89 réponses à ce sujet

[KnightofPhoenix]

killersinc wrote...

I think your looking at this all wrong. The effective military move would be to have small strikes against military targets. Earth has shown they are good at overcoming odds that are stacked against them. They have also spent thousands of years watching the council races grow and they know their weaknesses. Humans are an unknown factor which is a problem for them.

Attacking earth is a diversionary tactic. Imagine this, the races rally and charge toward earth. Alright we killed that fleet but waiting in the wings the real reaper fleet pownes the planets of these races. I think 30 reapers could mount enough damage to do this and that leaves a few thousand to go in guns a blazing on the defenseless worlds.

Personally what I would have done is convert the entire terminus system to the reaper way and go surgical strike on them with their puppets. That way the galaxy is fighting a war with itself and doesn't notice the reapers parking on their doorstep.

I like the idea. I was pondering if this was all a trap, kind of like Return of the Jedi. Only better.

But I don't think it will happen. Unless ME3 ends not with the destruction of the Reapers, but Earth saved and the rest of the galaxy falling to the Reapers.

[Schattenkeil]

Not enough information. We don't in which order which worlds / space stations will be attacked and how many at once.

However, an important factor I'd ask everyone to take into consideration is that the reapers can control mass relays. Assuming Sovereign didn't lie about it, they were their creation. The other races can still move faster than light with the ships' mass effect drives, but by my understanding moving beyond a local star claster takes years. Thus, the reapers can isolate everyworld they like pretyy easily.

Modifié par Schattenkeil, 14 avril 2011 - 03:19 .

[KnightofPhoenix]

You'd think Sovereign would deactivate the relay next to the Citadel, isolate it and protect his rear...

[Ahriman]

Schattenkeil wrote...
However, an important factor I'd ask everyone to take into consideration is that the reapers can control mass relays. Assuming Sovereign didn't lie about it, they were their creation. The other races can still move faster than light with the ships' mass effect drives, but by my understanding moving beyond a local star claster takes years. Thus, the reapers can isolate everyworld they like pretyy easily.

Important note: Reapers can control relays if they get Citadel. But they won't use it, they'll just be eating special humans on Earth in hope to become special as well.

[Avissel]

KnightofPhoenix wrote...

You'd think Sovereign would deactivate the relay next to the Citadel, isolate it and protect his rear...

It's been shown plenty of times that the Reapers primary weakness is they own sense of invulnerability. They under estimate everything because nobody has ever beaten them.


As for why they are going for Earth First....it's out of petty hate. So far the humans have stopped their invasion plan twice, so they will destroy them first as basically a showing of "See? We ARE better than you."

Modifié par Avissel, 14 avril 2011 - 03:37 .

[Schattenkeil]

Wizz wrote...

Important note: Reapers can control relays if they get Citadel. But they won't use it, they'll just be eating special humans on Earth in hope to become special as well.

Baseless and highly unlikely assumption. If I was the reapers I'd start with sacking the Citadel. I would rather assume that the Citadel is already taken before earth is attacked. That they need the citadel to control mass relays is a possibility but nothing more.

Modifié par Schattenkeil, 14 avril 2011 - 03:42 .

[naledgeborn]

Schattenkeil wrote...

Wizz wrote...

Important note: Reapers can control relays if they get Citadel. But they won't use it, they'll just be eating special humans on Earth in hope to become special as well.

Baseless and highly unlikely assumption. If I was the reapers I'd start with sacking the Citadel. That they need the citadel to control mass relays is a possibility but nothing more.

It's a little more than baseless supposition when it was their vanguard's plan A. Taking the Citadel, shutting down the Relay network, and downloading all pertinent intel of the last 50,000 years would win them the war. If they could manipulate Relays at will why travel from darkspace at FTL just to get to the Bahak system? The fact that the Citadel Council races are still in possession of their 'Ace in the Whole" cripples them and it's a huge blow to their morale (if they even know what that is). I'm thinking Earth (Charon Relay) will be the first major victory in their campaign. And that their main objective is to take back the Citadel and lock in the rest of the galaxy in their own systems.

