285 réponses à ce sujet

[katamuro]

ismoketoomuch wrote...

Scale itch? You know I always wanted to make this confession. It goes back to ME1 and the airlock cutscenes with that moving bar of light that was supposed to have some sterilizing effect. I always kept my Shephards moving so that they avoided that thing, gotta protect the guys or girls as the case may be. That scale itch probably crept on board along with my medi-luddite shepard.

first Normandy was destroyed and shepard made an unassisted landing on a planet. Considering they spent a year rebuilding him I doubt that any kind of sickness was left.

[katamuro]

Tyzx wrote...

Probably because the Turian fleets and Alliance fleets did not have enough time to retrofit all the ship in the fleet with the cannons. Having only a year to retrofit a whole fleet with a new weapon cannot be an easy task, especially for the Alliance who would probably be busy and more inclined to building new ships to replace the ships lost in the battle of the citadel ( for the people who choose to rescue the council.)

As for the Turians, probably they thought that having the most amount of dreadnoughts in the galaxy at that time was a reason enough not to install the thanix cannons in such a rush. Call it Turian ego if you want.

We also know that the Salarians use Thanix Cannons, but we have not seen any action of them on screen except for the small excerpt from the Salarian Third Fleet War Asset information.

Probably energy constraints on using them on larger ships other than a frigate also makes equipping the thanix cannon not practical

By the time of the Reaper invasion of the galaxy in 2186, the Thanix and its variations have seen widespread use among Alliance fleets and beyond. An up-scaled version has also been made for use on dreadnoughts.

This is copypaste of the codex entry in ME3 about thanix. cannon use.
And the one below is about its design.
The Thanix's core is a liquid alloy of iron, uranium, and tungsten suspended in an electromagnetic field powered by element zero. The molten metal, accelerated to a significant fraction of the speed of light, solidifies into a projectile as it is fired, hitting targets with enough force to pierce any known shield or armor. The gun can fire reliably every five seconds. The weapon's relatively small size allows it to be mounted on most fighters or frigates, including theNormandy SR-2, and gives them firepower rivaling cruisers

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Known shield and armor: this includes reaper. We fought Sovereign. Oh I'm sorry. Sovereign was Geth. Yes even Sovereign's shield and armor. Uh, they did have pieces of Sovereign's armor around. Also the Normandy got some good readings from the Derelict Reaper's Kinetic Barriers, unless EDI did a derp. You didn't do a derp, did you EDI? If you did I'll unplug you.

[katamuro]

sH0tgUn jUliA wrote...

Known shield and armor: this includes reaper. We fought Sovereign. Oh I'm sorry. Sovereign was Geth. Yes even Sovereign's shield and armor. Uh, they did have pieces of Sovereign's armor around. Also the Normandy got some good readings from the Derelict Reaper's Kinetic Barriers, unless EDI did a derp. You didn't do a derp, did you EDI? If you did I'll unplug you.

Yeah funny how everyone suddenly forgot that they actually know what the Reaper was made of. Even little pieces would give it enough to construct an anti-reaper weapon. Considering they got enough to actually reproduce a Thanix cannon...
And its not only EDI that madea a derp. The galaxy at large had a sudden and inexplicable idiocy attack.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

katamuro wrote...

sH0tgUn jUliA wrote...

Known shield and armor: this includes reaper. We fought Sovereign. Oh I'm sorry. Sovereign was Geth. Yes even Sovereign's shield and armor. Uh, they did have pieces of Sovereign's armor around. Also the Normandy got some good readings from the Derelict Reaper's Kinetic Barriers, unless EDI did a derp. You didn't do a derp, did you EDI? If you did I'll unplug you.

Yeah funny how everyone suddenly forgot that they actually know what the Reaper was made of. Even little pieces would give it enough to construct an anti-reaper weapon. Considering they got enough to actually reproduce a Thanix cannon...
And its not only EDI that madea a derp. The galaxy at large had a sudden and inexplicable idiocy attack.

Yes, it was quite sad what happened. All because they had to have "the reapers steamroll into the galaxy when it was totally unprepared for them, because if it were prepared, then Shepard and hence the player would only matter as far as unifying the factions. By having the galaxy totally unprepared we can write a story where the player gets to witness the destruction of everything and feel the sadz throughout. They can feel the empties. Requiring a MacGuffin and a Deus Ex Machina with a reaper off button and moral consequences to win is a far better story because it makes the player feel heroic, and we can destroy it all in the last 10 minutes. Red, Green or Blue."

