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Kaboom Dragoon posted:The thing I love about SRW-style crossover games is when a half-dozen characters from different games/series crash into each other and all say some variety of the line 'what the gently caress is this poo poo'. That and when enemy reinforcements get followed by allied reinforcements, followed by enemy reinforcements, followed by allied reinforcements, followed by...
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Mar 3, 2017 22:04
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Welcome to the Cathedral of Sprues, where Gunpla assemble! Ace is gonna be livid about me putting on SMT airs where they aren't germane, but not only are we going to show off all the machines we've encountered during our first couple of sorties, we're going to demonstrate how Overworld's closest analogue to Fusion lets us add even greater and/or more ridiculous Mobile Suits to our arsenal. Before we get to the nitty-gritty, though, let's go a little more in-depth on our assorted Special Guest Stars from the tutorial. Mission 00: Over Impact Dramatis Personae     RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (Unicorn and Destroy Modes) The then-currently-airing protagonist machine, and eminent poster child of the Gundam franchise of the 2010s. A potent all-rounder in its default Unicorn Mode, the fun truly starts when its Tension hits Critical and it enters Destroy Mode. Why yes I would like to park a Special Awakening attack wherever within 9 tiles I feel like for zero actual MP cost (due to the vagaries of MP math, the ~40 you get for making a kill pushes you over the Super Crit edge before the 20 cost for making the NT-D attack is ever applied). Destroy Mode's additional Psycommu Jack passive is a further boon against funnel-happy units, and would be buffed to the point of obscenity in G-Generation Genesis: instead of being an Evasion buff, it was transformed into a field-broadcast ability preventing enemies within 9 tiles from launching Psycommu attacks to begin with. Fastest Dev Path: Tornado Gundam Lv3 -> Phoenix Zero Lv3 -> Phoenix Gundam Lv6 -> Phoenix Gundam (Full Potential) Lv4 -> Unicorn Gundam (BASIC) Lv8   GNT-0000 00 Gundam Qan[T] A fit of asymmetrical madness from Celestial Being, because the original 00 Gundam and all its upgrades weren't finny and swordy enough to reach an UNDERSTANDING with the ELS. Making use of Setsuna F. Seiei's recently developed Quantum Brainwaves, it's furthermore the first (and only) of the Exia/00 geneaology to use an Awakening weapon - to dubious utility, as it also has a Special Shooting attack with half the MP cost and multi-lock functionality. Quantize, for as hilariously zwee as it is in A Wakening of the Trailblazer, Gundam Breaker 2/3, etc. is merely +10 final Evasion rate here (A far cry from its World incarnation, where it basically emulated Super Robot Wars's series of "DoubleImage" (additional flat chance to avoid attacks) effects). Cute, but better served with investment into suit/pilot fundamentals (unit Mobility, pilot Reaction). Fastest Dev Path: Tornado Gundam Lv3 -> Phoenix Zero Lv3 -> Phoenix Gundam Lv4 -> Gundam Exia (BASIC) Lv6 -> Gundam Exia Lv4 -> 00 Gundam Lv4 -> 00 Raiser Lv4 -> 00 Raiser (Final Battle Spec) Lv5   SCVA-76 Nahel Argama (Unicorn ver.) Originally appearing in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ as the AEUG's second-generation capital ship, it was repossessed and refitted by the Earth Federation's Londo Bell in the 0090s and utilized as an independent task force lander/assault carrier. Patterned roughly after the legendary White Base, its third (central) hull/launch catapult also serves to shield and stabilize the potent Hyper Mega Particle Cannon. The kana for "Nahel" starts with a Ne rather than a Na, which explains its ZZ incarnation's alternate archaic Romanizations as "Near Argama" (typically fan-patched video games) and "Neo Argama" (...this one's not so typical and I don't know where Ace gets it). All player-usable warships in Overworld are unlocked for purchase from the beginning.  Extraterrestrial Living-metal Shape-shifter (ELS) (small) A metallic alien intelligence appearing conveniently right after Celestial Being completed its mission of unifying the Anno Domini (00) Earth sphere into a militaristic planetary government. Having developed in the far reaches of the universe without any real context of humanoid or arthropod joint segmentation, tool use, etc., their main recourse for sensory input and threat deterrence is slamming into the offending solid matter and assimilating it. Actually depicting whatever these things poke into being turned into a smeared-liquid-metal version of themselves is far beyond the complexity afforded to a PSP game, much less what can be given to an enemy-only unit, so ELS units largely subsist on having the one moderately threatening but lovingly-rendered Special Shooting attack.    D-50C Loto One of the first projects of the Earth Federation's Strategic Naval Research Institute (the SNRI ultimately made famous by the Gundam F91 and its kin), this modernized micro-Guntank is only seen getting eaten alive by Cutscene ELS but can ultimately fall into player hands, as seen from a years-old save I managed to exhume for supplementary updates (Save files and System Data can be shared between unpatched and patched copies of Overworld, save states not so much). It looks weak, and you'd expect it to be a lot easier to Develop/Design based on its stat spread, but being Size S and having a proper MS mode and the Space terrain competence it implies make it superlative among Guntanks. Now if only Guntanks were remotely in the middle percentiles among Mobile Suits... Fastest Dev Path: GM Lv5 -> GM II Lv4 -> GM III Lv4 -> Jegan Lv3 -> Jegan Type-D Lv3 -> Jegan (ECOAS Type) Lv2   RX-93 Nu Gundam Oft confused for the Victory Gundam by the Greek-illiterate. Amuro Ray's ultimate machine (by broadcast reckoning) focuses on the trademark all-round competence of a Gundam, bolstered by the miniaturized Newtype brainwave receptor material "Psycoframe" leaked to Anaheim Electronics' Federation MS supply branch by a closure-hungry Char Aznable. The resultant response speed, incredible offense and defense capabilities of the independently-powered Fin Funnels, and loving attack choreography put the Nu on par with most late-series AU protagonists. Fastest Dev Path: Tornado Gundam Lv3 -> Phoenix Zero Lv3 -> Phoenix Gundam Lv6 -> Phoenix Gundam (Full Potential) Lv4 -> Nu Gundam (BASIC) Lv10   GF13-017NJII God Gundam (dba Burning Gundam) Developed alongside its Shining Gundam predecessor for Domon Kasshu to use in the finals of the 13th Gundam Fight after he'd made his way through the preliminaries with Shining, because Selling Toys is a thing you can do with sufficient Space IOC payoffs I guess. The changeover wasn't as clean as expected, however, as Shining was thrashed during Domon's training in the Guyana Highlands thanks to the resurgence of the Devil (dba Dark) Gundam. Getting Domon and the God Gundam to Neo Hong Kong on time required tele-operating the remains of Shining to upload its combat data, then boosting God into low Earth orbit so it could ricochet off giant beam turnbuckle ropes to get from South America to Southeast Asia because screw you G Gundam is that kind of show. In Overworld, as with most Mobile Fighters, God Gundam is the epitome of "I hope you like smashing people's faces with Melee forever", and thank goodness for its rather hefty starting DEF because there's no way it could otherwise justify Support Defending without a Shield. Sadly, much like Destiny Gundam, its Hyper Mode Gold transformation at Critical+ Tension was a casualty of the transformed form compression leaving other MS with mismatched beam rifles and other missing assets. Fastest Dev Path: Busshi Lv5 -> Rising Gundam Lv4 -> Shining Gundam Lv4   ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam Before GAINAX gave us Beamspam McMuppet, Sunrise gave us Beamspam von Fuccboi. As if Phase Shift Armor wasn't useful enough for Physical damage mitigation, now we get to up the ante by having its 10 EN/activation cost waived with the Neutron Jammer Canceller passive. Offensively, of course, it's a Shooting specialist's favorite Christmas present (or second-favorite if they have a nonzero Awakening score, in which case it's surpassed by immediate child Strike Freedom). Fastest Dev Path: M1 Astray Lv3 -> Strike Dagger Lv5 -> Strike Gundam Lv3 -> Strike Rouge Lv4 -> Akatsuki Lv4   AGE-1N Gundam AGE-1 Normal REMOVE VAGAN. Well, I guess we're starting at REMOVE UE, but you get the idea. The AGE Gundams, few as they are, have a pretty nifty unique in the AGE System passive - what would otherwise be a 3500/4000 weapon power spread gets ramped up 10%. They, uhh, kind of need all they can get, as close to "fundamental" Gundam armament as they are. It'll be a bit before we can really explore the Hard Point System forms, unless Ace throws us a curveball and grinds a bunch of Tornados and Phoenix Zeroes offscreen for BASICs (this is not recommended). Fastest Dev Path: Tornado Gundam Lv4 -> Gundam AGE-1 Normal (BASIC) Lv6 Andy Waltfeld fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Mar 4, 2017 |
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Mar 3, 2017 23:40
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if you're worried about gif size, make sure to post them as .gifv and post them with a url bbcode. Also, this LP made me look into SD Gundam games and I'm sad that they don't have an NA release for SD GGGG on the Vita 
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Mar 4, 2017 00:42
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If I was gonna do that anyway I may as well make it a webm though. It's worth noting that Quantize has been massively nerfed from World since in World it basically functioned as Double Image, making the 00 even more invincible.
