Armored Core General!

[solar sinew]

Whats stopping you? TIme?

[serene kettle]

time, having fallen out of touch with half the people anyway, their schedules, some aspects of what I liked about that game not meshing super well with as-written lancer

I actually have half a campaign journal hidden away somewhere on the internet but it's under my old identity, so I'm loath to share it around

I did start doing a "20 years in the future" sort of thing and extrapolate a bunch of the loose threads and ongoing plots and institutions into something that fits lancer's assumptions better though

somewhat

at least as far as setting up a big four (five)

(not all of the corporations and institutions from my old setting mesh in here perfectly so I listed them as independent manufacturers instead and they can produce exotic or otherwise alternative parts)

[serene kettle]

Oh, I was also working on replacing HASE with a set of core extension/arms/legs/head parts (with frame choice replacing the actual "Core" selection, along with providing stock parts that don't provide any special stats to be replaced, in order to get some of that particular armored core parts list feel in mech-building)

[feral niche]

So much cool work, will read later.

[solar sinew]

I particularly like the BECs description. Any of my PCs would probably be tied to Archer in some fashion, its a lovely plothook.

Blackbirds is very fun. "There is nothing here" is always a great vibe.

The core selection is interesting too. Im doing a similar thing in flavoring the core powers my players pick with ingame parts, but flavoring HASE this was could be fun. How do you go about the balancing in this system?

[serene kettle]

Probably just manna or arrange them in tiers and "pick one thing you can afford to upgrade" each LL similar to gaining HASE normally. Some of the more complex parts have additional reserve-like features to keep it from just being HASE with extra steps though

I never actually finished this, it's a wip thing

[solar sinew]

I see. The tacked on reserves are a cool idea. Depending on which you give them it might be a bit on the stronger side, but Im assuming you arent slotting extra core batteries in there

[serene kettle]

Oh, no. It'd be, like, 1/scene minor actives or maybe even bolder ideas like replacing the HP gain from an otherwise Hull-aligned part with starting overshield a la emperor that regenerates between scenes even if you don't spend repcap

[solar sinew]

Hm, thats neat. I could think of several ideas for that overshield idea

[serene kettle]

the chromestrike parts lists had some stuff like this too that gave parts more identity, which was something I always liked about the system

like, there was a head part designed for amphibious operations that had an additional small weapon mount on it, for poking your head above the water and firing. There were head parts that reduced movement penalties to aim, improving the ratio for how fast you could go and still hit things. There was an arm part that came with an attached multitool to be used for utility stuff (if I were adapting that, I'd probably just say it comes with free Manipulators)

[solar sinew]

That does sound neat. What issues did you have with the system?

[serene kettle]

mostly that while the mech-building was cool, the combat was actually really boring

it didn't really recommend sitreps so it was all deathmatches, terrain didn't really do anything of note so you might as well theater of the mind it, and having both armor saves and to-hit rolls along with giving every part its own wound track made fights absolutely interminable

the way movement penalties worked also contributed to this, and given the irrelevance of terrain most of the time movement was just "okay how much penalty to your aim are you willing to take for better dodge this round?"

[solar sinew]

Meh, thats a shame. The building does sound like a lot of fun though, so I see why the temptation to port it into Lancer would be there. Do let me know if you ever get around to it, its a fun idea on paper

[solar sinew]

"Rusty is a Vesper, he cant be just nice, they all have serious personality issues"

My players effortlessly proving the Clark Kent disguise:

[feral niche]

Rusty and Freud are the best Vespers.

[solar sinew]

Theres a long running theory that Freud doesnt even exist at my table, so really, Ive got nothin' xD

I do agree, though Im partial to O'Keeffe aswell

[feral niche]

Ah of course, unaugmented, unrecorded, unused.

He's gonna be the final boss that never happens.

[feral niche]

Cool lore.

[feral niche]

Nice.

[solar sinew]

I have no doubt itll still be a fun fight, but man can I use him to blindside them with both the Arquebus spies AND Iguazu if I play my cards right without resorting to underhanded tactics

[feral niche]

Hehe.

[feral niche]

Ah, of course.

[paper ferry]

Credit: timmie15 on tumblr

[solar sinew]

I would like to formally request Arquebus nuke Grid 86

This map is eating me alive

[paper ferry]

I was curious about the origin of the name Ayre and it is of Celtic origin and literally just means “heir”

[paper ferry]

Curious how you’re going to run the Smart Cleaner

Even more so what your players will think of Carla

[solar sinew]

I wont, theyll deal with the coyotes while theyre up here

what theyll think of Carla.. is a good question. One of them knows Carla is related to Nagai and knows Nagais deal. So I dont expect a warm reception

[paper ferry]

Very interesting

[solar sinew]

They werent supposed to know, but man, if one of your players offers you the memories of their still living parents in exchange, thats a deal you dont turn down

Their recent choices mean I can show them Escort the Strider, turn to them and go "You know this is a trap. You know you are supposed to die here. Nobody will judge you if you run."

Which Im very excited about

[paper ferry]

Love that

[solar sinew]

Itll be either the Escort mission or a showdown against the assorted Arquebus and Balam idiots on their tail. Notably Iguazu/G13 and Rustys squad (currently sans Rusty)

[paper ferry]

It’s a pity that the only time Rusty and Iguazu could have interacted in-game was during the Ice Worm mission, but Rusty was away manning the Rail Cannon

[solar sinew]

I would have crashed into the bloody worm laughing if they had

Theres a precedent in this campaign for Rusty looking at two of my players marital strategic argument and deciding he wants no part in that lol

I could see him having a very amusing reaction to Iguazu and one of my PCs having their very Iguazu-coded spat

[paper ferry]

Everyone in the Ice Worm mission: “Wow, these people are so weird. Thank god I’m the only normal one here.”

[solar sinew]

I love that mission so dearly that Im very sad I wont get to run it. Not missing out on the Arquebus/Balam agreement though

[paper ferry]

You gotta find a way

[solar sinew]

I really do. I have some plans for the PCA that will pretty much use a similar setup, but I didnt just want to use the worm. The original draft was located at the Wall, but Ill just use the Ice Fields, I think. The concept of "survive until big canon fires" is easy enough

[paper ferry]

Or maybe find some other way for the players to take its shield down so they have a bit more involvement in the fight

Shield down, first crit instantly structures it or something

[solar sinew]

I dont super like the worm for a TTRPG, so Ive already decided to replace it. I recently introduced part of the equation, Dragonfly shaped C-weapons. I just need something to pair them with and a neat enough location. Gives Rusty something to fire at and doesnt make my players completely rely on him

First we gotta get some Coral in the air. Hence the Strider, its been set up to be my standin for Watchpoint Delta

[paper ferry]

Are you going to involve the Cataphract at some point?

[solar sinew]

I think so, yeah. It suffers the same issue as the Worm, unfortunately

[paper ferry]

Hmm yeah

The Enforcer would be a good boss for Lancer. A boss with one glaring weak point like the Cataphract or the Worm would be harder to make more fun or challenging for a full squad of players.

[solar sinew]

Yeah. Theyve fought an Enforcer before and it was a good hoot

I keep wanting to do the "one big weakness" given it feels like my party composition should lend itself towards it, but it just isnt feasible

Balteus would be a better fit, maybe the Cataphract will just hover and fart missiles

Im a little amused at my solution for Grid 86s structural isses.
"how do I depict mountains below the Grid to make clear its a bottomless pit"

simple - Just import a png lmao

[paper ferry]

Nice

[feral niche]

Good work.

[paper ferry]

I think the Cataphract/Ekdromoi combo like in the alt BAWS Arsenal mission would lend itself better to a full party

[solar sinew]

For sure, yeah. Finding a way to turn the Cataphract into something interesting is gonna be rough, though. The Swallowtail and Hydra can and will shred it and theres a chance for a fun mechanic there. I used a "either one of you provokes the charge or it charges its artillery" type threat mechanic for the Juggernaut that may be useful? "Bait the charge, fulfill a condition with it, and the cataphract is exposed for a turn" or something

[winter sigil]

if lancer had robust facing mechanics like jovian chronicles or btech you could very simply make it immune to damage from everyrhing except narrow front and rear arcs
but you could also build that into a bespoke system for the one boss fight

[serene kettle]

MBT already sort of has a mechanic like that, even

[solar sinew]

Totally, yeah. Counterpoint: Monarch and Hydra

Monarch doesnt really give a shit about directions on a good day and the Hydra will just fry it

I considered a similar thing and playtested it earlier on in Wallclimber, but didnt find it to be fun enough to be worth the hassle

Reusing the Juggernaauts mechanics may not be the worst idea, given A they are familiar with it and B now they get to play with it without Rusty keeping their ass in the game for the first structure or two

[solar sinew]

Perhaps a silly question, but.. how long has Walter operated on Rubicon? We see 617 and the others die in the trailer, but when does this take place? They are definitely on Rubicon, but I cant quite find a fitting place for the timeline to match.

This would have had to have been before the corporations made landfall, especially if we factor in Sulla killing other hounds. Walter has been doing this since Gen 1s were at least relevant. Has he just operated on Rubicon for that long and we never got to see it given he had to restock with 621 before going back?
Part of me assumed he hadnt been to Rubicon since Nagai shipped him off to Jupiter as a child, but that cant be right

[feral niche]

Now that you mention it, you're right...

[solar sinew]

For future reference

[late jay]

Kinda wanna get gud with shields

[late jay]

Feel like having a shield should make up for the poor defenses and attitude stability

[solar sinew]

dont forget to pick a core expansion. Pulse shield should do the trick

[feral niche]

Looking at someone's Online PVP build.
'It's Terminal (Armor)...'

[winter sigil]

i <3 termy armor

[feral niche]

Yeah, it's fine, I just wanted to make the joke.

[late jay]

Kinda feel like Pulse Armor would be a bit redundant

If that's what you mean

[paper ferry]

I got Snail :)

[late jay]

https://tenor.com/view/pet-snail-snail-with-strawberry-today-i-will-wear-my-white-button-dowm-snail-falling-over-falling-over-gif-15072361159213646807

[paper ferry]

Overburdened

[solar sinew]

You heard it here first, folks, Freud and Snail are the same person

The conspiracy side of the Landing Page is my favorite place to be

[paper ferry]

It’s… it’s just a planet…

[paper ferry]

Nice call on the Dalí quote though

[solar sinew]

Yeah, my players are sharp. They puzzled out all of the naming schemes very quckly

[solar sinew]

Coral is the great mystery so far lol. I guess we are missing Ayre straightup saying "I am a rubiconian," but I plan on making up for it by showing them Arquebus repurposing one of the RRIs experimentation chambers If the Strider doesnt explode

[paper ferry]

Maybe you could get a some Coral inhabiting a C-weapon boss to talk to them

[solar sinew]

I really, really do not want the Coral talking

Ive booted Ayre for TTRPG main character reasons

They interacted with it directly just a few weeks ago, but its all a bit less.. personified

[paper ferry]

Fair

[solar sinew]

The moment I allow my players to talk to it, I can wave goodbye to any attempt of secrecy, or Ill have to come up with reasons why they couldnt ask about the world, and thats also not in the spirit of things

This way they can interact with it, but theres a hefty cost involved

[solar sinew]

"Its a Balam double agent in Arquebus disguising themselves as an RLF spy"

Im having a time over here

[feral niche]

Lol.

[solar sinew]

They bullied Carla into offering some information about the Coral. Time to kick things into overdrive with Escort the Strider and some ALLMIND ACs mentioning Coral Release for the first time.

