All posts by Dreux Phoenix

@Lethal blade00

I have been saying that both the game and the actual journey to Andromeda is a waste of resources.

And no, it is not illogical to reason that the people who would be capable of funding the Andromeda Initiative would not just say "Neat. You found a cluster of worlds with telescope that defies the time-dilation of long-distance observation. But what do I get out of this 'Initiative' of yours?"

Billionaires and Trillionaires do not become obsessently rich by randomly funding things. Typically they are careful with their money and want to get returns off of investments.

And saying you want to go to Andromeda to "Explore the Unknown" is a meaningless statement because the whole point of exploring the unknown is to be able to return and report your discoveries. There will be no one alive to await the return trip since a round trip will be 1,300 years + the decades of research into the heleus cluster worlds.

Any reasonable adult can poke the holes in all the attempts at reasoning the Andromeda Initiative into being a thing.

Point is that EA wanted another Mass Effect game, didn't want to do a prequel and were skittish about a sequel given the poor reception of all the endings of ME3, and decided to BS the drawing boards to make a journey to Andromeda in order to get a 4th Mass Effect title.

If anything, Mass Effect Andromeda could just drop the Mass Effect brand and aliens, and just make it a new story entirely of Humanity seeking to escape an alien problem back home to Andromeda and encountering new problems in the new galaxy. It already is 80% an entirely new game that has nothing to do with Mass Effect anyway.

It am not saying it is impossible. I am saying it is unreasonable.

Problem that needs a quick solution - Overpopulation and lack of resources.

Solution - Go to space to a far off planet to colonize.

Discovery - Early space-flight has allowed for us to see other continents and islands exist on our world that were not discovered.

Solution altered - For much cheaper cost of money & resources, we can solve our population and dwindling resource problems by expanding out to discover the remaining 99% of the world.

Mass Effect Andromeda is just this on a larger scale.

There is a problem of too many mouths to feed and not enough colonies to be claimed. The galaxy is only 1% explored and the Council is preventing the activation of Mass Relays since we don't know what might lie on the other side. The Andromeda Initiative proposes going to a new galaxy. Preparations are made for the project.

BUT THEN a discovery of a Mass-Relay-Turned-Into-FTL-Sensor-Telescope is made.

This discovery would actually hinder the Andromeda Initiative's funding and influence since scientists would just use this relay-telescope to see into other Nebulas that lie beyond un-activated relays and see whether or not safe colonization is viable or if the species native there is overly hostile.

Ergo, funding and support would be incentivized to be pooled into scrutinizing which relays are viable and which should be avoided. Instead of going to another galaxy/planet, the discovery would cause people to desire to move to a nearby galaxy/island-continent to explore the remainder of the 99% of the galaxy.

Andromeda is a bit of a nuclear option as there is no way for a return trip and the resources spent would be extensive and vast.

You want an immediate solution to overpopulation?

Surveying the other nebulas and then pitching for a selection of relays to open to the council is your best and most cost-effective option.

@Thehumaneldar

It is unreasonable to believe that space travel and continental travel can both occur if you are barely starting space travel. Logically a government would fund the one with immediate benefits and results and Private Investors would go for the most immediate and efficient solution with their limited budget.

@Lethal blade00

You missed some factors of my postulation above.

I pointed out that in this hypothetical scenario that NO ONE had sailed around and found the other continents. Your statement above says that IRL people sailed west in the 11th century, which is true.

But the point of my statement was to erase that fact from history.

I stated that in this hypothetical scenario that no one had discovered the Americas or Australia and history marched forward into the future where the world thought there were only 3 continents - Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Overpopulation becomes a problem but science fortunately advanced far enough for people to attempt to go forth to terraform and colonize another world.

But then when the space exploration is underway, the astronauts look out their viewports and discover more continents.

In such a scenario, the logical next step would be to halt space exploration and make the program reduced in funding and staff significantly to reallocate resources and credits to explore the remainder of our world, populate the other continents, and THEN centuries later set out for space.

But then again, this postulation is also a bit false.

As it is in Mass Effect, roughly 1% of the galaxy is discovered and explored.

And yet the Andromeda Initiative wants to go to an entirely different galaxy to establish new worlds to call home.

