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Don't Neglect the multiplayer...


Hot Juicy Pie
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http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2012/03/Mass-Effect-3-Multiplayer-610x373.jpg

Mass Effect 3 is about a war with the Reapers, and as you play the single player game, the people and armies whose help you earn count as War Assets. The game’s still story-driven, and it doesn’t end until you’ve completed the main series of missions. But when you do, what happens in the final cut-scene depends on how many War Assets you have accumulated.

 

That part is kind of cool. But the balance is incredibly harsh: I did every proper quest I could find in Mass Effect 3, made sensible decisions that didn’t conflict with my choices in the previous games, and brought people together. But I still got a gallingly bleak ending.

 

That’s because I’d never played the multiplayer. It’s a co-op mode where you and up to three other players have to survive waves of AI enemies and complete objectives. If you succeed, you get an increase to your Readiness rating – a percentage by which your single player War Assets are multiplied by. These are specific to each sector fo the galaxy, so if you have a lot of War Assets in the Terminus Systems, you’ll gain more by playing on a multiplayer map set in the Terminus Systems.

 

It’s all rather… dirty. Presumably they’re trying to encourage you to try the multiplayer because to do well in it, you have to buy or earn unlockable items, and you can get these for real money. But they’re doing it by hurting your single player game, slapping a good playthrough with a bad ending as a penalty for not playing co-op. Even if you like co-op, it’s not unreasonable to want to play through the single player first.

 

http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2012/03/Mass-Effect-3-War-Assets-590x206.jpg

 

It is possible to get the best ending in single player without playing multiplayer, but it’s twice as hard. All your War Assets only count for 50% of their potential value. The biggest gains in War Assets come from a culmination of your decisions in the previous games and your decisions in this one: if you’ve helped a race before, and you help them here, it’s often possible to get their full support and resolve their conflict to get someone else on your side too.

 

In other situations, a wrong call somewhere along the line, or a Paragon or Renegade score too low to pick the right thing to say, can mean a character dies, a race is demoralised, and if they fight for you at all they’re worth much less to the war effort.

 

I said I did all the ‘proper’ quests I could find – if you want to maximise your War Assets without playing multiplayer, you’ll have to do the others. The only quests I had left were ones to scour certain systems for planets that aren’t marked on your map, scan them, then fire a probe and return to the Citadel. Even compared to Mass Effect 2′s resource-scanning, these are dull.

 

Here’s what I recommend: don’t. Don’t do any quests that are boring, don’t play multiplayer if you don’t want to, and don’t go through old save games trying to optimise your decisions for the most War Assets. Don’t let BioWare’s seedy design decision manipulate you into playing in a way you don’t want to.

 

If they’ve made a game that’s brutal, harsh and dark if you don’t play multiplayer, they’ve made a game that’s brutal, harsh and dark. That’s how I reviewed it, and it’s still phenomenal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/06/mass-effect-3-war-assets-and-readiness-how-multiplayer-affects-your-ending/

Edited by Hot Juicy Pie
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Why be disappointed/mad/angry/upset/bla? They are encouraging you to play the game as it was meant to be played, not just stick to the single player and leave it at that.

 

More developers should implement a similar system, where achievements online can help your single player progress by tenfold.

 

But it doesn't increase it tenfold. There's just the random chance it could, depending on your luck with getting half-decent gear from the grab bags (otherwise, the harder difficulties are just not worth it). I guess it could increase it tenfold if you buy a bunch of spectre packs. :p

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Why be disappointed/mad/angry/upset/bla? They are encouraging you to play the game as it was meant to be played, not just stick to the single player and leave it at that.

 

More developers should implement a similar system, where achievements online can help your single player progress by tenfold.

 

The way it was meant to be played was Single Player, just saying.

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Shame I agree about it but good thing is that not affect achievements. :Bounce:

 

I not worry about ME 3 endings since this bit change way for endings but I am more worry if achievements affect by it but thanks god. I still will do mp for some fun with dude. So endings not important to me in ME 3 because this but I loved ME 2 endings so much :)

Edited by cheevo360
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So people without access to Live are destined for a bad ending?

 

It's a real shame Bioware has done this, i know MP is not necessary to play but stacking the odds like this but then again after seeing staff members from Bioware saying you could start your Mass Effect journey with ME3, i'm not sure how much faith i have in them for future products.

 

As for buying MP packs with real money, isn't that what EA did with Fifa 12, yeah no one will be ME3 hacked for sure:p

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So people without access to Live are destined for a bad ending?

 

It's a real shame Bioware has done this, i know MP is not necessary to play but stacking the odds like this but then again after seeing staff members from Bioware saying you could start your Mass Effect journey with ME3, i'm not sure how much faith i have in them for future products.

 

As for buying MP packs with real money, isn't that what EA did with Fifa 12, yeah no one will be ME3 hacked for sure:p

 

I was FIFA hacked, dont even bring that stuff up.

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On a side note, I haven't played the single player yet. I've only played the multiplayer portion with some friends. My readiness is up to 81% It wasn't hard to get the rating up, it seemed to raise it up every few games.

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On a side note, I haven't played the single player yet. I've only played the multiplayer portion with some friends. My readiness is up to 81% It wasn't hard to get the rating up, it seemed to raise it up every few games.

 

Good point. Ive played 2 games (about 30 minutes) and my rating is already around 60%. So thats about 10 games to max it out to 100%. Not too bad.

 

Of course for people that dont want to play multiplayer at all I understand your complaint.

Edited by DopeySO
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So bottom line is ANYONE can get the best ending BUT if you dont play the multiplayer you will have to do every main quest, side quest and search every planet for assests.

Whereas if you take the easy route and play the hell out of multiplayer your readiness will be 100% thus meaning you would need only half the assests (half the effort/time) as someone doing a singleplayer (50%) only route.

 

Kick in the teeth tbh, i personally would rather stick to singleplayer (like the past 2) than be forced into playing online to minimize boring planet scans that will take awhile to do every single one.

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I was FIFA hacked, dont even bring that stuff up.

 

Welcome to the club, which is why i am worried about the news of buying the packs, hopefully players can't share the content which means hacking will be useless but i wouldn't put it past EA not to learn from their mistakes.

Edited by DEG23
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Welcome to the club, which is why i am worried about the news of buying the packs, hopefully players can't share the content which means hacking will be useless but i wouldn't put it past EA not to learn from their mistakes.

 

Ya I changed my origin/ea account info to all different from my windows live id now, different email, name, everything... fuck that from happening again

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Not sure if you are all aware... but the MP readiness decreases on a daily basis. You HAVE to keep playing to keep it up. Getting it to 100% and then saying F-YOU to it will accomplish nothing unless you are going to beat the game that day...

 

Yet ANOTHER way they are forcing you too bend over and take it...

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