76 réponses à ce sujet

[laudable11]

They need to get the Frontline narrator to do it.

Codex Guy's name is Neil Ross. He does alot of work for PBS as well. Narrating NOVA is what he's known for.

[ioannisdenton]

Codex Guy's name is Neil Ross. He does alot of work for PBS as well. Narrating NOVA is what he's known for.

Funny thing is propably few know his name and his history of voice acting.
But CODEX GUY is so appropriate and easily rrecognisable.
That;s how much badass his voice over was in the codex

[pkypereira]

He also voiced the Galactic news in ME1 when Shepard would be in the elevators on the Citadel. I can't remember if he still does it in ME2 and ME3.

[Nattfare]

I hope Neil Ross will read the codex in his 'Wally' voice from Monkey Island.

[von uber]

An example? i am a sucker for codex entries. But i do not overthink about them.

 

Well just off the top of my head the codex about mass relay travel taking days for a large fleet and causing ships to be randomly spread out.

Rather undone by this:

 

https://youtu.be/tLlAObjR-gs?t=135

 

Rule of cool etc.

[ioannisdenton]

 

Well just off the top of my head the codex about mass relay travel taking days for a large fleet and causing ships to be randomly spread out.

Rather undone by this:

 

https://youtu.be/tLlAObjR-gs?t=135

 

Rule of cool etc.

 

but by the time wwe press "launch mission" on the galaxy map to this cinematic maybe days  pass by. Who says this happens the next minutes?
As for the spreading out maybe there was a qeeue lining up (rediculous i know) 

[DaemionMoadrin]

 

Well just off the top of my head the codex about mass relay travel taking days for a large fleet and causing ships to be randomly spread out.

Rather undone by this:

 

https://youtu.be/tLlAObjR-gs?t=135

 

Rule of cool etc.

 

 

Actually, travel by Mass Relay happens in an instant.

 

"Mass Relays are mass transit devices scattered throughout the galaxy, usually located within star systems. They form an enormous network allowing interstellar travel. Hailed as one of the greatest achievements of the extinct Protheans, a mass relay can transport starships instantaneously to another relay within the network, allowing for journeys that would otherwise take years or even centuries with only FTL drives."

 

Otherwise the "save the council" decision in ME1 would have been moot. After all, Joker informs Shepard that the fleet is ready to jump on his command... but if they took hours or even days to arrive, then ... why come in the first place?

 

Travel from a relay to a planet can take hours though. Days or weeks if you have to travel to another star system within the cluster.

[Vortex13]

Yeah. You know what would have helped preserve the lore of Mass Relays as well as keeping the epic allied fleet jump?

 

A simple Codex entry explaining how data obtained from the Reaper Heart/Brain allows the forces of the galaxy to overwrite the Reaper imposed limitations on how many ships can travel through a Relay at once.

 

Boom. Lore consistency maintained, and awesome space fleet action enabled. 

[Vortex13]

Actually, travel by Mass Relay happens in an instant.

 

"Mass Relays are mass transit devices scattered throughout the galaxy, usually located within star systems. They form an enormous network allowing interstellar travel. Hailed as one of the greatest achievements of the extinct Protheans, a mass relay can transport starships instantaneously to another relay within the network, allowing for journeys that would otherwise take years or even centuries with only FTL drives."

 

Otherwise the "save the council" decision in ME1 would have been moot. After all, Joker informs Shepard that the fleet is ready to jump on his command... but if they took hours or even days to arrive, then ... why come in the first place?

 

Travel from a relay to a planet can take hours though. Days or weeks if you have to travel to another star system within the cluster.

 

 

Good point. I totally forgot about that sequence in ME 1, or when Sovereign and the Geth fleet all jump in at once during their surprise attack.

[Quarian Master Race]

 

Actually, travel by Mass Relay happens in an instant.

 

"Mass Relays are mass transit devices scattered throughout the galaxy, usually located within star systems. They form an enormous network allowing interstellar travel. Hailed as one of the greatest achievements of the extinct Protheans, a mass relay can transport starships instantaneously to another relay within the network, allowing for journeys that would otherwise take years or even centuries with only FTL drives."

 

Otherwise the "save the council" decision in ME1 would have been moot. After all, Joker informs Shepard that the fleet is ready to jump on his command... but if they took hours or even days to arrive, then ... why come in the first place? 

 

Travel from a relay to a planet can take hours though. Days or weeks if you have to travel to another star system within the cluster.

He meant that getting all the ships through takes days because they can't all use a single relay at the same time. Migrant Fleet codex entry states as much.

 

"The Migrant Fleet is the largest concentration of starfaring vessels in the galaxy, sprawling across millions of kilometers. It can take days for the entire fleet to pass through a mass relay"

Yet in the battle for Earth, not just them, but every fleet goes through a single relay instantaneously. That must be over a hundred thousand vessels (given that the quarians alone have half that), some of which are multiple kilometers in length, all going through a relay at the same time. How? Can ships spread millions of kilometers away from a relay somehow still use it? There is also the problem of drift of several thousand kilometers (you know, that thing that made using the Omega 4 Relay impossible in ME2 without a Reaper IFF) that would cause a huge number of accidents unless every single pilot was a genius in avoiding it like Seth Green claims to be in the first few lines of the first game.

