Armored Core General!

[solar sinew]

Which obviously wont be permanent, but my players finally clued into the fact that Arquebus is, in fact, doing evil shit. So we get a few Balam missions soon

[paper ferry]

I saw this fanart of Maeterlinck
https://www.tumblr.com/beth4short-blog/776728454869729280/vvi-maeterlinck-appreciation-post-this-is-her

Beth4Short

V.VI Maeterlinck appreciation post! This is her design for Amour'd Core.

-# #armored core #armored core 6 #fan art #amour'd core #character design #v.vi maeterlinck #vvi maeterlinck

Tumblr · Feb 28, 2025, 12:32 PM

[solar sinew]

Yeah, Im in touch with the artist. Im using a lot of her stuff

[paper ferry]

Oh that's awesome

[solar sinew]

The table joke is "diet Makoto"

[paper ferry]

Lol

[solar sinew]

But yeah, the RLF got uhh four women of various relevance (three. Sorry Ziyi, youre SO fridged), Arquebus got three (Two, Rusty killed one. Consentually? Its complicated), Balam got one, theres some four or five among the independents, Carla and the PCs Handler.

Notable exception being Kate Marksen. Im getting shoes thrown my way for bringing her up

[paper ferry]

I forgot for a moment why don't the corps just nuke the RLF from orbit and then I remembered 1.) it's a mech game 2.) the Closure System

[solar sinew]

"Why dont we do this from orbit" - "Big ass satellite" is a question thats come up exactly once and I am beyond delighted by the Closure System.

That, and the RLF is semi-hidden underground. I gave them some fremen-inspired tunnels and crap

[paper ferry]

All the corps' available forces are what they could sneak past the satellites

There's no reinforcements

[solar sinew]

Which is frankly horrifying

But my players have gone from "how will we ever deal with this" to "wait, MTs arent a huge threat and theres only so many ACs. Couldnt we just kill all their pilots"

Canonical approach, Im telling you

[feral niche]

Considering the Rubiconian's survived a literal universe wide inferno, I think you'll need quite a few nukes to get past the closure system.

[solar sinew]

Woe the day they decide to take down the closure station without dealing with the corps first

[paper ferry]

I feel like trying to fight an actual augmented human in hand-to-hand combat would go as well as taking one on in a mech. You think those enhanced reflexes are only good for piloting?

Especially with the later gens

[feral niche]

How many do you think have metal arms?

[solar sinew]

Yeah, Ive given mine various augments and fun gizmos, but one of the PCs did just solo some dozen Arquebus guards in the re-education center without breaking a sweat. KTB bonds do augmentations real justice, the pilots are monsters if they want to be

[paper ferry]

Yeah, I'm using that as fun inspo for my Lancer pilot as well

"Tear Throat"

[solar sinew]

One of my NPCs does and a PC lost an arm recently. Another NPC lost his legs.

Realistically, probably a good amount, but arm prosthetics are tricky

[paper ferry]

Metal arms are unneccsary. We use the classic four inch spike in the back of the head

[solar sinew]

Some of the Wolf bond powers are absolute bonkers and my player and I agreed that some of them would put both of us into a weird spot. But "kill anyone not important enough to warrant a name" was right on the border and came in for a very cool scene last session

[feral niche]

My Pilot Weapon is a chainsaw, of course.

[paper ferry]

Noice

[solar sinew]

One of mine has been so happy with his Madrigal armor. Ive created a monster on the ground lmao

[paper ferry]

My pilot is an Armored Core-style augmented human, so it works.

[feral niche]

I was thinking of the Lumberjack Challenge Run one of ya'll did, and so I was imagining a Rubiconian Lumberjack Pilot.

[solar sinew]

Very cool. got any fun gizmos for the augment?

[feral niche]

Yes, I know there is no aborial lumber in Rubicon.

[paper ferry]

I could have sworn there are at least some trees or plant life

[solar sinew]

Theres trees

Small ones though. Theyve only had 50 years to grow

[paper ferry]

Yeah, gotta wait like ten times that for a proper old growth forest, minimum

[solar sinew]

I did do this while making the map for Grid 86. Feels like one of those "Rubicon can grow, if given time" things we see so rarely

[feral niche]

Oh fuck, yeah there are trees, how did I forget that?

[solar sinew]

Theres trees here and there

Belius only, I think.

[feral niche]

Chainsaws would definitely be more for things like the mech chainsaw, salvage work iirc.

[solar sinew]

Great work for MTs, yeah. Ive given scrappy ones to scavengers as "mules" as inspired by the trailer

[paper ferry]

I guess you could say it's a combination of an AC augmented human and Cyberpunk-style cyberware. She's not full borg by any means, but she's undergone a lot of work and rework over seven years of experimentation. Titanium bones, carbon-fiber muscles, pain editors, subdermal armor, CNS replacement, artificial organs, you name it.

Probably 60-70% synthetic with additional bio-engineered enhancements.

Girl hasn't dreamed in seven years because she's only slept under anesthesia

[solar sinew]

Its a very cool crossover, yeah. One of my NPCs having augments that let him see in the dark was a large plotpoint recently that went over well with players, because it textured higher augments in a different way, I think

[solar sinew]

Love this detail yeah

[paper ferry]

Fuck SSC

I mean, thanks for the cool mechs and all

[solar sinew]

Im not nearly knowledgeable enough on Lancer lore to comment

But I guess theres a reason most of the SSC stuff went to Arquebus lmao

[paper ferry]

Short version is that they are trying to reach the next steps in human evolution through careful breeding and modification

You could say they are fairly similar to ALLMIND, actually

[solar sinew]

Oh yeah, speaking of ALLMIND

[feral niche]

Yeah, but do they have a cool rocket flail?

[solar sinew]

My player on his theories regarding the wider plot. Hes been spot on for so long xD

[paper ferry]

Bad bad bad idea

[solar sinew]

Very bad idea

[paper ferry]

But wow, they are so close to figuring it out

[solar sinew]

yeah!

ALLMIND has dropped the subtlety to be clear. The PCs are scared of their commlinks and prefer to walk through a long ass tunnel in mostly-dark instead. Im sure this will not have lasting consequences

[paper ferry]

You really have to think about just how scary 621 is no matter what path they end up choosing.

[solar sinew]

I do constantly, yeah

Especially from the perspective of watching my players Try and be kind to various levels of success. 621s approach is, in some ways, kinder

[paper ferry]

Merc shows up out of nowhere, steals the license of an already big shot merc, and then proceeds to rampage across Rubicon ruining everyone's plans with frightening efficiency just because their handler told them it's just a job.

[solar sinew]

Im with Rusty, I also wouldnt take a chance on them xD

[paper ferry]

Imagine if AC6 had some rpg elements in it

[solar sinew]

I wish

Genuinely, I do. Forget the game part, I just want more dialogue out of these characters

OH was it you who suggested the #1 / #2 Dad mugs from Pater for Hawkins and O'keeffe by the way

[paper ferry]

Yes :)

[feral niche]

I̵̾͜ ̸͉̕w̵͍͠a̵͚̿n̷͇͌t̶̝̚ ̷̮̏m̴͓͂ỏ̵̼r̴͚͒e tec̟͝h̶̹̋.

[solar sinew]

So its very canon to this campaign now

[paper ferry]

Omg

[paper ferry]

Por que no los dos?

[solar sinew]

Pater gave them to Rusty to pass on, Rusty did so with the PCs in the room in a not-so-subtle "Try not to throw your life out of the window here, O'keeffe" gesture.

One of the PCs stole the #1 one. So I guess thats settled lmao

[paper ferry]

lol nice

[solar sinew]

Theyre about to run into Hawkins next session, maybe she'll pass it on

Main issue is that they dont have their ACs and the outpost is a war zone lmao

[feral niche]

I desire more equipment to put on my AC.

(I don't have an AC, but if I did...)

[solar sinew]

They were supposed to be on the helicopter with Dolmayan, but the RLF wasnt super happy with letting his Arquebus guard hang out in his vicinity, so the PCs decided to just go by foot. Into a tunnel thats 10km both ways. With Arquebus behind them on both sides

[solar sinew]

amen

[paper ferry]

I wish you could see the helicopter crew doing their thing in the garage

I just think the transport choppers are neat

[solar sinew]

I wanna see how they actually get the parts on and off. Where they store spare parts. You dont see cranes I dont think and its not like theres space for the AC to turn around in there

[paper ferry]

The AC turns when it launches

[solar sinew]

Yeah, but thats part of the helicopter, no? Its on rails

I mostly the weapons. Theyre off to the side, but I have no idea how they get there

[paper ferry]

Whatever apparatus or platform the AC is docked to inside turns, then I guess the weapon racks are on their own articulated arms that attach the weapons to the AC.

Then the back door opens and the AC is moved into position and dropped out

[solar sinew]

Thats kinda neat. Admittedly I forewent the heli in favor of giving them a small ship. Much easier than sending in three helicopters every time lmao

[paper ferry]

Walter's chopper is a different model than most of the other ones in the game. It has a longer middle section to fit the AC garage

[solar sinew]

Yeah, its a nifty thing. I spent way too much time staring at the RLF helicopters

[paper ferry]

I just wanna walk around inside and see the crew. I'm totally picturing the little personal affects they might have inside the barracks. I want to see Walter's office. I want to see the operating room where 621 prepares for missions.

[solar sinew]

Im right there with you. Getting to explore a lot of these areas in the campaign and watching my players make thier own spaces within it is a great privilege. Seeing the Wall in use by first the RLF and then Arquebus was probably my highlight to prepare despite the thing being stupidly unimportant in the game

[paper ferry]

It really is once you think about it

Like, this is one of the only two major assets the RLF have

And it ends up being about as important as the STRIDER

[solar sinew]

Im glad it got more weight in the campaign yeah.

But the Balam mission telling you "Oh yeah, the PCA swept in and took it" after you kill Swinburne is.. a choice

The RLF in general really feels underbaked. Hello Alea Iacta Est. Didnt you forget about a whole faction? No? Alright then

[paper ferry]

I'm imagining that the RLF would install some of those huge WWII-era cannons that were mounted on railways

[paper ferry]

Liberator ending remains the best one

[solar sinew]

Ive got beef with the Liberator Ending

I think Im getting around to seeing its value, but its so unsatisfying to me, narratively, in the greater context of whats going on

[solar sinew]

Ohhhhh yes. I tossed them an Apocalypse rail to stick onto Gallia Dam to somehow explain why Gallia was such an important fortification. Mountainrange around it, PCA-tech on it and suddenly it was a lot more menacing

[paper ferry]

Yeah, it doesn't exactly know what to do with all the Coral still stuck in the Vascular Plant at the end

[solar sinew]

Liberator needed like 10 more dialogue line selling me on how ALLMIND will just be waiting for her next chance, and what happens with the Vascular plant. I get the first is borderline impossible, but the latter? Just tell me they tore it down or something

Love the vibe, love not having to kill Rusty. Kinda hate Ortus, but I get what were going for despite Rusty questionable taste.

But we arent solving any of the problems. Kicking the can down the road is fine, but someone please kick the damn thing

[paper ferry]

It's a nice feel-good ending, but I agree with what you're saying

You do the sad ending first so the good ending feels better.

And then so you can go back to a not-confusing ending after doing Coral Release

[solar sinew]

I still fail to see how one man in one fancy AC is going to defeat both the corporations AND the PCA.

People call Liberator the Ayre ending and it just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Are we really sidelining Rusty to "guy who was also there while another guy saved Rubicon" in his own damn story? xD

The RLF really suffered from its own lack of agency

[paper ferry]

Fancy? I did a whole run as LOADER 4 once

[solar sinew]

I meant Ortus

Assuming 621 wasnt there

[paper ferry]

Oh yeah

[solar sinew]

The RLF planned to steal tech, build the thing and.. then what?

