Mass Effect 3 $$(ENDINGS SPOILERS)$$

[Reverend]

OK, I'm breaking this up into two posts because I'm loosing track of all the damn quotes: -

I picked the control Reapers (blue though I thought I was killing em the game needs to label it better).

Same problem, I wanted to destroy them and ended up accidentally controlling them because the seemingly paragon action was a renegade one and vice versa. Only realised it later by watching Youtube clips, then went back and fixed my mistake. Same damn ending, only a different colour.

I am clearly the superior problem solver here as I intended to shoot the bloody thing and I went and shot the bloody thing!

...not that it makes a blind bit of difference of course.

And at the end of the day, the Catalyst was the being whose original solution to the organic/synthetic problem was to build the Reapers. This thing clearly has a few screws loose and there's no reason to believe that its solutions are the only ones available.

Just playing devil's advocate (rather literally) but in star child's defence, after tens of millions of years (if not more) his plan had a 100% success rate for synthetics not wiping out *all organic life*. Not much of a recommendation I know, but I think you can see how a machine intelligence would see this as a valid approach based on the statistical evidence.

Rather begs the question though, if all the cycles follow a larger pattern which always involves synthetics like the geth or that other machine race the Protheans were fighting when the reapers showed up, what happens to the synthetics? Do they get harvested too? or just destroyed?
Also, if the purpose of the reapers is to preserve the continued existence of organic life then why can't the reapers just wait around in dark space until a machine race pops up *then* return, wipe them out, tell the organics to quit making AIs and bugger off back into dark space and wait a few eons for the organics to forget the lesson and start the whole thing over. I mean at least this way there's a *chance* lessons can be learnt, but by resetting galactic civilization to zero every fifty millennia nothing is learnt and organics are trapped in a never ending cycle.

I think what really disappointed me about the "revelation" of the reaper's true purpose was that it was so mundane. I mean they'd been built of as these vast, timeless, unknowable Cthulhu like demi-gods...and they turn out to me massive indoctrinated attack dogs for some ancient AI that went to the HAL 9000 school of ethics?

I thought they'd turn out to be something *huge*, like they were from another universe, either something totally alien (EDI's little 1+1=3 talk got my hopes up for this theory) or perhaps an earlier incarnation of *this* universe and they created this form to survive the big crunch and subsequent big bang that created our universe. The idea behind harvesting advanced life was to preserve worthy races to survive the next universal collapse and rebirth.

...that or they're guard dogs against some *even worse* external threat and by destroying them you end up exposing the milky-way to a threat that has scourged most of the rest of the universe.

 

[Thestral]

I definitely understand people's issues with the ending much better, thanks guys. I'm hopeful this "extended cut" ending will at least make it more sensible if not give us better-fleshed-out options.

But there's so much damn awesome in this game. Soooo much. I've only done one playthrough as FemShep but Jennifer Hale brought the goods - somebody was commenting on the scene with Anderson, and especially once he's gone and Hackett is trying to get her attention. Damned fine moment, even considering what it leads to. I missed Aethyla and Conrad Verner unfortunately, I may have to run my FemShep Infiltrator again since she's the one with the Liara romance. And you know... that really doesn't bother me somehow. Where do Conrad and Aethyla show up?

I laughed ("Shepard, everybody knows you can't dance for shit", "Why does the Alliance Navy hire pilots with brittle bone disease?", "The lizard people evolved? They used to eat flies", and so many other times)

I cr...manfully choked up (Thane, Legion, Thane, "Shepard and Vakarian, storming heaven... I guess there are worse ways this could end", Mordin, Thane)

I "d'awwed" (Garrus and Tali, Joker and Edi, Jack and the kids, drunken Tali, Shepard teasing drunken Ash about setting off an alarm)

I cheered (GRUNT, Mordin, the combined fleets, many other times)

I pissed my pants (OMG Banshee killitkillitkillitmakeitstop).

One thing that I really noticed was the background stuff though - they did a brilliant job with that. Blue Rose of Illium, the Teenage Refugee Girl waiting for her parents on the Citadel, Steve's husband, that medic trying to help a civilian on the other end of the line in London, and oh man... what happened to Kelly Chambers. Plus lots I'm forgetting I'm sure.

