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Singh Long posted:That last mission gave me a lot of trouble when I started out. Honestly, I hate missions like that one. The worst one, IMO, doesn't show up till MoA. Dr. Snark posted:Also, I was surprised to see those organic enemies. I understand that they're genetically modified and all that, but I wasn't expecting to see something like them in an Armored Core game. Ashsaber posted:Having only gotten into the series with 4A, that energy blade seemed... anemic. Probably because I'm used to being able to take out anything but another Slimnoid posted:Also, if I remember correctly, you can get a second swing out of an energy blade. Hit the blade button just as you're touching down from a jump and you do a quick half-slash, which can quickly be followed by another swing. It's a bit tricky, but similar to how you pull off the same glitch in Symphony of the Night and Megaman X4. nine-gear crow posted:If there's one thing From is good at... outside of making pubbies cry, it's running gags. Hell, From named two of its standalone games after Chrome and Murakumo from this game: Chromehounds and Murakumo: Renegade Mech Pursuit.
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Jun 6, 2014 03:11
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Seiren posted:Though in later games it likes to be called a Laser Cannon for whatever reason. I guess they got mixed up and somehow reversed their definitions of lasers and plasma for AC:PP and MoA. So that's why I remembered it as laser, I started with PP. And speak of the devil 
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Jun 6, 2014 03:17
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This was possibly my favorite series of games for the PS1. It's great to see "Dark Soul" in an early FROM title! The game has a surprisingly creepy atmosphere for a Sci-Fi story about gigantic mechs. There's a few missions later in the game that have an almost Gothic horror feel to them.
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Jun 6, 2014 03:38
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Yeah, From is a great advocate of recycling.
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Jun 6, 2014 04:23
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You know, taking out those plane enemies is pretty easy if memory serves me right. The standard medium or large missile launchers should take them out in one or two hits, and seldom miss. Also, if they're available, can you post a comparison of the dual plasma cannon arms and the karasawa?
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Jun 6, 2014 15:03
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This thread made me get an itch to play AC again, so last night I started a new game of 4A. I decided against using my prefered starting mech and getting some good laser rifles to carry me through the game, so I decided to go with an indipendant mech. For reference, its an outdated light mech that starts with good boosters that aren't really provided for by its crappy generator, and comes with good machine guns, the most stubby laser Blade ever, and a gas guzzling plasma cannon for the back, and nothing availible in the shop until you beat certain missions. I decided to just swap my LB for a second machine gun and see how far I could get in the Arena before I stalled. Turns out I was able to become the top ranker. Most battles didn't last 20 seconds until the top 10, and even then I was only in danger once. Not bad results for someone rusty who hadn't even run his second mission yet, I guess.
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Jun 6, 2014 15:38
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Crazy Achmed posted:You know, taking out those plane enemies is pretty easy if memory serves me right. The standard medium or large missile launchers should take them out in one or two hits, and seldom miss. His sniper-type FCS didn't help things. Fast movers tend to escape the narrow lock on radius.
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Jun 6, 2014 19:40
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sector_corrector posted:This was possibly my favorite series of games for the PS1. It's great to see "Dark Soul" in an early FROM title! Crazy Achmed posted:You know, taking out those plane enemies is pretty easy if memory serves me right. The standard medium or large missile launchers should take them out in one or two hits, and seldom miss.  Takes two small missiles, or a single middle-missile. Spending a Large Missile is a waste. The AW-XC5500 dual-plasma cannon arms are pretty much slightly-more powerful "Blow Dryer" bursts (iirc the arms listed attack power is ~1240) but their strength is that they fire simultaneously for double that per trigger pull, meaning they'll do everything faster, like damage, energy drain, ammo consumption...so every shot you fire needs to count. (the listed ammo is 70, but since you fire two per pull, it's really 35). They also have a small explosion effect, but for the most part, weapon-caused explosions don't actually hurt a whole lot outside of Large Missiles and Large Rockets. The dual-laser arms, AW-XC65, are about 2300 in listed attack power, so even individually they're much stronger than Karasawa beams...but you're also firing two at once. And you only get 40 rounds...so 20 shots and you're done. The real downside to that firepower is that weapon-arms have literally zero defense, and very poor AP, so they're poorly suited to tanky, or even well-rounded builds. They're awful choices for real missions, unless it happens to be very short or if it happens to be an AC-vs-AC battle if you avoid taking hits. The Karasawa, on the other hand, has 50 shots of 1500 damage per-shot, and you can have some actual arms with defense and AP. All of these parts are very heavy, but if my memory hasn't died completely yet, the weapon-arms have a narrow advantage, as you only need to fit Arms instead of Arms + Weapons. The lightest arms capable of holding weapons (AN-25) are around ~850 weight, so do the the math and it turns out that the energy weapon-arms probably come out ahead in this regard. The Casualty posted:His sniper-type FCS didn't help things. Fast movers tend to escape the narrow lock on radius. A Pleasant Hug fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 03:09
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Seiren posted:The creepiest mission in the game hasn't been shown off yet, but it's Murakumo side so chances are Arc might show us. I'm pretty sure Arc will cover every mission in the game. As for the mission you're talking about, if it's Recover Capsules, that's for Chrome. I can't think of any other mission than that one.
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Jun 7, 2014 03:37
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Singh Long posted:I'm pretty sure Arc will cover every mission in the game. As for the mission you're talking about, if it's Recover Capsules, that's for Chrome. I can't think of any other mission than that one. It's something I didn't quite realize until doing this LP, but the amount of missions that are exclusive to the Chrome or Murakumo paths are a lot fewer than you'd think. Kinda make sense in context of the setting, as the Nest is completely neutral and the requests are sent out to any Raven that wants them. But still, it's just that mission at the factory in Whiteland, along with a couple missions near the end of both groups' routes that have the most effect on the story.
