3581 réponses à ce sujet

[prosthetic soul]

*looks at OP from across the piano bar*

 

*spits out wad of tobacco into a pot*

 

Well LOOKY here Cleetus, we got one of them contrarian type fellers! 

[gothpunkboy89]

@Natureguy85

 

ME1 doesn't match up with the data provided.  Thousands of years of people living on the Citadel but no one thinks to do more then live on the surface and some how it is a massive dormant relay on top of that? It is presented to the player and they should be able to do the critical thinking skills needed to understand what is going on and the changes that happen.  Or am I just making an ass of my self by assuming people are smarter then they actually are?

 

Yes Joker moves at the speed of the plot and it shows that the control the Relays only extends out to the relays around the Citadel. Locking those down during an invasion would make the Citadel as inaccessible as the moon was to 17th sentry man to all but the Reapers. There would have been at least some counter attack directed at retaking the Citadel from at least local troops. Going to use the Relay and finding it locked out then the Reapers spreading throughout the galaxy would make it seem like they controlled all the Relays.

 

We do know basics about what is needed for a Relay. A massive Element Zero Core, it needs to charge up and then charge the ship needed to fire it though the Relay. And it would have to work both ways to do so. It's very design doesn't really set it self up to be used like that. Lets also not forget to allow that kind of power needed to reach that kind of distance it piles on the WTF of thousands of years of species living on it yet not able to see anything about it that might raise suspicion. The signal transmitter idea how ever fits with the over all design of the Citadel. As well as the fact it would be easy to hide that without arousing any suspicion from the in inhabitants living on it. 

 

Any signal takes time to travel though space that is why current and even Prothean have comm buoys in space to act as repeaters. Speeding up as well as priority channels to ensure the info reaches the target faster. When NASA sends a command to a probe near Jupiter it takes like 8 minutes for the signal to be received and sent back. How ever if we had signal boosters stationed at the point that the limit of communications we could reduce that delay from 8 minutes to received the command to only a few seconds. 

 

This basic idea that it is just a giant signal booster explains so much and fixes so many plot holes that players complain about. Prothean scientists altering the transponder signal that reacts to Sovereign's signal. Because the Citadel is just a signal booster and not the main method of entering/exiting the galaxy the set up of having species live on it for centuries at a time becomes much less stupid. Species could explore the citadel to their hearts content and at worst they would find a signal source they wouldn't know what it did. The AI on the citadel wouldn't realize the change because it would be set up it wouldn't need to monitor since it would be a function build into the keepers and would make leaving Sovereign behind make sense.  Because of the change the AI couldn't force the signal on it's own because it was set up specifically to respond to an out side source to get the Keepers to respond.

 

Your idea that they are flying out of darkness has 2 issues.

 

1. The Reapers themselves are illumined their eyes if nothing else which would mean they would show up regardless of light level.

2. The light is a never ending stream. It might take thousands of years to reach locations but it is never ending.  Darkspace just means it is an empty void beyond the outer rim of the galaxy were no star, no planet, nothing physically exists. How ever light would still reach it.

 

But again even if we ignore #2 the Reaper's eyes themselves glow so we would have seen them. The only way for that mass to show up is the Reapers were powered down and started up. Light does not work in that it is invisible in the dark then suddenly visible when light hits it.

 

1. Geth didn't contradict their statement to want to do things and develop their way. Taking and integrating an upgrade to improve themselves while still retaining their free will.

 

2. I did pay attention the Reapers upgraded Legion and used his body as the signal source to control the rest of the Geth. At no point did the Reapers actually upgrade any of the other Geth. Just used Legion's body as an adapter to allow the Reaper signal to control the Geth.

 

3. It is equally unverified to claim peace on Rannoch would mean the Catalyst is wrong about all synthetic life. Things can happen, circumstances can change. By that logic TIM/Cerberus means that all humans are paranoid xenophobic, sadistic ass holes.

 

Still doesn't change the fact the longer they wait the more chances there are for species to develop more advance tech that creates more trouble for them to harvest.