The true equivalent would be if Humanity had dwelled on a small landmass the size of Japan for all of existence, science developed to allow us to postulate that the Earth is only 1% explored; and still choose to instead go find other worlds far off in the stars rather than build a boat and go across the sea to see if there are new islands or even entire continents.

No one even knows how to build a Relay. That is Reaper tech that was designed eons ago and reverse engineering said tech could be catastrophic.

Tragic.

Andromeda can still be retconned in order to reuse those races in the Milky Way. EA cuts out the embarrassment that blemishes the series and retains what can be salvaged.

The Keepers are Fixer-Uppers

The salarians are a very logical species but also one that lacks hubris on occassion, as they think they have all the variables.

Before the Rachni Wars, the Salarians were led to believe that all life the galaxy sought diplomacy. The Rachni taught them different. The Krogan were a species that the Salarians deemed a necessary asset to uplift from their world. But they did not factor in that Tuchanka's harsh climate helped limit the population of Krogan due to a high death rate. The Genophage was an answer to this by limiting the population growth. And if you listen to Mordin's dialogue in ME2 regarding the Genophage, he views it as the only viable option as they had many alternatives that led to further issues. The Genophage was the best solution for both the Galaxy and the Krogan, limiting numbers while ensuring the Species still had a replacement level of birth rate.

Yes the Imitative has protocols in place and they are supplied. But they are still at a disadvantage. The Remnant tech in Heleus clearly points to the fact that a race of hyper-advanced aliens had prominence. What if the Initiative encountered them in the prime of their existence? The Andromeda Initiative members would suffer heavy casualties, likely be enslaved or at least subjugated by the much more technologically advanced aliens, and resistance would be futile. What of the Kett? They outnumber the Initiative heavily and seek to capture lifeforms to Exalt them to be a new addition to the Kett collective. And again, those are the known risks.

You don't know what you are going to find when you arrive from one Galaxy to the next.

Perhaps the native life are more primitive and see you as Gods?

Perhaps the native life is non-sapient and it is all animals and plants?

Perhaps a species like the Thorian calls a planet its home and the colony you start there becomes enthralled to do its bidding?

Or the worst case scenario is a roving black hole destroys all of the Heleus Cluster during your journey and you arrive to find an empty void where the cluster once was and now you have to scramble to find new worlds to call home.

All of these scenarios are good reason to not jump galaxies.

It's not universal law, it is common sense.

Let's recreate your thought process on a smaller scale.

Europe, Africa, and Asia believe that Earth is just those continents and some islands.

In this alternate reality, no one sailed far enough west or east enough in the more major countries to discover the Americas, let alone Australia.

Humanity exists only in the 'old world' and nowhere else on our planet.

Time progresses onwards and science eventually evolves and innovates to beyond what we have IRL in our reality.

Plans have been drafted to colonize Mars, simply because we can see it and the main continents are getting overpopulated.

As the space age begins and we land on the Moon, Cosmonaut Scott radios back to control "Hey gents... I have made a shocking discovery... Earth has more continents."

Images are sent back showing Earth's other continents.

Continents that are unmapped, resources untapped.

What should we do now that we have discovered more landmass?

Should we allow people to travel to North America, South America, and Australia?

The realistic answer in this scenario is to continue mapping our own local area that we can travel to within much more reasonable costs and far less risk. Allow people to continue populating our world to the fullest before shipping them off to Mars.

But you are saying that since we can see Mars, it should be explored regardless of a much more logistically sound alternative being literally 237.83 million miles closer.

Yes, it would be nice to colonize Mars eventually.

But a more cost effective and immediate solution is much more closer in proximity, across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

And most of the people who would have signed up to go to Mars would have cancelled their journey across the stars to instead take a boat across the sea to the new continents, seeing as Mars would need to have bases enclosed and then a terraforming process in order to be habitable without suits; while the new continents would be just a matter of getting there and building a house for yourself and your family; eventually developing traditional cities.

And yes, Peace is possible but requires common language of understanding.

And the writers of Andromeda missed out on a chance to have at least a few hours of time for SAM to translate Angaran to the player's language; allowing us to hear Angaran language for a while and over time, words are being replaced by English as SAM is able to get the universal translator working.

Nah.

Instead SAM is used as a plot device to having studied the Angaran language while landing on their new world and we now have perfect communication; in spite of the fact that Angaran is a language entirely new and would take time for SAM to compile it all.

