529 réponses à ce sujet

[UpUpAway]

While I agree with you in principle, the arks are in dock above Earth, man.  There's no way that goes unnoticed.  Especially with humans and humanity being a relatively recent addition to the ME universe, if we started building ark ships above our home planet that would certainly raise some eyebrows.  

 

One thing that I noticed was the Tempest seems to be derived from Normandy's design which was, in itself, a combination of Turian and Human technology.  Which would suggest the Arks are a collaborative effort, but this still begs the question as to why they're departing from Earth rather than Thessia or Palaven.  

 

At what stage of the timeline are we actually in when the ships are shown allegedly docked above earth?  They don't really look like they are still under construction to me.  I still think it could be a flyover earth rather than an initial launch from earth.  The ships being launched from an "earth-like" setting in both trailers are obviously not ARKs; and although the setting is earth-like, it is not absolutely certain even that they are actually launching from earth itself.

[Ahriman]

At what stage of the timeline are we actually in when the ships are shown allegedly docked above earth? They don't really look like they are still under construction to me.

Circular structures they are shown leaving. It's not 100% proof, but it indicates that Arks were built on Earth, rather than somewhere else.

[Vortex13]

So is this what the galaxy was doing to prepare for the Reapers in between ME 1 & 2 then?

 

 

It seems like an exorbitant waste of resources to push towards an ARK project when:

 

1) The galaxy has only encountered one single Reaper, and as far as everyone knows the rest are trapped on the other side of the Citadel Relay. Even then, wouldn't all of those resources have been better spent building ships and equipment to defend?

 

2) Is the leadership really that quick to abandon ship; especially when nothing is currently attacking their holdings? Obviously the Reaper threat was such that they placed the entire galaxy at the brink of extinction, but the first thing the governments do is construct and deploy an intergalactic life raft when the ship is in no current danger of sinking?

 

 

It would be like the nations of modern day Earth spending trillions upon trillions of dollars to construct a mega structure under the Earth's crust in the event when the Sun will go out. Or us funneling all of our resources to establishing a colony on Europa, because of slight pollution on Earth. It seems a little drastic, and strange that this would be the higher ups' first response, instead of finding out the Reapers weaknesses and exploiting them.

[Drakoriz]

So is this what the galaxy was doing to prepare for the Reapers in between ME 1 & 2 then?

 

 

It seems like an exorbitant waste of resources to push towards an ARK project when:

 

1) The galaxy has only encountered one single Reaper, and as far as everyone knows the rest are trapped on the other side of the Citadel Relay. Even then, wouldn't all of those resources have been better spent building ships and equipment to defend?

 

2) Is the leadership really that quick to abandon ship; especially when nothing is currently attacking their holdings? Obviously the Reaper threat was such that they placed the entire galaxy at the brink of extinction, but the first thing the governments do is construct and deploy an intergalactic life raft when the ship is in no current danger of sinking?

 

 

It would be like the nations of modern day Earth spending trillions upon trillions of dollars to construct a mega structure under the Earth's crust in the event when the Sun will go out. Or us funneling all of our resources to establishing a colony on Europa, because of slight pollution on Earth. It seems a little drastic, and strange that this would be the higher ups' first response, instead of finding out the Reapers weaknesses and exploiting them.

 

Probabbly between ME 2-3

[Gwydden]

It would be like the nations of modern day Earth spending trillions upon trillions of dollars to construct a mega structure under the Earth's crust in the event when the Sun will go out. Or us funneling all of our resources to establishing a colony on Europa, because of slight pollution on Earth. It seems a little drastic, and strange that this would be the higher ups' first response, instead of finding out the Reapers weaknesses and exploiting them.

The Reapers have no weaknesses. They have rigged the game so they always win. Bioware made them so powerful that they had to pull a Deus Ex Crucible to make their defeat possible. I'd argue that believing this cycle would manage to accomplish what countless others failed to do is hubris. The Ark is far more reasonable as a contingency plan than the Crucible ever was.

[Vortex13]

The Reapers have no weaknesses. They have rigged the game so they always win. Bioware made them so powerful that they had to pull a Deus Ex Crucible to make their defeat possible. I'd argue that believing this cycle would manage to accomplish what countless others failed to do is hubris. The Ark is far more reasonable as a contingency plan than the Crucible ever was.

 

 

A reasonable contingency plan yes, but the first choice?

 

Up until the Reapers actually invaded, there was no indication that the very fate of the galaxy was at stake to the rest of the population outside of Shepard and Co. I could see a mad dash to deploy an ARK as the Reapers systematically destroyed each species' defenses, but people constructing multiple ARK vessels at a time when nothing was happening seems to be a tad extreme. 

 

This is especially true if we consider that it is a government sanctioned project. So the leaders of the galaxy's first response is to build numerous intergalactic seed vessels, but not tell their militaries to prepare for an imminent attack?

