94 réponses à ce sujet

[Fade9wayz]

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.

Interesting! I admit that even with the wiki schema I still have trouble envisioning what it'd look like,but that's an interesting challenge, design-wise. I'm not bothered with the perspective of a travel lasting several million years. I don't think we're ever coming back anyway. I still think sleeping pods would conserve supplies and help avoid more... social problems. 2.5 million years (at best) is a lot of time to be basically stranded on one planet with species you don't necessarily get along with. 

 

I quite like the idea of letting relativity do it's thing as well. 

 

Both these propositions do feel more interesting than a freak wormhole or complete Reaper reverse engineering.

[Vortex13]

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.

 

 

It's true that the bullets accelerated via mass effect field seemingly maintain their relative velocities, but then again (even with sniper rifles) we aren't shooting at targets so far away that the gravity and wind resistance would have a chance to have much effect on the projectiles. 

 

 

Likely, if you used a Mass Effect generator to accelerate you spaceship to 0.999999% the speed of light and then turned off the FTL engines you would revert to to speed of an object with the ship's mass being pushed by whatever sub-light engine was providing thrust. Once the mass free bubble dissipates, reality reasserts itself.

 

Even going under the light speed limit, I would imagine that the vessel in question would still 'snap back' to its normal traveling velocity.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

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.

You can't discharge into space junk.

You need something with a lot of mass and generates a magnetic field, which is why ships use planets or large asteroids. 

[Malanek]

Also as far as I am aware the element zero isn't even the consumable part of the fuel? The element zero powers the mass effect field which reduces the mass of the ship to near zero. It still needs more conventional thrusters to move.

[Malanek]

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.

This is a far better way for the story if you are going to build an Ark. Make it non-lightspeed. It also helps separate the galaxies better from a narrative point of view.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Also as far as I am aware the element zero isn't even the consumable part of the fuel? The element zero powers the mass effect field which reduces the mass of the ship to near zero. It still needs more conventional thrusters to move.

Yeah, they use fuel like Helium-3 for the actual engines. 

[Drone223]

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.
 

A collector swarm bug and a reaper drive core are two completely different things. Not to mention Mordin's countermeasure wasn't full proof as it it didn't work on the SM so the point still stands.

 

 
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.

 

Building an ark believing the reaper's can't be defeated is pretty much defeatist and its quite obvious that the council did nothing to find a way to stop the reaper's or prepare for their arrival.

 

 

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.  As I said, blaming them for everything that, in your mind, went wrong is too easy.

The asari created the laws against withholding prothean technology to make sure no other species can surpass them technologically. Its wouldn't be far fetched to say the asari councilor was in on it as well.

 

 

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.

 

The turian's had their hands full with the reaper's and couldn't spare any forces until they were relived and primarch Victus also wanted to have the krogan as soon as the female was recovered indicating he wanted to help sooner rather than later. The quarians were idiots by attack the geth during the reaper invasion with the Koris and Tali the only ones who know that they should be out helping with the fight with the reaper's. There was also the fact that the geth were under reaper control when the quarains attacked which would be a huge problem if ignored. The asari chose to stay on the side lines until their territory was threatened and considering that they chose to stay out of the war summit speaks for itself.

 

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?

 

The quarians got chose to attack the geth at the worst possible moment the dilemma they got themselves into could have easily been avoided. With the sabotaging the cure there were several people involved including the salarains they also went to lengths to ensure that the shroud would never be able to disperse the cure.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

There was also the fact that the geth were under reaper control when the quarains attacked which would be a huge problem if ignored.

It's the other way around, actually. The Quarians attacked the Geth first in a surprise campaign. Desperate, the Geth looked for anyone to offer them help, and the only race that offered it was the Reapers. 

 

If it wasn't for the Quarians attacking, the Geth would never have joined the Reapers. In fact, the Geth were readying themselves to fight the Reapers. 

[Drone223]

It's the other way around, actually. The Quarians attacked the Geth first in a surprise campaign. Desperate, the Geth looked for anyone to offer them help, and the only race that offered it was the Reapers. 

