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Good to see this is a thing. One, my favorite of the PS1 games. Two, I get to do more posts from my Database™! The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk started as a jet-powered aircraft to replace the Navy's A-1 Skyraider. The designers prioritized small size, low weight, and little complexity - the results paid off, as the A-4 weighed half of the Navy's specification and was small enough that it could be stowed on an aircraft carrier without having to utilize folding or swinging wings. It was successful enough that the Marine Corps ended up using it too. It was also the pioneer of "buddy" air-to-air refueling, where an aircraft could refuel others of the same type by use of a large external fuel tank with hose and drogue in the absence of dedicated tanker aircraft. In practice, the A-4 was almost never used in this capacity, as they were able to create a tanker variation of their earlier A-3 Skywarrior (for size comparison, the A-3 is a little bit bigger than Fun thing, the last production A-4, built in 1979 for the Marine fighter squadron VMA-331, was given a commemorative paint scheme that included the flags of every nation that had operated the craft. The squadron continued using it and their other A-4s until they transitioned to the AV-8B Harrier II in October 1987. EDIT: Forgot that I promised to do the thing for the F-4 when it showed up as a starting plane like it should. So here you go. The F-4E is an Air Force variant designed with improved engines and armed with the M61A1 Vulcan cannon (utilizing the elongated nose of the RF-4C recon plane, with a smaller radar to make room for the cannon), after combat performance in the earlier stages of Vietnam proved that F-4Cs and Ds with gunpods performed better than those with just Sidewinder missiles - the gunpods actually decreased the craft's performance from the extra drag and needed frequent boresighting to remain accurate, but they still were found to be much more cost-effective, which wasn't much of a stretch considering the earliest Sidewinders would often fail to launch properly, fail to track a target, or end up tracking the heat of the jungle instead of the heat of an enemy's exhaust. On the usage front, it's notable for being the only craft that both the USAF Thunderbirds and the USN Blue Angels used - both switched to the craft in 1969, and the Thunderbirds' current white paint scheme was first used on their F-4s. In 1974 both switched to different aircraft again, the Thunderbirds picking the T-38 Talon (trainer variant of the F-5E crow dislikes for some reason) for its fuel economy owing to the 1973 oil crisis, and the Blue Angels switching over to the above A-4. On the subject of Phoenix's emblem, I made a version of that myself once. One of the things the game occasionally does when you go back from the options menu to the main menu is show the Phoenix emblem and game title in a sort of wireframe. I ended up taking a screenshot of that and cutting off the text so I could get the emblem on its own to color in myself. Why'd I do it, nobody asks? Because at that point in time literally the only version of the emblem on its own available anywhere on the net was smaller than a hundred pixels, width and height combined. If anyone's curious, some guy on tumblr is apparently still using it. Also, I've got something else planned for this game alongside the walls of text about the aircraft. We should be seeing the start of that for the next mission. Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Mar 28, 2016 |
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Mar 28, 2016 03:03
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I don't remember if this game changes the 3D model of the controller for the controls menu depending on what one you're using, but if you're unaware or forgot, this game totally supports DualShock if you go into the PS3 menu and set it up to recognize your controller as one. EDIT: Regarding special weapons and AC6, there's two "TYPE ACE2" paint schemes in that game. One's for the Su-33, the other's for the F-16C. They both give you Scarface One's paint scheme for the plane, slightly decreasing air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities and ammo count in favor of increasing all the other stats - but you don't get any special weapons and can't perform high-G turns because those didn't exist in AC2. There's a similar "TYPE ACE3" scheme for the Typhoon, which removes the high-G turns and all of the special weapons except for the XMA6, though in return it gets a lot more of those because AC3 had some of the highest missile counts in the series before 6. Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Mar 28, 2016 |
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Mar 28, 2016 21:01
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Dr. Snark posted:The thing about going back to rediscover the origins of a long-running series like this is that while there is a nostalgia appeal, the game did come out before all of the changes that made it much less frustrating to play. Yeah. I'm gonna come right out and say it, I came to this game after discovering the PS2 games, and while I do love it anyway, I'm not going to even begin to pretend the controls are anywhere near as good as they got from 5 and later. Lune's comment about the flight controls in 04 is pretty much what I said about them before in the last thread. Like I mentioned they seemed to have forgotten the difference between turning and rolling in an aircraft, so poo poo like the Eurofighter does a barrel roll in less than a second (Su-37 rolled too fast for me to handle back then) but didn't actually change pitch much better than the starting aircraft. nine-gear crow posted:The game is quite well optimized for the single circle pad, yes. It compensates by automatically kicking in auto pilot mode and returning the plane to a level elevation when you let the stick go limp, but I've never had to fight with it. That sounds like the kind of thing that would annoy me. It'd probably help once or twice but for the most part that seems like a recipe for the game screwing things up for me because it thinks an automated system knows better than the person actually reacting to what's going on.
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Mar 29, 2016 18:01
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Yeah, that's really harsh, I'm glad you made it through alive. We'll still be here when you feel recovered enough to continue, take as much time as you need.
