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[SNascimento]

I was replaying Mass Effect 3 today and decided to read some Codex entries. Two of them caught my attention: 'Ilos' and 'FTL Drives'.

About the first, it mentioned how universities often try to organize expeditions to charter a course to Ilos using conventional FTL travel, but they always give up on planning stages because of the dangers and difficulties of the travel. It would take years or decades and pass through dangerous areas of space. I found that to be an interesting example of how limited FTL technology is. Sure, we are talking about universities here, but the challenge of travelling to Ilos is also much smaller than travelling to another galaxy! 

And the second reminded me a bit of the mechanics of FTL travel in Mass Effect and reinforced my belief that there is absolute no one in the Milk Way capable of building the Arks. Just an passage from the codex: "very massive ships or very high speeds are prohibitively expensive".

Ark ships would need a lot of BOTH. Not to mention solving other problems long FTL travels would have.

Even if the Milk Way had the knowledge to build the Arks, which I don't believe they do, they certainly don't have the money. The Asari which are the richest race of the galaxy couldn't even keep up with the destruction of the Destiny Ascension and gave up their share of military responsabilities to the Turians. 

How can anyone then build multiple ships that are orders of magnitude more expansive than any single dreadnought? And in secrecy, mind you. It doesn't compute!

In those lines I look foward to see if they are just going to ignore that and say "oh, it could be done, trust me" or come up with a explanation that do not go against the logic established in the trilogy. What do you think? Am I overestimating how hard is to build ark ships capable of traveling the distance between galaxies?

[Armass81]

Given the past record, I think the explanation will be something on the line of "it just happened, deal with it", along with some retcons and technobabble to further justify it.

[Kabooooom]

Yeah, we discussed a lot of these codex entries back in the old Ark theory threads. Honestly, I hope Bioware read those discussions, because people really did come up with some creative ideas around them.

I think all of the problems have pretty much been solved now. Whether or not Bioware utilizes something as clever is another story, as I'm almost positive they will just hand wave it away.

1) Drive discharge - the codex says the Citadel and other large "deep space stations" somehow utilize drive discharge facilities that don't require a planets magnetic field or direct grounding. The Arks could use something similar. The Reapers also seemingly don't discharge, and although the timeline makes it nigh impossible that they are using Reaper tech to do it, it is just another example about how the lore doesn't forbid FTL without discharge in a planet.

2) Fuel - this first seemed like an insurmountable problem, but it actually isn't. See, here is how FTL in mass effect actually works: Electricity is run through element zero, which creates a mass effect envelope and lowers the mass of the ship. Then, a fuel source (antimatter, fusion, etc) is used with conventional engines to accelerate the ship to FTL speeds (faster than light compared to the speed of light in a vacuum, still slower than light in the mass effect envelope). The ship accelerates halfway, then turns around and decelerates the other half. Why? Because mathematically this is actually the most efficient and fastest way to travel in space, and it is exactly how we would do it in real life with sublight travel too, if we had engines that could actually accelerate that long.

But here's the thing, you don't actually need to accelerate that much. That's just how you speed the voyage up. All you need is a source of energy to apply a continual current to the eezo and an initial acceleration at the start of the journey and a deceleration at the end, with a constant velocity in between. Thanks to Isaac Newton, you'd keep going at that velocity until you decelerated or until the mass effect field collapses which catastrophically snaps the ship back into a normal velocity, per the codex, killing everyone on board.

This is basically "FTL coasting", it is 100% allowed by the lore and it would allow a voyage to Andromeda still in a comparatively short time, though probably over a millennia compared to 570 years. The actual time would depend on the final velocity reached. The best part of this is that you only need "fuel" to supply the current and initial acceleration and final deceleration. This is still substantial, but not insurmountable compared to a trip where you use fuel to continually accelerate halfway and decelerate halfway.

