Mass Effect 3.5B: Taste the Rainbow (Story and Ending Discussion; Spoilers!)

[MCerberus]

...Are they implying something there? That preserving the base is smarter, and destroying the base is more ...noble? emotional?

If you blow it up you get the reaper heart which they used to power the base.
It's... pretty well not a big effect.

[Luzahn]

If you blow it up you get the reaper heart which they used to power the base.
It's... pretty well not a big effect.

I'm talking about the symbolism behind being rewarded with a "brain" for one, and a "heart" for the other.

[MCerberus]

I'm talking about the symbolism behind being rewarded with a "brain" for one, and a "heart" for the other.

I for one think it was symbolic for 'we forgot to rope in the last decision from ME2'.

[Morty]

Nothing significant. After finishing the mission to Cerberus' base (the start of the endgame) you'll get either the heart or brain of the Human Reaper for destroying or preserving the base respectively. The brain gives you a little higher boost to your military score. That's the only difference. I don't even recall any dialogue changes from preserving the base.

Zevox

Huh. Well, I'm thinking about preserving it in this Renegade run. I guess you could say that a RenegadeShep will be pragmatic enough to do it despite loathing The Illusive Man's every molecule.

[VanBuren]

Nothing significant. After finishing the mission to Cerberus' base (the start of the endgame) you'll get either the heart or brain of the Human Reaper for destroying or preserving the base respectively. The brain gives you a little higher boost to your military score. That's the only difference. I don't even recall any dialogue changes from preserving the base.

Zevox

One of TIM's lines changes on Mars, where he either tries to convince you that he's just trying to use the technology to save humanity, and thought you'd be happy because that's why you kept the base, or he remarks about you being shortsighted.

...Are they implying something there? That preserving the base is smarter, and destroying the base is more ...noble? emotional?

And that brains are slightly more important than passion?

[Avilan the Grey]

Assuming of course that FTL hasn't already been optimized as far as it can be. That's quite an assumption to ask the audience to make at the end of a story with no supporting evidence. Sure we could assume FTL is like the Internal Combustion Engine and could be made more efficient with some work...or we could assume they're like Batteries that are about as efficient as is physically possible.

Assuming FTL is dead because it can't be made any faster is something that some fans are assuming because there is no in-game evidence against it and some in-game evidence supporting it

WOG says FTL is poorly developed. Also, there is clear in-game evidence: The Reapers FTL is 3 times faster than the fastest ships of this cycle.

[Derthric]

WOG says FTL is poorly developed. Also, there is clear in-game evidence: The Reapers FTL is 3 times faster than the fastest ships of this cycle.

But the reapers are more advanced across the board. The problem with the handwave about FTL is not that it couldn't be improved but that it was simply stagnant.

Why wouldn't they want faster FTL or longer range drives? Think about the economic and military advantage that would give if you could go 75 hours without discharging your drive core. You can now outrun anybody chasing you. Or reach further out from the cluster's relay, unlocking the resources that no one else but you can reach, or at the least now charge an arm and a leg for your proprietary engine. We see them pushing the envelope on technology that is specifically banned, AI research, Luna VI(baby EDI as I call it now), Overlord, the geth. Or the geth, who travel in empty space wouldn't want to move out of reach of the Organics? The implication of laziness being the source of them just ignoring another field in its entirety? That strains credulity. Especially when TIM has stated he is looking at any tech that could empower humanity. How would faster/more efficient engines not help?

What makes it worse is that they are saying all they had to do was sit down and think about it and the answers would come to them.

[Corvus]

It will take a few years, but FTL can be by itself optimized far better rather easily. On top of this the knowledge to build new relays is not something that will take ages to acquire. The Protheans knew how to do it. The Asari are pretty damn close; maybe they already have the full theoretical knowledge. We have a ton of reaper corpses (or living reapers) to reverse-engineer.

Etc.

Many places (and races) don't have the years to would take to optimise FTL, let alone to disseminate it throughout them all across the galaxy.

