Armored Core General!

[midnight pine]

yeah

they lose tracking if u get close to em and dodge tho

[frank pivot]

It's funny how often they turn back around

[proven bison]

2000th message in the forum!

[wooden nimbus]

I was trying to get my current build a pvp video but once again I am having fights that do not go well with music I find

[frank pivot]

Like sometimes your opponent will think they broke their tracking

And the KABLAM when they try to go in 😂

[midnight pine]

golly im so cool

[frank pivot]

Oh another spicy missile: duo3

[wooden nimbus]

Why can people not fight me in perfect timing with the length of gundam ost tracks

[midnight pine]

i rarely run stop fire weapons in my lightweights

EXCEPT! for the back shotguns

love those

[frank pivot]

If you're 110-120 meters above your opponent and pretty close horizontally, you can shoot duo3s and they'll home from behind your opponent

Very hard to dodge because they can't be seen and the timing window is very tight

[midnight pine]

yea

i like combining the duo missiles w/ direct missiles for cqb

since they go behind people while the regular missiles are coming out

so its very hard to dodge

[modern hornet]

Scatter Bazooka or Diffuse Laser Cannon? Those are the only back-mounted "shotguns" that I can think of in ACVI.

[midnight pine]

the latter

i really dont like the morleys and ive never gotten them to work well on a build

[frank pivot]

I don't think i've found a build that beats this, when i lose it's 100% of the time being outskilled

[ashen monolith]

big head...

[midnight pine]

if i had to think of one on the fly

probably other killshot lightweights and also IMMOVABLE OBJECT

[wooden nimbus]

The Morley is secretly a melee weapon

As in it doesn't hit anything that isn't right next to you

[midnight pine]

noted

[frank pivot]

Head for fashion xD

[midnight pine]

i think thas why i dont like em

[wooden nimbus]

That said I prefer earshot

[midnight pine]

there r other options in the back slots that do similar damage but are far easier to get full mileage out of

[modern hornet]

Now packing Ransetsu-RF Burst Rifle and SU-Q5 Pulse Shield on my modded LOADER 4.

[midnight pine]

premier diffuse laser acnnon fan

[frank pivot]

Diffuse laser cannons are so cool

I wish there were kinetics tho

[midnight pine]

theyre 1 of my favorite back weapons

they have some weird hitbox magic and instantly stagger most acs if you charge two of them

[modern hornet]

Arquebus Diffuse Lasers: Normal fire for energy Shotgun. Charge fire for energy Grenade Launcher

[frank pivot]

How are the mind beta legs?

[midnight pine]

i like em

[frank pivot]

I haven't messed with midweight or heavyweight rjs since the patch

[midnight pine]

the rj kick is pure BS and has some really ridiculous tracking

[frank pivot]

Oh yeah it's hilariously broken

[midnight pine]

since its the only kick that went unnerfed

heavyweight RJs are. the spawn of the devil

[frank pivot]

I don't understand why the hitbox is so bad with from's netcode

No other kick is that egregious

[midnight pine]

literally

[ashen monolith]

https://tenor.com/view/dark-souls-elden-ring-sekiro-pvp-gif-27610406

[midnight pine]

well

the quad kick used to be just as stupid

but then they nerfed the hitbox

anyway heavyweight RJs are evil demons sent to bring ruin to humanity

[frank pivot]

I think the combo of huge range, large hitbox, and lag means that you have to predict when they're gonna kick

[midnight pine]

this build is BLEAKshot, a version of my other build BUCKSHOT

better known as This Is Why RJs Have Low Stability

combining the main dish core and the mind beta head gives the spring chicken legs like

1800+ stability

its really stupid

[midnight pine]

even then im still really unsure how to dodge it

half the time i dodge out of the way and get hit anyway lol

even though the kick is like

hitting the dirt 30 meters to my left

[wooden nimbus]

I should bring Gleipnir XL back

It used heavy RJ legs

One day I'll get a pvp recording that's the right length for the calibarn track and that will be fun

[frank pivot]

What length is the track?

You could find a 3v3 lobby that matches up

[wooden nimbus]

There's a few versions. Usually I just record my duels and hope I find something I can pair to it

Only one I've got on my phone is the one I did the IBO track with, but compression is a nightmare rn

[modern hornet]

Got the missile upgrade in my challenge run. Vertical Plasma Missiles my beloved.

[sharp canopy]

I'm dying, this looks like that one Dragon Ball meme

I only now realized there were things that could affect melee damage, so I went turbo-dumb on this build

[dawn stag]

finished my second playthrough (fires of raven ending this time) and worked on a new AC, Patrician Sentiment

I did also make one today called Perilous Attack which is based on the sekiro moveset, etsujin for the triple shuriken, bomb thrower for firecrackers, shield for blocks/parries, and laser cannon painted to look like the mortal blade on the back

it's fun but sucks at killing ACs

[sharp canopy]

that looks sick af

meanwhile all I made was broly

[dawn stag]

thanks :)

I had fun reinterpreting the VP-44D head to be a cooler mono-eye

[proven bison]

How did you do that, anyways?

[sharp canopy]

did you use a decal and set glow to 0?

[dawn stag]

yeah, that

I used a gradient and the right colours to make it look like the decal is a glowing eye

[modern hornet]

So, that was kinda cool. Killed the Juggernaught without taking a single hit from it during the boss fight.

Usually not that good at evasion

[quasi copper]

I gotta say

I miss railguns

AC6 could’ve had a banger railgun or two

Linear rifles are not the same

[fallen harness]

yeah

i wish there was a long range non-missile option

had a few pvp games last night where I was constantly out kited by a missile mech that I could practically never close with, and couldn't hit with my linear rifle

[quasi copper]

Need a real big meaty railcannon that kicks like a mule and rips up enemy ACs with hella stagger

[fallen harness]

they were incredibly fun games, just a bit frustrating to start with

[dawn stag]

here's hoping for DLC

I haven't tried the pvp yet, despite having done a bunch of souls and ER pvp I am honestly kind of afraid of armored core PVP lol

I'm waiting til I've done NG++ and I have all the OS chips and parts to play with

[fallen harness]

well, there's a role if you're interested

ah

I don't think the OS chips apply to PvP?

[ashen monolith]

back mounted linear cannon...

[fallen harness]

but you might still want all the components and whatnot

[dawn stag]

they must do, they enable pulse armor and stuff

[ember carbon]

The buffs don’t the unlocks do

[dawn stag]

aight

[ashen monolith]

ah

good to know

[quasi copper]

Punch a hole in a motherfucker with a big ole linear cannon like Bernard and Felix sent ya

[ashen monolith]

speaking of os tuning

[dawn stag]

basically I think that despite moderately stepping on people in souls for years I wouldn't do so well in armored core, it's a lot of brain power to even just figure out what your enemy is doing

[ashen monolith]

felt like getting to chapter 3 a fourth time to unlock the secret arena so i decided to flex on the tester AC by being him this time

[quasi copper]

Talking straight up quad sniper warfare

[ashen monolith]

disabled all my ost chips just to make sure we were on the same level, which turns out is a pain to rebuy

[quasi copper]

Radar on the right, railcannon on the left

[dawn stag]

secret arena?

