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I never owned this game, but also never realized there was a custom AC arena feature. That's amazing.
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May 9, 2015 18:26
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Seiren posted:
Captain Foo posted:I never owned this game, but also never realized there was a custom AC arena feature. That's amazing. Coincidentally, my other favorite game in the series, Silent Line, also has a custom AI feature (though no custom Arena), but the way it's done is much more organic and time consuming, yet more impressive as it learns from each battle. Then there was Verdict Day, which while I have some gripes with the gameplay, I sunk so many hours messing around with the UNACs and setting up my AI partners. We really need more in game tools to let players make their own computer controlled mechs with specific behaviors. Carnage Heart was loving ahead of the curve man, and From only really delved into it three times over the course of 14 main games. Well, I suppose 4 if you count Formula Front, though that was a spinoff and the premise was much closer to Carnage Heart's.
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May 9, 2015 19:32
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EX Part 1: Humanoid Legs It's still gonna be a little bit before returning to the main game, so I figured after the last update's introduction of the second disc, I'd start plowing through some of the bonus Arena ladders. And the first one on the menu is the Humanoid Legs category. Since we already have been going with this leg type in the main game, I'll be using my main build once again. Well, with one slight variation when we reach a specific opponent which you'll see shortly. Now then, onto the EX Arena, Humanoid Legs category.            Starting out in 10th place in the rankings, it's time to start climbing up.  Reward: 10000 C Not to difficulty of a first match. Zweit does boost around a lot, so using single shot weapons like the KARASAWA require a bit more precision and firing at the right moment in order to hit. Nothing too fancy. Though if you notice, is design is pretty familiar as it was one of the example ACs featured in the Opening CG for Project Phantasma. The only difference is that his right hand weapon here is a pulse rifle instead of a handgun. Still a very nice design, if I say so myself.  The moment we reach rank #9, our description changes and remains that way for a few more matches.  Reward: 12000 C "Walking Pillbox" comment aside, this AC moves very slowly, even when boosting. The rockets and machine guns are barely a threat if you can continue to hit him outside his range. His lack of maneuverability and predictable movements while airborne helps with this, too.  Reward: 15000 C This is the first we've seen of another AC besides Nine-Ball returning from the first game, and for being ranked 7th in this category, he clearly is a better fit for the top 3. A real loving bastard. For real though, Invisible Q's deadliest weapon is the KARASAWA and the accuracy that he has with it. Being able keep moving and react accordingly to where he's firing from can get you through without losing too much AP, but this is easier said than done. A better tactic, though not exactly full proof and is a bit inconsistent, is to just rush him. During this fight I found he was using the rifle more often when I was at a longer distance, though when he was either cornered or in a close enough distance he just kept moving around to try and maintain distance. He still occasionally fires while at close range, so this isn't a guaranteed method to cheese him. And as you could see, this is the fight I had to swap back to the weapon arm laser cannons because the faster this son of a bitch gets killed, the better.  Reward: 19000 C Adverse has both maneuverability and a weapon to keep you from doing the same, as hand guns are able to stagger us very easily. That said, he leaves himself wide open when he uses his grenade launcher as he has to stay in place to use it. Hitting him when he's stationary ends the fight much faster than trying to give chase. Also, I felt rather proud of myself for dodging his one grenade that he fired right on the spot.  Reward: 23000 C This fight I think I had the most fun with out of everything in this category. Rianon's load out is fairly similar to ours and is mobile enough. Just a very good middle ground in terms of difficulty between the top and bottom ranks. Plus the stage contributed a lot to it, being much more fun to maneuver around than the snowy military base stage from Project Phantasma. In fact the just the setting kind of reminds me of that movie My Darling Clementine. Wanna take a guess who got to play Wyatt Earp?  Rank #5, and once again our bio gets another update. Things our looking positive for us in this category.  Reward: 32000 C This guy more than anything likes to reserve using his boosters until he's under attack, in which he starts hopping around. Otherwise, he's just running and is pretty easy to hit. Kind of a let down after that fight with Rianon, but eh, given his bio I'll chalk it up to old age slowing him down.  Reward: 45000 C Another AC returning from the first game, although his AC has changed names from Puryunu Touri to Fallen Fortune. This was an incredibly close battle as the choice in stage put Vlad at an advantage due to his habit of staying airborne. A stage like the parking garage would've been better to limit his vertical movement, but eh I was already committed. Frankly, I'm surprised I even won that match as I had wasted all my rifle ammo right when he was down to a few hundred points of AP left. That one shot from my back cannon saved my rear end in the end.  Reward: 57000 C Just like Invisible Q and Vlad, Moon is also from the first game. He loves to not only boost around a ton, but also boost towards you and get behind you so you waste time trying to circle around to find him. Fighting from a distance is much more preferred so you can better keep him in sight. Otherwise, his weapons aren't as threatening as someone like Invisible Q, so his constant boosting and rushing you becomes more of an annoyance if anything.  All that's left now is to take down Ernst.  Reward: 140000 C Ernst is definitely worth his place on the ranking, because he is the only one AC in this specific Arena that is a Human PLUS. And is overweight on top of that. His tendency to hover a lot made the choice to fight in the garage a priority, though his deadliest weapon by far is the backmounted grenade launcher. With the benefits of PLUS, this fucker can fire that thing from anywhere and keep moving. Staying relatively close and in sight is important, all while dodging his grenade shots when they happened. Or do what I stumbled upon where my KARASAWA shot and the splash damage of his grenade at close range finished him off. If you can't dodge his poo poo, just have it blow up in his face! Also, like Zweit, Ernst is an AC design originating from the opening CG for the very first Armored Core. They were indeed basic parts as the description says, and in that footage even he had to kneel to use his grenade launcher. Quite a jump in skill between games.  All 9 foes are defeated, and we're now top rank in the Humanoid Legs category.  For that, we receive our prize, the LN-23, a new Humanoid Leg part. This is the sort of prize you can expect from each of the other leg categories, but let's take a look at some of the stats.  When you look at the general shape of the part, it appears to look like a heavyweight. The description though calls it a "lightweight model, but without sacrificing defense or load capacity." The weight stat is listed at 2300, which is over a hundred points less than the LN-D-8000R which we have equipped. With pretty good defense stats and more load capacity than what we have, this seems like a good part. For me however, what keeps me from switching to this for the main build is that it still has the same sort of speed that the heavyweight legs have. Our current max speed we get from the 8000R is 269 while the S3 is 106. Alas, the speed at which I am able to move around at even without boosters is preferable to my style. But, depending on if something tough comes along that we might need the extra load and reduced weight, it's worth holding onto. Now, before wrapping this update, since this category and the three others cover what is one of the most important parts that can determine how you control your AC, I'm gonna end each of these series of matches with an effort post provided by AC1 parts and systems expert Seiren. Seiren posted:Legs are the single most important choice you can make in Armored Core. Your choice of leg-part will affect every aspect of your ACs performance, from defenses & mobility, energy efficiency & recovery, even how you handle laserblades is affected by legs. Even within the same "class" of legs, there are subtle differences in the movement performance, especially when relating to airborne mobility, turning speed, and the momentum of the AC. Their load capacity can also determine what kind of firepower you can field. It is a given that heavier legs = higher load = higher defenses = low speed, but each type is tailored to a particular style on play.  Lastly, here's a look at about how much progress we have left on disc 2. With only 9 EX Arena matches one, we've only covered about 8% of the content. I told you there was more Arena stuff crammed on this disc than in the main game. Regular missions and Arena matches resume next update, with Ex Parts happening after each one with a new Arena ladder to be covered.
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May 10, 2015 01:38
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ArclightBorealis posted:
This is also the one they use to represent Project Phantasma in Last Raven's VR Arena. For the longest time I always thought this was weird because that's not the AC that shows up on Phantasma's cover, but then I realized recently that this is the one that shows up on the Japanese cover of the game.
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May 10, 2015 02:02
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ArclightBorealis posted:Well, now I'm definitely more than obligated to do so. Was bound to happen at some point. I remember playing a demo of Carnage Heart on some demo disc ages and ages ago, but I never got my hands on the actual game. It seemed like a great concept, but I can sort of see why it never became very popular. Are you aware of any quality LPs of it?
