How do you feel about the premise not happening due to the Reaper invasion?

If it was a retcon fixing ME3 so it had a great ending (at least) and then the story moved forward without making any critical mistake ever again, then thumbs up... but as it is, a retcon would not erase fans's memories of the original content and the next time it happened it would just reflect twice as poorly on BioWare I believe. It's more gutsy to say "It didn't turn out well, but we'll try to salvage what we can and move forward!" like they're doing with Andromeda.

Regardless, any conflict that would've happened after the trilogy in the milky way would simply pale to the Reapers, even if the new threat was bigger in scope and more significantly important. IMO you can't continue the milky way story in a way that doesn't evoke a bad "ME4" vibe and I'd liken that to Halo 4 or Pirates of The Carribean 4, Sly 4, etc. moreso than I would Uncharted 4 or other 4s that were amazing.

The Reapers are also millions of years more advanced than this cycle.  And when the AI started in 2176, no one but Saren (and maybe the geth) even knew the Reapers existed.  So where this this magical technology come from?  And why isn't the galaxy at large using it?

For that matter, while we know the Reapers can go far longer without discharging their cores (years, certainly) we don't know if they can go for centuries.  And imagine the headaches that would cause if the Reapers can simply head to Andromeda and start harvesting there as well.

It's skipping right past Columbus and the entire Age of Exploration and going straight to a fleet of ocean liners.

Remember Leviathan says "reapers" not reaper when saying the intelligence directed the reapers to build the relays. No one knows how many reapers there were before the relays were built or how many cycles have passed by before the relays were built.

The Codex does not say it's impossible to travel far from a relay. That's an invalid interpretation of the word 'barrier'.  A snow drift is a barrier to traffic on a motorway but that doesn't make motorway traffic impossible it just means you have to clear the snow drift first!

We already know that you can travel away from relay space through the use of cryogenics. Just don't use FTL and, as long as you're happy to lose all the time sleeping, there's no problem at all.

The term 'prohibitive' is also a relative term. In the context of the Codex it's prohibitively expensive to build a ship the size of the arks because it's not economically viable but in the context of an eccentric billionaire who doesn't care about a return on his investment and who also has backing elsewhere (for some as yet undisclosed reason) then that's another story. There are exceptions to everything and I don't see this as being a contradiction to the Codex, simply a fringe case outside of the context of the Codex.

Prohibitive is also a very vague term. It's not quantified in any way and so there is no basis on which to say that the amounts involved are not credible under the circumstances.

The time it takes to build things in ME are also not quantified in any way. Given that they are bound to have technology that can make the construction process completely different to our 21st century methods there is no basis on which to declare that it couldn't be done in the timescale.

Given the timescales of when this mission was conceived and launched, I also don't see any reason why it is remotely significant that we heard nothing about it during the trilogy. If it's existing tech, or tech that is only good for taking century long trips to get to places that don't need to be got to, then the expedition will make a big splash on the news when it's launched (i.e. between games) and then be ignored subsequently. There's no reason at all for the trilogy to have mentioned it.

All this talk of the MEA premise contradicting the current Lore is, in my opinion, just a case of it contradicting people's personal interpretation of the Lore. But it's Bioware's interpretation of the Lore that counts and I haven't seen anything that isn't consistent with that.

Because it proves that saying something is a barrier to exploration doesn't mean the same as saying that exploration is impossible.

In the case of the AI, the barrier is the lack of discharge points but if you accept that a barrier isn't the same as a flat impossibility then the idea that there may be other ways to facilitate discharging (given, for example, the size of the vessels involved), does not have to imply any contradiction of the lore's use of the word 'barrier'.

Not the point. The point is that if you are using the term 'barrier' in the Codex to mean impossible then the fact that we already have a documented instance where it is possible proves that that Codex entry is not evidence that it can't be done. I'm not suggesting that using non-FTL to get to Andromeda is the way that it will be done in this instance, I am saying that the wording from the Codex in which it says that the lack of planets is a barrier does not preclude or contradict the possibility of ways to overcome that barrier.



The term prohibitive was from the Codex and was being used with respect to the cost of a large drive core. Your argument here is not relevant to what I was saying.

Your assertion that this technology doesn't exist also has no basis in the Codex. We know that you can discharge drive cores using facilities on the Citadel or large space stations without needing a planetary body. Therefore the Codex already supports the possibility of alternative discharge methods as long as the structure is big enough.

As for fuel, the actual thrusters do not need to be operating permanently. They can be shut off and the ships will continue to speed towards their target without any slowing down. They just need to be turned on again near the end of the trip in order to slow it down again.

If the only evidence of the tech not existing are of these two Codex references then I would argue that that is not sufficient evidence to make that statement.



Again that's an assumption. My argument is that there is no new technology and there is no revolution of space travel. We could have done this any time we wanted since we discovered FTL as long as we were willing to pay extraordinarily large amounts of cash and go to sleep for 600 years. There is no revolution here. The tech exists but is completely impractical to use commercially. The AI would have caused a splash when it was first announced 9 years ago and maybe when they started building the ships. It would have caused a splash when they set off. After that, why would they waste news articles about an expedition that we won't hear any more from for the next 600 years?


Yes please. Nothing in the Codex I've seen quoted so far contradicts anything.

Codex entry: Citadel Space

Citadel space is an unofficial term referring to any region of space controlled by a species that acknowledge the authority of the Citadel Council. At first glance, it appears this territory encompasses most of the galaxy. In reality, however, less than 1% of the stars have been explored.

Even mass-effect-FTL drive is slow relative to the volume of the galaxy. Empty space and systems without suitable drive discharge sites are barriers to exploration. Only the mass relays allow ships to jump hundreds of light years in an instant, the key to expanding across an otherwise impassable galaxy.

Whenever a new relay is activated, the destination system is rapidly developed. From that hub, FTL drive is used to expand to nearby star clusters. The result is a number of densely-developed clusters thinly spread across the vast expanse of space, connected by the mass relay network.

bolded areas for emphasis

Yes, the codex says it's impossible with the known technology to travel far from relays as empty space is a barrier to exploration. Sure, it's not impossible per se, but it is with the known technology. That's why it's a barrier. In your analogy, the Milk Way do not have knowledge to clear the snow barrier away.

And prohibitive means prohibitive. It means you cannot finance ships very large. Simple as that. 

I can appreciate that. The track record is a loopy one. I'm hoping we will all be pleasantly surprised with MEA. It's nearly impossible to please everyone, but it's easy for me to hope at this stage, at least.