I have said there really aren't any "good" options given the endings.
But I have shown approval of a couple of idea. Mainly expanding on relay technology. But as I said, the point is expanding on rules the setting already has in place rather than just handwaving your way past them.
Possibly. The thought had occurred to me too. However, it's still not much more lead time. I forget the exact timescale but wasn't Sovereign's attack about 3 years before the invasion? 3 years to crack intergalactic travel using Sovereign's reconstructed drive still seems a stretch. And it's not even certain that Reapers like Sovereign would be able to get all the way to another galaxy. We don't know how far they had to travel from their base in darkspace.A more likely scenario is that this ship was a special project, designed and under construction since Sovereign's attack by some secret section of the government. In that case, the timescale for designing and constructing the ship becomes more believable.
That possibility hasn't been ruled out, has it?
Pretentious trailer, not to mention a total wannabe Interstellar:
Somehow, it still gets me excited. I love the theme, but I'm concerned whether BIoware has any audacity about it or if they're just trying to be Interstellar The Game (...And High-Spectacle Gunplay + Romance-Simulator). I mean, you gotta ask, is this really some video-game writer's own ideas or is he too in awe of his favorite movie?
You could say Mass Effect was largely ripping off established ideas all throughout though... still, I feel Mass Effect 1 was just trying to be itself. ME2 or ME3 had more obvious style-similarities or maybe it was because it was jarring how they were inspired by non-sci-fi movies which clashed with ME1's sci-fi style or I dunno.
All things considered, this is just a trailer, and probably not gonna indicate the style of narrative the actual game has. That said, it's hard to be super-impressed by it IMO.
Because being in awe of space travel is totally Interstellar's idea first...
Also the originality of Mass Effect 1 is overrated (or the series in general)... It has always felt more like a love letter to dozens of sci-fi conventions/films/books than some super-original setting that people claim it to be.
Possibly. The thought had occurred to me too. However, it's still not much more lead time. I forget the exact timescale but wasn't Sovereign's attack about 3 years before the invasion? 3 years to crack intergalactic travel using Sovereign's reconstructed drive still seems a stretch. And it's not even certain that Reapers like Sovereign would be able to get all the way to another galaxy. We don't know how far they had to travel from their base in darkspace.
Such a project would also be very difficult to keep secret, especially from people like Cerberus or the Shadow Broker. Liara should have been able to find out about it, and it would have been reasonable to expect her to mention it to Shepard when talking about her own time capsules.
That's true. But I think this is one of those moments where the secret project is as hidden as the plot demands. Take for example how the Asari were able to hide their Prothean VI whose name I forget. If this Ark is kept secret, it's because the writers decided that Liara wasn't able to find anything. And if the Ark is discovered, it's because Liara was able to find it. As it is, the Mass Effect rules are inconsistent enough that really anything can work.
Because being in awe of space travel is totally Interstellar's idea first...
It was obvious early in ME2 that they were already getting frustrated with the quantity of variables. Hell, that's largely the purpose for Lazarus, since killing Shepard off for two years drastically minimized those variables.
Wait, what?
How did killing Shepard AT ALL minimize variables? 
In theory, if we're able to find simple Crucible plans, I suppose we could also find advanced ship design plans: easy/quick to build, but requiring enough resources that we can only afford to build one of them.
Eaxctly the ME series needs less DEM's not more.That's also possible, but I hope they don't go down that route. I didn't care for the convenient way that the Crucible plans turned up and I'd rather they didn't pull that kind of thing again.
That's true. But I think this is one of those moments where the secret project is as hidden as the plot demands. Take for example how the Asari were able to hide their Prothean VI whose name I forget. If this Ark is kept secret, it's because the writers decided that Liara wasn't able to find anything. And if the Ark is discovered, it's because Liara was able to find it. As it is, the Mass Effect rules are inconsistent enough that really anything can work.
Ugh, Writer Fiat is such a horrible way to explain things. It's no better than "A Wizard Did It"
That's also possible, but I hope they don't go down that route. I didn't care for the convenient way that the Crucible plans turned up and I'd rather they didn't pull that kind of thing again.
I wouldn't disagree with you on that, I really dislike the Crucible (amongst other ME plot elements). I'm just saying that I think in that context, it's Bioware being consistent with their own (questionable) habits.
Wait, what?
How did killing Shepard AT ALL minimize variables?
I wouldn't disagree with you on that, I really dislike the Crucible (amongst other ME plot elements). I'm just saying that I think in that context, it's Bioware being consistent with their own (questionable) habits.
I'd prefer Bioware to aspire to be something more.
I'd prefer Bioware to aspire to be something more.
Shepard being out of the picture due to his/her death unified the world-states. It's responsible for the council being skeptical of Shepard and the Reapers no matter what, and it's responsible for the characters having no obligation to sticking near Shepard. It also forced Shepard into cooperating with Cerberus, who imposed their control on the variables throughout.
