Mass Effect 2 might not advance the main plot, but it did a great job of fleshing out the Mass Effect universe in interesting and exciting ways.
Yes, this.
I've said this all before, but I understand when people say that it doesn't really advance the main (Reaper) plot -- i.e. "Reapers are coming" --> "Yep, Reapers still coming."
But saying that it's empty or doesn't push forward the narrative or story in general is something that I just don't get. It does a huge amount to flesh things out and set the stage in important ways. It brings Cerberus to the forefront and introduces the Illusive Man, who for better or worse were a big deal in ME3. It introduces EDI. It reveals that the Geth are more than just the cardboard murderbots they're presented as in the first game. It adds important depth to basically every race. We meet the Quarian fleet, namely the Admiralty Board. We learn a lot more about the genophage and get multiple perspectives on its causes and effects.
And it does actually push forward the Reaper narrative and lore (spoilers I guess for anyone reading who hasn't played ME2).
IIRC, in ME1 we're only meant to think that the reapers are destroying shit, full-stop. Just tearing everything up. It's ME2 that reveals that the Reapers are also collecting species, processing them into new Reapers, and "preserving" their genetic information. Obviously it's debatable how much that actually matters in ME3, but I think it's still an important reveal in the overall story.
If BioWare can't spare the studio or devs to work on the upres then they should be able to send it off to a contract developer. This is commonly done by other studios. Hell, Square is even doing it with their FF7 Remake, and that's a lot more than just an upres. There are many studios that specialize in precisely this kind of thing.
It's a really bizarre decision, and I wonder if it boils down to ME3 angst. That was something that resulted in therapy for some developer team members after all. It wouldn't be surprising to learn of resistance to dredging that back up.
Fleur de Alys on
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
0
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
That might be it. I'm at work currently and trying to buy it through the website. I'll have to check when I get home and can fire up the client.
I was trying right now and couldn't get it to work. If someone else can figure it out let me know; I'm also not about to buy Dragon Age for the sake of getting DLC for Mass Effect.
butts
0
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
edited September 2016
awwww, damn. They must have not intended for that to work and closed the hole. I just tried, and it wouldn't let me apply the code to bioware points where it did two days ago.
Orca on
0
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
That N7 hoodie is the comfiest I ever did wear, wow. Is a little too warm still, but I cannae resist.
awwww, damn. They must have not intended for that to work and closed the hole. I just tried, and it wouldn't let me apply the code to bioware points where it did two days ago.
I think they actually changed it halfway through when I was buying the DLC last night, which was a bit unfortunate for me.
On an entirely unrelated note I've finally picked up all the DLC. Time for a series replay? Time for a series replay.
It was a really good hit you in the feels send off before the final assault on earth. Also the arcade game area in there was pretty fun to mess around with for a while.
That N7 hoodie is the comfiest I ever did wear, wow. Is a little too warm still, but I cannae resist.
Amen to that. Which is why I have 3 of them (Navy, Black, Charcoal, though the first one is wearing out in a couple places, especially the elbows), the Elite hoodie (black with more elaborate trim) and a jacket. Plus two t-shirts. And the mug (which I now keep at work).
The Bioware store and I are like THIS.
Speaking of fun swag though, remember that costuming group I mentioned a while back? Whelp, we're doing a thing.
Does everyone know what a 'challenge coin' is?
Note, I didn't design it, just financed more of them. They had a run of them about 2.5 years ago, and after waiting patiently I decided to do my homework, checked with the admins, and got a second run created.
You can kill the fleet, but did all the quarians ever make it back there during the war? Ending a nation isn't a genocide.
Back from where? Last I checked, Quarians don't have colonies.
From everywhere? There were quarians in almost every inhabited place.
I'm wondering if we killed them until they were dead, not what overall effect this may have on Rubio's poll-numbers in the long term.
It's a thing in the military. Different units/fancy high rank folks have challenge coins with their unit insignia and slogans and such. Theoretically, in a bar, you can bust out your coin, and everyone else breaks out theirs. The one with the lowest rank on it (rank of the commander of the unit the coin represents) pays for the next round. Most people who aren't goobers, however, almost never carry a coin around with them on a daily basis, so it's not super prevalent, at least not the bars where I've been.
Edit: Mostly you just collect them because they look cool!