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May 10, 2015 18:38
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nine-gear crow posted:This is also the one they use to represent Project Phantasma in Last Raven's VR Arena. For the longest time I always thought this was weird because that's not the AC that shows up on Phantasma's cover, but then I realized recently that this is the one that shows up on the Japanese cover of the game. I need to start getting into Last Raven sometime soon when I have the chance. I just completed my PS2 Armored Core collection with NB and LR a couple months ago, though I still need to 100% Another Age and Silent Line first. The latter takes a hell of a long time to thoroughly complete, holy poo poo. Captain Foo posted:I remember playing a demo of Carnage Heart on some demo disc ages and ages ago, but I never got my hands on the actual game. It seemed like a great concept, but I can sort of see why it never became very popular. Are you aware of any quality LPs of it?
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May 10, 2015 21:34
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ArclightBorealis posted:
LN-S3 Price: 75000 Weight: 2300 Energy Drain: 2050 Armor Point: 3426 Def_Shell: 752 Def_Energy: 680 Max Weight: 5630 Speed: 106 Stability: 1480 LN-SSVR Price: 32400 Weight: 2750 Energy Drain: 2013 Armor Point: 3606 Def_Shell: 789 Def_Energy: 532 Max Weight: 5400 Speed: 148 Stability: 2150 Just look at those numbers. While the S3 outclasses the SSVR (an actual heavyweight set) overall, it comes at a high-cost of mobility. Allthough they're pretty light, the S3 is drat slow, and has a low stagger rating compared to a real heavyweight. In terms of actual performance (that is, gameplay using each set), the SSVR will perform substantially better mobility-wise with a similar load slapped on than the S3, and is far harder to stun. That said, a real heavyweight set will outclass the S3 in pretty much every way except for weight, booster-enhanced movement speed, and flight (which is certainly affected by the total weight of the AC) And just for fun, lets also compare to what Arc is using right now, the LN-D-8000R  Price: 49000 Weight: 2426 Energy Drain: 2350 Armor Point: 3532 Def_Shell: 510 Def_Energy: 656 Max Weight: 4770* Speed: 269 Stability: 1200 * These legs received a buff to this statistic between PP and MoA, from 4720 to 4770. This seems like a small increase, but you can configure an AC in such a way to fully optimize, and use the fullest extent of your weight capacity in order to raise important numbers, or slap a weapon on that you feel you need. Many leg parts can be configured with just the right combination of parts and weapons in such a way that you're just a few tens, or even as small as single-digit differences between load capacity and the weight you're putting on, but the parts you're just barely unable to use substantially improve the AC's performance. So that was basically just a lot of words saying that this change is actually pretty significant! I actually didn't expect this myself when I looked up the actual stats for these legs, but the S3 outclasses these in literally every way except for mobility. Lighter, less drainy, and even higher overall defenses. A 100AP-deficit is not equivalent to a difference of over 200 solid shell defense, and the S3 even out-does this part's specialty -- that being the enhanced energy defenses, and achieves less-drain at the same time. I'd say the 8000R definitely wins in appearance, though, since they actually look like middleweight legs with enhanced energy shielding. The S3 are fat So, if you needed a heavier middleweight for some reason, the S3 are definitely a great part if you're capable of working around the poor mobility. One of the better rewards, honestly. A Pleasant Hug fucked around with this message at 01:12 on May 11, 2015 |
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May 11, 2015 01:06
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Part 5: A Stern Warning Starting this update off with an Arena fight, but we only get one in right now for reasons that will be further explained afterwards. And because it's just one, I felt like it wasn't quite as necessary to make an image of the AC's icon and use that as the link to the video. So here it is.  Stunt Rider's a reverse joint AC, and as you'd expect hops and boosts around a lot, not to mention uses a handgun to stagger us with each hit. I obviously did not bring any missiles with me to test whether he's that good at reading trajectories and reacting accordingly, but I think he still put up more of a fight than the other Sub-Arena ACs we faced thus far.   We do get another bonus weapon out of that fight though, and it's the WG-HG770. It still follows the same basic rules as its other handgun brethren, though it is very accurate for having a wide range on its shots. Another one piece for the garage.  Anyway, we can't go to the next Arena fight, because we receive an important message in our inbox...  Sender: PROGTECH An emergency situation has arisen. We have a request that needs your immediate attention. Please read the request description for more information. ...which then tells us to look at our missions for more details.  An emergency situation has come up. We'll be sending a mission request directly. The PROGTECH Marine Laboratory is under attack by an unknown MT. The attacker's objective is still unclear. We've already sent in another Raven, but he was unable to complete the mission. The best he could do was stall the enemy's invasion of the facility. An important company official is housed within the facility. It is vital that he be rescued and brought to safety. As is our right as your sponsor, we are temporarily revoking your license to participate in the Arena. This mission is now your top priority.  So yes, this will happen at key moments in the game where you will be prevented from continuing to participate in the Arena until you complete the story mission that it presents to you. This keeps the game's pace moving and prevents you from potentially sticking to a completely different mode that isn't pushing you forward in terms of progress, something that I appreciate. What determine when you are required to do these mandatory missions is a combination of arena battles and missions completed at a given time. Kind of like how mission progression worked in Armored Core 1, you kinda work it out by feel most of the time unless you really pay attention to how many missions and/or arena battles have to happen before the game moves forward. Anyway, I digress. We need to do this job before we can get our Arena license back.       Also, because this mission is being given directly to us by our sponsor, Lana won't be giving us mission info as things develop.    Arriving at the platform, there are five Stinkbug MTs around the area, so there isn't much resistance to deal with. The other AC in the mission area is holed up indoors at the moment and as such isn't in danger of being destroyed.    Once all five MTs are destroyed, Fritz shows himself.  Yep, mission ain't done yet.   A new enemy type appears! The Merman.    This is definitely a unique MT compared to previous ones in the series. During the cutscene, it transforms from a high speed water craft to a regular MT, and it has quite a few weapons that deal considerable damage. It has a dual missile launcher but that can be circumvented pretty easily by staying in very close range, but then you have to deal with the machine guns and slug guns that it also has in its arsenal.  It doesn't last so long as you're quick and efficient with your hits, but it's the only MT of its kind to show up here in this game. So it's still special somewhat. Plus it looks a bit like a miniature version of the Devastator.      Also, another extra detail with this mission is the AC pilot Fritz. After the Merman shows up, he said he was getting out of the area ASAP, but it is possible for the MT to kill him before you finish him off. Saving him shows him boarding the transport along with you out of the mission zone. Otherwise, you'd be the only one leaving. And yes, because all these ACs are registered in the Arena, him dying would also remove him from the Sub-Arena and bring in another Raven. After that urgent mission, we've received two important messages from different senders.  Sender: Elan Cubis Hello, my name is Elan Cubis, I'm the head of development at PROGTECH. Thank you for your assistance the other day. I believe the attack was directed at our research group. This is a relatively common occurrence in our business, but there was one aspect about it that bothered me. Specifically, the MT that appeared from out of the water. It would be hard, given current technology, to build an amphibious MT. I know of no group that has had success. It's possible a technology lost during "The Great Destruction" has been rediscovered. I fear an unknown organization, possessing advanced technologies, may be involved. In an earlier email we received from Lana Nielsen, we were told about PROGTECH's success being due to a particularly brilliant scientist. While there was no name given, Cubis' position as head of development would probably inform he's THAT person responsible for the company's current standing in the corporate world. Oh yeah, speaking of Lana, we did go on a mission without her knowing before hand. Well...  Sender: Lana Nielsen As I explained earlier, I am your RAVENS' NEST contact and the one who will supply you with your orders. You will follow the orders you're given and do as I say! Even if approached by a sponsor, you are not to accept any missions without my approval. Don't let it happen again! That is all. Yeah. We were lucky to get off with a warning, but the tone is pretty serious in that message. But at least we got our arena license back. At least she can't take that away, that's up to the sponsor. Well, let's just get one more mission done for the update, especially since this mission is one that I've been waiting for to show up.  A few surviving members of a successfully splintered terrorist organization are making a last stand. They're attacking nearby facilities with a giant Tank. Your mission is the elimination of the terrorist controlled Tank. It is in the Battleship class and was most likely built before The Great Destruction. Destroy all Tank defenses and render it inoperable. This will be much different from fighting ACs or MTs...be careful.  You know what Project Phantasma was missing that the first Armored Core had? A fight with something immensely bigger than you (Phantasma itself wasn't big enough). We get to go up against a giant tank. You could probably think of this as an extremely proto version of an Arms Fort battle in For Answer.      This mission takes its time at the start panning around the tank just to show to difference in scale between it and you.    Once you get into range of the tank, it starts firing its weapons, and they are all very hard hitting. On the sides of the tank are two large missile launchers each, which fire very slow but damaging missiles. Situated at the front and back are grenade launchers that obviously cannot track you upon firing but getting caught by one is devastating. Lastly on the pack is a vertical missile launcher, and the first area of the tank that we're going to tackle.   I ended up expending all my energy meter reaching the top maneuvering around enemy fire, although incurring some splash damage from the large missiles took out the vertical missile launcher. Once at this spot, you get some breathing room.   Next target is the grenade launcher on the back, and then targeting the large missile launchers along the side, all of which are easy to shoot at while standing where the vertical missile launcher was. As cool as this mission's concept is, it's easy to trivialize most of it when you realize that standing right on top of it keeps you safe from the tank's weapons. Especially since we only need to destroy all the tank's weapons to render it unable to continue attacking.    I still challenge myself for a bit by firing at the missile launchers while flying around since it's still very cool to fly around up close and see the scale of this thing.  Lastly, I take some shots at the grenade launcher at the front and finish it with a laser blade strike for good measure.   This mission is still one of my favorites out of the original generation, even once you know what parts need to be destroyed and how simple it is as a result. Still a cool concept, and again it fills a quota that any good Armored Core game should have which is a mandatory mission where you fight something absurdly larger than a 10 meter tall mecha that you're piloting. More missions incoming for the next main update. The Arena will get more play in due time, once PROGTECH think's we've made enough progress in either area to advance to the big leagues.
