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

We don't get to live in the White House but people still tour it because they think it's cool.  CEO's of huge companies have million-dollar mansions and their employees live in apartments.  That's just the way it goes.  I wouldn't ever not work for a company because the CEO lived in a much nicer house than I.  I don't think anyone would begrudge it.  We expect that from people in authority.  Also, it gives incentive to become good friends with the Pathfinder in the hopes of getting invited up to that cabin to play basketball or javelin toss or something.

It could be that having private ships and ground vehicles of a certain size with weapons is illegal in council space.  Like how I can own a tank or a fighter jet legally in the United States, but they cannot legally be armed.  I can own as many guns as I want, though.  This could have been the case for the Andromeda Initiative.  While building their stuff in council space, they could not add giant weapons to their Nomads and Tempests.  However, why they couldn't add them after getting to Andromeda or have them built outside of council space is a question that would need to be answered.  It's not a perfect explanation, nor even a good one I'm sure from some people's point of view, however with current laws in the United States it does sound plausible.

Have you ever worked in huge company?

When was it confirmed that there are no weapons on/in the Tempest? It's only been confirmed that there is no "main" gun. Anything beyond that is pure speculation.

I am assuming that the ship has some kind of missile system, which is better than a gun, in my opinion, because a missile could track its target. Or automated turrets that pop out and fling lead/lasers in the general direction of the thing we are defending ourselves from.

Or, we have nukes on board and can drop one of those and FTL out of the area as it goes boom and obliterates our attackers.

My point is, the possibilities are endless for defending ourselves.

Funny, because I see it the other way around. The Tempest not having a main gun (totally unarmed would be worse, but still just acceptable I guess) I can understand with it being an exploration vessel and not a warship, with the protocol to get the hell out in case of trouble. The Nomad, however, can't FTL out of a fight, so even a simple Mantis would be a big trouble. I get it's a gameplay decision, to stop us from destroying everyone with the vehicle's gun in every encounter, but it'll be kinda weird.

It's presented as a trade-off though. The reason the Tempest is so fast is because it doesn't have heavy armour and a main gun weighing it down. So it doesn't really add scenarios that you can survive so much as change which scenarios you can survive.

You could just as easily say, "what if the other guy is so tough that a main gun wouldn't make a dent?". Given that you're a small and maneuverable scout/research vessel this scenario is probably more likely than "what if the other guy can run faster?".

When it comes to the 'what-if' game you have to play the probabilities. Is it more likely that you will face a threat that's faster than you that you can't escape or kill with your shield blast/small-scale defenses or is it more likely that you will face a threat that you have no hope of surviving even with a main gun that you would otherwise have been able to escape by running away? If you can't build a Tempest that can survive both types of threat then you need to defend against the scenario that you're most likely to face.

That goes even without taking account of my other point that I think first contact diplomatic missions of peace are less likely to succeed if you approach in a heavily armed combat vessel.

It's the opposite for me - I'm more bothered about lack of weaponry on the Nomad.

The Tempest is just a small scout ship, not a warship.  I'd expect it to have some basic defenses, it just doesn't have a big main gun - perhaps because it's structure would not support one.

Also, this:

Ship mobility dominates space combat; the primary objective is to align the mass accelerator along the bow with the opposing vessel's broadside. Battles typically play out as artillery duels fought at ranges measured in thousands of kilometers, though assault through defended mass relays often occur at "knife fight" ranges as close as a few dozen kilometers.

Most ship-to-ship engagements are skirmishes between patrol vessels of cruiser weight and below, with dreadnoughts and carriers only deployed in full-scale fleet actions. Battles in open space are short and often inconclusive, as the weaker opponent generally disengages.

Once a ship enters FTL flight the combat is effectively over; there are no sensors capable of tracking them, or weapons capable of damaging them. The only way to guarantee an enemy will stand and fight is to attack a location they have a vested interest in, such as a settled world or a strategically-important mass relay.

I'd expect a much higher likelihood of running into hostiles planetside than out in space.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna enjoy my flying 5 star hotel.

Normandy SR1 is a stealth&recon vessle too. Somehow, it did not stop creators from giving her some shields. Not good enough to stand against the collectors' ship (apparently), but still better than nothing. And she did have some firepower too - see Sovereign's end.

No its not its the pilot of Tempest 

Those Collector Editions ain't gonna sell themselves.