[voteDC]

@Natureguy85

 

ME1 doesn't match up with the data provided.  Thousands of years of people living on the Citadel but no one thinks to do more then live on the surface and some how it is a massive dormant relay on top of that? It is presented to the player and they should be able to do the critical thinking skills needed to understand what is going on and the changes that happen.  Or am I just making an ass of my self by assuming people are smarter then they actually are?

Plenty of people have but the Reapers are smart.

The Keepers run the Citadel, start messing around and they 'shut down'.

You have this huge marvellous station, are you really going to risk it by getting its 'keepers' to stop working? Especially since there is no reason to think anything bad might come out of the station.

[MrFob]

Plenty of people have but the Reapers are smart.

The Keepers run the Citadel, start messing around and they 'shut down'.

You have this huge marvellous station, are you really going to risk it by getting its 'keepers' to stop working? Especially since there is no reason to think anything bad might come out of the station.

 

I have to say, I am with gothpunkboy89 on this one. This is a highly unrealistic scenario. In fact, a lot of ME's "pre-history" is rather unbelievable, including the rise of humanity before ME1.

As I said before, my head canon on this one is that the Citadel uses some sort of mild indoctrination to dissuade people from digging too deep but I have to admit, it's a stretch at best.

 

Still, the way I see it, ME1 is on the level of, say, Star Trek (i.e., definitely not everything makes sense but you can get into it and geek out over it) by the time of ME3 (at the latest), we are at the level of The Fifth Element (at some point, you realize that you should just sit back, turn off your brain and watch it for the fun).

[gothpunkboy89]

Plenty of people have but the Reapers are smart.

The Keepers run the Citadel, start messing around and they 'shut down'.

You have this huge marvellous station, are you really going to risk it by getting its 'keepers' to stop working? Especially since there is no reason to think anything bad might come out of the station.

 

You don't have to mess around with the keepers. You have to explore and understand the station it's self. The loss of the Citadel would cost the citizens of the galaxy nothing. If it lacked any even decent data source the exploration would cost them nothing. If it was shut down due to them digging it would lose nothing to the citizens of the galaxy.

[Natureguy85]

I have to say, I am with gothpunkboy89 on this one. This is a highly unrealistic scenario. In fact, a lot of ME's "pre-history" is rather unbelievable, including the rise of humanity before ME1.

As I said before, my head canon on this one is that the Citadel uses some sort of mild indoctrination to dissuade people from digging too deep but I have to admit, it's a stretch at best.

 

Then you should have quit the game and never played it beyond that point. If the premise of the story is that bothersome to you, then nothing the story does will work for you. This is like starting Bioshock and being hung up on how they built Rapture. Things established that early are the "price of entry" for the story.

[Vanilka]

I agree with MrFob and gothpunkboy89 on this one. The fact nobody would ever try to figure out the Citadel in those hundreds of years and yet they would settle down in it is highly unbelievable to me. However, I roll with it because at least they try to explain it.

 

Call me paranoid, but mysteriously abandoned/suspiciously empty space stations/ships are the setting of about every other highly gory sci-fi horror game I've ever played. Might as well be sitting on a time bomb you don't know how to deactivate. Which is precisely what happened in ME1, isn't it?

[KaiserShep]

I agree with MrFob and gothpunkboy89 on this one. The fact nobody would ever try to figure out the Citadel in those hundreds of years and yet they would settle down in it is highly unbelievable to me. However, I roll with it because at least they try to explain it.

 

 

I mainly roll with it because the rest of the setting and characters are fun enough to take my mind off of that sort of thing. 

[MrFob]

Then you should have quit the game and never played it beyond that point. If the premise of the story is that bothersome to you, then nothing the story does will work for you. This is like starting Bioshock and being hung up on how they built Rapture. Things established that early are the "price of entry" for the story.

 

Come on now, read the second part of the post you quoted. One can acknowledge a problem without throwing the whole thing away.

