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Who is the best Ace Combat protagonist? This poll is closed. |
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| Cipher |
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79 | 32.24% |
| Phoenix |
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9 | 3.67% |
| Mobius 1 |
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84 | 34.29% |
| William Bishop--lol get out |
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24 | 9.80% |
| SHOOT VISARI |
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49 | 20.00% |
| Total: | 245 votes | ||
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Given his vast wealth and experience in the mercenary industry, Cipher is more likely now the one behind the scenes buying and selling all these warplanes and bombs to future Ace Combat protagonists.
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Jan 16, 2017 06:22
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| # ? May 9, 2024 22:08 |
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Cipher is a president of Osea. Undercover. Don't ask why and for whom.
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Jan 16, 2017 08:30
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Cipher is a Time Lord. His TARDIS takes the form of a usable, armed vehicle, always a plane or similar; he's kinda like the War Doctor. His next regeneration takes the form of a young rookie not very far from where that one operated, training out on a quiet little stretch of beach paradise. His regeneration after that is where things get interesting, where the powers that be apparently decided to make him live through a good chunk of a regular life before he regained access to his TARDIS. Born to a family with a shipping business, instead choosing to join the Imperial Navy as an officer until an accident claimed the life of his older brother and I think you can see where I'm going with this. 
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Jan 16, 2017 09:43
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Cipher, or, if we're going to use his given name, Dash Rendar officially retired from service after the rousing success Operation Fighter's Honor and returned to his family, though for their safety they were placed into the Strangereal equivalent of Witness Protection and relocated to Oured, Osea where he now owns and operates one of the more popular dive bars in the Downtown Eastern District, called Crow's Nest. His eldest son, however, slightly bitter and emboldened by tales of his father's achievements, ran away and joined ISAF as Mobius One. You may have heard of him recently, he's the one who took out Stonehenge and secured Whiskey Corridor, as well as spearheaded the charge into Farbanti.
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Jan 16, 2017 20:02
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After extensive research into Osean archives, evaluations of ISAF records, numerous conversations with Emmerian authorities, and close analysis of numerous documents leaked from General Resources Ltd. systems, I have at long last been able to come to a final conclusion: The identity of Cipher is in fact but one part of the long, storied, and nearly unknown career of one William Bishop. The first records of Bishop date back to December of 1994, when a highly advanced F/A-22 Raptor bearing no recognizable national markings made an emergency landing at Valais Air Base in southern Ustio, shortly after the base reported the passing of an unusually strong electrical storm. Documents from that period (Subsequently heavily classified) report that the pilot claimed to be a Lt. Colonel in the US Air Force (An organization that does not appear to exist in any extant records), and that he’d recently been involved in the so-called “Trinity Crisis” (An event with no record of taking place). Clearly delusional, the pilot was placed in quarantine on base, and his plane interned. Several months later, the base found itself at the heart of the Belkan War, when numerous Belkan airstrikes were sent to destroy the last vestige of Ustian resistance. Bishop, at this point nicknamed “Cipher” due to his lack of a documented past, offered his services to the Ustian Air Force in exchange for his freedom. Having no other choice, the Ustian authorities complied, and Bishop was officially transferred to the mercenary 66th Air Force Unit, otherwise known as Galm Squadron, and given a relatively old and obsolete aircraft. Shortly thereafter, Operation: CROSSBOW commenced, and Bishop began his famed service with Galm Squadron, ending the Belkan War with hundreds of confirmed air and ground kills and participating in the final action against the infamous terrorist organization “A World With No Boundries”. Though the few records of Bishop’s service with the Ustio Air Force end here, after delving through ancient FCU email records I managed to find the next clue-an official offer from one Col. Ulrich Olsen to join the Federation of Central Usea Allied Air Force as the head of the newly formed “Scarface” squadron. Evidently scarred by his actions against Belka and former wingman Larry “Pixy” Foulke, it apparently took some time for accept the offer, and when he did, he did so with a new callsign, reborn after the Belkan War: Phoenix. Shortly thereafter, Bishop was once again thrown into the cauldron of war. Though records of Bishop’s actions before and after the Continental War are scarce, undoubtedly owing to the numerous wars and crises that struck the continent over the decade, the few files that do remain (And aren’t still under lock and key) confirm that once again Bishop played a key role throughout the conflict, striking devastating