And rebuilding the Relays would take longer. The Protheans had built one tiny prototype. All we know of the Asari was that Liara's dad suggested that they built them - and got laughed out of Thessia. Had they even started researching them? And I don't see how reverse-engineering Reaper corpses would help - that is like reverse-engineering a battleship to make airplanes. Two decidedly different technologies.

And how long would it take to build the thousands, possibly millions, of relays needed to rebuild the network?

[Joran]

But the reapers are more advanced across the board. The problem with the handwave about FTL is not that it couldn't be improved but that it was simply stagnant.

Why wouldn't they want faster FTL or longer range drives? Think about the economic and military advantage that would give if you could go 75 hours without discharging your drive core. You can now outrun anybody chasing you. Or reach further out from the cluster's relay, unlocking the resources that no one else but you can reach, or at the least now charge an arm and a leg for your proprietary engine. We see them pushing the envelope on technology that is specifically banned, AI research, Luna VI(baby EDI as I call it now), Overlord, the geth. Or the geth, who travel in empty space wouldn't want to move out of reach of the Organics? The implication of laziness being the source of them just ignoring another field in its entirety? That strains credulity. Especially when TIM has stated he is looking at any tech that could empower humanity. How would faster/more efficient engines not help?

What makes it worse is that they are saying all they had to do was sit down and think about it and the answers would come to them.

Depending on ending, the combined races will also either have working Reapers around to tell them how to make the new drives or salvage to reverse engineer. Also, a lot of the galaxy's finest scientists had already assembled to research and complete the Catalyst, so some breakthroughs can arise from there.

I don't have much of an issue with lack of development in transportation. We have a similar real world analogue. The flight capabilities of today's jetliners are basically in-line with the jetliners from 30 years ago. There have been some improvements, in controls, in communications, and fuel efficiency, but travel time from Washington, D.C. to California hasn't been improved in over 30 years. There are no supersonic jetliners. The technology for the supersonic jetliner exists, but the economics don't work. Once the economics do work and there's suddenly a need for that kind of speed, then the technology will follow.

[Anarion]

What makes it worse is that they are saying all they had to do was sit down and think about it and the answers would come to them.

This might actually be true though. With mass relays, better FTL technology is one useful technology competing for funding and genius with a bunch of other useful technologies. There are people working on faster engines, more efficient engines, better fuel, plus people in other industries such as medical treatment, military weapons, colonization technology and terraforming, and shipbuilding techniques, among others.

With the mass relays destroyed, better FTL suddenly becomes priority #1. The best scientists and basically all available industry that isn't providing life-critical services suddenly goes into solving the problem. On top of that, they now have the Geth and all the available reaper tech (there were at least two new destroyed reapers on Rannoch and Tuchanka even if you end up taking Synthesis and all the other reapers leave). Chances for breakthrough innovation go way up.

[Psyren]

I'm talking about the symbolism behind being rewarded with a "brain" for one, and a "heart" for the other.

I didn't think of it that way, that's pretty cool.

There is one other change though - the point values of all the endings are adjusted upward (i.e. harder to obtain) if you kept the base. However, Control-only becomes an option if you do, rather than just Destroy-only.

This might actually be true though. With mass relays, better FTL technology is one useful technology competing for funding and genius with a bunch of other useful technologies. There are people working on faster engines, more efficient engines, better fuel, plus people in other industries such as medical treatment, military weapons, colonization technology and terraforming, and shipbuilding techniques, among others.

With the mass relays destroyed, better FTL suddenly becomes priority #1. The best scientists and basically all available industry that isn't providing life-critical services suddenly goes into solving the problem. On top of that, they now have the Geth and all the available reaper tech (there were at least two new destroyed reapers on Rannoch and Tuchanka even if you end up taking Synthesis and all the other reapers leave). Chances for breakthrough innovation go way up.

This. It's like if we suddenly ran out of fossil fuels - all those cars that run on ethanol/hydrogen etc. that seem so unfeasible now would suddenly start showing up everywhere.

[Name_Here]

Which small task for are you referring to? Did you mean on Omega, or when he was advising the Turian military in ME3, or something else? I agree that Garrus really knew what he was doing and was excellent at making sure that every little detail was caught. However, I still think that in broad terms nearly every Turian settlement was organized around military standards and would have been prepared to operate independently for some time if necessary.

