My god these games are my life (or close enough), though "recent" iterations (4/for answer and 5/verdict day) the game has been more online focused than story focused (though for answer had the best story of the 4 new-gen games).
As for builds I have a rather nasty heavy build using Argyos parts i think it was that with a bit of engine tweaking gives me nearly infinite energy for flying. Not bad for a tank .
Also Gatling Cannons. Seriously mount two, 1000 ammo each with a fast lock-on computer and the amount of dakka is ungodly (The GC's are kinda broken in each game anyway to be fair).
At the moment, I'm using an energy weapon ones (started with Interior Union) though I need specialised builds for some missions. The main one I use in the Collared and Orca matches is:
48AN Head (BFF)
Ekhazer Core (Algebra)
Tellus Arms (Interior)
Tellus Legs (Interior)
2 x Sirius Hi-Laser Rifle (Interior)
Back Boosters (Omer)
Flares (BFF or Algebra ones)
INBLUE or Lahire FCS (Akva Vit / Omer respectively)
Can't remember which boosters and generator I use though. I think I might need to rebuild to fly better.
I did Gatling Cannons and they were really good for missions, though I am thinking of making a light build.
Well heres the "super fly heavy" build. Its fine if your bad with the controls or just a general unit, but it isn't fast. More of an endurance racer than a sprinter.
Head- Hilbert G7H
core- Argyros/C
arms- Argyros/A
legs- Argyros/L
FCS- Inblue (for lock speed) or Laura (low EN cost amd good range)
generator-Argyros/G
Mainboost- Mb107 polaris
backboost- ekhazar- legb
sideboost- 03 aaliyah/s
overedboost- argyros/ao (for good AA burst without hurting thrust too much. if you want speed then the gan01-ss-o.cg is ok but with how tankish it is anyway...meh preferece.)
weapons depend on my mood. if its a BS mission like the hard glint mission dual gatling with in blue and dakka. anything else though depends on my mood.
I owned several of the earlier games, but the last one I owned myself was AC: Last Raven. I've played AC5 at my brother's house, and it was alright...kinda rough around the edges, though. I've been wanting to play Verdict Day...if it's cheap on Amazon, I'll pick it up!
Edit - Looks like most of the games are fairly cheap on Amazon, especially the PS2 ones that I didn't get a chance to play. Looks like I'm getting some games! Haha.
Daba wrote: I beat the Fort Answerer, though I had to buy parts to make a stock Latuna armed with only Laser Blades and Flares...
What do you think is the best starting kit in FA? GA, Interior, Omer or Independent?
If you have the Pilebunkers they work better. Equip two then burst up to where the wierd wing things connect to the body in the T shape, right at the corner? Hit both bunkers in the right spot it goes down straight away unless your on hard. Normal Mission S rank in like 20 seconds
And the starting kit i'v really not noticed much difference, you replace most of it pretty fast anyway one way or another. Maybe Independent lagging behind the others slightly is all : s I think it's one of those things that are down to preference.
mega_bassist wrote: I owned several of the earlier games, but the last one I owned myself was AC: Last Raven. I've played AC5 at my brother's house, and it was alright...kinda rough around the edges, though. I've been wanting to play Verdict Day...if it's cheap on Amazon, I'll pick it up!
Edit - Looks like most of the games are fairly cheap on Amazon, especially the PS2 ones that I didn't get a chance to play. Looks like I'm getting some games! Haha.
Mega_bassist local trade in game store had the PS2 games for £0.50-£1 each, and they've been known to OVER charge.
I played the hell out of Nexus which was the first one I got. I stopped because I ran out of stuff to do. I've also played 3, Silent Line, and Last Raven and I remember 3 being my favorite one overall. Last Raven was fething difficult, and no matter what game I played, I wasn't very agile and always ended up with a tank chassis with big guns.
BTW my user name is taken from an NPC armored core from Nexus.
For Answer was an overly fast, and with the presence of lag-bladers, it made for a pretty broken mess too.
That said, once you got past said lag-bladers, it could be pretty fun. I used to go up against some Japanese players, and they're crazy good.