[paper ferry]

Rusty has a Gundam, but even Gundam had a whole-ass military behind it

[solar sinew]

They clearly had some spare resources, but I dont see the grand plan

The Gundam still has two megacorps and a governmental force to contend with.. somewhat on his own?

Apparently Ayre sending out 621s call is what rallied the RLF. For some damn reason

Nevermind the RLFs own war efforts. Their own leadership. Hell, their own damn figurehead who may or may not be seen as a traitor by them

[cursive agate]

Liberator on NG+ makes a bit more sense, but the RLF plan overall seemed like a huge gamble that kept getting thrown off by bigger factors moving in.

[solar sinew]

Yeah, ALLMINDs sabotage didnt help

[paper ferry]

Ayre rallies the RLF under Raven's name, but most people probably don't know that Raven died in a duel and they would probably resent him anyways for leaking knowledge of the Coral to the corps.

[solar sinew]

But what was the grand plan? "Throw Rusty at the problem" is a gamble, sure, but I fail to see how that was ever going to succeed for them unless they genuinely intended to use the corps to break the PCAs hold and clean up a weakened force after

[paper ferry]

They really put all their chips on one next-gen AC

[cursive agate]

Before 621 got involved, it seems like the PCA and corps were slowly grinding down, BAWS Arsenal getting blown out really didn't help

[paper ferry]

Which didn't even see a full day of use

[solar sinew]

The corps swept the PCA after the ice worm mission. The suppression fleet moves in and goes down faster than ORTUS does

[solar sinew]

You know thats a good point, yeah. The follow up question is why the RLF would know about one mercenary and the meaning behind the name. I read it as Ayre rallying them in 621s name, not the dead Ravens name, but I may have been wrong there?

[cursive agate]

It seems the legal entanglement was a bigger worry than the firepower of the PCA for the corps

[paper ferry]

They played the other AC games, obviously

[solar sinew]

Yeah, for sure. I just wish we got to see the RLF leveraging that to their advantage in any way. We only ever see them being kicked while in the dirt. Until ORTUS.. And then ORTUS goes down immediately lmao

[cursive agate]

The RLF might have outside connections giving info, Rusty knowing about Walter is highly sus.

[solar sinew]

Lmao of course

[paper ferry]

Walter is shown to be rather well-known

[solar sinew]

Yeah, I saw the theory that the RLF may have hired Branch to bring the corps in and break the PCAs hold. Which is certainly possible, but the ALLMIND/Overseer link works better imo

[cursive agate]

Allmind calling in a pack of merc is like a random call away

[solar sinew]

I think its because Walter has been shown to already be active on Rubicon before the game. He may genuinely just be someone routinely buying new stock because his hounds keep dying

[paper ferry]

“Carla, I need another Orbiter.”

[cursive agate]

Definitely seems that way with one of the trailers, and Sulla's dialogue

[solar sinew]

Wish we got a follow up on Sulla

Or at least the chance to ask Walter about it

[cursive agate]

Even the pilot supplier asks about Walter going through pilots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs2piSWfofQ

[solar sinew]

I think the implication is that Sulla killed Walters hounds for ALLMIND to prevent Overseer from progressing their plans?

Then again, I think Overseer is aware of ALLMIND, given theres a datalog pointing it out

[paper ferry]

Would have been cool if he was more explicitly stated to be one of Walter’s hounds who was presumed dead and got picked up by ALLMIND

[solar sinew]

Im never sure whether this is meant to be Overseer or ALLMIND. Im inclined to say Overseer, but why on earth they had wrecks in Watchpoint Alpha is a mystery to me

[solar sinew]

Ohhh yeah. Getting some idea for what his purpose at the Watchpoint was that went beyond that one datalog nearby wouldve been cool

[paper ferry]

It’s ALLMIND talking about Overseer, the Association of Observers

How ALLMIND even got to Depth 3, however…

[solar sinew]

Ive cannibalized that second line for ALLMIND too.

But it doesnt sound like ALLMIND. She doesnt speculate. Theres no elipses in her writing

Reason I think its Overseer is because the Xylem mission already implies they know, and the theory that ALLMIND is an old RRI AI also holds water in my book.

"Provide indirect aid to Arquebus" also tracks with Walter, given his "we are done with the corps" line later

Could go either way though

[cursive agate]

RRI had a pretty big focus on (unmanned) weapons

[solar sinew]

Actually nevermind, there are elipses in her datalogs, disregard that point

[paper ferry]

Interesting that Overseer would want Arquebus to stay in the lead

[solar sinew]

Also explains why she has such control over the Xylem

[solar sinew]

I think its just whoever got there first and Balam was already limping. Walter needed someone to build the Vascular Plant and Balam presumably lacked firepower and resources

[cursive agate]

Arqebus has more ambition than Balam's focus on blowing stuff up and taking the land.

[paper ferry]

Though it might also be because Balam would just blunder through things without understanding the delicate nature of Coral

[solar sinew]

There is something funny about Arquebus seeing the Vascular Plant and deciding to rebuild it for the shits and giggles. Like, you were never gonna export all of that, Snail. Not even remotely xD

[paper ferry]

Not when a single AC can circumvent the export

It really is staggering how a single AC with a pilot of even middling skill can turn the tide of any engagement

[solar sinew]

Yeah, you dint even need to bring 621 in for the Coral Export Denial mission. The crux of that was the intel

Its easy to forget the baseline AC pilots job being keeping a few dozen MTs in check when you mow through pilots like Freud, Michigan and Rusty like theyre paper weights

I say. Rusty still kicks my ass these days

[late jay]

https://youtu.be/ttWc94idzqc?si=ocbch0gZcC5Dbohl

Anyone heard of this game btw?

My girlfriend bought it for me yesterday and it's really damn fun

[feral niche]

I saw it here a while ago iirc, not played it though.

[radiant birch]

huh, i'll have to give that a look

[serene kettle]

wow, it's a totally different gameplay genre but everything that isn't in combat mode is hitting pristine AC1 vibes

from the logo to the menus to the general look

the music too, a bit

[late jay]

Ye

[late jay]

https://www.vitalshellgame.com/POWEROFJOVAN.gif

Reminds me a bit of Frame Gride

[paper ferry]

The Chaos Emeralds???

[late jay]

https://tenor.com/view/yes-indeed-dark-souls-yes-dark-souls-3-yes-indeed-dark-souls-3-gif-4238090442972270078

The Damned Fourth Chaos Emerald brands the Vital Shell

Wait, the 4th Chaos Emerald is supposed to be green...

https://tenor.com/view/fearless-year-of-shadow-year-of-shadow-shadow-dark-beginnings-shadow-the-hedgehog-shadow-hedgehog-gif-13034318256808973181

[paper ferry]

@solar sinew Just had some interesting ideas on how Steel Haze Ortus could have been implemented into the story a bit better. They can keep the Gundam design if they really wanted to, but instead of Ortus being a prototype next-gen AC made from stolen Schneider designs, Elcano specifically was trying to revive the Ibis series from remnants of RRI tech, basically as a spiritual successor to the NEXTs from AC4/4A.

This could also be used to involve the PCA a bit more by showing how they were able to get their hands on C-weapons.

[solar sinew]

Ohhh I dont hate the idea. Makes you wonder why Rusty infiltrated Arquebus instead of the PCA though

Ive been considering upgrading Ortus into something Lynx-adjacent, mostly to give it a little bit more texture than "fancy AC"

[paper ferry]

We could get a mission from Rusty claiming it’s a request from Arquebus (actually for the RLF) with objective being running some interference on the PCA to get some intel, or something like that.

[solar sinew]

Or maybe the RLF knew more about Ibis than they let on. Surely some of the scientists who survived (or their descendents I guess) are RLF now. You cannot convince me everything the RRI did was lost, especially with both Carla and Dolmayan around

[paper ferry]

Finally, in Destroy the Drive Block, Rusty isn’t killed by Walter, but instead it is revealed he actually isn’t augmented and dies from the stress of piloting a mech not meant for a human pilot.

[solar sinew]

Hm, he did offer them one asking to destroy some PCA prototypes. I could see an angle to actually forward the tech to the RLF, but while Flatwell has a higher opinion of them than Rusty does, I dont think hes quite willing to drop that secret (even thjough the PCs puzzled it out ofc)

[solar sinew]

Now this is wonderful.

I dont think we will get any of the canon endings. My PCs will probably argue about Coral Release, but to get there, theyll have to get through ALLMIND and I reckon the RLF wont be as pushed to the sidelines

Ironically, ALLMIND is gonna be in the awkward position of the PCs being unwilling to assist her with the project. Or one of them is, at least. The other two I may be able to bribe into it.

Naturally, I set G13 and Iguazu up as my backups, but it would be hilarious for the PCs to be completely exempt from it

Im warming up to the idea of the RLF quickly rebuilding RRI tech though. It feels right.

Originally, that was my plan for Balam beyond "make money," but it suits the Liberation Front better imo

[radiant birch]

golly gee i sure do love throwing a promotion phase match because the stupid game froze up in the loading screen and i had to force quit out 🙃

and netcode is fucking me uuuuuuuup tonight

[feral niche]

Ouch.

[radiant birch]

man, i never understood why PVP is so incredibly streaky. i'm never having a mixed night, i'm either winning nearly all my matches or losing all my matches

and it'll change from one to the other within a single session, but there'll still be distinct streaks

[solar sinew]

I dont play pvp, so grai of salt.

Hows the community these days? Are you playing different people, or are you playing the same handfull all night?

[radiant birch]

There were enough people in C Rank tonight that I wasn't fighting the same people over and over, though I did see people multiple times throughout the night

Build variety was pretty decent, too

[solar sinew]

Huh, curious coincidence then. Who knows whats going on with the matchmaking

[radiant birch]

I think it's just an artefact of whatever matchmaking formula they're using + the effects of winning or losing on my confidence and focus

But even though I lost a lot last night, I felt like I made a decent showing. No matches where I got completely rolled without being able to fight back. So that felt good at least

I'm trying to figure out how to get a Harris + Ludlow build to work for me, but it's tough going

Did a bit better switching to my lightweight quad dual Majestic build. Those Majestics are nasty

[paper ferry]

I feel this in my soul. Every time I feel like I might crawl out of C rank, I get like five matches in a row with some incredibly broken meta build

[paper ferry]

I think I know how the Dafeng student pilot felt

[feral niche]

Yeah, Loader 4 showed up.

[radiant birch]

Three things are guaranteed in life: death, taxes, and LOADER 4 in AC6 PVP

[winter sigil]

man i feel kinda bad whenever i come up against someone who's gone full short range in ranked

kiting feels mean

[radiant birch]

Tbh I know people complain about kiting but with assault boost in the game I feel like it's far from insurmountable

If you're gonna play short range then knowing how to close the gap is an important part of that! <- reasons I don't play short range builds

If you're doing something like skybox kiting with the Lamm legs then that is maybe kind of mean yeah

[winter sigil]

it is hard to close even with assault build if the enemy AC is a 400 speed rj lightweight that can gun you down at range

i would never lamm kite

[radiant birch]

Your honor is intact

...how light are you running for 400 speed? My lightest, fastest PVP builds are like maybe 370

[winter sigil]

on qb but i follow the doctrine of always be qbing

[radiant birch]

Ah ofc

Hop hop hop hop hop

[winter sigil]

boing boing boing boing boing

[radiant birch]

Is that the laser dagger on your back?