 

If it wasn't for the Quarians attacking, the Geth would never have joined the Reapers. In fact, the Geth were readying themselves to fight the Reapers. 

Thanks for correcting me, but yeah if the quarians never attacked they wouldn't be in the dilemma they go themselves into in ME3.

[Kabooooom]

It's true that the bullets accelerated via mass effect field seemingly maintain their relative velocities, but then again (even with sniper rifles) we aren't shooting at targets so far away that the gravity and wind resistance would have a chance to have much effect on the projectiles.


Likely, if you used a Mass Effect generator to accelerate you spaceship to 0.999999% the speed of light and then turned off the FTL engines you would revert to to speed of an object with the ship's mass being pushed by whatever sub-light engine was providing thrust. Once the mass free bubble dissipates, reality reasserts itself.

Even going under the light speed limit, I would imagine that the vessel in question would still 'snap back' to its normal traveling velocity.

The bullets likely dont maintain their accelerated velocities. That would violate conservation of energy, even in the fictitious physics of mass effect. Just like a ship in a mass effect field, as soon as the field is cut off it would catastrophically jolt decelerate to the initial velocity while massively radiating energy. However, deceleration is not instantaneous. The deceleration down to below c in a vacuum would probably occur rapidly, but to the initial velocity may not be that rapid. Clearly, it takes long enough for the concept of an accelerated bullet via the mass effect to still be feasible.

[Catastrophy]

Here is how it can go:

 

The Normandy II flees the scene in ME3 in the very last minute. The relays blow up while it is jumping. Unforeseen effects propel the ship right into another galaxy. The crew is stranded. They rebuild what they can. After a long time the descendants of the original crew achieve space flight capability again. The N7 armour is handed down from generation to generation. They set out to explore.

[Tela_Vasir]

Doesn't work like that. To create a viable population capable of facing every challenge while being stranded on a "colony", minimum requirement is about (current theory) the size of a small village - more than 100 people.  Considering the technology/medical treatment availability, it might be possible to reduce that number to let's say 50 - 80 but even a minor disaster would have a high chance of wiping out the colony... And their technological capabilities aren't limitless. Quite the opposite.    

[Fade9wayz]

A collector swarm bug and a reaper drive core are two completely different things. Not to mention Mordin's countermeasure wasn't full proof as it it didn't work on the SM so the point still stands.

You're deliberatly ignoring part of my answer. I did mention Mordin had only few months BY HIMSELF to come up wit counter-measures. Of course it wasn't going to be perfect. Whereas in the case of a council-funded project, you'd expect a large number of scientists and engineers working on such project. That does accelerate things, besides working on living matter isn't easier that working on physics, contrary to what you seem to be thinking. Again, you won't convince me it's not doable.
 

Building an ark believing the reaper's can't be defeated is pretty much defeatist and its quite obvious that the council did nothing to find a way to stop the reaper's or prepare for their arrival.

Because building the Crucible, an unknown weapon with unknown properties, isn't proof enough they were hopeful to still win the war? You do remember they built it despite the long odds anyway, do you? I don't understand your logic. The Crucible WAS built. They united their military forces to stop the Reapers. They were not defeatist. And just because they maybe wanted a little insurance just in case it failed (you are aware that in a fight, there always is at least one loser, and it's not always the 'bad' guy?), they are suddenly defeatist? By your logic, a boxer shouldn't wear gum shield 'cause it's defeatist
 

The asari created the laws against withholding prothean technology to make sure no other species can surpass them technologically. Its wouldn't be far fetched to say the asari councilor was in on it as well.

That, we have no evidence of, it isn't far fetched to say the Asari councilor was as much in the dark as the rest of her people:

And anyway, that she did or not is unconsequential, the Asari didn't have the full plan of the Crucible. How were they supposed to know their Prothean artifact might give plans for the Catalyst, that was a part of some weapon whose own plans were on a totally unrelated planet? Besides Vendetta only fully answered to Prothean markers that only Shepard and Javik could provide. And the rest of the Asari are still innocent, yet you condemn them all in one breath. How elegant.