blows against rebel forces. For the next six years, Bishop disappeared. Whether this was intentional or not is impossible to be determined, as most of the relevant records were destroyed in the aftermath of Ulysses Day. Indeed, the only strand linking Bishop to the world during this time period are tax records indicating the residence of one W. Bishop on Newfield Island in 2002, though this connection is tenuous at best. Bishop’s most famous actions arguably came during the Second Usean Continental War. Though apparently retired at the beginning of the conflict, Bishop was mustered into service along with a wide number of other FCU veterans following ISAF’s devastating losses to Erusea in the opening stages of the war. Assigned to the ISAF aircraft carrier Fort Grace, Bishop was subsequently made the sole member of the previously defunct Mobius Squadron. Though the squadron was intended to be filled with other veteran pilots, the events of the war precluded any reinforcements from arriving-and as such, Bishop began flying under the soon to be famous callsign Mobius One. Now a legend three times over, Bishop apparently gave up on his attempts to retire and returned to his mercenary roots, quietly providing pilot training for countries including, but not limited to, Sapin, Nordennavic, and Osea. According to trainees assigned to Bishop’s units, Bishop was said to enjoy naming units after his first squadron command-leading to titles such as “Warpup Squadron”, “RedWolf Squadron”, and, most famously, “Wardog Squadron”. (Notably, though there are some who believe Bishop himself may have taken command of Wardog Squadron during the Circum-Pacific War, there are few, if any, records that cooperate this conclusion-with the caveat, of course, that research is currently ongoing (However it should be noted that there is at least one Osean mechanic formerly stationed on the Kestral who distinctly remembers an old pilot that several squadron members jokingly called “Kid”). Now an old man and the veteran of four (Possibly five) wars, the few public records of Bishop’s correspondence indicate his intention to retire to a peaceful neutral country, specifically either Aurelia, Verusa, or Emmeria. Though there are a few leads that indicate Bishop may have taken on a brief consulting role for the Aurelian Air Force around the end of the decade, Emmerian immigration and property records definitively place one W. Bishop as having entered the country in 2012, and having bought a house in the suburbs of Gracemeria later that year alongside Gracemeria Air Force Base. Pilots, maintainers, and other personnel assigned to the base have often recalled tales of an older civilian hanging around the base with the explicit permission of base authorities, often chatting up new pilots and giving advice (No Emmerian authorities have thus far agreed to be interviewed about the identity of this individual). Though few remember the man’s name, nearly all remember how he was nicknamed “Talisman” for his habit of acting as a good-luck charm for the base. Even more, of course, remember how he volunteered to fly a spare fighter during the Invasion of Gracemeria, subsequently leading the now-famed Garuda Squadron to some of Emmeria’s most stunning victories over the invading Estovakians. As time goes on, the records of Bishop become more fragmented and less reliable. From his very first appearance in Ustio, Bishop was known to be an isolated loner, often forgoing public activities in favor of private study or reflection. Even in the aftermath of his greatest victories, Bishop preferred to step into the background, allowing his actions to speak for themselves. His public appearances were rare and far between, and after the culmination of his military career became effectively non-existent-with one notable exception. On July 21st, 2029, General Resource Ltd. welcomed Bishop as the guest of honor at a public conference regarding the future of jet combat and future warfare. During the conference, the few recordings publically released by General Resources indicate that Bishop spoke at great length about his experiences in the First Continental War, particularly his record against experimental Z.O.E. fighters. After the conference, General Resources announced a partnership between Bishop and their Artificial Intelligence Division headed by Dr. Simon Cohen, working together to help develop the next generation of unmanned fighter aircraft. As a part of the announcement, Cohen speculated about the possibility of using brain scans to allow an artificial intelligence to take advantage of a living pilot’s experience and instincts. Following Cohen’s transfer to Neucom Inc, however, many of the records of this partnership were redacted or outright destroyed by General Resources, and little is known of the true extent of Bishop’s involvement. After 2029. Bishop passed into history. Little if anything is known of his activities after this point, and his current residence is unknown. Many historians have questioned whether Bishop is even alive at this point, or whether he even truly existed-after all, how could one man play such a pivotal role in so many of the world’s conflicts, only to vanish into history at the conclusion of each war? In the end, we may never role the true role William Bishop played in world history. Perhaps, after a long wait, he finally made his way back home-but until definitive evidence is found, we can only question whether William Bishop is still alive. Acebuckeye13 fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Jan 17, 2017 |
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Jan 17, 2017 01:11
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No reference to Bishop's most famous QTE, 0/10.
