397 réponses à ce sujet

[Fade9wayz]

But if the holes are in the middle of the cheese and no light can get to them, aren't they black holes as well?
 

The reason why I like the wormhole idea better then the long route is the following:
1) The ME universe has no power sources we know of, which can sustain relativistic speeds for 2.5 million years. Even the prothean power sources failed after 50.000 years.
2) If we were to retro-engineer reaper tech to get us there within 230 years, that opens up a whole slew of other questions, that would need to be answered and the game would basically have to take place after the ME3 ending (which I am still convinced it won't).
3) Converting a black hole to wormhole via eezo - while still an obvious plot device - at least uses the one familiar substance that is capable to make everything work in the first place in order to handwave another contrivance. I find this preferable, especially since the current theories of wormholes and black holes are not unrelated anyway.

So, it's just my personal opinion but I consider the wormhole thing the least inelegant solution for a necessary contrivance within the ME universe.

BTW, why are people discussing how to make black holes? There are plenty of them around in the Milky Way of the ME universe, so there is no need to make one, "just" to convert one.

Oh alright, you discovered our very secret weapon. Our military intends to bombard our enemies with cheese in case of invasion and destroy them with the mini-black holes insides, mwuahahahahaaa! Cheezo for the win! There's a reason we use super-pumas to bring water to our cows in the mountains.  

 

1. With relativity, the duration for the travelers would last much less than million years. Daisy-023 him/herself gave a number of about 3500 years in another thread. So for a spectator in the MW, the travel of the Ark would take 2 500 000 years. For the Ark and its refugees, *only* 3500 years would pass. Well within the capabilities of the prothean power source, whatever it was.

2. This is why I suggested a solution where retro-engineering Reaper tech was unnecessary. There are wandering planets in intergalactic space, these planets were ejected from their native galaxy after reaching near-light speed. With conservation of energy, they are still flying around at this speed, not that we have detected them yet, but physics have this funny and awesome tendency to postulate and mathematically prove things that can only be observed much later, once the right tools are invented, like the Higgs boson, or relativity. All in all, it'd be prothean tech we'd be retro-engineering and perfecting, rather than Reaper tech, and Ilos has been readily available for study since ME1

3. Cheezo, I tell you! Eezo is so last century.

 

All in all, I'm not against this eezo powered wormhole. I just think relativistic travel is a tad more elegant since it doesn't throw relativity and conservation of energy out of the airlock, for once in the MEU, and the required tech is conceivably available. Neither solution is perfect, obviously, and it just becomes a matter of preference at this point. 

[LinksOcarina]

 

The Ark developed in a matter of months? Not necessarily. It could've started years ago as a pet project that was appropriated and repurposed once the Reaper threat emerged (and I mean before the war. It'd be nice to retcon the Council as less than total idiots). The relevant tech to make it actually feasibile (Reaper drive, core, maybe even Crucible components/theory) were the finishing touches.

 

Didn't one of the sources in the Citadel DLC basically say that the Reapers did exist? I would presume some of that tech salvaged by Soverign would be confiscated, as we saw in the Leviathan DLC, for other purposes as well.

[Dantriges]

I don´t know. Moving the timeline 2.5 million years for the rest of the galaxy and 3500 years for the inhabitants sounds weird. We are talking about a very long travel time. If we go back 3500 years, that´s ancient egypt. I don´t think that anything would arrive in Andromeda that´s still recognizable human alliance stuff or Citadel space culture. Everything on the ark, like life support, energy has to work for a very long time. If you can survive this long on a ship, a culture would probably ditch the concept of living on planets.

[Ahriman]

Didn't one of the sources in the Citadel DLC basically say that the Reapers did exist? I would presume some of that tech salvaged by Soverign would be confiscated, as we saw in the Leviathan DLC, for other purposes as well.

I'm pretty sure Citadel was made with MEA in mind, perhaps there are some other hints besides Archive record on Sovy.