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Mar 4, 2017 00:54
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Jobbo_Fett posted:if you're worried about gif size, make sure to post them as .gifv and post them with a url bbcode. There's no NA release, but you can still import the version released in English for asian markets.
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Mar 4, 2017 02:04
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Son Ryo posted:There's no NA release, but you can still import the version released in English for asian markets. For like, double the price. I think going rate for Canada is 120+ after shipping. (If this is what buying foreign game imports has always been then it can go suck a fat one, I just want to play a tactical gundam game as the entire lineup of Gundam Wing )
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Mar 4, 2017 02:13
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Jobbo_Fett posted:For like, double the price. I think going rate for Canada is 120+ after shipping. If that's what you want then you'd be out of luck with Genesis anyway. It only covers about early to mid-UC stuff and no AU shows at all.
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Mar 4, 2017 02:15
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Son Ryo posted:If that's what you want then you'd be out of luck with Genesis anyway. It only covers about early to mid-UC stuff and no AU shows at all. What's even the point of having a Gundam game in the first place if you can't do that!  Anyways, loving this LP so far.
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Mar 4, 2017 02:39
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Jobbo_Fett posted:What's even the point of having a Gundam game in the first place if you can't do that! I mean, they recently came out with a spin off manga for Crucruz Doan, aka the central character of the infamous Doan's Island episode from the original series. Sunrise will stop at nothing to milk that time period dry...and then keep on going to see what happens. Because gently caress you if you like late Universal Century content or any of the AU series, I guess.
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Mar 4, 2017 02:56
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Andy Waltfeld posted:Welcome to the Cathedral of Sprues, where Gunpla assemble!
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Mar 4, 2017 03:49
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PMush Perfect posted:Whooo, GBF reference (kind of)! You do not know the half of Build Fighters being my jam. It is downright criminal that the only representation it's getting in video games are currently-airing protagonists (Gundam Breaker 1 and 2) and (Hot) Scramble Gundam (GB3 DLC, G-Genesis DLC, whichever Extreme VS game has ongoing support right now? It sure as poo poo isn't the botched US release of VS Force).
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Mar 4, 2017 06:50
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That's because Build Fighters isn't very popular in Japan, especially compared to IBO. Admittedly, BF Try was a bit eh and IBO is loving great, but even so. Technically, OVERWorld does have some Build Fighters franchise rep in the form of the Gunpla Builders OVA being in. The IFS 30 and Forever Gundam are actually really powerful units, too, and Boris is ridiculous due to Gunpla Meister being overpowered; it increases the unit's ATK and DEF by 5 to a maximum of 15, but it has an extra 50% modifier if the unit he's piloting is from Gunpla Builders (Beginning Gundam IFS 30, Forever Gundam, Beargguy, or Zaku F2000); all of these units already have good stats (except Beargguy, which is accurate to the series). In World, it doubled the bonus, and his base stats are already good. Haru is alright but he can't get Gunpla Meister until lv20 which is foreverrrr. But man if BF was actually in (this game predates it). I'd be all over that Reiji and Mirai.
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Mar 4, 2017 10:00
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Thanks for LPing this I pretty much played half way myself and just burned out myself. Are you going to show off the pilots special dialogue when they pilot the G Gundam" ?(Its an easter egg that the VAs actually recorded for this one specific Gundam)
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Mar 4, 2017 15:55
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Shining, God, and Master Gundams all have extra "SHOUT NOW!!" dialogue for their Finger attacks. Whether it's worth doing a compilation of them all toward the end of the LP, I dunno. They're all mid-battle dialogue and don't have telops like event cut-ins do. New Cathedral of Sprues installment...tonight-ish? Character Limit seems generous enough, but errands are gonna eat my whole afternoon.
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Mar 4, 2017 17:07
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EzEight posted:Are you going to show off the pilots special dialogue when they pilot the G Gundam" ?(Its an easter egg that the VAs actually recorded for this one specific Gundam) Depends on what pilots we end up with, but yeah, I'll show off a few. There's probably youtube videos around that represent full compilations, though. Graham and Gym in particular have great God Gundam dialogue. There's also specific dialogue for the Master Gundam and Shining Gundam for most characters.
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Mar 4, 2017 22:30
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Cathedral of Sprues Part 00 (Again): The Bargain Basement Were it not for Ace sticking to the classics, I'd have had him title the thread "Baseball Mogul Suit Gundam: Let's Play G-Generation Overworld". Given our threadbare plot and actually fairly generous starting budget of 50000 Capital, you could easily play the game as if it were a fantasy sports simulator, drafting pilots and units as you will and seeing what sticks on the field and what crashes and burns. As far as the latter is concerned, we're not wanting for kindling - aside from two Tornado Gundams, a Phoenix Zero, and our choice of Master and Basic Unit, the initial Production List is populated with a generous slate of relatively flimsy replacements. We probably won't put anyone in the cockpit of most of these - hell, we won't even *buy* half of them, for the generosity of certain Secret deployments - but we'll still depend on them to a degree for the all-important metric of Compendium Completion.  DFA-03 Dopp An air superiority fighter developed by the Principality of Zeon, a polity generally known for making its home outside of Earth's atmosphere and on the fringes of its magnetic/gravitational field. Give the aerodynamics a close look, then make of that what you will. Develops Into: Magella Attack Tank (Lv2), Oggo (Lv3), Zaku I (Lv3), Adzam (Lv10) Design Possibilities: Core Fighter (+ the Operation V trinity), Magella Attack Tank (+ Type 61 Tank), Garma's Dopp (+ Magella Attack Tank, Gogg, Acguy, or Agguguy), Ball (+ Tornado Gundam)  M61A5 Type 61 Tank (08th MS Team/MS IGLOO ver.) A twin-turreted main battle tank adopted as the Earth Federation's mainstay armored vehicle in UC 0061. The first theorycraft on Mobile Suit/Armor construction was engaged in the late UC 70s, culminating in the One Year War serving as both the Federation and Zeon's practical implementation exam. Do the math on this thing's preparedness. Develops Into: Hover Truck (Lv2), Magella Attack Tank (Lv3), Mass Production Guntank (Lv4), Guntank (Lv5) Design Possibilities: Magella Attack Tank (+ Core Fighter, Dopp, Moebius, Skygrasper), Agguguy (+ Tornado Gundam), Gundam Leopard (+ any Gundam Heavyarms), Guntank (+ Reborns Gundam)   M353A4 Type 74 Hover Truck With Minovsky Particle broadcasting during engagements with Mobile Suits making radar unreliable, the Earth Federation turned to ground-penetrating sonar to get its non-optical bearings. Though eminently useless as a combat unit, this can still play a decent support role as our first EWAC-enabled unit. (Onboard EWAC abilities usually extend 3-4 tiles; certain Option Part variants can exceed this.) Develops Into: Type 61 Tank (Lv2), Ball Type-K (Lv3) Design Possibilities: Loto (+ Hildolfr or Assault Guntank)  RB-79K Ball Type-K Some guys use classy cars to pick up chicks. Shiro Amada used this thing. Develops Into: Hover Truck (Lv2), Type 61 Tank (Lv2), Ball (Lv3), Oggo (Lv3) Design Possibilities: Oggo (+ Zaku I or Zaku II), Zaku High Mobility Test Type (+ Tornado Gundam), Kapool (+ Haro)   HT-01B Magella Attack Tank Zeon's answer to the Type 61, because having Zakus do the scut work of shooting up infantry, light armor, and aircraft costs precious ammo shipped in from all the way at Side 3 and the resource asteroids. Much like the Dopp, the design incorporates a pilot canopy (and more importantly, tank turret) set too high for its own good. Unlike the Dopp, said canopy turns into the Magella Top upon unit destruction, whose only real purpose in Overworld is to provide another of your squadmates an easy 2000 HP target to Chance Step back into formation with. Develops Into: Type 61 Tank (Lv2), Dopp (Lv2), Zaku I (Lv3), Hildolfr (Lv6) Design Possibilities: Garma's Dopp (+ Dopp), Gundam Leopard (+ any Gundam Heavyarms), Mass Production Guntank (+ Tornado Gundam), Guntank (+ Reborns Gundam)  FF-X7 Core Fighter Successor to the FF-(S)3 Saberfish and FF-6 Tin Cod air/space superiority fighters, whose ability to engage Zeon assets above the effective window of Mobile Suits under gravity kept the One Year War going long enough to be called such. Pedigree aside, their first priority is the preservation of the pilot and/or learning computer of an Operation V Mobile Suit. Engaging in fire support, much less single combat? Distant third and fourth, really. Develops Into: Core Booster (Lv2), Guntank (Lv3), Guncannon (Lv5), Gundam (Lv8) Design Possibilities: Magella Attack Tank (+ Type 61 Tank), Zaku High Mobility Test Type (+ Tornado Gundam), Gundam (+ Reborns Gundam, either 0 Gundam, or either Genoace)  MP-02A Oggo Pinned against a logistical wall with the successive losses of Odessa and their mining/defense asteroids, Zeon decided they could turn the One Year War around by cramming as many Zaku II parts as they could into a compact, ultra-cheap pastiche of the Federation's Ball. Or at least the half of Zeon that hadn't gobbled all the remaining war funds to build Newtype Wunderwaffen did. Eh, not like either of 'em had better luck than the other. Develops Into: Zaku I (Lv2), Dra-C (Lv2), Zaku II (Lv3), Big Rang (Lv10) Design Possibilities: Ball (+ Tornado Gundam), Kuspen's Gelgoog (+ Gelgoog), Big Rang (+ Bigro)  MSER-04 Anf The foreign after-market incarnation of the Human Reform League's MSJ-04 Fanton. Most of them were sold off to fund development and deployment of the Tieren lineage, and in turn bought by ex-petrostates like Azadistan trying to stay afloat in the Anno Domini (00) age of solar. Develops Into: Tieren Ground Type (Lv3), Tieren Space Type (Lv3) Design Possibilities: AEU Hellion Ground Type (PMC Color) (+ Tornado Gundam)   MS-05 Zaku I The Principality of Zeon's first general military-use Mobile Suit (until The Origin cocked it up by making the Waff combat-ready and stealing the Bugu from G-Saviour), it was relegated to training, special ops, and other auxiliary duties by the time of the One Year War. Still leagues better than what the Feddies could field prior to Operation V, though. Develops Into: Zaku I Sniper (Lv2), Zaku II (Lv3), Zudah (Lv3), Gavan's Borjarnon (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Oggo (+ either Ball), GM Sniper (+ Tornado Gundam), Gavan's Borjarnon (+ Borjarnon)  MRC-U11D Walking Dumpling "WaD" A lightweight anti-personnel MS used by the Dianna Counter forces in the far future of the Space 1890s. Acting as escorts for the Walking Dome artillery suit, it was believed the pair would be enough to pacify the citizens of Earth such that the Moonrace could repatriate. Then the White Doll woke up and everything went pear-shaped. For the Generation System debugger on a budget, it's particularly notable for having our first Elemental weapon onboard - subpar ATK be damned, the Joint Buster is a reliable 3000 damage (plus Tension adjustments) whenever it hits. Develops Into: Gozzo (Lv3), FLAT (Lv5), Walking Dome (Lv10) Design Possibilities: Kapool (+ Tornado Gundam)  Geze (Gemon) A Junior Mobile Suit built by Gemon Bajack for salvaging purposes. It serves as one of Judau Ashta's first enemies as he attempts to wear down and destroy the already beleaguered Argama in UC 0088 under contract with Neo Zeon's Mashmyre Cello. Let it be known that Under The Gundam: Double-Fake was the exception rather than the rule when it comes to "Junior MS vs. MS" matchups. Develops Into: Oggo (Lv2), Zaku I (Lv2), Dra-C (Lv2), Gaza C (Lv3) Design Possibilities: GM Command (+ Tornado Gundam), Anf (+ most Tierens), Zock (+ most Aquatic MS)   MS-06 Zaku II The workhorse of the Zeon war effort, lauded by military engineering buffs and reviled by G-Genesis players for having more theater-optimized and squad/ace variants than God (the deity, not the Gundam) has names. Develops Into: Zaku II High Mobility Type (Lv3), Borjarnon (Lv3), Zaku II FZ (Lv4), Gouf (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Char's Zaku II (+ most Red MS), Oggo (+ Ball), Garma's Zaku II (+ Garma's Dopp), Zaku High Mobility Test Type (+ Dom), Zaku Cannon (+ most Cannon MS), ZAKU Warrior (+ Impulse/Gaia/Chaos/Abyss Gundam), GM Sniper (+ Tornado Gundam), RF Zaku (+ Hambrabi), Act Zaku (+ G-3 Gundam)   RGM-79 GM The culmination of the Earth Federation's MS research from Operation V (and an increasingly long laundry list of Early OYW side stories), the GM puts proven maneuvers and tactics and passable beam firepower in the hands of basically anyone who hasn't already proven themselves in some kind of prototype or theater-exclusive Gundam. Develops Into: GM Ground Type (Lv3), GM Command (Lv3), GM Kai (Lv4), GM II (Lv5) Design Possibilities: GM Cannon (+ most Cannon MS), GM Sniper (+ most Sniper MS), Zudah (+ Tornado Gundam), GM Quel (+ any Hizack)   MS-21C Dra-C A space raider MS made out of scrap and war refuse by those remnant fleets unwilling to accept Zeon's surrender following the One Year War. Somehow the design became standardized enough following its use by the Delaz Fleet (UC 0083) to wind up in the employ of the Sleeves (UC 0096). Develops Into: Oggo (Lv2), Zaku II (Lv3), Dra-C (Sleeves) (Lv3), Gaza C (Lv4) Design Possibilities: GM Sniper (+ Tornado Gundam), Death Bat (+ Nobel/Neros/Kowloon/John Bull Gundam)   RMS-006 Jenice Zaku II, through a scanner G-Saviourly? This mainstay suit of the Space Revolutionary Army found its way into basically everyone's hands in the wake of the 7th Space War...at least, everyone who hadn't already bought a Daughtress. Develops Into: Juracg Cold Climate Type (Lv3), Ennil's Jenice Kai (Lv3), Septem (Lv4), Octape (Lv5) Design Possibilities: Daughtress Weapon (+ Tornado Gundam), Ennil's Jenice Kai (+ any "Kai/Custom" MS), Grandeene (+ Grand Zam)   JMS60 Busshi A colony defense Mobile Suit operated by Neo Japan. If it were better at its job (or Ulube weren't as much of a prick), then the Ultimate Gundam wouldn't have broken containment and become the Devil Gundam. Counterwise, we wouldn't have a pathos for Domon. All things in their sum, I guess. Develops Into: Nobusshi (Lv3), Fantoma (Lv4), Rising Gundam (Lv5) Design Possibilities: Cushing (+ Tornado Gundam), Hizack (+ Nobusshi)     OZ-06MS Leo The Legendary Exploding Paperweight. Turns out a design whose hallmark is spending 20 years suppressing unarmed/small-armed citizenry is hella outmatched against state-of-the-art Gundams. Take actual care of the thing, though, and... Develops Into: Aries (Lv2), Leo (OZ) (Lv3), Taurus (Lv4), Tallgeese (Lv10) Design Possibilities: Aries (+ Tornado Gundam), Tallgeese (+ Xi Gundam/Penelope)   MSM-04 Acguy The Gentlewoman's Choice in Mobile Suits. Aside, I presume, from the Gerbera Tetra. I'm always personally leery about Aquatic MS at large in these kinds of games, because you either have 1-2 maps where they shine out of 30+ (this game and World), no maps in 30 where they're of any worth (Genesis), or 7 maps where they'd be really goddamn useful but aren't available to you (Super Robot Wars Original Generation). Develops Into: Zaku I (Lv2), Agguguy (Lv2), Gogg (Lv3), Beargguy (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Garma's Dopp (+ Dopp), Mass Production Guntank (+ Tornado Gundam), Agguguy (+ Gouf Custom), Beargguy (+ G-Exes), Zee Zulu (+ most Char's Neo Zeon/Sleeves MS), Gogg (+ Dom), Zock (+ Geze), Bolinoak Sammahn (+ either Byarlant)   DT-6800A Daughtress The GM of a darker timeline. Like its rival the Jenice, it's more ubiquitous as an after-market acquisition than as a mainstay of the United Nations Earth. Develops Into: Daughtress Weapon (Lv3), Balient (Lv5), Daughtress Neo (Lv6) Design Possibilities: Juracg Cold Climate Type (+ Tornado Gundam), Daughtress Weapon (+ most Cannon MS), Balient (+ Aries), Gadeel (+ any Gaplant), G-Falcon (+ G-Defenser or either GN