[AlanC9]

1) The galaxy has only encountered one single Reaper, and as far as everyone knows the rest are trapped on the other side of the Citadel Relay. Even then, wouldn't all of those resources have been better spent building ships and equipment to defend?

This only works if not building the Arks gives you a realistic shot at a conventional victory. That's not on the table. It isn't enough for the Citadel forces to be able to beat the Reapers in a straight-up fight, even if such a fleet strength were realistic. The Reapers don't have to fight a straight-up fight. With no supply lines and no bases to defend, they can wage a guerrilla struggle and bomb organic worlds until the galactic economy collapses and the Citadel fleets disintegrate from lack of maintenance.

2) Is the leadership really that quick to abandon ship; especially when nothing is currently attacking their holdings? Obviously the Reaper threat was such that they placed the entire galaxy at the brink of extinction, but the first thing the governments do is construct and deploy an intergalactic life raft when the ship is in no current danger of sinking?

It does display a level of wisdom which we haven't seen before, true.

[The Elder King]

A reasonable contingency plan yes, but the first choice?

 

Up until the Reapers actually invaded, there was no indication that the very fate of the galaxy was at stake to the rest of the population outside of Shepard and Co. I could see a mad dash to deploy an ARK as the Reapers systematically destroyed each species' defenses, but people constructing multiple ARK vessels at a time when nothing was happening seems to be a tad extreme. 

 

This is especially true if we consider that it is a government sanctioned project. So the leaders of the galaxy's first response is to build numerous intergalactic seed vessels, but not tell their militaries to prepare for an imminent attack?

Well, the Council did think the Reapers were real according to Citadel dlc. So they either did what you said or did nothing. I'd prefer the former over the latter.

[Vortex13]

This only works if not building the Arks gives you a realistic shot at a conventional victory. That's not on the table. It isn't enough for the Citadel forces to be able to beat the Reapers in a straight-up fight, even if such a fleet strength were realistic. The Reapers don't have to fight a straight-up fight. With no supply lines and no bases to defend, they can wage a guerrilla struggle and bomb organic worlds until the galactic economy collapses and the Citadel fleets disintegrate from lack of maintenance.

 

 

But that's the thing, the galaxy didn't even know the finer points of the Reaper forces to know if conventional victory was impossible or not until they showed up in ME 3. For the galaxy to immediately decide that ARK ships were the only way to go just doesn't make any realistic sense, especially since they've only encountered a single Reaper, who proved to be quite susceptible to enough bullets.

 

Heck the development and mass deployment of things like the Thanix cannon would have realistically taken more precedence to a government than declaring that the sky was falling and escape was the only option.

 

 

It does display a level of wisdom which we haven't seen before, true.

 

 

Yeah, according to BioWare all politicians are corrupt or self obsessed morons, except in this one particular case, which would be the point that actually would be logically debated and questioned as to its usefulness by any normal person.

[Gwydden]

But that's the thing, the galaxy didn't even know the finer points of the Reaper forces to know if conventional victory was impossible or not until they showed up in ME 3. For the galaxy to immediately decide that ARK ships were the only way to go just doesn't make any realistic sense, especially since they've only encountered a single Reaper, who proved to be quite susceptible to enough bullets.

 

Heck the development and mass deployment of things like the Thanix cannon would have realistically taken more precedence to a government than declaring that the sky was falling and escape was the only option.

History, my friend. The Cycle of Destruction was a well-known historical fact. Liara knew about it, and I doubt she was the first to think of it seeing as the protheans vanished off the face of the galaxy and the Milky Way is one giant cementery for dead civilizations. TIM knew about it as early as the First Contact War. Some volus billionaire knew about it and was obsessed with finding a way to deal with it.

 

Add Sovereign to that equation and people can draw their own conclusions. Does standing your ground, seriously thinking you can pull off what no other civilization in a billions years has done, sound reasonable? Trying to flee the cycle sounds much more reasonable from where I'm standing. If nothing else, it's the best contingency plan.

[The Elder King]

 

But that's the thing, the galaxy didn't even know the finer points of the Reaper forces to know if conventional victory was impossible or not until they showed up in ME 3. For the galaxy to immediately decide that ARK ships were the only way to go just doesn't make any realistic sense, especially since they've only encountered a single Reaper, who proved to be quite susceptible to enough bullets.

 

Heck the development and mass deployment of things like the Thanix cannon would have realistically taken more precedence to a government than declaring that the sky was falling and escape was the only option.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, according to BioWare all politicians are corrupt or self obsessed morons, except in this one particular case, which would be the point that actually would be logically debated and questioned as to its usefulness by any normal person.

