Armored Core

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Lammergeier is fast as fuck. Build does 319 on ground and sits right at 400 in the air. I feel like this is probably going to be the new rat build.
Been trying the new frame out with the new handheld pulse missiles and AURORA, it's the true hover leg we've been missing. Surprisingly, despite being pulse weaponry those handheld pulse missiles don't scale with generator's Energy Weapon Specialization stat while AURORA does which is strange to me. However, the good thing about them is that with longer engagement range, you can use the normal shots with high tracking and if your target is closing in fast, you can use the charged shot like you would with the TRUENO since it's a straight line shot with some tracking.

Back mounted chaingun has really fast heat buildup and cooling, it's ideal for short bursts to keep that stagger bar up or use two of them and miniguns like a degenerate that you are.

New HMG are decent enough for building up stagger but lacks stagger punishing.

New back hi-laser guns have high damage potential but are just the fucking worst when you play with someone connecting from Kenya. It has huge hitbox unlike LCS so the lag made it a lot easier to hit.

Oh yeah, motherfuckers who disconnect just before they lose the ranked game can rot in hell, just take the fucking L and move on.
 
Yeah, none of the missiles/drones/etc scale off energy firearms spec except for aurora, which didn't use to but aurora was so dogshit that I guess they felt it needed a little extra kick beyond just fixing its tracking. I still think the handheld 4-cell missile launcher is better, but the new pulse missiles have their own use in close-range fights with the charge attacks as you've described. Also interesting in that, because of the charge attacks, they're the only missile launcher that benefits from having higher target tracking.

I haven't done much ranked play, only got into D rank, but I've been mostly running BVO so latency warriors are particularly harmful to me. I ran into someone running two dafeng bazookas (they didn't get nerfed as hard as the other two) and double LCAs on the shoulder who was particularly adept at deleting me three seconds after I had already dodged his alpha strike. I swapped my matchmaking region from global to NA East after that, but games come a lot slower now. I've been told that disconnect abuse is endemic in the higher ranks, to the point where most people are running terminal armor to have a guaranteed safety buffer to alt-F4. Hoping for a hotfix that adds some kind of penalty to disconnects, I imagine that will solve that issue real quick.

Also, if you want to relieve the quickboost chaining shenanigans of AC4/ACFA then equip the Lammergeier legs with the gills/alula booster. You can QB before your lengthened tetrapod hover boost ends, letting you zip between 500-700+ for as long as your energy holds out. It's not very useful in either pvp or pve, but it is good for at least one laugh.
 
Got all the way from rank D to the top end of rank C with a lightweight build using double pistols. I failed the ranking promotion twice because the build cannot deal with heavies or tanks, and heavies and tanks are what dominate the upper ranks. When you look at what builds show up in the top rank, the situation gets even worse.

This is the worst balanced PVP experience I have ever seen and there is literally no reason to even engage with it outside of bragging rights considering how dependent on stats the core gameplay loop is. If you can make it past B rank with an honest build then you're either lying, alt F4ing to not lose rank or are in the top percentile of mechanical skill.

hard lock and stagger really were a mistake, I just wish it was more obvious before ranked play was implemented.
 
I guess that depends on what you consider an "honest" build, as there are a fair amount of BVO variations that have made it into A rank already.
 
Got all the way from rank D to the top end of rank C with a lightweight build using double pistols. I failed the ranking promotion twice because the build cannot deal with heavies or tanks, and heavies and tanks are what dominate the upper ranks. When you look at what builds show up in the top rank, the situation gets even worse.

This is the worst balanced PVP experience I have ever seen and there is literally no reason to even engage with it outside of bragging rights considering how dependent on stats the core gameplay loop is. If you can make it past B rank with an honest build then you're either lying, alt F4ing to not lose rank or are in the top percentile of mechanical skill.

hard lock and stagger really were a mistake, I just wish it was more obvious before ranked play was implemented.
The heavies have been dominating the game since start with things like Dafeng core/legs and BUERZEL booster so it's no surprise to me when ranked match was added. Lightweights have their counter options but you won't have chance to pick them in anticipation during matchmaking, hence exacerbating the problem the higher in rank you climb. The only reliable way you can deal with heavies is to always stay above/under them and kite since most of them relies on AB to close in and AB have limited vertical ascend/descending angle.

