Mass Effect Megathread: DING DONG BANNU edition - Games

[QUOTE=Psychokitten;35450804]Scientist 1: "Is that a... Reaper?" Scientist 2: "No." S1: "I dunno. That one pixel right here might be a tentacle..." S2: "Right. And that pixel right next to it is Elvis Presley. Face it, the Reapers are a load of Elcor crap."[/QUOTE] hey what's that fiery looking spot on that extrasolar object? swamp gas

[QUOTE=Lankist;35450852]hey what's that fiery looking spot on that extrasolar object? swamp gas[/QUOTE] Volcanic activity.

[QUOTE=Psychokitten;35450871]Volcanic activity.[/QUOTE] space july 4th

Visually, I doubt anything would have the resolution possible to pick out a bunch of ships against the backdrop of space, nebulae, or clouds, but it's the future, so maybe they made a super high res Hubble. Even if the debris fields were spread out over a pretty good distance, Reapers, while larger than most things out there, are much, much smaller than celestial bodies, so good luck on seeing them. Sensors probably can't get that kind of range either. Checking for energy emissions is probably the way to go, but it's also most likely a dead end due to the inverse-square law and all. Maybe they could check for element zero, gravity distortions on background objects, or something like that. But I'm no scientist, so I have no idea what I'm talking about.

[QUOTE=Torpov;35450898]Visually, I doubt anything would have the resolution possible to pick out a bunch of ships against the backdrop of space, nebulae, or clouds, but it's the future, so maybe they made a super high res Hubble. Even if the debris fields were spread out over a pretty good distance, Reapers, while larger than most things out there, are much, much smaller than celestial bodies, so good luck on seeing them. Sensors probably can't get that kind of range either. Checking for energy emissions is probably the way to go, but it's also most likely a dead end due to the inverse-square law and all. Maybe they could check for element zero, gravity distortions on background objects, or something like that. But I'm no scientist, so I have no idea what I'm talking about.[/QUOTE] Well, I mean, they already need to be able to see shit at extremely high resolutions in order for FTL jumps and shit to work. First line Joker says is about how it's like hitting a pinhead from a thousand lightyears away or whatever, so they likely have the technology to survey a distant target in great detail on-the-fly. A stationary observatory should, in theory, be able to see a whole lot more than the ships already need to see just so they don't run into something and explode during FTL travel. A massive, galaxy-wide, laser-filled Armageddon has to leave a hint at least. And these civilizations have had, what, fifteen thousand years prior to humanity's arrival to be surveying shit?

Maybe ships jumping via FTL are using something other than a telescope to survey their target and instead incorporate some quantum handwave device to see how things are at the target right now rather than however many light years ago. And maybe the Reapers clean up shop pretty well. Or maybe civilizations didn't expect an onslaught of extragalactic, robotic cuttlefish to attack, so they weren't looking for them. I don't know enough about the series' backstory to say how inept the civilizations and their explorations were.

In ME1 when you talk to Vigil it sounds like the Reapers pretty much clean up and leave when they're done so the next wave doesn't know about the cycles. I think he said that all that was left was the more basic organic races and some indoctrinated individuals who just starved to death or died of exposure since their minds were gone.

Got that "Origin is no longer running" again. But.. the game still goes on. All animations are frozen but you can still see and hear them fighting while they glide along the floor. Imma see what happens when the game ends. [editline]6th April 2012[/editline] Oh cool, even through that error, we get exp.

