Jump to content

Geist X

Members
  • Posts

    6
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Geist X's Achievements

Bag of Peanuts

Bag of Peanuts (1/11)

  1. Overall Game Difficulty- This game was the most difficult AC games I've ever played because I came fresh from an Generation One AC background. As such, I had no idea about Limiter Removal, nor did I know that Floating types could hover over water until well after I beat the game; I didn't realize I was playing on Hard Mode the entire time. As a result, stages that would have be child's play with use of Limiter Removal or Floating type, were quite difficult. It may be a Hard Mode only phenomenon(since I haven't played it on normal), but certain AC opponents take a LOT of hits to kill. Too many. Personally I felt a little bit better knowing that CPU controlled ACs had more AP in AA, because in the Generation One games, I felt they were too easy to kill. However it seems a lot of them have too much AP, and still have infinite ammo. Nor do they suffer any damage from ammo heat. Not having anyway to get Humanoid plus other than playing the previous installment seems to be punishing new players who will definitely struggle with maneuvering. When it's all said and done...I appreciate the fact that this game wasn't easy. After having beaten Seraph, I felt very accomplished. Default Controls - I'm used to the controls from playing the G1 games, so I enjoyed being able to come back to them.The Extension and Overboost are easy to learn. Gameplay Mechanics - The damage from Air Blading has been scaled down dramatically, which might have made a difference if there was no overboost feature. Due to the overall evasiveness of ACs improving, Airblading is a lot more difficult. Stun from solid weapons has been reduced greatly, but even with the new heat system it hardly seems worth it, because evasion has become easier. Overall, I'm not fond of the heat system. It doesn't work in your favor in missions, only in versus. In the G1 one games, ALL of them weapons were automatic; you could hold down the button, and your AC would continuously fire it's weapon. In AA, most of the shell weapons are automatic and most of the energy weapons are not. However it ends up being annoying, rather than balancing out energy weapons. New Features - I don't care for the radiator/heat system very much. Most of the inside parts, except a few are useless. The extensions are better, with the new missiles being helpful, but in high level gameplay, you're forced to use the turn booster. The modifications made to the HUD was also a feature that I really liked. Although the Remnants of Enemies feature causes confusion in some missions, especially when the enemies respawn. I kinda missed the Mail feature from the G1 games. Bugs & Glitches - Being able to stand on Phantasma back and nuke him is nice. I'm not sure whether or not that was intentional. It' always been weird when another AC stands ontop of you and looks like they're levitating. The only other real problem is that sometime the Rising Ability stats for Tanks and Humanoids will freeze at a certain value in the performance screen. I'm not sure what causes it, but sometime the stat might remain at 0, 1000, or 2000 regardless of how much weight is removed from the AC. It can be frustrating when trying to add on parts, and the value changes spontaneously, since not everyone can figure out Rising Ability just by looking at an AC. Storyline Quality - Coolest moment for me was assist the two ACs in stopping the rampaging AC. You get there, here the theme music as you look at the dead ACs, and then the operator "has a bad feeling". By far my favorite moment in the game. I didn't even pay attention to the name of the mission so it caught me by surpise. I didn't really feel that the last boss(Antares) was really an important part of the plot. Mission Quality - Some of the missions, like the Mt. Horwick Missions weren't fun at all, and just felt like a chore, but again, I had no idea about Limiter Removal. As were most of the sea missions. I hated the bomb disarming mission with a passion. I would have been able to deal with them easier if the rewards were better parts, or if there were more hidden parts in the game. I really hate searching for hidden items in tough stages only to not find them. Some of the MT opponents seemed incredibly tough. The giant prototype MT(not the "Massive" one) was quite a nasty opponent. If I wasn't using Rockets, beating it would have been incredibly difficult considering how weak most of the weapons are. With the exception of Hustler-One who I felt was too hard to kill, I really enjoyed the missions where you had to fight an AC. The Final Battle with Antares was a huge let down. Battling Nineball Seraph was ridiculously