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Mind you, Zero is the loving best final boss theme in the entire series, and this is a series that has the Unsung War in it.
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Jan 13, 2016 07:10
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Night10194 posted:Mind you, Zero is the loving best final boss theme in the entire series, and this is a series that has the Unsung War in it. I love this rendition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rfYietfOOE
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Jan 13, 2016 08:15
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Not sure what UGBS is, but I'm agreeing with the whole "Browser destruction" thing - Page 18 in particular was pure pain and I ended up skipping past the commentary of mission 9 because after five minutes of waiting for my browser to respond, I eventually gave up
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Jan 16, 2016 08:46
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tithin posted:Not sure what UGBS is, but I'm agreeing with the whole "Browser destruction" thing - Page 18 in particular was pure pain and I ended up skipping past the commentary of mission 9 because after five minutes of waiting for my browser to respond, I eventually gave up Now instead of gifs, it can be webms or gifvs and that will make it better. 
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Jan 16, 2016 10:40
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“Mayhem” Mission 10: Operation Battle-Axe – May 28th, 1995 INTERLUDE: Pilot Interviews, Round 1 EXTRA: Pixy and Gelb 2 Interviews (Soldier and Mercenary versions) Overview: Osea launches a massive aerial strike against Belka’s B7R Round Table airspace following the summary abrogation of its nonaggression treaty with the Assembly of Nations. Galm and Crow teams are dispatched into the Round Table to support the OADF’s Wizard and Sorcerer squadrons in the fight, and encounter three more Belkan ace squadrons. VIDEO NOTE: I’m breaking the pattern on this one and showing off the Mercenary mission in full because it’s the one where several continuity characters from later Ace Combat games appear, which is Project Aces’ way of unsubtly suggesting this is the “canon” version of the three runs. The boss breakdown is as such: Schwarze (Mercenary), Silber (Knight), Schnee (Soldier).  Guest Commentator: If it’s a boss fight, it’s Lunethex.   OSEA ON THE MOVE, SOUTH BELKA SURRENDERS It’s sort of glossed over with just a line in the briefing, but it’s actually a very important development that Osea has renounced its non-aggression pact with the AN. Prior to this, Osea had been strictly retaking and liberation territory invaded by Belka that belonged to other countries, and striking targets inside Belka and then retreating. Things have changed suddenly. Osea now means to invade Belka, and hold any territory it captures from the Belkans. And they are going to go straight on to Dinsmark if they have to. After the Belkan Air Force’s defeat in the Battle of B7R, the provinces of the Belkan lowlands south of the Waldreich Mountains unanimously declared an ad hoc cease fire with the Allied forces. They renounced their ties to the government in Dinsmark and peacefully disarmed. Half of Belka’s remaining territory became a political and military no man’s land overnight. Strap in. This war just got a lot more complex than it was one update ago, and the “Osea Is Not The Good Guys™” band is just getting warmed up.  OPERATION BATTLE-AXE This mission shares its codename and general setup with a battle from World War II. The British and Indian armies launched a massive assault on German and Italian positions in Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya) to liberate a key sector of Northern Africa from Axis control. However, the real Operation Battle-Axe didn’t go as well as the fictional one for the Allies. The British forces were repulsed by German general Erwin Rommel (of “Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!” fame) after a three-day long failed siege on the Axis fortifications.   SCHWARZE SQUADRON Belkan Air Force 13th Night Fighter Air Division, 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron Members:
An eight plane black ops flight headed by former Yuktobanian Air Force Captain and internationally wanted war criminal Dominic Zubov. Being a Night Fighter squadron, Schwarze Team was designed to operate under any potential weather conditions, and be ready for deployment at a moment’s notice around the clock. Schwarze Squadron was Belka’s go to “wetwork” squadron within its air force, effectively operating as an arm of the Belkan secret police at times. Schwarze flight was feared and reviled even within the Belkan Air Force for their deadly skill, their unrelenting ferocity, and their utter lack of morals or ethics on the battlefield. The fact that their number one and two pilots were both exiled Yuktobonian war criminal mercenaries was also a big sticking point with many of the ardently nationalistic pilots of the BAF at the time. The primary role of Schwarze Squadron was the hunting down and summary execution of escaping would be defectors from Belka. Zubov led a flight of eight MiG-31 Foxhounds; all black with blood red accents; fast and powerful interceptors, in order to rundown and then overwhelm these targets with a sheer force of numbers. Their pursuit of one such attempted escapee, Wolfgang “Huckebein” Buchner,” into the B7R Round Table led them into an engagement with the Galm Team, resulting in the squadron’s destruction at the hands of Cipher and Pixy, as well as the loss of their target Huckebein in the scrum. To this day, the Belkan government has officially denied the existence and actions of Schwarze Squadron and its fellow wetwork flights and their pilots and has stonewalled all attempts by the International Criminal Court to locate and prosecute these pilots for war crimes. The surviving members of Schwarze Squadron, including Zubov, have since fled Belka and changed their identities to avoid arrest and prosecution for their actions during the Belkan War. Schwarze Team continues the colour theme among the Belkan boss squadrons, although PA kinda messed up the spelling on this one. Schwarz, the word they were going for, means “black” in German. “Schwarze,” meanwhile, and its masculine equivalent “Schwarzer,” is actually German (and Yiddish) slang for a black person. Oops. From a gameplay perspective, Schwarze is one of the tougher squadron bosses in the Ace Combat franchise, simply because of their sheer numbers and the fact that they’re flying better planes than anything you can field at the time you face them for the first time. They’re one of only four 8-man flights in the entire series. Gault Squadron, coming up later in Zero flies another 8-plane formation, as do two other boss squadrons, but naming them at this point would be spoilers. Although not to be outdone, Strigon Squadron, coming up in Ace Combat 6 flies a gobsmacking 12-plane formation. Christ   SILBER SQUADRON Belkan Air Force 126th Tactical Fighter Squadron Members:
Silber Squadron’s operational history stretches back to the Rectan War of the mid-1970s, where Captain Dietrich Kellerman led the original version of the flight to many crushing victories of the Rectan Air Force, and played a critical role in the capture of Recta’s capital city of Cor prior to Recta’s complete surrender and annexation by Belka. Later, in 1985, Silber Team was involved in an encounter referred to in official reports as the “Wellow Incident,” where Kellerman and his fight engaged and downed several unidentified aircraft over Crescents Island off the North Belkan coast. Belkan Intelligence would later claim it was a recon flight originating from the arctic nation of Wellow north of Belka. Kellerman retired from the BAF in 1990, becoming a civilian flight instructor and turning Silber Team over to his former number two. Upon the outbreak of the Belkan War, however, he was forcibly recalled to active duty by the Belkan government to bolster troop morale. He then reformed Silber Squadron (now in its third incarnation) with students from the BAF’s 9th Special Education Course, dubbed the "Kellerman Institution," and participated in relatively “safe” battles as a form of live-fire training for his students. Their engagement with the Galm Team in the B7R Round Table would be Silber Team’s last sortie in its storied history. Once again, the Belkan Ace Squadron=Colour pattern persists, with Silber being German for “silver,” the colour of the squadron’s planes and emblem. I mention this in the video but it bears repeating in text: Silber squadron is one of the few ace squadrons in Ace Combat where the squadron leader has a discernably different plane from their wingmates. This means that shooting him down is left to your discretion as the player, rather than it being a scripted event, like it is for the squadrons who all fly the same planes. Taking out Kellerman first will cause Silber Squadron to break completely and become easy pickings for the rest of the fight. The trade-off, however, is that he’s actually pretty hard to take down first, especially because he sics his squad of students on you in their F-16s, and they will hound you relentlessly while you try to down him. However, in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy, the “Strangereal canon-friendly” remake of Ace Combat 2 for the Nintendo 3DS, boss squadron leader planes are denoted by a star next to their target icon. As a matter of trivia, the Silber Team was originally meant to be a flight of five straight Phantoms, and was shown off in several screenshots and trailers for Zero as such, but was later changed to one Phantom and four F-16s.  SCHNEE SQUADRON Belkan Air Force 22nd Air Division, 4th Tactical Fighter Squadron Members:
A five-plane flight consisting of four F-14Ds and an EA-6B electronic support plane. Schnee Squadron acted as a frontline tactical assault flight, capable of destroying targets from great distances with their long-range missiles while also avoiding damage and losses due to their dedicated jammer plane on the number 5 slot in the squadron. Schee Team was part of Belka’s initial push into Ustian territory, shooting down several UAF squadrons in engagements over northern Ustio, including two squadrons shot down over Monte Rosa, Ustio on March 30, 1995. As the Belkan front expanded into Ustio and Sapin, Schnee Squadron was held back to secure the boarders of the Belkan homeland, scoring dozens of kills as they helped maintain the Hydrian Line. Despite members of their wing being shot down in engagements before, it was not until their encounter with the Galm Team in the B7R airspace that the entirety of Schnee Squadron was downed in a single sortie. In terms of the naming convention for enemy squadrons, Schnee is our first pattern breaker. It’s not named after a colour, but rather snow. “Schnee” is German for snow. If we were following the naming convention properly then Schee would actually be Weiss Squadron (as Weiss or weiß means white, the colour of snow). Though I’m pretty sure I know why Project Aces decided to break the pattern for this one. This is yet another semi-hidden reference to Ace Combat 5. In 5, the prominent character Captain Marcus Snow flies an F-14D as his default plane, just like the majority of Schnee Squadron does. One promo shot for the game shows Schnee Squadron flying over Solis Ortus, from Mission 5. I don’t know if this is meant to be read into more or not. It could just be a promotional mock up done with whatever usable assets they had available at the time, or perhaps it suggests that Schee Team was meant to show up at one point as a boss in Mission 5 but was pushed back to Mission 10 to pace the game better. (Because that means you’d have two ace bosses one after the other with Gelb Team showing up in Mission 6).   SCHWARZE 1 Real Name: Dominic Zubov Callsign(s): Vulture, Schwarze 1 Age: 38 (48, frame narrative) Sex: Male Nationality: Yuktobania Signature Plane: MiG-31 Foxhound Voice Actor: D.C. Douglas On-Camera Actor: Uncredited “The Bringer of Death”. Dominic Zubov is an odd find amongst the ranks of the mighty Belkan Air Force: a Yuktobanian mercenary. He began his career as a pilot with the Yuktobanian Air Force’s 9th Air Division 112th Tactical Fighter Squadron, and saw action in both Tyumen Dispute (a border dispute between the Union of Yuktobanian Republics and the Republic of Kaluga in 1986), and the Blood War (another border skirmish between the UYR and the Republic of Romny the following year in 1987). Zubov saw action in the Battle of Zhytomyr, one of Tyumen’s most bloody and costly battles. While his entire YAF air division managed to decisively crush the Kalugan Air Force in the battle, they suffered an 80% casualty rate, and the majority of the Yuktobanian survivors were later diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms as a result of the engagement. Following the end of the Blood War in 1987, Zubov left the YAF (under heavy suspicion he had committed multiple war crimes during the conflict) and fled across the border to the Republic of Romny, where he would later find work as a mercenary. He also spent time as a mercenary operative for the Kingdom of Valga on Southern Verusa until 1990, when he was headhunted by the Belkan Air Force and offered a position on one of their new black ops squadrons. He left Verusa behind and crossed the Ceres Ocean to Osea, and then on to Belka shortly thereafter. In the early 90s, he was placed in command of Schwarze Squadron, ostensibly a reconnaissance night fighter all weather team, but as the BAF brass got a feel for Zubov and his particular skillset, they slowly pivoted Schwarze towards what would become its current purpose: escapee killing. However, his nature as a Yuktobanian ex-pat and suspected war criminal, and the true extent of his operations within the BAF prevented the Belkan military leadership for formally acknowledging him as an ace pilot, despite his downing of the requisite number of planes to be worthy of official ace status several times over. The majority of Zubov’s sorties (both before and after the outbreak of the Belkan War) have been classified by the Belkan government. His only “verified” engagement was during May 28th, 1995’s Allied Forces Operation Battle-Axe, where he pursued a defecting Belkan pilot (later identified as Wolfgang “Huckebein” Buchner) into the massive aerial battle that was currently underway in the B7R Round Table airspace. He lost his target in the chaos of the battle and was subsequently shot down by Galm 1, “Cipher” of the Ustio Air Force. The remainder of Schwarze Squadron was killed during the battle by Cipher and Galm 2, “Solo Wing Pixy”. Following his apparent “death” in the Round Table, Zubov fled Belka in order to avoid prosecution for war crimes by the post-war interim Belkan government. His current location remains unknown, though rumors circulate that he is currently hiding out in the Osean Federation, continuing his work as an underground mercenary for hire. After years in hiding from various war crimes charges in Yuktobania, Belka, and Osea, he agreed to meet with OBC’s Brett Thompson for his special Warriors and the Belkan War in late September, 2005, under heavily regulated circumstances (a location of Zubov’s choosing, no additional camera or production crews besides Thompson himself, no mention of his prior or possible future whereabouts or his occupational history for the past 10 years, no attempts to follow him or track him down for follow up interviews, and most importantly, no cops). They met in an abandoned apartment in an undisclosed part of Oured, Osea for one hour, after which Zubov quickly left and disappeared back into the fog of war. He has not been seen since.  SILBER 1 Real Name: Dietrich Kellerman Callsign(s): Boss, Silver Falcon, Silber 1 Age: 45 (55, frame narrative) Sex: Male Nationality: Belka Signature Plane: F-4E Phantom II Voice Actor: Jamieson Price On-Camera Actor: Uncredited “The Veteran Reborn”. Dietrich Kellerman joined the BAF in 1973, prior to the Belkan federal reformation in the 80s. During the Rectan War later that decade, Kellerman’s Silber Squadron (dubbed the “First Season Silber Squadron” by aviation historians) singlehandedly broke through the Rectan Air Force’s air superiority over Mount Mainz, allowing the Belkan Army to roll over the mountains and into the city of Calle. He earned the title “The Hero of Mainz” for his actions and was officially recognized as the Belkan Air Force’s top ace at the time. Following Recta’s defeat and assimilation into the newly rechristened Belkan Federation, Kellerman was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General for his heroic actions during the war, yet remained with Silber Squadron as its flight lead until his retirement from the air force in 1990. His second was promoted to the number one spot on Silber Team, which continued on without him and was now dubbed the “Second Season Silber Squadron”. At the prompting of his superior, Major General Heinreich Land, he accepted a position at one of the Belkan Air Force’s flight training schools, where his 9th Special Education Course became affectionately known as the “Kellerman Institute” by students and graduates. Many pilots who would go on to become recognized aces themselves came out of the Kellerman Institute, including the four current members of (the so called “Third Season”) Silber Squadron. Following the outbreak of the Belkan War, Kellerman was pressganged back in to active service by the Belkan government and resumed command of Silber Squadron as its flight lead. His presence on the battlefield bolstered the Belkans’ morale, but his squadron was still relatively untested in battle, and Kellerman’s prime days behind the stick of a plane were long behind him. The untenable situation he found himself in ultimately lead to disaster when Silber Team was dispatched to bolster the flagging Belkan front in the Battle of Area B7R on May 28th, 1995, also known as Allied Forced Operation Battle-Axe. Kellerman and his student wingmen engaged Galm Team’s Cipher and Pixy in combat, and were shot down entirely. Kellerman watched in mounting horror and grief as the “Demon Lord of the Round Table” shot down each of his students’ planes before finally coming for him last. None of his students survived the battle, and upon his return from the SAR flight in from B7R, he tenured his official resignation from the Belkan Air Force. His days as a pilot were over. Following the end of the war, he was extradited to Osea on what proved to be falsified war crimes charges. It was actually a covert attempt by the Osean Air Defense Force to headhunt him as a military flight instructor, like he was for the Belkans once. He declined the offer and returned across the border to Belka, where he ultimately bought a patch of farmland in the town of Birenheim with his retirement annuity from the BAF’s Veterans Affairs board and resolved to toil his remaining days away as a humble dairy farmer in order to try and learn to live with the grief from letting his students die. Following the 10 year anniversary of the war’s end, he was tracked down and interviewed by OBC’s Brett Thompson for the documentary special Warriors and the Belkan War at his farm in Birenheim, Belka.  