Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

[Lyric Suite]

The way you control the mech is slick as fuck compared to AC1 and AC2, the only two i played, but from what i understand fast mechs have been a thing since AC4.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I prefer plodding mechs in TB tactics games like Battletech or Front Mission, but for action games, fast mechs are where it's at. Plodding mechs kind of feel like a shitty FPS or tank game, I find.

 

[Multidirectional]

What the fuck is this "Intercept the Red Guns" mission? I keep running out of ammo before I'm even halfway through the fight, this really sucks. I guess I have to start using melee weapons again. This is the first mission to pose a challenge ever since the Sea Spider fight. Hopefully I can figure it out without googling a "correct" build for it.

 

[gabel]

I know I wrote something similar a week ago or so, but the more I follow this thread, the less attractive the game sounds.

 

[Jinn]

No one cares how attractive this game sounds to you, fork.

 

[Damned Registrations]

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4, this doesn't really feel like an AC game to me. Yeah, superficially it has a bunch of the artstyle and parts and the garage and shit, but it's wrong in so many ways:

First, there is way less focus on atmosphere and more on gameplay. Things like the 'totally not an estus flask' mechanic, respawning mid mission, your energy functioning like a stamina bar and just shutting off when you're in mid air, energy weapons not using energy... there are just a ton of design elements that take me out of the game and think about it as a game rather than a story. The original games did more of the opposite- there were elements that were clunky or unfun or silly from a gameplay perspective, but made sense in the setting, like being able to literally just step on footsoldiers, or build a mech that was incredibly slow to the point it wasn't viable to finish missions.

Second, the gameplay is totally different. It really does play like a souls game. Or more specifically like something aping a souls game. The emphasis on dodging, on big chunky attacks that instagib you, being locked into very artificial boss arenas instead of having an organic fight in a city or a gimmicky one in a parking garage; the whole stagger system... Even just the way you move, with instant turns, camera hard lock, no more FCS lockbox to worry about, I could go on for pages really. If I were to compare it to anything, it feels most like Remnant from the Ashes.

Third, the way the game is structured at the top level it doesn't feel like you're a mercenary any more. You've got this buddy telling you where to go, an overarching goal, and a lack of side content. The arena is slowly doled out to you and was trivially easy so it basically just felt like a little chore to unlock your customization points. You no longer have emails you can choose to listen to, but are instead force fed stuff. It has that stifling theme park feeling of being shuffled along to see the next big spectacle. I think there were what, 3 mutually exclusive mission pairs? Which didn't even feel impactful, aside from the very last one. The game sure spent a lot of time telling me how wild and free I was, but I felt like I was on rails the entire time. Why wasn't I making enemies when acting against factions? How many times was I forced to take a mission to undo what I had accomplished in a previous mission, making both mission feel like pointless filler? Why was the garage part list doled out with agonizing delays so I felt more like I was buying strict upgrades to my gear instead of customizing around a specific style? I never felt that way playing an AC game before.

 

[mediocrepoet]

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4,...

These older design quirks definitely sound appealing. It'd be cool if they took what they've learned in terms of art and presentation + modern hardware and brought that sort of mech simulator type gameplay into the modern era. Who knows? Maybe they'll experiment with it once they see that there's some appetite for it now that they have more visibility as a game dev.

 

[gabel]

No one cares how attractive this game sounds to you, fork.

Sad, I share your opinion on many topics, but if you feel the need to openly disagree with me here, I respect that of course, faggot.

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4, this doesn't really feel like an AC game to me. [...]

Thanks.

 

[TedNugent]

What the fuck is this "Intercept the Red Guns" mission? I keep running out of ammo before I'm even halfway through the fight, this really sucks. I guess I have to start using melee weapons again. This is the first mission to pose a challenge ever since the Sea Spider fight. Hopefully I can figure it out without googling a "correct" build for it.