[QUOTE=Ghost101;35451179]In ME1 when you talk to Vigil it sounds like the Reapers pretty much clean up and leave when they're done so the next wave doesn't know about the cycles. I think he said that all that was left was the more basic organic races and some indoctrinated individuals who just starved to death or died of exposure since their minds were gone.[/QUOTE] I don't really get why the clean up, though, either. I mean, when they talk to Shepard, they're pretty sure that there's no possible way anyone could ever defeat them. Shit, have they tried just adjudicating the galaxy without the cloak-and-dagger? Like, why not just have them bomb around all the time? When one of the younger species gets curious, they can make contact and seed themselves as a godlike image and create a galactic-wide, dogmatic Reaper Worship with the promise that, after 50,000 years, all space-faring species will be raptured away to space heaven or whatever. I mean, fuckers would fall for that. Even the Geth fell for that shit. The fucking robots basically worshiped Reapers. That Hanar worshiped a Reaper. It's not that far off from the shit they say to Shepard already for them to be like "yo we're you're space saviors, be cool about this" rather than just fucking showing up one day and going to murder-town. I mean, it just seems like their job would be so much easier if they didn't do this cloak-and-dagger bullshit. It's not like anyone could oppose them. They would STILL be leading the technological development of every species along the paths they desire, only they can play themselves up as merciful benefactors and peacekeepers who are to be trusted. If they spent fifty thousand years being around in each cycle, people would get used to them being around. And when the time would come for the harvest, there wouldn't be all that much resistance. Every species would have come to terms with that shit, dissenters would have been weeded out and everyone would line up for the Reaper party willingly. It just seems like, in the shitzillion years they've been doing this, they didn't really think it through. This whole method they have seems completely arbitrary and unnecessarily convoluted. Basically what I'm saying is they should have taken some cues from Jesus.

I guess it could just come down to hubris. The Reapers strike me as far too arrogant to change their strategies. Hell they don't even really *use* tactics, the space battles consisted of them just floating over to the enemy fleet in a big-ass mob and taking down ships left and right. They use some basic strategy when they really have to; in Thessia's planet description I think it says something about the Reapers taking down inter-planet communications and otherwise trying to break the morale of the population due to the difficulties of occupying a planet full of biotics. But I dunno, it's probably just plot holes.

[QUOTE=Lankist;35451254] Like, why not just have them bomb around all the time? When one of the younger species gets curious, they can make contact and seed themselves as a godlike image and create a galactic-wide, dogmatic Reaper Worship with the promise that, after 50,000 years, all space-faring species will be raptured away to space heaven or whatever.[/QUOTE] I could get used to that. "Morning Sovereign!" [B]GOOD MORNING SHEPARD[/B]

[QUOTE=Irespawnoften;35451416]I could get used to that. "Morning Sovereign!" [B]GOOD MORNING SHEPARD[/B][/QUOTE] [B] RUDIMENTARY CREATURES OF BLOOD AND FLESH THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME[/B]

The Reapers are just tough guys, but not realizing, anyone can just blow them to pieces by building a Prothean super weapons.

[QUOTE=supertribute;35451457]The Reapers are just tough guys, but not realizing, anyone can just blow them to pieces by building a Prothean super weapons.[/QUOTE] You don't even need Prothean Super Weapons, the Thanix Cannons could probably blow them apart just fine.

[QUOTE=Grim Joker;35451468]You don't even need Prothean Super Weapons, the Thanix Cannons could probably blow them apart just fine.[/QUOTE] which we never used because we were too busy charging the reapers stupidly. I would have assumed that the best way to counter them would be from range, you know, as far way from them as possible, not right in their face.

[IMG]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zJMJ0iAxu4I/T3NpKuysy9I/AAAAAAAAAFk/SLVgv3N6Mt8/s1600/javik.jpg[/IMG] I couldn't hear you over your humanistic babble.

[QUOTE=Irespawnoften;35451476]which we never used because we were too busy charging the reapers stupidly. I would have assumed that the best way to counter them would be from range, you know, as far way from them as possible, not right in their face.[/QUOTE] I really don't see why we needed the superweapon on top of all those war assets. From how the fleets were doing, divert all the money used for the Crucible to Thanix Canons, and you could have easily re-taken Earth and the Citadel and dealt a huge blow to The Reapers. [editline]6th April 2012[/editline] That reminds me, why didn't the Reapers disable the Mass Relays? They had control of The Citadel and apparently everyone aboard was dead, and since their initial strategy was 'Turn off the Mass Relays and then slowly conquer planet by planet', why did they suddenly abandon that just because their first try failed? If they would have disabled the Mass Relays when they took the Citadel, Shepard never would have been able to beat them. None of the forces would have even been able to unite, really. It would have fucked over the entire war effort.