That said, I wish non-ranked matchmaking is a thing so sweaty tryhards can fuck off to their rancid ranked pool while I chill with people who want to play non-meta/strange/stupid builds instead. You should be able to earn points to unlock cosmetic stuff in non-ranked matchmaking as well, maybe half as much as in ranked and I'm a happy boy.
I guess that depends on what you consider an "honest" build, as there are a fair amount of BVO variations that have made it into A rank already.
Made it into A-rank with RANSETSU-RF and plasma missile midrange kiting build but that's about it, not going to bother to get into S-rank and just going to dick around with random and funny builds instead.
 
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The heavies have been dominating the game since start with things like Dafeng core/legs and BUERZEL booster so it's no surprise to me when ranked match was added.
Luckily with the buerzel and tank speed nerfs LWs at least have a decisive speed advantage over heavies so you can rat with a rushdown build or kite with a missile/rifle build like you did. I'll never understand how 90k weight wheelchairs having LW speed is something that got through even the most basic of balance checks, but it does look like the wheelchair is thoroughly dead now.

Non-ranked matchmaking would be a p. good feature. I wouldn't hold out hope for it, but then again I also never expected them to add ranked either, so who knows?
 
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ACVD servers will be going offline in March 31st 2024. If you haven't play Conquest in a long time with your squad mates, it's the time to do so until then. Personally I'll hit it up with my old college buddies for a few casual dicking around matches in Conquest before it goes down. Hopefully AC6 will have some kind of replacement for Conquest since I find playing for objectives far more enjoyable than the rushing DPS race it has been for some time.
 
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New AC6 model kits were teased back in October as part of Bandai's 30 Minute Missions model series.

30 Minute Missions is sort of like a 'budget' model kit line from Bandai, being entirely snap-fit kits rather than requiring glue and paint like most of Bandai's mecha offerings. That doesn't necessarily mean it's low-quality, it's just geared towards army-building and being easy to mix-and-match kits, which would be an ideal fit for Armored Core.

Compared to previous releases of AC model kits, like the White Glint reissue from earlier in the year, it'll hopefully be easier to get ahold of them after they release at some point in 2024. I doubt we'll get model kits of bosses like Allmind or the PCA enemies.
 
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New AC6 model kits were teased back in October as part of Bandai's 30 Minute Missions model series.

30 Minute Missions is sort of like a 'budget' model kit line from Bandai, being entirely snap-fit kits rather than requiring glue and paint like most of Bandai's mecha offerings. That doesn't necessarily mean it's low-quality, it's just geared towards army-building and being easy to mix-and-match kits, which would be an ideal fit for Armored Core.

Compared to previous releases of AC model kits, like the White Glint reissue from earlier in the year, it'll hopefully be easier to get ahold of them after they release at some point in 2024. I doubt we'll get model kits of bosses like Allmind or the PCA enemies.
Knowing and having built both Kotobukiya's and Bandai, I doubt 30MM models will have the same surface details as Kotobukiya kits, although it can be remedied with custom works.

On the same note, there's a Robot Tamashii model of Ayre's coral mecha showcased, planned to release sometimes in 2024. Personally I'll be holding out for Schneider parts and some RRI parts with all the current weapons available as separate packs.
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Really wish the Ayre/Allmind head was a buyable part. It looks fucking cool.

My main/comfort build hasn't changed even with all the new parts and balance changes.
 
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Reached S rank in Ranked mode, I can see a LAMMERGEIER leg nerf in the future, seeing how fucking effective it is in various lightweight configuration. I've been using LAMMERGEIER legs with 2 NEBULA for charged shots only and flex shoulder options for punish during stagger. If you're smart with your movements, you can outmaneuvers and outplay your opponent by using the NEBULA AoE blast as smokescreen to mask your movements during close range fights while also damaging them. It's also quite effective at playing keep away with LCB tanks, laser swappers and BVOs. A lot of of player seems to forget that vertical movements are a thing and they keep getting damaged by NEBULA charged AoE from above or below while they can't shoot straight up or down to hit me.

