Current Events > Mass Effect questions

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I just started Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. Two questions:

1. Is there a canon explanation why everyone speaks the same language and can talk to each other?

Star Trek has universal translators and Star Wars has Galactic Common. I can accept that maybe Garrus, Liara, Tali, and Kaiden learned some sort equivalent of Galactic Common, but I can't imagine Ashley taking the time to learn an alien language or Wrex spending time studying.

2. Thresher Maws beat MY ASS. I'm trying to explore these rando planets, but these things just end me. Can I upgrade the Mako, or do I have to git gud?

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1. Translator
2. Git gud

1. Translators.

Like the Elcor aren't outright saying "Delighted Welcome," the translator is adding emotional context since they communicate differently.

2. Get a decent distance from the Maw, hold completely still while unloading on it.

Once it moves its head forwards for the acid spray, hit the boosters and scoot out of the way. Repeat until dead.

Stay moving when it digs, it can one-shot you coming out.

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In the Legendary Edition you get full XP for killing things in the Mako, so you can do that.

In the original version you'd have to beat a Thresher on foot for full XP; albeit only the final shot counted.

So, they made things easier for you...

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The Thresher still fucking wrecks the Mako, though.

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You definitely want to save before, but my method will work.

You used to be able to hop over the spray but they made it a shotgun.

Just park broadside to the Thresher and stop, unload.

When he spits, boost forward about 3 or 4 lengths.

If you do it right, you'll dodge the acid completely.

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I just go forward until they show up and then shoot them while going in reverse and then they go under ground and disappear

rinse repeat

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1. No.

I guess there are translators but even naked aliens can communicate

And Elcor need to explain the emotion they try to convey which makes no sense for a translator

2. Keep a distance and jump the acid spit.

They do a lot of damage but they're easy once you realize that trick

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UnfairRepresent posted...

2. Keep a distance and jump the acid spit.

They do a lot of damage but they're easy once you realize that trick

Jumping is no longer an option when fighting Thresher Maws in Legendary Edition due to the way the acid now scatters higher than the Mako can jump. The only ways to dodge the acid in LE1 is to either stop immediately if strafing the Maw (it is now capable of leading the acid shot if you are moving) or use the forward boosters to get out of the way if holding still.

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You can totally still jump the acid spit, just not as reliably. Still worked to kill them for me.

Most thresher maw dens are a large piece of flat ground with a couple of small hills and plateaus. If you park on one of those parts the maw can't come up underneath you, and it will just pop up and shoot acid then move, rinse and repeat. You can just sit there and jump the spit if you find one of those spots. The trick though, is discovering which hills/plateaus are high enough to keep it from surfacing beneath you but still in the maw's zone. Pretty easy once you get a feel for it.

The acid spit has some really weird hitboxes, but if you get the timing right you can consistently dodge it by jumping over it
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Universal translators. Individuals are considered highly cultured if they can actually speak other species' languages though.

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Paragon21XX posted...

Jumping is no longer an option when fighting Thresher Maws in Legendary Edition due to the way the acid now scatters higher than the Mako can jump. The only ways to dodge the acid in LE1 is to either stop immediately if strafing the Maw (it is now capable of leading the acid shot if you are moving) or use the forward boosters to get out of the way if holding still.

I have mixed feelings

on one hand, it makes sense as a gameplay update

On the other, it sucks that they changed stuff

took out pinnacle station too

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UnfairRepresent posted...

I have mixed feelings

on one hand, it makes sense as a gameplay update

On the other, it sucks that they changed stuff

took out pinnacle station too

most of the changes for ME1 are great. Adding weapon variety makes it much more interesting and at least they kept all the glitches

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josifrees posted...

most of the changes for ME1 are great. Adding weapon variety makes it much more interesting and at least they kept all the glitches

Did they improve the shitty shitty shitty as weapons and upgrade mod menus?

I swear half the people who played ME1 didn't know you could mod weapons/armor

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UnfairRepresent posted...

Did they improve the shitty shitty shitty as weapons and upgrade mod menus?

I swear half the people who played ME1 didn't know you could mod weapons/armor

no thats the same

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Then what's the point in changing anything?

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They did add an option to mark guns/mods as junk and then junk or sell them all at once which is useful. The guns also don't have nearly as much sway at the start before you've put points in the weapon trees, snipers in particular are way easier to use from the jump.

And literally no one cares about Pinnacle Station. It's garbage, and the game is better off for not having it. Besides, they were kind of SOL on that one considering it was lost entirely due to data corruption.

Murphiroth posted...

The guns also don't have nearly as much sway at the start before you've put points in the weapon trees, snipers in particular are way easier to use from the jump.

They made it so everyone can use them, they just can't level the skill. It's nice.

And don't talk to UR about Pinnacle Station, he'll never shut the fuck up.

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Murphiroth posted...

And literally no one cares about Pinnacle Station. It's garbage, and the game is better off for not having it.

Why not roll over so they can stomp on the other side of your face?

I liked Pinnacle Station and its bullshit that they removed it

Even more bullshit that you're such a fanboy youre thinking big business for removing content

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Of course you would like Pinnacle Station, you have bad taste.

If they hadn't lost it to data corruption it would have still been in. Classic Unfair ignoring that fact though!

Murphiroth posted...

Of course you would like Pinnacle Station, you have bad taste.

Straight to the ad hominem

But regardless of whether you personally like the content or not, removing it is a bad thing

it makes the new release objectively worse than the original

If they hadn't lost it to data corruption it would have still been in. Classic Unfair ignoring that fact though!

That's a bullshit excuse. they could have repaired it, they just didn't because they knew fanboys like you would defend them not bothering

Bet you defend ME3's ending too

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Please stop responding to UR, not just about pinnacle station, in general. Don't let him ruin every single topic he posts in.

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It's in the Codex (almost anything you want to know about the world is in the Codex if you want to read enough). There are tiny, cheap universal translators and everyone has them. They're built into equipment, clothing, jewellery or even available as implants so even a naked alien might feasibly have a universal translator available.

Governments subsidize translation software and every species is always updating the dictionaries and grammar rules for their own languages on the "extranet", new rules are automatically downloaded whenever a person connects or arrives at a new place.

Elcor talk like they do because they use scent, extremely subtle body language and "infrasound" that no one else can smell, hear or see to convey meaning. They're saying it themselves, it's not the translation software inserting their feelings.

Of course, all humans and aliens are all lip-synced as thought they were speaking English, which makes no sense, but that's just how Sci-Fi tends to roll and you need to look past it.

There is a kind of galactic basic, a constructed language you can use in a pinch that most species know but no one uses it unless they have to.

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