[feral niche]

Hell yeah.

[paper ferry]

That won’t bite them in the ass or anything

[solar sinew]

Hmm they hit the exposed Hydra for 20 damage. Specters sure are a species

[paper ferry]

Chonky Boi

[paper ferry]

I’m impressed by how Snail’s AC is really noticeably more massive

[solar sinew]

Its the legs that always get me. Youd be forgiven for forgetting both Arquebus and Balam produce midweight ACs

[solar sinew]

The Laser Lance is very cool with both iterations

[paper ferry]

One of my favorite weapons

[solar sinew]

That weapon is single handedly gate keeping my 100% achievement. I cannot for the life of me S rank Coral Convergence alt

Its very fun to use though

Are you planning on painting them, by the way?

[paper ferry]

I want to get more pieces from the generic frames when they come out so I can put together my own ACs

And then I actually have to get paint

[solar sinew]

Im not familiar with where these are from in the first place, are they FromSoft merch?

[radiant birch]

10 Minute Missions, i think?

brand of model kits where the parts are all cross-compatible

[solar sinew]

Oh shit theres so many too

Hm, maybe Ill get myself one to celebrate the campaign when its over

Iguazu sure makes a compelling case for himself at the present

[paper ferry]

30 Minute Missions, made by Bandai

[eager vector]

Stay above snail. The laser lance doesn’t track well vertically

[solar sinew]

Yea, I know that intellectually. I think 90% of my issues come from my insistence of bringing my paper plane that can hop into a different zipcode into a fight in a literal sewer, but its gotten me through everything else and at this point Im stubborn

Iguazu is zero help in the fight, but hes whatever

[late jay]

Finding Assault Armor to be good actually

[serene kettle]

I am an AA appreciator

it goes on basically all my builds tbh

[late jay]

Same

[radiant birch]

AA is very good, it's just more situational than Pulse Armor

[serene kettle]

for sure

[radiant birch]

ultimately it depends on what you're doing with your build

[serene kettle]

that said at least for me, pulse armor is always the wrong answer

[radiant birch]

it is extremely fun to react to someone popping PA by popping AA in their face

[serene kettle]

...because I forget to use it as intended and then activate it on reflex when I think I have the perfect AA moment and forget

[radiant birch]

reset stagger? wrong. instant stagger

lol yeah that makes sense

gotta respect your muscle memory

[solar sinew]

AA is very good. Figured Pulse might be more in line with your builds theme, hence the recommendation, there was no mechanical benefit there outside of what it offered innately

[solar sinew]

Death is the best crowd control, even or especially if youre looking at something like CEL 240 or Ayre

Youre not wrong

It just takes a greater amount of skill to kill something than it does to hit shield and reassess

[paper ferry]

Pulse Armor is great because it immediately eliminates any accumulated ACS strain, but I love Assault Armor because it’s a great “Oh Shit!” button in boss fights

[solar sinew]

Time to bring my tent and move in.

My new domicile is gonna be Escort the Strider this week. God this mission needs a fucking guide. What the fuck is ALLMINDs plan here? Who the fuck knows.

You know who gets to puzzle it out? Damn straight.
(And Iguazu is there too. No help whatsoever)

[feral niche]

There is coral tech on the strider.

That is the explanation.

[solar sinew]

Yeah, there is coral on the strider.

Why is Allmind attacking it with RRI mechs she seemingly never gets access to again?

[feral niche]

She does get bigger ones Tbf, but yeah.

The Helianthus is such an odd design.

A wheel that hits things makes sense, but a hollow wheel is something else.

[solar sinew]

A flame spitting hollow wheel with razor blades no less

No idea what that thing was supposed to be originally

[feral niche]

Good question.

[solar sinew]

As for the last session, to those mildly interested - My players navigated Grid 86, disabled Rummy without killing him, mostly because they considered him to be too pathetic to waste bullets on (fair), were very concerned by RaDs security lasers, were even gladder they didnt have to fight the Smart Cleener and talked to Carla instead.
Their Handler called ahesd and my playrs were equal parts relieved and confused how they knew each other, but amusingly didnt bother inquiring after Carla very reluctantly parted with some half truths about the Fires when a player shared knowledge Carla believed to be unique to her hard drives (thanks, Coral, very cool).

Armed with the truth that Coral is alive they set out on their next debate on how much of it is bullshit and hop along to clear out the coyotes that conveniently set up post by the closest access point.

They made it just in time and are now staring down the Strider. They know its a set up. They dont know by who. They know Arquebus and Balam are there, G13 and Iguazu are already engaged with some RRI relics.

Arquebus is standing by to ambush them after given they were kind enough to provoke it.

The Strider is headed for an outpost and is rigged to blow, due to the combined mass of Coral the explosion is estimated to take a good chunk of the coast (and those nearby) with it when it blows.

So they decided to fly in there and stop the thing for nothing but the satisfsction of doing the right thing.

Im sure this will have no lasting consequences (but seeing them teaming up with Iguazu in self defence could be nice)

[feral niche]

Escort the Strider succeeding would be interesting.

[paper ferry]

That would probably change things somewhat significantly if the RLF remained at their full strength if they were able to hold onto both the Wall and the Strider

But even then, they still wouldn’t be able to fully contend with the corps

[late jay]

Kinda realizing how I like playing ACs that can rush down enemies with a combo chain

[solar sinew]

The Wall is gone for the moment, but yeah, the Strider would be a big deal, especially since my players are aware something is wrong with it. They might be able to fix the backdoor, too

[late jay]

Any ideas for non-melee combo chains?

[radiant birch]

iirc stagger > boost kick > shotgun is a pretty common combo extender sequence

can i do it myself? we don't need to talk about that 😛

[cursive agate]

More of a mid-close punish, I think I've used [Harris (tapfire/charged) stability break -> Bazooka (-> charged Harris if tapfire break)], or [Bazooka break -> charged Harris] before.
Massively chunks AP if it all lands.

[late jay]

Okey

[late jay]

I got one I'm trying to pull off with my current experimental build here which is essentially PR tap + locked Aurora -> kick (stagger) -> unlocked Aurora + PR charged

Only problem is that the combo is really tight

[solar sinew]

God Rusty frustrates me. So many questions. Why the fuck is he in the Vespers in the first place? It implies a larger plan by the RLF to bring the corporations to Rubicon to rid themselves of the PCA. Which sure isnt whats going on.
Next, what was the plan for liberation, anyway? Ortus is nice and all, a spy is nice and all, but the RLFs grand plan cant have been "hope someone comes along to take them out"

Maintaining your cover is good and important, but there comes a point where sabotage may have been preferable to taking the fucking Wall when the RLF has few notable fortifications.

Love the guy, hate the questions. Wouldnt be a day prepping Lancer if my neighbors didnt hear me cursing Rustys name

[eager vector]

fromsoft plots be like

[solar sinew]

AC6 is pretty good as far as fromsoft plots go. I just really doubt they gave this one much thought past the themes of it

The whole of the RLF needed 2-3 missions worth of "the fuck are you doing, anyway" to build up to Liberator imo

[eager vector]

yeah

[solar sinew]

As it stands, Ill have to do it myself

And fuck if I know how

The "we wanted thr corporations to come here to kick out the PCA" plan would be cool if they had any noteable defense that doesnt get crushed by Rusty and 621 approximately 20 minutes later.

Hell, Wallclimber isnt even the climax of the act. Its a literal speed bump

[feral niche]

Am pretty sure they just needed someone in a big Corp and they settled on Arquebus.

[solar sinew]

for what
And why did they throw so many funds at Elcano if they only needed a spy

[feral niche]

I have no damn clue.

[late jay]

I think it's because they needed to steal tech from Arquebus in order to get their leg up in the war against the corporations since Flatwell also infiltrated Schneider as an executive to send schematics to Elcano

[solar sinew]

THERE. There is a good answer. Fuck, good call. Is this a headcanon or do you have a log you can point to?

[late jay]

I believe there's some logs you can find in NG+ in Watchpoint Alpha right before the 2v1 with Rusty and Flatwell talking about it

[solar sinew]

Aaaand Im off hunting. Thank you! Even if this is a headcanon, it is canon in this campaign now

[late jay]

I know there's one by an RLF agent in a busted MT trying to catch up to Rusty before he picks a fight with 621

[solar sinew]

In breach the karman line, or in the underground?

[late jay]

Same mission

[solar sinew]

You just fixed my headache

So many questions answered at the same time. Why the RLF let the Wall fall. What theyre doing while the world is watching the Strider. Rusty. Fucking hell

[late jay]

I think they stated that Elcano got enough tech and knowledge from Schneider and Arquebus along with collaboration from Furlong to complete Ortus

[solar sinew]

Shit, yes, youre right, I remember the entry, I think.

This ties so many things together now, thank god

[late jay]

And basically trying to give Rusty the signal that he's free to blow his cover now

[solar sinew]

Yee, he didnt get the message and still engages you, yes?

[late jay]

Yep

And then Flatwell tries to break it up in NG+ before Rusty convinces him that 621 is too much of a threat to ignore

[solar sinew]

yeee. I dont even think Rusty is wrong either

I have no idea how to spin this with my players, given they are terribly sympathetic towards the RLF and currently risking their asses to save the STRIDER from Balam and ALLMIND, but we will see

Flatwell flying in to intercept could be a cool moment

[late jay]

You running a homebrew campaign?

[solar sinew]

yeah

Thats why Im so pissed about so much of this xD

[late jay]

Okey

[solar sinew]

Here it is!

I cant believe I never made the connection

[late jay]

Ye

O H

Check the descriptions for all the parts of Ortus too

[solar sinew]

Yes yes yes

Oh god, I already set up someone rerouting Schneider field reports of equipment. Thank fuck past me knew whats up

Furlong in general is so interesting for a company we know so little about.

Do we know what this one was about? The "Four" in question arent super clear to me, but since we dont see a great deal of independent mercs that move in fours Im inclined to think this is Branch. Still, what on earth

This does stem from Delta and thus preceeds their appearance, but fuck if I know what they were trying to do outside of mock fighting 621

[feral niche]

Glad that was fixed up.

[cursive agate]

(Estimated guess) Balam,Dafeng, Arquebus, Schneider? The main four corpos you get missions from.
Guessing based on the mention of "the other corps", and Furlong's involvement with Ortus's frame parts (ALBA).

[paper ferry]

Furlong specializes in rocket systems (missiles and boosters), Elcano is a supplier for the RLF and made the ALBA frame

[cursive agate]

The in-game description for the ALBA head and arms mention being developed by Elcano, but also

This model utilizes technology received from Furlong Dynamics

[paper ferry]

Gotcha

Yeah, that makes sense that they would feign neutrality to support the RLF

[solar sinew]

I suspected it might have been them, but it seems an odd thing to include when the corps still seem surprised when the PCA shows up. The language definitely implies its a corporation.

Just an odd thing for mercs to discuss and an even odder thing to place at Watchpoint Delta of all places

[cursive agate]

I think they were trying to evade PCA inspectors still, but the entire fleet rolling in was new.

[solar sinew]

Good point, yeah. Still, independent mercs tipping off the corporations out of the goodness of their heart seems odd.

Definitely something workable though, I have some NPCs who are a tad closer to Arquebus than even my players are

[cursive agate]

I'm guessing it was to ensure Rubicon's fighting stayed small-scale, the corps ramp up their forces a lot with PCA actively fighting.