SCHNEE 1 Real Name: Erich Hillenberand Callsign(s): Phonix, Schnee 1 Age: 40 (50, frame narrative) Sex: Male Nationality: Belka Signature Plane: F-14D Super Tomcat Voice Actor: Kirk Thornton On-Camera Actor: Uncredited “A Man Who Lived For Battle”. Known as “the Eternal Second Lieutenant,” Erich Hillenberand quickly developed a reputation among his fellow pilots in the Belkan Air Force for repeatedly declining promotion offers that would see him taken out of the cockpit and placed behind a desk or a map table. He was never a man of great ambition or aspirations for glory like many of his fellow BAF pilots. His lifelong dream had been to simply be a fighter pilot, one he had already achieved, and he wasn’t going to let anything come between him and his goal, not even the prospect of career advancement. It was an attitude that perplexed and infuriated his superiors, but his skills as a pilot and squadron leader were beyond contention. So he was permitted to remain in his self-imposed rut while his wingmates and subordinates were promoted to squadron leads themselves or into command officer positions within the BAF. Because of this, the composition of his squadron, Schnee Team, was constantly changing around him. He never truly bonded with any of his compatriots beyond a professional level, but his skills as a commander managed to overcome his interpersonal deficits and even managed to otherwise win the trust of those he flew with. After several successful engagements along the Belkan southern front with Ustio, his team was slowly pulled back to stay with the collapsing frontlines. On May 28th, 1995, Hillenberand and his Schee Squadron were dispatched into the B7R Round Table to bolster the flagging Belkan presence in the battle that had erupted there. Upon their entry into the combat zone, they targeted the two planes who had reportedly done the most damage to the Belkan forces in the area; the F-15C Eagles belonging to Galm Team’s Cipher and Pixy; with their long-raged missiles. Despite having an obvious range advantage, and the support of an in-house electronic jammer plane at his disposal, Hillenberand and his squadron mates were each shot down by the Galm Team. Hillenberand managed to eject and survive the crash of his F-14D and watched the remainder of the battle from the ground, keenly eyeing Cipher, the man who shot him as he maneuvered through the remainder of the battle before the surviving Belkan planes retreated. He swore to return to the sky and face “The Demon Lord of the Round Table” in combat once again, but he never encountered Cipher in combat again after that day. He was missed by the Belkan search-and-rescue flight which managed to fish most of his downed surviving comrades out of the B7R war zone, and instead opted to walk back to closest air base. After three days of hiking through the inhospitable wilderness of the desert mountains, he eventually found transportation back to base and returned to active duty shortly after his debriefing. He remained on active duty until shortly after the end of the war and the signing of the Belkan disarmament treaty. He was honorably discharged from the air force and he left Belka for the more economically and socially stable nation of Osea, once the political climate had cooled from its heated post-war state. After he settled in Osea, he became a civilian flight instructor at a flight school operating out of Jackson Hill International Airport, in Jackson Hill, North Osea and has remained there to this day. In early September of 2005, he was interviewed for the OBC documentary Warriors and the Belkan War in his flight office at Jackson Hill International Airport in North Osea by Brett Thompson.  WIZARD 1 Real Name: Joshua Bristow Callsign(s): Lucan, Wizard 1 Age: 38 (48, frame narrative) Sex: Male Nationality: Osea Signature Plane: F/A-18C Hornet Voice Actor: Uncredited On-Camera Actor: Uncredited Flight lead of Osea’s prestigious Wizard Squadron, and an associate of Galm 2, Larry “Pixy” Foulke. Bristow was born in Oured, Osea, and enlisted in the Osean Air Defense Force at the age of 24 (I’m assuming after completing a Bachelor’s degree at university, because most of the other characters in the series joined the air force right out of high school, so Joshua’s one of the older pilots even in Zero). He was promoted to the rank of Captain and became Wizard Squadron’s number 1 seven years later in 1990. His uncanny piloting skills and the dark blue livery of Wizard’s plane paint scheme earned him the nickname of the “Blue Magician” among his peers. He is described by those who know him as an avid reader and lover of literature (which also seems to imply that not only did he get a BA before joining the OADF, he got a BA in English Lit to boot). More information to come. Watch this space.   HEARTBREAK ONE Real Name: Jack Bartlett Callsign(s): Kid, Heartbreak One Age: 27 Sex: Male Nationality: Osea Signature Plane: F-14D Super Tomcat Voice Actor: None On-Camera Actor: None A lieutenant in the OADF. His squadron was among those deployed into the B7R Round Table during May 28th’s Operation Battle-Axe. A young and cocksure pilot, Bartlett was known to his wingmates and flight lead as “Kid,” much to his consternation. Much like PJ, he also had a girlfriend in the military, only Bartlett’s was in the Yuktobanian military; a major in the Yuktobanian Army’s military intelligence division assigned to provided intelligence support to the Allied Forces during the Belkan War. They had met at a frontline base in the early days of the war and fell in love quickly. However, following the abrogation of Osea’s non-aggression treaty with the AN, “The Major” as she was known amongst Bartlett’s squadron, was hastily recalled to Cinigrad and their relationship abruptly ended. Bartlett then adopted the callsign “Heartbreak One” following the break up. He was shot down amid the chaos of Operation Battle-Axe by the flight lead of Belka’s Grabacr Squadron, Ashley Bernitz. He bailed out and survived the crash uninjured, however, and returned to active duty shortly thereafter none the worse for wear (broken heart notwithstanding).  HUCKEBEIN Real Name: Wolfgang Buchner Callsign(s): Huckebein, The Raven Age: 41 Sex: Male Nationality: Belka Signature Plane: MiG-21bis Fishbed Voice Actor: None On-Camera Actor: None The eldest son of a Belkan aristocratic family and former colonel in the BAF. Buchner was a legendary ace in the Belkan Air Force, known throughout the Belkan military as “Huckebein the Raven.” However, on May 28th, 1995, he attempted to defect to the Osean Federation and was chased down by Belka’s “escapee killer” squadron, Schwarze Team. Buchner deliberately flew into the middle of the Allied Forces’ Operation Battle-Axe taking place in the B7R Round Table in an attempt to lose Schwarze Squadron in the massive aerial furball and slip across the border into Ustio. The specific reason for his defection remains a mystery. However, classified Allied Forces after-action reports claim the remains of a V1 nuclear bomb was found in the wreckage of Buchner’s crashed MiG-21, and intelligence intercept reports suggest he altered course towards Allied territory shortly after receiving orders to deploy his payload on a civilian target within Belkan territory. Schwarze Squadron was scrambled to intercept and execute him within minutes of his reported disabling of his IFF transponder. This data remains unverified, however. Regardless, shortly after entering the B7R airspace, he was shot down amid the chaos of Operation Battle-Axe. Accounts vary as to who actually downed the Huckebein. Some reports claim he was shot down by Ustio’s Galm 1, “Cipher”, believing Buchner to be a hostile target, while others claim he was brought down by the flight lead of Belka’s Grabacr Squadron, Ashley Bernitz. Buchner’s remains were never recovered from the B7R Round Table. He is listed as “missing, presumed deceased”. Due to the large volume of  in this post, the Aircraft, Assault Records, and Soundtrack sections will be included in the following post.
nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 11:28 on Feb 19, 2016 |
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Jan 16, 2016 14:10
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 Aircraft featured in Mission 10: Operation Battle-Axe.  MiG-31 Foxhound Manufacturer: Mikoyan Role: Interceptor Manufactured: 1975-1994 Status: In Service Primary Operators: Russia, Kazakhstan Quick Facts:
  This aircraft was developed to intercept enemy aircraft at high speeds. Codenamed "Foxhound," its wing structure has been reinforced in order to withstand supersonic speeds at low altitudes. It is best suited for high-speed one pass attacks. AMMO Missiles: 70 XLAA: 12 QAAM: 10 UGBL: 12  F-4E Phantom II Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglas Role: Interceptor / Fighter bomber Manufactured: 1958-1981 Status: Semi-Retired Primary Operators: United States, Israel, Germany, Iran Quick Facts:
  A large fighter aircraft known as the "Phantom II." Although its design is outdated, its massive payload and superior range make it effective in both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat. AMMO Missiles: 62 SAAM: 6 UGBL: 8 NPB: 10  F-14D Super Tomcat Manufacturer: Grumman Aerospace Corporation Role: Interceptor / Air-Superiority / Multi-role Manufactured: 1968-1991 Status: In Service Primary Operators: United States, Iran Quick Facts:
  This carrier-based F-14 features upgrades in radar and weapon control systems. Aptly called the "Super Tomcat," the F-14D can handle multiple enemies at once. AMMO Missiles: 72 XLAA: 14 GPB: 10 NPB: 14   069 Dominic Zubov "Schwarze 1" 38, Male, Yuktobania 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down MiG-31 Foxhound Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary Assigned to the 13th Night Fighter Division 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron, and feared even by allied forces throughout the war as "The Escapee Killer". After the war, he fled in order to escape prosecution as a war criminal. There are reports that he is now living in Osea but the truth remains uncertain.  070 Sergei Karkov "Schwarze 2" 37, Male, Yuktobania 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action MiG-31 Foxhound Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary Assigned to the 13th Night Fighter Air Division 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron. The Night Fighter Air Division was in fact a squad designed to assassinate deserters. Little to no information is known about this squadron, however, inquiry into its nature continues.  071 Harald Brehme "Schwarze 3" 37, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action MiG-31 Foxhound Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary A member of the 13th Night Fighter Air Division 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron. He was shot in battle, but his death has yet to be verified. Rumor exists that he fled the country after the war, but due to the extensive damage to official records, confirmation of his whereabouts remain unlikely.  072 Sepp Bonhof "Schwarze 4" 35, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action MiG-31 Foxhound Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary Assigned to the 13th Night Fighter Air Division 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron, all personal information regarding this pilot has been erased. The Night Fighter Air Division appears to have had other duties besides eliminating deserters, however, details remain scarce.  073 Helger Collins "Schwarze 5" 34, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down MiG-31 Foxhound Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary A member of the 13th Night Fighter Air Division 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron. He is currently a member of top level management at Omnikron Electro. Some say that Collins secretly changed his identity after the war and that he is actually Friedrich Gehlen. Due to lack of evidence, confirmation of this is unattainable.  074 Rafael Battenberg "Schwarze 6" 32, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action MiG-31 Foxhound Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary He was a member of the 13th Night Fighter Air Division 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron. Inquiry into the squadron continues. All Night Fighter Air Division records were destroyed when Belka's defeat became apparent.  075 Alexander Roshardt "Schwarze 7" 29, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action MiG-31 Foxhound Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary All information regarding this pilot, except for the fact that he was assigned to the 13th Night Fighter Air Division 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron, has been erased. His name, age and personal registry, records upon enrollment into the squadron remains in question. Investigation into this matter, as well as that of the squadron, continues.  076 Maximillian Werner "Schwarze 8" 26, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action MiG-31 Foxhound Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary Assigned to the 13th Night Fighter Air Division 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron, his death has yet to be verified. Due to the destruction of all Belkan public records, confirmation of his true existence remains unattainable. If still alive, he poses a very dangerous risk.  077 Wolfgang Buchner "Huckebein" 41, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Missing In Action MiG-21bis Fishbed* Special Colour Unlocked Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary The oldest son of a Belkan aristocratic family, he took the name of Buchner. Due to some type of violation of orders, he was attacked by Schwarze Squadron. While he was escaping, he encountered Galm Flight and was shot down. Only the scarred remains of his fighter were found. His whereabouts remain unknown.  078 Anne Zweig "Nachtigall" 28, Female, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Missing In Action Su-47 Berkut Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary No information on Zweig can be found in Belkan military records. Since there is no indication that documents were purged, it is suspected that is due to special circumstances. Further investigation has yielded no results.  079 Bastian Schneider "GrauWespe 1" 39, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down MiG-29A Fulcrum Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary Commander of the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron which was considered the most active in the 3rd Air Division. It is also said that this squadron was heavily influenced by the Rald Party. In the past, he was reputed to be a Top Ace decorated with 7 Lion's Medals of Honor.  080 Eduard Seitz "GrauWespe 2" 33, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down MiG-29A Fulcrum Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary Flew in 2nd position of the GrauWespe Squadron. Joined the squadron at inception in 1992. On the western front lines, the GrauWespe Squadron shot down many Osean defensive aircraft. Eduard Seltz himself shot down a record 21 planes.  081 Leopold Klein "GrauWespe 3" 32, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action MiG-29A Fulcrum Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary Flew in 3rd position of the GrauWespe Squadron. Neither his plane nor body were ever recovered. In the B7R battle alone, there were over 100 planes shot down. Due to the geography of the terrain, most of these craft have not been recovered.  082 Steffen Ziege "GrauWespe 4" 29, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action MiG-29A Fulcrum Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Mercenary Flew in 4th position of the GrauWespe Squadron. The GrauWespe Tactics still implemented by the Belkan Air Force today, and involves the lead plane diverting the enemy, while the aft Twige plane is used to assault.  083 Ashley Bernitz "Grabacr" 30, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down Su-47 Berkut Difficulty: Ace Ace Style: Mercenary Commander of the 6th Air Division 4th Tactical Fighter Squadron. He separated from his formation in the B7R battle with personal intentions, but was shot down when he encountered the Galm Flight. Subsequently, he joined the Osean Air Force.  084 Erich Hillenberand "Schnee 1" 40, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down F-14D Super Tomcat Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Soldier He lived his life as a regular pilot. He never had any great ambitions, nor was he interested in promotions or awards, earning him his title of 'Eternal 2nd Lieutenant', despite his skill and experience. After the war, he retired from the Belkan Air Force and now works as a pilot instructor in Jackson Hill Airport, North Osea.  085 Rudi Koch "Schnee 2" 38, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action F-14D Super Tomcat Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Soldier Assigned to the 22nd Air Division 4th Tactical Fighter Squadron, he was shot down and killed in action. The fighter and pilot remains have been retrieved from Area B7R. Due to the ignition of fuel and subsequent explosion upon impact, only a percentage of the fighter could be recovered.  