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A jargogle
Feb 22, 2011
Like many people, I too was young and lacking creativity when I played this game - I played the game multiple times over and completed everything, and still basically only ever used the same build every time through. The heavy reverse joint legs looked badass though so at least I got something right.

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Koorisch
Mar 29, 2009
I just want you to pick the coolest mech possible just because we're in giant mechanized suits, you gotta look stylish while you're pulling those sick mid-air missile dodge boosts!

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

The stock core in this game is seriously underrated. It has the best antimissile system and a very efficient overboost that's over 100 km/h faster than the other medium core. Core antimissiles are really good in general, because they'll fire again if they miss, unlike the extensions.

A Pleasant Hug
Dec 30, 2007

...It's the thought that counts, right?

dis astranagant posted:

The stock core in this game is seriously underrated. It has the best antimissile system and a very efficient overboost that's over 100 km/h faster than the other medium core. Core antimissiles are really good in general, because they'll fire again if they miss, unlike the extensions.
Aside from a few particulars (internal parts such as the generator, booster, radiator), AC tradition has the starting AC being a solid, perfectly viable middleweight. There may be some straight upgrades as progression occurs, but this is generally true for a good portion of each game.

ACES CURE PLANES
Oct 21, 2010






And here we are with our first Arena update. For our first episode, I brought along special guest ArclightBorealis to have a nice little chat about the low level human garbage that are the early Arena combatants. And Werehound I guess. I also take time to explain the basics of generators and energy regen in the revised ACE's Garage segment.

Episode 3 - The Arena and Energy


Werehound posted:

To the Rookie
You're progressing steadily, but soon your cocky attitude will have to face a reality check. Have fun while you can.

Werehound posted:

To the Rookie
Don't get too cocky just because you beat me. Only a select few can win and actually keep their ranking. It's not uncommon to see skilled pilots lose their footing.

That's all part of life in the Arena

The higher you climb, the more disappointed you'll be when you fall. Remember that.


9
Firework
Frighteners
Apostrophe S
JIMBRE
Theme from Armored Core

ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Apr 1, 2016

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

As a kid, Werehound was always the death of me. It was a curious choice for FromSoftware to put such a difficulty spike early on in the arena, though it makes sense in retrospect looking at the Souls series how ruthless it was.

Krysmphoenix
Jul 29, 2010
Heh, even on my re-play Werehound kicked my rear end. I got too comfortable just pounding everyone's teeth in, and he made me eat my own. Every time I've fought him, I've had to just dodge like crazy and let him run out of ammo. Without any ammo, he's just a dodge happy AC that couldn't hurt a fly. Werehound became the golden example why I will never roll without a sword.

But yes, that was VERY satisfying. :allears:

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

I'm pretty sure the SPGUN is the only good slug gun in the history of the series. Every since they've all been too slow, too heavy, and way too much spread to do anything.

Showing Werehound what real weapon arms are :getin: Chainguns and machine gun arms are some of the few parts that got major buffs in the next game. They just don't have the dps you'd think they would.

dis astranagant fucked around with this message at 08:59 on Feb 10, 2016

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I always killed Werehound with the Large Rocket.

But then, the Large Rocket saw me through most of the Arena. For every problem, the solution was a big dumbfire missile.

ACES CURE PLANES
Oct 21, 2010



chitoryu12 posted:

As a kid, Werehound was always the death of me. It was a curious choice for FromSoftware to put such a difficulty spike early on in the arena, though it makes sense in retrospect looking at the Souls series how ruthless it was.

Hell, you don't even need to go so far as the Souls series for that. The Armored Core PSX games and King's Field games always had their own 'hey, hope you were paying attention because here comes the real poo poo' moment. Even if in the latter series had it be the first couple seconds of the game once. They definitely love that trick, and I kinda love them for doing it. When we get to Nexus, they pull that every five missions or so.

dis astranagant posted:

I'm pretty sure the SPGUN is the only good slug gun in the history of the series. Every since they've all been too slow, too heavy, and way too much spread to do anything.

Showing Werehound what real weapon arms are :getin: Chainguns and machine gun arms are some of the few parts that got major buffs in the next game. They just don't have the dps you'd think they would.

I've always strangely loved slug guns despite never using cannon-type weapons on my biped builds, and almost never using treads. I'm not sure why I like them so much, but it is oddly satisfying watching all the shots slam into an enemy's face. :black101:

Anyways, I should have a bonus video up in a day or two showing off PLOW and some other weapon types that we can't even begin to afford right now. Though updates in general will probably be a bit slower because the new post-main segment stuff is a lot more editing-intensive.

Edit: Oh hey we finally got the thread tag I wanted :toot:

ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Feb 10, 2016

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

I might like them if they had about double the fire rate. A gun that weak and gimmicky has no right being drastically slower than a grenade launcher.

