I had to post this conversation from that forum, oh, and to quote a poster by the name of Computer God91...
Ace of Dawn wrote...
111987 wrote...
Mmm, fair point. But since when have Reapers been able to hack enemy ships in the first place? If it was so easy why didn't Sovereign just do that at the Battle of the Citadel? Where did the notion that Reapers can hack things remotely come from anyways? EDI is a Reaper-based AI but only could hack systems once it had a physical connection. Reaper's can't hack the Geth either, so this seems like a moot point.
Besides, because Reaper shields don't defend against plasma, a squad of Seraph fighters could take down a Reaper. A Reaper can't hack all of the ships the Covenant have.
First off, I was merely remarking that your information on the Covenant having "sophisticated-AI" was wrong. This debate is amusing, but I'd rather not get too involved into it. That said, I am more than happy to oblige your questions. smilie
111987 wrote...
But since when have Reapers been able to hack enemy ships in the first place?
Hard to say, mostly because we have rarely seen them combat ships. It could be a factual thing. A common criticism of the movie Independence Day is that Jeff Goldblum's character was able to hack an entire alien network with a Mac. Hacking networks of differing interfaces is next to impossible. Nevermind whether or not you have even had a chance to understand it.
That said, a lot of technology is based on Reaper technology. So assuming the core of it is similar, hacking them wouldn't be too farfetched.
111987 wrote...
If it was so easy why didn't Sovereign just do that at the Battle of the Citadel?
Who's to say he didn't? That said, Sovereign didn't realize Shepard would even be able to open the Citadel, let alone be faced by a fleet. Hacking would be impractical. Really, Sovereign was doing just fine destroying them, since the fleet even contemplated retreating. On top of that, Sovereign was finished when "Saren" was killed. There is just as much evidence for and against to say that Sovereign could have continued on fighting if he had just ignored Shepard.
111987 wrote...
Where did the notion that Reapers can hack things remotely come from
anyways? EDI is a Reaper-based AI but only could hack systems once it
had a physical connection. Reaper's can't hack the Geth either, so this
seems like a moot point.
To clarify, she can hack things within range of their signals. We have no idea if the Reapers can project a large signal due to having a larger power source, or if EDI's has been limited. She clearly hacks into the Collector Ship and a few others on several occassions. And hacking Geth is a trickier thing, since the geth programs quickly correct themselves (that is why they're difficult to hack).
111987 wrote...
Besides, because Reaper shields don't defend against plasma, a squad
of Seraph fighters could take down a Reaper. A Reaper can't hack all of
the ships the Covenant have.
Not really. Yeah, their barriers would likely be bypassed, but the damage done by them would likely be minimal. The hulls of Reapers are hardly frail. And Reaper weapons are more than capable of destroying Covenant ships, both from range and literally being able to grapple them.
I would ultimately just like to say that hacking ships is impractical anytime enemy ships > 1. It would be more practical to fight directly, and hack if there are no other threats.
One more thing:
111987 wrote...
5). FTL does exist in ME, it's just nowhere near the Covenant's
capabilities. This allows them to have pinpoint jumps to anywhere in the
galaxy, and they don't have to worry about drive core discharge.
While you're technically right, you're mostly wrong. The Covenant ships are certainly capapble of some impressive things, including pinpoint jumps, the Covenant don't really get it. They make some solid jumps, sure, but nothing to the degree they are capable of. In fact, their weapons suffer from that same lack of understanding. And their tactics... haha.
Reapers are capable of FTL flight. Discharging cores is only a matter when you don't want to fry your crew. Reapers don't have one. One top of that, they suffer no drawbacks when engaging in FTL while Covenant weapons suffer from travel time. This means it is easy to dodge, disengage, and then attack.
One more thing, if a Covenant ship makes a jump, they're screwed. All systems are temporarily offline while they recover from the jump. Wouldn't take long for the Reapers to notice.
Owned.