I was talking about his small task force where he had to lie, cheat and steal in order to secure supply depots and harden the communication lines. I doubt the bureaucracy that would fight the reaper task force on securing communication lines makes it a point to prepare a years worth of food, spare parts and toiletries for each and every colony just in case the mass relays blew up.

Also I'm not a military logistics expert but I've never heard of each base having the ability to feed even the troops stationed there for a year much less the surrounding local. In truth most militaries secure their supplies in supply depots which are located behind the front but close enough so that supplies can be moved up to the front quickly but in case the forward base is overrun the enemy won't have enough supplies to feed their own troops for a year.

As for the Volus, I think you're missing out on a very lucrative series of investments to sell planetary supplies and insurance around the galaxy. People in the real world prepare for disaster all the time, I see no reason why the galaxy's best financial race wouldn't do the same and make money off it in the process.

Well for one thing there is a very limited demand for supplies that will feed a population for a year. Being limited entirely to colonies that have sufficient resources to build a storage facility for all that food and with governors who are crazy enough to spend billions on an impossibility and who have enough pull with their governments to be allowed to spend that kind of money just in case of an impossibility.

And the Volus wouldn't spend that kind of money because they are still seperated into tribes and no tribe would sink their entire fortune into a food storage system when they could instead use that money to make more money.

That's a theory, and it might be true. It doesn't have to be though. It's just as likely that much of Earth survived and that there is enough food and tech from all the military there that they'll be able to deploy equipment and get vital services restored within a few days and high tech food production going within the month. Other colonies may have been wiped out already, but if they weren't, why does all their tech have to be gone (other than VIs in the destroy ending)?

There is no way that Earth's industry survived. The reapers focused on destroying industry everywhere and they were unchallenged for dominance of Earth's airspace. And what on a warship would be at all analogous to a combine? To an irrigation system? To a tractor? These are things that would be nessasary to start up high yield farming. Without factories there is no way to make these things in the numbers needed and the reapers blasted them all to rubble.

Of course the population could go back to an agrarian lifestyle farming by hand and simple tools but the only supply of tools would be what was made pre-reapers. But until the first crops grew the entire population would be living off the supplies that the ships have on them which after such a long and gruelling war would be already stretched and not able to take on the added stress of the entire earth population.

The entire galaxy is supported by these garden worlds. They'll have them up and running ASAP and providing food within the local clusters even if they can't get FTL to other star clusters. To suggest a garden world couldn't support its own population doesn't really make sense unless the reapers already destroyed it entirely. If that were the case, then yes that world is lost, but again there's no evidence that every single garden world was destroyed by reapers and they don't have to be.

Earth is classified as a Garden world. Yet without heavy industry it couldn't support the current population much less whatever population would be there after all the fleets got stuck there. Heck we have enough trouble currently getting adequate supplies to Africa.

Why not? Colonists are already hardy and independent folk and the major fleets all have plenty of tech available. It might take a little time to rebuild, sure, but that's why I started by explaining that I think most planets would have adequate stores for at least a year, to give them time to rebuild.

They are hardy and independent but they aren't wizards. They would require the ability to create highly specialized tools and spare parts pretty much from scrap.

And yes your entire premise relies on the supplies being stored at incredible cost to the colony in case the impossible happened which is a given that I am not at all going to give you.

Great, that means they can rebuild more quickly and start sending food out to surrounding systems.

... How do you figure? They don't have industry to rebuild. They don't have the ability to replace the industry or to feed their population. They don't even have the nessesary ability to make the medicines that would stave off disease.

In sum: The reapers were powerful, sure, but even the planets they invaded in greatest force didn't get burnt to the ground, and a lot of the galaxy's navy and tech were already in place, as well as many experts and skilled workers surviving the reapers visiting their planets. So, if the difference between everybody dies and everybody has time to rebuild is that planets need to have stores for 3 years instead of 1 year, I'm pretty sure the writers would write it in that they have stores for 3 years.

