836 réponses à ce sujet

[shepskisaac]

Finding a secret relay in the middle of ME3 still feels a little cheap to me too, though.

 

And there'd still be the issue of people wanting to go back, or wanting the Milky Way to send through their favourite characters. 

 

FTL would feel "earned" because it takes hundreds of years, and because the colonists would probably be on their own once in Andromeda. 

Agree. I wouldn't like "jeez we have so many fuel/food/cryo issues to solve on this secret project. Let's start brainstorm... O hook a wormhole! All problems solved!"

[ElitePinecone]

I think if they do it that way, setting off on a great journey with no guarantee of getting home will produce some great storylines in the new characters we meet in Andromeda. These people are leaving behind everything they've ever known to go to a new place that's unimaginably far away, with no expectation of seeing their homes again and no knowledge of what they'll find on the other side. It's like when humans first colonised continents on Earth, or some of the written accounts of the first European settlers in the Americas or Australia. 

 

That's a really cool place for the series to go.

 

I guess it also depends on how much time has passed between initial colonisation and ME:N, but it's a more interesting setup to me than the Milky Way at this point. 

[Anacronian Stryx]

"wow we have found a wormhole - we don't know where it's going, but we do know it will collapse in a month or so.. looking for volunteers to go through!!"

 

You really got to have pioneering spirit in order to sign up for something like that.

[Paridave]

Nope, the leak before DAI's announcement was true; there was another, which contained some false (or outdated) info but some true one as well.

My faux pas.

[Legenlorn]

If ARKCON really does stand for Ark Contingency, then I think that would mean it was a planned journey. That kinda ties in nicely with ME3's plot, in the sense that while Shepard was busy fighting the Reapers others were preparing a Plan B in case it all went wrong. 

 

I wouldn't be too concerned about a freak accident plot, except that I think the journey to colonise a new galaxy is more plausible when it's done by a big ship with heaps of supplies that was especially constructed for that purpose. 

 

In human history places were colonised by accident all the time (it might've happened with the first inhabitants of the Americas, Australia, Madagascar and a bunch of Pacific islands), but colonies definitely developed more quickly when the settlers purposely went there and had prepared by bringing things with them. 

Don't those dots between the letters ARKCON stand for individual words? like Alliance Reconnaissance something?

[Paridave]

I think if they do it that way, setting off on a great journey with no guarantee of getting home will produce some great storylines in the new characters we meet in Andromeda. These people are leaving behind everything they've ever known to go to a new place that's unimaginably far away, with no expectation of seeing their homes again and no knowledge of what they'll find on the other side. It's like when humans first colonised continents on Earth, or some of the written accounts of the first European settlers in the Americas or Australia. 

 

That's a really cool place for the series to go.

 

I guess it also depends on how much time has passed between initial colonisation and ME:N, but it's a more interesting setup to me than the Milky Way at this point. 

And then far into the future they can try to return to their lost home world... wait, isn't that Battlestar Galactica?

[CannotCompute]

Don't those dots between the letters ARKCON stand for individual words? like Alliance Reconnaissance something?

 

Most likely, yes. But I do think the letters ARK in that order hints at something.

[Legenlorn]

http://ocdn.eu/image...0a6f7582deb.jpg

 

Is this one of the concept art images they showed of MEN? It does give the feel of and ARK type thing:P

[Balkankerverkoper]

I believe that's ME2 concept art.

[ElitePinecone]

Don't those dots between the letters ARKCON stand for individual words? like Alliance Reconnaissance something?

 

Hard to say at this point. I thought they did, but it's tough to make a six-word acronym that doesn't sound silly. Especially with the K in there.

 

(Even SPECTRE was "Special Tactics and Reconnaissance")

 

I'm thinking the dots might just be a stylistic thing, maybe? "Ark Contingency" seems to make more sense to me. 

[dreamgazer]

"Ark Contingency" is a pretty damn fatalistic name for an initiative. But I guess that fits since the only reason the ark-theory version of the trip to Andromeda would happen is out of fearful assumption that the Reaper extermination succeeded, something that's going to follow the story around for its duration. Hell of a way to move on and move forward.

[thekook78]

I've seen people saying that "we would have had some sort of idea the Ark was was going on" or "Shepard would have been brought in the loop about the Ark." Wouldn't it be some crazy if the Ark is actually a Cerberus contingency plan and that's why we never heard of it?

 

Now, I just realized this has a giant plot hole in it the size of a wormhole because Council Races are included too. I doubt they'd play nice together. Nevermind!

[von uber]

Just think of the quests! Seek out 10 sources of water! Plant 4 fields of crops! Build 10 fabricated living quarters! Hook up 5 generators! Bury 12 colonists who starved to death! Collect 5 shards!

[CronoDragoon]

"Ark Contingency" is a pretty damn fatalistic name for an initiative. But I guess that fits since the only reason the ark-theory version of the trip to Andromeda would happen is out of fearful assumption that the Reaper extermination succeeded, something that's going to follow the story around for its duration. Hell of a way to move on and move forward.

