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Mass Effect, Spoiler??? I doubt it, but safe!

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mrgreenjeans

Member
Joined
May 3, 2003
Location
Cleveland, GA
Hey someone with some experience give me a hand here. the manual really blows on this game. the page for the HUD has picture and then a list of what's displayed with no corresponding icons..real sweet.:bang head
Two questions:
1. After the health bar for each character is a series of marks, up to five I think. What do they mean? I finally figured out last night that the yellow hand means they are under command but i cannot figure out what the marks are for. I've seen them change but for the life of me can't figure it out.
2. Health, how do I recharge health points/energy whatever. I'm in a battle and beat it to a point, but used up all my health. I've been standing around watching the grass grow while my points jack up, but it's pretty slow. Is there a way to convert omni-gen to health? How do I recharge my health thing. I'm at a place where i can't go back and in my current state, can't go forward (minor boss battle ahead) without you know what being handed to me on a platter. Help!
 
The manual does kinda suck. The little blue bars after your health represent your shields. It's a good idea to use a hotkey for a shield-regen ability, if you have one.

You know to push 'f' to use a health pack thing, right? Refill your health kits by using medical terminal things, they are usually in hospital type areas but can also be found in other places.

I was having a bit of trouble with combat too, until I started getting smart about not holding down the mouse button. Your accuracy really goes to hell fast. Short controlled bursts are the only way to go, unless you activate one of the pistol or assault rifle powers that reduces overheating - go to town when you activate one of those.
 
What you are looking for are the Medi-Packs, (default is F key) you'll see them at the bottom left with the '+' for your current amount, plus the little icon has a timer for how often you can use it, its pretty intuitive once you know what you are looking for.

Also, make sure you check your armor/weapons/etc for upgrades. There are some medical upgrades for your armor that will allow you to regen health 1/sec up to 3.3/sec (maybe more, but thats what I found).

Biotics apparently can do it, but I was a Vanguard so I had just offensive biotic powers. Liara might have more of the healing ones (or Kaiden as well)

The marks are the characters current shield, so you can take a little damage before your health takes a hit. Also there are upgrades for your armor that will add shields up to +120 I think...
 
Thanks for the help. found the armor upgrade for health. it's the only thing saving my butt right now. I forgot this isn't a game you can rush through. It will reward you as play it with strategy, that I'm just starting to figure out. And go heavy on the space bar. It feels kinda strange not having the turn based play as KOTOR but what the heck. Once you get the feel for it it's OK.
 
Thanks for the help. found the armor upgrade for health. it's the only thing saving my butt right now. I forgot this isn't a game you can rush through. It will reward you as play it with strategy, that I'm just starting to figure out. And go heavy on the space bar. It feels kinda strange not having the turn based play as KOTOR but what the heck. Once you get the feel for it it's OK.

See I had to go the other way, from FPS to more strategic style of play. You can't just bunny hop around and quickly strafe around corners and such. So I had to adjust my fast paced COD4 skillz to some more take cover, peak out, shoot, wait for the heat to die down, kinda stuff.

Also, sometimes the auto-cover system didn't work as well as I would have liked. In some cases it worked well, but in others it didn't at all, so I would be floating out in space rather than taking cover due to it.
 
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