Like I said everybody dies was never on the menu. Massive starvation and disease are really the only possible outcome unless we bring in your belief that all the planets stored a year's worth of food for the entire population. A fact not even hinted at over 3 games 5 (6?) books and 2 comic runs. The idea that nobody in the entire universe starved after easy access to their planet was cut off is laughable.

Sure they can claim it but it ruins the suspension of disbelief.

[Xondoure]

Reapers would have kept agriculture intact/improved it. Have to feed the herd after all.

[Psyren]

We have shuttles capable of faster-than-light travel and we're worried about how to supply a continent or two?

[Dienekes]

Reapers would have kept agriculture intact/improved it. Have to feed the herd after all.

No they don't. They hoard them as fast as they can into a birthing ship (whatever they're called) and melt them. Why would they ever need to feed the herd? There was no information of the collector's taking food with them during their kidnappings. I mean, we've seen their ships have pods to melt thousands if not millions at a time, it's not like they're going to be lacking in space.

[Marnath]

There is no way that Earth's industry survived. The reapers focused on destroying industry everywhere and they were unchallenged for dominance of Earth's airspace. And what on a warship would be at all analogous to a combine? To an irrigation system? To a tractor? These are things that would be nessasary to start up high yield farming. Without factories there is no way to make these things in the numbers needed and the reapers blasted them all to rubble.

I think you're severely overestimating the difficulty of crafting makeshift farming machines. A welder, a torch, some raw materials(which there'd be millions of tons of if there's as much damage as you claim) and some ingenuity is all you need.

[Name_Here]

Reapers would have kept agriculture intact/improved it. Have to feed the herd after all.

It certainly does fit their MO to stop at a planet bomb the industry and the ability to get more supplies, then build up an agricultural sector that will keep the population fat and happy before they flew off into the wild yonder sure one day that they would return to harvest what they sowed that faithful day after the population fattened up nicely.

No more than likely they put the bodies of the dead into a blender and fed the resulting slurry to their prisoners. Which actually does fit with their MO of brutal disgusting practicality.

[Psyren]

No they don't. They hoard them as fast as they can into a birthing ship (whatever they're called) and melt them. Why would they ever need to feed the herd? There was no information of the collector's taking food with them during their kidnappings. I mean, we've seen their ships have pods to melt thousands if not millions at a time, it's not like they're going to be lacking in space.

The Collectors did that, yes; the Reapers on the other hand, keep internment camps, indoctrinate governments to cooperate, and generally take their sweet time rounding people up and keeping them in one place. So food is a necessary part of that.

[Trazoi]

I was surprised no-one hinted they were creating a secret colony to be another, better Ilos just in case everything went down the crapper. There was Sanctuary, but the fact it was advertised in the Citadel meant they weren't trying very hard and it was an obvious scam (also instantly pointed out in-game).

[Anarion]

It certainly does fit their MO to stop at a planet bomb the industry and the ability to get more supplies, then build up an agricultural sector that will keep the population fat and happy before they flew off into the wild yonder sure one day that they would return to harvest what they sowed that faithful day after the population fattened up nicely.

No more than likely they put the bodies of the dead into a blender and fed the resulting slurry to their prisoners. Which actually does fit with their MO of brutal disgusting practicality.

Dead bodies in a blender, feeding slurry to prisoners?
I think you're getting a little speculative.

Just pointing out here, but you have to prove a lot if you're going with the mass starvation theory. The writers have said that doesn't happen and you and others are trying to claim that what the writers are saying ruins suspension of disbelief. That means you have to prove that it's either impossible or extremely unlikely for most of the planets to have supported themselves after the mass relays were destroyed because if it were reasonably possible then it doesn't ruin suspension of disbelief for it to have happened.

And frankly, I don't buy it. Sure, the reapers wrecked a lot of stuff, but planets are big. Really big. I personally think it absurd that planets wouldn't be set up to support themselves for some time, and although people would endure hardship, I think they would have been able to salvage a great deal, feed themselves, and rebuild to at least a minimal level of self-sufficiency while the concentrated fleet worked on improving FTL technology and reestablishing intergalactic travel.