And you know, the Asari councillor said it herself, every race has their own secrets. Salarians were secretely experimenting on Yhags and Krogans (and a few other species), which, you know, wasn't quite authorized by galactic laws.

Turians had a giant bomb on Tuchanka ready to destroy the Shroud... Like for the Asari, it's only necessity that pushed them into revealing it to Shepard. Politics are like that. The USA didn't enter in the WWII until Pearl Harbor, you know, they were perfectly happy guarding their own territory and remain more or less neutral until then (that's not in anyway a critic, just facts, not to say they wouldn't have joined the Alliance eventually, but we're not working with if,could have, would have and should have here).
I maintain that you're applying double-standards on Asari. You have a right to not like them, but do try to be honest and objective over the events presented and the ones involved. If the other races were thinking like you do, then they should have ostracised and abandoned the entire human race because of Cerberus. Cerberus, which had sympathizers in the higher parts of the human government (Udina) as well as amongst normal people (Kelly Chambers), which had colossal financial backings and definitely had a hand in everything that went wrong in this war, except for the Quarians/Geth and then the outcome depended on Shepard, another human.
 
 

The turian's had their hands full with the reaper's and couldn't spare any forces until they were relived and primarch Victus also wanted to have the krogan as soon as the female was recovered indicating he wanted to help sooner rather than later. The quarians were idiots by attack the geth during the reaper invasion with the Koris and Tali the only ones who know that they should be out helping with the fight with the reaper's. There was also the fact that the geth were under reaper control when the quarains attacked which would be a huge problem if ignored. The asari chose to stay on the side lines until their territory was threatened and considering that they chose to stay out of the war summit speaks for itself.
 
The quarians got chose to attack the geth at the worst possible moment the dilemma they got themselves into could have easily been avoided. With the sabotaging the cure there were several people involved including the salarains they also went to lengths to ensure that the shroud would never be able to disperse the cure.

See above, double-standard

[Wulfram]

The bullets likely dont maintain their accelerated velocities. That would violate conservation of energy, even in the fictitious physics of mass effect. Just like a ship in a mass effect field, as soon as the field is cut off it would catastrophically jolt decelerate to the initial velocity while massively radiating energy. However, deceleration is not instantaneous. The deceleration down to below c in a vacuum would probably occur rapidly, but to the initial velocity may not be that rapid. Clearly, it takes long enough for the concept of an accelerated bullet via the mass effect to still be feasible.

I don't know if this makes sense. I Am Not A Physicist but

Surely the whole point of accelerating the bullet is to increase it's Kinetic Energy? If you're just messing Mass to increase Velocity, then the bullet wouldn't hit any harder.

If there's a lag between the mass returning and the velocity decreasing, to allow the bullets to work, then you're still violating conservation of energy, surely? So I don't think you gain anything there

Also on further thought I think the Codex's description of a mass effect field collapse at FTL speeds helps my case, because it clearly says that there is "enormous excess energy" for it to shed.

Where does that extra energy come from? I'm going to say it's Dark Energy (and then wave my hands a bit because that's not really an answer)

So when a mass effect field that reduces mass collapses, what I say happens is that Dark Energy converts to Kinetic Energy, sufficient that the speed of the objects contained in it is maintained. Including bullets and potentially our sublight intergalactic spaceship. The problem for an FTL spaceship is it's not allowed to be going faster than light, so the Dark Energy can't be converted to KE, and that's why it instead turns into radiation.

[KaiserShep]

Turians had a giant bomb on Tuchanka ready to destroy the Shroud...

 

Not the shroud, but a sizable portion of the population itself. From what I understand, it's nowhere near the shroud facility, but is in a highly populated valley. 

[Drone223]

You're deliberatly ignoring part of my answer. I did mention Mordin had only few months BY HIMSELF to come up wit counter-measures. Of course it wasn't going to be perfect. Whereas in the case of a council-funded project, you'd expect a large number of scientists and engineers working on such project. That does accelerate things, besides working on living matter isn't easier that working on physics, contrary to what you seem to be thinking. Again, you won't convince me it's not doable.
 

