|
Really? You made your GP01 into the GP00? I made mine into the GP03. Can you say "Dendrobium Orchis before Tier 2"?* *Just barely before, I first deployed it on Balbadoro, but the point still stands! EDIT: Update at bottom of last page!
|
#
?
May 31, 2017 18:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 13:27 |
|
|
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can use the Dendrobium unless it's in a master slot, so you'd be stuck with the overall good but not great Stamen instead.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2017 21:48
|
|
|
Alacron posted:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can use the Dendrobium unless it's in a master slot, so you'd be stuck with the overall good but not great Stamen instead. You absolutely can, it's just that it'll take up four slots as a team unit. The Orchis is one of the best MAs in the game for how quickly you can get it, but even I will admit it isn't worth losing 3 deployment slots.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2017 01:20
|
|
|
That's the main reason I did that, but also because I really appreciate the fire support and built-in EWACs. The Stamen is seriously not great though, it always underperforms in G-Gen games (probably because the Orchis is always ridiculous).
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2017 02:15
|
|
|
So, getting best girl when? Also, [vaacuming noises] is great summation of an Free Capture
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2017 09:09
|
|
|
After  OFFSCREEN GRINDING I will have the money to buy space and time so we'll start with a capital ship, Haman, and Haro, and go from there.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2017 14:16
|
|
|
no no we should vote again and have another chance not to get haman
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2017 08:27
|
|
|
Intermission: Offscreen Grinding and Super Menu Wars So our stated goal for today is to find enough money to buy a second capital ship and enough masters to populate it (we've stolen enough poo poo from stages to have mechs we can use). For this purpose, we'll be farming a stage I shouldn't know exists (in much the same way that I shouldn't have known to rush through the A-tier missions in order to sandbag this stage to get Domon).    The Rising Gundam is based on the concept of a 'samurai wife', that is, the (head) wife of a samurai who owned their own lands under their lord. When their husband was away, they were charged with defending their husband's lands in his stead, and are traditionally depicted wielding yumi and naginata. Whether this is true history or romantic storytelling remains a matter of some debate, much like the existence of onnabugeisha, female soldiers under a daimyou, a feudal lord.  The most famous onnabugeisha is Tomoe-gozen, said to have fought under Minamoto no Yoshinaka in the Genpei War. Much like Sasaki Kojiro, whether she actually existed or was in fact a fictional name given to the protagonist of different stories of female heroism that eventually became one legend is still debated. She periodically turns up as a waifu in various waifushit anime, and she's a popular choice for a female Rider in fan-made Holy Grail Wars.  G Gundam's director, Yasuhiro Imagawa, had previously directed Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still, which used almost the entire canon of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's work; while probably best-known to western audiences for producing Tetsujin-28 and Giant Robo, Yokoyama's other hits are predominantly historical fantasy wuxia stories, many of which were incorporated wholesale into Imagawa's Giant Robo OVA. The influence the experience had on Imagawa as a director shows very clearly in G Gundam, which unfolds in a manner extremely similar to the Giant Robo OVA - the two are more similar to each other than almost any of Imagawa's other works.   What could this be?   If you have the right pilots in the right units use the right attacks when one is a leader or master and the other(s) support attacks with them, you get special animations. In this case, it's simply a special intro based on an animation from the original series. The wiki lists others, but I probably won't get to show many of them off simply because they're way too annoying to set up for not enough payoff.   Actually, there's one special animation which has a somewhat odd mechanical benefit; if you have Rain in the Rising and Domon in the God Gundam use their special attacks, they'll perform Sekiha Love-Love Tenkyoken instead, and the damage is calculated as the combined move power - the enemy's defense, which almost always results in more damage than (Rain's attack - enemy's defense) plus (Domon's attack - enemy's defense).   Here's Abram's new ride getting things done. I really like the All-Terrain Type's color scheme, it looks like an Advance of Zeta mech.  Kawaii Uguu's new Destiny Impulse showing off its amazingly-cool melee animation. This is the primary reason I like it more than the Destiny. The Wings of Light blur effect really kicks the poo poo out of the filesize though so I had to make it choppy as gently caress.   If you didn't watch Wing as a kid it's probably not going to be easy to explain, but even using a Taurus gives me a mildly creeped-out feeling. Up until the point where they become mainstay units in the show, the mechs we'd seen deployed were a lot like huge tanks - they were bulky and very clearly mechanical, even the Gundams. Taurus suits have smoother, almost-organic lines, and since they were all AI-controlled, they never spoke or anything, their faceplate just glowed and beeped when they got instructions. On top of that, they were almost invisible in space, and most of the second quarter of the show is devoted to Taurus mobile dolls beating the poo poo out of the heroes who have been largely invincible to this point. Overall, they're just really creepy things. Incidentally, in a lot of G-Gen games, Tauruses (Taurii?) don't transform, and are locked into either their waverider form or their mech form. In this game, it's the latter, and in fact they can't even fly in atmosphere (which the Sanc Kingdom-spec White Taurus units were capable of, although some games specify that those are land-use variants).    The b-team are coming along nicely now that their mechs have been upgraded a little bit. I didn't take a good shot of it but during the warmup on the GP00 beam cannon, the whole body is dark with the green highlights (its cameras) flickering and glowing, which looks awesome.  Speaking of the Taurus, this weapon is probably the greatest plot fuckup in Wing. You're introduced to it in about episode 5, when Wu-Fei raids Noin's training base to take out the Taurus units and their pilots, and he 'borrows' this Space Laser to shoot down an aircraft, whereupon the weapon basically self-destructs because it can't vent heat properly in atmosphere. Unfortunately, the Space Laser is shown in the introduction of the show - not the OP, but the opening monologue - being used by a Space Leo to shoot down a passenger shuttle. One is later used by Trowa (posing as an Oz recruit) to destroy the remains of Duo's Deathscythe in one blow (making it essentially the only weapon to have proved its performance against Gundanium armor), and then it's only rarely seen again, and never treated with the same kind of destructive force it was shown to have up to that point.   The beam saber animation looks awesome as well. "VROOOOOOM SMASH"  This wasn't a map attack. The guest Master on this stage has some unique spells you can't otherwise get, even if you recruit them.  I always forget that the GX Divider has a different primary arm. The subs call it a 'Beam Machine Gun', but it looks more like two beam-rifles duct-taped together (I haven't seen any of Gundam X outside the first episode).  My little Timp can't be this charming!   It's really hard to get a good shot of Rising Finger. It's basically like Shining Finger but with less theatrics.  Every X kills, a pilot who isn't selected as a Master will learn another Master Skill (Masters just have them all unlocked from word one). For create-a-pilots, it's always the same (they are free, after all), and realistically there isn't that much variation because Gundam only has so many character archetypes, plus you'll almost always use your actual Masters in your Master slots. They rethought this pretty heavily in G-Generation Genesis, where everyone in a squad brings one spell with them that they can use, but Leaders can use all of their team's spells and Masters can use any spell from their group.  I'm sure this is fine. [Muffled Evangelion noises in the distance]  Did you know that they made EVA-01's roar by taking Ikari Yui's voice actress doing various screams and then downpitching them? It's one of the few things about Evangelion that is genuinely creepy, cool, and wasn't totally hosed up. Anyway, Uguu continues to kick rear end and gain levels. Please ignore that giant mobile armor, I'm sure it's nothing important.  I don't think I mentioned this last time, but several Destiny units are equipped with the "Deuterion Beam Receiver" ability (you can also get it as an option part). If a warship with a Transmitter (also available as an option part!) uses the "Recharge" option, they can max out the EN of a unit with a Receiver that's within their Area. The range is pretty limited and it can be complicated to set up, but it can also save you turns, which is a big deal. The translation patch mistakenly says that using Recharge will 'heal' the target unit, which is not true.   I should mention that, aside from looking awesome, the Turn A BASIC's beam rifle is a penetrating beam weapon, so it ignores the damage reduction from anti-beam coating and beam shields and does 50% damage to units with an I-Field, instead of none at all.  Timp's command and shoot stats just keep going up.  I think this is the first level he's had in a while where his Shooting didn't rise.   Remember when we had to baby Kawaii Uguu?   