Verdict Day is probably top form for the series, even if it is a bit slower. The multiplayer is great (I'm guilty of not playing in a while, pokemon kind of took over my videogame time), and the mechanics really reward skillful and tactical play.
I've had great success as a high-speed sniper hunter/interceptor. Was actually one of the top 20 mercs on the international server before I stopped playing. Good times.
If someone wanted to throw together a Dakka team, I'd be down.
Just remember that skill in both building and playing makes people cry.
Don't remind me. I'd always end up doing mercenary work, because my team just... wasn't good. There were a few decent ravens, but for the most part, it was like being dragged through glass. You try as hard as you can to keep people afloat, but they just keep sinking lower and lower.
I remember one guy wanted to take up the whole interception role while he was in a squad with me. I had to keep fixing his build for him (because he'd keep changing it), and even then, there wasn't much I could do but watch from the sidelines as he'd rush in and get totally obliterated, no matter what I told him, or how many times I told him (it also doesn't help that I'm not very good at piloting heavy ACs, which was all I was left with).
People watch you zoom around, taking out ACs left and right, and think that it must be pretty easy and that they could do it right off the bat. They don't realize that there's a lot more that goes into it than just moving fast and plinking things.
For what it's worth, all four of those guys are pretty awful. With the exception of the Quad, all of them had piss poor armour that was begging to be torn to pieces by a BR. That wouldn't be so bad, except none of them even tried to dodge.
You don't try to damage race an HRJ (especially that set of legs) with BRs when your armour is ~500.
So much for that 2000+ KE resist. No point in even investing that high, all it stops are the weakest of sniper rifles at that point. If your KE is higher than 1784, you're wasting it.
That quad wasn't very good either, although it didn't help that that team had absolutely no coordination (let's rush the guy one at a time!).
Jeez, I remember spending oodles of time switching and customizing my ACs. No matter how I had something set up, I always found some kind of flaw with it lol.
...time to go home and grind through some Last Raven. Feth, that game is unforgiving.
It's always remained a mystery to me how this game never made it to tabletop. Even as generic "not" models or anything, because dang some of the builds are pretty.
doc1234 wrote: It's always remained a mystery to me how this game never made it to tabletop. Even as generic "not" models or anything, because dang some of the builds are pretty.
Yeah, that would be amazing. There are model kits, but they're quite pricy and probably too large in scale for gaming.
I recently discovered that you can make your own emblem, so was up until 1am last night making the emblem for 'Grengold', eventually settling for a gold leaf wrapped in thorns.
I've ordered VD, and I might look at some of the PS2 games, but the drive mechanism on my old PS2 is getting a bit dodgy these days.
Got both Collared and Orca endings now, I guess it's time to do the Hardmode missions?
I did the entire lot without using any of that RAM stuff, and when I loaded some of the NPC schematics, found they heavily use it! I might spend some seeing that I have some now.
Yeah, that would be amazing. There are model kits, but they're quite pricy and probably too large in scale for gaming.
I used to have a few, but had to get rid of them, since I had no place to put them. They're absolutely gorgeous, but at around 8 inches tall, not something that would work well on the tabletop.
I recently discovered that you can make your own emblem, so was up until 1am last night making the emblem for 'Grengold', eventually settling for a gold leaf wrapped in thorns.
I was quite fond of my emblem, but I ended up doing some merc missions where people would drop me the moment they saw my emblem. Got even funnier when I ended up on the opposing team and completely swept a lot of them.
I've ordered VD, and I might look at some of the PS2 games, but the drive mechanism on my old PS2 is getting a bit dodgy these days.
VD and the PS2 era games are a completely different beast from AC4/a. Expect a game that's a lot slower and more tactical. VD is easily my favourite in the series, mechanics wise, but some of the missions in the older games are absolutely fantastic. Nothing quite beats the mission from Silent Line where you're flying around a military base, shooting up enemies, while a satellite cannon is blasting down on you from space.
As far as controls are concerned, anything from Silent Line and earlier might prove... difficult.
Got both Collared and Orca endings now, I guess it's time to do the Hardmode missions?
You're still missing the Old King ending. It's really, really hard.
