21 réponses à ce sujet

[JDCAce]

Hello, everyone. I just started playing Mass Effect, and I have fallen in love with the universe. (Not the actual "space" universe, but the generic "fictionalized setting" universe.) I want to understand as much as I can about it, so I've been reading each and every Codex entry I unlock. I have a question, however: What is the difference between FTL drives and mass relays?

I was just made a Spectre and given control on the Normandy, so please refrain from any spoilers after that point.

[faeriehunter]

Mass relays are much, much faster than FTL drives. If you use a relay you'll arrive at the other relay in a few seconds, even if it's halfway across the galaxy, while traveling the same distance with an FTL drive would take centuries. I don't think it's ever said exactly how fast the Normandy is, but I got the impression that even going from one solar system to the next can take a few hours using only conventional FTL.

[Xennhorn]

actually the Mass relays aren't a few second trip, it does take a couple of hours depending on the distance .. but what would take say 2 hours via mass relay would equate to a few centuries in FTL

[Elvis_Mazur]

Like other said, it's much more fast and powerful. They can't make the same thing inside ships.

[faeriehunter]

Xennhorn wrote...

actually the Mass relays aren't a few second trip, it does take a couple of hours depending on the distance ..

Are you sure? The codex entry for mass relays speaks of "instantaneous transit between locations". Now, Mass Effect 2 at one point shows a ship between relays, so it's not quite instantaneous, but the transit doesn't seem to take more than a few seconds. And at the start of Mass Effect 1 Shepard walks up to the cockpit while Nihlus is standing there, just before the Normandy goes halfway across the galaxy through the relay. The game then immediately cuts to Joker saying that they have minimal drift, which means that at that point the Normandy is already at the connecting relay, and Shepard and Nihlus are still standing exactly where they were before. I can't imagine that Shepard and Nihlus just kept standing there doing nothing for several hours.

As I understand it it's the traveling from your starting point to a relay and from the connecting relay to your destination that can take several hours, not the transit between the two relays.

[Elvis_Mazur]

faeriehunter wrote...

Xennhorn wrote...

actually the Mass relays aren't a few second trip, it does take a couple of hours depending on the distance ..

Are you sure? The codex entry for mass relays speaks of "instantaneous transit between locations". Now, Mass Effect 2 at one point shows a ship between relays, so it's not quite instantaneous, but the transit doesn't seem to take more than a few seconds. And at the start of Mass Effect 1 Shepard walks up to the cockpit while Nihlus is standing there, just before the Normandy goes halfway across the galaxy through the relay. The game then immediately cuts to Joker saying that they have minimal drift, which means that at that point the Normandy is already at the connecting relay, and Shepard and Nihlus are still standing exactly where they were before. I can't imagine that Shepard and Nihlus just kept standing there doing nothing for several hours.

As I understand it it's the traveling from your starting point to a relay and from the connecting relay to your destination that can take several hours, not the transit between the two relays.

Plus the (ME2 spoiler ahead) Omega 4 relay brought the Normandy from the Omega Nebula to the galaxy's core in a matter of seconds.

[samurai crusade]

Mass relays offer instantaneous transit between locations.

The first Karpyshyn book does a good job of explaining this.
FTL is simply faster than light travel... think (warp speed in star trek)

[RGFrog]

Yes, the que for the mass relay is where the time exists. Wait could be minutes or hours in the case of the relay near the Citadel.

Also, FTL, from what I remember, takes fuel. It never states just how much faster than light you're going, but even light takes time to get from one star system to the next so FTL is merely going to take a portion of that time.

[oldag07]

I am not sure if the lore states this but Alpha Centauri http://en.wikipedia..../Alpha_Centauri the closest star system to our solar system is 4.3 light years from Earth. At even double the speed of light it would take over 2 years to reach that system. This fact is sort of supported by the fact that cerberus daily news states that an undiscovered human colony was discovered in that system only recently. Clearly Mass Relays are the preferred mode of transportation.

[HBC Dresden]

Real question is "what is the difference between a FTL Drive and Mass Effect core"?

[The Grey Ranger]

HBC Dresden wrote...

Real question is "what is the difference between a FTL Drive and Mass Effect core"?

The Mass Effect core of a ship is an intregal part of ftl travel. 

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/FTL

There is a link to the codex entry explaining how it works in game.


According to the wiki (taken from the codex)  FTL is around 12 light years per day.  So about 8 hours to Alpha Centari.

Modifié par The Grey Ranger, 14 mars 2011 - 08:34 .

[HBC Dresden]

Correct, but characters like EDI (I think) use the terms interchangeably. So is the mass effect core the same thing as the FTL drive?

[JDCAce]

Thanks for all the help, everyone, but I was really referring to the difference of function. I know mass relays are faster (as said before, "instantaneous"), but WHAT makes them faster? As I understand it, FTL drives simply lower the mass of the ship, and mass relays lower the mass of space between it and another mass relay. Is this correct? If so, how is creating this "tunnel" of low-mass space (does "space" have mass?) a faster means of travel than lowering the mass of the ship?