It's a thing in the military. Different units/fancy high rank folks have challenge coins with their unit insignia and slogans and such. Theoretically, in a bar, you can bust out your coin, and everyone else breaks out theirs. The one with the lowest rank on it (rank of the commander of the unit the coin represents) pays for the next round. Most people who aren't goobers, however, almost never carry a coin around with them on a daily basis, so it's not super prevalent, at least not the bars where I've been.
Edit: Mostly you just collect them because they look cool!
Oh, *I* know what they are. That's why I asked if 'everyone' knows, not 'anyone'.
It was more of a subtle way of directing people where to look for info if they weren't aware, rather than just linking the Wiki page for Challenge Coins. :-P
I own two of the PAX East coins, though they're considerably larger/heavier 'medallions'. I have friends/connections in the 501st Legion, which includes some overlap with Mass Effect among their crew, so I'm hoping to maybe one day trade a spare coin for one of theirs, as people have managed to do in the past.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
You can kill the fleet, but did all the quarians ever make it back there during the war? Ending a nation isn't a genocide.
Back from where? Last I checked, Quarians don't have colonies.
From everywhere? There were quarians in almost every inhabited place.
I'm wondering if we killed them until they were dead, not what overall effect this may have on Rubio's poll-numbers in the long term.
In that case, yes, wiping out the Flotilla probably won't kill every single Quarian in existence. But it will absolutely lower their population to below sustainable levels and cause the extinction of their species within the decade.
They made it pretty clear that they (stupidly, as usual) put everything they had into it. Giant cargo ship full of civilians? Put some guns on it! They probably had toddlers flying around in their suits shooting shotguns at the geth from ineffective ranges.
You can kill the fleet, but did all the quarians ever make it back there during the war? Ending a nation isn't a genocide.
Back from where? Last I checked, Quarians don't have colonies.
From everywhere? There were quarians in almost every inhabited place.
I'm wondering if we killed them until they were dead, not what overall effect this may have on Rubio's poll-numbers in the long term.
In that case, yes, wiping out the Flotilla probably won't kill every single Quarian in existence. But it will absolutely lower their population to below sustainable levels and cause the extinction of their species within the decade.
If the surviving Quarians banded together, they'd need a population of ~4000 to stay viable via random breeding. With directed breeding a viable population could be sustainable with populations approaching 1000 people. This is assuming their genetics work similarly to terrestrial vertebrates on earth.
4000 of a galaxy spanning race is not that large of a number.
You can kill the fleet, but did all the quarians ever make it back there during the war? Ending a nation isn't a genocide.
Back from where? Last I checked, Quarians don't have colonies.
From everywhere? There were quarians in almost every inhabited place.
I'm wondering if we killed them until they were dead, not what overall effect this may have on Rubio's poll-numbers in the long term.
In that case, yes, wiping out the Flotilla probably won't kill every single Quarian in existence. But it will absolutely lower their population to below sustainable levels and cause the extinction of their species within the decade.
If the surviving Quarians banded together, they'd need a population of ~4000 to stay viable via random breeding. With directed breeding a viable population could be sustainable with populations approaching 1000 people. This is assuming their genetics work similarly to terrestrial vertebrates on earth.
4000 of a galaxy spanning race is not that large of a number.
A galaxy that they can't traverse because the method for doing that is destroyed. So you're left with pockets of maybe a couple dozen from any given system, a couple of hundred on the outside. Of a species that can't breathe regular air without almost definitely catching a fatal infection.
Without the flotilla or a homeworld, Quarians are fucked.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds.2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
+8
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
That's probably the biggest drawback to the red ending
all three remove the Mass Relays, but with Control and Synthesis, at least you get Reapers as allies, and we know they have crazy advanced FTL that can traverse interstellar distances in months rather than the decades of the regular ships; see the ending of Arrival, which only stalled them about six months before travelling to another relay, while Shepard assumed that would buy her tens of years.
Plus they can just rebuild the relays in time.
Destroy is a big ol reset with very little hope of reestablishing the kind of connected galaxy that existed before.
That's probably the biggest drawback to the red ending
all three remove the Mass Relays, but with Control and Synthesis, at least you get Reapers as allies, and we know they have crazy advanced FTL that can traverse interstellar distances in months rather than the decades of the regular ships; see the ending of Arrival, which only stalled them about six months before travelling to another relay, while Shepard assumed that would buy her tens of years.
Plus they can just rebuild the relays in time.
Destroy is a big ol reset with very little hope of reestablishing the kind of connected galaxy that existed before.