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May 17, 2015 04:40
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EX Part 2: Reverse Joint Legs Time for another round of AC battles in the EX Arena. Although the next ladder right after the Humanoid Legs is Four Legs, I'm going to tackle Reverse Joints instead as those are the legs that follow after the regular humanoid type in the garage and shop. Best way I can summarize this series of fights: First few fights are tough as hell due to being rusty and coming off of playing a different kind of game intensely, thus needing time to readjust. Still got my poo poo together just fine, with the middle becoming weirdly piss easy and the end being a worthy final fight in the category. Now let's go.            The legs we're using have the highest weight capacity of all the reverse joint legs, though it's still lower than what we used for humanoid legs. As such, the arms have also been switched out to alleviate the extra weight up top. Everything else is basically the same as the main build, just with extra air mobility.  Reward: 10000 C Pellen is a multi missile user, and fires them all off whenever he gets the chance early on. Getting hit by these in succession hurts like a truck and can get you killed fast (how my first attempts recording this ended). But once you've dodged them all, or enough that it's sufficient, all he's got left is his handgun. Except trying to shoot a target that doesn't let off the boosters makes for very difficult aiming. I probably would've ran out of ammo in that fight sooner or later had he not kept boosting into the wall, giving me a chance to douse him in plasma.  Even after how rusty I was coming off that fight, I still stuck to the weapon loadout that I would use for the rest of these matches. Only uphill from here.  Reward: 12000 C Large missiles are Strangle's most powerful asset and simultaneously his downfall. The slow speed and turning of these missiles mid flight allows you to manipulate their trajectory easily, getting them to collide and explode nearby for splash damage (even if I get caught in part of the blast itself. It's even better if you trick his AI into firing one off right infront of an obstacle, and it'll shave off a good few thousand AP from him. Constant movement and awareness of his missile's location will lead to victory.  Reward: 15000 C Swimmer is basically Pellen without the multi missiles, while still retaining the constant speed and movement. Except for when he inexplicably stands still allowing him to be shot at multiple times. He has a slug gun on his back, which would require him to stay in place anyway in order to use, but the guy continues to fire the handgun instead. Either way, he's not as lethal, but depending on your ability to hit a moving target he can be just as annoying.  Reward: 19000 C I kind of feel bad for this one because despite some powerful weapons in his arsenal, Pest could barely lift himself back up onto the raised platforms, not to mention his accuracy not being much to write home about. His AC build is actually overweight, though penalties for going into battle like that don't manifest until Nexus where mobility becomes similar to that of being over encumbered in Skyrim. Total weight would still affect it to a degree, but considering the parts he use aren't the heaviest out there, I still find it pitiful he couldn't lift himself up any higher.  Reward: 23000 C Bloom, on the other hand, has no issue flying around all over the place, which is why I ended up fighting him in the garage to counteract that. The guy also is a multi missile user, so despite having a more flashy style than Pest according to his description, he is way more dangerous to fight in an open environment by comparison. Just sticking close and making him waste his missiles is the important thing to focus on early in the fight, afterwards you're pretty much gold.  Halfway up the ladder, and while our descriptions continue to change when reaching certain ranks, it's actually the same as in the Humanoid Legs category. The only difference is them switching out Humanoid with Reverse Joint. You can expect the same once we get to quads and tank tread categories.  Reward: 32000 C Trust pilots an overweight AC and does even less moving around than Pest did. I really can't add more to how this fight went considering the bastard couldn't decided between moving the hell away or using his chain gun while kneeling.  Reward: 45000 C RT lives up to his machine's name sake once by jumping REALLY high to get out of the way of my rifle shots. Before and after that though, he doesn't bother retaliating or boosting around. This game's AI and the order in which you fight opponents can be so uneven at times.  Reward: 57000 C After the last two duds in the ladder, Kroeger actually puts up a decent fight, making use of all his weapons and mobility available to him. Probably just coincidental due to the map I fought him on, but it played out pretty similarly to Moon in the Humanoid Legs category. Kroeger keeps moving to stay out of your line of sight and try attacking from the sides or behind. Not too challenging of a fight this late on, but it's better than essentially standing around taking the hits.  And now, only one remains.  Reward: 140000 C First thing I have to say, I was seriously contemplating fighting this guy in the garage stage but since I already used it twice this update I would try and fight him in a less restrictive environment. Why this exactly matters is that his primary weapons are laser cannon weapon arms, and without anything between him and you to absorb the shots, you'll get wrecked. Because he fires them with reckless abandon. It's still very possible to deal with him in a large open area, but you need to be constantly on the move and have good control of your AC to avoid those shots. He does alternate between using those and back mounted missiles, but those are nothing to worry about. The slightly raised platform in this stage served as a good way to block some of Dynamite's cannon shots, while still dodging them with very low jumps. The most interesting part about this guy however, is that unlike Ernst in the Humanoid Legs category who was a Human PLUS, or the opponents in this category that were overweight, is that Dynamite is neither of those things. That build he uses for Blockbuster is totally doable and lethal without any extra enhancements. And I should know. I used a similar set up for the latter half of Project Phantasma's Arena, and the result shows. Also, Dynamite is a returning character from AC1's leader board (though you never encountered him once in the main game). His description in that game still gets across that he's very reckless and wastes more ammo than he makes money mid mission. Thank god for this guy deductions don't exist in the Arena  Another EX Arena ladder completed  And with it comes a new AC part. Naturally, this being the Reverse Joint category, the part in question is a pair of Reverse Joint Legs.   The LB-H230 is basically the closest thing to a heavyweight reverse joint legs part. The first thing that's noticeable is the increased weight capacity at 5124 points, however with this comes increased overall weight. It's slightly slower than other legs in the category, though the thing to worry about with this leg part is that it has the lowest amount of Energy Defense among any of the legs parts. So unless you're going into a mission or AC battle where you only need to worry about shell damage, you might be losing a bit more AP than normal. The leg itself is still pretty unique in that it's heavier and carries more than other reverse joint legs, but it still maintains the benefits that these types of legs hold over the regular humanoid legs. And once again, here's a more in depth look at what all these advantages and disadvantages of reverse joint legs mean in the grand scheme of things, courtesy of Seiren. Seiren posted:Reverse Joint type legs at first glance seem like standard bipedal legs. In several ways, that isn't wrong, but there are some notable differences. They're cheap to buy and repair, drain less energy, have middling-to-poor defenses and load capacity, and low-ish AP. Their mobility on the ground leaves something to be desired, and they suffer in turning speed. And then you hit the jump button, and you go careening into the stratosphere at a single button press. That isn't just for show -- Reverse Jointed legs are exceptionally maneuverable while airborne. Even the heaviest of them (roughly equivalent to a heavy-middleweight biped in weight) are more agile in the air than several types of lightweight bipeds. They are very much an airborne fighter, and they excel at it. A good build with a skilled pilot is unmatched in the sky. Like any other biped, they will need to take a firing stance to use cannons. But you shouldn't use cannons on them anyway, even as Plus. Laser blades aren't so great either -- they're 3rd place overall. They are decently-useful for mid-air blading, however. They track a little better, and their slash is suited for striking enemies just slightly lower than them. The difficulty of such a thing prohibits extensive or exclusive use, and you cannot fire blade-beams while airborne regardless of blade model or Plus status. Even for myself, remaining airborne and staying effective in this generation of Armored Core is still challenging, regardless of whether you have the reverse joint legs. It all takes practice, but even if you still treat them mostly the same as humanoid legs, you can still get the results you need. Just be sure you're constantly moving and don't get staggered.