Modifié par naledgeborn, 14 avril 2011 - 03:49 .

[Ahriman]

Schattenkeil wrote...
Baseless and highly unlikely assumption. If I was the reapers I'd start with sacking the Citadel. I would rather assume that the Citadel is already taken before earth is attacked.

If they take Citadel, all relays will be shutted down. All systems will be isolated, no communication, no trading, states will end their existance and only Shepard has IFF for traveling. But article shows absolutely different picture, so no, these are not baseless assumptions.

That they need the citadel to control mass relays is a possibility but nothing more.

Vigil, why don't you listen him?

Modifié par Wizz, 14 avril 2011 - 03:53 .

[Akizora]

The fact that humans have a high reproduction rate, potential for biotics without implants and very high adaptation makes us the perfect soldier for the entire cleansing of the galaxy and beyond I guess? Asari require other species to reproduce, Krogans have the genophage, Salarian lifespan too short, Quarians dependency on suits a liability, Turians too primitive...Just listen to Harbinger as he walks over your dead squadmembers and utters things about their species

[VioletSparks]

I'll be upset if there are less than a million reapers xD It seems pretty clear from the game informer article that they are simultaneously attacking galaxy-wide. The frist thing they will do is shut the relay network down (that's what Vigil seemed to think) and I'm pretty sure that they need to get to the citadel to do that? Though they will probably knock out all the relays they need to get there behind them. then they may well leave the geth to fight the quarians mind, and the salarians to fight the krogans because it doesn't make sense for them to commit troops when they can let them kill each other off and then cull them when both sides are weak. There has been nothing said about palaven so theres no way of knowing they aren't assaulting it simultaneously (+ we know they already have batarian husks so they will have attacked batarian space as well).. I'm praying that they really are legion, and that we have to do **** like purposely push starts to supernova (like all the dark energy hints from ME2) or blow mass relays because the reapers can supposedly indoctrinate entire planets.... probably going a bit far now

[jamesp81]

KnightofPhoenix wrote...

We probably all know that the Reapers are supposed to be fixating on Earth because it will affect us gamers more than say, Planet X37 in the Hades Gamma cluster (too lazy to give the name of a "real" planet). But I am trying to figure out what they are planning from an in-game perspective. 

One very likely possibility is to harvest the 11 billion humans on Earth. That's all fine and dandy. But it would really make little sense if that's all that they are doing.

Yea, Bioware usually sucks at warfare and strategies, but I'd be surprised if they don't make the Reapers preempt against all races capable of offering resistance. Especially the turians. Sovereign claims that their numbers are legion. A hyperbole, but the wave of Reapers in the ME2 end cuscene does show that they are very numerous. Keep in mind that Sovereign and a few geth ships were able to wipe out Citadel fleet, one of the strongest fleets out there.   

It seems to me that the Reapers have enough numbers to at least strike at Humans and Turians at the same time (I think they can do more than that). They can also knock out the citadel.

Yes the Reapers are vulnerable and not invincible and they may be rivalled by an alliance. But that's all the more reason to preempt against the key players. Humanity is one, but there is also the Turians at the very least. They ought to use the element of surprise to knock both of them, if not more, out. They seemingly manage to strike at Earth without anyone noticing, why can't they do the same to other major planets?

Since the theme is apparently to gather allies, I doubt that the Reapers will be attacking the Turians, though it is possible. Maybe the turians are not even supposed to be allies.  But I don't know, it's sounding  more and more to me that the Reapers attack Earth and will just bunker in and wait for Shepard to gather allies and counter-attack. If they do that, it would be kind of idiotic.   The thread is more about speculation and possible future info than actual criticism (since we know little) but I can't help but feel that Bioware will drop the ball on this. Aka make the Reapers completely incompetent.

So, what do you think the reapers will be doing in ME3? Will they just take Earth and bunker in? Will they attempt to preempt and knock out other important players? Do they have an actual plan, or have they become your typical faceless, mindless tidal wave of darkness kind of enemy? And I wonder if the Batarians / Terminus system will play a part against the reapers.