I had the same issue, but here's some tips:

A) equip another main-hand weapon on your shoulder rack
B) focus on ammo efficient weaponry like the starter laser rifle or the (newly buffed) kinetic rifles. Tier 2 laser rifle runs out of ammo really quick. I was able to clear the mission by using one tier 2 laser rifle and one tier 1 laser rifle. Tier 1 was for trash clearing. Usually 1-2 shots was enough to clear trash. It's probably the most efficient weapon at the game at killing MTs. You just fly past them and press button once or twice if necessary, they usually can't even hit you.
C) focus on killing the trash mobs until they stop respawning. You'll get a message that says "they don't have anything else to throw at you," then mop up and focus on the tetra and then the boss AC. To economize your AP, roadie run boost behind the building away from the heavy hitters. Don't get yourself stuck in a rocket crossfire. Keep rotating sides around the main structure as needed.
D) Bring at least one hard hitting thing to deal with the tetrapod and the boss AC. I used the laser turrets or the laser drones, which was plenty.

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4,...

These older design quirks definitely sound appealing. It'd be cool if they took what they've learned in terms of art and presentation + modern hardware and brought that sort of mech simulator type gameplay into the modern era. Who knows? Maybe they'll experiment with it once they see that there's some appetite for it now that they have more visibility as a game dev.

FromSoft isn't going to do that shit, that's more Mech Warrior's domain at this point.

AC 1-3 got grilled by gaym journos for the "clunky" controls because gigantic mechs shouldn't have weight or awkward movement, they should literally be anime superhero characters at all times.

Side note, what got me into Dark Souls is the fucking sick knightly aesthetic with longsword and heater, and what everyone ends up with is some animu weeb faggot wearing a dress with a glowing sparkly buster sword doing tumblerolls around a giant demon's ass.

 

[Multidirectional]

What the fuck is this "Intercept the Red Guns" mission? I keep running out of ammo before I'm even halfway through the fight, this really sucks. I guess I have to start using melee weapons again. This is the first mission to pose a challenge ever since the Sea Spider fight. Hopefully I can figure it out without googling a "correct" build for it.

I had the same issue, but here's some tips:

Thanks but I already gave up on it. Tried few more times and decided it is way too fucking annoying for me to bother with it. Constant beeping and target switching thanks to million mobs was beyond irritating. By far the shittiest mission in the game so far and the only good thing about it is that it's optional. So I went with the other mission instead and did it on first try just now.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

What the fuck is this "Intercept the Red Guns" mission? I keep running out of ammo before I'm even halfway through the fight, this really sucks. I guess I have to start using melee weapons again. This is the first mission to pose a challenge ever since the Sea Spider fight. Hopefully I can figure it out without googling a "correct" build for it.

I had the same issue, but here's some tips:

Thanks but I already gave up on it. Tried few more times and decided it is way too fucking annoying for me to bother with it. Constant beeping and target switching thanks to million mobs was beyond irritating. By far the shittiest mission in the game so far and the only good thing about it is that it's optional. So I went with the other mission instead and did it on first try just now.

Weak.

 

[Latro]

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4,...

These older design quirks definitely sound appealing. It'd be cool if they took what they've learned in terms of art and presentation + modern hardware and brought that sort of mech simulator type gameplay into the modern era. Who knows? Maybe they'll experiment with it once they see that there's some appetite for it now that they have more visibility as a game dev.

Would fail immediately because ac 1-3 is slow and only lightweights feel decent to play because of high turn speed

 

[mediocrepoet]

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4,...

These older design quirks definitely sound appealing. It'd be cool if they took what they've learned in terms of art and presentation + modern hardware and brought that sort of mech simulator type gameplay into the modern era. Who knows? Maybe they'll experiment with it once they see that there's some appetite for it now that they have more visibility as a game dev.

Would fail immediately because ac 1-3 is slow and only lightweights feel decent to play because of high turn speed

Is that intrinsically part of the design though? You can have meaningful ammo/energy costs, prices for failure, more actual trade offs between part and build decisions without making it walk at the speed of a senior citizen.

 

[Damned Registrations]

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4,...

These older design quirks definitely sound appealing. It'd be cool if they took what they've learned in terms of art and presentation + modern hardware and brought that sort of mech simulator type gameplay into the modern era. Who knows? Maybe they'll experiment with it once they see that there's some appetite for it now that they have more visibility as a game dev.