This a group of scientist reverse engineer a reaper drive core works when they don't understand how it works and breaks all the known laws of physics, get it operation and running in the span of 2-3 years without being indoctrinated. Its really far fetched to believe that all that is even possible to begin with.

 

 

Because building the Crucible, an unknown weapon with unknown properties, isn't proof enough they were hopeful to still win the war? You do remember they built it despite the long odds anyway, do you? I don't understand your logic. The Crucible WAS built. They united their military forces to stop the Reapers. They were not defeatist. And just because they maybe wanted a little insurance just in case it failed (you are aware that in a fight, there always is at least one loser, and it's not always the 'bad' guy?), they are suddenly defeatist?

 

It would be defeatist if this ark was being built way before the plans for the crucible were even found (shortly after sovereigns attack) and the council made no effort to find something to stop the reapers or even prepare for their arrival

 

 

 

That, we have no evidence of, it isn't far fetched to say the Asari councilor was as much in the dark as the rest of her people:
*snip*
And anyway, that she did or not is unconsequential, the Asari didn't have the full plan of the Crucible. How were they supposed to know their Prothean artifact might give plans for the Catalyst, that was a part of some weapon whose own plans were on a totally unrelated planet? Besides Vendetta only fully answered to Prothean markers that only Shepard and Javik could provide. And the rest of the Asari are still innocent, yet you condemn them all in one breath. How elegant.

 

TIM managed to get information without the cipher the asari could just as easily do it without it.

 

And you know, the Asari councillor said it herself, every race has their own secrets. Salarians were secretely experimenting on Yhags and Krogans (and a few other species), which, you know, wasn't quite authorized by galactic laws.
*snip*
Turians had a giant bomb on Tuchanka ready to destroy the Shroud... Like for the Asari, it's only necessity that pushed them into revealing it to Shepard. Politics are like that. The USA didn't enter in the WWII until Pearl Harbor, you know, they were perfectly happy guarding their own territory and remain more or less neutral until then (that's not in anyway a critic, just facts, not to say they wouldn't have joined the Alliance eventually, but we're not working with if,could have, would have and should have here).
I maintain that you're applying double-standards on Asari. You have a right to not like them, but do try to be honest and objective over the events presented and the ones involved. If the other races were thinking like you do, then they should have ostracised and abandoned the entire human race because of Cerberus. Cerberus, which had sympathizers in the higher parts of the human government (Udina) as well as amongst normal people (Kelly Chambers), which had colossal financial backings and definitely had a hand in everything that went wrong in this war, except for the Quarians/Geth and then the outcome depended on Shepard, another human.

 

The asari had plenty of time to reveal it before hand they only shared it with Shepard when the reaper's showed up at Thessia and by then it was too late. The loss of Thessia could have easily been avoided has they shared the information earlier. the turians and salarians weren't made it illegal to horde prothean technology the asari did and cosidering the fact they are seen as the most diplomatic out of all the council races they come off as hypocrites.

 

Your forgetting that the alliance clearly opposes ceberus and the fact cerberus attacked alliance facilities e.g. the Mars archives. The thing about the Quarian/geth conflict was that had the quraians not attacked the geth then they wouldn't end up in that very situation. A lot of situations in the reaper war could have been avoided if the galaxy had competent leaders.

 

 

 

See above, double-standard

 

They weren't sitting idle and were at least trying to do something against the reaper's, the asari only involved themselves when the reaper's were in their territory and they payed dearly for it.

[Fade9wayz]

Not the shroud, but a sizable portion of the population itself. From what I understand, it's nowhere near the shroud facility, but is in a highly populated valley.

True, I was mixing it up. It's even worse then.

[Fade9wayz]

This a group of scientist reverse engineer a reaper drive core works when they don't understand how it works and breaks all the known laws of physics, get it operation and running in the span of 2-3 years without being indoctrinated. Its really far fetched to believe that all that is even possible to begin with.

I think we've established at length we're in full disagreement over this. At this point we're just repeating ourselves, and I hate repeating myself. I don't see the benefit of continuing this.
 