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May 21, 2015 19:04
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Dug my old save for this out of mothballs and... apparently I never beat it, which is weird because I could have sworn I remembered seeing the ending at some point. I have conquered all four of the leg-type arenas in the EX-Arena, though, and I'm at rank 3 in the Main Arena. Gonna have to get used to playing this again. Doesn't help that I keep trying to use the analog sticks on my PS3 controller. drat YOU MUSCLE MEMORY. 
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May 21, 2015 21:30
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ArclightBorealis posted:EX Part 2: Reverse Joint Legs quote:Another EX Arena ladder completed Furthermore, I need to correct myself. Reverse-Jointed legs are more stable than average, and are typically more stable than all but heavyweights. I spoke otherwise in that big post, and...well, hey, I hosed up 
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May 22, 2015 00:28
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W.T. Fits posted:Dug my old save for this out of mothballs and... apparently I never beat it, which is weird because I could have sworn I remembered seeing the ending at some point. I have conquered all four of the leg-type arenas in the EX-Arena, though, and I'm at rank 3 in the Main Arena. Gonna have to get used to playing this again. Doesn't help that I keep trying to use the analog sticks on my PS3 controller. drat YOU MUSCLE MEMORY. Seiren posted:Furthermore, I need to correct myself. Reverse-Jointed legs are more stable than average, and are typically more stable than all but heavyweights. I spoke otherwise in that big post, and...well, hey, I hosed up I should probably think about going back through all the updates and scrubbing them of any misinformation. I mean, there will always be the thread itself which has the corrections and additional notes, but when it falls into the endless abyss that is the archives, might as well make sure it goes out as best as it can look.
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May 22, 2015 02:19
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Still not as bad as playing Formula Front and the PSP ports of the 3-series.  Aaaaugh. God, the PSP has such a garbage control setup to begin with, and then trying to squeeze an Armored Core game on to it, just Jesus.
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May 22, 2015 06:25
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nine-gear crow posted:Still not as bad as playing Formula Front and the PSP ports of the 3-series.
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May 22, 2015 21:44
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Part 6: We in the Big Leagues Now This update's gonna be fairly arena focused, though we'll still be kicking this off with another mission from the campaign.  The requester is Izumo Materials. We've recieved information indicating that a colossal cannon, built during The Great Destruction, is in the process of being restored. Verify this information, and if the reports we've recieved turn out to be true, destroy the cannon before restoration can be completed. Izumo Materials, whose emphasis is space development, has plans to launch a satellite. The cannon is apparently set to target this satellite. If restoration of the cannon is indeed underway, explosive charges must be set and the cannon destroyed completely.  Another mission that requires us to destroy something huge, only now we're on a time limit.       This cannon is a large, cylindrical tower that has four levels, and on each level we need to place one bomb on it. All this needs to be done in 5 minutes, which like a lot of missions in this series with time limits, it's more than enough for a skilled player.   The spots are already easy to identify because of the darker grey color, but the game still labels them as "Target" just to be safe.   Also while you're doing all this, 8 Butterfly MTs are constantly barraging you with missiles from all angles. They don't really change their altitude by a large degree, so fighting them from the higher platforms is much preferable to doing it from the bottom of the tower. But this mission doesn't require us to deal with them if we want. Just get the bombs planted.   As you'd expect, the mission is never quite over once you've completed the main objective.    Another Barracuda drops an AC into the mission zone. Time for a battle.    Locagos' AC Toll-Keeper hops around a lot as result of being a reverse joint AC, but thankfully he doesn't go any higher than the second level of the cannon. That said though, his only weapon are the plasma cannon weapon arms, and he's got two ammo magazines equipped to extend his ammo count by 40%. He did keep a wide distance between us however, which makes aiming at him a bit easier as you have more room to follow his movements.   With the enemy AC destroyed, now we can call it a wrap on this assignment.     This mission overall is pretty frantic in a way that I enjoyed, and it's got a bit of a similar vibe to the Destroy Giant Tank mission, in terms of dismantling a powerful weapon of gigantic proportions. Also there is an ending cinematic to this mission where the cannon fires if you fail the mission. Maybe in the post game once all the missions are unlocked I'll show it off. Now, time to take a new batch of opponents in the Sub-Arena. There are two other missions I could have taken at this point, but I wanted to minimize the amount of Sub Arena fights I'd have to do at once as soon as I completed the campaign, as the list expands in the post game to show ALL possible Ravens.       Evil Kiss' most powerful weapon is the large missile launcher on his back, and when I was doing a recording of this fight, I took too much damage from those missiles that I didn't have much health left to withstand his handgun shots. This is why I stayed far away and pelted him with my back cannon because he only really fired those missiles once I was in a close enough range to him. Misdirecting large missiles can be fun, but there's still a risk of losing a poo poo ton of AP from it. In an open area like this, I didn't want to risk it a second time.  Remember this guy from Assist Marine Lab? Guy has pitiful movement as you would expect from a tank treads AC, and even crazier was that he did not hit me even once. I primarily uses a rocket launcher and bazooka, and against both of those I moved fast enough that they all missed.  Poison Tail makes use of his movement and speed to avoid a lot of shots and get behind me. I almost got a laser blade hit on him before stun locking me out of it, but other than that he doesn't really didn't really do much damage.  I honestly should not have won this fight the way that I did. Bibs makes more use of his AC's mobility than even LD did, which made my back cannon useless for most of the match. Except for the very end when both of us were attempting to out damage each other, and I came out on top with less than 300 AP to spare. Again, there is no way I should've won with the way I was performing this match.  Another quad leg AC that moves all over the place, but still not quite as annoying as the last fight. Plenty of moments where I got some good hits on me, and I did a good job evading his missiles for the most part.  Now, out of these five Arena matches, winning the fight with Bibs earns us another AC part, a right arm weapon.  This is classified as a machine gun due to its form and rate of fire, but the most obvious difference looking at the stats is that it's an energy weapon. It has fairly low energy drain with each shot as well, plus 500 ammo. The attack power though is pretty low, and because it's an energy weapon it pulls its power directly from the AC's generator, so you still have to watch your boosters if you want to use this weapon constantly. It's still very neat, and while I don't use it on missions, it's a thing I've messed around with for fun in the past. Might get some use in future Arena battles. But first, we've reached the next threshold in our progress, as we've been kicked out of the Arena menu and received a new message.  Sender: Lana Nielsen Here is a request from your sponsor. Please read the mission description carefully. It appears that your skill and rating as a Raven have increased. It's just a matter of time before you'll be allowed to enter the Arena. Well, at least this next mission is Lana approved, so there won't be any consequences after the fact.  A Secret Material, developed by PROGTECH, was stolen. We are still investigating, but it appears as though the culprit may be The Wolf, a ranked AC sighted nearby. The last known location of the thief was in the vicinity of Fort Garden. You mission is to search the Abandoned Mine and recover the stolen material. As this request originates with your Arena sponsor, and is a priority mission, your Arena challenging rights have been temporarily suspended.  This material we're retrieving really has no importance to the story or anything, though because this is a request coming from our sponsors, the reward has to be something good.    This level is incredibly vertical. Lots tall shafts connected by small corridors in the walls.   A drop down the first one brings us close to a room with an elevator that brings us even further underground.  I like this little detail of the large trucks parked on each level of the shaft as you descend. It helps to remind you that this is an environment designed for humans and large robots to be operating in simultaneously.  Alas, that is the only elevator we will be riding this mission. The rest is a lot of falling.  There are multiple exits out of a vertical shaft, although some of these will lead to dead ends.   Along the way, Spatula MTs and Float Suits will try to impede our progress, the latter being especially annoying (both to keep track of and get a picture of for this update. These things aren't MTs as much as they are flying powered armor, which is why they're so small. There was a similar variant to these powered armor suits that showed up in a mission in Armored Core 1, though they weren't able to fly indefinitely.  Eventually, we'll reach an exit out of the steel corridors into a large cavern where our target awaits.   The pilot of the Wolf, Prime, does not gently caress around at all despite being a slow tank AC. All of his weapons hit hard, inflicting splash damage as well if taking a direct hit wasn't bad enough. The only sure fire way to survive is to move around a lot, unless you build your AC with a gently caress ton of shell defenses to deal with it. And even then it's still devastating.  