Anyway, just wanted to note some of my favorite things.

 

[ATimson]

I think on my first playthough my solder only got to lv58, but then I lost out on a load of XP from missing or loosing some sidequests due to bugs, not realising they were time sensitive and no spotting a certain creepy fan.

Not using medigel at all helped me a lot.

As for not bothering with other classes, I think you're depriving yourself of a lot of the variety that makes replays so engaging.

Sure, the classes weren't so well balanced in ME1 (a lv60 adept was insanely overpowered), but ME2 and especially ME3 really changed things up.

Honestly, I don't mind them being imbalanced, especially in my favor. (I'd argue that soldier was imbalanced too.) My problem was that they simply were too tedious to use so they weren't much fun...

What I didn't realise was that all I had to do was dodge and stay alive. I was actively trying to kill everything, especially after I figured out how to use the beam to kill several banshees at once. It wasn't until after that I read on the wiki (while checking for upgrade & weapons locations) that the enemies were on infinite respawn.

True, but I had to do some killing; there was a time or two where I didn't, and I got myself whacked on the way to the button.

In my defence though, I think the only time you're put in a similar situation was right back at the beginning where you're waiting for the Normandy to show up and that sequence is scripted to end as soon as you run out of thermal clips...plus it happens about 30-50 hours of gameplay prior.

During the "wait for the shuttle" section on Earth, the minions are on infinite respawn until you kill the banshee. Not identical, but similar...

Now that I think about it, what is it with ME tutorial levels training you in gameplay mechanics you'll never use again? Remember when you had to run around on Eden Prime defusing bombs?

...that mechanic shows up in ME3 multiplayer? So it's not completely unused?

 

[bullethead]

I think what really disappointed me about the "revelation" of the reaper's true purpose was that it was so mundane. I mean they'd been built of as these vast, timeless, unknowable Cthulhu like demi-gods...and they turn out to me massive indoctrinated attack dogs for some ancient AI that went to the HAL 9000 school of ethics?

I wasn't really disappointed because I was expecting something stupid ever since ME1. From the moment Sovereign started spouting practically everything from the Reaper playbook, I knew that the ultimate reason behind the Reapers doing things was going to be some kind of stupid bullshit, because that was the one thing Sovereign wouldn't talk about.

ME would've probably been a lot stronger had they just stuck to the original plot of Saren getting with the Batarians and starting a war. The universe and characters carried the games in my eyes, not the plot.

 

[Reverend]

...I've only done one playthrough as FemShep but Jennifer Hale brought the goods - somebody was commenting on the scene with Anderson, and especially once he's gone and Hackett is trying to get her attention. Damned fine moment, even considering what it leads to...

Yeah her delivery of such a simple line: "what do you need me to do?" was gut wrenching. I know I've said it before, but her performance though that whole sequence was spectacular. She actually made me believe Shepard was in abject agony, but desperate to keep going. Works very well with the destroy ending because she suddenly straightens up and puts everything she has left into her last moments.

I missed Aethyla and Conrad Verner unfortunately, I may have to run my FemShep Infiltrator again since she's the one with the Liara romance. And you know... that really doesn't bother me somehow. Where do Conrad and Aethyla show up?

They both show up on the Citadel after Cerberus's attempted coup. Aetheyta (sp?) is tending bar (again) at the Apollo cafe on the presidium commons while Conrad shows up in the docking bay holding area where all the refugees are camped out. However, he doesn't appear until after you prompt some nameless doctor who mentions some idiot openly recruiting for Cerberus while the medigel dispensers have been sabotaged.

This is how I missed him the first time since I just went and fixed the dispensers, not realising that Conrad had magically appeared down across from the refugee memorial wall. He turns up on his own if you complete the quest without talking to him, but it's weird and random. Honestly, some of the quests like this aren't put together very well. You can tell a lot of these were done in a hurry. The Zaeed one in particular feels very broken and disjointed.

