Throughout the ENTIRE series we see the Asari vessel do nothing more than float around. We never see the gigantic weapon system fire! Even during the most climactic space battle when we need it most!
If you actually look at it's shape it's design really does limit it's max firepower as in the longest part of the ship rather than a mass effect kinetic gun, there is a hole.
Unless the hole IS the main weapon and they kinda drop projectiles into it and accelerate them out, which would let them hurl around some pretty big projectiles, kinda like the Mass Drivers the Centauri used in B5 for the bombing of Narn
Andromeda was ok, I played it and liked it. Not a bad game on it'd own. With that said, it does not even come close to the trilogy(with ALL dlc), it was by far my favorite game in the last 10 years. I must of played through all 3 at least 15 times to see how the story changed with different decisions and also to get that "perfect" play through you wanted for the next game. If they do make another one.... I'd love to see a prequel of the First Contact Turian War. Probly won't happen since Andromeda was a huge let down and EA probly doesn't care cause they tons of money off half assed games and DLC.
To be honest, it is surprising they never tried to put out some squad tactics shooters or strategy games, as also ship to ship combat games. That universe is so rich and they instead wasted it all to try to somewhat reboot the franchise. Yes, I am still pissed.
I really wish we had detailed ship lore for Mass Effect, because I seriously love the space combat in this franchise. Like, in Mass Effect, I see potential for the cool parts of Star Wars space combat, without the stupid parts of Star Wars space combat.
The best thing about Mass Effect to me is the scale of things, especialy in ME3. In one of first missions you do you talk to a turism general who says somthing like: the first Day of the reaper invasion 2 million died on Palavin, 3 million the next day. And this was only one of thousends of planets in the galaxy. It puts the war in perspective. In many outher sci-fi universes they call it a catastrofy if 100 die.
@Half life 3 Keep in mind that those were the casualties of a single planet with a population of 6 billion. It would be considered devastating if 5 million people died in a war in only 2 days and our planet has 7 billion people on it. That's happening across Turian space, not just that one planet, and this is after one of their largest colonies was wiped out by the reapers to send a message. Heck at that rate of loss, Palavan would be wiped out in less than a year.
The UNSC is losing planets and billions by the day in Halo, so they don't really consider that a catastrophe. They consider that lucky that they haven't lost as many as they could have.
@@starhammer5247 Well the Reaper's genocide follows a different pattern than the Covenant, so that's kinda comparing apples to oranges. They actually want the population alive for harvesting and the world still habitable for the next cycle.
Pity when it comes to the Mass Effect universe (or arguably any other Sci-Fi content), there's a great deal of good lore that we never actually see implemented in-game.
Wich makes the fact that the third game sets fire to the setting all the worse. I really wished there'd be an eventual game dedicated to the inevitable war between the Batarians and the Citadel.
Not really. If you compare ME warship tonnage per a citizen to our own world you would get a similar number. Also, what echarts ladder did not stated was that in order to circumvent threaty requirements, humans were the first to build carrier vessels (yes this is the reference to US Navy's response to Washington Naval Treaty), and other species did the same later on
Even if they all DID. It wouldn't have much mattered when the Reapers came. Since its like a 4 vs 1 ratio to effectively best a Reaper dreadnaught with Council counterparts. An keep in mind thats while the rest of the Council fleets engaged with the rest of the Reaper fleet which is almost as much trouble as the Reaper Capitals.
That's not quite true. The Washington naval treaty in fact did limit aircraft carrier construction as well as battleship construction. In fact carrier tonnage was much more limited than battleship tonnage under WNT restrictions. CV's where not created to circumvent the treaty, and they weren't first made by the USN either. In fact it was the British that completed the first true aircraft carrier
@@robertagu5533 true, reapers outgun and outclass council ships by a fairly large margin but worse still is they effectively outnumber them by potentially 100-1 (they are just spread out). I love how the mass effect universe straight up ignores it's 1st rule of space combat in 3, "Never fire directly at a garden world" as any misses hit the planet with insane force, and they missed alot, earth would be a wasteland from the misses alone. Mass effect council ruled space combat always is in favour of the defender (unless attacker just wants you all dead). Just keep the planet behind you and they aren't allowed to fire.
It's a shame the game never showed how the Alliance sort of danced around the naval treaty limiting their dreadnoughts by building like sized vessels and using them as carriers. IIRC, the Codex alludes that the Alliance is the only race to utilize such a ship type. It would've been neat to see such a ship in action in some way as Mass Effect naval doctrine seems akin to pre-WWII battleship reliance.
