To the AC Veterans

[Thy Dickith]

Ive never played an AC game in my life. However I am curious about what the vets think about this. From the first AC game to AC 6, what were some things added into the previous games that you liked alot? Or didn't like.

I know previous AC titles had a debt feature which i think is a great add. (They wont be adding this feature in AC 6 since the Devs want the player to have enough money to try every build)

[REhorror]

I really do like the debt system, hope they bring them back in future DLC/games or we can mod them in.
Maybe have a Hard mode or an option in the menu.

Currently your repair/ammunition still detracts against your payment, so I wonder how possible it is to get the debt system back in.

And for point I like: Hard lock-on system, people gonna cry about it, but I kinda expect it from other mech games (ZoE, ACE) and it will massively help the melee system.

[Getsu Fuma]

My favorite thing added to Armored Core was over boost. And my most hated thing is Human Plus, because I really hate any enemy that uses it. OB has been a thing sense AC2, while H+ was around from the first game to the end of gen 3.

Or maybe I should say I hate H+ with Moonlight. Because one or the other alone is not that bad. But together that is a very annoying combo.

[Prankman]

Originally posted by Getsu Fuma:

My favorite thing added to Armored Core was over boost. And my most hated thing is Human Plus, because I really hate any enemy that uses it. OB has been a thing sense AC2, while H+ was around from the first game to the end of gen 3.

Or maybe I should say I hate H+ with Moonlight. Because one or the other alone is not that bad. But together that is a very annoying combo.

I hated how many upper tier Arena fights were just “heavy Mech with no weight limits and linear guns it can fire in the air because Human Plus lollolololool”. The director for Rubicon being a lead for Sekiro gives me hope for more interesting rival AC encounters that still play by the rules.

[Getsu Fuma]

Originally posted by Prankman:

Originally posted by Getsu Fuma:

My favorite thing added to Armored Core was over boost. And my most hated thing is Human Plus, because I really hate any enemy that uses it. OB has been a thing sense AC2, while H+ was around from the first game to the end of gen 3.

Or maybe I should say I hate H+ with Moonlight. Because one or the other alone is not that bad. But together that is a very annoying combo.

I hated how many upper tier Arena fights were just “heavy Mech with no weight limits and linear guns it can fire in the air because Human Plus lollolololool”. The director for Rubicon being a lead for Sekiro gives me hope for more interesting rival AC encounters that still play by the rules.

Right I keep forgetting the whole cannon thing with H+ for some reason. Who thought that would be fun to fight against? I guess I was too focused on how a single hit from a H+ Moonlight is like 4000 damage.

But sense you mentioned cannons. Screw H+ chain guns. Those things have way too high dps when on something that is mobile. On a tank or a quad, it's not bad. But anything that has real mobility just screw them. As soon as I hear the sound of a chain gun in gen 3 I always just OB as quick as possible.

[Prankman]

Originally posted by Getsu Fuma:

Originally posted by Prankman:

I hated how many upper tier Arena fights were just “heavy Mech with no weight limits and linear guns it can fire in the air because Human Plus lollolololool”. The director for Rubicon being a lead for Sekiro gives me hope for more interesting rival AC encounters that still play by the rules.

Right I keep forgetting the whole cannon thing with H+ for some reason. Who thought that would be fun to fight against? I guess I was too focused on how a single hit from a H+ Moonlight is like 4000 damage.

Matthias from AC2 haunts my dreams. Human Plus along with Moonlight, an auto aim Karasawa and tons of grenades. Awful.

I’m not a vet, as I only dipped into the series since the announcement of Rubicon last year, but I’ve played both AC2 and Nexus. One thing I both liked and disliked was how heat worked in Nexus.

In the old AC games, you had radiator parts and had to manage the cooling of your mech. Usually this just meant if you overheated you started taking constant damage until heat dropped down to manageable levels again. But they reworked it in Nexus so instead of being a health drain, it was a constant energy drain, which meant you would rapidly run out of energy and be reduced to normal walking speed. This was an interesting change, but was largely bad due to the fact that they also increased how quickly heat built up, making it extremely limiting to build cool mechs because your heat generation was so omnipresent. This was compounded by heat being passively generated from your parts, meaning you could build a mech that would light itself on fire just by moving around. It’s amusing, and it does add depth to the simulation side of building, but it was fairly annoying trying to build something viable.

Rubicon’s stagger system actually feels very similar to that system, in that you’re building up a meter on the opponent that will eventually render them immobile. But this time, your own parts don’t passively contribute to your own stagger, instead having armor stats that dictate how easy you are to stagger and how quickly you recover your meter, sort of like the old stability stats that determined how easy you were to flinch. And because your meter resets to empty after stagger ends, it means you can’t just be infinitely stunlocked as easily as in Nexus. It seems to be a much better implemented system than the 3.5 heat management, though we won’t really be able to know for sure until the game launches.

[SageJedai]

i'm a bit salty that quick-turn is now a skill/os tuning unlock rather than skill-based maneuver. free cam looks annoying, but i'll deal with it until a mod comes out that fixes it. pace of combat is disappointingly slow, but hopefully the control responsiveness will make up for that. but other than a few nit-picky things, i see vi as a good 1st step to bringing the series back from the grave.

[Getsu Fuma]

Originally posted by Prankman:

I’m not a vet, as I only dipped into the series since the announcement of Rubicon last year, but I’ve played both AC2 and Nexus. One thing I both liked and disliked was how heat worked in Nexus.