One thing that I really noticed was the background stuff though - they did a brilliant job with that. Blue Rose of Illium, the Teenage Refugee Girl waiting for her parents on the Citadel, Steve's husband, that medic trying to help a civilian on the other end of the line in London, and oh man... what happened to Kelly Chambers.

Did you not tell her to change her identity? Oh dear...

Honestly, I don't mind them being imbalanced, especially in my favor. (I'd argue that soldier was imbalanced too.) My problem was that they simply were too tedious to use so they weren't much fun...

This is where being a PC gamer is an advantage. You get hotkeys so you can quickly fire off powers without having to pause combat every few seconds.

During the "wait for the shuttle" section on Earth, the minions are on infinite respawn until you kill the banshee. Not identical, but similar...

The last few missions of a game is not the place to be introducing new gameplay mechanics. Besides, anyone with half a brain would prioritise killing the Banshee first anyway.

ME would've probably been a lot stronger had they just stuck to the original plot of Saren getting with the Batarians and starting a war. The universe and characters carried the games in my eyes, not the plot.

But then what would you do in ME2 & 3? Just continually wage conventional warfare on a conventional enemy? Sounds tedious.

 

[Mr Light]

One thing that disappointed me about the third game was making Cerebus into the second tier villains. In keeping with the moral ambiguity of the series I was hoping that Cerebus would willingly work alongside Shepherd to stop the Reapers, not JOIN them. They wanted to save humanity, after all, and the Reapers have occupied Earth.

I wonder if the real reason behind this decision is the need to have human bad guys to fight in the game so you're just fighting alien Reapers the entire game, since everybody else is on your side now.

 

[Reverend]

^I'd say that while the demands of game design certainly played into it, I wouldn't go so far as to say it dictated it. To me, Cerberus as the villains felt like a natural transitions given what we learn of them in ME2. Not just the methods and lengths they're willing to go but the sheer magnitude of resources they can bring to bare, all of which at the direction of a single man who's made the "advancement of humankind at all costs" his personal mission.

In a way they're not even villains so much as they're just another victim of the Reapers and their cycle. Remember Javik mentions a similar Prothean faction in his cycle, so the Reapers have used this method of internal division before.

What I was never clear on was just how much control did they have over TIM. I suspect that it was always distant and subtle, which was why he was able to actively work against them. I think it wasn't until he was standing on the Citadel with Anderson and Shepard that their dominance became total. He genuinely believed he was doing the right thing and they subtly helped him to convince himself that he could use the reaper's own tech against them.

 

[ATimson]

Besides, anyone with half a brain would prioritise killing the Banshee first anyway.

The banshee took me about as long to kill as the minions combined would have if they didn't keep respawning. So prioritizing either way seems to be about equally useful.

 

[Evil Twin]

They both show up on the Citadel after Cerberus's attempted coup. Aetheyta (sp?) is tending bar (again) at the Apollo cafe on the presidium commons while Conrad shows up in the docking bay holding area where all the refugees are camped out. However, he doesn't appear until after you prompt some nameless doctor who mentions some idiot openly recruiting for Cerberus while the medigel dispensers have been sabotaged.

You can get Aethyta to appear much earlier than that. The first time you gain access to the commons, just go talk to Liara at Apollo's, leave the commons and come back, and Aethyta will be there behind the bar.

I'm curious to see how fast my engineer will be able to take down a banshee, because holy crap is maxed out sabotage with tech vulnerability at rank 6 overpowered! I'm 2-shotting every regular enemy with sabotage follow by an overload, brutes haven't been lasting much longer, and sabotage pretty much prevents atlases from doing anything while you whittle them down. Granted this is at Normal difficulty but still... Oh, plus it can hack those turrets that the Cerberus engineers place, which is great fun.

 

[TheGodBen]

I'd say it DID lead to great things. Everyone working together brought on the next phase of evolution, combining the best aspects of both organic and synthetic, yet still retaining the DNA of what made everyone unique (Joker is still human, Edi is still AI, Javik is still Prothean, they're just evolved now.)