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Apr 28, 2016 01:41
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Glad to see you're recovered. And nice to see AHL get the LP treatment as well, I've really wanted to know how that goes but I don't have the money for a 3DS and the most anyone else has recorded has been, at best, up to the second mission. Now that the LP's back on track I can hardly wait to see mission 2 of the original, as well. I already mentioned this to Crow but I've got something else lined up to go along with my plane posts for AC2. Hopefully you'll all find it interesting.
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May 19, 2016 06:46
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That fight looks fun, but... what the gently caress kind of ham-handed nickname is "Pride"? It's like the Rot fight as handled by George Lucas. Anyway, first off let's get on with the plane. The Kfir is, as mentioned, built on the Mirage 5 frame - it originally came about as an upgrade for IAI's earlier Nesher ("vulture"), which was an unlicensed copy of the Mirage created when attempts to purchase the original craft fell through thanks to an arms embargo imposed on Israel. The primary differences, beyond the addition of canards as mentioned, is the use of the American GE J79 turbojet as used in the F-4 Phantom, which was superior to the Mirage 5's Atar 09, and very plentiful between gifts from the US and a license to produce the engine locally. Other upgrades and changes included a shorter and wider fuselage, widened air intakes, and bigger fuel tanks. The C.7 came about to upgrade the craft's use as a strike fighter, as by the time the IAF went to war in Lebanon in '82, they had access to the F-15 and F-16 fighters and so used them for air superiority. In the late 90s the Kfir started being withdrawn from service; in August 2013, IAI announced they would offer Kfirs to foreign customers at a unit price of $20 million, and by that October were apparently in "advanced negotiations" with at least two air forces regarding the sale of Kfirs. The Kfir was also used by the Marine Corps and Navy between 1985 and 1989 for dissimilar air combat training, dubbed the F-21A Kfir. They were chosen because, especially with modifications the Marine Corps made to their thirteen borrowed craft, it shared very similar flight characteristics to the MiG-23, which was at the time being introduced in large numbers and was seen to be more capable than earlier Soviet craft. For you movie buffs, the Kfir is probably most famous for appearing in the first Iron Eagle movie, where for some reason it was standing in for the MiG-23, which was rather apparent considering the -23 is a swing-wing jet while the Kfir is a delta-wing. Even more hosed is that the bad-guy air force was in the same general area as a lot of other countries that utilized the Mirage 5, so why they didn't just call it as it is is a mystery for the ages. Now, the other thing I've got is something special. See, the fun thing about Ace Combat 2 is that it has its own Assault Records. It was cut out at the last minute, and it was thorough enough that it's obscure as hell so I had to go searching really deep in the bowels of the internet to find this, but I have reason to believe it's legit. So here we go: #001 - Superfly Priest O'Neal Male, 25, Usean F-4E Phantom II Operation Easy Money: Shot Down Known for being rather flamboyant in his mannerisms; his taste for painting his aircraft was no different. Rumors of being a reformed cocaine dealer were also circulated at times, though no proof could ever be found. Shot down over the Lambert Mountains while defending a reconnaissance unit, he eventually joined the Independent State Allied Forces after their inception following the war. He was shortly noted to always be among the first to take off in response to a threat, likely to avoid the other ISAF pilots' odd joking otherwise that they couldn't take off without him. Also, if anyone's still playing Infinity, between the end of the Zero thread and Crow's near-death experience, they switched things around. Events now give out Skilled Pilot Medals, which you can exchange for new or returning rewards like the special supply catalogue. It's basically the same thing except with currency harder to come by; they even add new stuff in twice a month. In particular, the new additions for the start of this month were AC2 and AHL-themed - Scarface One's Su-35 and an EA-18G apparently belonging to an ace we'll see later were the big additions, alongside a variant of the Phoenix emblem that plays part of Fighter's Honor when you make MVP with it, and the Scarface nickname (you better believe I picked that up). I'm still holding out for the original Phoenix emblem, though.