[solar sinew]

I think Ill just toss this to my players and see what they make of it, provided they survive the Strider

[radiant birch]

PCA also doesn't seem to really use mercs, so if they just roll over the corps that means work on Rubicon dries up

If the corps have a fighting chance against the PCA, on the other hand, that means more job opportunities

[solar sinew]

Yeah, thats fair enough

[radiant birch]

Jumping back in the conversation a bit--I'm curious about Elcano and Furlong's motives for materially supporting the RLF. Is it ideological, or do they see a potential profit somewhere in there? The RLF is distinctly an underdog in the conflict and doesn't seem to have deep pockets...

Or maybe they can't move against Arquebus and Balam openly so they're hoping that a sufficiently supplied RLF will be able to destabilize their position on Rubicon

[cursive agate]

Elcano is most likely for ideology since they're also on Rubicon, higher end counterpart to BAWS.

[radiant birch]

I missed that bit, intriguing

Odd that Rubicon has active corporate infrastructure despite being "closed", though of course there's been a native Rubiconian population this whole time

Obvs you've got RaD too, but they always struck me as just barely legitimate, as much a network of gangs as a corporation

[solar sinew]

Rubicon has a surprisingly active black market.

For my campaign Ive installed an independent hub that acts as a black market and has contacts in the PCA with the express purpose of smuggling things in and out. So Rubicon isnt nearly as quarantined as one would think.

Furlongs interests have caught my eye repeatedly. I think their motivation just may be "make this was as expensive for Arquebus and Balam as possible" while they prepare to make a bigger move elsewhere. Furlong is a rival to Balam, so theyre vastly larger than their appearance in game would suggest

[cursive agate]

Michigan used to be a Furlong Dynamics pilot too

[radiant birch]

Get Balam to sink resources into Rubicon before hitting them somewhere else. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense

Went incredibly well for them too

[solar sinew]

Definitely yeah

[radiant birch]

Balam gets the crap kicked out of them by Arquebus, who in turn gets the crap kicked out of them by the Rubiconians/Fires of Raven, depending on the ending

(I'm assuming that corp politics don't count for much after Alea Iacta Est)

[solar sinew]

They do, actually. The whole of post AIE is a huge legal battle between Arquebus and Balam. Everything we see is pretty small fish, with the exception of Michigan

Ah

Well

No AIE

I cant read yeah

Fires/Liberator I mean

[radiant birch]

Definitely

Feels like Furlong goes from "shit we missed our chance to get a toehold" to "god I'm glad we weren't involved in that mess"

[solar sinew]

Either that, or they looked at the PCA and decided not to commit huge forces when sabotage gets the job done just fine

[radiant birch]

Anyway, it seems like the PCA tolerates some amount of economic activity on Rubicon as long as it doesn't involve poking Coral, which makes me wonder--how big of a deal was losing Rubicon? Obviously losing access to Coral was significant to tech development, but like, is Rubicon one of dozens of planetary colonies or is this like the Alliance-Union universe where there's maybe 2-3 habitable planets aside from Earth and everything else depends on space stations?

If the latter, I could see why the PCA would hold "closure" a bit loosely--a habitable planet is not a resource you'd want to throw aside that easily, Coral or no

[solar sinew]

We dont have a great amount of intel. The Jupiter war was almost definitely over some space stations, given Jupiters, ah, physical limitations. Itd make me inclined to believe that stations are the norm, but if it was a big deal, I get the feeling they wouldnt have just shut Rubicon down.

The PCA was tasked to keep Rubicon quarantined, but youd think an effort to recolonize would have been made, especially given the Cinders (somehow) survived the Fires and keep on surviving on Rubicon, so clearly its possible.

I see it that Rubicon was a backwater planet that only had one thing going for it.

[radiant birch]

A fair analysis

In which case, one might assume that planetary activity was tolerated because the Coral was all presumed destroyed in the Fires of Ibis, and closure was just a precautionary measure not worth committing the resources to stamp out minor violations

Only for them to realize their error when it turned out the Coral was not as annihilated as previously assumed

[solar sinew]

I think the PCA knew. Thats the main reason Branch leaked it.
The PCA knew the Coral was back and wanted to keep it hidden, both to stop a corporate invasion and, I imagine, to use it themselves. We see them using very new tech. Staying ahead of the curve through Coral tech would benefit them greatly, especially if they have an effective monopoly over it.

The RLF cant contest it, and we know RaD implemented a backdoor to the STRIDER that sold information to presumably the PCA

[radiant birch]

The reliability of human greed

Either way, though, I'd argue that the facts that 1) fifty years is a really long time to maintain an active blockade and 2) a lot of the PCA security systems we see are automated and/or repurposed Institute tech suggest to me that there's an upper limit to the amount of resources they're willing to spend on maintaining closure in the absence of a clear and present threat

Which, you know. A massive Coral explosion wiping out a significant chunk of landmass seems like the sort of thing that might light a fire under them a bit

[solar sinew]

Yeah, for sure. Then again, a whole planet is a lot of mass to lock down. From my understanding they have the sattellite to keep intruders out, and largely keep their defenses limited to where they know Institute City is.

I agree though that theyre not throwing a lot of resources at it. They had to bring in their whole fleet from elsewhere, so clearly they had priorities. They probably banked on people writing off Rubicon as burned out and ordered the fleet to turn around when the leak got out.

[solar sinew]

She is so much closer than she knows

She is also fully kidding

[radiant birch]

"Iguazu is there for some reason" is a very good description of the AIE ending

[solar sinew]

Yeah, thats what caught me too

She doesnt know AC and "We are on Station 31 and Iguazu is there" is silly accurate

[radiant birch]

[ALLMIND voice] "Iguazu. You are here, for some reason."

[solar sinew]

God this made me laugh

[feral niche]

Deathsled encounter when?

[solar sinew]

Coldcall is a contact they have on speed dial, so thats going to be a very interesting conundrum later

[feral niche]

True enough, it’s just odd how few truely independent mercenaries there are in AC6.

[solar sinew]

I did alleviate that yeah

[feral niche]

You sure did.

Hey, about that one reserve that’s a tactical AI helping you in battle, would it be Allmind in this case, or something else? (Might not even have it)

[solar sinew]

They dont have it at the present, but Itd probably be ALLMIND unless its gestures vaguely at the RRI mechs about to attack them and Balam at the Strider

[feral niche]

Lol.

The only AIs we are told of include Chatty Stick, Allmind, and Enforcement System.

Have fun with that mission.

[solar sinew]

I will, yeah. Escort the Strider with upped stakes and extra casualties is, unsurprisingly, a big headache

[feral niche]

So what’s the player base anyway?

[solar sinew]

The player base?

[feral niche]

The base the player’s have.

[solar sinew]

Theres also a merc hub up in Grid 135 thats run by a crime lord operating the black market and gets things through the PCA blockade

[feral niche]

Cool.

[late jay]

Anybody wanna VC while I experiment with builds btw?

[paper ferry]

“Iguazu. Can you lock the fuck in?”

[solar sinew]

"Ill lock you the fuck out."

[paper ferry]

Gottem

[late jay]

Iguazu would be the kind of person to tell himself "gottem" after having an outburst in a voice call

Unless it was with Michigan

[solar sinew]

Yeah, absolutely

[late jay]

https://tenor.com/view/gadoosh-gadooshed-gif-552996007817045351

Iguazu after a call with Michigan:

[solar sinew]

I am so looking forward to this week, where Iguazu is either killed or rescued by my PCs.. again. Im sure nothing bad will happen and nobody will be upset

[late jay]

He would also tell 621 to shut up even though they literally don't have a voice to say anything to him

[paper ferry]

621 probably has some instant messaging program on board and they just shoot back at Iguazu with “k”

[feral niche]

They gotta communicate some way, makes sense.

[paper ferry]

621 just leaving Iguazu on read

[feral niche]

Think they use TTS?

Since it would be a tad difficult to read another chat and we hear everyone else’s voice.

[paper ferry]

Probably

Give the squad the Moonbase Alpha treatment

[late jay]

I'm thinking of naming and painting this after a pistol shrimp

[solar sinew]

Good god, my players will hate the Helianthus wheels without ever seeing them in game

And this from a bunch of Pyros they largely dismissed as too slow to matter

[feral niche]

Lmao.

[feral niche]

Remember, pistol and mantis shrimp both create light with bubbles.

[solar sinew]

My players are weird. Borne out of a conversation regarding a line too mean to level at PCs, where I mentinoned that there are plenty of NPCs around. Iguazu makes himself a very compelling target

PC: "I like Iguazu now, I have to protect him"
GM "What is wrong with you"
"He needs to live"
"Doesnt mean you cant insult the fuck out of him"
"Oh. You are correct"

[feral niche]

Lol.

[paper ferry]

621 heaven is Iguazu hell. It's a very efficient system.

[polar osprey]

Based

[solar sinew]

I think its done. Escort the STRIDER the somehow worse edition

[paper ferry]

I love it

[solar sinew]

This took way too much time

[paper ferry]

I need to work on my maps

[feral niche]

That text is quite small, but cool.

[solar sinew]

Its r20, so they can and will zoom in. Getting everything in a screenshot was quite a challenge, but making the text bigger just makes it got everywhere.

Too much extra shit

[feral niche]

Got it, fair enough, just the map itself kind of went over my head as I still am not used to… hexes was it?

[solar sinew]

Hexes, yes. The map is admittedly quite chaotic. Which parts are hard to parse?

[feral niche]

Welll, ok so it's not that it's hard to figure out, it's simply a matter of hexes look alot more visually busy than grids to me.

It messes with my brain.

Long as it's the basic 'Here's open, here's blocked, here's half cover' I would probably be fine. I can't remember Lancer Terrain Rules though to remember if that's the case.

[solar sinew]

"If its outlined, its cover, but not LoS blocking, destructible by ram; if its hex coloured its whatever it says on top of it"

[feral niche]

Alright, cool, am going to bed.

I wish you luck on your session with it.

[solar sinew]

Thanks!

[paper ferry]

Average Monarch build
https://youtu.be/lv9PURPbcus?si=5avng81knG7T8me1

[late jay]

Pffft

Beautiful

[solar sinew]

Does anyone happen to have a clean mp3 of the STRIDER's laser attack for uh, recreational purposes

[radiant birch]

"we have balteus at home"

[solar sinew]

We are actively losing the STRIDER.

Round 5 of this Ultra Breacher being alive despite being constantly out of position to benefit from Data Veil. Round 1 Aegis is also still alive.

They really managed to kill the Hive on Round 1 and since then, nothing. Quite a few enemies on the field too. Im gonna throw them Balams reinforcements and see what happens

[feral niche]

Fair enough.

[solar sinew]

Opfor is slowly falling apart, but theyre ~2 bodies short of actually winning the Holdout

[solar sinew]

Well, one of my PCs recognized G13 as her brother while he was being grappled and taken round back while theyre losing a sitrep.

Nice cliffhanger if nothing else

[feral niche]

Nice.

[solar sinew]

My players, on what their plan is regarding the murder of Rustys squad:

Im pretty sure Rusty would be indifferent to mildly approving, but its not like Ill tell them that lol

[feral niche]

Lol, true.

[late jay]

Why did I neglect to give this AC the Alulas?

[paper ferry]

You know, sometimes you don’t need to be fast

[late jay]

https://tenor.com/view/moar-power-gif-22145543

[radiant birch]

i don't understand the statement

[surreal vine]

I always see it as a fun challenge to try and wrangle every AC build I make in 6 to get as close to For Answer speed as possible

(if just because I am haunted by 'ol CUBE from ACFA)

[solar sinew]

At this rate, Ill have to reintroduce Rusty as murdering his own squad mates if I want this group to ever talk to him, I think xD
One of them is gonna (consensually) kill a PC in the field, I get the feeling the party may harbour a grudge about that.

