Mass Effect 3 co-op (PC)

[Blackjack]

Here's the list of us GT folks on Origin posted here through March 8:

arkon262 [Arkon at GT]
Asharak_006
Azhag2 [apparently off by a digit? Waiting for the revision...]
Scintillaen [Barrakketh at GT]
Brolomite
corporalgeo [Blackjack at GT]
HantonGT [Scraper at GT]
LakeAchilles [Beer Goggles at GT]
OriginalCeeKay [You know who...]
Prinaldo [Silky at GT]
Vertrucio [Turtle at GT]

With the demo, this is really the most fun I've had co-op in a shooter in forever.   And it's third person, so I actually don't wanna hurl after 5 minutes.

[Scraper]

I'm HantonGT , I will be playing all this week.

[Asharak]

Asharak_006 here.

- Ash

[Purge]

I want to guys, but I don't want to support Origin.

I have 1 and 2 for steam and I haven't played them yet either, so I think it'd be best if I DIDN'T drop 60bux I don't have for a game I shouldn't play yet.

[Arkon]

I am arkon262 on Origin, sent friend requests to those listed in the thread.

[CeeKay]

OriginalCeeKay on Origin.

[Blackjack]

I want to guys, but I don't want to support Origin.

I have 1 and 2 for steam and I haven't played them yet either, so I think it'd be best if I DIDN'T drop 60bux I don't have for a game I shouldn't play yet.

I played ME1 and didn't get into it, didn't ever play ME2. And I've got ME3. And Origin needs work but I don't feel it's the Antichrist, so hurry up and get in the pool already, dude! 

[Blackjack]

I'm HantonGT , I will be playing all this week.

OK I have a friend invite headin' yer way.

[Azhag]

Azhag2

I'm game to play some. Didn't do the demo so I may slightly suck at first not being able to essentially pause as in SP 

[CeeKay]

OK, so is my Origin bugged (got it set to use pre-release versions) or does it not pop up a chat window when someone is trying to chat with you in-game?  I had Blackjack send me a message and I didn't notice until after I exited out of the game, even with the overlay enabled.

[Asharak]

I'm game to play some. Didn't do the demo so I may slightly suck at first not being able to essentially pause as in SP 

This. I pause a lot in SP; not sure how quickly I'll adapt to not being able to do that in a MP environment.

- Ash

[Purge]

OK, so is my Origin bugged (got it set to use pre-release versions) or does it not pop up a chat window when someone is trying to chat with you in-game?  I had Blackjack send me a message and I didn't notice until after I exited out of the game, even with the overlay enabled.

No, it's just Origin punishing you for using it.

Next week, it's going to shoot your puppy. Or crash while playing it, Or insist you need to update it even though it's up to date, and not let you get to the game you need to finish up for a review. EVERY SINGLE TIME UNTIL YOU REINSTALL WINDOWS. Not bitter, not much.

[Asharak]

No, it's just Origin punishing you for using it.

Next week, it's going to shoot your puppy. Or crash while playing it, Or insist you need to update it even though it's up to date, and not let you get to the game you need to finish up for a review. EVERY SINGLE TIME UNTIL YOU REINSTALL WINDOWS. Not bitter, not much.

I've only used it for pre-ordering (not playing) SWTOR and playing ME3 but I haven't had a problem with it. Sure, it's annoying that it exists and all and I seem to get crappy DL speeds (but that could be because ME3 is very popular...) but it's worked as advertised for me. So far.

- Ash

[Arkon]

No, it's just Origin punishing you for using it.

Next week, it's going to shoot your puppy. Or crash while playing it, Or insist you need to update it even though it's up to date, and not let you get to the game you need to finish up for a review. EVERY SINGLE TIME UNTIL YOU REINSTALL WINDOWS. Not bitter, not much.

I've only used it for pre-ordering (not playing) SWTOR and playing ME3 but I haven't had a problem with it. Sure, it's annoying that it exists and all and I seem to get crappy DL speeds (but that could be because ME3 is very popular...) but it's worked as advertised for me. So far.

- Ash

I got way better DL speeds from Origin when I preloaded ME3, than I have ever gotten from Steam.

[Blackjack]

OK, so is my Origin bugged (got it set to use pre-release versions) or does it not pop up a chat window when someone is trying to chat with you in-game?  I had Blackjack send me a message and I didn't notice until after I exited out of the game, even with the overlay enabled.

There might be some settings in options for that (I'll check tonight). I think if you're in "away" mode, you might not get pop-ups.

Though it showed you as just playing the ME3 edition (not away mode).