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May 23, 2016 04:15
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A named yet optional ground target in AHL? That's a new one, I think. Anyway, as mentioned, this is one of those sorts of missions that helps set apart the PS1 games from the PS2 ones and beyond. You go out of your way to do something a little different and you get to choose what your next mission is. I'm not going to give away how many missions are like that, but there's a noticeable amount. It's one of the things that adds a good degree of replayability to a game you may not otherwise want to go back to because of the controls. This mission always gets me because the layout of the map (as well as the subject of the mission) is extremely similar to an early mission we'll see in the next game. Even though I know the two missions take place on entirely different parts of the continent (not to mention the port being aligned along different cardinal directions between games, if I remember right), every time I look at the map of this mission I'm still 99% sure they're supposed to be the same place. As for the fuel meter and whether afterburner makes it go down faster - it doesn't. No matter how you fly, the fuel meter depletes at the same rate. It's just a disguised timer. On the subject of the music - I think this is the first time you really get a feel for what most of the soundtrack of the original game is like, and whether you'll like it. At the same time we're not even at the best songs in the game yet, but we're pretty close with this one. That emblem I mentioned I'm holding out for in Infinity, there's a version of it that plays part of this song as its MVP theme. I want that poo poo. I mean the important thing is that I have the emblem itself to put on all my planes, but if I have to get the version that turns your smoke trails red instead of this one I'm still going to be a little bit disappointed. Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 02:16 on May 25, 2016 |
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May 25, 2016 02:14
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nine-gear crow posted:look at the OP Doing that again just made me realize a few things about the early games. Technically, AC2 is the fourth game in the overall series. The main thing is that the arcade Air Combat and the console game released outside of Japan under the same name are completely unrelated to each other - the arcade one was basically an F-16 simulator that had you shoot down some bombers, then go on to take out enemy fighters. Air Combat 22 is basically more of the same, though with three aircraft to choose from (F-14, YF-22 or some variant of the Su-27) and some sort-of branching paths that give you slightly different enemy placement and end with you taking on a different enemy HQ at the end - think Operation Katina from AC5 - rather than being an arcade port of the console Air Combat as I seem to recall someone saying earlier in the thread. It too is not in any way related to the console Air Combat except in the most general sense that both are flight simulators released by the same company in the same year. Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 00:46 on May 26, 2016 |
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May 26, 2016 00:43
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quote:"You've just been Rendared extinct!" Hey, Crow, you up for a co-op LP of the original Ghost Recon? For that quip I think you deserve to share in my pain.  no it was actually a thing of beauty EDIT: Also, any idea how that gunpod works in AHL? I know in Infinity it's basically a second gun to fire alongside your regular one with the missile button, but here that ammo count is making me think it's more like the rocket launcher pod but with bullets. Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 05:43 on May 27, 2016 |
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May 27, 2016 05:26
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Is it just me or is AHL's Ricochet paint scheme essentially Yellow Squadron with shades of pink instead? Like that's the kind of thing you could make in five minutes Assault Horizon, assuming it lets you repaint DLC schemes (I didn't bother with it enough to see for myself). Also, Scarface One is officially a war criminal in the same manner as Naked Snake. Gotta take out that food supply so the planes in the next two maps over are too hungry to fly properly. what do you mean that isn't how this game works? shut up! Anyway, I apparently didn't do a write-up on the F-117 in the last thread either, so here we go. The F-117 began life in the 1970s, based on the "Have Blue" proof-of-concept that was designed based on the results of a computer program which calculated a design with the smallest radar cross-section possible - a design that was nicknamed the "Hopeless Diamond" because it looked so weird and incapable of actual flight. Both Have Blue prototypes were lost to mechanical problems during testing, but the program was still declared a success and the F-117 started production. It was a black project until 1988, but nevertheless by the time it was revealed to the public the thing had become the stuff of legends, with people everywhere knowing about "the stealth fighter" that totally had poo poo like complete invisibility and Mach 5-capable engines with lasers or whatever the gently caress people thought back then - when it was revealed, it was given an F- designation despite having no capability for air-to-air combat simply for the propaganda value. However different the myths and the real thing were, it was still a rather capable craft - of 59 production models, only one was shot down over Serbia in '99 when a SAM battery got lucky and saw a radar spike from its open bomb bay. The stealth aspects came at the cost of operational ability, however - being a stealth aircraft, it had to carry all its ordnance internally, which due to its size left it only room for two bombs in its bomb bay. External fuel tanks couldn't be carried without compromising stealth either, but that wasn't as much of an issue because the craft was capable of mid-air refueling - the record for constant flight time by a single-seat craft, eighteen and a half hours, was set by a flight of F-117s in their first deployment as they flew from Holloman AFB in New Mexico all the way to Kuwait. I mentioned the story about patrolling F-16 pilots finding an F-117 in flight testing and thinking they saw a UFO in the last thread, but there's another story that one of the prototypes lost half of its tailplane during a test flight. The fly-by-wire software was incredibly robust thanks to the design being inherently unstable on all three axes, so much that the pilot had no idea part of the plane flew off until someone on the ground told him. Nicknames for the craft included "Goblin" (sometimes prefixed "Wobblin", a holdover from the Have Blue prototypes being noticeably unstable at low speeds), and among the Saudis in Desert Storm, "Shaba" (Arabic for 'ghost'). Also, fun story: the exact same day the F-117 was publicly revealed, MicroProse released F-19 Stealth Fighter, based on what people thought the "stealth fighter" could do. A 1991 remake/sequel added the actual F-117 alongside the fictional F-19; flying the F-117 made for an easier mission as it was easier to fly stealthily and just focus on your primary target, while picking the F-19 made for a more exciting mission since you could engage enemy aircraft. As well, have the next entry in the cut AC2 Assault Record! #002 - Ricochet Jasón Alazraqui Male, 35, Usean MiG-29A Fulcrum Operation Tin Castle: Killed in Action Born in Sapin to parents who moved across the ocean to Usea when he was only a few years old. Constant teasing from other children led him to resent his place of birth, and in turn any talk of an alliance with them or their neighbors, so he joined the Rebellion. Shot down over a front base situated around an old castle, debris from another plane shot down shortly afterwards hit his parachute and set it on fire; his body was found curled up in a sort of pinball shape, apparently trying to find a surface to roll on to reduce injury. An autopsy revealed most of his bones were pulverised on impact.