[Fade9wayz]

I don´t know. Moving the timeline 2.5 million years for the rest of the galaxy and 3500 years for the inhabitants sounds weird. We are talking about a very long travel time. If we go back 3500 years, that´s ancient egypt. I don´t think that anything would arrive in Andromeda that´s still recognizable human alliance stuff or Citadel space culture. Everything on the ark, like life support, energy has to work for a very long time. If you can survive this long on a ship, a culture would probably ditch the concept of living on planets.

Considering they would spend the majority of this time in cryopods (less energy and resource costly than a generational ship), their respective culture and tech wouldn't evolve in any way during the trip, and voilà, we can still wave around a carnifex in Andromeda

 

Edit: The MW would be completely unrecognisable if the colonists ever came back, either via this eezo powered wormhole, or relativistic travel. And yes, relativity is weird, but in an awesome way.

[MrFob]

Oh alright, you discovered our very secret weapon. Our military intends to bombard our enemies with cheese in case of invasion and destroy them with the mini-black holes insides, mwuahahahahaaa! Cheezo for the win! There's a reason we use super-pumas to bring water to our cows in the mountains.  

 

1. With relativity, the duration for the travelers would last much less than million years. Daisy-023 him/herself gave a number of about 3500 years in another thread. So for a spectator in the MW, the travel of the Ark would take 2 500 000 years. For the Ark and its refugees, *only* 3500 years would pass. Well within the capabilities of the prothean power source, whatever it was.

2. This is why I suggested a solution where retro-engineering Reaper tech was unnecessary. There are wandering planets in intergalactic space, these planets were ejected from their native galaxy after reaching near-light speed. With conservation of energy, they are still flying around at this speed, not that we have detected them yet, but physics have this funny and awesome tendency to postulate and mathematically prove things that can only be observed much later, once the right tools are invented, like the Higgs boson, or relativity. All in all, it'd be prothean tech we'd be retro-engineering and perfecting, rather than Reaper tech, and Ilos has been readily available for study since ME1

3. Cheezo, I tell you! Eezo is so last century.

 

All in all, I'm not against this eezo powered wormhole. I just think relativistic travel is a tad more elegant since it doesn't throw relativity and conservation of energy out of the airlock, for once in the MEU, and the required tech is conceivably available. Neither solution is perfect, obviously, and it just becomes a matter of preference at this point. 

 

Fair enough on the point of time dilation. Doesn't solve the problem though, that there are no engines in the ME universe that can get us to speeds of the magnitude where time dilation effects really come into effect to that point. There are no super-engines in the ME universe. The only way to get to such high speeds is within an ME field, in which case you don't experience time dilation.

So they would have to come up with an entire new engine, which is then used only for that journey and nowhere else during the war, where it could be used for tactical purposes.

As for ejected planets and other objects in the intergalactic void for drive discharge, I'd have to read up on how common these are but we'd basically need one ever 100 ly or so, which seems pretty dense for, you know, a void.

Also, if it were so easy to travel in that space, what was the point of the reapers hiding there?

 

In the end, I don't really care how we get there. As I said before, it's going to be a contrivance either way. I just want some explanation that is grounded as much as possible in the current universe, not something for which we'd have to invent some super new and widely useful tech, which is than only used once and good for nothing else for some reason (we already had that too often: Conduit, Lazarus, Crucible).

I'd rather go with exploiting some super rare natural phenomenon, spice it up with some of the already known eezo magic and that's it.

 

... I like the cheezo btw, must be what powers Shepards incredible ability to romance anyone and everyone.

[Dubozz]

"Eezo turns black holes into wormholes" theory sounds so bad it could be real

[Fade9wayz]

Fair enough on the point of time dilation. Doesn't solve the problem though, that there are no engines in the ME universe that can get us to speeds of the magnitude where time dilation effects really come into effect to that point. There are no super-engines in the ME universe. The only way to get to such high speeds is within an ME field, in which case you don't experience time dilation.

So they would have to come up with an entire new engine, which is then used only for that journey and nowhere else during the war, where it could be used for tactical purposes.

As for ejected planets and other objects in the intergalactic void for drive discharge, I'd have to read up on how common these are but we'd basically need one ever 100 ly or so, which seems pretty dense for, you know, a void.

Also, if it were so easy to travel in that space, what was the point of the reapers hiding there?

