Mass Effect: Andromeda

Well, if the Initiative can adapt the ODSY drive system, which converts the static buildup into power for the ship instead of needing to let it diffuse, to what will eventually become their ships it'll allow for inter-cluster travel. It'll still obviously take longer than Relay travel, but it's possible. The Initiative was able to travel roughly 4,200 light years per year nonstop thanks to the ODSY drive; going by that, Initiative ships will take a little over a month of nonstop FTL to reach the nearest cluster (about 500 light years apart going by Milky Way standards). This, of course, doesn't take into account the necessary helium needed for fuel, but they could either stockpile the required amount, or adapt the hydrogen-gathering ram-scoop used by the Arks as well.

edited 29th Apr '17 5:25:23 PM by ITNW1989

Hitokiri in the streets, daishouri in the sheets.

Remav's vault makes a point of saying that it can process enough Helium from the planet's (if 'planet' is still the right word) soil to supply the Initiative with fuel for 300 years, for what that's worth.

And if cryosleep becomes a big part of how the Initiative travels from cluster to cluster, I wouldn't mind that. The way the game is set up does suggest we might in fact see the course we've set for the Initiative play out down the years. Here's hoping.

Honestly I expect them to either develop or find a faster method of travel for the next game, it would be interesting to have the technological advantage over the enemy for once.

Ehhh, I'd be careful with that. We're already a bunch of foreigners colonizing someone else's lands. The allegorical implications are dangerous enough without us also crushing their primitive society with our superior technology.

The less the Initiative looks like Imperial Europe discovering the new world, the better.

edited 29th Apr '17 5:40:24 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Well taking the fight to the kett after the shit they do, that is not an equivalency.

Pretty sure Europeans used the same justification when seeing any cultural practice they saw as barbaric :-P

I think the game already established that the Milky Way species are somewhat more advanced than the kett outside of their genetic superscience and highly efficient medical tech. The Initiative seems to have better ships— except they're unarmed and we don't have the numbers to match even the small kett fleet stationed in Heleus.

I think controlling the Remnant is enough of a boost without tacking on some faster means of travelling between clusters. Giving the game something of an Age of Sail vibe (but with QE Cs so we can at least keep an eye on what's happening back home) would be the most interesting to me.

I want to come back to Heleus eventually, but I want to see it grow and change without handwaving away the changes as only taking a couple of years here and there.

We learn most of the kett are actually pretty cool and the Archon's faction were just a bunch of loons.

And then in Andromeda 3 we have to make peace bween the angara and kett.

Probably. But I hope not.

Not with exaltation seemingly being the norm across all Kett not just the Archon's crew.

They are the other invading power, take them on their own turf.

edited 29th Apr '17 6:05:33 PM by Memers

Well, they do have that Remnant Drive Core from Elladin and Meridian itself. We could easily get some tech from there and find our own solution to the problem of travel. Its set up enough.

I want kett spies to be a thing. Maybe even kett sleeper agents. Did you guys notice that in that exaltation base, they seemed to be trying to impart their philosophy on the angara before exalting them? They don't just shove you in a pod and call it good. They brainwash first. It seems like you have to accept exaltation; it can't just be done to you.

So that gets me thinking. If someone's already accepted exaltation, what stops them from being returned to their people to fill a role in secret before taking on the change? How many of the angara rescued at that exaltation base were already at the stage of being mentally and emotionally prepared to be exalted, only to be rescued instead?

The kett are presented like a religion as much as a species. The faithful can easily look like us and talk like us and walk among us, because they are us. They just believe in something that's very dangerous.

Incidentally, this is also dangerous territory to be walking. "Transhumanism Good" is already a debatable thing to have as a central conceit before you add, "Religion Bad".

edited 29th Apr '17 6:05:08 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

I mean, I fucking nuked the place, so I think that point's just a little moot.

Depends on whether or not all exaltation is forced. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the kett's vassal species back home volunteer willingly. Of course, they might be entirely unwilling— say, tithing a certain number of subjects to avoid exaltation — but neither would surprise me. At this point, we just don't know.

I'd actually say that ME:A comes up on the side of "Religion Good" more often than not. Suvi and Jaal are the most noticeable instances, but a lot of people in the game seem sympathetic to the idea that the beauty of this universe hints at some greater purpose. And whether or not it's anything divine or supernatural, it's undeniably true in this setting that there are beings like the Jardaan, Reapers, and Protheans shaping worlds and cultures, steering the course of evolution.

