"Inane, pointless conversation coming up!"

I thought it was amusing, especially when it came up during a really long straight drive through Elaaden. I really like the characters, but there's a lack of real cohesion that makes them feel like a unified group, which is strange despite there only being 6 of them. Drack and Vetra strike me as the most solid pairing in a fireteam, but the rest are a mixed bag. jaal and Drack should get a notable mention as I think these two also have good banter. I enjoy Peebee's input, but it only seems like snarkRyder really bounces off her.

Me too. I did not realize I was missing all the global banter but I realized I did as soon as 1.05 arrived.

Meanwhile, I got loads of party banter, but SAM interrupted about 80% of it to tell me about dem minerals.

And the temperature! I wish I could tell SAM to not talk so damned much.  I'm on a cold/hot planet.  I can figure it out.

Context is important here.

Liam was asking Jaal about something, I believe it was the Kett facility on Voeld, a very personal, painful subject for Jaal. Jaal said something to the effect of "I'm not ready to talk about it," THEN Liam says the line in the title of the thread.

The banter ended there, but the implication being that Liam was about to start talking about nothing just for the sake of talking, to help Jaal distract himself from the painful subject.

I'm not gonna go into details, 'cause I don't know y'all and y'all don't need to know, but I've got things I'm dealing with from my time in the service, and there have been COUNTLESS times my wife has begun "inane, pointless" conversations to help me through particularly rough periods. I get EXACTLY where Liam was coming from in this line, and I think it was one of the more poignant and insightful lines on the part of the Bioware writers.

Certain people here, and the larger internet, dont do so well with game characters behaving like actual human beings. Its very tiresome.

Or maybe 'cuz they aren't friends, but joined the Tempest with a common interest and keep to themselves. That's why Drack is most of the time with Vetra, whom she knows most and the others are just spread around the cargo bay, sometimes chatting about Poker or the previous mission.

And the time they go to the field, there are only professional talks most of the time.

For example, Pebee asked Liam why he didn't seem to like her, to which he replied "I don't know if you're here for us" (as in leaving the ship as soon as the things you wanna do are solved)
 

And Cora asked Drack how he managed to survive that long and he asked her about her stance on combat, to which she replied how being an asari Commando help her on that.

I guess if we're getting the feeling of unified crew, let's do this in the next game (if they are back as companions). Remember, we had awesome banter in 3, but most of them compromised on Tali/Liara/Garrus which were already familiar and became friends, since they were there the past three games.

Gotta say, the Tempest is the total opposite of the Normandy.
 In the latter, we have people that are heroes, that get along with everyone and everything (remember Garrus' stories to the Normandy crewman on ME3? And James and him trading war stories?)
 In the Tempest, we have people that keep to themselves, talk only when needed to and aren't friends on an unknown galaxy, just people with common interests...

I think they did, it is too much of a coincidence.

He's been at it for a very long time. These characters are likely the type he's into writing "right now". If we're lucky enough to still be playing these games in 10 years' time, he may be approaching characters in an entirely different way. I may want to punch Sera or Liam, from time to time, but the writing is brilliant. Sera, in particular, was incredibly consistent and realistic.

I'm not following this. Sera was pretty transparent, assuming you can penetrate the accent and jargon.