Carriers aren't quite as useful in ME as they are in our own world for two reasons. GARDIAN point defense lasers. Those things have one-hundred percent accuracy at the start of a battle, meaning any fighter attack is going to suffer heavy casualties before they get close enough to launch torpedoes. The other reason is that your strike craft's heat emissions could be traced back to the carrier, and with FTL drives, it doesn't matter how far away the carrier is or what it's hiding behind. You can just jump to their position and destroy them at close range.
It's probably worth mentioning that the systems alliance circumvented the treaty limiting dreadnaughts by building similarly sized and equally, if not more, heavily armed fleet carriers. Other spieces in the council tended to use mobile air bases like you see on palavens moon in ME3. It's the only reason the turians found the systems alliance a military rivial even before humanity joined the council. That and the fact the systems alliance doesn't use attrition based warfare like the turians and krogan do.
We were not a military rival. We destroyed two small patrol fleets using overwhelming numbers and some tricks they hadn't seen before. We never faced a proper Turian battle fleet. At the start of the First Contact War, we had two hundred ships split into two fleets. The Turians had over two thousand, separated into at least twenty eight fleets. The largest human colony has a population of ten million. The largest Turian colony we find has a population of over a billion. If the Turians wanted to, they could have steamrolled us. Their doctrine of attrition and total war would have bled us dry long before we beat them.
Good video mass effect is definitely one of my favorite science fiction series I do hope you do more videos about the universe because mass effect has a lot of lore and overall it is an amazing universe
I really wish they'd gone more into depth about Mass Effect's warships and each species' designs, etc. So many ship designs, but we never get to do into any depth about them. Armaments, defensive systems, shield capacity, fuel, range, etc. I'd love to see more of these videos from you in the future! I love how you break stuff down. Makes it so much more interesting than it already is!
I really feel like they took inspiration from stuff like the Washington and London naval treaties for the Dreadnought numbers, makes it even funnier when the Systems Alliance just built shit loads of carriers
What bothers me about mass effect 3 is the use of the treaty of farixen with the quarians because, like the Batarians and Geth, these not being part of the council do not have to comply with that treaty
Bellator Class SSD vs. Resurgent Class SD Nebula Class SD vs. Pellaeon Class SD (or any comparable SD) Resurgent Class SD vs MC85 Cruiser (Raddus) 18th Attempt
The Resurgent would demolish the Raddus, but mostly because the New Republic desecrated the ship by severely limiting the weaponry on board. Now a MC85 at full armament and potential that would be a nice matchup
I'm all about the fast, maneuverable, and highly versatile strike craft(gunships, corvettes, light cruisers, etc.). That being said, I can understand the importance of dreadnoughts within a scifi franchise. It also helps that with the element zero core, ships can be highly maneuverable for their size.
There was something that always bothered me after Mass Effect 2, during the suicide mission through the Omega 4 Relay, the Normandy uses a pair of Thanix cannons (if the upgrade is researched) to destroy the Collector cruiser in 2 shots, but out of no-where, these weapons don’t seem to make an appearance ever again, considering that Thanix cannons were built for many fleets including on Dreadnoughts and were even mounted on the Quarian Liveships, you’d think they would be still used or seen in someway considering the damage they dish out, it be a safe bet that 5 Dreadnaught based Thanix cannons firing at one Sovereign class Reaper would probably cripple or destroy it.
If I remember correctly, the Thanix was an execellent weapon, but was only practical to the Milky Way forces in smaller versions. I gun big enough for a Dreadnought did not work. If you look at the final battle, there are many Thanix canons firing (Light blue streams), but mainly from the fighters/frigates. They also changed the look of it from ME2 to ME3, in the latter the animation became more of a light blue stream (comparing to the Reapers red stream) rather than the more noticeable (And cooler!) animation in ME2.
Nope, Dreadnoughts have no issue using Thanix cannons, and retrofitting for this weapon had already started before the Reaper Invasion. The Volus even built a dreadnought that solely used Thanix cannons, which you can acquire in ME3.
Well there's Mass effect reborn mod for Homeworld 2, that will have to do for now (the developers of the mod claimed some time ago they are returning to development of remastered version which should have single player campaign, but whether that's ever actually going to happen is in the stars).
The tyranids (WH40K) vs unified star wars galaxy (first canon and then legends) chaos (WH40K) vs unified star wars galaxy (first Canon and then legends)
The tyranids ok, but in what scale? A single Hive fleet would easily match the entire Vong invasion, what would happen with the entire swarm would be like stomping puppies with a bulldozer... As for Chaos, dear Arch gave us the answer in the Black crusades rants, the force is outmatched beyond belief, even belief is outmatched beyond itself. Also by legends you mean the stuff they had, or the ridiculous numbers from a random book for childrens that had been debunked times and times again?
