|
Besides, did you ever really get help in ace combat?
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2019 02:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 04:18 |
|
|
el dorito posted:Besides, did you ever really get help in ace combat? Snake Pit 
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2019 13:13
|
|
|
el dorito posted:Besides, did you ever really get help in ace combat? When I played AC5 recently Nagase was extremely helpful in telling me she was concerned about the lacking anti-ground capability of a full squadron of A-10s. And shooting down most of Grabacr in mission 27+ before I could do anything.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2019 01:01
|
|
|
Captive City Mission 3B: Captive City – October 31st, 2020 (Redo) Overview: Leasath forces led by the Miller artillery division have taken advantage of a gap in the Aurelian defenses and have retaken the recently liberated city of Port Patterson. Their forces have clustered in the petrochemical storage yard in Patterson Harbor, and are using the valuable and combustible fuel reserves in the complex as cover to dissuade enemy attacks. Gryphus Squadron must eliminate the Miller unit without damaging the fuel complex or Aurelia’s mission to retake Santa Elva will be severely impacted.  Guest Commentator: Joining me once again for this mission is GrandmaParty, thus setting up the commentary gimmick of Ace Combat X: the same guests will be on for both the A and B and in some rare cased C versions of each mission from here on out.   LOL THIS MISSION PATH So this where Ace Combat X starts to unfurl its complexity with its mission path and choices throughout the game. For example, this mission, Captive City, is called 3B because it’s set in the same location as 3A, Prelude, but it is potentially the fifth mission you might play through. Basically Mission numbers and Operation numbers in the game aren’t a 1:1 parallel. You might have seen in the briefing and debriefing screens the term Operation Number, and what that means is just what order a mission is done in as the game progresses. For the sake of the LP, now that we’ve chosen a path, we’re going to follow that branch of missions to the finale of Part 1, Standoff In The Skies, and then go back and look at the alternate run of Part 1 with the missions we missed the first time around. Then we’ll repeat the process for Parts 2 and 3. So we’re going to do Captive City first, because it’s a good follow-up to do it immediately, and then I will let you all choose which mission we do next between 4B and 6B (7B is ruled out for obvious reasons despite it technically being an option now too). But anyway, the only way that you can unlock Mission 3A in the game is to do one of the two “trap” missions, 5A Rolling Thunder or 6A The Midnight Sun. Doing Mission 4A Last Line of Defense prevents Port Patterson from being retaken and thus locks out Mission 3A. This also means that Last Line of Defense is replaced with Mission 4B False Target and The Midnight Sun is replaced with 6B Ice Bound. These mutually exclusive missions and a fluid mission tree make it so that every playthrough of Skies of Deception is truly unique in some way and encourage multiple runs through the game to experience the full… I don’t want to say story, because there isn’t that much of one to be found here, and “experience the full experience” is redundant, but you are at least getting the picture here.  TUNING PARTS I’ll talk about Parts in more detail at the end of the LP but for now this is just a general introduction to an important but often overlooked element of Ace Combat X’s gameplay. Mission 3B is our first encounter, numerically speaking, with Part-holding Star Units and the informal introduction of Parts over all, even if 5A et al. might get a tiny bit out over our skis here. And yes, I’m gonna get sick of talking about Parts with a capital letter too, bear with me. We’ve already seen Parts before as a gameplay element in Assault Horizon Legacy, although they went largely unremarked upon. And they return in a big way for Ace Combat 7 in both single and multiplayer modes. In both those games, any plane could use any part that had been unlocked and purchased. However, in Skies of Deception, only the custom planes like the XFA-24A Apalis, or the XR-45 Cariburn can be upgraded with parts. The real world planes’ stats are locked as-is and can’t be altered with parts. This is to let the fictional planes keep pace with the rest of the roster as the game goes on. As I said in the write up on the Apalis in the last update, it’s an early game plane on its face, but with the right upgrades you can mainline it right up to the endgame if you’re that dedicated to it. Like, I’m not joking how much of a beast the Apalis is with the proper parts setup. Parts are broken down into five categories: Engine, Wing, Armor, Weapon, and Cockpit. Each category has 12 parts in it for a total of 60 possible parts. Some parts are unlocked for completing certain missions, meeting certain in-mission challenge requirements, completing cumulative achievements, participating in multiplayer matches, or by destroying Star Units in missions. There is an infinite amount of strategy involved in picking what parts are suitable for what planes, as certain parts cannot be equipped on certain planes. Also, while all parts raise a plane’s base stats, some also lower other stats, so finding a balance or at least a way to cancel out the stat nerfs is key to getting the most out of your tuning setup. Engine parts affect your plane’s speed, Wing parts affect mobility and stability, Armor parts pertain to defense, Weapon parts can increase air-to-air/ground potential, or stats that affect your standard missiles, special weapons or guns specifically, and Cockpit parts are catch-all parts that pertain to other aspects of the plane that don’t fit nicely into little stat boxes. Again, we’ll see more of this later on at the end of the LP, including a full parts break down of every available option.  
