Looking at the new Garrus trailer, it appears that there's now ammo in the game. Personally I thought ME1's overheating mechanic worked better, and fit in more with the context of a space shooter. I dunno, I just don't like going around opening ammo crates and reloading is all. Thoughts? 

I think there is just an ammo counter and not ammo per say, if you get what I'm saying.  I read somewhere BioWare said that the overheating mechanic stopped the action too much.  I also kinda liked it.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
The over-heating mechanic in M.E.1 took way too long to dissipate, but ammo management would be way worse!

Hopefully they keep the ammo flow relativly high (except for maybe on the highest difficuly) since I hate having to scrounge for ammo (except for maybe Fallout type games where it fits the atmosphere) but Im sort of into it since I love reload animations lol

Though I do think the idea of an overheating guns fits more into the space shooter style.

" I think there is just an ammo counter and not ammo per say, if you get what I'm saying.  I read somewhere BioWare said that the overheating mechanic stopped the action too much.  I also kinda liked it. "

There isn't ammo, but you're still reloading. As in, you have infinite ammo, but you still have to reload when all the bullets in the clip run out.

" @Damien said:

" I think there is just an ammo counter and not ammo per say, if you get what I'm saying.  I read somewhere BioWare said that the overheating mechanic stopped the action too much.  I also kinda liked it. "

That seems to be what the situation is. I remember reading on the ME2 forums that you're actually ejecting spent heat sinks rather than loading a new clip. If that's truly the case, then it shouldn't be a huge deal and I'd say it'll improve the action by speeding it up just as they set out to do. "

Heres what I've gleaned and... kinda made up:
 
When you reload, Sheperd pushes a button on the side of the gun, and want looks like some gas/ice flys out of a vent on the other side of the gun. I assume this means that rather than reloading the gun hes manually changing it's coolant. Basically, isntead of using heat sinks to dissipate heat over time, guns now use coolant which must be manually changed after a certain number of shots. In the case of the assault rifle, its 40 shots. The "ammunition" counter actually tracks how much extra coolant you have left.  This would also explain why all the different ammo types (regular, incendiary,etc) all come out of the same ammo pool.
 
And if you look carefully in the trailer, there is a total ammo pool, not just an amo counter. In the trailer, he had about 367 rounds of assault rifle ammo.
 
That said, I kinda liked the old system too. It didn't really slow down the action at all, it just forced you to aim a little more carefully.

With the overheating mechanic it almost seemed like it slowly reloaded whenever you aren't shooting. With the classic ammo mechanic, you actually have to stop midaction for 2 seconds in order to reload. That sounds like it would stop the action more than the overheating. 

As long as I can walk over ammo to pick it up, I don't care. I hate having to open chests and boxes to stay supplied, or (God forbid) point a cursor and press a button to pick up some ammo sitting right there on the ground. Waste of time.

" @Joseppie said:

" @Damien said:

" I think there is just an ammo counter and not ammo per say, if you get what I'm saying.  I read somewhere BioWare said that the overheating mechanic stopped the action too much.  I also kinda liked it. "

That seems to be what the situation is. I remember reading on the ME2 forums that you're actually ejecting spent heat sinks rather than loading a new clip. If that's truly the case, then it shouldn't be a huge deal and I'd say it'll improve the action by speeding it up just as they set out to do. "

That acutally sounds badass. I like that. "

As much as I overheated (and still overheat) guns in ME and how much I bitch at the screen until the gun cools off, I'm not sold on this new mechanic. Backing an ammo system in, even if they did a good job of justifying it story-wise by not making it an actual "ammo" system, kinda takes away some of the unique flavor. Maybe if they give the weapons the ability to fire after you run out of "coolers" with the same mechanics as in ME, but I highly doubt it.

I think it worked well in ME1. The only big problem I had with the combat in ME1 was that the AI wasn't good mostly just rushed you.

To me it looked like real ammo/coolant but limited quanity; Its a change for the worse IMO but nothing big and it might just put a limit to the biotic/shotgun/wrex/garrus train-o-carnage

There cant be ammo the fiction doesn't allow for it.

i haven't made my mind up. It sounds like a neat new way to have to manage the heat with heatsinks you can switch out. I'll have to play it before i can say if its better or worst then the ME1 solution

Why not speed up the cooldown instead?

I dunno what you guys are talking about with this whole."It's just an ammo counter instead of overheating now" it's been confirmed that all weapons have limited ammo.
 
 "Part of the development of Mass Effect 2 is focusing on it as much a shooter as it is an RPG. They’re equally important to the game and part of the things we realized as a recognition on the team is the tension, and the excitement during the action sequence during a shooter game. There’s a certain tension to having a limited supply of ammo or bullets, and just realizing you gotta make sure every one counts."

" This probably won't affect the gameplay all that much. I don't see what the big deal is about it. "

" @Colonel_Fury said:

" This probably won't affect the gameplay all that much. I don't see what the big deal is about it. "

Because it kinda negates they did with ME 1 and the various books.  
 