[winter sigil]

no it's the starting pulse blade

starting pulse blade, starting missiles, starter rifle, and then a second bonus starter rifle

[radiant birch]

Lmao nice

[winter sigil]

the turner is so good

[radiant birch]

I need to play with it more

I was trying to combo it with the Ludlow last night but it wasn't quite working out for me

[winter sigil]

two turners!

one is a little underwhelming

[radiant birch]

Maybe... my dual Majestic build has the shoulder gatling which seems to mostly do work pinging the opponent to avoid ACS falloff

I could see a Turner being good in the same role

[winter sigil]

if you offset your dual triggers you can get 100% turner uptime downrange

[radiant birch]

Keeping up the pressure while your damage/stagger weapons are reloading

[radiant birch]

👀

[winter sigil]

if you offset your trigger pulls at just the right moment you can fit the fire rate of one inside the gaps of the othere and get a shocking fast ROF for a while

and the turner does good damage and stagger

[radiant birch]

This does sound like fun

[winter sigil]

it's good enough to play at close range and long range and dominates midrange

[paper ferry]

Somehow more than the Attaché HMG

[radiant birch]

sorry but i just now looked at this screenshot on my monitor instead of my phone and was able to make out the AC name. as someone who's also used "BLUE DANUBE" as an AC name, I highly approve 😁 excellent name for an AC that dances with the opponent

[paper ferry]

I just realized you could use the Songbirds perfectly in time with that song

[paper ferry]

"da da da da dah... BANG-BANG (pause) BANG-BANG"

[feral niche]

I can't read BANG BANG without thinking it in the same was as in Kitchen Gun.

[late jay]

Same

[feral niche]

And when I say Bang 3 times in a row it turns into Devil Trigger.

Dante wielding Kitchen Gun, of course.

[serene kettle]

same, but it's Love Shack

[paper ferry]

Or Tainted Love

[paper ferry]

Honestly would have been pretty baller if they still called the RLF communists like they were during development.

[feral niche]

Lmao.

Are they communists?

[paper ferry]

Before release, early missions labeled RLF MTs as “Communist MTs”

[serene kettle]

It’s hard to imagine they wouldn’t be. They live in communes and work together for survival, they sure aren’t capitalists

[paper ferry]

They’re a bunch of union guys

Index Dunham

[feral niche]

Yeah I feel more Union than Communism.

[eager vector]

unions are communist 🗣️

[wooden nimbus]

Yeah while the lore doesn't specifically call them communist between the pre release stuff, some of their logo imagery and the vibe of the liberation front

Even if they weren't capital C communist they're definitely something a corporation would call communist

I could see them being more like Christian Socialists except replace Big J with their reverence for coral and way more militant about their liberation but again they didn't exactly go into the politics of the RLF past "don't like corps don't like PCA get off my rock" in the actual game to my understanding

You know, coral as an entity being a leaderless, ordered family unit that seeks unity and growth, probably mirrors the more practical human scale concerns in the same way as applying the teachings of Jesus to economics

[feral niche]

I suppose Burning Pickaxe's Iconography is very Communistic, but also Unionistic.

[wooden nimbus]

Yeah it could go either way

But unions and anarchocommies are used to holding hands because fuck the corps

Very based

[feral niche]

Yah.

I mean I suppose they have no choice but to live in Communes.

[wooden nimbus]

Plus like

I know it's easy to make parallels

[feral niche]

Where else you gonna live on this toasted world?

[wooden nimbus]

But this is another planet with different contexts than 21st century Earth through a mostly Western lens

What they have might not entirely fit any of our models perfectly

Which is very fun

I like when shit does that

[feral niche]

The Soviet Union if they discovered Oil was alive with human-like consciousness alongside swarm intelligence.

[wooden nimbus]

I do love coral as a concept

[paper ferry]

The corps’ first mistake was invading the communists’ snowy homeland

[feral niche]

Lol.

[summer girder]

Can’t say I’ve played armored core, but it’s a series of mecha action games, right?

[paper ferry]

Yes

One might say it is the mecha action game series

[radiant birch]

Yep. It's notable for 1) extremely deep and complex mech customization (you assemble your AC from something like 9-12 individual parts that have overlapping effects on how it functions) and 2) highly demanding difficulty, as you would expect from the studio that would later go on to do Dark Souls

[paper ferry]

Yeah, Armored Core was their baby before Dark Souls got really popular

I’ve never played any of the other games, but Armored Core 6 has some really fantastic characters with some great acting despite never seeing anyone’s face in that game

[late jay]

AC6's story made me cry

[serene kettle]

if you're willing to go emulation hunting (it's a LOT easier than finding a disk these days), AC3 is a really strong entry from the oldgen games and relatively accessible, though there's no getting around the controls being a bit wacky

[paper ferry]

AC6 definitely has the friendliest control scheme

Whatever system you play on, definitely use a controller though

[feral niche]

Dang, I prefer mouse and keyboard.

[winter sigil]

hand on stick and stick for ac6 (you will have to come up with your own button layout) is peam

[serene kettle]

technically I did play multiple entries emulated with keyboard controls. Some more awkward than others, I think I was using WASD movement and F to shoot so I'd default to circle strafing left because it was much easier to control the F button with the finger I'd normally have resting on the D

[paper ferry]

I wanna one day try a dual flight stick setup to really get the mech pilot experience

[solar sinew]

Do share your layout for FA if you have one. Ive been struggling to make one work thats not hell

[wooden nimbus]

I'm working on getting my vkb Evo omnis soon (had to buy a new PC) and I'm very jazzed to get this set up for them

Twin angle grip sticks Mecha gameplay be still my heart

[winter sigil]

ooohhgh i wish

was out of my budget so i just run TM sticks

[wooden nimbus]

Felt

[proud tiger]

ive finally managed to get through all the missions in AC6 without Os upgrades(except for kick and shoulder swap), ||allmind|| took like 50 attempts at least but in the end this crapbucket did it :p

[paper ferry]

Crazy build, I love it

[radiant birch]

sometimes you've just gotta dakka n' blade

[proud tiger]

For most of the run i was using laser lance and sweet sixteen instead of the etsujin and coral blade, but they werent working well due to thw limitations of the final fight so i had to swap them out

But rifle plus smg works brilliantly no matter what exact pair you select :p

Also, i love the VP-44 head look so much

[paper ferry]

That head looks like a bicycle helmet to me

I ended up using the VP-44D head for both of my favorite builds

But my first ever build had the VP-44 head. The visor eye look is pretty cool

[radiant birch]

wasn't expecting to make a new PVP build today, but a youtuber video inspired me and i ended up with this

their version of the build was running Nact core, Flugel boosters, Hokushi gen, and vert plasma/4-cell as the back units. i was playing with it because i liked the silhouette, but when i swapped to the Firmeza core i found i like the silhouette even more + had more breathing room wrt build and energy management

wasn't sure how it was going to perform but i took it into ranked for a test run and wound up going 2-1 against someone running a Redshift/Moonlight double melee build, so i decided to paint it up and keep it

decided to name it MASQUERADE because the core + head made me think of a grasshopper, which made me think of Kamen Rider. and it even has the Rider Kick (although i need to practice with that bc i suck at boost kicking xP)

need to spend some time making decals for it too 😁

[paper ferry]

Do you think Rusty is a Rubiconian or did he just become sympathetic to their cause at some point before going all in as a spy?

Probably the latter, since the Rubiconians don't exactly get off-world

[paper ferry]

How long do you think the war even went on for?

[feral niche]

I wanna say 20 years but likely less than that.

Not that I have a source to back up either claim.

[solar sinew]

Thats a really interesting question. I do think hes rubiconian. We have evidence of people entering Rubicon before we broke the quarantine (Coldcall just paid his way through, for instance). Flatwell has contacts to Schneider offworld, he worked as a spy and to our knowledge he is younger than the Fires. Meaning he had to leave AND return to Rubicon unless we think he, too isnt rubiconian.

"Nobody gets through the blockade" is what the PCA wants us to believe. Evidently that isnt true.

On the matter of the war - Jesus Christ, do we have no idea. Arquebus rebuilding the Vascular Plant alone could take a year or ten and Id believe you either way. You could tell me they Sci-Fi'ed the thing back up in two months and Id have to believe you too. My campaign, between Illegal Entry and the STRIDER that effectively replaced Watchpoint Alpha was about 6-7 months. That seems reasonable, but arguably the corporations arent wiping the PCAs suppression fleet off of Rubicon in an afternoon. Ardecus' 20 years may be slightly exaggerating, but I dont think it was that much tbh. A lot of events are ridiculous in scale even accounting for everything on Rubicon being ridiculous in scale

[radiant birch]

i suppose the question is "how long elapses between the IBIS fight and Act 5" since Arquebus couldn't get to the Vascular Plant before the former

the game doesn't seem to indicate that 621 is imprisoned for all that long, but i don't think we get an exact time figure either

as for Rusty, i'd be willing to believe that he's a Rubiconian who manged to get off-world to infiltrate the Vespers; it'd line up with his caginess regarding other personal details ("he has declared himself to be of the eighth generation"--i.e. we're just taking his word for it)

the question of the blockade is interesting too--you've got BAWS being based on Rubicon to begin with, and Arquebus and Balam openly operating on the planet with no pushback from the PCA until they poke the remaining Coral too hard. so just how aggressive is "planetary closure" here?

[solar sinew]

"he has declared himself to be of the eighth generation" has got to be the worst way to phrase it. My thoughts on Rustys ability as a spy aside, its a good point. "Refuses to share information with Arquebus" is clumsy, but it does track, especially with how much evidence we find in the aftermath of the Wall.

Yes, BAWS and Elcano are great examples. Yeah, Rubicon is quarantined, but clearly theres money flowing in and out. Furlong reached out to Elcano to fund ORTUS. How the fuck they learned of it is anyones guess, but its not exactly something you do without long term intel. I could see Furlong having people on Rubicon long before the corporations got there.

Its not even that the PCA doesnt care about the corporations poking the Coral, its about the corporations leaving Belius and entering the zone the PCA has declared off limits. Weird thing to do on a supposedly quarantined planet. The PCA are evidently fine with people operating and communicating with the outside. Flatwell, BAWS, Elcano, hell Carla too if we believe she was the one to supply Walter with Loader 4. We have evidence of Walter operating on Rubicon long before the Closure system was officially breached. There is ways in and out

[radiant birch]

https://www.tumblr.com/machineheadtetsujin/812683364666638336/lammergeier-my-beloved?source=share

Untitled

Lammergeier my beloved

-# #armored core #more like lame-ergeier

Tumblr · Apr 1, 2026, 9:20 AM

[paper ferry]

“We here at Schneider have made our newest Armored Core frame completely out of tin foil and duct tape.”

[radiant birch]

"it can, however, go from zero to Mach 5 in ten seconds"

[paper ferry]

We just scrape out the pilot between missions and then put a new one in

[solar sinew]

Say about Arquebus what you want, but Schneider has got the right idea

[paper ferry]

I think for the Vascular Plant, once the PCA was defeated and Arquebus absorbed their tech, it makes sense that they would have also taken control of the Closure System to allow them to bring more ships and resources onto Rubicon. Humanity in AC6 is absolutely a Kardashev II-scale civilization with the sheer scale they are building at. The game seems to imply the Vascular Plant was rebuilt quickly, so I would say a few months at the absolute minimum.

Fromsoft doesn’t really “do” timelines.