It would be defeatist if this ark was being built way before the plans for the crucible were even found (shortly after sovereigns attack) and the council made no effort to find something to stop the reapers or even prepare for their arrival

Well, before they had the plan for the Crucible, they were right to have bad expectations for the outcome of this war. If a featherweight boxer without preparation was to face 10 murderous heavyweights like Mike-Tyson at the peak of their form, how d'you think he'd feel? Pretty bad odds for the featherweight, if you ask me. If I were him I'd run away as fast as possible. Is it defeatist? Maybe, though I'd still say realist over defeatist, but that's till better than being turned in a pool of bloody mess on the floor. And that is assuming the Council took the Reaper threat seriously and didn't just study Sovereign because it's new technology thrown in their lap that they could use for better exploration or defense against Geth.
 

TIM managed to get information without the cipher the asari could just as easily do it without it.

Except they couldn't or we wouldn't have had to storm the Cerberus base.
 

The asari had plenty of time to reveal it before hand they only shared it with Shepard when the reaper's showed up at Thessia and by then it was too late. The loss of Thessia could have easily been avoided has they shared the information earlier. the turians and salarians weren't made it illegal to horde prothean technology the asari did and cosidering the fact they are seen as the most diplomatic out of all the council races they come off as hypocrites.

And the Salarian had plenty of time to reveal they had a cure for the Genophage, they only shared it when the Krogan leader forced their hand. The Turians had plenty of time to reveal the bomb, they only shared it when Cerberus got involved. If they could have kept these skeletons in their closet, they would have. Your point is moot. They all signed the Galactic treaties, they are all officially bound to them regardless of who came up with which law. They were all hypocrites and that the Asari are the most diplomatic of the bunch has no bearing with this.
 

Your forgetting that the alliance clearly opposes ceberus and the fact cerberus attacked alliance facilities e.g. the Mars archives. The thing about the Quarian/geth conflict was that had the quraians not attacked the geth then they wouldn't end up in that very situation. A lot of situations in the reaper war could have been avoided if the galaxy had competent leaders.

I'm not. I'm just illustrating what your logic entails to. You're even proving my point. You can't condemn an entire species for the wrongdoings of some of its members. Considering the vast majority of the Asari population had no idea that a Prothean VI was hidden in their temple, you can hardly expect them to protest against their misguided leaders, can you? And yes, a lot of situations could have been avoided if they had better leaders. Could have, would have, should have. Hell, this whole war could have been avoided if Leviathans had been better at programming. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it?
 
 

They weren't sitting idle and were at least trying to do something against the reaper's, the asari only involved themselves when the reaper's were in their territory and they payed dearly for it.

They weren't sitting idle, they were protecting their own worlds. It's not like they had the military might the Turians, Humans and Krogans do. It's not by chance that the Reapers attacked Palaven, Earth and the Batarian region first. Those three were the biggest military forces in the galaxy.

[Kabooooom]

I don't know if this makes sense. I Am Not A Physicist but

Surely the whole point of accelerating the bullet is to increase it's Kinetic Energy? If you're just messing Mass to increase Velocity, then the bullet wouldn't hit any harder.

If there's a lag between the mass returning and the velocity decreasing, to allow the bullets to work, then you're still violating conservation of energy, surely? So I don't think you gain anything there

Also on further thought I think the Codex's description of a mass effect field collapse at FTL speeds helps my case, because it clearly says that there is "enormous excess energy" for it to shed.

Where does that extra energy come from? I'm going to say it's Dark Energy (and then wave my hands a bit because that's not really an answer)

So when a mass effect field that reduces mass collapses, what I say happens is that Dark Energy converts to Kinetic Energy, sufficient that the speed of the objects contained in it is maintained. Including bullets and potentially our sublight intergalactic spaceship. The problem for an FTL spaceship is it's not allowed to be going faster than light, so the Dark Energy can't be converted to KE, and that's why it instead turns into radiation.