Doubtful.

Salarians are very logical people and they would see the risks involved.

Going to a new galaxy poses great risk. While en-route, you can impact a celestial object in the darkness that was unseen, destroying your ship entirely and killing a thousand people in a fraction of a nano-second.

Getting there also poses great risk. The native life there may be in vastly greater numbers and have technology beyond our own. Protheans were considered to be the galactic peak of technology. What if you encounter something on par with Protheans and they do not welcome outsiders? You will be fighting a war with extremely limited resources, no backup, no retreat, outclassed in technology, and very possibly outnumbered.

Salarians have been shown to go for the most viable option. Sure, the science team would love to draft something new and experimental. But actually making use of it to go to another Galaxy is excessive and unreasonable, seeing as there are multiple worlds being colonized and many more being discovered often enough. This warrants travel to Andromeda as an unfavorable option.

Or as Mordin would put it.

"Excessive. Expensive. Theoretical engineering is admirable. Risks too many. Crash into unseen object while traveling Dark Space. Possibly even Reaper intervention. On the chance of arrival at destination, what then? What if native life is present? First contact protocol is clear. However, what of chance the native life is more advanced than that of our own? War breaks out. No option for reinforcements. Retreat unlikely. Peace could be negotiated, but requires common understanding of language. Lack of translation module. Likely outcome - 6,372 colonists extinguished. Survivors enslaved. Even worse, if native life more advanced technologically; could view Andromeda Initiative as act of war or invasion from Milky Way galaxy. Likely outcome - counter-invasion of Milky Way with hostile intent. Very problematic. Future generations suffer from misinterpretation of intentions. Conclusion - Recommend to not go to Andromeda. Instead colonize worlds here and reallocate Initiative funds to defense of existing colonies. Much more chance of success and survival."

@Thehumaneldar

My point still stands.

The Andromeda Initiative makes absolutely no sense due to the fact that no one would reasonably fund the project.

It would be like trying to convince someone to build a city underwater in the modern day for the sole reason of "there is not enough land for everyone to live".

Which is complete BS since population density maps show that most land is unused and an underwater city would be rife with new problems such as water pressure issues, power supply management, food rationing, air supply, etc.

It is a ludicrous endeavor to travel to Andromeda since that breaks immersion within the set rules of the reality written because a more cost-effective and low-risk solution already exists :

Settle a colony world and help defend it.

I didn't say the hypothetical Andromeda Initiative Rep. was being pedantic, I had the rep call the Investor pedantic. I made a realistic conversation between someone seeking investment and the investor looking at the data and statistics then using a lot of words to express "this is a waste of money, your chances of survival are slim-to-none, and you are asking me to send 6k people to another galaxy where we have a homefield disadvantage against whatever aliens already live there. My answer is no."

Yes I read the Codex information. And it has a lot of new made-up things. That is the thing about sequels, you have to expand on what came before.

Take a look at Halo.

Halo CE thru Reach had very consistent writing, with mild retconning in Reach to allow for the story to happen. (chapters of The Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx novel now make no sense since Dr. Halsey would've asked Spartan Jorge 'Who are these other 5 Spartans with you? They are not from my Orion Project.')

Then came Halo 4 which shook everything up and drafted a handful of major lore changes that made a lot of people dislike the game aside from just the art style and gameplay core design shift.

Andromeda did this as well.

As @Lethal blade00 mentioned above, the Arks are equipped with the experimental ODSY drives.

In order to make Mass Effect Andromeda even remotely plausible, the writers had to make a new experimental engine being developed solely for the purpose of travelling to another galaxy.

The Normandy SR1 had an experimental drive that made many in the Alliance hate its funding.

And yet we are expected to believe that 5 of these Arks, plus a Nexus, are equipped with these newly drafted experimental and expensive drives; even though investors would not agree to put money in a project that leads to nothing?

The Illusive Man invested 4 Billion+ Credits into just the resurrection of Com. Shepherd.

How much does each Ark cost?

Sure it would create jobs but people would protest the Andromeda Initiative spending so many trillions of Credits on only 6k people when that money would reasonably be better spent on the rest of society's issues and better funding to already established colonies so that they can better defend themselves.

There is no mention of the Andromeda Initiative in the Mass Effect trilogy.