I also think it’s likely that there’s no FTL travel in AC6 either. Ships have to go through long way around presumably with the crew and passengers in cryo

[solar sinew]

Yeah, Im with you on no FTL. It poses some very weird questions regarding how far Rubicon is from wherever people came from. Given its seen as a bit of a backwater planet, travel there would take forever. So how exactly do we interpret Flatwells time at Schneider? Surely he was around before the fires. What about Rusty? How long from Rubicon to Jupiter to make the Walter thing work?
Needless to say, travel hurts my brain.

They definitely have the tools to rebuild the Vascular Plant quickly, but even "quickly" still drags on given the size of the thing, I reckon. To my knowledge they didnt take control of the Closure System, do you have a source on it, or is this common sense applying? Im with you that it would make sense.

[paper ferry]

It would just make sense for Arquebus to also take control of the Closure System

[paper ferry]

Space travel is at least an easy thing to hand-wave away in the story since it doesn’t really matter that much in game. It’s easy to accept that fifty linear years have passed since the Fires of Ibis, but it does make you wonder how Walter was able establish himself as a rather infamous handler in the time since. I like to think that Carla stuck around on the planet until I remember that she has only been in charge of RaD for three years.

Was it part of Overseer’s plan then to set her up as a sort of vanguard on Rubicon?

When did Walter learn how to pilot an AC? Was the HAL 826 just in storage this whole time?

[solar sinew]

50 years is just a very short timespan for everything considering how long space travel tends to last without FTL. Walter is a good case, but it applies to anyone who left Rubicon and came back. He would have.. left Rubicon in the days leading up to the fires, grown up on Jupiter, returned to Rubicon, lost enough hounds for Sulla to crack a dry joke over it and leave Rubicon far enough to make a second approach onto the Closure System. The fact he sounds closer to 60 tham 40 almost makes me think there is no cryo either, but then how the hell did Rusty get anywhere, I reckon Vesper training isnt a two year apprenticeship. Yes, hes only been in the Vespers for less than twoish years, but the ten? (Pulling numbers out of my ass here) years of getting there are just unaccounted for.

Carla.. hell, Carla. I do think she stayed on Rubicon, maybe in cryo next to HALs storage deposit xD
It she took over RaD and Walter operated on Rubicon in the same timeframe of the past three years that might track?

Id almost believe Walter learned to pilot on Jupiter?

[serene kettle]

Cryo would explain a lot, there's a dialogue accusing Carla of basically stolen valor because she's "too young" to have been alive during the fires of ibis

Which suggests she at least appears much younger than she is. Which I guess could be explained by either suspended animation or just time off-world (and accompanying relativistic time dilation)

[paper ferry]

Carla still does sound like a young woman even though she’s chronologically in her 70s, so cryo could explain that, or if she somehow has access to anti-aging tech. Walter at least sounds his age. He’s at least 60.

I was also kinda thinking about how 621 (and presumably other augmented humans) can basically just have their brain turned off when they’re not active. We see them on the operating table in the story trailer essentially brain dead and on life support, which is likely how they are kept on the ship to Rubicon until they are woken up. They were probably asleep in Loader 4’s cockpit.

And ALLMIND even flips 621’s switch so to speak before smuggling them onto the Xylem

[solar sinew]

Cryo makes the most sense, Im with you. Its just very funny in the cases where it doesnt quite add up. If Carla sounds younger than she is because of cryo, why doesnt Walter, who we know spent a considerable amount of time in the long black? The answer is almost definitely "vibes," but it does amuse me greatly

[paper ferry]

The RRI refugees could sense this ten year old kid’s main character energy

No cryo? If that’s what he wants.

[solar sinew]

Walter learned to fly an AC on board of a space ship in a desperate attempt not to Project Hail Mary the rest of the crew

It all comes together xD

[late jay]

I thought Carla still looks/sounds young because of Coral irradiaton from The Fires of Ibis

[solar sinew]

Gestures vaguely at Dolmayan and Sulla

Your guess is as good as mine. Id wager prolonged Coral exposure isnt super good for the skin though

[late jay]

Yea

I know Dolmayan and Sulla had their lives extended by Coral exposure

[solar sinew]

Wait, where are you taking that from? To my knowledge they lived reasonably long human lives despite Coral influence. Sulla is a bit of an outlier, given we dont know what the hell he was doing, but Dolmayan spent his adult life on Rubicon as far as we can tell

[late jay]

I don't remember exactly, but I thought one of the archive logs imply that both Sulla and Dolmayan were already old before The Fires of Ibis and then never died from old age

[solar sinew]

Yeah, Sulla was and didnt, but I dont recall there being a link to Coral

[late jay]

At least Dolmayan was a direct survivor

Since he's been titled as a "Cinder"

[solar sinew]

yep

hes seventy or something. Far as I know he was an early adult before the fires

[late jay]

And probably another reason he's seen as somewhat of a Messaiahistic figure

Also, part of me wonders what the coral was like pre-fires since now it's full of human neurons from the victims who died there

I kinda imagine an intelligent and alien coral gave the RRI a big scare which was probably the first reason as to why Nagai started The Fires of Ibis in the first place

I might be pulling more from headcanon from actual canon tbh, but I feel like it's an easy inference to make

[paper ferry]

I like to think that Sulla was one of Walter's hounds from earlier attempts at missions on Rubicon. He was presumed dead after a failed mission, but later got picked up by ALLMIND.

[distant forge]

yeah his voice lines kinda read like a jilted ex

[late jay]

Kind of a funny way to think about it

[solar sinew]

That does track, yeah. Maybe hes the 617 people love to think Rusty to be xD

[radiant birch]

i feel like he must predate 617, since he says "how many of your hounds have i killed?" implying that he's had multiple run-ins with Walter and killed multiple of his hounds

which wouldn't quite gel with him being someone who went missing immediately prior to the start of the game

[serene kettle]

we also just have Sulla's actual number

[radiant birch]

oh that's right

C1-249

[serene kettle]

yeah

[radiant birch]

1st gen, crusty old boy

right, so if you believe his arena profile/the english translation thereof, Sulla was 1) active as a mercenary prior to the Fires, and 2) prior to receiving the augmentation surgery

you know, i'd assumed that it was basically the norm for AC pilots to be augmented by the time of AC6's plot, but the arena profiles keep referring to the Vespers as "Arquebus' augmented human squad" so maybe it's not as common as all that

at least, not so ubiquitous that having a full squad of augmented pilots wouldn't bear remarking on

[paper ferry]

Iguazu is the only augmented member of the Redguns

Which now that I think about it, would make sense for Rusty not to be augmented as a neat parallel

[late jay]

I thought Freud was unaugmented too

[radiant birch]

he is, but he's very notable as an exception to the rule

[paper ferry]

That’s right, Freud is just in it for the love of the game

[late jay]

https://tenor.com/view/thunderbolt-gundam-gif-15520048

[radiant birch]

Rusty is allegedly augmented, but the language used for it is pretty notably ambiguous

[paper ferry]

Wild that Arquebus never bothered to check

Sounds like it would be pretty easy to verify it via physical examination

[late jay]

Might be partially because of Flatwell's meddling

[radiant birch]

isn't there another guy on the inside of the Vespers

uhhhhhh

V.III? O'Keefe? i forget who he's actually working for

[late jay]

Flatwell and partially O'Keeffe

[paper ferry]

O’Keeffe was working for ALLMIND, but changed his mind

[late jay]

Yea

[radiant birch]

he says something about Rusty when he dies iirc

why? it's a mystery

but i'm assuming Arquebus, Balam, the RLF, and ALLMIND are all playing 5D espionage chess with each other before 621 barrels into their carefully constructed house of cards like a cannonball

[paper ferry]

Yeah that was interesting

“See you on the other side… Rusty”

[radiant birch]

anyway if Rusty had a high-ranking Vesper already on his side then i could see him getting away with "no really i'm a gen eight, trust"

[solar sinew]

O'Keeffe also happens to be Head of Intelligence. Make of that what you will

Rustys "Alleged" augmentation drives me mad, largely because its pretty easily verifiable information and the phrasing is so suspicious.

As a sidenote - I dont think Iguana is the only augmented Redgun. Hes just the only one with a generation named. Freuds arena entry makes a big deal of him being unaugmented. Meanwhile Michigan is hanging out on Spot 2, presumably augmented? Also unaugmented, but hes so cool the entry just forgets? Who knows. Michigan is interim gen in my book, but thats severe headcanon

[solar sinew]

Good catch. I was joking about Sulla, but I keep forgetting we have his actual number

As for the Vespers being referred to as augmented humans.. Being augmented is the norm. For AC pilots. The Vespers are a group of specifically AC pilots, hence the "numbered Vesper" thing Walter mentions. Which makes Freuds inclusion in the club very funny, but whos telling Arquebus they cant have their god given hypocrisy

[radiant birch]

look, if a normie shows up who can beat up every member of your special little kiddo club, you let the normie in 😛

i think there's an argument to be made that Freud's lack of augmentations is pointed out because it's unique among the Vespers, not AC pilots generally (again gesturing at the Vespers being referred to specifically as Arquebus's "augmented human squad"). Freud's bio also mentions that there's a widespread presumption that he's getting the same regimen of cutting-edge augmentation upgrades as Snail is. in that interpretation Michigan doesn't get the same treatment just because it's not as strange for the Redguns as it is for the Vespers

either way--even if it is generally the norm that AC pilots in the "present" are augmented, Sulla's bio seems to indicate that that wasn't always the case, since ACs seem to predate the earliest generation of augmentation tech. this makes sense given the implied timeline overall, but it's interesting to think about

[paper ferry]

Another headcanon for Walter I just had: I think as soon as he was grown up, he started training to be an AC pilot, eventually becoming his own independent mercenary, taking on miscellaneous jobs until eventually attempting to reach Rubicon himself. His hopes were dashed when a failed mission resulted in him receiving a debilitating injury, ending his days as an AC pilot and forcing him to walk with a cane. Though he had his own moral objections to Coral technology and augmented humans, he could not deny the effectiveness of augmented pilots and became a handler for older gen pilots, secretly pitying them and using the possibility of them being able to reverse their surgeries as motivation.

[solar sinew]

I like that interpretation a lot, actually. I hadnt thought of it that way, but that tracks very well!

[radiant birch]

i can only imagine how much it must piss off Snail that he's sunk the resources of a massive corporate conglomerate into getting the most advanced augmentations that can be safely used and he still keeps getting outperformed by some random asshole who loves fighting

i enjoy this because i enjoy picturing Snail seething with helpless frustration

[modern hornet]

I mean, Freud is a much simpler man than Snail. He only has two loves in life: fine-tuning his AC to maximize his combat efficacy after each mission, and testing himself against a worthy opponent. When all you wanna do is fight and become the best pilot possible, you're gonna spend a hell of a lot more time either in the garage making adjustments to your machine, in the simulator to keep your skills sharp, or out in the field actively putting your training and customizations to the test. V.I Freud most likely trumps every other Vesper in terms of practical combat experience in an AC.

[paper ferry]

Imagine Freud’s surprise when gets dethroned in the Arena

[radiant birch]

"oh i gotta meet this person"

and then they get to fight on the Xylem

Freud's Best Day Ever

[feral niche]

Lmao.