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Jan 17, 2017 01:44
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Psycho Landlord posted:No reference to Bishop's most famous QTE, 0/10. Operation: Fist Pumps for Freedom is so highly classified that even discussing it is just asking for seven different intelligence agencies to get on your rear end
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Jan 17, 2017 01:47
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Acebuckeye13 posted:After extensive research into Osean archives Well, this wins my vote.
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Jan 17, 2017 03:17
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It is the best one so far, no doubt.
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Jan 17, 2017 04:13
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I'll settle for the " " award for being the first to bring up Dash if it means his one wins, yes.Also, there's one last thing I want to bring up before the final episode. In this week's video Crow mentioned that, much like whichever Yellow you bag over Stonehenge is canonically Yellow 4 (even if you shot the lead plane, or took XMAAs along like an idiot and bagged three or four to make up for it), whichever Yellow is left over for last in the final fight here is supposed to be 13. Personally, I don't buy that. I'm not going to say much because it'll spoil something from the final mission I'm sure he's going to bring up, but the game can differentiate between otherwise-identical planes in situations like this when it wants to. It didn't for Stonehenge Offensive because it'd be pretty drat annoying for a first-time player to find which of the five planes isn't still running godmode.exe and focus on them, and it didn't for Emancipation because they're supposed to be rookies who transferred in to get more flight experience (and even if they aren't, Mobius One/the player is good enough to take on most of them with ease at that point). But it can when it matters, and it's my belief that it does here. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that the last Yellow Crow shot down just sort of blew to pieces in mid air when it took an XMAA to the nose, whereas an earlier one burst into flames but remained intact as it slowly fell back down to Earth. I want to believe that one is supposed to be Yellow 13. One thing Crow hasn't really touched on is that if you're holding down the target button to focus the camera on your current target, it'll stay on them even if they get shot down, and while Zero (and 5, for that matter) will switch you over to whatever target the game targeted for you to after that, here in 04 you can stay focused on the destroyed target as long as you want until you let go of the button. It's overall a much more satisfying experience if you focus on the plane that's on fire and slowly falling to the ground rather than one that just blows the gently caress up where it is, which is why I want to believe they programmed one specific plane in the group (i.e. Yellow 13) to do something other than just blow the gently caress up. The only problem is being able to tell them apart to make sure you actually save 13 for last; I know I got lucky on my first playthrough and got him last, but I also recall expecting it in my second or third playthrough and ending up with a guy who disintegrated.
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Jan 17, 2017 06:42
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Doesn't the final yellow get a massive boost to his AI when he's the last one in the air? Or am I imagining things?
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Jan 17, 2017 07:24
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Psycho Landlord posted:Doesn't the final yellow get a massive boost to his AI when he's the last one in the air? Or am I imagining things? It does indeed. You can see in the most recent video that I had to work my rear end off to kill the final Yellow after dispatching the first four with relative ease (for an end-game boss squadron). This was basically consistent across every run I did at Farbanti. The only time it didn't happen was when I killed the last two Yellows at the same time with an XMAA (in the garbage audio run) as seen here: 
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Jan 17, 2017 07:51
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Yeah I thought so. I dunno, that might be a pretty good case for it being 13, is what I'm getting at. Although I guess some random no-name Yellow suddenly fighting like a man possessed and then dying anonymously while his already dead squad leader is credited with his actions would be suitably tragic for Ace Combat.
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Jan 17, 2017 07:55
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To this discussion, I can only offer two things to say: 1) That the slowly falling plane pretty much has to be Yellow 13 as I would imagine 'blowing the gently caress up' would not allow for that handkerchief to be in it's nearly pristine condition. 2) That there is still meaning in how things ended up here (don't know if I have the words for this but...). Mobius may have already killed 13, but there were still 3 survivors (at the time...). If they had survived and shot down Mobius, then what 13 and 4 had made through their efforts would have survived, their 'spirit' would have lived on, both in 'Yellow Squadron' as a group and in those pilots specifically. But, as it turned out, well...13 seems to have been rather insular, only opening himself up to his friends ( a group that seems to have consisted of his fellow Yellows and, formerly, the Boy and Girl). A select group that was killed off entirely by Mobius One. Both of our previous pilots seem to have left the battlefield after their 'final ace' (Cipher and his buddy, Phoenix and his A.I. mirror), whereas Mobius (from what I gather) has a highly successful career after the second Continental War. This is the final tragedy of Yellow 13: to have his friends and family picked off one by one, to be killed and have the last vestiges of his legacy killed in turn and worst of all, to be reduced to merely being one of the first names in Mobius One's illustrious career instead of a final, shining achievement. Were it not for the Storyteller Boy, there would be no 'lasting mark' on the world to prove he existed. TL;DR You think tragedy would be watching 13's plane fall to earth? I reckon this is bad enough.