Yeah, Ash/Arkon  , I definitely feel like the downloads for ME3 and Amalur in Origin were surprisingly speedy. Now that could just be because it doesn't carry Steam-size traffic just yet. Or maybe the d/l servers are just more favorably located for us or something.

I also like that Origin will deliver IMs to friends lists folks offline (they get it when they login), meaning it's like ICQ or most IM clients. Steam doesn't do that afik.

[Asharak]

Yeah, Ash, I definitely feel like the downloads for ME3 and Amalur in Origin were surprisingly speedy.

Cool. It wasn't slow enough to bother me, especially with the pre-load meaning it could have needed 2+ days and I wouldn't have cared (it didn't, it just needed several hours for the 10 GB DL instead of a couple). Interesting to know that others have a different experience, though; the next time (if ever) that I need to do a large DL through Origin, I'll pay attention and check my connection before starting it, to make sure it isn't something on my end screwing it up.

Thanks.

- Ash

[CeeKay]

OK, so is my Origin bugged (got it set to use pre-release versions) or does it not pop up a chat window when someone is trying to chat with you in-game?  I had Blackjack send me a message and I didn't notice until after I exited out of the game, even with the overlay enabled.

There might be some settings in options for that (I'll check tonight). I think if you're in "away" mode, you might not get pop-ups.

Though it showed you as just playing the ME3 edition (not away mode).

something is definitely odd, I just noticed that it logs me in as 'invisible' instead of 'online' automatically even though I changed it in the drop down menu yesterday.  I'll have to look into that later.

[Blackjack]

Azhag2

I'm game to play some. Didn't do the demo so I may slightly suck at first not being able to essentially pause as in SP  

Basically the co-op is sort of similar to Gears of Wars' Horde mode as I understand it, but not so many waves. Actually, I don't know if the waves in ME3's co-op stop at some point. With Topper and me, the most waves we got through was maybe 10, and I don't know if there's a limit that represents the end of a co-op session.

Setting up
I checked the setting-up screens this morning. It seems like you can choose:
-Specific enemy races (Reapers etc.), or randomize
-Specific map, or randomize
-I wanna say you get bonus xp on a couple of the co-op set up options if you choose randomized.
-Challenge level (3 levels - bronze, silver, gold, I think?)
-Think there's a couple other settings, I'll update this later.

Communicating
In the demo at least, headset mic worked well. There was a key for text chat but it didn't work in the demo co-op. Haven't gotten to try it in retail yet.

Objectives
I think somewhere around Wave 8 or 9 (if your team survives that far) that mech from hell that I posted a screenshot of starts stomping around and making a beeline for players. You can hear it stomping from across the map.   There are also other types of "purple name" bosses eventually like one that wields nasty dual katanas, etc.

So it seems like the farther your team gets, the nastier the unique enemies you have to face. And the farther your team progresses, the more XP you all get, more points to put in powers, more cr to buy equipment packs etc.

A lot of waves just are "kill every enemy in the incoming wave", and an audio voice will tell you when there's only one enemy left in the wave to kill. It spices things up by throwing in some simple objectives at certain points. So you might defend an area against incoming waves for say, 3-4 waves (this is clearly announced by voice, and you can tell from shuttles flying in that more enemies are inbound). Then you'll hear an announcement that you need to go after certain "high value" targets scattered on the map. These are marked with icons.

Another objective might be to go hack into certain scattered computers. The hacking process takes quite a few seconds, and so incoming attack waves go after you while you're doing each one.

Stuff
There are ammo caches scattered around the maps. afik, these never run out, per se. The objectives that come up keep you from just planting yourself by an ammo cache and never moving. Eventually, you have to move around.

Rezzing
I think in the demo the game announced in some way (either audio or text message) when a teammate has fallen. Still, you may want to chime up in your headset or text chat when you're fallen -- it's easy to lose track in heat of battle.

You can rez fallen fellow players (go to them, press spacebar, it takes a few seconds). I think if you have the med-gel you can rez yourself. If you're dead for the count, just wait (you'll be in spectator mode) and see if your teammates can finish that particular wave -- then you'll auto-rez at that point and be able to continue.

If you don't rez the fallen player in a certain amount of time, they're dead for the rest of that wave.

[Asharak]

Azhag2

Origin says it couldn't find anyone with that name... there are azhag's 86, 92 and 63, though? Any of those you?

- Ash

[Blackjack]

We played about an hour and a half I think (me, Asharak, Arkon and HantonGT), and it was awesome. Every bit as fun as I hoped it would be. 

And even playing the same map played out differently in subsequent tries. I saw beasties and nasties that I'd never seen in the demo. We just did the Bronze challenge level (I assume lowest difficulty) but it gave us a pretty good fight. 