[solar sinew]

Freud and I have a few things in common, it seems

[solar sinew]

You and I also have something in common xD

[radiant birch]

wanted to take a swing (heh) at a heavier HMMR/Majestic quad PVP build. after some tinkering and testing and readjusting, this is what i ended up with

...tangentially, anybody have advice for dealing with opponents who just brainlessly elevator kite around you in PVP? it works on me, and i hate that it works

[paper ferry]

For real. You gotta just chase them down and hopefully have enough energy left to respond to any counterattacks

Or missile spam

If you have multiple missile racks, you’ll want to fire off one at a time in succession to increase the window in which they are active

[radiant birch]

honestly chasing them down hasn't been the issue, they tend to stay mid to close range (eg the double zimm build from last night). it's the difficulty keeping FCS lockon that i have trouble with

[paper ferry]

Gotcha, maybe use arms with better firearm specialization like the Nacht arms

[paper ferry]

It is frustrating when PvPers don't want to actually dance in a fight

It's the whole point of Core Theory

[covert chasm]

i accidentally stumbled into a very redguns-y build while playing with a heavy tetra concept, figured the people here would appreciate

[covert chasm]

it depends on the build you're running, but in general you want to pre-empt this situation happening and position in such a way that its difficult to do, e.g. around cover
if you're struggling on this tetra build, hovering high in the air and forcing them to spend energy coming up to you is a good strategy to put a damper on that kind of thing. on a related note, consider using VP-20D as your generator instead, its really good for this kind of build

elsewise, if you Find yourself in that situation, figuring out how to disengage and run away to reset so you can approach the situation from a better angle is ideal. learn how to AB shuffle if you haven't, its fun to do and very useful :)

[radiant birch]

Thanks! I'll have a look at swapping the generator too

I started with a coral gen, and that worked fine, but I'm not a huge fan of redline gens. The san-tai gave be a nice big energy pool for AB and hovering and starts regen quickly, but with the energy load I'm running the regen is a bit slow

[radiant birch]

That looks like an interesting build, and I love the decal work!

[covert chasm]

san-tai has been seen as more trouble than its worth in recent times, meta-wise. it does have a big beefy capacity but its output was nerfed some time ago which has had a cascading effect both on its ability to be comfortably mounted as well as its ability to regen, so its only real usecase are builds that don't want a redline generator that also need a really beefy amount of energy, most notably melee builds

20D is good in this case because it has a pretty chunky capacity, and its regen stats give you borderline infinite energy so long as you have any chance to regen at all. also of note is its very high post-recovery supply of 1400, the highest of any non-coral generator and it makes it very forgiving to use. it feels Really good if you pair it with a decent supply adjustment core, of which mind alpha is indeed sufficient

[covert chasm]

thank you!! i kind of stumbled into it but it turned out really good

[covert chasm]

i could give notes on other aspects of that build if you want, tetras in general are kind of my jam and i have absorbed a lot of insight on how to build them, but i think what you have going on should be entirely sufficient unless you really wanna push it

[radiant birch]

I'm mostly happy with the build. If I wanted to be really competitive with it I'd be using the Basho arms, but I hate the way they look with almost everything else so I went with the next best option. The core was originally Melander but I found that Mind Alpha was a bit tankier on defense and gave me more EN load to work with

[polar osprey]

i should check if any of my builds need alterations

[covert chasm]

entirely reasonable
i think the arm choice is fine personally, i was more lookin to nitpick booster and some minor notes about back weapon choice, but as mention this should for sure work if you're not really lookin to be super competitive about it

[radiant birch]

Please do nitpick the boosters, I'm kind of addicted to the NGIs and I need to branch out

[covert chasm]

oh, real

in that case, easiest recommendation of my life, 12345 booster

[radiant birch]

And back weapon thoughts would be welcome too

[radiant birch]

Okay I did look at that, but I wasn't sure how they'd work--I'll have to give it a try

[covert chasm]

12345 is a very efficient booster with a loooong QB duration, which hovering tetras looking to play more defensively really love

if you were unaware, your raw boost stats on your booster are Completely irrelevant while you're hovering. every tetra has their own internal passive and QB boost stats that override what your booster has

[radiant birch]

Wait what

I did not know this

[covert chasm]

so if you're comfortable with some mild EN management, 12345 is Really good because it sends you obscenely far when you QB while hovering

try it out, its absurd

[polar osprey]

that is good info

[radiant birch]

Part of the reason I didn't use the 12345s was the loss of baseline boost speed but lbr, even without hover mode, at ~290 speed I'm not outrunning shit

Might as well lean into something else

[covert chasm]

this is true, which is why NGI does make an amount of sense here i think
but if you want to try something else then 12345 is a lot of fun on this kind of build

[radiant birch]

I don't play slow/heavy builds often and it shows in my priorities 😅

I'm kind of a midweight gremlin

68-75k is my comfort zone

[covert chasm]

as for back weapon choice, i'm mostly curious about the laser orbit
its not a bad part, but i think having a double-missile setup would probably serve you better

[polar osprey]

same honestly

Pale Painter Ruber is kinda at the very far edge of that

[covert chasm]

there's loads of good combinations and i can give you recommendations but i do recommend just trying shit out and seeing what works

[polar osprey]

right at 74910 weight

[radiant birch]

I like the orbit for automated midrange pressure. On this build, especially since the majestic and HMMR both have substantial cooldown times, I find it valuable to be passively pinging the opponent to prevent ACS dropoff

[covert chasm]

this is true, its a good thing to have, though my point is that various missile setups can do this more reliably
if its working for you then its not a big deal, though

[polar osprey]

ok i was remembering correctly, Ruber did use San-tai

[radiant birch]

I was thinking of replacing the 6-cell missiles with something a bit trickier. Don't know how much of a difference that would make

[polar osprey]

suppose i oughta see if i can replace it

[radiant birch]

San-tai is good for having a lot of AB and reliable EN regeneration

[covert chasm]

simple recommendation is duo2, good midrange missile thats very spammable and has a firing pattern that punishes people for staying out of whip range

[polar osprey]

AB?

[radiant birch]

Assault boost

[covert chasm]

its completely nonfunctional in cqc, but that shouldn't be a problem if you use your whip right

[polar osprey]

ahhh

[radiant birch]

If you're assault boosting a lot then it's a pretty solid choice

[polar osprey]

i'm not really tbh

[covert chasm]

i think for most builds, ming-tang is strictly better and easier to use than san-tai

[polar osprey]

mostly just cruising

this is the build

[radiant birch]

Big if there 😅 I'm still getting used to the HMMR's range

[covert chasm]

you may also want to consider yaba! its a Very good generator and particularly well suited to these kinds of builds

[covert chasm]

🤝 yeah its a weapon of many whims, i had a lot of trouble using it when i started out too

[radiant birch]

I'm learning!

I'll look at the duo2 though, the missiles are mostly there as a ranged poke

[polar osprey]

i'll try out the yaba

[covert chasm]

the biggest advice i can give is that for some reason the second hit has a bit shorter range for some reason, and also don't commit to the 2-hit combo if you don't need to

[polar osprey]

was thinking about maybe swapping out my boosters

[covert chasm]

its a really long animation lock that can really fuck with you if your opponent gets out of it

[polar osprey]

Ruber is a bit above the ideal weight for fluegel

[covert chasm]

NGI would be my recommendation, its particularly good for RJs

[radiant birch]

Yeah, not mindlessly double-mashing the trigger is one of the top things I need to work on

[polar osprey]

ok the game does not want to be played for some reason, gonna verify files and see if something is up with it

[radiant birch]

That's not a huge deal on reverse joint legs; they stay in the air for a while when they QB anyway

[covert chasm]

in general ideal weight isnt a super impactful stat, it depends on application
being slightly above it is rarely notable

[polar osprey]

fair enough

[radiant birch]

Like you can QB again in the air but it's generally better to be touching the ground so that you're getting the benefit of your legs' jump distance

[polar osprey]

think i'm good for the weapons but i might check out the body parts to see if anything has changed stat wise to where i'd wanna swap stuff around

prolly gonna focus on internals tho

[covert chasm]

i dont think there's anything especially wrong with your frame or weapons, they Could be optimized more but they should work fine

[polar osprey]

i do tend to chain qb's a fair bit but i also jump around a lot for evasion and such

[polar osprey]

what were you thinking for optimization?

[covert chasm]

slightly different missile loadout would be good, and a different core Especially
different missiles would help make them more reliable
and HAL core is quite good for sure, but its low stability is really brutal on RJs

[polar osprey]

mhm

i use those missiles cause they're really quick and i find they help me keep constant pressure fairly reliably

i've tried most of the other missile types

i remember i didn't really like most of them but not particularly why

[covert chasm]

they should work fine as is for sure, just to say you only really need one of them to do that effectively and pairing with another would give your opponent a greater variety of things to deal with

[polar osprey]

yeah that's fair

the loadout is symmetrical mostly for comfort

[covert chasm]

nothin wrong with that, it isnt an especially huge deal in this case, mlt04 is quite a good missile in its own right

[polar osprey]

yep

[covert chasm]

its probably one of the best missiles to be doubling up on

[polar osprey]

whenever i'm not coasting i tend to stagger fire them

really helps with keeping constant pressure

cause they reload so fast i can just, fire, wait a second, fire, wait a second, fire, repeat

[radiant birch]

Getting MWO flashbacks. "Warning, incoming missile. Warning, incoming missile. Warning, incoming missile. Warning--"

[polar osprey]

also using machine guns because fuck you not only are you facing unending missile fire, i'm also shooting at you forever too

had chang chens on the original pale painter

[covert chasm]

as for frame parts, as mentioned the core's low stabilty is kind of brutal in this case. i do obviously recommend changing it but if you're set on it then you could consider a more stable head choice instead, something like 44D or alba or nacht for example. it wouldn't totally mitigate the low stability but it would help the issue a bit

[polar osprey]

i'll take a look at other torso's

i think i'd rather change the torso than the head

gonna be some generational aura loss tho

the Hal torso looks fucking sick

pretty sure i picked it for the gen output and supply stats

[covert chasm]

its unfortunately true, i do like the look of it on those RJs a lot

[polar osprey]

more energy means i can flit around like a maniac more

[covert chasm]

if you want more output and supply focus then mind alpha core would be fine
melander core would also be good

if you're fine with a heavy core look, snail core would fit without issue

[polar osprey]

man that looks so much worse 😭

[covert chasm]

its up to you if you value the aesthetics more, i wouldn't blame you one bit

[polar osprey]

vp-40s is i think the only viable option between aesthetics and stats

[covert chasm]

it would work too, for sure

[polar osprey]

fuck i'd need to redo all decals as well

[covert chasm]

i make aesthetic and stat tradeoffs all the time so i totally get it

[covert chasm]

like for this build it'd probably be strictly better with main dish core, but i have a good number of main dish heavy tetras already so i wanted some variety

[polar osprey]

looked at all the different parts and tried this, may have overcorrected a bit on changing everything

could maybe swap to kasuar for movement but i do lose a lot of stability

[covert chasm]

spring chicken legs are quite good, in large part due to their high stability amongst RJs, so this is fine methinks

oh, i really do Not recommend gills booster for this, btw
their short QB duration really fucks with rjs a lot

[polar osprey]

ic ic

[serene kettle]

I don't recommend gills in general

it's too easy to just dump your entire bar into it before you've noticed

[covert chasm]

this is also true, alulas are strictly better outside of very specific usecases, namely specific flavors of very aggressive light tetras

being a slightly worse version of a good booster isnt the worst place to be, though
regardless its not suitable for this build type

[polar osprey]

i think honestly i might just swap the gen for something better and leave it at that

[covert chasm]

totally reasonable, methinks

[polar osprey]

Pale Painter Ruber as i built it is honestly just kinda goated

san-tai for sure used to be way better i feel and i need to swap it

and my skills are rusty as hell

but i still got a 39 second clear with it compared to the attempt to update it getting like 56 seconds or something

[covert chasm]

if you want something that feels similar but is better then go ming-tang
yaba is still a strong recommendation

[polar osprey]

was eyeing ming-tang

gonna try yaba tho

i think i really wanted to like the coral gens cause the boost effects look so cool with them

but they don't fit my playstyle

[covert chasm]

you have a good core for them at least, but yeah they demand a certain kind of build

[polar osprey]

vp-20d is kinda cooking as well

hmm

i think the regen speed on vp-20d is crazy good but the time it takes to start the regen is just

not good enough

[covert chasm]

20D is a favorite generator of mine, but its most notably quite heavy and its advantages aren't too useful on a build like this yeah

[polar osprey]

i think ming-tang is gonna take it honestly

need to try it out against Locksmith and Nightfall

[radiant birch]

Ming-tang is solid, a true workhorse

[polar osprey]

ming tang just has better EN recharge and supply recovery, starts regen quicker and regens quicker overall

might be worth taking yaba tho for more EN after complete depletion tho...