 

A single Reaper proven enough to stop the Citadel fleet and the Alliance fleet for a while, and he wasn't even attacking for a period. I'm not sure we'd have stopped Sovereign, if not with a lot more sacrifices, if he didn't dock and tried to unlock the relay and started firing back.

According to the info Shepard gave, there were a lot more of them. Believing we wouldn't be able to stop them conventionally isn't that far-fetched. Also, the destruction cycles proven the power of the Reapers. And the protheans were believed to be more technologically advanced then the current cycle.

That doesn't mean that they shouldn't have tried to develop more technologies to stop the Reapers, or that deciding the priority was to leave the Milky way was necessarily right, but it's not that illogical to develop a plan to escape them.

 

Though in the end I'm waiting to see what they came up with before to give a judgment on the choice.

[Drakoriz]

 

But that's the thing, the galaxy didn't even know the finer points of the Reaper forces to know if conventional victory was impossible or not until they showed up in ME 3. For the galaxy to immediately decide that ARK ships were the only way to go just doesn't make any realistic sense, especially since they've only encountered a single Reaper, who proved to be quite susceptible to enough bullets.

 

Heck the development and mass deployment of things like the Thanix cannon would have realistically taken more precedence to a government than declaring that the sky was falling and escape was the only option.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, according to BioWare all politicians are corrupt or self obsessed morons, except in this one particular case, which would be the point that actually would be logically debated and questioned as to its usefulness by any normal person.

 

 

It make sense if the Ark project was not a project made for the reapers. It isnt crazy to think they have this type of project going for just exploration, and it was retrofit to be use as a escape option from the reapers,

 

Quoting ME Lore there are alot of part of the galaxy where they cant go with conventional FTL travel. So maybe this "ark" project was a multi spices project that was retrofit at the last minute (take that part with "") to be use as a escape boat.

[Gwydden]

It make sense if the Ark project was not a project made for the reapers. It isnt crazy to think they have this type of project going for just exploration, and it was retrofit to be use as a escape option from the reapers,

 

Quoting ME Lore there are alot of part of the galaxy where they cant go with conventional FTL travel. So maybe this "ark" project was a multi spices project that was retrofit at the last minute (take that part with "") to be use as a escape boat.

The only things necessary for the Ark project to be viable would be proper cryonics, which we know they already had, and an FTL drive that didn't need to discharge, something they could have been working on for a good while now (In Exile's idea from a different thread).

 

Moreover, and as I mentioned above, people knew about the Cycle of Destruction even if they didn't know about the Reapers. The basis for this project could have started centuries ago, in more prosperous times.

[Drakoriz]

The only things necessary for the Ark project to be viable would be proper cryonics, which we know they already had, and an FTL drive that didn't need to discharge, something they could have been working on for a good while now (In Exile's idea from a different thread).

 

Moreover, and as I mentioned above, people knew about the Cycle of Destruction even if they didn't know about the Reapers. the basis for this project could have started centuries ago, in more prosperous times.

 

yeah i know and i agree with you, i think the "ark" project make perfect sense as a plan, when they didnt knew about the Crucible yet.

 

LOL i love this post that over think every single detail. LOL the one about our new Asari companion and how she doest loook like this perfect Sexy Venus is worst that this one trying to explain every single detail on why they Ark was build.

[Vortex13]

History, my friend. The Cycle of Destruction was a well-known historical fact. Liara knew about it, and I doubt she was the first to think of it seeing as the protheans vanished off the face of the galaxy and the Milky Way is one giant cementery for dead civilizations. TIM knew about it as early as the First Contact War. Some volus billionaire knew about it wand was obsessed with finding a way to deal with it.

 

Add Sovereign to that equation and people can draw their own conclusions. Does standing your grounds, seriously thinking you can pull off what no other civilization in billions of years have done, sound reasonable? Trying to flee the cycle sounds much more reasonable from where I'm standing. If nothing else, it's the best contingency plan.

 

 

I can understand the logic in that, and in wanting to be prepared for a possible mass extinction event, but building multiple ARK vessels and then deploying them before anything actually happens seems to be a tad drastic don't you think? The concept of a Fallout shelter (or a Vault in the Fallout universe) is a sound contingency plan, but you don't see people immediately start packing themselves into one the moment it's doors are open when there is no current danger of an impending nuclear attack.

 

 

At the very least, if such a plan was indeed deemed the best course of action then why not mention anything to the military? Okay, plan for the continuation of galactic society, but tell your armies to prepare at least. As it stands currently, the leaders of the galaxy apparently decided it was better to jump ship and then not give anyone else a warning about impending danger.

[Giubba]

The only things necessary for the Ark project to be viable would be proper cryonics, which we know they already had, and an FTL drive that didn't need to discharge, something they could have been working on for a good while now (In Exile's idea from a different thread).

