[Megathread] Mass Effect Andromeda

[Nerraw]

Wouldn't it just be the best if Andromeda opened by confirming it?

I can already hear the screams.

I'd probably make use of EA's return policy.

[pateuvasiliu]

Indoctrination Theory makes way more sense than the fucking Catalyst.

How did the Starkid kill 99% of the Leviathan and create the First Reaper, Harbinger?

He stared them to death?

[Daniri]

But I doubt that will be the case. The only way to do this in my eyes is to send the Andromeda team during ME3 and have the game be set in the few years after ME3. Because if you sent the team in ME3 and this happens say 200 years after that you'd still have people from the Milky Way coming to Andromeda, right?

Why would you have that? The theory is that they were fleeing the Reapers; after the war there'd be no reason to go to Andromeda except, I suppose, to tell those who fled what happened. And it could be that the technology used to build the Ark ships couldn't be easily reproduced, even after hundreds of years. Or that they didn't build them in the first place.

[rhorle]

How did the Starkid kill 99% of the Leviathan and create the First Reaper, Harbinger?

The same way non-reaper's killed during 1-3. Geth, Collectors, etc. Indoctrination theory doesn't has a lot of holes in it but we don't really need to beat that dead horse again. You either believe in it or you don't.

[zealo]

I'm aware, but if this is hundreds of years after ME3, the effects of Synthesis would still be there.

Unless the Andromeda team left before ME3's ending, case in which fair game.

But I doubt that will be the case. The only way to do this in my eyes is to send the Andromeda team during ME3 and have the game be set in the few years after ME3. Because if you sent the team in ME3 and this happens say 200 years after that you'd still have people from the Milky Way coming to Andromeda, right? And then you'd have the Ending problem again.

Also how did they get to Andromeda? Without Mass Relays you need years to travel around the Milky Way how in the world did they get to Andromeda without Relays?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyBuW9Z_yY0
400 years was called "not a bad guess" in this interview from e3 with bioware, so probably cryo sleep and going without the relays.

[Omians]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyBuW9Z_yY0
400 years was called "not a bad guess" in this interview from e3 with bioware, so probably cryo sleep and going without the relays.

well Matriarch Aethyta talked about the idea of Asari Making their own relays but was laughed at

they might of had the Tech to make a Relay-like ship or somthing

[Kathandira]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyBuW9Z_yY0
400 years was called "not a bad guess" in this interview from e3 with bioware, so probably cryo sleep and going without the relays.

In the trailer when the main character is first shown, it looks like she is waking up from cryo-sleep. So I agree with you here.

[rhorle]

Why would you have that? The theory is that they were fleeing the Reapers; after the war there'd be no reason to go to Andromeda except, I suppose, to tell those who fled what happened. And it could be that the technology used to build the Ark ships couldn't be easily reproduced, even after hundreds of years. Or that they didn't build them in the first place.

If you sent a group to another galaxy wouldn't you check on them though? Or send support now that you have no known threats in your own galaxy? It doesn't make sense that you would ignore the Andromeda mission. They might think you are dead or something but given that it takes place hundreds of years after Mass Effect 3 you would think that another mission would be sent to Andromeda.

Not to mention the ship you likely fly around in , the tempest, is of no known design. Also the "mothership" in the trailer is way beyond anything the Humans could build. Or any of the races were building at the time for that matter. Even a joint secret project would have seen some of the advances leak into the normal military even more so in a critical live or die situation as the Mass effect 3 was. It looks like it is a citadel with a build in relay. That doesn't even begin to take into account the multi-species that seem to be working together. Krogan and Salarians weren't very friendly during 1-3 and their relations depended a lot on how you took care of the genophage.

[Mirishka]

Reapers are not the villains of this new trilogy/series of games, in much the same way as Shepard isn't the hero. They're moving on from all that, and given the response to the clusterfuck that was ME3's ending, that's probably for the best.

[Elim Garak]

If you sent a group to another galaxy wouldn't you check on them though? Or send support now that you have no known threats in your own galaxy?

Considering the amount of time it takes to communicate it is impossible, and thus it would be a waste to send support without knowing if it's needed.

The general plan would be to wait for the expedition to return if successful. Also if the theory is right they were sent one-way to establish a colony and save the Milky Way species from extinction and maybe return back to deal with Reapers in the next cycle, because Milky Way was expected to be harvested.

Even if Reapers were defeated, there would be no point in recalling the Andromeda mission - it still has value, and there are more important things to do in the Milky Way - like rebuilding the planets as they show in the extended cut - there are hardly any resources to send support to Andromeda.

[zealo]

Considering the amount of time it takes to communicate it is impossible, and thus it would be a waste to send support without knowing if it's needed.