[samurai crusade]

I know that you have to "approach" a relay. But I don't know that speed has anything to do with relays.... because you approach at sub-FTL. I think of it like an aircraft carrier. A jet taking off is fast....but a catapult from a carrier is much faster. Also... relay travel is safe due to the mass-free corridore created. Just remembered at the end of ME2 (i'll try not to spoil anything) it is said that the ME core reaches critical levels (suggesting that the relays activate a ships ME drives to higher outputs than normal for a short period of time).

[oldag07]

JDCAce wrote...

Thanks for all the help, everyone, but I was really referring to the difference of function. I know mass relays are faster (as said before, "instantaneous"), but WHAT makes them faster? As I understand it, FTL drives simply lower the mass of the ship, and mass relays lower the mass of space between it and another mass relay. Is this correct? If so, how is creating this "tunnel" of low-mass space (does "space" have mass?) a faster means of travel than lowering the mass of the ship?

JDCAce, you seem like you would really enjoy reading up and maybe contributing to the Mass Effect wiki.  Of course there are some MAJOR spoilers on the Mass Relay  page of the wiki.  
http://masseffect.wikia.com/

As for your question, well Faster That Light travel currently is an impossiblity according to our understanding of physics, so one would have to take any sci fi explanation with a little faith.

Modifié par oldag07, 15 mars 2011 - 11:57 .

[Dave666]

The FTL drives on the ship work by reducing the mass of the ship, doing this means that it takes a lot less power to get more speed. Think of it like flicking a pebble, then using the same force and flicking a basketball. The FTL Drive core takes that Basketball and reduces its mass to the pebble.

A simple way of looking at Mass Relays, is to imagine them as catapults with the ship as the projectile. The Mass Relays, due to their size and power can reduce the mass of ships by a MASSIVE amount compared to what the ship can do alone, so when you add the two together, you get a catapult firing a projectile with very, very small mass. End result? The ship gets from Point A to Point B much, much faster than it could under its own power.

Modifié par Dave666, 16 mars 2011 - 05:38 .

[yfullman]

Mass Relay's allow for instantaneous travel to one other relay that it is "linked" to. That's for primary relays I believe. Secondary relays link to multiple relays but they can't be to far from each other. FTL is just going faster than light. Even with FTL it would take thousands of years to go from one side of the galaxy to the other. With mass relays as long the right relays are active this time can be cut down to weeks.

[oldag07]

One must note that the FTL drive is not engaged during Mass Relay travel. Trying to spoil as little as possible, but a non space vessel did use the mass relay at one point in the mass effect 1.

[MadCat221]

oldag07 wrote...

One must note that the FTL drive is not engaged during Mass Relay travel. Trying to spoil as little as possible, but a non space vessel did use the mass relay at one point in the mass effect 1.

However, the Mako did have a mass effect core, which is the cause of its funky handling.  IIRC, the Omega Relay did something funky to the Normandy's core.

I'm surmising that there's some manner of interaction between a mass relay and an object with a mass effect core, regardless if that core's function includes conventional FTL travel.



... Could a Biotic ride a mass relay?

Modifié par MadCat221, 20 mars 2011 - 06:36 .

[Zygodac21]

The mass effect core of a ship reduces the mass of the ship and all its occupants while the relay accelerates that ship. If you didn't have the core working to reduce the mass then Einsteins law of special relativity (you know E=mc^2) would kick in and the amount of power needed to get a ship just to light speed would be infinite. But since the Core of the ship is lowering the mass at the same time the ship is being accelerated by an external force, eg. the Mass Relay, the power stays the same, and the transition from non FTL travel to FTL travel is instantaneous thus keeping Einsteins Theory intact.

I hope this helps out.

[Autoclave]

Zygodac21 wrote...

The mass effect core of a ship reduces the mass of the ship and all its occupants while the relay accelerates that ship. If you didn't have the core working to reduce the mass then Einsteins law of special relativity (you know E=mc^2) would kick in and the amount of power needed to get a ship just to light speed would be infinite. But since the Core of the ship is lowering the mass at the same time the ship is being accelerated by an external force, eg. the Mass Relay, the power stays the same, and the transition from non FTL travel to FTL travel is instantaneous thus keeping Einsteins Theory intact.

I hope this helps out.

JUST WOW! I wish that kind of technology existed in real life!

[Warlocomotf]

Dave666 wrote...

The FTL drives on the ship work by reducing the mass of the ship, doing this means that it takes a lot less power to get more speed. Think of it like flicking a pebble, then using the same force and flicking a basketball. The FTL Drive core takes that Basketball and reduces its mass to the pebble.

A simple way of looking at Mass Relays, is to imagine them as catapults with the ship as the projectile. The Mass Relays, due to their size and power can reduce the mass of ships by a MASSIVE amount compared to what the ship can do alone, so when you add the two together, you get a catapult firing a projectile with very, very small mass. End result? The ship gets from Point A to Point B much, much faster than it could under its own power.

This was also my understanding on the topic. In the back of the normandy you have a mass effect drive core that is gigantic compared to the average space ship's mass effect drivecore- however mass relays are larger still on a scale of 100:1 or so.