 

In the end, I don't really care how we get there. As I said before, it's going to be a contrivance either way. I just want some explanation that is grounded as much as possible in the current universe, not something for which we'd have to invent some super new and widely useful tech, which is than only used once and good for nothing else for some reason (we already had that too often: Conduit, Lazarus, Crucible).

I'd rather go with exploiting some super rare natural phenomenon, spice it up with some of the already known eezo magic and that's it.

 

... I like the cheezo btw, must be what powers Shepards incredible ability to romance anyone and everyone.

Ah, I think I wasn't quite clear. There's no need for any new special engine, we're not even going to use FTL, so no discharge needed. The principle is to use the gravitational force of some massive enough celestial body, a black hole for exemple, to accelerate us to near-light speed. Kind of what they did to accelerate Rosetta: https://en.wikipedia...a_(spacecraft),but on a much bigger scale. Prothean tech provides power to keep the cryopods up and running during the journey. If eezo breaks down in a matter of centuries, exploratory ships could be unloaded from the ARK in search of eezo once inside Andromeda, which would unable them and the ARK to activate their drive core at last.

 

S/He had it every morning for breakfast, nobody can resist it. It's scientificaly proven. Good thing computers and consoles don't simulate smells yet. We'd have thousands of ME fans across the world desperately heart-broken at his/her death 

 

Edit after reading below post: eezo not breaking down with time. Good, we get a starting full tank for when we reach Andromeda

[Arcian]

(1) Element zero is not used up as fuel during the reaction/whatever makes it work. Care to try again?
 
(2) Your proof that it's impossible? The thanix was reverse engineered. Cronos station is powered by the core of the baby Reaper. Lore would seem to indicate the opposite of what you want to claim.
 
(3) Hardly, if it's all automated. I didn't suggest waking the crew at any point.
 
(4) If they're in cryo the whole time, the resources are nowhere near as exorbitant as you claim.

(5) There is one other possibility- there are no people going at all. Just fertiziled embryos, or DNA sequences allowing for the regrowth and population of species. I think it's unlikely they'll go this route, but this would cut down on supplies even more.
 
(6) Source?
 
(7) I assure you I am.

The Ark developed in a matter of months? Not necessarily. It could've started years ago as a pet project that was appropriated and repurposed once the Reaper threat emerged (and I mean before the war. It'd be nice to retcon the Council as less than total idiots). The relevant tech to make it actually feasibile (Reaper drive, core, maybe even Crucible components/theory) were the finishing touches.
 
(8) You continue to ignore potential innovation in that area. (9) The rest of your point would apply if the pre-Reaper war galaxy was interested in exploring and advancing beyond the relay network. Clearly they were not. Or at least it wasn't the mainstream school of thought. The relays were convenient and numerous enough, as were the discharge points. The point remains, the fact that no one bothered to invent alternatives that saw widespread use does not mean they couldn't or that someone didn't, in relative isolation.
 
(10) Turians managed to reverse engineer the thanix just fine. Despite pretty much everyone in the series being complacent morons, you underestimate human ingenuity.

1) Eezo degenerates with use and it doesn't generate propulsion, it just increases the local speed of light that technically enables FTL speeds. In order to actually move you need conventional fuel like helium 3 or antimatter, both of which require storage. This is in the codex, have you tried reading it?
 
2) Never said it's absolutely impossible, I said it's impossible in the timescale you posit. If ME:A takes place 1000 years after ME3, I am more than willing to believe the galactic level of technology has progressed to a point where they can reliably reverse-engineer the Reapers most complex technology like drivecores.
 
3) If they don't wake the crew, the increased power draw from the cryopods will negate any power conservation gained by shutting off the FTL drive, making the "burst schedule" completely pointless. I even said this in the quote you selected, though you seem to have ignored it.
 
4) If they're in cryo all the time, it draws power. Power is a consumable resource, just the same as food, water or air. You need not look further than Javik and Ksad Ishan to see excellent examples of why such extended cryosleep for viable populations would not work.
 
5) That requires surrogates. Babies can't be born and raised without human contact.
 
6) Have you tried googling it?
 