difficult. Although the bragging rights associated with beating him are great. Arena - No Arena, and it was kind of a let down. Part Balance & Part Diversity- Caterpillar types have been completely nerfed in this game. In the Generation One AC games, Caterpillars had the most efficient boosters and the lowest energy drain. As a result they could stay Airborne (via pump boosting) longer than any other ACs. In this game both Humanoids and RJs can stay airborn longer than Caterpillars. With the damage on Airblading scaled down, this puts tanks at a huge disadvantage. This weakness is compounded when people use humanoid plus. Rjs also got a nerf in terms of their turning speed. It was overall a lot higher in the G1 games, and now it's generally worse than quads. I found this to be an unnecessary nerf because their load capacity is not that great. This nerf is only justified on the VAT RJ legs which have a high load capacity, and very good jumping ability. To the designers credit, the Karasawa can now be used by certain Quads and Tanks, whereas it was only available to Tanks and RJs in G1 games. This is both a blessing and a curse. The main problem is that the Karasawa is far too powerful in this game. It's more powerful than any other arm weapon, and most back weapons. Players are forced to use the Karasawa against bosses because hardly any other Right Arm weapon is strong enough to kill them. In the G1 games, Weapon Arms had no armor, but incredibly high attack power, so it was worth the trade-off to use them instead of Right Arm weapons. In AA there's no point. Most ACs are better of with the lightest of arms(which have more defense than Weapon arms) and the Karasawa. The Karasawa has always been a powerful weapon, but in G1 games it wasn't flat out superior to every other weapon. In G1 AC games the Light Bazooka for example had less attack power than the Karasawa, but a lot more shots. This makes sense, because the speed and attack power of energy weapons can be boosted with optional parts. In AA the Karasawa has more attack power, higher reload speed, AND more shots. It's tracking is also MUCH better than it was in the G1 games, and the beam is much thicker allowing it to hit targets more easily. Perhaps it's not to say that the Karasawa is too powerful(which it is) but that the other weapons are too weak. A lot of the back weapons are incredible strong, but have very few shots. The Dual Chain Gun for example is the most pathetic weapon in the game. For all it's weight, it has low ammo, and very low attack power, making the regular chain gun and the light chain gun both more effective weapons. It's reload rate isn't justified. Most extensions are useless or impractical. While the Extra Missiles and Extra Armor are fun to use, players are forced to equip the turn boosters if they want to be effective in high-end versus gameplay. The insides are especially worthless. Bomb Dispensers have always been so-so at best, but now they seem pointless. The reverse vulcan, mine dispenser, are good, but the orbit maker makes them useless like the Karasawa does the normal weapons. Handguns have gotten worse. Lowered attack power and bad stun. Shotgun should have been good, but are little better than sniper rifles, which are ineffective as far as shell weapons go, lacking power, stun, and heat. Machine Guns are still good, but the Bazookas suffered a major nerf, when compared to the godly Karasawa. Rockets...the most skill oriented weapon in the game took a huge nerf. Their ammo numbers have mostly been shaved in half, oddly except the best 3(Small, Large, ECM). For some strange reason the ECM rocket has more ammo, which is a good thing, although it can be kind of cheap. Small Rockets do less damage, and the Large Rockets do much less damage. Again the new "heat" system doesn't compensate for the difference. In terms of selection, there's a decent variety in normal arms, and humanoid legs. In terms of generators the selection was better in G1 games; there wasn't a clear cut "best" generator, each one had different strengths for different ACs. The core selection was surprisingly small, and the FCS selection hasn't evolved much. Shields are an interesting addition to the game, but they're more like training wheels for beginners. Once a player realizes how powerful the blade is, there's no reason to equip a shield. I was impressed with the variety of heads. And with the new radar(back units). In the G1 games, the radar scope on some radars was so large, it was hard to determine the position of a close range enemy. That problem has been fixed. In additon some of them have bio sensors and noise cancellors. Traditionally in AC games the selection of humanoid legs has always been far greater than the other leg types, and this game is no different. Floating