NO SPOILERS: Some mass effect questions

[mur'phon]

In case some people didn't read the thread title, I want no spoilers whatsoever, no matter how tiny they are unless I spesifically ask about them. It's kind of a big deal as I have gone to great lenghts to avoid any info on ME2. Also for those who haven't played ME1 yet, this thread will contain spoilers.

 

Anyways, I'll hopefully get to a comp capable of running ME1 and 2 in a months time, and will play through 1 again to prepare for it. However, I have some questions about the whole connection betwen 1 and 2. Oh, and when I ask about effects on ME2, don't give any details that might spoil, better to not answer a question than answering it in a way that might be spoilerific.

 

Yes, I know I could ask on the ME boards, and I know that some of the questions are probably possible to find answers to without getting spoiled, but I didn't want to take any risks.

 

1: Is ME2 capable of incorporating combinations of choices that (AFAIK) you have to cheat to be able to make (by making both persuade and intimidate maxed)?

 

2: Will I have any problems with importing my save if I cheat to add more than one extra skill to my PC's class?

 

3:Is there a save game editor for ME1, and canit be used to "create" importable saves for ME2?

 

4: Does the DLC for ME1 impact ME2 in any way?

 

5: Are there any backgrounds (Spacer etc) in ME1 that you feel is better than the others? Also are any of them invasive in the sence that it assumes you made choices in the past?

 

6: Same as above only with the whole war hero etc choice, does it affect the game anything more than how much of a paragon/renegade you start out as, and the ocasional refrence to your heroism/ruthlessness in the begining?

 

7: When it comes to chosing who'll survive the nuke mission, is there a massive qualitative content difference in ME2 depending on who you save? I'm not talking about wether one will help/hinder you, only if one of them has a much more interesting impact on ME2 than the other. A simple Kaidan adds nothing/much more than Ash is suficent, no need to spoil.

 

8: Speaking of Kaidan, is there any way to get him to say anything if you are male? While he apears to be a standard goodie, as long as he keeps his trap shut, I have no idea wether I can trust him enough to justify picking him over Ash.

[DarthParametric]

1. Not really. It's really only the 3 big choices that matter (2 on Virmire, one at the end) and they are all binary choices. Everything else is just fluff for the most part, at least in ME2 anyway. ME3 may pick up certain threads again.

 

2. No. ME2 doesn't use any of your skills from ME1. It imports your class, although you can freely change that. It looks at your Paragon/Renegade score and gives bonus points to your ME2 P/R score based on how high it was. You also get bonus XP based on what level the ME1 character was, giving you a couple of extra levels at the start (from memory, a level 50 characters starts at level 3, a level 60 character starts at level 5).

 

3. Not that I'm aware of. There is one for ME2, but it was pretty basic last I looked. You'd be better off just downloading some existing saves.

 

4. The choice made in BDTS gets a mention in some of the ambient radio broadcasts, and there is possibly an email, but that's it. Nothing of any substance. If you never played it, ME2 defaults to the "canon" outcome.

 

5. The backgrounds get a radio broadcast. Again, nothing of consequence.

 

6. I'm not sure I recall them getting any mention.

 

7. No, no difference (in ME2 anyway - who knows about ME3).

 

8. In ME1? Just talk to him for long enough and he spills most of his guts as far as I recall. The same for Ash and Liara - the romance specific dialogues are pretty limited.

[mimartin]

4: Does the DLC for ME1 impact ME2 in any way?

I’d say not in the sense of game play, but it does add a little to immersion.

5: Are there any backgrounds (Spacer etc) in ME1 that you feel is better than the others? [/Quote]I still like colonist best, but that is only because of the quest in ME1 “I Remember Me.” Just like my answer above it has little to nothing to do with game play, but it does give you a little immersion value, provided you are one of those that looks at everything. Not worth replaying ME1 just for what happens in ME2, however I highly recommend the Colonist background for “I Remember Me” in ME1.

A simple Kaidan adds nothing/much more than Ash is suficent' date=' no need to spoil.[/quote'] You already got the jest of it

8: Speaking of Kaidan' date=' is there any way to get him to say anything if you are male? While he apears to be a standard goodie, as long as he keeps his trap shut, I have no idea wether I can trust him enough to justify picking him over Ash.[/quote']

In ME1 he died in 99% of my saves. I had to scramble to find the lone save in ME1 that included him just to see what happened in ME2. Even when playing as a female romancing him, Kaidan still died.

[Totenkopf]

3:Is there a save game editor for ME1, and canit be used to "create" importable saves for ME2?

 

Not that I'm aware of, however the ME2 SE does allow you to edit an ME2 save where you can alter (via checked off flags) choices made in a previous ME game or just alter the default settings. IE:if you're playing an ME1 save carryover where you saved Ash, you can apparently change it so that if you import your current ME2 charachter upon beating ME2 (complete w/its own set of added bonuses), that you've now saved Kaidan instead. But think you have to play through w/your Ash decision first, as I recall the SE saying the changes didn't take affect till you imorted your new charachter after beating ME2. So, effectively, you almost don't really need to play ME first to see results in ME2 from some of your decisions in ME. Not reccomending that, of course, as ME is a decent game even w/its flaws.

[mur'phon]

Thanks for the answers. I have allready completed ME1, however, it was just after launch and so I need some reminding of what the hell hapened (that and I think I deleted that save).

 

Mim: Yes I am the kind of guy that looks at everything and vallue immersion far more than obtaining a "rocket machinegun of doom", or any other item in a game, and make my choices acordingly. Guess it'll be a colonist playthrough, which will be interesting as spacer always felt more like me, never feeling at home in any country. Admitedly being stuck in a colony in far off space is probably similar to my RL background from a small town north of the polar circle

 

I also ended up leaving Kaidan to die, finding a utilitarian reason for killing him over Ash was a pain though.

 

The question is probably stupid as the devs added the effects of choices independently in ME2. However, what I meant with question 1 was that since paragon/renegade limits what choice combos you can make due to the limits of persuade/intimidate, will the game have any problems if I instead of making high persuade choices A B C, make high persuade choice B, and high intimidate choice A and C, despite this being impossible due to it being impossible to have such a high intimidate and persuade with the same character.

[Totenkopf]

Since paragon/intimidate choices still show up in blue and red on the left side of the wheel and are determined by your respective scores, I'm not sure that you're limited by anything other than how high your intimidate/persuade score is at any point in the game. Frankly, don't recall it being any different in ME1 in that regard either. Also, b/c you get a paragon/renegade boost from your save game transfer, at least those options open up a little sooner. Speaking of "impossible", though, it seems the limit on pargon and renegade points in ME2 is well over 1500. Short of cheating in those kinds of numbers, not sure that you get that high throughout game naturally. Neither am I sure that it makes much difference. Most of the blue/red options are available well under that number.

 

Not really sure that any of the backgrounds make any difference in ME beyond determining a chance encounter related to it in some way to that past. For me it didn't really make that much difference. I generally tended to go w/ ruthless earthborn b/c Shep's a badass, but have played various combos as well.

[DarthParametric]

Switching between Intimidate and Charm within a dialogue tree has no effect. The end result is the only thing that is actually recorded, not how you get there. Besides, in many cases in ME1 the outcome is identical regardless of whether you use Charm or Intimidate. The only times the outcome is different is in side-quests where you either kill someone or let them go, and invariably those choices have little to no bearing on ME2.