Voice chat (push-to-talk, no "mouth breathing" auto-mics to worry about) worked well. Alas, it appeared from the key bindings list they removed the text chat hotkey that was in the demo.  Was fine using the mics though.

I got lots of gameplay movies and screenshots so I'll sift through for some fun ones to share. Thanks for joining up, fellas. 

[Blackjack]

Here's some pix of the setup screens and lobby:

*It seems fun to just leave the "unknown" random settings, and it kinda keeps things fresh. Even if you replay a demo map, you might get an enemy type you hadn't seen before, etc.


*Inviting to a private game is pretty easy in Origin. However, I found the chat client got wonky once I got in game. Later I found it had created a different chat window for every message one person sent me, so my taskbar had about 12 Origin Chat windows in it. 


The mics seemed to work fine, and a blinking icon indicates clearly who's talking.

[Ascendent]

I just picked up Mass Effect 3, damn gt effect anyways origin name is "Brolomite" no qoutes

[Blackjack]

Did another hour or so pickup-coop. Even with mostly mute strangers, it's helluva fun. 

[Scraper]

Yeah I had fun last night too. The one thing I hope for is that Bioware releases more maps that aren't paid DLC. But that's probably asking for too much.

[Blackjack]

Oh my pickup group late last night did confirm from our experience if you get to wave 10 or 11, something like that? Then it's an "extraction" final objective. It seems sort of like there's this force barrier blocking you from the extraction point (I guess sort of "protecting" it from the enemies) for X amount of time and so you protect it and then dash onto some sort of transport for extraction (air transport in our case, this was some sort of interior lab setting). A bit like L4D2.

[Asharak]

Definitely had a blast playing last night. Thanks guys! I'm going to write another impressions post in the PC forum, where I'll add some more detail...

- Ash

[Blackjack]

I'm working on one of my compilation videos from FRAPS footage. Hopefully I'll have a YouTube link to share tonight.

One of the crazier moments I remember is when an enemy engineer set up a turret, while a pair of Mechs rampaged down a ramp behind and to the left of it. Definitely don't want to let enemy engineers hang around too long or it becomes tough to so much as pop your head out of cover with all that turret fire. Anyway, I think have some video of that.

I'm curious to see how the tougher Challenge settings ramp up. Whether they just throw More, or nastier types of AI enemies.

[Blackjack]

I hadn't checked around the forums. Some Bioware-posted stuff concerning multiplayer:

A Note About Multiplayer Difficulty Levels
http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mass-Effect-3/Mass-Effect-3-Multiplayer-Discussion-/A-Note-About-Multiplayer-Difficulty-Levels-9308234-1.html

We wanted to make you aware of something that could impact your experience if you are just getting started: sometimes when people are matched up via Quick Match, the challenge level will be set to Silver, rather than Bronze. If you are just getting started, this could prove to be a very difficult (and likely frustrating!) experience. Therefore, we recommend that when you are starting a quick match you check the difficulty level (top of the screen): Silver and Gold are considerably harder than Bronze and not designed for starting characters.

So far I've just left all on random when matchmaking. I supposed for a new character it makes sense to stick with Bronze games. I think I was in at least one Silver game where I was just getting constantly shredded.

Banshees interruptible
http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mass-Effect-3/Mass-Effect-3-Multiplayer-Discussion-/Banshee-9653605-1.html

It is indeed interruptible.

Folks seem to indicate if a teammate is in a Banshee's grip, you should be able to "interrupt" the attack with your own. I certainly tried with my Adept's powers and rifle to get the one in my screenshots to drop Hanton, and couldn't make a difference, so consider me skeptical.  Well OK she did seem to slam Hanton into the ground, but I couldn't tell if it was an attack or I'd interrupted her. 

Furor over Removing Text Chat Option
http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mass-Effect-3/Mass-Effect-3-Multiplayer-Discussion-/Text-CHAT--9655891-1.html
*Quite a few posts but no Bioware response so far.

[Ascendent]

So started at 9 am and have been playing all day long have to say having such an amazing time. My adept is beast on bronze (a lot to do with nade spam) but I just now finished my first silver mission. I was not ready for the amount of damage it takes to kill someone in silver sheesh looking forward to hooking up with you guys.

[Blackjack]

Here be my first co-op compilation video...

Mass Effect 3 co-op: Alien Enemy Highlights
http://youtu.be/tKNOhPNZJe8

[Scraper]

I'll be on tonight.

[Scraper]

Here be my first co-op compilation video...

