i guess i’m not fazed by the VA because 4 and 4A were like this too. you don’t really get full rich human characters with AC, you get glimpses of sad desparate people in their last moments losing a fight over scraps
i keep expecting the Balam Hoo-rah guy to break down and lose his mind, these trooper types always go nuts in these games
That was my reaction, Infact I was rather surprised by how In Line the dialogue is with the rest of the series, there’s little to show that it was written for a game coming out in 2023 compared to any one of the six PS2 titles.
Well…
He’s kind of the real deal, which I didn’t expect. The mission where you turn against Balam and complete “betraying” the Redguns has G1 Michigan basically calling out the cockiness of the 50 or so MT’s you’re fighting as his machine gets readied to go. At one point he gets like a 45 second dialogue just gassing you up as the meanest motherfucker on Rubicon and points out that even with a 50-to-1 advantage, until he’s on the field the odds are very much not in their favor.
When I beat the mission I ran so completely out of ammo I ended having to box the last 4 MT’s, including a pretty badass Tetrapod MT to complete it. His machine is extremely hard to stun, recovers from ACS stun really fast, uses repair kits, and has good defenses so it’s pretty difficult to get damage to stick to him. His main disadvantage is the one I think most quads share in that he’s a big, kinda-slow, target so I was able to kite him and stay away from his nastiest weapons, while having to juke the rest of the Balam army.
Fun times, if frustrating on the first couple of attempts. It did help I’d already fought him in the arena so I knew what I was getting into against him and Liger Tail.
[Edit]
Oh wait, unless you meant the guy who does most of the talking in the briefings, in which case, nevermind. That’s G6 and I dunno what happens to him. I think you only ever fight him in the Arena… though there are definitely branches I haven’t explored.
AC Name: Polaris Mk. III
Polaris is an AC I have used since AC2: Another Age. It stemmed from an attempt to answer the question: “How the fuck can you make the large missile work in PvP?” The general consensus, at least in the places I lurked, was that the addition of Overboost, even with the heat generating mechanic applied to it in Another Age, rendered it too slow to be lethal, despite the damage it could do. The FIN-B00, however, was a tenacious weapon. It would just keep homing (and was shockingly good at avoiding being grounded out). It also would not trigger AMS systems, and could only be decoyed at the very last moment before impact essentially shooting a decoy at it. The platform was a humanoid heavy weight (as determined by leg set choice) with a mid-weight core. Supporting armaments were the grenade rifle, multi-missile launcher, and slinger blade. Extensions were AMS supported by a backup decoy launcher (missiles were, generally, more than a little strong in AC2:AA). The general idea was use the core’s excellent-if hot (mitigated by an over-spec radiator thanks to all our spare weight)-overboost to maneuver, deploy large missiles at a distance, then bully with the grenade launcher, looking for an opportunity to spike an enemy into the ground with a grenade hit to cause a missile to connect or keep them harried with the pressure of the Nuclear Bullet Bill chasing them everywhere.
Polaris would resurface in AC3: Silent Line. It’d lose the large missile launcher (as AC3’s large missiles were by and large extremely easy to force into the ground and the game’s generally much faster pace made them completely unworkable0, this being a large factor in skipping AC3 in general. Silent Line would bring new cores, particularly a new weight-efficient heavy weight core with a spectacularly good overboost and plenty of space for option slots. We’d keep the Big/Little launcher arrangement, and the grenade rifle (sort of…) but Polaris would be a real heavy here. The introduction of part purging opened up the option of starting a fight overweight, but quickly dumping the “big launcher” to get back to a more effective combat weight. In this case we used a single-shoulder multi-multi missile launcher that would put-for the time-a huge number of missiles in the air at once, and pair them with low ammo 4-launch missile support extensions that’d punch off automatically the same time the big launcher ran out. Our left-shoulder “light” launcher would be the Hi-ACT missile launcher, which launched highly accurate, difficult to shake missiles up to 4 at a time. For hand armaments we’re use the new 20-round plasma cannon as our main hand (our core allowing us to fully support it with option parts), and pair it to the equally new 20-round left-hand grenade rifle. Together they did tremendous amounts of damage and were a great “Fuck off” weapons combo.
Overall Polaris would prove to be sufficient in 1 vs 1, but in live play, would be extremely deadly in 2 vs 2 with its ability to change targets and suddenly rain massive damage on one target to tie them up while teaming up to annihilate the actual target.
I’d use a pretty similar build of Polaris in Last Raven as well, but the way that game combined weapon lockbox types to generate a smaller the total lockbox meant that, practically speaking, Plasma cannon+Grenade rifle generated a virtually unplayable lockbox for something with Polaris’ (much reduced) mobility.
In 4Answer Polaris would return, this time sporting an honest-to-god nuclear missile launcher over one shoulder. Not only were “Kojima” missile launchers analogous to large missiles of the past in most mechanics, their explosions polluted a pretty large area (well beyond the blast radius of the damage) that would more-or-less instantly strip the PA off of anything that passed near these zones. Over the left shoulder we’d have a vertically-launching (but not true vertical launcher, the missiles didn’t loft like that) supported by extensions that that fire a pair of fast moving missiles that race out and turn into, essentially, shotguns. For hand armaments, opposite the small launcher we’re have a laser rifle and opposite the big launcher, we’d have a spread bazooka. Polaris was somewhat fragile for its speed, especially with its full payload, but if it purged its missile launchers it’d gain back so much energy drain that it would have effectively infinite energy, even in the 1.4 patch that heavily rebalanced energy output, generators, and power consumption. Its refresh rate would be 3x what the current community considers sufficient, leaving it able to quick-boost chain indefinitely as was the norm in the 1.2 patch.
