94 réponses à ce sujet

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Well, Bioware was very cryptic when asked if Mass Relays were going to be involved in the next game, including getting us to Andromeda. Aaryn Flynn said  "I don’t think we can get into that." If the Mass Relays were simply not involved in some way, why wouldn't they just say no? It's not like they would reveal how we get there. On the other hand, the Mass Relays being in Andromeda would lead to some big spoilers due to the implications that them being there would have. 

[Heimdall]

There is no way the council could reverse engineer a reaper drive core in two years, since its quite obvious that it defies the knows laws of physics and there is also the risk of indoctrination as well. The scale project would would also mean that there is no way it can stay secret for long especially from the shadow broker, STG and cerberus.

Your repeatedly stating that it is impossible does not make it so. Reverse engineering Reaper technology has already been proven doable without indoctrination and harping on that one codex entry does not make it an insurmountable law of the universe instead of the general knowledge it represents.

Most likely the STG and the Shadowbroker were in on it and actively hiding it from other parties, like Cerberus.

Not to mention spending two years building an ark ship instead of trying to find a way to stop the reapers shows that the council are nothing more than defeatist since building the whole ark because to them the galaxy isn't worth saving. Not to mention by the time Thessia falls the reaper war reaches its climax and everyone has already committed themselves to the crucible. Oh the asari beacon on Thessia also has information on the reaper's. If the asari government were competent enough share it instead of trying to be top dog in the galaxy then perhaps the war would have been shorter and more lives saved.

So?

[Drone223]

Your repeatedly stating that it is impossible does not make it so. Reverse engineering Reaper technology has already been proven doable without indoctrination and harping on that one codex entry does not make it an insurmountable law of the universe instead of the general knowledge it represents.
 

the thanix canon is one but a reaper drive core is something else entirely, its basically like asking some one who makes cars build a nuclear reactor. We also see parts of the human reaper being used for the crucible but the people are concerned about the risk of indoctrination. There is also superstition about using technology that has been reversed engineered from reaper tech such as the Ladon.

 

Most likely the STG and the Shadowbroker were in on it and actively hiding it from other parties, like Cerberus.

 

The STG have to answer to the council which be all human or have Anderson on it, they also have people sympathetic to Shepards cause e.g. Jondum Bau. The shadow broker has no obligation to keep it secret if the shadow broker has something to benefit from sharing its existence then he will not hesitate to do so. Cerberus has sympathizers within the Alliance as well as major corporations they could easily infiltrate the project.

 

 

So?

 

They could looked into the mars archives or the prothean beacon on Thessia and have the crucible plans before the reapers arrive, the war could ended far more quickly and more lives saved.

[Dr. Doctor]

It might be possible that advances in power generation from the Crucible project led to more efficient FTL drives.

Or the Citadel isn't the only Relay capable of reaching across galaxies? Perhaps the Leviathans constructed a similar large-scale Relay in the Andromeda galaxy only to have their civilization collapse before they could expand into the area?

Maybe the Remnant managed to reach our galaxy using some alternate means of FTL. The Council found said FTL system and hid it from the rest of the galactic community until the need for the Ark project arose?

[Fade9wayz]

the thanix canon is one but a reaper drive core is something else entirely, its basically like asking some one who makes cars build a nuclear reactor. We also see parts of the human reaper being used for the crucible but the people are concerned about the risk of indoctrination. There is also superstition about using technology that has been reversed engineered from reaper tech such as the Ladon.

They've had three years to study Sovereign, and it's not like they were starting from scratch either. It's more like going from a internal combustion motor to a more efficient one. Reaper tech is Reaper tech, the principles won't be radically different. I don't think the leap will be as long as you make it out to be.

 

I don't think having a plan B is defeatist, it's actually being quite realistic. After all, even if they had all the blueprints from starter, they were still trying to build some giant weapon, which they had absolutely no idea what it would do, if it did anything at all besides looking pretty. You have to remember also that before the the Reapers hit, each species was more interested in their self-advancement. They were political allies, but they didn't share everything, just like our own goverments nowadays. That's just how it is. Even after the Reaper's initial attack, Shepard had to go and finally unite them, not without solving their problems first by the way (Genophage, Quarian-Geth war, stuck up Dalatrass...). The Asari weren't the only ones not looking at the big picture. Humans were hardly better. After all the ones who stole the Prothean thingy on Thessia were human. Solely blaming Asari is too easy.