086 Roald Fliescher "Schnee 3" 33, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down F-14D Super Tomcat Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Soldier While in pursuit of an Allied Bomber above Lake Borden, he was suddenly attacked by a fighter of unknown origin. Despite having successfully avoided the attack, he was forced to make an emergency landing where his damaged fighter was engulfed in flames. The war ended before he had a chance for another sortie.  087 Karlheinz Fassbinder "Schnee 4" 31, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action F-14D Super Tomcat Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Soldier After the disbanding of the Schnee Squadron, he gathered up the remnants of various squadrons to form his own. Known as the 901st Tactical Fighter Squadron, they remained active up until the very end of the war. Just before the war’s conclusion, however he was shot down and killed in action.  088 Hartwig Bremer "Schnee 5" 30, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down EA-6B Prowler Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Soldier Excelling at developing systems to disrupt the enemy’s radar system via Soft Kill tactics, he was offered a position at the Osean Ministry of Technology following the war’s conclusion. He continues to work at the ministry around the clock to develop even more sophisticated counter radar measures.  089 Selig Stahl "Bergvogel" 30, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action F/A-22A Raptor Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Soldier During the war, he was responsible for recommending and testing a specialized network communication system. Because of the early cease-fire, it was never actually implemented, but was distributed by the victor. Today, each country is developing this technology.  090 Hanno Enke "GrauKater" 32, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action Su-27 Flanker Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Soldier Commander of the GrauKater Squadron. He served in the southern defensive frontlines and holds an assault record that is second to the Gelb Team. This record, although not on the same level as the elite 3rd Air Division, is still quite impressive.  091 Vivian Lars "GrauKatze" 28, Female, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action Su-27 Flanker Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Soldier She was a member of the GrauKater Squadron but was transferred to Hanno Enke's squadron after being recommended. On the southern front lines of the Hareburg occupancy, her military records surpass that of her commander. She died over B7R when her plane was shot down.  092 Michael Heimeroth "Ofnir" 28, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down F-15S/MTD Difficulty: Ace Ace Style: Soldier Served in the 6th Air Division 5th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the Belkan Air Force during the Belkan War. A graduate of the Kellerman Institution, even as a rookie he managed to shoot down 25 Allied planes. After the war he joined the Yuktobanian Air Force.  093 Dietrich Kellerman "Silber 1" 45, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down F-4E Phantom II Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Knight Joining the Belkan Air Force in the 70's, he made a name for himself as the Silver Eagle. He retired from service in the 90's, but at the outbreak of the Belkan War once again returned to service. On May 28th, 1995 he was shot down and again retired from service, he is now quietly living out his days in the remote countryside.  094 Rupert Appling "Silber 2" 28, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down F-16C Fighting Falcon Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Knight Shot down in B7R. He miraculously survived, but because he was forced to land within Ustio territory, he was captured and made a prisoner of war. He sat out the rest of the rest of the war in the Dessel Island Detention Center. After the war, he was freed and returned to Belka, where he now lives his life of an ordinary citizen.  095 Stefan Enders "Silber 3" 27, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action F-16C Fighting Falcon Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Knight Shot down in B7R. His aircraft slammed into the surrounding mountains exploding in flames, and received extensive damage. It was only after much effort that the aircraft's serial number could be retrieved and the pilot identified. The pilot's remain were sent to surviving family in his home country.  096 Sven Brutlag "Silber 4" 27, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Missing In Action F-16C Fighting Falcon Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Knight He is listed as missing in action during an operation in B7R. He reported attack conditions in his last transmission, but further detailed analysis was not possible due to heavy noise. No searches were conducted.  097 Sebastian Hackenberg "Silber 5" 25, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action F-16C Fighting Falcon Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Knight He was a natural pilot who graduated the military Academy with top honors and sortied over one hundred times during the Belkan War. In accordance with his last will and testament, his inheritance was left to the War Orphans Fund.  098 Florian Herzog "GrauOrca 1" 32, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down Rafale M Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Knight Transferred from the Navy to the 3th Air Division 19th Tactical Fighter Squadron in 1992. After being shot down by the Galm Flight, he became a political activist for the Rald Party, but in 1996, he disappeared when Waldemarr Rald was brought down.  099 Heinrad Grimm "GrauOrca 2" 29, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Killed In Action Rafale M Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Knight A member of the Belkan Navy, he flew in the second position of the GrauOrca Squadron. While serving in the Navy, he maintained naval air supremacy alongside Commander Herzog. He died in the B7R battle when his plane was shot down by Galm Flight.  100 Jan Voller "Bergtaube" 29, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down Mirage 2000D Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Knight Before the war, he was in the Belkan Navy, but as the war progressed, he transferred to the Air Force. He was shot down in B7R and became a POW of the Allied Forces. In 1996, he escaped from Arcam Prison for the first time, and is recorded to have escaped four additional times.  101 Erich Klinsmann "Reiher" 25, Male, Belka 05.28.95 Operation Battle-Axe - Shot Down Su-37 Terminator Difficulty: Ace Ace Style: Knight Detailed information about this pilot is unavailable.   Tracks featured in Mission 10: Operation Battle-Axe. DISC 1 DISC 2 nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Feb 19, 2016 |
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Jan 16, 2016 14:10
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It's definitely possible to hit enemy fighters with bombs, at least by the time of Ace Combat 6. An LPer on here a few years back accidentally accomplished it. And man. I thought I was the only one who remembered Colony Wars. Such good games 
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Jan 16, 2016 16:20
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drat, those interviews... It was kinda cool to see a variety of backgrounds represented, but you were certainly spot on about Schwarz I. That shirt is almost as loud as whatsisface from the original Far Cry. Also Indigo I is possibly the most smug aristocrat I've ever seen in a media franchise yet. Also, it was nice to see how fusterclucky Furballs can get in this game... Silber squadron really do seem like one hell of a fight!
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Jan 16, 2016 16:23
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Okay the acting for those interviews were kind of bad with far too much overacting on their part. Should be noted that Mayhem is another of my favourite tracks from this soundtrack.
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Jan 16, 2016 16:56
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Cooked Auto posted:Okay the acting for those interviews were kind of bad with far too much overacting on their part. The interviews are great for exactly this reason.
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Jan 16, 2016 17:08
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Nanomashoes posted:The interviews are great for exactly this reason. Great to listen to but not that great to watch.
