Mechadon

Thanks a ton for the critique and reply Accursed! That was very detailed and I'm glad you took the time to write it all out. In my experience from past AC games, the best way to learn more about the game is from people like you I sorta found out by accident how awesome rockets are in this game. I was never a fan of them in previous interations because of how difficult they were to use (at least in a PvP environment...well, ok, PvCPU in my case ). But in this game, they are just so much fun to use. And they make a lot more sense in this game as opposed to previous titles. After playing around with them more, I'm sort of glad I couldn't fit missiles on this thing. At times like this, I wish I had a PS3 and not a 360. I'm not sure when I'll be able to try out online gameplay so I don't have feel for loadouts in relation to teamplay or PvP. Again, this is where outside input really helps. So far in offline, I've been able to wreck just about all of the AI ACs without too much trouble with this design. Actually I finished the last story mission with this loadout and got S-Rank with 2/3 subquests completed. I found that interesting as the pulsegun/shotgun/rocket combo at CQC range totally raped Exusia whereas my general purpose midweight biped was getting raped instead. I'll give all of your part suggestions a try . The only one I'm second-guessing right now is the switch to Surt CR114. I really liked the great AP and defense stats of the UCR-10/A, which is why I went for it. Lightweights seem to have very little room for punishment and I'm not the best dodger. But I might enjoy the extra wiggle room with the additional weight. And the 70-count recon capacity would be really fantastic. Thanks again and I'll come back with my thoughts and any potential part changes soon

Opal Frame Head: Heracles HD226 Core: UCR-10/A Arms: UAM-23/l Legs: ULG-30/L Internals FCS: KU-2T2 Generator: UGN-70/Ho Vital Booster: Orkan BT200 Recon: STK-16 Okitsu Armaments R-Arm: Berufkraut SG54 L-Arm: Distel GT22 Shoulder: KO-8C4/Shkiper UW: -/- R-Bay: Oxeye HG25 L-Bay: Bluet PG12 Color Scheme All Frame/All Unit --------Main: 87/129/143 --------Sub1: 207/39/59 --------Sub2: 30/30/30 --------Glow: 0/14/51 Head --------Main: 207/39/59 --------Sub1: 87/129/143 --------Sub2: 30/30/30 --------Glow: 41/87/207 Well it's been years since I last posted a design. I haven't seriously made something since...probably Last Raven I guess. I recently finished up the story/order missions and bought most of the parts (I guess there are more I have to unlock from collecting scraps) and this was one design I was messing with while completing missions. I was having a lot of fun messing around with the heavy RL legs jumping off of buildings in missions so I thought I'd try to make a lightweight RJ-centered design. Right now the armament is centered around mid-to-close range combat. I can switch out to Oxeye/Distel if I need some mid-range peppering orBerufkraut/Bluet for some quite satisfying close-range destruction. Did I mention how fun pulse guns are? They're pretty beastly at close range and they work pretty well in unison with shotguns, I've found. I don't know if there's a better combination of shotgun/pulse gun yet as I'm not familar with the part set yet. I'm still experimenting around though. Initially I wanted to fit some AS or Short-range missile on this, but I couldn't without changing the frame or the weapons. I've come to really like rockets in this game though. They still take some skill to use against anything that moves faster than a tank (for me anyways) but they can wreck some havoc at close range if you time the shots right. I tried to build the frame around speed with decent defense. I don't have the numbers off-hand but I think CD/TE defense is hovering around 500-600~ish. The lightweight RJ legs work really well for filling in a distance gap so long as you've got structures to propell yourself forward/backward with. Out in the open they lose some of their effectiveness I think. In such cases I usually resort to jumping a lot to keep the high ground. I'm not sure about the recon units I chose though. For most of the game I've been using the hovering type that follow you around but on a core with a low recon capacity. The UCR-10/A has a pretty decent capacity so I thought I'd give the sticky-type recon units a try. Anyways, there ya go. I have no idea how this thing would fair in an online environment since I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. So any input would definitely be great

Holy damn. It would be nice if the publisher translated this for English (and otherwise) players. Because the manual that comes with the game is fucking pathetic (well, I think that's a trend with many modern games these days).