That makes no sense, if Joker is still human and EDI is still an AI then the fundamental problem still exists, the whole point of synthesis is that synthetics and organics become one so they no longer have a reason to fight one another. Of course, this ignores the fact that the new Krogan will still hate the new Turians and the new Batarians will still hate the new Humans, but that's an argument for another day.

My point is that the ending is an example of bad writing, it does a complete 180 on a core theme that has existed throughout the series at the last minute. Imagine if the final moments of All Good Things contained the message that exploration and diplomacy are a waste of time and that peace is only achievable through domination. It would be absurd, a betrayal of one of the primary things that TNG stood for. Yet, amazingly, that's kinda how Mass Effect ends.

Just playing devil's advocate (rather literally) but in star child's defence, after tens of millions of years (if not more) his plan had a 100% success rate for synthetics not wiping out *all organic life*. Not much of a recommendation I know, but I think you can see how a machine intelligence would see this as a valid approach based on the statistical evidence.

Actually, I completely agree with you on that. The "Yo dawg" meme that makes fun of the Catalyst's logic makes a valid point, but I can kinda see how an emotionless machine being could use logic to come up with such a messed up solution to the supposed problem. So I don't actually have that much of an axe to grind with the explanation for the Reapers' purpose, what I have a problem with is not being allowed to challenge the star child on it.

 

[Reverend]

They both show up on the Citadel after Cerberus's attempted coup. Aetheyta (sp?) is tending bar (again) at the Apollo cafe on the presidium commons while Conrad shows up in the docking bay holding area where all the refugees are camped out. However, he doesn't appear until after you prompt some nameless doctor who mentions some idiot openly recruiting for Cerberus while the medigel dispensers have been sabotaged.

You can get Aethyta to appear much earlier than that. The first time you gain access to the commons, just go talk to Liara at Apollo's, leave the commons and come back, and Aethyta will be there behind the bar.

I'm curious to see how fast my engineer will be able to take down a banshee, because holy crap is maxed out sabotage with tech vulnerability at rank 6 overpowered! I'm 2-shotting every regular enemy with sabotage follow by an overload, brutes haven't been lasting much longer, and sabotage pretty much prevents atlases from doing anything while you whittle them down. Granted this is at Normal difficulty but still... Oh, plus it can hack those turrets that the Cerberus engineers place, which is great fun.

Clearly importing a lv30 character is bound to unbalance things on 'normal'. I checked and a new game does indeed start you at Lv1. Given that I couldn't make it to Lv60, even with a head start, I wouldn't be surprised if a newly created Shepard isn't expected to get much past Lv40. Rather like ME1 really.

Just playing devil's advocate (rather literally) but in star child's defence, after tens of millions of years (if not more) his plan had a 100% success rate for synthetics not wiping out *all organic life*. Not much of a recommendation I know, but I think you can see how a machine intelligence would see this as a valid approach based on the statistical evidence.

Actually, I completely agree with you on that. The "Yo dawg" meme that makes fun of the Catalyst's logic makes a valid point, but I can kinda see how an emotionless machine being could use logic to come up with such a messed up solution to the supposed problem. So I don't actually have that much of an axe to grind with the explanation for the Reapers' purpose, what I have a problem with is not being allowed to challenge the star child on it.

Oh absolutely. The whole conversation was horribly mishandled. Not only are we unabel to question or challenge the basic premise on which the cycle is based, we can't ask *exactly* what happened that lead it to this conclusion in the first place. Why must organic civilizations be destroyed? Why not just eliminate synthetics as they arise? In what sense are there civilizations "preserved" in Reaper form if they're all homogenised and controlled?

Same for the three options really. None of them were even close to being adequately explained. How can Shepard control the Reapers if she's dead? Why would destroying the Reapers also kill the Geth? What the hell would synthesis actually achieve?

Of course we can always speculate (<insert joke here>) and there's always a place for that. However, with an ending that rips away many of the core themes and presents us with so much new information with so little explanation I think the audience is owed (yes *owed*) some answers.

 

[ATimson]

Clearly importing a lv30 character is bound to unbalance things on 'normal'. I checked and a new game does indeed start you at Lv1. Given that I couldn't make it to Lv60, even with a head start, I wouldn't be surprised if a newly created Shepard isn't expected to get much past Lv40. Rather like ME1 really.

