Very important question
Andromeda Initiative launched in late 2185, and Mass Effect 3 ended around the middle\late 2186. As far as we know, almost all endings includes the explode of relays. If we assume that the time inter...
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@Farrago96 wrote:
Andromeda Initiative launched in late 2185, and Mass Effect 3 ended around the middle\late 2186. As far as we know, almost all endings includes the explode of relays. If we assume that the time interval between the departure of the Andromeda Initiative and the ending of Mass Effect 3 is one year, it turns out that Arks have flown only 4200 light years, it is very small (The Initiative reached the Andromeda galaxy in 600, and the distance from Earth to Andromeda is 2520000 light years, it means that Arks Speed = 2520000/600= 4200 light years per year (in fact, as we learn from the game, this flight took more time then 600 years, it means that the speed be smaller)). It follows that Arks will move from the last Mass Relay only at 4200 light years. As we know, the exploding Mass Relay covers a very large area. In General, for the one year, moving with a speed of 4200 light years per year, they would not have left the radius of explosion. But what we see in Andromeda? Artificial Intelligence still on the ship is quite lively, which means that this is not Destroy Ending. Alive creatures and Artificial Intelligence not merged, nobody glow green, that means this is not Synthesis Ending. It remains only to Control Ending, because if even the Mass Relays are destroyed in this ending too, but it has no effect on Synthetic and Alive creatures and this is what we see in ME: Andromeda.
So it means that canonical ending of Mass Effect 3 is the Control Ending? Or Shepard chose to "continue the cycle" ?
all this speculation is pointless.
but lets play your game. the fact that it took us 600 years give or take and add your little math problem...... and you came out with a number that shows how fast the arks would be going in the straight line to andromeda. and because the speed of travel and the radius of the mass relay explosions we should have been effected by our choices.
all of that works only if dark space is empty. for all we know there could be rocks or planets in dark space that have no sun. the arks would have to plan a way around these items causing delays. these delays can factor into the reason why it took 600 years. so we could in fact be moving faster then you think. all these unknown what ifs make this entire topic pointless. but here is my best shot at why we were not effected by the relays and the choice shepard made.
iKillOrDieTryN, Yes, good point.
But Nexus and Arks are big ships, they need time for accelerate, unfortunately we don't know, how much time they need.
About rocks and planets, which are floating in the Dark Space between Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies: how we can see from "Dark Space Statistic" - 99.6% of space between the galaxies are not objects, so Arks shouldn't have changed its course very often, this means that the speed of 4200 light years per year is quite close to the maximum speed of the Arks. And don't forget that each ark have "Over Powered" AI, It could pre-calculate the path, so If there was loss of speed, It was minimal.
@Farrago96 wrote:
iKillOrDieTryN, Yes, good point.
But Nexus and Arks are big ships, they need time for accelerate, unfortunately we don't know, how much time they need.
About rocks and planets, which are floating in the Dark Space between Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies: how we can see from "Dark Space Statistic" - 99.6% of space between the galaxies are not objects, so Arks shouldn't have changed its course very often, this means that the speed of 4200 light years per year is quite close to the maximum speed of the Arks. And don't forget that each ark have "Over Powered" AI, It could pre-calculate the path, so If there was loss of speed, It was minimal.fair enough.
but lets say the ark was in the blast radius how fast do you think the blast itself was traveling after the explosion? from the cut scenes it wasn't very fast. after the blast started it took about 1 1/2 mins for earth to be covered. a beam of light shot at the nearest mass relay. from there it took 10-20 seconds to overload and redirect the beam to the next relay. from there the blast of the relay should have taken quite a while to reach the max radius. even if the cut scene shows the blast moving much faster i feel this was just for the sake of time skipping and not the real speed of travel. meaning very well the arks are far beyond the blast radius by the time the blast reached its max area of effect.
Spoilerplus as we seen in the game the tempest was able to detect the archon ships before they crashed into them as well as make a full stop. no doubt the arks could detect objects if any in dark space. and as we seen in the game as well.... the salarian ark jumped pretty quickly to escape the kett ship. so no doubt they could do it again. of course this wouldn't mean they reached their top speed in that time. buts its not impossible to do it.