[gothpunkboy89]

Then you should have quit the game and never played it beyond that point. If the premise of the story is that bothersome to you, then nothing the story does will work for you. This is like starting Bioshock and being hung up on how they built Rapture. Things established that early are the "price of entry" for the story.

 

The premise is acceptable within the usual suspension of belief needed to play a game.  Some of the things you and others have argued how ever pushes that normal suspension of belief into pure WTF territory.

 

I can accept the Keeper role of lulling the citizen of the galaxy into not paying attention to what happens on the Citadel. I can't accept that the entire Reaper plan at least as you seem to lay it out is dependent of the citizens of the galaxy living for thousands of years on top of a dormant mass relay. Which in and of it's self is technology hundreds maybe even thousands of years a head of current in game tech. And yet they would spend no time studying this.

 

While at least my Citadel is massive signal booster to awaken/alert Reapers in Darkspace so they can head towards Alpha Relay is build on very shaky grounds using information provided in games to come to the conclusion. Them finding the signal booster studying it and using that as a basis for their long range communications across the galaxy makes sense.

 

There would be questions about it obviously but they wouldn't be so demanding to almost demand it be payed attention to. A basic theory that there were originally were multiple Citadels planned to be created and to use the signal to communicate across the vast distances of the galaxy instantly would be a decent reason not to study it.

[Natureguy85]

Right and Kimmy in North Korea dispite the untold human rights violations and constant threats and attempts to create nukes is still in power because? Oh right because China is behind them and if we did anything to fix that little issue that would do the world a big favor it would anger China and then we might end up having a war with them.

 

Attempts to create nukes? What year are you living in? North Korea has had nukes for almost a decade. They are working on a Hydrogen bomb now. Even China is worried about them, though they will likely remain a backer.

 

 

 

 

ME1 doesn't match up with the data provided.  Thousands of years of people living on the Citadel but no one thinks to do more then live on the surface and some how it is a massive dormant relay on top of that? It is presented to the player and they should be able to do the critical thinking skills needed to understand what is going on and the changes that happen.  Or am I just making an ass of my self by assuming people are smarter then they actually are?

 

ME1 came first. Everything that comes after should remain consistent unless it is meant to override old information. If the latter is the case, it should be addressed, though minor changes can get away with it better. For example, Tali implies in the first game that the Quarians don't wear their suits on their ships, but in ME2 that is changed to them wearing the suits pretty much constantly. I didn't like this, but it wasn't a main plot point and didn't really matter. How the Reapers get to the galaxy matters. The Catalyst's existence matters. The entire plot of the first game matters.

 

Sure, some people probably did think to poke around. However, eventually the people in charge said to stop it. You still meet some people in the first game willing to violate that to satisfy curiosity or uncover secrets. Unfortunately it went nowhere and you just get an email in ME3 telling you what you already know. Again, this is something you are told is the case right from the start.

 

You are making an ass of yourself, but it's because of the posts about the real world and how ignorant they are.

 

 

 

It is the same set up that happened in Vietnam for the same reason. We had Air, Ground and Sea superiority so the Vietcong took the route of hit and run attacks. Hiding among civilians and attacking troops. It is why in the Korean War we were able to push them almost to the boarder of China then as soon as the Chinese backed by the Soviets entered the fight we were pushed back and why North and South Korea exists with a few mile wide DMZ zone between the two.

 

That's not all there is though. Particularly with Korea, China had the massive advantage of proximity. All it had to do was move resources along the ground across its border. The USA had to move all its resources across an ocean.

 

 

Come on now, read the second part of the post you quoted. One can acknowledge a problem without throwing the whole thing away.

 

Gothpunkboy is not bringing it up to point out that it's silly just because. He's either attempting to equate that with other far more damaging and blatant nonsense or trying to use it to claim the Citadel isn't a Relay.

 

 

 

The premise is acceptable within the usual suspension of belief needed to play a game.  Some of the things you and others have argued how ever pushes that normal suspension of belief into pure WTF territory.