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Jan 16, 2016 17:17
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Cooked Auto posted:Great to listen to but not that great to watch. It's a Japanese video game so whether you're using live action or rendered cutscenes you gotta expect a modicum of scenery-chewing.  nine-gear crow, I know you like QAAMs a lot, but give the XMAAs a shot next time. In my experience you get way more bang for your buck in almost all circumstances. The XMAA not only has about triple the range of a standard missile, it's one-hit kill and more accurate, to boot. You can even use them at standard missile range, although at that distance they'll miss just as often as the standard ones do (unlike the XLAA, which is almost worthless inside of 5,000 feet). They're pretty much the best all-around missile in the game especially since you can volley off four of them at a time. Against a group like Schwarze you can pretty reliably take out three planes before they even attack you. Honestly when I get the Eagle I usually don't even bother buying them, I'll get the bombs first and use the XMAA for any dogfight mission.
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Jan 16, 2016 18:47
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It was about this mission when I realized just how much the enemy AI had been improved between 5 and Zero. drat those are some fun dogfights. Even on Ace difficulty, where you're a split second away from making GBS threads your pants at every turn.
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Jan 16, 2016 19:02
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Shinjobi posted:It was about this mission when I realized just how much the enemy AI had been improved between 5 and Zero. drat those are some fun dogfights. Even on Ace difficulty, where you're a split second away from making GBS threads your pants at every turn. Zero, for me at least, is where Ace difficulty actually becomes fun.
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Jan 16, 2016 20:02
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Green HUD? What's that? All red all the time. 
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Jan 16, 2016 20:08
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Altman be praised.
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Jan 16, 2016 21:06
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Probably not a surprise as I'm sure everyone else thinks the same thing, but this is my favorite mission in the game. Biggest wall of text yet incoming. Fun note, the enemy spawning is somewhere around the rate of one plane at opposite points every ten seconds or so. Most of the time I play this mission I end up clearing everything then constantly zooming between those two points to keep spawnkilling those two. As for the bosses, I think Schnee is the one I have the most trouble with simply because they can launch from longer range than anyone else in the game. Dialogue changes are mostly confined to the debriefing for this mission. The main changes are the aces, specifically named ones that a returning player is supposed to recognize. I'm not going to name names here because they're kind of massive spoilers we're far off from at this point in the LP. I will note on the "people theorizing identities of other aces" front, though: try to remember Reiher there. The whole "Demon Lord of the Round Table" thing is interesting because it's one of the many, many cases where a pun in Japanese doesn't work in another language. In Japanese the words for "Knight" and "Demon Lord" are pronounced near-exactly the same (kishi vs. kishin), so that's where that came from. Also plane notes! The main thing, of course, is the F-15. Interesting thing is that it was meant to counter the MiG-25 "Foxbat"... or, rather, it was meant to counter the crazy stuff that the USAF thought the MiG-25 was capable of. The result is heavily-armed, heavily-armored, and one of the fastest aircraft in the inventory. Only a small handful (I think two) have been confirmed shot down by another aircraft, and every one of those has been a training accident within the JASDF; legit combat losses to anti-aircraft fire have only been in the low double-digits. Most actual combat use has been with the Israeli Air Force; in particular, they got the first kill with the craft. Some of the best IAF pilots were chosen to be their first F-15 pilots, and while on patrol of the northern border in June 1979, Moshe Marom-Melnik scored the first air-to-air kill with the craft against a Syrian MiG-21. There was also the training accident in May of 1983 that we all know about and I think at least one of us already discussed, when trainee Zivi Nedivi's F-15D accidentally collided with an A-4N, destroying the A-4 and shearing off its own right wing; due to smoke and leaking hydraulic fluid Nedivi had no idea he'd lost his wing, even after he temporarily entered an unintended spin when he reduced speed on the way back to base (he was planning on ejecting at that point, but decided on returning to base after he noticed going afterburner gave him back control). He ended up getting back to base, landing at about 260 knots (twice the Eagle's recommended landing speed), shearing off its tailhook and only stopping about 20 feet from the end of the runway. He's apparently gone on record saying that if he had any idea that he'd lost the wing (he didn't notice until he turned around to shake his instructor's hand once he was safely on the ground), he would have just ejected. Here's an article plus video I found about it if you're interested. The MiG-31 is also interesting because it's essentially the actually-usable upgrade over the MiG-25. The Foxbat was an incredibly fast aircraft, but that was because it was meant to intercept the American XB-70 Valkyrie. When that project was cancelled, a plane with four missiles and no gun started to look pretty useless. It did get some use as a recon plane, and it also had propaganda value (in particular the stuff I mentioned above that lead to the F-15, but there was also an incident where a Soviet MiG-25 in Syrian colors sauntered up to an Israeli F-4 running full-speed at its operational ceiling, let the crew get a good look, then accelerated and climbed away) but for the most part it wasn't a very good aircraft. The MiG-31's upgrades were a better radar (the first passive electronically scanned array radar put on a production craft) with a second seat for an officer to utilize it, more armament (two more missiles and a gun), and a strengthened fuselage so it could go supersonic at low altitudes. A "drawback" is that the top speed is dialed down from Mach 3.1 to Mach 2.8... but it's not really a drawback, because that was about as fast as you could take the MiG-25 before it either ran itself out of fuel trying to further accelerate, or killed its own engines from overuse. It's also a really tough plane according to this series, it's one of the only fighter craft that can survive two missiles in Ace Combat 5 and it's annoying as gently caress and  The F-14 is the world's first and only "homoerotic" fighter jet thanks to Top Gun. It initially came about from the F-111B project crashing and burning thanks to changing requirements; the F-14 used the same Pratt & Whitney TF30 engines and AIM-54 Phoenix radar-guided missiles the F-111B was supposed to use. The Phoenix did well, but the engines had all sorts of problems - in particular it was prone to turbine blade failures and compressor stalls, with its own missiles' exhaust being able to produce a stall at specific altitudes (this is probably part of why the similar-looking Tornado houses its armaments on swinging pylons under the variable-geometry wings). Around 1987 there were tests on an F-14A Plus with improved General Electric F110-400 engines, which eventually birthed the F-14B, and then with an improved avionics system the F-14D Super Tomcat. Plans to continue upgrading the craft past about 1995 saw no success, though, thanks to the expense of keeping the thing flying; the last combat mission carried out by an F-14 in USN use was in February 2006, when a pair of them dropped a bomb over Iraq then returned to the USS Theodore Roosevelt. That October every surviving American F-14 was flown to a boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona, with all but eleven of them promptly being scrapped as of 2011 to keep Iran, the only other country to still use the F-14, from getting components of them. Second required Top Gun joke: apparently, USN battle doctrine after the movie came out stated that any F-14 pilots caught singing "Highway to the Danger Zone" over the radio were to be shot down on sight. Any caught singing "Take My Breath Away" were to be shot at more if they ejected. The F-4 I'll wait until a game where it's actually used as the starter craft it is. This was what I was talking about earlier with this game's sort of schizophrenic difficulty and plane-unlocking, Crow just got the Eagle and had access to the even better Terminator for four missions and this is when they choose to give you the goddamned Phantom II. You don't get the F-16 instead simply because you already got it for one of the operations from mission 4. Materant posted:Zero, for me at least, is where Ace difficulty actually becomes fun. Definitely. I know it's the only game in the series I've tried a run on Ace difficulty in, so far. Although, I don't think I actually beat it before my last house caught fire and I lost track of all my PS2 games in the process of moving; when I got a new copy about a month ago now I noticed the most recent save was only on Expert.
