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 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.

 Fafnir wrote:

 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.

 Fafnir wrote:

 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.

Here's what I run:

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.

I'm one of those rare people that doesn't mind having 4 fingers on a controllers shoulders.

 Soladrin wrote:
I'm one of those rare people that doesn't mind having 4 fingers on a controllers shoulders.

I also use 4 fingers on the shoulders. Having to take your finger off a stick just to high boost or jump severely limits your control.

Of course, if you were REALLY badass, you could always set it up like this:

L1 and R1 Strafe
L2 and R2 look up and down
D pad moves
Square shoots left
Triangle shoots right
X jumps
O quickboosts

 Fafnir wrote:

 Soladrin wrote:
I'm one of those rare people that doesn't mind having 4 fingers on a controllers shoulders.

I also use 4 fingers on the shoulders. Having to take your finger off a stick just to high boost or jump severely limits your control.

Of course, if you were REALLY badass, you could always set it up like this:

L1 and R1 Strafe
L2 and R2 look up and down
D pad moves
Square shoots left
Triangle shoots right
X jumps
O quickboosts

Ohhhhhh yeahhhh. That's what I'm talkin' about. Haha.

 Fafnir wrote:

 Soladrin wrote:
I'm one of those rare people that doesn't mind having 4 fingers on a controllers shoulders.

I also use 4 fingers on the shoulders. Having to take your finger off a stick just to high boost or jump severely limits your control.

Of course, if you were REALLY badass, you could always set it up like this:

L1 and R1 Strafe
L2 and R2 look up and down
D pad moves
Square shoots left
Triangle shoots right
X jumps
O quickboosts

Haha yeah, that's where it all started huh.

So what console are you guys playing Verdict Day on? I might want to get this on Ps3.

360, better controller.

PS3, better controller.

 Fafnir wrote:
PS3, better controller.

My hands are too big for dual shock controllers, they give me cramps. :(

Now i'm curious as to how keyboard and mouse would do with it.

 Fafnir wrote:
PS3, better controller.

Hehe. This.

 doc1234 wrote:
Now i'm curious as to how keyboard and mouse would do with it.

Terrible, it needs 2 analog sticks.

 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 AC ftw) 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.

 Soladrin wrote:
Terrible, it needs 2 analog sticks.

.....

I hope I wasn't the only one who read that the wrong way.

 Fafnir wrote:
Here's what I run:

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.

Yes, yes it is.

Any advice for S-Ranking the hard modes? I'm also going through the game again to get the missions I missed. Do you need five playthroughs?

Any advice for Spirit of Motherwill Hard?

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.

Best way to S-rank a lot of hard missions is with a pure speed blader. Kojima blades will take care of almost any boss in one hit.

Keep in mind, ammo cost will reduce your rank too.

Large rockets are also great though if you can get the hang of manual aiming.

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.

Which 'style' of recon unit do you recommend? Sticky?

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.

I simply didn't feel it was substantial enough to warrant it.

In VD, are normal sorties just regular multiplayer matches?

I haven't tried any multiplayer yet, but I'm not feeling too familiar with the style of game at the moment.

Also, the early missions seem much harder than the few in V (maybe because there's no easy garage in it?).

In Story mode, would you specialise and make a build as you would for multiplayer, or would that be unsuitable?