SHIVA Mission 3B also sees the first of our Star Units. These special units are unique spawns similar to the Named Aces which appear on the map if certain conditions are met in-mission and reward you with parts to tune the various custom planes like the Apalis with if you destroy them. Captive City’s Star Unit is a gimme, but every other one from here out has to be worked for.  
★C-5   Tracks featured in Mission 3B: DISC X nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Jul 14, 2021 |
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2019 23:48
|
|
|
Welcome back to Ace Combat Xi Skies of Incursion.      Looks like we've pissed off Leasath enough that they've sent the not-Strigons after us. Now we have to meet them at the not-Round Table (The Square Table?) to keep them from just cutting us off. Aside from the fact that Navaro is probably about to shoot the poor sap in charge of Leasath's Air Force, our AWACS is being a bit snippy.   Today we have an air to air brawl on our hands. No need to defend allies that don't do anything, just us and them. This is the first mission that actually felt like Ace Combat to me. Again, just kill everything to win  We also have more time than usual for this, seven whole minutes to complete the mission rather than five. Also we've got a rocking track from much later in X playing, this time actually very fitting for the matter at hand.   Our enemies are kinda making GBS threads themselves at the sight of us at this point. Its quite nice to be recognized.  We're fighting solid numbers of mid-game planes now. Not nearly as many Fishbeds flying in pretty much straight lines for most enemies, we actually need to fight now.     Once you take down the first seven or eight enemies Chimera Squadron shows up. They seem pretty sure they can beat us.  Their allies are not so confident.   Chimera Squad is three planes, all SU-37s, which seems to be the prevailing choice for enemy aces in recent times. They do seem to have more advanced AI than standard, I actually needed to put in some effort against them. In fact, I took multiple hits from them, enough to put me into the yellow for the first time.   Still, with a little bit of focus Chimera Squadron joins the ranks of all the other squadrons that cross paths with a player character, and end up burning wrecks.  Twelve enemy planes, all of which were actually a danger to us. I actually found myself enjoying this mission, quite a bit. Much more than the milk runs that came before it. Next time we repay tit for tat and try to ruin Leasath's supply lines.  Image Does Not Exist Chimera Squadron Members
A squadron well known for their actions in the Leasath civil war. ... No, we don't ever find out what those actions are. The squadron is either two or three planes depending on whether you are on easy or not. Beyond that they are pretty generic. They don't even get an emblem.  Image excised due to excessive blandness Area Z2K A mountainous area between Griswall and Sallqa. Is a major artery for aerial supply runs between the two. Otherwise there is nothing to note.  Chimera A creature made of parts from multiple other creatures, at least in mythology. In real life usually used to describe a creature caused by interbreeding separate species, such as horses and donkeys interbreeding to create a mule or hinny. ...No idea what it has to do with the Squadron though, they're not flying special planes, and they don't seem to be cobbled together from other squadrons.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2019 06:28
|
|
|
Also for the record, Chimera Squadron are the chumps who show up in the attract trailer for both Ace Combat X and Xi, so this is what they look like up close. Their skin is the default Leasath enemy skin on Color 2 for the Su-37 that's unlocked when you beat the game.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2019 07:04
|
|
|
 It's that time again. Time to decide which of the two missions we have left in Part 1 you want to see done first.
Each choice is of lower stakes now that we've already sprung the trap mission, but still choose carefully. Voting will remain open until Midnight PST, Tuesday night.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2019 23:52
|
|
|
nine-gear crow posted:
6B sounds like an escort mission, while 4B sounds like a chance to make the enemy's escort mission a living hell, so go 4B.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2019 23:54
|
|
|
Ice Bound
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 00:40
|
|
|
Take on the False Target! (VOTE COUNTS TOWARDS 4B)
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 01:17
|
|
|
The escort mission sounds more useful but I have to vote 4B because I'm against escort missions in video games on principle.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 01:23
|
|
|
6B. I warned y'all last time that superweapon would be a problem.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 01:25
|
|
|
6B Finding out about their super weapon seems important and any extra difficulty attacking the city can be beaten with your quality piloting skills.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 01:27
|
|
|
4B, gotta stop the weapon shipments.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 01:55
|
|
|
4B seems more immediately useful.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 02:21
|
|
|
6B. Go get our boy!