Arms)   ZGMF-1017 GINN And now we find ourselves in a darker timeline still, where everyone is a Marvel Comics bystander and this is their Zaku. And the Federation analogue chose the Public over the Saberfish only to find its cruise missile payload utterly neutered. Basically the GINN is good, its show hasn't aged well, its sequel never bothered growing up, and its evolutions are weirdly adamant about not letting you divert to, say, BuCUE and its ilk. Develops Into: GINN High Maneuver Type (Lv3), CGUE (Lv3) Design Possibilities: Strike Dagger (+ Tornado Gundam), GN-X (+ any Gundam X), Elijah Kiel's GINN (+ either Arche Gundam, Throne Zwei, or GN-X II/IV)  TS-MA2 Moebius Aforementioned Public analogue. See, the Earth Alliance's first thought when the Coordinators decided to declare a state of self-governance was to use these guys to launch nukes into the ZAFT-aligned PLANTs. When ZAFT seeded the Earth Sphere with N-Jammers in response, it was pretty much lights out for the Mobius, as for all the conventional weaponry they could mount in place of nukes, they still maneuvered like chunks of poo poo even before taking the anime-superlative reaction times of Coordinators into account. Develops Into: Skygrasper (Lv2), Moebius Zero (Lv3), Gells-Ghe (Lv6), Zamza-Zah (Lv8) Design Possibilities: GINN High Maneuver Type (+ Tornado Gundam), Skygrasper (+ Striker Pack MS), Core Fighter (+ Guntank or RX-78/Full Armor/Perfect Gundam), Magella Attack Tank (+ Type 61 Tank)   VMS-15 Union Realdo Last Year's Hotness in the Union of Solar Energy & Free Nations, typically operating in support roles for the Union Flag and as a main operator in satellite states. Rod Defense is a particular sticking point, as that extra 50% reduction for Physical/Elemental/Ultimate attacks is additive with the usual Defend mitigation - a Rod Defender will be taking 60% less damage from those attack types before we've even taken Cunning (G-Genesis: Impregnable) into account. Develops Into: Union Flag (Lv3) Design Possibilities: Tieren Ground Type (+ Tornado Gundam), Baund Doc (+ any ZAFT Quadruped), Asshimar (+ Dom), Gaplant (+ Galbaldy Beta)   AEU-05(/05) AEU Hellion (Perpetuum) The Stig's Advanced European Union Cousin. The further notation as the Hellion Perpetuum is with respect to the Gundam 00P manga, where it's revealed that the TV-visible version of the Hellion was the winning bidder out of several interim designs and loadouts under the Hellion project umbrella. Of course, then the Enact came into play, to itself get played by Gundam Exia... Develops Into: AEU Hellion Ground Type (PMC Color) (Lv2), AEU Enact (Demo Color) (Lv4), AEU Enact (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Tieren Space Type (+ Tornado Gundam)    AMX-003 Gaza C A transformable MS created by the Zeon-in-exile at the Axis asteroid. Despite the Axis Zeon (later Haman's Neo Zeon)'s late entry into the Gryps Conflict, this suit would gain the distinction of being the first transformable MS of the UC 0080s to have a proper mass-production run, mostly bolstered by recycling frame and plate parts from construction-use predecessors. A good (if flimsy) fire supporter with some actual terrain versatility. Develops Into: Zaku II (Lv2), Geze (Lv2), Gaza D (Lv3), Ga-Zowmn (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Char's OYW Mobile Suits (+ Zaku II, Dom, Gelgoog, or Z'Gok), Haman's Gaza C (+ Qubeley), GM Command (+ Tornado Gundam), Anf (+ any Tieren), Baund Doc (+ any ZAFT Quadruped), Gaplant (+ Galbaldy Beta), Gundam Astraea Type F2 (+ Gundam Exia), Bawoo (+ Zeta Gundam/Z Plus), Gunner ZAKU Warrior (+ ZAKU Warrior)   MBF-M1 M1 Astray Remember how Kira spent like two-thirds of SEED agonizing over whether or not he should bother giving the Earth Alliance a Natural-suitable Mobile Suit OS, knowing they were painting him as a race-traitor rather than someone who just wanted the fighting to stop? Basically throw all that poo poo out, add the events of the first few volumes of Astray, and that's how Orb has (questionably) functional mass-production Mobile Suits despite being the misunderstood stepchild polity of the Cosmic Era. If only its use as a CE stepping stone wasn't half-invalidated by the A1 Over Impact... Develops Into: Strike Dagger (Lv3), M1 Astray Shrike (Lv3), Astray Red Frame (Lv4), Astray Blue Frame (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Moebius Zero (+ Tornado Gundam), Stargazer Gundam (+ Destiny/Strike Freedom/either 0/any 00 Gundam), Gundam F90 A.D.S. (+ Super Custom Zaku F2000), FLAT (+ Muttowooo), Psyco Gundam (+ Great Zeong)   Tornado Gundam A holdover from SD Gundam GX (an ancient strategy board game for the Super Famicom), and probably tied with Dolmel, Pixy, and Efreet for "oldest video game original Mobile Suit" as a result. Described in its G-Genesis bio as having been found in a base somewhere with no known manufacturer, but the Gundam Mk.II-alike beam rifle narrows down the possibilities considerably. Or does it? Develops Into: Phoenix Zero (Lv3), Gundam (BASIC) (LV4), Turn-A Gundam (BASIC) (LV4), Gundam AGE-1 Normal (BASIC) (LV4) Design Possibilities: As above per each mate, plus Psyco Gundam (+ Great Zeong)   GGS-000 Phoenix Zero Proof positive that the Japanese have no appreciation for the paradox as ontological dramatic device: Phoenix Zero is described simultaneously as being a reproduction of Phoenix Gundam's mass-producible qualities, and an imperfect testbed for technologies that would ultimately become part of Phoenix Gundam. Or maybe this all was explained in the PS1 G-Generation games (G-Gen, G-Gen Zero, G-Gen F) and we'll never know because the Japanese don't transcribe and the Americans don't translate. Unlike all the entries preceding it, it is not added to our starting Production List by default - a Tornado Gundam must be upgraded into one for us to buy copies or replacements. Develops Into: Phoenix Gundam (Lv3), Zeta Gundam (BASIC) (Lv4), Victory Gundam (BASIC) (Lv4), Shining Gundam (BASIC) (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Psyco Gundam (+ Great Zeong)   GX-9900 Gundam X (BASIC) A severely hobbled, trial version of an iconic Mobile Suit received for selecting a free Master at the start of a chapter. BASICs count as their full-size counterparts for Compendium entry purposes (mostly), but evolve into different (generally weaker but more diverse) grunt units, plus the non-BASIC form of the suit and the halfway-lethal joke Mobile Armor Haro. In the same vein as Phoenix Zero above, whichever BASIC you get with your Master selection is not added to the Production List starting off. This complicates dupe acquisition for the BASICs that cannot diverge from the Tornado -> Phoenix Zero -> Phoenix -> Phoenix (Full Potential) evolution tree (a majority of them, consisting of: Char's Gelgoog, GP01, GP02, Gundam Mk-II Titans, Hyaku-Shiki, ZZ Gundam, Qubeley, Sazabi, Sinanju, Gundam F91, Tallgeese, Gundam X, SUMO Gold, Aegis Gundam, Overflag, 0 Gundam, Zedas). Develops Into: Gundam Airmaster (Lv5), Gundam Leopard (Lv5), Gundam X (Lv8), Haro (Lv15) Design Possibilities: None Andy Waltfeld fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Mar 14, 2017 |
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Mar 4, 2017 23:32
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Say what you will about Seed, but the Astray and its variants are badass as all hell.
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Mar 4, 2017 23:49
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Keep those entries coming, they're very nice to read about. I didn't know lots of those weak tanks and ships. I do know the Ball, of course, because the Ball is great. Especially when used by a Newtype who could destroy six Rick Doms with it, of course. Too bad said Ball is not in this game.
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Mar 5, 2017 00:48
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That is a lot of unit descriptions. 
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Mar 5, 2017 00:55
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PMush Perfect posted:That is a lot of unit descriptions. Overworld boasts some 700ish mobile weapons (playable, buyable, and otherwise; though this number is also inclusive of transformed/pack-swapped forms) and another 120-odd warships. I'm gonna be here a bit. Blaze Dragon posted:I do know the Ball, of course, because the Ball is great. Especially when used by a Newtype who could destroy six Rick Doms with it, of course. G-Genesis gives us the Shark Mouth Ball from MS IGLOO as a distinct, Develop-able variant. That's like, a third of the way there, right? 