[ashen monolith]

ng++ stuff

[dawn stag]

why a fourth time tho

[quasi copper]

It locks when you finish the game

[dawn stag]

huh

[ashen monolith]

there are three opponents which don't show up until you progress the story in ng++, and they turn off when you loop back to chapter 1 after completing it for some reason

it's really weird

[quasi copper]

I have come to appreciate why weapons like the 061ANSC are gone though.

There’s really no limiting factor to them anymore

They’d have to be outrageously heavy for them to ever not be the back weapon of all time

[proven bison]

Wish at least there were more cool looking kinetic guns. Stun needle just looks really cool and I want more of that

Sadly that's the only big kinetic shoulder gun. All the others are explosive I think

[dawn stag]

I would love an even bigger back laser

[quasi copper]

A double slot back laser would go insane

[proven bison]

My man is triple laser cannon not enough

[dawn stag]

that's just three regular ones

I mean like one huge one

[proven bison]

Fair

[dawn stag]

or like a back karasawa

[quasi copper]

Plasma static cannon like the one equipped on Arquebus Balteus would go hard

[proven bison]

I would kill for a hand trueno honestly

[quasi copper]

Big fucking cloud of anger and hate

[dawn stag]

I agree that there is a lack of big huge back guns

and the stun needle is really cool

[proven bison]

We just need more big kinetics in general

[dawn stag]

that thing became core to my build when I unlocked it, and I often ended up pulling that AC back out for bosses in my first run

this one, based on mihaly's jet from AC7

[proven bison]

I want my AC to straight up wield a bolter

[ashen monolith]

i wish i had the stamina to add more decals

i had a bunch of them bail on me in that corrupted save and don't have the energy to add 'em back

[dawn stag]

I spent a long time doing decals early on and have coasted on them a fair bit

except when I started my second playthrough I spent a while on a totally new different AC and that had a lot of custom decals again

the flowers were when I discovered gradients lol

[modern hornet]

Maoi head

[fallen harness]

dang, these are awesome Alex

[dawn stag]

thanks :)

I played a lot of forza back in the day and that had a very similar decal/paint customisation system

so I kind of have an advantage going in lol

[modern hornet]

OS Tuning time

[frank pivot]

Don't make me Ulysses you again, erusian scum

(Very nice)

[dawn stag]

since I made that alternate erusean flag and put it on all my mechs I think my 621 is canonically from this universe's version of erusea

[frank pivot]

Very nice

I hope ace combat 8 is good

[dawn stag]

I also put the spare squadron style three strikes on em

since when the game asked me at the start what my pilot's name was I had just finished ace combat 7 the day before, and I simply entered ///

and let's face it 621 is definitely in spare squadron lol

[frank pivot]

Man i wish ac7 hadn't been rebooted halfway thru development

It's a miracle the game came out at all

And it made the story so bad lol

[dawn stag]

I liked the story

[frank pivot]

I wish we had just stayed in Spare pretty much the whole time and the whole squad got character development while dying off one at a time

[dawn stag]

gameplay wise it had its low spots but overall AC7 is one of my personal favourite games

nothing I had experienced in a game before quite matched witnessing the AWACS plan and carry out a murder in real time over the course of a mission

[river junco]

OH ACE COMBAT 7

[wooden nimbus]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one

[river junco]

My brain autocorrected to “armored core 6’s story is bad” and I was like “alright let’s square up common opinion haver”

[proven bison]

Are you sure it's not Animal Crossing 7?

[dawn stag]

people think armored core 6's story is bad?

[wooden nimbus]

Assassin's Crossing 7: Friends of Rubicon

[proven bison]

Or Armor Class 7 (must be a wizard or something)

[dawn stag]

base armor class is 10

so you're a wizard who really fucked up

[wooden nimbus]

Maybe it's THAC0 rules

[dawn stag]

we can't start talking about THAC0 this is the armored core thread

[wooden nimbus]

What if I make a mech named THAC0

[dawn stag]

you can talk about it but only if you post cool pictures of the mech

[wooden nimbus]

I'll figure it out when I'm home

[dawn stag]

^^

[distant forge]

hardlock helps a lot

in managing ur situational awareness, in duels at least

theres a slight accuracy penalty but the benefit of having ur camera auto-track ur opponent is amazing, especially for faster AC fights

the tech is to lift your mouse off the pad and hold it on its side when ur hardlocking, as any mouse movement will disable the lock

[dawn stag]

I play on controller

[distant forge]

oh get bent i guess

[dawn stag]

is it not a controller game

[proven bison]

It is, but most here play it on PC

[dawn stag]

I play on PC

[proven bison]

So that's kinda the default assumption

[dawn stag]

but like, I have an xbox controller

and from soft games have always been controller games

[ashen monolith]

armored core with kbm is just cursed to me

[distant forge]

i feel like with remapping you could probably get a pretty good input setup going w controller

but i havent tried it

[ashen monolith]

i'll always stick with controller

[distant forge]

precise mouse aiming isnt really necessary so that helps with input method parity

[dawn stag]

aren't the keybinds for shoulder weapons q and e because that kind of sucks for a game where you want to stay moving

[distant forge]

yup!

that is why i am allergic to charge weapons

[dawn stag]

they are a pain on controller too because you only have one finger to fire the arm and shoulder weapon

I guess people just remap the shoulders to the mouse side buttons

[distant forge]

i stay with good ol Q and E and just use weaposn that dont really require charging

[ashen monolith]

i rebound it to arm weapons on the face buttons, back weapons on the back buttons and boosts on the triggers

[distant forge]

the FASAN and diffuse laser cannon shoulders are outta the question at least for now

i gotta get a mouse with more buttons

unironically a trackball mouse might be good for ac6

[dawn stag]

I don't think I'm gonna be playing on kbm any time soon if only because it hurts my hand a lot more than controller does

[wooden nimbus]

I'm thinking about my HOTAS but I only have one stick

[dawn stag]

lol

you use the throttle to look up and down and the yaw pedal to look side to side

dual sticks elite-dangerous-style would be pretty rad though

[wooden nimbus]

I have a t.16000 so the throttle has enough controls for most of it

[distant forge]

unironically im gonna look into trackballs

[dawn stag]

yeah I have one of those too

the thing on the front of the throttle is the yaw pedal

of course you could just use the thumbstick on there

[wooden nimbus]

But what's the fun in that

[dawn stag]

exactly

[wooden nimbus]

Me figuring out how to drive a mech with a guitar hero controller and a DDR pad

[distant forge]

alternatively: controler with gyro aim

[proven bison]

https://youtu.be/v60gisOy9qc?si=FzUmLbCwwm5Vc9w4

The PCA does not fuck around

[wooden nimbus]

They certainly do find out however

[dawn stag]

they really dropped the ball on the whole planetary closure thing

[wooden nimbus]

One stray dog later

[dawn stag]

one (1) hound

[modern hornet]

Okay, admittedly, I could never quite figure this one out. For the ACS - Dynamic Deflection Control Tuning, does that reduce AP damage taken while you're not staggered, or ACS strain taken when attacked?