3) Construction - this could be addressed in any number of ways. Personally, I think the most brilliant idea one of us came up with was what Han Shot First came up with:

The Reaper Wars was not the first time the galaxy faced extinction. The Rachni Wars were nearly equally as apocalyptic. For reasons explained in the codex/lore and unnecessary to rehash, it was basically the same scale and magnitude of the Reaper War, but drawn out over centuries instead of months. Still, the end result was that the Citadel species were facing extinction. If the Asari and Salarians built these ships during the Rachni War to flee the galaxy if the Krogan failed, and then mothballed them at the end, it would absolutely provide an out for the construction timeframe and the lack of believability.

[spinachdiaper]

Obviously another super powerful shadowy organization we haven't heard of yet has the technical know how to make all sorts of "SPACE MAGIC" things that weren't really mentioned in the ME trilogy.

Or they just jump galaxies by using 2 mass relays simultaneously like how Star Gate SG1 just added another chevon to dialing process or essentially they will ET phone home it some how.

[Ahriman]

Even if the Milk Way had the knowledge to build the Arks, which I don't believe they do, they certainly don't have the money. The Asari which are the richest race of the galaxy couldn't even keep up with the destruction of the Destiny Ascension and gave up their share of military responsabilities to the Turians.

Asari were just being your average stagnant ME aliens. Alliance had significantly less funds, but was constructing a dreadnought per year from 2183 to 2186.

But here's the thing, you don't actually need to accelerate that much. That's just how you speed the voyage up. All you need is a source of energy to apply a continual current to the eezo and an initial acceleration at the start of the journey and a deceleration at the end, with a constant velocity in between. Thanks to Isaac Newton, you'd keep going at that velocity until you decelerated or until the mass effect field collapses which catastrophically snaps the ship back into a normal velocity, per the codex, killing everyone on board.

This is basically "FTL coasting", it is 100% allowed by the lore and it would allow a voyage to Andromeda still in a comparatively short time, though probably over a millennia compared to 570 years. The actual time would depend on the final velocity reached. The best part of this is that you only need "fuel" to supply the current and initial acceleration and final deceleration. This is still substantial, but not insurmountable compared to a trip where you use fuel to continually accelerate halfway and decelerate halfway.

That doesn't remove discharge issue, which is the main problem here.

[SofaJockey]

I'm expecting this to be adequately explained due to:

• Plot technology
• Plot resources

Never underestimate the power of a writer's keyboard...

[Fixers0]

The Reaper Wars was not the first time the galaxy faced extinction. The Rachni Wars were nearly equally as apocalyptic. For reasons explained in the codex/lore and unnecessary to rehash, it was basically the same scale and magnitude of the Reaper War, but drawn out over centuries instead of months. Still, the end result was that the Citadel species were facing extinction. If the Asari and Salarians built these ships during the Rachni War to flee the galaxy if the Krogan failed, and then mothballed them at the end, it would absolutely provide an out for the construction timeframe and the lack of believability.

 

Hardly, the game never makes references to the Rachni Wars being of apocalyptic proptions, especially in the face of the Reapers' onslaught. This would be the difference between WW2 and an Alien invasion of earth.

[nfi42]

I'm expecting this to be adequately explained due to:

• Plot technology
• Plot resources

Never underestimate the power of a writer's keyboard...

 

is that like killing us every 50000 years to save us?
 

[TurianSpectre]

guess we'll just have to find out when the game is released and we load it for the first time

[SNascimento]

The Rachni Wars were nearly equally as apocalyptic. For reasons explained in the codex/lore and unnecessary to rehash, it was basically the same scale and magnitude of the Reaper War, but drawn out over centuries instead of months. Still, the end result was that the Citadel species were facing extinction. If the Asari and Salarians built these ships during the Rachni War to flee the galaxy if the Krogan failed, and then mothballed them at the end, it would absolutely provide an out for the construction timeframe and the lack of believability.

I never got that impression, that is, that the Asari and Salarians were facing extinction. What passage from the games support this claim? I don't think the Rachini even conquered the Citadel. 

[The Twilight God]

Did the OP not play ME3? You wouldn't even have had to play more than a hour.

The Arks will be the same thing: DEUS EX MACHINA

[Remix-General Aetius]

Well it's a good thing you got 10+ months to wait for it.

[Cyonan]

If they even bother to explain how it all works, my bet is that they'll have salvaged Reaper tech to make it work.