Yeah. Although it's stretching that no one mentioned this to Shepard, I'm starting to come around to the idea that this was a secret Council project. As I said the Citadel DLC established that the Council always believed Shepard that Sovereign was a Reaper, and continued to even though they told Shepard otherwise. The counter was always "then why didn't they freaking do anything?" Well, assuming they didn't want to incite panic, keeping an Ark Contingency secret from the public makes some amount of sense, and not telling Shepard about it in ME2 at least makes some amount of sense given his Cerberus connections.

Let's also be real here: if this was the Council's plan, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than what Shepard was doing in ME3. If the Council takes the claim of billions of years of harvests seriously, then the only conclusion should be to find a way to run instead of fight.

Does all this take some headcanon and sketchy logic about why none of this is brought up during ME3? Sure. But you could also have the Council say that Shepard wouldn't listen anyway and was too stubborn and deadset on fighting, which is actually pretty consistent with virtually every way you can RP Shepard in ME3. I'd be amused at such a dig from BioWare at their own writing, as well.

"He told us his plan was that we fight or we die! I mean, what an idiot!"

[Vortex13]

I've seen people saying that "we would have had some sort of idea the Ark was was going on" or "Shepard would have been brought in the loop about the Ark." Wouldn't it be some crazy if the Ark is actually a Cerberus contingency plan and that's why we never heard of it?

 

Now, I just realized this has a giant plot hole in it the size of a wormhole because Council Races are included too. I doubt they'd play nice together. Nevermind!

 

 

Yeah, even non-indoctrinated Cerberus wouldn't have included the other races.

 

Why waste all that valuable space on other species, when humanity is the only one worth preserving?

[ZoliCs]

I've seen people saying that "we would have had some sort of idea the Ark was was going on" or "Shepard would have been brought in the loop about the Ark." Wouldn't it be some crazy if the Ark is actually a Cerberus contingency plan and that's why we never heard of it?

Ah, no. Cerberus would never take other races with them, also they are indoctrinated.

 

edit: ninja'd

Modifié par ZoliCs, 22 avril 2015 - 03:18 .

[Vortex13]

Finding a secret relay in the middle of ME3 still feels a little cheap to me too, though.

 

And there'd still be the issue of people wanting to go back, or wanting the Milky Way to send through their favourite characters. 

 

FTL would feel "earned" because it takes hundreds of years, and because the colonists would probably be on their own once in Andromeda. 

 

 

As leery of moving to Andromeda that I am, I would have to agree with this. The races of the Milky Way suddenly and conveniently discovering a special relay or wormhole that links to another galaxy would really feel like a cop out to me.

 

 

Using a means of FTL to cross the intergalactic void would require a flexing of writer muscles, but it would add some character to the people making the journey; as you said it would feel 'earned'. Just happening upon a magical doorway would just feel contrived, it would be like the Battlestar Galactic (reboot) fleet discovering a portal that instantly linked to Earth at the start of the series. All form of tension and drama is removed and the concept of a people that had to fight tooth and nail and claw their way to a new home is replace by a bunch of people who got lucky thanks to narrative fiat. 

[ElitePinecone]

But you could also have the Council say that Shepard wouldn't listen anyway and was too stubborn and deadset on fighting, which is actually pretty consistent with virtually every way you can RP Shepard in ME3. I'd be amused at such a dig from BioWare at their own writing, as well.

"He told us his plan was that we fight or we die! I mean, what an idiot!"

 

oh man this is hilarious!

[ElitePinecone]

Now that I think about it, couldn't the 'A' in ARKCON be 'Andromeda'? 

 

I think the trouble is that it could be an acronym where each letter is a word, or an abbreviation ("Ark Contingency"), or something weird like SPECTRE where it's a clunky way of shortening 'Special Tactics and Recon'. Alliance Recon and Knowledge Conduit? lol

 

The thing that makes me think it's not likely to be an acronym is that 'O' and 'N' are really weird letters to have at the end of an acronym, since the last letter is usually a proper noun like "Association", "Agency", "Initiative", etc. I can't think of anything plausible in the sequence 'KCON'. 

 

And it's not like SPECTRE, where they designed the acronym around the word because the abbreviation/acronym sounds cool. ARKCON isn't a word in English, unless they're intending it to sound like "archon", which is a Greek word for a ruler (often administrative or religious). 

[MrFob]

Yeah. Although it's stretching that no one mentioned this to Shepard, I'm starting to come around to the idea that this was a secret Council project. As I said the Citadel DLC established that the Council always believed Shepard that Sovereign was a Reaper, and continued to even though they told Shepard otherwise. The counter was always "then why didn't they freaking do anything?" Well, assuming they didn't want to incite panic, keeping an Ark Contingency secret from the public makes some amount of sense, and not telling Shepard about it in ME2 at least makes some amount of sense given his Cerberus connections.