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May 29, 2016 20:40
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Huh, I always thought the aces were Diamond Cowboy in AC2, but now that we're actually here I can't find anything supporting that other than a line from a fanfic. I grabbed a screenshot of them in the model viewer myself if anyone's curious and can't wait.  Anyway, since we're not going to see the original Su-25 again after these games I might as well do the write-up for it now. As mentioned, the Su-25 is essentially the Russian equivalent to the A-10, and as such is used for the same sort of role. It was often nicknamed the "Grach" (Rook) by infantry owing to its outspread wings and its tendency to hover protectively over them. It's supposedly not quite as survivable as the A-10, but between an armored enclosure around the pilot and titanium blast panels near the exhausts, it's drat close - I've read that one Su-25 apparently took hits from three Stingers in one flight and still made it back to base in one piece. It doesn't carry as many weapons as the A-10 can, but in return it's faster, able to just about reach supersonic speeds. And next, our new ace(s). #003/004 - D. Cowboy Page & Joseph Falkberg Male, 41/39, Aurelian Su-25 Frogfoot Operation Opera House: Shot Down Former Aurelian Air Force pilots who jumped at the chance to join the Erusean Air Force shortly before the rebellion began. They were promptly sent to defend a captured oil facility that was quickly and easily retaken by the Scarface Squadron, with all of its escorts destroyed. Both promptly retired from flying, Page deciding to become a wrestler in a Los Canas-based promotion and Joseph starting up a health and fitness center in his native Aurelia.
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May 31, 2016 01:01
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Not really related to anything in this video in particular, but learning that the default paint schemes in this game keep that red scar/arrow thing on the right side of the nose makes me extremely happy. Also, Infinity just added some radio messages from this game to the supply store today. Now if only they'd add "Slash" and "Edge" as nicknames, instead of letting those jerks from the campaign hog them. fake EDIT: wait a minute, is that Johnny Yong Bosch as Slash?
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Jun 1, 2016 05:58
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thetruegentleman posted:Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is a lot more generous than to the various nationalities than Anglo-Only Call of Duty: the Russians are actually the ones who do most of the fighting in their own country, instead of just rolling over and doing jack poo poo when Crazy Ivan takes over Russia, and I'm pretty sure most of the player's wingmates are actually from all over NATO. Yeah, for all the things they straight-up copied from Modern Warfare, they at least had the decency to pretend that someone other than America was doing anything on NATO's side (the guy in charge of TF108 was French) and that all of Russia wouldn't just accept an ultranationalist uprising or whatever the excuse was this time because "gently caress the west". And on the subject of Phoenix:  I caved in and started playing some Vector Thrust again.
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Jun 1, 2016 22:17
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 For those of you who are disappointed in the Starfalken. Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Jun 7, 2016 |
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Jun 6, 2016 19:28
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KDavisJr posted:That's a Sweet StarTomcat! What game is that again? Vector Thrust. For all the issues the development has had, I can't say it hasn't hooked me with how much I can customize the look of the planes. If you look closely that's 18 skins in total for just the F-14D, and I think at most two of those came with the game. Adding up all the F-14 variants I think I'm close to 30 skins just for those (although in fairness, some of those are just variants of the same thing with different markings and emblems). EDIT: sometimes I'm considering doing an LP of HAWX, with the gimmick of all my custom skins instead of custom music. Not HAWX 2, though. Not unless you all pay me. Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Jun 8, 2016 |
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Jun 8, 2016 02:46
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#005/006 - Razorback Dell & Dennis Mundy Male, 28, Ardenian F-117A Nighthawk Operation Midnight Assassin: Shot Down/Killed in Action Twin brothers born in Arden, who frequently visited neighboring Osea as part of business trips taken with their mother and took a noted interest in their military functions, which lead to their initial employment in aircraft development and design. They moved to Usea during the short-term trade agreement that saw adoption of various Osean technologies worldwide, such as the F-117 stealth fighter, and were hired by the Rebellion for their knowledge of Osea and its technology to develop counter-tactics and technology. The twins briefly experimented with a cheap, one-time use and easily-replaceable missile defense system meant to deflect heat-seeking missiles from fighter-sized aircraft, after hearing rumors of a similar system developed by a Belkan corporation, but work was brought to a halt as one of the brothers was killed in action while defending retreating allies in the Meriton region. I've got to imagine Bear Tracks was a somewhat-late addition to the game - at least past the point where they removed the Records, since it doesn't take into account that the player could pick their mission for number six and they'd still end up having a shot at Razorback. I can imagine the airfield at the end of mission 5 being empty until they wanted to add another optional mission and realized they could totally put it in there, but then they got lazy for the ace and just put the same guys from its counterpart. On the subject of music: I totally forgot about it, but Bear Tracks features my favorite song in the game. It's a remix of a song that showed up in Air Combat, for those curious. Anyway, I've got a double-feature on the images front for you today. First is a shot of Razorback in the model viewer:  If anyone's curious why there's a pig on their medal, they have a silhouette of a pig on their tails. The F-117's tails are unfortunately angled enough that I can't get a good shot of both it and the overall paint scheme at the same time. Second, since my last VT screenshot got  I've recreated a shitton of Ace Combat paint schemes in that game because of nice people who ripped the textures from 2, the PS2 trilogy, and Joint Assault (alongside some of the Air Force Delta and Sidewinder games), so if you want to see more I can keep posting one or two of them with each of crow's updates.