His color scheme also helps him blend in somewhat with the environment, which would've made this fight more nightmarish if the game was designed with manual aiming for everything.   The Wolf has been put down, and we only lost around a thousand AP from that encounter. Not to bad, I'd say.    With the container retrieved, we complete the mission and we are now returned our Arena privileges once again. Well, that and an even better reward from our sponsor.  Congratulations. Your registration is complete, and you're hereby certified as a contender in the Arena. Usually, a potential candidate must wait until a contender leaves the Arena, but an opening was available just in time for your registration. Concentrate your efforts on the Arena for the time being, but keep in mind that we may still require your assistance in further missions. As a gift, please accept this 50000C and an AC Part developed by our company. Good luck to you in your conquest of the Arena. So we got money, a new weapon, AND we finally challenge the actual ranked Arena ACs in battle. Awesome. That second paragraph about an opening just happening to become available in the main Arena was no doubt due to me murdering Prime who was ranked 14th in the Arena. Whether it was something planned on the company's part or arranged by the Nest, either way it's awfully convenient for us. But I'm not complaining.   This is another weapon type that typically uses solid ammunition and this version is an energy variant. However, unlike the energy machine we got earlier, this one was TREMENDOUS fire power and incredibly long range. Both are actually greater than any single right arm weapon in the game. What does come as a downside however is the ammo count. Ten shots makes it very inadequate for actual mission use, and even in the Arena you have to be a master marksman to make every shot count. Oh well, gotta have something to balance it out. Still very impressive regardless.   So we got access to the Main Arena, however we can still challenge anyone in the Sub-Arena if we so choose. But because of our promotion, our Arena profile only shows up in the main ladder now and not the Sub-Arena. Still, huge progress has been made, and as PROGTECH said we should focus our efforts on climbing the ranks. And that's what we'll do in the next main update.
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May 23, 2015 23:05
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I finished reading your LP of the first game and now I'll start reading this one. Thanks for LPing these games.
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Jul 20, 2015 04:55
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Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since there had been an update to this LP. I'm really enjoying it and hope it continues!
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Jul 20, 2015 15:15
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Man, it has been less than 2 months since I last updated this thing. Long story short, lot of real world poo poo mixed with issues in preparing the next update (not technical issues with recording, just frustration during a part in the game) had me shelve it for a while until I could finish this summer semester. I'm still sitting on raw footage from when I last played the game, but I just need to edit it and put together the next part. Once my finals are done later this week, the LP will resume and hopefully I can get back on track to a schedule of one update per week. I will become the Master of Arena. No matter how long it takes.
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Jul 20, 2015 19:21
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Part 7: We hosed Up... So last update we got our license to compete in the actual Arena. It only holds the top 15 ranked Ravens (including us), so it shouldn't take long to get to Hustler One, especially compared to the 50 rank Arena ladder in Project Phantasma.  For this next set of fights, I figured I'd mix up my weapon load out just a bit. For start, I've swapped out the KARASAWA for the WG-MG500/E energy machine gun. Yes, I'm still using an energy weapon as my primary, but this one at least is one of the new weapons exclusive to this game, and it is still one of a kind. And then I swapped out my shoulder cannon for the WM-X201 multi missile launcher. Because multi missiles kick rear end. With those preparations now made, let's get going. Main Arena Ranks #14 - 10       Reward: 50000 C First opponent you face in the main Arena uses the KARASAWA of all things, and moves around a hell of a lot. As always, it's easy to lose a ton of health against an AC with this weapon, which I ended up losing a good few thousand AP because I wanted to nail him with some missiles. The rifle did a good enough job cleaning it up, though.  Reward: 59000 C A reverse joint AC, so as such it's got vertical mobility that you want to limit. It's back missile launcher has the most potential for damage, but he only really fired it once as opposed to trying to waste it all like some ACs are fond of doing with their most powerful arsenal. Also kind of pathetic for him that I got as many laser blade hits on him as I did.  Reward: 63000 C Special Part: WX-C/4 While this guy starts with sub 7000 AP, he makes up for it with lots movement and evasive skills. It also gave me plenty of good opportunities to use my missiles, which could take about 500-600 AP or so off of him. Though the battle got especially close when I expended my energy and was stuck recharging. I was indeed very lucky to have my energy restored and finish him off with my health in the red. A pretty good fight, I'd say.  Reward: 68000 C This guy on any other map was a pain in the rear end to deal with, as Spin Kid uses a reverse joint AC and loves to hop around. Unless of course you fight him in the parking garage, in which case you can get tons of easy hits on him as soon as he lands from a jump. Not to mention laser blades deal especially big damage against his AC.  Reward: 74000 C This fight, especially on this map, involves a lot of moving and re positioning because Fayde loves to charge at you. Either to boost right past you, or go in for a melee attack, though the latter is rather rare. It's still deadly though, as his blade of choice is the Moonlight so it is especially devastating. And while he uses his boosters to get around quickly, there are times where I believe he does use up his entire energy meter and has to make do without it. But since his weapons aren't tied to it his attack ability isn't lessened, unlike me.   Defeating Sherbert nets us another unlockable weapon, the WX-C/4. It's a double back energy weapon that fires four lasers at once. In terms of stats though, this actually has the highest single attack power of a double back weapon, in addition to fastest reload time. It does have considerable energy drain to balance it out, but it's a nice weapon to have if you can manage your meter effectively and like using double back weapons. Anyway, after reaching Rank 10 in the Arena, we get kicked out and are given a new mail in our inbox.  Sender: PROGTECH An emergency situation has arisen. We have an urgent request regarding a mission for you. Please read the request description for more info. Another message directly from Progtech. Sounds pretty serious.  An emergency situation has arisen. Our Laboratory at the center of the city is under attack by unknown forces. The invaders have divided into several small groups and are attacking via different routes. We assume their target is Elan Cubis' Lab. There may be some connection between these units and the ones that attacked out Marine Lab, but we aren't sure. All 4 Gates leading to the Laboratory are located in Block 7. These key locations must be defended.  So another urgent mission request from our sponsor, being sent directly by them, and we can't ignore it because our Arena registration is revoked once again. I get the feeling that something bad will happen if we go through with this mission, but gently caress it, game's not gonna keep moving forward till I do something and this is the only option.    Right from the get go, we gotta rush to Gate 3 as enemies are beginning to attack it.   The main enemies you face in this mission are Wasps, reverse joint MTs and there are always two attacking a single gate at a time. They go down pretty quickly with our regular loadout, four shots from either our back cannon or the KARASAWA. Once Gate 3 is cleared, it's on to the next one     While I started taking them out with my rifle, I switched to the back cannon for most of the enemies at Gates One and Two. The reason is because there's a surprise waiting for us at Gate Four.   NINE-BALL!!    Yes, this is our very first actual fight with Nine-Ball in this game, and while not fighting at his fullest capability, he has no problem firing missiles to stunlock you with impunity. Still, we're not in a large vertical shaft, so it's not that hard for me to keep a lock on him and pelt him with KARASAWA shots.    After taking enough shots, Nine-Ball bails and the mission is completed. Cost for AC repairs barely has any effect on the payout for this job (or the total amount of credits in our account). After that event, we got two new messages now.  Sender: Elan Cubis You've saved me once again. Please allow me to offer my humble thanks to you for your bravery. I've done some research on that mysterious MT, but so far I have only come up empty-handed. I thought I was at a dead end, but the AC that appeared this time was Nine-Ball, correct? I've decided to conduct more research along these lines. My understanding is that some bad blood exists between you and Nine- Ball...I will keep you informed if I should learn anything new. Oh yeah, that amphibious MT. Though this is basically the last time that's going to be mentioned in any sort of capacity, we at least have someone at our sponsor willing to look for more details about Nine-Ball. Though the next message is, well, a bit worrisome.  Sender: Lana Nielsen You were warned not to accept any direct requests without my approval. I am no longer acting as your contact. In fact, I'm cutting off all support to you. Good luck. You'll die soon enough.  You know, if what I did was really that serious and against the rules, you would think that more severe measures would be employed like, I don't know, revoking my status as a Raven and not giving me anymore access to all services provided by the Nest. Just no missions but I still get Arena access? Sounds like a bunch of bull-  Oh... ...she wasn't kidding. Well, hope you're all up for a ton of Arena battles the next few updates, because what the gently caress else are we gonna do?