[radiant birch]

The VP series tends to favor energy weapon spec and high overall energy load, neither of which really apply to Pale Painter. So it makes sense that the Balam gens work more comfortably

[polar osprey]

i didn't go all out with boosting with ming-tang cause i knew the post depletion recovery is not good

[covert chasm]

yaba's post recovery supply is very good for sure, its what makes it such a good generator

[polar osprey]

yeah

[polar osprey]

gonna try it against locksmith

[covert chasm]

generally speaking if you don't need high EN output i would consider yaba to be strictly better than VP-20C

[polar osprey]

yeah that's 38 seconds on yaba too

and i could go a bit harder since i knew i had better post depletion

[covert chasm]

i imagine your generator choice is probably not going to matter a whole heck of a lot in these kinds of tests
personally i like the alt attack dam complex as my testing mission, iggy and volta put up a decent fight together

[polar osprey]

yeah i think yaba is gonna be the pick

[polar osprey]

i chain boost a lot so the generator really affects my playstyle if i can get my energy back quickly and how much i need to watch my movement for EN management

i think Yaba wins out in the end for both having really quick regen on the EN, but also initiating that regen almost instantly

[covert chasm]

well i dont doubt that, but just due to the nature of your weapons and the encounter its probably going to take about the same time regardless of what generator you pick unless you just stop shooting

[polar osprey]

how do you mean?

[covert chasm]

you have two machineguns that are fairly reliable by simple holding down the triggers and two very spammable and simple missiles, so long as you continue attacking consistently how much or how little you dodge is not going to meaningfully change how long it takes to kill a singular AI AC opponent

hence why i recommended a more rigorous test that forces you to engage more with how your AC actually performs holistically

[polar osprey]

ic ic

i'll give dam complex a whirl then

[covert chasm]

i do think ultimately yaba will end up being better for you, thats just my explanation for why the tests took about the same time either way

[polar osprey]

mhm

yeah i mean the results were similar

but yaba did feel better

i could go a lot harder with it

[covert chasm]

its a very forgiving generator for sure

[polar osprey]

straight up lost the mission cause my guns ran out of ammo, embarassing

should prolly have targeted volta first

iguazu is a little rat fuck but he doesn't really do much compared to having Volta blasting me in the back

[covert chasm]

its an interesting dichotomy, you'd think as much but iguazu can wear you down surprisingly effectively if you aren't looking at him
its what makes the mission an effective test to me

[serene kettle]

That’s part of their strategy. You want to hurt Iguazu

[polar osprey]

yeah for sure

i hate Iguzu so i just kinda lasered onto him

also almost ran out of ammo again

think this gen is probably the best i'm gonna get but honestly

i was running out of EN constantly

prolly just cause i'm a bit too aggressive with my boosting

[covert chasm]

i personally prefer targetting iguazu first because he's faster, and thus hes easier to lead away from volta rather than the other way around

[polar osprey]

yeah

honestly it just takes too much for me to try to kill Iguazu while also dealing with Volta

the little rat has a shield and i'm at risk of just getting my ass stunned to shit by Volta while i'm targeting Iguazu

[covert chasm]

there's a nuanced choice involved for sure, its an interesting mission to try to optimize

[covert chasm]

yaba does have a somewhat average capacity so this isnt especially surprising, learning restraint with your energy management is very useful
but hey, at least the post recovery supply was indeed getting good use

[polar osprey]

yeah

i mean it helped a bit

my generator was still empty like half the fight it felt like

honestly with gameplay like this it's not so crazy to me anymore that i was running coral gens for the first iteration of Ruber

ok ming-tai honestly kinda did better

need to do the mission a few more times with both

[polar osprey]

it takes a lot longer for me cause he keeps using his shield and healing

i don't have a big damage move to pull on to just explode him

ok did manage to get him done quick before volta got over to ruin things one time with the ming-tai

game crashed to desktop though

not sure what that was about

gods i really don't like this mission

yeah i think i'm gonna go with the ming-tang

[covert chasm]

so be it!

[polar osprey]

if i'm managing my energy well it's just better

i really like being able to get just really quick bursts of EN regen

[radiant birch]

send your armies, there's no man or machine who can stop me--

Sorry protomen moment

[polar osprey]

ok i'm not doing this mission again to try anything

keep running out of ammo and heals

anyway i think the ming-tang is a good replacement for San-tai

[covert chasm]

its a bit of a rough mission at times, my apologies 💥
but, at least you got good info

[polar osprey]

yeah

could be worse

could be the fucking snail iguazu 1v1v1

i genuinely hate that mission with all my heart and soul

it's like at minimum 50% of the reason i probably will never 100% this game

that and like

the Michigan fight

[paper ferry]

It sucks if you aren’t able to take out the other two ACs quickly first, then you’ll be going into the next fight at a disadvantage

[polar osprey]

i run out of ammo

i think when i was clearing the mission the first time around

i had to just

swap my build

it's genuinely such a dogshit mission

[paper ferry]

Snail’s build is a little whack, he just has so much AP

[polar osprey]

yeah

same problem with the fuckass michigan fight

both of those missions are the worlds worst battle of attrition

ostensibly snail and iguazu are trying to kill eachother too

but in reality they just kill you

[covert chasm]

i find all of thee missions to be fun optimization challenges personally
its good variety to throw my frankly absurd number of builds at

[polar osprey]

honestly i just like to play with my mech

at least the first time around i just wanted to build a mech tailored to me and win with it

so those missions were absolute ass to complete cause they just completely fuck over my playstyle

wasn't like, a massive issue for my experience overall but it was memorable

still sucks that you need to s-rank all missions for the 100%

[covert chasm]

its pretty normal for AC games to have special rewards for S ranking everything so i'd have been sad if it wasnt present

[winter sigil]

i only ended up using a completely different build for one S-rank

and i probably could've gotten it if i locked in more but i didn't want to spend 20 hours doing nothing but fight helicanthus machines

[radiant birch]

The S-rank achievement is why I will never 100% AC6, fortunately I am not a completionist 😛

[covert chasm]

i felt like i could use mostly the same builds for my S-ranks save for a couple exceptions, notably snailteus

[winter sigil]

and i shamelessly cheesed the Nepenthes S-rank because fuuuuck that

[covert chasm]

wait no im thinking of my first mission completion, snailteus gave me a lot of trouble then but i think i ended up cheesing the S rank with a quad gat build lmao

thankfully at that point i had already started making a buncha builds to play with so i had a variety to handle

[radiant birch]

When in doubt, apply brrrt

[covert chasm]

(for context, snailteus has notably lower kinetic defense)

[radiant birch]

The Volta/Iguazu fight and Defend the Dam are the two times I've had to change up my build to get past a mission

Well, and Ice Worm, but I don't really count that

In both cases I needed to up my ACS output so that I could quickly take out an enemy to even the odds

For Iguazu/Volta I'd been using dual scudders with the laser lance on the back as a punish, I wound up swapping the scudders for a ransetsu-rf and a zimm

Made the build better overall

[polar osprey]

yeah that's fair

i just really wanted the 100% but i don't think i will get it

[radiant birch]

Defend the Dam I was going at with my heavy KRSV/Ludlow build, for that one I just made a variant build that swapped the 6-missile pods for songbirds and we were good to go

[covert chasm]

it was often access to a unique part too!!
so, at least be glad it doesnt lock anything functional behind it

[polar osprey]

yeah

[serene kettle]

It was easier than I thought it’d be

[polar osprey]

i've done like half or more of the missions to s-rank but a lot of the ones i had left just

really put the fucking slog in

doing the fucking uh

[serene kettle]

Most s-ranks i pretty much did first try once my game face was on

[polar osprey]

the early investigation mission with the allmind invis fuckers

really was not fun

i think if i made myself i could do it

but like

[serene kettle]

Yeah that’s one of the hardest s ranks

[polar osprey]

i still think if i do the 100% i will just

never play the game again after

[radiant birch]

At some point you gotta admit that you're not having fun

[polar osprey]

it will straight up kill the game for me

so i've decided i just won't

[covert chasm]

for me pursuing the S ranks was a matter of, this has been my most anticipated game Ever, so i wanted to experience everything i could of it
i also don't find the game to be particularly difficult elsewise outside of specific cases so it was nice to have an optimization challenge

its not for everyone, so you dont need to feel pressured to do it if you dont want to or anything

[polar osprey]

i kinda do want to

but if it's between doing the S-ranks and like

still enjoying the game after

you know

[radiant birch]

Still 🤞 for DLC/expansion at summer games fest

I will offer Fromsoft my first born child

[polar osprey]

i need more Armored Core

[radiant birch]

So bad

[polar osprey]

i don't care if it's a ACFA/ACVD style thing where i need to buy another game entirely

just give me more

[radiant birch]

I really need to figure out PS3 emulation so I can go back and play 4th gen

[polar osprey]

ACFA is so good

i'm really dogwater at it

but i had a lot of fun playing it

[covert chasm]

there's some very accessable resources in the official server, just ask the people there and they'll point you the right way

[radiant birch]

And honestly I would prefer the FA/VD approach

[polar osprey]

i wanna remember that ps3 emulation was

very easy to do

[radiant birch]

AC6 isn't quite like Elden Ring where they can just staple a new map into the existing game

[covert chasm]

its definitely not very difficult

[polar osprey]

i don't even think you needed any extra files or anything

cause some emulators i've set up needed like file dumps from an actual console

[covert chasm]

idk i think the mission based format would make it strictly easier to do, no?
its not seamless gameplay so they can just throw you wherever

[polar osprey]

the ps3 one i use, RPCS3 was just like, download it and extract the emulator and then it's ready

[radiant birch]

I can probably figure it out, I was just discouraged by trying to set up Demon's Souls and having it work uh. Poorly

[polar osprey]

huh

[radiant birch]

Like completely unplayable poorly

[polar osprey]

i played Demons Souls on RPCS3 and it worked fine

[radiant birch]

Fair point! I guess they could do a "story pack" or something like that

[covert chasm]

the emulator the people will give you for ACFA will be completely pre-configured for use with the game, you probably wont need to adjust many settings at all so long as you follow the instructions well

[radiant birch]

I don't really care what form it takes. Gimme more

[covert chasm]

i do agree though, i want more AC

[polar osprey]

that's pretty cool

i just used the normal RPCS3 download

i think my uh

my NEXT build was kind of fucking dogshit?

but i managed to play the game with it so you know it worked kinda

[covert chasm]

you can definitely run through ACFA with nearly whatever and be reasonably successful

hell, all the starter builds are entirely sufficient for fullgame playthroughs

[polar osprey]

my NEXT, Dash Pinion, was an Ultra-heavyweight weapons platform

[covert chasm]

mmmm i do love the FA back gatling

[polar osprey]

it's fucking slow, it has absolute DOGSHIT turning speed, and it has ammo that i think it could probably kill the whole PCA enforcement fleet in one go

i think the only recommendation i have for ACFA is just use the standard controls

[covert chasm]

oh yes, the simple controls are dogass

also turn off auto-boost, you waste a lot of EN with it and having manual control over it is more fun anyway

[polar osprey]

i use Regular-B controls but you can use Regular-A as well

[covert chasm]

i think reg B are what people typically recommend, puts all the buttons in the most natural places (assuming this is where the fire buttons are on the bumpers)

[polar osprey]

yeah

it is that one

[covert chasm]

then yea thats definitely the good one

i think A is still usable but i find it to be less easy to control

[polar osprey]

also you wanna learn to use the quick turn

[covert chasm]

unleashing the secret technique of second staged holofernes quickturn to make my AC go like 230 degrees around

[polar osprey]

my Dash Pinion can't do any athletic shit so i honestly just didn't bother much with movement tech

i didn't even really try to use quickturn until after i finished going through the campaign once

i mostly just abused the shit out of rockets to deal with the collared matches

[paper ferry]

I really am on the same boat as you guys because I just want more Armored Core too

[solar sinew]

I will back your offer with my kidneys. There isnt much that would make me happier than an AC6 DLC, but I will NOT be complaining if we get AC7 instead.

