It's a little more like late game before the points get really incremental. You get two per level until level 20. As for why the weapons aren't skill related anymore, it's probably once again to make the game play more like a shooter, which I personally like, but I can see why it upsets you if you prefer a more RPG oriented game. Frankly, the amount of points that you had to invest in the first game into sniper rifles before the drift was reduced to usable levels was really annoying.
Singularity is still in the game, although no NPC's have it. It's only available to an adept Shepard.
And man, you must really have had bad luck with planets for mining, I'm pretty much outright done with it and I don't think it ate up more than a hour of total game play time. If you really want to save time though, you can look at/torrent the strategy guide, it has a listing of which planets have what minerals. Also, get the scanner upgrade (from talking with Miranda I think.) it makes finding the minerals a bit easier.
PS: Why do you like the sniper rifle so much? (I grabbed the LMG myself, so I haven't had a chance to use it).
Singularity is still in the game, although no NPC's have it. It's only available to an adept Shepard.
And man, you must really have had bad luck with planets for mining, I'm pretty much outright done with it and I don't think it ate up more than a hour of total game play time. If you really want to save time though, you can look at/torrent the strategy guide, it has a listing of which planets have what minerals. Also, get the scanner upgrade (from talking with Miranda I think.) it makes finding the minerals a bit easier.
PS: Why do you like the sniper rifle so much? (I grabbed the LMG myself, so I haven't had a chance to use it).