Thanks for this Niji. I was wondering if they would end up nerfing shotguns. They're pretty insane right now. I'm happy to see the gens got Output boosts and that Laser rifles got a charge-up time reduction.

I've run into a couple of bugs where my AC will get stuck in some sort of invisible trap on a few occasions. I'll just be bouncing around off of walls and shit and then get stuck in the flying/gliding animation on a floor. It's ruined a couple of really good runs of mine :/. I've also ran into another bug where the sound and game will stutter quiet abruptly for about half a second. It only seems to do it on the Urban maps though...weird. It only seems to happen when I first start playing too. And then just recently while doing Story Mission 5 (or 6...I can't remember but its the one where you gotta dodge the UW laser guy), the text from the operator's conversation got stuck on the screen and the audio stayed permanently lowered in volume. Anyone else had problems like these? They haven't really ruined my experience with the game but they do seem to occur on a consistent basis.

I attempted to make one that looks like my avatar. It sorta looks similar but it's really flat and rough around the egdes. Certainly not of the same caliber as the sandwhich . Though I just realized that there are extra decals you can buy, so I'll likely end up redoing it a few times before I'm happy with it.

Yea I just noticed that yesterday. It changed how I manage my energy and, overall, approach fights. I just wish switching between combat and scan mode was a little more seamless (I don't need to hear "switching to combat mode...switching to scan mode" every time).

I got the game yesterday and I've played it probably 5 or 6 hours so far. I'm not going to go into a huge likes/dislikes speil (though I certainly could...I'll save that for a blog post ). Suffice to say I'm really enjoying it though I still wish they didn't cut out certain features from singleplayer-only players. Anyways, just dropping in here to say that, if I can save up enough monies to get a gold account sometime, I'd really enjoy playing with you guys

Thanks for the reply Niji. I don't understand why they decided to lock out certain features for offline players :/. I'll have to mull it over a bit more...

I'm going to be in town tomorrow and I'm really on the fence on whether or not I should pick this up. I've been playing AC ever since the first demo disc for AC1 and, save for AC4, I've picked up every new game very close to it's release. Mostly I'm worried about whether or not I'll need a XBL gold connection just to play the singleplayer missions. I do want to try out the multiplayer stuff too since this iteration seems to be really focused on it. But I just can't afford to pay for the gold account for a while. What do you guys think? I really would love to get back into the AC action again after years of hiatus

Ah man, really? I haven't been keeping up with news on the game for a while now, but that's what I was afraid of. I have a 360 but no extra funds to afford a XBL Gold membership right now. Is a gold account required just to play the single player story mode? Having to connect to the internet at any capacity to play single player is pretty fucking stupid, if that is indeed how I'm understanding it.

Trying to decide if I should pick this up or not. I won't be able to do any of the multiplayer but I'm really interested to see how the game plays. I guess that really shouldn't be a big worry for me though...I haven't played multiplayer in any AC game before

Having an AC game release in the states (or anywhere but Japan) first would definitely be a little odd. If that were to happen, I'm pretty sure AC:V would be the first to do such a thing. So I can understand the skepticism of such a release date.

Heh, yea I remember trying to Gold rank everything in NB. Probably one of the most frustrating things to chase in the entire series. My memory is pretty fuzzy, so I can't really remember details. But I loaded up my save a few months ago and apparently I went over 999 sorties before gold ranking everything X_X. I didn't really care for NB as a whole in general...but I digress. Sorry for being completely useless in your own pursuit, but reading your post just jogged loose a few memories that I just had to share . If I remember correctly, I was able to get gold ranks on most areas on my own. For the areas that I did have problems with, I'm sure I just consulted the then-community at the time for help (most of those guys are probably gone now). Have you bothered to check Gamefaqs yet? Looks like there's one guide there that might be of some use.

Solid blades...interesting. Apart from parry blades, I'm surprised it took so long for such a concept to make it into an AC game.