[Derthric]

Depending on ending, the combined races will also either have working Reapers around to tell them how to make the new drives or salvage to reverse engineer. Also, a lot of the galaxy's finest scientists had already assembled to research and complete the Catalyst, so some breakthroughs can arise from there.

I don't have much of an issue with lack of development in transportation. We have a similar real world analogue. The flight capabilities of today's jetliners are basically in-line with the jetliners from 30 years ago. There have been some improvements, in controls, in communications, and fuel efficiency, but travel time from Washington, D.C. to California hasn't been improved in over 30 years. There are no supersonic jetliners. The technology for the supersonic jetliner exists, but the economics don't work. Once the economics do work and there's suddenly a need for that kind of speed, then the technology will follow.

Except for the fact that the military is constantly researching and improving Supersonic flight and it is in regular practical use through out the first world's air forces. We know how to mass manufacture them. We chose not to. What they are saying with FTL is that no one has bothered to think about them, ever. That there are no practical applications of better FTL out there currently hinders the argument that they can whip something up. Its not like the Alliance is sitting on the FTL mk II engine and it never bothered to use it.

Then even if they are using Reaper remains or active reapers to do, and if the reapers are friendly afterwards it works a lot better I grant you, its still reaper tech. So if the point of the relay explosions was to show a transition away from reaper tech, pushing us onto another reaper tech in place of them is six in one hand half dozen in the other. Now that is just speculation for why they went, if it was simple as a distribution network and adapting to other tech is fine, then it works. But it still raises the point as to why they bothered to blow them up in the first place.

I didn't think of it that way, that's pretty cool.

There is one other change though - the point values of all the endings are adjusted upward (i.e. harder to obtain) if you kept the base. However, Control-only becomes an option if you do, rather than just Destroy-only.


This. It's like if we suddenly ran out of fossil fuels - all those cars that run on ethanol/hydrogen etc. that seem so unfeasible now would suddenly start showing up everywhere.

If we ran out of fossil fuels millions die in the first few months. The US would loose something like 90% of electricity generated and let alone the planes, trains, cargo superhaulers, and trucks that carry all our food, energy sources, clothing, and other items would be ground to a halt. So how do you propose to bring in the heavy metals needed for Hybrid Batteries? Or to power the industrial plants to make the new cars. The situation is similar in ME at the end. Where do you build the factories and how long will they take? Can you maintain order that long for new lines of supply to be established to allow for a whole new way economic model to spring up?

Its not a slow adaption as we are seeing now with more and more alternative fuel and energy sources being explored and researched. This is a sudden and drastic socio-economic shift that dwarfs most analogies. The Soviet Union collapsed for smaller economic troubles.

They took the time to show the utter devastation of Earth and the Sol System and then knocked out the best and as far as we know only established way to bring in outside help. Every form of nation building and disaster relief is dependent upon outside resources. And Earth just lost any access to such resources. Maybe in 5 years if everything goes right rudimentary farming and industry can go back up on Earth and early trade networks can be established. But what about in the interim?

To recap.

The Citadel Races do not have a "supersonic" tech in reserve, only reaper tech. Access to it is either, reverse engeer it a monumental task all on its own, or have the suddenly unevil reapers help them, if they stuck around. But how then do you put it in currently existing ships without orbital or surface drydock facilities, which were destroyed.

Lines of supply and communication to the greater galaxy have been cut.

Industry is non-existent.

Environmental damage to isn't something to be shrugged off.

Psychological impact on a desperate and devastated civilian population won't lead to a ready and capable workforce waiting to be tapped.

All of these things are not going to be overcome by a few months of spit-shine and elbow grease.

[Name_Here]

Dead bodies in a blender, feeding slurry to prisoners?
I think you're getting a little speculative.

Yes cause the Reapers are well known for their strong moral character and belief in the sanctity of sentient life.

Just pointing out here, but you have to prove a lot if you're going with the mass starvation theory. The writers have said that doesn't happen and you and others are trying to claim that what the writers are saying ruins suspension of disbelief. That means you have to prove that it's either impossible or extremely unlikely for most of the planets to have supported themselves after the mass relays were destroyed because if it were reasonably possible then it doesn't ruin suspension of disbelief for it to have happened.