[capn233]

"Trust me.  When I am elected Councilor we will build an Ark and its gonna be HUGE.  Folks it is going to be terrific, let me tell you.  And the Batarians are going to pay for it."

[anddill]

Here ist something I postet some days ago in another thread:

 

I have a wild theory who build the arks. There is on faction in the ME-Universe which has no economical or financial system so they have basically communism and can throw all resources into one project. They don`t have to feed workers or they´r families. And they know for sure the reapers are coming. And they are, as we learned in ME3, not the organics-slaying monsters as the Quarians described them.

 

The Geth.

 

ps: look at the arks-ships colour-scheme.

 

Their nor evil, their not good, just logic. We never had a hint at their real numbers. And they knew for sure the reapers would come, way before Shep. So they reached the consensus that this galaxy would go down the drain. No organic even grasped the enormous dimension of the coming tread.

So they build the ark-ships hidden in their space. No council, no Shep, and no reaper got a hint of the project. 

The Geth are the only faction that could hide such a gigantic project

The Geth are the only faction that had enough time to get this done

The Geth are the only faction that is free from economic boundary's

The Geth are the only faction that had an early contact with reaper tech.

The Geth are the only faction that looses nothing by loading the arcs with all species from the milky way

 

I think the picture of an AI inevitably going berserk against its creators is BS. It would rule an empty, boring world. Maybe the Geth see organics as some kind of substrate or catalyst to grow on and learn. New experiences and knowledge come from interaction and different viewing angles. So it would be pretty stupid for advanced AIs to dust off alone.

 

 

They got the enhancements later in ME3, at the time of the split they were still equal. The non-heretics had just to send some mobile platforms with replicating tech and mining equipment to some uncharted systems. They don´t have to breed, they can just multiply their numbers as fast as the raw materials can get extracted.

 

And for accepting the arks: Take it or die. What would you do? 

And here is some interesting stuff to read about the "many races could have easily do all the things" :

 

http://www.shamusyou...edtale/?p=30943

[SKAR]

Here ist something I postet some days ago in another thread:

that is the biggest piece of bull**** I have ever seen in my life and with one thing from the trailer I can discredit all of that. Sorry to sound like a jerk but that's worse than the indoc theory.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

I'm still hoping for the Black Ark Theory, where the Hyperion and the other Ark ships are either retrofitted Collector ships and/or built by using the Collector data collected over the years like for example James Vega getting extensive files on them and their technology in Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. 

[SKAR]

I'm still hoping for the Black Ark Theory, where the Hyperion and the other Ark ships are either retrofitted Collector ships and/or built by using the Collector data collected over the years like for example James Vega getting extensive files on them and their technology in Mass Effect: Paragon Lost.

they made many arks in that short amount of time with collector tech in say 8 months and completely missed the reapers? I got a theory of my own. All the council races banded together and funded the expedition, built the ships, and set out to explore the Andromeda galaxy to colonize. They figure, why the hell not? How do we get there, maybe reaper tech. maybe some super relay. like I Always say we'll see. I don't mind reaper tech being involved but who knows. Someone mentioned the expedition set out by humans, the manswell project? They were sent out into deep space and never heard from until asari found them in 2185.

[fizzypop]

They could have also traded instead of relying on actual credits. Giving someone a place on the ship in turn for their resources especially if they decided to work with shady people. Could have others stealing resources for them in trade for a spot on the ship.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

they made many arks in that short amount of time with collector tech in say 8 months and completely missed the reapers? I got a theory of my own. All the council races banded together and funded the expedition, built the ships, and set out to explore the Andromeda galaxy to colonize. They figure, why the hell not? How do we get there, maybe reaper tech. maybe some super relay. like I Always say we'll see. I don't mind reaper tech being involved but who knows. Someone mentioned the expedition set out by humans, the manswell project? They were sent out into deep space and never heard from until asari found them in 2185.

Well, they had more than 8 months. The events of Mass Effect: Paragon Lost occur around the beginning of Mass Effect 2, since in the ending Anderson and Hackett mention that Shepard's death may have been premature. Regardless, the only thing they would need from the data is the drive core, since like Reapers the Collector ships don't need to discharge. The rest of the ark ships could be built from scratch.