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Aug 10, 2015 20:56
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Daaamn. That's gotta be one of the rare times I've seen a quest giver so openly cut you off... I take it it's completely unavoidable, and part of the plot?
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Aug 10, 2015 21:59
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JamieTheD posted:Daaamn. That's gotta be one of the rare times I've seen a quest giver so openly cut you off... I take it it's completely unavoidable, and part of the plot? But since the plot will go on at some point, missions will still be given down the line, just only story critical ones that involve Progtech asking us to bail them out of some mess.
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Aug 10, 2015 23:01
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I think that is the biggest  oh holy gently caress what moment in an Armored Core game in terms of gameplay/story integration. Your operator just pretty much curses you out and leaves you stranded half way through the game.The next closest thing I can think of after that is the thing that happens at the start of the endgame in Nexus, but even that didn't affect you as much as this does.
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Aug 10, 2015 23:15
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EX Part 3: Four Legs Now, if you were wondering why exactly it took over two months for me to put out the last update and this one...well, this is the reason. The Four Legs Arena category for whatever reason chose to be a royal pain in my loving rear end thanks to a few rough battles. How rough exactly? To the point that even when I had a strategy that was efficient as possible, it was still not a sure fire win. Eh, whatever, it's done now and you all get to see the takes in which I didn't get completely destroyed. Here's the Four Legs Arena category            So here is our build for this category. With the quad legs and weapon arms I'm using, I've switched to a heavier core with tons of AP to compensate, as weapon arms have little health. Though there are going to be some more modifications as this update goes on.  Reward: 10000 C A bit of a simple start to this category. Micro Satellite is equipped with the grenade launcher weapon arms, but he's not the best when it comes to aiming them, and most of the time he just circles around the arena with an occasional hop. Getting his AC during the jump is a better guarantee for damage than just trying to chase after him and firing your weapons.  One AC down, eight more to go. Still gonna be really rough in the middle, though.  Reward: 12000 C Somewhat trickier to deal with than the last guy. Does a lot more jumping around and circles you a lot more closely. His machine gun and missiles aren't a huge issue so long as you keep moving parallel and ahead of the direction Orbit goes in.  Reward: 15000 C Kind of a step back mobility wise compared to Orbit. This match really just came down to circling around the guy and firing well timed energy shots. Depiction's AC does have his own laser weapon arms but he really didn't make much use of them outside of the start. Unfortunately, the easiness stops right loving there.  Reward: 19000 C Here we have rear end in a top hat #1 in the Four Legs category. Solitude uses the same laser rifle that we used all the way back in Project Phantasma, and he is a goddamn good shot with it, all while staying on the move. The real challenge for me was the management of my energy meter, as I need to deal as much damage as possible from my weapon arms but it drains very quickly. Even with trying to mix up my movement so that I could minimize getting hit, a lot of it still came down to luck. Some shots I managed to do exceptional damage as both laser beams managed to hit Solitude on point near the end. If I kept whiffing anymore shots, this take probably would've ended in failure as well.  Reward: 23000 C And here we have rear end in a top hat #2, and arguably a much bigger problem than the last guy. Proverbio's AC is equipped with large missiles, which if you do not know are extremely slow, very powerful, and very good at tracking you if you don't know how to properly manipulate their trajectory. The latter, unfortunately, is something I've been lacking in and had been a large source of frustration for me when recording this. Because I had better faith in my weapon strength and (sorta decent) aiming ability, I swapped out the laser cannons for grenade launcher weapon arms because I needed that extra attack power plus splash damage. Interestingly, once he expends all his large missiles, Proverbio becomes largely harmless and then it becomes an issue of giving chase and making sure you can continue to hit him consistently.  So that's two out of the three biggest assholes in this category dealt with. We get a little bit of a reprieve for the following few ranks, thankfully.  Reward: 32000 C Following the nightmares that were Solitude and Proverbio, Lynx Minx is a breath of fresh air if only because of how simple her behavior is. She moves a lot slower than the last couple opponents and isn't the best at dealing with the player circling around her. Her bio does say she prefers wide areas with little obstacles, but considering we're fighting her in an environment as constraining as this parking garage, we definitely have the advantage. Also a fun fact, Lynx Minx is a Raven that was featured on the leaderboard in the very first Armored Core game. Her bio back then was slightly different but still communicated the same thing here, and her AC name back then was called Pretty Kitty. Now, however, it's just Kitten. I honestly liked the original name more.  Reward: 45000 C Karl's a rocket user, so the usual tactics of strafing back and forth to make those shots miss applies here. Not too hard to hit him either as his movements aren't quite as fast or erratic.  Reward: 57000 C This guy would've been listed as another rear end in a top hat in the Four Legs category (especially with him having a large missile launcher), but I got rather lucky with this fight as I had to do very little retakes, and the one where I finally won I got lucky with him going up the ramp into that little alcove. With the only direction he had to go being towards me, I got a lot of free shots to take him down. In other situations, he'd be using his missiles about as frequently if not a little bit less than Proverbio.  This is it. Rank #2. Just one more fight and this category will be over and done with.  Reward: 140000 C This is rear end in a top hat #3, being at the top of the ladder you'd expect him to be pretty tough. Tall Spot isn't a large missile user, but he is incredibly mobile, jumps a hell of a lot, never moves in the same predictable line, and is a really good shot with his machine gun that can rip an AC to pieces if they don't break lock. It took a lot of failed attempts, but the solution (and even then it wasn't foolproof) I ultimately came to was to fight him at his own game. Went back to regular arms and equipped the same machine gun as Tall Spot while still keeping the back laser cannon. I ended up switching between the two with the intent of using most of my energy from the cannon, and then use the machine gun's rapid fire to deal continuous damage as I recharged. Unfortunately, I had little luck hitting him consistently with the gun, but the cannon landed enough hits each time that I more often than not was still ahead of him in terms of AP. Still, this is very much a battle of attrition that can go very badly if you're not on top of everything. Where you're aiming, where you're moving, where Tall Spot is at any given point. It's a very difficult fight, but since it's the #1 rank AC in this category, it's a better fit than having 6 and 5 be loving roadblocks.  And that's it. We're now the champion of the Four Legs Arena category.  And for all that suffering, we've unlocked a new leg part in this category.  The LF-TR-0 is a very sleek looking leg part, and is actually the fastest leg part in the game. Yes, not just for quad legs, but for all leg categories this one dominates everything in speed. The downside to this however is that it has the lowest stability among all leg parts, so with this you can move really fast but get knocked around real easily by anything. It also has rather low AP, so this further emphasizes this part's use in highly mobile builds that try to dodge around any and all ordinance as possible. Also, because we cleared out yet another leg specific category in the EX Arena, here's another Seiren effort post covering in more detail about the quad legs category. quote:Quadruped, Four-Leg type, "Spider Legs" The videos this update definitely show off the ground mobility potential of quad leg ACs as described above. Even with powerful energy weapons you gotta get that angle right so the blast doesn't just completely miss. Oh, and again, gently caress large missiles. gently caress having to fight against that bullshit. Hopefully the tank treads category goes a lot smoother than this did for me.
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Aug 11, 2015 21:24
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Does the player's Armored Core mech have a different description on the leg-part-restricted arenas when viewed in Read Only mode that reflects the fact that the player's ineligible to compete until they change the part appropriately?
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Aug 14, 2015 03:09
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I imagine Four Legs lets you load more weight on, or maneuver faster? What's the benefit over two legs/reverse joints?
