20,000 Human colonists

Agreed. They did say that. But we all know that Something Will Happen to prevent achieving that goal for a very long time. Though it has been 600 years since they started all this. But maybe somehow, some way, the problem lies in the Milky Way that has nothing to do with Reapers or Cerberus. Maybe some fool lost the directives or something. "Now where did I put that data pad with the instructions?" Or over 600 years the chain of information just sort of broke down and people forgot about it or assumed the Nexus and friends all perished.

So take out the announcement trailer bit and you are still left with massive indicators pointing to humanity being the special, Mary Sue species again.

Whether that is tied to a specific character saying such, or just the fact that it will be humans, and humans alone who are the driving force behind the Andromeda Initiative, the ones who will have an inordinate power and political sway in a supposed joint species effort, or the fact that devs themselves have even said that it will be up to humanity, and our human Pathfinder, to save everyone from the main foe in Mass Effect: Andromeda. Etc.


I mean just look back at the previous trilogy, there is not one noteworthy thing that the other species do in the present day galaxy that humanity hasn't already done, and done better. We are economically bending the Volus over the bed despite the former being the ones who have created the groundwork for the state of said galactic economy and have been in charge of it for several thousand years. We are apparently the only species smart enough to conceive of the concept of a carrier class ship for fleet actions. We are the only new species in over two thousand years to even be considered for Spectre status, let alone a seat on the council. We are the only species to create a universal medical treatment that works across species lines (Medigel) despite having nowhere near the level of xenobiology that the rest of the galaxy would have. Our very genetic makeup is even superior to all the other species of the galaxy according to the lore. We have better scientists and covert operatives than even the Salarians; despite both of those being their 'thing'. Our Biotic potential rivals even that of the Asari, despite that being their 'thing'. We trounce the Truians in military acumen despite that being their 'thing'. We dominate the Volus economically despite that being their 'thing'. Etc. 


You are correct that we don't know all that will be going down in the plot for Mass Effect: Andromeda, but all the current info, and BioWare's previous track record, point to humans being the front and center, and king of the pack despite this attempt at trying to showcase us as the underdogs. If anyone's the underdogs in this universe its the Elcor and Hanar. 

That's the smallest of issues here. Given one m² per pod one square kilometer would host million of them. That's like 1/20 of one Nexus wing. On one floor.

That's naturally not an option with such sheer numbers. Technology similiar to Okeer's would give them some basic knowledge to beging with, the rest is up to some kind of boarding schools.
The biggest issue is infrastructure. Enough food and living quarters for all of them. Though fully functioning farms with few thousands of personell should be able to feed millions.

Yes, there is something called the Genetic Bottleneck Theory due to the Toba super eruption some 70K years ago reducing the human population to between 1000 and 10000 breeding pairs, which if correct means we all descend from those 2-20 thousand humans.  I don't know how accepted the theory is across academia, but I always found it a satisfying explanation for the lack of genetic diversity in humans...not that I'm any kind of expert in the field.

You know what is curious?
When our ancestors started leaving Africa they began interbreeding with other species from the genus Homo like the Neanderthals, the Denisovans and others which resulted in us having a few pieces of them on our DNA. 

Even thousands of years ago we were already banging other species.

from a biological point of view 20.00 of individuals is too slow to mantain the species, a new species will soon evolve from this individuals,

but this is the lore of MEA, so we have to accept it, maybe there is more info in Andromeda, we'll know more once we get there

You know I really wish they had not put a specific number to the Ark populations. It would have avoided the 'Star Trek Voyager' effect. And I just thought of one horrifying reason this is the case. Depending on how it will work the ME A Multiplayer might very easily have you engage in combat with other members of the MW species, I feel this very, very, likely. Now I headcanonened the ME 3 MP as being a part of a VR simulation to prepare people for combat, but the point still remains, if you are killing each other off in MP could get...interesting.

And that's not a bad thing! It's.............a GOOD thing!!!
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Well the Rachni haven't had any opportunity to showcase their scientific and engineering prowess in the current timeline, nor have they had around three hundred years of isolation to themselves to develop their holdings. We do know, however, that they did produce space age equivalent feats of architecture on their home world of Suen even before they achieved space flight, as a necessity to their planet's harsh environment, and that they were adept enough to jump to work on the Crucible with no problem.

Sure the Geth might have a higher end capacity once they have established a collective consciousness "as large as a galactic arm" as EDI puts it in ME 2, but the Rachni are far more cost efficient for a start up colonization effort. You can send a single queen down to a planet and within two years she can establish a nest with enough capacity to see her broods being able to see galaxy wide deployment. A single Geth program will be no smarter than a low end VI and until they reach that 'critical mass' of networked processing power you won't see them doing much of anything outside of rudimentary animal intelligence. Even your "mindless" Rachni drones and soldiers possess enough of an intelligence to construct proto-colonies (perfect foundations for AI prefab shelters) as well as engage in hit and run attacks against a modern military armed with nothing but claws and acidic spit (zero cost covert ops forces). With the Geth, unless you are going to bring along an established mini-Consensuses and are willing to devote valuable resources like plastics, metals, and computer hardware (resources needed for your colony ships and structures) to make more of themselves, you won't be getting much use out of them.


That being said, I completly agree with you last point, and I am really hoping that species like the Rachni and Geth (preferably the ME 2 version) will make the trip to Andromeda. The setting feels so meh without the more alien races to give it depth and diversity.

People, they're colonizing a new galaxy. It's the biggest endeavor in (known) space-faring species history. The timeframe for this is not "Lets go plop down several million people on this planet with prefab structures and be back for lunch." They're in it for the long haul. If you had the opportunity to mould civilization from its infancy with all the knowledge on economics/law/governing of numerous space species wouldn't you wanna start from scratch?

God no, I want to have a bloody good idea of what sort of civilisation I'm leaping into before I take off on a one way trip to a long time ahead in a galaxy far, far away. You don't want to leave it to whatever bunch of whackos have enough free time to think up new plans for civilisation once you get there. That would surely lead to the whole thing splintering with fighting, exiles, factions breaking away to set up their own way of living in... oh... never mind, as you were. Story wise I'm sure the half arsed chaotic approach be far more entertaining. Where's the fun in a tale full of competent people co-operating reasonably.