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ACES CURE PLANES posted:I hope to god it does, it took me four 103% runs to settle on a route. Thank goodness you found one to settle on, else we might be waiting another age... I'll see myself out.
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Oct 4, 2016 01:28
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I think I've played through Another Age exactly once, and have no way to play through it again, so I'm not sure I'm quite understanding the fuss yet. I'm sure I'll be enlightened to it once it comes up though! 
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Oct 4, 2016 01:55
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Well, I'll look forward to progress, and maybe occasionally talking about how Another Age is actually one of my favourite AC expansions.
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Oct 5, 2016 01:31
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 Welcome back to Let's Play Armored Core - The PS2 Years! With Armored Core 2 under our belt, let's see where we're at:  Hell of a way to go still, but we're still truckin'! So let's get on to our next game, Another Age!  Taking place five years after the attempted coup by Leos Klein, Armored Core 2: Another Age returns to Earth, and takes place in many of the cities and surrounding areas from the original Armored Core trilogy. Zio Matrix pawned off all the blame for its hostile takeover attempt onto its Mars subsidiary and mostly came out unscathed, Emeraude's fighting with the LCC has left it in tatters, and Balena's involvement with the Frighteners is now public knowledge and they've been ostracized from doing business with the other Corporations. Nevertheless, the fallout is starting to settle and things have returned to much as they ever were, with the Earth Government and their local Bureaus of Control fighting to maintain order and regulate the Corporations, and Nerves Concord hiring out Ravens to do the work nobody else can. However, a new entity, the Indies has risen in recent years. Consisting mostly of the poor and disenfranchised, the Indies is a huge, well-funded terrorist organization dedicated to bringing down the Corporations, and the Earth Government, who they feel allow the Corporations to operate unchecked So, with tensions rising and money to be earned, our Raven returns to the battlefield. For those new to this series of LPs, here's a quick little breakdown of all the subsections to this LP:  Like any good mercenary, we've got Missions to undertake. We're tasked with killing, rescuing, destroying, or saving any number of objectives, and this section covers just that.  Unfortunately, Another Age has done away with the old Arena, now structuring Arena fights like regular missions, with a briefing and everything. So don't expect to be seeing these updates during this LP.  A brand new section starting with Another Age, I'll be going into detail on all the ACs and various other noteworthy units we'll be fighting over the course of the game. For ACs, I'll be showing a reconstruction of the AC along with its in-game stats, the emblem you obtain for defeating it, and pilot and AC names taken from the Japanese datasite. Note that most ACs don't have listed parts for what they're equipped with such as generators, radiators, or inside units. For these, I'll be taking some artistic liberty and applying what I feel is optimal given the style of build the rest of the AC evokes. Each AC will be examined both as a proper AC in its own right, as if it was in the player's hands, and as an AI opponent, with strengths and weaknesses for both. Since, after all, a human using the same design can use it to greater effectiveness.  In ACE's Garage, I'll be going over more detailed information about the game and its mechanics proper, helping to explain the myriad of stats, system mechanics, and various other things that the game tends to be very tight-lipped on.  And finally we have our requisite music dumps. Every time we run into a new track that hasn't been featured in either the previous game or a previous update of this game, I'll have a link so you can listen to the music without people talking over it or 'splosions drowning out the cool techno beats. ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Nov 6, 2016 |
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Oct 10, 2016 05:42
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Aaaaaaand we're back!
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Oct 10, 2016 05:44
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I barely payed attention to the politics of this series, so seeing this is pretty interesting, as is watching someone who isn't utter poo poo do it.
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Oct 10, 2016 05:48
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Awesome, you're back. This was the first game I tried to play without Human Plus. Never doing that again in this game. The restriction of the back parts is just too much. At least most of the new parts were awesome in this. I can recall a couple of memorable levels, all were fights with other AC's. The rest of the levels are one big foggy blur.