I think this is not exactly right. The excess energy is easily explained in that it is previous kinetic energy applied via thrust during the voyage, converted to radiation. I made a long post in another thread about how the mass effect works, but I don't feel like finding it, so I will write a truncated version. The mass effect field lowers the rest mass of all objects within the field, as energy is conserved, this necessarily has the side effect of elevating the value of c within the field compared to c in a vacuum. Now, a comparatively small amount of energy applied toward forward momentum will accelerate an object in the field to a far greater degree than the same amount of energy applied to a comparable object outside the field, due to the decreased mass.

This is what allows "faster than light" travel to be possible. Nothing is ever travelling faster than light. The ship is still travelling a tiny, tiny fraction of the new value of c within the field. It is impossible for the vessel to ever actually reach the new value of c, as it would take infinite energy, just as it would outside of the mass effect field when trying to accelerate to c in a vacuum.

When the mass effect field is initiated, energy via electricity is provided to element zero, and this in turn creates the field, lowering mass and elevating the value od c. Additional energy from thrusters is required to make the ship accelerate. When the field collapses, the mass of the object rapidly increases, but the object still has energy associated with it which was initially converted into kinetic energy from the thrusters. When the field collapses, this energy massively radiates as the object regains its original mass and deceleration occurs. This deceleration must occur, as the object can never travel faster than c in a vacuum, even if it was effectively doing so within the mass effect field.

At least, that is what the codex very strongly implies. The alternative, what others are incorrectly proposing, is that the mass effect field could be used to create what is basically an FTL perpetual motion machine. This breaks physics even in the fictitional physics of mass effect.

For bullets, the same thing must occur. Deceleration has to happen. What is strange is that the codex implies that it doesn't happen prior to the bullet hitting the target, which makes sense or the mass effect ballistics of it all wouldn't work to make an improved, futuristic gun. What doesn't make sense is why it doesn't occur prior to impact. I just rationalize that the field collapse and regain in mass takes a certain amount of time (probably milliseconds) - both when shut down from within an object like a spacecraft, or when an object leaves a mass effect field itself like a bullet. In the case of the bullet, the bullet is regaining mass and decelerating rapidly - but not so rapidly that it doesn't find it's intended target first. And thus, it hits the target with a massive amount of kinetic energy that it hasn't had a chance to radiate yet.

I'm sure if you actually think hard about how this would work in real life, you would see that it couldn't, as energy would be conserved and the bullet of lower mass but higher velocity would hit with the same kinetic energy as a bullet of higher mass but lower velocity. But invoking dark energy into the equation just makes it murkier, because there is no need to do it with how the mass effect is described as working in the codex for FTL travel. It really seems like they created a fictional physics that is internally consistent for FTL travel for the most part, but not for guns.

A more interesting explanation would be if the bullets themselves created a mass effect field - like if they were made out of a superconductor that had element zero within it. Then, an electromagnetic barrel of the gun could accelerate a bullet of minute mass to a great velocity without it instantly decelerating. At least, that makes more sense to me.

[anddill]

Funny, i had the same idea to just go to relativistic speed, shut down the drive, sit 2 days of ship-time watching Andromeda getting bigger in the Window (actually having a front window would be a very bad idea, because all radiation from the front would be really hard gamma-rays), restarting drive, breaking a bit and welcome to another galaxy. 

Violating the Laws for conservation of energy is the central point of the Mass Effect. Its the way all the ME-Tech works. Or the Weapons would just spew out some dust.

And a bullet with still attached ME-field would be useless. It would be way to light to do damage.

Look at the energy sources actual railgun-prototypes use. ME enables the handguns in this fictional universe to run with 3 AA-Cells and still do massive damage.

 

edit: The catastrophic deceleration only happens if you disable your warp ME-Field at speeds above c relative to the universe. Weapons fire at non relativistic speeds. I think the guy who yells at some recruits at the entrance to the wards in me2 talks about around 30km/s, which would be ~1% of c.