Eh. I think in ME1 they expected you to hit level 50 - otherwise, why would they bother to put the cap in there on your first runthrough?

 

[Jax]

Whatever the ending may of lacked NO other franchise in gaming has gripped me so much, had me so emotionally invested in the characters. I have dedicated A TON of hours in all 3 games and loved pretty much every minute of it...Thank you Bioware Now I still have gripes with the lack of closure not for Shepard but the rest of the galaxy and it was a huge mistake in the good canon ending NOT to keep the relays intact (I can understand that for a bad ending) + Normandy ending is one GIANT issue of a plot hole. Here is what I would of wanted for the Reapers and the ending...

* Keep the fact that an advance AI created the Reapers as a solution to prevent biological & machine races wiping each other out and to allow new life to flourish.

* However one of the future cycles actually sees machine/organic peace thus proving a flaw in the catalyst's idea that every cycle will follow the same path. The Catalyst attempts to disable the Reapers but fails and the Reapers override the control of the AI that created them. The catalyst devises a plan AKA The Crucible which is located in a future cycle beginning the plan of every cycle adding to it.

* Thus present day Shepard meets the Catalyst and is given 2 choices NOT 3 either attempt to control the reapers using the crucible weapon to cancel out the Reaper base code or to destroy them but the rest of advanced AI life will be wiped out....

* For the Blue ending if you have low military strength then I would have Shepard unable to control the Reapers and they destory the fleet and Harvest the galaxy thus the cycle continues forever.

* For the Blue ending with high militarty strength you take control of them at the cost of your own life as you merge literally with the Reaper base code and they leave the galaxy to deactive in dark space. The Normany crash lands on Earth due to damage taken in the battle and cut forward to a memorial scene for the entire war & Shepard seeing what happens to the galaxy after the war AKA closure.

* For the Red ending with high militarty strength you wipe out the Reapers, Geth and EDI + Shepard dies as well. The Normany crash lands on Earth due to damage taken in the battle and cut forward to a memorial scene for the entire war & Shepard seeing what happens to the galaxy after the war AKA closure.

* For the Red ending with low militarty strength the energy backfires and wipes out the Reapers, Geth, EDI, Shepard and Earth + the fleet nearby. This causes the Relays around the entire galaxy to blow causing massive damage to the galaxy and cutting everyone off.

That is what I would of done though saying all of that the original ending about Dark Energy in the first draft of ME3 is worser than what we got.

 

[Reverend]

Now it's looking as if someone from Bioware is saying that the relay explosions didn't wipe out the systems they were in because they overloaded rather than lost containment. Not sure how that works, but I suppose it's something. He also mentions that the relays can be rebuilt with all the (hopefully indoctrination safe) Reaper tech now lying around the place and that reverse engineering Reaper starship FTL will make ships significantly faster.

Nice if true, but Rannock is still on the far side of the galaxy to Earth (70-80 ly at a guess) so even with Reaper drives it'd still take the migrant fleet years to get home. Indeed, while they might manage to rebuild the relays (the Protheans managed a working pair of prototypes after all) It'd still take years to rebuild the network, because the prime relays need to be built in linked pairs. I suppose if there are enough QECs left around the galaxy they might be able to coordinate the building of long distance relays without having to tow one out via FTL, but some places are still going to pe pretty isolated.

..and then there's the problem that 99% on the galactic volume is still unexplored. There could be whole civilizations scattered across the galaxy who are space faring but never developed ME technology because they evolved on worlds too far from the relay network. I mean unless a race just happens to have a relay already in their system, the only way the rest of the galaxy is going to know about them is if someone stumbles across them. There's no telling what the fleets might run into on the long journey home.

Clearly importing a lv30 character is bound to unbalance things on 'normal'. I checked and a new game does indeed start you at Lv1. Given that I couldn't make it to Lv60, even with a head start, I wouldn't be surprised if a newly created Shepard isn't expected to get much past Lv40. Rather like ME1 really.

Eh. I think in ME1 they expected you to hit level 50 - otherwise, why would they bother to put the cap in there on your first runthrough?