A Pleasant Hug
Dec 30, 2007

...It's the thought that counts, right?

ACES CURE PLANES posted:



I also take time to explain the basics of generators and energy regen in the revised ACE's Garage segment.
whoa i got namedropped in the video this is it im in the big leagues now way to go!!

I like these segments. They're good and helpful to people who don't know what's going on behind the scenes, and clarify things in five minutes of video that would've taken me hundreds of words in text. As an extra note, the recharge rate being affected by the difference between part-drain and maximum output is true across all generations of the game, from the first to the most recent. The difference between idle-drain and movement drain was also present during the first generation, but it was a hidden value, and the only way to determine how hard it was on recharging was through use. That said, you could do jumps to move and recharge energy as if you were idle. I'm unsure if that applies from here on in, but I'm leaning on "yes".

I might be willing to co-commentate on a video sometime if you'd have me, but as I've mentioned, I'm far less experienced with this generation of the games than any other, but there's also many mechanical similarities between games (much like the way recharging is handled). Also I loving love to talk about Armored Core.

ACES CURE PLANES
Oct 21, 2010



Well, sure, I'd send you a PM asking you for your skype name. But someone doesn't have that option. :colbert:

Gulping Again
Mar 10, 2007
Echoing dis astranagant's statement regarding the Flamethrower. In AC-to-AC combat it is absolutely monstrous, and allowed me, who is garbage at everything, to faceroll the entire arena with relative ease. Against units that don't take heat damage, like MTs and spoilers, it is exactly as bad as you claim, but against things that aren't either too lovely to experience game mechanics or cheating bastards, it kicks rear end.

ACES CURE PLANES
Oct 21, 2010



I will stand by my position that the flamethrower is the worst thing ever to the death, and beyond that.

There's way better ways to faceroll arena opponents that don't require you to cuddle up at point blank range with a non-locking weapon.

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

ACES CURE PLANES posted:

I will stand by my position that the flamethrower is the worst thing ever to the death, and beyond that.

There's way better ways to faceroll arena opponents that don't require you to cuddle up at point blank range with a non-locking weapon.

I'm pretty sure you're just getting your mechanics mixed up with Nexus, where it is indeed loving awful. It's too awkward and heavy to really use in the gen 2 games but 3's left arm flamer is terrifying despite having stats copied straight out of AA except for weight. For 2 games it's a strong contender for best in slot then From fucks it up again :v: Even in gen 2, it's still not worse than the inside turd bombs.



I'm also down for nerding out on Skype about this poo poo.

ACES CURE PLANES
Oct 21, 2010




Bonus Update - Human PLUS and Overweight

So, Human PLUS, the gold standard for cheating AI and slightly cheating players. In the plot, Human PLUS is an operation performed on a subject (willingly or unwillingly) to improve their physical capabilities via cybernetic implants, or even physically making them a part of their ACs in some cases. Usually this comes at the expense of a degree of sanity, and it has a high chance of straight up killing the person. The technology was developed by some unknown party before the Great Destruction, and was eventually unearthed by Murakumo Millennium, one of the first game's corporations

On the gameplay front though, it's a strict improvement, with no worries about suddenly keeling over. (Or the need to be a small cyborg girl but we don't talk about Tower Blade City.) Go about 50k credits into debt and the game will dump you at the start of the game with no credits, all the parts you've had, and a new special ability. Keep going into debt, and you'll keep getting new abilities out of it. The upgrades you can get are:

-Always-active radar
-The ability to fire ranged energy blades when using swords
-Better cooling
-No need to kneel down when using cannon-type weapons
-Halved energy usage
-Doubled energy

And on a different front, there's the Overweight ability, granted by beating every mission in the game (not necessarily getting 100% completion). With it, the game will no longer yell at you for taking an AC out that is way too heavy for its legs or if it's arm joints are being torn out by the weight on them. Between the two, you have what's known as a PLUS Overweight, or PLOW, AC.

PLOW ACs are generally what the game will throw at you in the later arena fights or for bosses in the main game when their AI with a base loadout couldn't hope to stand up to the monstrous murder machine you've become. A means of 'evening the playing field' if you will, if just to throw you a small challenge. Of course, there are certain benefits that opponent ACs have that you'll never even begin to have but that's a different story.

A Pleasant Hug
Dec 30, 2007

...It's the thought that counts, right?

ACES CURE PLANES posted:

And on a different front, there's the Overweight ability, granted by beating every mission in the game (not necessarily getting 100% completion). With it, the game will no longer yell at you for taking an AC out that is way too heavy for its legs or if it's arm joints are being torn out by the weight on them. Between the two, you have what's known as a PLUS Overweight, or PLOW, AC.
A PLOW-AC is also capable of exceeding the Energy Output of the generator, but as the previous video has shown, that would be a very bad idea, :eng101:

Orbit Launchers are my favorite of the new additions to the series, locking on exceptionally fast, and being significantly more accurate than missiles at any range. It also helps that they can't be intercepted like missiles can be, but now you can fire so many missiles it hardly matters.