I love Master-based support attacks, since they have no functional limits on the number of units that can participate, so you get damage results like this (25133).   Or this (23838).  OR THIS   I wish I could get levels like this when I play Fire Emblem.  Oh boy something magical is going to happen next menu. SUPER MENU WARS I had more capital than anticipated so instead of buying the White Ark, which I would inevitably have to replace (and you can't sell warships), I picked up a Zeon workhorse that will serve us well for pretty much the whole game, up to the point where I trade in for seriously bullshit capital ships, like the one that turns into a huge motorbike and runs stuff over.  Brand has pretty high command starting out so I guess I found a use for him after all. At the moment I can't really afford to populate this ship with crew, but I'll be able to after one more map.    Claire's Taurus becomes a Virgo, the last mass-production unit of AC 195. When they were press-ganged by Oz, the Gundam scientists produced two suits made of Lunar Titanium: the Vayeate, which possessed an extremely powerful megacannon powered by a backpack generator, and the Mercurius, which used a series of remote bits called Planet Defensors to generate a shield capable of deflecting that cannon. The units were trashed in combat with Wing ZERO (although the White Fang later recovered and rebuilt them as Mobile Dolls), but the design premise was revived in the Virgo, which uses a smaller-scale but still powerful rifle that can be used as a regular gun or a more-powerful cannon by using a small generator on the shoulder, as well as possessing three Planet Defensors. The Virgo was the first suit designed for Mobile Doll use (although there were good results with the Taurus, it was designed to be used by humans first), and typically operated in groups of three units, using their Planet Defensors to create 'bunkers' they could shoot out of; the Romafeller Foundation essentially conquered the planet using their Virgo troops. In game terms, the Virgo is basically 'just like the Taurus only better', but its most notable asset is its Planet Defensor option, which costs 10 EN and completely negates all ranged attacks (except special shooting/penetrating ranged), and reduced Penetrating Beam damage to 30%. This makes Claire into the designated tank despite her bad stats.  Domon's Rising Gundam at last becomes the Shining Gundam, which still isn't that good. But it can turn into things that are! It's totally... great...   Pictured: the best design combination ever.    These are the new parts we won, most of which I can't afford right now. Since the Haro is massive, I give it to Garrod (I already raised his Awakening value by buying Released for him, which pumps it by 10, and I've dumped points into raising it as well, so his Awakening is a respectable 20), while Timp gets the GX Divider that Garrod was piloting. At this point, they've come full-circle - the unit that became a Haro was Garrod's Gundam X BASIC, while the GX Divider is the captured one I had him in so that I didn't keep having my Master nearly die. MORE OFFSCREEN GRINDING With the proper Shining Gundam, Domon does as much damage with his basic attacks as the Rising Gundam was doing with its secondary super.  GAZE UPON ITS BEAUTY AND DESPAIR    WITNESS TRUE PERFECTION  Level 6 is an important level, here; it lets you develop the Phoenix Gundam into the Phoenix Gundam (Limit Break), which is an amazing unit.      THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM (I'm not joking) Actually, there's an amusing bug with this particular attack. If you use its Haro Funnels first, and then the next attack it plays is the Bubble Gatling, an actual PSP may load the wrong object from memory and the Haro will poo poo tiny Haros everywhere instead of shooting bubbles. I've heard that this is supposed to be tied to the pilot's tension, but I've never consistently had it do that except by the method just detailed.  At level 8, the Turn A BASIC can at last become a full-fledged Turn A Gundam, which is mostly useful for its higher stats (it doesn't have its I-Field)... and the fact that it can ultimately develop into the Turn A Gundam Full Power. Which is not actually the strongest Turn A variant in the game, but the Turn A Gundam Black History is post-game.  This is the kind of damage Haro Drill Breaker does on a Pinpoint Attack.  Claire's Planet Defensors in action. Unrelatedly, something I didn't notice until I started farming this stage is that Master Asia's death quote is so long that only the laggy exploding animation on PSP hardware allows you to hear it. I think it's pretty interesting that rather than scale back on the effects to reduce lag, they just timed the lag and then used it to fit in more voiced lines than they should have been able to. It doesn't work so well on more powerful hardware though.  If Kawaii Uguu keeps getting points in Reaction I'll be happy. SEED Gundams are noticeably tanky thanks to usually having both shields and Variable/Phase Shift Armor, so the extra evasion is basically doubling down on survivability.  I would have preferred it if this hit, but still, Haro Funnel. The super mode effect is because Garrod was at Critical Tension when performing the attack. SUPER MENU WARS Here's our new squad: Domon and the Shining Gundam, who you already knew. Team 2-1 consists of:    Maria Owens and her Ebirhu-S. Maria is another G-Generation original. Her stats are overall relatively low (16 in all combat stats, no Awakening, and 9 in her leadership stats), but her Prayer recovers the HP of all members of her team (including herself) that are in her Leader Area at the start of the Player Phase, which is a godsend when raising new troops. The Ebirhu-S is a fairly solid Crossbone Vanguard unit (not the space pirate version, the F91 version) which, like a lot of CV units, comes with EWACs built-in, making Maria a fairly solid support leader.   OYW Haro and his Gafran dragonmech. Haro isn't a Newtype, has bad leadership stats, and costs 86000 in the shop. The positive sides are his 30 across the board in each combat stat and his insanely busted skill, Haro Genki!, which recovers 1% HP and EN to his own unit at level 1, but maxes out at an incredible 20 percent at level 10. In World, Haro couldn't get this skill until he was level 40, but it's his default skill in this game! As for the Gafran, it's a fairly solid grunt suit with reasonable attacks, balanced stats, is flight-capable, and has an anti-large attack in the form of its scattering megaparticle cannon.    Yurin is the welfare character we picked up at 5% or 10% or whatever. She's only got three selling points: her high reaction and awakening, the boosts they're given by X-Rounder, and her low-to-average Shooting stat. Therefore, she's a perfect fit for the high-mobility-no-defence-ranged-combat Zudah, which pleases me because even though I talked poo poo about it on A-5 it's one of my favorite OYW mechs. Gotta go fast!    Finally, we have Haman Karn (ZZ), using the Crossbone Gundam X1 we picked up on A-5. Her stats are reasonably balanced so it doesn't really matter that she's using a melee unit, and odds are good that I'll shuffle her around before too long, but at the moment, she's Team 2-1's heavy hitter, possessing the best mech and the best overall stats. Until Haro upgrades, she'll also be taking on tanking duties thanks to the X1's Anti-Beam Coating Mantle.  I wasn't joking when I said that wasn't even Haro's final form. It'll take a while to get there, but oh boy is it worth it.   Here's the Phoenix Gundam (Limit Break). In addition to high stats and great terrain ratings, it's picked up an actual finishing move in the form of Burning Fire, and it has a Map variation as well where it moves X number of panels to an empty panel (only in a straight line or with one right-angle turn, I'm afraid) and does 7000 damage to any enemy it passes through. Further, it has Nanoskin Armor, healing it every turn for free.  The Gundam BASIC becomes the basic Gundam, and its stats and all are basically just what you'd expect. Its main advantage over the BASIC version is the addition of the Hyper Bazooka, giving it an anti-sniping weapon, as well as accurate damage, unlike the extremely inaccurate Gundam Hammer.   The Turn A also develops upwards, gaining its hilariously-named Karate Chop weapon, getting a big stat-boost, and also getting Nanoskin Armor.  I turn Gai's GP00 into the GP04 basically for the fun of it. Its stats are still great, although it lacks EWACs support. This thing was never actually made, although its parts were co-opted for the Gerbera Tetra; the design is from an artbook or magazine sidestory, I can't recall which.   This is design spoils. The Mudrock Gundam is from one of the OYW sidestory games, and I have to say its performance is pretty solid, although it can tend to be a bit of an EN hog.  Some characters have unique skills that aren't their default skill. For example, Domon begins with King of Hearts, but he has to reach level 10 in order to buy School of the Undefeated of the East, and level 30 to buy Meikyou Shisui. For create-a-pilots, they all have the same combination: Rookie as a default skill, Cyber Newtype at level 10, Junk Dealer at level 20, and Mercenary at level 30. It's weird to buy a skill for a character and have them 'become' a Cyber Newtype, though. Timp doesn't have any awakening weapons on his unit yet, so instead of pouring points into Cyber Newtype after buying it, I raise his default Awakening stat instead, and do the same for his Shooting a few times since he's going to be using the Double X very shortly. (Idly, it's always bugged me that the Double X is written "Gundam Double X", not "Gundam XX", like how the Double Zeta is "ZZ Gundam", but whatever.)  Domon gets Hot-Blooded because he's Domon and I spend the rest of his Ace Points improving his King of Hearts skill.  Kawaii Uguu is level 10, so she also gets the Cyber Newtype treatment.  And since we hit 20% completion we get Loni. Next time: we play the stage responsible for most game overs!
