493 réponses à ce sujet

[Han Shot First]

Psychevore wrote...

David7204 wrote...

Probably because you changed the language tab at the bottom right corner.

... there really is 1337 in there.

That's just hilarious

I got excited when I saw 'Buccaneer' was one of the options.

Sadly it doesn't seem to work.

[Obadiah]

Han Shot First wrote...

Psychevore wrote...

David7204 wrote...

Probably because you changed the language tab at the bottom right corner.

... there really is 1337 in there.

That's just hilarious

I got excited when I saw 'Buccaneer' was one of the options.

Sadly it doesn't seem to work.

Look a the top menu bar!!

[jamesp81]

Almostfaceman wrote...

jamesp81 wrote...

I've long thought that the Reapers should've been written as beatable by conventional means but they never lost because of the whole Citadel + indoctrination trap.  Their usual modus operandi being that they take out leadership in the first wave at the Citadel, shut down the relays, and use indoctrinated agents to destroy their enemies from the inside out.

This had so much potential.  With ME1 preventing the initial Reaper attack through the Citadel and Arrival buying the galaxy some time, the Allies can still move, fight, and coordinate, but write in to the story a huge number of government and military officials betraying their own people to the Reapers due to indoctrination.  A good model for this would be the various reports you get in game about civilian officials on reaper occupied worlds speaking on behalf of and cooperating with the Reapers.  Make that more widespread.

The story would've been made in such a way that conventional victory was not impossible, just impossible to coordinate in most cycles...except this one.  Then winning the war is dependent on player actions.  it's more interactive as a story (good since this is a game about choices), and makes a lot more sense than a giant space-magic death beam with three color settings.

Yes, this would have been much more interesting to me, I love a good underdog story and that's what Shep's gotten himself into. 

Expanding on this a little...you could write in several points to the story where a major offensive went badly wrong due to indoctrinated agents.  Stir that into the story, and then think about the Sword fleet attacking the Reapers at Earth.  The victory there would just be getting everyone shooting in the same direction.  It could make for some really unique story telling tension.  JMO.

[jamesp81]

Invisible Man wrote...

second, fighting the reapers using a tactic involving holding them at chokepoints wouldn't work.

And yet this would be the best way to come to grips with them.

Invisible Man wrote...
the reapers are faster (though not more maneuverable) than the currently available military assets of the various factions, pack more firepower, and have more potent shielding systems.

In a set piece battle, like a trans-relay assault or defending a mass relay from an attacker, speed and maneuverability are irrelevant.  Only passive defenses, active defenses, and firepower matter.  Electronic warfare matters some, but not as much (for a picture of what this might look like, I suggest one of David Weber's Starfire novels.  A similar bottleneck in interstellar travel exists in these novels, albeit they're more restrictive than mass relays).

The funny thing is that the Citadel races had at their easy disposal materials to make weapons quite capable of decimating Reapers.  It's called anti matter and they use it for starship fuel.  Multi-megaton weapons could be easily constructed from it.  The warheads could then be seeded like mines around the relays.  Why this was never done doesn't make a great deal of sense.  We know that the combined fire of four Turian dreadnoughts can destroy a Reaper (according to the Codex).  This constitutes three digit kiloton range firepower being able to take down a Reaper.  A double digit megaton proximity fused anti matter warhead should more or less vaporize one.

[AlanC9]

von uber wrote...

AlanC9 wrote...

von uber wrote...

All complete headcanon of course, but I quite like the concept of the crucible being in the main a destroy weapon which the catalyst subverts and attempts to utilise its energy for the other two outcomes.

Your headcanon-fu is stronger than mine. How do you get around Reapers damaging the Crucible leading to the Catalyst being unable to subvert the device? Or the Catalyst being able to add options but unable to subtract any?

Hmm. Well I guess in the first case it means Reapers win so it doesn't matter.

Not true. Fail to gather enough military assets and Synthesis becomes impossible while Destroy or Control still work depending on your Collector Base choice. (This is where a lot of theories fall apart, so don't feel bad about yours)

[AlanC9]

jamesp81 wrote...
In a set piece battle, like a trans-relay assault or defending a mass relay from an attacker, speed and maneuverability are irrelevant.  Only passive defenses, active defenses, and firepower matter.  Electronic warfare matters some, but not as much (for a picture of what this might look like, I suggest one of David Weber's Starfire novels.  A similar bottleneck in interstellar travel exists in these novels, albeit they're more restrictive than mass relays).

The problem with this is that it isn't true. Blame Bio for honking the way relays work, but the Codex is quite clear that relay blockades can't work.  An assaulting fleet actually wants to drift -- "hundreds or millions of kilometers" means that the enemy won't have a firing solution when you come through.

The warheads could then be seeded like mines around the relays.  Why this was never done doesn't make a great deal of sense.  We know that the combined fire of four Turian dreadnoughts can destroy a Reaper (according to the Codex).  This constitutes three digit kiloton range firepower being able to take down a Reaper.  A double digit megaton proximity fused anti matter warhead should more or less vaporize one.

Again, "millions of kilometers".

[Argentoid]

ThisOnesUsername wrote...