And oddly enough, BioWare and EA could have added an encounter on the Citadel in Mass Effect Legendary Edition where you would encounter people discussing the Andromeda Initiative or protesting it.

But the devs didn't.

Mass Effect Andromeda is a very much isolated game experience that the majority of fans didn't like.

EA Games did what they usually do when a project yields failure - BioWare Montreal was liquidated to cushion the lack of profits.

As I proposed in my original post to this discussion, it would be better if Andromeda was forgotten and what few likable things; such as the alien races, some of the companions, and the Nomad; could be recycled in the upcoming Mass Effect 4.

Also in hindsight, they really should not have used the Frostbite Engine.

@Thehumaneldar

You are missing the point of my statement.

Fact - The Heleus Cluster has dozens of star systems with a surprising amount of habitable worlds.

Problem - The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are 2.537 Million lightyears apart.

Known Factors that amplify problem :

• No Mass Relays point to Andromeda

• Technology at the level it is in 2180s doesn't allow for FTL travel between distances in relatively short timeframe without the use of a Mass Relay (example. The nearest nebula to Earth is roughly 700 lightyears away and to get there without a Mass Relay will take half a century of travel using FTL).

• Investors in space travel journeys expect profits, meaning return trips to secure resources and earn credits in inter-planetary trade

• 99% of the galaxy is unmapped.

• 
  

My point is that someone will look at this set of data and say something along the lines of -

Investor - "Your discovery of the Heleus cluster being so bountiful is marvelous and a wonderful feat of observation. However, as an investor I do not see any reason why I should help fund a one-way expedition to Andromeda. If anything, your proof of the fact that the Heleus cluster is so full of golden worlds proves that we should further exploration of the Milky Way, seeing as we have only discovered a few islands in this sea of stars. There is likely to be another nebula cluster like Heleus here in the Milky Way."

***Andromeda Initiative Rep. says that there is little chance of finding another nebula like this anywhere else.

Investor - "You know, people used to say the same thing about Humanity very much possibly being the only life in the Galaxy, and look where we are now? Humans are not alone, as there are literally a dozen species I can name off the top of my head. Asari, Turian, Salarian, Volus, Elcor, Hanar, Krogan, Quarian, Batarian, Vorcha, Drell, and those Raloi who had arrived on the Galactic level just a few months ago. And there are a dozen more after that. The Yahg, the Collectors, the Rachni... the list goes on. Fermi's Paradox solved itself."

***Andromeda Initiative Rep. says that you are being pedantic and skewing stats in your favor.

Investor - "Look at this from my perspective. You are asking me, a trillionaire tycoon, to send a voyage to another Galaxy so we can settle other worlds, and you want to convince me that there are 'too many people, not enough worlds'? Yes, I know I am coming off as cold-hearted and your scientific curiosity is buzzing with excitement; but plant your boots firmly and think for a moment, rationalize it. It is far more likely to be a successful endeavor for you to search for a... Golden Nebula... here in our Galaxy. It would be far more cost effective and easier to manage such a project."

***Andromeda Initiative Rep. says that the Milky Way is far too dangerous with all the alien lifeforms seeking to gain colonies, citing Batarian hostilities persisting for over thirty years since Humanity arrived to the Galactic Stage.

Investor - "You're going to have far more problems if the Initiative were to be launched. Say I do help you build your Arks and Nexus. What happens when you need to refuel in Dark Space? There are no depots there. Sure you can run off of the Law of Inertia to coast the distance there once you reach FTL speeds and only occasionally boost your engine to maximize fuel efficiency. But Dark Space isn't empty. There are celestial bodies out there. Planets, asteroids, debris fields. Unseen since there are no stars. Needless to say, you are likely to die impacting a black ball of rock at super-luminous speeds. The good news of that is the fact you won't even know you died. Tragic."

***Investor sips some Serrice Ice Brandy before continuing.

Investor - "And lets just say that you were lucky, you did make it across and reached the far side. What then? These are golden worlds you are seeking to colonize after all. Who's to say there isn't already someone there? Is it primitive life you can easily snuff out? Or are you going to be over-powered by an alien force that has already laid claim to these worlds? Are they going to be diplomatic like the Asari or Salarian? Or are they going to be like the Vorcha, Krogan, or Rachni; aggressive and seeking to eliminate enemies... or worse; subjugate the weak? Your plans show that you expect five Arks and a Nexus, roughly 6,000 colonists to be sent out across the vantablack sea. What happens when you face a war of attrition against warriors that outnumber you 20-to-1 on a single planet? What about 2,000-to-1 in a galactic empire? Humanity is new to the galactic stage in our Galaxy. Do you want to risk having another First Contact War against an enemy you cannot call for aid to rally against?"

