In other notes, was the Destiny Ascension (The Asari's so called super dreadnaught) ever shown to actually....DO anything?
It was really hyped up in the codex and conversations with it's massive ship-long cannon blabla, and yet in the final battle it just...sat there, and needed rescuing, and even then still didn't DO anything lol.
I know that was partially due to Harbinger's interventions, but still.. I expected to be shown something to back up the hype.
Dreadnoughts require huge distances to properly fire their main guns. As in "tens of thousands of kilometers" range. Sovereign closes the distance so fast that it literally rams a ship into pieces. Destiny Ascension can do nothhing at such close range.
► codex entry
ship combat drednaught range.jpg
Up-close dreadnoughts are nearly useless without Javelin torpedo systems and those are a relatively new Alliance technology in ME1.
► codex entry
javelins.jpg
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Last edited by logincrash on January 30th, 2026, 22:44, edited 1 time in total.
I doubt I'm alone in my love of Mass Effect. Finarfin, TheEmptyRoad, and Bertram_Tung would be in the same club.
Although, their love might be less pure, considering that they can stomach the ****** remaster.
I can stomach the remaster because it has fixes to make it better. I've played the trilogy on the 360 about 80+ times since I didn't buy games every day back then.
I remember being fully immersed when I first stepped foot onto the Citadel. It was like being in an episode of Star Trek, all those different races, billions of codex entries etc. It really set up the universe.
The Citadel and the Council did not feel like alien societies and organizations. They felt like the modern US but in space. The Citadel has human style bars and clubs... that have been operated by aliens for decades long before humanity was admitted. The cities on the Citadel are organized like human cities. The council uses modern 21st century American logic that worships laws and constitutions and is skeptical of esoterism. Nothing about the Citadel or the Council feels like it an alliance of non-human races at all.
I remember being fully immersed when I first stepped foot onto the Citadel. It was like being in an episode of Star Trek, all those different races, billions of codex entries etc. It really set up the universe.
The Citadel and the Council did not feel like alien societies and organizations. They felt like the modern US but in space. The Citadel has human style bars and clubs... that have been operated by aliens for decades long before humanity was admitted. The cities on the Citadel are organized like human cities. The council uses modern 21st century American logic that worships laws and constitutions and is skeptical of esoterism. Nothing about the Citadel or the Council feels like it an alliance of non-human races at all.
As they should, the citadel exists to serve Human interests much like the Federation in Star Trek.
For a fantasy depiction of a megapolis that really emphasizes all of these different species, Zootopia did a good job. You see that the city is designed with infrastructure that supports animals of different sizes (like doors or checkpoint queues for small and tiny animals, or drink lifts for tall giraffes) and habitats (like the checkpoint queue for the hippos cooling off in the water). And then the movie has the protagonist go through different environmental sections designed for different types of animals to live there, like the artificial rainforest area where the moisture level is kept very high. How they produce special food for the carnivore subsection of the population, allowing the historically hostile carnivores to now live as neighbors with the rest. Babylon 5 did that once in the pilot episode when Sinclair had to down a mask and go into an area that was pumped full of a gas that the Vorlons could breath, but that was it.
I remember being fully immersed when I first stepped foot onto the Citadel. It was like being in an episode of Star Trek, all those different races, billions of codex entries etc. It really set up the universe.
The Citadel and the Council did not feel like alien societies and organizations. They felt like the modern US but in space. The Citadel has human style bars and clubs... that have been operated by aliens for decades long before humanity was admitted. The cities on the Citadel are organized like human cities. The council uses modern 21st century American logic that worships laws and constitutions and is skeptical of esoterism. Nothing about the Citadel or the Council feels like it an alliance of non-human races at all.
The citadel was designed by the reapers to mold the species that use it into food.
Last edited by J1M on January 31st, 2026, 01:20, edited 2 times in total.
I remember being fully immersed when I first stepped foot onto the Citadel. It was like being in an episode of Star Trek, all those different races, billions of codex entries etc. It really set up the universe.
The Citadel and the Council did not feel like alien societies and organizations. They felt like the modern US but in space. The Citadel has human style bars and clubs... that have been operated by aliens for decades long before humanity was admitted. The cities on the Citadel are organized like human cities. The council uses modern 21st century American logic that worships laws and constitutions and is skeptical of esoterism. Nothing about the Citadel or the Council feels like it an alliance of non-human races at all.
it is a bit disappointing that the alien races in ME universe aren't all that alien, but that was a conscious decision on Bioware's part, not a failure.