 

So, that they would try and save as many as possible on a joint effort in case the Crucible was a failure is pretty admirable in my books.

[Heimdall]

the thanix canon is one but a reaper drive core is something else entirely, its basically like asking some one who makes cars build a nuclear reactor. We also see parts of the human reaper being used for the crucible but the people are concerned about the risk of indoctrination. There is also superstition about using technology that has been reversed engineered from reaper tech such as the Ladon.

No, the Thanix is actually a great example of the Citadel species reverse engineering a piece of technology that pushes technology they already understand the principles of to new extremes. As the previous poster said, it'd be more akin to asking someone who builds cars to reverse engineer a more efficient engine from a hundred years in the future. Difficult, but not unbelievable.

The STG have to answer to the council which be all human or have Anderson on it, they also have people sympathetic to Shepards cause e.g. Jondum Bau. The shadow broker has no obligation to keep it secret if the shadow broker has something to benefit from sharing its existence then he will not hesitate to do so. Cerberus has sympathizers within the Alliance as well as major corporations they could easily infiltrate the project.

I'm pretty sure the all human Council didn't last long in any case, and while it was active I have no doubt that the STG would keep information from them. As I said in another thread, if you think the STG or any of the Councilor's couldn't or wouldn't hide a project from the human Councilor, you're naive.

Yes, Cerberus has a great number of sympathizers and moles in human government and corporations. Emphasis on human. Outside that, they're influence is seriously curtailed, hardly a match for the guys who have been doing this for millennia. Avoiding Cerberus moles in the Alliance government may be part of the reason they decided to exclude human involvement in the project's development.

They could looked into the mars archives or the prothean beacon on Thessia and have the crucible plans before the reapers arrive, the war could ended far more quickly and more lives saved.

I don't think this has anything to do with our discussion.

But I think it's a given that the Crucible plans aren't present in every Prothean beacon and Archive, otherwise someone would have found it. Even if they did, they would have no idea what it was or what it was for.

[Hexi-decimal]

the thanix canon is one but a reaper drive core is something else entirely, its basically like asking some one who makes cars build a nuclear reactor. We also see parts of the human reaper being used for the crucible but the people are concerned about the risk of indoctrination. There is also superstition about using technology that has been reversed engineered from reaper tech such as the Ladon.

 

The STG have to answer to the council which be all human or have Anderson on it, they also have people sympathetic to Shepards cause e.g. Jondum Bau. The shadow broker has no obligation to keep it secret if the shadow broker has something to benefit from sharing its existence then he will not hesitate to do so. Cerberus has sympathizers within the Alliance as well as major corporations they could easily infiltrate the project.

 

 

They could looked into the mars archives or the prothean beacon on Thessia and have the crucible plans before the reapers arrive, the war could ended far more quickly and more lives saved.

I am not sure why you think reverse engineering a drive core would be any more difficult than reverse engineering weapons.  Also, all of the technology in game has a basis in reaper tech, we already know the basics.  I can't imagine that it would be super difficult to reverse engineer something where we already understand the base concepts.

 

Also I am willing to bet Ark research probably has been ongoing for years.  Before the reaper threat even.  A long lived race like the Asari probably have had some amount of forethought to some galactic event that could wipe them out.  

[Fortlowe]

I think mass relays are possible, and I honestly wouldn't have a huge problem with it. People were so gutted about the relay network being destroyed in ME3 that I could see them establishing the mass relay network as thing that isn't unique to the milky way... and then maybe we learn more about them, too.

This. It akes the most sense in a number of ways. It's already based on established tech. The milky galaxy is a big place so the discovery of a second or even multiple relay networks that went undiscovered prior to the collapse of the known one is far from impplausible.

Also the games is still called Mass Effect, the primary mechanic of the relays. So there's that. Otherwise getting to Andromeda will require heretofore undemonstrated tech. Probably involving quantum entanglement.

[Drone223]

They've had three years to study Sovereign, and it's not like they were starting from scratch either. It's more like going from a internal combustion motor to a more efficient one. Reaper tech is Reaper tech, the principles won't be radically different. I don't think the leap will be as long as you make it out to be.

 

So, that they would try and save as many as possible on a joint effort in case the Crucible was a failure is pretty admirable in my books.