The closest thing to a story in any AC game is knowing that if you see a guy with a "9" on his emblem, you better get the hell away.
Also: satellite cannons
That said, as far as the older AC games are concerned, my favourites are Silent Line and Last Raven. Silent Line had the best story missions (Remember: satellite cannons), and Last Raven perfected the old AC formula.
And keep in mind, the best ravens look with their shoulders.
Also, does anyone else appreciate the amazing music in the AC games? 4/a had the best soundtrack(s) in the series (despite being from a videogame OST, "Thinker" could easily make it into my top 20 favourite tracks), but every one of them is worth listening to. It's a sound that's just so unique.
Khota Hoshino, the guy who does most of the music, leads a group called FreQuency, which does reprises of AC tracks. They have two albums out (Armored Core Reprises and Sunrise), both of which are fantastic.
I'll agree, the mechanics were quite clunky...but the first Armored Core was one of my favorite PS1 games. Can't get much worse than that! From what I played on ACV, I was liking the new control scheme, but it was just so different than what I was used to.
@Fafnir didnt know that about the music, will have to look then up later
Honestly the story has always been one of those things where you can leave it or read further into it. That said 5 and 4 seemed to have had the weakest of stories (as such as they are).
Also Oldking ending is best ending. His count down always gets me heh.
mega_bassist wrote: I'll agree, the mechanics were quite clunky...but the first Armored Core was one of my favorite PS1 games. Can't get much worse than that! From what I played on ACV, I was liking the new control scheme, but it was just so different than what I was used to.
ACV/VD's default control layout is awful. Thankfully, you can remap everything.
mega_bassist wrote: I'll agree, the mechanics were quite clunky...but the first Armored Core was one of my favorite PS1 games. Can't get much worse than that! From what I played on ACV, I was liking the new control scheme, but it was just so different than what I was used to.
ACV/VD's default control layout is awful. Thankfully, you can remap everything.
I would assume I was playing a re-mapped control scheme since they seemed quite fluid.
mega_bassist wrote: I'll agree, the mechanics were quite clunky...but the first Armored Core was one of my favorite PS1 games. Can't get much worse than that! From what I played on ACV, I was liking the new control scheme, but it was just so different than what I was used to.
ACV/VD's default control layout is awful. Thankfully, you can remap everything.
Have to disagree there, I always rocked the default and never had any problems with it.
Also, fully agree with your oppinion on the soundtrack.
L1: fire left weapon
R1: fire right weapon
L2: jump
R2: high boost (no second staging anymore, but it still feels right)
L3: activate shoulder unit/weapon
R3: toggle scan mode/combat mode
X: turn booster on/off
Square: deploy recon unit
Triangle: Switch weapons
Circle: glide boost
The R buttons, which are the ones your fingers will have the quickest access to, should have the functions that are most timing dependent and generally important.
It's too difficult to use a lot of important functions at the same time with the default scheme, and drifting becomes too much of a hassle.
X is used to toggle boosters because it can most easily be accessed with minimal movement from the 'default' position.
doc1234 wrote: Now i'm curious as to how keyboard and mouse would do with it.
Despite the fact that I am a PC gamer, Armored Core is one of those games that wouldn't gain a whole lot from moving over to M&K, which is surprising, considering that at its core, it is a shooter.
In most shooters, your ability to look around is limited by your movement of the mouse. How fast you can react with the mouse is how fast you'll react in the game. But in the case of AC, your ability to look around is based on your turning ability. The game is very much built up around its method of control, unlike most shooters, which have to struggle to make dual analog (or shoulder based looking... oldschool ACftw) work. Additionally, the aiming accuracy granted by M&K doesn't really help much in AC (except for ready position weapons), since aiming is built around the FCS, which does most of the work anyway. To make matters worse, not only does M&K not really gain you much, but you end up losing a lot of precision in actual movement that is pretty much required to pilot an AC competently. Drifting alone would become a nightmare.
Because of the way the controls work in AC to more specifically reflect the controller the games are built around, as well as the robotic nature of the ACs themselves, M&K would just end up feeling really awkward and unintuitive. Although I'd appreciate a PC port, it's a game that I'd definitely plug in a controller for.