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Jun 7, 2014 04:12
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Seiren posted:
Those laser arms are basically the only way I've ever beaten Valkyrie in that Attack Urban Center mission. Also, the weapon arms are fairly viable on a tank AC if you take some high-ammo shoulder weapons for things that don't need overwhelming firepower, since you can fire your shoulder weapons on the move.
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Jun 7, 2014 04:50
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Part 6: More Missions, Some AC Fights, and a Better FCS Man, coming up with these titles can be really straining at times...  Anyway, we blasted through five missions last update, and we're gonna go through another five right now. Let's start with Prototype MT Test. Yep, it's the same title, but the mission is slightly different.  We want to run tests on a new weapon. As in the last mission we want you to fight a new model "CHAOS" weapon. That is all. This time, we envision a street battle, fought at Test Track No. 6. We have made improvements to this advanced MT based on the previous data. It might be a bit stronger. If you are defeated by the MT, you have no right to be called a Raven. This time we have prepared some special parts as your pay. They are new products not yet out on the market. However, to make sure you give it your all, you get paid only if you win the fight.  Chrome wants another test for their new MT? Eh, couldn't hurt. Not like it's gonna help their effort in the corporate war or anything. Prototype MT Test (2)    So on top of this MT being harder than before, there are buildings to worry about, so we can't quite hang back on take long distance shots at it. Still, it's just one enemy to take down, just do that and the test is done...  Or not?  Yeah, Chrome decides one fight isn't enough and sends another at us, after we depleted a large chunk of our rifle ammo. If the end of last update wasn't any indication, right about now I'm really beginning to dislike the FCS I've been using for the last several missions.  With my KARASAWA running out of ammo, I blast the son of a bitch with plasma and end the test for good.   Just one credit away from 5K in expenses. Thankfully the part we earned from this mission will be making us even more money.  So I sell the SP-SAP, which reduces the recoil of cannon weapons (we can manage without it), as well as the FCS we had been using. Now, I actually bought two FCS while I was in the shop so I could have one as a back up in certain events. Both of these are the TRYX series, and the TRYX-QUAD is what I use as my primary one so I get a more horizontal aim window but with still good range. The TYRX-BOXER has a vertical lock type, and I'll be saving it for one specific mission near the end where I'd be damned without it. You'll find out in due time.  Now that we've swapped out our FCS, let's go to the next mission, Guard Airplane.  We want you to guard Dr. M. Okamura, an authority on genetic engineering. One of his experiments was grossly misunderstood and he has received many death threats in the past. A terrorist group has also threatened to attack him during his next visit to Isaac City. Dr. Okamura is now at our lab, but he will leave for Isaac City in a couple days. He plans to travel by airplane. We want you to serve as a guard at the time of takeoff.  They never say what Okamura's experiment was that caused an uproar, but given that Murakumo is requesting our help here I'm gonna assume poo poo got out about Human PLUS and people aren't too fond. After that Plus Escapee incident, I sure wouldn't be. Guard Airplane   The enemies come in from north of the air field, and they're dropped off by Barracudas. Interesting enough, shooting down those ships actually gives you a credit bonus of 5000, but for whatever reason I never tried to shoot at them. Guess it wouldn't be fun if what they were transporting went down as well.  These MTs we've not really encountered until now. There are two Cerberus II MTs and seven Big Blades. All of them are fast, unmanned MTs and the Cerberuses have a tripod design. Interesting fact about them is that they also show up in the opening movie for the game, alongside the heavily armored AC. Now, after taking care of the enemies, we get a message saying the Okamura took off from another airport and that this was actually a diversion for the enemy.  Okay, though that plane is pretty small. How big of an explosion could it actually cause?  Oh...  Well, at least the expenses aren't as big this time. Having a wider aim box was indeed a smart choice.  And with no time to delay, on to the next mission, Destroy Plane Computer.  The other day, one of our special transports crashed while flying over the Naglarder area. Satellite images show the wreck near the center of a giant crater called "Big Hit". We are not worried about the cargo, but the problem is records of our transactions are stored in the transport's computer. They are encrypted but not absolutely safe. Unconfirmed reports put a Murakumo detachment in the area. You must completely destroy the nose section holding the recorder. Destroy all Murakumo on sight. If you let even one of them escape, your mission will fail. Be sure to shoot them all down. That is all.  So I believe I said two updates ago that a certain AC is fought in this mission and that because it's a mission from Chrome it would not be likely to appear on this route... ...yeah, just completely ignore what I said on that. Destroy Plane Computer    So, the enemies are technically classified as MTs, but there more like powered battle armor or something. These enemies, known as Corsairs, are a third of the size of an AC, and if you look really hard at the ugly textures and low polygons, you could probably come to the conclusion that a person's riding it in a way similar to a power loader from Aliens, except more agile and faster.  Here comes the ranked AC in his Barracuda. You can actually shoot it down, but unlike in the previous mission, there is no monetary bonus for doing so.  I try shooting at him with my plasma cannon from a distance, nearly wasting my entire energy meter to take him down.  I don't quite pull it off here, and get a cannon blast to the face in return.   Still, I soften him up quite a bit and finish things off with the KARASAWA. There goes a Raven from the rankings.  Eh, still somewhat high expenses from last time, but with the amount of credits we have to spare, you can't really complain.  Now, suddenly all other missions from the last are removed except for one, Destroy Base Computer. Don't really have any other choice, so we'll pick that.  We have a mission for you regarding the old military facility southwest of Isaac City. It is now occupied by the Earth Environment Reclamation Committee. The group purports to survey the above-ground environment, but this seems questionable. The reason given for their entering the facility is said to be the peaceful dismantling of residual military facilities, but they are taking too long for that. We are studying their background, but we must do something about this group quickly. According to surveys, this facility functioned as a military data bank before the Great Destruction. The main computer may still have records from that time. If their true target is this data, this is no trifling matter. Heaven forbid for that to be it. We want you to break into the facility and destroy the main computer.  As expected, not even an organization like the EERC is exempt from being questionable and shady. Destroy Base Computer  This mission has us going through exact same location from Rescue Survey Team, only we get to explore the area a bit beyond where that particular mission ended. Thankfully the energy resistant MTs are nowhere in sight.  