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2017 13:15
|
|
|
Ah the G Generation Grind, also known as "Okay I'm just going to level a bit and-- okay I've unlocked everything possible before the post game and it's B-1"
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2017 14:07
|
|
|
Onmi posted:Ah the G Generation Grind, also known as "Okay I'm just going to level a bit and-- okay I've unlocked everything possible before the post game and it's B-1" It's specifically farming for money that I always seem to level up too much during, rather than anything else. Fortunately once you get access to CORE-1 it becomes a lot more convenient because you can easily generate 100k per loop of that map, and it's worth a solid chunk of EXP too.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2017 14:41
|
|
|
Ace of Aces posted:It's specifically farming for money that I always seem to level up too much during, rather than anything else. Fortunately once you get access to CORE-1 it becomes a lot more convenient because you can easily generate 100k per loop of that map, and it's worth a solid chunk of EXP too. My issue is that I never seem to level anyone over the course of regular play outside of maybe one or two key units. So I have to grind to catch everyone else up. Which in turn leads to more unit development which....
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2017 14:46
|
|
|
Haro is pretty loving Genki!
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2017 19:31
|
|
|
Onmi posted:My issue is that I never seem to level anyone over the course of regular play outside of maybe one or two key units. One of the side benefits of my murderball strategy is that it shares XP around a lot.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2017 02:49
|
|
|
SSNeoman posted:Haro is pretty loving Genki! AND THAT ISN'T EVEN HIS FINAL TECHNIQUE
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2017 04:02
|
|
|
While maybe not doing as good as Kawaii Uguu, I'm still glad to see Timp Sharon is hanging in there.
|
|
#
?
Jun 7, 2017 14:44
|
|
|
Oh hey LPix is back up. Guess I'll work on another update today! [muffled swearing about A-6]
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2017 02:06
|
|
|
Lynkericious posted:While maybe not doing as good as Kawaii Uguu, I'm still glad to see Timp Sharon is hanging in there. Yeah for real he needs to pick it up. I was kinda going "sigh typical loving goons name the girl pilot Kawaii Uguu  " but she's really been kicking a lot of rear end Timp otoh has been kinda getting recked and not really doing much of note.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2017 20:05
|
|
|
I definitely wasn't distracted by FGO's US launch and Symphogear XD Unlimited coming out! Mission A-6: Space Fortress Ambat  We're treated to a shot of an asteroid-turned-fortress, and the AGE capital ship, the Diva, spawns in.     : Ladies and gentlemen, this will be the final, decisive battle.Spoilers: it isn't. : Losses are inevitable, but we must win no matter what! We're fighting for mankind's survival and for the sake of everyone who has died! We begin our counterattack... now! : Deploy MS forces! : G-Exes, move to the launch catapult!    : It finally begins... the final battle against the UE.: MS deployment complete!: Good! Let's smoke out the enemy. Open fire! Target... Ambat!   : drat Earthers... you bastards are weak!Is it me, or is the translation, uh... a lot worse this stage than it was previously?  "SUP" So yeah that thing that beat the poo poo out of me last stage is back for more. : Enemy contacts! Large warship and MS force detected!: They're finally out in the open. Switch Diva to assault landing mode!: Y... yes sir! Diva, switching to assault landing mode! : The Diva transformed!? : Hey, hey! That's kinda cool! : So, the AGE System devised a new form for the Diva...Because that makes sense. : Attention all hands! The Diva will head towards its firing range! Begin charging photon blaster cannon! Target: the large UE warship! Mobile suit squads, open a path! 5 turns... we'll win this in 5 turns!: Alright, protect the Diva! Don't let them hit it!: I'll draw the enemy away and cut down their numbers! We can do this! The Gundam and I can do this! First things first, Flit has a new ride this map: the Spallow PACK for his AGE-1, which has more mobility and movement, but less armor and weaker weapons, than the AGE-1 Normal. The upshot is that both of its weapons are physical, which is helpful because all of the UE mechs except their most basic dragon types are covered in anti-beam coating. It's also equipped with a Stealth System, giving it +5% evasion when targeted by the enemy.  Woolf has upgraded to the G-Exes, which "has three main selling points: first, its overwhelming agility! Second, its powerful armaments! And third, I, Woolf Enneacle, am the pilot!" The G-Exes is pretty solid and Woolf is a decent pilot, with his White Wolf skill giving him extra attack and critical in space... which shits me, because the guy whose namesake he's borrowing was known as The Defensive Newtype for a reason, but whatever. I was going to post a gif of the Spallow being supported by the Diva ALM but I couldn't get the gif down to a reasonable filesize so I won't, but it didn't kill the target anyway because the Spallow is pretty weak. We actually immediately transform the Diva back into its regular mode so that it can move further; it's important that we get it as far up the pitch as possible before the third wave.   Meanwhile, Domon gets poo poo done! It's so good to be able to finally have him in a unit that has a decent physical attack and seeing him do this.   Shotlancers are expensive but oh boy they do a lot of damage! Enough that even a bad level 1 character can lock in kills on mooks after Domon softens them up.    With Maria's 21 combat stats (after the Basic OS) and her 25-defense unit, she's actually able to take a hit, too - since she has a shield, she's able to function as an off-tank for the squad.    Between Haman's high stats and having a Gundam she's not gonna break a sweat on this stage. Speaking of which, the fact that two squads of enemies spawn on this side of the map is why I intentionally got a second Master so that I could field a second team on this side - having to rely on the AGE guests to handle it doesn't work out so well most of the time, especially if you're going for the secret requirements, which is defeating the Fa Bose in 4 turns.  This is Flit's waifu doing just barely enough damage. Fun fact: her default theme music is the UE theme for when they initiate battles on the enemy phase, because the only time she appears as a pilot on a stage is as an enemy.    Do you feel genki, punk?  I seriously love the Zudah's animations. :GWOON:   The dragonmechs have a lot of HP but man I will never get tired of seeing a huge Haro just roll over things with its bubble gatling guns contained in its haro hands.   Here's the Gerbera's Long Beam Rifle doing just enough damage to sneak in a kill. Unfortunately its Beam Saber animation is a standard one, unlike the GP00's.  It also can't take a punch. This was the counterattack from the UE dragonmech. There's really not a lot to be said about the first few turns of this map; it's a straight-up slugging match as you make your way up the field to engage the Fa Bose.  Here's Haman tanking a beam rifle shot for Maria with her ABC Mantle and Beam Shield.  Being in the Fa Bose's line of fire sets off Gurran Largan's stage dialogue.  Once you get a bit further up the stage you start running into these guys. Like the Gafran dragonmechs, they're strongest at melee range, but these ones take it further, replacing their scattering beam cannon with a 1~2 melee weapon. Baqto units also have Anti-Beam Coating, which makes their 27 DEF go a lot further.  You know what Domon's best attacks aren't? Beams.   Seriously some of the mook mechs in this game have boss-level animations. You should see the Stark Jegan animations. Heck, even the basic GM's beam saber animation looks amazing. In defiance of my usual more-methodical take on this map I have Domon cast Attack Up on himself and hit the Fa Bose with a pinpoint Shining Finger Sword...  ... which, frustratingly, fails to defeat the ship.    That worked though!   The Fa Bose blows up real good. It's very important that it's either the enemy phase, or that Flit can still move, on the turn you trigger this Generation Break. : We did it!: Amazing...A small escape ship spawns where the Fa Bose used to be. : Part of the UE warship split off! It's a ship!: What!? Did we fail...?: drat! How could this happen!?: At this rate...: No way... we still haven't destroyed it...   : That unit's...?: Thanks for the assist!  Tauruses spawn in all over. The biggest problem with this stage is that Heero runs out of EN very quickly and can't onehit them.  : OZ mobile dolls!? Like I thought, this is an OZ base... target acquired. All threats... must be eliminated.I'm pretty sure this translation is off, because the phrasing isn't right for Heero. I don't have an unpatched game handy but I'm pretty sure that the phrasing is more like "Commencing elimination of hostiles". Meanwhile, inside Ambat... : To think they destroyed the Fa Bose... it's just a matter of time before the 2nd [sic] defense line is breached... there's no getting around it... Desil! I've prepared a unit just for this situation. I'll show you the true power of an X-Rounder!Flit hears Desil's childish voice laughing in his head... : This voice... it's calling me!?And he disappears from the map. : What's wrong, Flit? Hey... where are you going!?On a different map...  : I've definitely heard it before! If I recall correctly... This is... a really bad translation. Desil calls Flit 'oniichan', which is an affectionate way of saying 'older brother', but it's also used by children for any male who is older than them, like how in the west kids use 'Mister', which would be more appropriate here. It also plays up that Desil is very childish (being, you know, a child), and the way he says it is in a creepy-little-kid way.  : Desil!? You're the one piloting that mobile suit!? Who exactly are you people!? You're still a little kid... why!? : Hehehe! Who cares why! Let's play... don't hold back!: Desil, you don't want to fight, right? War isn't a game! You'll die if you lose!: Oh, I know! Isn't that what makes war fun? I also prepared something special for today's fight. Here it is: my secret weapon!   : What is... why... Yurin!?: What do you think of my secret weapon? You like it? There's more to come!Yurin's mech advances towards Flit...  : That's right... you don't need to pilot. When two X-Rounders' abilities resonate, their strength multiplies. You're just a tool to boost my power!: Stop it, Desil! Stop it already!: Two against one is a bit unfair... no, that's wrong! The Farsia's just my weapon!This is another 'bad translation' moment, since it misses the point of Desil's dialogue: he mistakes Flit's pleading with him for Flit saying that 2-on-1 is cheating, and tells Flit that it's not 2-on-1 because the Farsia is just a weapon he's using since Yurin isn't the pilot. : Gurh... must we fight? It looks like... I have to fight... to stop Desil! Guess what you're going to do, Flit?    Lila spawns at the bottom of the map, behind the Diva's start position, and brings two more Galbaly Betas with her. As I recall, she's one of Jerid's friends who Kamille kills in Zeta, but I might be wrong about that. Anyway, I send the Diva, along with Woolf and Largan, to deal with it, or rather I will next turn when they can move again. In the meantime, I have Heero pull back from Ambat to help bring down the remaining dragonmechs.  I don't know how they screwed this one up. The first half is right, but the second half is 'hakaisuru', which is more like 'commencing destruction'. Rather than just saying he's firing on the target, he's saying he's actively commencing operations to destroy the targets (there's no singular/plural distinction in Japanese except by using group words, which he doesn't here, but the context here suggests that it should also be "Targets confirmed", plural), which may or may not include firing on the targets (I mean, it will, but it's not in the words he used).    Wing Gundam's animations in this game are amazing. I didn't screencap it but it actually does a triple take using the camera angle from the first episode (where he blows away two Aries in one shot).  So you may notice two little green squares in the top right of the screen. This is the first map that has different layers. You can flip between layers with the shoulder buttons. The standard layer, at Ambat, is where the first generation break combat took place, so most of our units are there; Flit is over on the other layer, further away from Ambat, where Desil and Yurin also spawned. On most maps, you can transfer units between layers regardless of where they are on the map - if the unit hasn't moved, they can transition between layers as their move action for the turn, provided they won't end up in a space occupied by another unit. Since layers aren't always the same size, or don't overlay one another perfectly, you can end up getting displaced pretty far from where you thought you were going to end up (the game lets you confirm where you move to before you make the move though). Some maps, however, use layers to represent 'inside' and 'outside', which means a unit has to reach a specific point on each map to be able to transition to the next one. Those squares glow green, so it's hard to miss them. So, I move Flit up and engage Yurin. : Yurin! What are you doing here! Why do we have to fight each other!? : Flit! I... I... didn't have any choice! If I didn't... I wouldn't be able to see you again!: Yurin! Urgh! My favorite thing about this mess is that because I attacked, it's playing the heroic AGE theme while Flit murders his waifu. By the way, this is why Flit becomes a genocidal rear end in a top hat in later arcs of AGE.  Desil has picked a very bad place to stand, for reasons that will shortly become apparent. But first, Woolf goes off to fight Lila! : Hey, you evil sons of bitches! Get outta my way!... this line was made up wholecloth, as near as I can tell, since what he actually says is "korra, korra, korra! Koitsu ga jamada!", which is like "Hey, hey, hey, one side, you punks!" (The "korra" thing is a slurred form of "hora", which is an informal way of saying 'hey' as an exclamation rather than a greeting. It's used by punks and yankii types. 'Koitsu' is just about the rudest way you can refer to someone without actually going into the equivalent of swearing.)  I had to cut a million frames out to make it fit on lpix but goddamn this animation is amazing. It's not even the dynamic kill, it's the standard beam saber animation for the G-Exes, regardless of pilot. Unfortunately the G-Exes is not a great unit and even though we'll get one on this map the only thing it turns into is the Gundam AGE... which we will also get on this map.   Largan and his Genoace are... somewhat less impressive. Over on the other map, Flit casts Attack Up on himself...  Moving to this exact spot is important.   : Flit... life... is hard...: Yurin!: Flit... I wish I could've lived a bit longer...Her Fariosa explodes, taking Yurin with it. : Yuuuuriiiin!... there's actually nothing you get from this event, by the way. You might expect Flit's tension to suddenly jump up to critical or something, but nope. And if you ignore her and fight Desil, you'll have to kill her to clear the map regardless (she doesn't retreat when Desil dies), even though he's supposedly piloting her mech remotely - she'll continue to chase you around the map attacking Flit.  On the chance step, Flit can move to here. With the +30 defensive bonus he goes from 'difficult to hit' to 'nearly impossible to hit'.  Which is good because Desil is a good pilot and his Zedas hits like a truck. : I won't let you escape again!Desil's line is actually longer here, he says something like 'I haven't acknowledged you've won' after, but the translators apparently didn't feel like translating that line. : Desil! Why is Yurin even...! Why did Yurin have to die!?A little bit of QC would have gone a long way on this chapter. Most other chapters it hasn't really been this bad, maybe this was something they translated really late (or early) and were burned out (or inexperienced). : There's no meaning at all! I did lose one of my battle toys though!: Life... life isn't a toy or a game!  Due to the use of layers for terrain it looks suspiciously like there is a small asteroid floating inside of the AGE-1 (since the camera is 'inside' the AGE-1 as Desil cuts it open).   Timp taking care of the business in the GX Divider. He levelled off this, too, and once again his Shooting value jumped up. If that keeps happening I can think of some endgame mechs he's going to enjoy having access to.   To make up for only having an EN-hog ranged weapon, the Wing Gundam's machine cannon attack is 1~3, instead of 1~2, and has 1500 power instead of 1000. It still doesn't do much damage, but it's enough to whittle down a weak enemy. Through some miracle on the secret phase Woolf and Largan manage to take out Lila when she moves, which puts something of a damper on the secret phase since it immediately freeze downs the other two units that can move.   