77 réponses à ce sujet

[Sanunes]

If the Arks were around before ME3 then no matter what they do it's going to feel forced. No one but Hackett and Anderson believed Shepard about the Reapers, and there is no way they would of had the clout to make the Arks and convince people of every race to get on them, nor would they have wasted the COLOSSAL resources required when they could of put it towards putting more stuff together for the Reapers. You know. Like dreadnoughts. Thannix cannons. Carriers. Any of those things would of flown with the Alliance Brass (especially given escalating hostility with the Batarians), while I can't see the Arks doing that. We've only been on the Galactic scene for less than thirty years, I can't see the novelty having worn off on humanity so quickly as to warrant wanting to go to Andromeda, and that's the only other motive people could have in that time frame, because no one was taking the Reaper threat seriously.

 

I mean, they COULD go that route, but like I said, there's no way it's ever going to read as anything other than being incredibly ham-fisted.

 

The difference is that from the point of view of Shepard we only believe that Shepard, Hackett, and Anderson believe Shepard.  There could have been knowledge behind the scenes to why Shepard was not informed of the Ark project.

[Sanunes]

It is a colossal waste of resources no matter when it happens, given that the milky way seems far from completely explored and for how little time humanity has been able of interstellar travel. 

 

But you know who steps up whenever the Alliance can't be arsed - tadaaa! Cerberus!  Just kidding. I hope.

 

One way or the other, it won't be easy to explain, but then again, it's BioWare. If the DA elves can find out that they had their religion almost completely wrong the entire time, then sure a few arks can be shoehorned into the ME storyline.

 

We really don't know how much of the Milky Way has already been explored in Mass Effect, it might not have been explored by us the Protagonist the Council Races could have been exploring and cataloging them for centuries.

[in it for the lolz]

Short answer, Yes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also I would like to take this time and say this: F***K YEAH! WE ARE OUT EU! WOOOOOOOOOO!FREEDOM!!!!!!!

[AlanC9]

Yeah it does. The top secret mission's top secret terminal is just lying around with everything else for the Reapers to destroy. It would be somewhere in the space between stars like the Crucible.

Not if it hadn't been moved there yet. It's still the MEU, after all; anyone who made it through three ME games shouldn't bother to feign surprise when something that should have been done turns out not to have been done.

But since it's still the MEU, they could also end up doing the pseudoscience thing you're worried about. We'll see.

[Cheviot]

It's might "ignore" the entire trilogy, depending on when the arks leave.  I put "ignore" in quotes, because, by not being part of the timeline of the trilogy, or by only being part of a certain part of the timeline, it is not forced to reference every aspect of the series, and is instead free to choose what parts of accomodate.

[In Exile]

Yeah it does. The top secret mission's top secret terminal is just lying around with everything else for the Reapers to destroy. It would be somewhere in the space between stars like the Crucible.

What I'm thinking they'll do is make up some pseudo-science bs reason where the you can track the location of the twin particle. So they don't bring one at all or something like that and completely cut ties. They've already demonstrated a propensity to use space magic.

ME1 is pure space magic. Let's not get all knotted up about a series with magic space super gravity powers and psychic blue space babes.

We don't know when the Ark leaves. If it leaves during the Reaper War, having a link to the Ark is beyond stupid - you don't want the Reapers to know about it. And if it has no connection to the Reapers it makes no sense to fortify it.

[In Exile]

It is a colossal waste of resources no matter when it happens, given that the milky way seems far from completely explored and for how little time humanity has been able of interstellar travel.

But you know who steps up whenever the Alliance can't be arsed - tadaaa! Cerberus! Just kidding. I hope.

One way or the other, it won't be easy to explain, but then again, it's BioWare. If the DA elves can find out that they had their religion almost completely wrong the entire time, then sure a few arks can be shoehorned into the ME storyline.

You're right. It's as idiotic as humans wanting to leave plant Earth - when we haven't explored even 10% of the ocean! - for space. Just dumb, amirite?

[Gileadan]

You're right. It's as idiotic as humans wanting to leave plant Earth - when we haven't explored even 10% of the ocean! - for space. Just dumb, amirite?