It took 11 months to build the thanix canon a reaper drive core is much more complicated than you think it is as the engineers state that they don't understand how the thing works since it breaks all the known laws of physics. There is no way it can be reversed engineered in three years it'd probably take several decades.

 

 

 

I don't think having a plan B is defeatist, it's actually being quite realistic. After all, even if they had all the blueprints from starter, they were still trying to build some giant weapon, which they had absolutely no idea what it would do, if it did anything at all besides looking pretty.

Except the ark was never going to be a plan A or B, they were going to build it without even trying to find away to stop the reapers that's pretty much defeatist.
 

 

 

You have to remember also that before the the Reapers hit, each species was more interested in their self-advancement. They were political allies, but they didn't share everything, just like our own goverments nowadays. That's just how it is. Even after the Reaper's initial attack, Shepard had to go and finally unite them, not without solving their problems first by the way (Genophage, Quarian-Geth war, stuck up Dalatrass...).

 

The asari cared about their own advancement before it was to late when the reaper's invaded their home world and look how that turned out for them. There were members of the STG that were going to help out with the war with or without the dalatrass approve since their not going to compromise the STG just because the dalatrass didn't get what she wanted.

 

 

The Asari weren't the only ones not looking at the big picture. Humans were hardly better. After all the ones who stole the Prothean thingy on Thessia were human. Solely blaming Asari is too easy.

 

 

The asari still withheld the beacon for their own gain while the galaxy was at war, if they sheared it earlier then perhaps Thessia might not been invaded. Also it was ceberus a rogue human faction that the Alliance see as their enemies.

 

No, the Thanix is actually a great example of the Citadel species reverse engineering a piece of technology that pushes technology they already understand the principles of to new extremes. As the previous poster said, it'd be more akin to asking someone who builds cars to reverse engineer a more efficient engine from a hundred years in the future. Difficult, but not unbelievable.
 

Look at one of my earlier post, Thanix canon took 11 months but a reaper drive core is much more complicated since engineers don't understand how it works there is no way it can be reversed engineered in three years.

 

 

I'm pretty sure the all human Council didn't last long in any case, and while it was active I have no doubt that the STG would keep information from them. As I said in another thread, if you think the STG or any of the Councilor's couldn't or wouldn't hide a project from the human Councilor, you're naive.

Hardly, there are people such in the STG e.g. Jondum Bau who are sympathetic to stopping the reapers. There is also the fact that the large scale of the project would mean that humans are going to know of its existence eventually.

 

 

Yes, Cerberus has a great number of sympathizers and moles in human government and corporations. Emphasis on human. Outside that, they're influence is seriously curtailed, hardly a match for the guys who have been doing this for millennia. Avoiding Cerberus moles in the Alliance government may be part of the reason they decided to exclude human involvement in the project's development.

 

Ceberus also had a mole in the STG and learned of the krogan female. As said above the scale would mean humans are going to get involved in the project eventually.

 

 

I don't think this has anything to do with our discussion.

But I think it's a given that the Crucible plans aren't present in every Prothean beacon and Archive, otherwise someone would have found it. Even if they did, they would have no idea what it was or what it was for.

 

It does actually, the beacon of Thessia contained information on the crucible and its function, TIM managed to access it without the cipher so the asari could just as easily do it.

[Malanek]

Your repeatedly stating that it is impossible does not make it so. Reverse engineering Reaper technology has already been proven doable without indoctrination and harping on that one codex entry does not make it an insurmountable law of the universe instead of the general knowledge it represents.

You have to admit having one hidden group able to reverse engineer it, build one, test it, and then use that knowledge to engineer and construct an ark, all inside 2 years, while no one else can even begin to understand it, is a bit of a stretch. He wouldn't have to keep repeating it if you didn't keep stating such a far fetched opinion as if it wasn't an issue.

[Capitan Bradipo]

There are some people who seem to find the idea of a secret "ark project" funded by some powerful group a real possibility; however, even if we haven't enough information to rule it out, there are several issues with it.