You're drat right you won't, I need that Genoace for collection percentage. On my turn, Woolf and Largan drop back into the Diva, which I turn around and then have transition to the other map so that it will be able to support Flit when he has to fight the six backup dancers Desil bought with him. Speaking of which, I have Flit shoot down Desil FIRST this turn so that I have the whole rest of my turn to deal with the Generation Break. : Gurh... I haven't lost! I didn't looooose!He retreats, and the Axis Fleet shows up at Ambat on the other map.     : Just what is Treize thinking, opposing our domination of the Earth Federation?It's a Winter Solstice loving miracle, a third wave that actually refers to the other two waves!   : I didn't think there was anyone capable of seizing Ambat!: There's more? That mobile suit... it looks like a Gundam!? The pilot has to be a Newtype! If I defeat him, not even Treize, let alone the Captain...Now wait just a second here. Why would Treize be onboard with Char's Axis Drop plan? In his own continuity, he fought against a colony drop, and Treize loves the Earth more than anyone. Nevermind that the UE formerly held it, apparently alongside OZ, and the UE are loving Jupiterians or something. Anyway, Char spawns in behind Gyunei.  : Captain?: Finally showing yourself, Char!? : Amuro! We'll be taking Ambat! The peace-lovers in this world must be eradicated!: No one has the right to punish human beings that way!: I'm Char Aznable.That should have just been the whole line. : Enforcing discipline is my destiny.: No man has the right to do that!: The Federation doesn't care about healing the Earth! Therefore, I'll get rid of it!: That's just pure ego!: The Earth cannot go on like this any longer! It's a sacrifice mankind must make!: That's... Char! Note the lack of conditions on this Break. Amuro is massively outmatched here - he's a great pilot, but his Re-GZ is on the level of the mook suits the Axis Fleet deployed, and then there's Gyunei and Char to contend with. This is the break that causes the most game overs; even if you have Amuro retreat, it's entirely possible that he'll be mobbed and shot down by Tauruses.    Plus this guy spawns in just North of Char with two Strike Daggers. I don't know whose bright idea it was to say 'let's take a dedicated artillery mech and give it two anti-ship swords' but I like them.  They see me rollin', they hatin'...  Yeah spot the problem. Note the 83% hit chance with Amuro evading. Even against Gyunei's he's ridiculously outmatched, let alone Char. : You're just playing God!: That's as far as you go!Again, they left off the end of Gyunei's line. What he actually says is "That's as far as you go, Gundam!"    Fortunately, funnels can still be stopped by shields... Garrod takes out the capital ship nearest to him after it releases his units, and then since he reached critical tension I decided that was a good time for him to go and deal with the secret unit.   Absolutely terrifying.  I'm not going to finish off Char yet - none of the guest masters are in huge amounts of danger, but I have some time to spare before I do, so I'm going to wait until I have the AGE characters somewhere more useful to me.  Heero hits the other warship by using bird mode to get there. He can do a lot of damage with pinpoints; it's really what the Wing Gundam is designed to do, far moreso than unit-to-unit combat.  This level up is like, the distilled essence of Yurin as a pilot. Something I forgot about that came back to get me on the enemy phase is that enemies will also transition between maps if there are no units for them to target on their own map (and sometimes just because), which results in my capital ships getting mobbed by dragonmechs. When it comes back to my turn, I bite the bullet with two turns to go and jump on Char with Garrod and Heero (who is in critical tension after taking on that warship). Thankfully, Heero hits, which means that Garrod can finish it with a high-accuracy attack.  Correct me if I'm wrong but by the time of CCA hasn't Char lost kind of a lot.  : I will become the saviour! Me... and this Gundam!: Ah, the smell of battle!: Even I can... do this!: Systems normal! Good to go!: Alright! If you interfere, you die!: Targets locked... all combatants are enemies!: I won't allow this!First of all, I have to get some guys over to shoot down the Diva. Unfortunately, the Carry Base and its squads are currently a bit tied up, so it'll have to be the other guys that do that.   Here's Claire not giving a gently caress about anti-beam coating because the Virgo's stronger attack is a Penetrating Beam and that ignores anti-beam coating entirely. As for the other team, they have to get past Gyunei and Amuro first... : I won't let this continue any longer!Amuro casually soaks up the Maria's entire team, but Garrod manages to put him away with the Haro. : poo poo, looks like this is it...And then I have him roll on Heero. Amusingly, the 'bad guys' music for Wing is actually Wing ZERO's theme, so it fits Heero just as well, unlike most OVER Impact characters. : All obstacles to the mission must be eliminated!And then happens and...: Mission failed...!? I really need to actually watch Turn A sometime if poo poo like this happens in it. The enemies move up which is nice, and on my turn Domon rolls through Gyunei. : What!? I've been defeated!?Fortunately at this point the Diva is close enough that Team A and the Carry Base squads can just roll straight over it. : Captain! Critical damage! She won't hold!: drat! Did we miscalculate the size of the enemy's forces?Then Garrod uses Free Capture to pick up everything and Haro Drill Breakers the last remaining mook on the stage.  Undefeated of the East Mobile Trace System is a direct upgrade to the Mobile Trace System part that is available from the shop at the start of the game; it increases the Melee score of the pilot of the unit it's attached to.  Design spoils. The Zee Zulu is cool as gently caress but has terrible terrains that make it largely useless. The Gaplant, however, is a great squad-filler unit, as it can transform to move long distance and its attack hit very hard, plus it has great terrains. The Geara Doga Psycommu Test Type, which is the version Quess used, is identical in every way to the standard Geara Doga, but it has a beam machine gun instead of a beam rifle. Finally, the Gundam Spiegel is the German Ninja Schwarz Bruder's ride from G Gundam. Like all G Gundam units, it has a real ranged combat problem, but its stats are very high (28/28/32/7) and its attacks have a minimum power of 4000, with its Sturm Und Drang finisher coming in at 5000. It also has a stealth system to help keep it alive.  The GX Divider at last becomes the Gundam Double X, which is exactly like the Gundam X but more.  And Domon finally upgrades to the God Gundam. We're almost there!  Since I had the money, I've filled out the other capital ship. These are the cheapest characters who have skills that make them useful in those seats... and Brand is still the captain because that's more expensive. There are three really good skills for Captains. The first is Competent, which increases Accuracy by 5% (max 15) and reduces EN cost by 5%, both of which are huge bonuses for a warship. The cheapest pilot who has Competent as a default skill (other than the captain of Carry Base, who is free) is Eiphar Synapse from 0083, who costs 29000. (Although Sumeragi only costs 400 more and why wouldn't you go for her?) The other two, Dignity and Launching Instructions, can't actually be bought (Durandal used to have Dignity in World but it was changed to Inspire in OVERWorld to stop literally everyone from using him as a captain). You can also make do with Songstress and Laura Rolla. Songstress is held by Lacus and Meer, and buyable for Marina Ishmael at level 1, the catch being that Marina and Meer have garbage stats (you can make a pretty good case for using Lacus as a captain - she has stats in the right places, and she was the captain of the Eternal, after all), but Songstress gives +5 (max +25) to Charm and increases the Group/Leader area when set as Captain or Leader. Laura Rolla is only available as a default skill by buying Loran in the shop after using square to change his appearance to his Laura Rolla persona, and it's much stronger - it increases Group/Master/Leader area by 1 (max 6) when Laura is set as Captain/Master/Leader, and also increases MP gain within their area by 1 (max 6). The problem is that Loran is 43000 in the shop and his stats don't work well for a captain. So basically until we go and clear the first CORE stage we're poo poo out of luck. I was going to do that today but this took way longer than anticipated (it's easy to forget how much of a slog A-6 is when Amuro doesn't die two minutes into his generation break), so I'll try and do it across the next couple of days.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2017 07:50
|
|
|
Of course AGE's battleship transforms into White Base, gotta sell those Gunpla after all! 