The most common enemy are these rocket launchers on tank treads called Mustangs. They go down in one shot from the KARASAWA, but to save ammo and do just as much damage is to jump at them and use the energy blade. Not only does the blade cause you to home in on the enemy's position, but slashing them in the air bypasses the few second exploding animation all MTs and ACs go through and is removed instantly. Very nice.  This is a nice detail from when were last here. The lock box that kept the door trapping the survey team shut is still damaged from before. Thought that was pretty neat.   This section has more Mustangs, and near the target location is a hallway with three Heat Waves. They're still fast and pretty tough, so it's best to just reach the computer room and do business there. They can't really follow you through doors when they're closed, thankfully.  Once you reach your main objective, you're treated to a little cutscene.    Another AC to fight. This one, interestingly enough, is a mass produced model known as Swift, and doesn't show up on the rankings.   Since I have the advantage, I just sit at the door way and fill the room with plasma, destroying both Swift and the computer and completing the mission.  Last mission on our plate for today is AC Battle. I can only guess what that might possibly entail.  Come participate in an AC battle that the Nest will be holding over the next few days. This invitational event pits ace pilots in AC-to-AC battles where the winner takes all. Naturally, there are benefits to entering. The winner of each battle will be presented with prize money in an amount equivalent to the pay of a normal mission. We will decide the opponents for the battles. You are free to choose any weapons or equipment. We look forward to your active participation.  So, this is basically the Arena before the games decided to make it a separate mode, and before AC expenses were not included in the fights. Whatever, it's a one on one deal, let's go. AC Battle  Wait, TWO?  Lying ain't cool, man. Anyway, these two ACs are quads, and one of them is actually a ranking AC, Barutazaru. The other one is Warhawk, but he's not as important. Though both make for a fairly good team.  It came up during this battle, but I get a bit of air off of one of the AC's missiles hitting me while airborne. Obviously them hitting you is bad, but in this situation it gives me a boost higher into the air, which can be good or bad in some situations. Though it's just one of those things with the game's physics I like. I almost imagine there being a team of daredevil Ravens that use this tactic on one of them to get them up to high ground fast or something.   The fight was quite a challenge, but it was worthwhile...even if we were lied to about the conditions. And that concludes this part. There's still more missions to wrap up, but I assure you that things will be getting way more interesting real soon, especially as it pertains to the battle between Chrome and Murakumo. I'll be in touch.
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Jun 7, 2014 06:04
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Part 7: Thank God for Maps As you can probably expect from the title, these next few missions are gonna be a bit lengthy and take place in rather labyrinthine locations. An AC head part with an auto map function is recommended.  First mission on hand here is Remove Base Occupants.  Wadja say youse helps me out wid a li'l job I'd taken. I tink I'm over my head on dis one. Ya see, it's at the bottom a' da sea. Yeah, an abandoned undersea base northeast a' Agrea. I wuz supposed ta get rid a' all a' the guys who'd moved in. Dey sez it wuz an easy job, so I takes it. But deez guys are weird. Ya take 'em down but dey keep comin' back. Nuttin' to do but get outa dere, but I can't just leave it. Pay ya 35000 C for da job. Can't tell ya who I'm really workin' for. Look, I'm given' ya all I should a' been paid. All in advance. Dis time its not just fer da money. I gots me a reputation to keep. Anyone who can fight'll do. I'll be waitin'.  ...I really do not get what they were trying to go for with making the briefing like that, considering that Boss Savage in game talks nothing like that at all. Remove Base Occupants  See? Sounds nothing like how the briefing sounds. What the hell?   Anyway, the majority of enemies in this level are the Crusaders, those MTs with extremely high energy resistance, and in keeping with my all energy weapon  Now, if you had paid attention to that horrible briefing and the circumstances surrounding this, something must be off about the mission. The money was given to us all in advance, and our client just ups and disappears right as we start the mission. Well, as it turns out...  ...it was a trap. Upon entering this room (which is similar looking to several other rooms), Boss Savage says it's his mission to kill you, but it seems odd that all he'd do is just lock you in a room with NO ENEMIES and just leave the premises.  However, at far end of the room, there is a portion of the wall that can be blown up, giving us a chance to escape.  Now to find our way out of this base.  Besides the Crusaders, there are also Cerberus MTs. These are the bigger, more annoying versions of the Cerberus MTs we fought at the airfield. Thankfully, they don't have high energy resistance so they go down very quick.  Once again, having map can be very helpful at times.   Also, as you could probably tell, killing any of the enemies actually isn't required. Just have to escape and deal with the expenses that accrue. Returning to the Nest, we receive an email from a mystery sender.  It seems that I underestimated you. Well, you certainly showed me. We shall meet again some day. I look forward to that day. Yep, this is not the end of Boss Savage. You can expect to see his sorry rear end again real soon.  Let's start the next mission with a very large map layout, Stop Gas Exposure.  This mission is extremely dangerous. A problem has occurred at one of the ruins from the Old Generation. Namely, a military facility. This facility was used to develop chemical weapons, and it seems that someone has secretly entered and tampered with the control panels. It is now full of some kind of gas. This gas corrodes metal, no naturally your AC will take damage. Unluckily, all of the equipment within the base is resistant to the gas, so the defense mechanisms are operating. Of the five control panels, only one appears to be working. Even so, just destroy all of them. We will provide the detonation devices. Just plant them on all five panels. When you are finished, get out of the base immediately. If you dawdle within the facility, your AC will suffer a dangerous level of damage. Be careful!  Yep, a level that does constant damage to us and requires us to take no breaks. Let's get to it. Stop Gas Exposure  Now, there are two entrances into the facility, but it's best to take the one on the left. The right is fine though if you already know about the shortcut in there, but we're going left for now. Once you've entered the part of the facility that is tinted purple, you'll begin taking damage, and you cannot afford to stay still. The amount of AP you can lose during this mission is a hell of a lot. However if you can, kill whatever enemies you come across as you will get additional credits to help offset the expenses.  This is one of the control panels that we need to attach a bomb to. The first of five.   I check the map periodically to make sure I'm still on the right path, though I still manage to get lost very briefly on my way to the 4th and 5th control panels.  