[proven bison]

ACS strain

Damage reduction is something different

[modern hornet]

That's kinda what I figured, but could never be sure of.

[distant forge]

here's an odd combo

[dawn stag]

pretty cool

I used the laser lance for a bit on my first run and it was a great time

just a really fun weapon

[distant forge]

the interesting bit to me is the LCS shot while hitstunned by the melee

i also wanna see how good reverse joint kicks are now

[dawn stag]

my only thought with those is how much damage it would have done if they were both charged

comboing out of a melee seems pretty useful though

I think I saw someone combo explosive thrower into bazooka

[wooden nimbus]

why do players like watchpoint delta so much

[distant forge]

true but also charging the LCS cannons reduces their neutral potential

[proven bison]

It's the home of big missle boi. Other than that one fact, I don't like it much

[distant forge]

since its an instant overheat

[dawn stag]

it's just big and flat

[wooden nimbus]

I like the Grid 086 map with the pit

Looks pretty

[proven bison]

Oh you mean the PvP map

lol, I thought you meant the level

It's final destination no items

[wooden nimbus]

I haven't done PVP in Grid 012 yet gonna open me a lobby methinks

[proven bison]

Grid 12 is a nightmare in 3v3s. Don't know about singles, but probably similar

[wooden nimbus]

We gonna find out

[fallen harness]

it's fine in singles IMO

though it's a bit of an odd map

there's a kill plane, but also there's a tiny bit of ring under the main platform where you can land

it's unfortunately just the one pylon

[wooden nimbus]

I hope they add more levels eventually

[proven bison]

If it were like, 3 platforms, I would really like it. Unfortunately it's just one super cramped platform

[fallen harness]

I think Depth 1 could be fun

[proven bison]

LOC station 31 map hopefully

[sharp canopy]

that racecar-looking AC is just chef's kiss

[fallen harness]

I definitely would like more maps

[distant forge]

so the combo does indeed work in pvp

[fallen harness]

honestly, the parts of watchpoint delta that aren't the big flat circle could be fun PvP maps

[wooden nimbus]

ye

[proven bison]

The bridge is cool

[distant forge]

abusing the short endlag of the laser lance to get a cheeky LCS meatshot in is,,,, quite something

[dawn stag]

nice work

I love how the silly looking energy missiles were like the worst missiles in the game pre patch and now everyone is using them

from soft are doing great work with the balancing

[proven bison]

The last room of the ng++ ||coral export denial|| mission could work well as an arena imo

[ashen monolith]

steel haze jortus

[fallen harness]

amazing

[dawn stag]

steel haze jortus...

[distant forge]

i wouldnt call them great rn but also they are fun as fuck

[dawn stag]

fun is what we want

[eager vector]

steel haze jortus

[proven bison]

They were always fun, but too bad to use before the patch

[distant forge]

the dps is still low but its cool watching them go nyoom voop

[dawn stag]

[proven bison]

They're actually pretty good if you use VE-20B and the missle lock FCS

Works well on my builds with a jav beta and bubblegun

[proven bison]

<@&1146476468453511168> anyone up for some casual PvP?

[ember carbon]

I'd be down

[proven bison]

Cool, I'll set up a room

Keyword is LANCER

[ember carbon]

Yep give me a moment to boot the game and I'll be in

[proven bison]

Got it

89 AP

Missile builds truly are something

[lethal flame]

not even close

[ember carbon]

Yeah if missiles keep distance they are very good but if you get close it’s all over in match 2 I went from almost full to TA popping in what 3 seconds?

I think netcode was being weird there

[distant forge]

daddy has arrived

[ember carbon]

Explosives felt like they didn’t connect

[distant forge]

(im daddy)

daddy is sad

[frank pivot]

my prediction dodging powers have increased

you can't dodge based on warnings

cuz of fromsoft netcode

so you have to read LCA and harris charged shots

[proven bison]

The earshots true power: invisible projectiles

[distant forge]

https://youtu.be/q8UgjpxXboY?si=cDKsLXHsh_wtECwP

[frank pivot]

yeah XD if everyone else is gonna use invis projectiles and weird netcode abuse hitboxes, i'm gonna do it too lol

[proven bison]

Sadly had to give up the head stripe in exchange for efficiency

[proven bison]

Problem is nobody else here is doing it

Even I'm not gonna pull a bazooka tank on yall

mostly because I don't have one

[distant forge]

if you wanna play dirty i can play dirty

gloves off

pants down

balls out

[ashen monolith]

https://vxtwitter.com/KalamityBlade/status/1703459659200286827

[distant forge]

the kick animation didnt show up in spectator

that was terrifying

[proven bison]

Pretty sure that was a lance charge actually

[frank pivot]

was dual lca and quad kicks with harris not cheese?

[distant forge]

local tetrapod levitates towards AC at comical speed

[ember carbon]

Only person I've ever seen get hit by the lance and not stuck to it for the full attack

[proven bison]

Compass we leave this to you

[distant forge]

now daddy's angry

turns into werewolf

[frank pivot]

gg

lca are so broooooken

[distant forge]

goog bgame

[frank pivot]

was it

[distant forge]

daddy has transformed back into his human form but his shirt is all ripped up

yeah the LCAs are really something

[frank pivot]

the invis projectiles are so barf

every one that i didn't fully read the shot i got hit by

[distant forge]

even outside of netcode shenanigans it just shoots way too fast ohnestly

i kinda miss when it was slept on cuz i could dunk on ppl guilt-free

[frank pivot]

salt aside you played the duckett game really well

[dawn stag]

what's your build?

[frank pivot]

whose?

me and compassrose are running lights

[frank pivot]

she's running dual LCAs with duckets

i'm running dual vientos with earshots

[dawn stag]

[proven bison]

Single explosive thrower away from victory

[frank pivot]

mouse is a menace with the xplosive thrower

[dawn stag]

I was using that today on my silly sekiro build

[distant forge]

gonna try out macrowave

[dawn stag]

it seems like fun but you really have to be able to control range

[distant forge]

see how she holds up with the new speed changes

[dawn stag]

is that a quad bubble build

quad like 4 of them not like quad legs

[frank pivot]

i saved a dodge both times

and still got hit

laser lag smh

[proven bison]

Nope, double karasawa double ten cell

Heavy biped

[dawn stag]

that wave is very macro

[frank pivot]

lmao

i should record these

so you can see what it looks like to dodge and get instant dunked lol

[distant forge]

verdict: much less kitey with the new speed changes

still pretty good

gotta retool some things

i gotta do schoolwork and retool macrowave so i shall take my leave

i mean

daddy shall take his leave

but fun fights all around gfs gg

[frank pivot]

you're just gonna cheese the whole lobby then leave?? T_T

jk lol

i want to play the lca light build more

that was super fun

[distant forge]

it was sorta two sides of the same coin facing off

which was dope

[distant forge]

yes

[fierce laurel]

hey everynyan check out my roboto

[distant forge]

https://tenor.com/view/gigachad-chad-gif-20773266

[distant forge]

we love laser drones in this house

[proven bison]

