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

I can do positive, positive is fine. However there is a line between positivity and downright naivité. The decision to not arm the Tempest (and therefore all the other ships belonging to this class, as Bioware mentioned most arks have a Tempest-class ship) is an example of the latter.

Even more than naive, it appears to me as a downright stupid idea to not protect your investments. A ship like the Tempest, apparently belonging to a class entirely designed for the Initiative, must have cost a huge amount of money. Not installing guns as a form of protection, if only against smaller threats or as a means to provide ground support for the equally unarmed Nomad, is putting your investments at significant, if not downright intolerable risks.

Things like these don't mean I won't buy the game, or enjoy it, but they do have a severe impact on how I regard an organisation such as in this case the AI. So far, also taking into account the huge pathfinder's cabin, my judgement is that they are absolute morons.

Doesn't that describe most real-life space exploration? 

That's why there's a game coming out? You will give a shit there. Don't get butthurt because you're not getting something you want beforehand.

I'm not sure I follow, are you pointing at humanity's current efforts in space?

I think that's not a great comparison, since we don't already have ships armed with deadly guns capable of destroying huge ass Reapers. Then again, I've never been to Area 51, so I can't verify.

Secondly, our current efforts at exploration are either unmanned or extremely close to our own planet. This means that contact will either not result in deaths, or is an impossibility. Although I think contact is an impossibility for all of our efforts so far, since all of our efforts are relatively close to our planet.

Very different things can be said for the AI's goals...

Not in a 1000 years.

The money invested is high, but not impossible. Extreme risk? It's high, but not neraly "going to another galaxy risk high". And "no return" part I'm not sure. Does SpaceX make money? Will it take 600 years at the minimum for any possible return in investments?

I do not disagree, like I said they know other species can be hostile but we are not the military but explores doing recon. For example in the Battletech universe recon mechs are small and fast, they cannot stand a direct firefight because that is not their main objective. 

Well that was exciting. Say what you will about the marketing to this point i have gotten progressively more excited with each trailer.

Are those turrets? Looked more like sensors to me.

I'd like the think the AI has trained troops and adequate gear to protect our asses.  Maybe that's the purpose of the Security team?   Maybe the Arks & Nexus have fighter squadrons to protect them.

Yeah, it seems moronic that neither the Tempest nor the Nomad would have any weaponry built-in - but Ryder is not a military hero like Shepard was.  Ryder's primary role is exploration, research, making first contact, and maybe it's better to do that without bringing in an arsenal?  It's possible that this design choice was made to help players accustomed to Shepard understand that Ryder is an entirely different character, with different goals.  Maybe Ryder is supposed to flee rather than engage in hostilities with strangers in a strange land.

A lot of the combat in this game might be versus non-sapient wildlife and/or other Milky Way species who have gone rogue, instead of sapient species in Andromeda.  I guess we'll see.

They are definitely sensors. 

Other than what has been mentioned before, there is another thing that bugs me about the Tempest: it leaves contrails in space. Why are there contrails in space, Bioware? Contrails wouldn't exist in space.