Ai Andromeda Sensor data 2+ million years old

I mentioned this bolded bit in another thread, where everyone was all doom and gloom about playing another anointed savior. I had pointed out the fact that all Ryders are biotics, trained or not. No one seemed impressed. We'll see if we're right, or if Ryder is actually super-special.

There is apparently something inherently different about Pathfinders, according to the GI article. They built a narrative around it, and the respec capabilities are tied into it. I guess the kett could've been noting something like that, too. Again, we'll see.

We know from lore that council races usually contact any species who have reached the space age, sometimes this results in a good first contact like the Elcor, the Raloi or the Drell and other times shit happens like with the Rachni and the Yagh.

Anyway, i really hope to meet some species which is still giving the first steeps towards exploring the "final frontier" and that the game explore the ramifications this contact will have to them. Will they become better beings or worse? Will they trully embrace space exploration to learn what is out there or they will become like a swarm or grasshoppers just taking everything they want along the way or will they destroy themselves a la Fallout squandering everything they could become?

Well, Internet Technical Institute provides a free education with no formal requirements for entry. It's a golden age where everyone's a smartypants. 

2.5 million years is a lot, but unless the planetary systems were very young or very old it's not likely garden worlds would change much. Ice ages or unexpected meteoric collisions that could radically change their climate could happen of course, but knowing about those taking place would require distance no greater than few thousand years away.

It's hard for me to be positive (though I don't try to be outright negative), but I'm getting there mostly on account of wanting to play another Bioware RPG, my favourite kind of game. I knew I'd get ME:A at some point, so I might as well try to enjoy it.

Some things will always bug me, but I'm trying not to let them completely overshadow any other thoughts on the game.

Well, I wouldn't say it's phenomenally unlikely, simply by virtue of having a sample size of 1. Another thing to point out, though, is that while scanning those Golden Worlds (still think that name sounds a bit odd, but it's shorter than "habitable worlds"), there would be no way to detect pre-industrial life. We can currently use spectroscopy to analyze the elements present in the atmospheres of exoplanets. If there are large quantities of elements released during our Industrial Age, we can infer that that planet may have been going through an Industrial Age (whenever that light was produced), although that's obviously not the only explanation.

So it's possible that there existed pre-industrial species on those Golden Worlds 2.5 million years ago and have since advanced significantly.

Well, I suppose it call comes down to what each person sees as iconic. Yes, I think the relays are fairly iconic, but mostly of ME1, if that makes sense. Same with the Mako. But there are many other things that could be considered iconic to different people that are still present.

The Normandy, which the Tempest was specifically designed to emulate if I recall correctly. Weapons like the Avenger and Carnifex. The basic look of small-arms is also fairly iconic, with the double barrels (though I never actually figured out what the bottom one is for) as well as folding up. Glowing biotics. The Omnitool in all its incarnations. The Codex. The Galaxy Map. The alien species. Even the Mass Effect font (which the mods should totally add as an option here)! Paragon and Renegade symbols as shechinah pointed out, though those aren't returning.

They're not all visual, either. The soundtrack's combination of synth and orchestra, not that it's specific to ME, is rather iconic. The sounds when navigating the menus or pressing the start button, even. I'd mention the voices of Commander Shepard and others if I wasn't trying to concentrate on things still present (though I guess I mentioned it anyway).

There are even intangible things - the feelings of the game, the experiences, like exploring. Romances, arguably.

And perhaps the most iconic of all, which they haven't failed to notice and use in marketing: N7

So are relays a symbol of Mass Effect? Absolutely. But to me they're not the symbol.

Interesting thought about these explorers knowing more about their destination than most have.

It's true, I may be jumping the gun with my own ideas about what Alec will be like, although I did say "potentially" just in case. It could very well be that what you wrote is true instead. Though it looks like we agree that whatever mindset he goes in with, he'll likely be fairly disenfranchised, to say the least, upon arrival.

Also, totally unrelated, but


Because it takes 600 years, one-way? Not the most efficient

Agreed about Picard! Here, let's have some more. I find this oddly catchy ♪♫♪


Anyway, at this point it does look like the narrative might centre on the Remnant tech, with one overarching main plot being to secure a homeworld, and another about unlocking the Remnants' secrets, even racing the Kett to do so and achieve "superiority" and the means to maintain power or defend/create colonies. After all, the tech might be useful for terraforming, judging by the gravity manipulation tech (which seems a bit redundant to ME tech) as well as plants that can grow almost anywhere. It's likely Remnant tech is the "alien tech" responsible for giving us weapon and armour crafting.

I definitely think it would be cool to see a species whose technology has evolved along a different path than the one the Reapers desired; without mass effect. That said, I'm not sure I would like the Andromedans to have found a way to achieve FTL without it, simply because one of the reasons I like ME lore is because its FTL makes more sense than most scifi FTL.