L1: fire left weapon
R1: fire right weapon
L2: jump
R2: high boost (no second staging anymore, but it still feels right)
L3: activate shoulder unit/weapon
R3: toggle scan mode/combat mode
X: turn booster on/off
Square: deploy recon unit
Triangle: Switch weapons
Circle: glide boost
The R buttons, which are the ones your fingers will have the quickest access to, should have the functions that are most timing dependent and generally important.
It's too difficult to use a lot of important functions at the same time with the default scheme, and drifting becomes too much of a hassle.
X is used to toggle boosters because it can most easily be accessed with minimal movement from the 'default' position.
That's sort of similar to 'standard-B' in 4 isn't it?
I went from playing Dark Souls, so using the shoulders to attack with both thumbs on the stick was kind of natural to me. I take it the High Boost is the closest to quickboost?
Yes, high boost is essentially quickboost. There are some changes (you don't accelerate quite as fast, it takes considerably more energy, and has a longer cooldown), but the function is much the same.
Also, for anyone that played 4a, the final boss of VD is amazing.
Fafnir wrote: Yes, high boost is essentially quickboost. There are some changes (you don't accelerate quite as fast, it takes considerably more energy, and has a longer cooldown), but the function is much the same.
Also, for anyone that played 4a, the final boss of VD is amazing.
If I remember correctly, it's not really worth it, there's not much in the way of worthwhile rewards for doing it, just a funky looking stabilizer (on the topic of stabilizers, I miss them in VD, they were cool).
That said, if you intend on doing it anyway (good luck doing the King ending on hard mode), I'd recommend not getting hit, and hitting them until they die.
Hmm, I'll probably just attempt to complete them then, though I did get some S Ranks on hard and got an extra FRS memory to play with; over all the missions I guess that's 42? (but that is a massive pain to do).
Hopefully VD will arrive soon as I ordered it. I got V for quite cheap so I'm playing around with that. Going from a 4A NEXT to a 'normal' is an eye opener, and I can't dodge as well and the screen gets funky when you get hit.
Daba wrote: Hmm, I'll probably just attempt to complete them then, though I did get some S Ranks on hard and got an extra FRS memory to play with; over all the missions I guess that's 42? (but that is a massive pain to do).
Oh, forgot about those. Honestly, I just ended up downloading a completed save file by that point. I was more interested in multiplayer.
Hopefully VD will arrive soon as I ordered it. I got V for quite cheap so I'm playing around with that. Going from a 4A NEXT to a 'normal' is an eye opener, and I can't dodge as well and the screen gets funky when you get hit.
Get used to using the terrain to your advantage. You can't just boost around like crazy anymore. And in any situation when you're not firing your weapon, you should be in scan mode (hell, if you're using a weapon with long reload times, like a sniper rifle, you should be in scan mode between shots). And get used to constantly having recon units deployed. People who aren't using their recon units are free kills for me.
Depends on what you're doing, and what you're comfortable with.
I like the ones that hover above you, since I move around a lot, and being able to fire and forget is great when you're doing a high-speed hit-and-run interception, and need to know what's around you at any given point in time, especially when you need to make a quick escape (being able to tell whether there's an enemy waiting behind the wall or not is pretty important when your AC is a rocket held together with duct-tape and bubblegum). Obviously though, they can only keep track of the area around you.
Sticky can be useful for scouting, since you can fire them as far away as you need to. Operators love them, since liberal placement essentially lights up the entire map for them. That said, they tend to run out a lot faster, since you tend to have more than one out at once, and tend to cover multiple areas. Additionally, it's harder to keep more constant and consistent track of your own area, since you have to keep one out wherever you go.
Also worth noting that if you can manage to land a sticky on an AC (unlikely as it is), it'll stay on them. So you can stick an enemy AC, and get full view of their actions, as well as their teammates.
The stationary ones aren't really worth using, in my opinion.
My copy of VD arrived... Hopefully I can get some of my friends to get it so we can set up a team.
Your guide seems pretty good, though any reason you posted it on the board rather than make a .txt FAQ? I found those old .txt FAQs quite handy for older games, but they aren't so common now.