My Lancer players are starting to accurately guess what music plays on what mission in a game they have never played. I am so proud

[paper ferry]

I mainly want a FA or VD-style full game direct sequel to AC6, but I will be happy with AC7 as well

I remember seeing an article somewhere about the possibility of an open world AC game

If we got a direct sequel do you think we would continue to play as 621?

Though I’m not sure how I would feel about continuing with Coral Release as what I would assume the canon ending is

Everything leading up to that ending is so bleak

ALLMIND: “I’m gonna put your friends on FaceTime while I murder them, how does that sound?”

[radiant birch]

iirc in the past they haven't tended to keep protagonists between games even if there's continuity

and i'd be more interested in a fresh perspective on the AC6verse than more 621, i feel like 621's story has come to a solid conclusion (in three different ways)

[wooden nimbus]

Yeah more stories in the same setting could be fun

[radiant birch]

the question of which "branch" would be considered canon is an interesting one though

[wooden nimbus]

What the hell happened at Jupiter etc

[radiant birch]

i kind of feel like Alea Iacta Est wouldn't be it just because of how fundamentally it alters the universe and the premise of the games

tbh if they wanted to do another AC6 set in a different corner of the universe and not commit to a choice between Liberator and Fires i'd be okay with that

[wooden nimbus]

Conversely I think it is because it does that whole

[radiant birch]

i like leaving things open-ended like that when it comes to player choices in past games

[wooden nimbus]

Wait should I still spoiler it

||at the end of the cutscene they have Ayre do the "entering combat mode" thing||

||narratively that suggests things are 'not over' in a sequel-y way to me||

And it's the only ending like that

[radiant birch]

true

i guess it's just that the whole ||merging human and AC|| thing is such a massive deal that a follow-up would either need to commit heavily to exploring it or ignore it entirely

you can't just have that be a background detail, you know?

[wooden nimbus]

I also have my doubts that's exactly how it goes down, since we're talking about a Black Swan event with outcomes not even Ayre knows will be how people think it will be

[polar osprey]

From Software, bring back NEXT's and my life is yours

[wooden nimbus]

Just that the coral is everywhere after the fact

[radiant birch]

some kind of paradigm shift in human existence

[polar osprey]

or at least give me more customization and weapon options

[wooden nimbus]

True, could be a really fun one to explore from a game perspective tho

[radiant birch]

hell, if the next game is open world--i have my doubts, but Daemon x Machina already did it, so why not--having a big setting shift like that could be a reason to also have a big gameplay shift

[polar osprey]

i actually do want to pick between three different types of boosters for different types of movement

give me 7 weapon slots

[wooden nimbus]

Yea

[polar osprey]

i'm good for it trust

[wooden nimbus]

Shoulder extensions

Core weapons

Etc

[radiant birch]

Fromsoft please make OS tuning a final layer of customization and not just a straight power upgrade, i am begging 🙏

[polar osprey]

shoulders, hands, back mounted, holdout

[radiant birch]

give us more toys fromsoft

[polar osprey]

bring back tuning

[radiant birch]

we want to play with them

we want to play with our lego robots

[polar osprey]

though i would prefer if it wasn't locked behind uh

s-rank mission completion or whatever

[wooden nimbus]

"You must complete my tutorials and secrets to play with me"

[polar osprey]

the ACFA equivalent of OS tuning is just actually tuning the specs of your NEXT with a certain number of allocatable points

which fucking rocked

also weight balancing

[wooden nimbus]

Secret parts is fun but unfortunately it's for all of like ten minutes

[polar osprey]

ngl being able to like, change the weight distribution of your NEXT was kinda sick

[wooden nimbus]

Ye

[polar osprey]

i had mine set up so it has a lot of side weight

so it genuinely flew faster when i was strafing

back and forward movement was slower

that is the kind of granular bullshit i crave with all my soul

i wanna sit for 10 hours just fine tuning every little detail of my mech

i will say AC6 has a much more developed paint and emblem system so at least there we have evolved massively

but yeah idk ACFA was a fucking treat to build in even though i made the most dogshit NEXT of all time

so many options...

[radiant birch]

i realized that videogames as a whole have backslid when Woolie played and was like "holy shit you just have access to the complete color palette from the beginning" like yeah that used to be the standard before games started carving it up for microtransactions

[polar osprey]

yeahhhhh

[radiant birch]

(i am sure Woolie is well aware of this, but the fact that he remarked on it was like. sure something)

[polar osprey]

makes me think of Halo Infinite immediately where you can't even pick your own colors, you get like set swatches

[summer girder]

I only know about armored core because of mechsploitation

[paper ferry]

As far as I know, mechsploitation was not invented by Armored Core, but there were other independent works with that premise that came out around the same time as AC6 and then all of a sudden everyone was horny for hounds and their handlers

I would argue mechsploitation started with Evangelion tbh

[paper ferry]

I think after AC6 got a lot of people back into that series, I think the next game should be really crunchy. I would also very much enjoy that

[polar osprey]

yeah

AC6 was a good starter

now give me the full course

[paper ferry]

Here you go

[polar osprey]

lol

[feral niche]

Hehe.

[paper ferry]

Fromsoft won’t let me smooch Carla in the mech combat game 0/10

[radiant birch]

Literally unplayable

I was thinking of making some OCs to go with my AC builds, and was going "ough I'm not great at drawing people tho"

Then I realized it would be much more on theme not to draw them and to just come up with emblems for them instead

[paper ferry]

@solar sinew
https://youtu.be/lEBhjqdb0zc?si=odbmrBbdHwW7JYQs

[paper ferry]

I’ve sorta been doing it the other way around where I take one of my ocs and then make an AC for them

Good thing we’re in the mech pilot oc game server

[solar sinew]

Funny you should link those. I made the world map by hand back in the day. Belius twice over. I have learned to hate these coast lines xD
Love seeing new people take a stab at Rubicon, thanks!

Exhibit A before I made a larger version of Belius for my players. Pretty sure I used the one you linked as a trace/reference

And then Belius proper. R20 subscription currently on hold, hence no fancy emblems, but what can you do when the group is on hold for a while. Yes, I named the random islands. "That island over there" is a bit annoying if Im moving the entirety of the game to Belius

Ahaha, I love how smol the STRIDER looks

[paper ferry]

Oh cool, that’s funny because the video only came out an hour before I shared it

Wild that there’s one entirely unused continent in the north

Rubicon must be a small planet too

[solar sinew]

The image they used has been around, but the footage is super cool to see. I do wonder how they stitched it together

Rubicon is pretty small from what we know. Theres been some videos about it and how gargantuan the Vascular plant is

Hang on

https://youtu.be/RyYkdZIXcKE?is=Szj-AmHAf4br9hdH

[solar sinew]

I keep wondering whats up there. My players immediately put the Ice Worm there after they saw it, so apparently theres just.. wild, live ones up there. Here be dragons stuff lmao

The giant snow field thing is super exciting tho imo. We see so much frozen wasteland in the Central Ice fields on Bering, but thats nothing compared to gestures vaguely THAT

[paper ferry]

Does that continent even have a name?

[late jay]

Has anyone found out the appoximate total size and mass of Rubicon III in comparison to Earth?

[paper ferry]

From the above video

[late jay]

Ah

Tiny

[paper ferry]

What puzzles me is how Institute City is able to exist so far underground.

Depth 1 of Watchpoint Alpha is about 13 kilometers deep, deeper than the Kola Superdeep Borehole, which is over 12 kilometers and stopped at that depth because the rock got so hot it was like plastic.

So either Rubicon is exceptionally dense, or it’s got a Hollow Earth situation happening

Earth’s crust is about 30km at its thickest

[ember carbon]

It's possible that Rubicon just has a dead core

[late jay]

Wouldn't a dead core also mean a weaker atmosphere that won't be able to sustain life?

[ember carbon]

Does rubicon have any natural life outside of the coral?

[late jay]

Mealworms

Also

https://youtu.be/UO-pdrkRhZU?si=A6jWH3xaLQpTPao8

[paper ferry]

Trees

[solar sinew]

There was a reference to it in some pre release stuff as Bering. I dont think its mentioned in game at all, but the name stuck for me

[solar sinew]

I do wanna add people to that.

[paper ferry]

Actually managed to find an Armored Core kit in the wild and not at a con where the prices are jacked up

[polar osprey]

nice

i've kinda been wanting to get some

but like

i wanna recreate my AC

which is not possible atm

so i've not gotten any of them

[paper ferry]

I can almost recreate one of my ACs

I currently have Steel Haze, Loader 4 (Orbiter + weapon kit), and Open Faith

I need them to come out with more generic AC frames. The VP-40S will be a big help

[solar sinew]

Thanks to STEEL HAZE being absolutely everywhere, Id just need a few parts to rebuild mine. The Firmeza arms are the trouble. Though I rebuilt that somewhat recent one, what was the name. Also Nachtreiher adjacent, kotobukiya released it sometime this year.

That one was pretty neat. Ironically a better ORTUS than the actual ORTUS

[solar sinew]

I love OPEN FAITH. Its such a silly looking mech, the headpiece always has me giggling. My Lancer group has deemed it a cryptohazard

[paper ferry]

Iron Giant lookin ass

[solar sinew]

It has TEETH

Seriously, whats not to love

[paper ferry]

And the teeth are likely the sensors while the eyes are just armor plates

[solar sinew]

Its glorious isnt it

This also implies he made the conscious, human choice of having said armor plates be painted to stand out

[late jay]

Looks like The Iron Giant crossed with a nerd emoji

[paper ferry]

Raven cannot be satisfied using the same generator and boosters that 621 starts out with, I don’t know how they do it

[solar sinew]

I like to think its just Carlas spare parts they pilfered.

Jokes aside, probably another wink to the connection between both Ravens, like Rusty using a rubiconian generator in STEEL HAZE

[covert chasm]

they don't, they use ling-tai

(which also isnt very good, but its definitely better than joso!)

[paper ferry]

Ming-Tang supremacy

[paper ferry]

So Carla had to have known that the real Raven was still active even after Walter and 621 came to Rubicon. 621 uses an AC that Carla built and then steals a merc license and then that same merc who commissioned the custom Shade Eye head from RaD gets a replacement AC after theirs was destroyed.