Additionally, we know there will be biotic enemies, so it's likely at least some of the sapient species in Andromeda would know about mass effect fields and Element Zero, even if they reverse-engineered it from their own innate biotics.

I'm definitely hoping for some first contact moments! Besides the hostile one with the Kett, anyway. It's a recipe for awesome roleplay and branching paths, as well as just being a really unique and cool experience.

Though I would like to point out that we don't just need to make contact with pre-spaceflight species, we could also make contact with spaceflight-capable but pre-FTL species (since they might want to meet aliens), or species with comparable tech to ours. There could even be some who are highly advanced but are not exploratory/expansive, and don't have space flight or don't use it. So many possibilities and potential interesting conversations!

The first contact protocol is one of the things in the Trainee (masseffect.com) sign-up that I'm looking forward too. Where will the AI fall on the spectrum? ST Prime Directive? Human-first hegemony? Something in between?

And what if there is disagreement amongst the cultures on the Arks? I wouldn't imagine the krogan putting up with anything approaching an ST Prime Directive.

So much potential! Don't blow it, Bioware.

I see no problems created by that. The problems you mention can be dealt with easily, like Reapers just travel conventional FTL which takes them 232 years and can be busy for thousands harvesting the galaxies around the Milky Way if they are even harvesting anymore at all. It also gets rid of other issues like why there isn't a Leviathan-tier alien race that would crush us in an instant. 

But remember Bioware wants to distance themselves from the Milky Way due to the endings. So something will come up that prevents travel back there, meaning no Mass Relays to connect the two galaxies.

The Mass Relays were a crucial element in every significant thing that happened in the MEU and especially the games. They were what got humanity involved with all the races and places we know and love. In ME1 the game was looking for the Conduit, a one-way Mass Relay, to stop Saren from activating the Citadel, which is a giant Mass Relay that connects to Dark Space. In ME2, the whole thing was getting everything ready for a venture through the Omega-4 Mass Relay to stop the Collectors, and then Arrival had us destroy the Alpha Mass Relay to delay the Reaper invasion. Finally in ME3 we defeat the Reapers by using the Citadel to transmit the effects of the Crucible through the entire Mass Relay Array, stopping the Reaper threat once and for all in whatever way you chose. I'd say that makes them an iconic part of the franchise, as much as say the Halo rings are in the Halo franchise. 

I do agree that for most things the iconicness of them is subjective, like many of the things you listed. But I disagree that the Mass Relays are after everything they have been a part of. Even N7 despite Bioware's attempts isn't as iconic for the franchise(instead is iconic of a protagonist in that franchise). 

I'm sorry but I can't get past the notion that there are no mass relays in Andromeda. It violates the entire logic and central premise of the universe.

Remember what the motivation for the Reapers were and remember even with conventional FTL how fast Reapers could go (and why wouldn't Reapers have this super-duper FTL? after millions of years of assimilation?) The problem of technological singularities and the destruction of life is not confined to the milky way. Ergo, the Reapers should have both the means and motivation to have Mass Relays not only in the Milky Way but (at the very *least*) the entire local galactic group (including Andromeda).

So that means there either are Mass Relays, or there is some Type III (Leviathan class) civilization that prevents it. Either is fatal to the setting.

No it wasn't. The Starkid's directive was to preserve life. Even if it were in the Milky Way (which it was not), then clearly you'd have to act in the entire local galactic cluster since it's clear that the local galaxies can 'invade' one another (certainly the Reapers can do it).

So this is incorrect as a matter of Lore Fact.

The Leviathans were effectively immortal, and if the council races could make intergalactic arks, then so could the Leviathans or any number of races since then. Bioware wrote themselves into a corner they can't get out of.

I know you can't argue the Lore fact because the Lore is on my side. The Leviathans had the lifespan (effectively immortal) and technology for intergalactic travel, and certainly the Reapers could, and the directive was to protect all life not just life in the Milky Way.

Can't we just admit that on a premise PoV, Bioware royally messed this up?

Yeah, I'll agree with that. If you didn't want to address the Reapers, then the game should have been set in the Milky Way, no question. IMHO Bioware (probably because of the ME-3 endings) tried to get too cute by half.

I can agree with wanting them to emphasize the dangers a bit more. I don't know if the initial orientation video is the place to do it, though. I think these videos are presented from an "in character" perspective, so they'd want to ease the recruit in a bit more than that. We'll likely hear more about the risks, soon. The rest of the vids are about first contact protocol, equipment and survival themes.

I think BioWare had a choice. Do they impress us now in the marketing stage, or keep their secrets and impress us with their game? Impatient as I might feel now, I'd rather wait for the game, in the long term. If the game truly is good, it will market itself after release. Of course, most of us will already be playing it as the "devoted fan" crowd.