Quite frankly the word of the writers became worth dirt to me the second I blew up that conduit to release the reaper killing wave of energy. The fact that they say that mass starvation and disease doesn't happen means absolutely nothing to me.

And I think I've shown rather conclusively that mass starvation and pandemic disease followed by a galactic dark age is going to happen because the alternative depends upon the survivors being wizards with the ability to make specialized tools with a wave of their hands as well as having the foresight to save a years worth of food but not enough foresight to harden their communication lines.

And frankly, I don't buy it. Sure, the reapers wrecked a lot of stuff, but planets are big. Really big. I personally think it absurd that planets wouldn't be set up to support themselves for some time, and although people would endure hardship, I think they would have been able to salvage a great deal, feed themselves, and rebuild to at least a minimal level of self-sufficiency while the concentrated fleet worked on improving FTL technology and reestablishing intergalactic travel.

I have trouble believing that the council races who throughout their entire history have held their council together with spit, duct tape and burying their heads in the sand would go through the trouble of working out how much food a population on each colony would require for a year and then build a storage facility for the massive amount of food they would require. When a fresh fleet would be just a relay jump away and relief supplies could be quickly rushed there.

I see absolutely no reason why they would go through all that trouble unless they believed that the Mass Relay's themselves might be destroyed or unusable.

[Anarion]

And I think I've shown rather conclusively that mass starvation and pandemic disease followed by a galactic dark age is going to happen because the alternative depends upon the survivors being wizards with the ability to make specialized tools with a wave of their hands as well as having the foresight to save a years worth of food but not enough foresight to harden their communication lines.

I think you have a deep misunderstanding of the priorities and function of the council and how their respective races operate.

However, I'm simply going to address this one part. You're saying that being able to salvage tools and equipment and have food laid by requires them to be space wizards. In a setting with FTL, biotics, Quarian liveships, and engineering tools that are 100% operated from a wrist omnitool.

[Joran]

Except for the fact that the military is constantly researching and improving Supersonic flight and it is in regular practical use through out the first world's air forces. We know how to mass manufacture them. We chose not to. What they are saying with FTL is that no one has bothered to think about them, ever. That there are no practical applications of better FTL out there currently hinders the argument that they can whip something up. Its not like the Alliance is sitting on the FTL mk II engine and it never bothered to use it.

Military aviation hasn't really improved either. Once again, electronics, weapon systems, stealth technology have improved, speed has not. A F-22 can go as fast as a 40 year old plane the F-15. Actually, I think the F-15 actually goes faster than the F-22. Nothing has replaced the SR-71 for the title of fastest production airplane and the SR-71 has been retired for over 10 years.

Transportation speeds tend to stagnate. Trucks and cars go just as quickly now in 2011 than in 1981. I know of no major improvements in shipping speeds. Trains are finally improving in speed, but not so much in the United States, and Bullet Train technology has been known for over 30 years.

Economics constrains a lot of technological use.

[Derthric]

Military aviation hasn't really improved either. Once again, electronics, weapon systems, stealth technology have improved, speed has not. A F-22 can go as fast as a 40 year old plane the F-15. Actually, I think the F-15 actually goes faster than the F-22. Nothing has replaced the SR-71 for the title of fastest production airplane and the SR-71 has been retired for over 10 years.

Transportation speeds tend to stagnate. Trucks and cars go just as quickly now in 2011 than in 1981. I know of no major improvements in shipping speeds. Trains are finally improving in speed, but not so much in the United States, and Bullet Train technology has been known for over 30 years.

Economics constrains a lot of technological use.

But cars and trucks are much more efficient, made of lighter materiel etc. The implication of the WoG is that nothing relating to FTL has been improved from the point of first discovery. That was my point. There are better forms of the tech we use everyday, but supposedly no one has better tech for FTL, be it efficiency , speed, construction modes etc. Meanwhile I could look at the 1993 ford taurus in my father's gargage and compare it to my mother's new prius and see a gradual alteration of tech. The implications are that a drive core for a 200 year old turian vessel is just as good as a brand new alliance cruiser right off the line.