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Jan 17, 2017 10:07
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Psycho Landlord posted:Doesn't the final yellow get a massive boost to his AI when he's the last one in the air? Or am I imagining things? It's possible, but I'd imagine it's just as well, uh, imagined because once there's only one left you're necessarily forced to focus on the guy who's on your tail - when there's even one other, you can always break off from trying to turn things around on that guy and shoot the other guy who's trying to get you from a different angle that could be more effective, but also makes him more vulnerable if you're paying attention. Keep in mind though I haven't played this game in at least four years, the reason for which precludes any wish to play it now to make any extensive analysis on the Yellow's AI in Farbanti, while Crow does have some solid, recent evidence that the last one's AI does indeed step it up at that point. OddHaberdasher posted:To this discussion, I can only offer two things to say There's nothing worthwhile I can add to this, I just want to say this is a good post.
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Jan 17, 2017 23:03
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Kadorhal posted:once there's only one left you're necessarily forced to focus on the guy who's on your tail Maybe it's also from fewer Yellow units translating to more processing power per unit as you shoot them down, a la Space Invaders?
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Jan 18, 2017 15:53
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NobleSixFour posted:Maybe it's also from fewer Yellow units translating to more processing power per unit as you shoot them down, a la Space Invaders? Yellow Squadron was a successor to the ZOE project having a whole squadron of linked planes under the AI's command at once, Yellow 13 and 4 and all the other humans we saw at the air base in cutscenes were a smoke screen to make sure people - like, say, a civilian boy who befriends them - didn't realize what's really going on (because there's not enough money involved for everyone to be at the "bomb the poo poo out of innocent people for a simple coverup" level yet like with what happened after the Night Raven thing). Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 10:28 on Jan 19, 2017 |
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Jan 19, 2017 04:36
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OddHaberdasher posted:TL;DR You think tragedy would be watching 13's plane fall to earth? I reckon this is bad enough. If it helps, it's not really a tragedy. 13 did his best, it's just that he and everybody he knows is fated to get wrecked because they all happened to be on the same battlefield as you.
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Jan 19, 2017 04:51
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Kadorhal posted:(because there's not enough money involved for everyone to be at the "bomb the poo poo out of innocent people for a simple coverup" level yet like with what happened after the Night Raven thing). You say that, but then you remember the bombing mission sent to San Salvacion after the Yellows left the sky. EDIT: By which I mean, that would destroy any evidence that the "pilots" were evacuated before the actual attack, hypothetically. Good Dumplings posted:If it helps, it's not really a tragedy. 13 did his best, it's just that he and everybody he knows is fated to get wrecked because they all happened to be on the same battlefield as you. Why do you still challenge me? You can't win, it's not your destiny Like a moth that flies into the flame You won't return, you'll lose your name... OddHaberdasher fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Jan 19, 2017 |
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Jan 19, 2017 12:49
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Megalith Mission 18: Operation Judgement Day – September 26th, 2005 Epilogue & Credits Overview: A group of young Erusean officers who escaped Farbanti have fled to the Megalith ballistic missile launch facility in the Twinkle Islands, and are preparing its warheads for immediate launch. With Megalith’s vast firing range, San Salvacion, Los Canas, St. Ark, Expo City, and North Point are all in danger. Reports also indicate that the Erusean remnant plans to strike Oured, Osea as well. As Usea braces itself for another harrowing rain of death from the skies, Mobius Squadron prepares to launch.  &  Guest Commentators: As promised at the end of Ace Combat 2, I am joined once more unto the breach by ACES CURE PLANES and Cirvante.  So, standard final mission rules apply. If you would like to go into the final video blind, then this is your jumping off point. Read no further down and you won’t spoil any of the little surprises to crop up in this video. If not, then please proceed. Alright then, let’s get started.   MOBIUS SQUADRON Independent States Allied Forces Naval Air Force, 118th Tactical Air Wing, 1st Tactical Fighter Squadron Members:
