88 réponses à ce sujet

[didymos1120]

Pacifien wrote...
Wipe them all out only for the turians or humans to discover it a millennium or two later. Good timing then, 'cause they'll get 48,000 years according to the developers before the Reapers repeat themselves.

Uh, why wouldn't they just look around and make no one else was about to go galaxy-wide? We know from Vigil how methodical they are. And, the games give us no reason to think they don't, and a few to think they do.

[Maria Caliban]

vanslyke85 wrote...

So I was thinking, and don't crucify me if I'm way off because I really don't know that much about the ME universe I just got into the games a few months ago.  But, if the Reapers come around to wipe out organic life in the galaxy every 50,000 years did they just skip the earth every time cause organic life wasn't advanced enough yet??  Just a wierd thought that popped into my head.

I assume for the Reapers, advanced life is defined by spaceflight and the ability to activate and use the Mass Relays.

[marshalleck]

holy crap its a crocoduck

[Pacifien]

I thought it was Grunt.

[Pacifien]

didymos1120 wrote...

Pacifien wrote...
Wipe them all out only for the turians or humans to discover it a millennium or two later. Good timing then, 'cause they'll get 48,000 years according to the developers before the Reapers repeat themselves.

Uh, why wouldn't they just look around and make no one else was about to go galaxy-wide? We know from Vigil how methodical they are. And, the games give us no reason to think they don't, and a few to think they do.

Good thing then that no civilization were to discover the relays 10,000 years after the last purge then?

[Fiery Phoenix]

vanslyke85 wrote...

So I was thinking, and don't crucify me if I'm way off because I really don't know that much about the ME universe I just got into the games a few months ago.  But, if the Reapers come around to wipe out organic life in the galaxy every 50,000 years did they just skip the earth every time cause organic life wasn't advanced enough yet??  Just a wierd thought that popped into my head.

Yes, that's pretty much it. They're only concerned about space-faring organics.

[vanslyke85]

Pacifien wrote...

Has someone mentioned how it's bull that the developers cling to the 50,000 year cycle as if space-faring civilizations only evolve every 50,000 years? What if Sovereign had managed to activate the Citadel when the asari and salarians first discovered it? Wipe them all out only for the turians or humans to discover it a millennium or two later. Good timing then, 'cause they'll get 48,000 years according to the developers before the Reapers repeat themselves.

I'm not sure it's that they evolve every 50,000 years so much as the Reapers deem this a suitable length of time for some reason.  Be it because thats how long they need to "recharge" or whatever they do, or because that's how long it took their original organic state/race to go from space-faring to technological stagnation. And thus forcing them to make the decision to become Reapers or create Reapers and then be destroyed or consumed by them. 

Modifié par vanslyke85, 25 janvier 2011 - 05:25 .

[babies8mydingo]

Pacifien wrote...

Has someone mentioned how it's bull that the developers cling to the 50,000 year cycle as if space-faring civilizations only evolve every 50,000 years? What if Sovereign had managed to activate the Citadel when the asari and salarians first discovered it? Wipe them all out only for the turians or humans to discover it a millennium or two later. Good timing then, 'cause they'll get 48,000 years according to the developers before the Reapers repeat themselves.

The galaxy is a really big place, it's beyond even the Reaper's ability to scan for advanced civilisations every time. By seeding the galaxy with the mass relay network they make their job much easier by essentially constructing a spider-web, advanced civs make themselves known.
Their whole plan has them largely dormant and conserving power (presumably this is a necessity). Now the possiblity of a civ just escaping from a reaping and getting a massive headstart must have occurred to them. It's quite possible that they are sufficiently advanced that even given an additional 49000 years (which if you look at how fast technology has developed  since the industrial age is practically an eternity) they can be confident in beating the organics. They may have picked 50,000 as a median. The Reapers themselves have existed for 100,000s of years and should be extremely powerful (though it seems they've hit a wall). Similar logic to the British Empire's old two power rule.