The story isn't even enjoyable to play. It's a pile of crap. Gears of War 3 was more fun TBH even though that last boss fight was a pain the ass.

[katamuro]

I havent played GoW3 but we always had boss fights in ME games. I wish we had one with Harbinger. I actually really liked Leviathan DLC, and while Omega was not exactly gold it was good too.
Man it could have been so good. it could have been the new Star Wars. It still could if they do a very good reboot.

[AlexMBrennan]

Requiring a MacGuffin and a Deus Ex Machina with a reaper off button and moral consequences to win is a far better story

ME was always going to end with a deus ex machina because of the laws of physics in the ME universe - unless you can wipe out all reapers everywhere instantaneously (use DeM doomsday weapon here) the best possible outcome is a prolonged guerrilla war you will lose unless we can somehow marshal forces two orders of magnitude greater than the enemy (I'd say that we'd about ten thousands dreadnoughts - one thousand to guard each homeworld and other major strategic targets; assuming 250 reaper capital ships and ratio 4:1 as given in the game right now).

If you want to see how hard it is to win a war like that then just look at Afghanistan - we aren't exactly winning despite having comically superior force; now imagine that against an enemy who is much stronger than us.

Modifié par AlexMBrennan, 14 juillet 2013 - 10:49 .

[teh DRUMPf!!]

^ Yeah, ME2 didn't really end with a "conventional victory" for that matter, just a device with color-coded(!) explosions.


And getting the mission done optimally was about as easy as accumulating the EMS to unlock all of RGB.

[katamuro]

the deus ex machina could be done better. For example it could be the Reaper specific EMP crippling them or a control interface that was done through millenia. Or it could be some other thing that did not end up in a frakked up thing like "we are saving you from evil AIs by slaughtering you".

[Tyzx]

katamuro wrote...

Tyzx wrote...

Probably because the Turian fleets and Alliance fleets did not have enough time to retrofit all the ship in the fleet with the cannons. Having only a year to retrofit a whole fleet with a new weapon cannot be an easy task, especially for the Alliance who would probably be busy and more inclined to building new ships to replace the ships lost in the battle of the citadel ( for the people who choose to rescue the council.)

As for the Turians, probably they thought that having the most amount of dreadnoughts in the galaxy at that time was a reason enough not to install the thanix cannons in such a rush. Call it Turian ego if you want.

We also know that the Salarians use Thanix Cannons, but we have not seen any action of them on screen except for the small excerpt from the Salarian Third Fleet War Asset information.

Probably energy constraints on using them on larger ships other than a frigate also makes equipping the thanix cannon not practical

[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)">By the time of the ] invasion of the galaxy in 2186, the Thanix and its variations have seen widespread use among [/color]Alliance fleets and beyond. An up-scaled version has also been made for use on dreadnoughts.

This is copypaste of the codex entry in ME3 about thanix. cannon use.
And the one below is about its design.
The Thanix's core is a liquid alloy of iron, uranium, and tungsten suspended in an electromagnetic field powered by element zero. The molten metal, accelerated to a significant fraction of the speed of light, solidifies into a projectile as it is fired, hitting targets with enough force to pierce any known shield or armor. The gun can fire reliably every five seconds. The weapon's relatively small size allows it to be mounted on most fighters or frigates, including theNormandy SR-2, and gives them firepower rivaling cruisers

who am I to go against the codex. but I'm just stating that on screen evidence does not seem to support that fact. in the final battle against the reapers over Earth, the fleet that seemed to have the most advance weaponry were the Asari who shot that blue quantum torpedo like energy bolt. All the other vessels in the fleet were firing what looked to me like conventional mass accelerator cannons. 

[katamuro]

Tyzx wrote...

katamuro wrote...

Tyzx wrote...

Probably because the Turian fleets and Alliance fleets did not have enough time to retrofit all the ship in the fleet with the cannons. Having only a year to retrofit a whole fleet with a new weapon cannot be an easy task, especially for the Alliance who would probably be busy and more inclined to building new ships to replace the ships lost in the battle of the citadel ( for the people who choose to rescue the council.)

As for the Turians, probably they thought that having the most amount of dreadnoughts in the galaxy at that time was a reason enough not to install the thanix cannons in such a rush. Call it Turian ego if you want.

We also know that the Salarians use Thanix Cannons, but we have not seen any action of them on screen except for the small excerpt from the Salarian Third Fleet War Asset information.