Upon planting all the bombs, we get this message and have to get out of the facility ASAP. However, with only just under 3000 AP, that's not enough time to get out of the facility by backtracking the way we came. This is where the short cut comes in.   At the intersection that leads to control panels four and five, there is a portion of the wall that can be blown up to reveal a hallway that leads us to the other entrance to the facility.  As you approach the exit, you can start to hear a beeping sound. That's a hint that the bombs are about to be detonated, and right as you get back to the surface...  Boom! Mission completed.  We only killed a few enemies because of them being Crusaders, and only got an additional 3000 as a result. Still, the balance was positive in the end, so that's good.  This next mission will actually serve as a nice change of pace from what the last couple were. Destroy Intruders.  Several armed MTs have broken into a resource reclamation plant owned by the Committee. They are probably terrorists employed by those who want to distort our activities. We have taken out several MTs but with heavy damage. So we are asking the Ravens for help. We have closed the gates within the plant to push them gradually into a large blast furnace in the center. We want you to pound them there. Naturally, the blast furnace is very hot. If you fall, your AC cannot survive. Making good use of the geography will be the key to the battle. Good luck.  A small map with a few enemies to eliminate. And there's a secret part here as well, we haven't run into any of those for a while now. Let's begin. Destroy Intruders   Starting out, there's a hole on the left side underneath the bridge you start out on. There's a box containing the hidden item, a flamethrower.   So this area can be tricky to navigate because of the vertical nature of it, not to mention that falling to the bottom will deal a lot of damage to the AC. There are only six enemies to deal with here, two of them are Lightnings, the MTs that are 1.5 times the size of an AC, and a new type of MT called the Mimi. They're similar in former to the Storks and other reverse jointed MTs. Destroy all of the enemies without falling to the bottom, and the mission is done.  Man, to think we're that close to three hundred thousand credits. We've been making quite a lot of money.  So this is the weapon we acquired in the last mission. This flamethrower is the only one of its kind in the entire game, but since it uses solid rounds for its ammunition and has a somewhat short range, we aren't gonna be using it. And selling it will now put us over 300K.  This last mission for today also has a very familiar title, Exterminate Organisms.  Someone has entered our lab and destroyed a test vent. The lab is now overflowing with biological weapons. The worst problem is the queen organisms are able to reproduce. Upon leaving the test vat, the cell tissue becomes activated and begins reproducing in no time. If it has already begun reproducing, there may be an overwhelming number of them. If so, they are certain to try to break open the outside wall sooner or later and escape to the outside. We can deal with the small types later, so your target is only the four queen organisms. Be sure to bring down all of the beasts.  Well, time for another bug hunt. Exterminate Organisms (2)  Just like in the last mission with this title, the smaller bugs aren't as much of a priority compared to the queens, but killing them still gives us some extra money.   These rooms are where the queens can be found, but not all of them contain a queen. Sometimes there will just be regular fodder, in which case just kill them and move on to the next room. Once again, this is a pretty large map, and having a head part with an auto map function is recommended.   As you get deeper into the facility you'll get a tip as to where a queen may be located, though by this point we have already killed three queens and only need one more to finish the job. That's also another thing about this mission, is that there are actually seven queens in the facility, but you only need to kill four in order to finish it. Considering there's another mission that has you going through this ENTIRE facility to complete it, the conditions for finishing this mission is generous in comparison.  Well isn't that nice, our balance came out higher than the initial reward. That's always nice. Now, up to this point, the missions we've been doing haven't contributed a lot to the corporate war in any real meaningful way. It's just been taking jobs and getting rich. But next update, things are about to kick off and get real exciting. Yep, it's about that time for the finale. I'll be in touch.
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Jun 8, 2014 21:40
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Stop Gas Exposure pissed me off until I found out about the shortcut. Till then, I never understood why the right path was even there to begin with. As for Remove Base Occupants, the first time I went through this mission, I think an enemy blew up the wall for me somehow.
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Jun 8, 2014 22:46
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All indoors continuous inflicted damage missions suck. For example there's, I think, a B7 mission in AC4A that also sucks. I like the way the briefing is a complete and transparent lie in that last mission, what with every queen having her own special room and all. It's a shame that the Raven's Nest guy doesn't comment on it.
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Jun 9, 2014 00:47
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I think what they were going for with the briefing from boss savage is "oh look at this idiot, let me go save him" but since you never see any other missions like that it just raises giant red flags. I love this series and have since playing the demo for ps1. Silent Line/Last Raven turned me off of it, silent line seemed really hard at parts and I got stuck on one mission and I haven't gone back since. Last Raven just didn't even feel like AC anymore to me. I never knew about Nexus and am now determined to hunt a copy down.
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Jun 9, 2014 00:59
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SIGSEGV posted:All indoors continuous inflicted damage missions suck. For example there's, I think, a B7 mission in AC4A that also sucks.
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Jun 9, 2014 02:07
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ArclightBorealis posted:It becomes even more hilarious if you take the Release Organisms mission before hand and then you're basically being called to deal with the mess you started (the funny part being they have no idea that it was you responsible). It's called Job Security and is sacred. It's only natural for someone in that line of work to try and secure contracts a bit aggressively.
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Jun 9, 2014 02:29
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FridayNightFights posted:I never knew about Nexus and am now determined to hunt a copy down. Nexus is kinda weird, there's basically no mission briefings and even though some missions have advances you can't accept a mission and then go later so that you can use them. They dial the heat issue even higher so its a lot harder to build anything that's worth a drat since just boosting around raises your heat levels. I've never finished it though I do want to do so sometime. I started that after my armored core 2 spree the weekend before last but I abandoned it for the PS1 era games because my hands were hella confused by the dual-stick controls.