Oh, I see. Well maybe I'll be able to find some free time to hop in soon.

Looking forward to some new details from the beta gameplay

Very cool intro and probably up there with some of my favorites from past games. The cuts in action were a little odd, but I don't think it really detracted from it. FROM manages to put more and more detail in these intros with each release too. I agree with TMRaven, some parts of the vid looked very, very real (especially when the Tank AC is rolling through that alleyway). I wonder if the music used in the intro will be anything like the in-game soundtrack? I hope so because, from what I've heard so far, I think I'll like it way better than the soundtrack in 4 and FA.

Heh, yea I would definitely be playing just for the fun of it. I just wouldn't want so rusty to where I would be an easy pushover . All the playing I've done in the past has just been against the AI. I did check around on prices for network adapters and they are fuckin' outrageous. I haven't looked for prices on the slim PS2s though, but I can't imagine they would cost that much more. I bought my PS2 in 2001 or 2002 and it's finally starting to show it's age. At the moment I'm waaay too poor to afford a PS3, heh. So yea, I guess I'll look around for a slim-version sometime soon, and maybe I'll join up

I went out today to buy a new PS2 controller just to see if I could give this a try...and then I realized that my PS2 doesn't have a network adapter :| Not that it would really matter anyways. I'm pretty sure I would get stomped by you guys

I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I assume that the new save method is mostly because multiplayer is going to be a large element of the game, right? I wasn't sure how I felt about that at first, but then I realized it might be because of the major focus on multiplayer now. What I was worried about was, let's say, 5 or 10 years down the line when most people will have forgotten about the game. Would I still be able to access my save data? The new generator mechanics should definitely serve to slow the game down a bit as well as put more focus on tactical-style of play. I do like the sound of that...hopefully it will serve the gameplay well. *edit* Just watched it. Hell yes that RJ was badass

Right, that makes sense to me. Granted throwing that third damage type into the equation has sorta scrambled my brains. But I guess what I was trying to say was that the decay stat would most likely affect impact and velocity (essentially exactly what you just said), and not so much the damage types themselves (be that explosion radii and/or explosion damages...or etc). Which seems like a very plausible and interesting mechanic. That would be pretty sweet actually. Seems like that's what the new damage types imply.

I heard about this through the Doom community. I voted for Doom...and I didn't look at any of the other era games. If I had known, I definitely would have voted for AC3

Oh that's true, I remember hearing that the guy that the weapon was named after left. I forgot about that. I think the reason I never really considered them the same was just because of the name difference. As far as behavior is concerned, yea it's pretty much the AC4-equivalent of the old Karasawa. There's just that name difference that sorta disconnects the two weapons for me, especially when they kept the Moonlight (name) and not the Karasawa (name). Those two weapons in particular are sort of staple names that have stuck with the franchise for so long that it just seems odd to leave them out in future games. I never really thought about it until now, but maybe the guy who left didn't want his name to be referenced in the new games? That seems like it could be one plausible reason why they decided to remove the name Karasawa from the game's usual hi-end laser rifle.

I guess I'm basically of the same opinion as most here; it really all depends on the quality of the first game. Of course a sequel to a well-made game can still be made badly I always thought that AC3 to LR were considered the same "lineage" because they used the same part models. But I guess that's not really right at all. The mechanics and numbers were all way different. I remember hoping that Nexus would play like Silent Line except that it would look nicer and have a ton more parts. Although I did enjoy the games after SL, I probably would have enjoyed them even more if they used the same mechanics as SL. But I digress. Anyways, provided ACV is a great game worthy of a sequel, additional content would be awesome to see. I'm sure they could very easily make some new missions and new parts through DLC, which would be great to see (as long as it's not on-disc DLC...that concept is beyond stupid). Some sprinkling of free, new parts DLC every so often would be cool. If they make DLC that you have to pay for, I hope that the content given will be worth it though. Not just 3 new maps and a few new parts or whatever...it should be something substantial like a new mission story arc or a large number of new parts or both. Beyond that if they added way more to the game, I think an actual, physical sequel would be a great thing to see.