Subject: Addendum
Author:
Posted on: 2012-01-10 06:44:00 UTC
I do realize I've already posted this before under a badfic thread, but since then I've been told by a friend that the things pulled off by the ME characters are plausible. I'm not sure if I was trolled by my friend or I'm seriously misjudging ME tech, so bear with me here...
I am currently investigating a Starcraft / Mass Effect fic that seems to have a horribly skewed power scale in favour of the ME side: I am about 70% sure that every single thing that Shepard's team does is seriously OP in the Starcraft 'verse. The ME wiki can only tell me so much about the tech, characters, and lore so can somebody who knows this verse have a quick look-over to confirm my suspicions? I can answer any SC-related questions you might have.
Link to fic: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7157475/1/MassEffect2Wingsof_Liberty
Okay... So I took a look at the first five chapters of this thing. Here are my impressions:
Well, the ICness of the characters tends to vary a bit. Miranda and Jacob were fairly OOC when they were first introduced (Miranda doesn't really harp on her 'second in command' status that much in the games, and Jacob isn't really the kind to be confrontational), and some other lines make no sense (Garrus and Mordin have a couple lines that don't agree with their characterizations.) But on the other hand, this is the most IC I've ever seen the Illusive Man in badfic, and the writer has Mordin's speech patterns down pat. So it's not totally in character all the time, but it's not the most OOC I've ever seen people get in this continuum.
I question the logic of a second omni-tool manifesting on someone's wrist, though. That isn't plausible, since omni-tools need a free hand to manipulate, and I'm pretty sure that the omni-tool also has to have something physical there, I don't remember what. It's not just a holographic interface, so... I'd chalk that bit up to Rule of Cool abuse, since it's there to allow Shepard a second omni-blade (which will be a canon weapon come ME3, so...). That bit doesn't work.
I'd also question the Normandy's ability to repel a Yamato cannon. If you upgraded the Normandy's armor and shields in-game (which I'm assuming this fic did because they make mention of some of the other ME2 ship upgrades), it's true that you can throw a very high-powered particle beam at it and still be safe. At the same time, though, the Normandy is only a frigate, and it was designed for stealth and excellent maneuverability, not for direct dogfighting. As I don't know how Starcraft tech goes, I'd have to know how a Yamato cannon actually works in order to accurately assess how easily the Normandy could withstand it. It is feasable for the Thanix Cannon to tear right through an enemy ship, though, as that particular cannon manages to take down a Collector cruiser in two shots in-canon. Seeing as how the Collector cruiser in question was a ship that was both larger than the Normandy and had superior technology, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that it could do some serious damage to ships of another continuum.
I'm not totally sure about how fast the Normandy takes down all the ships, though. Even for the Normandy, it looks like they take down a huge amount of ships in a ludicrously small amount of time. That might be a function of the prose itself, though, because that bit was very rushed.
There's a big issue you probably wouldn't think of that came to my mind while reading this, though. See, in ME canon, not all the aliens speak English. This is handwaved by the fact that these little things called "translators" exist that allow you to understand any alien language since they translate it for you. Crossovers tackle translators in different ways, but I think the most accurate depiction is to not have 'em if the other continuum doesn't have it. Again, seeing as how I don't know Starcraft all that well, I'd have to know for certain if the Starcraft continuum has translators. If it does, then I can possibly see why the aliens would be instantly understood. If not, that could possibly be a pretty big charge.
Hm... I know that the biotic barrier that Jack summons can block smaller objects from entering. But if said object is travelling at a high velocity, that makes me less sure because the biotic barrier they're talking about can't block mass accelerator rounds from either side, in both gameplay and cutscenes. Thus, I think it would be too much of a stretch to assume that Starcraft bullets can just bounce off the thing, so that bit at least is fairly implausible.
I know that Grunt would DEFINITELY be able to charge guys while taking a ton of punishment, but I don't think people would fail to notice him charging, given that krogan are huge in comparison to humans and that the aliens are probably stealing all the attention in this situation.