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Oct 10, 2016 06:27
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Sortie 1 - "Working for terrorists... Thankfully."   Pilot: Crimson Soul AC: Crimson Rage Strengths: -Can do ovewhelming damage with his flamethrower if he gets close -Light weight lends itself to his strategy of high mobility Weaknesses: -Absolutely pitiful defense and AP, will crumble under just about any offense -Could use a better booster choice, one focused on a high speed approach rather than efficiency, would greatly improve the build Strategy: Crimson Soul is a weird bird. Not just because he' going full on flamethrower focus, but because he comes so close to pulling it off and then does a pratfall on the landing. He's got a decent blade, good ultralight build going, but going with the plinky plonky base missile launcher and lower-mid thrust output booster really hurt the design. As an AI opponent though, he's absolutely nothing to write home about. The difficulty comes from not damaging the goods in the warehouse rather than surviving the encounter. Keep your distance and try not to spray-n-pray too much, and he'll go down before he can even singe your paintjob. Another day, another Ace's Garage revamp. From now on, we'll be covering anything I simply don't have time for in the videos, from lore nonsense to location information or just our usual mechanics talk. That's not to say Garage is going to be text only, just that video segments will be saved for when they're more appropriate. Today though, we'll be covering changes made to Another Age on the whole. As I mentioned in the video already, we have the fancy new green reticule to designate when we've got a wall inbetween us and whatever we want to shoot at, but another new change is that we finally have analog control! Hooray! Sort of! This isn't to say that we can now do proper twin stick aiming like a modern shooter, no, we're still stuck aiming with the shoulder buttons, nor does it mean that analog movement allows for walking slowly or at different speeds, walking is still effectively "top speed" or "nothing". Nope, all it means is that now the left stick works as just another option for the D-Pad, that's all. However, instead of things they added, let's talk about what's different. Notably, Limiter Release took an incredible nerf, now giving you infinite energy for a shorter period, and puts you in OB Down state for longer. As well, the input is now L1+R1+L2+R2+R3, from L2+R2+L3+R3 in AC2. But of course, in Another Age, these aren't bound to the buttons, but rather the inputs associated with those buttons, meaning that if you're like me and put Move Left/Right on L/R d-pad and Turn Left/Right onto L1/R1, then you can't enter Limiter Release, not even using the D-Pad and left stick simultaneously. Womp womp. They've also rebalanced a handful of parts to have different performance or various nerfs. The most frustrating to me is a massive decrease in the power output of the high output generator, the HOY-B1000, in exchange for a higher capacitance. Of course, testing (AC2 in the top-left, AC2AA in the bottom right) makes the capacitance change questionable. This is because of a system-wide stealth nerf to all generators, related to how energy output and recharge works. The exact extent of the changes are unknown, but suffice to say, high mobility builds took a pretty noticeable hit. That's all for this round of "Aces bitches about Another Age though. Tune in next time as we try to get a-Head of the competition. Retzki Lab Ocean Base ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Nov 6, 2016 |
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Oct 10, 2016 06:42
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Fuuuck I'm gonna have to redo all these with the Crest/Mirage/Kisaragi/Union/ect. logos when we get to 3...
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Oct 10, 2016 07:08
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Didn't even know this thread was a thing, but I'm happy that it is! I love Armored Core, so I'm looking forward to enjoying this LP and catching up. One thing I'd suggest is that you don't forget to update the OP though!
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Oct 10, 2016 08:22
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Terrorists in the AC universe are probably more reliable and trustworthy than the corporations we'd been working for up to this point.
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Oct 10, 2016 12:18
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Anime Reference posted:Terrorists in the AC universe are probably more reliable and trustworthy than the corporations we'd been working for up to this point. Honestly, they do seem to be slightly less terrible human beings. Sometimes. Though that isn't exactly a high bar to clear in the grim darkness of the giant robot future.
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Oct 10, 2016 17:44
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The AC universe seems to follow the logic of the Cyberpunk universes. gently caress you, got mine.
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Oct 10, 2016 20:16
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I've been looking forward to the PS2 games! I feel like the "let's put all the useless poo poo on the HUD" gag has run its course, though. Could you make it a little less cluttered?
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Oct 11, 2016 14:50
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Joke?  I legitimately use all of the options it allows in one form or another, although a bit less so in Another Age since one on one raven combat is less common, so setting specific angles for terrain is less useful than it was in AC2.