First, the assumption that such a project could be mostly based on reverse-engineered Reaper technology.
Simply put, Reaper propulsion technology would offer a limited help on its own, since it has never been developed with trans-galactic voyage in mind; infact, the creator of the Reapers was at the end of the day nothing but an extremely advanced V.I. , which never strayed from its set basic priorities of solving its masters' problem INSIDE the Milky Way. While its creations hid in the Dark Space to avoid detection, they were never intended to travel far FROM our galaxy, where they were needed.
This doesn't mean the Reapers' remains will be useless; they will probably give an important helping hand to the development of the new propulsion technology. However, a long period of time will still be needed, surely more than 2 years or, even worse, some months during the War itself.

Second, in a time of (mostly) peace, such an endeavour could have never been kept a secret.
The sheer numbers of highly trained and skilled workforce and other "human" resources needed to design, test and build the single pieces of technology and then to design, test and build a working "ark" would make an information leak a virtual certainty. To this we must add the resources needed to select and train the future crew, the enormous quantity of requisitioned materials for both the development and costruction process, the mass of funds used to sustain the entire project. Without an extremely dire external situation ( as a galactic war) acting as a distraction or justifing the enforcement of very strict measures of information control, other goverments, organizations and finally the public WILL come to know, since the number and magnitude of phisical and fiscal clues is simply too high to be' suppressed, even by the Shadow Broker (moreover, Liara becomes the Broker way before the start of ME3, so why would she keep this information from Shepard?) or the STG salarian (which is not a monolitic organization and harbors several Shepard's sympatizers as well).

Third, the diversity of the colonization group.
It is possible to suppose that, if the effort to develop and built the "ark" had been patronized and kept secret by only some of the most powerful governments in the galaxy (read: Asari Republics and Salarian Union), they would have focused only on the selection of strata of THEIR population for the colonization/salvation program; infact, if they wished to include significative groups of other species (which means above the minimal number of specimens to assure the continuation of the species itself), they would have absolutely NO reason to hide the program in first place, at least not from the other concerned governments.
From the scarce information we can retrieve from the E3 trailer, this is obviously not the case: the N7-sporting person is obviously an human, while on the background we can see an unidentified female humanoid (a human, an Asari or, less probably, a Quarian) and the clear facial traits of a krogan. The Krogan United Clans are hardly an entity able to fund a project of this magnitude, while the Alliance would never hide his partecipation to his top civilian and military leaders.

For these reasons, I offer another idea: in the decades after the end of the Reaper War,a communal initiative (the Pathfinder Initiative) was funded by the Council in order to develop a new long-range propulsion method which would allow to bypass the old Relays Network (which had been mostly rapaired in the first months after the War, even if not to full efficiency). One or two centuries passes, and in this period of time a break-trought is reached: a new mass effect-based technology that make possible the creation and manipulation of wormholes. After some time, a serie of expeditions are organized by the Council ( or by a peculiar organization created by them) to reach Andromeda. The game itself will take place after a first beachead in the new galaxy has already been estabilished, but the exploration and maybe colonization of the "local" space is still moving its first steps.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

From the scarce information we can retrieve from the E3 trailer, this is obviously not the case: the N7-sporting person is obviously an human, while on the background we can see an unidentified female humanoid (a human, an Asari or, less probably, a Quarian) and the clear facial traits of a krogan.

Mike Gamble confirmed via Twitter that that woman is human.

[Capitan Bradipo]

Ah! Well, thank you for the clarification.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Ah! Well, thank you for the clarification.

You are quite welcome.

[Fade9wayz]

It took 11 months to build the thanix canon a reaper drive core is much more complicated than you think it is as the engineers state that they don't understand how the thing works since it breaks all the known laws of physics. There is no way it can be reversed engineered in three years it'd probably take several decades.

We have no way of definitely stating if it's feasible in three years or not. Mordin was able to reverse-engineer Collector tech in  a few months only, all by himself, and come up with counter-measures. I think it's possible, you don't think so. We'll have to agree on disagreeing here I guess.
 
 

Except the ark was never going to be a plan A or B, they were going to build it without even trying to find away to stop the reapers that's pretty much defeatist.

 
How'd you even come up with that? Source of what you're asserting? Where is it ever said they weren't going to fight back? And how being cautious and having a plan B is at all related to being defeatist? I'd think that what happened in ME3 pretty much points to the contrary. If they truly were defeatists, they'd just have killed themselves, saves energy and beats waiting around to be Reaperized.

 

The asari cared about their own advancement before it was to late when the reaper's invaded their home world and look how that turned out for them. There were members of the STG that were going to help out with the war with or without the dalatrass approve since their not going to compromise the STG just because the dalatrass didn't get what she wanted.
 