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Mar 5, 2017 02:09
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Mission A2 Part 1: Super Menu Wars This is a quickie but I wanted to focus on all the poo poo I'm going to do in this first menu so that I can skim them more quickly in later updates.  Here's our first problem. At the moment we can deploy eight guys plus a Master but Carry Base only has room for one Group of four dudes.  Solution. This does cost a slot and obviously any warship that can devote all three of its OP slots to things that aren't hangar space is going to be better in the long run, but warships are expensive.  Seriously, this is the cheapest warship that operates in both air and space (the only terrains that matter for warships). It costs four times as many neoshekels as I have.  The Xdra cruisers are the first warships that can operate in both terrain types and can carry two teams. For a couple of thousand more you can afford much better ships that have I-Fields and better weapon options, or you could go half again on your investment and buy a hovership that transforms into a giant motorbike battleship that deals damage by running poo poo over when it moves. If you want to double your investment you can look to the Diva from AGE which negates beam weapons within its area with its Beam Curtain active ability. Or you could go three-and-a-half times more and buy the Mother Vanguard which has high stats but, most importantly, is a pirate ship in space.  Anyway, now that we have four more slots to play with, first of all, we need units to put in them.  Much better. I bought a GiNN and a Leo - both because they're fairly solid units that can branch out into better ones, and the Leo in particular is necessary to start barking up Wing's tree; it's very difficult to get in on it otherwise. Of course now that I've spent all our starting money I need to buy pilots.  The very cheapest pilots in the shop cost 15k each. The most expensive is OYW Haro at 86000, but he's amazing at everything except leading and he comes with a personal skill, "Haro Genki!!", which was not only buffed from World, but in World it was locked until Haro was level 40. In this game, he has it to start. What does it do? Recovers 1% of his unit's HP and EN every turn, to a maximum of 20% at skill level 10. Getting a Haro is going to be a priority once we have some money to spare. Bluntly, there's nothing I can do about the cash problem at this point that wouldn't hurt me more in the long run, so the second team is going to be down a man until we do one more mission.  This guy is my weapon of choice for a cheap team leader. Although offensively focused, his personal skill, Instructor, causes all units and pilots from his group to gain 10% more EXP if they're in his Area, but at the maximum level, it doubles the amount, which is great for cutting down on grinding. Because the Strike we picked up is clearly our best unit, he gets it, mostly for the sake of keeping him alive and supplying his bonus.  Claire is the other character I'm picking up. While her stats are average (except her Awakening which is pretty good), she brings two important things to the table. First of all, she has Mood Maker, which increases the accuracy of all units within her group by 2% to a maximum of 12% at the highest level, which is a big deal when your pilots suck - and unlike its Genesis incarnation, Mood Maker applies even if the pilot isn't the leader, which makes Claire a great supporter. Second, and more importantly, most of her attack calls reference Gundam series. UNIVEEEEEEEEEEEERSE! Before we move on, let's do some upgrading with the ace points we got from the first mission.  Technically I could upgrade Garrod's default skill right now, but since he primarily has beam weapons on the Gundam X BASIC, that would be something of a waste.  Sadly, he's not level 30 yet, so we can't buy Rider of the Blazing Mobile Suit, which would be amazing.  So we're going to buy this instead. Hot Blooded is really stupid, since it's basically the equivalent of having two to three levels' worth of growth added to your combat stats, and it only gets better as your tension climbs. It can't level up but who cares?  I buy it for Timp, too.  Unfortunately, at present, nobody else can really approach the amount of ace points required to upgrade their stuff, and so now we have a choice to make. Here's Kawaii Uguu. As you can see, she can do anything reasonably well for a level 1 unit who was literally free (in fact, her combat stats are better than Claire's), and we have three units that need pilots.  The Gaza-C is something of a glass cannon, but it has two plain and reliable attacks per form, and its transformed mode can fly (well) and does great in space. In fact, because it can fly just fine in air, its bad land ranking when transformed is rather irrelevant. Its initial upgrades mostly carry it through the Gaza line, but later on it begins developing into more exotic transforming units and Newtype-use units, many of which are quite powerful.  The GiNN is a solid all-around unit with no real weaknesses other than its bread-and-butter weapons being kind of weak (300 or so points weaker than most other units' of their tier's equivalent weapons). It has no blind spot, and can shoot out to range 5 with beams or kinetic weapons, plus it operates fine in space and on land (although it can't fly in atmosphere). Its upgrades don't tend to be spectacular, but they're either powerfully-specialized or reliably-rounded, so it's a workhorse.   The Leo is less well-rounded than the GiNN and less-mobile than the Gaza-C, but it makes up for this with its ability to secure an A-rank in whatever terrain it's fighting in. While it's weapons aren't spectacular, they're usually Good Enough. More importantly, it serves as a path into the Wing upgrade tree; because Wing's arms race is very tight-knit and incestuous, it's more like a web than a tree, and Wing units tend towards being fairly durable, but they do usually suffer from some flaw caused by their specialization, which can be huge (Sandrock, Deathscythe) or irrelevant (Tallgeese III, Wing ZERO) depending on the unit. So, which unit should Kawaii Uguu pilot?  Bonus ContentCustom BGM    OVERWorld has a gimmick where you can load MP3 files to use as game music. To do this, make root\MUSIC\OVERWORLD where "root" is the root of the PSP (so not PSP\MUSIC, create a MUSIC folder in the same area that PSP is in), and drop in mp3 files of your choice. You may have to fiddle the volume and bitrate in audacity to get it to work right, and sometimes OVERWorld just refuses to play music for no reason. Set custom music by going to Gallery -> Custom BGM. Note that if multiple characters have the same custom BGM set that it will restart each time a different character attacks, unlike, say, SRW. Choice of Leaders I realised I was complaining about Abram's stats without really giving a reason why, so here it is: if a Leader goes down, while it's not the end of the world, it does mean no more Area for that squad for the rest of the map, which means no supporting and no passive buffs. Basically, the squad is crippled. Consequently, when I'm picking Leaders, I tend to look for either very good skills, or very good defensive stats, because the Leader is very important to keep alive, even if they aren't contributing a lot of offense. Of course, Command and Charm also factor into it. Obvious skills for Leaders are Team Work (a level 20 skill, if you don't start with it like Mark does), Instructor (early in the game, when EXP is most important), Brave Leader and Brave General (increase the Leader Area and increase the leader's stats), Command (increases Master and Leader Area by 3), and personal skills with similar effects, like Sergei Smirnov's "Wild Bear of Russia" skill, or the Phantom Sweep and Invisible Knights skills possessed by those teams. Choice of Not-Leaders Generally, I like to have a mix of specialist pilots using specialist units in a squad, since even in one situation, there are usually different things you want to have different people do. In general, though, there are a few skills that are always ridiculously good: Mercenary is only possessed by Ali Al-Sachez, Gai Murakumo, and Elijah Kiel (who is a well-balanced pilot in his own right and is CHEAP) but it increases the maximum range of all weapons 1, including 1~1 weapons, which is stupidly powerful. Skills like SEED or Gym Gingham's unique God of War that increase many stats by significant numbers will be relevant regardless of the choice of unit. If you're building a specialist character - say, a dedicated sniper - you can cherrypick for skills that increase one particular stat that will be used instead, which can help you fill your niche at a bargain price... sure, CE73 Kira is a great character, especially once you pick up Super Coordinator (which makes SEED even dumber), but he costs 45000 lien; if you want a dedicated sniper, you can pick up Chuck Keith for almost half the price (24800 and comes with a skill that buffs support attack damage which is what snipers primarily do), or even grab Kayla-Su for 27800 and double-up as a dedicated anti-warship unit due to her coming with Concentration. Realistically, this is not a hard game; once you begin to grasp even the most basic systems, it becomes possible to win with any combination of pilots you like - it's popular to play entirely using created characters named for you and your friends, for example. You might have to grind a little more, but if you want to play entirely with created characters, low-stat originals, or just your favorite waifus, you can really do it (although they may not have as much dialogue or even have cut-ins...). Speaking of, when we get done with A-EX, I'll show off my favorite grinding spot. As a reminder: shall Kawaii Uguu pilot the Leo, Gaza-C, or GiNN? Ace of Aces fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Mar 6, 2017 |
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Mar 6, 2017 14:40
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Put her in the Gaza-C, it's the closest to her colour scheme, at least until you get the Strike Rouge.
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Mar 6, 2017 16:35
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Give her a Leo, because I don't think anyone's ever seen one last for more than 30 seconds before exploding. Incidentally, I remember people back in the day swearing that the Leos were really powerful, equal to most early-to-mid series Gundams, just that the main suits in Wing were that much further beyond them, they were reduced to Zaku status by default. Was that actually true, or was it just fanwank?