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Jun 10, 2016 19:25
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#007 - "Captain" Unknown Male, Belkan F-14A Tomcat Operation Sledgehammer: Missing In Action All that is currently known about this pilot is that he is a former Captain from the Belkan Air Force. A side-effect of that "cumulative endgame bonus" is that if you avoid shooting down this guy in one of his appearances, he'll just use the same plane he did last time in his next one. That said, it's pretty difficult to avoid him because of how aggressive he is - for reference, I had no idea there was anything different for not shooting him down every time until years after I got the game when someone told me. Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Jun 16, 2016 |
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Jun 15, 2016 17:53
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Funny that this update comes right as I record footage for a test video to LP HAWX. The thread title I'm thinking of now is "The Ubisoft to Crow's Namco".
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Jun 17, 2016 20:34
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SIGSEGV posted:The Crenshaw Counter was and is and shall forever be the best character. My gimmick is going to be custom skins I created myself, maybe when I start using the F-22 I'll make a skin that's just completely covered with Crenshaw's name written repeatedly.
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Jun 18, 2016 02:40
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I've got nothing on the MiG-1.44 that Crow didn't already cover, unfortunately. I'll just leave you with an Assault Record update. #008/009 - Tallman & Metal Sphere Don Baldwin & Ken Bannister Male, 18, Usean F-16C Fighting Falcon Operation Swordsmith: Shot Down Childhood friends and both classic movie buffs, when they lied about their age to join the Usean Rebellion's air forces they took on TAC names referencing an old favorite horror film of theirs. Inspired by their namesake, they developed a two-on-one tactic where Baldwin would distract the enemy bandit to allow Bannister to attack from above, very often scoring a clean gun hit into the cockpit; the two never switched positions, and as such Bannister is a higher-scoring ace than Baldwin. They were shot down while trying to keep an arms production base out of Allied hands, and following the rebellion they tried their hand at directing. The result, a film called "The Hall", eventually became a "so bad it's good" cult hit after being discovered and promoted by an Osean comedy duo, a status which the two eventually accepted; there are currently rumors that they are working on a children's cartoon based on it. And also, since Skippy mentioned he liked it, here's the MiG-29 paint scheme from this game in Vector Thrust: 
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Jun 25, 2016 20:41
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nine-gear crow posted:Did you ever get around to making that John Cena plane that ACES and CJacobs talked about in the Mercenary run of Zero, by chance? I didn't, but the funny thing is...
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Jun 25, 2016 22:43
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#010 - Stalker Oleg Rostok Male, 24, Yuktobanian MiG-31 Foxhound Operation Toy Box: Shot Down A loner by nature, either in the air or on the ground, who came to Usea and joined the Rebellion after the Belkan War ended before he could join his native air force. He is a rather subdued pilot, preferring defensive flying, such as his station at a captured research facility and rocket base in the Comona Islands, rather than going on the offensive. While he was not known to have a wingman or work particularly well with other pilots, when on base he and a group of other pilots seemed to revel in greeting each other by tersely telling one another to leave. I just did testing as I said I would, and it turns out I'm wrong, the hangar housing the XB-10 does change. I just thought it didn't because I'm pretty sure the last time I played through the game it ended up being the exact same hangar that it was for Crow. At the very least for the two tests I did to be absolutely sure (you can beat this mission in 90 seconds if you ignore everything else, it turns out) it ended up always being on the same side of the mass driver as it was in the video.
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Jun 28, 2016 22:18
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Confusing the Rafale and Typhoon is understandable, I'm pretty sure I and some other people brought it up back during Zero but the Rafale basically is the French equivalent to the Eurofighter. The whole reason it exists is because France was the only country involved with the Typhoon's development that wanted something that could work from a carrier. Also in agreement with Cirvante and whoever else said so, Fire Youngman is the best song in this game. I was extremely happy when I learned the Comona map for Naval Fleet Assault uses it. Now for our Assault Records: #011/012 - Hangmen Rick Greene, Dog Thompson Male, 28/33, Erusean Rafale M Operation Seagull: Shot Down A pair of Erusean Navy pilots who promptly defected to the Usean Rebellion after they received new carrier-based aircraft. Both were assigned to the carrier at the center of the Rebellion's mobile fleet near the Skully Islands, and successfully defended it from many Allied attacks before mercenary units eventually succeeded in destroying the mobile fleet. The duo ended up giving up on the anti-Osea sentiment, moving to the country and joining its Maritime Defense Force after the incident. A decade later, a brief detente between Osea and Erusea saw them moving back to their homeland as instructors for a newer generation of Erusean Navy pilots recently outfitted with modern Osean aircraft. #013 - "Major" Unknown Belkan F/A-18E Super Hornet Operation Seagull: Shot Down Relationship to the unidentified Captain from Operation Sledgehammer is currently unknown beyond indications that both are former Belkan Air Force veterans. The wreckage of the prior red aircraft has been investigated; there has been no indication of a body having ever been present in or around the crash site, but there was also no sighting of a parachute from the craft by Allied or civilian witnesses, and the ejection seat, though badly damaged in the crash, was still present. fake EDIT: if you end up doing Assault Horizon and show off co-op you better bring me along  Also The Casualty posted:What is this quadcopter video you're talking about in the video? Probably this one and/or this one, courtesy of slowbeef and TieTuesday. (Also I think they're Turkish? I dunno for sure, that's what I heard at least)
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Jul 1, 2016 06:12
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#014 - "Colonel" N/A N/A, Unknown, Belkan YF-22 Lightning II Operation Power Play: Shot Down We now have reason to believe that the "Z.O.E." craft are all piloted by the same person. How the pilot survives after being shot down, especially given the consistent reports that the red crafts' ejection seats are still present in the wreckage, is currently unknown. Intercepted communications indicate that the pilot is not referred to by any name beyond the Z.O.E. acronym, though the meaning of that acronym is unknown. If anyone's curious about what the Sky Crawlers game is like, there's a playthrough of it on Youtube. From what little I've looked up about it, it's apparently a prequel to the anime.