Would fail immediately because ac 1-3 is slow and only lightweights feel decent to play because of high turn speed

Is that intrinsically part of the design though? You can have meaningful ammo/energy costs, prices for failure, more actual trade offs between part and build decisions without making it walk at the speed of a senior citizen.

It wasn't even true back then. For PvP, sure. But mission variety was the key. Plodding tanks had their uses back then, because sometimes you were just acting like a turret defending a location anyways, or fighting your way through such a cramped base that evasion and turnspeed was meaningless while defenses and ammo were king.

There wouldn't have been an AC2-4 (and all their expansions) if that slow gameplay didn't have any value. It's a smaller niche for sure, but it's one that's been criminally underserved ever since Miyazaki took over. Not every action game needs to be a ritalin fueled twitchfest at all times.

 

[TedNugent]

Some more statsheet breakdowns to demystify some of the stats with the more useless tooltips:



Missile lock correction apparently reduces missile lockon time and has no effect on tracking.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So yesterday i had a day off work so to dick around i managed to S rank most of my left over missions up to this point. Here's my current S rank status so you can see my autism lul:



Attack on the spaceport was another interesting mission (Infiltrate Grid 086 remains my favored mission so far though), almost panicked when the worm showed up after depleting all my repair kits in the duo AC fight but the game was just trolling me lmao.

Speaking of AC fights, i only managed to A rank Attack on the Refueling Base because that duo AC fight at the end is almost impossible with my current gear. I tried to cheese the AI by getting them to split somehow but i couldn't pull it off. I need something powerful enough to cut them down super quick as i can't fight one without the other wrecking my shit and vice versa.

Ho, Eliminate the Enforcement Squads was easier to S rank than to get all logs, since the last log require you to fight an extra AC (and no supplies so you are shit out of luck if you use too many repair kits before the HC at the end). I tried some sort of panzer build, which worked, but barely as i never used thread wheels before and i couldn't figure out how to move with this thing. On the last AC fight i gave up trying to dodge his shit and just dunked my head and went in full brawler mode and only managed to outlast him by an hair:



Playing a tank was fun but i'm not used to having my manouverability curtailed so much so i reverted back to my standard medium AC build.

BTW, chapter 3 is longer than expected. I was sure the fight with the worm boss was going to be the next mission but it seems i have three more missions to chose from.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Just S ranked Attack the Old Spaceport. Not that hard, Rusty drew the second AC to himself which made the last encounter easy. Kinda of silly i had to dodge the Dune worm thingy for 10 minutes waiting for the mission to end so i could see what rank i got.

I also did all the B rank Arena stuff and on a couple of those fights, it seemed the game was trying to tell me something. Like when fighting Carla, she started telling me something about the "sim...". I assume she was trying to say those arena fights are not "simulations" (never thought they were though?).

Rusty was the hardest mech in the entire Arena so far. It's funny how fast ACs are seen as shit if you use them but they are annoying as fuck if you are fighting against them. At the end of Attack On Old Spaceport i killed the shielded HC in a nanosecond taking barely any damage but when i fought the second one i was forced to use a repair kit and unlike the first that was two against one. Even with hard lock i always lose track of fast ACs which i think it's the main problem.

 

[TedNugent]

Apparently, just use the cheese build of dual gatlings and stun needles:



Rusty was a squish against laser spam, didn't even remark on the name for a second until I remembered he's that "Buddeh" dude. In fact, none of the arena fights are remarkable.

The real buttfuck fights so far have been the voice in your head chick and the one mission where you have to take on 3 ACs overlapping each other, and the first two are tanky as fuck. You end up fighting two at a time in the mid no matter what you do. Then again, I haven't tried the cheez build on that one. I had to switch to dual needle guns/tank legs to kill voice in your head lady (got an A rank hurr durr, while barely dodging anything), I absolutely can't even clear the mission without them, and it is driving me nuts.

PS, lol@this game balance:

Spoiler

Ah, whoops. I was really struggling to take down Ayre with my kinetic rifles/missile build and just barely scraped past clears by the skin of my teeth with the Ransetsu RF and the Harris rifles with B ranks. Then I realized that I was using mind alpha arms instead of the Nacht arms.