Mass Effect 3 co-op: Alien Enemy Highlights
http://youtu.be/tKNOhPNZJe8

Nice work on the video. I especially like that the only time you can really see my guy is when the Banshee has me dangling in the air, followed up by a slam that kills me. That's what I call taking one for the team.

Tonight should be fun, I have some beers lined up and new head set  \/



Which is MUCH better than my old $10 set.

[CeeKay]

tried playing last night with Blackjack.  for some reason it wasn't registering either of our mics, but my lag issues were either from two other computers in the house playing WoW or my ISP was having issues; Speedtest results were really bad last night and this morning it's much better (2Mbps vs 17Mbps).

[Blackjack]

tried playing last night with Blackjack.  for some reason it wasn't registering either of our mics, but my lag issues were either from two other computers in the house playing WoW or my ISP was having issues; Speedtest results were really bad last night and this morning it's much better (2Mbps vs 17Mbps).

CeeKay, sorry about all that. I think for my part my rechargeable wireless headset was out of juice or something, as it crapped out in my next co-op game. And the lag might've been on my end.   Restarting the game seems to clean up mic issues for some.

As far as your Soldier goes -- I, as the ME noob, but the ME co-op slightly experienced noob, I suggest going crazy with fitness (shields/health), grenades and the concussion shot. I know the soldier has this slo-mo thing that's supposed to turn you into Neo in the Matrix (i.e., slow-mo and weapons do more dmg) but I have more fun tossing frags and concussion blasting aliens away from me.  

Hanton/Scraper, yeah I have some better video of our group where we're not all getting mauled  . I guess I'm hoping some of us (whatever the mix, seems like we'd have enough for a couple full 4-person co-op games) will play more this weekend and then I can do a video limited to GT folks for fun.

I have done a lot of PUGs, and it's fine. It's just that with most PUG players not using headsets, and no text chat, you're left sort of guessing sometimes. It's interesting. I don't know if it's better or worse to clump up with other players or kind of do my own thing but keep in eyesight. Because everyone has shields and stuff, friendly fire isn't too much of an issue, and the voice prompts "Watch your fire!" etc. are helpful.

I must admit on the largest retail version maps I'm often just plain lost where the incoming waves will come from.

I am grateful the game is very specific through both text and audio and HUD indicators about targets, fallen fellow players, etc.

[Blackjack]

I hope to start pestering folks for co-op tonight maybe around 8:30 pm EST or so.  I know for sure I can't possibly have the best PC/RAM/connection for hosting (I'm an aging quad-core on cable, 4GB RAM). I always wanted to add more but my home HP's case has the RAM slots in an utterly hellish position.

Anyway, maybe someone else here has a firebreathing PC/connection and is better suited to Be In Charge? 

[Blackjack]

I've got to give the game kuds for tremendous looking character models without requiring a firebreathing PC and video card to get fast frame rates.  Here's a few more screen captures from videos (which just tend to look better and be smaller fall size than most of my more traditional screenshots, for some reason).

A few peeks at GTers...



And I think one of the few times I got to see one of my characters from the front was when a Brute charged me tonight and sent me tumbling. I even got to see the soles of my boots. 

[Blackjack]

I Finally remembered to tap the key for cobra missiles in one map tonight (I seem to recall just spinning my mouse wheel to get to the launcher in the demo but it doesn't to work that way in full version). Even in the Silver Challenge difficulty, it one-shot killed the Banshee, though it seems to need a few precious seconds to fire off.




I unlocked a cool race under the Vanguard class, Asari (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Asari). She has a unique, flashy "side swipe" maneuver that can be a lifesaver in combat but a little annoying when just moving around:


They also get a pretty visually spectacular and wide radius basic melee attack: 


And a cool stasis bubble attack that unfortunately doesn't work on armored targets or most of the nastier stuff in the game (Reapers, Brutes etc.) I'll post some more pix tomorrow, I'm exhausted in a good way from playing. 

[namatoki]

I am namatoki on Origin as well and play multiplayer quite frequently with my brother and a couple of friends.  We did some gold level Geth on Firebase Giant and racked up 70k credits per completion.  Quick way to earn credits for Spectre packs!

[Asharak]

I am namatoki on Origin as well and play multiplayer quite frequently with my brother and a couple of friends.  We did some gold level Geth on Firebase Giant and racked up 70k credits per completion.  Quick way to earn credits for Spectre packs!

Yeesh. We only just managed to successfully complete a Bronze on Firebase Giant last night...either you guys play enough to have high-level characters already, or you're just obscenely good.

- Ash

[Blackjack]

Asari boobles....



While these are great on the right targets, there's an awful lot of armored targets it won't hold.



The Asari armor reminds me a bit of, well, Pinhead in Clive Barker's Hellraiser.