 

Moreover, and as I mentioned above, people knew about the Cycle of Destruction even if they didn't know about the Reapers. The basis for this project could have started centuries ago, in more prosperous times.

 

The basis of something like the ark project (cryogenic sleep) is the basic of any interstellar travel.

 

Human,salarian,turian probably all reached the same conclusion when they started their expansion outward they home world than they found the relays and everything was set aside for a more immediate and useful method.

 

Asari and krogan probably never gave a **** considering their life cycle.

[AlanC9]

But that's the thing, the galaxy didn't even know the finer points of the Reaper forces to know if conventional victory was impossible or not until they showed up in ME 3. For the galaxy to immediately decide that ARK ships were the only way to go just doesn't make any realistic sense, especially since they've only encountered a single Reaper, who proved to be quite susceptible to enough bullets.

Heck the development and mass deployment of things like the Thanix cannon would have realistically taken more precedence to a government than declaring that the sky was falling and escape was the only option.

This is a bit confused. They did develop the Thanix, and fleet strengths do increase between ME1 and ME3. And yeah, maybe there'd only be ten or so Sovereign-class units and a conventional war could be winnable. Or maybe the Reapers show up in decades, or centuries, or never.

But what if too many show up? Nobody was concluding that the Arks were the only way to go. Only that they'd better have them in case the worst-case situation turned out to actually be the case.

[AlanC9]

The basis of something like the ark project (cryogenic sleep) is the basic of any interstellar travel.

Note that the Prothean stasis pods on Ilos are recognizable to the ME1 squadmates.

[Giubba]

Note that the Prothean stasis pods on Ilos are recognizable to the ME1 squadmates.

 

It happen during the elevator sequence right? before you reach vigil.

I vaguely remember that sequence.

[Iakus]

I can understand the logic in that, and in wanting to be prepared for a possible mass extinction event, but building multiple ARK vessels and then deploying them before anything actually happens seems to be a tad drastic don't you think? The concept of a Fallout shelter (or a Vault in the Fallout universe) is a sound contingency plan, but you don't see people immediately start packing themselves into one the moment it's doors are open when there is no current danger of an impending nuclear attack.

 

 

At the very least, if such a plan was indeed deemed the best course of action then why not mention anything to the military? Okay, plan for the continuation of galactic society, but tell your armies to prepare at least. As it stands currently, the leaders of the galaxy apparently decided it was better to jump ship and then not give anyone else a warning about impending danger.

I'd say if ark vessels were that easy to deploy, the Reapers never would have completed a single cycle.

[Drakoriz]

It happen during the elevator sequence right? before you reach vigil.

I vaguely remember that sequence.

 

it happen when you traveling with the mako, and they look at the walls and they see all the pods.

[Gwydden]

I'd say if ark vessels were that easy to deploy, the Reapers never would have completed a single cycle.

It wouldn't surprise me if other arks have escaped the Reapers before. They likely wouldn't care anyway — not their turf.

[UpUpAway]

Circular structures they are shown leaving. It's not 100% proof, but it indicates that Arks were built on Earth, rather than somewhere else.

 

Initial launch from earth?... or initial launch with a stop to pick up people on earth?  Both possible... and I think the latter is more likely.

 

Just doing some reading on Ilos in the Wiki... it's located near the galactic core, and I though the following reference was interesting given it's complete irrelevance to the original ME Trilogy:

 

"Occasionally, a university will organize an expedition to chart a route to Ilos using conventional FTL drive. These never get beyond the planning stages due to the distance and danger. The journey could take years or decades, passing through the hostile Terminus Systems and dozens of unexplored systems."

 

... and then there's this from the entry for Agetoton (a planet in the same system as Ilos):

 

"There are several areas of debris that may be the wreckage of downed Prothean aerostat colonies. Based on the size of the debris fields, a population of over 100,000 was likely"

[Giubba]

I'd say if ark vessels were that easy to deploy, the Reapers never would have completed a single cycle.

 

Well nope usually the reapers caught the species of the cycle with their collective pants down and hit em so hard and so fast that they shattered any proper coordinated effort.

[DextroDNA]

Just read something in Polygon's interview with Mac Walters...

 

 "But there are strong ties to the original trilogy that players will recognize. "

Walters compares the original trilogy to a sort of foundational background; it's established the game's species and the general concepts and technology of the Mass Effect universe. That means new players can jump into this game with no previous knowledge of Shepard or the reapers.

"We'll be re-explaining [the series' technology and concepts] in this game, but other than that, this is very much a standalone game that then takes place in a completely new galaxy," he said.

This sounds like it's getting into soft-reboot territory. Having to re-explain the core concepts and all the technology of the universe? Idk, something about that statement doesn't sit right with me.

 

I am however liking the sound of "strong ties to the original trilogy"