Alec's Apartment

Alec's Ark apartment was a waste of space


The Tempest its tiny, super tiny. Smaller then the Normandy SR-1
I head canon that it was meant for Alec and his team.
Only its too small for even that. When you consider it was Alec, Cora, Scout and Sera, Liam, DR Carlyle, Suvi, Gil & Kalo [Assumed cause scientist, engineer and pilot] plus Kirkland, Greer and Fisher. [Also assumed members of the Pathfinder team] So.. 12 total.

Now obviously Alec would stay in his massive quarters. And we will assume that the good Doctor has a bed unseen bed in the medbay, and that Gil must sleep in engineering. But beyond that, theres still 9 people and only 4 remaining beds.
And you'd think if the original pathfinder team originally consisted of 12 people,[One more then Player Ryder's crew] the human pathfinder ship would have been designed to accommodate them all... nope.

In reality, what you get is a ship large enough for maybe 8 plus the Pathfinder. If you assume that the Doctor sleeps in the medbay, Gil sleeps in engineering, Suvi and Kalo have racks else where, perhaps near or on the bridge. And the 4 beds in the crew quarters are meant for Cora, Liam, and the Ryder Twins. Good thing Kirkland died, and Greer and Fisher said "nope" to continuing to serve on the team after Habitat 7 all things considered.

And thats just when you consider the originally attended human [Plus Kalo] crew. Not the diverse crew Player Ryder ends up putting together which whole new issues from medical and dietary needs to where they sleep because Krogan and Turians are larger and have considerably different body shapes then Humans, Asari, and even Salarians.

Its rather ridiculous.

And the lack of livable space isnt the sole fault of the oversized Pathfinder Quarters either. Theres a lot of wasted or miss used space on the Tempest.

For example the loadout room really should be the same room as the armory, because logical.- Which would have freed up that side room for quarters for Suvi and Kalo at least. (Assuming its the airlock for the side door??]
R&D could have been combined in with the Hydroponics bay/science lab. Again Logic. or Alternatively, moved up into the "meeting" room.
Either way, it would have freed up all that floor space for larger or additional crew quarters.
Speaking of the meeting room, that could have been better utilized as also a lounge area for those between mission moments.

The Pathfinder's quarters could have been smaller, letting you expand the join bathroom/crew quarters. Or at the very least they could have included a private bathroom/shower like Shepard's quarters on the SR2.

Seriously, the Tempest feels more like a private yacht then a exploration sudo-military ship.

And sorry for the ranty post. I have feels about the stupidly small size and pisspoor design of the Tempest.

Regarding bunk arrangements, having one bed per crew member would work under the assumption that at some point, everyone on the ship would be asleep at the same time, but on an active vessel, that can never happen. There would always have to be shifts so that enough people are awake to operate the vessel at all times. That's no different from the arrangements on the SR2. There are far fewer bunks in the crew quarters than there are actual bodies on the ship. I don't think ME1 had anything beyond those pods so I'll leave that one alone. If anything, there should be two people in engineering, and two pilots so at least these ends of the ship give the illusion that no matter what, at least one of these people can make the ship run and fly at all times. In this respect, it's basically the same situation with Joker before EDI. 

At least in ME1 and 2, you automatically had multiple people in engineering, at least from the start. 

One of the above posters mentioned people taking shifts sleeping. Which is true of course, but not providing bunks for everyone on board is WWII submarine standard. One would think, society had moved beyond that 900 years later.

I can at least trust Liam to shoot at things, so there's that. In any case, the ship would still have its engineer, science and medical officers. Of course, that all flies out the window when an asari manages to get into the airlock and sneak into the escape pod corridor to snatch an observer. 

I will admit however that there are a great many things I would change about the ship's design, but about just as many as I would have for the Normandy as well, which I generally had more problems with. In the end, I think what really bothers me the most is the ship's internal proportions, which is totally in contradiction to the shape of the ship. I guess there's a good technical reason why the ship is basically compressed on the inside compared to its outer dimensions, but I just wish that it wasn't. The upper deck catwalk between the holo display/research station and the bridge should have been much longer, so the compartments below should have been far larger as well. Not to mention, the ship should have been wider, considering that the port and starboard side compartments just aft of the bridge extend out much farther than what you can see through the forward viewing screen. My greatest wish is to finally get a ship in Mass Effect that actually has truly believable dimensions reflected both inside and out. We've yet to ever get that.

Did it strike anyone else strange that there was a Normandy SR2 model in his room? It seemed like something that was  very out of place. 

Did it strike anyone else strange that there was a Normandy SR2 model in his room? It seemed like something that was  very out of place. 

One of the above posters mentioned people taking shifts sleeping. Which is true of course, but not providing bunks for everyone on board is WWII submarine standard. One would think, society had moved beyond that 900 years later.