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Jul 7, 2016 18:25
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One thing that is wrong though is that you're calling him Stalker in your post 
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Jul 8, 2016 01:51
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#015/016 - Max & Goose Mel Hardy & Mel Bisley Male, 22, Ardenian Tornado F3 Operation El Dorado: Shot Down A pair of unrelated men who happened to share the same first name, the duo moved to Usea around the same time and, upon joining the Rebellion, ended up being put together in a flight to defend a network of missile silos in the Faith Park region. Both survived the Allied attack on the facility, though Bisley was badly burned during ejection and had to retire before the rebellion ended. Hardy moved to Osea following the incident, becoming a somewhat well-known stunt pilot until allegations of domestic abuse and racism meant no nation was willing to have him perform for them anymore; he is in particular persona non grata in the Republic of Emmeria thanks to unflattering comments about the Golden King. In recognition of the LP reaching the game's mascot plane, here's another Vector Thrust skin:  On the subject of the Tornado, it's in Infinity now. It's a relatively-low-tier Attacker, but it makes up for it by getting a giant loving cruise missile as a special weapon, so it's basically the original incarnation of the LAGM with even greater range, in return for requiring a lot more of an investment into the plane itself before it's really usable beyond those. Also, yeah, I think the SF39 is supposed to be the Gripen. Its predecessor, the Viggen, would be the SF37 in this game. Funny that you mention the Gripen NG, too, because when I was trying to double-check whether the "SF39" is the Gripen in this game, I discovered the Gripen NG is in AHL. Also also, I want a jacket like Slash has.
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Jul 8, 2016 20:56
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#020/021/022 - Dao, Jian & Xiao Unknown Female, unknown, Sotoan F-15E Strike Eagle Operation St. Elmo's Fire: Killed in Action Almost nothing beyond their gender is known about a trio of pilots from Sotoa who joined the Usean Rebellion's air forces - although it was clear that they understood the Usean language as they always carried out their orders with nary a misunderstanding, they refused to speak to anyone, even amongst themselves, under any circumstances. Their high mission success rating saw them sent to defend the Payton Channel as an Allied mobile fleet was sent to break through as part of their Operation Alphaville, but ultimately they were unsuccessful, thanks to the efforts of Allied mercenaries. These three are a reference to a Chinese movie from 1994 by that name; no idea what the title actually means, though. Also, Night and Day is a personal favorite of mine from this game's soundtrack. Also one that's remixed from the first Air Combat.
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Jul 10, 2016 19:35
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Possibly the only interesting thing about Visiting Hours is that it's set at about 3 PM but it looks dark out. There's a story behind that: originally, it was set at actually-3, bright and sunny and everything, but the team later thought that a surprise attack like that taking place at night would be more realistic and dramatic, so they changed the map to look like nighttime. But they never changed anything else about it, and by the time they noticed that 3PM was somehow late at night it was too late to do much about it. They ended up tweaking the skybox a little bit so it looked more like an eclipse. Apparently back in the day people thought it was cool that the attack coincided perfectly with an eclipse, so there's that. Apparently the mission was also supposed to have a lot of underground SAMs surrounding the power plant, but hardware constraints meant they couldn't fit them in. EDIT: I also noticed that one of the cockpit parts Triz unlocked for this mission is called "Garm's Eye". Hint hint. Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Jul 11, 2016 |
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Jul 11, 2016 18:30
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#017/018/019 - Death Rave 2000 David Viterbo, Martin Nero, Junior Steele Male, 22, Usean Eurofighter Typhoon Operation Dark Star: Killed in Action "Death Rave 2000" was a trio of pilots who attempted to use the then-upcoming "Y2K" phenomenon as an intimidation tactic, utilizing the most cutting-edge aircraft available to them, painted in a dark color scheme with flames. Rather appropriately, as the Y2K scare was almost entirely overshadowed by word of an incoming asteroid, Death Rave 2000's tactic was unsuccessful: their first deployment in the Usean Rebellion saw them shot down and killed while attempting to defend a transport unit as it flew over the Hatties Ravine. If it wasn't already settled between recording and uploading, Prop Cycle is a real arcade game by Namco. CJacobs posted:Hmm... I think that might be slightly worse actually, but I can't put my finger on how It seemed like the sound desynced for a while when Triz was taking care of the first three helicopters around four minutes in, and for once it wasn't Youtube being Youtube. Crow was still pretty quiet every now and then, too, I'm guessing he did autoducking on his voice track as well and not just the game audio because it seemed to happen the most when you were talking at the same time.