I really don't know what to think anymore about this. I have made a thread about it months ago and a someone (claims she from bioware) says that it's just a different management of the heat. Now you have Bioware saying that there ammo in the game. I don't think it will be a game breaker , I just really dislike when companies re-canon their mythos.  "

When I first heard it I cried foul but the Heat sink thing is actually a really cool Idea.

"As long as I can walk over ammo to pick it up, I don't care. I hate having to open chests and boxes to stay supplied, or (God forbid) point a cursor and press a button to pick up some ammo sitting right there on the ground. Waste of time. "

I prefer the new system.  I think that the act of ducking behind cover and changing a clip is an essential part of feeling like you're in an action scene, not ducking behind cover and staring at your gun until it cools down.  And as people have already said, it's not a clip of ammo, it's a fresh heat sink, and you have a limited supply of heat sinks.  So stop bitching about them going back on their mythos about ammo.  They're not that stupid.  

Gameplay balance > Tiny bit of story.

My guess is that ordinary guns will have unlimted ammo but heavy weapons will require ammo since they are more powerful.
Has to do with balancing I think. Hammering on the trigger while equipped with your infinite rockets rocket launcher would be kinda boring after a while and would ruin the gameplay.

"My guess is that ordinary guns will have unlimted ammo but heavy weapons will require ammo since they are more powerful.Has to do with balancing I think. Hammering on the trigger while equipped with your infinite rockets rocket launcher would be kinda boring after a while and would ruin the gameplay. "

I don't see what the fuss is after watching the Engineer video. He shoots his pistol and the reload animation looks sweet!
Push out the old heat sink and push a new one in at the same time. Beats sitting behind the box for 30 seconds because you choose to use Explosive rounds since you're a grenadier.

" @Mordukai said:

" @Colonel_Fury said:

" This probably won't affect the gameplay all that much. I don't see what the big deal is about it. "

Because it kinda negates they did with ME 1 and the various books.  
 
I really don't know what to think anymore about this. I have made a thread about it months ago and a someone (claims she from bioware) says that it's just a different management of the heat. Now you have Bioware saying that there ammo in the game. I don't think it will be a game breaker , I just really dislike when companies re-canon their mythos.  "

This. If you read stuff in the first game it goes into great detail as to why the guns have no ammo. "

Attn people who keep saying "clip" in this thread:
 
- Although Mass Effect 2 uses "thermal clips", other games use magazines, not clips. The terms are NOT interchangeable, and unless you're talking about an M1 Garand or some kind of bolt action rifle that uses a stripper clip to load rounds into it, you're changing magazines, not clips. 
 
Here is a visual reference:
 

I like the idea.. I got killed so many times in Mass Effect, especially on the harder difficulties, whenever my shotgun would overheat..

I didn't realize this was such a problem that they chose to "fix" it. It seems like an odd choice to all of a sudden have the same guns you used to have operate completely differently, from a fiction standpoint. Even from a gameplay standpoint, I never had a problem with the way the overheat mechanic worked, especially because that gave you incentive to plop on all the heat dissipation add-ons that you could onto your gun.

" As others have stated, hopefully it is just a alternative to the overheating. I don't want to have to manage ammo but the overheating in the first game took way too long. Granted I would always just switch to a different type of gun at that point, as that would be faster than just waiting. "

" @Maxszy said:

" As others have stated, hopefully it is just a alternative to the overheating. I don't want to have to manage ammo but the overheating in the first game took way too long. Granted I would always just switch to a different type of gun at that point, as that would be faster than just waiting. "

Well I would rather just wait for the cooldown then have to always be looking for ammo like we have to do now. "

" @CL60 said:

" @Maxszy said:

" As others have stated, hopefully it is just a alternative to the overheating. I don't want to have to manage ammo but the overheating in the first game took way too long. Granted I would always just switch to a different type of gun at that point, as that would be faster than just waiting. "

Well I would rather just wait for the cooldown then have to always be looking for ammo like we have to do now. "

I don't know if there is any inclination that we have to "look" for ammo now. I would guess its more like the weapon just has to "recharge" or "reload" and there fore you do a reload but you have unlimited ammo for the weapons. I haven't heard anything about actually "looking" for Ammo. Granted, I haven't watched any of the first 90 minute previews or whatever is out now, so if it was in there I've missed it. "

Hopefully they have some type of upgrade to negate the need for ammo.
 
Or else... I'm just going to play strictly Biotics and Engineer to avoid the chance that I may be in a situation where I'm pretty much screwed no matter what I do. They should give the soldier some type of perk, something so they don't become useless if he runs out of ammo.
 
I'd be perfectly fine with the ammo system if it weren't for the point that it's universal.

I'm happy with there being ammo this time, the weapon overheating kind of annoyed me because it seemed to happen way too quick.

If there is ammo in this game, I will shove a baguette up my bumhole sideways

" If there is ammo in this game, I will shove a baguette up my bumhole sideways "