7) I am not sure how I am supposed to keep up with this level of mental gymnastics and headcanon using only the scientific principle.
 
8) Innovation takes a long time. EUREKA-bursts of innovation are exceedingly rare.
 
9) They haven't mapped anywhere close to the entire relay network yet, so to say they're not interested in exploring beyond it is ridiculous.

Citadel Space

Citadel space is an unofficial term referring to any region of space controlled by a species that acknowledge the authority of the Citadel Council. At first glance, it appears this territory encompasses most of the galaxy. In reality, however, less than 1% of the stars have been explored.

Even mass-effect-FTL drive is slow relative to the volume of the galaxy. Empty space and systems without suitable drive discharge sites are barriers to exploration. Only the mass relays allow ships to jump hundreds of light years in an instant, the key to expanding across an otherwise impassable galaxy.

Whenever a new relay is activated, the destination system is rapidly developed. From that hub, FTL drive is used to expand to nearby star clusters. The result is a number of densely-developed clusters thinly spread across the vast expanse of space, connected by the mass relay network.

This part alone makes it very clear that if it was possible to slap discharge tech on everything that moves, they would've already done so to make exploration easier. You assume complacency is the culprit because that's what supports your argument.

 

10) Ingenuity is not the magical ability to solve all problems in a short span of time. Time is ultimately the most important factor, and the one you ignore the most, as made evident by your earlier "Time is irrelevant"-comment.

 

Can they reverse-engineer the tech in the span of the Reaper War? No. Can they reverse-engineer the tech in the span of a few centuries or a millenia AFTER the Reaper War? Absolutely.

[Nethershadow]

If there is a large time dilation of 3500+ years, I could seriously see us arriving in Andromeda to already find the MW Inhabitants over that time already discovered how to travel to Andromeda and built a space station waiting to greet us at our destination.

 

Wow, you guys are still using those old busted guns? You guys really are relics of the past, so in your honor this space station is a museum ready to house you all in your cryopods and your ship. 

 

Welcome to Andromeda.

[Fade9wayz]

If there is a large time dilation of 3500+ years, I could seriously see us arriving in Andromeda to already find the MW Inhabitants over that time already discovered how to travel to Andromeda and built a space station waiting to greet us at our destination.

 

Wow, you guys are still using those old busted guns? You guys really are relics of the past, so in your honor this space station is a museum ready to house you all in your cryopods and your ship. 

 

Welcome to Andromeda.

Actually, the time dilation for the observer in the Milky Way would be 2 500 000 years. 3500 is only the travel time experienced by the refugees. And unless drive cores with no discharge limitation are invented sometime during the next 3000 years, they won't be able to beat us to the punch. Even the eezo powered wormhole in this theory is subjected to time dilation: the travel time for the refugees would be near instantaneous, but for the observer in the Milky Way, 2 500 000 years will have passed too (well, I can't affirm it would be exactly 2 500 000 years, if I want to be intellectually honest. Eezo wormhole is pure space-magic and I don't know how time dilation is factoring there).

 

It is possible Milky-Wayans could invent a super-drive core in those 3000 years. If they are even as fast as Reapers, they would only need between 250-300 years to get to Andromeda, without time dilation affecting them.

[Nethershadow]

Actually, the time dilation for the observer in the Milky Way would be 2 500 000 years. 3500 is only the travel time experienced by the refugees. And unless drive cores with no discharge limitation are invented sometime during the next 3000 years, they won't be able to beat us to the punch. Even the eezo powered wormhole in this theory is subjected to time dilation: the travel time for the refugees would be near instantaneous, but for the observer in the Milky Way, 2 500 000 years will have passed too (well, I can't affirm it would be exactly 2 500 000 years, if I want to be intellectually honest. Eezo wormhole is pure space-magic and I don't know how time dilation is factoring there).

I know I said seriously but I wasn't actually being to serious. 

 

Also why i put a + but so far it is looking like it will be far greater than the minimum years I suggested, which then become very plausible the larger that number is.

 

If it took just a million years for them to reach Andromeda, it would be huge turn off for me as now they are turning ME in a different type of Sci-fi, something more akin to Space Odyssey and the newer Interstellar.