The asari still withheld the beacon for their own gain while the galaxy was at war, if they sheared it earlier then perhaps Thessia might not been invaded. Also it was ceberus a rogue human faction that the Alliance see as their enemies.

 
It was the same for all the races, Reapers were on Palaven, Rannoch, Sur'Kesh and Tuchanka as well. In Thessia's cases, we just got to see more of the invasion. As one of the major species homeworld, Thessia was a prime target anyway. And it's a part of the Asari population that witheld information, namely some Asari Matriarchs. The rest of the Asari didn't even know there was a Prothean beacon in Athame's temple. The Asari councilor explicitely disobeyed them. You're blaming a whole nation for the actions of a few, while, interestingly enough, not applying the same logic to humans, Salarians, Turians, Krogans, Geth and Quarians (who, save for a few,  didn't give a damn about the alliance before their own agenda was solved). I'm not sure why you're so prejudiced against Asari. As I said, blaming them for everything that, in your mind, went wrong is too easy. 
 
Besides, depending of your decisions, Krogan, Quarians and Geth might have been even more scr****. We didn't all make paragon choices. All the fault of one human being. Should all of humanity be condemned?

[Fade9wayz]

There are some people who seem to find the idea of a secret "ark project" funded by some powerful group a real possibility; however, even if we haven't enough information to rule it out, there are several issues with it.

First, the assumption that such a project could be mostly based on reverse-engineered Reaper technology.
Simply put, Reaper propulsion technology would offer a limited help on its own, since it has never been developed with trans-galactic voyage in mind; infact, the creator of the Reapers was at the end of the day nothing but an extremely advanced V.I. , which never strayed from its set basic priorities of solving its masters' problem INSIDE the Milky Way. While its creations hid in the Dark Space to avoid detection, they were never intended to travel far FROM our galaxy, where they were needed.
This doesn't mean the Reapers' remains will be useless; they will probably give an important helping hand to the development of the new propulsion technology. However, a long period of time will still be needed, surely more than 2 years or, even worse, some months during the War itself.

My personal preference goes to the launch of the Ark occuring not long before the crucible fires, most likely just after it was taken away by the Reapers. However most people are in favor of the Ark departing not long after Thessia's invasion, more races can be saved that way without the interference of Shepard's decisions. That makes a difference of what? One month, two months in three years? Maybe we can agree that such a timetable might be viable?
 

Second, in a time of (mostly) peace, such an endeavour could have never been kept a secret.
The sheer numbers of highly trained and skilled workforce and other "human" resources needed to design, test and build the single pieces of technology and then to design, test and build a working "ark" would make an information leak a virtual certainty. To this we must add the resources needed to select and train the future crew, the enormous quantity of requisitioned materials for both the development and costruction process, the mass of funds used to sustain the entire project. Without an extremely dire external situation ( as a galactic war) acting as a distraction or justifing the enforcement of very strict measures of information control, other goverments, organizations and finally the public WILL come to know, since the number and magnitude of phisical and fiscal clues is simply too high to be' suppressed, even by the Shadow Broker (moreover, Liara becomes the Broker way before the start of ME3, so why would she keep this information from Shepard?) or the STG salarian (which is not a monolitic organization and harbors several Shepard's sympatizers as well).

I can agree with that, but you also have to remember we follow the ME series through Shepard's perspective. There can be any number of reasons the higher ups wouldn't want him/her aware of the Ark project (higher risk of being captured then indoctrinated, or if you played him/her very renegadly, I can't imagine any authority trusting him/her with such information). Or maybe Shepard knew, but there wasn't any reason for him/her to ever mention it since he/she had other goals. FOr all we know at this point, Cerberus and the Reapers actually got wind of this project, but were unable to locate it in time, since they too, had other more pressing priorities. And the same furtivity tech than the Normandy could be used to hide the Ark.
This could have been hidden to the plublic rather easily. Prior-war: disseminated seemingly unrelated projects would not point to the building of an Ark (if we're going with the theory they started building it after ME1, although I prefer thinking or a retro-fitted fleet than one single brand new ship, but whatever), especially considering the public wasn't even aware of Reapers to begin with. Post-war: hide the expenses and ressources for the Ark amidst the ones for the Crucible.
 