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 02:33
|
|
|
4B how can we possibly get to full anime if we don’t have a fully powered Glepnir?
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 05:15
|
|
|
el dorito posted:4B  Rip
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 10:21
|
|
|
4B, because letting the AI reinforce a thing behind your back clearly didn't work so well last time.nine-gear crow posted:Otherwise X would be the true Ace Combat 6, Ace Combat 6 would be Ace Combat 7, and we’d all be celebrating the glorious return to form that was Ace Combat 8: Skies of Deception right now. Just wanted to point this out before archive time, now that I had something less nitpicky to post too.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2019 21:51
|
|
|
False Target Mission 4B: False Target – November 3rd, 2020 (Redo) Overview: Gryphus Squadron intercepts a Leasath air transport convoy delivering weapons and supplies to Santa Elva in the skies over Kingshill. However, the Leasath forces are prepared for an attack and have deployed numerous decoy transports to hide the real shipments. Gryphus 1 must locate the real transports among the decoys and destroy them before they can escape the combat zone.  Guest Commentator: I am joined for this mission by Pythonicus, who is finally at long last coming to the end of his Destiny LP. And just in time for Anthem, too! Lol, just kidding, I would never wish a game like Anthem on anybody.  KINGSHILL Kingshill is a verdant hilly region in western Aurelia separating Port Patterson from the rest of southern Aurelia. A new highway route connecting Port Patterson to Santa Elva was under construction but abandoned thanks to the outbreak of the war. The Leasath Army’s Miller 3rd Artillery unit was able to slip into and retake Port Patterson through the highway tunnels built beneath Kingshill.  THE LULL The unfortunate part of Ace Combat X being a largely sparse game is that there’s whole points were there’s nothing to really talk about, and this is one of them. The only thing that springs to mind at present is to just highlight how this mission, along with 6B and technically 3B are all optional if you really don’t want to do them. The only required missions you need to do to complete the Prologue and Part 1 of the game are Missions 1, 2, 3A, one of 4A/5A/6A, and then 7A/7B. All you need to do is retake Port Patterson and then do one more mission to trigger the Gleipnir retreating to Santa Elva and then one version or the other of Standoff In The Skies will unlock. If you rush right to Santa Elva at the earliest opportunity, the mission is exponentially harder than it would be under normal circumstances as the compounding factors upping the difficulty for it would have been taken care of by doing the remaining missions in Part 1. The trade-off, however, is there is a medal you can unlock at the end of the game for taking the shortest possible route through each of the four parts of the game. But be warned though: leaving even a single incomplete mission on the table will net you the game's "bad" ending, which we'll see at the end of the game when everything is said and done. 
SAVANNA  
★C-17 Tracks featured in Mission 4B: DISC X nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Jul 14, 2021 |
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2019 22:50
|
|
|
Welcome back to Ace Combat Xi Skies of Incursion.      Well, looks like all our hard work is paying off, we are even on the offense now! Most of our allies are getting ready to punch back now, and if this mission goes off well then we will probably start making major gains. Odd though, since Skies of Deception doesn't exactly start with Aurelia counterattacking on all fronts. I'm sure its just a continuity issue. About the mission itself, once again we get the series staple of a mission where we need to stay low or lose. Thankfully though it is not a canyon run, and most of the terrain does not even reach the altitude limit.    In gameplay terms we just need to stay under 400m, in an area consisting of mostly hills that reach to around 200m around a river valley (with the occasional gunboat). The MPG this mission is based on the number of mission critical targets you need to destroy, namely hangars, and for a change most enemies don't really matter at all. Seven minutes on the timer, which is quite generous.   The target hangars are usually guarded by a couple AA guns or SAMs, but they de-spawn when you take out the hangar they guard. Also, hello, ground. I'm not sure how I got that close to the ground and didn't die, since despite my fast and low play style in most Ace Combats I still don't feel totally comfortable with the controls here, but I lived.   Lets skip ahead to after the second hangar was destroyed. Aside from the terrified Leasath soldiers freaking out there is one thing I want to point out here, which I couldn't really get in screenshots. I originally overflew the hangar because I was too busy hitting SAMs, which led to me flying up one of the hills, to the point where I went over 400m. I was expecting it to act like all other Ace Combats I've played and either instantly fail me or launch a super SAM that insta kills and cannot be evaded, instead I just took a bit of damage until I went back under 400m. I'm now assuming Leasath's radars are just so powerful that they damage my plane just by pinging it.    