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Oct 11, 2016 15:42
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Sortie 2 - I loving love elevators Special guests this time are Zorak, for the classic giant robot cred, and Nine-Gear Crow because why not. Join us for a fascinating expedition into topics like "Will Armored Core continue", "What kinds of games can be published these days", and "What is with all these goddamn elevators?" And I may have gotten a bit hyperbolic in the video and jumped the gun on saying two of our opponents are unkillable. They're not, they're just assholes, so don't hold that against me.     Pilot: Hangmanl AC: Ring World Strengths: -Impossibly high AP and defense, only complimented by its powerful shield -Powerful spread bazooka and pursuit missiles allow for immense firepower -Has all PLUS modifications -Goddamn cool looking opening movie AC Weaknesses: -Pathfinding AI rather weak, can get trapped in and on walls -Relatively limited ammo leave him vulnerable if tapped out   Pilot: Breast Roll AC: Astraea Strengths: -PLUS modifications leave him with effectively infinite energy -Ludicrously nimble -Very high powered close range weaponry Weaknesses: -Only fires machinegun in short bursts, easily its least threatening weapon is also its most used -Low base AP and defense Strategy: JUST loving RUN. Seriously. These two are absolute assholes, and will tear your face open unless you are straight up building for them. Most ACs in the game are given varying nerfs depending on the mission that precedes them so as to make it a bit more fair, but these two give you no such quarter. They're as strong as they are straight out of the garage, are ludicrously PLUS, and have have their AI cranked up to maximum 'gently caress you'. (Though they still have problems with pathfinding.) If you must engage them, and I still insist you shouldn't, I did misspeak and you can indeed kill them. It took several hours of attempts but goddammit I did it. And then I cheaped them out with the Karasawa on my first try but hey, I said I'd keep from leaning on that crutch and by I'll stick to it if it kills me. Anyways, if you're determined to fight them, and it has to be both in the same sortie for some reason, then your zeroth priority should be to kite one far away from the other, because together, they're an almighty force. If you manage to nab Hangman, the best strategy is to overboost down the long street and pepper him with shots with your big guns while he tries to pelt you with spread bazooka shots or impotent long range pursuit missiles. Once he gets close in, though, he becomes a real force to be reckoned with. Make sure to try to stay away from his direct front, because if he launches a pursuit missile pod and it hits you directly, it will make you extremely sad very quickly. He is easily tricked by corners and tight spaces though, so it might be worth the risk of dealing with the spread bazooka and missile pod for a quick kill. For Breast Roll, he'll spend basically his entire time in the mission darting through the air, overboosting regularly and changing course like a paranoid fly. For most of the fight, he'll use his machinegun to peck away at you with short bursts which don't do hardly anything, but piss him off and he'll switch to his quad missiles or grenade cannon, the latter of which he makes use of with deadly accuracy. There are two ways of fighting him, either make good use of cover to avoid his damaging stuff and keep him in a controlled area, or slam him with high knockback weaponry to keep him from getting away from you. Getting into a close quarters engagement however is deadly, as he has a powerful Moonlight, and will use it together with a PLUS blade beam to decimate even the most armored AC. If you're interested in getting their emblems, it's best to do this mission twice, killing one each time. Taking on both in the same mission is tantamount to suicide, and of course, you get nothing but some rather boring art to slap on your AC. Just flee and be done with them.   Pilot: Don Siegel AC: Naval Yac Strengths: -Machinegun arms can bring impressive damage to bear in a matter of seconds -Solid aerial combat AC Weaknesses: -Useless slug gun on the back -Downward boost extensions might be useful if he focused on air combat Strategy: Theoretically, in one-on-one AC combat, this guy should have a very solid build. His machinegun arms are exceptionally powerful, and his high mobility plus efficient boosters should allow him to do well in aerial combat. Unfortunately, he prefers to fight on the ground, and only fires in short bursts. So he manages to turn a solid AC design - minus the useless slug gun - into something absolutely worthless. Anything he does can be dodged easily with basic movement, and his reluctance to burn through ammo means you'll kill him well before he has a chance of killing you. ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Aug 10, 2017 |
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Oct 19, 2016 05:48
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Re: 'soulsy' discussion I'd argue that Armored Core is less forgiving than the Souls games, as you can't just horribly corpse zerg your way through content. One of my greatest difficulties with the AC series is I turn so little profit each mission that I wind up broke and dead in the water midway through.