The "Battle" for Earth should have been a couple of Reapers camping out at the Charon relay and sniping single ships as they came through for several days. However, this isn't the first time this tidbit had been ignored in favour of Rule of Cool, as you alluded to with the Battle of the Citadel (both the geth and Alliance fleets do the same thing, albiet on a much, much smaller scale).

 

[von uber]

Exactly QMR, that is what I was alluding too.
Also look at the Rannoch reaper scene where the Quarian fleet fire massively destructive weapons a few meters away from Shep without harming her. Again the codex on these weapons is ignored.

You can go on and on with this - Mass Effect has never been internally consistent.

[goishen]

Back in the old days of TV (here, I'm talking about 60's - mid 90's) we used to have voiceover people who did things like the famous "SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!"  He's one of those guys.  Might be better, might be worse, dunno as I'm not a voice over guy or a sound engineer.  Sounds relatively pleasing and paternal.  Kind'a like Al Michaels who used to do the NFL announcing.

 

I don't care who does the voice over work for the codex, but it would be pleasant to have him back.  Of course, this would assume that he didn't get his face melted in the milky way with the rest of the galaxy.

[ioannisdenton]

Exactly QMR, that is what I was alluding too.
Also look at the Rannoch reaper scene where the Quarian fleet fire massively destructive weapons a few meters away from Shep without harming her. Again the codex on these weapons is ignored.

You can go on and on with this - Mass Effect has never been internally consistent.

Ehh he used a precision weapon to target the reaper.., all shots were spot on

[Quarian Master Race]

Ehh he used a precision weapon to target the reaper.., all shots were spot on

It doesn't matter how accurate they were when the weapons have a blast radius. The ECR (effective casualty radius) of even a small modern artillery piece like a 105mm is 35-50m from the point of impact and would have been enough to shred Shepard. These are space railguns carrying similar amounts of energy to a nuke. The first salvo would have vaporized Shep and co. (the codex says as much), nevermind when the Reaper literally tries to hug you.  

[DaemionMoadrin]

 

 

He meant that getting all the ships through takes days because they can't all use a single relay at the same time. Migrant Fleet codex entry states as much.

 

"The Migrant Fleet is the largest concentration of starfaring vessels in the galaxy, sprawling across millions of kilometers. It can take days for the entire fleet to pass through a mass relay"

Yet in the battle for Earth, not just them, but every fleet goes through a single relay instantaneously. That must be over a hundred thousand vessels (given that the quarians alone have half that), some of which are multiple kilometers in length, all going through a relay at the same time. How? Can ships spread millions of kilometers away from a relay somehow still use it? There is also the problem of drift of several thousand kilometers (you know, that thing that made using the Omega 4 Relay impossible in ME2 without a Reaper IFF) that would cause a huge number of accidents unless every single pilot was a genius in avoiding it like Seth Green claims to be in the first few lines of the first game.

The "Battle" for Earth should have been a couple of Reapers camping out at the Charon relay and sniping single ships as they came through for several days. However, this isn't the first time this tidbit had been ignored in favour of Rule of Cool, as you alluded to with the Battle of the Citadel (both the geth and Alliance fleets do the same thing, albiet on a much, much smaller scale).

 

 

 

In the cutscene you see the ships arriving a few moments apart, not at the exact same time. I guess if you time the departure just right, you can move a fleet through... although within limits, as only a few dozen ships can approach the relay at the same time, especially if they are dreadnaughts or lifeships. I guess if your fleet is only 100 ships strong, you can pass through a relay with all of them within a minute? It would require them all to be linked by an AI/VI to trigger the jump at the exact time, with the exact exit vector.

 

Btw... the Omega 4 relay? They completely forgot what they said just before they went through. The Reaper IFF enables the Normandy to pass through the relay and to end up in the safe zone. Where do they arrive? In the middle of a ship graveyard, instead of in the safe zone. Duh. But I guess we needed the dramatic dog fight within the debris field, anything else wouldn't have required all the ship upgrades. BioWare dropped the ball there.

 

Speaking of camping the relays... that's actually the only possible way to close off a system and to find enemy vessels. Well, that and camping the planets themselves. There are no FTL sensors in Mass Effect, they say as much in the codex. Any ship traveling at FTL speeds can't be detected directly, all you'd see is an afterimage on your sensors from which you can extrapolate the actual location/course. A fast scout vessel could map out the star system and be gone by the time you notice it is there. Star systems are huge.

A ship with a stealth system like the Normandy would never be found unless you ambush them as they come out of the relay. Even the active scans wouldn't reveal them quickly, because those emissions travel only at lightspeed and by the time anyone noticed them, you're long gone. For example, if you scanned Pluto, then someone on Earth would notice it only 5 hours later. If they can even filter out the remaining signal from the background noise. Why they broadcast such a strong ping in every direction I will never understand. They could have saved themselves so much grief if they used a directional antenna or dish.