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2017 08:25
|
|
|
I mean more, 'how did the AGE System devise a method for a fixed-frame warship to completely transform, with the required maintenance being so unobtrusive that nobody except the captain and his operator knew about it, with absolutely 0 external changes to the hull' and the answer is AGE is full of poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2017 08:55
|
|
|
I can't blame the translators for not putting their best effort in an AGE stage (a stAGE?). It's AGE, it doesn't deserve more.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2017 11:50
|
|
|
It might have if Space Truck, the only good character of AGE was in it.  .....  
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2017 12:23
|
|
|
At least the various AGE-2 designs look amazing, especially the Dark Hound. Too bad none of them are in this game! (The AGE-2 is still a really good unit though.)
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2017 06:57
|
|
|
 I decided I hadn't yet spent quite enough money so I bought Sheld Foley, a cheap original character with fairly balanced stats and Hot Blood, and put him in the G-Exes under Loni, who has the Gundam AGE. And now it's time for my favorite map in the game! CORE-1: Balbadro    I strongly suggest listening to Code Phoenix's theme because it's freaking amazing.     : The system is supposed to be hidden by an earth coating; no one's supposed to be able to gain entry. The only ones who can open this seal are Aphrodia and those holding the Code! : That's why my code's required, isn't it? My Code has the ability to manipulate the coating. You can call it a free pass. We can move around without a problem. What's with the serene locale? What's actually in this place?: This is the archive area, where old programs are stored for safekeeping. It's a program graveyard, so to speak. It's essential that we release a certain program first.: What do you mean by 'a certain program'?: The Balbadro.: Hey now! This Balbadro... I'm pretty sure it's a suicidal program that's trying to destroy Earth.: Exactly. Its existence made the Neuron Units go out of control. I realize the danger of accessing it, but we have no choice. We need to utilize the Balbadro's power to open up the sealed door. The power of your Code is necessary for this, Code Phoenix.: Ha! We users of the Code consider it the height of honor! But willfully releasing the Balbadro and inciting the wrath of Aphrodia? I want to avoid becoming an enemy of Aphrodia as much as possible. She is someone we all aspire to be, after all!: It's alright. I believe in you. Your Code isn't just for show, right?: drat right! My Code has always been perfect! I get it, Arby! We came all the way here; there's no point turning back now! I'm gonna gamble on what's ahead!: I'm counting on you, Code Phoenix.: Well then, let's begin! Accessing now!Watch the video!: What...!?: The World Signal!?: Crap! Has Aphrodia found us!?: No, that's not it! That World Signal is a fake!: A fake!? Some kind of booby trap!?: Someone set it up to keep us from approaching the System!  : Hey... isn't that the White Base!?: Altered One Year War data detected! That Neuro is a subspecies...: Then I can freely erase them without causing any problems! In that case, destroy them all and break through the death traps! If that's all they have... I'll stop them with the Gundam! : The hero of the One Year War, Amuro Ray!?: Be on your guard! It may be a clone, but it acts like the real thing!: We are in the middle of accessing the data! I'll have to fight the so-called hero, Amuro Ray, as it interferes!... wow that translation is bad. It's more like 'It's interfering, I'll have to fight it to continue accessing the data'.  So, welcome to Core Stages. There's one of these per tier, and they have a few distinct gimmicks I'll get into later. The first and most obvious is that you have a single Guest Master, Code Phoenix.    Breakthrough (translated as Pinpoint Penetration) means the pilot ignores all enemy defensive abilities and deals an extra 10% damage at all times, which is amazing (it's a level 40 buyable skill!), while the Master Phoenix Gundam has amazing stats, high movement, and incredibly powerful attacks, plus recovers 20% HP every turn. That last one is important because its DEF is not amazingly high, earning Code Phoenix the nickname 'Code Paper' among some players. He also has access to a unique Master spell, Phoenix Radiance, which restores 5000 HP to all allies on the map. As a guest Master without a warship, it can be used again every three turns.  I slightly missed but this was Domon using God Gundam's weakest attack.  HAHAHAHA! YOU CALL THAT DAMAGE!? Oh man it's taken soooo long for Domon to reach a point where I don't have to baby him but it's so worth it.    Loni going in hard against a Ball. She doesn't kill it, which is fine because I didn't want her to in the first place.  You can choose either this Ball or its mirror on the left side of the map, but it's important to weaken one of them. Code Phoenix doesn't always kill them in one hit, and getting momentum in the early part of the map is important.    While it's not a big deal on this map it kind of bugs me that the AGE-1 and G-Exes' beam rifles aren't penetrating beams - the entire point of the 'spinning' effect that they have is to break through the anti-beam coating on the UE dragonmechs.    Haro continues to be terrifying but in a different way.   Yurin is doing a surprisingly good job with her Zudah. The enemies on this stage are mostly pretty weak (it's mainly that there's a lot of them), but even so.  You can perhaps begin to understand why I like Code Phoenix and the Master Phoenix Gundam so much.  Garrod how exactly did you fail to kill that.  It worked out pretty well though since I was able to establish a foothold for Team 1-B because of it.   The non-MP Guncannons have pretty cool animations; check out the detailing on the main camera.    While I did only go into it for fun the Gerbera is seriously not living up to my expectations.    Claire and her Virgo, on the other hand, are greatly exceeding my expectations. So, having Chance Stepped off that Ball way back when, Code Phoenix engages Amuro.  : I'll show you that Gundams aren't just good for hand to hand combat!: Hero of the One Year War, and a true Newtype, Amuro Ray... show me the power that slumbers within you! And then Amuro hit him back with the Gundam Hammer and did half his HP. That's why he's 'Code Paper'. In fact, on the enemy phase, Amuro hit a 44% Gundam Hammer and then a Guncannon moved over and killed Code Phoenix with vulcans.  It does give me the opportunity to demonstrate that the Ebirhu-S' melee attack is a rocket punch, though.   And also to demonstrate what happens if a Zudah actually gets hit by a Guncannon's cannons.   The legend of Code Paper continues. Hopefully I make it through the enemy phase this time.  If you defeat a target with God Finger, then it has an additional animation. Domon has extra cut-in art, but almost every character has specific dialogue not just for God Finger, but for Heat End as well. Now then, time to actually take out Amuro this time! Watch the video!: The world is warping!  : Isn't that ZAFT's new warship, the Minerva!? Do you guys seriously want another war that badly!? : A crimson uniform...!? It's Shinn Asuka! Still, that is, without a doubt, another one of the clones. On top of fighting Amuro Ray, I have to fight Shinn Asuka too!: Oh? Isn't it more exciting if things are a bit challenging?: Hey, don't misunderstand me now, Arby! I've already had more than enough excitement! Come on! Let's finish this!  This is basically how every Core Stage works. The problem is that while the Master Phoenix is fast, you can guarantee that the enemies for the third break will spawn on the opposite side of the map to the enemies for the second break, which can make dragging them over a real pain in the rear end.    