[MrFob]

Well, in the end, it's all space magic. whether it's slingshotting around a back hole to reach 99% of light speed with everyone surviving the attempt and going in the exact right direction or a wormhole, created by the powers of (ch)eezo, as I said it's going to be contrived in any event. I just vote for the old space magic fuel of the ME universe to do it, rather than a new one*.

 

 

 

* Disclaimer: I do realize that it's all just a matter of taste and there is no real substance to these arguments. Just stating the reasons for why I'm leaning in this direction.

[Karlone123]

Sure, i'ts not like they haven't used worse plot devices anyway

 

I do think it will be hard to top the Crucible plot device.

[Fade9wayz]

Well, in the end, it's all space magic. whether it's slingshotting around a back hole to reach 99% of light speed with everyone surviving the attempt and going in the exact right direction or a wormhole, created by the powers of (ch)eezo, as I said it's going to be contrived in any event. I just vote for the old space magic fuel of the ME universe to do it, rather than a new one*.

 

 

 

* Disclaimer: I do realize that it's all just a matter of taste and there is no real substance to these arguments. Just stating the reasons for why I'm leaning in this direction.

Oh, do not worry. I completely understand. We just have different preferences in cheezo, it's nothing to get too worked up over. I was just proposing an alternative.

[Kabooooom]

Ah, I think I wasn't quite clear. There's no need for any new special engine, we're not even going to use FTL, so no discharge needed. The principle is to use the gravitational force of some massive enough celestial body, a black hole for exemple, to accelerate us to near-light speed. Kind of what they did to accelerate Rosetta: https://en.wikipedia...a_(spacecraft),but on a much bigger scale. Prothean tech provides power to keep the cryopods up and running during the journey. If eezo breaks down in a matter of centuries, exploratory ships could be unloaded from the ARK in search of eezo once inside Andromeda, which would unable them and the ARK to activate their drive core at last.

S/He had it every morning for breakfast, nobody can resist it. It's scientificaly proven. Good thing computers and consoles don't simulate smells yet. We'd have thousands of ME fans across the world desperately heart-broken at his/her death

Edit after reading below post: eezo not breaking down with time. Good, we get a starting full tank for when we reach Andromeda

A gravitational assist is a very clever way to build up speed, and I hadn't considered that. Honestly, I did not think it would be enough, even with using a supermassive black hole, to accelerate a ship to a significant relativistic velocity. And by significant, I mean greater than 99.9% the speed of light. My calculations from some of the other threads would require a speed of 99.99996%c or greater to really knock down the travel time substantially. Daisy did a similar calculation and was more conservative than I was, using a time dilation giving a travel time of several millennia rather than several centuries. While a supermassive black hole may be capable of accelerating a vessel to a fraction of the speed of light such that it does experience *some* time dilation, I have a hard time believing it would help enough to bring a vessel to 0.99c.

Then there is the problem of collision with interstellar gas/dust or even larger bodies, a very realistic problem if you are using the supermassive black hole at the galaxies' center.

And there is one more MAJOR problem: Slowing down. Had you used conventional propulsion to accelerate to 0.99c, you would need an equal amount of energy to DEcelerate. Specifically halfway to the destination. I think I have been the only one so far that has actually accounted for this in the relativistic calculations. Surprisingly, it doesn't affect travel time all that much, as the maximum velocity obtained and time spent at it are the primary determining factors. But without accounting for it, you will just overshoot Andromeda and keep going forever.

So, you still need energy to decelerate. A gravity well isn't going to help you with that.

[Iakus]

Well, in the end, it's all space magic. whether it's slingshotting around a back hole to reach 99% of light speed with everyone surviving the attempt and going in the exact right direction or a wormhole, created by the powers of (ch)eezo, as I said it's going to be contrived in any event. I just vote for the old space magic fuel of the ME universe to do it, rather than a new one*.

 

 

 

* Disclaimer: I do realize that it's all just a matter of taste and there is no real substance to these arguments. Just stating the reasons for why I'm leaning in this direction.

Yeah a certain degree of space magic is expected, as cited by Clarke's Second Law:

 

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

 

But Then there's also Sanderson's Third Law:

 

"Expand what you already have before you add something new."

