112 réponses à ce sujet

[Fortlowe]

Sounds cool, how did I miss this book?...

It's really a great read. Would make a great film.

[Wulfram]

If the ark is simply going ballistic, then the time it takes goes from centuries to milenia (or more) 
 
Not to mention it will have no maneuvering capability.

If you're going ballistic and not using mass effect fields, you might be able to let time dilation shorten the trip from your point of view. Taking 2.5 Million Years to get there from the point of the rest of universe is only really a problem if you need to go back.

[Fade9wayz]

Why do I find myself hoping that this "Ark" ends up being some ancient extragalactic spacecraft that's just passing through, like Rendevous With Rama

Ooooh, and here I had formulated, in a previous thread, the hypothesis that they might slingshot the Ark around the giant black hole in the center of the galaxy...

[Laughing_Man]

If you're going ballistic and not using mass effect fields, you might be able to let time dilation shorten the trip from your point of view. Taking 2.5 Million Years to get there from the point of the rest of universe is only really a problem if you need to go back.

 

Hmm... For some reason I thought that it was a shorter trip, 2.5 million years is a long time for Cryo sleep... Probably not really realistic.

 

And without an active drive core for the entire journey the speed would be even less than the speed of light, which means even more  than 2.5 million years...

 

I guess that this is more or less out of the question then.

 

Worm-hole it is then...

[Killroy]

Ooooh, and here I had formulated, in a previous thread, the hypothesis that they might slingshot the Ark around the giant black hole in the center of the galaxy...

 

I quite like the idea of using eezo to turn a black hole into a wormhole. It's fanfic, I know, but it's no less logical than the relays.

[AlanC9]

Hmm... For some reason I thought that it was a shorter trip, 2.5 million years is a long time for Cryo sleep... Probably not really realistic.
 
And without an active drive core for the entire journey the speed would be even less than the speed of light, which means even more  than 2.5 million years...

But at relativistic speeds it wouldn't be 2.5 million years on the ship. It could be far less. Get close enough to lightspeed and you wouldn't even need cryosleep.

[Kabooooom]

Why keep it secret, though? SUch tech would have completely removed dependance on the relay network. Why risk unlocking relays to scary bug-eyed aliens when you can ftl to any system you want, then ftl out if it doesn't suit your purposes.

I'm sure the appearance of FTL in the trailer was just for dramatic effect because 1) it would be stupid and lore breaking and 2) its not like you could watch the main character select a destination and then go sleep in his cabin til they arrive.

I wouldn't take trailers so literally...at least not ones this early. Look at the Halo 5 trailers. They were completely unlike the final game.

[Laughing_Man]

But at relativistic speeds it wouldn't be 2.5 million years on the ship. It could be far less. Get close enough to lightspeed and you wouldn't even need cryosleep.

 

Can you elaborate? I mean, I understand what you mean, but how much time would actually pass for the people on the ship?
 

[Killroy]

Can you elaborate? I mean, I understand what you mean, but how much time would actually pass for the people on the ship?
 

 

It would depend on how close to the speed of light you're traveling.

[Wulfram]

Can you elaborate? I mean, I understand what you mean, but how much time would actually pass for the people on the ship?

It all depends on how close to the speed of light you can get. 0.99999 c is apparently fast enough to take the experienced time down to a human lifetime.

The big problem is whether we can get to that speed. We can do it if Mass Effect fields let us beat conservation of momentum - which they seem to with how the guns work - but otherwise its likely to require ridiculously high amounts of energy.

[AlanC9]

Right. The mass effect seems to outright violate conservation of... pretty much everything. Years ago someone proposed that you could get free power by reducing the mass of water, pumping it up a mountain, and then dropping it through turbines at normal mass.

[Fade9wayz]

I quite like the idea of using eezo to turn a black hole into a wormhole. It's fanfic, I know, but it's no less logical than the relays.

Wasn't it some Volus scientist who came up with the idea? I'd quite like that idea too, mainly because I like Volus, and it would be lore-friendly at least.

 

The only problem I really have with wormholes, is how to control the emergence point. I suppose it will be happily handwaved though, if BW goes with wormholes

[Killroy]

Wasn't it some Volus scientist who came up with the idea? I'd quite like that idea too, mainly because I like Volus, and it would be lore-friendly at least.

 

It was fanfic but it was made to look like it came from the in-game news updates.

[Fade9wayz]

It was fanfic but it was made to look like it came from the in-game news updates.

Ah, thank you for the precision

[Drone223]

If the ark operates at conventional FTL then it doesn't solve the problem of getting to Andromeda since it would have the drive discharge issue. Only ships with Reaper-tier drives have surpassed that.

Who says the trip won't take centuries?

Actually we see Sovereign giving of electrical discharge at the start of ME1 so any ship that uses a reaper drive core still has to deal with static build up.