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Mar 6, 2017 20:10
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Blaze Dragon posted:Put her in the Gaza-C, it's the closest to her colour scheme, at least until you get the Strike Rouge. So, that'd mean that Kawaii is in a flying mech with high damage, but that's relatively fragile... Why does this all sound so familiar? Voting that Kawaii's theme be set to Silver Fallen Angel.
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Mar 6, 2017 20:56
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Definitely Gaza-C.PMush Perfect posted:Voting that Kawaii's theme be set to Silver Fallen Angel. This, clearly.
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Mar 6, 2017 22:14
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I would recommend the Ginn, but then I went back and realized that it doesn't lead to the Red/Blue Astrays,so that's out. Instead I vot Leo so you can more quickly get to the mechs you like.
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Mar 6, 2017 23:09
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:Give her a Leo, because I don't think anyone's ever seen one last for more than 30 seconds before exploding. The Tallgeese is just a very souped up Leo basically. The Leo itself is perfectly fine... it's just 20 years old. I don't think it's much better than an RX-78-2 though, It's main benefit is adaptability and lots of handheld weaponry.
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Mar 6, 2017 23:44
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:Give her a Leo, because I don't think anyone's ever seen one last for more than 30 seconds before exploding. It's sort of complicated. The overall quality of unit in Wing is somewhat higher than in, for example, UC, but part of that is that MS are not mass-produced on the scale of UC. Production ramps up when the Gundams begin hitting Oz, but throughout the series, the number of mainstay MS in service appears to number in the hundreds, rather than the thousands of UC. Also, unlike in UC, where the sheer power of the main cannon of a tank remains a threat to MS (and the mobility and agility of MS is what made them truly dangerous), conventional forces like tanks and choppers are obviously no match for Leos. On the other hand, Leos aren't actually the "Zaku II" of the Earth Union/Oz forces - that would be the Tragos, which is seen during the opening narration and occasionally in background shots, but is in the process of being phased out in favor of the more-modular Leo. Additionally, the Leo has been pretty much constantly updated since its initial release, sort of like how real-life fighter aircraft get their internals upgraded with new tech in order to keep them relevant. On the other other hand, Earth Union/Oz troops are primarily used for suppression of small forces, similar to current "peacekeeping" operations in the Middle East; part of the reason the Gundams absolutely shred them is that they're actually designed for anti-MS combat. When the Taurus comes into play - an actual anti-MS Mobile Suit - even ones that aren't Mobile Dolls are clearly performing much better against the Gundams than previous MS did, and the Virgo is just straight up ridiculous, as it's basically a mega-turret with a force field. Notably, even when the Wing Boys start getting used to fighting MDs, they still struggle on two distinct occasions: when Zechs sorties with a three-man squad of Virgo II bodyguards and uses them as shields and distractors for Epyon, and when Dorothy uses the Epyon's ZERO System to control the Libra's MD squads, which is the closest that arc comes to actually getting them killed, indicating the strength of the Virgo II units. It's also worth remembering that when Lady Une dropped an entire theater's worth of Leos on the Gundams during the "train fight" that ended with Heero's first and only self-destruct, the Gundams ended up with their backs to the wall. That being said, Leos aren't exactly high-performance units by any stretch of the imagination, but they aren't complete garbage, either; they're not on par with, say, the RX-78 Gundam, but they're also not as poor-performance as a Zaku II or GM. On the other hand, the Gundams in Wing are very powerful, which is largely because Wing is primarily about politics and logistics, so the Gundams are (from the perspective of the politicians and logisticians) basically natural disasters that hate them specifically (so, like Godzilla), and as a result they tend to shred through Leos by the bucketload. Wing as a series also suffered really badly from nobudget due to problems with G Gundam's toyline in America (apparently dipshit parents didn't take kindly to DEVIL GUNDAM and GOD GUNDAM; for some reason the toysalers didn't feel the need to change the names like the show did), which rather limited the ability of mook suits to do anything other than explode horribly in stock footage, which tends to make them look worse than they actually are. But yeah, it's basically fanwank. They're a bit better than Zakus but certainly not OMG AMAZING; their strength lies in their modularity.
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Mar 7, 2017 00:04
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Since I got into the franchise with Wing, when Toonami started airing the original series and I saw the Gundam getting pushed around by a handful of Zakus my initial thought wasn't, "Man, this Gundam is weak" it was "Man, these grunt suits are strong." So it was kinda funny to learn that, specs wise, Leos are superior to Zakus in basically every meaningful way. This game has given me a new appreciation for C.E. mechs, as I find I enjoy the Strike Gundam a lot more when I can stick Norris Packard in one instead of Kira.
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Mar 7, 2017 00:16
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Ashsaber posted:I would recommend the Ginn, but then I went back and realized that it doesn't lead to the Red/Blue Astrays,so that's out. We have an app for that, and it's called M1 Astray. Alacron posted:This game has given me a new appreciation for C.E. mechs, as I find I enjoy the Strike Gundam a lot more when I can stick Norris Packard in one instead of Kira. Two words: GOUF Ignited. We can't give him Heine's because *Japanese Record Labels* but I guess Yzak's would suffice? everyone posted:Leo chat If it weren't for Overworld and its fellows in the G-Generation WARS pedigree needing an "elemental" MS from each universe at the bottom of their respective tech trees, I'd rank Leos around the same mark as the Titans' early slate of mass-production MS (per televised Zeta, GM II/Hizack). The technology is proven, and incrementally refined as budgets and bureaucracy permit, but a generation of hegemony has made pilots and commanders lose the optics of MS-to-MS combat and it takes them a few iconic early episodes of being pantsed before proper tactics can be brought to bear. See also the room-temperature arms race that we start Gundam 00 with Celestial Being barging in on, or all the gaskets blown in IBO when Gjallarhorn's Graze jockeys find they have a bigger, harder target than Mobile Workers to deal with thanks to the activation of Barbatos. On the heroic side, AGE gives us the Genoace and the mainline MS of its Earth Federation's minor states getting bowled over by Gafrans. As quaint as everyone sees the Leo issue as being in Sunrise's eyes because "Americans loved Wing, Sunrise gives no shits what Americans think, therefore none of Wing's distinct tropes should be expected to be recycled", the idea of a complacent military getting a wake-up wedgie is a cheap but effective framing device for Gundam series, kept in vogue by parallels to real-world military aimlessness and tickling the right shonen nerve centers of "only the New Youthful Hero can defend the state/defend the people/defend the director's honor."