Hence the use of the word "rather." As in similar in the sense that it'd take at least two consecutive playthroughs to hit the level cap.

Still, while yes, a completionist run at ME will indeed have you hitting level 50 before the end on the first go (even without the xp boost from achievements or higher difficulties) a speed run that only bothers with the core story missions will probably only get you into the 40's.

 

[PsychoPere]

"Someone from Bioware" is selling Mr Weekes a bit short at this point. He is generally believed to be the writer who admitted on the Penny Arcade forums that the Starchild ending was written by Casey Hudson and Mac Walters without any input from the rest of the writing team - and he made it very clear that he didn't like the ending either.

Edited to add: While Weekes only seemed to have taken issue with some of the "negative spin" in the paraphrased answers, CM Jessica Merizan said the post was "filled with half-truths and inaccuracies" and that she's "pretty angry about it."

 

[Reverend]

"Someone from Bioware" is selling Mr Weekes a bit short at this point. He is generally believed to be the writer who admitted on the Penny Arcade forums that the Starchild ending was written by Casey Hudson and Mac Walters without any input from the rest of the writing team - and he made it very clear that he didn't like the ending either.

Edited to add: While Weekes only seemed to have taken issue with some of the "negative spin" in the paraphrased answers, CM Jessica Merizan said the post was "filled with half-truths and inaccuracies" and that she's "pretty angry about it."

I wasn't sure if it was the same bloke, so I erred on the side of ignorance.

It's difficult to see what's going on behind the scenes, especially with most everyone else (understandably) toeing the party line but in a twisted way it's a bit of a relief that there was strong disagreement between the devs over the ending. I just can't believe the same people who made the rest of the game, looked at the ending and thought to themselves "yup, that works fine and the fans will enjoy it."

[EDIT]

Just came across these and was mightily impressed, so I thought I'd share: Quarian Artstyle - Control Ending, Asari Artstyle - Synthesis Ending & Krogan Artstyle - Destroy Ending

I think the Krogan one is my favourite, with the Asari being a close second.

 

[Shurik]

So, I finished the game today and the ending was indeed awful. I don't think I can add anything new to the 26 pages of this discussion except for saying once again that the ending is pure nonsense, even more than the original Fallout 3 ending. Too bad, because I enjoyed the game up until the final run to the Reaper beacon or whatever that was ...

At least Bethesda had the decency to release a DLC that fixed the original fuckup of an ending.

 

[LeadHead]

^ What almost bugs me more than the ending itself being so terrible is that the game itself is amazing right up until that point. How did this get through testing?

 

[Shurik]

^ What almost bugs me more than the ending itself being so terrible is that the game itself is amazing right up until that point. How did this get through testing?

The only explanation is that all of the testers didn't actually get to the ending, but only played first few missions when the game is still fun to play.

 

[throwback]

Bioware is attempting to fix an ending that ignores the themes and canon of the games. By creating an extended ending, they are adding onto the canon incongruities. I don't know how many of you paid attention to the planetary journals or the Codex. I know that did, and it doesn't look good for any ship attempting travel in the galaxy.

A. Mass Relays

The Codex states:

Although it has recently been proven that mass relays can be destroyed, a ruptured relay liberates enough energy to ruin any terrestrial world in the relay's solar system. (Secondary Codex: The Reaper War - Desperate Measures)

What is a rupture?
A rupture is when a material breaks under stress. This is less destructive than an explosion. The damage caused by the iceberg on the RMS Titanic is an example of rupture. The steel plates broke under pressure when the iceberg and Titanic collided.

Definition of Rupture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupture_(engineering)#Ductile_fracture

What is an explosion?
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. An explosion creates a shock wave. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion)

There is no leeway. Mass relays are powered by element zero which emits dark energy. Dark energy can cause premature aging of a star, and can devastate the ecosystem of a garden world. (The ecology of Eingana was devastated by a wave of extinctions caused by the element zero cores of destroyed starships crashing onto the planet's surface.)