Squadron Composition: F-22A Raptor (x4)* [Mobius 1 Player Determined], Rafale M (x3), EF-2000 Typhoon (x3)* [Mobius 10-12 do not appear in game] Following the official surrender of the main Erusean force at Farbanti, the ISAF Air Strike Team was consolidated into a single squadron: Mobius Squadron. Pilots previously hailing from Omega, Viper, and Halo Squadrons were reassigned to Mobius Squadron, which would now serve as the standard bearer for the ISAF Air Force and the crown jewel of Usean air power. While the squadron totaled 20 planes in all, only 13 Mobius fighters were deployed for the Megalith assault operation, Operation Judgement Day. (Extracted audio has SkyEye and other pilots identifying Mobiuses 14 through 20, though these planes never appear in game nor is the audio used in the mission).   THE STORYTELLER The final interlude before the credits reveals the truth to the audience about the Storyteller Boy and casts the frame narrative in a brand new light upon review. We’ve always known that the Storyteller “Boy” isn’t—at the time of his recounting Shattered Skies’s frame narrative, actually a boy, given how he speaks in past tense with the voice a grown man and makes it unambiguously clear several times that he is reflecting on events from days long past. What we learn from the final interlude is that the Narrator is recounting the events of the frame narrative in a letter to Mobius 1 as a grown man roughly twenty years after the end of the Second Continental War to tell his and Yellow 13 and Yellow 4’s side of the story, in the hope that Mobius 1 will write him back and in turn tell the Narrator his side of the story. Again, as with the thread title, this is the reason why I requested the special DEAR RICHARD (now the DEAR JEFFREY) thread tag for 04. (Which, in hindsight... Uh... was a lot funnier before we all found out that Lowtax beat the poo poo out of multiple women, willfully spent his entire life savings to ensure none of his ex-wives or children would see a penny of it in alimony or other court-ordered restitution and then blew his brains out with a shotgun out of pure spite, so gently caress you Rich  ). Unfortunately, given the narrative structure of the game and Mobius 1’s nature as a player cipher, we never get to see what the reply letter entails, though it can be inferred, if we’re being generous, that the gameplay half of Shattered Skies is an element of Mobius 1’s reply to the Narrator.We’re never given an exact date as to when the Narrator writes his letter to Mobius 1. It’s just assumed that it’s about 20 years later, given that the Narrator seems to be in his 30s or early 40s in that final shot. Though all we see is a hand, so we really can’t say for certain. It could even be 10 years later and the Narrator is only in his 20s, this would put the epilogue to Shattered Skies happening around the same time that Ace Combat 7's VR Mode is occuring, in 2014. We don’t know. If it’s in the 20 year range, then that has some interesting implications for main game Ace Combat 7, which is set in 2019 (14 years after Shattered Skies and 24 years after Zero). This final vignette actually ends up confirming more details about Mobius 1 as an entity in the world of Ace Combat than it does about the Narrator. Others in the thread have mentioned this, but it bears repeating. Cipher disappears. Phoenix disappears. It’s also implied that Mobius 1’s name and contact information are public record, or at least publicly searchable information. The Narrator tracking him down to write his letter proves this. Contrast that with Brett Thompson, who spent the better part of a year looking for Cipher and found nothing, not even a real name. So what are we to make of these implications the final cutscene leaves us with? Did Mobius 1 retire to a peaceful life after the war while the rest of Usea never forgot what he did for them? Did he assume a position of prominence in Usean public life in his post-war career, like a politician or military leader? Or something else entirely? We get something approaching an answer to that in Ace Combat 7's VR Mode, which sees the return of Mobius 1 to the battlefield ala Ace Combat 5's Operation Katina this time as an "old timer" pilot. But we'll get to that in due time. Either way, of all the aces across the franchise, Mobius 1 truly is the one that endured.   MEGALITH Ancient Greek, broadly, for “large stone”. A megalith is generally considered to be any large prehistorical manmade object carved or assembled from stone. Stonehenge, for example, is a megalith, as are the Maoi figures of Easter Island. This is not to be confused with the term monolith, which is, as its name implies, a single carved or constructed stone monument or artifact. The majority of megaliths which have survived into the Modern Era are burial mounds or tombs of other sorts, which used massive carved rock slabs to form the support walls and roof of the tomb before being encased in earth to form the actual mound of the burial mound. Megalith the structure follows a similar naming delineation as Stonehenge. While Stonehenge was a more refined weapons platform, Megalith is a much broader use facility and in many ways less refined than Stonehenge was. Megalith in game also looks like a singular mass of rock and concrete, like one giant stone structure in and of itself, while Stonehenge was something much more complex in its construction. As we point out in the video, Megaltih is also a slightly remodeled retread of Fortress Intolerance from Ace Combat 2. Both facilities share a similar design; a point that Assault Horizon Legacy highlights as it actually reuses several texture elements from Megalith to create its rendition of Fortress Intolerance.  