Andromeda Initiative briefings (6/6 Golden Worlds and Settlements)

I was actually expecting BW to be joking about it, because it makes no sense.

- So this is exploration/colonization initiative, right?
- Of course.
- Why our ships called "Arks"? If I remember right Noah wasn't an explorer...
- Hey, you two! Put him into stasis. ... Next question.
- So about these armor collars, what's their purpose?
- Good question! Put her into stasis.

Unfortunately. Let's hope they at least don't go too crazy with it, like ME3 and especially ME2. 

it's more likely there so people won't get confused and think its Commander Shepard.

Yah, we know. Joe Sixpack doesn't know, and he's gonna come into the game, "Where's Shepard? Let's kick some ass!"

Shepard also always had their face unmasked on the covers and wearing the same armor, as far as I can remember.

Maybe. I always just figured there wasn't a uniform place for it on N7 armors and each N7 could choose where to put the insignia. For example when Bioware showed our father's armor as our armor in 2014 the N7 insignia was on the upper right arm rather than anywhere on the chest. 

It's never been suggested that DuncaN7 is a SPECTRE. SPECTREs and N7s have nothing to do with each other, other than they share Shepard as a member of their ranks. 
But yeah, our father is definitely not a SPECTRE. 

No worries.

N7 is an Alliance military designation.

Spectre is a council designation.

SPOILER: Click to show

Spectres (Special Tactics and Reconnaissance) are agents entrusted with extraordinary authority by the Citadel Council, including the power of life and death over the inhabitants of the galaxy. They form an elite group selected from a number of different species, and their primary responsibility is to preserve galactic stability by whatever means necessary. Though they are generally considered as being above the law and have complete discretion as to the methods used to accomplish their mission, an individual's status as a Spectre can be revoked by the Council in a case of gross misconduct. Spectres work either alone or in small groups according to the nature of a particular task and to their personal preference.

No need to apologize. It's fine.

Hmm, it's possible but I don't see why. After all once the ships are off they are going someewhere that is definitely not Council Space. Now if say these were built to escape the Reapers, and the Reapers strike the place where the Arks are being built and they jump, a SPECTRE could be coming along since they could have been overseeing the operation when they leave. 

It's time for another glorious multiquote that will inevitably cause aggravation when dissenters attempt to reply to it. Sorry
 
That's true, but we're talking absolutely massive. Something that would take decades to built under normal circumstances, not to mention an insane amount of resources, credits, and personnel.

I wouldn't be surprised if you're right, that that was the original story plan and they changed it. It's good they changed it, probably, because that would sort of mess with the whole "no one believed Shepard" part of the trilogy.

Curiously, it doesn't look like I'm the one with the attitude problem here, judging from your posts. I might be critical, but I'm trying to do so in a courteous, well-thought-out manner that doesn't include openly expressing distaste for a group of the fandom.

I... really don't think a running animation looking similar to one from Uncharted means they have Nolan North doing voicework. The two things are totally unrelated, not to mention running generally looks pretty similar. And we already know they're doing mocap for a lot of things, presumably the running animations.

Hey, Two Steps From Hell isn't generic epic music! It's epic epic music! I really hope they continue the ME trilogy tradition of using their songs for trailers, because it worked wonders. But I'd also like to know who's composing the score for ME:A! I hope they just rehire the people who did the original trilogy, like Sam Hulick, Jack Wall, Chris Lennertz, etc. If they don't use TSFH tracks in the trailers, I'd definitely want them to use something from the ME:A score.

I'm really wondering who she is, too, because that isn't just N7 armour, it's the exact same armour Dad Ryder has, down to the collar flap that's generating so much heat (metaphorically, you know, since it's definitely not literally keeping heat in! Zing! I'll leave after this post, don't worry). Clearly, it must be Fem!Dad Ryder
It can't be the protagonist unless she's pretending to be an N7, and she can't become an N7 on account of not being a member of Special Forces, for which the "N" is designatory. With that in mind, it's tinfoil hat theory time:
Choosing the protagonist's gender not only changes your sibling's, but also your parent's! Because seriously, I'm drawing a blank as to what this is supposed to be. If you remember, we had a male and female in this armour in one of the earliest released concept art pieces, so it does seem like they're different characters. My only other guess is that they're just doing it for brand recognition.

