I went on with the relationship with Tali and didn't choose her. Great.

Also, sometimes the way that the paragon/renegade points build seems completely absurd, I don't always know where I'm getting the renegade points from (like when I got Samara to join) and sometimes the paragon options are something just totally against that in my opinion. And then there was something weird with Kelly, with

Spoiler:

when you get her to come to your cabin

though I don't remember what that actually was... Or wait, was it that

Spoiler:

you get more paragon points for totally hitting on her and trying to get her into your bed than you do for being a gentleman..? I think that was it, yeah. I don't get that one either