AGNUS DEI It’s not often that the Ace Combat franchise dips into overt Christian references. And that’s quite odd for a game coming out of a culture that loves its inaptly appropriated Christian references and imagery as much as Japan does. Also known specifically as the “Lamb of God”, Agnus Dei is one of the many titles given to Jesus Christ in the Christian religion, specifically in Catholicism. The term appears in the Gospel of John, and is given to Jesus by John the Baptist, who exclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). It is related to the idea that Jesus offered himself up as a willing sacrificial lamb of sorts to fulfill God’s will to redeem all of humanity with his suffering and death on the cross. The Lamb ultimately became a visual shorthand for representations of Jesus in Medieval and Renaissance artwork and literature, similar to the dove representing the Holy Spirit visually in depictions of the Trinity. The liturgical text from the Roman Catholic mass was later composed into a song also titled “Agnus Dei”. The version of Agnus Dei that appears on Ace Combat’s soundtrack and plays over this mission quotes from the song/text: Agnus Dei posted:Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. The specific iteration of the song that is being referenced, however, is Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D minor, in which a rendition of Agnus Dei is featured as the symphony’s thirteenth movement. The version of Agnus Dei that most modern audiences are familiar with was composed by Samuel Barber in 1967 when he recomposed his original instrumental piece, Adagio for Strings, to feature a choral rendition of the Agnus Dei liturgy. Both Adagio for Strings and Barber’s Agnus Dei can be heard in many modern movies, TV shows, and video games, particularly in the PC game Homeworld, which uses Agnus Dei as its main theme.  REX TREMENDAE Remaining on the subject of Mozart for a moment, the “prelude” song that opens the final mission, Rex Tremendae, takes its name and lyrics from another movement from Mozart’s Requiem. Rex Tremendae is the fifth of Requiem’s fourteen movements and a part of the Sequentia section of the symphony. It is a choral movement sung in keys between G minor and D minor. The full title is Rex Tremendae Majestatis (King of Tremendous Majesty) and is yet another reference to Jesus Christ. The section of Requiem which Rex Tremendae is positioned draws heavily from Dies Irae (Days of Wrath), a Latin hymn describing the Last Judgement outlined in the Book of Revelation. Or, in short: Judgement Day. Just like Agnus Dei, Ace Combat’s Rex Tremendae also quotes from the song it is based upon: Rex Tremendae posted:Rex,  JUDGEMENT DAY The concept of Judgement Day or the Final Judgement appears in many major religions including Judaism and Islam, but is most prominent in Christianity. As its name implies, Judgement Day or the Final Judgement is in essence, the final day of the mortal world as we would know it. It is the day when God gathers the souls of all those who ever lived to determine if they are worthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven or if they will be punished in hellfire for their sins. The Final Judgement is said to be heralded by the blowing of a trumpet heard all across the world. In terms of applicable references for the game itself, this mission will either be judgement day for Erusea and its many sins during the war and the enacting of the final punishment for the rebels who have refused the surrender treaty. Or it will be Usea’s judgement day as the Erusean remnant attempts to destroy any one of a number of Usean cities with both conventional cruise missiles and a massive ICMB topped with a nuclear warhead.  HOW TO SCREW UP MEGALITH So Megalith is unique among the missions of Ace Combat 04 in that it has its own unique failure state, and “bad end” cutscene. There are two (known) ways to trigger this special failure. The first requires either a staggering display of incompetence or a lot of patience. If you let the mission timer run down to zero, a cutscene of the main ICBM launching and your allied troops declaring the mission a failure will play. There are two 30 minute blocks to this mission (before the final shutter opens and after), but the second block is only triggered by the player destroying the three generators at the end of each tunnel. The other way to get this final cutscene to play is to fly into the central tunnel after the generators are destroyed and then fly out through the final shutter without destroying the ICBM. The failure cutscene will then play and you’ll be forced to redo the mission from the beginning. Unlike Ace Combat 2, the game doesn’t rub your nose in it like if you fail to destroy the SLBM in Last Resort, however.   