Probably energy constraints on using them on larger ships other than a frigate also makes equipping the thanix cannon not practical

[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)">By the time of the ] invasion of the galaxy in 2186, the Thanix and its variations have seen widespread use among [/color]Alliance fleets and beyond. An up-scaled version has also been made for use on dreadnoughts.

This is copypaste of the codex entry in ME3 about thanix. cannon use.
And the one below is about its design.
The Thanix's core is a liquid alloy of iron, uranium, and tungsten suspended in an electromagnetic field powered by element zero. The molten metal, accelerated to a significant fraction of the speed of light, solidifies into a projectile as it is fired, hitting targets with enough force to pierce any known shield or armor. The gun can fire reliably every five seconds. The weapon's relatively small size allows it to be mounted on most fighters or frigates, including theNormandy SR-2, and gives them firepower rivaling cruisers

who am I to go against the codex. but I'm just stating that on screen evidence does not seem to support that fact. in the final battle against the reapers over Earth, the fleet that seemed to have the most advance weaponry were the Asari who shot that blue quantum torpedo like energy bolt. All the other vessels in the fleet were firing what looked to me like conventional mass accelerator cannons. 

No yeah I know, that is why we are all saying, thanix cannon use is not supported by the cutscenes or anything apart from codex. And that if they actually were using them there would have been a lot more dead reapers. 

[Tyzx]

^ exactly, more dead reapers. I can live with that.

[katamuro]

Yes we can all live with that.

[CrutchCricket]

HYR 2.0 wrote...
Not much of a defense. It's basically to say: "yeah, but they did it, so who cares if I do it?"

You're either okay with it, or you're not.

It's the same objection, whether you do it conventionally or via space magic. Being ok with one but not ok with the other is inconsistent if that's the extent of your objection.

Yes, they respawn, but there are only ever three active at once in the first two rounds.

So chalk it up to more Reapers arriving from other parts of the galaxy. We know they're not just at Earth.

You think we can match 200,000-odd superships??

With 200,000-odd regular ships? Yeah. It wouldn't matter. But then numbers alone never did unless you had a reliable zerg rush.

You don't get a squad, remember? Well, okay, you can have a 'drone. And a turret.

Yes you do. I'm disagreeing with you, remember?

Minor difference. It's not like it takes the PPR too long to hit its top DPS anyway.

Significant difference. Around two seconds to become four times as powerful. In a battle where you can get stun-locked in half that time.

Well that's not an option now is it?

Precisely. Neither are thanix cannons apparently apart from some codex lip service. Nonetheless I maintain that if you must compare infantry to space battle it's the Particle Beam that is the closest analogue to the thanix in function, damage and origin.

The lolReegar is more like the Crucible, really.

lol not at all. Pre-nerf Krysae is the Crucible. Maybe. On a four GI squad.

So is the Thanix Cannon if it's the sole key to unlock conventional victory.

No one's claiming that. Though even so there's a difference between using a weapon that will work in battle (with all the risks that come from that)  and simply going from A to B and pressing a "kill all Reapers" button.

Just because their prototype hasn't evolved over millennia doesn't mean it's obsolete.

Not at all obsolete. Perfectly suited to its task. Like the Great White Shark, no need to evolve- it does just fine now what it did millions of years ago.

This cycle's been able to delay them longer, inflict more casualties and generally hold out more, so I would expect that if they survive they would upgrade some things, not necessarily in themselves (though if I'm not mistaken the codex mentioned they patched the possession vulnerability Sovereign had) but in things like controlling the Citadel. And once again they would be perfectly suited to their task.

Which actually brings something else to mind. If you refuse and the Reapers go back to Reaping, they should upgrade past the Crucible vulnerability. Which means the next cycle couldn't use it, even if they wanted to. Hah, take that twitter!

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

They knew how big Sovereign was. They knew Sovereign was a reaper. It was in the Citadel archives. The Thanix weaponry was a smaller version of the reaper weapon, but how much smaller isn't exactly stated.

Super Mac gave them Super Drive. That was the biggest problem. That destroyed any possible hope of preparation even if they believed you.
But the problem wasn't defeating them in space, it was defeating them while they were on the ground. The thanix was the perfect weapon. Dreadnoughts are not what we needed. We needed a boatload of Normandy SR-3 class frigates (VI equipped, equivalent to the upgraded SR-2), that could do precision FTL jumps into atmosphere, hit the reaper ships while they're on the ground reaping, then FTL back up to space. Eventually they would have had to leave the planet and pursue. Then you hit them hard and FTL out.

