Which makes sense to a degree, as Arbitrary Maximum Range is explicitly averted for the mass accelerator cannons (Isaac Newton is the deadliest SOB in space, yadda yadda). Close-range engagements means you're less likely to miss your target and ruin someone's day sometime in the future.
This is somewhat justified because of the strategic situation and the Citadel's technological disadvantage. Specifically, the space battles seen in the game take place above inhabited worlds with the Reapers placing themselves between Citadel ships and the planet's surface so that stray shots would hit the planet and cause massive collateral damage. Because the Reapers have superior maneuverability and weapon range, firing from long distance would drastically reduce accuracy while still leaving Citadel ships vulnerable to return fire. Even worse, the Reapers' weapons have much greater range than mass accelerators, and the kinetic barriers of their capital ships can only be brought down by multiple dreadnoughts firing in tandem. The main advantages of Citadel dreadnoughts (relative to other Citadel ships) are their longer firing range and stronger kinetic barriers. However, this is rendered moot because Reapers can destroy Citadel dreadnoughts with one shot anyway. As a result, there's no longer any tactical benefit to keeping dreadnoughts at the rear of a fleet because the Reapers could pick them off from beyond mass accelerator range. Since dreadnoughts are the only ships that can even hope to destroy Reaper capital ships, it stands to reason that the Citadel races are now having them get as close as possible to the Reapers so they'll have maximum accuracy and negate the Reapers' range advantage. This is riskier than the previous strategy, but is more likely to inflict casualties on the Reapers.
First of all, these are Justifying Edits, which are against wiki policy. Second, they are explicitly contradicted by Word of God from BioWare, which states that any time the visuals and codex conflict (except in the case of plot points like the Reaper/Geth dreadnought thing, which was a case of Unreliable Narrator), the codex wins. EDIT: Thirdly, they're way, way off-topic.
Removed this chunk of natter from the Mass Effect entry.
First of all, these are Justifying Edits, which are against wiki policy. Second, they are explicitly contradicted by Word of God from BioWare, which states that any time the visuals and codex conflict (except in the case of plot points like the Reaper/Geth dreadnought thing, which was a case of Unreliable Narrator), the codex wins. EDIT: Thirdly, they're way, way off-topic.
Edited by 184.7.24.242