How did we turn Escort the Strider into such a convoluted mess of a mission xD
Balam got obliterated, my players flew into ALLMIND's trap after deliberately antagonizing Arquebus, they still lost the Strider and now I have a player switch characters to get the others out alive.

[winter sigil]

send the character to arquebus reeducation and have them come back as a boss later

[solar sinew]

I was severely tempted, but the player insisted they die. I have Ziyi sitting in an Arquebus camp still, so if they dont get a wiggle on about her, I think Ill just use her

[paper ferry]

Ziyi must be protected at all costs

[feral niche]

Rokumonsen be like.

[paper ferry]

I've been able to throw together an ultra-light build that reached over 400 speed

Lammergeier frame with Nachtreiher legs as well as a lightweight BAWS generator and the BST-G2/P06SPD booster

I didn't put any weapons on it, since I just wanted to see how fast an AC could go

[wooden nimbus]

That paintjob is slick I love it

[late jay]

Thank

[solar sinew]

We wrapped up the STRIDER today.

Turns out Someone Is Always Moving On The Surface is now a song that will forver raise red flags when I play it.

STRIDER went down, one of the PCs once again considered throwing the mission to kill Iguazu after having a huge "What the fuck are we even doing here" moment when the STRIDER collapsed. Another PC reunited with her brother, but told him to leave with Iguazu when Arquebus showed up for their piece of the pie.

Several very selfless acts later, one of the PCs lost an arm and one was left behind to die. Three week timeskip to recover from the Coral Overexposure and immediate injuries, another three to begin picking up the pieces and grieve.

All in all a session that was reported as leaving all of us more than a little emotional. Everything was agreed upon beforehand, but each of the players only knew about the plans they themselves made with me ofc.

Interesting end to the joblist. Pretty sure theyll be hunting Rustys squad for sport now.

The event finally kickstarted the migration of the Coral east towards the Central Ice Fields, so Im looking forward to the PCAs fleet arriving, and my players finally figuring out more about ALLMIND working behind the scenes while the RLF struggles to maintain their foothold in the foodchain

But first, funerals and some catching up with the PCs and their contacts.

[paper ferry]

Guess the STRIDER just can't survive in any timeline

Rest in piece to the fallen pilot 🫡

[solar sinew]

Seems like it. They got pretty close too. One of them is gonna look into the hows and whys of it, Im not sure he will like the answers lol.

Theyll be hpsting a little funeral for him and I think his death is gonna be a great catalyst for the group moving forward.

The new PC works for Totally Not ALLMIND With A Moustache, so I foresee zero problems in their future

[feral niche]

Fun work.

[paper ferry]

Mark Kateson

[solar sinew]

I look forward to a session of roleplay, research and scheming next week. Some arena matches during the week and maybe some written stuff

[solar sinew]

The player named the NPC Theodor Campbell.

Keen eyes may observe ALLMINDs telltale firstname last name combination

"Campbell wants to sabotage Balam" isnt an entirely wrong assessment, but Im amused that he unknowingly gave me an NPC that begs to be another ALLMIND alias

[feral niche]

So... was any tech scavenged from the Strider yet?

[solar sinew]

By the PCs? No, they barely got out alive

[feral niche]

Thought so.

[solar sinew]

But they got their hands on one of ALLMINDs drones that the Hydra will be using after she finishes the project to decrypt the thing. Im sure reading a list of names and "Coral Release" will not raise any eyebrows

[feral niche]

Lol, fair enough.

[paper ferry]

Just wait until they see Iguazu on that list

Who's C4-765?
Don't worry about it

[feral niche]

Got it.

I am curious to hear how the campaign will turn out.

[solar sinew]

God yes. Iguazu and G13 both.

Ill be a fun moment of "God damn it GM"

[paper ferry]

G13 is a different person than 621 in this campaign, right?

[solar sinew]

Yeah. Its the Tester Pilots who is also the lost brother of one of the PCs

[radiant birch]

who presumably survived because 621 wasn't there to murk his ass?

[solar sinew]

Who survived because the PCs didnt prioritize the job to murk his ass

[radiant birch]

ahhhhhh

makes sense 😁 tweaking the plot of AC6 based on the PC's actions sounds like a lot of fun

[solar sinew]

It really is. We arent bound by the plot, so a lot of things happen in weird orders, some things dont happen at all (We skipped the watchpoint entirely, for instance) and we get to see how some things play out that we didnt get to see (Like Balams crack at the Wall, or an abandoned outpost of the RRI)

I honestly keep forgetting I even GM this game, most of it is riding on what the PCs are up to. Now, with the corps moving Eastern Belius to where I moved all the oversees stuff, they have some leads for the PCA producing novel tech over a giant Coral well that Kate Marksen found before she disappeared (and then reappeared to offer my players a trap in the STRIDER mission), one of their family members at the Wall, the RLF kinda screwed without the STRIDER and the Wall, and some current events theyre interested in

[paper ferry]

Honestly, that just means you're doing your job well when the PC's are the ones driving the story

[solar sinew]

Of course, it wasnt a complaint at all. No higher honour than your players feeling genuine things at the table because of choices they made in your little makebelieve world

[feral niche]

Great work indeed.

[solar sinew]

Another week passes where Im eyeing Rusty critically and wonder if I werent better off axing him entirely.

Yeah, yeah, I like the guy too, but he isnt working at the moment, and giving his role to a PCs daughter feels like a silly thing to pass up on unless I pull some weirdly convoluted stuff out of the box

[feral niche]

So he either dies off, fucks off, or paracausality removes him from existence?

[solar sinew]

Hes an established character and I dont mess with paracausality. Gotta kill him off if I want to get rid of him now, or somehow untangle him from all the plot threads connecting to him to retcon him out of relevance
Which is a lot of work for something I really dont want to do

[serene kettle]

alternatively, just leave him in his role but do both, and play up the tragedy when the inevitable right hand/left hand conflict happens

[solar sinew]

Hm, yeah. Granted, playing up the tragedy on a character my players dont seem to particularly cared for seems like wasted resources when I could do the same with the peeps they actually like or dislike.

Iguazu is quickly becoming a fan favorite (somehow) and I have the budding feeling theyll try a redemption type deal. Bit of a wasted effort, but maybe its enough to steer the story in a direction that they have more fun with than Rustys deal just because I really enjoy it.

Pretty sure Ill just let Rusty run along for now. The next few sessions are gonna be focused on the PCs recovering after the STRIDER (Read: Watchpoint Delta, contact, big explosions, what have you) and figuring out what to do. Theyll probably wander into the Central Ice Fields sooner or later and I can always offer them a Rusty mission or two there. If they dont bite I can always switch his role later. Love the guy, but I love my table more

[serene kettle]

that's fair

[solar sinew]

Im out here hopping in my chair at the last RP response my player sent me. Next session is gonna be fucking exciting

[feral niche]

Awesome.

[solar sinew]

Right, I think I found an angle. His squad went after the players, he didnt give the order. Arquebus is still paranoid over the spy.

Lets my players mess with a whole lot of questions while also giving them another shot at figuring out whether Rustys gonna be of interest to them or not

[serene kettle]

Oooh, that's interesting

not a spoonfeed but definitely adds a wrinkle of mystery to investigate

[solar sinew]

I really am playing with fire a little, but hey, if they figure it out they figure it oit

Excerpt from a handout my players got due to a previously placed drone.

Itll be a fun thing to look back on, eventually

[solar sinew]

Alright, Rusty has become someone they have their eye on. All it took was to give them some blackmail to consider whether they prefer him dead or an ally lol

I look forward to seeing which one itll be, either way my problem will solve itself

[feral niche]

Fair enough.

Once again, gonna be hilarious when any of them find out the original game story line.

[solar sinew]

Yeah, one of them will be playing the game. Personally Im having a lot of fun of telling them "There be a spy at Arquebus" and just.. having Freud have a casual chat with both of them

[feral niche]

Hehe.

[radiant birch]

Freud: "I'm not a spy, I just don't give a shit"

[solar sinew]

Im still not convinced Freud didn't know about what was going on at Arquebus. I could see him just ignoring it because it was going to be hilarious when Snail caught wind

[solar sinew]

Dear god, theyre trying to make an ally of Rusty by helping him to find the spy at Arquebus

This is hilarious

Rusty is going to be a very confused man when they show up trying to help

[serene kettle]

oh that's incredible

same energy as that one new vegas quest where the guy NCR has looking into a potential spy is the spy

[solar sinew]

God yes

This will be hilarious

The PCAs suppression fleet is about to show up, so Im sure theyll be flip flipping between "someone is setting Rusty up" and "Rusty is trying to set us up"

Meanwhile, Rusty would very much like less attention

They are suspecting everyone to be an RLF double agent, except for the RLF double agent. God, this is hilarious

[serene kettle]

incredible

[solar sinew]

Mostly because the new PC is doing the best impression of a shifty double agent without actually being one

By comparison, Rusty looks downright harmless and on the straight and narrow

Good grief, is she being interrogated by the other two PCs. Theyre digging up most of her secrets within a day of knowing her

Its so easy to forget how sharp my players are sometimes, but boy are they making it clear now. Ive just been sitting here and listening for 50 minutes with popcorn. Forget anything I have planned, this is so much more entertaining

[feral niche]

Nice.

[solar sinew]

"One of you can call V.IV"

Wait what, since when are we talking to Rusty

Ah, nevermind, were delaying it for a funeral

For a moment I thought I was losing my hearing

The new PC worked as an ALLMIND actor for (1) hour and immediately got sniffed out by BOTH PCs

[solar sinew]

"Do I have G13s frequency?"
"I dont think you do"
"How can I get it, can I hack ALLMIND?"
"You can try, but you do know [Other PC] has Iguazus frequency"

This is a glorious trainwreck in the making

[solar sinew]

Yeah, this was gold

[serene kettle]

“Hack ALLMIND”

For my next feat, I will attempt to telepathically subdue Cthulhu

[solar sinew]

Lmao

She managed to break the encryption on one of the drones, and all it took was a crit, a week of time, and the help of an expert

Iguazu: "Did you kill [PC] and take his commlink?"
PC: "No. Why do you care?"
"I dont"
"Then why did you ask?"
"Forget about it"

She didnt need the talent to tell her he was lying out of his ass lmao

[feral niche]

Heh.

[solar sinew]

Session has been renamed

[serene kettle]

G2 Denial

[solar sinew]

Nile died between last session and this one.

Instead, one of them dosed on Coral, saw the cause for everything, including the way its all going to end, and his brain just shut it out to protect his sanity. Another PC later found the word "Denial" on his wall lol

Aka: "GM gets this close to saying "ALLMIND" at the table"

[solar sinew]

"Be friendly to the big guy and make yourself indispensable, and youll be the most efficient double agent"

My PC talking about another NPC, whose name is not Rusty. One day thisll be so funny

They have all the clues they need by now. Frankly, all they need to do is look from "One guy with control over tech" to "The system" and theyll be there. Same for Rusty. They even know about Ortus being in production lol

Oh well. Theyre gonna be breaking back into the Wall next session (How? Hell if I know. I heard something about "helping" Rusty, but nobody actually called him lol) and go after the guy who shot their friend, a PCs daughter and Arquebus' spies. Presumably in that order. Somehow.