The Crucible is not a Deus Ex Machina, it's a MacGuffin. The Catalyst is the DEM.

No, the Catalyst is not even a DEM. A real DEM is when just someone magical appears (citing this case) without it being foreshadowed, at the least minimum. 

The Catalyst was foreshadowed during Priority: Thessia.

And, if you wish to include it, in Leviathan too.

EDIT: Nevermind, I saw the other posts discussing the whole thing. Pointless by now.

Modifié par Argentoid, 10 janvier 2014 - 06:50 .

[jamesp81]

AlanC9 wrote...

jamesp81 wrote...
In a set piece battle, like a trans-relay assault or defending a mass relay from an attacker, speed and maneuverability are irrelevant.  Only passive defenses, active defenses, and firepower matter.  Electronic warfare matters some, but not as much (for a picture of what this might look like, I suggest one of David Weber's Starfire novels.  A similar bottleneck in interstellar travel exists in these novels, albeit they're more restrictive than mass relays).

The problem with this is that it isn't true. Blame Bio for honking the way relays work, but the Codex is quite clear that relay blockades can't work.  An assaulting fleet actually wants to drift -- "hundreds or millions of kilometers" means that the enemy won't have a firing solution when you come through.

The warheads could then be seeded like mines around the relays.  Why this was never done doesn't make a great deal of sense.  We know that the combined fire of four Turian dreadnoughts can destroy a Reaper (according to the Codex).  This constitutes three digit kiloton range firepower being able to take down a Reaper.  A double digit megaton proximity fused anti matter warhead should more or less vaporize one.

Again, "millions of kilometers".

Nevermind then.  It wouldn't work with minefields under these conditions.

There are other delivery systems for matter-antimatter warheads though.  Ballistic delivery by being launched from a mass accelerator is probably cheapest and easiest with existing tech.

[Iakus]

jamesp81 wrote...

Nevermind then.  It wouldn't work with minefields under these conditions.

There are other delivery systems for matter-antimatter warheads though.  Ballistic delivery by being launched from a mass accelerator is probably cheapest and easiest with existing tech.

Missiles with bomb-pumped laser warheads.  Volleys of them to saturate Reaper point defenses.  Doesn't matter how strong their kinetic barriers are, they won't do squat against lethal doses of x-rays cooking their insides.

Again drawing from Weber's books.

[von uber]

AlanC9 wrote...


Not true. Fail to gather enough military assets and Synthesis becomes impossible while Destroy or Control still work depending on your Collector Base choice. (This is where a lot of theories fall apart, so don't feel bad about yours)

Maybe because more reaper tech was used if you save the base and that then becomes the default? And then the other option is that it's damaged enough for the intercept to not work? 

But this is more  isn't it. 

They really should have just gone with destroy and have it play out from Anderson's death,  with resultant damage and survival based on ems. 

[AlanC9]

von uber wrote...

AlanC9 wrote...


Not true. Fail to gather enough military assets and Synthesis becomes impossible while Destroy or Control still work depending on your Collector Base choice. (This is where a lot of theories fall apart, so don't feel bad about yours)

Maybe because more reaper tech was used if you save the base and that then becomes the default? And then the other option is that it's damaged enough for the intercept to not work? 

But this is more  isn't it. 

Yes, it is. Give it up.

[AlanC9]

iakus wrote...



Missiles with bomb-pumped laser warheads.  Volleys of them to saturate Reaper point defenses.  Doesn't matter how strong their kinetic barriers are, they won't do squat against lethal doses of x-rays cooking their insides.

Again drawing from Weber's books.

Sure. But I don't know where this is going to get us. It's never been any secret that MEU space combat was poorly thought out.

[ImaginaryMatter]

AlanC9 wrote...

iakus wrote...



Missiles with bomb-pumped laser warheads.  Volleys of them to saturate Reaper point defenses.  Doesn't matter how strong their kinetic barriers are, they won't do squat against lethal doses of x-rays cooking their insides.

Again drawing from Weber's books.

Sure. But I don't know where this is going to get us. It's never been any secret that MEU space combat was poorly thought out.

The space combat always confused me a little because what's in the Codex is completely different than everything else in the game. Even FTL travel started to look more and more like some sort of warp drive as the series went on.

[AlanC9]

They never got FTL exit right. Normandy should be facing in the opposite direction to decelerate.

[ImaginaryMatter]

I always assumed there was some kind of invisible thrusters on the front that slowed it down. Or when they jumped out of FTL and turned down the eezo core they slowed down due to conservation of momentum.

[Iakus]

AlanC9 wrote...

iakus wrote...



Missiles with bomb-pumped laser warheads.  Volleys of them to saturate Reaper point defenses.  Doesn't matter how strong their kinetic barriers are, they won't do squat against lethal doses of x-rays cooking their insides.

Again drawing from Weber's books.

Sure. But I don't know where this is going to get us. It's never been any secret that MEU space combat was poorly thought out.

I don't know about poorly thought out so much as extremely limited. 

THis is the problem with the whole "conventional means" thing.  The Reapers are the masters of "conventional warfare" The galaxy developed along the lines the Reapers set them on.  And the Reapers can, of course counter whatever they learned. 