The general plan would be to wait for the expedition to return if successful. Also if the theory is right they were sent one-way to establish a colony and save the Milky Way species from extinction and maybe return back to deal with Reapers in the next cycle, because Milky Way was expected to be harvested.

Even if Reapers were defeated, there would be no point in recalling the Andromeda mission - it still has value, and there are more important things to do in the Milky Way - like rebuilding the planets as they show in the extended cut - there are hardly any resources to send support to Andromeda.

Plus, it's a video game. It's a hypothetical "what if" with more people being sent that way for a second batch. It doesn't become a writing constraint unless bioware specifically chooses to have more people being sent over.

[rhorle]

Considering the amount of time it takes to communicate it is impossible, and thus it would be a waste to send support without knowing if it's needed.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Cod...tors_.28QEC.29

QEC exists in the ME universe and will allow people anywhere in the Universe to communicate with someone anywhere else given they both have a paired communicator. The theory still doesn't work with the technology displayed in the trailer versus what was present during the Reaper conflict. It also breaks down with why would they come back? Why would they come back to a galaxy that the reapers cull every cycle when they have established themselves in one that doesn't?

I never said that they would recall the Andromeda mission. I said that with the Reapers defeated why wouldn't you send another expedition to connect with the one supposedly sent during the Reaper conflict. The theory doesn't work. You wouldn't just ignore them and everything about them when you raised your civilizations technology level exponentially. A post-conflict expedition sent with Reaper ftl drives could beat a pre-conflict expedition.

[PACOX]

The only thing that I would even possibly critique about the story is how come no other cycle thought of going to Andromeda. Why humanity? Or maybe we'll find out that others have. Then again it's the cycle that finally defeated the reapers too, maybe the others were just dumb.

[Dezerte]

The only thing that I would even possibly critique about the story is how come no other cycle thought of going to Andromeda. Why humanity? Or maybe we'll find out that others have. Then again it's the cycle that finally defeated the reapers too, maybe the others were just dumb.

Maybe the distances are just too great, even for Reapers.

[Elim Garak]

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Cod...tors_.28QEC.29

QEC exists in the ME universe and will allow people anywhere in the Universe to communicate with someone anywhere else given they both have a paired communicator. The theory still doesn't work with the technology displayed in the trailer versus what was present during the Reaper conflict. It also breaks down with why would they come back? Why would they come back to a galaxy that the reapers cull every cycle when they have established themselves in one that doesn't?

I never said that they would recall the Andromeda mission. I said that with the Reapers defeated why wouldn't you send another expedition to connect with the one supposedly sent during the Reaper conflict. The theory doesn't work. You wouldn't just ignore them and everything about them when you raised your civilizations technology level exponentially. A post-conflict expedition sent with Reaper ftl drives could beat a pre-conflict expedition.

"The most strategically appropriate military application of QECs is at the headquarters level. Each Alliance colony would maintain a QEC at its military headquarters and each fleet flagship in its CIC. All the pairs for these would be located at a central facility within Arcturus Station. During an attack, a facility would signal Arcturus to transmit its information to every other fleet and colony. However, destruction of the comm center at Arcturus would collapse the entire network."

Arcturus Station is no more. Most of the ships are no more, Earth HQ is no more.
But even without that - considering the nature of the expedition they might have just opted to not waste resources to add a QEC to the flag ship or add it but not pair it with Arcturus so Reapers wouldn't KNOW about the expedition. So their QEC is only for Andromeda usage.

I explained why they cannot send another expedition, they have no resources and there are more pressing concerns.

The expedition was prepared to operate on its own and to not need extra help in the worst case scenario.

And they might want to return to STOP THE CYCLE, with the help of resources from Andromeda galaxy. They have 50000 years to prepare. It's basically what Proteans tried to do on Ilos but failed due to power shortage.

[May90]

It is possible that no one in Milky Way is even aware of this mission. Much like among Protheans no one knew of the secret facility on Ilos, and it was done specifically to hide its existence from the Reapers. It wouldn't make sense to send an expedition to Andromeda to escape the Reapers with a lot of people knowing of it, so Reapers can indoctrinate them and follow the expedition to intercept it. The expedition could have been prepared in extreme secrecy, with only a handful people knowing of the true goal of the expedition, and those handful of people might have been killed in the Reaper War.

That's why I don't like all these theories before a game is released: we have too little information to make a reliable guess on how they are going to handle this problem.

I would say it's harder to write characters in DA universe than it is in MEs. In DA there isn't much difference in what's going on aside from the Imperium and Qun. Of which neither is explored in depth. In ME every place you visit is fundamentally different. The Citadel is clean but is a very shady place. Omega is portrayed as dirty and downtrodden yet is a tight run facility because of Aria. Feros is very much like a frontier planet. Noveria is a corporate haven. Everywhere you went felt lived in by very different groups of people.