IronSaber
Feb 24, 2009

:roboluv: oh yes oh god yes form the head FORM THE HEAD unghhhh...:fap:

ACES CURE PLANES posted:

On the gameplay front though, it's a strict improvement, with no worries about suddenly keeling over. (Or the need to be a small cyborg girl but we don't talk about Tower Blade City.) Go about 50k credits into debt and the game will dump you at the start of the game with no credits, all the parts you've had, and a new special ability. Keep going into debt, and you'll keep getting new abilities out of it. The upgrades you can get are...

Wait a dang second. You're telling me if you spend too much, the game will dump you into some kind of New Game+ with enhanced abilities? :psyduck:

Krysmphoenix
Jul 29, 2010
Well you can't buy yourself into debt, but you can buy a ton of stuff, deliberately lose a few missions and then reset that way with all of your expensive gear in tact!

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

IronSaber posted:

Wait a dang second. You're telling me if you spend too much, the game will dump you into some kind of New Game+ with enhanced abilities? :psyduck:

It's really something you're unlikely to do unintentionally. You don't pay repair or ammo costs for failed missions so your only option is to win missions using weapons with ridiculous ammo costs.

ACES CURE PLANES
Oct 21, 2010



You definitely pay repair and ammo costs if you fail a mission.

That's how I worked up all the PLUS levels for that run, just going through the first mission and getting myself killed while firing expensive weapons into the floor :downs:

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Ah. I guess they didn't change that til later.

Reco
Feb 26, 2011

enemy one body to the proximity Zan attack discard the power slap hit.
This LP got me to play this game for real after messing around with it all those years ago (thanks for that, by the way. It's really fun) and holy poo poo AI PLOWs really are something to deal with

Nuramor
Dec 13, 2012

Most Amewsing Prinny Ever!
Does the chest gun ever actually do anything?

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


It's the core's anti-missile system's gun.

A Pleasant Hug
Dec 30, 2007

...It's the thought that counts, right?

dis astranagant posted:

It's really something you're unlikely to do unintentionally. You don't pay repair or ammo costs for failed missions so your only option is to win missions using weapons with ridiculous ammo costs.
Oh, no, you can definitely go that far under without intending to. Being a FromSoft game, some missions are unforgiving, and you can design an AC with very expensive parts and ammo cost. There was a time I'd intentionally designed an AC to be as expensive as possible, and while I didn't get through the entire ammunition store before being destroyed (a real possibility for novice, and even intermediate players on harder, non-essential missions), the bill was somewhere to the tune of -63,000C. And then you'll have to start the game over from the beginning. A figure like that can take you from the black to PLUS instantly. Unlikely, but certainly possible for a weak player using the mindset of "more expensive parts = better" and using the biggest guns they can get.

That said, they did stop making you pay for failure, and I'm not sure if that started in the 4th or 5th generation. One of those.

Bloody Pom
Jun 5, 2011



Is it just me, or did anyone else see that last AC's resemblance to a Rifleman?

e: Oh right, the Rifleman was lifted from a Macross design. That would explain it. :v:

Bloody Pom fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Feb 13, 2016

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

dis astranagant posted:

It's really something you're unlikely to do unintentionally. You don't pay repair or ammo costs for failed missions so your only option is to win missions using weapons with ridiculous ammo costs.

You can totally do it unintentionally if you're 11 years old and trying to play such a difficult game without a cheat cartridge!

A Bad Place
May 25, 2008
Ah, man, I'm so glad to see someone tackling this series. The PS2 Armored Core games are some of my favorite games of all time; I've spent an absolutely disgusting, shameful number of nerd hours tinkering in the garage, building math-breaking lightning gods :science:

If only having perfect numbers actually helped you beat the missions :eng99: I have no idea how you're going to get through it all, but I'm psyched to see you try.

ACES CURE PLANES
Oct 21, 2010





Episode 4 - Disorder

And I'm back with some actual missions this time! You can stop sending me angry PMs about wasting time and faffing about. No Garage segment this time around, because it turns out talking about targeting and FCSes is a way more dense subject than I thought it would be. So you can all start dreading that for the next update.

Today's guest is nine-gear crow again. He's currently wrapping up the first game of his Ace Combat series LP, so if you like anime robots (and face it, if you're here, you probably do a bit), then give his stuff a look, since Ace Combat is just a robot anime with planes.



Nell Aulter posted:

Zio Matrix
Zio Matrix is currently the most powerful corporation on Mars.