Let's also be real here: if this was the Council's plan, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than what Shepard was doing in ME3. If the Council takes the claim of billions of years of harvests seriously, then the only conclusion should be to find a way to run instead of fight.

Does all this take some headcanon and sketchy logic about why none of this is brought up during ME3? Sure. But you could also have the Council say that Shepard wouldn't listen anyway and was too stubborn and deadset on fighting, which is actually pretty consistent with virtually every way you can RP Shepard in ME3. I'd be amused at such a dig from BioWare at their own writing, as well.

"He told us his plan was that we fight or we die! I mean, what an idiot!"

 

I would assume that if the rumors are true, something like this is probably the case.

I am ok with that, just two things, that bother me:

1. The fact that you were very limited in RPing Shep in ME3 was one of the issues, most criticized by fans from the get-go (buzzword: auto-dialogue). Especially things like the "we fight or we die" line. If they use this to justify the contrivances of the next game, they are just rubbing it in the fans' faces. I wouldn't like that.

2. I have no problem with the idea that the council has such a program and no one else knows. My problem is with them having the technology to pull it off and no one else knows. No matter how they do it, be it developing some new drive (in a few mo9nths), retro-engineering reaper tech (which we cannot really do without being indoctrinated and also in that time frame) or conveniently finding a worm whole, just in the nick of time (if it were found before the war, it would have been big news, so they would have had to find it just now), all of those possibilities are very contrived, IMO.

[AlanC9]

Oddly enough, this plot would be yet another thing ME lifted from Wing Commander 3. In the opening cinematic Blair hears a news broadcast about a rumored "doomsday evacuation" of some fraction of the human race in the face of impending defeat by the Kilrathi.

[Heimdall]

Now that I think about it, couldn't the 'A' in ARKCON be 'Andromeda'? 

 

I think the trouble is that it could be an acronym where each letter is a word, or an abbreviation ("Ark Contingency"), or something weird like SPECTRE where it's a clunky way of shortening 'Special Tactics and Recon'. Alliance Recon and Knowledge Conduit? lol

 

The thing that makes me think it's not likely to be an acronym is that 'O' and 'N' are really weird letters to have at the end of an acronym, since the last letter is usually a proper noun like "Association", "Agency", "Initiative", etc. I can't think of anything plausible in the sequence 'KCON'. 

 

And it's not like SPECTRE, where they designed the acronym around the word because the abbreviation/acronym sounds cool. ARKCON isn't a word in English, unless they're intending it to sound like "archon", which is a Greek word for a ruler (often administrative or religious). 

Hm, I think you were on track when you likened it to Spectre.

 

First, six letter acronyms are often a bit silly, especially when the word they spell out is deliberate.  To take an excuse to paraphrase the first episode of agents of SHIELD:

 

Agent: What does SHIELD mean, agent Ward?

 

Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division

 

Agent: And what does that mean to you?

 

Ward: That somebody really wanted our initials to spell out Shield.

 

ARKCON may not be an English word, but I do think it represents the attempt ot integrate "Ark" into a "cool" sounding organization name.

[Nitrocuban]

What if Shepard never was told about the ARK Pathfinder Project cause he was way to close un contact with REeaper tech and the council feared he gets indoctrinated and not only dooms plan A (Crucible) but also plan B?

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Yeah. Although it's stretching that no one mentioned this to Shepard, I'm starting to come around to the idea that this was a secret Council project. As I said the Citadel DLC established that the Council always believed Shepard that Sovereign was a Reaper, and continued to even though they told Shepard otherwise. The counter was always "then why didn't they freaking do anything?" Well, assuming they didn't want to incite panic, keeping an Ark Contingency secret from the public makes some amount of sense, and not telling Shepard about it in ME2 at least makes some amount of sense given his Cerberus connections.

Let's also be real here: if this was the Council's plan, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than what Shepard was doing in ME3. If the Council takes the claim of billions of years of harvests seriously, then the only conclusion should be to find a way to run instead of fight.

Does all this take some headcanon and sketchy logic about why none of this is brought up during ME3? Sure. But you could also have the Council say that Shepard wouldn't listen anyway and was too stubborn and deadset on fighting, which is actually pretty consistent with virtually every way you can RP Shepard in ME3. I'd be amused at such a dig from BioWare at their own writing, as well.

"He told us his plan was that we fight or we die! I mean, what an idiot!"

There is no way a project as big and complex as building an intergalactic-capable ship would be able to be kept secret. Even rumors about the Crucible, which the galactic leaders were being very tight-lipped about, had rumors about it being talked about by random people. 

 

Plus being a dig at Shepard would be an insult to the fans who can "make Shepard their own" according to Bioware. It'd be like telling you "Ha Ha, you plated as a stubborn idiot." 

[ZoliCs]

There is no way a project as big and complex as building an intergalactic-capable ship would be able to be kept secret.