***Investor sips the last of her brandy and sets it down on the table.

Investor - "I admire your ambition... and I envy your naiveté. Going to Andromeda is highly unrealistic. Dangerous if successful. Your colonies would likely have a 1 in a duodecaillion chance of success if I were to ask a VI to run the numbers. And that's even with calculating what we KNOW can go wrong. I will be willing to spread the word of your discovery on how to make use of a Mass Relay and use it as a telescope. But if I am to invest my credits into any voyages, they will be to new nebulas of freshly opened Mass Relays. Not to spend two or three decades drafting an Ark for you to play Noah."

This is a realistic approach to the Andromeda Initiative.

Instead BioWare Montreal's writing staff at the time asks us to forget everything that the trilogy told us about space travel in the Mass Effect Universe just so that they could make a game about exploring the Andromeda Galaxy.

What I find funny about all of this is the fact that we could have allowed this fourth Mass Effect game still tell the same story but eliminate the Andromeda part of it all. Here is how it could be done to disregard lore problems and avoid retcons -

• Rename the Andromeda Initiative to the Heleus Initiative.

• Have the Heleus Cluster be located in the Milky Way Galaxy.

• Have scientists discover that there are dozens of golden worlds within the nebula just like as before, but without the need of a Mass Relay telescope thing.

• Reveal that there are no Mass Relays located within the Nebula.

• Have the Heleus Initiative be about setting up a jump using FTL from the nearest nebula to the Heleus Cluster located in the Milky Way.

• The Heleus Initiative is to set up colonies in this cluster of the galaxy, colonies that those who wish to avoid the endless conflicts of current galactic politics.

• The Arks are sent out and arrive to in Heleus roughly 50 years after the events of Mass Effect 3 - Making it start the game in 2237.

This redirection would allow for the same story to be told, allow the dev team to avoid any issues regarding ME3's ending since this would be the one Nebula in the galaxy without a Mass Relay in it; thus preventing the Red-Green-Blue endings from affecting the status quo of the cast of characters, and have the Remnants be a species that began spacefaring at the very tail end of the Reaper's last cycle as they fled back to Dark Space; explaining how the Remnant were able to get hyper advanced tech.

We would still have the Angarans, the Kett, and the Scourge nebula hazard.

We would not have any of these issues regarding the lore discrepancies.

Everyone wins.

Yes but ME3 had a few other retcons, mostly due to a new writer who went in a different direction than the original writer's intention. Happens all the time, but thankfully ME3 is not another case of Halo 4.

@Thehumaneldar

You seem to be missing my point with the first paragraph.

If the Heleus Cluster shows that there is a dense collection of habitable worlds in a single nebula, then it stands to reason that something similar is possible in the Milky Way.

Realistically this discovery would not have people drafting designs to make a colony fleet to fly from one galaxy to the next, but rather be used as data that could be used to further spur influence and exploration of our own galaxy in search of a 'Golden Nebula' as it were.

And given that only roughly 1% of the galaxy is mapped, this information would possibly be useful to stir the Citadel Council into allowing more Relays to be mapped out in the hopes of finding a Milky Way equivalent to the Heleus Cluster.

Yes I recall the goofiness of the Mass Relay Telescope.

How can a device that is designed to launch matter across vast distances be converted into a device that can see far distances and ignore the time-presentation delay?

Yes it is all sci-fi, but there is still a barrier created by the supension-of-disbelief. There is only so much you can say in a fictional world before you reach a limit of believable thresholds.

For example, the Force exists in Star Wars.

Can someone use the force to accelerate the aging of a star in order to cause it to go supernova? Interesting concept, but then if that is the villain we must defeat; then the story is unbelievable as said villain is too powerful. Thus the story would only exist due to plot-holes or the villain having an extensive run of bad luck and cannon-fodder allies the likes of a Saturday cartoon from the 80s.