Do you mean for a sizeable human contingent leaving earth forever for some distant planet or a two day visit on the moon?

[Sekrev]

ME1 is pure space magic. Let's not get all knotted up about a series with magic space super gravity powers and psychic blue space babes.

We don't know when the Ark leaves. If it leaves during the Reaper War, having a link to the Ark is beyond stupid - you don't want the Reapers to know about it. And if it has no connection to the Reapers it makes no sense to fortify it.

 

If the Reapers have any intelligence they would monitor attempts at escaping the galaxy during every cycle. It's not some kind of of-the-wall idea to try and escape if the technology is available. Actually, it's rather obvious that it will be attempted.

 

And on that note, I wonder how obvious the escape attempt will be to observe. A couple bright objects traveling FTL through dark space away from the galaxy might somewhat.. stand out. But I don't know enough details about how observable that is, but if the lore says it is this is something that would need addressing. If just one Reaper pursues and is out of range of the coloured ending plagues when they take place..

[In Exile]

Do you mean for a sizeable human contingent leaving earth forever for some distant planet or a two day visit on the moon?

I mean a sizable contingent leaving earth for a planet or celestial body in our Solas system.

[In Exile]

If the Reapers have any intelligence they would monitor attempts at escaping the galaxy during every cycle. It's not some kind of of-the-wall idea to try and escape if the technology is available. Actually, it's rather obvious that it will be attempted.

And on that note, I wonder how obvious the escape attempt will be to observe. A couple bright objects traveling FTL through dark space away from the galaxy might somewhat.. stand out. But I don't know enough details about how observable that is, but if the lore says it is this is something that would need addressing. If just one Reaper pursues and is out of range of the coloured ending plagues when they take place..

Can you track FTL? I thought they couldn't. Or follow - which is why the Normandy can escape reapers.

[Addictress]

If the Arks were around before ME3 then no matter what they do it's going to feel forced. No one but Hackett and Anderson believed Shepard about the Reapers, and there is no way they would of had the clout to make the Arks and convince people of every race to get on them, nor would they have wasted the COLOSSAL resources required when they could of put it towards putting more stuff together for the Reapers. You know. Like dreadnoughts. Thannix cannons. Carriers. Any of those things would of flown with the Alliance Brass (especially given escalating hostility with the Batarians), while I can't see the Arks doing that. We've only been on the Galactic scene for less than thirty years, I can't see the novelty having worn off on humanity so quickly as to warrant wanting to go to Andromeda, and that's the only other motive people could have in that time frame, because no one was taking the Reaper threat seriously.

I mean, they COULD go that route, but like I said, there's no way it's ever going to read as anything other than being incredibly ham-fisted.

The top brass, governments, and council didn't believe Shepard, but Miranda and TIM believed them at the beginning of ME2. Plenty of unofficial organizations probably believed him. It would've just taken a team of scientists and a couple of billionaires to believe, and a handful of each race.

The Leviathan team, Project Overlord, etc suggest there are many well-funded secret scientist organizations with surprising resources in Shepard's time. Also, notice the Leviathan scientist did a lot of his research and corresponded with Hackett without Shepard's knowledge (Shepard plays back holorecordings of their past conversations about some pretty serious stuff pertaining to the reapers...none of which Shepard was aware of until they needed help)

[Sekrev]

Can you track FTL? I thought they couldn't. Or follow - which is why the Normandy can escape reapers.

 

I can't remember and I think the games have some contradicting statements on these matters.

 

EDIT: from codex

 

"To an outside observer, a ship within a mass effect drive envelope appears blue-shifted. If within a field that allows travel at twice the speed of light, any radiation it emits has twice the energy as normal. If the ship is in a field of about 200 times light speed, it radiates visible light as x-rays and gamma rays, and the infrared heat from the hull is blue-shifted up into the visible spectrum or higher.

 

Ships moving at FTL are visible at great distances, though their signature will only propagate at the speed of light."

[The Twilight God]

http://masseffect.wi...mmunication_Hub
 
Nope. They are not all in space.

You're referring to public means of communications. I'm referring to a specific QEC device(s) made in order to communicate with the Ark crews.