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Mar 7, 2017 02:07
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Becoming somewhat evident we've only got reasonable image space for half an update till the Reply counter hits 80, and guess what, I have half an update's worth of content ready! Cathedral of Sprues A1: Gundam Rising (and War Room auxiliary) In previous installments, we had ourselves a taste of mid-tier gameplay and took a look at what we can jury-rig with our allotted dregs. In this (and subsequent) episodes, we start putting the spotlight on enemies more than allies - some of the really neat toys we get to play around with as Guest Masters wind up being uncapturable during Over Impact, or the Secret captures we make need considerable grinding to get on par with their leader. And then there's the stuff that the game is really obnoxious about letting you have an easy route to...   Carry Base Sometimes also Romanized as "Cali Verse". Hailing from as far back as G-Generation DS, this rust-colored Clop-class sacrifices the stat differential of a CCA-era warship for the ability to operate in atmosphere. It may have an anemic movement range and a tendency to bankrupt its EN bar the second it gets caught in a sustained firefight, but it'll do for the weight we're punching at, and we'll ultimately never get rid of it. No, really. Warships, once purchased (or in Carry Base's case, awarded), cannot be resold. This is (generally) a failsafe to keep you from selling it off after leaving the tutorial, blowing the proceeds on other buyables, and leaving you unable to actually play the game for lack of a warship to attach all your nice toys and pilots to. EDIT: I have since been informed that if a Warship is absent from an unlocked Group slot, you can still deploy a Master acting autonomously. Please do not do this unless you know what you're doing. Or at least know that you're doing it with a Size XL/XXL unit.  RX-75-4 Guntank The first of the Earth Federation's Operation V prototypes, built under the auspices that Mobile Suit technology could be readily married to the tried-and-once-true construction base and methodology of tank warfare. It has a nasty habit of underperforming vs. the Guncannon and Gundam as a result, but is at least capable of putting big holes in warships and fortifications from a safe distance. Seen here only as cutscene dummies for Gene's rampage through Side 7, but we'll get to work in a live-fire exercise at some point. Pedigree: Core Fighter Lv3 Develops Into: Mass Production Guntank (Lv2), Guntank II (Lv3), Assault Guntank (Lv3), Guncannon (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Core Fighter (+ most Fighter units), Gundam Leopard (+ any Gundam Heavyarms)   RX-78-2 Gundam The Machine, The Myth, The Legend. The mid-to-short range arm of the Operation V trinity, pushed to its spec limits and beyond by Amuro Ray's continued deployments in guerilla assaults against Zeon and his own relentless tinkering with its learning computer. During Mission A1, the Gundam does not have access to the Gundam Hammer or Hyper Bazooka. Canonically it didn't have the Beam Rifle either (and is depicted without in G-Genesis's retelling of MSG's first episode), but has it here as a gameplay concession. Pedigree: Core Fighter Lv8 Develops Into: Gundam Ground Type (Lv2), Full Armor Gundam (Lv3), G-3 Gundam (Lv3), Gundam GP01 "Zephyrantes" (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Core Fighter (+ most Fighter units), Gelgoog (+ Zaku II High Mobility Type), Perfect Gundam (+ Perfect Zeong), 0 Gundam (+ Stargazer Gundam/Turn-A Gundam (Full Power)), Gundam F90 (+ G-Cannon), Gundam F90 (A.D.S.) (+ Super Custom Zaku F2000), Mudrock Gundam (+ Guncannon or Mass Production Guncannon), RX-81 G-Line Standard Armor (+ Xeku Eins or ?), Amakusa (+ either Crossbone Gundam X-2), Psyco Gundam (+ Great Zeong), 2 Endgame Spoiler Mixes   ovv-f Gafran A killer robot dragon from Mars. Gundam AGE wasn't the first time we've had Mobile Suits barge in from the Red Planet, but it was the first time they did so on TV and therefore had to be A Big Deal. Despite all the work put into their animations, the Gafran and its kin really only get three big chances to shine in Overworld, and we've just seen one. And then the other two generations of Gundam AGE fell flat thanks to trying to do too many Gundam tropes in simultaneously too high a density and watered-down enough to work for Level-5's usual target audience, and we'll basically never get anything Vagan in a game newer than Gundam Breaker 3. and even then the hiked-up wing skirt kills its ability to blend with anything ARGH Pedigree: Genoace/Genoace Custom + most Oldsmobile Army MS Develops Into: Baqto (Lv3), Zedas (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Shenlong Gundam (+ Destroy Gundam or other Gundams with extending arms)   AEU-09 AEU Enact (Demo Color) Determined to break out of the engineering rut that made the AEU Hellion indistinguishable from the Union Realdo, the AEU created this next-generation Mobile Suit...which is kind of indistinguishable from the Hellion performance-wise. To say nothing of its utter inability to withstand the assault of Gundam Exia during Celestial Being's initial declaration of war on war. Pedigree: AEU Hellion Lv4 Develops Into: AEU Hellion (Lv2), AEU Enact (Lv3), GN-X (Lv5) Design Possibilities: Agrissa Type-13 (+ Gells-Ghe), Z Plus A1 (+ Zeta Gundam)       GAT-X105(+AQM/E-X(01/02/03)) Aile/Sword/Launcher Strike Gundam Developed as one of the Earth Alliance's G-Weapons at Heliopolis, because union rules mandate that at least one Hero Gundam find its way into the hands of a good guy whenever Gundams are built in batches. It and its brethren are coated with Phase Shift Armor, capable of seriously reducing the damage inflicted by the physical ordnance favored by ZAFT's Mobile Suits. This doesn't do much for Gundam vs. Gundam combat, as all five are also equipped with experimental beam weapons, but then it's not like the EA expected ZAFT to steal the four Gundams that fell outside the union quota. As the first Gundam you can receive by exploiting the Capture rules in Over Impact, the Strike quickly becomes a new player's best friend - Phase Shift Armor and its relatively superlative defense capabilities make it a natural fit for Ranalow running interference, and its HP/EN capacity and weapon ranges blow the Tornado Gundams out of the water. Just don't get too dependent, as there are Better Toys forthcoming. Strike Gundam is also notorious for being one of those units tweaked coming from World to get rid of superfluous transformations. There, it had a packless form with just vulcans and Armor Schneider knives that better reflected its Episode 01/02 state. Aile is the default in Overworld, and while you can park it back in the Archangel during Mission A1 and swap out of Sword, there's no real reason to if you're properly goading Athrun northward. Pedigree: Moebius Lv2 -> Skygrasper Lv4 Develops Into: Strike Dagger (Lv2), Duel Gundam (Lv3), Strike Rouge (Lv3), Strike Noir (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Skygrasper (+ most Fighter units), Gundam Geminass 01 (+ Gundam Mk-II (AEUG)), Gundam Geminass 02 (+ Gundam Mk-II (Titans)), Gundam Sandrock (+ Nobel Gundam, either Gundam Geminass, or any EXAM System unit), FLAT (+ Muttowooo), Sword Calamity (+ Calamity Gundam), Dreadnought Gundam (+ any GuAIZ), Gundam F90 (+ either 0 Gundam), Gundam F90 (A.D.S.) (+ Super Custom Zaku F2000), Psyco Gundam (+ Great Zeong), 2 Endgame Spoiler Mixes   LCAM-01XA Archangel The Earth Alliance's next-generation assault carrier, built with supporting the entire series of G-Weapons in mind and in the image (as these things tend to be) of the Universal Century's White Base. Its dual hulls sport devastating "Lohnegrin" positron cannons, and all non-articulated parts of the armor plating are made of the heat-dissipating Laminate Armor for improved Beam defense. In theory it can also scatter Anti-Beam Depth Charges to further foul enemy beam attacks within its Group Area, but the terrible turn economy for warships in Overworld limits its effective use. Gundam Wiki's boilerplate on Laminate Armor says it's a single rolled plate for the entire outer body of the ship, which sounds to me like A Bad loving Idea from a Materials Science standpoint. Unless it's imperative that that kind of construction takes precedence over better shock compensation - can Murrue Ramius chime in on that at some point?   GAT-X303 Aegis Gundam Developed as one of the Earth Alliance's G-Weapons at Heliopolis, its name takes on more of the "interceptor" meaning than the "shield" one. Its entire body is designed for quick transformation into a flying crab claw with the "Scylla" positron cannon embedded in its base - not that Overworld properly represents it due to Form Kompression. On top of that, it's also armed with the same Rifle/Saber/Vulcan loadout of the other G-Weapons. Pedigree: Moebius Lv2 -> Skygrasper Lv4 -> Strike Gundam Lv3 -> Duel Gundam Lv3 -> Blitz Gundam Lv3 Develops Into: Duel Gundam (Lv3), Buster Gundam (Lv3), Blitz Gundam (Lv3), Raider Gundam (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Char's OYW Mobile Suits (+ Zaku II, Dom, Gelgoog, Z'Gok), Dreadnought Gundam (+ any GuAIZ), FLAT (+ Muttowooo), Gunner ZAKU Warrior (+ ZAKU Warrior), Gundam Astraea Type 2 (+ Gundam Exia), Gundam F90 (A.D.S.) (+ Super Custom Zaku F2000), Psyco Gundam (+ Great Zeong), 2 Endgame Spoiler Mixes   AMX-101 Galluss-J Axis's re-entry into the Earth Sphere in UC 0088 was particularly triumphant thanks to how hard the Titans and AEUG were bloodying each other. But the newly-proclaimed Neo Zeon couldn't sustain their new war effort on Gaza Cs alone. The Galluss-J was developed as a general-purpose urban combat machine, best used for close-in mop-up in tandem with its "missile pods on a skeleton" partner Zssa. While it sports a Beam Saber in addition to the weapon complement given it in Overworld, the Galluss-J uses its spring-loaded forearms for its melee of choice because you can take Sunrise off of VOTOMS but you can't take the Scopedog out of Sunrise. Pedigree: Gaza C Lv4 -> Ga-Zowmn Lv3 Develops Into: Ga-Zowmn (Lv2), Zssa (Lv3), Galluss-K (Lv4), Dreissen (Lv5) Design Possibilities: Galluss-K (+ most Cannon MS)   MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type (Char Aznable's) Baby's First Ace Custom Design. 