[Drone223]

Well, before they had the plan for the Crucible, they were right to have bad expectations for the outcome of this war. If a featherweight boxer without preparation was to face 10 murderous heavyweights like Mike-Tyson at the peak of their form, how d'you think he'd feel? Pretty bad odds for the featherweight, if you ask me. If I were him I'd run away as fast as possible. Is it defeatist? Maybe, though I'd still say realist over defeatist, but that's till better than being turned in a pool of bloody mess on the floor. And that is assuming the Council took the Reaper threat seriously and didn't just study Sovereign because it's new technology thrown in their lap that they could use for better exploration or defense against Geth.
 

The reaper's had lost their greatest advantage which was using the citadel relay to the galaxy by surprise and isolate each star cluster. Losing that is a huge game changer they could have used that time to prepare for their arrival or find something to defeat the reapers. But since they didn't even bother doing either of those things it is defeatist that chose to build an ark instead.

 

 

Except they couldn't or we wouldn't have had to storm the Cerberus base.

 

They had about 2000 years to find a way to access it that more than enough time to do so.

 

And the Salarian had plenty of time to reveal they had a cure for the Genophage, they only shared it when the Krogan leader forced their hand. The Turians had plenty of time to reveal the bomb, they only shared it when Cerberus got involved. If they could have kept these skeletons in their closet, they would have. Your point is moot. They all signed the Galactic treaties, they are all officially bound to them regardless of who came up with which law. They were all hypocrites and that the Asari are the most diplomatic of the bunch has no bearing with this.

 

So its okay to call out other species, but the asari get a free pass for breaking the very laws they created in order to get an advantage over other species.

 

I'm not. I'm just illustrating what your logic entails to. You're even proving my point. You can't condemn an entire species for the wrongdoings of some of its members. Considering the vast majority of the Asari population had no idea that a Prothean VI was hidden in their temple, you can hardly expect them to protest against their misguided leaders, can you? And yes, a lot of situations could have been avoided if they had better leaders. Could have, would have, should have. Hell, this whole war could have been avoided if Leviathans had been better at programming. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

 

My point still stands

 

 

They weren't sitting idle, they were protecting their own worlds. It's not like they had the military might the Turians, Humans and Krogans do. It's not by chance that the Reapers attacked Palaven, Earth and the Batarian region first. Those three were the biggest military forces in the galaxy.

 

They were sitting idle, the fact they refused to show up at the war summit speaks for itself. The asari weren't helping out the turians, humans and krogan when they were needed.

[Catastrophy]

Doesn't work like that. To create a viable population capable of facing every challenge while being stranded on a "colony", minimum requirement is about (current theory) the size of a small village - more than 100 people.  Considering the technology/medical treatment availability, it might be possible to reduce that number to let's say 50 - 80 but even a minor disaster would have a high chance of wiping out the colony... And their technological capabilities aren't limitless. Quite the opposite.    

That's not a problem - it's the Normandy after all. They learned from the best how to pick up partners. And there are of course lovely aliens just where the ship goes down.

[Fade9wayz]

The reaper's had lost their greatest advantage which was using the citadel relay to the galaxy by surprise and isolate each star cluster. Losing that is a huge game changer they could have used that time to prepare for their arrival or find something to defeat the reapers. But since they didn't even bother doing either of those things it is defeatist that chose to build an ark instead.

So go ahead and name what that famous something to stop the Reapers is supposed to be. You should definitely write to BW and tell them to redo the whole thing acording to how you think things should have been, since obviously, the Crucible wasn't even needed if they just found something. 
 

They had about 2000 years to find a way to access it that more than enough time to do so.

And again, they obviously couldn't, even in these 2000 years. I'm not the one who wrote this story. Is it full of inconsistencies? Yes. Can we do something about it? No. However we can at least stick to the facts we HAVE and not invent things to validate our points of view. Points of view that in your case, are heavilly biased against Asari. Again, you have the right to not like them, but if you're going to argument your points, try to stick to the facts and be objective. Otherwise, all you're convincing me of is that you're prejudiced.
 

So its okay to call out other species, but the asari get a free pass for breaking the very laws they created in order to get an advantage over other species.