Our current tech is eminently practical, the idea that we saw the current FTL as presented in the same light would make sense. However we are now being told that they were using bad tech and willfully avoiding any level of research.

[Landis963]

Our current tech is eminently practical, the idea that we saw the current FTL as presented in the same light would make sense. However we are now being told that they were using bad tech and willfully avoiding any level of research.

I wouldn't say they were willfully avoiding research, omni-tools for example have increased dramatically in utility. It's just that FTL research was slow because the mass relays did most of the work.

[Joran]

But cars and trucks are much more efficient, made of lighter materiel etc. The implication of the WoG is that nothing relating to FTL has been improved from the point of first discovery. That was my point. There are better forms of the tech we use everyday, but supposedly no one has better tech for FTL, be it efficiency , speed, construction modes etc. Meanwhile I could look at the 1993 ford taurus in my father's gargage and compare it to my mother's new prius and see a gradual alteration of tech. The implications are that a drive core for a 200 year old turian vessel is just as good as a brand new alliance cruiser right off the line.

Our current tech is eminently practical, the idea that we saw the current FTL as presented in the same light would make sense. However we are now being told that they were using bad tech and willfully avoiding any level of research.

There was a giant step backwards in the 1990's, when gas was really, absurdly cheap. Suddenly big, boxy cars, poorly fuel efficient cars were back in vogue. When gas prices spiked again, suddenly the Prius was worthwhile. If gas was still at a buck a gallon, no one would be buying a Prius.

Jet engines are still the foundation of airplane travel now. From the 1970's to now, we've improved their fuel efficiency, expanded their lifetime, but made no really fundamental changes to the design. The military and civilian scientists have come up with a pulsejet, ramjet, and scramjet designs that will create marked improvements in speed. But, the jet engine is good enough and so there's been no real attempts to switch to the faster engine designs because of economic incentives.

There's still some alteration of technology in the Mass Effect universe. In the conversation with Cortez, there is some talk about retired ships and one that had a really crappy eezo core, so there are some improvements being made. So, because of the way the universe relied on Mass Relays, they were always doing incremental changes to the eezo engines, based off of plans probably placed by the Reapers, but no real game-changing revolutionary advance.

[Psyren]

No, it's not. It's a direct extrapolation of what the Codex says about both FTL (Slow, limited range) and exploding mass relays.

Yes it is, and countless threads have actually done the math to disprove the "apocalypse now" scenarios. There's a bunch in here; this one is a personal favorite of mine.

[Trazoi]

On an unrelated matter to the "mass extinction" post-game scenario...

Did ME3 ever handwave a reason as to why the Reapers didn't invade the Citadel ASAP? In ME1, the whole plot revolves around the Citadel being a giant Reaper trap, designed to be found by any spacefaring species as the perfect hub for a galactic base of operations, but also a giant mass relay to warp in the entire Reaper fleet. The Reaper strategy was to take out galactic HQ (causing everywhere else to fall into chaos) and extract all info about the state of the galaxy so they knew where to look to reap everyone.

Was it explained with the Javik DLC which I didn't have, because I don't remember this being touched on. It was bugging me the whole game.

[BRC]

On an unrelated matter to the "mass extinction" post-game scenario...

Did ME3 ever handwave a reason as to why the Reapers didn't invade the Citadel ASAP? In ME1, the whole plot revolves around the Citadel being a giant Reaper trap, designed to be found by any spacefaring species as the perfect hub for a galactic base of operations, but also a giant mass relay to warp in the entire Reaper fleet. The Reaper strategy was to take out galactic HQ (causing everywhere else to fall into chaos) and extract all info about the state of the galaxy so they knew where to look to reap everyone.

Was it explained with the Javik DLC which I didn't have, because I don't remember this being touched on. It was bugging me the whole game.

Hipster reapers. Capturing the Citadel was too mainstream, instead they went after Khar'shan, it's this really obscure planet, you've probably never even heard of it.