Mind you, There is supposedly a 6000 (solar?) year gap between the trilogy and Andromeda, They could easily cop-out and say the communicator has failed over such a time period, or was rendered obsolete, or whatever, really. Technology isn't flawless after all, even in Mass Effect.

QEC is based in physics. It isn't technology strictly speaking. What mean by this is even if the technology utilizing the quantum pairs was defunct, they could simply repair/replace it. The particles themselves would still be entangled.

[Gileadan]

I mean a sizable contingent leaving earth for a planet or celestial body in our Solas system.

Well... I may be woefully uninformed (I vaguely remember hearing about a project that involved a one-way ticket to Mars), but that hasn't happened yet, right? Is there even a place in our solar system that would take less effort to colonize than the bottom of earth's oceans?

[The Twilight God]

The Rachni also have an ability for "organic QEC" not restricted to the same degree of "point-to-point" issues as regular QEC (so perhaps Binary-Helix had cracked a way to improve comms through their study of the Rachni, and that research was somehow accessed by the Council or Alliance after Shepard nukes Peak 15 (regardless of whether or not he/she destroys the Rachni Queen).

I kind of feel like Rachni communication was metaphysical. The same goes for indoctrination and Leviathan control. If you look at emotion, thought and will being different types of energy that coexist and co-penetrate each other. These energies exist in different states that can't be perceived by the physical senses and are affected by different laws of physics that may not respect space-time as we know it physically. The Rachni and Leviathans are simply more in tuned with those other energies (or dimensions) and manipulate them consciously. And the Reapers have an understanding of a multi dimensional universe allowing them to forge technologies that can take advantage said extra dimensions.

[Nashimura]

It would not surprise me if this game not only starts before the ending of ME3, but also before Shepard even gets to Eden Prime, so the entire trilogy comes and go while you are in stasis and then the rest of the game takes place so far away (in time and geography) that nothing that happens the trilogy has any effect on this game.

[UpUpAway]

I kind of feel like Rachni communication was metaphysical. The same goes for indoctrination and Leviathan control. If you look at emotion, thought and will being different types of energy that coexist and co-penetrate each other. These energies exist in different states that can't be perceived by the physical senses and are affected by different laws of physics that may not respect space-time as we know it physically. The Rachni and Leviathans are simply more in tuned with those other energies (or dimensions) and manipulate them consciously. And the Reapers have an understanding of a multi dimensional universe allowing them to forge technologies that can take advantage said extra dimensions.

 

Doesn't stop Traynor from speculating about using it somehow in ME3:

 

"You know, my lab studied the rachni. Long-distance communication with no time-lag, the ability to control workers...

And at close range, the queen can even speak through dead or dying members of other species.
If we can develop instant long-range communication without quantum entanglement... maybe when this war is over."

 

Connecting this to "extra dimensions" is an interesting thought - re-opening speculation about worm holes... obviously not a direct worm hole to Andromeda since the journey seems to take about 600 years (per McWalters interview slip)... but perhaps a round-about series of them that just sort of accidentally puts the ARKs in Andromeda.)

 

(... and before I get the foreseen flood of responses telling me how impractical that is... just so we're clear... I'm just a thinker that likes to go off the reservation and think way outside the box.  If I'm engaging in speculation (which all of this is), it's funner to engage in completely wild speculation at the same time.) Keep in mind that, no matter what we "argue" about here - Bioware have solved this in their own way already whether we like it or not.

[The Twilight God]

ME1 is pure space magic. Let's not get all knotted up about a series with magic space super gravity powers and psychic blue space babes.

We don't know when the Ark leaves. If it leaves during the Reaper War, having a link to the Ark is beyond stupid - you don't want the Reapers to know about it. And if it has no connection to the Reapers it makes no sense to fortify it.

Just because hyperspeed exists in Star Wars does not mean it's OK for Chewie to shoot lasers beams out of his eyes, have ice breath and fly like superman. Like any piece of science fiction or fantasy it will still have rules. You can't toss the rules out of the window without sacrificing the integrity of the world and the story.