All of the alien races are loosely based on the different human societies - all the behavioural quirks are here to make them feel familiar, their given names sound like something lifted from the human history, etc. The alien races would've been less relatable if they were all ****** up tentacle monsters who speak gibberish, operate on blue and orange morality, and have stupid names like Glub Shitto.
All the similarities to the human culture can be handwaved by invoking the parallel planetary development law from Star Trek anyway.
The alien races would've been less relatable if they were all ****** up tentacle monsters who speak gibberish
yeah, and you can see how those guys (and the elephants) are the least popular aliens in the ME universe. You can't have them in combat roles, can't have them as party members, can't hold a proper conversations with them, etc.
The alien races would've been less relatable if they were all ****** up tentacle monsters who speak gibberish
yeah, and you can see how those guys (and the elephants) are the least popular aliens in the ME universe. You can't have them in combat roles, can't have them as party members, can't hold a proper conversations with them, etc.
As it should be. If aliens were portrayed as right properly alien, instead of just slightly different humanoid bipedals with speech just like ours, a lot more players would have understood true xenophobia. And you could have just had more human party members.
The alien races would've been less relatable if they were all ****** up tentacle monsters who speak gibberish
yeah, and you can see how those guys (and the elephants) are the least popular aliens in the ME universe. You can't have them in combat roles, can't have them as party members, can't hold a proper conversations with them, etc.
Those were both my favourite. I loved discovering them and reading the codex entries etc. And that was the biggest part of the immersion for me.
Some with the Volus(?) in their weird lil pressure suits lol.
It's difficult to make truly alien aliens without being weird for weirdness sake, unless they're so alien as to be incomprehensible monsters. I.E. the original short story of "Arena." Star Trek made it much nicer and gave it a lovey-dovey ending compared to the original story.
But not having recruitable tentacle ayys or elephants is just laziness on Bioware's part because they don't want to go through all the trouble of having to model, rig, and animate weird weapons and animations.
yeah, and you can see how those guys (and the elephants) are the least popular aliens in the ME universe. You can't have them in combat roles, can't have them as party members, can't hold a proper conversations with them, etc.
Those were both my favourite. I loved discovering them and reading the codex entries etc. And that was the biggest part of the immersion for me.
Some with the Volus(?) in their weird lil pressure suits lol.
I suspect they probably just thought people would get upset that you can't see customizable armor on non-bipedal companions because it would be a lot of effort for little gain. Personally, I wouldn't have cared
it is a bit disappointing that the alien races in ME universe aren't all that alien, but that was a conscious decision on Bioware's part, not a failure.
The codex is doing most of the work on that front, as usual.
Krogans don't have an actual nervous system.
codex snippets battle turtles.jpg
Salarians don't have a sex drive nor any of the things that stem from it.
codex snippets truly alien.jpg
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Is there a way that salarian entry squares with the bar discussion of the males arguing about what makes an asari attractive?
I don't remember the exact details, but doesn't that come up in the conversation? Asari are space succubi gene stealers so there's gotta be some way they charm their victims.
Probably some pheromones or their ****** up telepathy that rewires an alien species' disgust at breeding with outsiders.
it is a bit disappointing that the alien races in ME universe aren't all that alien, but that was a conscious decision on Bioware's part, not a failure.
The codex is doing most of the work on that front, as usual.
Krogans don't have an actual nervous system.
Salarians don't have a sex drive nor any of the things that stem from it.
Interesting about the Salarions. You'd think with how short their lives are, it would be the opposite.
it is a bit disappointing that the alien races in ME universe aren't all that alien, but that was a conscious decision on Bioware's part, not a failure.
The codex is doing most of the work on that front, as usual.
Krogans don't have an actual nervous system.
Salarians don't have a sex drive nor any of the things that stem from it.
A lot of work went into the codex, it does a lot to flesh out the world. I have no idea who wrote the entries. @Roguey any idea?
it is a bit disappointing that the alien races in ME universe aren't all that alien, but that was a conscious decision on Bioware's part, not a failure.
The codex is doing most of the work on that front, as usual.
Krogans don't have an actual nervous system.