Daba wrote: In VD, are normal sorties just regular multiplayer matches?
It's been a while since I've actually played, but yes, regular multiplayer matches. Typically 4v4, with option for an operator on each side.
I haven't tried any multiplayer yet, but I'm not feeling too familiar with the style of game at the moment.
Above all else, this is a team game. Be aware of where your opponents are, and what they're doing whenever possible. You'll want to move in relation to your allies just as much as your enemies. For example, as someone taking the role of the team's 'assassin,' I won't commit to attacking an enemy until either my team has moved in and made it difficult for my enemies to keep track of me, or an enemy has moved far enough out of formation that I can easily jump in, take him out, and jump back into cover with impunity.
With that in mind, every member on a decent team will have a role. As I said above, I tend to take the role of isolating enemy weakpoints and taking them out, essentially the role of an assassin or interceptor. If I can take out a light AC that's harassing my team's tank, or quickly cripple the enemy tank, then the dismantling the rest becomes much easier.
Similarly, I need my allies to cover any mobile TE-resistant bruisers that are on the opposing force, since my weaponry and light frame can't typically deal with them efficiently.
To that end, you need to know what your ideal targets are, and how to prioritize them. If you're a bruiser, even though your weaponry should be able to punch through most anything, your primary concern should be taking down threats that come the way of your tank. On the other hand, while a dual-sniper support unit can do a considerable amount of damage to just about anything, their best used spending their time and valuable ammunition to lock down the enemy tank, who can't do much in response on his or her own.
A bruiser who wastes his time trying to attack an enemy tank will end up losing a damage race and not serving much use to his tank, who will be picked off by riflemen with little effort, while a dual-sniper support who tries to go after lightweight interceptors without a significant edge in positioning will find themselves wasting ammo and significantly out-matched, if not ignored entirely while the rest of their team falls to pieces.
Also, the early missions seem much harder than the few in V (maybe because there's no easy garage in it?).
While there's no mid-mission garage in VD, the missions are quite a bit shorter. That said, some of the missions will end up being considerably harder than what you've faced in V. I'd say this ranks somewhere along the same lines of Last Raven in terms of difficulty, which is one of the harder games in the franchise.
In Story mode, would you specialise and make a build as you would for multiplayer, or would that be unsuitable?
This tends to vary, and you'll probably want to customize more specifically for some missions. That said, I find a combination of a good rifle, battle rifle, and pulse machine gun on a decently mobile frame acts as a pretty reliable way to get through almost any encounter you get into. Better yet, while PMGs aren't particularly good weapons outside of single player, rifles and battle rifles are both great in pretty much any situation, and standard weaponry that it pays to get used to using.
I might get this soon. I might do this anyway because it's what I did in the PS2 games, but does going full tank with two machine guns, a plasma cannon, and a grenade launcher really work in this game?
Wilytank wrote: I might get this soon. I might do this anyway because it's what I did in the PS2 games, but does going full tank with two machine guns, a plasma cannon, and a grenade launcher really work in this game?
Well, no, because the whole back weapon system has changed and grenade cannons aren't in the game. That said, you do get autocannons and pulse cannons.
Absolutely. Just keep in mind that all that firepower and durability won't be ignored, and you'll often have the entire enemy team gunning to take you down. It also doesn't help that any donkey-cave with a pilebunker can take you down in one or two hits, and that dual-sniper rifle lightweights can handle you pretty effortlessly. So you have to rely quite a bit on your teammates to help control the fight so you can lay down the law.
Also, grenade launchers as you know them may be gone, but don't worry, they've gained new incarnations in the form of autocannons, HEAT cannons, and HEAT howitzers.
EDIT: For anyone playing on the PS3, I wouldn't mind joining in and helping you guys pick up the basics. My PSN is TheManingrey, and my ACVD ID is Wintermute. I fired up the PS3 for the first time in a while last night, although I it looked like the ACVD servers went down before I could do any sorties. I'm a little rusty, but I should still be able to clean up pretty well.
Unfortunately I'm on 360, but your guides have been really helpful.