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Oct 19, 2016 06:23
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Also yeah I was right, the first enemy AC that shows up in the first mission of this video is in fact the in-game cameo for the red heavyweight AC from the intro. I'm sure the grey lightweight AC from the intro and cover also gets a cameo somewhere else in AA, but I think it's another stealth cameo like this one. I think I know where it is, but I won't mention it for now because of spoilers.
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Oct 19, 2016 06:43
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We all know that the next Mecha game that From will make will be Armoured Souls. You shall fight your way through an enemy degenerated by a organo-mechanical nanite / virus compound infection with a laser blade on your right arm and a modular bunker armor piece on your left. Back parts will include EO turrets and fast plasma projectiles with limited autonomous homing capability.
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Oct 19, 2016 13:56
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SIGSEGV posted:We all know that the next Mecha game that From will make will be Armoured Souls. You shall fight your way through an enemy degenerated by a organo-mechanical nanite / virus compound infection with a laser blade on your right arm and a modular bunker armor piece on your left. Back parts will include EO turrets and fast plasma projectiles with limited autonomous homing capability. Don't lie, you know that would be loving amazing.
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Oct 19, 2016 14:14
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Of course it would but I have to say I really enjoyed 4A and 4 (I have to admit it's because it lead to 4A.) because they (1) owned and (2) were the logical gameplay continuation of Those Spoiler Things in Last Raven, now you get to be one. I just want to be a mech shaped jet-tank and fight other mech shaped jet-tanks. And super giant weapons that even Belka couldn't build.
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Oct 19, 2016 14:21
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Bad opinions: From should go and make AC6 the most complicated game in the series imo. Add 5 more pages of stats for each equipment. Add many more things to customize your AC with (now that I think about it, do the Souls games have way more equipment to choose from than Armored Core or am I crazy?). Make it the most mecha porn thing to have ever been made and make it harder than any of the previous games. Make it open-worldish and add a multiplayer invasion system like Dark Souls, the justification being that the invaders are being paid by another party to kill and stop you from completing your mission, and there's also online ranked arena battles.
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Oct 19, 2016 23:09
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Glad to see this series is back! Big Scary Owl posted:Bad opinions: From should go and make AC6 the most complicated game in the series imo. Add 5 more pages of stats for each equipment. Add many more things to customize your AC with (now that I think about it, do the Souls games have way more equipment to choose from than Armored Core or am I crazy?). Make it the most mecha porn thing to have ever been made and make it harder than any of the previous games. Make it open-worldish and add a multiplayer invasion system like Dark Souls, the justification being that the invaders are being paid by another party to kill and stop you from completing your mission, and there's also online ranked arena battles. Alternatively they could make Metal Wolf Chaos 2: Political Discourse, so long as they actually localize it this time around...
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Oct 20, 2016 01:05
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I would pay so much cash for Not-Obama piloting the Metal Wolf Mk2. The plot should be stopping some rogue politicians from shutting down the government.
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Oct 20, 2016 01:33
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Rigged Death Trap posted:I would pay so much cash for Not-Obama piloting the Metal Wolf Mk2. President John Omaha vs. evil Speaker of the House Ryan Paulson and his second in command Senator Tad Crush. His mission control operator is his attractive, personable, and equally badass wife First Lady Martha Omaha. 
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Oct 20, 2016 01:39
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This was the mission that made me stop trying to play without human plus. Making it across that pit as a teen was not fun and I refused to go for a super light build.