types are an interesting addition to the game. They have speed surpassing quads, but cannot fire backweapons while moving. They're greatest asset in missions is the ability to move over water. Floating types seem to get the most out of the overboost system. However from a competitive standpoint (non PLOW), they aren't better than any of the other leg types. They would actually be a lot more effective WITHOUT the overboost system. With it, Quads are generally a better choice, as they can generally accomplish the same kind of tactics more effectively. Still, a good player can take advantage of the speed Floating types are capable of. CG Art - Not really much other than the opening intro. The art during the credit roll was pretty cool. In-Game Graphics- Depends on what monitor you're playing the game on. The game looked fine on my TV, but on my friend's it looked very dark. Voice Acting - I was happy to see the operator from the G1 games return. Overall the voice acting was good. From the bourgousie woman who works for the BOC to the rat-like representive of the Indies. Sound Effects - Lots and lots of detail put into the sound. It kind of bothers me that the grenade launcher has a laser weapon sound instead of the more ominous sound it had in G1 games. Background Music- The only tracks I liked were the old school tracks. Other than that the music wasn't exciting. I like hearing the Big Beat/Electronica type music in mech games, but this stuff wasn't memorable. But hey, it could be worse, like the god-awful music from Virtual-On Mars. Multiplayer Mode - Multiplayer missions were fun. A multiplayer option to double team Seraph would have been nice. While I think the overboost is an interesting feature in missions, I think it adversely affects Versus battles against human opponents. Being able to continually overboost allows players to runaway and stall for time. Some people can literally get a few hits in, and then boost away and allow time to run out. That makes Versus very boring. I'm not sure if it's just my copy of the game, but it seems that you can't keep any of the money you make in versus missions. The Versus Arena selection is the worst, by far out of any AC game. Simply porting copies would have been more interesting...however I understand it to a degree. The giant G1 stages would have made it even easier for people to overboost and runaway during versus matches. Even considering that, the versus stages were not that exciting. Other Stuff - I was upset that the game didn't have the gameplay demo that the G1 AC games had. That usually got me excited to play. Overall, I enjoyed this game, but coming from a G1 background the gameplay is very slow, and the ACs are sluggish by comparison. My other pet peeve was that your AC's AI no longer identified enemy ACs by name.
  2. I've beaten a lot of bosses in my time. From NES monsters like Dark Queen from Battletoads, to more recent horrors like Night Terror from Soul Calibur III, Alma from Ninja Gaiden, and even that annoying Final Boss from Senkou No Ronde. But compared to Nineball Seraph, they're a joke. Generally speaking, most bosses compared to AC2:AA Seraph are a joke. Even the original Seraph in ACMoA was no where near as powerful. Maybe offensively, but not with the ridiculous defense. Seraph is not easy to beat. Unless you can consistently beat Seraph on Hard Mode with a non PLOW AC, you cannot consider Seraph "Easy". So let's hear how you beat Nineball Seraph. The Weapons you used, the AC design you used, your tactics, normal or hard mode, was it a plus AC, overweight AC? Even if it was pure luck share how you managed to beat the most vicious Boss in AC History. First time I beat Seraph was on Hard Mode with an Overweight Humanoid AC(fast legs, heavily armored upper body), using the Karasawa. Before I won, I lost 42 straight times with a normal AC. Most of the damage was coming from those missiles before he picked me off with Moonlight. Hurt my pride quite a bit. AI was nothing like MoA. In frustration, I made an overweight, equipped the Karasawa, and just like that I won. Not be able to enjoy my victory, I went back to the older missions and practiced. I believe it's called the "eliminate intruders" mission, where the Indies pay you to stop the MTs and two ACs show up. I consider killing those two, one of the hardest missions in the game, more so than the triple threat mission. After beating that mission several times to improve my evasion, I went back to the Lost Field using a normal Quad equipped with x2 Large Rockets. My strategy consisted of overboosting whenever he fired missiles, and trying to circle him and nail him with Large Rockets. It takes a while, but it does work. The same strategy can work using the light grenade launchers(since not everyone is into Rockets).