But first a funeral for the dead PC with some of the friends they made with the RLF (read: Rusty's trainees. World's a nutshell sometimes)

[solar sinew]

Accurate summary, Id say

[serene kettle]

XD

[solar sinew]

I am vibrating in lower caps

[serene kettle]

Cackling

[solar sinew]

They are so, so close

Watching them put pieces together in real time is such a gift.

God I wish I could play AC6 for the first time again

so close

So yeah, TLDR, my little stunt has catapulted Rusty straight into my players minds lmao

[serene kettle]

Lmao

[paper ferry]

I cannot wait for the bombshell revelation of Rusty being the spy this whole time

[solar sinew]

It will be a good day of dodged projectiles

Someone is gonna find a way to throw a shoe at me through the monitor

"He is.. nice, but also has.. integrity, but also is a Vesper? How can this be??"
"Lets help him find the spy"

Rusty: "Please do not"

[paper ferry]

Rusty’s in a pickle

How does he throw them off his scent without revealing that he’s the spy?

[solar sinew]

Thats the funny thing

They arent on his scent whatsoever

They considered blackmailing him, they considered getting him court martialed, and eventually settled on just bailing his ass out of trouble he isnt in if he just lets his subordinate take the fall for him

The trouble is that they dont know that this is an outcome that benefits him lol

Im half tempted to just.. let them have the info, Rusty now with his cover semi-blown and fuming. Let them figure out what to do, this sounds like a player problem xD

[paper ferry]

Incredible

I’m just thinking about V.VIII Pater now for some reason

Fastest Vesper to climb the ranks only because those above him keep dying.

[solar sinew]

I almost fear he wont live this long

My players arent happy with the hints at re-education they get and Paters name is in there, even if indirectly. Cant do shit without logistics

By player vote, Rustys new theme song is Call me maybe

Player choice. Somehow, they do not suspect him whatsoever

[paper ferry]

Rusted Pride? Trash. Call Me Maybe? Real shit.

[solar sinew]

Genuinely

Dude called them to warn them after Wallclimber. Its been eight weeks ingame. They have yet to respond with a thumbsup. Not out of malice, they just.. I dont know, mix of priorities and that lasting rumor of him being impersonated by someone

[solar sinew]

How on earth are they sniffing out O'Keeffe before Rusty

Rusty has since been upgraded to "probably a pychopath, nobody can be this good of a pilot and this highly ranked a Vesper without being a psychopath". I mean, kinda right lol

[serene kettle]

Peak players moment tbh

[solar sinew]

Genuinely, yeah. This is based on nothing but the Coral Release list and some vibes from the drone footage

"Once a spy, always a spy"

And again, Rusty hiding in plain sight xD

Well, we will play the game of "which Vesper can do the most convincing Rusty impression" next session. Probably a toss up between O'Keeffe and Pater, probably.

[feral niche]

Nice.

[paper ferry]

Insane that they got ALLMIND’s list this early

[solar sinew]

Well, kinda early. PCA suppression fleet is about to show up when dramatically appropriate.

ALLMIND is currently trying to get one of the PCs to test her frames through the guise of said PCs handler, while the others got finally a step up by finding out Kate Marksen has disappeared, but is still giving out orders. Puts a bit of a target on the back of an NPC who has yet to show her face (but will once Mind Beta is tested. Or she will be worse if it isnt, I suppose)

Joblist right now includes a mix of Flatwells request to prevent corporate salvage, and Rusty request to raid the Refuelling station. Suppression fleet was intended to show up there. PCs already said they dont quite want to hand Arquebus another win, so I dont see them taking it.

Additionally, theres the Assassinate V.VII mission that is marked as taken by Rokumonsen, basically Prisoner Rescue at the Wall, and Im sincerely contemplating throwing out intercepting the PCA inspection of BAWS Arsenal No 2 by Marksen herself

Which should raise a few eyebrows to say the least

Theres a very funny possibility that theyll discover Rusty because they do some digging about Ortus

[feral niche]

Can't wait for them to finally discover he's the Spy.

[solar sinew]

Yeah, same. Part of me was wondering whether theyd see through him immediately, given they know I like Rusty, and he doesnt fit the rogue archetype I usually enjoy on the surface.

I guess seeing other characters I enjoy a lot in the universe really helped blend Rusty in as "probably a psychopath who will try and kill us later"

Which, again, isnt an inaccurate reading of the character

It just so happens to be hilariously useful for maintaining his cover

[feral niche]

Yeah.

[paper ferry]

Interesting that Rusty didn’t make ALLMIND’s list, but then I remembered that he’s a more recent generation of augmented human and ALLMIND knows he’s an RLF spy.

[solar sinew]

Dont get me started on Rustys augmentation

[serene kettle]

it's actually pretty unclear

Rusty "claims to be" 8th Gen but there's absolutely nothing backing that up but his word

...in his Arquebus dossier

[solar sinew]

Ive gotten upset enough with it to lampshade that vague ambiguity as a running joke of his squad.

[paper ferry]

I feel like that’s something Arquebus could easily verify

[solar sinew]

Like Jesus, Rusty, could you make yourself more blatanty a spy

[serene kettle]

There's also one completely unverifiable entry on Allmind's list with no clear candidate

[paper ferry]

That’s Iguazu

[serene kettle]

Not the Gen 4 one

[solar sinew]

No, theres a gen 3 thats unverified

[paper ferry]

Oh that’s right

[solar sinew]

Excerpt from one of Rustys squadmates in this hellscape of a campaign

[serene kettle]

I don't really think that's meant to be Rusty, but in theory it could be anyone

[paper ferry]

There’s a theory that it’s Rokumonsen because his AC uses an ALLMIND part, but that’s the only piece of evidence there is

[serene kettle]

There's no clear candidate at all for it

[solar sinew]

Rokumonsen was accounted for on the list yeah?

[serene kettle]

Rokumonsen is just too much of an odd duck to say much of anything for sure

[paper ferry]

I would be willing to accept that the RLF found a way to give Rusty Gen Eight augmentation as part of him becoming a spy

[serene kettle]

and to be clear, that's an entirely plausible headcanon

there's just nothing conclusive ingame

[solar sinew]

Feels like there was so much ALLMIND content cut

O'keeffe and Rokumonsen both

[serene kettle]

O'Keefe at least we know things about - he was previously Gen 2 but got his surgery redone at a higher Gen. He's no longer on ALLMIND's list, since there are no gen 2s on it

[solar sinew]

We just dont get to see anything of him. He gets his one mission, but it feels like there should have been one or two more scenes with him to really round him out as a character

Yeah, we know more about him than Rokumonsen, but between them and Sulla, its still two scenes and one armor piece

[serene kettle]

that's fair lol

[solar sinew]

Am I missing any logistical locations that you can see at a glance?

Holding facilities are on the northern side and accounted for

[paper ferry]

Yeah, looks like O'Keeffe is Gen Nine

[paper ferry]

Are the apartment buildings occupied?

I would imagine the support staff live there

[solar sinew]

yep!

[paper ferry]

Nice

[solar sinew]

Which, yknow, weve all done missions around the Wall.

The support staff will have to relocate soon xD

[paper ferry]

Small but comfortable apartments that are nice to live in until an enemy AC uses your building as cover.

[solar sinew]

Im ot entirely sure what theyre planning at the Wall

[paper ferry]

We got Keanu Reeves at the Colony Bar

[solar sinew]

They want to, in presumably that order,

Execute a dude in Rustys squad
Find a PCs daughter working as a guard guarding said squad member
And find the spy at the Wall to help out Rusty

Need I mention that they have absolutely zero clearance

[paper ferry]

oop

[serene kettle]

one of those classic "what could possibly go wrong" plans

[solar sinew]

The last time they had one of those, they opened up Gallia Dam for Balam to go to the Wall they were subsequently stuck in during the siege

So I foresee no difficulties, especially considering A Dolmayan is still held captive there and B I still have a whole ass supression fleet chilling in orbit

[paper ferry]

Rusty attacks 621 because he doesn't know what their purpose is. Rusty attacks your players because he has no goddamn clue what they're doing.

[serene kettle]

hah

[solar sinew]

Rusty has received the weirdest updates these last six months

"I never could get a read on you" is doing a lot of heavy lifting

[paper ferry]

Rusty is beginning to sympathize with Snail's enormous headache

[solar sinew]

Oh yeah

Id add one for Rusty, but the timer would rarely go past two days

[serene kettle]

hah!

[solar sinew]

I cannot reiterate how much it amuses me that they still did not call him back since Wallclimber. Its been months.

Now theyre showing back up with "Rusty, we wanna help you find the spy :D"

They found out through a drone in the Wall. Im sure Rusty will be thrilled

[serene kettle]

this is giving me some magical flashbacks to when I ran chromestrike a decade ago. My PCs once went into the rich part of a city and interpreted "they're big on play-nobility here so mind your manners" as "you should impersonate nobles to be taken seriously" and proceeded to make a scene with their incredibly fake guises until they got corporate security forces called on them, at which point they scrambled for a high pressure water distribution channel to escape pursuit.

this was supposed to be a milk run to set up the next leg of plot with some intrigue in town

[paper ferry]

Average ttrpg session

[solar sinew]

Yeeeep, same vibes

[serene kettle]

to be clear they jumped in the sewer but like. This was at the top of a high tower arcology, so the water needed to be pressurized to get up there

they got washed away and split up in the bowels of the tower

[solar sinew]

My guys will be flying from the Wall after burying their fallen dude (Who died because they knowingly flew into a trap by "Kate Marksen" to save the STRIDER for no tangible reward or prompting by the RLF). Some chitchat with Flatwell, and then off to the Wall to play hero.

Mixed signals all around

[solar sinew]

That is so hilarious

How did they get out?

[serene kettle]

I gave them some individual adventures and a lifeline to meet up with their original contact to get things, if not back on track, at least sorta regathered.

[solar sinew]

Thats very cool

[serene kettle]

one of them did literally die though

[solar sinew]

I do wish Rubicon offered more low stakes contacts that arent quite as politically charged

[serene kettle]

so you know, ymmv

[solar sinew]

How does one die in that situation

[serene kettle]

Challenged a gang on the lower tower level by himself and then decided to book it over open ground rather than seeking any kind of cover or doing something to deescalate or intimidate them

and the rolls were not friendly

[solar sinew]

woop

[paper ferry]

"Got a job for you 621... We're low on groceries. I need you to go to the food depot near the Contaminated City. I've already transferred you the credits you'll need."

"...Raven. Do you think we could get some ice cream as well?"

[serene kettle]

The reunion at the contact's place ended up being very "If you're all okay, then surely Wimp Lo..!" *cut to flies buzzing*

[solar sinew]

My players once bartered away intricate and complete notes on Arquebus' movements through a full grid for a meal of real, actual food for their whole crew.

So that was fun

[solar sinew]

Oh no xD

[paper ferry]

Better than mealworms.

[serene kettle]

O'Keefe would probably agree this was a worthy trade

[solar sinew]

One of my players is so stupidly invested in these mealworms. We have a whole ecology for them by now

[paper ferry]

Incredible

[solar sinew]

He would have loved this, yeah

For the record, I am not subtle with either spy xD

Rusty internally: Sweating

[paper ferry]

"Hot in here, isn't it?"
"Rusty, it's minus ten outside."

[solar sinew]

This conversation went on before and after this. Freud was having the time of his life

[serene kettle]

you think a guy who named himself Freud would do that? Have way too much fun poking around at people's heads?

[solar sinew]

Naaah

My players did clue in that the reason Arquebus is hunting a spy is approximately 50% attributed to their actions and 50% to an actual spy being tripped up by various world events, so I look forward to seeing how they deal with this.
Ironically, Rusty has nothing to do with this, his only crime was not factoring in Balam's erratic transport schedules.. once

[feral niche]

Heh.