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Oct 20, 2016 02:01
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Big Scary Owl posted:Bad opinions: From should go and make AC6 the most complicated game in the series imo. Add 5 more pages of stats for each equipment. Add many more things to customize your AC with (now that I think about it, do the Souls games have way more equipment to choose from than Armored Core or am I crazy?). Make it the most mecha porn thing to have ever been made and make it harder than any of the previous games. Make it open-worldish and add a multiplayer invasion system like Dark Souls, the justification being that the invaders are being paid by another party to kill and stop you from completing your mission, and there's also online ranked arena battles. I don't think it'd be possible to make a game harder than what has already been done. We haven't seen it yet, but man do things just get unfair later. Hell, even in this game at times. But as much as I champion difficulty, I don't think just a blanket 'harder' is the right way to go. Proper balancing and options are far more important. The worst AC missions are the ones that pidgeonhole you into specific things. As for equipment, that's a complex subject. Dark Souls III, for example, has a shitton of equipment, a bit over 600 pieces in all if you count rings and shields and stuff, but its nature as an RPG kind of messes with the comparison. Last Raven, for example, had about 460 parts spread out over 14 different categories, whereas DkS3 is limited to just seven, and that's putting shields into their own category. So you have less overall equipment, and some categories with as little as ten parts to go into them, but most things are rather more uniquely suited to certain things than a lot of Dark Souls equipment is, and small tweaks can make a lot more difference in a game like Armored Core. Comparing stuff like equipment numbers in both games is a little apples and oranges, honestly. There's wildly different design philosophies behind the way each game handles its equipment. AC is far more comparable to Souls in other aspects of its design, enough that you can definitely tell just by gameplay that they're both made by the same studio. PSWII60 posted:This was the mission that made me stop trying to play without human plus. Making it across that pit as a teen was not fun and I refused to go for a super light build. Honestly, out of curiosity, I decided to make the most energy inefficient, tankiest thing possible and see if I could still make it. Turns out you can, and I'm dumb.  I stand by my statement about it being dumb though because the next time we end up here the game won't be nearly as kind as to give us a nice landing platform way below us.That said though, you NEED the ultra heavyweight high capacitance generator to have a hope of getting through there. And there's always Limiter Release, you know, assuming your controls allow you use it because we really needed to change the input didn't we  Edit: Christ this came out long. Sleeping all day and writing too many  about giant robot games. Spending a birthday like a champ.
ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Oct 20, 2016 |
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Oct 20, 2016 08:31
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ACES CURE PLANES posted:The worst AC missions are the ones that pidgeonhole you into specific things. Ugh, anything involving water was always the worst. It's the game pretty much saying "either equip floating legs or have fun in Davy Jones's Locker." And yeah, that canyon is a bunch of malarkey. Gimmicky levels like that look good on paper but end up just being frustrating.
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Oct 21, 2016 15:41
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Sortie 3 - "Another Age! Because gently caress you!" Once again we're (begrudgingly) joined by Zorak and nine-gear crow, as we hold a roundtable discussion on whether or not the Armored Core games have a place in modern AAA game development. And maybe blow some poo poo up, I dunno.   Pilot: Sun Bill AC: Doom Sayre Strengths: -Large missile and handgun is a solid strategic choice, assuming a mid to lightweight opponent -Good mobility and efficiency Weaknesses: -Low ammo supplies -Low damage output without large missile hits Strategy: For a one-on-on AC fight, this is actually a surprisingly solid design, at least in theory. Fire a slow moving large missile, dodge around the enemy hitting them with high knockback pistol shots until the large missile can catch up and ruin them. The problem lies in being unable to actually fire a new weapon until the large missile has finished reloading, leaving the opponent plenty of time to get away or crash the missile into something. As an AI opponent though, this guy is very much a joke. He uses his large missile so infrequently that it's rarely a concern, and his ultralight design means he's susceptible to being killed well before he can do any real damage with his pea shooter. Bring something with good knockback or high burst firepower, and he'll go down in seconds. So since Another Age made all sorts of balancing changes to the system mechanics, from here on out, our Garage segments will be talking through what makes a given category of parts useful, and to hopefully give you a better idea of how you might want to build your own AC. Because after all, this is a Let's Play. Of course, we've already talked about the most basic aspects of AC design, so we'll be focusing entirely on unique aspects to any given category. Weight, Energy Drain, Armor Points, and so on are beyond self explanatory. And so we'll be starting with the face of our AC - the Head.  