  3. Pilot: Geist X AC: Spectral AP 8038 EP 5844 / 8207 Core WP 3937 / 3990 Legs WP 1359 / 2450 Weight 5612 Price 772900 Head - HD-D-9066 Core - XCL-01 Arms - AN-25 Legs - LN-501 R Arm Weapon - WG-HG235 L Arm Weapon - LS-99-MOONLIGHT R Back Weapon - WR-S50 L Back Weapon - WR-M70 Boosters - B-T001 Generator - GBG-XR FCS - TRYX-QUAD Optional Parts Radar Option Missile Jammer Balancer Option Absorber Option Charge Expander FCS Accelerator Shell Screen Energy Screen Energy Amplifier Performance Offensive Point - 6577 Defensive Point - 3645 Stability - 2454 Mobility - 8740 - Moving Speed - 4510 -Turning Speed - 1230 - Rising Ability - 3000 Support System - 1606 - Radar Range - 612 - FCS Performance - 994 Overall - 23022 Grade - Great I've beaten every mission on the first AC and ACPP with Spectral. It has enough firepower to manage on the longer missions, since the rockets allow me to overpower MTs and ACs fairly easily. In the Arena I finish off mid and light weights with the Hand gun, and use rockets to deal with heavy weights. The hardest arena fight for me in ACPP is actually Tiamat because of it's high shell defense. I have to switch tactics from Run n Gun to Laser Blade + Rocket combos. If we ever seen an online ACPP for PSN, this AC will definitely be making an appearance.
  4. I didn't start playing high level competition until I played Project Phantasma on my friend's Japanese PS. The rules he went by weren't all that different from the ones my friends and I played with; you only had 1 AC to choose from, and you couldn't use overweight/humanoid plus. Maps were random, which never seemed all that random. The only thing we changed was that we had double elimination tournaments instead of single elimination tournaments. Sticking with one AC design made the matches a lot more interesting and really forced you to up your game. As for what was a competitive design, it really varied on the game, and the (link) stages within that game. Some players seemed top notch until they got to the satellite stage and fell off the board, lol. Even though this is more of a player issue than a design issue, I think it's ideal to have an AC that can fight in different environments well...unless you're very comfortable with your AC. Personally I think that RJs are the most effective all terrain type, but even they have bad stages. In AC1 the missile lock on trick dominated tournament play. Virtually all competitive ACs were equipped with missiles. You could get away with using a caterpillar because the high shell defense was a big benefit. However, as soon as overweight and plus came into the picture, all tanks except LC-HTP-AAA weren't viable. It was all about the speedy humanoid legs with the bulky core and arms. This was pretty much the formula for all three games, although it was very exploitable, due to the poor stability. In ACPP the missile lock on trick was removed, which was bad for tanks, but luckily they got the GB-XTL so they didn't have to rely on sniping as much. The weapons I saw used most often by good players were the Magazine, Finger, The Green Rifle, The PPk Laser Rifle, and the Laser Cannon(WC-IR24). The most popular tournament design I saw was the Laser Cannon on Quads, but I don't think it was the most effective. Again when Overweight and plus are introduced, players were almost always using humanoid with Dual Laser Cannons. It was the cheapest build by far, and unlike Double Grenade Launchers there was more ammo, less weight, and faster reload. In ACMOA the PP weapons were nerfed, and a few AC1 parts were buffed. With the added weight on the PP parts, a lot of players switched from the Quad w/Laser Cannons, to Humanoid and RJ w/Missiles, but some just stuck with Quads. The new parts weren't as broken. Overall there was more variety in design in MOA than the other games. This also held true for the Plus and Overweight designs. I do remember lots of people were using the Heavy RJ legs. I'm not really a fan of the new games, because they're slower than the older games, and I don't feel like I can move with the same precision. Despite that, players still seem to have the same shortcomings; Some players appear to be really, good, until they play on a map their not used to. Then they become really bad. That happens a lot in Smash and in AC games, but not so much in VO games.
  5. The question is how effective the Phantasma laser shower is against Nineball's flight mode. When Nineball fly's away, the laser shower shouldn't hit, but when he gets close enough to rain down laser shots and machine gun shots, he should get hit by it. My vote is still for the Phantasma over Nineball. The lightweight AC is relatively weak...but in terms of it's shell defense it's not that different from NS. That AC can take 4 large missiles(L201) and still have a sliver of AP left over. NS has very good energy defense, but really bad shell defense. Glad you liked the vid. I have another one where I beat Nineball Seraph with just rockets, but there's this very annoying logo slapped in front of the video so you can't see anything.