1 Stupid + 1 Stupid = 2 Stupid, not 0

I'm all for constructive criticism, but a prerequisite of that is doing your own fact-checking. As someone else astutely pointed out, walking on Luna as if it had 1.0G is easy in the Mass Effect universe, because of... Mass-affecting technology. Or anywhere else, like Mars.

The opposite should be true, too, which I hope they make use of in the game, but unfortunately doubt they will simply because they didn't in the original trilogy (I mean, it's the name of your franchise, come on and use it!). And by that I mean temporarily lowering your mass to jump somewhere normally unreachable, or when exhausted, lowing your mass slightly to have "super strength" until you've recovered. Obviously, this has hand-to-hand combat advantages as well, like raising the mass of your arm/fist at the apogee of your punch, thereby punching fast but extremely hard, then lowering it again. Seriously, ME tech is a gold eezo mine for creativity!

The problem with your idea is that the scale is simply too colossal to be a mundane colonization effort. That, and that if the promo video is canon, it was clearly advertising going to Andromeda. Oh, and because the Arks are required to have upgraded drive cores that would revolutionize current FTL travel. That can't work is they were just normal colony ships.

You could, but I have a hard time imagining the Council wanting to spend that many resources, credits, time, and personnel on a one-way trip that might fail, at least without an extragalactic invasion happening.

Me too. I'm actually pretty good at suspension of disbelief, but things like this just pull me out and annoy me to death every time.

1. Military expedition or not, there's no excuse for going into a foreign galaxy unprepared. If there isn't a large contingent of military or paramilitary personnel present for the trip - hell, a fleet to protect each Ark - they would be terrible planners and/or incredibly naive to say the least. Arms and armour should not be scarce. The same logic applies to the Mako, but since it apparently has no armament, maybe Bioware is writing the expeditionary force as a collective of naive fools.

2. That's wrong in like 8 different ways. Where are these assumptions even coming from? Those cybernetics are not required to wear the armour. In fact, considering it's powered armour, that would be the opposite of sensical.  In addition, the plating is likely (and possibly directly stated to be, I don't remember) made of some alloy that's beyond current tech in durability, flexibility, and lack of weight. There is no reason to assume a fit person couldn't spend a huge amount of time in armour even without enhancements or the armour's own augmentation being applied. Furthermore, as has been repeated recently in this very thread, ME fields can account for the weight of armour as well. Since each set has them, it would be easy to simply lower the mass of the suit, but as I said, I don't think that would be necessary in the first place.

So no, the majority of the Andromeda expedition would not "collapse under the weight of the kind of gear Shepard used to carry around". That would be silly

Any given mission the Pathfinder(s) would have is most certainly an occasion for a hardsuit, if not a spacesuit (but there's barely a difference in ME). Basically, they should be wearing them for the same reasons they carry guns. Just in case. If they think they should have guns out, they should also have protection, and that's not counting environmental hazards. Heck, even falling while exploring is a hazard that can be mostly remedied with a suit. And as has been implied, these suits are far from a hindrance, unlike contemporary equivalents, and actually augment the abilities of the wearer, so yes, it's dumb not to be wearing them. I don't see a jump-pack on the asari's jacket, do you?

I know I'm being pedantic, but kevlar wouldn't help much against dart traps

1. I'm not disagreeing with you at all. I wasn't really even trying to start a debate about it, just say that I thought it was funny how different people remember things differently. In my case, my mind jumps to what I stated instead of the more negative things. I have a habit of not being able to get my thoughts out correctly though, so it might have sounded more argumentative

2. "Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better in fact" (because I don't have one) Oh I'm definitely happy about the lack of boob-moulding!  Sad about the seeming return of noodle arms, though and would also like to see some more variety in female appearance - not everyone has to be a model. But we've more than covered that conversation

Huh, I never thought of that similarity! Weird! I wonder if it was on purpose. Haha, yeah, you probably should. But you never know, there might be some cosmic entity or space magic ready to save you!

Well, bi people can have preferences...