More significantly, we know that they leave behind a vanguard (like Soverign) who periodically wakes to monitor the situation. 50,000 years is probably the average time between reapings, but if the vanguard deems it necessary they might come early or late (after all if it was simply 50k years they could just set an internal clock to wake them when it's time to reap). If the civilisation shows up early enough a single Reaper might chose to handle it on it's own, it would probably be capable - though that doesn't seem their style, they seem to play it safe.
Finally, they seem to keep back up forces like the Collector's (or as in the first game Sovereign allying with the Geth heretics) which may also be of use in these situations.

[marshalleck]

Ugh. They don't wake up every 50,000 years like clockwork. Their vanguard (previously Sovereign) would periodically wake up, scan the relay network for signs of activity, and then return to hibernation if it detected nothing. If it did discover activity, it would assess the progress of the civilization(s) using the network and then signal the Citadel.

That's the whole reason for leaving one of their number behind. If they only wanted to kill everything every 50,000 years, they'd all retreat to dark space and then swoop in unannounced.

Modifié par marshalleck, 25 janvier 2011 - 05:45 .

[Spartas Husky]

Like farming. You farm the crops that are ready to be harvested. Even those that are half way near fully grown are still not ready. You leave those for later until they have fully grown, otherwise you waste your harvest.

[xXSnak3Eat3rXx]

marshalleck wrote...

Please tell me you're joking. Our specific species--"modern" human, ****** sapiens sapiens--is believed to have become a distinct species (genetically speaking) 500,000 years ago. 

Civilization is an extremely recent development in the history of our species. We've lived in the trees, on the plains, and in caves for the vast majority of our existence on Earth. 

Sorry if I was unclear. By "Earth", I meant the planet as we present day humans know it as (ie. by that name, and I was loosely using the term "humans" to mean present day humans). Of course the planet had existed long before that and long before we (****** sapiens) evolved into beings capable of utilizing systems of communication and before acquiring traits that distinguish us  "modern" humans (as you put it) from the higher primates that hadn't reached full behaviour modernity. In fact, we have only begun to demonstrate these traits only 50000 years ago which makes sense as I doubt the Reapers would be interested in us before that.

Modifié par xXSnak3Eat3rXx, 25 janvier 2011 - 05:55 .

[didymos1120]

Pacifien wrote...
Good thing then that no civilization were to discover the relays 10,000 years after the last purge then?

And if they did?  The Reapers would be somehow incapable of responding for another 40,000 years? 

[didymos1120]

marshalleck wrote...

holy crap its a crocoduck

Bingo.  I knew there'd be some association with the "Grunt is a duck" meme, but that's just a bonus.

Modifié par didymos1120, 25 janvier 2011 - 06:10 .

[Pacifien]

didymos1120 wrote...

Pacifien wrote...
Good thing then that no civilization were to discover the relays 10,000 years after the last purge then?

And if they did?  The Reapers would be somehow incapable of responding for another 40,000 years? 

That's the point of the absurdity of the 50,000 year cycle.

[marshalleck]

Pacifien wrote...

didymos1120 wrote...

Pacifien wrote...
Good thing then that no civilization were to discover the relays 10,000 years after the last purge then?

And if they did?  The Reapers would be somehow incapable of responding for another 40,000 years? 

That's the point of the absurdity of the 50,000 year cycle.

Well considering that's established to not be the case, it's not a point worth harping on. 

[Super ._. Shepard]

they spared us because we where just dumb cavemen

[Sajuro]

Icinix wrote...

..I imagine it was just before the fleet led by Admiral Adama made land fall...so they didn't see anything worthwhile and skipped it.

which was actually 150,000 years ago (nerdiness)

[Bluko]

marshalleck wrote...

Ugh. They don't wake up every 50,000 years like clockwork. Their vanguard (previously Sovereign) would periodically wake up, scan the relay network for signs of activity, and then return to hibernation if it detected nothing. If it did discover activity, it would assess the progress of the civilization(s) using the network and then signal the Citadel.