[solar sinew]

Hm, things sure are taking a turn.

They are slowly figuring out what O'Keeffe is doing. One of them just needs a chat to work out hes not Arquebus entirely. ALLMIND is sending them after a guy O'Keeffe set up as a fallguy, Rusty is using the chance to use his subordinate as a scapegoat to forward intel to the RLF.

If my players have the trigger discipline to think before they shoot a guy theyre pissed at, they might actually have a crack at unearthing some good stuff with this. If they don't, they're probably at least going to run into Rusty's cover. How that ends I have no idea, but I don't see his subordinate surviving being caught between Rusty, O'Keeffe, ALLMIND and my players lol

[feral niche]

Lovely.

[late jay]

Me and one of my friends decided to fuck around in Armored Core 6 by building ACs optimized for fistfighting

[feral niche]

Hehe, the mech wrestling.

[modern hornet]

GUNDAM FIGHT ALL SET! READY... GO!!!

[serene kettle]

Loader 4

Name your ac Loader 5 just to throw people

[paper ferry]

Lol

Walter’s super secret extra backup hound

[late jay]

Loader Four

[paper ferry]

Löded Fore

[late jay]

Stocker IV

[eager vector]

Loader 4 Answer

[winter sigil]

Loader 3 + 1

[radiant birch]

Loader 9,841

[paper ferry]

Loader Four Score and Seven Years

[late jay]

Here's what I made for this btw

[solar sinew]

Heh, the emblem is fun

[late jay]

Also touched up this build too which gave my friend lots of hell before we settled on rock-em sock-em robots

[late jay]

Finding that the Laser Blade and Harris combo together quite nicely too

[feral niche]

Lovely.

[paper ferry]

omg i love

I remembered this AC was the prototype version of my favorite build

Compared to what it ended up being

[late jay]

Still cool

[paper ferry]

I think the first one is like if it had the Overed boosters from 4A

Or some kind of high mobility attachment

It'd be crazy if the HAL 826 actually was a NEXT

[late jay]

I kinda wonder if part of the reason why 4A seems so much faster is because of how you can outrun the camera, where if the camera was more fixed like in AC6, it would actually feel more normal

[paper ferry]

The problem is that AC6 doesn't give us what unit our speed is measured in

They used km/h in previous games

[late jay]

I thought it was meters

[paper ferry]

I assume the AC weight is in kilograms. I originally thought that the speed was in m/s, but even that seems too fast since the speed of sound is 343 m/s

If we measure in km/h, then your AC can just about outrun an exotic sports car (with the standard boost, not the assault boost)

[solar sinew]

Maybe using Elden Rings Tarnished as a speed as a reference could work?

[late jay]

True

https://youtu.be/p83maMkwFps?si=sgOlrO6li5rEX3Oq

Also one of my friends says this is what it's like in RaD

[solar sinew]

Carla staging interventions? xD

[late jay]

That seems more like Walter's thing

And Carla would be the one disrupting it

[solar sinew]

It begs the question how RaD runs at all

[late jay]

https://tenor.com/view/chaos-fire-gif-19254681

[solar sinew]

fair tbh

[paper ferry]

That was the funniest shit I’ve seen all month

[solar sinew]

Its a fucking party at the Wall this week.

(Yes, I used White Glints emblem to make an NPC one. No, there is no relation. Sue me, it looks cool)

[feral niche]

Fair enough.

[late jay]

https://tenor.com/view/weebs-franku-joji-pinkguy-weeaboos-gif-15871496

Rokumonsen:

[solar sinew]

Hes so subtle

[feral niche]

And then he hits you in the side of a head with a flail.

[paper ferry]

Rokumonsen has the power of God and anime

[solar sinew]

Hes gonna win that 1v1 against Swinburne, I believe in him

[late jay]

I think most of the roster in AC6 can beat Swinburne

[solar sinew]

He isnt a high bar to clear, yeah

[solar sinew]

Jokes on my player, its Rusty From Wish behind both doors

[paper ferry]

Ortus is Rusty’s fursona

[solar sinew]

Genuinely, yeah

Im still moderately upset that I dislike Ortus so much

[paper ferry]

Playing as either of Rusty’s mechs is just waiting for the Laser Slicer to recharge because that’s the only weapon of his that does any meaningful damage

[deft pelican]

I mean Steel Haze it is a midranger melee stagger punish build so that's the point; I'd say it's basically the strongest of the game's arena builds. Ortus I feel like is just more confused since its thrusters have worse movement stats for no real benefit to your gameplan (though the Huxley and viento are bloody strong, and the trueno has some midrange utility)

Having said that I'm not a slicer fan since it's more or less exclusively a punish tool, whereas the pulse blade can do nearly as much damage with a much nicer moveset as an engager + more consistent combo on staggers

[solar sinew]

Pulse blade my beloved.

Steel Haze is so close to the game plan I enjoy, it just suffers from a punish weapon I can never quite be comfortable with. My favorite builds boil down to the very basic "Steel Haze with a few differences for comfort"

Ortus.. I dont quite know what to do with to be honest. And, Ill be the one to say it, I think the design is a severe downgrade from the Nachtreiher frame. Gundam reference is nice and all, but that just doesnt do enough for me to justify the confusing design choices made

[deft pelican]

The thrusters and trueno just torpedo it for me

If it's gonna commit to the pistol in my opponent's face, commit to it hard

[solar sinew]

Yeah, the Thrusters. Allula are so good for the playstyle its going for that its hsrd to get away from it

[deft pelican]

Buffed flügel are also some of my favourites

Better aerial movement, less expensive AB and better melee boost

The ground speed/QB are tougher to swallow though

[solar sinew]

Maybe Ill mess with them tomorrow. Ive been messing around with a more aerial biped using Gridwalkers, but I didnt enjoy the result much

[deft pelican]

Gridwalkers are cool but quite restrictive I find

[solar sinew]

I do enjoy their flavor, given Im also a Firmeza enjoyer. Did find them pretty restrictive too, though Im just very used to Allulas by now. Its been a long while since I bothered with anything else

Theyre just such good thrusters all around if you dont want to be in the air

[deft pelican]

Alulas are crack I agree

[solar sinew]

"Ill mess with them tomorrow"
What am I saying, no I fucking wont, Ill be finding out how my players get themselves kicked out of the Wall for bothering O'Keeffe

Maybe Ill be messing with them now xD

[feral niche]

Hehe.

[feral niche]

Pretty sure The HMMR actually inspired a weapon in my dream, the only difference being it wasn't a rocket propelled plasma bomb launcher.

But it was a flail with similar animations now that I think about it.

[paper ferry]

If I can spare the EN, I like to put NGI 001 boosters on my AC. Max quickboost with solid thrust

I’m absolutely in love with my favorite build. It’s so fun to “dance” with

[paper ferry]

I’m sorta back in an AC6 kick, not enough to start a new game, but I do want to make a “corps” of AC designs for a fictional military.

[wooden nimbus]

Once I saw what a Hal core on Nacht legs looked like I've never been able to go back for long

Does it severely limit my options, yes

Do I care

[solar sinew]

yeah, Im in the same boat. Game offered me Nacht legs and Ive just never been able to do anything else since

[paper ferry]

I think I tend to use the Spring Chicken legs more. I like reverse joints

I’m surprised by how little I’ve used the Melander parts, so I made made a “grunt” AC last night

[winter sigil]

i <3 rjs

[paper ferry]

Big kickies

[paper ferry]

I’ve seen a VE-40A core on Nacht legs and it looked very silly

It kicked my ass

[radiant birch]

sounds like an Evil Statue variant

[paper ferry]

PvP is wild because sometimes I’ll get on a good streak and then think for a second that I’ll finally crawl out of C-rank only to get knocked back down again by a meta build named Loader 4

[feral niche]

The Appearance of the Dreaded Loader 4.

[paper ferry]

It is very fun when you get up close to long-range builds and you can feel them panic

I’ve definitely learned to be more aggressive in PvP

[wooden nimbus]

Yeah I think the only thing that really bugs me in PVP anymore is when I get the like

"There's a full second of desynch and the double charged laser has taken it out on me personally"

There's nothing to be done at that point 😔

[paper ferry]

Imagine being a mech pilot and having a sudden latency spike between your external sensors and your cockpit monitors

[wooden nimbus]

🙂‍↔️

I refuse

[feral niche]

I would blow up.

And then my mech would too.

[winter sigil]

this is why balanced build is my goat

if i smell a long range build? i go crazy aggressive
if i realize that they have no range? i plink at them from turner range for two minutes

[wooden nimbus]

Me, sobbing into the live mic if OB can't catch you

Wait it's assault boost in 6 same thing

[feral niche]

Yeah.

My brain read it as 'OB, oh Ossault Boost'.

This is what happens when your main knowledge is AC6.

[serene kettle]

Bone boost moment

[feral niche]

Oh hush.

Huh... Ossault technically means little bone,

Oss- Meaning Bone and -ault meaning little.

[winter sigil]

little ass boost?

[feral niche]

(Reddit said that second one, so grain of salt and all that.)

Anyway, if you can't chase someone down in Assault Boost then ouch.

[winter sigil]

i am very fast

if you ping me tomorrow i can show you my ac

[wooden nimbus]

Nice nice okay

I think the current iteration of Bloodhound is rated at 370

Alula and the lighter coral generator

I miss pre-nerf buezel(SP?)

The very very fast one

Made you assault boost like wheeeee

😔 I've reminded myself how cool it would be if the Xylem was a fully open map and you could do team objective maps on it

[paper ferry]

I still think it would have been cool if AC6 let you have additional shoulder mounts like in previous games

Flares or shields or additional boosters, things like that

[serene kettle]

ac6 does have shoulder shields.

but yeah the variety of interesting shoulder parts that aren't just weapons is a little low

FCS is also highly simplified compared to previous games

which flattens out a lot of the choices there

[paper ferry]

I meant that previous games gave you two additional equipment slots that would be located on the ACs shoulders and not their two back slots

[feral niche]

Back, shoulders, arms yeah.

I also saw there were cases of arms that were weapons on their own.

[paper ferry]

Yeah AC5 has Overed weapons that take up multiple slots

[feral niche]

Not even that, let me try and find it.

https://youtu.be/ZZuQtEkTz0k?si=LYFPlrIE4kiZ2TwG

[serene kettle]

As someone who played most of the previous games, I think this might have been a 4/4A specific thing

I don't remember that in any of the oldgen games or in V/VD

V/VD only had a single shoulder/back slot even, and two bays as your "backup" weapons.

I guess Gen 3 had some extension parts that went on the shoulders but I remember them being pretty useless

[feral niche]

Got it.

[paper ferry]

I think that’s what I was talking about. It would be cool if they improved on those to give them more utility in a future game

I really hope the next game is a sequel to AC6 and not just AC7

[feral niche]

We shall see ultimately.

Either way, it'll probably be good.

[eager vector]

they were called Extensions in AC2/3 (and maybe first gen)

[late jay]

AC6 prequel taking place 50 years ago depicting the events that led up to The Fires of Ibis, letting you pilot an IBIS instead of an AC

[wooden nimbus]

I miss V/VD

[paper ferry]

I’d love that as a spiritual successor to NEXTs

[late jay]

Custom eldritch nuclear neckbreaker

[feral niche]

Custom eldritch sentient energy neckbreaker.

[paper ferry]

Which class of NHP would best fit Ayre?