Third, the diversity of the colonization group.
It is possible to suppose that, if the effort to develop and built the "ark" had been patronized and kept secret by only some of the most powerful governments in the galaxy (read: Asari Republics and Salarian Union), they would have focused only on the selection of strata of THEIR population for the colonization/salvation program; infact, if they wished to include significative groups of other species (which means above the minimal number of specimens to assure the continuation of the species itself), they would have absolutely NO reason to hide the program in first place, at least not from the other concerned governments.
From the scarce information we can retrieve from the E3 trailer, this is obviously not the case: the N7-sporting person is obviously an human, while on the background we can see an unidentified female humanoid (a human, an Asari or, less probably, a Quarian) and the clear facial traits of a krogan. The Krogan United Clans are hardly an entity able to fund a project of this magnitude, while the Alliance would never hide his partecipation to his top civilian and military leaders.

True, and I never said the concerned governments weren't aware of an Ark project. Again, we only get Shepard's perspective and that can be reasonably worked around.
 

For these reasons, I offer another idea: in the decades after the end of the Reaper War,a communal initiative (the Pathfinder Initiative) was funded by the Council in order to develop a new long-range propulsion method which would allow to bypass the old Relays Network (which had been mostly rapaired in the first months after the War, even if not to full efficiency). One or two centuries passes, and in this period of time a break-trought is reached: a new mass effect-based technology that make possible the creation and manipulation of wormholes. After some time, a serie of expeditions are organized by the Council ( or by a peculiar organization created by them) to reach Andromeda. The game itself will take place after a first beachead in the new galaxy has already been estabilished, but the exploration and maybe colonization of the "local" space is still moving its first steps.

Won't happen. The whole point of going to Andromeda ( departure occuring before the RGB)is to side-step the whole RGB ending and Paragon/Renegade choices concerning some of the races. If the colonists leave after the endings, you have to adress them and explain why the Quarians are still around if I chose the Geth and vice-versa, why the Krogan still suffer from Genophage, or the Rachni are around if my Shepy killed the queen in ME1, why we are all green-glowing cyborgs talking to plants when I chose Destroy in all of my playthroughs. You can't do that without canonizing one type of playthrough which would cause new riots in the whole fanbase.

[Vortex13]

There are many, many possibilities in how the species from the Milky Way will make the trip to Andromeda, but the two that seem to be the most practical if not the most flashy would be either:

 

 

1. An Ezo rich asteroid, similar in size to Omega with FTL engines strapped on the back of it. It's a very self sufficient Ark ship, it coms pre-supplied with it's own fuel, and as the element is mined out of the rock, you create more living space for the crew, plus the waste material would make for excellent engine discharge points as it it dumped off the rock. The only thing that would would be an issue would be food and air, but a hydroponics bay could solve both of those issues nicely.

 

This idea is far more practical to me than expecting the galaxy to come up a complete understanding of Reaper drive cores and building a one-of-kind intergalactic spaceship.

 

 

2. A Stellar Engine. Rather than trying to build a small vessel and trying to overcome all the logistical issues involved with making sure you have enough supplies and/or resources to make the trip, just bring said supplies and resources with you. Build some infrastructure around a brown dwarf star; one with a small planet or asteroid belt orbiting it; and let it carry you and surrounding system to your destination. This method would obviously take longer to arrive at Andromeda, but it would be the most self sufficient, nor would it require a cop out in the form of a conveniently placed wormhole provided by the Reapers Remanent.

 

I mean if we are assuming that the races of the galaxy will be able to develop a complete understanding of Reaper drive technology, or will have mastered the art of wormhole creation then the process of moving a (comparatively) small star system should be nothing.

[Fade9wayz]

There are many, many possibilities in how the species from the Milky Way will make the trip to Andromeda, but the two that seem to be the most practical if not the most flashy would be either:
 
 
1. An Ezo rich asteroid, similar in size to Omega with FTL engines strapped on the back of it. It's a very self sufficient Ark ship, it coms pre-supplied with it's own fuel, and as the element is mined out of the rock, you create more living space for the crew, plus the waste material would make for excellent engine discharge points as it it dumped off the rock. The only thing that would would be an issue would be food and air, but a hydroponics bay could solve both of those issues nicely.
 
This idea is far more practical to me than expecting the galaxy to come up a complete understanding of Reaper drive cores and building a one-of-kind intergalactic spaceship.