Is there any way of quickly analysing the data you get from the scan? Can you know the weaknesses/defences of something really quickly (looking a Soladrin's video, it looks like he glances at each of the scans briefly, then goes on to demolish that team)?
Speaking of whom, I swear in V I saw a weapon in the 'Buy New Parts' menu that had Soladrin's name on...
Daba wrote: Unfortunately I'm on 360, but your guides have been really helpful.
Is there any way of quickly analysing the data you get from the scan? Can you know the weaknesses/defences of something really quickly (looking a Soladrin's video, it looks like he glances at each of the scans briefly, then goes on to demolish that team)?
Speaking of whom, I swear in V I saw a weapon in the 'Buy New Parts' menu that had Soladrin's name on...
Hah. who knows, I do play 360 though.
And yeah, just famliarize yourself with the scan info lay out, the defense stats are on the top part really easy read.
Should be listed as:
KE: xxxx
CE: xxxx
TE: xxxx
Just remember what weapon types you are using and switch accordingly.
If your weapon's attack power is higher than the enemy defensive value, you'll do decent damage. If it's lower, then the damage will be drastically reduced. You'll also receive a notice saying "ineffective."
(P = Weapon Power, D = Defense Rating)
Effective:
Damage = P * (0.8 - 0.00016D)
Ineffective:
Damage = P * (.25 - 0.00002D)
It's for this reason that I don't consider gatling guns to be very good outside of singleplayer. Since everything will have enough KE defense to deflect them, the damage they do tends to be quite low, even against light targets. And while it can add up over time, you're better off using weapons that can guarantee damage without having to damage race at a disadvantage.
I have loved every AC game up until V. I put a lot of hours into 4, For Answer and others. V I just feel like it was too much change for me. Some love it and that is fine.
Wilytank wrote: I got Verdict Day yesterday and am failing every mission I try. :/
If it's the Guards (can't remember their exact name, but they're the cannon fodder with high defences [1800+ in all areas IIRC] and shields), the Battle Rifle you can buy from the shop tuned entirely for power defeats their armour, or you could try laserblading them.
First, if you're having trouble controlling your AC, I'd recommend switching over to a more user-friendly control scheme, such as the one I mentioned above:
L1: fire left weapon
R1: fire right weapon
L2: jump
R2: high boost (no second staging anymore, but it still feels right)
L3: activate shoulder unit/weapon
R3: toggle scan mode/combat mode
X: turn booster on/off
Square: deploy recon unit
Triangle: Switch weapons
Circle: glide boost
This will give you much more precision and better ease-of-use of your AC, allowing you to concentrate on the actual battle at hand.
For the missions themselves, I'd generally recommend a mobile, midweight AC. That way, you can get a decent amount of bulk to last the long haul, while also being able to carry a variable arsenal and dodging attacks.
Being able to dodge is important, since some missions will draw on for a while, or require you to fight multiple ACs at once, or over the course of a mission. In those instances, pure bulk won't usually be enough to get you through, since you can and will eventually be worn down.
For weaponry, unless you know the specifics of each mission, a well-rounded mix of rifle, battle rifle, and pulse machine gun can get you through most sorties reliably. However, on some missions you'll have to be more prepared. Be ready to customize your AC to handle a specific mission.
Tuning varies, but I tend to go with full power for most of my weapons, since not only does it increase damage, making it easier to punch through armour (this is very important), it also helps to increase range.
I'm typically not a fan of the rapid fire option, personally.
Blades do gain benefits from the other tuning options. Rapid fire allows a blade to be used again faster, and if I remember correctly, accuracy increases the blade length for laser blades.
Physical blades and HEAT piles have no reason not to invest in full power.
As for having two shoulder units, it simply doubles the function of your shoulders.
For example, if you have a missile launcher installed on an AC with two shoulder units, you'll fire twice as many missiles as you would with one shoulder unit. Keep in mind, however, that you still carry the same amount of ammo.
Similarly, the effects of subcomputers are doubled, as well as the effects of EN amplifiers.
It's worth noting that, for EN amplifiers, the effects are multiplicative.
Normally, with the Yakumo mdl.2 amp, you get an EN attack power enhancement of 1.35, with a rate of increased energy per shot of 1.80.