A QEC located in the middle of nowhere is not a link to the Ark. It's just a comm device that will never be useful until 400-600 years in the future when the Arks reach their destination. It's kind of like a time capsule in that way. At the rate the Reapers were kicking butt this cycle they'd be long gone by the time the Ark reached its destination regardless of the Milky Way outcome.

But this all relies on the assumption that the Ark exists to save spacefaring civilization. If the Ark leaves too early, it becomes a resource hogging waste of time that nobody in their right mind would volunteer for. Not to mention its secrecy makes little sense pre-Reaper threat. If it's after ME3 then there is no excuse for them not to be able to communicate with a QEC.

[The Twilight God]

You're right. It's as idiotic as humans wanting to leave plant Earth - when we haven't explored even 10% of the ocean! - for space. Just dumb, amirite?

Space is a lot more intriguing than the bottom of the ocean. There is more water and more darkness.

There is no expectation of finding any phenomenon types unique to Andromeda that you can't see in the Milky Way. Leaving MW to go to Andromeda would be akin to checking out one rack of clothes in an outlet mall in New York and deciding to leave and drive all the way to Seattle to shop at another clothing store.

[The Twilight God]

Doesn't stop Traynor from speculating about using it somehow in ME3:
 
"You know, my lab studied the rachni. Long-distance communication with no time-lag, the ability to control workers...
And at close range, the queen can even speak through dead or dying members of other species.
If we can develop instant long-range communication without quantum entanglement... maybe when this war is over."

If the Reapers can do it (i.e. indoctrination, husks) it must be technologically possible to manipulate other dimensions through physical tech.

[Fixers0]

QEC is based in physics. It isn't technology strictly speaking. What mean by this is even if the technology utilizing the quantum pairs was defunct, they could simply repair/replace it. The particles themselves would still be entangled.

 

Remember, we're talking about Bioware. Even if there is a QEC they can come with dozens of reason as to why that can't contact the Milky Way, especially because there's been such long time gap.

 

The reason doesn't have even have to be valid (it probably won't) but if it's there we are forced to accept it.

[Dean_the_Young]

'Reapers destroy the Milky Way side of any QEC bridge' would be valid, considering that most of the places a QEC bridge would be placed are overrun by the Reapers. Even if you think the Reapers wouldn't, and would prefer to capture them, the Milky Way defenders could be justified in destroying them before the Reapers threaten to capture them.

 

Either way, a QEC would be easily justified as being destroyed in the chaos of the Milky Way conflict.

 

And that's if there was one at all- a QEC between an Ark and the presumably dying Milky Way wouldn't be worth much. You'd actually be expecting the Milky Way end to be defunct before you even arrived in Andromeda. The Milky Way won't be sending timely assistance at any point, but another Arc could conceivably coordinate movement and forces for support.

[Kynare]

I think they definitely won't.

[Madeline McQueen]

I would like to think that at some point, even if it was added at the end of the game, that they were sent a message or something of some kind to let them know what happened. I think adding the information at the very end of the game would be the best way to go about it to be honest. Just before or just after completing the game, Ryder could be told of what Shepard did. Years would have passed by then so Shepard's story would be finished which is how a lot of players won't it, but at the same time, BioWare could give players the satisfaction of their chosen ending, which I think all or at least most of us would want.

 

For example, I think I chose the highest paragon ending in my eyes. Both Quorian's and Geth are peacefully living together, Rachni are rebuilding and the genophage was cured. I also chose the synthesis ending so no race was sacrificed and my Shepard didn't meld with the reapers, so everyone is now living together in peace.

At least I hope so.

 

But at the same time, that doesn't mean that Ryder will go home, they'll stay in the Andromeda system to re-build and populate, yet knowing that Shepard did her job and the galaxy is now safe. This would also bring peace to mind to everyone living in Andromeda, I know it would for me.  

 

I wouldn't mind my ending be Ryder doing everything she came to do then finish the game as she gets a message saying my Shepard made world peace, helped save all races, cured the genophage, she'll be remembered and so on, before seeing my Ryder look up, smile at the good news, then walk off to live her happy life. That would be a very satisfying ending for me.

 

But then again, I'm afraid bioWare won't do this.