  6. There were some very power MTs in the Generation 1 games. The giant monster MT, and those Unmanned MTs in AC1 to name a few. Generally speaking, ACs have always been faster, had more firepower and more defense. If MTs were playable in the same game I'd balance them by giving them several times more ammo(to duplicate the almost endless ammo enemy MTs seem to have), making the ammo much cheaper, and making them much, much cheaper to fix. Otherwise I wouldn't have much incentive to use them.
  7. It would be nice if we could play generation 1 Armored Core games online through PSN or XBL. Virtually everyone on Kaillera cheats and mods the weapons. Worse yet, they're so bad at the game they lose with the modded weapons. If there are any AC, PP, or MOA tournaments, I'm interested. Otherwise, meh. These new games aren't as fast. I'd rather lay waste to people in VOOT.
  8. I've been looking for Stinger's theme music, but I can't find it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxHPkrYZtWo I'm talking about the music that plays in this video at 1:37. Does anyone know where I can find it? The OST's don't seem to have this as his theme, just the music that plays as you fight him. Thanks in advanced.
  9. How to Defeat "Destroy Base Generator" Mission with a Caterpillar, by Geist X. Destroy Base Generator - 48,000 C Requester: Chrome Advance Payment/Reward: 20,000 C Reward for Successful Mission: 28,000 C "Head for lunar base "Roa". Roa has been unmanned and abanonded for a long time, but Murakumo has already dispatched forces intending to revive the base facilities. There are now no other usable lunar bases, so Roa is effectively in control of the entire Moon. But a full frontal attack would deal a severe blow to the base itself. So this is our request. We want you to infiltrate the base alone and destroy the generator. Our main force will then retake the base in the confusion. Do not bother unnecessarily with enemies, but remaining ACs will be troublesome in the future, so try to destroy them all on sight. We will reward you for each additional kill. The Murakumo are scheming to use the moon as a base for a terrible plot. The full story is unclear, but desperate men will stop at nothing. This is a very dangerous job, but we have faith that you can do it. We are counting on you, Raven." Territory of Military Operation: Moon base "Roa" Enemy Strength: Unknown. Conditions for Successful Mission: Destruction of generator. This is that mission where after you destroy the generator, a timer appears and it gives you 2 minutes to escape. Most people don't have any problem beating this mission, because they just use Humanoid, Quads, or Reverse Joint ACs, so they don't have any problems. However, the Die Hard Tank/Tread/Caterpillar users pretty much hate this mission, because it's seemingly impossible for all but the LC-HTP-AAA to beat this mission before the time runs out. Fear not though, for I've beaten every single mission in this game with a Caterpillar, and this one can be beaten just the same. As usual, Tank ACs have to be a lot more clever than other ACs in order to win. From the point you enter the mission you take several elevators. The mission starts talking a very long elevator downwards. What you want to do is look out for are the elevators that you have to take to get UPWARDS. Remember this is going TO the generator, not coming back from it. Anytime you take an elevator upwards, you want to press the button to send it downwards and quickly move off of the elevator. There's one relatively small elevator earlier on, and there's a very large one before you get to the generator. Make sure that after you get to the top you send these two elevators back down. Why? ACs drop to the ground in freefall much faster than the elevators descend. This isn't a problem for the other ACs who move fast enough on the ground, however Tanks aren't fast enough to make up the difference. Anytime a tank tries to descend on the elevators they fail the mission. If the elevators are already on the bottom your Tank AC can just drop to the bottom. This saves a LOT of time. This will give you the extra time you need to escape. Also remember than Tank ACs move faster with short boosts off the ground than they do by simply rolling forward, so it's a good idea to boost as much as you after you destroy the generator. Thanks for reading.