Destroy also just continues the whole "synthetic vs organic" conflict. It just resets the loop, but this time the reapers won't turn up for their selective cull and maybe the new version of geth just kill everyone
Nothing about green resolves organics vs synthetics because the races could create new labor saving robots that wouldn't be grandfathered in to synthesis. Then there's your cycle again.
Also green makes no sense at all, but we're skipping that for this post.
That's probably the biggest drawback to the red ending
all three remove the Mass Relays, but with Control and Synthesis, at least you get Reapers as allies, and we know they have crazy advanced FTL that can traverse interstellar distances in months rather than the decades of the regular ships; see the ending of Arrival, which only stalled them about six months before travelling to another relay, while Shepard assumed that would buy her tens of years.
Plus they can just rebuild the relays in time.
Destroy is a big ol reset with very little hope of reestablishing the kind of connected galaxy that existed before.
Destroy also just continues the whole "synthetic vs organic" conflict. It just resets the loop, but this time the reapers won't turn up for their selective cull and maybe the new version of geth just kill everyone
This outlook is assuming that the reapers were correct. I think their reasoning is flawed, thus destroy doesn't lead to that outcome and there are no more cycles.
You can kill the fleet, but did all the quarians ever make it back there during the war? Ending a nation isn't a genocide.
Back from where? Last I checked, Quarians don't have colonies.
From everywhere? There were quarians in almost every inhabited place.
I'm wondering if we killed them until they were dead, not what overall effect this may have on Rubio's poll-numbers in the long term.
In that case, yes, wiping out the Flotilla probably won't kill every single Quarian in existence. But it will absolutely lower their population to below sustainable levels and cause the extinction of their species within the decade.
If the surviving Quarians banded together, they'd need a population of ~4000 to stay viable via random breeding. With directed breeding a viable population could be sustainable with populations approaching 1000 people. This is assuming their genetics work similarly to terrestrial vertebrates on earth.
4000 of a galaxy spanning race is not that large of a number.
A galaxy that they can't traverse because the method for doing that is destroyed. So you're left with pockets of maybe a couple dozen from any given system, a couple of hundred on the outside. Of a species that can't breathe regular air without almost definitely catching a fatal infection.
Without the flotilla or a homeworld, Quarians are fucked.
I thought even on destroy the relays were being rebuilt in the director's cut.
You can kill the fleet, but did all the quarians ever make it back there during the war? Ending a nation isn't a genocide.
Back from where? Last I checked, Quarians don't have colonies.
From everywhere? There were quarians in almost every inhabited place.
I'm wondering if we killed them until they were dead, not what overall effect this may have on Rubio's poll-numbers in the long term.
In that case, yes, wiping out the Flotilla probably won't kill every single Quarian in existence. But it will absolutely lower their population to below sustainable levels and cause the extinction of their species within the decade.
If the surviving Quarians banded together, they'd need a population of ~4000 to stay viable via random breeding. With directed breeding a viable population could be sustainable with populations approaching 1000 people. This is assuming their genetics work similarly to terrestrial vertebrates on earth.
4000 of a galaxy spanning race is not that large of a number.
But that's the thing, isn't it? The Quarians aren't galaxy spanning. Not really.
If you're a Quarian, and you live outside the Flotilla, there's four possibles reasons for that.
You're a young adult and you haven't completed your pilgrimage yet.
You're a criminal and you've been banished.
You left on your pilgrimage, failed to find anything to prove your worth, and refused to return out of shame. Tali mentions in the first game that this applies to very few Quarians in practice. The Quarians know they need as many bodies as they can get, so the Captains always find some excuse to welcome back any Quarian who returns from pilgrimage, even those who return empty handed.
You decided of your own choice to leave the Flotilla and live among aliens instead. We have never seen or even heard of any individual this applies to, but it theoretically must happen, at least occasionally.
When the Quarians did their big recall, all Quarians in Groups 1 and 3 would have returned to the Flotilla immediately. Probably at least some in Group 4 as well, depending on their sense of civic duty.
So the only Quarians they have left to repopulate the species would be those from Group 2 and anyone in Group 4 who ignored the recall order. So we're probably not talking about thousands of individuals here, maybe not even hundreds, most of which are either criminals or people who decided to abandon the rest of their species a long time ago.
You can kill the fleet, but did all the quarians ever make it back there during the war? Ending a nation isn't a genocide.
Back from where? Last I checked, Quarians don't have colonies.