Actually, I suspect heavy assaults will be made against all the Citadel races early, especially the Turians and Humans.  The Turians have the most powerful fleet, and the Reapers are pretty pissed at humanity for what we've done to them.

I suspect the Reapers have not had to fight a real war in millions of years.  Every other cycle, they took out every race's command and control at the Citadel in one big attack, then it was cleanup as no one was ever able to organize a powerful force to face them at any point.

This time it's different.  For all their power, the Reapers have never had to use sound strategic thinking beyond their formulaic "surprise attack, decapitate command and control" strategy.  I think they'll invade high population worlds (such as the Turian, Asari, and Human homeworlds) and start Reaping as is normal.  But this time, there will be a chance to organize a real fighting force against them.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

Sovereign was destroyed by a fleet that consisted of one dreadnought (Hackett's flagship) and a number of cruisers and frigates.  Losses were severe.  Assuming a dreadnought battlegroup has a chance against a single Reaper, that makes the entire Council races' fleets good for destroying maybe 60 Reapers under optimal circumstances.  Not good seeing how there are at least hundreds of them, maybe thousands.

[Legbiter]

I think the Reapers will swat Earth down and then push out from on there in a coordinated assault, while whatever fleets are sent against them by the Council races get annihilated. So it's up to Shepard to come up with a way of destroying them.

[jamesp81]

KnightofPhoenix wrote...

Malanek999 wrote...

I don't think they will have any great strategy. It seems like it will be a case of starting at the first system and then slowly spreading out, systematically reaping each appropriate planet they come accross.

So the slow unthinking tidal wave of doom cliche. Sigh.

I expect more from the force that displayed thinking and strategy in their "Plan A".

A full "reaping" takes centuries even with Plan A.  They always were the "slow unthinking tidal wave of doom".

[DominoN7]

I believe that the reapers will strike at Earth alone initially, while Shepard has to rally a small team in time before earth is lost, before receiving word that Palaven or Thessia or somewhere similar is under attack (similar to how he gets word about Saren on Virmire.)

I think a lot of the decisions that are made in the first two games (Killing characters like the Rachni Queen, Shiala, Rana Thanoptis etc.) will ultimately decide most of what is going to happen, and the shape of the galaxy after it does happen.

In the end I think Shep will have to decide between saving Earth (renegade) or saving the alien planet (paragon). Something biblically moral choice-y like that.

If I remember correctly, Upon discovery of the Derelict Reaper in 2, The Illusive Man mentioned that it was disabled using an "Enormous Mass Accellerator Weapon" and that he sent a team to recover either the Reaper or the weapon and that they "Found Both."

This is sure to come into play, depending on how happy Mr Illusive is with Shepard regarding the Collector Base.

Modifié par DominoN7, 14 avril 2011 - 04:57 .

[jamesp81]

Oh, and I'll re-iterate something else while I'm here.

If I can't save Earth from being completely depopulated, I ain't buying the game.

Edit:

I'll also be highly displeased if it's impossible to win without completely extincting a major race (ie Turians, Asari, etc).

Modifié par jamesp81, 14 avril 2011 - 04:53 .

[didymos1120]

DominoN7 wrote...
If I remember correctly, Upon discovery of the Derelict Reaper in 2, The Illusive Man mentioned that it was disabled using an "Enormous Mass Accellerator Weapon" and that he sent a team to recover either the Reaper or the weapon and that they "Found Both."

Yeah: the weapon was even more of wreck than the Reaper.  Not gonna be a factor.

[didymos1120]

Avissel wrote...

As for why they are going for Earth First....it's out of petty hate. So far the humans have stopped their invasion plan twice, so they will destroy them first as basically a showing of "See? We ARE better than you."

Um, yeah, I sure it has nothing to do with the fact that they've identified humanity as the best Reaper-material candidate.

[didymos1120]

KnightofPhoenix wrote...