When did I ever say Asari should get a free pass? Of course the Matriarchs involved are going to face sanctions for what they did, just like the Turians responsible for the bomb and the Salarians responsible for kidnapping Eve. You just can't hold the whole population responsible for something they weren't even aware of. Hell, compared to wiping out an entire race with one big bomb, hiding a Prothean beacon they couldn't even decipher fully is pretty tame.
 

My point still stands

Nope, now you're just being childish. You're just refusing to admit I'm right because you know it would invalidate your previous post. I don't care, anyone sensible would recognise you don't even have a point anymore.
 
 

They were sitting idle, the fact they refused to show up at the war summit speaks for itself. The asari weren't helping out the turians, humans and krogan when they were needed.

They indeed didn't. However that's because their army is pretty small. Considering Turians, Krogans and Humans are otherwise occupied, who's going to protect their own homeworld? Robot unicorns? From the Wiki:
Asari: Military Doctrine
The asari military resembles a collection of tribal warrior bands with no national structure. Each community organizes its own unit as the locals see fit, and elect a leader to command them. Units from populous cities are large and well-equipped, while those from farm villages may only be a few women with small arms. There is no uniform; everyone wears what they like. The asari military is not an irregular militia, however; those who serve are full-time professionals.

The average asari huntress is in the maiden stage of her life and has devoted 20–30 years to studying the martial arts. Asari choose to be warriors at a young age, and their education from that point is dedicated to sharpening the mind and body for that sole purpose. When they retire, they possess an alarming proficiency for killing.

Huntresses fight individually or in pairs, depending on the tactics preferred in their town. One-on-one, a huntress is practically unbeatable, possessing profound tactical insight, a hunter's eye, and a dancer's grace and alacrity. Biotics are common enough that some capability is a requirement to be trained as a huntress; lack of biotic talent excludes a young asari from military service.

While fluid and mobile, asari can't stand up in a firestorm the way a krogan, turian, or human could. Since their units are small and typically lack heavy armor and support weapons, they are almost incapable of fighting a conventional war, particularly one of a defensive nature. So asari units typically undertake special operations missions. Like an army of ninja, they are adept at ambush, infiltration, and assassination, demoralizing and defeating their enemies through intense, focused guerrilla strikes.

As a popular turian saying puts it, "The asari are the finest warriors in the galaxy. Fortunately, there are not many of them."

Besides, they were there in the end, when they were needed. But obviously, nothing can redeem them in your eyes.

[Master Warder Z_]

The PC got high...and just sort of wandered off.

[Kabooooom]

Funny, i had the same idea to just go to relativistic speed, shut down the drive, sit 2 days of ship-time watching Andromeda getting bigger in the Window (actually having a front window would be a very bad idea, because all radiation from the front would be really hard gamma-rays), restarting drive, breaking a bit and welcome to another galaxy.
Violating the Laws for conservation of energy is the central point of the Mass Effect. Its the way all the ME-Tech works. Or the Weapons would just spew out some dust.
And a bullet with still attached ME-field would be useless. It would be way to light to do damage.
Look at the energy sources actual railgun-prototypes use. ME enables the handguns in this fictional universe to run with 3 AA-Cells and still do massive damage.

edit: The catastrophic deceleration only happens if you disable your warp ME-Field at speeds above c relative to the universe. Weapons fire at non relativistic speeds. I think the guy who yells at some recruits at the entrance to the wards in me2 talks about around 30km/s, which would be ~1% of c.

This still doesn't make sense though. The bullet is only lowered in mass while within a mass effect field. Outside of it, it returns to normal mass. The acceleration is applied to the lower mass bullet, and it is expelled from the gun and, presumably, the influence of the mass effect field. Once out of the field, the mass would return, and the same amount of energy associated with a larger mass would cause deceleration.

What you are saying is akin to what others are saying - it is basically a mass effect perpetual motion machine, and that is not how it is described to work in the codex.

Like I said above, the codex is actually a bit inconsistent. The FTL parts are very consistent, but they dont jive well with the ballistics parts.

In another thread, I actually calculated a somewhat reasonable relativistic timeframe to Andromeda.