[Iakus]

Wasn't it some Volus scientist who came up with the idea? I'd quite like that idea too, mainly because I like Volus, and it would be lore-friendly at least.

 

The only problem I really have with wormholes, is how to control the emergence point. I suppose it will be happily handwaved though, if BW goes with wormholes

Sadly it was a fanfic Cerberus News piece.  Several, actually.

 

Which is a pity, since that's an explanation I could actually buy into, potentially.

[Killroy]

Sadly it was a fanfic Cerberus News piece.  Several, actually.

 

Which is a pity, since that's an explanation I could actually buy into, potentially.

 

It would be pretty neat to have the Volus in a central role, even if only for the journey. Imagine if Volus scientists make the wormhole, Salarian, Hanar and Elcor scientists design the ship, and human, Krogan, Turian, Batarian, and Rachni labor build it. Having all of these species involved would make for a very logical reason to include all races in the Ark and support a new power/leadership paradigm. 

[AresKeith]

It would be pretty neat to have the Volus in a central role, even if only for the journey. Imagine if Volus scientists make the wormhole, Salarian, Hanar and Elcor scientists design the ship, and human, Krogan, Turian, Batarian, and Rachni labor build it. Having all of these species involved would make for a very logical reason to include all races in the Ark and support a new power/leadership paradigm.

Volus being central and serious?

Heresy!!

[Iakus]

Actually we see Sovereign giving of electrical discharge at the start of ME1 so any ship that uses a reaper drive core still has to deal with static build up.

They do:

 

Reaper power sources seem to violate known physical laws. Reapers usually destroy fuel infrastructure rather than attempting to capture it intact, indicating that Reapers do not require organic species' energy supplies. Consequently, the Reapers attack without regard for maintaining supply lines behind them, except to move husks from one planet to another. Unlike Citadel ships, Reapers do not appear to discharge static buildup from their drive cores, although they sometimes appear wreathed in static discharge when they land on planets.

 

They do still build up a static charge.  Their tolerances for it seem to be higher, however.

[Laughing_Man]

Right. The mass effect seems to outright violate conservation of... pretty much everything. Years ago someone proposed that you could get free power by reducing the mass of water, pumping it up a mountain, and then dropping it through turbines at normal mass.

 

Not bad...

 

Unless of course the amount of power it takes to lift the water is greater, in this case you would have to resort to other classic Sci-Fi power sources.

[Iakus]

Not bad...

 

Unless of course the amount of power it takes to lift the water is greater, in this case you would have to resort to other classic Sci-Fi power sources.

Yup. You still need to run an electric current through eezo to lower the mass of the water...

[Laughing_Man]

Where is the whole "static discharge" idea is even coming from?

 

Is this merely an artificial restriction, or something that kinda sorta makes sense through in-universe logic?

[Iakus]

Where is the whole "static discharge" idea is even coming from?

 

Is this merely an artificial restriction, or something that kinda sorta makes sense through in-universe logic?

From the Codex:

 

FTL Drive: Drive Charge

 

As positive or negative electric current is passed through an FTL drive core, it acquires a static electrical charge. Drives can be operated an average of 50 hours before they reach charge saturation. This changes proportionally to the magnitude of mass reduction; a heavier or faster ship reaches saturation more quickly.

If the charge is allowed to build, the core will discharge into the hull of a ship. All ungrounded crew members are fried to a crisp, all electronic system are burned out, and metal bulkheads may be melted and fused together.

The safest way to discharge a core is to land on a planet and establish a connection to the ground, like a lightning rod. Larger vessels like dreadnoughts cannot land and must discharge into a planetary magnetic field.

As the hull discharges, sheets of lightning jump away into the field, creating beautiful auroral displays on the planet. The ship must retract its sensors and weapons while dumping charge to prevent damage, leaving it blind and helpless. Discharging at a moon with a weak magnetic field can take days. Discharging into the powerful field of a gas giant may require less than an hour. Deep space facilities such as the Citadel often have special discharge facilities for visiting ships.

 

So a ship can't run more than a couple days without discharging the core.  Otherwise you risk frakking up the ship and killing the crew.  It's probably the single biggest stumbling block to intergalactic travel, as such a journey would take centuries using Mass Effect ftl.

[Ahriman]

It would be pretty neat to have the Volus in a central role, even if only for the journey. Imagine if Volus scientists make the wormhole, Salarian, Hanar and Elcor scientists design the ship, and human, Krogan, Turian, Batarian, and Rachni labor build it. Having all of these species involved would make for a very logical reason to include all races in the Ark and support a new power/leadership paradigm. 

We all know it's not gonna happen. More like designed and built by Cerberus while other races were taken, so nobody would suspect Cerberus was involved. I bet volus(es?) wouldn't be putting english acronym all around.

[Iakus]

  I bet volus(es?) wouldn't be putting english acronym all around.

Well, "Spectre" stands for SPECial Tactics and REconnaissance...