Yeah i think they used most of their environment budget on the main missions in Mass Effect.
Mass Effect 3 $$(ENDINGS SPOILERS)$$
- Thread starter Reverend
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Yeah i think they used most of their environment budget on the main missions in Mass Effect.
The notes from the Final Hours clarifies the endings.
The firing of the Catalyst creates a Galactic Dark Age. This age lasts at least 10,000 years. During this age, there is no interstellar spaceflight. The final scene with the Stargazer and his grandson occurs sometime after these 10,000 years.
This strongly implies that the fleet is stranded in the Sol system, and that many horrible things happen.
This ending was first conceived in the mid-phase development stage of Mass Effect 3.
The firing of the Catalyst creates a Galactic Dark Age. This age lasts at least 10,000 years. During this age, there is no interstellar spaceflight. The final scene with the Stargazer and his grandson occurs sometime after these 10,000 years.
This strongly implies that the fleet is stranded in the Sol system, and that many horrible things happen.
This ending was first conceived in the mid-phase development stage of Mass Effect 3.
Someone at BSN did a rough calculation of the distance between Rannoch and Earth. The distance is 65,000 light years. A starship can travel 12 light years in a day. Doing the math, it will take a starship 5,416 years to travel from Earth to Rannoch. Tali will never see her homeworld again. And this is assuming that the relays didn't vaporize the system they were located in, and people and worlds survived the explosions.
I am thinking it would have been better if the Final Hours wasn't released for it shows very clearly both the writing ability of the people at Bioware (zero resolution) and the extent to which some of them thought this was a good ending and that no one questioned their judgment on this matter.
(And don't go looking for the Prothean VI Vendetta telling Shepherd that the firing of the Crucible would lead to a new Dark Ages. This was one of the pieces of information that the lead writer and the director decided to leave out of the final product. Speculation for everyone! Ugh.)
I am thinking it would have been better if the Final Hours wasn't released for it shows very clearly both the writing ability of the people at Bioware (zero resolution) and the extent to which some of them thought this was a good ending and that no one questioned their judgment on this matter.
(And don't go looking for the Prothean VI Vendetta telling Shepherd that the firing of the Crucible would lead to a new Dark Ages. This was one of the pieces of information that the lead writer and the director decided to leave out of the final product. Speculation for everyone! Ugh.)
I can sort of see why they would choose this as an ending .It gives the a clean slate with which to continue the Mass Effect franchise in later games set either during or after this "dark age". It's pretty much has the same problem as the DA2 ending though, in that it was contrived solely to serve the furtherance of the franchise and at the expense of the story and characters.
It sounds like BioWare is only interested in expanding the universe pre-ME3.
While it could be "cool" to see, for example, the First Contact War with the turians, personally I am more interested in a post-Shepard era than I am in a prequel game.Final Hours said:
You wouldn't be the only one, people are invested in the current universe, and want to take that story further. Not look at the previous times
There is one issue with that approach - what ever you do in that game won't matter as that world you know will be destroyed.
The Halo franchise was similar to this franchise in that the galaxy faced an existential threat, and for the galaxy to survive races had to unite. Instead of destroying the known galaxy, the franchise had the threat destroyed. This opened the door to further exploration of the galaxy pass the trilogy, and for exploration of events in the past. You could play a game based on Reach knowing that the galaxy could one day be at peace.
Bioware blew it, and blew it badly. The franchise is severely damaged, and only time will tell if this franchise will survive.
The Halo franchise was similar to this franchise in that the galaxy faced an existential threat, and for the galaxy to survive races had to unite. Instead of destroying the known galaxy, the franchise had the threat destroyed. This opened the door to further exploration of the galaxy pass the trilogy, and for exploration of events in the past. You could play a game based on Reach knowing that the galaxy could one day be at peace.
Bioware blew it, and blew it badly. The franchise is severely damaged, and only time will tell if this franchise will survive.
Which is something that Reach even takes time to point out in the epilogue of the game.
Oh bioware, what have you done.
Even more of a reason why I want to be able to tell that kid to go fuck itself. Seriously, I caused a 10,000 year dark age? Yay, I'm a hero.
You know, I can understand the relays being destroyed if you choose to kill the Reapers, the relays are Reaper tech. But why are they destroyed if you choose to control the Reapers? In fact, how can you control the Reapers on Palaven or Thessia or anywhere else in the galaxy without the use of the relays? And if Casey Hudson is serious in not wanting to continue the ME universe post Shepard, which is fair enough, why in the name of all that is holy do all the endings play out exactly the same?
You know, artistic integrity is one thing, but the endings are flawed in multiple ways and artistry just doesn't cover that. The more I read about the end the more I feel that a few extra cutscenes to provide closure just wont do, the last ten minutes need to be wiped from the game and rewritten. Just do the dark energy ending that was originally planned, that one had some semblance of sense to it.