 

which helps keep things from being too contrived 

[Fade9wayz]

A gravitational assist is a very clever way to build up speed, and I hadn't considered that. Honestly, I did not think it would be enough, even with using a supermassive black hole, to accelerate a ship to a significant relativistic velocity. And by significant, I mean greater than 99.9% the speed of light. My calculations from some of the other threads would require a speed of 99.99996%c or greater to really knock down the travel time substantially. Daisy did a similar calculation and was more conservative than I was, using a time dilation giving a travel time of several millennia rather than several centuries. While a supermassive black hole may be capable of accelerating a vessel to a fraction of the speed of light such that it does experience *some* time dilation, I have a hard time believing it would help enough to bring a vessel to 0.99c.

Then there is the problem of collision with interstellar gas/dust or even larger bodies, a very realistic problem if you are using the supermassive black hole at the galaxies' center.

And there is one more MAJOR problem: Slowing down. Had you used conventional propulsion to accelerate to 0.99c, you would need an equal amount of energy to DEcelerate. Specifically halfway to the destination. I think I have been the only one so far that has actually accounted for this in the relativistic calculations. Surprisingly, it doesn't affect travel time all that much, as the maximum velocity obtained and time spent at it are the primary determining factors. But without accounting for it, you will just overshoot Andromeda and keep going forever.

So, you still need energy to decelerate. A gravity well isn't going to help you with that.

Yes, I know, my theory needs some more fine-tuning. How about we use the black hole gravitation to get to that fraction of c and push for the last 0.0x percentage with ME conventional engine (plasma?). It would still save a lot of fuel compared to going from 0 to 0.99c without gravitational assist.

 

Eh, I figured we could handwave that somehow, considering the Normandy handwaved it in ME2 already. It's a handwave engraved in lore 

 

Since eezo doesn't break down over time and the Ark would have a drive core along too, I figured the ARK could enter FTL once inside Andromeda and break conservation of energy (if mass goes into negative, energy and velocity can't be kept at their previous level either)  <- attempt at trying to fit real relative physics with space magic 

[Kabooooom]

Brainstorming ideas on how to reach Andromeda without breaking the lore is good, I think. I am quite certain that Bioware chose Andromeda to avoid the endings but gave little thought on how to get there.

Now, if we can come up with ways to do it that make sense, Bioware has a significantly lower chance of choosing something that DOES break the lore. So perhaps some of these ideas will be adopted.

At least...thats the best we can hope for.

At this point, I think I am starting to favor wormhole tech. It is, after all, the most efficient means of space travel. And it raises interesting questions. Lets say a species evolved in Andromeda, the Reapers did not harvest there and this species had no element zero within their home star system. Now, they would have to develop an alternative means of interstellar travel besides utilizing the mass effect. Wormhole manipulation is a very feasible means of travel.

I honestly wouldn't mind if a MW to Andromeda wormhole was found that was created by the Remnant, and that they were a species that utilized wormhole tech. It would solve basically every problem with an intergalactic ark, while still utilizing an ark concept if people used it to flee the Reapers.

I do like the idea of a relativistic journey though.

[Ahriman]

At this point, I think I am starting to favor wormhole tech. It is, after all, the most efficient means of space travel. And it raises interesting questions. Lets say a species evolved in Andromeda, the Reapers did not harvest there and this species had no element zero within their home star system. Now, they would have to develop an alternative means of interstellar travel besides utilizing the mass effect. 

Well, I don't see how these two are connected. There wasn't a relay for every star system. So if race happens to be in system without relay or eezo they have to use convenient ways for space travel, until they find one of two. Eezo could be found in a lot of star systems despite being most rare substance in the galaxy. I don't see why Andromeda would be different.

[Kabooooom]

Well, I don't see how these two are connected. There wasn't a relay for every star system. So if race happens to be in system without relay or eezo they have to use convenient ways for space travel, until they find one of two. Eezo could be found in a lot of star systems despite being most rare substance in the galaxy. I don't see why Andromeda would be different.

