17 réponses à ce sujet

[Vortex13]

In your opinion, does the Mass Effect setting have an accurate depiction of the sheer size of space?

 

 

The use of Mass Relays and FTL spacecraft certainly make things seem smaller, but do you feel that the appropriate amount of 'space' is used in in trying to capture the size of space? The distances involved in interplanetary travel? The distances used in interstellar travel?

 

 

 

Here is the galaxy map of Mass Effect:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

In my opinion, it makes the Milky Way seem small, like there is nothing left to explore because you can quite literally travel from one side of the galaxy to the other in a matter of minutes. 

 

The Codex states that less than 1% of the Milky Way has been explored, but when you look at the regions of space sectioned off for the various factions in the setting, it starts to detract from the vastness of space especially when newcomers like the human Alliance has hold over roughly 25% of the overall galactic real estate.

 

 

 

Compare this to the Traveller universe:

 

http://travellermap....scale=0.0234375

 

Looking at that map you can see multiple space faring empires, each holding hundreds of star systems, but when compared to the size of the Milky Way as a whole, it all is less than a speck on the galaxy. The unknown is a veritable sea surrounding the tiny island of explored space. Travelling to other worlds filled with strange alien life, and having epic adventures is still entirely possible in the Traveller setting, but it still leaves this weight of the unknown, of the unexplored hanging over the setting.

 

 

 

[Taki17]

Those points and connections on the map represent individual mass relays in the galaxy, and as we've seen in the game, one relay usually leads to one star cluster which has multiple star systems. Those systems can be reached using FTL and probably takes days-weeks to travel even to systems not too far from the relay. I imagine there are quite a few star systems which have multiple star systems far-far away from eachother, and no one was able to explore them, because even the FTL travel would take years or more.

 

Plus, the Citadel has a law, which states that only those relays can be opened that's other end is known, so they won't open a relay to a hostile part of the galaxy. With these in mind, it it pretty easy to imagine that only a small part of the galaxy is explored. Remember, we're only talking about a few dozen, maybe a hundred star systems that are far away from eachother and are quite large themselves too.

[TheN7Penguin]

In Mass Effect, I would not say space seems extremely vast? But I take it more as symbolism - with Mass Relays, etc. - it almost shows how far technology has come? And because it is a video game anyway - show only shows a snapshot of what actually happens.

[AlanC9]

I agree that the map is very misleading about the amount of space controlled by the Citadel.(The Codex is a bit better.)

But this isn't necessarily a problem, if you think of it as an in-universe map. It's a plot point that the races of Citadel space have really overestimated their own power, knowledge, and importance.

[SwobyJ]

I agree that the map is very misleading about the amount of space controlled by the Citadel.(The Codex is a bit better.)

But this isn't necessarily a problem, if you think of it as an in-universe map. It's a plot point that the races of Citadel space have really overestimated their own power, knowledge, and importance.

 

Indeed. The Citadel can be viewed as a mass delusion device (not really even directly haha, but psychologically), as a tool to lull species into complacency in their long-term (but short-term for the Reapers).

[Vazgen]

We'll get a "whole new region of space" in ME:Next. If it's in Milky Way, we'll see the expansion of the known galaxy. 

The space feels small because of video game mechanics and resource constraints. If every planet in every system of every cluster had a unique mission there would've been no such question. The space in ME is vast, the thing is that we can't do much with it. 

[ImaginaryMatter]

We'll get a "whole new region of space" in ME:Next. If it's in Milky Way, we'll see the expansion of the known galaxy. 

The space feels small because of video game mechanics and resource constraints. If every planet in every system of every cluster had a unique mission there would've been no such question. The space in ME is vast, the thing is that we can't do much with it. 

 

I don't really think ME had a resource problem though. They just decided to place most of their interactive portions of the game inside a series of connecting hallways. There's a way to use mechanics to convey meaning but the series played it rather pedestrian. I think even adding a few simple changes to the galaxy map could have helped. Maybe making fuel management more complex, making systems take up less of the galaxy map, or replacing the ship cursor with planned trajectory marker of some kind.

[Vazgen]

I don't really think ME had a resource problem though. They just decided to place most of their interactive portions of the game inside a series of connecting hallways. There's a way to use mechanics to convey meaning but the series played it rather pedestrian. I think even adding a few simple changes to the galaxy map could have helped. Maybe making fuel management more complex, making systems take up less of the galaxy map, or replacing the ship cursor with planned trajectory marker of some kind.