 

I hope all the races in the Milky Way are involved. We know multiple are because of footage and Bioware using terms like coalition, but I'm afraid some races will be left behind which is infuriating if so. 

 

Also, I really hope it isn't just for exploration because that is a terrible idea. We have over 99% of the Milky Way to still explore in the MEU, and then there are many dwarf galaxies and a couple galaxies closer to us than Andromeda. Now if that was a cover story for an evacuation so as to not cause a panic, then okay. 

[Cyonan]

they made many arks in that short amount of time with collector tech in say 8 months and completely missed the reapers? I got a theory of my own. All the council races banded together and funded the expedition, built the ships, and set out to explore the Andromeda galaxy to colonize. They figure, why the hell not? How do we get there, maybe reaper tech. maybe some super relay. like I Always say we'll see. I don't mind reaper tech being involved but who knows. Someone mentioned the expedition set out by humans, the manswell project? They were sent out into deep space and never heard from until asari found them in 2185.

 

A super relay would mean the Reapers set up that, which means you'd have to explain why the Reapers aren't in Andromeda.

 

I think the best route is to simply claim salvaged tech from Sovereign. We know Reapers can travel insanely long distances without the need for discharge.

 

In either case, experimental tech is going to play into it at some point almost guaranteed. Assuming they explain it rather than "They exist. They work. Deal with it".

[SKAR]

Also, I really hope it isn't just for exploration because that is a terrible idea. We have over 99% of the Milky Way to still explore in the MEU, and then there are many dwarf galaxies and a couple galaxies closer to us than Andromeda. Now if that was a cover story for an evacuation so as to not cause a panic, then okay.

Oh for **** sakes. You do know the expedition is full of volunteers. Batarians don't really care about the council races but there may have been a few. Others races can choose or not. What's wrong with intergalactic exploration? It like larger scale star trek. You think there aren't people exploring the milky way? That is irrelevant. Why not go to another galaxy to explore? Because we still have to explore our own. I hear the same bull**** everywhere. We know less about our own *******deep ocean than we do about space yet we want to go to Mars? Don't give me that own galaxy crap please!!!

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Oh for **** sakes. You do know the expedition is full of volunteers. Batarians don't really care about the council races but there may have been a few. Others races can choose or not. What's wrong with intergalactic exploration? It like larger scale star trek. You think there aren't people exploring the milky way? That is irrelevant. Why not go to another galaxy to explore? Because we still have to explore our own. I hear the same bull**** everywhere. We know less about our own *******deep ocean than we do about space yet we want to go to Mars? Don't give me that own galaxy crap please!!!

The thing that is wrong with it is because we are nowhere near ready for that step yet. There is no good reason to go to Andromeda when there are so many other options that would be tackled first. Like everything, space exploration is a cost vs reward situation. And in the case of Andromeda, the cost outweighs the reward. Now if this was set long after ME3 and we had fully explored the Milky Way and the galaxies and dwarf galaxies orbiting it, then going to Andromeda makes sense because it is the next logical step. In real life, this idea is as bad as humanity forgetting about exploring and colonizing places like Luna, Venus, Mars, Titan, and other bodies in our solar system or even the sta systems close to us and instead going to colonize worlds on the other side of the Milky Way. 

 

Also, watch your language and tone. It makes it hard to take you seriously and have a good conversation. 

[Lady Artifice]

Bioware has a bad habit of reworking their lore without really bothering to explain the change. The treatment of red lyrium in DA2 versus DAI is, imo, one of the worst examples. I hope they give us a little more here.

I don't like the just for exploration theory. That many people leaving their lives behind without a dire threat to motivate them seems unlikely.

[capn233]

The thing that is wrong with it is because we are nowhere near ready for that step yet. There is no good reason to go to Andromeda when there are so many other options that would be tackled first.

 

Right, it is pretty much just a plot decision to avoid the first trilogy.  It isn't all that likely that people who think about it too much will get a satisfying answer.  Might just need to ignore the logic altogether.