He spawns in two Ground Combat Gundams to help him. Fun fact: Shiro is voiced by the same guy who was Guy in GaoGaiGar and Viral in Gurren Lagann. Now, in the video, you may have noticed that Amuro actually respawned after being shot down.  That's the other Core Stage gimmick: the first two times you shoot down one of the legendary aces, they respawn, either in an upgrade to their mech, or in a different form of the mech. This is part of what makes these stages so great for farming EXP and score. I move Code Phoenix to the west and have him fire at Amuro from maximum range; he's still able to get full support from the entirity of team 1-B, which shoots Amuro down, letting Code Phoenix Chance Step towards Shin.  The Full Armor Gundam is Amuro's final ride, and also comes with a Full Armor System that reduces the damage of all non-beam attacks by 30%. Team 1-B is out of EN at this point, so I have them fall back towards the Carry Base and launch 1-A westwards - the Minerva spawns close enough that I can actually have them immediately start laying into the southern GiNN formation.    Ellis and Ranalow do pretty good damage now that they're finally free of their BASIC units.    So does Timp for that matter.    Neuro Rey can take a hit, but Ellis can actually dodge things now!   Ow. On the other side of the stage, team 2-A has to start retreating as best it can with half of its team used up, and on the enemy phase, Amuro decides to engage them rather than chase Code Phoenix.   Look at all the damage Haman isn't taking!    Shinn picks on Ellis and does a quarter of her health with loving vulcans but eats a meaty 3-man counterattack in return.   And Neuro Luna throws a grenade that actually hits, meaning I get to see the hit animation for the first time ever!  This was Domon leading the charge against Amuro and man did I underestimate the FA Gundam's defense.  You can't stand on these red things... I wonder why? Since he's right there, I send Code Phoenix to go and take down Shinn...  : Don't gently caress with me, you...!: Shinn Asuka... you only fight because you can't let go of your past. My victory is a foregone conclusion!    This triggers the next Generation Break... : Be careful! The world is warping again!   I've decided to fight! Don't get in my way! : My, my... a Newtype, a Coordinator, and what's next? An X-Rounder!: They have designatied [sic] their original enemies as "UE", for Unknown Enemy.: That's people like us! They're clones, after all! Time to clean this up!... I'm mildly confused, but whatever.   So now Code Phoenix has to run all the way back across the map to reach Flit.    He calls in two Moebius fighters to back him up, but Mwu isn't exactly a threat here.  Unlike Amuro, who directly upgraded, Shinn goes from the Force Impulse, to Blast Impulse, to Sword Impulse. I'm kind of disappointed it wasn't Force Impulse -> Destiny Impulse -> Destiny but this stage is fairly easy so that probably would have been too much. You have access to each Core stage as soon as you unlock a tier, provided you've beaten the previous tier's Core stage, so you can do this one literally as soon as you start the game if you like. I have to use Code Phoenix's finisher to guarantee killing Shinn again so that he can Chance Step towards Flit, so watch the video because his finisher is amazing!  Not quite enough, but funnily enough Timp is doing a lot better now that he has an upgraded mech, much like Kawaii Uguu.  Mark snatches the kill instead.   Elsewhere, Loni puts Shiro in the ground, giving the warship an opportunity to move and pick up team 2-A, who are starting to run out of gas.  Man the Full Armor Gundam's attacks hurt when you can't completely nullify them.    Domon's counterattack obliterates him, though - range 3 is no longer a safe place to be thanks to Fuuinsaiki.  Mwu isn't a tremendous threat, but he can move a long way and his gunbarrel INCOMs have a very long range and are extremely accurate due to being Awakening weapons, so he can pick off a weakened unit you thought was safe. On my turn, Garrod finishes the Minerva and I have team 1-B come out and take down Mwu, although by accident Kawaii Uguu gets the kill... I was trying to feed the Gerbera so I could get rid of it. Oh well.   This is where Code Phoenix ended his move and where Flit is (with the same Ground Combat Gundam in shot for scale). You can see how having to run all over the map can get annoying.    I'm not trying to do this, but I seem to consistently do 2-man attacks with Haman and Yurin. On that subject, it's a shame that Cute Haman (OYW Haman) is only available for a few stages in Monoeye Gundams. At least she leaves her liveried Elmeth behind since Dee Tiel can use it.    Ow. This is easily Flit's most dangerous form - the Spallow is accurate and fast but not very strong, while the Titus suffers from inaccuracy that makes it easy to nullify its very powerful attacks. The AGE-1 Normal is strong, quick, and accurate, so you want to rip through it as quickly as possible.  Today I learned that Maria's Prayer skill doesn't effect the user, so I need to be better about making sure that she gets support-defended.   Loni fires back with her own AGE-1, shooting Flit down and forcing him into Titus mode. Then I have all units fall back to the Sandra - it can take a pounding for a turn, but I need to get Flit to move closer to Code Phoenix as well. Come my turn and Flit is finally in range. First, I send out Loni and Sheld to do some damage to Flit...    Yeesh, that thing hits hard. In my old save from a while ago I had pretty good success using Master Asia in a Titus, actually. Anyway, with that handled, I send Code Phoenix in to finish the job.  : Let's go, Gundam! Together, we'll save the world!: Flit Asuno... I'll test those mysterious X-Rounder powers!   BLAZE UP! BUUUUUUUUURNIIIIIING SWOOOOOOOOOORD   Three of these circles appear over the red lights I remarked on earlier. That's why you can't walk on them - so that you can't be standing on a panel that stuff spawns on. Usually the game does this by putting the spawn point for the next wave beyond the initial boundary of the map, but that isn't an option here. : W... what's with these guys!?: It can't be! They're... Copycat units!? Were defective Copycats released? Be careful, Code Phoenix! A Copycat unit can copy and attack us!   This is the final gimmick of the Core stages - the last wave consists of a number of Copycats who move in the Impact phase and copy one of your units exactly... and I do mean exactly, down to the levelup bonuses you gave it. They do not, thankfully, copy Option Parts, and the pilots are always blank-slate Neuro AIs (the ones on this stage have no skills and 15 stats across the board). They will also never copy an XL or larger unit, but that's little comfort when three of the six Copycats decide to mimic your Turn A Full Power and begin ripping you to shreds. EDIT: Apparently they actually do copy size XL units, I've just been really lucky about never seeing it happen. I have Code Phoenix move on the Diva, while Team 2-A heads out to fight the Gundam copycat. It takes all of them pounding it to bring it down, but I still manage to do it in one turn. On the other side of the stage, I send Garrod to fight the fake God Gundam.   Oh crap.    Thankfully the Neuro's bad stats bring it down, but Sekiha Tenkyoken is still a 7500-power attack.  The enemy phase mostly consists of me swearing as I try to not die while avoiding shooting down any of the Diva's capturable units. When it comes back to my turn again, I drop Phoenix Radiance to heal all my damaged units (i.e. most of my units) by 5000 and then send Code Phoenix to take out the Diva.  That was... much less damage than I was hoping for. Domon! Go! Kill!  ... WHAT IS THAT THING MADE OUT OF, DIRTYLITTLEBITCHINITE!?  