From everywhere? There were quarians in almost every inhabited place.
I'm wondering if we killed them until they were dead, not what overall effect this may have on Rubio's poll-numbers in the long term.
In that case, yes, wiping out the Flotilla probably won't kill every single Quarian in existence. But it will absolutely lower their population to below sustainable levels and cause the extinction of their species within the decade.
If the surviving Quarians banded together, they'd need a population of ~4000 to stay viable via random breeding. With directed breeding a viable population could be sustainable with populations approaching 1000 people. This is assuming their genetics work similarly to terrestrial vertebrates on earth.
4000 of a galaxy spanning race is not that large of a number.
But that's the thing, isn't it? The Quarians aren't galaxy spanning. Not really.
If you're a Quarian, and you live outside the Flotilla, there's four possibles reasons for that.
You're a young adult and you haven't completed your pilgrimage yet.
You're a criminal and you've been banished.
You left on your pilgrimage, failed to find anything to prove your worth, and refused to return out of shame. Tali mentions in the first game that this applies to very few Quarians in practice. The Quarians know they need as many bodies as they can get, so the Captains always find some excuse to welcome back any Quarian who returns from pilgrimage, even those who return empty handed.
You decided of your own choice to leave the Flotilla and live among aliens instead. We have never seen or even heard of any individual this applies to, but it theoretically must happen, at least occasionally.
When the Quarians did their big recall, all Quarians in Groups 1 and 3 would have returned to the Flotilla immediately. Probably at least some in Group 4 as well, depending on their sense of civic duty.
So the only Quarians they have left to repopulate the species would be those from Group 2 and anyone in Group 4 who ignored the recall order. So we're probably not talking about thousands of individuals here, maybe not even hundreds, most of which are either criminals or people who decided to abandon the rest of their species a long time ago.
I think you're missing the scale of things here. 4000 is a veeeeeery small number when looking at the population of a race. 4000 is 0.00005% of just the population of humanity right now. Even just the population of any one group is likely well over 4000. Hell, I guarantee there's likely millions of them in various prisons around the galaxy. How likely is it that there are no Quarian communities separate from the flotilla? How likely is it that the flotilla was so thoroughly destroyed that less than 4000 of them managed to escape in escape pods or limp away in damaged ships or just fled the battle before it started?
You can kill the fleet, but did all the quarians ever make it back there during the war? Ending a nation isn't a genocide.
Back from where? Last I checked, Quarians don't have colonies.
From everywhere? There were quarians in almost every inhabited place.
I'm wondering if we killed them until they were dead, not what overall effect this may have on Rubio's poll-numbers in the long term.
In that case, yes, wiping out the Flotilla probably won't kill every single Quarian in existence. But it will absolutely lower their population to below sustainable levels and cause the extinction of their species within the decade.
If the surviving Quarians banded together, they'd need a population of ~4000 to stay viable via random breeding. With directed breeding a viable population could be sustainable with populations approaching 1000 people. This is assuming their genetics work similarly to terrestrial vertebrates on earth.
4000 of a galaxy spanning race is not that large of a number.
But that's the thing, isn't it? The Quarians aren't galaxy spanning. Not really.
If you're a Quarian, and you live outside the Flotilla, there's four possibles reasons for that.
You're a young adult and you haven't completed your pilgrimage yet.
You're a criminal and you've been banished.
You left on your pilgrimage, failed to find anything to prove your worth, and refused to return out of shame. Tali mentions in the first game that this applies to very few Quarians in practice. The Quarians know they need as many bodies as they can get, so the Captains always find some excuse to welcome back any Quarian who returns from pilgrimage, even those who return empty handed.
You decided of your own choice to leave the Flotilla and live among aliens instead. We have never seen or even heard of any individual this applies to, but it theoretically must happen, at least occasionally.
When the Quarians did their big recall, all Quarians in Groups 1 and 3 would have returned to the Flotilla immediately. Probably at least some in Group 4 as well, depending on their sense of civic duty.
So the only Quarians they have left to repopulate the species would be those from Group 2 and anyone in Group 4 who ignored the recall order. So we're probably not talking about thousands of individuals here, maybe not even hundreds, most of which are either criminals or people who decided to abandon the rest of their species a long time ago.