Why not, although the use of cryo-stasis pods would solve nicely the need for more space and food. You wouldn't need as much supplies like that and less risks involving internal fighting over space, or just out of sheer boredom (/looks at Krogans....).
 
 

2. A Stellar Engine. Rather than trying to build a small vessel and trying to overcome all the logistical issues involved with making sure you have enough supplies and/or resources to make the trip, just bring said supplies and resources with you. Build some infrastructure around a brown dwarf star; one with a small planet or asteroid belt orbiting it; and let it carry you and surrounding system to your destination. This method would obviously take longer to arrive at Andromeda, but it would be the most self sufficient, nor would it require a cop out in the form of a conveniently placed wormhole provided by the Reapers Remanent.
 
I mean if we are assuming that the races of the galaxy will be able to develop a complete understanding of Reaper drive technology, or will have mastered the art of wormhole creation then the process of moving a (comparatively) small star system should be nothing.

I don't see the difference compared to the previous one, except we have to lug a brown star around? How are any engines supposed to whistand the heat and pression of a star, even a dwarf one? Even Reapers can't do that. How would the planet retain it's atmosphere with the travel speed (some physicists think that all the planets that have been ejected from the galaxy are travelling near-light speed, so it would seem it's the speed required to escape a galaxy)? While I can see the first scenario being in the realm of possibilities, the second one looks more costly and less efficient than an actual ship.

[Kabooooom]

It took 11 months to build the thanix canon a reaper drive core is much more complicated than you think it is as the engineers state that they don't understand how the thing works since it breaks all the known laws of physics. There is no way it can be reversed engineered in three years it'd probably take several decades.


Except the ark was never going to be a plan A or B, they were going to build it without even trying to find away to stop the reapers that's pretty much defeatist.

The asari cared about their own advancement before it was to late when the reaper's invaded their home world and look how that turned out for them. There were members of the STG that were going to help out with the war with or without the dalatrass approve since their not going to compromise the STG just because the dalatrass didn't get what she wanted.

The asari still withheld the beacon for their own gain while the galaxy was at war, if they sheared it earlier then perhaps Thessia might not been invaded. Also it was ceberus a rogue human faction that the Alliance see as their enemies.

Look at one of my earlier post, Thanix canon took 11 months but a reaper drive core is much more complicated since engineers don't understand how it works there is no way it can be reversed engineered in three years.


Hardly, there are people such in the STG e.g. Jondum Bau who are sympathetic to stopping the reapers. There is also the fact that the large scale of the project would mean that humans are going to know of its existence eventually.


Ceberus also had a mole in the STG and learned of the krogan female. As said above the scale would mean humans are going to get involved in the project eventually.

It does actually, the beacon of Thessia contained information on the crucible and its function, TIM managed to access it without the cipher so the asari could just as easily do it.

I'm curious, reading through all your posts. I think I've asked you this before but I don't believe I got a response (sorry if I missed it). I've seen a lot of poking through purported holes of other people's ideas, but none put forward yourself.

We were right about Andromeda (and I seem to remember you being quite the contrarian in all the Andromeda theory threads too...), and you must realize that the most logical lore reason for the story moving to Andromeda is that the galaxy built an ark to escape the Reapers.

So in that event, my question to you is: How would YOU prefer the ark get to Andromeda? You clearly don't like the idea of trucking it old school there, so I'm guessing...wormhole? Is that what you would prefer? I'm just curious.

Personally, I do think that a wormhole or previously unknown relay connection (with the Reapers having previously been to Andromeda) makes the most lore sense; however, an ark moving the long way through space makes for a more interesting story and concept.

[AlexiaRevan]

It just too bad they are going for the 'Human' adventure again . I wouldnt have minded , to have a new adventure in a galaxy next door with new specie and new worry and disaster that has nothing to do with previous Mass effect . 

 

Kinda like Planescape Torment . All the peoples in Sigil are aware of Faerun , yet our adventure never leak in that world and instead captivate us in a new story and charachter . Wich make it a new game all together with new fascinating peoples and building and maps . 

[Heimdall]

@Malanek

 

I've never claimed that reverse engineering sovereign's drive core inside 3 years was entirely non-problematic.  Yes, its a stretch, but not entirely implausible as Drone would make it out to be by flaunting that Codex entry around.  Presumably the majority of the galaxy to which that codex applies wouldn't have been studying the inner workings of one for the past few years.