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Jul 16, 2016 00:46
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#023/024/025/26 - Fox Force Four Yolanda Plummer, Laura Roger, Trudi Gallagher, Rosanna Jody Female, 23, Usean YF-23A Black Widow II Operation Dead End: Shot Down Former actress-directors in the making who ultimately became disillusioned with the state of the media and Osea's dominance over it, they adapted the name of a TV pilot they briefly worked on into the name of the squadron they flew as for the Usean Rebellion. The squadron operated out of an air base in White Valley, but were shot down in defense of it after the lead of the Scarface squadron launched a surprise attack on it. Plummer and Gallagher eventually set aside their feelings on the Osean media, moving to the country and getting back on track to directing, while Roger and Jody instead went into the fast food business, very quickly establishing a continental chain famous for its royales with cheese. On the subject of references, I'm pretty sure Max & Goose are actually supposed to be a reference to Mad Max - protagonist Max Rockatansky and his partner Jim Goose - and that there being an existing character in a work featuring planes named Goose was more a happy coincidence. A bit more related to Top Gun, Vector Thrust just had a surprise update the other day that added Workshop support. My first contribution to it is an F-14 skin based on the one from AC2.
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Jul 20, 2016 19:24
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Cooked Auto posted:I mentioned this to Crow after recording this episode (I think) but if Kadorhal does his HAWX LP I will (try) go through the HAWX book chapter by chapter. Because other people need to see how bad that book really is. Now I'm conflicted as to whether I actually want to do it if I'm going to effectively subject you to something like that by doing so. Oh well, maybe I can make it up to you by... I dunno, doing Vegas 2 afterwards and dedicating the LP to you or something. It's going to be a while before I can actually do it either way. That thing about upgrading is getting stymied by lawyers refusing to actually do lawyer things and finalize a sale so I can afford the upgrade.
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Jul 22, 2016 07:32
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Nice to see the original and Legacy versions of the same mission lining up again. All the info-gathering I did for the series was for AC2 and the PS2 games, so I don't have much on the T-50. I can tell you though it shows up in Battlefield 4, given a presumed adoption-name as the "Su-50", but the Russian Air Force naming scheme doesn't make that likely in reality (basically, even numbers are everything but fighters). On the subject of Pugachev's Cobra, an interesting thing about AC2 is that the devs wanted to give the player the ability to do it, too. Right before release, they were able to modify some parameters to allow the player to do a rudimentary version of it, but ultimately it didn't end up in the finished game. I don't think you can actually do it in any of the games except Assault Horizon and Legacy with their DFM/Maneuvers thing.
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Jul 24, 2016 20:05
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On the subject of locations from this game that returned for AC3, the mission I was talking about (Fragile Cargo) actually takes place at Axel Bay, which was the focus of mission 7, Sledgehammer, in this game. For those curious, Port Edwards shows up at least once per route in the uncut version of Electrosphere - Damage Control from the finale of the UPEO route, Casualties of War and Geopelia in the General Resource ending, The Orientation at the start of the first Ouroboros route, Self Awareness in the second Ouroboros ending, and Resistance in the second part of the Neucom route.
Kadorhal fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Jul 26, 2016 |
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Jul 26, 2016 00:03
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Cooked Auto posted:There are Gripen's in the mission. They're visible around the 10:00 minute stage around the final objective as SF-39's. Yeah, I immediately noticed them in the briefing too now that I watched the final video. Still, for every one of them there's like two to four F-15Es and Su-37s.
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Jul 26, 2016 05:40
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#027 - "General" N/A N/A, 2, Belkan F-15S Operation Kingpin: Shot Down We now know that the "Z.O.E." craft is a result of an advanced artificial intelligence experiment, the "Zone of Endless" program, started after the Belkan War. It seems after every time it is shot down, the data is retrieved and used to update and upgrade other units installed with the same technology. The exact number of units equipped with Z.O.E. is unknown. Intercepted communications from the rebellion indicate that the "General" unit was not meant to fly in defense of the URF headquarters at St. Ark, but upon rebel forces hearing that the Scarface squadron was leading the attack, the AI sortied on its own. If anyone's curious, here's the picture I mentioned of the baseball-playing fighter jet, from Pro Baseball Famista 2011. Spoilers for a jet we haven't seen yet.