Fixed that and got an A rank with Ransetsu RF + 10x missiles on the back. Pretty happy with this build now. The Ransetsu isn't bad.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Yeah, but i only got the stun needles now. I managed to S rank everything prior to the Ice Worm except for Attack the Refueling Base and the one where you have to kill "Honest" Brute (i ended the mission with two repair kits left and i still got an A ranking so i guess that's not possible either, i mean with pre-Ice Worm gear and upgrades). The one i had an easy time S ranking was the one where you fight the other Raven. Slow ACs are just easier on average and it seems it is just as difficult for the AI to land a Pile Bunker attack as it was for me when i had that weapon, bosses notwithstanding. Every time he tried to use that thing on me he ended up eating a double Singbirds volley.

Anyway, Ice Worm. FromSoft really loves to throw one of those gimmicky bosses in every one of their games, don't they. Was getting flashbacks from Bed of Chaos when fighting this thing:



I don't know if it's possible to kill it without the needle and i don't want to know. No way i'm going to repeat the shit show that was my spearless fight with Rykard lmao.

 

[TedNugent]

Needleguns are almost necessary for most of the boss fights. It's pretty essential against the tankier enemies, especially on NG+ and ++, they start throwing more bullshit encounters into the mix, and rifles just don't cut it.

You get ricochets unless you're basically in their kill zone, and they're bullet sponges.

And it's too easy to whiff it with the grenades reload is too long. Best time to time it is when they're coming in for a melee attack, unload both of them right in their face.

 

[Crayll]

I've had a lot of luck with the linear rifles, mostly Harris, medium weight biped with two of those and missiles carried me through NG++. More than enough range to keep your distance, decent projectile speed, decent damage, and a lot of stagger on demand with the charged shot when you want to lock someone in place for a missile barrage or a direct bazooka hit.

Haven't tested the weaker linear rifle since the patch.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Needleguns are almost necessary for most of the boss fights.

Wow, just tried those things on actual missions and they are truly the most OP shit ever. And there i was thinking the Songbirds were much. Sure enough, all it took to S rank both of those missions was the Needles:




This is completely broken. I'm glad i tried to master all the missions before i beat the Ice Worm as this new gear makes all the previous content trivial.

 

[TedNugent]

I've had a lot of luck with the linear rifles, mostly Harris, medium weight biped with two of those and missiles carried me through NG++. More than enough range to keep your distance, decent projectile speed, decent damage, and a lot of stagger on demand with the charged shot when you want to lock someone in place for a missile barrage or a direct bazooka hit.

Haven't tested the weaker linear rifle since the patch.

I switched over to Harris in my NG+ but the Ransetsu RF fits the bill, too.

Honestly, I don't use the charged shots because I cannot be bothered to jumblefuck with my button presses in order to stand there, not shooting, so that I can charge one derpshot that is just as likely to miss as my spam attacks and force a reload. It not just forces you to stand still and stop firing with all your other weapons, it pushes you back a bit.

It really angers me that so many of the rifles are garbo without the charged shots, particularly the Karasawa and the Coral Rifle. Their stats just suck outside of the charged attack.

Why does this game want me to desire standing still and getting knocked back, doing so is retarded unless I have tank legs. Another reason I loathe tank legs. Grenade launchers, bazookas, stun needles, laser cannons, plasma cannons, linear rifles, plasma rifles, laser rifles, coral weapons, the game wants me to park my ass and charge one derpshot for half the weapons in the game, including the best weapons. It's just stupid without tank legs, where I can keep zipping around and throw whatever big booms I want on my back.

I use rifles and missiles so I can keep moving, specifically because I want to avoid self rooting mechanics, which are awful. Tank treads are lazy.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Meh, ass ranked the Worm boss but once i figured out the patterns it was basically trivial to do:



This is one boss i'm glad isn't hard though. I hate scripted, gimmick boss fights and i would have found it frustrating to redo this mission over and over. Bed of Chaos still remains the king of obnoxious gimmick bosses.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ho no, another patch.

Please don't nerf shit again lmao.