Mass Effect General Discussion (spoilers)

Considering how the protheans uplifted the asari, I seriously doubt they didn't engage in some good ol' primitive banging. Gods that go out with a bang couldn't really be gods, could they?

But yes, hugging Tali and Garrus is still the best option by far.

The Asari bang everything. Protheans probably aren't the exception.

I highly doubt Javik would enjoy it.

Per his own admission: There is one thing the primitives are good at.

Relevant.

So I've decided that, starting with my Male Engineer, that I wouldn't spend a single point in Charm or Intimidate when leveling them up. I'm also going to play each character twice so there's 8 Charm or Intimidate max of free points so I can make some persuasion checks.

I've never gone through ME 1 without putting points into charm or intimidate. Let me know how the dialogues go, I'm interested to see how many checks you can make!

Okay, but it will have to wait until morning.

Never saw the point of min maxing ME 1, I could never get through that game twice with the same character. The gameplay just kills it for me. And I saw never the point of crippling early playthroughs in order to optimize skill points (which never mattered in the first game) for one character.

Nothing to really say about Eden Prime with no persuade. I didn't have any reason to talk to the smugglers so they were skipped, simple as that. Also, I seem to have forgotten that I didn't need to focus on Kaiden's Tech skills when I had them myself, so he'll be replaced by Wrex when I get the chance.

The Citadel story portion is done, but it's interesting what you discover when you don't have any real Charm/Intimidate.

• I've never sided with Mr. Bosker until this playthough, so when I went back to tell Suresh the news, I discovered a Charm/Intimidate that I couldn't take with him. I choose the bottom response and completed the quest with no exp reward.

• The Preaching Hanar is given a cash loan to pay a permit so he can sing all the praises he wants elsewhere instead of me using Charm/Intimidate. to tell either the Hanar or C-Sec officer off. I've done this before, so I'm listing more as a checklist of things I can do.

Those are the only two I did so I could get enough points to level up before I became a Spectre.

Do you plan to do this for the first game only, or all three ?

Because no ULB/LLR means no peace on Rannoch, for a start.

Just the first game.

At least Wrex still can be saved without charm or intimidate.

Personally I paid the Hanar evangelist off so the C-Sec bloke could get a rest.

And I actually had such a good relationship with Wrex (thanks to the family armour thing) that I didn't need to use Charm or Intimidate to get him to stand down on Virmire and help me out. :D

I didn't see the importance of charm / intimidate on my first playthrough... until Virmire. I had already spoiled myself on the later Sadistic Choice, but I was a bit shaken by Wrex's death.

I guess I got lucky that I buffed my Paragade points. I had planned to play mostly Renegade but people like that man with the dead wife made me end up go Paragon.

And I ended up with enough points with Wrex to keep him alive and take Garrus with me for part 1 of Virmire, then swap him out for Tali.

Almost 3 hours of grinding money for Spectre Master Weapons and doing Citadel Side quests later, I finally go look for Liara. I couldn't Charm Chellick into releasing Rita's sister early but I could still complete the quest. I also couldn't Charm that Krogan blackmailer into surrendering so he got a facefull of space lead.

edited 26th Apr '15 7:26:41 AM by VeryMelon

What's your opinion on Liara? I find it's much easier to like her character in ME 1 if I save her for last, because then she has more of a forceful and active attitude compared to how uncomfortably awkward and obsessive she is about Shepard when I recruit her early.

I like Liara from start to finish, but I do see where people are coming from with their criticisms of her and her role in the expanded universe. I don't mind her being a Deuteragonist of sorts, but I'm not going to disparage anyone who feels she got too much focus compared to the original squad.

As far as Mass Effect 1 Liara goes, I prefer rescuing her first out of the 3 initial main quests because she is the final Sqaudmate to collect, is probably the best biotic party member in the game, and because I like to think rescuing her first is a good start storyline-wise to the type of plot Mass Effect 1 has.

edited 26th Apr '15 7:51:46 AM by VeryMelon

The encounter with Benezia certainly makes more sense with Liara on the team. Otherwise, it just seems as if Benezia is lying about mind control to try to get out of taking responsibility for her actions, especially if you do Noveria first rather than somewhere in the middle.

My order was Therum, Feros, Noveria if that helps. And I brought Liara with me to the Benezia fight.

My preferred order is Therum, Feros, Virmire, Noveria, so that's one of the reason why I like having Liara there at Noveria.

Speaking of which I just finished rescuing her and my character is now level 16. I don't plan on playing any side-quests anymore really, at least not ones that need to to use the Mako because that's a timesink. I'll try to post whatever reactions I have to not Charming people that I can, but without Mako side-quests I don't think I have access to many.

edited 26th Apr '15 9:24:38 AM by VeryMelon

My preferred order is Feros, Noveria, Virmire, Therum. I feel uncomfortable with the Asari mind meld being used so often for plot advancement, so I try to avoid it as much as possible. I have to say, I am grateful that I don't have to take anymore mind melds by force in any of the other games, though I do wish shepard could have said something about how uncomfortable the mind meld can be, especially since that was a big complaint in Mass Effect 1.

Also, totally understand about the Mako. Driving around in that thing is a bit of a waste of time when you're tryin to complete a side quest, and not just exploring freely.

edited 26th Apr '15 9:03:56 AM by CalamityJane

Shepard never mentions feeling any negative side effects about the melding itself or feels tired from it, unless you're just saying you're uncomfortable with it.

I'm doing Feros now so I'll post my thoughts on some more Citadel side-quests I didn't have sufficient charm for.

• Rear Admiral Mikhailodick was a pain without Charm. I had to sit here and agree with him on all of his biased criticisms of the Normandy like a tool. I could have told him to piss off earlier but I was afraid of not getting any experience like what happened to Suresh earlier.

• al-Jilani is al-Jilani. While I had enough Charm(2 points) to answer her second question, I couldn't answer the rest without her making me look bad. I didn't punch her(this time).