You'd think Sovereign would deactivate the relay next to the Citadel, isolate it and protect his rear...

Those relays (yes: plural) were locked down. Shep then unlocked them.

[Someone With Mass]

didymos1120 wrote...
Yeah: the weapon was even more of wreck than the Reaper.  Not gonna be a factor.

Just because the weapon's busted doesn't mean we can't learn anything from it.

For example, take a look at the Thanix cannon. 

Modifié par Someone With Mass, 14 avril 2011 - 05:20 .

[jamesp81]

didymos1120 wrote...

DominoN7 wrote...
If I remember correctly, Upon discovery of the Derelict Reaper in 2, The Illusive Man mentioned that it was disabled using an "Enormous Mass Accellerator Weapon" and that he sent a team to recover either the Reaper or the weapon and that they "Found Both."

Yeah: the weapon was even more of wreck than the Reaper.  Not gonna be a factor.

The weapon itself, no.  But the fact that it worked gives us a workable idea.  It also may have some recoverable tech that can be reverse engineered.

I don't think you could stop a Reaper invasion with them alone, but building ginormous mass accelerators in orbit around every star would make taking a system *very* painful for the Reapers.  And that's a lot of how it's going to be.  You can't beat them all at once; they're too strong.  You've got to make them pay dearly for every system they take.

Modifié par jamesp81, 14 avril 2011 - 05:16 .

[didymos1120]

Someone With Mass wrote...

Just because the weapon's busted doesn't mean we can't learn anything from it.

For example, take a look at the Thanix cannon. 

The Thanix has the advantage of being portable. And a novel concept.  The giant mass accelerator was neither.  It's just a giant version of, well, mass accelerators. Everyone knows about those. Everyone already has those.  And the GMA was ridiculously impractical if you think about it for a second or two (requires huge amounts of eezo and other materials, aim is a b!tch what with one that huge needing to be anchored to a planet or moon, etc.).

Not to mention, it wasn't really that effective.  It took out all of one Reaper, and even then it was only mostly dead. By contrast, the only remaining trace of the race that fired the thing was the broken remains of the weapon.  It's even implied that the thing was built as a sort of final, defiant "@#$% you" to the Reapers rather than as a viable anti-Reaper weapon system.

[CroGamer002]

didymos1120 wrote...

The Thanix has the advantage of being portable. And a novel concept.  The giant mass accelerator was neither.  It's just a giant version of, well, mass accelerators. Everyone knows about those. Everyone already has those.  And the GMA was ridiculously impractical if you think about it for a second or two (requires huge amounts of eezo and other materials, aim is a b!tch what with one that huge needing to be anchored to a planet or moon, etc.).

Not to mention, it wasn't really that effective.  It took out all of one Reaper, and even then it was only mostly dead. By contrast, the only remaining trace of the race that fired the thing was the broken remains of the weapon.  It's even implied that the thing was built as a sort of final, defiant "@#$% you" to the Reapers rather than as a viable anti-Reaper weapon system.

Dieing with style, that race knows how to do it.

I salute them.

[Someone With Mass]

Still, the Thanix was a scaled down version of Sovereign's guns, and they weren't exactly portable either.

And if it disabled a Reaper with one round while it took more than the whole Citadel fleet to bring down Sovereign, I think we can at least get something useful out of it. Like the shape of the projectile, how the firing mechanism works in a greater detail, power requirements, etc etc.

Take all that and integrate it into other weapons that might benefit from it. A little peek is all I'm asking for.

Modifié par Someone With Mass, 14 avril 2011 - 06:04 .

[Ultai]

It was just a really big sniper rifle or assault rifle. Since they use the same mass accelerator tech. I doubt they meant it to be a viable anti reaper weapon. It was probably just a big slow planetary bombardment weapon they already had prior to the Reapers that they just decided, hey let's kill us a Reaper to go out with style. I don't think they had time to build it during the invasion.

Modifié par Ultai, 14 avril 2011 - 06:28 .

[Mr. Gogeta34]

Reaper strategy: Go to earth, hang out, and take it from there.