How are upgrades in equipment packs distributed?

Question

My brother and I were trying to figure this out today. Maybe someone knows.

In Mass Effect 3 multi-player, when you get equipment packs, is there any algorithm governing what sorts of weapons/weapon upgrades you get? My brother was pretty sure it tends to favor weapons which you use.

I seem to see the opposite though. Weapons which I use, I rarely ever get upgrades for, and weapons I never use, I seem to constantly get upgrades for.

Is there any weighting in those packs? Or are they completely random and I'm just that unlucky?

Asked by eidylon

Answer

It doesn't favor anything, it's random, with (i think) a modifier based what you already achieved: if you still have a lot of uncommon weapons to unlock/level up to X, you'd better stick with the veteran packs. Why? Because the game will favor the weapons/mods you still didn't complete. This will result in spectre packs dropping uncommon weapons, thus wasting your credits. The strategy i used is this:

• you start leveling a char till level 16-17, when you're ready to do gold missions
• from level 1-16 you buy (vetearan) packs normally, completing your uncommon equipement
• wen you reach level 16 or 17, you can either move to gold and save all the money for when you promote your character, or just move onto another char till level 16 again
• when you promote your char(s) you'll have enough money to buy tons of veteran packs and level up your low-levels with the characters dropped (a neo promoted class will result in gaining up to 10 levels just buying packs, if you're lucky enough)

Do this untill you complete your uncommon armory, then move onto the spectre packs. This will result in fast N7-leveling, a lot of weapons and characters and most of all, no xp-money waste!

PS: i forgot to add that you can track all your equipement progress using Bioware's social website. This is exactly my profile and you can see my progress too! It's a useful tool to keep an eye on your drops! Hope my post helped

Answered by Samuele Mattiuzzo

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PS3 Hard Drive Replacement - Will a 3.5" ATA Hard Drive work?

Question

I got some 250 GB Disks from an older server. It must be a weird server because these disks are 3.5" MaxLine Plus II, 250GB ATA/133 HDD disks, but nevertheless here they are. Do they fit in a PS3, 60 GB version?

Asked by Ice

Answer

From How to upgrade your PS3 internal hard drive:

Things you will need

1. Larger SATA notebook (2.5″) hard drive (hd), 5400rpm or 7400rpm.

So unfortunately with your 3.5" hard drives you are out of luck - they won't fit into the PS3 and they are the wrong type (ATA vs. SATA).

However, all is not lost. From the same site there's a post on How to add an External USB hard drive to the PS3

If you have amassed plenty of videos, music and pictures on your computer over the years then why not stick it all on an external hard drive and hook it up to your PS3. Easier, and much quicker, than streaming files over your home network this is an ideal solution for users with massive hard drive needs.

With the advances in the PS3 software, many video types can now be played and nearly all music and picture formats are also available.

So if get hold of a 3.5" enclosure with a USB interface you should be able to use the drives like this.

Answered by ChrisF

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Is there enough XP to unlock every upgrade in Payday: The Heist?

Question

I've been playing Payday: The Heist, which has three upgrade trees (assault, sharpshooter, support).

Each time you gain a level, you proceed one step further up one of the trees. You can only ever be on one tree at any one time, though you can change which tree you're on instantly at any moment.

Right now I've been upgrading each tree equally. However, I'm starting to wonder: is there enough XP in the game to allow me to fully upgrade every tree, or should I pick the one I like most and upgrade only that tree?

Answer

Yes, there are currently 144 "levels" each level giving you the next upgrade in your currently selected leveling tree.

I'm pretty sure you can select which tree you're leveling by hitting tab + 1, 2, or 3, depending on which tree you want to level.

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Is it better to upgrade Melee Attack or Flying Attack to boost BroodLord damage?

Question

As far as I can tell the initial damage from the BroodLord benefits from +flyer attack, while the damage the broodling does benefits from +ground attack. Since the broodlings attack a lot faster than the BroodLord, it seems boosting ground attack will increase the effective damage the BroodLord does?

BroodLord gets +2 damage / 2.5s from flying upgrades, while the broodling gets +1 /0.6455s from ground attacks.

Assuming the broodling attacks once as soon as it lands, and then lives for 0.64s, it will have broken even. If it lives any longer than melee upgrades would be better?

Should I be upgrading ground attack in preference to flyer attack? (IE, ground attack AND flyer carapace) if I am using brood lords?

Answer

Definitely upgrade ground melee attack,

Not only does ground melee attack have better dps with a brood lord, it also complements the higher tiered zerg units as well (crack-lings and ultralisks become very common for rebuilding a late-game army after an encounter).

With that being said, if you are planning on going mass mutalisk early in the game, the air upgrades may provide a natural transition into brood lords but make sure you start researching ground attack as you transition. Prioritize ground melee, but don't forget that flyer attack helps as well. Zerg late game should provide you with plenty of resources to get both upgrades when your army is maxed.

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What is the point of upgrading my house?

Question

I've just bought the first available house and I've spent all my money on it. Great, now I have a place to store my dragon bones until I become Mr. Smith (oh dear what a pun), but what's the point in upgrading the furnishings and such?

• Is it just to add more storage space? Isn't every chest infinite size?
• Is it just to add alchemy stations, etc? Aren't these readily and freely available elsewhere?
• Is it just to look nicer? Isn't that just purely vanity and a waste of gold?

Answer

You're correct on all three questions. I think one point is that you get all of that stuff in the same place, and with multiple chests you can organize stuff more. For example, I have a smithing cabinet and an equipment chest. Also, your house is usually more conveniently located than wherever the alchemy lab and enchanting table happen to be in a given city.

The other thing you get is some weapon racks (2 in the house in Whiterun) and armor stands (0 in Whiterun, unfortunately). These let you display weapons and armor, which is a nice little point of customization. I have the Sanguine Rose sitting in mine, and it looks pretty neat.

So no, you don't really get anything new beyond the first container (which is valuable because your stuff won't grow legs while it's in there). So what are the upgrades for? Completionists, mostly. I might not get every house, but I plan to fully upgrade the ones I do, because they look nice. (Also, some of the upgrades to later houses get you, for example, a cabinet full of good potions, IIRC.) The house upgrades are what an MMO player might call a "gold sink", and after all you will end up with quite a bit of it.

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Is there enough XP in Payday: The Heist to unlock every upgrade?

Question

I've been playing Payday: The Heist, which has three upgrade trees (assault, sharpshooter, support).

Each time you gain a level, you proceed one step further up one of the trees. You can only ever be on one tree at any one time, though you can change which tree you're on instantly at any moment.

Right now I've been upgrading each tree equally. However, I'm starting to wonder: is there enough XP in the game to allow me to fully upgrade every tree, or should I pick the one I like most and upgrade only that tree?

Answer

Yes, there are currently 144 "levels" each level giving you the next upgrade in your currently selected leveling tree.

I'm pretty sure you can select which tree you're leveling by hitting tab + 1, 2, or 3, depending on which tree you want to level.

Check more discussion of this question.