Otherwise your fancy fleet would have just been ignored by the reapers. You have only to look as far as Thessia to see the results of that. The Asari had the most advanced fleet in the galaxy. They were using unconventional tactics against the reapers in space with a decent amount of success. The reapers were taking losses, and were being kept at bay. This is why the Asari worlds weren't being hit. Then the reapers turned and ignored the fleets and landed and the Asari worlds suffered the same fate as Earth, Khar'shan, and Palaven. Earth pretty much fell within a the first couple of days. There was a "resistance" against the "reaper forces" -- yeah they were fighting former humans and former batarians, and later former Turians and former Krogan and former Asari.

[Tyzx]

^ was not there a ground version of the thanix cannon? if I am not mistaken they were called thanix missiles. but yes what the war needed was small ships that could unleash the devastating force of the Thanix on the Reapers and then immediately slip back in to space.

[Ledgend1221]

Tyzx wrote...

^ was not there a ground version of the thanix cannon? if I am not mistaken they were called thanix missiles. but yes what the war needed was small ships that could unleash the devastating force of the Thanix on the Reapers and then immediately slip back in to space.

Yes and they worked oh so well against those puny rippaz.
Plus they made complete sense too.

[Reorte]

AlexMBrennan wrote...

Requiring a MacGuffin and a Deus Ex Machina with a reaper off button and moral consequences to win is a far better story

ME was always going to end with a deus ex machina because of the laws of physics in the ME universe - unless you can wipe out all reapers everywhere instantaneously (use DeM doomsday weapon here) the best possible outcome is a prolonged guerrilla war you will lose unless we can somehow marshal forces two orders of magnitude greater than the enemy (I'd say that we'd about ten thousands dreadnoughts - one thousand to guard each homeworld and other major strategic targets; assuming 250 reaper capital ships and ratio 4:1 as given in the game right now).

That's how it seemed and why I was looking forward to BioWare coming up with some impressive solution. I couldn't see how we could convincingly defeat an enemy that had curbstomped everyone for the past several billion years but naively assumed that that was the sort of thing that had been considered from the start, so I was expecting some brilliant solution. What a fool.

If you want to see how hard it is to win a war like that then just look at Afghanistan - we aren't exactly winning despite having comically superior force; now imagine that against an enemy who is much stronger than us.

Afghanistan is an example of the advantages of being on the defensive; if anything it's the type of example that should play against the Reapers (although an attacking force that doesn't give a damn about the atrocities it commits would have an easier time).

[teh DRUMPf!!]

[quote]CrutchCricket wrote...

[quote]HYR 2.0 wrote...
Not much of a defense. It's basically to say: "yeah, but they did it, so who cares if I do it?"

You're either okay with it, or you're not.[/quote]
It's the same objection, whether you do it conventionally or via space magic. Being ok with one but not ok with the other is inconsistent if that's the extent of your objection.[/quote]

And if you share the objection yet maintain the same concept in your version's ending?

It just goes to show how little wiggle-room one has been left with, at the onset of ME3...


[quote][quote]Yes, they respawn, but there are only ever three active at once in the first two rounds.[/quote]

So chalk it up to more Reapers arriving from other parts of the galaxy. We know they're not just at Earth.[/quote]

[quote][quote]You don't get a squad, remember? Well, okay, you can have a 'drone. And a turret.[/quote]

Yes you do. I'm disagreeing with you, remember?[/quote]

Then your analogy is invalid. We do not match the Reapers pound-for-pound in the war.


[quote][quote]Minor difference. It's not like it takes the PPR too long to hit its top DPS anyway.[/quote]

Significant difference. Around two seconds to become four times as powerful. In a battle where you can get stun-locked in half that time.

[quote]Well that's not an option now is it?[/quote]
Precisely. Neither are thanix cannons apparently apart from some codex lip service. Nonetheless I maintain that if you must compare infantry to space battle it's the Particle Beam that is the closest analogue to the thanix in function, damage and origin.[/quote]

It can start at its top DPS or give you the Collector heavy-weapon and it still won't make a difference, because you have to sustain the attack long enough to actually kill anything, in which time you get clobbered. Shields recharge.