ATTACHE desperately needs some kind of buff to be somewhat viable in PvP, that slow rate of fire, inability to stagger firing properly and dogshit accuracy when dual firing like with any other MGs is really killing it.

Handheld pulse missiles are quite fun as a support weapon in 3v3 but it's lacking in 1v1 due to how you can avoid most of the projectiles, charged or otherwise. Here's hoping for a back mounted pulse missile weapon.

SHAO WEI back mounted minigun is a viable alternative to HUXLEY but requires more focus to actually use it instead of turning on and forget about it for the next 10 seconds. My respects go to players who use all 4 minigun AB rushing in without a care.
 
New patch, comes with Viento, LCB as well as heavy tank and hover chair nerfs. Also included are various buffs that look like they're trying to give more diversity to midweight leg choices.

Weapon Units​

  • STUN BATON “VP-67EB” : increased Attack Power / Chg. Attack Power
  • LIGHT WAVE BLADE “IA-C01W2: MOONLIGHT”: Energy Firearm Spec. scaling now applies
  • LINEAR RIFLE “LR-037 HARRIS”: increased Attack Power / Projectile Speed
  • HEAVY MACHINE GUN “WR-0555 ATTACHE”: increased Direct Hit Adjustment / Projectile Speed
  • BURST MACHINE GUN “MA-E-210 ETSUJIN”: increased Attack Power / Magazine Rounds / Total Rounds / Projectile Speed
  • BURST HANDGUN “MA-E-211 SAMPU”: increased Magazine Rounds / Total Rounds / Projectile Speed
  • NEEDLE GUN “EL-PW-00 VIENTO”: decreased Impact / Accumulative Impact, increased Reload Time
  • DETONATING BAZOOKA “44-141 JVLN ALPHA”: increased Attack Power, decreased Weight. Adjusted hitbox so that an enemy staggered by the projectile impact will not be released from hit stun by the follow-up explosion
  • GRENADE LAUNCHER “DF-GR-07 GOU-CHEN”: decreased Weight / EN LOAD
  • GRENADE LAUNCHER “DIZZY”: decreased Weight / EN LOAD. Reduced range of projectile before it explodes
  • GRENADE LAUNCHER “IRIDIUM”: increased Projectile Speed
  • STUN BOMB LAUNCHER “WS-1200 THERAPIST”: increased Attack Power, decreased Reload Time. Increased Projectile Speed for regular fire
  • LASER HANDGUN “VP-66LH”: increased Chg. Attack Power, decreased Charge Time. Reduced interval before being able to attack again after a charge attack. Reduced interval before charge gauge begins to empty after cancelling charge. Increased speed at which charge gauge empties
  • MULTI ENERGY RIFLE “44-142 KRSV”: Adjusted knockback distance of staggered enemies, so consecutive attacks are easier to land. Adjusted hitbox so that an enemy staggered by the plasma impact will not be released from hit stun by the follow-up plasma explosion
  • MISSILE LAUNCHER “HML-G2/P19MLT-04”: decreased Accumulative Impact, increased Reload Time
  • PULSE MISSILE LAUNCHER “PFAU/66D”: increased Charge Time / Reload Time
  • STUN NEEDLE LAUNCHER “VE-60SNA”: increased Attack Power
  • LASER CANNON “VE-60LCB”: decreased Rapid Fire. Reduced hitbox size of charge attack
  • DIFFUSE LASER CANNON “VP-60LCD”: increased Chg. Attack Power. Reduced scattering range to make multiple laser hits easier
  • DETONATING MISSILE LAUNCHER “45-091 JVLN BETA”: decreased Blast Radius. Each missile fired now follows the same guidance angle
  • LASER ORBIT “45-091 ORBT”: increased Attack Power / Cooling / Projectile Speed. Reduced interval before cooling begins, except when overheating