Instead you scanned 3 times and got rushed by Reapers. Logic.

 

The Reapers used the relays, I always wondered why no one put up a minefield around them to hit the Reapers when they arrived. Or have a dozen dreadnaughts lying in wait. Or simply trapped them in a system by blowing up the relay right after they arrived, which should kill them, too.

[MrFob]

Drift should also be a problem. If "just under 1500 k" "is  good" (assuming that k means kilometers), getting a whole fleet through in very rapid succession could be a problem as you'd risk collisions.

[von uber]

The other issue is that normal light speed communications are completely pointless when you can arrive before people know you are coming, especially in-system.

Of course it seems they tried to hand wave it with Quantum Entanglement things, but these are supposed to be rare apparently, and only work point to point. Even though every man and his dog seems to have one by the end of ME3.

I would use this gets even worse with the instant arrival of the Relays - you could tell Earth you are leaving Illium and arrive a few years before the message gets there that you are leaving.

 

How do other sci-fi settings deal with it? Or is it just ignored?

[Jaquio]

I'd like it, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's gone.

 

He worked really well in ME1 because of the corporate theme.  He sounds like a corporate spokesman.  I think it's impossible to hear the words "Binary Helix" in any voice other than his.

 

But when the game turned into a chest thumping military shooter, it started to feel kinda out of place.  We'll see.

[DaemionMoadrin]

The other issue is that normal light speed communications are completely pointless when you can arrive before people know you are coming, especially in-system.

Of course it seems they tried to hand wave it with Quantum Entanglement things, but these are supposed to be rare apparently, and only work point to point. Even though every man and his dog seems to have one by the end of ME3.

I would use this gets even worse with the instant arrival of the Relays - you could tell Earth you are leaving Illium and arrive a few years before the message gets there that you are leaving.

 

How do other sci-fi settings deal with it? Or is it just ignored?

 

Mass Effect has FTL communication:

 

Real-time communication is possible thanks to networks of expensive mass relay comm buoys that can daisy-chain a transmission via lasers.

Comm buoys are maintained in patterns built outward from each mass relay. The buoys are little more than a cluster of primitive, miniature mass relays. Each individual buoy is connected to a partner on another buoy in the network, forming a corridor of low-mass space. Tightbeam communications lasers are piped through these "tubes" of FTL space, allowing virtually instantaneous communication to anywhere on the network. The networks connect across regions by communications lasers through the mass relays.

With this system, the only delay is the light lag between the source or destination and the closest buoy. So long as all parties remain within half a light-second (150,000 km) of buoys, seamless real time communications are possible. Since buoys are maintained in all traveled areas, most enjoy unlimited instant communications. Ships only suffer communications lag when operating off established deep space routes, around uninhabited outer system gas giants, and other unsettled areas.

During wartime, comm buoy networks are the first target of an attack. Once the network is severed, it can take anywhere from weeks to years to get a message out of a contested system. In systems where a buoy network has not yet been built or has been destroyed, rapid communication means ferrying information through high-speed courier ships and unmanned data drones.

 

While comm buoys allow rapid transmission, there is a finite amount of bandwidth available. Given that trillions of people may be trying to pass a message through a given buoy at any one time, access to the network is parceled out on priority tiers.

The Citadel Council and the Spectres have absolute priority; if they are using all the bandwidth, everyone else must wait. Individual governments and their militaries enjoy the next-highest tier. During wartime, civilian communication can suffer hours or even days of lag. Intelligence agencies study ping time through various systems to predict military buildups.

Below the governments and militaries, bandwidth priority is sold to the highest bidder. Media conglomerates, particularly headline news networks, purchase higher priority to provide their viewers with timely information. Corporations that require timely information and response capability (for example, financial institutions and investment firms) also invest heavily in priority access. The funds acquired through sales of bandwidth are used to maintain and expand the communications infrastructure.

While everyone with a computer has guaranteed free and unlimited access to the galactic extranet, they are last in line for bandwidth and may have to wait for their requests to be processed. Bandwidth resale corporations use investment capital to purchase blocks of high priority access, made available by paid subscription.

 

(Source: http://masseffect.wi...Communications)

[von uber]

How does the light go through faster than light space? Am I being dense here?

[DaemionMoadrin]

How does the light go through faster than light space? Am I being dense here?

 

The same way any other matter does. Corridors/tunnels of reduced mass, thus going beyond lightspeed. If you doubt that works, then you're doubting the entire Mass Effect technology.

 

Not that I would blame you, because it's all space magic.

[von uber]

Yeah but aren't photons mass less in the first place?

[Killroy]

Yeah but aren't photons mass less in the first place?

 

No, but that is a very common misconception. 

[DaemionMoadrin]

Yeah but aren't photons mass less in the first place?

 

If it has energy, then it has mass.

[von uber]

Wiki says it is massless:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon

I'm thinking back to my a-level physics (far to long ago) and I'm sure it was.
Reason is if it is I'm not sure how the mass effect would work on it. Be quicker to put a letter in a box and fire it through a relay and be picked up the other side.