Firemeza with shade eye and a Zimmerman, can't tell much more

[fierce laurel]

I got to NG++ on really light builds so I've started to dig into the big and heavies. Big Thiccman here just passed the balteus test

[fierce laurel]

railgun and laser drones

[frank pivot]

gg xD

[proven bison]

DAMN THAT MATCH WAS CLOSE

[distant forge]

aww hell yeah we love big thiccman

[ember carbon]

GG

TA saves lives

[frank pivot]

if you delay some of your shots a little more you'd annihilate me

[proven bison]

Earshots are fair and balanced
Earshots are fair and balanced
Earshots are fair and balanced

[ember carbon]

I almost want to say it’s the vientos things stagger so fast

[proven bison]

Oh he changed to laser cannons

[distant forge]

here's something incredibly cursed

[proven bison]

Laser chicken

[dawn stag]

golden goose

[distant forge]

who needs back weapons

we got two fkn karasawas

[dawn stag]

karasawas are already 2 weapons each

[frank pivot]

i promise it's she! xD

but no pronouns in bio so

it's on me

[proven bison]

Oh, sorry

[frank pivot]

no biggie

LCAs also crazy on lights

holy cannoli

[proven bison]

Fighting the random now

If he loses he spectates

[ember carbon]

I have come to the conclusion that Vientos are very painful

[frank pivot]

i should make a wheelchair sometime

[golden ocean]

thick metalmark

[proven bison]

Guy is good, damn

[distant forge]

ok hold on im eating dindin i gotta test out this crime against humanity

[fierce laurel]

and here is Struggle Bus for when I want to laugh

[ember carbon]

And then he leaves

[proven bison]

Classic

[ember carbon]

Truly timeless

[distant forge]

daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn

[frank pivot]

invisible lasers btfo by post nerf shotties

we live in a society

[proven bison]

Tfw someone uses uncharged karasawas

[frank pivot]

lmfao

[distant forge]

that was,

an awful match lol

[ember carbon]

I am very hesitant to engage people on their terms

[frank pivot]

time to get annihilated in my campaign AC

[proven bison]

Phone is dying, so I'm not gonna talk much

[chrome bronze]

Why can I barely hear lancer’s theme from Deltarune in the background?

[distant forge]

ok so verdfict on lighter macrowave

wow its not good

[chrome bronze]

[distant forge]

anywho gotta go gg

[frank pivot]

ggs i still want to rematch lights next time

but let's ban bullshit weapons

i have much to learn from your maneuvering

[ember carbon]

One last match then I must go as well to walk the dog

[distant forge]

i think nobans is the simplest way to run casual lobbies like this

[distant forge]

also fank u

[frank pivot]

i am a human salt mine

so i apologize for being a total bitch during games

xD

[distant forge]

as in thank you not fuck you

[frank pivot]

but yes i mean we should just like

[distant forge]

ur fine lol

[frank pivot]

both pick lights that are fair

according to a consensus definition

and have D-D-D-DUELS

https://tenor.com/view/yu-gi-oh-time-to-duel-card-gif-12403495

[distant forge]

fists only smh

the only solution is mirror matches

[frank pivot]

wrecker fists only, if you can't win neutral 31 times in a row you don't deserve to play

frankly i'm fine with mirror matches, especially cuz of duckett

i expected to bowl over the duckets with superior stagger output

[distant forge]

my actual serious answer is i dont really care, i can take off the LCS and earshots

but i think anything aside from no-bans use whatever u want is too complicated for a casual lobby

[ember carbon]

GG

[proven bison]

Well that was close

Gg

Think I'm done for the day though

[ember carbon]

The first time I had planed TA the last one was entirely good luck on my part

[proven bison]

Shoulda played the range game a bit more

[ember carbon]

Yeah your Aurora did good work especially in that second match

[unique epoch]

Michigan is like, the only dude who uses that shield that protects other people

also I love that he knows the names of all his MT dudes even while he's shit talking them

[distant forge]

at first i found michigan annoying

but now i find him to be the best

ever

[chrome bronze]

Wait but Michigan doesn’t have a shield?

[summer trellis]

michigan's "shittalking" is actual advice too

[chrome bronze]

His loadout is a Gatling, grenade thrower, cannon and missile launcher

[ashen monolith]

as in pulse protection i assume

[chrome bronze]

Ohhhh

Yah I never noticed that

[serene kettle]

Middle Flatwell also uses it

but yeah, it's pretty uncommon

[proven bison]

Trying to think of RLF name for the 6th finger

[peak prawn]

Toe

[proven bison]

Bad

[peak prawn]

Also Palm, maybe

[proven bison]

Toe Mama

Palm could work

[ashen monolith]

be like rokumonsen and forget the finger thing entirely

and rusty, technically

[proven bison]

Roku was an independent, and, well, Rusty is Rusty

I'll think of something

[chrome bronze]

Rokumonsen is just an independent who really likes the RLF yah

He was saved by him

[frank pivot]

https://tenor.com/view/omg-ohmygosh-ohmygod-omfg-wow-gif-4159008

By him you say

[chrome bronze]

I meant to say them but honestly

He does give mech pilot vibes

[fierce laurel]

I do have my favorites among the parts provided but ngl I am let down a little that there's no PCA parts for unlock/purchase

I do like me the design of the Ekdromoi

[ashen monolith]

https://vxtwitter.com/_Tyto_Alba/status/1711992286480130391

[river junco]

Alright y’all

I have a plot theory

I’m not all the way through NG++, just surveyed the xylem again, which is what inspired this

||I think each new game + iteration is canon. Whatever happened to you when you were exposed to coral, you’re now experiencing events and time non-linearly, or even seeing branches of what could be. Like father dolmayan’s visions, where he saw you burn rubicon long before you ever arrived||

[south oracle]

||It would certainly be something Fromsoft would do||

[south oracle]

oh, looks like there's another patch, small one I suppose

[proven bison]

Hoping therapist buff?

Or is it just a bug fix patch

[dawn stag]

wait did they fix dabbing

[proven bison]

I really hope they don't fix the edit lock bypass. It's so convoluted it can't be intentional, but it's so useful that it shouldn't be fixed

[dawn stag]

is that the eye glow thing

[proven bison]

It's related

[dawn stag]

what is the edit lock bypass and what does it let you do

[proven bison]

Normally, if you load an enemy AC data, if you try to edit it, it will give you a notification that the AC has an edit lock on it. If you remove the lock normally, the AC loses it's original colors, it's decals, and it's custom light level. However, if you go to the paint menu, remove the edit lock, and immediately discard all changes and exit the paint menu, the ACs edit lock will be removed, but it will keep its paint and lights level, but not the decals. This allows you to make a custom AC with light levels other than the default 2, and steal enemy paint jobs very easily

[dawn stag]

why are they edit locked in the first place

[proven bison]

I don't know

Only reason I can guess is to stop you stealing decals you don't have

[dawn stag]

ig so

it doesn't seem like they patched that out anyway

[proven bison]

I know, I said I hope they never do

[dawn stag]

aight

it seems neat

[proven bison]

It is, very useful

[dawn stag]

I don't see myself ever using it

[proven bison]

You should, at least for the high lights levels. The very last AC data ||Ayre|| has lights level 5 on all parts, and it looks really good on basically any other AC. I know it's a pain to completely redo ACs, but if you ever start a new one from scratch, very much recommend basing it off the ||Ayre|| template.