That said, this Polaris wasn’t developed in a vacuum. It was built both to support, and to some extent counter, my brother’s “Desert Lion.” See, Desert Lion was a true heavy weight (in 4A Polaris once again used a mid-weight core, both for stability and payload considerations) and a born brawler. To put it into perspective, It had more Primal Armor than virtually any lightweight (most of whom would average the best PA around), enormous hit points, even bigger EHP (most PA stripping weapons would be halfway through its PA, maybe, when it killed them), moved like a goddamn midweight, and-if you had the energy management chops-could also boogie like it was two patches ago. Oh yeah, and for firepower? A simple assault rifle, a spread bazooka, and a grenade launcher opposite the spread 'zook. One spread 'zook-grenade-spread 'zook chain would chunk or kill just about anything thanks to a combination of chain stunning, massive PA attenuation, and throwing an absolute fuckton of damage at whatever you were shooting.
But, it was short-ranged and for as quick as it was, the energy management really was tricky, and chasing runners was impractical (even if Desert Lion was probably only taking double-digit damage in return against its 30k or so AP). Polaris carried two energy weapons (the nuke, and the laser rifle) allowing it to effectively attrition Desert Lion as laser rifles were great at PA pen, and hit Desert Lion’s weakest (let be clear, that’s weakest, not weak, the thing’s frame was in the top 5 for total energy defense) while having a good ability to kite and attrition, then switch gears to pressure and maneuver at close range, with Polaris’s own spread 'zook being just as good at chunking down PA, and stunning machines as Desert Lion’s. As a team, hey complemented each other, with Polaris being deadly at blindsiding from afar, or harrying while Desert Lion secured the kill in record time.
All of this brings me 'round to Polaris in ACVI. Bluntly, the weapons arn’t settled yet. I’m enjoying the right-hand 'zook, but left hand armament remains in flux, as do the launchers. So far Polaris has proven pretty damn durable, and assault boost makes up for a lot of our limited mobility. I dunno how well it’d fair against another player (poorly, I suspect, but I feel like lighter machines are gonna be more than just the meta, the game feel very favorable to them on a mechanical level, particularly with the ACS Strain and direct hit mechanics).
Currently over the right shoulder we’ve got the Canister Missile launcher with flies forward like a dumbfire rocket before it starts machine gunning missiles at pretty much anything in range. Over the left is a twin multi missile launcher. I’m using the faster firing twin, even though its not as powerful as its slower firing counterpart. Right hand is, as stated, the Javelin Bazooka which fires a shot that creates multiple explosions on impact and a has a huge direct hit multiplier. Left hand is, currently, the basic laser rifle, but it changes frequently. I liked the laser shotgun when it was there (having its charge shot make it an AoE laser cannon was a neat plus), the heavy liner rifle was a decent fit, I might equip a gattling gun. I even kinda liked the heacy kinetic shotgun, though the lack of a fast firing weapon caused me headache on a few occasions.
So, yeah, it’s still up in the air. Enough chat, though, you’re here for the pics, right?
Polaris “Traditional” Paint job (it’s usually always had desert colors to some extent)
Polaris “Sea Camo” (just an alternative, based on a throw-together paint job I used when I put Polaris together in Silent Line at that get together with other players)
Anyway, that’s all from me.
i really like the japanese voice track and am not like… incredibly fond of the english one, it is true. the voices are actually so good!
in this case i don’t mind
i really really reallyyy like this game im in the middle of chapter 4 and idk what else would even be goty for me for as much as i also loved playing the new re4… i was thinking playing just now about how i do kind of think the japanese voice track has a much flatter affect that rlly fits with the wintery trip-hop vibes imo
im really loving how much armored core there is in this armored core… just a slight amount of dungeon crawler vibes like in the 1st psx game in chapter 4, an arms fort battle in chapter 1… i really love how much the series makes a point of putting you into this wide variety of military operations which is something the linear mission-based structure really lends itself to imo. it feels like the basically the same kind of game theyve been making since the 90s in a lot of ways, nearly all of the plot unfolds in voice acting over powerpoint presentations, etc.
i think this might even be my 2nd fav ac game after acfa… i do wish it were a little less boxed-in though ac4/acfa still has a really sick sense of scale, vanguard overed boosting over miles of ocean…
also the soundtrack does have some moments and i think it’s gonna grow on me but it feels excessively dour compared to the weirdly upbeat music in the 3 and 4 series playing while you kill protesters or whatever psycho shit they put u up to while screams pipe into your comms just to remind you the mt units ur killing tens of are piloted by humans…
it is just so funny to me and cool that i can just have conversations about armored core with random people i meet now…
damn i need time to play more than an hour of this
“later” as in:
Now!
experimenting w/ first quad-leg build as we speak, gonna get its own paintjob soon …
and sooner rather than later, stealth edit:
got borderline-tilted at the boss at the end of the first chapter, it was the first encounter in the game that took me more than 3 tries. it was more like 15 tries where i had to abandon the first run a dozen tries in, leave the grenade launchers at home, and come back with 2 bubble guns. tetrapod explosive / laser cannon platforms might be a tad overspecialized in the end but the P-4 DAZZLER here has great ergonomics when it comes to blowing up defenseless targets
Had no idea how I would possibly kill the first boss, before replaying the intro mission again with a new pilot I named “Keep Barking” that tought me I could hold circle to sprint. Somehow it never occured to me. I mean, it’s a new From game… I thought the only way to move fast was with the burst rush click in the left stick method, or maybe with some parts later. After that the boss was easy.
Wake the dog up.
End of Chapter 1 is hard 
mm but what if walter laughed enigmatically at the end of each transmission
i have not liked a game like this in a very long time i did not know how much i needed another armored core i guess