Frame Parts​

  • BIPEDAL “AL-J-121 BASHO”: increased AP / Jump Height, decreased Weight
  • BIPEDAL “LG-011 MELANDER”: increased AP / Jump Height, decreased Weight
  • BIPEDAL “LG-012 MELANDER C3”: increased AP / Jump Height, decreased Weight
  • BIPEDAL “DF-LG-08 TIAN-QIANG”: increased Weight
  • BIPEDAL “VP-422”: increased AP / Jump Height, decreased Weight
  • BIPEDAL “VE-42A”: increased Weight
  • BIPEDAL “2C-2000 CRAWLER”: increased Jump Height
  • BIPEDAL “2C-3000 WRECKER”: increased Weight
  • BIPEDAL “2S-5000 DESSERT”: increased Weight
  • BIPEDAL “EL-TL-10 FIRMEZA”: increased Jump Height
  • BIPEDAL “EL-PL-00 ALBA”: increased Jump Height
  • BIPEDAL “06-041 MIND ALPHA” : increased Jump Height, decreased Weight
  • BIPEDAL “IA-C01L: EPHEMERA”: increased Jump Height
  • BIPEDAL “IB-C03L: HAL 826”: increased AP / Jump Height, decreased Weight
  • REVERSE JOINT “KASUAR/42Z”: increased AP / Attitude Stability, decreased Weight
  • REVERSE JOINT “RC-2000 SPRING CHICKEN”: increased AP / Attitude Stability, decreased Weight
  • REVERSE JOINT “06-042 MIND BETA”: increased AP / Attitude Stability, decreased Weight
  • TETRAPOD “LAMMERGEIER/42F”: increased EN consumption while hovering. Reduced max movement speed while hovering
  • TANK “LG-022T BORNEMISSZA”: decreased AP / Attitude Stability / High-Speed Perf. / AB THRUST


Inner Parts​

  • BOOSTER “FLUEGEL/21Z”: increased Thrust / Melee Attack Thrust, decreased Melee Atk. EN Consump.
  • BOOSTER “IA-C01B: GILLS”: increased Thrust
  • FCS “FCS-G2/P10SLT”: decreased Close-Range Assist / Missile Lock Correction
  • FCS “FCS-G2/P12SML”: decreased Missile Lock Correction
  • FCS “VE-21A”: increased Close-Range Assist / Medium-Range Assist
  • FCS “VE-21B”: increased Medium-Range Assist
  • FCS “IB-C03F: WLT 001” Increased Close-Range Assist / Medium-Range Assist / Long-Range Assist
  • GENERATOR “VP-20D” : increased EN Capacity / Energy Firearm Spec.
  • Decreased damage from AC system abnormality: Shock

Bug Fixes​

  • A bug with Tank legs that caused shorter hit stun from stagger under specific circumstances has been fixed
  • A bug with TETRAPOD “LAMMERGEIER/42F” where firing certain weapons upwards or downwards while hovering caused the player AC to remain at an angle for an extended period of time has been fixed
  • A bug that caused ACs in hit stun to fall, instead of stop in place, when staggered while performing a mid-air boost kick has been fixed
  • A bug that caused back weapons with manual reload to fire after manual reloading had completed has been fixed
  • A bug that caused unintended animations and sounds to play when using Weapon Bay to repeatedly switch weapons has been fixed
  • Improved certain attack animations that play under specific circumstances
  • A bug during the mission “Destroy the Drive Block” that caused the boss to use specific attacks at unintended times has been fixed
  • A bug that prevented access to the AC DATA menu, or caused the game to crash when multiple data slots contained ACs with decal images using a large number of layers has been fixed
  • A bug in the IMAGE EDIT menu and DECAL menu, where fully tilting the stick to move a piece or image did not move the element at a consistent rate has been fixed
  • A bug in Photo Mode that caused a blur effect on the player AC even when Blur Type was “OFF” has been fixed
  • A bug in Photo Mode that made player AC booster effects disappear has been fixed
  • A bug in Ranked Match that caused results from the previous match to display after a disconnection has been fixed
  • A bug with AC data uploaded to the game server, where if the data was loaded and then deleted from the game server, the loaded data would be reverted to default paint and decals, has been fixed
  • A bug with image data uploaded to the game server, where if the data was set as pilot emblem and then deleted from the game server, the emblem would become invalid, has been fixed
  • Corrected some in-game text
  • Other minor bug fixes
  • A title screen rendering issue that occurred at specific screen resolutions has been fixed
Making the moonlight's damage scale off of EN Spec might finally make it worth taking over the redshift, depending on the build.
 