[dawn stag]

what does that actually look like

[proven bison]

Literally just brighter, more reflective lights

I don't really have any default lights ACs, or I would post a comparison between them

[urban knoll]

How did I not die here

[cursive agate]

hhh, active homing are painfully bad against actually evasive targets

[proven bison]

Active homing is definitely good with a kiting/antitank build

Not an antilight build

[dawn stag]

idk but whatever you did was hype af

[distant forge]

Can't wait till they fix the janky invisible animations in online play

Another thing on my list, I need to figure out how to make a rileymobile in armored core 6

rileymobile being defined as whatever annoys Alex the most

if you know you know

[dawn stag]

I'm not sure whether I'm proud or concerned that rileymobile immediately and permanently entered your vocabulary

[quasi copper]

the fuck is the rileymobile

[quasi copper]

can't say I understand

[dawn stag]

it's a tank that is 90% gun and 10% an adamantium face

a huge tank

[proven bison]

Possibly the best kind of tank

[distant forge]

a tank i built a while back in from the depths with a big gun and strong frontal armor, all it does is just point at you and sit 1km away pelting you with a giant railgun

which happens to be The Meta in that game

alex builds stuff that looks really cool but it cannot compete with a giant railgun brick

[dawn stag]

I think one of my tournament builds could kill it

but they are 150k

[distant forge]

hence, the rileymobile is any build in any game that annoys alex to no end

[midnight pine]

that and because they dont want you to adjust emissive strength... for some reason

[dawn stag]

to be clear when I say tournament build I am talking about a 150m long heavy cruiser

this is too much FTD chat tho so I will cease

[distant forge]

lmao

[midnight pine]

some of the default designs have adjusted emissive strength, a setting that's not normally available for customization

[distant forge]

now i just gotta make an armored core rileymobile

i wanna give bazookas a try

[dawn stag]

I think a bazooka/aurora build would probably be pretty good

like two medium sized hand bazookas and auroras with the energy spec generator on a lightweight

[distant forge]

how different are bazookas to GLs now

i kinda couldnt tell the difference

[dawn stag]

idk

[ashen monolith]

way faster reload in comparison, like half

but no splash

[distant forge]

do they have some kind of airburst?

[ashen monolith]

hard to say

[dawn stag]

yeah they all airburst when the projectile hits its max range

[distant forge]

or are u just expected to land a direct hit

[dawn stag]

I think the hitboxes for hitting someone with a bazooka round are bigger than the actual mech

[ashen monolith]

bazookas don't airburst, but some grenades do at a pretty close range

[dawn stag]

I thought everything got airburst in 1.03.1

[distant forge]

yeah i meant proximity detonation

not airburst

[ashen monolith]

oh

[dawn stag]

I think there is a little bit but you'd have to test

[ashen monolith]

yeah all grenades explode at their maximum, was more referring to the dizzy hand grenade having a very short maximum range for this purpose

roughly ~280

[frank pivot]

The grenade proxy fuse activates starting at 90m (strangely it's not time based) and has a 10m detection radius

It's a separate mechanic from the max range explosion

But basically if you're inside 80m, bazookas need to direct hit you

[dawn stag]

that's good intel

[ashen monolith]

odd!

did not know that

[ashen monolith]

the more you know

[distant forge]

hmmm

thats cool

[frank pivot]

If they ever make zooks defender-side, then hugging people will be good against them

[midnight pine]

that

makes a lot of sense

[frank pivot]

But right now this is why they kinda have no downside

[distant forge]

makes sense cuz the nebula proxy detonates so hard

[midnight pine]

no wonder i get hit by nothing lol

i know the plasmas had a proxy fuse this whole time but not the grenades/zookas

[frank pivot]

Yeah. Combine that with the attacker side projectiles

And it's pretty egregious

[midnight pine]

bazooka shot grazing me, no explosion vfx, projectile doesn't disappear

-1000 HP

[ashen monolith]

defender side would probably be better but then again armored core for answer was sisyphean at times about that

[frank pivot]

I am biased to enjoy defender advantage games

[ashen monolith]

i distinctly recall seeing a grenade contact someone having it explode and them not taking damage in that

[midnight pine]

regardless of what hitreg system you use someone is going to be sad in this exchange

[frank pivot]

I wouldn't miss dual earshots or dual lcs if they went extinct due to defender-side projectiles 😂

[ashen monolith]

which was why the meta was so skewed towards rifles and MGs back then

[midnight pine]

defender side hitreg. revenge of the motorcobra

[frank pivot]

The most fun matches are cqc positioning shenanigans

[ashen monolith]

i miss the big box rifle white glint has

[midnight pine]

i miss rifle

[ashen monolith]

what a beauty

[midnight pine]

i wish the rifles were more consistent

[frank pivot]

In campaign i run two of the uh

Raven rifles

What are they called again

[midnight pine]

feels like a "Why Am I Not Using The Harris" type of situation

scudder ?

[frank pivot]

Yeah scudder

[ashen monolith]

yeah

[frank pivot]

I love the aesthetic of mind alpha arms with the shade eye head

[ashen monolith]

ransetsu-rf is the one weapon holding mid-range play together like spider-man and the train

[midnight pine]

im a MINDhead

[frank pivot]

They have that like segmented loop motif

[midnight pine]

i love the allmind parts

this user is one with allmind

[frank pivot]

Anyway mind alpha arms are relevant to scudders because they have the recoil control you want

And good firearm assist

[ashen monolith]

it's almost like classic rifle play but they're semi auto so i don't like them

[frank pivot]

I love the ransetus but the semiauto is sometimes like

[midnight pine]

i feel like the laser rifles deserve a mention here

the laser rifles are also good midrange options

[frank pivot]

"I'm using these as fast as they'll fire"

[ashen monolith]

i'll come back to that after the 1.05 quad laser nerf

[midnight pine]

im not like the other laser rifle users

i use the LRA

[ashen monolith]

fair 'nuff

[midnight pine]

black celebration didnt use any of the stupid meta guns and it still pulled weight

[ashen monolith]

i also hope the nerf is more nuanced, since i like using a singular LRB on my more distanced builds

[midnight pine]

i feel like thats a good argument for laser rifles as midrange options

[frank pivot]

If they gave the midsize laser a velocity buff to make it more distinct from the others i think it'd see a lot more play

[midnight pine]

the one that looks like a sniper rifle?