I am not doubting that there is enough materials in the Milky Way Galaxy to craft such vessels, at least building them physically.

What I am saying is that the technology is incapable for the ships to travel at such speeds and there is also a lack of economic incentive.

Like I said before, you cannot travel between nebulas without Mass Relays. To do so without a relay will result in you taking a few decades to travel from one nebula to the neighboring nebula.

Mass Relays are point-to-point nodes.

And somehow the Arks are capable of jumping from one galaxy to the next after roughly 6 centuries of travel.

The technology doesn't exist to make such ships. Bear in mind, many high ranking officials in the Alliance thought the development of the Normandy SR1 was a waste of resources; and that was just to make a ship with stealth capabiltlies with Turian assistance.

And then comes the matter of fuel consumption. It costs a LOT of Helium-3 and Element Zero to travel between systems in a nebula.

The Arks and Nexus are traveling at super-luminous speeds constantly and are vastly larger than the Normandy vessels.

There is practically nothing between The Milky Way and Andromeda. No pit stops other than the occasional wandering celestial body that exists in the void, unlit by a lack of stars.

You could argue that fuel storage was performed on the Ark, but the vessels have limited space and are filled with other resources besides fuel.

The trip is impossible given the rules of the Mass Effect Universe in regards to space travel.

If the writers really wanted to, they could have made it so that there was a discovery of a Mass Relay on the edge of the galaxy that could allow them to jump to the Andromeda Galaxy. However the writers wanted to make a story without the Reapers, and a Relay pointed at Andromeda would imply that the Reaper threat would exist there as well.

You got me there with the Quarian Ark.

It might have been an intriguing DLC, though EA and BioWare state there was no intended DLC.

@Lethal blade00

Yes I am aware that ME2 breeches lore and ME3 does as well. Unfortuantely that is what happens when the Publisher meddles with the series, a bad habit EA is known for.

And then in the case of ME3 it was a change of writers.

@Thehumaneldar

In previous Mass Effect titles you can find entries to worlds that have descriptions in which that people planned to send out colony ships here and there and take a long voyage until a recently reactivated Mass Relay was discovered. Thus these plans were scrapped, but the description still showcases that it would have taken decades for such an endeavor to occur.

Decades.

For inter-stellar travel within the same galaxy from one nebula to another.

The distance between the Milky Way and Andromeda is roughly 24 times the diameter of our very galaxy.

In order to turn journeys that take decades into mere hours, one must use a Mass Relay. And Mass Relays only take you to select pre-determined vectors.

No Mass Relays point to the Andromeda Galaxy as a destination point, so the fact that the Nexus and Arks made it there in roughly 6 centuries is ludicrous.

Yes, 1% of the estimated galaxy had been explored in Mass Effect's time.

1%.

And every race has dozens of colony worlds.

Humans

Asari

Turians

Salarians

Batarians

Volus

Elcor

Hanar

Krogan

The list goes on and it is implied that the majority of these species have established dozens of colonies that are proprietary of their own species.

If the Asari, Salarians, and Turians have dominated the Citadel and Mass Relays for a period of well over 2,000 years and beyond, and they have only discovered and estimated 1% of total Mass Relay destinations; then there is absolutely no reason to go to the Andromeda Galaxy because there is still 99% of the galaxy to discover with plenty of ideal worlds to colonize.

In universe, after the discovery of the Heleus Cluster in Andromeda having so many possible garden worlds; the more reasonable response would be "wow. That means that any nebula here in OUR galaxy may possibly have a crapload of golden worlds for us to claim if we discover it!" and not be "Lets go across to a new galaxy" since these golden worlds are being seen FAR out of date due to how light travels. We are seeing those planets 2.5 MILLION years in the past. A lot can change in 2.5 Million years.

And then you have the tech limitations that I mentioned earlier.

FTL exists in Mass Effect, and it costs a lot of Helium-3 and Element Zero to make it work.

For a ship the size of the Normandy-SR2, it costs a substantial amount of fuel to change systems in the same nebula cluster. So much so in fact that you have to return to the system that has a Fuel Depot in order to stock up. You make a single round trip between two systems, not a single refuel and explore five systems in a nebula and then return back to the main system.

Humanity and the other races are held to the same limitations.

And yet somehow we are to believe that the Nexus and The Ark were developed, drafted, and shipped out without running out on resources.

