Mass Effect: Andromeda Official Cinematic Trailer #2!

Scout ship (and the way the Pathfinder's been described) tends to imply a solo mission for the ship. And really, if people argue "but the Tempest could totally stealth guys and a weapons would detract from that!" then I would think a whole other gunship hanging out would be more counterintuitive than slapping a gat on the hull.

I don't think the main premise sounds preposterous, I think it's just what the doctor ordered in both continuing the series and moving past the endings debachle. Under specific circumstances (read: Reapers and Sovereign parts) there is motivation and it can be done in-universe. And it offers a lot of great opportunities to do some neat stuff. Sadly none of that seems like it's being taken advantage of right now.

Yeah we'd be going in space with the assumptions that aliens are an unknown, unproven and possibly non-existent possibility, whereas Mass Effect people both know there can be aliens and have fought them before. If anything we'd be less likely to take guns into space, or at least we'd have a degree of improvisation/multiuse to ours (like a mining laser that can also be turned on a threat if need be)

And the no weapons thing stuck out and bothered me in Firefly as well. But there they did have an excuse and there is where your laws argument would actually work. Mounting guns on Serenity would problably draw more Alliance attention than anyone on board's comfortable with.  But the differences are as obvious as they are numerous: small crew vs giant project, closed local system vs whole new galaxy (yes I know we're only in the Helius cluster but still, they're going to a whole new galaxy), direct and opressive legal oversight vs no law but themselves, some support systems and chance for aid vs practically zero of the same. Need I go on?