Just a thought on the timing...

no matter the secrecy...we'll learn that Remnants are all indoctrinated. They look like flying Keepers .

It seems we are speaking past one another. You and I are approaching this from entirely different angles, still. I am speaking as a (theoretical) Lead Writer/Creative Director, working on the game's plot, avoiding material we have collectively agreed non grata (ME3 endings controversy), and trimming needless fat from the game.

You've been approaching it from an in-game viewpoint, getting into the heads of the thousands of NPCs, feeling like they'd want to call home; even if it's not exactly home as they knew it. Its almost like we're both writing the game, just working on different parts. If I were Lead Writer/CD, I'd theoretically cut any stuff tied to the Milky Way, for all the reasons I've already explained, and you'd be pissed and think I was an idiot for doing it. We'd move on and make more cool games.

You think including details about 29C Milky Way in some fashion, as well as some history like the Reaper War, would enrich the plot. I think it's risky to include with limited payoff, and should probably be avoided as either minutiae or sideshow distractions. (They could totally blow me away, though, with a well written idea that includes it all.) I don't think either of us will be quick to change our respective opinion on this, but it's been fun talking about it. Whatever the real professional writers choose to include, I hope it sets a new standard for storytelling in this IP.

You know why we're going to Andromeda: because of the ME3 endings. I wouldn't try to force a perfect "in-game" reason or explanation onto everything. This Ai is too big a fork in the road, years after the trilogy is set in stone, to allow for a perfectly smooth transition.

Why have the Ai? They've been driving home the "Exploration isn't an option. It's an imperative," type of lingo. I think that's going to be it. Yes, it's a pill to swallow, but at least it's a fresh start. The Reapers are dead and gone. Let's let them stay that way.

Edit: Sorry, PapaCharlie9 . I tried to just quote melbella, but you are not so easily expunged.

I think it takes place way before mass effect 1 may be 5 or 10 years after the first contact war similar to the time period as star trek enterprises...All I know is Bioware is trying to avoid the mass effect trilogy history as much as possible... by making  Mass Effect: Andromeda's timeline way before ME1 and by the time they get to Andromeda it will be way past mass effect 3 timeline... we will see in 1 more days it's interesting, to say the least.

Details about the Milky Way are unavoidable if you want actual characters in the game.  Half the conversations you have in role playing games is about characters' history and motivations.  The alternative is crew conversations like this:

"So tell me about yourself"
"I woke up 4 days ago in pod 4367, and I am chief navigation officer for the AI"
"I should go"

Imagine if Wrex didn't care about or even mention the Genophage, or his run in with his father.  He would just be a mussel squadmate who charges into enemy lines.  Later he become the clan leader who cares more about uniting the Krogan and rebuilding than any of the others, just because.  Even minor characters like Ken and Gabby tell us a bit about their history. 

The same would happen with characters on the Ark if we don't find out the backstories that lead them to joining the initiative in the first place.  They'd just be cardboard cutouts in the shape of the various races.

Actually, if we are taking the Krogan along to colonise a new galaxy, it seems important to know if they are infected with the genophage (and likely unable to sustain a population) or cured (where numbers are likely to spiral out of control). Either way presents a bit of a problem that IMO should be explained, instead of just having them there because they're pretty cool.

However past events need to be worked into the story so it stays relevant and doesn't distract too much from the new Andromeda stuff.  It should be quite challenging to get the balance right.

You've taken this entirely beyond the context of the conversation we were actually having. I don't disagree with anything you've said, but in no way is my original thought represented or addressed by what you've said above. I never suggested "ignoring the past", essentially creating a new IP; nor did I ever suggest writing characters without character. I suggested, "Maybe it would be best to avoid the Reapers, and needless to involve the Milky Way once we are in Andromeda." (I explained why, if you read my posts.)

I've pretty much said my piece about it. I could elaborate further, if we're just having fun; but I don't feel like debating it or getting people all ruffled about it as if it's important or even "factually debatable". (We've just been spitballing ideas, after all. We aren't dealing in facts.) I'm far more interested in seeing what the actual writers have chosen to do than in spinning my own theories, at this point. It isn't June, anymore. N7 Day is tomorrow.

and then turns to loving wife, Liara, and tells her and their asari children all about it.

Then themikefest wakes up for real, looks at his Cerberus insignia on the wall, his Terra Firma Manifesto on his deck, and sighs out of relief because all that alien love BS was just a nightmare.
Then in Andromeda his Ryder falls for an alien and Andromeda explodes.

After your Shepard finishes with the story, the asorry children tell Shepard that smurfette mom is teaching them how to take armor from dead bodies

Well, ACTUALLY...
... the only being we have seen falling off a cliff is a HUMAN 

I tell you: I got the feeling the people going to Andromeda (volunteers, adventurers, explorers, scientists... and a bunch of criminals) went before ME1 events.

They know is one way ticket, but they hoped they can communicate with Milky Way (that's why there is sponsorship from the MW, because they want to know some results).

The problem is 600 years later, when the Ai people finally arrive to Andromeda, they discover there are no communication with Milky Way.

The last message was the Council/Hackett/whoever telling to the Ai head project about the massive attack they suffered in Milky Way, how the Reapers are harvesting and destroying all advanced species. Earth and Palaven are occuppied, Thessia has just fallen. You are the last (unintentional) survivors of all Milky Way.

Because that is the last log and info they have, Ai people actually think they are the last of their dangered species.

Meanwhile, the MW doesn't care because 600 years have passed since the Reaper Wars, a lot of destruction was involved, so nobody remembers and there is no much recording data about those geeks who left to Andromeda before the Citadel Attack and the Reaper Wars.

I know my theory is not perfect, but since a writer point of view:
1) Things are simplified for old ME players and new ME players.
2) You don't put the focus in the Reapers per se, not for leaving. But at the same time, you put the results of the Reapers menace: we are in Andromeda not only for Science and Exploring and a new home, BUT ALSO the survival of all especies remaining in theUniverse is all on us.