 

I can accept the Keeper role of lulling the citizen of the galaxy into not paying attention to what happens on the Citadel. I can't accept that the entire Reaper plan at least as you seem to lay it out is dependent of the citizens of the galaxy living for thousands of years on top of a dormant mass relay. Which in and of it's self is technology hundreds maybe even thousands of years a head of current in game tech. And yet they would spend no time studying this.

 

While at least my Citadel is massive signal booster to awaken/alert Reapers in Darkspace so they can head towards Alpha Relay is build on very shaky grounds using information provided in games to come to the conclusion. Them finding the signal booster studying it and using that as a basis for their long range communications across the galaxy makes sense.

 

There would be questions about it obviously but they wouldn't be so demanding to almost demand it be payed attention to. A basic theory that there were originally were multiple Citadels planned to be created and to use the signal to communicate across the vast distances of the galaxy instantly would be a decent reason not to study it.

 

Why would they study something they didn't know existed? They didn't know the Citadel was a Relay. People obviously studied Relays; the Protheans made one. Your idea is built on shaky selectively using some information from the game while dismissing what is plainly stated.

[KaiserShep]

I'm totally lost in the image of the vagina dentata horror show.

[Artona]

That's vivid vision, I'll give you that.

[Natureguy85]

So they have confirmed WMD's yet we don't go after them. Mean while Saddam had imaginary ones and we hunted him down without hesitation. Really you only keep proving my point.

 

I really debated if I should bother addressing this. Chemical and biological weapons, while still considered WMDs, are a very different animal than missiles with nuclear warheads. Saddam was known to have used the former, and old ones were indeed found. There was lots of hesitation in going after Saddam and there is a legitimate question of if it was worthwhile. Some would say "yes" and some would say "no." There are other factor, such as the support of China, as you mentioned. The costs must always be weighed when deciding how to act or whether to act at all.

 

I honestly don't even know what your point is, unless it is to show your ignorance of history and geopolitics.

 

 

 

And nothing Tali stated was changed they have clean rooms specifically for them to move around without their suits on. How ever it is easier for them to maintain the suits when they are in mixed company due to their immune system responses. I don't understand how you can't follow this line of logic that is laid out in the game without needing to directly call it out for players.  If something this minor you call attention to then your entire argument is that all the people that play this game are such massive morons they are incapable of independent thought unless the game directly and clearly states something to them.

 

As I said, the implication from the first game is that they generally don't wear them on their own ships at all, not just in specified clean rooms. Tali mentions never seeing her father smile. This was to convey that he was a grim, serious man. The line would lose all meaning if the reason she never saw him smile was because she never saw his face at all. However, in ME2, she speaks as though she really never saw his face because they wear their suits "even among family."

Tali also mentions her mother dying when some illness swept through the ship.  This makes more sense if they don't wear their suits there.

 

Your rant is so misplaced it's ridiculous. You can't even follow when the game is explicit, yet complain that others don't pick up on subtlety.

 

 

The plot of the first game is based on ignorance or 3rd party information. Vigil was not there first hand to watch or see any of it. Any information it might have gathered would have been reports from various Prothean's. This information would be subject to change due to the individual Prothean's perceptions. Story telling wise the Reapers and AI are the only first hand knowledge in the entire series.  So when their actions contradict earlier statements that isn't a plot hole. I dare say the people playing this game should be smart enough to realize all of this.

 

Actually the plot of the first game is based on Saren attacking Eden Prime, finding a recording talking about Reapers, and hunting down Saren.

 

You know nothing about how writing works. It's not up to the reader or player to patch together answers for things the narrative fails to address.  Nobody brings up how what they are learning is different from what they thought they knew. The new information just steamrolls what came before. It's all retcon. Look at The Matrix Reloaded for just one example. When they learn that the Prophecy isn't what they thought it was, there is evidence along the way, its not at the end of the story, it clearly affects Neo in the moment, and the characters talk about it. All of these are ways that movie did it right and Mass Effect fails.