I think you're missing the scale of things here. 4000 is a veeeeeery small number when looking at the population of a race. 4000 is 0.00005% of just the population of humanity right now. Even just the population of any one group is likely well over 4000. Hell, I guarantee there's likely millions of them in various prisons around the galaxy. How likely is it that there are no Quarian communities separate from the flotilla? How likely is it that the flotilla was so thoroughly destroyed that less than 4000 of them managed to escape in escape pods or limp away in damaged ships or just fled the battle before it started?
And just what is the total population of the Quarian race exactly? I always got the impression it was tiny to begin with, considering their status as cosmic refugees.
And while it's never outright stated that the Quarians have no colonies, it is heavily implied. When Shepard asks Admiral Koris why his people don't just settle some other planet, Koris says he has pushed the idea numerous times, but support for it is low because most Quarians still believe they can retake Rannoch.
While the Quarian fleet seems to have slapped weapons on anything that will mount them, I have to assume there must be SOME ships that weren't combat worthy and left behind. Older craft, those in dire need of work/repairs, emergency failures at the last moment, some small percentage of the population that wasn't off to war, ships loaded with children, the infirm, the injured.
I have a hard time believing 100% of the ships were combat worthy and 100% of the population was willing to sacrifice themselves, or that their leadership wouldn't ponder leaving at least a reasonably sized population behind for this very reason.
I mean, why risk the existence of the entire species on the chance of a Pyrrhic victory? 'Hooray, we squeaked out a win, the Crucible saved us, shame there are like 2 Quarian ships left standing...'
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Posts
Yeah, probably tonight; I just got paid.
I used the code to grab the remaining Mass Effect 3 DLC earlier in the week.
Origin: theRealElMucho
edit: It might have From Ashes for ME3, and all the free stuff from ME2?
Origin: theRealElMucho
I never did play the citadel DLC
I've said this all before, but I understand when people say that it doesn't really advance the main (Reaper) plot -- i.e. "Reapers are coming" --> "Yep, Reapers still coming."
But saying that it's empty or doesn't push forward the narrative or story in general is something that I just don't get. It does a huge amount to flesh things out and set the stage in important ways. It brings Cerberus to the forefront and introduces the Illusive Man, who for better or worse were a big deal in ME3. It introduces EDI. It reveals that the Geth are more than just the cardboard murderbots they're presented as in the first game. It adds important depth to basically every race. We meet the Quarian fleet, namely the Admiralty Board. We learn a lot more about the genophage and get multiple perspectives on its causes and effects.
And it does actually push forward the Reaper narrative and lore (spoilers I guess for anyone reading who hasn't played ME2).
Origin: theRealElMucho
Use the Origin client to buy the DLC/bioware points. It worked great for the DA2 DLC I bought a few days ago.
Origin: theRealElMucho
It's a really bizarre decision, and I wonder if it boils down to ME3 angst. That was something that resulted in therapy for some developer team members after all. It wouldn't be surprising to learn of resistance to dredging that back up.
I was trying right now and couldn't get it to work. If someone else can figure it out let me know; I'm also not about to buy Dragon Age for the sake of getting DLC for Mass Effect.
I think they actually changed it halfway through when I was buying the DLC last night, which was a bit unfortunate for me.
On an entirely unrelated note I've finally picked up all the DLC. Time for a series replay? Time for a series replay.
It was a really good hit you in the feels send off before the final assault on earth. Also the arcade game area in there was pretty fun to mess around with for a while.
Godspeed, Ironsides.
Amen to that. Which is why I have 3 of them (Navy, Black, Charcoal, though the first one is wearing out in a couple places, especially the elbows), the Elite hoodie (black with more elaborate trim) and a jacket. Plus two t-shirts. And the mug (which I now keep at work).
The Bioware store and I are like THIS.
Speaking of fun swag though, remember that costuming group I mentioned a while back? Whelp, we're doing a thing.
Does everyone know what a 'challenge coin' is?
Note, I didn't design it, just financed more of them. They had a run of them about 2.5 years ago, and after waiting patiently I decided to do my homework, checked with the admins, and got a second run created.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
As of last night, doesn't seem like it anymore:(
aww dammit
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
Novaguard Shepard is hilarious. I can't believe I wasted my first run on my soldier.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
From everywhere? There were quarians in almost every inhabited place.
I'm wondering if we killed them until they were dead, not what overall effect this may have on Rubio's poll-numbers in the long term.
Yeah, I asked this.
