EA, let me help you, here is how you save the Mass Effect franchise.

The flotilla sees multiple generations and rely on replenishing supplies to maintain their ships. Additionally, they also use the relays. Just being able to travel longer doesn’t make time any less of an enemy. If you were in the Minos Wasteland and wanted to get back to your family in Sol, well, better get on the QEC and say your goodbyes without relays. 

They'd still be reliant on the relay network. Traveling conventionally across the galaxy is not practical. They'd have to go into cryo all the time, and it would take them hundreds of years to travel across a good chunk of the galaxy. Like, if you were able to walk straight across North America without getting tired to get someplace, would you really choose that over taking a plane?

The answer is time, by a wide margin. Decades instead of days or hours is a tremendous difference.

I can't say that I even get what the real problem with overcoming the discharge issue is though. I suppose if the problem is its conception within the timeline of the MEU, then fine, but its mere existence is not some kind of lore-break. It overcomes one issue, but doesn't really solve anything else in itself. As for the relays themselves, I don't see why undermining their purpose would be a bad thing. If anything, outmoding them as an ultimate goal would be ideal.

If the future was bright the lazy asses wouldn't release a shitshow full of loose ends then neglect to resolve them, instead shoving that burden on mediocre writers and comic book artists. EA want a new fanbase prolly one that doesn't threaten suicide if they don't get their desired snowflake romance option. Mediocre game mechanics and microtransactions are much easier for them to contend with and less effort.

Most of the toxic Mass Effect fan base has already moved to CDPR anyway. They will continue to wait for Cyberpunk 2077.

All you have to do to know what EA wants is look at their investor reports. They want a continuous stream of subscriber-based revenue. That's what the Sims gives them, that's what they were hoping for with Battlefront II, and that's what they want with Anthem. Mass Effect is an aberration in the kind of games EA is interested in selling. (And so is Dragon Age, for that matter.) Single-player games are just not what EA wants.

I have little doubt that EA made money off of Andromeda. I think they would have continued to make money off a solid DLC. The "problem" with Mass Effect is that it's not subscriber-based and therefore it doesn't earn enough to offset whatever EA has decided is worth its production.

I don't know if Bioware could survive on its own, but I really wish EA didn't own it. It's a legitimately terrible company that has turned one of my favorite developers into a company I don't recognize. I'd rather go back and replay Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and the ME OT than give EA more money.

So don't blame Bioware for being "lazy." Blame EA for demanding they use their best resources on a subscription-based game that fans of more traditional RPGs will have little interest in.

I think the only way to truly save the ME franchise is to get it the hell away from EA. Which im afraid is not likely to happen...

Thats why ive pretty much given up hope on it... EA will ruin it(if they havent already) and Bioware like they did with the other studios and their games given enough time. It is inevitable unless a miracle happens.

Well theres another Star Control coming, so im shifting over there...

None of this changes the fact that relay travel cuts time by possibly decades or more, so what's the problem?

OK, so why's that a problem?

I think that's the part that does back up my claim. EA wants subscriber-based revenue. Ergo, EA needs Anthem to be successful. The directive to Bioware is, "Make this a successful IP." Bioware pulls its best resources away from existing IPs and pushes them into Anthem. That's why there was the level of disorganization and lack of leadership. Put a bunch of greenhorns in charge of what is effectively a new IP (I mean, it may be Mass Effect, but it's brand new galaxy with new characters and a new story) and you're going to wind up with a lot of the problems that Andromeda had.

Off topic but there is an outside possibility that EA could lose the Star Wars license. So far they only released 2 games, both of them with shaky reception with the most recent being really bad. Then there was the cancelled Visceral SW. Simply put, EA is fumbling the ball with Star Wars and Disney themselves had to intervene with SWBF2 because they didn't want anything to affect The Last Jedi in a bad way. 

Maybe the best thing that can happen to the ME brand is a developer that is not under EA takes control. 

It's a PR nightmare. EA's actions this year have blown to smithereens all goodwill they had last year when they said, "we are listening to players, we want to engage you, putting gamers first..."

Myself, I dunno. I think EA's going to be putting out fires over this shitstorm so much that it'll hurt the ME brand immeasurably. ME is likely to be forgotten on the dumpster of history, just like XCom was until Firaxis picked it up.