 

I mostly support the idea because I think its the least contrived option of a barrel of contrived options when it comes to getting to Andromeda.

 

Worse come too worse, the writers can say Sovereign's capacity for Indoctrination was disabled by being smashed into a million pieces and just use Sovereign's drive core directly.

[Vortex13]

I don't see the difference compared to the previous one, except we have to lug a brown star around? How are any engines supposed to whistand the heat and pression of a star, even a dwarf one? Even Reapers can't do that. How would the planet retain it's atmosphere with the travel speed (some physicists think that all the planets that have been ejected from the galaxy are travelling near-light speed, so it would seem it's the speed required to escape a galaxy)? While I can see the first scenario being in the realm of possibilities, the second one looks more costly and less efficient than an actual ship.

 

 

A Stellar Engine wouldn't actually have physical engines strapped to its surface. As per the wiki entry:

 

Such an engine is a stellar propulsion system, consisting of an enormous mirror/light sail—actually a massive type of solar statite large enough to classify as amegastructure, probably by an order of magnitude—which would balance gravitational attraction towards and radiation pressure away from the star. Since the radiation pressure of the star would now be asymmetrical, i.e. more radiation is being emitted in one direction as compared to another, the 'excess' radiation pressure acts as net thrust, accelerating the star in the direction of the hovering statite. Such thrust and acceleration would be very slight, but such a system could be stable for millennia. Any planetary system attached to the star would be 'dragged' along by its parent star.

 

 

Now obviously, such a method of travel would normally take millions of years to achieve any significant momentum, but this is a science fiction setting with giant robot cuttlefish, telepathic alien space babes, and an element that can increase/decrease the mass of an object with nothing but electricity. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch; no more than convenient wormholes, or a complete reverse engineering of Reaper tech at any rate; and it would have the benefit of being based on some real world theories instead of space magic and macguffins. (IMO)

 

Just say that massive generators are able to generate a Mass Effect field capable of allowing the star and it's surrounding system to move at near luminal velocities.

[Wulfram]

Accelerate up to 0.99999, and then coast. With time dilation, the duration of the voyage could be less than a human life time from the point of view of the people on board.

That way, there's no need to develop a Mass Effect drive with particularly great endurance.

Of course, from the point of view of the Milky Way more than 2.5 million years have gone past, but presumably you weren't planning on going back there anyway.

[Vortex13]

Accelerate up to 0.99999, and then coast. With time dilation, the duration of the voyage could be less than a human life time from the point of view of the people on board.

That way, there's no need to develop a Mass Effect drive with particularly great endurance.

Of course, from the point of view of the Milky Way more than 2.5 million years have gone past, but presumably you weren't planning on going back there anyway.

 

 

That could work, except that (technically) no one, not even the Reapers, could manage that.

 

Mass Effect technology, like warp technology, 'cheats' to get around the light speed barrier. To have such time dilation effects you need mass + relativistic speeds; mass effect technology lowers mass and creates a loophole without the dilation effects. Compared to the rest of the universe, the Normandy is traveling at FTL, but  really it's just riding in a mass free bubble.

 

Trying to 'brute force' your way to light speed doesn't seem to be possible in the Mass Effect universe.

[Wulfram]

That could work, except that (technically) no one, not even the Reapers, could manage that.
 
Mass Effect technology, like warp technology, 'cheats' to get around the light speed barrier. To have such time dilation effects you need mass + relativistic speeds; mass effect technology lowers mass and creates a loophole without the dilation effects. Compared to the rest of the universe, the Normandy is traveling at FTL, but  really it's just riding in a mass free bubble.
 
Trying to 'brute force' your way to light speed doesn't seem to be possible in the Mass Effect universe.

My logic is that you could accelerate up to 0.99999c using your standard mass effect drive and then shut the drive off.

Maybe this wouldn't work - we do have the codex saying

"If the field collapses while the ship is moving at faster-than-light speeds, the effects are catastrophic. The ship is snapped back to sublight velocity, the enormous excess energy shed in the form of lethal Cherenkov radiation."

but I'm not aware of any discussion of the consequences if moving at sub-light speeds. Note that our weapons work by using mass effect fields to aid acceleration, which would seem to indicate that objects do keep their speed even after leaving a mass effect field.