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Jan 16, 2016 21:11
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Just as a question about the Mig-31; One thing I've always heard about the MiG-25 is that HAHAHA when Viktor Belenko defected with it, we found out that its crazy powerful radar was built with HAHAHA vacuum tubes, which was hilarious until we realized that HAHAHA it would still work after the EMP generated by a nuclear strike, so HAHAHA turned into "Those Sneaky loving Russians!". Is there any truth to this, and if so, is the MiG-31's radar as nukeproof?
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Jan 16, 2016 21:25
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Kadorhal posted:I will note on the "people theorizing identities of other aces" front, though: try to remember Reiher there. Yeah, I wasn't going to mention this because I didn't want to dictate the course any potential discussion on that, but I for one don't buy that theory for a second. Mostly because it takes away from the mystique of the character in question by boiling him down to yet another bloody tie back to the Belkan War. It just doesn't feel right, despite what the (circumstantial) evidence suggests.
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Jan 16, 2016 21:26
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Phy posted:Just as a question about the Mig-31; One thing I've always heard about the MiG-25 is that HAHAHA when Viktor Belenko defected with it, we found out that its crazy powerful radar was built with HAHAHA vacuum tubes, which was hilarious until we realized that HAHAHA it would still work after the EMP generated by a nuclear strike, so HAHAHA turned into "Those Sneaky loving Russians!". Is there any truth to this, and if so, is the MiG-31's radar as nukeproof? Yeah, the MiG-25 was designed to run on vacuum tubes to save on insulating the electronics, so it's pretty resistant to EMPs. I can't find anything saying the same for the -31, though. nine-gear crow posted:but I for one don't buy that theory for a second. Mostly because it takes away from the mystique of the character in question by boiling him down to yet another bloody tie back to the Belkan War. I take "detailed information about this pilot is unavailable" in this case to mean "this is an easter egg you crazy theorists". We have enough gratuitous callbacks to the Belkan War in this series, we don't need to be retconning earlier poo poo into even more of them. It's essentially a case of what TV Tropes calls a Plot Tumor. The series since 3 is supposed to be showing us how the world got into the state it was in that game, where super-powerful corporations apparently replaced most governments. What we got instead were the combined 20-year aftermaths of both the Belkan War and another event; hell, AC6 happens because of both. Like they don't even mention how Neucom came about in the games, there's just a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference in some side- material about how they used to be a specific company that also didn't really show up in the games.
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Jan 16, 2016 21:55
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Kadorhal posted:but it's not really a drawback, because that was about as fast as you could take the MiG-25 before it [...] killed its own engines from overuse. Once again the superiority of Soviet engineering should be apparent as the decadent West is now only catching up with the F22/F35 and their questionable engine lifetimes. Phy posted:Just as a question about the Mig-31; One thing I've always heard about the MiG-25 is that HAHAHA when Viktor Belenko defected with it, we found out that its crazy powerful radar was built with HAHAHA vacuum tubes, which was hilarious until we realized that HAHAHA it would still work after the EMP generated by a nuclear strike, so HAHAHA turned into "Those Sneaky loving Russians!". Is there any truth to this, and if so, is the MiG-31's radar as nukeproof? That's also what I've heard, but don't quote me on that. That said, radar is one of the applications where I wouldn't really be surprised or particularly troubled to find vacuum tubes. It's the sort of relatively high power/frequency application which tubes are naturally fairly good at. Solid state electronics tend to be more restricted in the range of operating parameters they support, and extending that isn't always as straightforward as one might expect. You often hit physical limits that completely change the electrical behavior of a part if you put one more volt here or a bit more current there or just feed a signal a few hertz higher. Compared to that, a vacuum tube is dead simple, and has a smoother behavior in general.
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Jan 16, 2016 22:02
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Ah yes, the MiG-31, the greatest plane ever designed, with GOTTA GO FAST ingrained in it from the beginning. I always imagined the design meetings for that basically boiled down to "gently caress it, let's just take the MiG-25, strip everything out, drop a pair of engines three sizes too large in, and then staple it back together". I don't remember if it inherited "Flying Restaurant" alcohol systems from its little brother though. It's probably my favorite (real world) plane in the series, even if it turns like a brick.  Materant posted:Zero, for me at least, is where Ace difficulty actually becomes fun. Ace difficulty is definitely super fun, and it's really hard to go back after it. Speaking of, though, I got a special blessing from Crow so look forward to a 'special' video or two in the next week or so.
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Jan 16, 2016 23:24
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Kadorhal posted:The whole "Demon Lord of the Round Table" thing is interesting because it's one of the many, many cases where a pun in Japanese doesn't work in another language. In Japanese the words for "Knight" and "Demon Lord" are pronounced near-exactly the same (kishi vs. kishin), so that's where that came from. It just came to me, but wouldn't a more appropiate translation be "The black knight"? Black knights have been portrayed as more blood-thirsty, less chivalrous people, which seems like a good fit for Cypher.
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Jan 17, 2016 00:42
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Kal-L posted:It just came to me, but wouldn't a more appropiate translation be "The black knight"? Black knights have been portrayed as more blood-thirsty, less chivalrous people, which seems like a good fit for Cypher. Maybe, but Demon Lord is what we got, so I always just assumed it was part of some Strangereal myth that we don't got on real earth. You'll be hearing about a lot of weird legends as the series goes on.
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Jan 17, 2016 01:18
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Kal-L posted:It just came to me, but wouldn't a more appropiate translation be "The black knight"? Black knights have been portrayed as more blood-thirsty, less chivalrous people, which seems like a good fit for Cypher. That is a more appropriate translation, sure, but the fact of the matter is that "The Demon Lord of the Round Table" sounds way more badass. And really, isn't that what matters in the end?
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Jan 17, 2016 01:52
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Kal-L posted:It just came to me, but wouldn't a more appropiate translation be "The black knight"? Black knights have been portrayed as more blood-thirsty, less chivalrous people, which seems like a good fit for Cypher. That's not always been the case, actually; there are a whole group of stories in which a 'black knight' is depicted more as the prototypical Knight-errant. The idea is that a knight who's off vanquishing evil and rescuing maidens and fulfilling quests and such will generally be much poorer than the knights who sit around collecting rent from peasants all day, and so would be unable to give their armor proper care; as such, they would paint their armor black, so that rust would not show. Also check out Zawisza Czarny, who is a cooler Black Knight than most fictional ones. DivineCoffeeBinge fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Jan 17, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 02:44
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Materant posted:Zero, for me at least, is where Ace difficulty actually becomes fun. Yep, and like Kadorhal said, it's hard to go back to anything less. It punishes mistakes and makes you feel like a true badass when you pull some crazy poo poo off. For those who haven't played, Ace Mode boosts the power of enemy ordinance enough so that a single missile will kill you. AA guns become a little more accurate and do massive damage (getting too close to one is a good way to spend the rest of your flight at 99% damage). Enemy aircraft that do get on your tail take less time to lock on and fire missiles more often (so much so that in those boss battles or big furballs your HUD is usually red almost constantly). You also get some extra aces in a lot of missions. All in all it's really fun once you're good enough at the game, but until Ace Combat 6, these games had no checkpoint system, so these PS2-era games get quite unforgiving. Make one mistake near the end and you might be flying a whole mission over again instead of only getting pushed back a couple minutes. Still, I wouldn't have it any other way.