@@scorpixel1866 initially only one hive fleet (and as an attempt to make it fair we put the weakest known hive fleet) against canon and then legends then the entire species against both canon and legends
One thing I really like about Mass effect's approach to classifying ships is the fact that the devs took the time to come up with the Treaty of Farixen, which is also more than likely the ENTIRE lore reason why the Citadel races all design their ships along similar guidelines: In order to regulate the ships that people are building, you first have to define and classify them. A perfect example of this is the real life London Naval Treaty which was created after the First World War. Before then nations basically just built and classified ships however they felt was best, but the treaty laid out strict guidelines for how ships should be classified. It's chiefly known for redefining the split between light and heavy cruisers. Before the treaty a light cruiser was just a ship large enough to be called a cruiser that had relatively light armor, while a heavy cruiser was, well, heavier. The treaty changed that to the following: Light cruisers were to be considered ships larger that destroyers but of no more than 10,000 tons in displacement with a main battery caliber of no more than 6.1 inches; while heavy cruisers had the same tonnage restrictions but a caliber of no less than 6.1 inches, and no more than 8 inches. To say that this treaty and its successors, the two Washington Naval Treaties, had a huge impact on how World War II played out is to put it mildly. I would even argue that had these restrictions not gone through that cruisers in the 1940s would have evolved into what were classified in reality as "large cruisers" or "cruiser killers" like the Alaska-class: Large fast ships with reasonably heavy armor and guns of roughly 12 inches in caliber. And I'd be willing to bet that if writers got deep enough into the lore of Mass Effect that the Treaty of Farixen would been seen having the same effect in the long run.
I love the alliance dreadnoughts it was cool seeing them at the near end scene in Mass Effect 3 escorting The Crucible I hope BioWare considers making dreadnaughts to sell as a collectible one day in real?
Also would be worth mentioning (which I am sure it has been buried in comments), that the Systems Alliance has built dreadnaught scale ships, but as Carriers are not bound by the the Treat of Firaxen. Goes with how the SA fights wars differently than the other council Races.
I really like the reaper ships cause of how multi-purpose they are, Cause they seem to be able to be part super computer, part communications array, part construction mech (their main weapon can also be seen as a giant welder and cutting torch), part cargo ship, part carrier and part space tug. All round it doesnt seem to be purely as a weapon of mass destruction
For some reason, watching your videos is always relaxing, informative and enjoyable. I’m not sure if it’s the content, incredible music or that dog at the end (or all of them), but whatever it is you are doing, keep doing it! It’s great!
I love the dynamics of Mass Effect. I would love a video on general tactics, and especially Turian tactics and strategy, as they’re the most militarized.
Id love to see more Mass Effect videos. Its just a shame the series itself never fully expanded into these details despite the massive potential and their already detail-focused emphasis. I mean, an entire trilogy and we still don't even know what Salarian ships look like? Im hopeful one day we'll see more detail.
I thought the Geth only built one of that class we saw in three. Wish we could have kept it around. I'd love to have seen how well that Volus dreadnought punched above its weight class. The thing was armed with Thanix cannons, and EDI decided to forget about the Normandy's. I would definitely like to see more Mass Effect.
I love the Mass Effect content! Can you do a breakdown on the ship classes and how effective you consider ME's space combat system compared to some other properties?
I'm always amazed at how people remember details like this. I forget damn near everything I read, watch or play. I have played through the entire Mass Effect series three times and I knew about....oh, none of this.
Love Mass Effect. Love the weapons, the lore, everything about it. I would like to see a compression of Biotic powers vs Force powers. Just a nice side by side breakdown.
I would enjoy a video breakdown on a broader view of Mass Effect space combat. Not any particular battle or ship type, but the mechanics of space combat in universe. Heat management, weapon and ship types, tactics, notable developments by species, things like that.
If there is any successful Battleship in mass effect it's Sovereign. Battleship role is to not only delivered maximum firepower but also absorb maximum damage inficted on it. Also it carry Occuli drones for destroying enemy fighters. It's a ship every battleship dream of
I will add that the Aliance, in order to bypass threaty requirements, was the first species of this cycle to start building Carrier Vessels, and other species (Turians mostly) did the same later on - a likely reference to USN' and RN' actions following the Washington Naval Treaty. I can often see people in the comments sying that they would have likely build more drednaughts. Not quite, if you look at the numbers: US Navy has 10 Nimitz class CVNs with displacements of 101-105 thousand tonnes and lenght of 333m. The single completed Gerald. R. Ford class is quite similar, with a slightly smaller tonnage (110 k t) and higher lenght (337m) US has a population of 325 mln while Turianr Hierarchy has a population of 9,4 bln. Thus, if we were to keep the same capitol ship tonnage per citizen ratio, it would be logical for Turrians to have 29 times larger capitol ship tonnage then the US. Hovewer, it is important too remember that if warhip X is twice as long as warhip Y, warhip X can be expected to have a mass which is 8 times larger. Thus, Turians could exploit 318 (1/3) km long ships, or for the same price, 12 killometer long ships if they were as militariesed as the most militarised country on Earth in terms of Navy. They have 37. Still seems too low?