[ashen monolith]

the karasawa at home

[midnight pine]

or the one that looks like karasawa at home

idk i like that one

[distant forge]

the midsize laser needs an ammo buff first and foremost

[frank pivot]

It's my favorite visually

[midnight pine]

i run it on my heavyweight skirmisher type build

[frank pivot]

Is the 90 ammo an issue in 1v1s,

[midnight pine]

i dont like the lrb that much due to the miserable cooling

[distant forge]

the LRA only has 90 rounds, even the LRB has more

[frank pivot]

Or is that mostly for campaign

[midnight pine]

not at all

mostly for campaign

[distant forge]

its not an issue in 1v1s but in pve its fucking insufferable

[ashen monolith]

i thought it was because the LRB used two rounds at a time

[distant forge]

but i use my pvp builds for pve as well

[ashen monolith]

so this whole time i assumed they had a linear scale in terms of ammo

lmfao

[midnight pine]

:bindle:

[frank pivot]

But yeah i wouldn't mind the 90 ammo if it had giga velocity

[distant forge]

and yeah i want the rifles to be better

[frank pivot]

Can it one shot MTs with ve-20b?

Or is that still LRB only

[midnight pine]

i would honestly kill for more diverse back weapons

like a linear rifle or a machine gun

[ashen monolith]

BACK MOUNT LINEAR CANNON

[midnight pine]

fromsoft... plz give us the back miniguns from 4th genn.....

[ashen monolith]

i'm genuinely surprised that isn't in

[distant forge]

the only annoying thing about rifles like the ransetsu is that midrange pressure is, annoying to deal with

but i want more options, make the scudder and the turner better, make the ransetsu AR better

[frank pivot]

Yeah, like when i ran my campaign AC vs the RJ with dual karasawas

It was just

[midnight pine]

ransetsu ar :bindle:

[frank pivot]

Go in a backwards circle

And wait

It's a pretty boring playstyle outside of campaign

[distant forge]

i want a burst assault rifle

that isnt shit

[frank pivot]

The ransetsu ar doesn't exist and you don't need to pretend like it does

[ashen monolith]

the turner and scudder are still underperforming but work decently enough

[frank pivot]

This is a safe space

[ashen monolith]

but the ransetsu ar...

[distant forge]

i also honestly wish that every rifle didnt look like a kalashnikov

but thats more of just a me thing

i want futuristic rifles

the linear rifles are the appropriate level of sci fi for me

[ashen monolith]

first public lobby wowie hosted i saw like three people use the AR and almost was gaslit into thinking it was good after 1.02

[frank pivot]

Ah man gen 3.5 had such cool rifles

[midnight pine]

wowie

[ashen monolith]

(it's still really not good)

[midnight pine]

i

yeah

i wish rifles were good : (

at least we have the linear rifles

[distant forge]

i think one of the best combos is one ransetsu one harris

[midnight pine]

which are ctually pretty good

[frank pivot]

The r3 looks spicy

R2 okay as well

[ashen monolith]

the big kicker with ransetsu-rf is how little recoil it has

[midnight pine]

i like the 4th gen rifles

[ashen monolith]

barely increments the reticle at all even dualied on nachtreiner arms

[midnight pine]

very strong balance between tacticool and bullshit scifi gun

[ashen monolith]

same goes for the etsujin, which gives it a nice niche for lightweight arms

[midnight pine]

the white glint box rifle ❤️

[midnight pine]

i still dont know how to feel ab the etsujin

[ashen monolith]

cursed loader 4 update

[midnight pine]

oh nightfall just uses the turner

the more u know

wait

this isnt nightfall

this is loader 4...

loader 4 w the pulse shield...

[ashen monolith]

:(

[distant forge]

i want some shit like the guilty throne

[midnight pine]

JOSO :bindle:

[ashen monolith]

dxm was

i still don't know how i feel about it!

[midnight pine]

dxm was like

ac6 but Worse lol

[dawn stag]

I put the turner on my latest (pve) build, I like it for being able to pick stuff off and maintain pressure outside of close range while still doing reliable damage and stagger

[ashen monolith]

admittedly i did get it for free in an epic games store bundle so i feel a bit more lenient on it than if i had paid

[midnight pine]

felt like it hinged on all the same ideas but w/ worse execution

at least imo

also the cybernetics looked really bad

my custom hand crafted character getting completely mangled with the most doohickey looking limb replacements known to man

[dawn stag]

and importantly it's automatic so I can just hold the button down

[distant forge]

yeah i didnt really enjoy dxm but some of the designs were dope

[ashen monolith]

let's talk about how armored core's spiritual successor as well as armored core's actual successor both revolved around the use of a macguffin source of energy which glowed bright red

[distant forge]

like the guilty throne

[midnight pine]

yeah lol

ac6 feels like everything dxm wanted to be

i guess is what im trying to say

[frank pivot]

The Shade rifle in gen 3.5

I hope THAT comes back

God i love that thing

[dawn stag]

when will from soft let us put decals on weapons

[distant forge]

dxm also has the giant hammer that sends your arsenal ragdolling across the map

[midnight pine]

yeaaaaa

[dawn stag]

is it some sort of technical limitation

[midnight pine]

the boss designs were rly cool

[distant forge]

which was really funny during the endgame arsenal fight where one of the guys has the hammer

[ashen monolith]

it also had. actual co op

[midnight pine]

and the colors were pretty :)

[distant forge]

felt like i was playing against a fucking smash bros character

[ashen monolith]

i'm sure one eclectic elden ring modder will somehow find a way to cram working co op into ac6's singleplayer

but until then i'll lament it

[midnight pine]

it's not just powered by coral,

[frank pivot]

Is that the HAL head

[ashen monolith]

dxm's bosses do make me wish armored core 6 had just one more Really Big Enemy

[midnight pine]

i would actually kill for more arms fort style enemies

oooo you wanna add the answerer to ac6 soooo bad oooooo

[frank pivot]

I wish there were some difficult or interesting arms fort fights

Answerer was sooooooo boriiiiiing

[ashen monolith]

the arms forts were really held back by scope creep imo

[midnight pine]

yea

[ashen monolith]

and that's what i was hoping for in ac6 (we got the strider and nothing else...)

[midnight pine]

they did well for what they had the ability to though

i will litearlly never forget the opening sequence for the motherwill fight

where u boosted through its cannon fire

[distant forge]

the strider fight was crazy

[midnight pine]

1 of the coolest sequences in the game

[frank pivot]

What would have been sick is if there was a multi AC fight at the best arms fort, spirit of motherwill

Maybe tone down the missile spam a bit in exchange

Win/win, fun increases across all axes

[distant forge]

it was easy but that first part where u see its shadow against the sandstorm

holy shit

[midnight pine]

god yeah

[ashen monolith]

seeing the just field of pink missile indicators on the radar

i'll never forget it

[midnight pine]

i do really like the ac6 bosses tho

cataphract <3

[ashen monolith]

...i miss the radar minimap...