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Aug 18, 2015 01:34
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ElTipejoLoco posted:Does the player's Armored Core mech have a different description on the leg-part-restricted arenas when viewed in Read Only mode that reflects the fact that the player's ineligible to compete until they change the part appropriately? e: sorry, misread from being in a hurry. as far as i know, there's no difference in the flavor text Glazius posted:I imagine Four Legs lets you load more weight on, or maneuver faster? What's the benefit over two legs/reverse joints? quote:Now, if you were wondering why exactly it took over two months for me to put out the last update and this one...well, this is the reason. The Four Legs Arena category for whatever reason chose to be a royal pain in my loving rear end thanks to a few rough battles. How rough exactly? To the point that even when I had a strategy that was efficient as possible, it was still not a sure fire win. A Pleasant Hug fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Aug 18, 2015 |
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Aug 18, 2015 02:08
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Seiren posted:Glad to see it's forcing you to improve, but I do agree that the quad-leg arena is a royal pain. The Caterpillar arena is different, and arguably worse in a different way. Try out the energy slug gun you received in Project Phantasma (iirc it's WC-SPGUN). It would've demolished all your trouble spots in the quad arena, and if you can close distance + recognize close-range threats, it'll help you here as well.
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Aug 18, 2015 02:34
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Seiren posted:In short, they have higher mobility, firing stability, and are mobile with cannons while on the ground. They make good missile platforms, long-range specialists, or hit-and-run style ACs by making use of their innate speed and can outrun many ACs without engaging boosters, saving on energy, and relying on short hops to evade danger. That said, some of the back-mounted cannon weapons are really powerful and being able to fire those while moving is a huge advantage at times. I think my usual loadout in AC1 (for any mission that didn't involve an serious AC fight) was the heavy quad legs that Arc's rocking in those arena videos, plasma cannon and chaingun on the shoulders used as primary weapons, and the dual plasma gun arms for when things had to die NOW. Strafing things with the chaingun is amazingly satisfying, as is overkill with the dual plasma guns.
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Aug 20, 2015 11:40
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Crazy Achmed posted:I have a huge soft spot for quads, but I have to disagree about the mobility. While quads do have a very high base ground speed, it's not as fast as what most bipeds can do when engaging boosters. quote:Correct me if I'm wrong - it's been a long time since I played the gen 1 AC games - but I'm pretty sure quads lack the ability to do a horizontal boost along the ground, and also can't jump while moving like bipeds can. Instead, if you hit jump/boost while moving, quads fire their boosters and rise into the air a bit but, crucially, don't get a sharp change in velocity from doing so. It feels like they are less effective at rapidly changing speed or direction, which is what's important when it comes to dodging fire and breaking your opponent's lock on you. This only gets worse if they get into the air above you, as your large footprint makes you easier to hit from above. quote:...they cannot effectively perform a boost-dash themselves, as it'll cause them to go airborne instead. Yet this can still be advantageous, as long they don't stay airborne for long and stay near the ground, their momentum from standard movement carries with them to move even faster, until the momentum from standard movement bleeds off... You're not at all wrong when you say they have a harder time sharply changing speed and direction, because they do. But the thing is, they aren't meant to be able to do those things. Quads have an entirely different movement paradigm from bipeds, and this necessitates an alternate style of play where you utilize the momentum to stay fast & low, using those "hops" to both increase speed and dodge attacks. They can sort of compensate by re-engaging their boosters in a different direction upon landing (as long as you don't land hard, that is), but there's still a notable delay in doing so. Also, I bought Fraps, but I'm pretty loving clueless when it comes to making videos. I tried it out by recording a game of Heroes of the Storm, but it ended up being a ridiculously unusable 25gb. So if there's any advice on how to make them smaller, I can maybe do some demonstrations of some of these things I talk about from time-to-time. e: after reading some quality tutorials, i learned the basics of video. maybe i can do something sometime! A Pleasant Hug fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Aug 23, 2015 |
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Aug 23, 2015 04:05
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Oh snap, I had no idea that you could manoeuvre quads like that! Come to think of it, it's probably because I went mad at the idea of being able to run-and-gun with shoulder cannons that I'd weigh my quad down with as many heavy weapons as I could, plus the heavy core for durability. Full speed backpedalling is something I'd never noticed either, but that would make a huge difference dealing with assholes trying to get around to your flank or rear.
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Aug 23, 2015 05:42
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So in addition to Windows Movie Maker continuing to be a pain in the rear end trying to get it recognize the video file, I just realized looking at the resolution that I forgot to turn off the resolution downscale setting in OBS (I had left it on for a side project I was doing earlier in the week), so instead of 640x480, it's 424x320. And now I get to re scale all my screenshots so that they're consistent with the rest of the updates. Me and my loving dumbass mistakes...
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Aug 23, 2015 21:34
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I wanted to wait until after the next update to post this, but, I'm riding a high after a series of several successful video recording tests. So for the next plunge into the deep end, I'm planning to run a stream of all three of these games in order* over the upcoming weekend** (August 28~30) if all goes well. The plan is for live commentary***, take suggestions on builds (within reason, and with option of override for particular missions) from chat/viewers, 100% all three games, achieve Rank 1 in all arenas, and do so without going Human Plus. I plan to finish before the end of the weekend, but would continue for as long as it takes to complete them all. I'm still working out a few kinks with it, I'm still very new to *There may also be some surprises along the way **Schedule subject to change based on a good time for me to dedicate large blocks of time to play videogames for the internet ***Commentary may be boring/dead/unnecessary/anything that can go wrong, will It's still in the planning phase, so it could be postponed this until after the LP is over if ArclightBorealis wills it. Might be better timing that way. Just thought I'd share this a little while in advance.
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Aug 25, 2015 22:24
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Seiren posted:It's still in the planning phase, so it could be postponed this until after the LP is over if ArclightBorealis wills it. Might be better timing that way. Just thought I'd share this a little while in advance. Next part coming up later today. Finally got those technical issues sorted out.
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Aug 25, 2015 23:59
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ArclightBorealis posted:I think postponing it until after I show the final boss and first credit sequence would be smart, which will be a few main parts from now and I want to give that moment some special attention when the time comes. All the post game content is gonna take me a while to get through anyway, so doing the streaming thing after that would be a good time. Time to upgrade my internet!