MEGALITH Constructed by the Eruseans in relative secrecy in the Twinkle Islands, Megalith was intended to be Erusea’s own propriety spaceguard facility to supplement the Stonehenge Turret Network, and then be repurposed into a military ballistic missile launch fortress following Ulysses Day. The facility was designed to mimic the old Fortress Intolerance facility on North Point, serving as a modernized version of the old Cold War-era nuclear bunker. Built to withstand both asteroid impact and nuclear attacks, Megalith was meant to be a last resort fortress for the Eruseans in the event of invasion or nuclear war. The Eruseans corrected the design flaws in the original Fortress Intolerance by moving the generator facilities needed to power the fortress inside the complex itself, as Fortress Intolerance itself was felled in part due to its reliance on external nuclear power facilities. Loaded for bear with a massive stock pile of conventional cruise missiles and nuclear warheads, Megalith’s largely automatic launch and reload systems meant the facility could potentially launch dozens of missiles per hour with minimal human action required. A laser targeting system was capable of “painting” fast moving targets such as asteroids or fighter planes for missile interception. Megalith saw action on July 3rd, 1999, as it launched multiple missiles to shoot down incoming fragments of Ulysses 1994XF04 as it fractured and crashed to Earth. Both the FCU and Osean Federation radar command facilities detected the launches from Megalith, revealing its presence to both governments, but in the chaos of Ulysses Day itself, the missile launches from Megalith were quickly overlooked once it was confirmed that the Eruseans were not firing on any land-based targets in some misguided act of desperate aggression. Following Ulysses Day and the subsequent economic, refugee, and governmental crisis that befall Erusea, Megalith was shuttered by the Erusean military government and placed on active standby should the need for its reactivation arise. At the outset of the Shattered Skies War, plans for Megalith’s reactivation were drawn up, but ultimately placed on the backburner after the Federal Erusean Air Force secured Stonehenge in the Delarus desert. However, after Stonehenge’s destruction by the ISAF, Megalith’s reactivation resumed with desperate haste. Located at the very center of the facility is a special ICMB launch platform capable of striking targets halfway across the planet. The objective of ISAF’s Operation Judgement day is to prevent the launch of this missile by the Eruseans.  
Kadorhal posted:Ace Number Eighteen, our final regular ace, is Smirnova. Named for Tamara Mikhaylovna Smirnova, best guess I can find about the exact date of birth being Christmas Day of 1935. Russian astronomer, staff member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Leningrad from 1966 to 1988, who discovered 135 asteroids between August 1966 and June 1984. The asteroid 5540 Smirnova, her 100th discovery, was named after her. Died in 2001, right around when this game came out, around 65 years old. 
Kadorhal posted:Of course, there's one more Ace paint scheme in this game - and I think you all can already guess who it is, it's none other than Yellow 13. His scheme is unique, much like Biela's way back at the beginning, in that you don't get it by shooting him down. Rather, his is your final reward for shooting down every other named Ace in the game and acquiring their liveries.   Tracks featured in Mission 18: DISC 2
 And here’s some background sketches or renders from the Megalith mission.          Covers of Strangereal newspapers or magazines from the Ace Combat 04 website:    Blue Skies (lyrics) Blue Skies posted:Vocals: Stephanie Cooke Stay tuned because we’re not exactly done with Ace Combat 04 yet. Coming up next, we are going to skip ahead to Ace Combat 5 very briefly for a look at the Operation Katina Arcade Mode included along with that game, which serves as an extended (and completely canon!) epilogue to Shattered Skies. So check back for “Mission 19” coming up next week! nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Oct 21, 2022 |
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Jan 21, 2017 22:22
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I love the Mobius squadron intro. E: Was this the mission where you got different voice clips if you down the Yellows in a particular order? VKing fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Jan 21, 2017 |
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Jan 21, 2017 23:02
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nine-gear crow posted:Both facilities share a similar design; a point that Assault Horizon Legacy highlights as it actually reuses several texture elements from Megalith to create its rendition of Fortress Intolerance. Ha! I was just playing AHL a month or two ago, I thought it was uncanny how similar they looked, even past the geometry. That makes a lot more sense now!!
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Jan 21, 2017 23:25
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Well that was underwhelming. I was expecting something more based on the music.
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Jan 21, 2017 23:28
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Cythereal posted:Well that was underwhelming. I was expecting something more based on the music. It's the kind of thing that loses a bit of impact when it's not you at the controls. This a simple mission, yes, but that trench run is very tense. If you pretty much anything other than yawing and very slight vertical shifts, you're very likely to smash into something. That said, I wonder if Infinity gave this the same treatment they gave Excalibur? Switching subjects, goddamn, "Blurry" STILL gives me goosebumps so many years afterAC5's release. Very excited for the next one!