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Jun 9, 2014 15:25
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I remember this being one of the first games I got for Playstation. Played far into it, but I don't remember if I actually ended up finishing it due to the disc getting scratched at some point. After that, whenever I tried to play a specific mission near the end (can't remember which one), the game would freeze up on me. Never got Project Phantasma for myself, unfortunately, but did manage to get Master of Arena, which I loved to death. I've also got some of the PS2 ones, and AC4 for the 360, but I haven't touched them in years.
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Jun 9, 2014 15:36
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Watching this thread made me want to play it myself, so I did. I also  If only the later games in this franchise were more like this particular generation. The speed, these physics, missions, weapons...it all just felt right. I loved 2nd and 3rd generations, don't get me wrong, but after that I feel like it's all been going downhill, to the point where I have way more fun playing AC:MoA over ACV. Nexus was such a huge disappointment to me. Around the time before release they were hyping it up to have online play...and then it came and we got DANGER HEAT OUTPUT DOWN instead.
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Jun 9, 2014 21:58
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Since this thread started I've gotten 100% completion in AC2, AC2:AA, AC1, AC:PP, and now I'm working on MoA. It's quite a bit harder than all the rest, a bit frustrating, honestly. EDIT: Also they nerfed the back mounted magazines, I want my 100 shots for the Karasawa! 
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Jun 9, 2014 22:07
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FridayNightFights posted:I love this series and have since playing the demo for ps1. Silent Line/Last Raven turned me off of it, silent line seemed really hard at parts and I got stuck on one mission and I haven't gone back since. Last Raven just didn't even feel like AC anymore to me. If you didn't like Last Raven, I'm not sure you'd like Nexus. Mechanically, at least, LR was basically Nexus with the "everything overheats!" issue toned down and the addition of locational damage. Unless what you didn't like about LR was the missions? I guess at the very least with the nostalgia-disc that wouldn't be an issue.
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Jun 9, 2014 23:08
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Part 8: poo poo Gets Real Well, this is it. The war between Chrome and Murakumo Millennium is about to come to a close, as the next few missions are gonna be a deciding factor in the conflict.  The first mission that marks the turning point is this, Retake Air Cleaner.  We just got a terrifying communique from the terrorist group "Imminent Storm". They said that they are occupying the air cleaner above Isaac City. This unit takes air from above-ground, cleans it, and sends it down to the underground city. It is literally the City's lifeline. Their demands are for the immediate dismantling of Murakumo Millennium who they say has become the ringleader or social decay. Their false accusations are brash. Their recent activities have been a string of failures thanks to you Ravens. This is a desperate act of desperate men willing to die with honor. Eliminate them quickly. Note that the air cleaner has an extremely complex structure due to repeated retrofits with the expansion of the underground city. Be careful.  If you helped Chrome with the factory mission, you'd get a mission that involves the other terrorist group as the target, and dealing with them deals a huge blow to the other megacorp. Retake Air Cleaner  So, this area has a lot of vents, and a lot of enemies and mines planted around them, so it's easy to get lost and take damage if you aren't paying attention. But eliminating the terrorists no longer becomes our primary objective, unfortunately.   Yeesh, Imminent Storm is even more desperate than we've assumed. Also, there's no timer for when they say they can halt the fans for 10 minutes, and I've never waited around long enough to see if that does anything. Probably not.   Now, there is a secret part in this level. There are two ceiling vents in this main chamber, and the one in the southeast corner leads to the part. Fly up into it while destroying the grating and claim the part. It's a dual missile back part that takes up both shoulder slots, so as you can imagine, it has no real use for us besides selling for more credits.  Now, there are so many vents in the side walls, but none of them contain the gas canister we need to collect. We actually need to head downward.   In the opposite corner of the room from where the vent leading the secret part was, there's a vent on the floor we have to go down. There are some more mines and a few bishops, but it's nothing hard to deal with. It's a pretty straight path to the objective.  This is a spot to be careful at, because between you and the canister is an MT called the Whirlwind. Because of their not being much room to move around, don't shoot too much or at all unless you can guarantee it won't hit the canister. Doing so fails the mission.   Another mission accomplished with no issues. We've also got a new mail, so let's see what that's about.  And eventually, Chrome will be destroyed as well. But this process was a necessary one, necessary for our rebirth and that of all humanity. I'll be in touch. Yep, Chrome is pretty much hosed now.  But, like Imminent Storm, Chrome is taking some desperate measures of their own, as you can see from the mission title Chrome Uprising.  The Chrome have finally started an armed uprising. Socially, they have been in a cornered position, but it seems that they have finally made their move. We wish no unnecessary fighting, but their mere presence is a danger to all humanity. If we don't crush the bad seeds, the roots will again begin to spread. Justice is ours. Our elite troops have come under attack in various regions. The war situation is going just as we had expected. However, we miscalculated. We had to fight pitched battles against Chrome detachments appearing above-ground. Several military bases were attacked and suffered crippling blows. According to reports, the enemy is a small detachment of 5-6 MTs, but their capabilities cannot be taken lightly. They are probably Chrome's latest models. From the enemy's attack vectors, their next target is probably a military base in the Zahm Desert. We want you to head to the base ASAP and engage the enemy detachment.  This mission actually has three enemies to deal with, so it's a quick one. As for the type of enemy we'll be facing, it's probably not harder to figure out. Chrome Uprising   The CHAOS MT model makes its third and final return, with three of them on the scene. Turns out us participating in those tests actually did contribute to the war effort for Chrome. Whatever. It is only three enemies, and the map is only a small military base, but the CHAOS MTs are pretty resilient and love to hop around a lot. Just keeping a lock on them without sustaining to much damage from them is the key to completing it.   Honestly, what else is there for me to say about this one? Besides, the real exciting mission starts after this one.  Let's start the briefing for the next mission, Mop Up Chrome Remnants.  