Salarians don't have a sex drive nor any of the things that stem from it.
Interesting about the Salarions. You'd think with how short their lives are, it would be the opposite.
A Salarian female lays a dozen eggs. Every single egg hatches. Fertilized eggs become female Salarians and unfertilized eggs become males. Every Salarian has hundreds of cousins.
Decided to run the whole thing again. Did an Insanity Engineer playthrough with my ginger alien slayer.
3rd time's the charm.jpg
insane in the membrane.jpg
The Insanity difficulty is just an exercise in patience. Every enemy has some ******** that grants them instant shield restoration or 95% damage reduction or they just have a ton of health as is (the ******* Thorian creepers took FOREVER to kill, not because of their numbers but because I had to dump hundreds of rounds into every single one of them to finally kill them). Biotics become essential. It was easy to juggle Saren with two biotics with Lift.
Veteran is still my preferred difficulty but you can bump it up to Hardcore if you want a little more tactical complexity with skill usage.
► 4 screenshots
doofus.jpg
definition of insanity.jpg
If you're affected by biotics (i.e. ragdolled) when Benezia does her phase switch during the boss fight, you'll be ejected out of the map.
outta this world.jpg
The only achievements I have yet to unlock on this PC.
filthy xenos.jpg
But I ain't gonna make friends with alien scum.
Got another dozen screenshots on this playthrough, but too lazy to sort them out right now.
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The codex is doing most of the work on that front, as usual.
Krogans don't have an actual nervous system.
Salarians don't have a sex drive nor any of the things that stem from it.
Interesting about the Salarions. You'd think with how short their lives are, it would be the opposite.
A Salarian female lays a dozen eggs. Every single egg hatches. Fertilized eggs become female Salarians and unfertilized eggs become males. Every Salarian has hundreds of cousins.
Mass Effect 1 (2007)
• Story planning and dialogue: planet Noveria
• Story planning and dialogue: planet Therum
• Story planning and dialogue: planet Caleston (cut from final game; ~50k words of dialogue)
• Dialogue: Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams
• Wrote all in-game Codex entries.
• Rewrote procedural planet descriptions and edited Galaxy Map layout on personal initiative to improve quality and scientific accuracy.
• Produced lore-related marketing materials for BioWare's website and game news network sites.
Mass Effect 2 (2010)
• Story planning and dialogue: party character Thane Krios
• Story planning and dialogue: party character Legion
• Story planning and dialogue: location Citadel Zakera Ward
• Dialogue: character EDI
• Led multidisciplinary teams designing the Recruitment and Loyalty mission levels for Thane Krios and Legion.
• Developed mission level concepts and wrote first draft dialogue for party members Miranda Lawson, Tali’Zorah vas Neema, and Jacob Taylor.)
Interesting about the Salarions. You'd think with how short their lives are, it would be the opposite.
A Salarian female lays a dozen eggs. Every single egg hatches. Fertilized eggs become female Salarians and unfertilized eggs become males. Every Salarian has hundreds of cousins.
Half siblings?
Salarians don't have sex drives, so offspring outside arranged marriages is very rare.
► Codex entries
salarian biology.jpg
salarian culture.jpg
salarian government.jpg
No baby mommas or deadbeat dads.
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A Salarian female lays a dozen eggs. Every single egg hatches. Fertilized eggs become female Salarians and unfertilized eggs become males. Every Salarian has hundreds of cousins.
Half siblings?
Salarians don't have sex drives, so offspring outside arranged marriages is very rare.
► Codex entries
No baby mommas or deadbeat dads.
My point was that all of the dozens of kids from those egg clutches have the same mom. Which is a closer familial connection than cousin.
yeah, and you can see how those guys (and the elephants) are the least popular aliens in the ME universe. You can't have them in combat roles, can't have them as party members, can't hold a proper conversations with them, etc.
Those were both my favourite. I loved discovering them and reading the codex entries etc. And that was the biggest part of the immersion for me.
Some with the Volus(?) in their weird lil pressure suits lol.
Voluses (Volusi?) are just space ****.
actually it's the quarians who are space ****.
Voluses are the goofy stereotypical greedy **** who like money, Quarians are the hateful warmongering semites who got kicked out of their land by the golems they have created, so now they create problems for everyone around them. Also their home star system is called Tikkun.