[late jay]

I'm not too familiar with NHPs, so I'm not sure

She is good at hacking tho

So maybe Osiris Class if I remember correctly

That's the Swallowtail's NHP, right?

[serene kettle]

Athena is probably the closest to Ayre's actual capabilities; she routinely penetrates systems but doesn't really actively "invade" the way lancer concieves of it, she uses it for tactical modeling, pointing out targets, and trying to identify vulnerable windows. When she does actual hacking it's usually just information gathering or mundane credit siphoning (she does this a couple of times to pay you when she hires you for a mission, lol)

"Patient, Cautious, and Measured" also describes Ayre reasonably well

[late jay]

True

[paper ferry]

Cybersecurity must be practically nonexistent on Rubicon if Coral technology can just brute force its way through any system given enough time. The only way to stop it would be to physically destroy the machine performing the hack

I guess that’s why the computer core on the Xylem just has a big laser defense system

[solar sinew]

Well, a wave mutation can. Which yeah, its rough to defend against Ayre, but at least shes on her own there

[serene kettle]

yeah, average coral on rubicon is not really like Ayre

Most likely Ayre is a self-propagating neural pattern on a coral substrate, the same way human intelligences are electrical signals on a gray matter substrate

[solar sinew]

Watching the suppression fleet show up and be defeated to the point where the PCA is effectively routed on Rubicon has got to be one of my largest disappointments with the game. Definitely could have used a little bit more there than raiding a base or two and killing the Iceworm.

Definitely will include more for the TTRPG, given we are about to finally move into the Iceworm once my players wrap up business with the spies at the Wall.

Anyones got some kickass ideas? I figured tying my Iceworm replacement to some key PCA intrastructure might give enough believability to actually routing the fuckers or at least pushing them out far enough for the race to Institute city

[quasi copper]

you could reflavor Watchpoint Alpha as a control node for nearby PCA defensive systems guided by a C-Weapon, and when the C-Weapon goes down, Watchpoint Alpha's defenses are basically nullified

frankly, Nepenthes makes more sense above-ground than it does at the bottom of an elevator shaft

could do something with the Enforcement System as a whole as well, since it kinda dies with little to no fanfare for a mega-cool AI that's orchestrating the entire PCA and their blockade of the entire planet

could wrap the Enforcer, or even multiple Enforcers, into it

[solar sinew]

Hm, I was gonna replace the Iceworm with a Spirit of Motherwill adjacent fight, though upscaled to let them fight up the bloody thing in a series of maps, instead of just as a regular enemy.

Theres a few custom C-weapons around, but tying Nepenthes or something Nepenthes adjacent could be fun. Kinda goes with the theme too. Maybe its just another layer of defense to Motherwill.

The Enforcement system is a good shout. My players are currently doing their best to drag the truth about Coral Release to light, so ALLMIND will step in sooner rather than later. Branch does have a slightly different role, maybe one of their former operatives can help them get up there.

Its all vaguely connected pieces, but actually tying them together is kinda rough. Far as I can tell, we're going for a Liberator/Alea merged ending, or at least thats as close as I can project it. So help the RLF out, probably bring ALLMIND down? And then deal with Coral Release however the fuck they feel about it. I could see them going back to set the damn planet on fire aswell, I really do not know.

The PCA has been established to hold strongholds on most of the islands surrounding Belius (As I moved the second half of the game to eastern Belius instead of across the ocean), so instead of the suppression fleet coming in, it may just be the PCA moving its forces together. Motherwill (Or Stargazer, as its working title stands atm) will act as a "home" for the C-weapons in the area. Maybe it supports a few surrounding outposts protecting Watchpoint Alpha aswell. Feels a bit neither here nor there though

Actually, the C-weapons supported by Stargazer could make for excellent spotters for Nephenthes, come to think of it. Hm

[late jay]

https://youtu.be/0R9F4NLPI_U?si=zsEHw2ozj3LbGeKP

My first thought was "If 621 was a Noir detective"

[solar sinew]

Now theres a campaign pitch

[paper ferry]

“We’re gonna have to bring in an expert.”
(sounds of rocket boosters and heavy metal footsteps)

[solar sinew]

Another day passes in which Im fervently pleading with Snail to please use another headpiece. Alas

[feral niche]

I never even realized.

[solar sinew]

Open Faith has TEETH

Another cute detail I noticed is that all the Redguns weird their emblems on their ACs, but from the Vespers its only the double agents

[wooden nimbus]

Banjo kazooie laugh in my head when I see this

[solar sinew]

The longer this campaign runs, the less serious I can take any of the Vespers

Im begging my players to shoot Rusty and put me out of the misery at this point

[paper ferry]

Iron Giant lookin ass

And the “eyes” aren’t even its sensors, the teeth are

And then there’s the even sillier version that V.VIII Pater uses

[solar sinew]

Dual Nature always struck me as Steel Hazes less charismatic cousin

Im oddly fond of it

[paper ferry]

Pater is a funny guy

He’s sad about Hawkins dying for about five seconds and then is excited to take his place

And then keeps getting promoted because everyone above him keeps dying

[solar sinew]

He sounds so heartbroken over O'Keeffe and Hawkins gets the "well, anyway" treatment

[paper ferry]

He gives them a #1 and #2 Dad mug and leaves them to figure out which one is theirs

[modern hornet]

Honestly, I just find it amusing that people in-universe assume Pater's a sociopath because of his augmentation surgery, but no, that's just the kind of person he was even before he became a 10th Gen Augmented Human.

[solar sinew]

Consider it canon. Will report back on Sunday on which one my players hand to O'Keeffe. As things are, theyll probably either fail to hand it to Rusty, or smash it.

They really aren't fond of O'Keeffe lmao

[solar sinew]

His "You killed O'Keeffe, he always looked out for me" to "I will make sure Snail is dead and then I can lead Arquebus" dialogue is very fun

[paper ferry]

I like the HC’s design a lot

The PCA have cool mechs

[solar sinew]

Yeah, theyre criminally underused. Shame we had the suppression fleet come and go in three missions or so

I think I might cut it in favor of just centralizing the PCA forces that are there. This campaign needs to end sometime and adding the full suppression fleet would make me inclined to actually use them

[feral niche]

What does Pater’s Vespers look like?

As in with him as leader.

[solar sinew]

Hed need a new set of Vespers for a start, given all the other ones died with the exception of Freud at that point

And Rusty I guess, but god knows what Rusty is up to during Alea Iacta Est

Speaking of Alea - Whens the first time we actually hear from ALLMIND in a non-system capacity? Does she really just hotdrop "You have been identified as a candidate for Coral Release" on us during Coral Export? Surely there was a between-briefing line regarding it

[paper ferry]

Lemme look up her dialogue

Yeah, it’s in the briefing for Coral Export Denial

“Registration number Rb23. Augmented human C4-621—Raven. ALLMIND has identified you as a potential asset to the Release Project. Accordingly, we would like to assign you the following mission.”

[solar sinew]

Yeah, I got that

But is that the first time we hear ALLMIND speak this way?

No hints or anything between briefings?

[paper ferry]

Nothing on the wiki, it seems

[solar sinew]

Ill just settle for replaying the game

The horror

It does not escape my notice that Walter says "That was quite the welcome home" during Illegal Entry.

Dudes cover is as see-through as Rustys

[paper ferry]

She informs you about the Integration Program in NG+, but she doesn’t mention Coral Release until NG++

[solar sinew]

Right, makes sense

Or rather doesnt, she is so hilariously open with critical information

Suppose an AI cant quite fathom the concept of a human being curious enough to dig deep

[paper ferry]

Here’s a video with all her voice lines if you want to sift through that instead
https://youtu.be/Y4uMuj25lrk?si=CZ54i5jD6S0jM7xy

[solar sinew]

That should get the trick done, thanks

Trying to figure out how to funnel the ALLMIND intel is a curious thing

Given they do know O'Keeffe knows and is tight lipped about it, and they knew another NPC knew, but they made the choice to kill him, given they valued Dolmayans life over pissing off several factions issuing the contract on said NPCs head

I can see her take this as a good sign though

[late jay]

To me it just sounds like that's his coping mechanism

[solar sinew]

What a cold DM to receive from a player.

She is, of course correct. Thaddeus IS ALLMIND

Im so fucking proud

[paper ferry]

https://tenor.com/view/kronk-its-all-coming-together-gif-15058130

[solar sinew]

Ive grown too fond of Iguana not to use him. God they need to actually kill him soon. Theyve been feeling so bad for him despite his best efforts to piss them off

Jesus shes getting close

Im so, so proud

[polar osprey]

who the hell is Thaddeus

[solar sinew]

ALLMIND alter ego similar to Kate Marksen

[paper ferry]

Literally calling it exactly, damn

[eager vector]

admire my paint job pls

[late jay]

Spearmint flavor

[serene kettle]

pew pew

funnily enough I have a build for pvp a lot like this

it's not great but I did get some wins with it

[paper ferry]

Ooh, that’s really pretty 👀

Dual plasma is solid as well

[solar sinew]

All she got was Nagais messages and some cryptic ALLMIND notes about the list. Nobody formerly introduced them, so this was very impressive

[solar sinew]

I cant tell if its green or blue, but the accents look great!

[eager vector]

it’s both! A very fine oil spill camo with blues and greens that are very close to each other

[radiant birch]

oh i love that

let me see if i can dig up uhhhh

aw dang i think i trashed the build without taking any screenshots

but i had one where i textured the right arm with multiple close shades of red on a camo pattern

called that one RED RIGHT HAND

[paper ferry]

@solar sinew I'm curious what npc stat blocks you're using for some of the named characters in your campaign

[solar sinew]

Any specific ones youre interested in?

[paper ferry]

Rusty and Iguazu for sure

I feel like Rusty would use the Ronin stats since his laser slicer can deflect incoming fire

[solar sinew]

Rustys an Ace with Ronin stuff and Iguazu is the most basic bitch Assault you have ever seen

[paper ferry]

Incredible

[solar sinew]

We discovered the ALLMIND and Rusty thing today. They are now appropriately terrified

[paper ferry]

Oop

[solar sinew]

"Why would we further Coral Release"

Dunno, Coral Export is a pretty fun mission, you guys

[feral niche]

Ah, they discovered what Allmind and Rusty actually are in the story?

[solar sinew]

yup

[paper ferry]

Prisoner Escort, too

[solar sinew]

We did prisoner escort today!

[paper ferry]

Is Ziyi okay??

[solar sinew]

Ziyi is definitely not okay

Shes been in re-education for 6 months and has been sent to the Factory Im afraid xD

They got Dolmayan out, Rusty destroyed both a player AC and an RLF AC, but people made it out okay

[solar sinew]

They sold her to Arquebus in Session 1 and since then six months passed, I feel it too xD

[paper ferry]

You gotta throw in a rescue mission or something

For RLF morale

[solar sinew]

RLF morale was very happy they busted Flatwell out

AND killed Swinburne

[paper ferry]

Get his ass

[solar sinew]

O'Keeffe saved Rustys ass twice over, my players nearly sold him out for out, but changed their mind last minute

Now theyre coping with ALLMIND playing a lot bolder now that she eliminated the "traitor" O'Keeffe set up and the PCs executed unknowingly

Theyre picking out their next missions atm. From what it sounds theyll do the one that gets them closest to the Iceworm-Equivalent around here first

Aka Balam version of Rustys attacking of the Spaceport featuring G5 and G13.

