Mass Effect Andromeda Q&A Panel at Montreal Comic Con, 8th July 2017, "Can not comment on future pro

Do we have any boots on the ground? In case they do show something.

Injdeed I kind of expected the kind of dialogue we got when I heard that Ryder was going to be a young hero so it wasn't so much of a shock to me whereas I expected Shep to have a more mature dialogue because they were in the military and also a well established officer considering they carried the rank of Commander which was kind of a giveaway really. Whereas in reality Ryder was kind of at best an ensign or Junior Lieutenant in truth albeit a very talented one. Either way for me it worked well enough to sell  the story and premise and I'm glad I bought the game as I thoroughly enjoy playing it.

for their sanity i hope not.

All things considered, I wouldn't mind Scott using some military slang, albeit as a "old habits die hard" thing more than regularly.

And even then, things like Deuce kit, Jody boy, Oh-Dark-Thirty, Balls Watch, etc. Not going full "This is Arse 1 to Arse 2, requesting high altitude JDAM CAS prior to HALO to AO, over." (To translate, he's requesting some fighter bomber to drop guided bombs before they do a high altitude low opening parachute jump into an area of operations - and I probably got it wrong somehow. Arse callsigns brought to you by Vietcong the video game, god'amn classic.)


Well, better have fast movers on station, preferably with precision munitions. Trolls are bound to have foot-mobiles in the area.


I like your thinking - Rebellions are built on hope!

I agree as Ryder is from a military background of some degree after all. I bet people would still shit all over the character if he was a bit more hardened though, sadly.

I'm certain NDA allows him to say anything about DLC's happening or not.

Ash in ME1 is a Gunnery Chief. It's an Alliance-specific rank, though considering she's with Alliance Marines, it could be similar to the rank of Gunnery Sergeant (GySgt) of the USMC. Ensign/Lieutenant Junior Grade are US Navy's O-1 and O-2 (Officer) equal to 2LT and 1LT in the Army and Marine Corps. The Navy's rank of Lieutenant is actually correspondent to other branches Captain rank, while Navy's Captain would be on par with a Colonel in other branches.

Shepard is a Commander, or Lieutenant Colonel throughout the game. Ashley by ME3 is promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, which is ironic, considering Gunnery Chief sounds more Marine-like. This puts her one rank below Shepard in Alliance chain of command, at rank equal to Major. (Kaidan gets the promotion from Lieutenant to Major, in those exact words)

All in all, Ashley would be an E-7 or thereabouts, jumping eight or so ranks. Still, she's quite above Ryders who aren't even in command of a squad far as I can tell. Neither Sara nor Scott probably made it past E-4 (Corporal/Specialist/Petty Officer 3rd Class in USMC/US Army/USN respectively) before the Initiative left the Milky Way.

Sheesh, I should probably stop doing these comparisons since the ranks in ME often are chosen to sound cool, not because they make sense - see GyCH Williams becoming a LtCdr.

it is one thing in sci fi that has always bothered me. Damn few ranking systems actually are explained and make sense just sort of thrown together.

Alas, no. Apparently one place we don't have Bio fans is in Quebec.

Yeah, that's what I meant when I said "we" -Bsn/ this thread. French part of the forum might have folks going...

10 minutes

Nah, it's bad writing, Ryder is immediately treated like the second coming by the general populous and given massive power and responsibility with zero oversight on their first day.  The whole Pathfinder concept is a giant plot hole made even more jarring by the inexperience and attitude of the Ryder character.  Even Shepard considered being given command of the Normandy really out of left field, the idea that they would send 'that' crew out unaccompanied in the Tempest is just incredulous.  Ryder's youth isn't the issue, loads of games, TV series and movies work just fine with young protagonists when they handle them in a more convincing manner.