[quote][quote]The lolReegar is more like the Crucible, really.[/quote]
lol not at all. Pre-nerf Krysae is the Crucible. Maybe. On a four GI squad.[/quote]

Well, sure, except it works nothing like the Krysae at all.

The Crucible works like the Reegar: it's an energy-dispenser.

The only reason it can go system-to-system is because of the Citadel.


[quote][quote]So is the Thanix Cannon if it's the sole key to unlock conventional victory.[/quote]
No one's claiming that. Though even so there's a difference between using a weapon that will work in battle (with all the risks that come from that) and simply going from A to B and pressing a "kill all Reapers" button.[/quote]

Good thing the Crucible strategy is not "simply going from A to B and pressing a (...) button."

There's a whole battle plan involved with it.

I posted about this ITT.

Modifié par HYR 2.0, 15 juillet 2013 - 01:03 .

[RadicalDisconnect]

sH0tgUn jUliA wrote...

o Ventus wrote...

KaiserShep wrote...

David7204 wrote...

Why wouldn't it make sense?

Looking at the info, I guess it would make sense, since the Thanix cannon fires an actual projectile. It's a kinetic energy weapon, though because it's just a piece of metal, it technically would not be a missile. 

A Thanix cannon is not a kinetic weapon.

Well, I suppose kinetic energy would obviously be part of it, but the main effect arguably comes from thermal energy. It's superheated iron, uranium, and tungsten, I believe, and it's white-hot. Whatever armor it doesn't bore through it would melt (or if it doesn't, the metal will cool and solidify on top of the ship, significantly hindering effectiveness if it hits any vital area). Since kinetic barriers can't protect against extremes of temperature, the sheer heat given off by the shot might be able to damage the barrier emitters, similar to Haestrom.

This is exactly why it ignores kinetic barriers. You are correct in that it is white hot. And since in the vacuum of space where there is no atmosphere to cause rapid cooling of the superheated mixture, it would go straight through whatever barrier the reaper vessel had. Actually it would cut through the hull. And yes, they use kinetic barriers. It is stated in ME2 in the Derelict Reaper mission.

Thank you for verifying this. Now I no longer have to pepper this thread with snarky remarks and can go to bed.

A bit of a problem with that argument. In the vacuum of space, the only way to transfer heat is through radiation, which is rather inefficient. So you kinda have to rely on your Thanix shot actually breaking the Reaper's barriers in order for the temperature to be a effective way to cause damage. I don't think radiation will be particularly effective against Reapers that are likely hardened against cosmic radiation in order to survive.

Reorte wrote...

If you want to see how hard it is to win a war like that then just look at Afghanistan - we aren't exactly winning despite having comically superior force; now imagine that against an enemy who is much stronger than us.

Afghanistan is an example of the advantages of being on the defensive; if anything it's the type of example that should play against the Reapers (although an attacking force that doesn't give a damn about the atrocities it commits would have an easier time).

Or logistics. I really can't stress the importance of logistics enough.

Modifié par RadicalDisconnect, 15 juillet 2013 - 05:01 .

[CrutchCricket]

HYR 2.0 wrote...
And if you share the objection yet maintain the same concept in your version's ending?

It just goes to show how little wiggle-room one has been left with, at the onset of ME3...

As you said before, mandatory loss would've pissed too many people off (as if they care)

Regardless, dismissing the objection is the only course.

Then your analogy is invalid. We do not match the Reapers pound-for-pound in the war.

We never match the enemy pound for pound in arena/MP matches either. The analogy holds.

It can start at its top DPS or give you the Collector heavy-weapon and it still won't make a difference, because you have to sustain the attack long enough to actually kill anything, in which time you get clobbered. Shields recharge.

You have other, shield stripping attacks, from yourself or allies as well as other boosts (lol TacCloak?).

It's probably here that the analogy breaks down.

The Crucible works like the Reegar: it's an energy-dispenser.

The only reason it can go system-to-system is because of the Citadel.

lol no. I thought you were just joking but directed electrical discharge is quite different from an EMP wave, a control signal, or whatever the hell synthesis is.

The Crucible isn't really a weapon. If it was, maybe there'd be fewer objections.

Good thing the Crucible strategy is not "simply going from A to B and pressing a (...) button."

There's a whole battle plan involved with it.

I posted about this ITT.

Actually... it is. Replace "pressing a button" with shooting a pipe, grabbing some electrodes, or, hilariously, going from point B to point C by way of gravity.

Or are you referring to the glorified escort mission that precedes it?