What is even more absurd is the Quarian Ark mentioned in ME Andromeda. The Migrant Fleet has very limited resources, very low galactic political sway, and they have a primary goal of trying to someday reclaim their home from the Geth.

Yet we are told to believe that given the facts we have seen in the trilogy of their limited resources and population, they can somehow craft an Ark and populate it?

They don't even offer execution as punishment as Tali says in ME2 that crimes of high severity either call for exile or extremely extensive community service under high surveillance.

Mass Effect Andromeda cannot be a part of the Mass Effect universe as it is. It breaks the universe rules far too much.

The only reason we got Andromeda as a 4th game is because EA wanted another Mass Effect game on the IP and that meant either making a prequel set in an already pre-determined and well established time period (which would've been awesome to receive a game where Humanity met the Turians, just gone done with the war, and have to make peace with the races of the galaxy) or do something crazy that allows you to make a game that ignores all the endings of ME3.

Unfortunately they chose the latter.

@Thehumaneldar

The reasons I say that ME Andromeda should be non canon stretch beyond just the fact that "it was a failure".

It makes absolutely no sense.

In order to travel between nebula clusters in Mass Effect, you require a Mass Relay to warp you between relay points, turning what would be a trip of a few decades (or millennia in the case of a trip across the galaxy to the opposite end) into a few hours.

Humanity had just entered the galactic community within less then three decades. We discovered that the galaxy was not lonely but home to literally dozens of alien lifeforms and many habitable planets to make colonies on.

Even though we had jumped forward heavily thanks to the knowledge gleaned from the Prothean Archive on Mars, we were barely on par with the other species in the galaxy in terms of technology.

The Andromeda Initiative makes absolutely no sense given the context of the Mass Effect universe lore because ---

• A human proposed the project and the galaxy views Humanity as greedy and ignoble newcomers who have yet to gain the trust of the people.

• The project to build the Nexus and the Arks would be astronomical money dumps that investors would shy away from due to the fact that there are no returns to be made from such an endeavor.

• The Andromeda Initiative's pitch of "Too many people, not enough worlds" is ludicrous since every species has gathered a wide berth of colonies, and Humanity was still discovering new worlds to make colonies on.

• Without the use of a Mass Relay, the Nexus and Arks SOMEHOW made it to the Andromeda galaxy within a thousand years; which makes no sense seeing as Andromeda is 2.537 MILLION Light Years away from our own galaxy.

Andromeda requires us to ignore the galactic politics and the technological limits established in the main trilogy of games in order to allow MEA to be a game.

Honestly, it feels like someone at BioWare had pitched Andromeda at a meeting, and then someone said it had to be a Mass Effect game in order to boost sales off of brand recognition.

To put Andromeda on a smaller scale, imagine growing up and finally moving away from your parent's house. But instead of choosing a rental close and in your city, or just moving to a new city nearby to attend university and pay rent; you instead chose to take an overly expensive journey by car and boat across the planet to the opposite end in order to rent out an apartment.

Just for the sake of "New Frontiers".

In this scenario it is just one financially incompetent guy.

The Andromeda Initiative is literally just shy of 6,000 people making the decision to to galaxy hop rather than go to a safe colony world.

My idea of how this could be done is that the Kett are from the Terminus Systems and the Angara are a species new to space travel.

The Kett were just starting to explore space with a moon landing when a Terminus faction discovered their more primitive society and deemed the Kett as worthy slave labor to be captured. Over time however, the Kett grew tired of their enslavement and, with the Reaper conflict of ME3, they pulled off a Haiti and rebelled against their masters.

After the events of ME3, the Kett are now nomadic space pirates who are hostile to any who approach for fear of enslavement again.

Will you stretch out a branch of kindness or affirm their preconceived notion that all aliens will enslave them?

Meanwhile the Angara would be entirely new to space travel and are skittish, paranoid as to what space might hold for them. Focusing on Stealth and evasion, they scout the systems and learn that they are VERY MUCH not alone in the galaxy.

They assume that all alien life has the potential to be hostile and thus when encountering aliens, they enact something akin to Halo's Cole Protocol - go in a random direction and hope you escape, so long as you don't lead the aliens back to our home system.

Will you teach them that the council is accepting of new members to the citadel? Or will you teach then that it is best to be silent in the dark forest?