For having the most amount of options possible, picking a head isn't nearly as complicated as it might seem. So let's break it down. Computer Type and Computer Voice are very much aesthetic factors, and determine what your AC's built in system voice sounds like, and what quality of additional information will be supplied in the rare instances where that happens in Another Age. For example, Rough would be low, tinny audio quality with very little to say, whereas Detailed would be very crisp and clear, and provide information on the loadout of an opposing AC. Obviously, these aren't particularly important statistically, but hey, who doesn't want a nice soothing computer voice after a mission? System Recovery and Auto Balancer are your 'status defense' and 'poise' stats, to put it in RPG terms. System Recovery determines how quickly your AC recovers from effects such as Jamming, whereas your Auto Balancer manages your Stability when taking fire or landing from a large height. While the number of Jamming effects in Another Age are incredibly limited, a good Auto Balancer can be incredibly important, especially if you prefer aerial combat or are fighting enemies like the punchbots. While a good Auto Balancer score won't save you if your legs aren't up to snuff, a good rating will keep you from being chained to death by some rear end in a top hat AC plinking at you with a pistol. Hacking Function and Noise Canceler are two strange, almost useless stats. While in Armored Core 2, a good Hacking rating at least allowed you access to a secret part, there are no such uses for it in Another Age, which kind of begs the question why even include it? Similarly, Noise Canceler functions clear visual and radar interference, but again, such situations are so limited in Another Age to make this stat almost pointless. C'mon, From, you've got over 100 missions here, you can at least bullshit some EM interference or something here. Map Type simply determines whether or not the head has a built in mapping function, which can be an absolute godsend for certain missions where it's easy to get lost or you have various mission targets. There are a number of different options a head can have for this: -None: No map function of any kind whatsoever -No Memory: You only are provided with a small map showing your immediate surroundings within a few feet, effectively no different than None. -Area Memory: Keeps a record of where you've been across the entire area -Area & Place Name: Same as Area Memory, but also shows Targets across the map, regardless of whether you've been to that area or not, allowing you to get your bearings much easier. Bio Sensor is poster child for functions you decry as useless until you suddenly really really wish you had them. Bio Sensors allow you to lock on to non-mechanical targets, such as bioweapons. Without it, you're stuck blindfiring and can suddenly find yourself having a very lovely day. Sensor Interval is another strange stat that makes me wonder what FromSoft was thinking with some of these. It determines how much downtime there is when you start up your AC until you can start actually locking on to and fighting targets. The number of times this comes into play I think is exactly three times over the entire game. The rest of the functions are shared by Radar units, so those will be saved until then, but suffice to say that radars built into heads generally have much lower refresh rates and shorter ranges than their back unit equivalents. But, all that said, what exactly should you use? Honestly, use whatever you like most aesthetically. Heads are one of those parts that you can swap around pretty freely and not feel too affected by them. Obviously, there's some things that are good to take into account, like a good Auto Balancer if you're going for a heavyweight or flying build, but overall, heads have very little variance in their basic stats. Have fun and play pretty princess dressup with your giant robot, it's okay. I'll bring the sequins. Look forward to next time, where a much more important part category has 200% less to say about it. Arena ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Nov 6, 2016 |
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Oct 23, 2016 20:15
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Oh my, the elevator DESPAIR is real, huh. Hope you get a break from them soon.
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Oct 23, 2016 21:50
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Ah, I was waiting for another age to start - this is the only one from the ps2 series I haven't played (although I never finished nexus and nine breaker, and don't know where my discs are for those anymore). I basically bought a ps2 for this series, and regret nothing - aside from the fact that giant robots are pretty cool, the customisation is pretty deep and fun, and the combat sits in this great sweet spot halfway between quake and mechwarrior. Not quite just walking tanks, but not quite twitch FPS either, just stompy enough.I think there's also quite a bit of overlap between the AC gameplay formula and old PC shooters like Tyrian or Raptor, and a little also with X-wing/TIE fighter. It's a while in the future but would you need another occasional guest commentator for 3/SL/LR? I never played AC4 or beyond, but have seen a bit of them and I kinda feel that while it's good that the devs are actively trying new things, it's sort of the wrong things they're focusing on changing. I feel that they could have done great things if they'd made less drastic changes to the feel/style of combat, and instead spent time on fixing the goddamn weapon/part balance and having more cohesion on the plot and characterisation side of things. I'm enjoying the Ace Combat LPs right now and the future corporate warfare stuff in electrosphere was giving me major armored core nostalgia; would it hurt if the plot and characters were fleshed out a bit more like in the ace combat games? Although I am aware this can backfire horribly, see Front Mission Evolved. Weirdly enough, I think an Armored Souls game could work pretty well. AC already has the variety of viable builds, limited ammo/HP, a conveniently postapocalyptic setting, and crazy difficulty is already a firmly set precedent. You