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Aug 26, 2015 00:10
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Part 8: Life Without Nest Support So as we saw the end of last update, our support from Lana Nielsen has been officially severed. No new missions coming in from her. What's a Raven like me supposed to do now?  Kick more giant robot rear end in the Arena. Only gotta fight everyone else above us for another shot at Nine-Ball, so let's go. Not holding anything back with these laser arms. Main Arena Ranks #9 - 7     Reward: 78000 C The Double Take has got some impressive weapons in the form of a back laser cannon and linear rifle, the majority of which it uses the laser cannon similarly to how I tend to use it. Although after having gone through the hell that was the Four Legs Arena on the game's second disc, beating this guy with a leg type I'm most comfortable with served as a little bit of catharsis. Even with the few thousand points of damage taken it isn't that hard to stay on top of him.  Reward: 83000 C The Charger's biggest threat are the gatling arm cannons, which combined with his tendency to go airborne and, well, "charge" at you becomes extremely tricky to deal with, hence why I fell back on the parking garage stage. And even then I only got out of there I alive with only 600+ AP remaining. I was firing blindly in a bit of a panic because I thought the fight would be a failure, but hooray for splash damage!  Reward: 89000 C Carson's behavior with the Albatross is very interesting as it is very clear the developers set the distance slider for his behavior to far away as much as humanely possible. He stays true to his description and will rip you apart with the FINGER and other weapons in his arsenal once you've expended your ammo. Or he'll use them randomly whenever you get too close. This particular map saved me some of the hassle that comes with chasing him because the open green field with trees is actually a mine field, and when you can lead your opponents to land on a mine and blow themselves up (or set off surrounding mines as well), you can cut their health down pretty quick.  Now, you might have noticed during the last two matches I swapped out my back mounted laser cannon for something different. Upon Defeating Brothers, this is the item that you earn and I decided to give it a test run against Pascal and Carson. The results were very evident I had clearly never used it before, but hey you gotta give me points for actually doing different things every once in a while, right?  The item in question is the WM-X15-EX, a weapon that is described in game as a Plasma Dispenser and is the only one of its type in the game. It fires bolts of Plasma like a mortar shell, firing upwards with a trajectory and landing on the ground to deal damage to anything in its radius. Naturally, a vertical weapon would be very useless on something like the parking garage arena, but even without ceilings this weapon still requires a fair amount of knowledge and skill to use properly. Its place in the inventory selection when in the garage is sandwiched between the various rocket weapons, which do not have lock on capability and require users to lead their shots in order to hit their targets. In the case of the Plasma Dispenser, the trick is more in knowing the range that the shots fire and how you can also use your position in the air to even further influence it. It's challenging for players that are used to weapons with lock on targeting, but if used effectively, a single direct hit from a plasma shot is almost equal to a single shot from the KARASAWA. Anyway, never mind that, we've been kicked back out of the Arena after only 3 rounds as we got a new message in our inbox.  Sender: PROGTECH An emergency situation has arisen. We have an urgent request regarding a mission for you. Please read the request description for more info. Yep, even with no more mission report coming from Lana, our sponsors over at PROGTECH are more than willing to give us some extra work (by taking away our Arena license as incentive to get poo poo done).  We're requesting you to assist our transportation team. They are now moving from the Marine Laboratory to our HQ, but they have come under attack The transportation team is being guarded by our Escort Team, but they are being overwhelmed by the enemy's forces. You must be careful...all units, both friend and foe, send the same signal. You'll need to make visual contact before initiating an attack. Otherwise you might hit our team. Attacking blindly may lead to friendly fire casualties. Be selective and save as many of our units as you can.  Remember way back when in the first Armored Core when there was mission involving the Isaac City Guard, and how you had to deal with walker MTs in the sewers while covering the asses of the guard's walker MTs? Remember how fun that was when an enemy managed to blow up one of your allies but they were still all so spread out. Depending on how good of a player you are, this mission could end up being way worse or way better than the old one I had just described. The difference comes in whether or not you have the right approach and can execute it quickly. Which you shall see.    Right from the start, we see our first friendly Stinkbug coming under attack by three enemies, all to the left of the player's start position.  We got three units we need to protect, but as word from experience, it's drat close to impossible to keep all three alive so just focus on the grey Stinkbugs in finishing them as quickly as possible.   Clear out the first half of the enemy forces then book it north. For low visibility maps like this underground city it makes me glad I have a good enough radar to keep track of where everything is. Also by the point you're ready to move to the next half of the enemy forces, the first ally should be dead. Can't help 'em all.  The three remaining enemies are spread out, attacking the ally MT from the front, left, and right. I focused on the left and center MTs, but any two is good, just to keep numbers low for what else is needed during this mission.    You see, there is a hidden AC part on this level, and it is hidden behind a single large building standing out in the northwestern area of the map. Just blow up the building for start.    Just drop down the hole in the ground and follow a tunnel. There comes an intersection with three possible paths, but only left is the correct one.  And there goes the second ally MT, the being attacked from three angles. There was still the one enemy nearby and he finished him off. Though at this point the plan is set and we're safe for the rest of the mission.   Now, I said left was the correct path, but all these pathways have a wall at the end. The one on the left however can be blown up...  ...to reveal a secret room.   The secret part on this mission is a new FCS, something that we haven't really seen in a while what with all the unique arm and back weapons we've been getting. Now it's back to the surface.   Now, the strategy behind my approach this mission worked because while the MTs will eventually kill each other once they start shooting, they are extremely lousy at moving to other targets. By isolating the last enemy MT and keeping it as far away from the first ally we saw at the start of the mission, things are assured that the last ally won't be killed and the mission forfeit. The enemy I left behind in particular was surrounded by multiple buildings so that provides extra obstructions between the two just in case it happened to enter some range that the weapons were still viable from far away.    And at the end, even with one surviving MT, we don't get any special deductions for the other two being killed, making this by far the best protection mission in the series up to this point because they won't charge you for bullshit that was out of your hand like Isaac City. We made it back, we can do more Arena matches, and we got a follow up email on that assignment we just finished, from a familiar face. Well, as much as there are "familiar faces" in a game where everyone talks to you via text email or radio chatter.  Sender: Elan Cubis Thank you, once again. I can't imagine what might have happened had you not been there to assist. I heard that Nine-Ball did not appear this time. Some peculiar things have been discovered about this elusive character...I will relay this information to you. Here is what we know about the NEST-registered pilot, Hustler One. No one has ever actually met him. Another interesting item, is the fact that a great deal of information pertaining to Nine-Ball and Hustler One has been erased. This has piqued my curiosity and I will be looking into the matter further. I'll let you know if I discover anything of interest. Now, I know I've dropped mentions every now and then across these LPs about the actual canonicity of these games, particularly Armored Core 1 as it relates to the current events of Master of Arena, and Nine-Ball is at the center of them. Depending on how you look at some of it, this might just further confuse the matter on whether or not MoA is just reimagining the events of AC1 or if they are separate events and that a lot of things in universe had to be done inbetween titles to facilitate Nine-Ball's return and heavy prominence in the game. For start, there is the information that states no person has ever seen the pilot Hustler One in person. While Armored Core has never really gone out of its way in the series to show what the pilots actually look like, there is an actual image from a Japanese artbook for the very first game that shows what Hustler One actually looks like.  As for whether or not these images were to be taken as canon at the time or simply there originally as personal reference for the designers, I have no real clue. Only resource I really have to go off of is the AC Wiki which has this image and description in the first place, but given all the effort spent there on pages for each individual enemies and parts per generation, you can all be the judge on its validity. Which then leads into the second piece of info from Elan's report in that the majority of information about Hustler One was erased. What information might that have been? Well...based on the fact we ran into 2 Nine-Balls at the end of the first game and the reveal there was an AI calling the shots on everything, I wouldn't be surprised if the image was just there to give people at the time the false perception that he's a real person and Nine-Ball as he is now is just another machine connected to some sort of AI. No one's seen him in person, and actual images of his likeness being erased would add to that fact. But I've speculated enough. I still think this game is on some level a re imagining of the events from AC1, but even that has its own holes and threads that will make the rest of this update way longer than it needs to be if I keep rambling.   To finish things up, here's a closer look at the FCS we picked up in the last mission. The lock type is standard so the view box would square instead of horizontally rectangular like our current one. And it is tied with the QX-9009 for the heaviest FCS in the game, and has considerable energy drain on top of that. With no discernible special abilities or gimmicks, the shape of the view box mixed with special energy weapons doesn't make for a good combination so I'm sticking with the TRYX-QUAD. We'll continue to bash heads against giant robots in Arena battles and further unearth the mystery behind Nine-Ball. Payoff will come soon.
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Aug 26, 2015 01:37
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Funny, I'd never considered MoA to be a soft remake of AC1. Interesting. I figured there was enough grey areas and "well, maybe" room for the AC1-PP-MoA-2-AA universe to have a coherent continuity to it, but to expand on that any more is all spoilers for what's coming up in the final quarter of the game.
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Aug 26, 2015 06:08
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nine-gear crow posted:Funny, I'd never considered MoA to be a soft remake of AC1. Interesting. I figured there was enough grey areas and "well, maybe" room for the AC1-PP-MoA-2-AA universe to have a coherent continuity to it, but to expand on that any more is all spoilers for what's coming up in the final quarter of the game. Honestly, even though each game in the series is kind of a soft remake/reboot, it always kind of made sense to consider it all in the same continuity. Big disaster happens, humans survive, crawl out of the ashes, find old tech, rebuild, and mech themselves into oblivion all over again, and you're probably to blame a bit. Not a bad formula, since it allows for all sorts of nice callbacks and references without worrying about dumb stuff like "canon" or "timelines".
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Aug 26, 2015 15:27
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And also helps setting up massive gameplay changes, like the change from AC4/4A nexts to AC5 wanzers.
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Aug 26, 2015 16:22
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SIGSEGV posted:And also helps setting up massive gameplay changes, like the change from AC4/4A nexts to AC5 wanzers. They're actually called wanzers? I thought that was a Front Mission thing.
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Aug 26, 2015 16:25
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They were Wanzers in all but name in AC5. I just assumed that every non-2 numbered AC game was a complete universe reboot. The only one I can sort of see being a continuation is the 3 series games following the 1/2 series games. It's pretty much the series's thesis statement that mankind is horrible and will simply destroy more things faster as it creates better weapons. So yeah I can see it nuking itself back underground after Another Age and setting up another Super AI to act as a leash and then subsequently exterminating itself once it crawled back to the surface for a second time.
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Aug 26, 2015 17:00
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