 

 

 

And yet why would leader tell people to stop exploring the massive space station found floating in space. The rather only real solid feature from a race that died leaving only scraps of their tech laying around the rest of the galaxy?  Seriously the galaxy before hand is lucky to find a Prothean Flash drive. The Beacon was a massive deal because of the potential data on it. Yet for thousands of years the various citizens of the galaxy have been sitting on what they think is a Prothean creation. This being the single larger chunk of their technology every created and found. And they don't bother to fully research it?

 

You don't have to like it and you can think it's dumb. All that you have to accept is that it happened. As someone pointed out before, they started, found consequences of doing so, and decided it was best to stop.

 

It's interesting where your mind goes, but to use your analogy, this is either he equivalent of the first guy not sticking his dick in or the second guy not doing so, depending on how you want to look at it. How is that dumber than your horror movie example?

 

 

 

Moving things across oceans is not as big a deal as you wish to make it out to be.  Ships could carry large number of troops across the ocean in a matter of days. As well as air craft could transport soldier and equipment in the matter of hours. Lets also not forget that the North Korean army also had advantage of location. Yet that didn't stop the US and other UN forces from pushing the all the way back to the boarder with China. Supply lines were already well established by this point. What did change was the military force we were facing were better trained and organized then before.

 

It's still harder than driving them across the border. The forces there were prepared for one type of enemy and the Chinese involvement radically changed the war and it would take time to adjust to the new dynamic.

 

 

And that is actually the point the Protheans were able to actually create at Relay. Yet were some how unable to figure out what they were standing on?

 

Creating a relay based on studying known relays might allow the Protheans to figure out that the Citadel is a Relay if they find similar parts or machinery inside, but that requires both that the Protheans find those parts and there only being one way to make a Relay. Or the Protheans working on the Conduit not being the same ones who checked out the Citadel. Vigil justifies why they didn't dig too deep. You don't have to like it but at least they bothered to give a reason.

[Artona]

 

And that is actually the point the Protheans were able to actually create at Relay. Yet were some how unable to figure out what they were standing on?

 

 

They created a Relay long time after losing a war, after period of studying and with knowledge that Citadel is a trap. 

[Callidus Thorn]

Considering that the Relays were a part of the Reaper trap, channeling technology of developing races along specific paths to limit them, the logical assumption would be that they were in fact a fairly low-tech version of Reaper technology. The hidden relay that was built into the Citadel would be a far more advanced design, the combination of the two serving several purposes:

 

1) Even if a race were able to learn enough about Relays to build their own, they'd still be a considerable way behind the Reapers technologically, thus preserving one of their key advantages.

 

2) Allows them to hide it in plain sight. If everyone thinks they know what a Relay looks like, particularly the visible components of its function, then that's what people will be looking for.

 

3) By being so widespread(and therefore crucial to travel), obvious, and apparently impervious to whatever wiped out the previous species that is presumed to have built them, they present the appearance of being the pinnacle of that species' pinnacle of technology. You wouldn't think to look for a more advanced form of Relay technology when the existing ones are everywhere, unmissable, and so difficult to damage.

[Natureguy85]

Considering that the Relays were a part of the Reaper trap, channeling technology of developing races along specific paths to limit them, the logical assumption would be that they were in fact a fairly low-tech version of Reaper technology. The hidden relay that was built into the Citadel would be a far more advanced design, the combination of the two serving several purposes:

 

1) Even if a race were able to learn enough about Relays to build their own, they'd still be a considerable way behind the Reapers technologically, thus preserving one of their key advantages.

 

2) Allows them to hide it in plain sight. If everyone thinks they know what a Relay looks like, particularly the visible components of its function, then that's what people will be looking for.

 

3) By being so widespread(and therefore crucial to travel), obvious, and apparently impervious to whatever wiped out the previous species that is presumed to have built them, they present the appearance of being the pinnacle of that species' pinnacle of technology. You wouldn't think to look for a more advanced form of Relay technology when the existing ones are everywhere, unmissable, and so difficult to damage.