[QUOTE=Grim Joker;35451623]I really don't see why we needed the superweapon on top of all those war assets. From how the fleets were doing, divert all the money used for the Crucible to Thanix Canons, and you could have easily re-taken Earth and the Citadel and dealt a huge blow to The Reapers.[/quote] The way I see it, if I can get the entire quarian fleet to fire on 1 reaper on the planet below, why can't we do the same thing with the entire fleet we get at the end. Jump though the mass relay, entire fleet targets one reaper, repeat until no more reapers.

[QUOTE=Irespawnoften;35451672]The way I see it, if I can get the entire quarian fleet to fire on 1 reaper on the planet below, why can't we do the same thing with the entire fleet we get at the end. Jump though the mass relay, entire fleet targets one reaper, repeat until no more reapers.[/QUOTE] They'd take a lot of losses, but yeah, as long as you had numerical superiority and good maneuvering you could probably do fine.

Will there be a stream of the PAX Panel?

[QUOTE=Irespawnoften;35451476]which we never used because we were too busy charging the reapers stupidly. I would have assumed that the best way to counter them would be from range, you know, as far way from them as possible, not right in their face.[/QUOTE] Yea, but you can't keep that up forever. Eventually the Reapers catch up to you and you're dead. AFAIK Reapers don't need to eat, they don't need to drink, they don't need fuel, they don't need medicine. Eventually the humans/turians/everybody else would run out of supplies and be starved out. It doesn't matter if you can kill a couple of them from range. You still have no chance of survival if your enemy can outlast you in every way. [QUOTE=Grim Joker;35451623]I really don't see why we needed the superweapon on top of all those war assets. From how the fleets were doing, divert all the money used for the Crucible to Thanix Canons, and you could have easily re-taken Earth and the Citadel and dealt a huge blow to The Reapers.[/quote] Because the Reapers literally had a super fleet. Resources had to be diverted from almost every theater of the war to create the super armada to challenge the reapers just at Earth. Both Thessia and Palaven, as well as many other systems, were being invaded with a similar force to the one that attacked Earth. Yea, you might win Earth, and maybe even the Citadel. However, the Reapers are far too numerous to challenge in a regular conflict. As soon as the coalition suffered enough casualties their war effort would be completely decimated. [quote]That reminds me, why didn't the Reapers disable the Mass Relays? They had control of The Citadel and apparently everyone aboard was dead, and since their initial strategy was 'Turn off the Mass Relays and then slowly conquer planet by planet', why did they suddenly abandon that just because their first try failed? If they would have disabled the Mass Relays when they took the Citadel, Shepard never would have been able to beat them. None of the forces would have even been able to unite, really. It would have fucked over the entire war effort.[/QUOTE] That's a legitimate plot hole.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;35451948]Because the Reapers literally had a super fleet. Resources had to be diverted from almost every theater of the war to create the super armada to challenge the reapers just at Earth. Both Thessia and Palaven, as well as many other systems, were being invaded with a similar force to the one that attacked Earth. Yea, you might win Earth, and maybe even the Citadel. However, the Reapers are far too numerous to challenge in a regular conflict. As soon as the coalition suffered enough casualties their war effort would be completely decimated. [/QUOTE] Except The Reapers were said to be massing at Earth to stop them from mounting the Crucible, so what we saw at Earth was, according to Hackett, a huge part of the Reaper forces. They didn't have a 'superfleet', they had hundreds of ships, whereas the combined forces of the galaxy had thousands, if not tens of thousands. If you took back Earth and the Citadel that would be a massive blow to the Reapers and would essentially bring their war effort to a screeching halt. Also, if you have 100% readiness, it says people in other systems are beating The Reapers anyways, so clearly The Reapers can be stopped without superfleets.

[QUOTE=Grim Joker;35451785]They'd take a lot of losses, but yeah, as long as you had numerical superiority and good maneuvering you could probably do fine.[/QUOTE] As well as impossible precision. It's unfeasible. Your weapons have range, your hulls take up a certain amount of space. For every single ship to target a single reaper at a time, it requires the entire fleet to be massed in a small area, and the ability to quickly maneuver an entire super fleet into a new position to fire on another target. Ships will be picked off from accidentally ramming into each other. Not to mention that a big glob of ships is a perfect target for a horde of reapers to concentrate fire on. Dozens, even hundreds of ships could be destroyed at once. Really, it would make the Reaper's brute force attack plan incredibly easy.