Even if every planet had ME2-style linear and very short missions, the galaxy would've still felt incredibly vast. Of course, "open world" exploration like in ME1 would've been better to convey that feeling but it would've been present. 

There are ways to make galaxy navigation more engaging and have it convey that space exploration idea. I hope ME:Next does that. 

 

Mini Normandy navigation was a complete BS!

[Pasquale1234]

I think it's downplayed for... reasons.

Hackett: Commander, I know you're busy, but I really need you to do this. With the Normandy's Tantalus drive, it will only take about 17 years round trip.

With all the exploration, scanning, fetch quests, and missions, the amount of actual time that would pass with all of that travel would be... enormous.

[WarChicken78]

No. Mass effect does not a good Job at that, but in my opinion it's not it's job to do that - it's job is to tell an interactive story with lots of action.

 

Even trying to emphasize the enormous size of space has to fail in any videogame, because it's hardly comprehensible for our brains anyways.

The Mass effect Series plays "only" in our Galaxy, the Milky Way, and there it only plays in a few regions.

 

Now imagine, that the milky way has actually 200-400 Billions of Stars in it. That's a tad more than the 100ish we get to visit in the ME Trilogy.

And now imagine that there are Billions of Galaxies out there. Each containing hundrets of billions of stars.

 

Some of those galaxies are so far away, that their light took millions of years to reach us, for some far away early galaxies even billions of years.

Now think that light travels at a speed of 9 460 700 000 000 km per year (or 1080 000 000 km/h or 299792.458 km/s). (Exact Numbers taken from Wikipedia)

Those Distances are so huge, that our brains are simply unable to imagine it.

 

How are you supposed to visualize that in any videogame and at the same time make it fun, so people buy and enjoy it?

I don't think that is even remotely possible with our current technology.

[God]

In ME1, yeah. In the other two, not so much. It's one of the things ME1 did better.

[AlanC9]

No. Mass effect does not a good Job at that, but in my opinion it's not it's job to do that - it's job is to tell an interactive story with lots of action.

Yeah, that was my take on it too. 24 doesn't do a good job of emphasizing the size of the continental US either, but it's not trying to. The vastness of space isn't important to Shepard's mission.

[Reorte]

No, it doesn't, but it since it doesn't appear to be under-estimating it either (it gives the impression of well-covered but doesn't actually say it is, but does say the reverse) it's not really important.

[Reorte]

How are you supposed to visualize that in any videogame and at the same time make it fun, so people buy and enjoy it?

I don't think that is even remotely possible with our current technology.

Elite: Dangerous has a 400 billion odd star galaxy, with the inhabited (human only to now) area being a few hundred LY across, and just that seems vast. Hasn't stopped people going off on sightseeing tours to the galactic core (no Collectors) but it takes a while to get there, even with a ship capable of jumping 30 ly at a time (min time between jumps is probably 40 or 50 seconds, plus you need to stop to refuel by sunscooping every now and then).

[Vortex13]

I think that the ease of access that people have to (pretty much) the whole Milky Way via the Mass Relays is what makes the universe seem so small.

 

Sure the Codex says that less than 1% of all the stars in the galaxy have been explored but the Relay network is like a massive 16 lane highway going right through the Amazon jungle. Sure, the deeper parts of the rain forest might be unexplored still, but the allure of mystery and isolation is diminished if you can just drive through it in an afternoon.

[Reorte]

I think that the ease of access that people have to (pretty much) the whole Milky Way via the Mass Relays is what makes the universe seem so small.

 

Sure the Codex says that less than 1% of all the stars in the galaxy have been explored but the Relay network is like a massive 16 lane highway going right through the Amazon jungle. Sure, the deeper parts of the rain forest might be unexplored still, but the allure of mystery and isolation is diminished if you can just drive through it in an afternoon.

A serious problem with just about everywhere which I rather dislike, so I get annoyed at people trumpeting faster travel as an "improvement" - it was when the choice was walk or horse, not so convinced by it now unless you're going very long-haul (or into space, which could do with being much faster than is physically possible).

 

Anyway that's woefully off-topic, sorry.

[Massa FX]

Seems small because "ease" of travel using the Relay's. Makes me want to explore outside the galaxy and discover new planets/species. 

 

We'll see what MENxt does.

[78stonewobble]

In ME1, yeah. In the other two, not so much. It's one of the things ME1 did better.

 

20 out of 100.000.000.000 is not good, even if it's better than 10 out of 100.000.000.000.