could take the same sort of large connected world design as in the Souls games and replaced the bonfires/blacksmiths with little settlements equipped with AC garages and shops, but figuring out how to make the maps work could be difficult, given that ACs have a lot of vertical mobility. Maybe something like limiting your flight range but keeping up ground mobility by adding an energy-draining sprint function so you can still do an equivalent of the good old boost-hop. I can already imagine the messages next to gaping ravines saying "try overboost", and summoning mecha-solaire to help against some rear end in a top hat who just dropshipped into your game and is trying to gank you. [edit] nine-gear crow posted:President John Omaha vs. evil Speaker of the House Ryan Paulson and his second in command Senator Tad Crush. His mission control operator is his attractive, personable, and equally badass wife First Lady Martha Omaha. Crazy Achmed fucked around with this message at 11:46 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 11:40
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Sortie 4 - Old Avalon Joining me again today through a 'hilarious' series of scheduling errors is nine-gear crow once again. Join us as we take a glimpse into the levels of hatred this game can throw at the player. This time around, we've got a real glut of AC opponents to cover, so let's get straight to it:  Pilot: Zaltehook AC: Obyura Strengths: -A hilarious voice actor -Doesn't explode the second he touches the ground -Theoretically sound core AC design, could shine with some tweaks Weaknesses: -Hilariously incompetent pilot spends more time sitting in one place or blindfiring rockets than fighting to the AC's strengths -Target acquisition and potential energy issues Strategy: Zaltehook's first showing in the arena is an absolute farce. Instead of getting up close and personal with his triple rockets and energy machinegun, he likes to spend his time flying around on flight inefficient boosters and fighting from a distance. This makes him an ample target for multi missile systems, allowing an easy kill. So long as you stay on the move and don't let him get the chance to punch you in the face with his rockets, he can't keep up the pressure long enough to kill. He's most vulnerable when he lands from making an aerial attack, and will often come in too hot and get himself stunned, so that's when you should unload your big guns into him.  Pilot: Zaltehook AC: Obyura Kai Strengths: -Human PLUS makes up for a lot of shortcomings -Weapon choice much more suited to pilot's strategy -Ground torpedoes work well with flying strategy to counteract most anti-missile systems Weaknesses: -Gets stuck on scenery a lot, will often dump torpedoes into the ground when he's on the upper shelf of the Arena Strategy: The danger of this fight is less Zaltehook himself and more the handicap he's given. Which is to say, if he weren't basically cheating, he wouldn't be particularly harder. The main concerns are avoiding his ground torpedoes while simultaneously keeping out of the way of the ceiling-mounted turrets. The turrets can be destroyed easily, but make sure that he doesn't get the chance to get some cheap hits in on you while you're preoccupied. Since the previous fight, he's gotten all Human PLUS'd up, so he can fire energy beams from his blade and fly for an impressive amount of time, so bring something with a large sight lock, and leave the missiles at home, since he's learned his lesson and loaded up on anti-missile extensions.  Pilot: Soul AC: Venom Strengths: -Ludicrously high burst damage and high accuracy -Very high defense Weaknesses: -Slow, with a booster focused on efficiency rather than speed, easy to keep a bead on with rapid fire weapons or missile systems  Pilot: Scalp Lock AC: Niten Strengths: -Exceptionally mobile, with a high efficiency booster allow him to stay on the evasive or offensive for extended periods Weaknesses: -Exceptionally frail, with few ranged offensive options. Exists entirely as close range support to Soul. Strategy: These two make a very very mean team together. Venom is bristling with firepower, and Niten is fast and makes a great support unit when you're too concerned with trying to hide from storms of missiles. The immediate priority should be to stop Soul from peppering you with missiles at any cost, as having 12 missiles at on your rear end can ruin your day extremely quickly. Anti-missile extensions are a must, and all offense that you can muster should be unloaded into his face as soon as possible. If you can get around to his back with an overboost, his slow speed and the general ineffectiveness of his missile launchers at close range make him much less scary, even if it does open you up to bazooka retaliation. Making use of the pillars until he dumps his ammo is another good tactic, just keep an eye out for Scalp Lock. Once Soul is out of the picture, Scalp Lock is a joke. Niten's offense being entirely limited to his low ammo orbit dispensers and blade arms means that without Soul to bring the real heat, he can't do much so long as you keep on your toes and watch for his blades. The main concern is having enough ammo after whittling down all of Venom's AP, but if worst comes to worst, a good old fashioned knife fight can't hurt. Just punish the recovery on his whiffed blade attempts and you'll beat him handily. ACES CURE PLANES fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Nov 5, 2016 |
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Oct 31, 2016 01:25
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So you may notice a new section. No, it's not going to be called Arena from here on, but I'm throwing around ideas on what to call it, and I'll be going a bit more into depth on various enemies we fight in the game. I'll go back and retroactively apply it to the older posts, but when I do, I'll copy it into a new one so nobody has to go digging up this page in case they really want to see it for some reason.