PAX EAST - 6th April 2012 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm EST Bioware and Mass Effect Voted the Most Anticipated Game of 2012 at the Spike TV Video Game Awards, Mass Effect 3 is finally here! Join developers for an exciting look at the evolution of the series. Bring your burning questions about Mass Effect 3! Fans wearing Mass Effect costumes will be given special recognition during the panel. Spoiler Alert, Garrus is calibrating and cannot attend. Panelists: Chris Priestly, Mike Gamble, Corey Gaspur, Patrick Weekes, John Dombrow, Reid Buckmaster --- No streams announced/up yet but I'm guessing: [url]http://www.bioware.com/biowaretv[/url]

[QUOTE=Grim Joker;35451971]Except The Reapers were said to be massing at Earth to stop them from mounting the Crucible, so what we saw at Earth was, according to Hackett, a huge part of the Reaper forces. They didn't have a 'superfleet', they had hundreds of ships, whereas the combined forces of the galaxy had thousands, if not tens of thousands. If you took back Earth and the Citadel that would be a massive blow to the Reapers and would essentially bring their war effort to a screeching halt. Also, if you have 100% readiness, it says people in other systems are beating The Reapers anyways, so clearly The Reapers can be stopped without superfleets.[/QUOTE] I never had 100% readiness. However, is it possible that they meant they were beating the Reapers in the same sense the humans were "beating" the Reapers on Earth? The game made it pretty clear that there was no way the Reapers could be defeated through conventional means. Their onslaught could only be slowed. Also, even if the super fleet had tens of thousands of ships, most of those ships are nearly useless against a Reaper. They are mostly cannon fodder. The Reaper is only vulnerable when it's revealed its weapon and about to fire. Until then, it's pretty much invulnerable.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;35451989]I never had 100% readiness. However, is it possible that they meant they were beating the Reapers in the same sense the humans were "beating" the Reapers on Earth? The game made it pretty clear that there was no way the Reapers could be defeated through conventional means. Their onslaught could only be slowed. Also, even if the super fleet had tens of thousands of ships, most of those ships are nearly useless against a Reaper. They are mostly cannon fodder. The Reaper is only vulnerable when it's revealed its weapon and about to fire. Until then, it's pretty much invulnerable.[/QUOTE] It's a plothole. When you're on the Citadel and you look outside, you can see that the combined forces are actually killing a lot of Reapers. When you have 100% Readiness it specifically states that planets are repelling Reaper forces, and actually driving them off of a few planets. I get that the game stresses that they can't be beat in conventional warfare, but it's shown and stated quite a few times that they, in fact, can. As mentioned before, Thanix Cannons can tear a Collector Ship in half, which laughed off AA guns. Even if Reaper vessels were a lot better protected, it obviously had enough force to deal heavy damage to them. I mean, look at it like this, With standard weapons, you can destroy a Reaper. With standard weapons, you couldn't do shit to a Collector Vessel. With a Thanix Cannon, you can tear a Collector ship in two with very few shots. So, what would a Thanix Cannon do to a Reaper Ship? [editline]6th April 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=yawmwen;35451989]The Reaper is only vulnerable when it's revealed its weapon and about to fire. Until then, it's pretty much invulnerable.[/QUOTE] Wait, what? Sovereign never revealed any sort of weak spot and he was still killed by Alliance ships. They're not invulnerable, just tough.

[QUOTE=Grim Joker;35452020]With standard weapons, you couldn't do shit to a Collector Vessel.[/QUOTE]? The Normandy SR2 is able to destroy the Collector ship just fine without the Thanix cannon, it just results in the death of a squad member going in. That is not "couldn't do shit". I don't think it's as simple as "JUST GIVE EVERY SHIP THANIX CANNONS AND THEY CAN EASILY DESTROY EVERY REAPER FOREVER".

From the ME games it would seem Reapers a) have ridiculously strong shields b) have weak spots at their eye laser-thingies and c) talk like badasses. So technically, with the Thanix cannon being reaper tech that's been reverse engineered, this cycle has yet another advantage no other cycle we know of has. I could see it working in conventional warfare , just maybe...