It wasn't a large corporation prior to Martian development. But it was the first to expand into Mars, and soon claimed the number-one position through a series of AC developments.

Zio Matrix frequently employs Ravens. As your name becomes established, they will most likely approach you with important missions.

The value of your existence is determined by corporate decisions. Do not forget who allows you to live. We will contact you again.

Nell Aulter posted:

Earth Government & LCC
As you know, the Earth Government struggled during the chaos of the subterranean era to rebuild itself into the ruling entity that it was prior to the Great Destruction.

LCC is an organization established by the Earth Government. But it lacks clout, as the Earth Government's resources are focused on environmental reclamation and maintaining order on the Earth.

LCC possesses no real military strength, and relies heavily upon Ravens. Corporations pretend to obey LCC, but behind the scenes they're engaged in a vicious power struggle.

LCC has been quiet since its inception, but they could become active at any time. Thus, confrontations between corporations are becoming more and more deadly, and tension is mounting.

Then again, this might be favorable for you Ravens, as it provides more work for you. We'll contact you again.

Nell Aulter posted:

Disorder Units
We Have received a request for the removal of Disorder units. These are unmanned, armored weapons known to have existed prior to Martian development.

Disorder units display organized, insect-like behavior and appear unannounced in various Martian cities and facilities, causing great damage.

It's not known exactly what the Disorders are. We only know they're dangerous, and that a number of different types exist. That's about all.

Missions involving Disorder units will probably be common in the future, so exercise great caution. Stay alert for any information regarding them. We will contact you again.


Red Impulse
Cord E
Magnetism
Tick Tack Toe

ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Apr 1, 2016

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Can real FCS data for the gen 2 games even be found these days? I went trawling through a bunch of Japanese wikis and can only find full FCS specs starting with AC3. Last I knew you couldn't even find that much in English without somehow stumbling upon an old google page I tossed up for it years ago so I wouldn't have to find it again.


Also, the heavy bazooka is butt. The lighter of the 2 is pretty good, since it has special lock instead of ND. Gen 2 is really bitchy about giving narrow and deep weapons decent FCS boxes, so it's just not fun to use.

Your favorite booster might as well be the only booster in AC2. The 2 stronger ones are bugged and don't actually make you go faster.

dis astranagant fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Feb 15, 2016

ModeWondershot
Dec 30, 2014

Portu-geezer
Man, when I first tried to play this I did not get the controls at all and thus died numerous times to the rogue AI MT bullet hell. Then I learned the hard way that ACs do not deal with deep water very well.

Also, Last Raven has one of my favourite soundtracks, but then I always look forward to how weird Kota Hoshino can get (though Evergrace will probably always be the apex of that).

ACES CURE PLANES
Oct 21, 2010



Hoshino is amazing, and is like one of the reasons I wanted to do this LP, if just for an excuse to gush about his music a bit. We'll get to see plenty of his stuff, of course, what with his insane song names and lyrics :ssh:

ACES CURE PLANES
Oct 21, 2010



Hey Seiren, I know you don't have PMs and I'm looking for someone to nerd out with over my next vid - if you feel comfortable posting it here and editing out later or whatnot, that would work I suppose.

For other people though, feel free to take this as an open invitation if you're interested, my PMs are always open.

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

I don't think I ever had problems with the rogue MTs as a kid, simply because their shotguns are so weak. I think the game really starts becoming difficult once enemy ACs begin appearing in missions.

Polaron
Oct 13, 2010

The Oncoming Storm

chitoryu12 posted:

I don't think I ever had problems with the rogue MTs as a kid, simply because their shotguns are so weak. I think the game really starts becoming difficult once enemy ACs begin appearing in missions.

I can't remember if it's this game or a later PS2 AC but there's a mission inside of a burning or exploding building where two ACs show up, one with a flamethrower, that I could never get past. The jerk with the flamethrower constantly ruined me.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

chitoryu12 posted:

I don't think I ever had problems with the rogue MTs as a kid, simply because their shotguns are so weak. I think the game really starts becoming difficult once enemy ACs begin appearing in missions.

I am the opposite.
I could never pass the rogue MT mission

Reco
Feb 26, 2011

enemy one body to the proximity Zan attack discard the power slap hit.
Same, I have way more problems with huge swarms of MTs than I do AC-to-AC combat.

Unless it's high ranking arena, then that's a different story entirely. Or if there's a swarm of MTs and also an AC. Then there's trouble.

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chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

Polaron posted:

I can't remember if it's this game or a later PS2 AC but there's a mission inside of a burning or exploding building where two ACs show up, one with a flamethrower, that I could never get past. The jerk with the flamethrower constantly ruined me.

I think that was a later game, unless my memory is really poor. For me it's the train mission later, I think the first Balena mission, where I started having difficulty.

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