In the best case scenario, the mass relays break under stress and emit dark energy which can potentially cause a ELE (extinction level event) on a garden world. In the worst case scenario, an exploding mass relay can behave like a supernova and destroy an entire solar system (the Bahak system). We have two states of destruction - one that is slow but leaves the structure relatively intact, and one that involves the complete destruction of the structure.

What is seen in the cinematic - a rupture or an explosion? Those are explosions. They have shock waves which travel far beyond their solar systems, and are visible from dark space.

B. Travel In the Galaxy

Even mass-effect-FTL drive is slow relative to the volume of the galaxy. Empty space and systems without suitable drive discharge sites are barriers to exploration. Only the mass relays allow ships to jump hundreds of light years in an instant, the key to expanding across an otherwise impassable galaxy. (Primary Codex: Citadel and Galactic Government - Citadel Space)

By 2183, less than 1% of the galaxy's stars have been explored. Exploration is done by telescopic observation (Jarfor - planet Bellerophon in 51 Pegasi), by probe, and by starship.

C. The Fate of the SSV Normandy

According to the canon, the crew of the Normandy would not survived.

If the field collapses while the ship is moving at faster-than-light speeds, the effects are catastrophic. The ship is snapped back to sublight velocity, the enormous excess energy shed in the form of lethal Cherenkov radiation. (Codex: Ships and Vehicles - FTL Drive)

Cherenkov radiation is fatal to an organism. This radiation destroys the DNA and cell replication which causes organ failure, and, eventually, death. This radiation is the same as that produced at nuclear reactors. If a human stands a foot away from an unshielded capsule that emits this radiation, they will receive a lethal dose of radiation in 10 seconds. (http://prixpictet.com/2010/view/1068)

E. Drive Discharge

According to the Codex, starships can operate for 50 hours before reaching saturation. This measurement is dependent on the velocity or the weight of a starship. If a starship travels faster than normal, saturation can be reached before 50 hours. If a starship is heavier, saturation can be reached before 50 hours.

If the ship doesn't discharge its drive, this is what will happened:

If the charge is allowed to build, the core will discharge into the hull of a ship. All ungrounded crew members are fried to a crisp, all electronic system are burned out, and metal bulkheads may be melted and fused together.

Small ships like the first SSV Normandy can land on a planet in which the ship can establish a connection to the ground and discharge its drive into the planet. Larger ships, like a dreadnought, need to discharge their drives into a planet's magnetic field. The size of the celestial body is important. Discharging at a moon can take days, while discharging at a gas giant can take an hour.

However, the celestial body needs to have an existing magnetic field. A planet with a weak magnetic field, like Dregir, is an unsuitable candidate for drive discharge.

What does this mean?
A starship can't travel at maximum speed, or it will reach its saturation point quicker. A starship must travel at cruise speed. Most ships travel at less than twelve light years a day. Fast ships are rare and, when the galaxy had a functional economy, the tickets for them were expensive. A larger ship like a dreadnought or a liveship will reach saturation quicker than a smaller ship. On a long voyage, this becomes a factor in deciding in what ships a fleet admiral will choose for an exploration fleet. (Secondary Codex: Ships and Vehicles - FTL Drive: Drive Discharge)

F. Fuel

I have noticed that people have mentioned that ships can get fuel from a gas giant. The impression I get is that people think a ship can collect gas like the Bussard Collectors in Star Trek and filter out the unneeded gas. It's not that simple.

In developed systems, the gas, Hydrogen, is gathered by mining ships. These mining ships transport this gas to refineries in either a planet's orbit (Veltman) or on a planet's surface (Caleston). These refineries process this fuel into a metastable metallic hydrogen form which is then shipped to fuel depots. (Refineries in a planetary orbit, like Veltman, need massive effect fields) At the fuel depots, ships are supplied with the refined fuel, and the ship's captain pays for the fuel on credit.

This system of mining ships, refineries, and fuel depots was destroyed by the Reapers.

Ships with ion thrusters have a greater chance of functioning in the new galaxy. These ships can skim xenon from an atmosphere of a planet (ex. Alingon) which can then be used in their thrusters. Xenon is a common element in many planet's atmospheres.