The whole bit about the ME-verse technology being based on Xel'Naga technology is actually really canon breaking for the ME-continuum, though. The thing is this: the Protheans inherited the mass relays, rather than making them. So did the species before the Protheans, and the guys before them, and vice versa. See, the technology of the ME universe is based on the technology of the Reapers that go in and destroy all organic life every 50,000 years, and it's been like that basically since the beginning of the universe. It plays into their Xanatos Gambit in rather large ways, which I won't go into here. The fact that all species are essentially unwittingly playing into the Reapers' plans by developing a technology along their path is thus a piece of the Reapers that plays as a pretty big plot point throughout the first Mass Effect. As Sovereign says in the first game, "We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it." Thus, having ME-tech be suddenly based on Xel'Naga technology creates a massive plot canyon in the ME continuum. That is definitely implausible, and if this were ever to be sporked, then this would constitute a canon break in the ME continuum. I'm sure it would also create a canon break in the Starcraft continuum as well, given the nature of Prothean technology as I've explained above.
Reaper indoctrination not working in the Starcraft continuum is also very implausible. If the experiences we've had with indoctrination throughout the entire ME franchise say anything right now, nobody can escape indoctrination, especially since you don't know that you're being indoctrinated when you get indoctrinated.
So overall, my impression is that this fic is pretty canon-breaking for the ME continuum, but not in the way you'd expect. It's possible for the Normandy to do some of the things it does in-fic, but my bigger concern is in the stuff that attempts to bring the Starcraft and ME universes together, because it makes no sense at all and breaks canon for both continua. Honestly, part of me is wondering if this author ever played the first game, so yeah.
I'll have to look through the rest of this thing at a later time, but for now, those are my impressions.
Error at the beginning of the first chapter: the zerg do not possess better tech than what ME has. In fact, the zerg have no use for technology, their interactions with other species limited to: a) kill it now b) kill it later c) assimilate into the Swarm.
On your question about the Yamato: it is a gigantic ship-based weapon that fires a shaped nuclear explosion at a target. In game, it is a one-hit kill on nearly every single unit in the game except for massive units, Archons, Ultralisks, buildings, and certain Protoss starships. I don't think the Normandy can survive being shot by a massive ball of plasma.
For that matter, Terran Battlecruisers are essentially gigantic damage sponges, capable of taking heavy beatings (capable surviving a Yamato blasts themselves) and possessing energy-based shields in addition to heavy plating. Their armament consists entirely of laser weaponry, which I'm certain the Normandy will have a hard time guarding against. Battlecruisers are some of the most deadly air units in the game, and in canon act as capital ships for Terran commanders.
... I wasn't finished yet.
Language wise, I assume that all Terrans speak English. Protoss thought-speech is translated automatically to any listeners. Zerg receive orders from the Overmind / Queen of blades / other superiors through a dedicated telepathic channel and are otherwise not sentient.
Inappropriate use of Banshee aircraft: it's like throwing a helicopter into space. Stupid and useless.
If you say that accelerator rounds can pass through a biotic barrier, then the Normandy crew would have been shot to bits in less than ten seconds. Yes, the C-14 Impaler rifle is gauss-powered, but it is by no means inferior to ME tech. It fires 8mm steel, 50 cal, or U-238 spikes at hypersonic velocities at 30 rounds per second. Its magazine holds over 200 rounds and the rifle can empty it with a full, non-stop burst without overheating.
When Horner called for Stim-packs, he was referring to a stimulant that can be injected into infantrymen that doubles their speed and reaction times, meaning that Marines can move and shoot twice as fast. Infantry can deal terrible terrible heavy damage in-game when Stims are used properly, so I dread to think what it could do to targets behind a shoot-through biotic barrier.
Grunt couldn't have brushed off the Marines between him and Horner so easily: they must weigh well over a metric tonne in that suit.
Also, I just noticed the author just handwaved away Protoss tech: "Protoss shields falter by gauss technology, and by the weapons being slightly weaker, well then here you go."
That's like saying a wall is weak because a guy with a sledgehammer can break through.