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Jan 17, 2016 18:19
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So here's a fun little addition to the LP that's coming up in the near future. ACES CURE PLANES will be doing some addendum videos of missions for Zero, 04, and 5 on Ace difficulty because he loving hates himself and apparently living in the middle of nowhere USA isn't giving him a slow and painful enough death for him. So be on the lookout for his videos coming soon. He will be playing through Zero on  Mercenary mode to contrast my Knight style.Now if only I can con someone into doing a Soldier run just to 100% this bitch...
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Jan 18, 2016 05:41
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And here is the video: ACE Combat Zero - Mercenary Mission 1 starting off, of course, with 'special' 'guest' commentator nine-gear crow This run will be done on Ace difficulty, using generally low level planes, and going through on the Mercenary path. Because what's more fun than tearing through the skies destroying absolutely everything? If nine-gear crow is gonna go for the noble knight, I might as well be a bloodthirsty mercenary. And I may have something special planned at the end too. Edit: Also, I said the guy who shot me down was an F-5, I was wrong, F-4E 
ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 09:26 on Jan 18, 2016 |
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Jan 18, 2016 08:59
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I'm gonna have to agree with Aces here, the F-5E is actually pretty sweet. I think it's the twin revolver-cannons in the nose. There's something about them I just really love.
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Jan 18, 2016 09:22
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Kadorhal posted:I'm gonna have to agree with Aces here, the F-5E is actually pretty sweet. They're so cool to see in real life. We used to see them flying aggressor missions against our Hornets. The role suits them, they look hard as gently caress with their sharklike lines and the Soviet paint jobs. Even the wide stance of their undercarriage lends the impression that they're hot rods. They're so tiny too, compared to the 4th generation on. Each engine could probably fit in the bed of a pickup truck, and our Super Hornets simply dwarfed them in every dimension.
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Jan 18, 2016 18:20
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The Casualty posted:They're so cool to see in real life. We used to see them flying aggressor missions against our Hornets. The role suits them, they look hard as gently caress with their sharklike lines and the Soviet paint jobs. Even the wide stance of their undercarriage lends the impression that they're hot rods. They're so tiny too, compared to the 4th generation on. Each engine could probably fit in the bed of a pickup truck, and our Super Hornets simply dwarfed them in every dimension. Never underestimate the dreaded MiG-28 or it shall be the last thing you do.
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Jan 18, 2016 18:24
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I was only half joking there, despite its abysmal performance, I really quite like the F-5, at least design wise. Unfortunately, the X-29 exists in the game and has all the design elements I like of the F-5 but with glorious forward-swept wings.
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Jan 18, 2016 19:11
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Kadorhal posted:I'm gonna have to agree with Aces here, the F-5E is actually pretty sweet. It (and its cousins the F-20 and X-29) , the Hornet, and the Morgan are the only planes in the game where you can actually see your gun's muzzle flash from the cockpit view, which is cool as hell.
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Jan 18, 2016 19:21
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Veloxyll posted:F-35: top speed c Mach 1.6 nine-gear crow posted:
-The KC-10 also has a fuel hose-and-drogue system in addition to its boom, allowing it to refuel probe-equipped aircraft. -It’s not really a STOL aircraft. Both the KC-10 and KC-135 need a minimum of 7,000 ft of runway for landing per AFPAM 10-1403, but unless you have a very long runway, both aircraft will generally be limited in the amount of fuel they can carry by takeoff roll available rather than their true MTOW. The KC-135R actually has impressive climb performance, and set 16 time-to-climb records in 1988. Phy posted:Just as a question about the Mig-31; One thing I've always heard about the MiG-25 is that HAHAHA when Viktor Belenko defected with it, we found out that its crazy powerful radar was built with HAHAHA vacuum tubes, which was hilarious until we realized that HAHAHA it would still work after the EMP generated by a nuclear strike, so HAHAHA turned into "Those Sneaky loving Russians!". Is there any truth to this, and if so, is the MiG-31's radar as nukeproof? Given that modern nuclear-capable aircraft like the B-2 are often heavily reliant on IC computer systems, it suggests that either someone cracked the nut of making IC systems resistant to EMP, or that the threat of EMP to air systems has been over stated. I'm fairly sure that the MiG-31 uses IC technology in its radar, because using vacuum tubes to implement the logic for a multi-mode, Doppler PESA radar with look-down capability probably would have resulted in a unit the size of a house.
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Jan 19, 2016 00:08
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20 pages in and nobody's posted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=335GdTqtyLs or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQAmvKMGUko? For shame. Excellent work on the LP, crow. I've played most of the AC games, but never really understood what the hell is going on in Strangereal, so I'm excited to see it all being spelled out chronologically so I can finally make sense of it. destitute fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jan 19, 2016 |
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Jan 19, 2016 22:54
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...why does the bird have no pants? And why is he daring me to look at his rear end? 
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Jan 20, 2016 04:43
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destitute posted:20 pages in and nobody's posted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=335GdTqtyLs or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQAmvKMGUko? For shame. whatever you say, Some Cool Guy
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Jan 20, 2016 05:47
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I don't have any good excuses so I deeply apologize for the wait on this. Update 02 - Handyman Business  -Episode 5 - Broken Truce|(8:23) Cease-fire Revoked -Episode 6 - Ghosts of the Past|(7:55) Resurrecting Memory -Episode 7 - No Clearance|(9:38) Extraoperational Action -Episode 8 - Fragile Cargo|(6:48) Anonymous Terrorist -Episode 9 - Scylla and Charybdis|(8:43) Complication at Cape Rainy In this update, our next levels see us fighting for Neucom's sake against General's incursions, and even some rather mysterious missions involving Dision & Rena, and a strange base hidden away in a canyon. Topics such as the D.O.E project and the nature of the scientists who defected to Neucom resurface as things take an even worse turn. For those wondering, this is the first instance of a Mission Over leading to different scenarios, and I'll do a quick write up here: In Ep6, if we are to destroy the spy plane or fly above altitude, we progress to Fragile Cargo automatically. However, if we complete Ep6 but choose not to accompany Rena in Ep7 (as seen in the videos), we will progress to 8 anyway. Fragile Cargo is a total joke but the ending has far more meaning for the very next level (Scylla & Charybdis) than No Clearance does so I think from a better narrative perspective, Nemo would have chosen not to accompany Rena. I do like the handwaving that occurs in these levels though I should get Crow to do a graphic for these mission layouts...  Produced in the first half of the 21st century, the R-101 Delphinus #1 laid the foundation for Neucom's R-numeral series of aircraft. The jet was developed using Neucom's expertise in the aviation field, being built from newly developed composites and alloys. Powered by high-powered turbofan engines, it uses laminar flow control technology to dynamically manage airflow. The R-101 pioneered the AI-handled development techniques employed by Neucom by 2040. The R-101 was the main fighter aircraft of Neucom's armed forces during the Usean Corporate War, where it served on the frontlines. An export model, the R-101U, was sold to the UPEO to reinforce their own air fleet trivia: named after Dolphins  The first dedicated attack aircraft of Neucom's R-series, the R-201 Asterozoa was developed to fulfill the ground attack role. It features a distinctive twin-fuselage design. Despite having durable armor, the Asterozoa's poor speed and mobility rendered it highly vulnerable to enemy aircraft. PSA: Never fly this thing. It's somehow worse than flying a brick. It's like flying a house. trivia: named after Sea Stars Lunethex fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Feb 2, 2016 |
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Jan 20, 2016 07:09
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Boy, Lunethex went and showed me right up with his update but I have more ACE Combat Zero - Mission 2 and Mission 3. Now with 200% more unnecessary showboating and Macross references.
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Jan 20, 2016 07:50
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