If you run dual shoulders, you get a final EN attack power enhancement of 1.8225, NOT 1.70, and a whopping increased energy usage per shot of 3.24.
As for why you'd ever use dual EN amps when they multiply your weapons' energy usage by more than 3 times over for only an 80% increase in damage, this increase is done before resistance, meaning a weapon that previously couldn't may now be able to punch through enemy armour.
Fafnir wrote: Tuning varies, but I tend to go with full power for most of my weapons, since not only does it increase damage, making it easier to punch through armour (this is very important), it also helps to increase range.
I'm typically not a fan of the rapid fire option, personally.
Blades do gain benefits from the other tuning options. Rapid fire allows a blade to be used again faster, and if I remember correctly, accuracy increases the blade length for laser blades.
Physical blades and HEAT piles have no reason not to invest in full power.
As for having two shoulder units, it simply doubles the function of your shoulders.
For example, if you have a missile launcher installed on an AC with two shoulder units, you'll fire twice as many missiles as you would with one shoulder unit. Keep in mind, however, that you still carry the same amount of ammo.
Similarly, the effects of subcomputers are doubled, as well as the effects of EN amplifiers.
It's worth noting that, for EN amplifiers, the effects are multiplicative.
Normally, with the Yakumo mdl.2 amp, you get an EN attack power enhancement of 1.35, with a rate of increased energy per shot of 1.80.
If you run dual shoulders, you get a final EN attack power enhancement of 1.8225, NOT 1.70, and a whopping increased energy usage per shot of 3.24.
As for why you'd ever use dual EN amps when they multiply your weapons' energy usage by more than 3 times over for only an 80% increase in damage, this increase is done before resistance, meaning a weapon that previously couldn't may now be able to punch through enemy armour.
I just passed level 8. 7.6 (I think it's that one) was pretty tough, with two of those bosses coming after the suicide drones, one of which was the chapter boss for 4, where you had a load of AI support to fight that one, and the terrain is more in your favour then too!
As I'm gathering more gear, I'm going to try making some builds. It is generally better to have all round defence values, or go for two high value ones or does it depend on the rest of the build?
Daba wrote: Do Laser Rifles do damage without the charging?
Yes, but obviously not nearly as much. The values you see listed in the weapon's stat pages are for a fully charged shot.
As I'm gathering more gear, I'm going to try making some builds. It is generally better to have all round defence values, or go for two high value ones or does it depend on the rest of the build?
Depends on how you build the rest of your AC. If you're going to build a lightweight, high mobility AC, then speed is armour (although having the defenses to block gatlings and other weapons that would be able to hit you fairly reliably is important). On the other hand, a heavy biped/tank AC is going to need resistances covering each damage type, since they don't have that mobility.
Heavy reverse joints and tetrapods are going to have trouble making their TE resist anything worthwhile, no matter how you build them. This isn't too bad for a tetrapod sniper, since they tend to have an ideal range that's too far for most energy weapons to be effective anyway (although if someone comes up to you with a pulse gun, and you don't have any friendlies nearby, you're in huge trouble).
When considering an AC's armour types, it's important to figure out what breakpoints you want to reach. Every 500 points of resistance will cut damage done to you by around 8%, so every little bit helps, but in order to get the most efficiency out of your armour, you'll want to hit the breakpoints that will turn enemy weaponry ineffective. This is especially important for heavies/tanks. The highest breakpoints I'd suggest are (note that these may be outdated with the balance patches, and only apply to the initial release version):
KE defense breakpoints
~900KE: Deflects gatlings (one or two might be able to creep past 900, don't have the numbers on me at this moment), small shotguns
~1200KE: Deflects small rifles, handguns, most small/med KE missiles
~1784: Deflects the strongest conventional rifle (highest reasonable point to deflect small arms, as far as I can tell at this point)
You have a bit of leeway with KE weapons, since their attack power decreases with range. There are higher breakpoints in the 2000's range and up that go on to block sniper rifles, although past a certain point, it becomes difficult to invest in KE defense in a worthwhile manner without harshly compromising your other defensive values, since most KE parts are specialized for lighter ACs. KE is probably the most common and easily raised defensive stat you'll run into, with low impact, high mobility parts that can be used by ACs of any type.