But it never seemed to occur to the galaxy to think outside the box.  To develop weapons that do end runs around these defensive.  Instead the answer to getting past a strong kinetic barrier was to build a bigger mass accelerator.  Not to make a weapon that kinetic barriers are useless against. Like energy weapons.  Or thermal.  Or radiation.

Or to find weapons designed not to punch through them, but to bring them down.  I mean, they already have tech grenades designed to overload personal shields.  DId they never think to build one that would work on ships?

[Iakus]

AlanC9 wrote...

They never got FTL exit right. Normandy should be facing in the opposite direction to decelerate.

Shepard makes a joke about that in ME2. 

"Why are we turning around?  We're only halfway there!"

[AlanC9]

iakus wrote...


But it never seemed to occur to the galaxy to think outside the box.  To develop weapons that do end runs around these defensive.  Instead the answer to getting past a strong kinetic barrier was to build a bigger mass accelerator.  Not to make a weapon that kinetic barriers are useless against. Like energy weapons.  Or thermal.  Or radiation.

Or to find weapons designed not to punch through them, but to bring them down.  I mean, they already have tech grenades designed to overload personal shields.  DId they never think to build one that would work on ships?

You know how this would play out in-game, though. Lots of Codex entries and Hackett exposition, only to find out that every one of these technologies has failed.

I like the idea of giving the player false hope, but more than once or twice would be repetitive.

Modifié par AlanC9, 10 janvier 2014 - 08:05 .

[David7204]

Are we really still suggestion these, frankly, stupid ideas?

I don't know how many times I've had to say this. No magic wands. Magic wands are not good writing. Is that clear enough to you, Iakus? That your magic thermal weapons, magic 'energy weapons' are crap writing? You don't seem to be the grasping the simple premise that a magic solution is a crap solution.

On top of that, i seriously doubt you have much understanding at all of these 'ideas' you're throwing out.

Modifié par David7204, 10 janvier 2014 - 08:07 .

[jamesp81]

iakus wrote...

jamesp81 wrote...

Nevermind then.  It wouldn't work with minefields under these conditions.

There are other delivery systems for matter-antimatter warheads though.  Ballistic delivery by being launched from a mass accelerator is probably cheapest and easiest with existing tech.

Missiles with bomb-pumped laser warheads.  Volleys of them to saturate Reaper point defenses.  Doesn't matter how strong their kinetic barriers are, they won't do squat against lethal doses of x-rays cooking their insides.

Again drawing from Weber's books.

It might require too much retooling of industry to do that in the middle of a war.  Firing ballistic projectiles from existing guns that contained anti-matter warheads might be quicker to get to the front lines than an entirely new system.  The 'ammunition' would be specialized, but it would work in existing weapons systems and wouldn't absolutely require a massive refit of existing warships.

Then again, disruptor torpedos are already in use.  Building the same torpedo with a different warhead might be doable.

Modifié par jamesp81, 10 janvier 2014 - 08:07 .

[David7204]

Do you even have any clue at all what a 'bomb-pumped laser warhead' is, Iakus?

Modifié par David7204, 10 janvier 2014 - 08:12 .

[ImaginaryMatter]

David7204 wrote...

Are we really still suggestion these, frankly, stupid ideas?

I don't know how many times I've had to say this. No magic wands. Magic wands are not good writing. Is that clear enough to you, Iakus? That your magic thermal weapons, magic 'energy weapons' are crap writing? You don't seem to be the grasping the simple premise that a magic solution is a crap solution.

On top of that, i seriously doubt you have much understanding at all of these 'ideas' you're throwing out.

The only way you can beat the Reapers is through your so called 'magical' means or writer fiat.

Also, good and bad writing doesn't fit your narrow views.

[von uber]

AlanC9 wrote...


Yes, it is. Give it up.

Be a fairly quiet board if we all did that though.

[Iakus]

David7204 wrote...

Are we really still suggestion these, frankly, stupid ideas?

I don't know how many times I've had to say this. No magic wands. Magic wands are not good writing. Is that clear enough to you, Iakus? That your magic thermal weapons, magic 'energy weapons' are crap writing? You don't seem to be the grasping the simple premise that a magic solution is a crap solution.

On top of that, i seriously doubt you have much understanding at all of these 'ideas' you're throwing out.

I'm not talking about magic wands.  I'm talking about adapting to unconventional means of combat to make fighting the Reapers less of a "You're curb-stomped.  Nothing you did mattered" 

While I admit after all the time wasted in ME2, a magic wand is sadly necessary to end the story (and that's just what the Crucible is, a big red, green, and blue magic wand.  And a cursed one at that) I submit that it could have, in fact should have, been done better

Do you even have any clue at all what a 'bomb-pumped laser warhead' is, Iakus?

I am not a physicist, so no,k  I do not know precisely what it is.  However, I do have a layman's idea of what it is:

Project Excalibur

[Cainhurst Crow]

Why don't we just have the crucible activate the mass relay inside the citadel and link it to the omega relay, and turn it into a black hole corridor that sucks all the reapers, the citadel, earth, and the fleet, into a giant black hole, where they die.