The author seriously underestimates Protoss power: their weapons are all psionic or energy based. To give you an idea of the sheer power that the Protoss wield, think of this: their most basic infantry unit, the zealot, has a powered armoursuit that has a ton of shields packed onto it, a teleportation device that spirits the wounded soldier away, and is equipped with a 3/4 metre-long blade made out of his own mind-energy. Yeah. Because the author said that psionics cannot affect the ME universe, he/she has just made the ME crew invulnerable to most 'Toss attacks. What.
Also, Zerg/'Toss non-organic interface saved by DNA uplink? Non-organic and DNA cannot coexist in the same thing. Also, as stated in my previous post, zerg have no need for tech, so why is it there?
I also like how the author managed to paste Shepherd's crew into canon cutscenes. It's really, really funny.
Yeah.
Granted, most mass accelerator rounds are actually smaller than 8mm, and since mass accelerator rounds use mass effect fields to speed them up beyond other physical means (to the point that a paint chip could be just as lethal as a nuclear weapon at sufficient velocity), well, that could handwave that. But given that hypersonic speeds are also being fired from the Starcraft variation of gaussian tech, I'm not sure that we'd be in business there...
And then there's the whole fact that the Terrans can perfectly understand what the aliens are saying if the Zerg don't speak and the Protoss automatically translate. If that's true, then the Terrans shouldn't be able to understand any of the aliens there. The fact that not all species speak the same language in the ME-verse is actually a minor plot point in the Thane romance, since the only reason 'siha' comes through as Thane's term of endearment for Shepard is because Shepard's translator glitches out on the term and is unable to translate it effectively. Also, you'll hear various quarian phrases filter through the translators at times, and there's supposedly a point in the first game's Bring Down The Sky DLC where the batarians are supposedly speaking in their own language to each other. This kind of instant translation for people without ME-verse translators is actually a very common error that's made in most crossover fanfiction with the ME-verse, but it's worse with fics like this that involve other sci-fi continua with sprawling alien stuffs.
As for everything else...
...Yeah, all this sounds bad enough that I think it could-- and should-- be taken to the sporking block. If the author handwaved the technology of an entire species, then there's something wrong with this story entirely. I mean, this author is committing tons of crimes against the tech of both continua, even going so far as to completely break canon with the whole Xel'Naga being behind ME-verse tech bit.
And you know, the crazy thing is that this author actually does the reverse of what a lot of other Mass Effect crossovers with another sci-fi continua tend to do: in most crossovers of this nature, it's actually the ME-verse that has the inferior technology. So I'm half beginning to think that this is a stealth parody of that tendency in ME crossover fiction.
Now, there are a lot more charges I could include to the SC list if I was looking hard for them, but since I was in a hurry, I simply posted the most blatant ones.
After putting up my first piece and a Zelda Intel report on a fic which I think needs to be spoked, I was thinking of sending Gaspard into this one. He's going to have a lot of fun with this fic...
I'm sure Gaspard could probably use some help identifying the Mass Effect charges since he doesn't know that continuum that well. (It wouldn't be the first time my agents have been assigned to help someone in another department.) If so, then I'd be up for making this a cowrite. =D
I have a TON of schoolwork that kinda makes it difficult to have some time to sit down and write.
That being said, your offer is alluring, and Intel rules state that for crossover fics there needs to be at least one specialist for each verse crossed. I'll poke your Talk page when I think I'll have enough time on my hands to do this. Thank you for the offer!
Thanks. Yeah, it sounds really hard to survive being shot with a massive ball of plasma, so...
Though, I think it's telling that the author mentions several times that he/she is changing things on purpose, even at one point saying something to the effect of "and if the Yamato cannon destroyed the Normandy, there would be no story". Admissions like that don't tend to sit well with me. I mean, if that happens, maybe you should rewrite that bit. Just sayin', fic.
I just realized this while checking for something else in chapter five, but... In one part of chapter five, there's a vision of a Prothean ship being chased by a Collector cruiser at the galactic core. This is all fine and good.
Except for one thing:
The Collectors are the Protheans, repurposed to suit the needs of the Reapers.
So there's another canon break right there.
I do realize I've already posted this before under a badfic thread, but since then I've been told by a friend that the things pulled off by the ME characters are plausible. I'm not sure if I was trolled by my friend or I'm seriously misjudging ME tech, so bear with me here...