That's the whole reason for leaving one of their number behind. If they only wanted to kill everything every 50,000 years, they'd all retreat to dark space and then swoop in unannounced.

Exactly.

I think it's assumed on average they come about every 50,000 years since once they clean the galaxy out of space faring species, it takes about that long for new species to arrive and develop. Although not always. I'm guessing there were times they had to come back just after a few thousand years. But then I'm guessing there times were they also had t wait more like 100,000 years before there was anything to Reap.

I believe Sovereign checked in on things every few centuries. Obviously the Asari and Salarians were advanced enough to warrant Reaping, but when the Keepers didn't obey Sovereign he had to find means to manually to get to the Citadel. So Sovereign corrupted the Rachni to attack the Council species. Of course the arrival of the Krogan foiled that effort.

Not sure what Sovereign planned to do after. Since he waited a long time to contact the Geth even.

It is interesting to wonder if the Reapers had come earlier, would our human ingeniuty have let us advance fast enough to beat the Reapers? Probably not since the Reapers seem confident enough to wait long periods of time. And or they would have noticed us and got the jump on us. Which is exactly why I think it's impossible to defeat them by military means. We aren't much of a threat to them given that they could care less if we advance a couple hundred years in terms of technology.

Also while there is lot of suggestion in Mass Effect that humans adapt very fast, I think a lot of our advancement is only due to the fact we got advanced technology to play around with from the other species. Otherwise I'm guessing we would be progressing a lot slower.

[CroGamer002]

Just checked Wiki.



Humanity was in Stone Age 6000 BC.

So why would Reapers attack planet in which species on it didn't even discover technology?

[vanslyke85]

Mesina2 wrote...

Just checked Wiki.

Humanity was in Stone Age 6000 BC.
So why would Reapers attack planet in which species on it didn't even discover technology?

Apprently they wouldn't.  I was merely postulating on if the Reapers looked at Earth and said eh we'll get em next time.  If I was a Reaper though I may as well just wipe em out while I'm there just to be safe lol. 

[Estelindis]

It's interesting the humanity is such a new arrival on the galactic stage. If we'd taken just a bit longer with our space program, there might have been no galaxy-spanning civilization for us to discover when we travelled through the mass relays.



I actually wonder if the sheer number and diversity of civilized species in the galaxy during the current extinction cycle is particularly noteworthy or not, compared with the overall history of evolution and destruction.

[Flamewielder]

Actually, the oldest ****** Sapiens skull discovered so far is just over 100,000 years old, so our species was ignored by Reapers TWICE; for the simple reason that they only harvest species technologically advanced enough to have reached the Citadel and understood mass relay operation. A bunch of stone-age hominids is of no interest to them until it has demonstrated an ability for imaginative thinking and creation, which is likely what the Reapers are starved for...

[Zaifon]

According to the story of ME1 Sovereign or Nazara, was an observer, to test and check on the races every now and then, to see the steps they had taken and if it would be needed to "reap" the races.

In theory the whole reaper 50000 years ago is kind of bull, as if they have this one vanguard checking each millennium how far the space faring organics had evolved, it would indicate their reaping ain't timing passed around "every 50000 years" but more like a 1 out of 50 chance as the scout checks once every thousand years, or so it was indicated.

if it has been stated before me, sorry.

Modifié par Zaifon, 25 janvier 2011 - 02:37 .

[Estelindis]

Elithranduil wrote...

I like how the Reapers dont just exterminate absolutely everything. There is a logical process they follow which really seems to lend credence to the theory they are doing what they must for some sort of greater good.

Indeed.  Does a farmer kill all his breeding stock or eat all his seed stock?  Given that the Reapers reap, taking any other approach wouldn't seem to make much sense.

Modifié par Estelindis, 25 janvier 2011 - 02:41 .