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Jan 21, 2017 23:51
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Brunom1 posted:It's the kind of thing that loses a bit of impact when it's not you at the controls. Still, near as I could tell Megalith never actually shot at nine-gear. A brief dogfight against planes you've shot down several times by now that aren't even the squadron they ostensibly represent, then a few trench runs against a stationary target that doesn't shoot back.
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Jan 22, 2017 00:02
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Brunom1 posted:It's the kind of thing that loses a bit of impact when it's not you at the controls. ^^^^^^ I also think the imagery of the asteroid fragments raining down around you really justifies/brings out the music as well. It's an awesome spectacle imo.
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Jan 22, 2017 00:03
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Hace posted:^^^^^^ Even though they're not really supposed to be there, I don't think!  Unless... are there Ulysses fragments up in orbit? Could Megalith, I dunno, be using its missiles to blast them down to Earth? Cythereal posted:Still, near as I could tell Megalith never actually shot at nine-gear. A brief dogfight against planes you've shot down several times by now that aren't even the squadron they ostensibly represent, then a few trench runs against a stationary target that doesn't shoot back. Well, the legit final dog-fighting challenge is the Farbanti mission, really. This one's just meant as a cool set piece/victory lap.
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Jan 22, 2017 00:12
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Well done, Crow. Absolutely fantastic as always. Can't wait for the next one!
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Jan 22, 2017 00:20
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Brunom1 posted:Even though they're not really supposed to be there, I don't think! All aside, I look forward to Ace Combat 5: Wes Scantlin's Best-Worst DUI Arrest.
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Jan 22, 2017 00:27
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Brunom1 posted:Even though they're not really supposed to be there, I don't think! In the briefing it literally says that Megalith is able shoot asteroid fragments down that are still in orbit. The lasers you see shoot out of it is it scanning for fragments to hit and send raining down on Usea.
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Jan 22, 2017 00:32
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Hace posted:In the briefing it literally says that Megalith is able shoot asteroid fragments down that are still in orbit. The lasers you see shoot out of it is it scanning for fragments to hit and send raining down on Usea. Ah, I think I didn't hear that bit.
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Jan 22, 2017 00:33
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Congratulations on finishing this game as well and I can't wait for you to start on Ace Combat 5 proper, which is my overall favourite game in the series.
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Jan 22, 2017 01:36
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Cythereal posted:Well that was underwhelming. I was expecting something more based on the music. Crow ruined it by not hitting the afterburner for the entire mission and never letting go  Looking forward to reliving Ace Combat 5. Of all the AC's it's what I would call the best, in no small part because it did a lot of things different than all the previous entries.
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Jan 22, 2017 01:54
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The Blurry teaser for AC5 will never not be hilarious.
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Jan 22, 2017 01:57
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Psycho Landlord posted:The Blurry teaser for AC5 will never not be Fixed that for you. Fight me! 
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Jan 22, 2017 02:00
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The only thing disappointing about the Ace Combat 5 trailer is that at no point in the game do you actually fight literal demons. Spoilers I guess?
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Jan 22, 2017 02:25
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I can't wait to be reunited with my little buddy, Grimm.
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Jan 22, 2017 02:43
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yeah the fact megalith don't have any defences other than the yellows was a letdown.
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Jan 22, 2017 03:08
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I'm not sure how many times I watched that AC5 trailer back when I learned about the game. I think I've got large chunks of it memorized even. cum historia mutat valde Razgriz revelat ipsum primum daemon scelestus est
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Jan 22, 2017 03:10
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| # ? May 9, 2024 22:08 |
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Thank you, everyone again. So yeah we're not quite done yet with Ace Combat 04. Operation Katina is coming up next week, so look forward to me, CJacobs and ddinkins making GBS threads on Blurry, Puddle of Mudd, and Wes Scantlin for a solid hour next Saturday. Then after that, will be the Bonus Update, and possibly if I can track down Blind Sally maybe we'll see Muptiplayer Mode in action, but no promises. Just remember, the deadline for your submissions for Viewers Choice Video are open until Jan 25th. So now that you've seen both Farbanti and Megalith, is there anything else you'd like to see me attempt in Ace Combat 04 before we shut this thing down for good?
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Jan 22, 2017 04:08
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