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

There's no point being armed to the teeth if you encounter hostile aliens like the Kett. Either way, you're screwed. 200k people do not stand a chance in hell against a cluster-wide civilization, being armed just delays the inevitable - run away, or die. It's a strategic choice. Your only choice, in fact, is to be sneaky. The colonists on Mindoir didn't stand a chance against the Batarians. It's the same situation here. The AI cannot prosecute a conventional war against someone like the Kett with a hope of winning. Furthermore, "does not have a main gun" is not the same as "has no defensive weapons".  Having many weapons just gives the illusion of choice/hope in your defensive strategy.

Also, plenty of people have made one way trips in history. The vast majority of colonists and migrants throughout history, in fact, made their one way journey knowing they would not return. I don't believe the physical distance has any real bearing on this. Rather, it's the mental distance. We know the AI plans to reestablish contact with the Milky Way. It's not much different to the thousands of Austronesians who left Borneo to settle Madagascar (this actually happened - and they really had minimal contact with their forebears until the Age of Empire). And what of the Asians who migrated across the Bering Straits to settle the Americas and eventually completely forget about all other humans? Even in modern times, there are tens of thousands of people who got duped by Mars One, the Ark doesn't have many more than that.

But yes, the cabin is a little large.

OH BOY, we get to do planet scanning again! Only this time we have to actually go and land on the planet to do it, oh fun! _/s

Actually, the Tempest was supposed to be the ship of a N7, yes: Alec Ryder.
We just end replacing him.

And I think the phrase: "a mix of explorer, soldier and guide" implies violence will be necessary on occasion.

Same would go for the ship.

At least the colonists had the superiority of gunpowder, and were clever enough to bring along a few guns, both in their hands and on their ships.

I can understand that an all out war is never going to end up in favour of the AI, but not providing your ships with any type of main armament to either protect itself or provide ground support is sheer idiotic. Even the original Normandy, strictly aimed at stealth missions, had a main gun (even though it had to be upgraded to make a real impact).

No, it's not enough. You are making the assumption that those aliens only have infantry weapons at their disposal, despite having no reason to assume that.

This is also not about rules of engagement, this is being responsible and having OPTIONS if the enemy decides to attack. Running away isn't always an option either.

A large group going to another galaxy needs a well rounded plan for defense, having only infantry weapons is simply dumb.

While Alec is N7, it wasn't chosen because he was one, but more of his accomplishment as a space explorer.
I'd be fine if the Tempest had lighter weapons and shields/armour. Hopefully it'll be like this and it won't be completely weaponless.

Fast stealth ships tend to have some weapons as well. You can't just count on speed and stealth in every hostile situation, sometimes you need to actually stop the enemy by shooting them.

Then the expedition is probably doomed.

As I mentioned several pages back, I'm guessing the AI has its own private military and they might have fighters (and various weaponry) on the Nexus and Arks.  We don't know yet.

Ryder is not part of the military, but a Pathfinder with different objectives and rules of engagement.

There WILL be hostilities anyway. Having weapons is merely prudent.

You might not be able to go against a cruiser, but not all threats are necessarily that big.

You might need to save another ship from attackers, or you might need to break through enemies to extract besieged allies on the ground,
there might be many scenarios in which having some weapons would be helpful. It will certainly be more helpful than that huge ballroom of a cabin.

Then again, you can also make the claim that having a maingun may just provoke a more advanced race. Because if you are going with the idea that we wont know what we are going to face, it is better to have a ship that don't threaten the enemies into blowing your little ship in even smaller pieces.

If I remember correct, the briefing said that they choosed movement and evasion over heavy plating and the main gun, so they (the engineers) most likely calculated that the gains was bigger than the loss of armament and pewpew.