I have to kill Flit so that Loni can move and help shoot down the Diva. Haman snags the kill this time. Except Loni can't get in range to shoot the Diva so I have to make it to the next turn. I eventually send Domon to do it, netting him and his ride a level up.  Nice level buddy.  I had the Sandra cover so all the non-captain guys who I just added last intermission leveled up but holy poo poo look at that level. Anyway at this point the map is basically over; Team 2 piles on the Genoaces and Team 1-A jumps on the fake Crossbone Gundam to end the stage. I was going to show off the Phoenix Gundam Limit Unlock's new finisher but it whiffed so whatever. When you clear the level, everything starts shaking... : What!? What is this vibration...!? : What's that monster!? Do you know what that is, Arby!?: Look like the Balbadro is successfully recovering as we storm through the booby traps. But it's still not in its perfect form. It looks just like a newborn.: That's the Balbadro!?: Come on! Move, Balbadro! Unleash the power that opens the sealed door!The Balbadro disappears, and...    Since I went and unlocked Tier B to get a second Master and team, the next Core stage unlocks right now. The part we just got gives +15 Defense, presumably to the pilot rather than the unit since that would be completely ridiculous. From the captured units, I keep a GM, GiNN, Moebius, Ground Combat Gundam, Ball, and sell the rest for 61650 capital. If you sell everything on this stage after going through the Core Impact you make a hell of a lot of money.  Design spoils. The GM Cannon is literally a GM with a Guncannon cannon bolted on. The Skygrasper is 100% useless because it can't equip PACKs, thus missing the point of a Skygrasper, and we already have a Kapool from kidnapping one on A-2.  Ellis' Gundam becomes the Full-Armor Gundam because I think it looks cool.  Yurina's Zudah becomes the Commander-type (Andy was right after all), which has basically the same stats but is most notable for having the 4~6 range anti-ship rifle, which lets the Zudah serve as a warship-killer.  More design spoils. You could also get this by putting the right pilot in the suit, but eh.   Voting time! I'm replacing Brand because gently caress him, so choose between Lacus and Sumeragi. Their stats are vaguely similar, but... Lacus has Songstress, which gives +5 Charm to a maximum of 25 at level 5 and increases the Group Area by 1 per level (very useful in conjunction with things like the Ring Psycommu that helps pilots within the Area recover their MP if it's below their default value). Lacus can also learn the incredible SEED skill, which is +5 to all combat stats for free. She also has an Awakening score, which helps reduce damage from awakening weapons. Sumeragi has Competent, which increases her accuracy and decreases her EN consumption, which is very useful for cover-attacking with the battleship and also for providing support fire in general, especially since battleship weapons tend to be quite powerful and are usually multi-lock weapons. Also this is going to be the last update for a while; I'm visiting friends next week who live in the middle of nowhere with no reception, let alone internet, and then it'll be back to uni. On the other hand if you have any questions or whatever now is a really good time for it. Ace of Aces fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Jul 1, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 08:38
|
|
|
I've only done up to Core Stage 2, but between the CPU outright cloning your mechs, and enemy pilots getting essentially three lives, I can imagine these stages getting out of hand very quickly. As a suggestion, since next update you'll be starting a new set of missions it might help to do a rundown on each squad and who's piloting what to keep everyone up to speed.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 09:56
|
|
|
Let's get Lacus. It wouldn't be a Gundam party without useless civies onboard. Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaking of which, can we recruit Flay Allster? And if so, what are her stats?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 11:14
|
|
|
Alacron posted:As a suggestion, since next update you'll be starting a new set of missions it might help to do a rundown on each squad and who's piloting what to keep everyone up to speed. Actually I still have to do A-EX (I sandbagged its first wave to get Domon but I have to actually complete the stage with all breaks and secrets before moving on), but I will do that after that. SSNeoman posted:Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaking of which, can we recruit Flay Allster? And if so, what are her stats? Actually no. I feel like she might have been playable in World but I can't be bothered charging my PSP to check. You can recruit Cagalli, though; she has 18/18/18/19 combat stats, 10 awakening, 10 command, 12 charm, and Team Work, so she actually makes a very good squad leader, which is a recurring theme for her in squad-based games she appears in - she's a poor pilot but excellent squad leader in SRW @3 as well.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 12:40
|
|
|
Let's prop Lacus into the captain's seat.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 13:59
|
|
|
NHO posted:Let's prop Lacus into the captain's seat. also make Cagalli the leader of one of her squads.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 14:04
|
|
|
Sumeragi because less SEED is better.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 15:42
|
|
|
Ace of Aces posted:Actually no. I feel like she might have been playable in World but I can't be bothered charging my PSP to check. Shame. She's like 20% SEED is the loving trainwreck it is.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 17:28
|
|
|
Sumeragi because honestly after her showing in SRW V I kind of have to vote for her on principle.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 18:28
|
|
|
Lacus. After all, few games let you play as the bad guys, you should take the chance when you can 
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 18:47
|
|
|
Of course we're taking Sith Empress Lacus Clyne, are you insane!?Ace of Aces posted:They will also never copy an XL or larger unit, but that's little comfort when three of the six Copycats decide to mimic your Turn A Full Power and begin ripping you to shreds. They will. The drawback of that Tier-1 Dendrobium Orchis thing I mentioned is that when I did this stage the first time, one of the Copycats went for the Orchis. I might have lost more than a few units that time, and afterwards I made a policy of not bringing the Orchis to CORE stages until the rest of my army caught up.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2017 20:17
|
|
|
Sordas Volantyr posted:They will. The drawback of that Tier-1 Dendrobium Orchis thing I mentioned is that when I did this stage the first time, one of the Copycats went for the Orchis. That's. Weird. I've never seen that happen, and it would be possible for them to spawn into already-occupied panels if they did. Did you not bring any other units or something?
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2017 00:58
|
|
|
Ace of Aces posted:That's. Weird. I've never seen that happen, and it would be possible for them to spawn into already-occupied panels if they did. Did you not bring any other units or something? Oh, absolutely not. drat thing spawned in alongside Gundam Alex and Destiny Impulse like it wasn't any deal. I guess you've just had exemplary luck.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2017 01:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 13:27 |
|
|
Sordas Volantyr posted:Oh, absolutely not. drat thing spawned in alongside Gundam Alex and Destiny Impulse like it wasn't any deal. I guess you've just had exemplary luck. I guess I'll edit that post. My sister mentioned remembering something like that but her memory is notoriously sketchy so we figured it was probably her mixing stuff up.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2017 01:54
|
|