  10. When I say Large missile I'm not talking about the AT, since it's impossible to have 24 of them. I'm talking about the L201 that Cacophanus uses in his second vid to kill Nineball Seraph. The one that comes equipped with 12 per unit. 24 of those won't kill Phantasma. But actually that vid you posted is a perfect example of what I'm talking about; 5 AT Missiles, 9830 damage each; 10 Karasawa beams, 1550 damage each(more since he has the optional part equipped); 7 Grenades, 3520 damage each; That's 49150 + 15500 + 24640 = 89290 damage in order to kill Phantasma. In Cacophanus's video against Nineball Seraph he only connects with 4 L201 missiles which do 4300 damage each. That's only 17200 damage. Phantasma has at least 5 times as much AP, though it's hard to tell for certain because it has more shell defense, and extremely high energy defense as well. With 2 Magazines and a Karasawa it's impossible to kill Phantasma. In AC mode NS's boost speed is slow. I thought he was fast at first too, until I realized I was boosting straight up and he was boosting directly towards me on the ground. Anyone who tries to fight NS on the ground notices how slow he is. He can be outran with any AC with LN-501 legs. In this vid you'll notice that when Phantasma starts moving(not when he stops to attack) he's impossible to flank running with the LN-501 legs. In order to accurately compare ground speed, you'd have to use the same AC against both bosses, and the player would have to fight on the ground instead of hanging back from a distance and safely spamming missiles. I'd upload some old vids of mine, but I can't find any DVD to MPEG converting freeware that doesn't put it's icon in the middle of the MPEG. So without more accurate visual evidence I won't argue the speed point in detail, because NS's airspeed is still insane. The problem is that NS takes most of his damage when he's in jet mode, from missiles...and Phantasma does most of his damage, from missiles. I can't see Nineball Seraph's weak missiles doing that much damage to Phantasma considering how high his defense is. Nineball Seraph's flashiness doesn't overcome Phantasma's defense.
  11. Just a commentary on Mechanics. One of the biggest changes from AC to ACPP was laser blades with Rebel Modification. In AC, the Laser Blades gave off a 1 dimensional glow when they hit an object. In ACPP they actually had a 3-D spherical proximity blast. Moonlight had the smallest one, with the two weakest blades having the largest ones. The LS-3303 became more useful for missions because when fired against the wall, the 3 proximity blasts could do more damage. In the first AC game, Caterpillars were very underpowered. In order to be effective against other ACs they have to constantly fly, and they weren't able to stay airborne for very long. Project Phantasma introduced the GBX-TL, which had an extended red zone. Other ACs couldn't use it unless they wanted to be weighed down, making it somewhat of an exclusive thing to caterpillars. This allowed Caterpillars to remain airborn for much longer, making them much more viable in PvP in ACPP.
  12. Assuming they're just like they are when you fight them in each respective game, then Phantasma would win. Phantasma has far more AP than Nineball Seraph does. Phantasma's energy defense is extremely high, and his shell defense is a lot better. You can kill Nineball with less than 12 Large Missiles. 24 won't kill Phantasma. Phantasma can take over 15 moonlight waves without dying. Phantasma's ground speed is faster than Nineball's ground speed. That is to say, Phantasma can back up faster than Nineball can boost forward. You can outrun Nineball with the LN-501 legs, but you can't keep up with Phantasma when he scoots away. Nineball is only more mobile in jet mode. Nineball would end up getting taken down by Phantasma's missiles, rather than the Laser Shower. Nineball can't deal with the long range, ridiculous damage PP AT Missile. Not considering Phantasma has an infinite number. As a boss Phantasma is more formidable. People take for granted how difficult Phantasma is to beat, because most people used the AT and the Finger to beat Phantasma, and with those weapons, which are completely broken in Project Phantasma, he's pretty easy to take down. However, trying beating Phantasma without the Finger or the AT. It's a lot harder than just equipping missiles to beat Nineball. Going by AI Logic? Nineball starts blading. Phantasma backs up and does the laser shower. Nineball goes into jet mode and avoids a few hits while spamming machine gun and missiles. Laser Shower Stops. Phantasma spams missiles and ATs. Nineball starts taking heavy damage. Nineball goes to the ground to start blading. It repeats until Nineball is dead. Nineball can't get past Phantasma's defense. Nineball definitely looks cooler, but Phantasma wins by a lot. Too much AP and Defense.
×
×
  • Create New...