[QUOTE=Terin7;35452059]? The Normandy SR2 is able to destroy the Collector ship just fine without the Thanix cannon, it just results in the death of a squad member going in. That is not "couldn't do shit". I don't think it's as simple as "JUST GIVE EVERY SHIP THANIX CANNONS AND THEY CAN EASILY DESTROY EVERY REAPER FOREVER".[/QUOTE] The AA gun that was apparently considered pretty high-end that you use against the Collector Vessel doesn't appear to do anything. The Normandy did kill the one, but sustained heavy damage in the meantime. I didn't say it would defeat every Reaper ever, I'm saying it probably would have been a better bet than "LET'S BUILD A THING THAT WE DON'T KNOW WHAT IT DOES AND DIVERT A TON OF TIME AND MONEY AND RESOURCES TO IT BECAUSE THE PROTHEANS MADE IT AND SOME BLUE CHICK SAID IT MAY OR MAY NOT WORK AGAINST THE REAPERS." [editline]6th April 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Saint Jimmy;35452070]From the ME games it would seem Reapers a) have ridiculously strong shields b) have weak spots at their eye laser-thingies and c) talk like badasses. So technically, with the Thanix cannon being reaper tech that's been reverse engineered, this cycle has yet another advantage no other cycle we know of has. I could see it working in conventional warfare , just maybe...[/QUOTE] Well, like, holy shit, the Protheans apparently held out for a really long time and probably killed their fair share of Reapers. We have a ton of advantages over them, and yet we were getting our asses handed to us to the point where we would have been wiped out in a few years. I know Liara says a hundred years or whatever, but god damn, it seemed like pretty much every major planet in the Galaxy was taken, and by the time of the final mission almost every single system is taken by the Reapers, and how long are the events of Mass Effect 3? A month? Maybe?

[QUOTE=Grim Joker;35452020]It's a plothole. When you're on the Citadel and you look outside, you can see that the combined forces are actually killing a lot of Reapers. When you have 100% Readiness it specifically states that planets are repelling Reaper forces, and actually driving them off of a few planets. I get that the game stresses that they can't be beat in conventional warfare, but it's shown and stated quite a few times that they, in fact, can. As mentioned before, Thanix Cannons can tear a Collector Ship in half, which laughed off AA guns. Even if Reaper vessels were a lot better protected, it obviously had enough force to deal heavy damage to them.[/quote] [img]http://www.nohighscores.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/MassEffect3_Readiness.jpg[/img] This is the only image I could find and it says winning key battles. I believe you, but to sate my curiosity, would you mind taking a screenshot where it says they are actually repelling Reaper forces? Also, in the beginning of the battle, you could still see the coalition winning against the Reapers initially. This is because of the incredible numerical superiority at the beginning of the battle. If the coalition doesn't destroy enough Reapers outright, however, the battle will turn in favor of the Reapers as the coalition suffers heavy casualties and get disorganized, making them less able to provide any concentrated firepower. [quote]I mean, look at it like this, With standard weapons, you can destroy a Reaper. With standard weapons, you couldn't do shit to a Collector Vessel. With a Thanix Cannon, you can tear a Collector ship in two with very few shots. So, what would a Thanix Cannon do to a Reaper Ship?[/quote] Normal weapons can't just destroy a Reaper. A thanix cannon would be effective against a Reaper when it's exposed. I don't think the game mentioned how a thanix cannon would fare against an unexposed Reaper. [quote]Wait, what? Sovereign never revealed any sort of weak spot and he was still killed by Alliance ships. They're not invulnerable, just tough.[/QUOTE] A single Reaper...was killed by an entire fleet. That means you have to have an entire fleet for each and every Reaper on Earth. Also, was Sovereign even firing back at that point? I can't remember right off, but I thought I remembered him basically dashing for the Citadel to activate the mass relay. If so, that means it takes a fleet to kill a single Reaper that isn't even firing back, that doesn't account for when a Reaper is fighting back. [editline]6th April 2012[/editline] I'm willing to concede that a lot of it may have been inconsistent. However, this is just the way I always saw it.