Modifié par CrutchCricket, 15 juillet 2013 - 04:12 .

[RadicalDisconnect]

To be very honest, I feel that ME3 handled the war very poorly by making both the Reapers and the organics pretty moronic. In my opinion, to claim that conventional victory is possible by exploiting some apparent display of Reaper incompetence seen in game isn't entirely meaningful, because one can similarly claim that the Reapers shouldn't even take as long as it did to overwhelm the galaxy due to the observed blunders of organic species.

Still, I feel that some people are kinda missing the point about conventional victory.

Consider the following Reaper characteristics:
1. Superior warfighting capabilities. They have weaponry with superior firepower and range, as well as better targetting systems. They are more maneuverable. And before David7204 asks, simply scaling an organic dreadnought to the size of a Reaper will not allow us to match their capabilities. Remember that smaller ships like frigates are faster than dreadnoughts, and the massive Reapers are faster than anything we got.
2. Numerical superiority. I think it has been outright stated that they enjoy this advantage.
3. Knowledge accumulated over thousands of cycles. In fact, it blows my mind that the Reapers would fall victim to suicide bombing on Palaven. No cycle prior to our's thought of that?
4. Little need for infrastructure and logistics. The importance of this advantage when waging war can't be stressed enough. Also makes the description of the Reaper assault on the Asari a bit questionable. It was claimed that the Asari managed to put the Reapers on the defensive, but what do they even have to defend?

Thanix cannon might slightly improve the odds in the capabilities department. But to believably to even the odds against an enemy as potent as the Reapers, much much more needs to be done to address all those Reaper advantages, particularly in the areas of numbers superiority and logistical footprint.

This means that if you are wishing for a conventional victory, you can forget about it based on what we currently know about the Reapers. Only way to get one is to have a deux ex machina, or substantially rewrite the Reapers and/or the trilogy plot (I favor the latter).

Modifié par RadicalDisconnect, 17 juillet 2013 - 10:09 .

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

I favor a reaper & plot rewrite.

[David7204]

So quick to give up. How disappointing.

[Ledgend1221]

RadicalDisconnect wrote...

To be very honest, I feel that ME3 handled the war very poorly by making both the Reapers and the organics pretty moronic. In my opinion, to claim that conventional victory is possible by exploiting some apparent display of Reaper incompetence seen in game isn't entirely meaningful, because one can similarly claim that the Reapers shouldn't even take as long as it did to overwhelm the galaxy due to the observed blunders of organic species.

Still, I feel that some people are kinda missing the point about conventional victory.

Consider the following Reaper characteristics:
1. Superior warfighting capabilities. They have weaponry with superior firepower and range, as well as better targetting systems. They are more maneuverable. And before David7204 asks, simply scaling an organic dreadnought to a Reaper will not allow us to match their capabilities. Remember that smaller ships like frigates are faster than dreadnoughts, and the massive Reapers are faster than anything we got.
2. Numerical superiority. I think it has been outright stated that they enjoy this advantage.
3. Knowledge accumulated over thousands of cycles. In fact, it blows my mind that the Reapers would fall victim to suicide bombing on Palaven. No cycle prior to our's thought of that?
4. Little need for infrastructure and logistics. The importance of this advantage when waging war can't be stressed enough. Also makes the description of the Reaper assault on the Asari a bit questionable. It was claimed that the Asari managed to put the Reapers on the defensive, but what do they even have to defend?

Thanix cannon might slightly improve the odds in the capabilities department. But to believably to even the odds against an enemy as potent as the Reapers, much much more needs to be done to address all those Reaper advantages, particularly in the areas of numbers superiority and logistical footprint.

This means that if you are wishing for a conventional victory, you can forget about based on what we currently know about the Reapers. Only way to get one is to have a deux ex machina, or substantially rewrite the Reapers and/or the trilogy plot (I favor the latter).

1. A 3km gun is better then a 2km gun, that's how it works in ME.
Also, ships are capable of going FTL, combat only happens below FTL. All ships have equal speed advantages.
Repears are also really big and frigates are really small. That range advantage is moot against anything other then dreadnoughts.
2. How many do they have vs how many do we have.
3. Stagnation of tactics from years of repetition. If you keep owning scrubs all your life, then you won't have any tactics to face pros. Because you've never faced them before.
4. They also cannot replace their losses quickly. Any kills hurt them. The galatic forces however can replace their losses. A war of attrition will not bode well for the reapers.