Here, I think you missed this interview:
http://m.ign.com/art...ffect-andromeda
The too long, didn't read version: he says the endings of ME3 will have zero effect on Andromeda, and very matter-of-factly follows that with "from that, you can probably infer the timing of when the colonists left the Milky Way". Subtext: "before the endings, obviously".
He actually comes off as a tiny bit sarcastic to me, in an "obviously they leave before the endings" sort of way, but I don't think he intended it to come off that way. I think more likely he really wants to give more information as he is stoked about the game, but he can't yet.
Oh I've seen that interview. I inferred something different than you. I inferred that it will not cover the shorter time after ME3, not that it was before ME3. That for all we will get, Extended Cut is the only shortly post-ME3 content, at least for now. I really didn't get the subtext you did. I thought he was only meaning that MEA will not take place in a space and time that the ME3 endings would be relevant for, but this doesn't mean it starts before the ME3 endings.
I think pre-ME3-endings is probably possible, don't get me wrong, but it just came off to me that he only meant that we can figure out that it isn't going to be connected to a 'post-ME3-Milky-Way' and not just in location, but in timeline. It can still start hundreds of years after ME3 for all we know, I believe. They may just want 'distance', and that can come from starting before or after the endings, just as long as it isn't in a time that has to touch on them too much.
And about the Synthesis stuff, sure. At least so far, that's a good counter-argument. But I don't know how far Synthesis needs to go. Circuit lines? Maybe the merge advances well enough that they 'fade away'. Synthetic and organic relations? Maybe they just settle into peace, and/or later on the peace wasn't perfect and resulted in still enough of a similar result that we get Andromeda regardless. Maybe all the endings end up in a sort of peaceful advanced state, or at least in the sort of way that the Andromeda journey can be a unified setting. Maybe all endings result, eventually, in a civilization with this necessary MEA technology, and the ME3 endings only determined the course of X years after ME3, then X years after that we are left to only imagine most of the details that result in our Andromeda story - war, peace, etc. Shepard gave the galaxy a shot, but there's possibly up to many thousands of years (not that it'll necessarily go that far) of 'blank space'. Heck, this game could take place '50,000' years later, Arks sent out in a new 'cycle', from a Milky Way civilization that has undergone, again, many thousands of years of history bringing them to this position - and Synthesis could indeed be (soft) 'retconned' out of relevance save for some new lore noting ways it could have influenced this civilization.
Point is, I think Bioware can technically make all the endings 'work', even if many BSNers don't. Destroy struggles but overcomes. Control disrupts but secures. Synthesis destabilizes but comes together. All reaching the same-enough result, farrr into the future, to tell this future story. Where AI is considered dangerous but manageable. Where there aren't Reapers but strong AI and 'Reaper tech level' is studied. Where there isn't peace between organic and synthetic but now a history that has broken through the Reaper cycle enough that there isn't assumed war, and there is perhaps even a sort of friendship. Maybe. Pretty much a 'move past the organic vs synthetic theme focus' and a lighter side of how Deus Ex
, and letting us imagine what we want to imagine past that (maybe with spread out hints that can be taken several ways). The Krogan may have been cured or killed, but they are eventually reborn in some way. The Geth and Quarians may be tackled some way that may or may not (at least initially) include them in the Andromeda story. Any tragedy in ME3 can indeed be recovered from, with enough time and high technology, and Bioware could just have some plot flags(?) that let NPCs and text recognize the history we created from ME3, ultimately still creating this new civilization that learned new lessons one way or another. If anyone takes issue with this, well, take it also up with how Bioware has, one way or another, treated ME2, ME3, DA2, DAI. They're never going to connect and bring player choice consequences to the games' settings 'too much'. We get what we get.
"I'm not bound by anything. Not by you or your choices" - by Refuse Shepard may have been a stick in the gut to some fans, as a message, but maybe it is actually true. Maybe the Milky Way is bound to become this MEA state no matter what, and the Reapers are doomed to fail one way or another. We don't really know the longer term result of Control or Synthesis, though we can guess some of the benefits they provide in the shorter term, we're still dealing with Reapers and any chance for disaster and/or complications down the line. Maybe wayyy down the line.
Make any sense?
*Though in the case of Refuse, uh, well, MEA's start may have to be LONGGGG after even the ME3 endings. Enough that there would be story written that rebirths the Milky Way species after extinction or at least near extinction, as well as a whole other Reaping cycle occurring. But I suppose this timing would also fit my consideration for timing earlier in the post (~50,000 years after ME3; and no, Mac's words about a few centuries were vague enough they could be indicating of truth or not - he wasn't making declarations about specific years).
*Also, I still theorize about MEA starting pre-ME3-ending. This is just another take. I have all sorts of thoughts about the Council running something secretly. Though heck, I even find ways that both ideas could be merged - previous plans getting dusted off and put into action centuries/millennia after ME3 and spruced up and, like I said, using 'Crucible Tech'. A revival of elements of an old project. In that sense, slightly like the recent Inquisition being reborn in better form (though I'm really making a stretch so anywayyy...).
*I fully recognize that at least some parts of these may be SUPER off. Especially the 50,000 years one. Though perhaps Bioware manages to make everything vague enough that we can decide anything. N7 is just N7 Neo. Pathfinder/ARKCON is a new thing. If Cerberus is back, they be Cerberus Neo. Shepard is a legend and there's no strong indication on the timing of their life. Appearance of species is left in vague enough wording that we only get to understand that 'they're here now' with everything else still left to speculation, ETC. Could this happen?
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