It's entirely the setting of the games that hampers or boosts the companions. It's just easier to make more compelling characters in a Sci Fi setting.

I agree with this to an extent. I think one of the mistakes they've made in Dragon Age series (and storytellers tend to do in fantasy setting in general) is they've used general patterns without exploring the exotic options. For companions, for example, they could make: a Desire Demon companion, a Blood Mage companion, an "awakened Darkspawn" companion, a Werewolf companion, an Ogre companion... Instead, they went a safer root and implemented much more "conventional" companions, without going into areas more specific to the particular world.

It is one of the things that made Planescape: Torment and Witcher series so attractive to me: there are so many unconventional and darker characters and storylines there. In Planescape: Torment, the companions were absolutely wild: flying skull, naughty Tiefling, succubus, Wizard set in flames, weird robotic being... In Witcher series, there is sex with vampires, a witch, a succubus, a dryad and a goddess, there are all kinds of monsters some of which can talk, quests with moral choices you won't encounter in other fictional worlds.

Dragon Age series (especially DAI) are far less generic than most other fantasy worlds (I'm almost done with my first Morrowind playthrough - it felt as generic to me as a fantasy world can get), but I think the developers still only scratched its surface, without exploiting all the opportunities for original storytelling the world offers.

[Nerraw]

Maybe the distances are just too great, even for Reapers.

Look at how long it took them to get from where the Alpha Relay used to be to the next closest one. That can't have been "far" away, given that Arcturus is a measly 36 light years from Earth, suggesting a lot of mass relays are somewhat close to each other. Compare that to the fact that the Milky Way is about 100 000 light years across, from the outer edges of any given arm to the one opposite. Now, the distance to Andromeda is a whopping 2.5 MILLION light years. I think it's fair to say that the Reapers could not have made the trip.

As for other species, 50k years between each cycle is a long time. Who knows what cataclysm might have come upon any who made it before.

[May90]

Look at how long it took them to get from where the Alpha Relay used to be to the next closest one. That can't have been "far" away, given that Arcturus is a measly 36 light years from Earth, suggesting a lot of mass relays are somewhat close to each other. Compare that to the fact that the Milky Way is about 100 000 light years across, from the outer edges of any given arm to the one opposite. Now, the distance to Andromeda is a whopping 2.5 MILLION light years. I think it's fair to say that the Reapers could not have made the trip.

As for other species, 50k years between each cycle is a long time. Who knows what cataclysm might have come upon any who made it before.

In space, there is little to none resistance, so all you need to do is gain some reasonable speed, and then you can reach any destination without spending any more energy. If Reapers can reach at least 500c (and they definitely can, otherwise they wouldn't have reached the Earth as fast as they did), then the travel to Andromeda would only take 5,000 years for them, which is nothing, given that one cycle lasts 50,000 years, and they've been through thousands cycles.

I don't see why they wouldn't want to send just one Reaper there, to scout, to see whether there are any harvesting opportunities. As someone above mentioned, perhaps their programming just was limited to organizing harvests in Milky Way - but it still doesn't prevent other races at the end of the cycle from sending, at least, one ship there. It is definitely doable with the tech level civilizations reach at the end of the cycle.

[Nazrark]

For the Harvest. They could have concluded that 50k years is probably the best amount of time to wait. It's most likely they experimented with seeing how civilization develops and came up with that as a mean time. They have also intervened early when civilization had come across Artificial Intelligence and it got out of hand for it.

There is also an underlying thought that perhaps an empire that had once lost to the Reapers is hiding in the galaxy. Avoiding areas with Relays and developing outside of them.

[Pony Soldier]

Not sure if I said this or not in this thread but I'm just hoping they don't fuck up like they did with ME 3. Everything was fine and dandy all up to the last 5-10 minutes of the game. You'd have no idea how invested I was in that game. It was like a second life for me. The characters were basically my digital family. So for the game to end like it did it just destroyed that world for me along with all my friends and my future alien wife Tali (which is another story in itself, you might know what I'm hinting at here). So if they're going to make this another trilogy it better have a decent ending. Make it a corny, cliche happy ending if you have to but please no RGB ending, no photoshop faces for characters, and make the choices you make in the game actually matter. This is why I can't even bring myself to play the games anymore. The side missions and the main story become irrelevant and pointless to even pay attention too anymore because of those last 5 minutes or so of ME 3.

Please Bioware. The game from what little gameplay I seen in the videos from E3 looks fucking amazing and I could definitely see myself just losing myself into the Mass Effect world again. So please, don't fuck it up. If you see Casey Hudson going in a room by himself with some papers tell him to knock it the fuck off and take the papers away from him.