As a sidenote, I'm not especially religious myself, in case that makes a difference.

edited 29th Apr '17 9:20:31 PM by Unsung

That's fair. I hadn't thought about Suvi and the angaran faiths. I was mostly thinking about how heavy-handed the religious depiction of the kett is - right down to having titles like Cardinal and Archon.

You're right that the game does do a good job balancing positive portrayals of religion in order to keep the negative portrayal of the kett from being its only stance on the matter. This is a pretty solid contrast against Dragon Age, where basically all religions are evil all the time.

EDIT: That said, there is one bit with Suvi I disliked. There's a point where she's questioning her faith because of what we learned about the Jardaan, and you can bluntly tell her that she'll just make up some bullshit rationalization to keep believing. Her response to that is basically to shrug her shoulders and be like, "Yeah, I probably will."

No religious person would be this okay with having someone they respect tell them to their faith that they're willfully deluding themselves.

edited 29th Apr '17 6:18:14 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

I don't think it's out of the question that some religious people would be as untroubled in their faith as Suvi. Faith is a sliding scale, a spectrum. I've met scientists who were religious, and they accept that there are sometimes seeming contradictions between religion and science— but religion is different from faith anyway. Religion is a path to faith, but faith itself is something you search for, something you gather, not a binary state where you either have it or you don't. For that matter, being able to take stock and readjust one's beliefs as you learn more about the world is a necessary skill for anyone, not just priests and scientists.

In their way, I think ME and DA are actually quite fond of faith. It's organized religion that they're down on, and even then, it's not mindless vitriol. The Chantry and Qunari are each occasionally shown in a strong— albeit not unqualified— positive light.

edited 29th Apr '17 7:14:01 PM by Unsung

The founding principle of most religions is literally "belief without proof", i.e. faith. That's par for the course. It's not like it matters much to Suvi though, she's clearly a Deist.

edited 29th Apr '17 6:53:01 PM by MonsieurThenardier

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

Okay, I don't think that's accurate. Dragon Age - particularly Inquisition - have plenty of characters who are portrayed as both religious and good guys, chief among them two of the options to become Fantasy!Pope.

Oh God! Natural light!

Suvi was upfront about her religious beliefs being unusual for both the current attitude of humanity AND being a scientist. If I recall right, she admits early on that her faith is more about finding comfort in spirituality than browbeating a particular viewpoint. I don't recall anything about WHICH god she believes in.

Peebee also mentions late in the game regarding her Remnant studies that they will probably find new ways to travel through space. I think Andromeda 2 will have a significant Time Skip of 5-10 years or more, to facilitate the growth of the Heleus Cluster and possibly to open with them having sent scouts deeper into the galaxy.

About exaltation and whether the subjects have to be converted first - some interactions suggest that it is the case, some that it is not. My guess is that the kett do not have to convert anybody before exaltation, but they prefer to And also that doing it "voluntary" (after conversion) allows to preserve more personality and mental facilities of the original, while "forced" (purely physical) exaltation leaves one as not much more than an angry zombie

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

The way Moshae talks about it when you ask her highly suggests some kind of mind control.

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

Alright, I am sorry for squeeing like a total fangirl, but this game gives me so much warm and fuzzy feeling - and so much to laugh at - that I am currently obsessed with it.

Yes, I am still going to snark at everything that is wrong with it. Repeatedly.

But the squad and crew are the best. They are family.

Exasperated eldest sis Cora, responsible middle sis Vetra, total bros Liam and Jaal, annoying little sis Peebee and grandfather Drack.

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

I strongly agree about the crew.

There was something about Inquisition's companions. I can't quite place what it was. But it made it really hard to get invested in them. I found myself worrying that one of two things was true:

1. Bioware had lost the ability to write compelling companion characters.
2. They were writing them just fine. I had simply lost the ability to care.

Andromeda's squad put both of those fears to bed. As was often the case in previous Bioware games, I found myself more interested in new developments with the ship's crew than in new developments with the plot.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

I think the annoying thing about Dragon Age companions (I still liked them, mind you. Just not that much) was that, at some point, jiggling their loyalty became a chore and a severe case of Guide Dang It! . That is, in order to access all the content they have to offer and not have them hate you, you have to figure out exactly which missions to bring whom, what to say to them afterwards and which decision would cause less people to hate you. That, and too much reliance on the main character being the Warrior Therapist who figures out them . Andromeda companions do not require fixing (with one exception), can support each other/play off each other without hating each other's guts, and seem to care about the Pathfinder, not just stand there and wait for you to pry their life story out of them.

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

Really? I mean it is so freaken easy to raise someone's loyalty it isn't funny in DA, choices that they like greatly outweigh the choices they don't.