Mass Effect General Discussion (spoilers)

I wonder what my squadmates would think of the final Overlord decision.

Miranda would agree with me at least.

Also I was watching a guy do the Suicide Mission and he was giving RP reasons for all his choices. His thinking was, for the party member to escort the crew to safety, someone "caring" should be chosen. He went trhough the list of squadmates, evaluating just how good of a person they were. His evaluation of Zaeed? "Cunt" and moved on.

edited 27th Apr '17 8:45:18 AM by Nikkolas

I always send Samara as the escort for RP reasons. For the criteria of

• Noble enough to protect the non-coms to the end, giving her life to ensure they make it out alive.
• Powerful and capable enough as a direct combatant that even as the only solo combatant in the group, she probably won't have to.

Samara is the only character I feel confident rests dead-center of the Venn Diagram. She has just the right blend of "Do not f*ck with" and "Not an asshole" to escort survivors to safety.

edited 27th Apr '17 9:00:13 AM by TobiasDrake

See, this might show my Shepard's priorities, but the whole "give a fuck" idea never even entered my head. I just wanted to send someone tough to protect them, hence why I had Grunt escort them to safety. No one is a better meatshield and defender than a krogan.

I keep the Collector Base because it makes more sense for Cerberus to have it in 3.

That's another good reason to keep it. It makes ME 3 at least somewhat plausible.

It just fits into place.

I always keep Samara for the Long Walk, but only because Jack's Shockwave is invaluable when dealing with husks.

Yeah that was something I was surprised about when I played ME 2 again on a higher difficulty. Naturally things were harder but I didn't expect the dumb zombies to start posting a real challenge. But they do and you will get fucked up and swarmed in no time.

edited 27th Apr '17 9:56:27 AM by Nikkolas

I use Jack for the long walk. It just feels right for the experimental super-biotic to do the one big super-biotic challenge. Samara and Miranda are cool, but they don't capture that feeling of culmination the way Jack does. With Jack, it's like every moment in her life existed to bring her to this moment.

I don't think Miranda can pull off the Walk successfully, can she? You lose someone with her. And I've never been sure, but I like to think it looks like more of a strain for Samara. It's totally Jack's moment if you let it be.

Yeah, I tend to go with Jack doing the barrier. Feels more emotionally effective for her to be the one using every bit of strength she possesses to keep people safe. Samara just does what she's sworn to do, but Jack's grown into this person who protects.

I usually send Mordin back with the crew, because he's the worst at Holding The Line, but I justify it as him helping Chakwas to examine the crew for any injuries.

It's kind of meta, but I usually send Mordin back with the crew too— specifically because the crewmate you send is safe, and Mordin has one of the highest risks of dying if you leave him to hold the line *or* bring him along to the final battle. Found that out on my first finished run of ME 2. Mordin was my go-to squadmate for most of the game, and I had him with me at the end, and he was the only crew member who died, so of course I had to reload and fix that.

What, did you not do his loyalty mission?

I did everything, it's just that Mordin has a chance of dying no matter what you do. Not a huge chance, not a guarantee, but a small chance that the other team members apparently don't.

edited 27th Apr '17 1:34:31 PM by Unsung

...How?

He can die in any section but the sending him back with the crew, its a low chance but it acts as if he or others wernt loyal.

And is this just for Mordin?

I think his chance of survival on the line is just low enough that he still has a chance of dying even while the other characters bump up each others' odds enough that they don't. This is probably more noticeable on runs that are somewhere in the middle in terms of how many L Ms you do, but how many people make a run like that?

Here's some explanation, not exactly what I'm talking about, turned up by a quick Google: https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/944906-mass-effect-2/53661786

Yup. Just Mordin.

Mordin just happens to be at the top of list for squishy squaddie death order, and thus will always be the first to die unless someone is nonloyal.

Holding the line is an equation, not an approximation.◊ If Mordin (or anyone) is dying, it is because the party's average point value is less than 2. If the average equals or exceeds 2, everybody lives.

Non loyal squaddies die against the proto-Reaper.

It's not that Mordin dies if he doesn't escort the crew, it's that people sent to escort the crew and join Shep are too valuable and the rest of the party can't compensate.

If you do the math correctly and he still dies even when he should survive, there's something wrong with your game.

edited 27th Apr '17 2:12:49 PM by TheAirman

Samara holding the barrier makes the most sense; she's very likely more powerful than Jack, and no sane person would trust someone as unstable as Jack with their life if there's a better option.

(Full-size image.)◊ Aha.

So I think what's happening is that I sent Grunt back with the crew and took Garrus with me. Might have also been a few Paragon/Renegade points shy of getting Zaeed's loyalty too, but he lived.

edited 27th Apr '17 2:33:10 PM by Unsung

Yep. Mordin just simply has the lowest survival score unless there's a non-loyal squaddie.

If I remember correctly, the values used for the Hold The Line segment are also given based off of loyalty and also usually are higher if the squaddie in question is better with being in big giant fights and typically are otherwise not the most fortified.

So characters like Kasumi (stealthy glass omni-cannon?), Mordin (and aged salarian with single target abilities), Jack (strong biotic but not particuarly well defended), and Tali (a quarian who long range fights using a drone rather than herself), don't do so hot.

One might argue that Thane should be in that line up, but I'd like to point out that he's a sniper and, logically, would be tucked away somewhere that he can pick off enemies from a distance they can't get at him from. He wouldn't be in the heat of battle.

Yeah, nothing in holding the line is left to chance: everything there is hard maths, and if Mordin somehow dies while holding the line, then it just means you didn't have the necessary average to keep him alive, since he'll still live even if non-loyal as long as the defense average is 2 or greater. It just so happens he's always the first to die (followed by Tali, Kasumi, Jack, etc. etc.) if holding the line fails.

This is like, 7 years old but I've never seen it before and it's interesting.