Any of which could have been accomplished without KILLING OFF THE MAIN CHARACTER AT THE START OF THE GAME. Then resurrecting, by "resources" WHich, involves, I dunno, stuffing money into Shepard's torso or something.
After ME3 I think it's just in there because Mac Walters likes killing off SHepard
Ugh, Writer Fiat is such a horrible way to explain things. It's no better than "A Wizard Did It"
It's always "a Wizard did it" though. Any story that wants to rely on the fantastic will have rules, until the writer decides he wants to break them at his leisure.
Can't speak for others, but even some of my favorite stories have taken this approach: Darker than Black (my favorite anime, by far), Neil Gaiman's Sandman (which I'm rereading now). Sandman is considered to be amazing by many, but it's not always noted for being 100% clear about how the mechanics of the universe work.
Whether any of these stories do this well? That's a YMMV type of deal. But talking about being consistent with a rule set in a setting where the rules (like Liara's Shadowbroker resources) aren't well-defined is where we end up. Fans might not enjoy it, but it's not exactly inconsistent with anything Mass Effect has given us up until this point.
Possibly. The thought had occurred to me too. However, it's still not much more lead time. I forget the exact timescale but wasn't Sovereign's attack about 3 years before the invasion? 3 years to crack intergalactic travel using Sovereign's reconstructed drive still seems a stretch. And it's not even certain that Reapers like Sovereign would be able to get all the way to another galaxy. We don't know how far they had to travel from their base in darkspace.
Such a project would also be very difficult to keep secret, especially from people like Cerberus or the Shadow Broker. Liara should have been able to find out about it, and it would have been reasonable to expect her to mention it to Shepard when talking about her own time capsules.
I continue to wonder whether Bioware really planned in advance to make a fourth game. They didn't seem to lay much groundwork for it in the last trilogy.
Well they definitely didn't plan it. Not planning ahead is almost a trademark in this series. Every single entry has been making it up as they went along. Reversing Reaper drive tech does seem a stretch, but not entirely implausible. Push comes to shove, they'll use Sovereign's drive core itself after confirming it isn't emitting an indoctrination signal. We might not know the limits of Reaper drive cores, but honestly the writers will just say "it's enough".
I don't think keeping it secret would have been implausible. We think those people know everything because they always seem to know whatever the plot requires of them to advance the plot or cause a conflict, but they aren't omniscient. Liara didn't know about the STG's genophage cure project until someone inside leaked it, if I recall.
The Thorian's capabilities are almost entirely "A Wizard Did It".
Unless you want to give it credit for being "alien", which also applies to retrofitted ships and discovered plans.
Exactly. And part of the appeal of sci-fi is that strange, mysterious vibe of discovering things that shouldn't be, according to the rules of the universe. Based on what criteria can we really parcel it out that the Thorian makes sense but the Crucible doesn't? If the writers (for example) want to maintain the Reapers being so much more advanced than us, ultimately the rules of what is and isn't allowed will always be authorial fiat.
Any of which could have been accomplished without KILLING OFF THE MAIN CHARACTER AT THE START OF THE GAME. Then resurrecting, by "resources" WHich, involves, I dunno, stuffing money into Shepard's torso or something.
After ME3 I think it's just in there because Mac Walters likes killing off SHepard
I can't wait to see how they justify a ship actually leaving the galaxy.
Hibernation tech ripped from Protheans maybe?
Sceptical of what? Andromeda, Ark and "conventional" journey are already confirmed in official material.
Ark is not confirmed...and neither is the timeline of events yet. Seeing one ship doesn't confirm it is the Ark.
If it is, it is, but I am not convinced until I see it.
That is the problem.
Hibernation tech ripped from Protheans maybe?
That might keep the people alive (keep them from dying due to age, anyway), but that won't stop them from having to discharge the ship's drive core every day.
EC was a compromise, Citadel was a love-letter, and this teaser was Shepard passing the torch as a final good-bye. Seems pretty clear to me.
People don't think Shepard is actually saying that in-game do they?
Another thing to point out about why this trailer isn't ingame is how they have the Milky Way and Andromeda right next to each other, when in reality we can fit over 25 Milky Way galaxies between the Milky Way and Andromeda.
The Thorian's capabilities are almost entirely "A Wizard Did It".
I haven't played ME1 in a very long time, but I was under the impression that the Thorian controlled people via released spores.
If that is the case, then an organism controlling another organism with spores is nothing new in real-world nature. That's the entire idea of the cordyceps fungus. The big difference between something like cordyceps and the Thorian is that cordyceps kills the host and effectively turns the host into a zombie, a literal walking corpse, whereas the Thorian keeps its hosts alive.
Retour en haut