Alternatives include Coral Export, Survey the uninhabited city, stop corporate salvage and an alternative Arquebus mission with Rusty to prevent Balam from getting PCA tech

[paper ferry]

Balam with PCA tech would be interesting to see

[solar sinew]

Yeah, looks like theyll get it too

So thatll be fun

The group seemingly wants to finally settle things with Iguazu.. not sure how they want to do this on a Balam mission xD
Balam is so fed up with them

[paper ferry]

Might balance out the war again so that Arquebus doesn't sweep like in game

[solar sinew]

Theyre trying, yeah. Not sure how they see this ending, given they maybe kinda want to help the RLF when its fucking convenient

Rusty was beyond unimpressed today

[paper ferry]

Buddy status up for debate

[solar sinew]

Buddy status definitely up for debate

Somehow, O'Keeffe is a better buddy than the PCs

Fortunately for them they didnt pull the "We worked out Rusty is the spy, so we will walk into his office and blackmail him into compliance after he just executed his squad lead" move

[paper ferry]

Oh, so they know he's the spy now?

[solar sinew]

yep

[paper ferry]

I must've missed that, how did that go over?

[solar sinew]

Ehhh, theyre largely very confused why O'Keeffe didnt sell him out

[paper ferry]

I see

Somewhat disappointing

[livid adder]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/armoredcore/s/3D5ZH6q8b0

Is on Xbox

booting up ACVI now

[paper ferry]

Starting to make a squad of mechs for a fictional military

[late jay]

Hell yea

Ever heard of Old Breadbones btw?

[solar sinew]

Yeah, Im in the same boat. Im sure they will be very confused and/or offended when he does attack them later on, but we will deal with that in time

[solar sinew]

These look badass!

[paper ferry]

What’s that?

[paper ferry]

I’ve got a new appreciation for the Melander frame

[late jay]

https://youtube.com/@oldbreadbones?si=tN0n4-toHJ8kLt7k

[paper ferry]

Oh very cool

[livid adder]

Cpt. Lizzz // DOUBLEDAY ↩️

[Reply to:](#1159881122822492271 message) Starting to make a squad of mechs for a fictional military 📎

[paper ferry]

Flag and logo

Both made in the AC6 image editor

[paper ferry]

I’ll come up with some fancy numerical designation for the mechs later

[feral niche]

Awesome stuff.

[paper ferry]

The UFAF is the military for the United Federation of Terran Colonies (UFTC), which is the name of one of the human powers in my in-progress original sci-fi work

The setting sadly does not have mechs, but I made these ACs as a fun “what if”

[distant forge]

havent been dipping in here as much but i am happy to report i am still goated in pvp

tried a dual-FASAN lamm kite build last night but the lamm is just a bit too light to handal dual FASANs and dual majestics

i've seen people do some really fucky shit with the FASAN charge shot

but i prefer earshots for the stagger punish and less EN requiriements

[distant forge]

cool pictures of my ac though

i havent changed my build much in years

zipping around with a dual-LCS lightweight handgun brawler just sorta feels like. putting on a well-worn pair of jeans or shoes

or like gloves that fit perfect

its so natural

i wanna get to s-rank with it but honestly i keep burning out of pvp before i rank up

it's a real grind esp with the promotion phases

[paper ferry]

I think I honestly have more fun in PvP when people bring their PvE builds to the arena

They’re definitely more creative and usually have an actual name

[late jay]

Ye

[wooden nimbus]

There's a reason I keep coming back to some version of bloodhound

Might be slimmed down a bit but the vibe matters to me

[glad sierra]

Still on my first play-through. I feel like I messed up? ||just reached Institute City. And i think Rusty hates me now? Maybe i’m just reading too much into his dialogue during the fight, but i get the feeling i messed something up along the way to this point||

[feral niche]

What are the specific points that make you say that? Anything in particular?

[radiant birch]

AC6 actually doesn't have a whole lot of branching from player choices, especially in the first playthrough

important decision points will be pretty clearly labeled "THIS IS A DECISION"

[feral niche]

I didn't wanna mention it tbh, but yeah.

[radiant birch]

imo relieving decision anxiety > avoiding spoilers in this case

though it's not even much of a spoiler, just a general statement about how the game works

[feral niche]

That's fair.

[glad sierra]

It was when he said stuff like ||“we’ve fought together a bunch before and i still can’t figure you out” or “so buddy, who needs you?” Or just him denoting you as a threat.||

of course, this is likely a case of “dude, no one is on Mad At You Island”, but i’m an overthinker

[feral niche]

Idk if that first one is him mad at you, though the second one, maybe... I think it's more that he just can't understand what you fight for.

As in your morals.

[glad sierra]

See, that’s fair

The way missions are doled out, 621’s priorities and allegiances can come off rather eclectic at times

[radiant birch]

Yeah, I read that whole thing as "you're strong enough to be dangerous but I can't figure out what you actually believe in and that scares me"

[feral niche]

I actually don't know how far into the game you are.

[glad sierra]

I’m not either, ngl. I believe i’m nearing the end of chapter 3?

[feral niche]

Alright, that works.

[radiant birch]

I think I know which part you're talking about

[solar sinew]

Pretty much right on, yeah. Especially [spoilered for you, first time player, dont click it] || given the alt version of the fight where he doesnt relent even with Flatwells orders in his ear. 621 just is a chance Rusty isnt willing to take. Flatwell thinks money will solve the problem, but Rusty sees a threat if 621 does decide they have a purpose and wont be influenced by money. He isnt wrong either, given the Fires ending||

[paper ferry]

Just keep playing. :)
Depending on your choices, you’ll find out of he’s really your buddy or not.

[solar sinew]

Ive been running a TTRPG campaign in the setting for the last months. The running joke is that the PCs do not realize how unhinged they come across to the NPCs. Surviving incredibly reckless missions. Going into things without a backup plan and (usually) making it out. Continuing when common sense and the people around them tell them to stop for their own well-being.

621 is one hell of a pilot, yeah. Priorities? Allegiances? Never heard of tghem

[feral niche]

I think having backup plans would make them even scarier.

[solar sinew]

I wish. Just once.

The RLF all but manhandled them into having a backup plan for busting Dolmayan out of the Wall and the backup plan had both a PC mech and an RLF mech destroyed.

Thanks for nothing, Rusty

[paper ferry]

https://www.tumblr.com/captain-doubleday/810011058768084992/basically-the-ice-worm-mission?source=share

Basically the Ice Worm mission

(don't know why that didn't embed)

[radiant birch]

Ayre is a very nice touch there

[late jay]

I'm remembering a rare interaction between Snail and Chatty that I liked

[paper ferry]

Be nice to the AI, he's doing his best

[late jay]

https://youtu.be/1XTh5pPebew?t=47&si=oCdUVEpy4Fr4SaUY

In case the link doesn't bring you to the moment I'm thinking of, it's 47 seconds in

[paper ferry]

That mission made me wish we had more actual interactions between characters. The game has such a good cast.

[late jay]

Another fun mission for interactions is the alternate Coral Convergence with the 1v1v1 between you, Snail and Iguazu coming in with the steel chair

[paper ferry]

I'm thinking about what other characters I would want to see in a room together

Carla was in the Ice Worm briefing and all she said was, "here's the Rail Cannon"

[radiant birch]

Carla + Snail

i want to see her eviscerate him

Carla's funnier the more seriously the person she's talking to takes themselves

[paper ferry]

And Snail is the Most Serious

Freud and Rusty would be interesting as well.

Top Vesper who doesn't really care about Arquebus that much versus the literal spy inside Arquebus

I feel like Freud might pick up on Rusty's suspiciously low Arena rank

[solar sinew]

I need an interaction between Rusty and Iguazu. And tbh Iguazu and literally anyone else.

[solar sinew]

Alternatively, Rusty and O'Keeffe. Two spies pretending not to be spies while one of them most likely knows is very funny
Arquebus is a very funny balance where half the Vespers could really stand to care less about it and the other half has severe loyalty issues

[paper ferry]

“Iguazu, is it? I remember you from the Ice Worm mission. Heard you’re looking for a way out of the Redguns.”

Though Iguazu wouldn’t give a shit about the RLF either

[solar sinew]

Probably still beats being tied to the Redguns. If they win the war. Not that he plans on helping

[paper ferry]

Iguazu would never spy for the RLF like Rusty, but there is the possibility of him turning coat and giving the RLF key intel.

“Look, buddy, I’m giving you a choice.”
“Buddy, huh? We friends now all of a sudden?”
“I’d prefer it over the alternative. Look, the Liberation Front needs allies. Needs key intel on the corps.”
“Yeah? And what’s stopping me from telling Arquebus that V.IV is a traitor?”
“Because then I’d have to kill you, and I’d doubt you’d get a better offer from anyone else.”
“Tch. Fine. We’ll do things your way.”

[solar sinew]

Yeah, he doesnt have the guts to play double agent. Im not even sure he has the guts to fully go against Balam. Standing up to Michigan didnt end well in the past.

You did find the only scenario I could see, but I dont see Rusty taking a gamble on Iguazu of all people when he doesnt want to risk Flatwell just hiring 621.

Iguazu is just as much as a wildcard as we are. Just less dangerous I suppose

[cursive agate]

Iguazu's attitude limits him pretty hard, aside from money problems.

[solar sinew]

Apt summary, yeah. Even removing the money problems, he struggles to stand on his own

[serene kettle]

Iguazu starts spiraling immediately when Volta doesn’t make it at the Wall. Volta was, like, his one real friend

[paper ferry]

Poor guy

[feral niche]

Sin’s players be like.

[paper ferry]

He’s more honest than Rusty

[feral niche]

He is.

[late jay]

I thought Iguazu left Volta to die

[serene kettle]

Iguazu deserted before the operation started

so...he did but it wasn't an immediate, direct thing

[paper ferry]

I don’t think Iguazu outright abandoned Volta, he just didn’t show up for the mission. He probably thought Volta could handle it.

[late jay]

Idk

[paper ferry]

Maybe I’m being generous

[solar sinew]

Theyve had and intervention for Maeterlinck of all people. Girl got serious codependency issues.

One of them was very clear that her character will die before Iguazu does.
I have bad news for everyone involved lmao

[feral niche]

Maeterlink is the... late game Defector right?

[solar sinew]

Youre thinking of Wu Huahai

Maeterlinck is the Vesper with him who keeps calling out to Snail thinking he'll send the cavalry

[solar sinew]

I do think youre generous. If he didnt show up then.. Surely the Redguns wouldve just sent someone else with him. Soloing the Wall is suicide to the point the RLF sounds borderline offended even after Balam cleared most of their defenses.

Ill never understand why Michigan didnt participate there tbh

[paper ferry]

Probably because the higher ups didn't want to risk losing their commander early on in what they predicted would be a lengthier campaign

[solar sinew]

Very fair, and Balam did send a lot of firepower. They probably thought Volta and Iguazu together could swing the power of one LIGER TAIL. Still, I dont see why they wouldnt have sent literally anyone if Iguazu went AWOL before the mission

[feral niche]

Ah, yes.

[solar sinew]

Dreadfully forgettable character and Im equally horrified and thrilled my PC decided to latch onto her of all people

Let me tie in some hooks for Wu Huahai switching sides by networking while Im at it, and maybe Maeterlinck will get a better fate

[paper ferry]

I won't forget Maeterlinck

Doing my lesbian duty by latching on to any female character in that game

[solar sinew]

Youd be thrilled by this campaigns roster. Ive gone through silly lengths of adding more women to this game

[paper ferry]

Excellent

[solar sinew]

Were nowhere near a 50/50, but at least all the factions got some female representation. Balam could do better, all they got is a genderswapped Wu Huahai