The Tempest thread (confirmed 100% weaponry free)

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Weapons would only be useless against larger vessels, as a scout ship(nor an exploration ship for that matter) is intended to be capable of fighting cruiser class ships or bigger.

That said, it wouldn't do to have a scout ship that has to run away from a single pilot fighter simply because it's outgunned by literally anything that has a gun on it.

I mean, I could out gun the Tempest by tying a rope around a guy and sticking him out the airlock with a sniper rifle.

Even for a scout ship, having light armaments is better than nothing at all.

How much you wanna bet that Ryder will be captured at some pointbecause the Kett do exactly that 

That's not really true.  Think of anytime in Star Wars when people on the ground shoot at the Millennium Falcon with their blaster rifles and how the blasts harmlessness dissipates into its shields.  So depending on the level of firepower, they should be fine.  

great point/counterpoint on this matter.
It's concedable the ship should have light weapons. 
Who's to blame for this oversight?

Scouts have always been armed, same with the vehicles. Scout/recon vehicles are armed with weapons to defend themselves should something unexpected happen - like an ambush. They're even lightly armored just in case. 

Even the lightest and most nimble recon / scout vehicles are armed with at least a heavy machine gun for self defense. 

And I can't see any real downside in installing some kind of heavy weapon system on the Tempest. It can't be weight since knowing Bioware the ship will sure as hell be carrying all sorts of pleasure equipment like the Normandy, it can't be trying to look less menacing to the native species of the system since the Pathfinder and his/her team mates will be carrying all sorts of guns, grenades and other weaponry. 

It just makes no sense not to arm a scout vehicle that is carrying a crew which is part explorer part soldier. 

Even in a peaceful and respectful diplomatic sense there may be need for arms. The lack of weapons at all could be viewed as insulting. I'm thinking back to the western theme present in the first trailer and a popular myth in the western genre about negotiations. The trade Viggo Mortensen's character made in Appaloosa, in particular.

The Jien stuff I was on about earlier I'm moving to the character thread.

That's just really not true.  The thing is, it's in SPACE.  With the Tempest's stealth systems they should be able to detect other ships will before they are detected and bug out before they are engaged in combat.  If a ship sneaks up on the Tempest because it has a better stealth system and decides to engage the Tempest in battle then it has already decided it can outmatch the Tempest and win that engagement no problem.  If the Tempest is ambushed, it's pretty much SOL anyway because that ship already shows better technology than the Tempest (better stealth system) and you don't engage an enemy alone if there is a good chance you will lose.  

The people arguing for weapons on the ship forget about power draw, energy readings, and weight.  These are all factors on the Tempest that either mean it is stealthy and fast or not stealthy and SOL.  They also forget that in space, unless someone has stealth technology, you cannot detect them until they are practically on top of you, especially small ships.  So unless you want to spend as much as they did on the Normandy for every exploration vessel in the AI, you need to make some sacrifices.  You just cannot have everything you want because of physics.  If the Tempest is in a situation where it cannot escape, then the Tempest is already going to be destroyed because it wouldn't be engaged by a vessel with superior technology to be close enough to the Tempest without being detected but inferior weaponry.  

To deploy ground troops the space ship has to fly low altitude maneuvers and even land on planets, during those situations the craft is extremely vulnerable. And it has no means to defend itself but stealth. It makes absolutely no sense- especially when considering there is no drawback- not to put weapon systems on said craft so it could defend itself and the ground crew if the landing zone goes hot and stealth isn't an option. We don't know what tech a potential enemy in an unknown galaxy could be using, so better have two options.

Yes, Bioware probably wrote the story in a way the crew never goes into a hot landing zone and everything goes after plan. It works for the game, but immersion is severely lacking here. The Andromeda Initiative feels like it was put together by foolhardy and irresponsible people. I hope we'll get at least an armed escort to the planet in case problems arise, which have to be considered since there are intelligent, hostile and advanced lifeforms in this very galaxy. <