It's a thing in the military. Different units/fancy high rank folks have challenge coins with their unit insignia and slogans and such. Theoretically, in a bar, you can bust out your coin, and everyone else breaks out theirs. The one with the lowest rank on it (rank of the commander of the unit the coin represents) pays for the next round. Most people who aren't goobers, however, almost never carry a coin around with them on a daily basis, so it's not super prevalent, at least not the bars where I've been.
Edit: Mostly you just collect them because they look cool!
PS4:MrZoompants
Oh, *I* know what they are. That's why I asked if 'everyone' knows, not 'anyone'.
It was more of a subtle way of directing people where to look for info if they weren't aware, rather than just linking the Wiki page for Challenge Coins. :-P
I own two of the PAX East coins, though they're considerably larger/heavier 'medallions'. I have friends/connections in the 501st Legion, which includes some overlap with Mass Effect among their crew, so I'm hoping to maybe one day trade a spare coin for one of theirs, as people have managed to do in the past.
In that case, yes, wiping out the Flotilla probably won't kill every single Quarian in existence. But it will absolutely lower their population to below sustainable levels and cause the extinction of their species within the decade.
If the surviving Quarians banded together, they'd need a population of ~4000 to stay viable via random breeding. With directed breeding a viable population could be sustainable with populations approaching 1000 people. This is assuming their genetics work similarly to terrestrial vertebrates on earth.
4000 of a galaxy spanning race is not that large of a number.
A galaxy that they can't traverse because the method for doing that is destroyed. So you're left with pockets of maybe a couple dozen from any given system, a couple of hundred on the outside. Of a species that can't breathe regular air without almost definitely catching a fatal infection.
Without the flotilla or a homeworld, Quarians are fucked.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Plus they can just rebuild the relays in time.
Destroy is a big ol reset with very little hope of reestablishing the kind of connected galaxy that existed before.
Also green makes no sense at all, but we're skipping that for this post.
This outlook is assuming that the reapers were correct. I think their reasoning is flawed, thus destroy doesn't lead to that outcome and there are no more cycles.
But that's the thing, isn't it? The Quarians aren't galaxy spanning. Not really.
If you're a Quarian, and you live outside the Flotilla, there's four possibles reasons for that.
- You're a young adult and you haven't completed your pilgrimage yet.
- You're a criminal and you've been banished.
- You left on your pilgrimage, failed to find anything to prove your worth, and refused to return out of shame. Tali mentions in the first game that this applies to very few Quarians in practice. The Quarians know they need as many bodies as they can get, so the Captains always find some excuse to welcome back any Quarian who returns from pilgrimage, even those who return empty handed.
- You decided of your own choice to leave the Flotilla and live among aliens instead. We have never seen or even heard of any individual this applies to, but it theoretically must happen, at least occasionally.
When the Quarians did their big recall, all Quarians in Groups 1 and 3 would have returned to the Flotilla immediately. Probably at least some in Group 4 as well, depending on their sense of civic duty.So the only Quarians they have left to repopulate the species would be those from Group 2 and anyone in Group 4 who ignored the recall order. So we're probably not talking about thousands of individuals here, maybe not even hundreds, most of which are either criminals or people who decided to abandon the rest of their species a long time ago.
I think you're missing the scale of things here. 4000 is a veeeeeery small number when looking at the population of a race. 4000 is 0.00005% of just the population of humanity right now. Even just the population of any one group is likely well over 4000. Hell, I guarantee there's likely millions of them in various prisons around the galaxy. How likely is it that there are no Quarian communities separate from the flotilla? How likely is it that the flotilla was so thoroughly destroyed that less than 4000 of them managed to escape in escape pods or limp away in damaged ships or just fled the battle before it started?
And just what is the total population of the Quarian race exactly? I always got the impression it was tiny to begin with, considering their status as cosmic refugees.
And while it's never outright stated that the Quarians have no colonies, it is heavily implied. When Shepard asks Admiral Koris why his people don't just settle some other planet, Koris says he has pushed the idea numerous times, but support for it is low because most Quarians still believe they can retake Rannoch.
I have a hard time believing 100% of the ships were combat worthy and 100% of the population was willing to sacrifice themselves, or that their leadership wouldn't ponder leaving at least a reasonably sized population behind for this very reason.
I mean, why risk the existence of the entire species on the chance of a Pyrrhic victory? 'Hooray, we squeaked out a win, the Crucible saved us, shame there are like 2 Quarian ships left standing...'
One of the conflicts in the Rannoch arc in ME3 involves the Civilian Fleet; they left no one out, no ship was considered too much of a risk.