Issue commands to squadmates? Control their powers.

[Fried Noodles]

Are you able to do this?
I know you can tell them where you want them to go take cover with Z, X, and C.
But in Mass Effect 2, you could kind of pause the action of the game and choose your squadmates powers and their targets for them.
I used to play with all squad powers disabled so I could choose when they used them. Save the Overloads for shields and the Warps or Incinerates for armor, etc.
Otherwise, it felt like they would burn their skills on any ol' target as soon as they came off cooldown.

I never played ME3, so I dunno if that system carried over.

Not sure if it's a thing in Andromeda.

[EbonHawk]

I haven't found a way, and assumed it wasn't possible. Didn't see it mentioned anywhere in their descriptions, or the game's menus, etc.

[Sinophile]

Unlike previous ME titles, you cannot command your squadmates to use powers. I believe that they did this to make the game more console friendly. Specifically, easier to play with a controller than a Mouse and Keyboard. There is also less pausing. Essentially, EA has more or less shifted between ME being a Shooting game and an RPG. ME1 is by far the most rpg-like in the series, with ME2 being the most shooter-like. ME3 and MEA are between the two as far as the balance between RPG and FPS elements.
I also hate being limited to 3 powers at a time.

[EbonHawk]

Originally posted by Sinophile:

I also hate being limited to 3 powers at a time.

I never experimented with it, but you can set up different 3-power combos and switch between them with the Favorites option. Think you can have 4 sets of 3? I just found my favorite 3 and stuck with those, but that might be a helpful option for you if you still wanted access to other powers.

[Fried Noodles]

Originally posted by EbonHawk:

Originally posted by Sinophile:

I also hate being limited to 3 powers at a time.

I never experimented with it, but you can set up different 3-power combos and switch between them with the Favorites option. Think you can have 4 sets of 3? I just found my favorite 3 and stuck with those, but that might be a helpful option for you if you still wanted access to other powers.

Are you able to keybind the favorites or something?
I never really messed around with that function.

I'd really like to use more variety of biotics, but I always feel like I need Overload and I'm really fond of Assault Drone as well.
So I'm typically 'stuck' with only Pull as a primer

[Sinophile]

So to pull up favorites it's either T or Tab, I forgot which despite playing the game a month ago.
If you use an assault drone, you might want to have at least one profile as an engineer.
The drone can also be specced to be either a primer or a detonator.
I never liked pull, Ive always preferred Singularity.
If you want to acquire a couple other biotic powers, Lance and Aegis are also fun. Lance requires manually aiming, but is good for dealing raw damage.
Aegis is mainly good against Annointed.
Charge is very fun but risky, as is cloaking.
Charge and cloak together is a very fun op combo.
While you can't directly command squadmates to use powers, they can still help with combos.
For example, you can couple overload with Drack's incinerate or Peebee's pull.
Last, you can always respecc in the medbay aboard the tempest.

[EbonHawk]

I've not messed with it enough to know. I just saw it in the menu options. But I think Sinophile has it right.

[AbedsBrother]

The problem with switching between different profiles in combat is that switching immediately sets all your powers on cool-down. I believe there's a mod to remove the cool-down, but in the vanilla game it can be incredibly cumbersome to use more than 3 powers.

[Sphere]

You can use the x,z,c keys also to make your squad attack certain enemies more. They will shout before using a power that you may make a combo.
The vanilla profiles are indeed quite useless. I suggest using the mod Favorite Swapping Overhaul on Nexusmods. It removes the cooldown, so that essentially you have 12 powers you can use.
https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectandromeda/mods/693

[yannypr]

I got to say, I never noticed this feature wasn't available in Andromeda cause I never really used it in the previous Mass Effect games (maybe ME1 I did a bit) and definitely never needed to use it in Mass Effect Andromeda. One thing I hated in the Dragon Age games and why I always played them in very easy was due to the incessant party micromanagement. I prefer having party members independently competent enough so I can focus on my own character's actions. I also like being able to bring bring any party member I want without having to take team synergy into consideration.

[White Knight]

I rather liked that change actually. It feels more like "teamwork" than playing with dolls, in my mind. Having that level of micro-managing ability detracts from my enjoyment of the game. Npcs who can do their job, and react to things in a reasonable way is far more interesting than "You stand here, look this way, take this thing out of your pocket, use that power, now go stand over there...".

As for the profiles/favourites, they already have built-in hot-keys. The F1-F4 keys allow you to switch between them without needing to go through the Tab menu.

I find the cooldown between profiles makes them kind of pointless. My fights are usually over before the cooldown wears off anyway.

[EbonHawk]

Buff those cooldown times, and it passes very quickly.