In the old AC games, you had radiator parts and had to manage the cooling of your mech. Usually this just meant if you overheated you started taking constant damage until heat dropped down to manageable levels again. But they reworked it in Nexus so instead of being a health drain, it was a constant energy drain, which meant you would rapidly run out of energy and be reduced to normal walking speed. This was an interesting change, but was largely bad due to the fact that they also increased how quickly heat built up, making it extremely limiting to build cool mechs because your heat generation was so omnipresent. This was compounded by heat being passively generated from your parts, meaning you could build a mech that would light itself on fire just by moving around. It’s amusing, and it does add depth to the simulation side of building, but it was fairly annoying trying to build something viable.

Rubicon’s stagger system actually feels very similar to that system, in that you’re building up a meter on the opponent that will eventually render them immobile. But this time, your own parts don’t passively contribute to your own stagger, instead having armor stats that dictate how easy you are to stagger and how quickly you recover your meter, sort of like the old stability stats that determined how easy you were to flinch. And because your meter resets to empty after stagger ends, it means you can’t just be infinitely stunlocked as easily as in Nexus. It seems to be a much better implemented system than the 3.5 heat management, though we won’t really be able to know for sure until the game launches.

I actually never had an issue with heat in Nexus or Last Raven. And I am a hover leg main in all of gen 3 and those overheat like crazy if you don't build your AC right. But then again my favorite part of AC is the garage and building my AC not to just look how I want it to but to actually handle how I want it to. So I am paying attention to those numbers and writing them down if I have to and I learned even just a 100 point difference can make or break a hover unit with cooling.

[Haka]

I didn't like Nexus' insane heat system. I didn't like not being able to fire my back weapons while using biped legs and think AC6 handles it best from what i've seen, and gave other leg types greater distinction from bipeds than just blade attack animation and being able to fire back cannon weapons while moving. And I absolutely love this because bipeds are now able fire them, but with far more recoil and subsequent loss in mobility than quad/tank legs.

I loved Exceed Orbits and Orbit weapons in general. They were removed in 4A, which while my favorite AC game, I absolutely HATED that change as well, along with the lack of build diversity in terms of legs (even though i'm a hardcore biped user) because boosting was king. It went too far though I feel without adding anything that really helped leg types stand out.

And i've played since AC1, only missing Master of Arena, Nine-Breaker and all of 5th Gen and all of the PSP games.

[hakabata]

UNAC from AC:VD. You could build AI ACs and their behavior pattern from scratch. Really enjoyed the whole process. But also a great way to bring squad combats to the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on-rBtlOsrs&t=1014s

[REhorror]

Originally posted by hakabata:

UNAC from AC:VD. You could build AI ACs and their behavior pattern from scratch. Really enjoyed the whole process. But also a great way to bring squad combats to the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on-rBtlOsrs&t=1014s

I need this as well.
I really wonder how the AI allies thing gonna work in this game.

[hakabata]

Asking for whole UNAC might be a pipe dream. But if they allow us to customize allies before missions, nice halfway it would be.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by REhorror:

I really do like the debt system, hope they bring them back in future DLC/games or we can mod them in.
Maybe have a Hard mode or an option in the menu.

Currently your repair/ammunition still detracts against your payment, so I wonder how possible it is to get the debt system back in.

And for point I like: Hard lock-on system, people gonna cry about it, but I kinda expect it from other mech games (ZoE, ACE) and it will massively help the melee system.

Telling ourselves debt was hardcore is just trying to lie to ourselves that we were not taking the easy way out already getting S ranks by vomiting so many grenades onto a mission we didn't make cash in the process, between running wimpy baby mechs with a blade, a laser rifle, and nothing else if I could not shoehorn an ammo bin part on the missions I could get away with it.

Zero credits isn't exactly going to be upgrading your AC. And debt in the original game was your fast track to cheat code pity powers anyways! "Ah yes, I am so hardcore now that I have plus cyborg super powers."

It still leaves the fact playing better lets you buy new stuff faster. Plus it seems energy weapons will cost money for ammo again unless wikis stuffing whatever numbers they scraped off the internet are wrong again.

[REhorror]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Originally posted by REhorror:

I really do like the debt system, hope they bring them back in future DLC/games or we can mod them in.
Maybe have a Hard mode or an option in the menu.

Currently your repair/ammunition still detracts against your payment, so I wonder how possible it is to get the debt system back in.

And for point I like: Hard lock-on system, people gonna cry about it, but I kinda expect it from other mech games (ZoE, ACE) and it will massively help the melee system.

Telling ourselves debt was hardcore is just trying to lie to ourselves that we were not taking the easy way out already getting S ranks by vomiting so many grenades onto a mission we didn't make cash in the process.

Zero credits isn't exactly going to be upgrading your AC. And debt in the original game was your fast track to cheat code pity powers anyways! "Ah yes, I am so hardcore now that I have plus cyborg super powers."

It still leaves the fact playing better lets you buy new stuff faster. Plus it seems energy weapons will cost money for ammo again.

Yeah, yeah, I know.
S ranking is the ideal, with literal no damage/repair cost is the ideal.

Still think going to debt is a nice little quirk.
And yes, I know they already make you a Human plus bedridden cyborg in this game.

[Prankman]

The thing with debt is you could avoid interacting with it at all by just reloading your save and retrying missions when you fail. Which, frankly, is sometimes necessary because sometimes mission parameters are really obtuse and you can fail seemingly at random even if you’re paying close attention to the briefings. Its still a neat system, and the way they tucked Human Plus behind it as a secret was really cool, probably one of the best implementations of a safety net a game could use, but it’s not something the game ever forced you to engage with.

[Karak Sonen]

I will miss the debt system, and the Human + that came with it.
Such a genius idea to combine a game reset with a difficulty modifier that makes the game easier.