[frank pivot]

I wish they'd bring back radar stuff from gen 3

[distant forge]

i wish that they sorta did a dark souls thing and made more enemires more like

having to learn their attack patterns

[ashen monolith]

that's probably my #1 gripe about ac6

no minimap

[distant forge]

agreed

[ashen monolith]

i'd trade hard lock for it, i don't care

[frank pivot]

Mine is that too many of the MTs are too easy

[midnight pine]

mine is pvp netcode

lol

[dawn stag]

I honestly thought the game was going to be a lot harder than it was

[midnight pine]

and weapon balance

[distant forge]

i think it would be cool if the ace combat thing was implemented

where its like

if ur target goes offscreen, a chevron shows up

[midnight pine]

i liked how FA did it

[ashen monolith]

it really is going off 4th gen levels of fodder enemies

[midnight pine]

where there was like

[distant forge]

taht points towards your target

[midnight pine]

an optional hard mode

for every mission

that unlocked parts

i liked that implementation a lot

but i was too bad to ever beat all of them

[ashen monolith]

definitely something older gens did better, that's for sure

fa was too easy

[frank pivot]

More threatening enemies in most missions

[midnight pine]

solution

[frank pivot]

I bet we get harder missions overall in the next game

[midnight pine]

add ibis at the end of every mission

[ashen monolith]

nononononono

[frank pivot]

Ibis is a really really good boss!!

[midnight pine]

oh and iguazu

[dawn stag]

I guess the NG+ and presumably NG++ missions where you fight multiple ACs and stuff are the real difficulty

[ashen monolith]

hard mode adds an invincible bonewheel that spawns next to you and can also teleport

[midnight pine]

i liked the ng+ and ++ missions alot EXCEPT FOR DEFEND THE MINING SHIP

[dawn stag]

no spoilers

[midnight pine]

i hope we get more difficult missions like those

[frank pivot]

See defend the mining ship is about the difficulty i want for every mission

Probably more

[dawn stag]

I have that mission next up in my quest log but I haven't got round to playing it yet

[midnight pine]

i do not want to ||run a missile boat quad for every mission||

[frank pivot]

But i want them to save that future hard AC game for when the audience is stable

[cursive agate]

||I like it mostly because it made me swap things up heavily, would've been hell to get it before NG+ though.||

[midnight pine]

||thats actually my least favorite mission in the game||

||mostly because i really hate playing missile boats||

||and helianthus machines, for that matter||

[midnight pine]

||thats fair||

||i liked defend the dam a lot||

[distant forge]

i think the balance between "feeling like an anime god ripping through trash enemies" and "this is too hard i have to be optimal" could be changed

[midnight pine]

||probably my favorite mission||

[frank pivot]

That's optional: || https://youtu.be/nzIOjD0mgC0?si=Hm6DPVVrWl1yRYMl ||

[midnight pine]

||O.K.!||

[frank pivot]

I would really like the atmosphere to be more in line with the oppressiveness of souls

[midnight pine]

i think if anything the difficulty curve could be more consistent

[ashen monolith]

oh yeah

[midnight pine]

there are a lot of fodder missions where you can just brainlessly rip through enemies and then sometimes theres just Fuck You

[cursive agate]

Likely went on the lighter side since it's been a decade-ish since the last Armored Core game

[midnight pine]

(depth 2, coral convergence, defend the dam, etc)

[cursive agate]

yeeeea

[ashen monolith]

stopped by that mission on my way to getting the three secret arena entries

blew 'em up with the big fella

[distant forge]

though ripping thru fodder is an armored core trademark

[midnight pine]

yeah

i dont think that doesnt have space in an ac game

just

[frank pivot]

I would love some really hard AC fights

[ashen monolith]

the difficulty curve for my first playthrough was... interesting

[frank pivot]

Like hard 1v1s like Bolt in last raven

[midnight pine]

they should bring back occuaption of arteria carpals

[dawn stag]

from soft wheel out nine ball on a hand truck for the dlc

[frank pivot]

I think they tried to with Defend the Dam Complex but chartreuse is too weak to be the hammer to king's anvil

[midnight pine]

i still think nightfall shouldve had super juiced stats like white glint did

[frank pivot]

Nightfall needed a better generator 😂

[ashen monolith]

because i have to acknowledge my first time going through the game is ABSOLUTELY NOT s ranking every mission getting my save file corrupted and going through the game another 3 times because i didnt back it up

the elite LCs used to be a nightmare but now i can tear them up like it's nothing

[distant forge]

part of it i think is

we're all just good at the game now

[cursive agate]

The limited options of 1st playthrough really makes some encounters harsher.

[distant forge]

of course its too easy

[midnight pine]

yeah

[distant forge]

we're biased

[midnight pine]

and also have full os tuning

[frank pivot]

I thought this on my very first playthrough though

[midnight pine]

and all the parts

[frank pivot]

The bosses seemed awesome, but the missions and the enemies therein weren't taking enough of my AP even if i ignored resupply points

[distant forge]

i think its ok to have the trash mobs to be paper thin but also

[cursive agate]

Laser enemies have consistently been the highest threat for me

[distant forge]

i feel like they should demand more player attention

lasers and big bazooka MTs are the bane of my existence

[ashen monolith]

chapter 1 was definitely key to this thought i feel

[distant forge]

but like

[frank pivot]

Yeah, like not everything needs to be a shield LC

[ashen monolith]

it holds your hand with a bunch of fodder missions before dunking you off the deep end with balteus

[distant forge]

more complex interactions

[midnight pine]

solution: EVERY ENEMY = SHIELD LC-

fuck

[distant forge]

like, the baws tetrapod is dope as fuck as a miniboss

[cursive agate]

Physical shield enemies make me glad I pack a melee every time I run into one.

[frank pivot]

I also think in future AC games there won't be so many supply sherpas

[proven bison]

Want to 2v1 HCs. That would be a fun fight

[midnight pine]

well

its same difference w/ mid mission checkpoints

though that does make it harder to s-rank

[frank pivot]

True!

[distant forge]

every baws tetrapod is different and they're all vaguely threatening

[cursive agate]

I think the supply sherpas are fair for lighter builds especially

[midnight pine]

yeah

[frank pivot]

Those also need to go

[proven bison]

Sherpas are good, I think

[midnight pine]

no thanks

[frank pivot]

Either the enemies need to be killy enough to make the checkpoints necessary

OR

[midnight pine]

i'm not looking to replay the whole coral convergence mission every time i want to take a stab at ibis lol

[cursive agate]

Heavier builds can faceroll encounters with sheer firepower while lights risk eating more hits because they can't deal as much burst/raw output.

[frank pivot]

Get rid of them and make the point of the enemies to chip you down for the boss

[ashen monolith]

i think the two missions that stood out to me for my first playthrough were the second wall mission with the PCA this time and the 60 MTs + michigan funhouse

[frank pivot]

Nothing in the mission is hard unless you're going for the shrek swamp

[midnight pine]

well yeah

[ashen monolith]

both of which are actually legitimate endurance tests

[midnight pine]

but it wastes time

[cursive agate]

Nerfed Stun Needle makes it more of an uphill encounter too

[ashen monolith]

but i don't think i'd want that for every mission

[midnight pine]

checkpoints r integral to making the game Actually Fun To Play instead of spend half the time on the boss mission running to the boss for every time you die

[frank pivot]

That's fair and you can have both but

[midnight pine]

imo

[midnight pine]

yea this

[frank pivot]

If the mission is fun i don't mind grinding it a bunch to do boss attempts

[dawn stag]

the michigan funhouse was really cool because it had me on 150 AP clearing out like 6 MTs and a full health tetrapod with only my fists and an explosive thrower after totally running out of ammo

[dawn stag]

that's what S rank is for though

[frank pivot]

I don't like the ranking system honestly

[dawn stag]

I think the checkpoints and the supply sherpas are great because they turn dying on the boss from "god damn it I gotta go back through all that" to "lemme at em coach"

[cursive agate]

I've apparently picked up on how to cut through the michigan mission like butter with my choice of weapons.