CE defense breakpoints
~1000CE: Deflects HEAT machine guns
~1400CE: Deflects most HEAT small/med missiles
~2036: Deflects the triple shot battle rifle
~2519: Deflects the strongest battle rifle
Unlike KE weapons, which decay over range, CE weapons tend to stay mostly the same. So these numbers are 'harder.'
After 2519, there's not much that can be reasonably deflected.
CE defensive parts tend to have very high performance, at the cost of high weight and drain. This makes it harder to incorporate into a build than KE defense, but still fairly common.
TE weaponry falls off similarly to KE weapons, but they fall of a bit differently, with TE weapons dropping off sharply past a certain point.
Also keep in mind that TE weapons can have their attack power boosted through EN amplifiers.
While it becomes difficult to deflect higher end TE attacks, due to the wide breadth of very powerful TE weaponry, high TE defense is always valuable, and even when not deflecting attacks, the reduction granted against even the most powerful TE attacks from high TE defenses is invaluable.
TE defense is probably the hardest defensive value to raise, since short of legs, most TE body parts tend to be quite poor outside of their AP and TE defense values.
I'd say so. Classic AC definitely has its own nuances, but with all the new stats, as well as mechanics like high boost, drifting, more creative use of terrain, and the like, ACVD adds a whole lot to the pile that really expands on how AC plays.
AC4/fa could be pretty fun at times, but all too often it would end up a spammy twitchfest. If you wanted to play a good match of AC4/fa, you pretty much had to go against the Japanese players (although they were crazy good, even if they couldn't build a decent AC to save their lives). That said, I really miss stabilizers, they were pretty cool.
White Glint wannabe; is it basically a NEXT compared with your Normal? It sort of feels that way, with his Assault Armour one-hitting you, and his Kojima particles. Haven't beat him yet though.
Also, screenshots:
posing with chainswords (well, a lookalike when they're not on) there.
Beat the final boss. The Kojima particles it emits puts a sort of clock on you.
Knowing how much Namco Bandai hates both Armored Core (let's face it, they only entered into a publishing contract with Fromsoftware for the Souls games) and their Western consumer base, probably not for a long time.
The original ACV community ended up all but dying out thanks to Namco Bandai deciding to do next to nothing for the international servers.
That's kind of annoying, though I guess I will try and ride the pulseguns in the meantime if I go online when I'm back.
On the other hand, I have the opportunity to buy some of the model kits... I already got a Tellus (which was my starting choice in 4/A).. now to choose possibly one more..
From the poorly translated patch notes I saw, the only changes to pulse guns are an increased spread in one update, and lowered weight in another.
Certainly not enough to kill them by any means. You just need to make sure you're as close as you can get before you fire your shot.
Were they used with great effect with energy amps? Those are being reduced in effectiveness (that combined with the EN cost they add which isn't changing, mean they probably become useless) [the amps, not the pulse guns that is]
gak. I use amps/pulse guns for my main AC.
Looks like the drop in effectiveness is from 135% to 121%. That's pretty significant, especially considering that the cost is still going to remain at 180%.
It can mean the difference between killing an enemy in 2 vollies and 3 vollies (with how much energy pulse guns under amps take up, that can be huge).
More importantly, it makes it easier to hit the breakpoint that would make the damage of pulse guns ineffective, effectively castrating them (pulse guns really, really, really do not handle high TE defense well).
That said, it still shouldn't be too difficult to reach the offensive values that can punish most lights/mids/RJs/quads, and that's what matters most. Pulse guns will always be garbage against heavies and tanks, and now maybe a few midweights might be able to shut them down too.
I can get by with that, but I don't like it. But my main AC is a supersonic rocket held together with duct-tape and bubble gum with two pulse guns and pile bunkers strapped to it, so I might be kind of biased.
I guess it's because it's 1:72 scale as ACs are smaller than Gundams, but wow.
(Actually, the Banshee model makes it look smaller than it really is, thanks to it being a bit closer. When right next to it, her head only goes a bit above the lower circle bit on the ground there)