The two are related, in the sense that you are overlooking that another species that utilizes the mass effect could make contact and thus spread the technology with ease. There are several examples of this exact thing happening in the lore.

If a relay network exists, then mass effect tech is the easiest to develop. There would be minimal time for another species to develop an entirely different tech prior to making contact with an advanced species. Case in point: The elcor

[MrFob]

Well, there is no eezo in the Sol system for example. We only had some because the protheans were there and they were only there because there was a relay in our system, which was only there because of the reapers.

If Andromeda doesn't have reapers, I think it's not unfeasible that a civilization developed, that created an alternative means for interstellar travel (i.e. wormholes). After all, they didn't have to develop "along the path [the reapers] desire".

My problem is rather that if we combine finding a wormhole with the ark-premise, we would have to get extremely lucky to find the Milky Way end of the wormhole in our territory just in the nick of time, especially given that shortly after the beginning of ME3, the reapers already own half the galaxy. If it was found before, why wasn't this bigger news?

Also, if an Andromeda species built it, why didn't they go through it?

 

I am not saying that all these question cannot be answered but if we were to go with a plot like this, answering these questions would have to be a major part of the plot of ME:A.

[Nethershadow]

Well if they made the time dilation about 4 billion years when they reach Andromeda, the two galaxies will have collided and then you could not only explore Andromeda, but take a drive to see what has happened in the MW.

[Fade9wayz]

Brainstorming ideas on how to reach Andromeda without breaking the lore is good, I think. I am quite certain that Bioware chose Andromeda to avoid the endings but gave little thought on how to get there.

Now, if we can come up with ways to do it that make sense, Bioware has a significantly lower chance of choosing something that DOES break the lore. So perhaps some of these ideas will be adopted.

At least...thats the best we can hope for.

At this point, I think I am starting to favor wormhole tech. It is, after all, the most efficient means of space travel. And it raises interesting questions. Lets say a species evolved in Andromeda, the Reapers did not harvest there and this species had no element zero within their home star system. Now, they would have to develop an alternative means of interstellar travel besides utilizing the mass effect. Wormhole manipulation is a very feasible means of travel.

I honestly wouldn't mind if a MW to Andromeda wormhole was found that was created by the Remnant, and that they were a species that utilized wormhole tech. It would solve basically every problem with an intergalactic ark, while still utilizing an ark concept if people used it to flee the Reapers.

I do like the idea of a relativistic journey though.

On the other hand, on a purely narrative point of view, you could have entire sections of the pods being shut down during the travel. It would bring interesting tension, especially if it endangers one of the species' chances of survival in Andromeda.

 

While I can get behind the idea of a wormhole subjected to time dilation, I still prefer the relativistic journey for now. The only real problem I have with the wormhole, is not how to create one, but how to ensure we get to the chosen destination. We haven't any inkling as to how it would be done yet. How do you control the location of the white hole? We can't send a probe, it wouldn't come back, and even if it could, it would be 2 500 000 years later... It's been largely ignored in any wormhole theory for now. the refugees could end up so close to a nova they'd be toast. Why would the Council, or refugees hoping to survive, finance a project with such a big, glaring unknown?

[Kabooooom]

Well, there is no eezo in the Sol system for example. We only had some because the protheans were there and they were only there because there was a relay in our system, which was only there because of the reapers.
If Andromeda doesn't have reapers, I think it's not unfeasible that a civilization developed, that created an alternative means for interstellar travel (i.e. wormholes). After all, they didn't have to develop "along the path [the reapers] desire".
My problem is rather that if we combine finding a wormhole with the ark-premise, we would have to get extremely lucky to find the Milky Way end of the wormhole in our territory just in the nick of time, especially given that shortly after the beginning of ME3, the reapers already own half the galaxy. If it was found before, why wasn't this bigger news?
Also, if an Andromeda species built it, why didn't they go through it?

I am not saying that all these question cannot be answered but if we were to go with a plot like this, answering these questions would have to be a major part of the plot of ME:A.

Right. This is why I think the premise will basically be that the Remnant created the wormhole to save the species of the MW from the Reapers, thus why everyone thinks they are benevolent and a "guardian" species (from the first leak).