Turians might compensate by having an ass-load of super heavy cruisers. Kinda like the pocket battleships of Nazi Germany, or the battlecruiser concept.
The numbers for population and ship counts in mass effect are undervalued by at least an order of magnitude. Given what we know about the ME universe, the populations of the big 3 citadel species should be in the single digit trillions, with at least hundreds of thousands of warships each. However, that would make humans in the 22nd century so weak as to break the entire story since they would have been squashed like a bug in 2148. The numbers were probably so heavily tuned down to make it more relatable to human growth.
CVs were not built to by pass the Washington Naval Treaty- they were limited just like BBs. Germany built "pocket battleships" because they were not signatories of the WNT. They were limited to not building proper warships by the the Versailles treaty- which they tore up.
>still seems low Against whom exactly would they need to build up the fleet? They carry the bighest stick in town and 2 second biggest are as close of an allies as it is possible.
Yea would like to see more Mass Effect, love the series. He’ll watching this made me feel like replaying the trilogy again (yes, even the ending of 3 which is still bad after 6 1/2 years but the rest of the game was great). Also, didn’t know the Volus had a dreadnaught.
I found this channel a long time ago, then didn’t see it for a while. Ran into his NHL channel and have been watching for years. Now I’m back at the nerd channel. Love it
More Mass Effect! I am a big fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, Star Gate. While I do Love the [now aging] SWOTOR/KOTOR, the OT Mass Effect Trilogy is my favorite video-game series of all time. I know all there is to know, or so I think, about the ME Universe. Regardless, please do more videos on the Mass Effect Universe.
Well you forgot to mention that the Systems Alliance semi-bypassed the dreadnought limit by making fighter Carriers, dreadnought sized ships used specifically for carrying fighter vessels (which can be armed with the powerful Thanix Cannon, making Carriers very useful)
@EckhartsLadder, Great stuff as always mate! I've liked every video I've seen of yours, and like most of your fans would like to see more Mass Effect and any other universe videos! Along that line, I was wondering if you'd ever consider doing anything from the Farscape Universe? Not sure if you've ever watched the series, but it was one of the best sci-fi shows with alot of practical effects and really rich characters/races, and I feel like alot of modern sci-fi that has come out since, like Firefly and Mass Effect for instance, borrowed a lot from that series and would love to know what your thoughts are on it :)
You forget to mention System Alliance was very aggressive toward treaty of farixen, we were building non-dreadnaught ships that are dreadnoughts in terms of capability to circumvent the treaty. You should go into more detail about humans in mass effect lore. There are especially very interesting details in the books.
Loving the Mass Effect videos Galactic versus: Can be full strength Covenant invade a unified Mass Effect Milky Way (No reapers) Mass effect has ships in the high tens of thousands and full use of the Mass relays. Covenant has standard FTL and High Charity. Remember it took the covenant 30 years to whittle down the UNSC in the Orion arm, and as the covenant will have no understanding of mass effect technology they won't know how to use the relays.
Pre ME3. Quarians have a fully armed migrant fleet. Turians and humans have rearmed with tech from sovereign (thanix cannons.) The cole protocol basically meant the covenant had to scout and stumble onto UNSC worlds. That's what took 30 years and humans only had a few dozen colonies.
Considering the strength of a mainline dreadnought compared to a UNSC frigate as well as that a CCS battlecrusier usually wins in a 1v1 vs a Marathon crusier... Covenant likely take this match
It might have been worth mentioning that the Systems Alliance skirted around the dreadnought limit with carriers, which apparently were never used by any of the Council races. If I remember correctly, carriers were just as large as dreadnoughts and carried a lot of fighters and gunships. Why the turians didn't ever conceive of a similar vessel prior to humanity's arrival on the galactic stage is mind-boggling.
Love the channel, love this video. Does anyone else think a ME naval strategy game would be fantastic? They've already got the lore and mechanics established, a game could make what was described but not shown (not shown WELL, anyway) in the ME series proper come to life in an awesome way.
Good one Eckhart it still doesn't change the fact that mass effect ships are just about at the bottom of ship vs to e.g. star wars, Warhammer, halo and stargate ships