Special report for all Ravens! It has been decided to disband the Chrome group that planned a military coup d'etat using new robotic weapons. Murakumo Millennium will control and inspect the remaining assets of Chrome, so that they can be reused appropriately later. Now that the confrontation is over, there may be less and less for you Ravens to do. Hopefully this is a sign that mankind is moving towards a peaceful future. It's not over yet. We have a job for you. We need you to survey a Chrome military base. Some remnants of the group may still resist, but their strength is inconsequential. We want you to check the situation in the interior of the base and mop up any resistance you find there. Your pay should be adequate.  This is it. This is what was promised to you if you guys voted for the Murakumo path. While the mission briefing makes it sound easy and trivial, there's a big surprise waiting for us. Let's begin. Mop Up Chrome Remnants    Not even hitting the ground, and a bastard is dead already. Though I kinda wish the physics worked in a way that landing on an MT from a high enough distance and speed would just crush them. That would be awesome.   This entire base only has Bishops as enemies to deal with. Only two shots from the KARASAWA to take them down, and they do so little damage anyway. Just keep killing them and making your way to the top of the base.  So we've cleared out the base, so let's head back outside to complete the...   Jesus loving Christ! Gentleman, this right here is the Devastator, the largest MT in the entire game and the only one of its kind we'll ever face. It's really quite memorable, if only because of its size. I mean, sometimes when you're piloting a giant robot like an Armored Core for so long you can potentially lose a sense of scale, especially if it's in an environment that's designed for huge machines than people. So how do you reinforce that sense of scale? Make you feel tiny as poo poo in comparison, and that's what the Devastator does. If you want to know just how huge it is, just look at this.  The AC probably is only as high as its foot, maybe its shin. This is as close as I was able to get to the thing, but it's HUGE! It's main weapons include a plasma cannon, and a cluster of eight missiles that all fire and home in at once for nearly a thousand AP's worth of damage.   Case in point. Luckily, our KARASAWA still does a poo poo ton of damage even against this thing and it's got more than enough ammo left to take it down.   And that's the mission. As well as the end of the war. Guess what's next? A CUTSCENE! Cutscene: Chrome Defeated   The struggle for market share between Murakumo and up and coming Verge Company is becoming more and more intense. Future developments look interesting.   ...so, nothing has changed after all...    So, as to be expected when there's no real competition, corporations decline and fall apart. This would also be the same result if we sided with Chrome. But like it says, it's only the beginning of the real end.  Which means we've still got another mission, Mop Up Chrome Remnants...wait, what?  We have heard a rumor that a former Chrome military facility has recently been visited by an unknown group. The true situation is unclear but we have eye-witness reports of resumed weapons. Although supposedly already dismantled, the military superiority of Chrome was awesome in scope. It is not surprising that some may still be loyal to Chrome. But still they are only remnants of the group. They probably have no serious weapons. This job may not be satisfying for Ravens, but we want to eliminate apprehension quickly. Enter the base and attack them as you find them. That is all.  So now it's a mission from the Raven's Nest, and it's at the same base that we were at last time. This is certainly weird. Mop Up Chrome Remnants (2)  So instead of being dropped down the long shaft in the last mission, we're basically going into the base in reverse order...only there is nothing.  Seriously, it's loving empty.  Once you head a certain distance in the facility, you'll get this message to return.  Along with several enemies spawning. And they're more powerful and aggressive then the Bishops. It can be pretty easy to lose AP during this part.  It's best at this point to just avoid the enemies and get out of there. Especially because of what's waiting for you outside.   A familiar voice greets us. Boss Savage.  Here our energy weapons are especially beneficial because his AC Sledgehammer is designed to withstand shell hits, but has low energy defenses. He doesn't last long.   At least we still got paid. But that mission was quite fishy. Next update is gonna be dedicated to the final mission, because there's A LOT I have to say in particular about it. It's also a memorable mission, but not for the exact same reasons that other missions in this game are memorable. Here's a hint: It's a right loving bastard. I'll be in touch.
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Jun 11, 2014 18:08
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oh god the last mission in this game. If I remember right, I actually ran out of ammo and had to get two AC's to blow themselves up with their own weapons.
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Jun 11, 2014 18:41
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I can't remember if this is possible, but does beating the last Chrome mission show the cutscene for that path if you beat that mission after beating the rest of the game, or do you have to start with a fresh save file? I've heard failing that mission by letting the time expire also shows a cutscene. Is this true? Also, will you show off the cutscenes that happen when you trigger Human Plus and when you die near the end game? I was kinda hoping you'd save the final mission till after the other missions were shown, since it seems more fitting IMO, but considering how the game actually works, it's no big deal. warhammer651 posted:oh god the last mission in this game. ...You wouldn't happen to remember the weapons you had then? Usually, the only frustration when it comes this mission is having a weak vertical boost/air-time and camera work, since FROM was nice enough to give you an AP/Ammo refill before hand. Singh Long fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 18:46
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the turrets on those loving blocks were a pain in the rear end to hit with a Narrow FCS, and one of the rifles (don't remember which). I didn't find the karasawa when I played this game. didn't even realize it existed
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Jun 11, 2014 19:48
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It's too bad you sold that missile launcher. It hits like a freight train and is one of my favorite weapons in the game. You put that, a Kurasawa and the Moonlight on the same machine and you can put out some serious hurt.
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Jun 11, 2014 19:59
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That Dual Missile launcher from Retake Air Cleaner is more or less the most powerful missile-weapon in the game, and among the top 5 weapons overall in power, rate of fire, and ease-of-use. Unlike the initial store-bought "dual missile" shoulder parts, this bad motherfucker locks three times (6 missiles per volley), is actually lighter than any of the other dual-shoulder weapons, has more ammo, and fires medium missiles whereas the other one fires...weaker medium missiles. The combined firepower of a full volley is substantially greater (and much more likely to hit) than a Large Missile. It is a very scary weapon to have used against you. Versus a stock, starter AC you can rip off about 2000~2500 AP in a single volley, and with the right FCS supported by SP-AXL the locks are very quick, at a good distance. It has 60 ammo, giving a maximum of 10 volleys of 6 missiles each, more than enough to scrap anything that moves, including the Devastator. It can be expensive, though, if I recall the cost-per-shot is relatively high. Because of this, it is much better suited to short missions or AC-vs-AC combat.