20% extra starting max HP and a 1/1/2 stat spread buff seems like I'm being short-changed from the 1.3x Faster promise that was made about this thing, much less the initial 3x Faster specs. The big takeaway, of course, is that the finicky-but-powerful Cracker Grenade has been swapped out in favor of the Char Kick. Don't tell our friends at Toei we're infringing on a patent. Permanent Production List access to pilot/squadron custom MS is new to Overworld, and one of the big Hilarious Exploit motives for using Design to fuse new MS into your possession whenever possible. You can't get permanent versions of simple Commander variants, though (the ones made when assigning an MS to the Leader/Master slot), but few are the situations where you'd want them that badly (I can only think of one in G-Genesis, where the commander form of Doven Wolf gains a Range 1-2 melee with its quasi-Psycommu hands). The other major drawback of ace customs is that, since they have to revert back to their non-ace form when made temporarily, the permanent ones don't have any new Develop possibilities. They *may*, however, have new Design possibilites. Temporary Use Assignment: Zaku II @ Char Aznable (0079) Pedigree: Zaku II x most Red units Develops Into: Zaku II High Mobility Type (Lv3), Borjarnon (Lv3), Zaku II FZ (Lv4), Gouf (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Zaku Cannon (+ most Cannon MS), Oggo (+ Ball), Zaku High Mobility Test Type (+ Dom), Acguy (+ Gogg), RF Zaku (+ Hambrabi), Act Zaku (+ G-3 Gundam), Cronicle's Zolo (+ Zolo), Gunner ZAKU Warrior (+ ZAKU Warrior), ZAKU Warrior (Live Version) (+ Saviour/Impulse/Gaia/Chaos/Abyss Gundam), Gundam Astraea Type F2 (+ Gundam Exia)   RGM-79GS GM Command (Space Type) A late-war variant of the Federation's GM, created with frame and plating optimizations made for the OTHER Earthnoid Meme Machine, the GM Sniper II. The big game it brings is swapping out the GM's Beam Spray Gun for the "paint pistol" Beam Gun, with punch more akin to that of the RX-78 Gundam's Beam Rifle. While this space-use version and a tan-colored Earth-variant GM Command both debuted in Gundam 0080, only the former ever gets a fair shake in Gundam games and other side works. You'd think that'd have been rectified in G-Genesis thanks to the amount of Earth missions that had to be scripted for all those Early-Mid One Year War side stories, but nooooo.... Pedigree: GM Lv3 Develops Into: GM (Lv2), GM Kai (Lv3), GM Sniper Custom (Lv3), GM Custom (Lv4) Design Possibilities: GM Cannon (+ most Cannon MS), GM Quel (+ any Hizack)   RGM-79[G] GM Sniper Not the GM Messiah. In fact, a very naughty boy. Not so much for being able to stick 4000 MAPW damage on anyone 7-9 tiles from it, but for its animated debut in 08th MS Team shooting down a Zanzibar-class flying medical emergency flag. Does it get a pass for helping to take down the Apsalus III afterward? I'm not so sure about that, considering I have to Develop a near-identical version to take it off-Earth. Pedigree: GM Lv2 -> GM Ground Type Lv3 Develops Into: GM (Lv2), GM Ground Type (Lv3), GM Sniper Custom (Lv3) Design Possibilities: GM Cannon (+ most Cannon MS), GM Quel (+ any Hizack), Cushing (+ most Mobile Doll/Mobile Bit units)   MSJ-06II-E Tieren Space Type The Human Reform League's mainstay Mobile Suit, dolled up with enough extant verniers and counter-aerodynamic finny-tubey bits to make it unviable outside of vacuum. Its general armament is a basic, all-Physical affair, but the Carbon Net can be a powerful asset in the right moment. You may remember it from the HRL's early operation to capture the Gundam Virtue, and it serves the same purpose here - instead of immediately taking fixed damage, an enemy hit with it will be dimmed and marked as if they had just ended their movement for their own turn. In this state, they will be unable to take response actions other than "No Action" (cannot counter, provides no Defense or Evasion bonus) when targeted with normal attacks for the rest of your phase, and will not regain their own action when their own phase comes up. ...or you could just pound the enemy with massed fire and they'll be too dead to ever take actions again. Your call. Pedigree: Anf Lv3 Develops Into: Anf (Lv2), Tieren Ground Type (Lv3), Tieren Taozi (Lv4) Design Possibilities: Anf (+ Ball/Gaza C/Geze), Ahead (+ Gundam Kyrios) Also Appearing This Episode Zaku II, AEU Hellion, GINN, and Gaza C recur this mission. Gundam AGE-1 Normal also features prominently, but not so much as to warrant a full writeup. Andy Waltfeld fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Mar 7, 2017 02:36
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Andy Waltfeld posted:
Yeah. With AGE's failure, you could almost say Martian mobile suits... were left orphaned. (I regret nothing.)
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Mar 7, 2017 03:00
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I know literally nothing about Gundam AGE other than that I was warned to stay away from it.
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Mar 7, 2017 03:42
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Alacron posted:I know literally nothing about Gundam AGE other than that I was warned to stay away from it. You'll be happier that way. If you need to know something, some of the MS designs are neat. That's all that can be said that is good about AGE. Oh, and Aurora is a drat good opening.
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Mar 7, 2017 03:49
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Alacron posted:I know literally nothing about Gundam AGE other than that I was warned to stay away from it. AGE was a completely original Gundam game that Level 5 was brought on to create. Then someone got the idea to turn it into a TV show...without ensuring that Akihiro Hino's team would properly adapt the script for TV. The end result is that a lot of twists in the show read like bad video game twists and the plot is super dumb in places. Also, a number of mobile suits for the 3rd generation arc had their planned Gunpla kits shelved because of the poor ratings and reception of the show and never released.
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Mar 7, 2017 05:08
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It has some really stellar OST pieces as well, particularly SUPER PILOT.
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Mar 7, 2017 05:27
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I vote for Kawaii Uguu to pilot a GiNN, because her pilot outfit is from SEED so her first ride should be too.Ace of Aces posted:Wing as a series also suffered really badly from nobudget due to problems with G Gundam's toyline in America (apparently dipshit parents didn't take kindly to DEVIL GUNDAM and GOD GUNDAM; for some reason the toysalers didn't feel the need to change the names like the show did), which rather limited the ability of mook suits to do anything other than explode horribly in stock footage, which tends to make them look worse than they actually are. This doesn't sound right at all. I'm pretty sure that not only did we get Wing first, it was the first Gundam series to debut on television in America, and the entire thing was finished before the notion of giving us any of the TV shows was floated. I think the compilation movies for the original series got translated way back in the day, but that's it. Which is not to say that the G Gundam toy release wasn't a complete disaster, but it wasn't because the names were unchanged. It's because instead of "this case is mostly the major protagonists with a handful of odds and sods for the completionists, big fans, and that one kid who latches on to a niche character," it's 'here's a case with an even split of everything" or something (so they massively overproduced the one and two off characters). So the ten God Gundams flew off the shelves, and then the ten Mandala Gundams warmed the shelf basically forever, which understandably pissed off the toy retailers who decided "gently caress this noise, we're not dealing with this Gundam poo poo if they're going to dump a bunch of merchandise that won't sell on us."
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Mar 8, 2017 05:23
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MechaCrash posted:This doesn't sound right at all. I'm pretty sure that not only did we get Wing first, it was the first Gundam series to debut on television in America, and the entire thing was finished before the notion of giving us any of the TV shows was floated. I think the compilation movies for the original series got translated way back in the day, but that's it. Ace is Australian and has a lot of his Anglophone Gundam timeline off regarding who got what series when prior to around SEED Destiny and 00, but having seen very few 90s HG G Gundam kits in the wild and that Mobile Suit in Pocket (Bandai's line of mostly-complete plastic MS and support craft figures, predating Mobile Suit in Action which expanded internationally) never expanded beyond Victory, I have to assume some subpar merch movement was at play, meaning less revenue to put into keyframe animation. That or it was all banked for Endless Waltz, who knows. Me, I don't think G Gundam pegwarmers killed MSiA so much as tightened toy standards abroad did. We got figures up through the first half or so of SEED that actually got broadcast on Toonami, tiny to-scale Armor Schneider knives and all. So of goddamned course ASTM has to be rewritten to assume any nonfood that can get into an unattended toddler's mouth is a Choking Hazard and now we can't get handswap parts on figures that're smaller than a centimeter in diameter.
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Mar 8, 2017 07:08
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MechaCrash posted:I vote for Kawaii Uguu to pilot a GiNN, because her pilot outfit is from SEED so her first ride should be too. There used to be a long-standing rumour that The Powers That Be over at Sunrise (or whoever, but it was usually Sunrise) would actively block any and all attempts to license Gundam in the West. Complete nonsense, of course (I think the official reason was that they simply didn't have any faith it it selling over here, since it wasn't as kid-oriented as the networks would like, and they had little wish to see it re-edited and reframed a la Robotech), but for years you'd hear people swear blind that there was a dark conspiracy to keep Gundam out the hands of us filthy Gaijin.
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Mar 8, 2017 23:58
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That conspiracy is real and active; we just know now that it's record labels that are responsible. For instance, physical copy presses for Gundam Breaker 3's Asia English version (and several other Bandai Namco Asia English games) just recently stopped thanks to Avex declaring an embargo on their licensed series/character/artist goods being sold outside of Japan (Avex signs BACK-ON, most famous for half the Gundam Build Fighters soundtrack and insert songs for all three Gundam Breaker games).
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Mar 9, 2017 01:04
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