What was the dark energy ending?
Ancient civilizations realised that the continual increase in dark energy was going to destroy all stars in the galaxy, and eventually all matter in the universe. They banded together and turned themselves into Reapers, hoping that the Reapers would eventually find a solution to the problem, but the Reapers couldn't find a solution and decided to harvest all the other races in the hope that their insight could help the Reapers stop dark energy. After encountering humanity, the Reapers realised that we're the most genetically diverse of all the races so far and that we offered the best hope of finding a solution to the problem once and for all. At the end of the game you're given a decision between sacrificing most of humanity so they can be turned into Reapers, and hope that they come up with a solution, or you can destroy the Reapers and hope that you come up with a solution on your own.
It's not great, but it's probably not completely accurate to the original plan because I heard it second-hand. I'm not fond of having yet another sci-fi story where humanity is considered special for some reason, but I do like that the Reapers are actually trying to do good in some twisted way (salvation through destruction, and all that). And compared to the star child, everything looks better.
It's not great, but it's probably not completely accurate to the original plan because I heard it second-hand. I'm not fond of having yet another sci-fi story where humanity is considered special for some reason, but I do like that the Reapers are actually trying to do good in some twisted way (salvation through destruction, and all that). And compared to the star child, everything looks better.
In the original concept, the mass relays are powered by eezo cores. The radiation emitted by the eezo cores, which is known as dark energy, is shortening the life of stars, and will eventually destroy the galaxy. (This is similar to the episode "Force of Nature" in which the warp drives of starships are tearing the fabric of space.)
So, anyway, the creators of the mass relays realize their mistake, and seeing that they couldn't solve the problem on their own, they become the first Reaper - Harbinger. With each cycle, the Reapers grow in number and, with each nation, they can find new ways to approach the crisis. The Reapers harvest the species that has the most value in that cycle.
Initially, for this cycle, this species would have been the asari, but because of Prothean subterfuge, the cycle was delayed by two thousand years. The humans, because of our genetic diversity and our ability to be innovative problem solvers, replace the asari as the species with the most value.
Then the choice at the end of the third is as TheGodBen describes - humans become a reaper, or humans say no thanks, we will find a solution ourselves.
So, anyway, the creators of the mass relays realize their mistake, and seeing that they couldn't solve the problem on their own, they become the first Reaper - Harbinger. With each cycle, the Reapers grow in number and, with each nation, they can find new ways to approach the crisis. The Reapers harvest the species that has the most value in that cycle.
Initially, for this cycle, this species would have been the asari, but because of Prothean subterfuge, the cycle was delayed by two thousand years. The humans, because of our genetic diversity and our ability to be innovative problem solvers, replace the asari as the species with the most value.
Then the choice at the end of the third is as TheGodBen describes - humans become a reaper, or humans say no thanks, we will find a solution ourselves.
Can we get a definitative answer about how many light years FTL ships can go per day?
Remember though that non-Reaper FTL drives have a limited range. Not just because of fuel limitation, but because of the heat build-up. If they don't discharge their drives every so often, the crew get cooked. I could be wrong, but I think the codex mentions ways around it by using the upper atmosphere of gas giants. Even so, that would require knowing where a suitable planet is and plotting the course accordingly, so direct routes are out of the question. Plus of course 99.99% of the galaxy's volume is still unexplored, no telling what you might run into.
I can see why they ditched the dark energy ending. I mean it's an almost existential threat and I can't see many players going along with the reapers. I do agree that it's interesting that their motivations aren't totally selfish.
For a while there I had a pet theory that the Reaper's true purpose was to guard against an even worse enemy from outside the galaxy. The cycle would be their only way to replenish their numbers and recover from the attrition of a billion years of holding them back. Actually that would have tied in quite well with the godchild bit. I mean, what if the Milky Way is the *only* galaxy where organic life survives and the rest of the universe belongs to the machines.
I can see why they ditched the dark energy ending. I mean it's an almost existential threat and I can't see many players going along with the reapers. I do agree that it's interesting that their motivations aren't totally selfish.
For a while there I had a pet theory that the Reaper's true purpose was to guard against an even worse enemy from outside the galaxy. The cycle would be their only way to replenish their numbers and recover from the attrition of a billion years of holding them back. Actually that would have tied in quite well with the godchild bit. I mean, what if the Milky Way is the *only* galaxy where organic life survives and the rest of the universe belongs to the machines.
So Citadel ships can go 15 light years every day.
No, it'd have to be under that (Reaper ships travel more than twice as fast; that means that Citadel ships would have to be slower than half of "nearly 30"). 12 light years/day is the number I'm seeing bandied around, but I don't know the source.
Plus, as Reverend mentioned, that's 12 LY/d while traveling, not sustained average speed.
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