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Oct 31, 2016 01:29
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My vote goes for Junkyard
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Oct 31, 2016 02:02
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"Scrappin'"
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Oct 31, 2016 22:51
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Sortie 5 - "Best security system ever" Today I'm joined by noted renaissance man GOTTA STAY FAI, inbetween his excursions as a baptist preacher, celebrity chef, and duties as the deity of Radio Voice given flesh. Today we'll be exploring some fascinating areas, filled with deeply profound and moving people. Or not, who knows?   Pilot: Blue Hand AC: Flamberge Strengths: -Decent close up damage between MOONLIGHT and a shotgun -Decent armor despite his mobility -At least a little PLUS, given that his missile interception is ludicrously high despite not having any actual anti-missile defenses mounted on his Extensions Weaknesses: -Almost entirely refuses to use his blade or get up real close and personal, making his setup almost entirely pointless -Tendency to fly around gets him locked up on walls in a cramped area like where you fight him Strategy: If he decides to get up in your face and actually make proper use of his tools, he can do some hilarious damage to you in no time flat. However, he rarely if ever does that, preferring to pepper you with a handful of his shotgun pellets instead of getting up close and making them count. The best thing to do is to engage at a distance, and if necessary, put the barrier in the arena between you and him because he has problems dealing with it, and poke at him while he tries to untangle himself. He hardly has any AP, so he'll go down in no time flat. Just be careful not to bring too many missiles along because his PLUS amplifies his Core's anti-missile systems handily.  Pilot: Brumaire AC: Indigo Gazelle Strengths: -Carries a number of lightweight and rapid fire energy weapons -Decent mobility Weaknesses: -Severe energy consumption problems, even assuming the optimal undefined equipment -Carries a pulse cannon with hover legs, meaning he needs to sit in place to fire it since he's not PLUS Strategy: Brumaire's main strategy is to float around you to hopefully get to your back to land some shots with his energy weapons, and he'll often throw in a few overboosts to get an advantage. However, his overzealous use of energy leaves him with some severe problems actually getting shots off. Circle around him opposite of his movement, and he'll gladly let you dump whatever you feel like into his face with no complaints. Rinse and repeat until you have a dead AC. Zearm Desert
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Nov 6, 2016 00:09
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And in addition to today's early post, I finally got around to updating The Junkyard sections for all of our previous episodes. Thankfully(?) the thread hasn't advanced even a single page since I started this a month ago, so it's all right here for your reading 'pleasure' [citation needed]
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Nov 6, 2016 04:08
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Please, please do more AC advertisements. I'm not sure about the peg legs, but you do at least get swords or a sort, and cannons. As a matter of fact, is the RH grenade launcher in this game? If so you need to make a heavy (for extra pegleg-like hobbling), a blade, the cannon, and maybe the orbit cannon on your back? It's kinda like some sort of attack parrot, I guess.
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Nov 6, 2016 11:06
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AC advertisements. Perfect. (Also I love the kinda peppy OST while evading the exploding base or rushing against the horrible corrosive gas.)
SIGSEGV fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Nov 7, 2016 |
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Nov 7, 2016 10:07
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No, I did that elevator mission in a heavy core, you just ain't doing it right.
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Nov 7, 2016 17:34
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