 

Well said. Also, why would the Citadel be a Relay and have a Relay next door?

[Dantriges]

My speculation in regard to the Citadel was:

1. Hard to get to the juicy hidden parts.

2. Keepers kept blowing up when people explored

3. The new inhabitants realized that their technological knowledge is insufficient, that they were like romans standing before a nuke.

4. The Keepers dieing created the risk of the whole thing breaking apart, so studying the Citadel itself isn´t really an option

5. After watching the Citadel  carefully with some kind of recon team for some time the governing body filed the idea of exploring the Citadel throughly under a later date when sufficient advances are made and set up shop.

 

So some combination of no clue how it works, it´s too valuable to break it apart* or risk it breaking, so let´s wait, find some more prothean/inusannon stuff (whoever you thought build the thing) and do it at a later date. it´s not like the Citadel is going anywhere. Then inertia sets in. A bit thin in some areas but could be good enough. Seems the galaxy is a bit of adifferent mindset in that regard. Dunno how many prothean stuff people found but they never reverse engineered beacons and other things. Seems it´s more handle with care and don´t break it, just because you want to know how it works.

 

*technological discoveries from aworking Citadel are probably bigger than sifting through scrap metal and well the thing is hard to break deliberately.

[DeathScepter]

You just keep telling yourself that.

well it is obvious that you are more indoctrinated than I was. yes your argument is insane.

[gothpunkboy89]

They created a Relay long time after losing a war, after period of studying and with knowledge that Citadel is a trap. 

 

No they created a rely before the war. The scientist from Ilos wouldn't be able to reach the Citadel in the first place without the Relay they build on it.

[Monica21]

No they created a rely before the war. The scientist from Ilos wouldn't be able to reach the Citadel in the first place without the Relay they build on it.

 

Vigil says: "The Conduit is the key. Before the Reapers attacked, we Protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mysteries behind mass relay technology. Ilos was a top secret facility. Here, researchers worked to create a small-scale version of a mass relay. One that linked directly to the Citadel: the hub of the relay network."

 

Vigil also also stated earlier that the Protheans didn't know the Citadel was a mass relay. Which begs the question, how could they have built a relay before the war if they didn't fully understand mass relay technology, and how could they have linked it to the Citadel if they didn't know the Citadel was a mass relay?

 

And unrelated to this, but earlier in the conversation with Vigil he says that the Reapers are vulnerable in dark space, between cycles. Which makes me wonder if there wasn't some early plan to get to the Reapers in dark space.

[Iakus]

Vigil says: "The Conduit is the key. Before the Reapers attacked, we Protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mysteries behind mass relay technology. Ilos was a top secret facility. Here, researchers worked to create a small-scale version of a mass relay. One that linked directly to the Citadel: the hub of the relay network."

 

Vigil also also stated earlier that the Protheans didn't know the Citadel was a mass relay. Which begs the question, how could they have built a relay before the war if they didn't fully understand mass relay technology, and how could they have linked it to the Citadel if they didn't know the Citadel was a mass relay?

They didn't fully understand mass relay technology.  The Conduit was a primitive copy of a "real" relay.  Smaller, less powerful, and only went one-way.  A baby monitor compared to a communication's satellite.  And their "linking" it to the Citadel amounted to putting it's destination relay on the Presidium.

 

 

And unrelated to this, but earlier in the conversation with Vigil he says that the Reapers are vulnerable in dark space, between cycles. Which makes me wonder if there wasn't some early plan to get to the Reapers in dark space.

Not Artistic enough.  

[MrFob]

I would agree though this whole setup does beg a number of questions (which did bother me back at the time of ME1):

 

First a few points of interest: I'd say the protheans did build their conduit before the war. Maybe it was never tested or something but they must have. Otherwise, how could they have put the receiver on the Citadel. My guess: They basically got it to work just before the reapers invaded. This would also explain how Vigil could have so much info about the reaper war, it had access to data from the Citadel through the conduit.