At least that’s how I assume things happened. Carla must’ve thought it was too funny of a coincidence

[solar sinew]

Yup. I could see Walter and Carla use Branch to leak the reemergence of the Coral to bring the corporations back. Walter has been using them to find Institute City, so its not too out of the question

[radiant birch]

https://www.tumblr.com/reneelovesrobots/814189718015295488/not-sure-how-this-helps-with-my-apartment-door

Transfem Mecha Enthusiast

...not sure how this helps with my apartment door problems but I _was_​ advised to get a locksmith sooooo

-# #gunpla #mecha #armored core #fires of rubicon #V.I freud

Tumblr · Apr 18, 2026, 12:23 AM

[paper ferry]

He might be the next one I get

I’m looking out for Liger Tail right now tho

I kinda also just want the generic VP-40S frame so I can start to make my custom AC

[solar sinew]

Id want a little liger tail for my desk. Or barren flower actually. something about the tetras is so aesthetic in a model

[paper ferry]

You think they’re just going to give us all the preset ACs at some point?

[solar sinew]

I sure hope so. More realistically I think they'll forget half of them

Theres like three people out there who even remember O'Keeffe exists, let alone what his AC is called. I reckon most just remember it as "the annoying mission with the tetra hovering over the fucking void"

[serene kettle]

I remember it's Barren Flower off the top of my head, so who are the two others?

😛

[cursive agate]

It's a pretty funny dogfight if you also bring a tetra, but really shows the weaknesses of AC6's targeting.

[feral niche]

Some AC fights I wonder how they would be in a completely different arena.

Like Nosaac.

I suppose they typically give AC fights relatively open arenas, his just feels a bit more cramped.

[covert chasm]

i loooove my liger tail model
such a cool lil guy

[eager vector]

lol https://www.reddit.com/r/armoredcore/s/kamZpKBWmR

[solar sinew]

Hey, I love coming at him with melee weapons, its a good time

[eager vector]

https://youtu.be/rDVJ9GGX__E

[solar sinew]

You. You get it.

Excellent video, Sir, well flown xD

[paper ferry]

The first time I did ALLMIND’s ending, I think I killed O’Keeffe in less than 15 seconds after locking onto him. Used my AC: WYVERN, with dual stun needles, the laser lance, and the Spring Chicken Legs.

Stuck him with the stun needles, assault kicked, full blast with the lance, and then stun needles again. Dead.

Didn’t even have time to finish his sentence.

I only wish I had recorded that, I was shocked by how quickly that went down

[solar sinew]

Love the guy, but yeah, he usually dies before he finishes his lines

[covert chasm]

im not sure why they did this but o'keeffe's build is generationally terrible
like, nearly every part of it interacts terribly

[solar sinew]

Im still confused why he uses the Ransetsu with that instead of something heavier. Like yeah, its cute that he uses the same weapon as Rusty (for some fucking reason), but man does it not do him any favors

[covert chasm]

his weapon loadout is the least of my concerns tbh, though its obviously not very good either

his frameset is extremely questionable, as are his internals

[radiant birch]

It's a bit "we ran out of good Arquebus part combos" yeah

[late jay]

Part of me wonders if it's meant to be a manual aim build

[solar sinew]

I think the frameset can be somewhat explained by my suspicion that O'Keeffe largely ended up on the cutting room floor. The headpiece is a nod to his ALLMIND affiliation. The Nachtreiher core and the weapon might be a nod to a possible link to Rusty that was cut. The rest is atrocious, but largely Arquebus or Schneider.

It reads to me like someone at Fromsoft wanted to say "Heres a guy who fled to Arquebus, but is still tied to ALLMIND and a cut link".

That being said, yeah, its not great.

[covert chasm]

whatever the explanation is, its horrifically bad
all of the individual frame parts aren't bad parts, they just do Not work together in this context

there's also the P01 FCS and VE-20C generator powering One EN firearm on a build with absolutely zero energy issues....

[distant forge]

yeah its true

[solar sinew]

I cant quite figure out why they chose that FCS

Narratively or mechanically

[covert chasm]

the best guess i got is to intentionally make him a pushover, although granted he only has one weapon that really meaningfully cares about it

[solar sinew]

I dont quite see the point of it. Fromsoft is pretty good at communicating their characters through their builds usually, and O'Keeffes whole vibe is "I'm tired, but Im not ready to die yet." Giving him an intentionally weak build feels like itd be undermining it

[covert chasm]

its just an entirely unecessary optimization given how much EN load this build absolutely has to spare

[covert chasm]

yeah this is about my feelings on it

[solar sinew]

Maybe Ill take BARREN FLOWER to the hangar and see what I can build with it sometime. ORTUS already got an overhaul that doesnt make me want to cry, this ones gonna need one too, given my players mixed feelings towards the guy at the moemnt

[covert chasm]

he'd probably be my prime candidate for doing something with the lammergeier parts, seeing as no preset uses them for obvious reasons

nacht core on 424 legs gave me the feeling that they Wanted to make him a lighter-weight tetra representative but they obviously didnt really have the tools to make that work as well at the time

the corporation preset is closer in that regard to that ideal, and despite how it looks is actually a way better preset lol

[solar sinew]

Yeah, sound choice. Lämmergeier parts werent in the game on release, otherwise I think hed have gotten them

[cursive agate]

I'm guessing the VE-20C was added later by Arquebus, but a very oddball setup overall.

[covert chasm]

its kind of interesting because snail's final loadout Also uses VE-20C.... despite having ZERO weapons that it buffs!!!!
it makes more sense knowing that his loadout used to have two weapons, LRA and LCD, buffed by it, but post-iceworm he uses the stun gun and stun needle instead

[paper ferry]

It’s a neat little detail that Iguazu swaps out his C3 Melander arms for Mind Alpha arms, but it happens in the middle of a fight with Snail, so you would almost certainly miss it

[paper ferry]

I think I once took out Carla the same way

[late jay]

Iguazu also uses an Arquebus generator and swaps his shield for an ORBT

[serene kettle]

that is an interesting detail

[solar sinew]

Wait, I knew he uses ALLMIND parts, but he swaps them MID FIGHT?

[covert chasm]

he doesnt swap mid-fight, he swaps For that fight

[cursive agate]

I remember the underground fight with Iguazu had a less Balam setup too.

[solar sinew]

I got very concerned for my observational skills for a moment there

[covert chasm]

this is also true

i am reasonably certain its the same build both times, actually

[covert chasm]

ok yes i can in fact confirm it is the same build in both cases

[paper ferry]

Gonna meet Handler Walter (Patrick Seitz) at a con tomorrow

[solar sinew]

Big! Any plans?

[paper ferry]

I’ll bring my Orbiter model instruction book for him to sign

Get a photo as well

I’ll be sure to share with the class

[solar sinew]

Please do!

[paper ferry]

I think it’s funny that the arms are what he chooses to swap out

Not the torso, maybe get some better generator output, nah, the arms

[covert chasm]

the arms are the first part that you unlock from the loghunt, so i figured it was a joke about them just being what he had lol
artistically speaking the arms are also probably the least important insofar as maintaining his look

he does also swap his generator anyway, into one that does pair quite nicely with the core's output adjustment stats

[paper ferry]

Makes sense that he would only do the bare minimum for ALLMIND

[paper ferry]

Also I just realized that the HAL 826’s head kinda looks like Amygdala from Bloodborne

[paper ferry]

Slightly updated one of my favorite builds, gave it the HAL 826 core

[late jay]

Reminds me a bit of my Karasawa build

Specifically the VE arms and HAL core together

[late jay]

Still convinced that the Aurora is just an energy Trueno

[paper ferry]

Who else goes into photo mode so they can just explore the garage?

[paper ferry]

I met Handler Walter!

[covert chasm]

well the aurora is a multishot energy missile that doesn't require a stance and has aggressive homing, and the trueno is a stancing weapon that fires more like a kinetic cannon with minor homing
to be frank you'd struggle to find missiles that are more different from eachother imo

[covert chasm]

very cool!! good job

[paper ferry]

He said that enjoyed playing Walter because he usually plays loud and boisterous characters where Walter is more quiet and serious.

[solar sinew]

Thats a sick piece of art you got signed. Any chance you got a link to the artist?

[paper ferry]

Artist is @Kubaushi

https://bsky.app/profile/kubaushi.bsky.social

kubaushi.bsky.social

Freelance Illustrator / character designer.

Please don't use works without credit.

DM for work only.

Bluesky

[solar sinew]

Bless!

[solar sinew]

Every day I look at this game and end up with more questions than answers.

Do we know why the Coral is migrating north? Yeah, Institute City and the Vascular Planet are up there, but they arent why the Coral is going there, is it? Ayre really could answer more questions, but I see why she doesnt.

Or was there still Coral in the Vascular plant that the remaining Coral was drawn to? Who the fuck knows, but I look forward to seeing my players best theories

[novel hemlock]

I assume the Coral migrating North was because of it's tendency to converge towards higher concentrations. I also assume that the vascular plant was the place of highest concentration, whether that is because it had the highest concentration before the Fires of Ibis, leaving the most residue, or because the vascular plant was working to some degree after the fires and has been collecting whatever Coral was left for years.

[solar sinew]

Its the most reasonable assumption to make, yeah. Still hilarious that it wasnt explicitly stated, after the Ice Worm and finding Institute City the Coral Convergence is just Solved (tm) overnight. I might have to just throw more Coral at my Ice Worm replacement and call it good enough for my players. Plug that into Institute City and they got a reason to go down there I guess

[novel hemlock]

what do you mean by convergence being solved?

[solar sinew]

We never do find out what the Coral was flocking towards in as many words. Arquebus built the Vascular Plant and started collecting Coral, yeah. The assumption is that either the Coral was flocking there all along, or was by the point construction was done, yeah. It just felt a bit odd to me that we get the Ice Worm diverting its course, but no clear resolution on where the hell the Coral was going, even if the proximity to Watchpoint Alpha is very telling. My point is there sure is an absence of Coral down there

[novel hemlock]

it could be that the release of massive amounts of Coral (Watchpoint Delta) or the destruction of Coral Weapons (Sea Spider and Ice Worm) increase the atmospheric Coral to such a degree that the migration can be detected, or that Coral only starts migrating in already high enough concentrations.

And this got me thinking, why wasn't the Coral already at critical mass when it was first discovered? Since Coral needs to be mined, it's probably in a more dormant state inside the planet's crust and it only started propagating faster after it was 'freed.' Maybe the Vascular plant also puts the collected Coral into a more dormant state that is harder to detect and where it propagates slower, explaining why Coral was heading there and no one knew why.

[solar sinew]

The PCA was keeping it regulated in the Watchpoints I think. Theres a ton of Coral around, evidently already freed, but contained. We just blew the container sky high (Thanks to Walter no doubt using his insider information).

Its a shame we dont get a great deal of information on the Vascular plant itself. From what I can tell its just a big vacuum cleaner, but Im not clear whether it was always that way or if that was part of Arquebus' creative additions. Been a second since I looked at the thing

[novel hemlock]

Considering how useful they Coral is, I assume it was the Institutes goal to siphon as much of it as they could, which probably lead to Coral multiplying at an unexpected and unchecked rate leading to the decision to burn it before anything worse happens

[solar sinew]

Using the Vascular Plant to collect the stuff does seem like a great idea until Nagai rings you up with unpleasant news, yeah

I think Ill just plug one of the PCAs toys directly into Institute City to power it. Means my players dont have to deal with Nepenthes lol

[solar sinew]

Heh, my players are one handout away from the popular ALLMIND is Seria headcanon, it seems

I love going through their notes. Its so good

[covert chasm]

Coral is sentient, and has will of its own that it operates under
this will can also be influenced, and, due to how it propagates, it has a preference towards gathering together
this is to say it knows where there are higher concentrations of itself and how to get there

[glad sierra]

K, so. The Cel 240

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT ||GOT BACK UP||

Points for flashiest boss fight so far.