[midnight pine]

yeag

especially w/ how tough some of the bosses are

[frank pivot]

After playing so many souls games, i prefer the sort of uniformity of challenge where most players share the same perspective

[ashen monolith]

oh yeah it's an absolute black box

[dawn stag]

they explain the S rank criteria

[midnight pine]

and how long it takes to get to them

[dawn stag]

if you saw the patch notes from today they changed the text to explain it more clearly too

[frank pivot]

I would be fine with this if getting to the checkpoints and sherpas was hard

But it's too trivial

[dawn stag]

I've been watching vaati s rank all the missions and it seems pretty sane

[midnight pine]

i would stil l like concrete requirements stated in the game

like "5:00 minutes and kill X enemies to S rank this mission"

[ashen monolith]

the one thing i find most egregious is that if you're replaying the mission due to ng+ looping it should give you the rank

on god

[dawn stag]

yeah I agree with that

[frank pivot]

I think something like a line from walter saying "621: clear out the enemies from this area and i can drop in a supply sherpa" would be a good compromise

[cursive agate]

Sherpas tend to be placed before boss checkpoints, so people don't do the Ace Combat 7 trick of restarting from checkpoint to refresh instead

[midnight pine]

well people do that anyway lol

but

[frank pivot]

Yeah, so if you want to keep them then i think you need souls-tier level difficulty

[midnight pine]

i guess its there to streamline the process

[midnight pine]

hard disagree

[ashen monolith]

i understand the decision to not give you the rank on your first attempt because it could be demoralizing, but pleeeease i've already done the mission on a new game loop, give me the letter grade

[frank pivot]

Cuz right now the levels are utterly meaningless

[midnight pine]

i dont think the game needs to be ball bustingly hard at every turn

[cursive agate]

I'm unsure about turning up the difficulty much, but I'm also thinking of already hard/packed with enemies missions.

[frank pivot]

I wish it wasn't just trivial at every turn

[dawn stag]

I think the difficulty is good

[midnight pine]

i do want a hard mode tho

[frank pivot]

I think the boss fights are excellent

[midnight pine]

i've stopped harping about game difficulty mostly

[dawn stag]

the fact it was easier than I expected is not a bad thing because I was expecting it to be like my first DS3 playthrough where the game pounded me into the floor repeatedly

[proven bison]

I would just prefer the difficulty to be more even

[cursive agate]

I do hope something that comes after AC6/DLC for AC6 brings more difficult encounters though.

[midnight pine]

i'm fine with easier games since its more accessible for more people

[dawn stag]

or like sekiro where some of the bosses take like 20 attempts

[midnight pine]

though

i do like optional hardmodes and will take them if i have the option

[proven bison]

Normal enemies are too easy and bosses are a massive pain

[ashen monolith]

ultimately i'd love a hard mode expansion but that's it

[dawn stag]

but instead it was just hard enough to be satisfying but not tedious

[midnight pine]

yeaah that

[dawn stag]

the bosses all took 1-5 tries and I enjoyed fighting them, none of them overstayed their welcome

[cursive agate]

I tend to find encounters a lot rougher when I swap off my x2 cannon shoulder builds because of the reduced burst output.

[frank pivot]

I think it's too easy to get to the checkpoints that let you go into the bosses with full AP and ammo.

The two solutions I see to this are 1) make getting to the checkpoints/sherpas a challenge, so that way it feels like you earned it, or 2) remove them entirely so that way the levels become an exercise in losing as little AP and anmo as possible

[dawn stag]

I would be happy to see a DLC where the difficulty gets ramped up though

[midnight pine]

i would have never finished the game if it made you replay the whole mission to fight a boss

tbh

i hate doing that

[dawn stag]

same here probably

[midnight pine]

its a huge waste of my time

[dawn stag]

paying £50 would maybe have kept me going

[cursive agate]

I really hope weapon balance is in a better place by the time the difficulty gets adjusted up though.

[dawn stag]

but if I had to do the watchpoint mission every time I died to balteus I would have probably quit

[frank pivot]

I am amenable to simply having harder levels and enemies that take a little more learning

[proven bison]

Not for me, non skilled gamer scrub that I am. Balteus, Sea Spider, and IBIS, and ||Ayre|| all took 20 attempts or more

[midnight pine]

yeah

[quasi copper]

I mean

[ashen monolith]

i also think this is a "you control the buttons you press" sort of deal

[midnight pine]

yeah

[quasi copper]

the difficulty spike is literally just "go back and get ye S ranks"

[ashen monolith]

you can just. not take the sherpa???

[midnight pine]

don't like the sherpas? don't use em!

i like the sherpas

[frank pivot]

Yes, i actually finished my no repair kit, no sherpa, no checkpoint run xD

[midnight pine]

walkign back to bosses is not my idea of fun

[cursive agate]

I've been trying to get myself to replay missions with less cracked loadouts, firepower wise, as a challenge

[frank pivot]

The "no repair kit" was the hardest part by far

[quasi copper]

I will accept a boss runback in a Souls game as good design when the runback adds something to the boss fight

until that point, bonfire directly next to boss fog or see me after class miyazonky

[frank pivot]

I think getting the sherpas and checkpoints (which are functionally identical) needs to be harder

[dawn stag]

honestly I didn't miss the boss runs when they basically took them out in ER

[ashen monolith]

no repairs does sound like a fun time though

[midnight pine]

OK!

[cursive agate]

Checkpoints seem fine

[ashen monolith]

i might try it out

[midnight pine]

i dont

agree to disagree or something

[frank pivot]

EXACTLY. If the runback is designed to tax your resources in a fun and engaging way then it's good

[cursive agate]

I use checkpoints as a "I just want this mission over already" option

[ashen monolith]

the thought's been nagging at me for a while

[quasi copper]

like, hmm

[frank pivot]

But if the runback is like, the sir allone runback

[quasi copper]

if there was a level where the boss runback was the warmup to a boss fight? I think I could get behind it

[frank pivot]

Then it's kinda shit

[dawn stag]

fighting balteus with no checkpoints would be like fighting sir alonne

[cursive agate]

Attack the Wall (PCA edition) stands out to me as that, if you take out Ring Freddie.

[quasi copper]

the issue is usually that the runbacks become very tedious when they're content that has nothing to do with the fight

[frank pivot]

Watchpoint is way too easy for that to be true

[midnight pine]

i think runback in ac6 would be really terrible since the bosses require a way different skillset than the rest of fthe game

[frank pivot]

Yeah, i quite like that mission

[dawn stag]

or blue smelter demon

[quasi copper]

yeah watchpoint with no checkpoint was kinda just "hey here's a secret: you can ambush every enemy at Watchpoint Delta if you know the level"