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Jul 30, 2016 00:13
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#028 - "Commander" N/A N/A, 2, Belkan ADF-01 FALKEN Operation Fighter's Honor: Killed in Action Equipped to the latest in Belkan engineering, the Zone of Endless seems to have decided its mission for itself - the destruction of the lead of Scarface squadron. To this end it has taken over the defense of the rebellion's secondary headquarters at the abandoned anti-Ulysses superweapon, Fortress Intolerance. Current intel indicates there are no more backups for the Zone of Endless program and that all combat data went down with the last fighter. Fun story, there's even some records for the player character and his wingmen! Now that we're at the end I see no reason not to. #-002 - Edge Kei Nagase Female, 19, Usean Unknown/varied Born to parents who separated early in her life, Nagase dreamed from a young age of becoming an airline pilot. Her teachers noted this love of flying and wrote recommendations for various airlines after she graduated. Unfortunately this dream would be put on hold, as the situation with the Usean Rebellion and her noted talent for flying single-seat craft saw her quickly pulled into the third position of the mercenary 92nd Special Tactical Fighter Squadron. After the rebellion, she emigrated to Erusea and was employed at the famous Air Ixiom airline corporation, but it would not be long before war once again engulfed Usea and she was forced to flee the country, taking control of a flight filled with engineers behind the aggressor's superweapon and their families after its intended pilot was injured on takeoff. Tales of her bravery as both a military and civilian pilot eventually reached the ears of her Osean half-sister, also named Kei, who was soon inspired to join her country's air defense force in the hopes of becoming an astronaut. #-001 - Slash John Harvard Male, 33, Usean Unknown/varied The current longest-standing active combatant of the Scarface squadron. As the "old man" of the squadron, he fully intended to take both new pilots under his wing and teach them the ropes, but the severity of the situation and their latent, seemingly-limitless talent means he neither has the time nor the need for it, and he is happy to watch them grow on their own as the number two for the squadron. Following the rebellion and the dissolution of the squadron, he joined Nagase in emigrating to Erusea, but unlike her joined the Air Force and stayed within the country's service as it invaded the rest of the continent. He ended up as the flight lead for the defensive forces around Stonehenge, and like many other pilots in the flight he was shot down by the top-scoring ISAF ace of the war when they mounted a successful attack on the superweapon. Like Nagase, there are also reports of an astronaut living in Osea who shares his name, but in his case there is currently no confirmation that they are related in any way. #000 - Phoenix Unknown Male, unknown, Usean Su-35 Flanker-E Inspired to join the air force by the legendary tales of the Belkan Air Force in the 70's and 80's, though he had a rather rough start, as crashes and training accidents time and again destroyed his craft. His remarkable tendency to escape nearly unharmed and come back into the air, smarter and stronger than before, was noted, however; it was with this tendency that, when the Usean Rebellion went underway and he was quickly drafted into the lead position of the 92nd Special Tactical Fighter Squadron to fight it, he was inspired to take the TAC name of "Phoenix" and introduce an updated version of the firebird emblem previous pilots of the squadron made famous during the insurrection in the Skully Islands a few years previous. I know nobody fell for it, but all of those records? Made up. Sue me, I like making up bullshit. On the subject of the FALKEN, it actually can fire missiles backwards in the original game, too, it just doesn't do it all that often. First aircraft in the series that can do it (unless we're counting that flying fortress from the end of Air Combat, but unless the new rig I'll be able to put together in the next month can record ePSXe properly then we're probably not even counting that entire game), and the only one that could do it to my knowledge until Gelb's Su-37s in Zero nine years later. The XFA-27, meanwhile, something interesting I noticed a while back is that the texture-rip I got from a Steam discussion thread for Vector Thrust includes a second color scheme of it for your wingmen, even though they can't actually use the XFA-27 - none of the possible orders you can give them, even in Extra mode, will have them take one for a spin. Both are available in Infinity, as well, both in standard versions on the tree and some special versions. The FALKEN is one of the four superfighters that doesn't cost a whole ton to upgrade - I've got one up to level 9 and would only need about a million credits to bring it up another level if I wanted. It's classified as a Fighter, but it also gets the TLS so it has a bit better use in ground attack. The two special versions I can remember are one based on its appearance in AC5, which gets pre-placed OADF markings/roundels and slightly better stats and ammo in return for getting a regular superfighter's ridiculous cost (four million to get to level 2; for comparison's sake, that's about how much I spent getting the regular one up to level 9), and an actual Z.O.E. one added alongside the Skilled Pilot Medal system, with a redesigned body to better resemble the AC2 model and switching out the TLS for something else. The XFA-27 is a multirole, and gets a Multiple-Launch Standard Missile to replicate its old four-at-a-time gimmick. Unfortunately, it's one of the ridiculously-expensive superfighters - even with a nonstandard upgrade form to skip paying for one upgrade, I've put 30 million credits into mine by this point and it's still only at level 7, where I've been stuck at for a few months now. It gets a pair of special variants too, one in Scarface One's livery that swaps its weapons around (the ECM is removed, the SOD and MSTM are moved back, and it starts with QAAMs), and a Happy Holidays variant that costs much less in return for slightly lower stats and replacing the SOD with the HCAA (of course  ).Finally, some musical stuff. Now that we've seen everything (at least in 2), I can share a trio of extra songs from the original soundtrack, basically remixes/combinations of various other songs from it. I present to you: Invitation to Ace Combat 2 (Bear Tracks and I guess Fire Away) Night Butterfly (Night and Day, Aim High) A.C. Revolution (Into the Geo, Elemental Particle, Dead End, and some other song I don't recognize) Also, I'd like to echo all the other sentiments that I can hardly wait for AC04 to start up. I mean, yeah, take as long as you need to take a break and/or get ready (just don't get sick to the point you could die again), but I'm still excited for that game too. I still think it's the weakest of the PS2 trilogy, by a very slim margin, but it's nevertheless the game I got into the series with and I love it all the same. Plus, I've also got something hopefully more interesting to go along with the aces in that game.
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Aug 1, 2016 00:03
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 13:00 |
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So is that soon in the normal definition or "soon™" as in "sitting on HAWX footage for a year and a half"?
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Apr 15, 2018 03:07
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