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Jun 12, 2014 02:02
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Did I miss it, or did you not not do the mission where you're fighting through the abandoned base and there's creepy broken up radio chatter as the soundtrack?
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Jun 12, 2014 02:19
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I want to play these games again, but it's an eight hour round trip to pick up my old AC disks. Maybe this weekend....
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Jun 12, 2014 19:31
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Giant MT fights are literally the best part of this game. AC1 best AC.
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Jun 12, 2014 20:16
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Man, hell of a week this has been, between E3 stuff and job orientations. Gonna be working on the next part tonight, recording footage of the rest of the game and getting that stuff up as soon as possible.Singh Long posted:I can't remember if this is possible, but does beating the last Chrome mission show the cutscene for that path if you beat that mission after beating the rest of the game, or do you have to start with a fresh save file? I've heard failing that mission by letting the time expire also shows a cutscene. Is this true? Also, will you show off the cutscenes that happen when you trigger Human Plus and when you die near the end game? I'll highlight all the other stuff that wasn't covered in the last post though, like a trivia section. sector_corrector posted:Did I miss it, or did you not not do the mission where you're fighting through the abandoned base and there's creepy broken up radio chatter as the soundtrack?
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Jun 14, 2014 02:11
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Whoops, I can't read.
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Jun 20, 2014 16:16
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Part 9: That One Mission There's only mission for today's update, and that is the final mission. Not the last one for the LP though, remember that this is still a 100% run. Now, before starting this mission, we've made a little preparations to ensure things don't go horribly wrong  Our AC now has three new parts added. The first and most noticeable are the legs. They're a lot bigger and not as tall as the previous ones we were using. The LNKS-1B46J is heavier and slower, but it's necessary to facility the extra fire power om top. The second part is the back mounted chain gun, the WC-CN35. Yeah, I know, it goes against my all energy build, but for what this mission has in store, more guns the better. Last but not least, we've switched our horizontal FCS out for a vertical one, the TRYX-BOXER. Very useful again for what this mission will put us through.  With that said, let's begin our mission, Destroy Floating Mines.  An armed band of unknown affiliation broke into the Nest HQ and destroyed part of the facility. The security corps quelled the disturbance without incident. There is one problem: the floating mines left by the band. Normally, our corps would deal with them, but the mines are numerous, of a special structure and very powerful. We want you to take care of these mines. Just blow them up as you find them. You will be paid well.  Well...here we go. Destroy Floating Mines  Things start out simply enough, just gotta go down this hallway into a room.  Where several enemies are waiting for us. And they're pretty aggressive. It's best to hang by the door and fire your most powerful weapons at them. Don't worry about conserving ammo, this section of the mission doesn't last too long.  Once the room is cleared, continue down the next hallway, which leads us to...  An elevator ride. Still a ways to go till we reach the actual mines that need clearing.   This is the room with the mines. We were told to destroy them, but I'll let you in on something: It's a lie. You only need to get rid of the enemies to move on. And similar to the last room with enemies, just hang back by the door and blast everything that you lock on to. The enemies all come to you eventually so there's no need to move around with all the mines.  The recoil from the plasma cannon mixed with impact from enemy shots knocks us quite a bit back, but that's the last of the enemies.   We get a very brief cutscene of the door at the other end opening up, followed by a fade to black as the second half of the mission gets loaded. Get ready folks. This is where the game starts to go "gently caress you."  Some good news first though, all our AP and ammo has been refilled in the transition. There's no real explanation for why that happens, but this part would suck if it didn't happen.  And this is the first of many warnings given to use by someone. They'll continue as we make progress.    This area right here is one of three really, REALLY tall vertical shafts, and this one is quite possibly the worst of them all. The idea is that you use your boosters to ascend the shaft, landing on the floating, moving blocks with turrets mounted on the tops and bottoms of them, as well as dealing with Storks flying around taking shots at you trying to knock you off. Bringing the chain gun to use on these enemies was smart as it deals with them quickly and has a fast fire rate, but those aren't the things that will be able to save this mission.  Now why is this awful? Well, a major part of the problem comes from the game's camera. As shown at times, the camera won't clip through geometry to keep a set distance from your AC, and can cause it to cover up the entire screen and make things hard to see. The camera also does not allow the AC to look completely vertically. It's always at an angle, and this makes it especially tough when facing enemies at a higher altitude and they're just out of your FCS field of view because they were directly above you instead of above and to the front (this is why it's best to bring a vertical FCS as covering that space is necessary). Lastly, because of movement being digital, ACs in the air either move not at all or move at max speed, and depending on the build positioning it can be very finicky and you can overshoot your landing.  As demonstrated here, I overshot my landing on a cube and ended up falling back to the bottom. You can see why this can be a real pain in the rear end. Just keep at it, destroying any turrets or Storks targeting you, and get to the top.  That blue tunnel is a sign of relief as it means you've made it to the top, and have a platform bigger than a cube to rest on.  There's an opening in the wall denoted by glowing blue arrows. This is where we need to go.  And another warning from the mystery person. And we'll get another one as we reach the end of this hall.   We're at the top of the second vertical shaft, featuring the top ranking AC and one of the hardest motherfuckers in the series: Nine-Ball. Now, I'll be honest, this debut of the character isn't the reason why he's as memorable as he is in the entire franchise, though the encounter with him here is still pretty challenging. Even if a player were to build their AC exactly like Nine-Ball's, it still would compare. For reference, this is the specs for Nine-Ball:
Along with those specs, Nine-Ball has Human PLUS enhancements, which allows him to fire back weapons while moving on the ground or mid air. Especially devastating as he uses the grenade launcher. However, the player can use these same parts and get all the Human PLUS enhancements to be on par with Nine-Ball, right? Well, not quite. There is actually a difference in Nine-Ball's favor that is only available to him in this game out of the PS1 games he appears in, and that is his arm weapon. The WG-XP2000 still looks the same, but the firing mode is completely different. While the player can only use that weapon as a single shot energy weapon, Nine-Ball's version is a three shot burst, and taking three energy shots in quick succession can deal quite a bit of damage. In a more fair environment for fighting an AC in, Nine-Ball would still have an advantage other ACs wouldn't have access to, and in this mission with how the game is not designed well for vertically oriented combat, Nine-Ball becomes to dangerous to fight in this shaft.  Now, at the start I fell down a little ways into the shaft to get Nine-Ball's attention. What we're going to do is head right out the way we came and lure Nine-Ball into a more confined area where we can keep him in our sights.  And now to wait, plasma cannon at the ready. Any minute now...  Nine-Ball's not completely stupid as it still gets a shot at us with a grenade besides being fully prepared for him to come out of that hole.   And down goes Hustler One. Let's move on with the mission. Surprisingly, I didn't lose as much AP in this part of the mission compared to previous playthroughs. It's either my skill genuinely improving or I just have luck on my side.   And down the shaft, into another hallway with two Storks, and we reach a hole in the ceiling leading to ANOTHER vertical shaft that is identical to the last one. Also we get another warning message which we can't really abide by at this point, why leave now? Oh, and there's another Nine-Ball. Yeah, you fight him twice in the same mission almost back to back. While it was easy to deal with the first Nine-Ball by luring him out of the shaft from the top, doing the same from the bottom, in my experience, isn't really possible. As such, we're gonna have to do something very risky.   Yep, we're going to repeat the same thing we did before but fly all the way up to the top while staying as far ahead of Nine-Ball as humanly possibly. It's very intense to go through, given you have to stop every now and then to recharge your meter, but I reach the top...  ...but I push forward too soon and bounce off the bottom of the cube, sending me back downward toward my doom. This is the part where I actually begin to panic and think I would have to record the drat thing all over again. I make my way back up and get very close to making it through the hole...  But Nine-Ball denies by exit with a grenade in the back. Here things start to get really worrying.   BUT WAIT! Despite getting pushed against the wall and the camera not being able to do a thing, I fire my KARASAWA at the target in my FCS' range and destroy the son of a bitch. Like Joseph Joestar, in a battle with the odds stacked high against me, Nine-Ball left himself open just as I had planned. And also like Joseph Joestar, the stuff about it being my plan all along was total bullshit and my victory was just luck. Anyway, destroying Nine-Ball gives us yet another message, this time no longer telling us to leave but asking what the hell we want. Well...  How about letting me get through this goddamn hole already.  Hey, remember this thing? Yep, we're back in the first vertical shaft, but thankfully we don't have to worry about falling. Just boost our way to the end.   We reach our target for real, and it appears to be a mainframe. No doubt the one sending us those warnings.  But destroying it is the only thing that will get us out of this mission, so we shall do just that. Ending + Credits (Definitely watch this)  A familiar voice is heard, the voice of someone we know as "R."  "Are you satisfied?"  "Do you want to destroy order?"  "Destroy the world, is that what you want?"  "We were needed. That's why we were born." "People cannot live without order...even if it is a lie."   "Go on living, Raven."   "You or I...which one of us was ultimately right?" "You have the right...the duty to find that out..."   Well, that mission went smoother than I had expected, but we have now beaten Armored Core. That is quite a weird, if not sorta haunting, ending to the game. Although what is implied to have happened as a result raises some questions in regards to what is shown in later AC games, which I will only get into when I start LP them. Well, that wraps up this part, and with that done we can move on into the post game. We'll return back to our all energy build and do the last dozen missions we need and find the last few hidden parts to achieve 100% completion. I'll be in touch.
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Jun 21, 2014 00:41
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ArclightBorealis posted:Part 9: That One Mission
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Jun 21, 2014 03:27
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ArclightBorealis posted:Part 9: That One Mission Ever since, I've done it the same way you've shown off here. Blow Dryer + Flying up to the top, unload when he appears. I prefer a different FCS and overall AC build, but the strategy is the same. I always go for Plus though, because two of the bonuses (Halved Booster consumption, Increased Generator Condenser Capacity) are extremely helpful for navigating those shafts. With a light AC and the upper echelon of boosters (so, either the B-T001 or the B-VR-33. The B-T2 doesn't have the thrust power and the other high-power booster consumes too much energy), you can get up any of the shafts in a single charge, though just barely. It's hard to say what the game is trying to imply to you here. What is the actual function of the Ravens' Nest? They're 'keeping order' by accepting jobs which are then carried out by Ravens, but if they truly desired total control, they could simply...not list particular missions in order to maintain balance. There's definitely some behind-the-scenes fuckery going on, and there's a lot that doesn't make sense. Sure, it's FROM being intentionally vague, and probably a sign that they haven't yet refined their storytelling technique just yet, but it leaves more questions than it answers.
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Jun 21, 2014 19:12
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Seiren posted:Plot. If the Nest filtered out missions, people would get suspicious. Can't have that now can we? The false ending we saw implied Chrome was replaced by another company to keep the status quo. Besides, the Raven's Nest assumed we would fail, as the game will demonstrate if needed. Singh Long fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Jun 21, 2014 |
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Jun 21, 2014 21:04
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It's implying that the computer thingy you smashed was needed to keep order and that by destroying it you just totes shattered that order.
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Jun 21, 2014 21:17
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| # ? May 25, 2024 17:39 |
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Well this is a nostalgia trip and you are really good at the game, OP. Looking forward to PP and MoA.
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Jun 22, 2014 13:06
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