 

Now to the questions:

1. Why didn't the reapers detect the conduit and trace it? Ok, maybe they couldn't trace it but they should have noticed the little unfamiliar relay right in front of the Citadel tower. Why didn't they remove it?

2. It is mentioned very often that the keepers keep the Citadel pristine. Why didn't they remove the conduit?

3. If no one removed the conduit, why didn't the prothean scientists from Illos leave a message (similar to Liara's time capsules) on the Citadel (maybe put it on the conduit relay since the keepers leave it alone? That way, the first boarding party that enters the Citadel in the next cycle would be sure to immediately learn of the reapers, which would have definitely helped. With all their efforts focused on how the next cycle might be able to defeat the reapers, how couldn't they think of that?

 

So yea, ME1 is by no means perfect in how the plot is spun. It's still leaps and bounds above what comes after but it does have its own shaky plot points for sure.

[Iakus]

I would agree though this whole setup does beg a number of questions (which did bother me back at the time of ME1):

 

First a few points of interest: I'd say the protheans did build their conduit before the war. Maybe it was never tested or something but they must have. Otherwise, how could they have put the receiver on the Citadel. My guess: They basically got it to work just before the reapers invaded. This would also explain how Vigil could have so much info about the reaper war, it had access to data from the Citadel through the conduit.

 

Now to the questions:

1. Why didn't the reapers detect the conduit and trace it? Ok, maybe they could trace it but they should have noticed the little unfamiliar relay right in front of the Citadel tower. Why didn't they remove it?

2. It is mentioned very often that the keepers keep the Citadel pristine. Why didn't they remove the conduit?

3. If no one removed the conduit, why didn't the prothean scientists from Illos leave a message (similar to Liara's time capsules) on the Citadel (maybe put it on the conduit relay since the keepers leave it alone? That way, the first boarding party that enters the Citadel in the next cycle would be sure to immediately learn of the reapers, which would have definitely helped. With all their efforts focused on how the next cycle might be able to defeat the reapers, how couldn't they think of that?

1) The relay only went one way, and that was the receiving end. When it was never activated during the war, the Reapers must have dismissed it as a threat.  Maybe they even figured it was nonfunctional

 

2) Unknown

 

3) Be kinda funny if they did, and the first explorers of the Citadel destroyed it when someone's brain exploded from the visions 

[MrFob]

1) The relay only went one way, and that was the receiving end. When it was never activated during the war, the Reapers must have dismissed it as a threat. Maybe they even figured it was nonfunctional

I find that highly unlikely. If we go with the idea that the repaer's tech is so much more advanced than even the prothean's prototype, they should recognize it exactly as what it is. But even if they don't see it as an immediate threat, the reapers must tidy up the Citadel after each cycle anyway. Otherwise it would be super easy for later species to figure out that there are cycles (imagine if we loose and the reapers just left all our stuff on the Citadel, way too much data for the next cycle to figure stuff out).

 

Here is one possible explanation: The reapers leave the clean up to the keepers and don't bother with any of this. When the protheans sabotaged the keeper signal, they also somehow sabotaged them in a way so they wouldn't dismantle the conduit. That would answer 1 and 2 in one go.

 

3) Be kinda funny if they did, and the first explorers of the Citadel destroyed it when someone's brain exploded from the visions 

 
Haha, yea, this might even have dissuaded them from looking too closely at the Citadel, sort of like "go there and your brain explodes".
 
But seriously, they wouldn't have done it in the form of the beacons but rather in the form of an VI like Vigil, Victory or Vendetta (at least this would have been the logical thing to do). The only reason the Illos group used the beacon's "vision communication" was because they wanted to code the signal in a way only protheans could understand, so not to inform the reapers of Illos by accident. This kind of precaution would have been unnecessary and even counter productive when leaving a message on the Citadel and since the protheans studied those species most likely to run the next cycle, they must have known that none of the current species possessed the prothean's reading ability.