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The Fleugel boosters getting melee-oriented buffs is interesting. Kikaku is still king of melee boost and low energy consumption, but Fleugel is not far off (14000 for Kikaku vs 12000 for Fleugel), plus its other stats are also pretty well balanced.

Might play around with it on my melee builds.

Making the moonlight's damage scale off of EN Spec might finally make it worth taking over the redshift, depending on the build.
Regular Moonlight already had a stronger charge attack than redshift, so now it's even further ahead of the redshift there.

The normal attacks are probably a wash, since the redshift's coral damage bypasses energy defense anyway.
 
Lamm changes are a good step, it has about 380 speed in hovering which is only slightly faster than an alula lightweight. I think it should probably be tapped down to about 370 or so, but 380 isn't as egregious as its like 395 release hover speed. The EN draw when hovering is noticeably higher now as well. Won't be able to play MP for a bit, but I imagine this will help a lot with dealing with the lamm kites/rats so long as you aren't running a tank or superheavy biped.

Regular Moonlight already had a stronger charge attack than redshift, so now it's even further ahead of the redshift there.

The normal attacks are probably a wash, since the redshift's coral damage bypasses energy defense anyway.
I did some quick testing and with basho arms + VE-20B (admittedly a bit of a meme build) the moonlight does 1306 dmg vs the tetrapod MT while the redshift deals 1076. Charge attack is a pretty beefy 4908. Using the big coral generator the uncharged damage is almost even at 1097 with a charge of 4193.

Fleugel changes are really interesting, great way to give what I always thought of as "worse P04" a solid niche. It will probably be more comfortable than the kikaku for anyone who wants to run a melee rushdown build but isn't very familiar with melee-cancelling. I can definitely think of some of my builds that could benefit from the new Fleugel.
 
I did some quick testing and with basho arms + VE-20B (admittedly a bit of a meme build) the moonlight does 1306 dmg vs the tetrapod MT while the redshift deals 1076. Charge attack is a pretty beefy 4908. Using the big coral generator the uncharged damage is almost even at 1097 with a charge of 4193.

Fleugel changes are really interesting, great way to give what I always thought of as "worse P04" a solid niche. It will probably be more comfortable than the kikaku for anyone who wants to run a melee rushdown build but isn't very familiar with melee-cancelling. I can definitely think of some of my builds that could benefit from the new Fleugel.
I think the BAWS tetra has unusually low energy defense, so energy weapons do unusually high damage to them.

Against the tester AC (which was 1105 energy defense)

20B + Basho + moonlight: 931 on 1 normal attack, 3500 on charged. When broken 1963 (x1) for normal, something like 7300(!) on charged. Pretty sure that's pile bunker levels of damage.

Basho + Redshift: 1079 on normal, 2396 on charged. When broken, it becomes 2357 for one hit, and something like 3200 with charged.
 
Any recommendations on what game to start with on PS1/PS2? Never played an Armored Core game before.
It ultimately doesn't really matter which ones you choose to play first, you really can't go wrong. Just keep in mind that with most Armored Core games, you can transfer your AC as well as parts you bought from side title to side title. If you want to play from the beginning, then you'd play
Armored Core 1 -> Project Phantasma -> Master of Arena
in order to transfer your AC between title to title.

If you want to move on the PS2 games, you really can't go wrong with either Armored Core 2 or Armored Core 3, just keep in mind they're not transferrable between eachother iirc.
Armored Core 2 -> Another Age
Armored Core 3 -> Silent Line

Nexus -> Last Raven (wouldn't recommend playing these games first)
 
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