[Update: Changelog] Mass Effect: Andromeda is getting a bunch of performance improvements later this week

It's been two weeks since the launch of Mass Effect: Andromeda and BioWare are thankful to the millions of gamers who joined them on this journey. In a recent press release, the company said that even though the game was in the hands of consumers, this was just the beginning of their journey. Since launch, the team has been reading over your comments and feedback, looking to discover what you like about the game, as well as areas they can evolve or improve.

This Thursday, BioWare will release a new patch that addresses technical fixes (crashes and frame rate), but also adds a number of improvements. The changes are as follows:

• Allowing you to skip ahead when traveling between planets in the galaxy map.
• Increasing the inventory limits.
• Improving the appearance of eyes for humans and asari characters.
• Decreasing the cost of remnant decryption keys and making them more affordable.
• Improving localized voice over lip sync.
• Fixing Ryder's movements when running in a zig-zag pattern.
• Improving matchmaking and latency in multiplayer.

There are many other changes coming too which will be touched upon later. However, what's more important is how BioWare plans to fix the larger problems with Mass Effect: Andromeda in the future. Over the next 2 months, they'll be rolling out additional patches which will go even deeper. The upcoming changes are as follows:

• More options and variety in the character creator.
• Improvements to hair and general appearance.
• Ongoing improvements to cinematics and animations.
• Improvements to male romance options for male Ryder.
• Adjustments to conversations with Hainly Abrams.

These upcoming patches will also address frame rate issues so don't expect them to be fixed on Thursday. BioWare will also be adding more cosmetic items to the single-player campaign for free. Multiplayer will get new maps, characters and weapons. The special APEX missions will also continue like the one on Thursday which revolves around The Remnant.

While these changes are a great start, BioWare needs to focus on performance issues the most. The game is unplayable towards the end of the main campaign when you explore the last two worlds. There are frequent freezes and the frame rate slows down to around 20 FPS for minutes on end. Hopefully a lot of these problems will be fixed this week.

Update: The complete changelog for Thursday's 1.05 update is as follows:

• Improved tutorial placement.
• Single-player balance changes: ammo crates, armor, weapons, nomad, profiles, attacks and progression.
• Multiplayer balance changes: Weapons, cover and enemies.
• Added option to skip autopilot sequences in the galaxy map.
• Improved logic, timing and continuity for relationships and story arcs.
• Improved lip-sync and facial acting during conversations.
• Fixed various collision issues.
• Fixed bugs where music or voice over wouldn't play or wasn't correct.
• Fixed issue where global squad mate banter sometimes wasn't firing.
• Fixed issue where player was unable to access the Remnant Console Interface after failing decryption multiple times.
• Fixed issue where fast travel is sometimes disabled after recruiting Drack until the player reloads a save.
• Fixed issue where Ryder can become stuck in the start of Biotic Charge Pose.
• Fixes issues related to some saves.
• Fixed issue where objective sometimes becomes un-interactable for players in multiplayer.
• Streaming and stability improvements.

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