As you might notice from the time remaining I decided to stop loving around at this point and just finish it. I was bee-lining for the hangars at this point and ignoring the rest. But now we've got enemy fighters incoming, huh? Well, that could be interesting game design, having to stay under a certain height and dogfight enemies who don't, or just stick right to the targets, so its nice to see something different for once.   Oh. Well, I guess that makes sense. Now it will be easier to take out the last two hangars, at least.   Yeah, AWACS has some pretty good advice at this point. Look at all the little white dots on the radar now!    More Leasath freakouts, we seem to be getting pretty popular. And I think this is the most enemies that we've seen at once, probably more enemies than multiple previous missions put together.  So gently caress trying to take down everything, I hit the last target and then it was time for me to leave this lovely nameless place.  My ranking reflected my cowardice, but gently caress it. Next time, an actual connection to X, and a mission I'm not sure ever got proper playtesting. No analysis today, we don't even get a name for this area.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2019 02:33
|
|
|
It’s kind of baffled me as to why Xi was a prequel to X instead of a side game, and this mission kind of crystallized my thoughts on it. Nobody cared to make it line up with X so it just doesn’t period.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2019 02:39
|
|
|
I also missed a couple things. First off, the medal that you can unlock in Mission 5A (and 5B too) Medal: Land Guardian Awarded for: Completing Mission 5A or 5B with less than 20% damage to allied ground forces on the MPG. Description: Awarded for keeping allied casualties at Stand Canyon to a minimum. And I put the wrong music track in for False Target, so  Tracks featured in Mission 4B: DISC X That one is now reflecting the proper song too.
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2019 10:57
|
|
|
Ice Bound Mission 6B: Ice Bound – November 8th, 2020 (Redo) Overview: An Aurelian intelligence officer was stationed at Terminus Island on an under cover assignment while the Gleipnir was docked there. Although the flying fortress has since left the area, the agent was able to uncover vital intel on it while it was there. The infiltration submarine Naiad has been dispatched to retrieve the officer and return him to Aurelian GHQ. Gryhpus Squadron must provide top cover for the distraction fleet and then escort the Naiad safely out of the combat zone once the agent is secure.  Guest Commentator: I am joined for this mission by my good buddy FPzero. He is currently suffering his way through the befuddling Ocarina of Time romhack Nimpize Adventure along with several other Team Frog Nuggetiers, most notably Artix, ChaosArgate, and Krysmphoenix. Nimpize is notable for being the first OoT romhack to actually create new content within the rom itself rather than just shifting stuff around like OoT Randomized and Chaos Mode do. When asked for a quote to sum up his experience with the hack thus far, FP replied “gently caress! Goddammit.” from the frigid embrace of an ice chest.  TERMINUS ISLAND Terminus Island is one of the southern-most permanently inhabited locations on Earth due to worker housing accommodations for the many oil and natural gas refineries and naval station dotting the island. It is the northern most of six islands off the Aurelian southern coast and was named “terminus” as it is effectively the farthest boundary of both Aurelian and human civilization in the southern hemisphere. The island itself is covered in ice and snow year round due to its location on the cusp of the Antarctic Circle, even as the rest of the southern hemisphere is entering its summer season now as October gives way to November. It’s location in the extreme south also means it experiences the phenomena known as the Midnight Sun, where the sun does not appear to set or only partially sets for days on end at the polar regions thanks to the Earth’s axial tilt. The airborne fortress Gleipnir was originally stationed at Terminus Island to keep it out of range of Aurelian air power while still being able to utilize its SWBM ordinance at a safe distance. The remains of a makeshift water-based runway and docking berth fashioned from signal light buoys were found at the island by Aurelian forces who swept in and retook the island from Leasath forces following the completion of the Naiad’s operation. Due to increased Aurelian military activity in the western regions, however, Supreme Commander Navaro ordered the Gleipnir away from Terminus Island and back to Santa Elva in order to defend the city from what is at this point an inevitable Aurelian attack. The Gleipnir is now standing by in the skies over Santa Elva, invisible and fully armed and operational and ready to strike without warning.  THIS IS THE NAIAD! Named for the water nymphs of old mythology, the Naiad is an Aurelian Navy submarine specializing in covert infiltration and recovery missions. The vessel was one of those lucky enough to escape to sea during the initial blitz of Aurelian military assets by Leasath and has been a series of covert operations along the southern coast of Aurelia since the retaking of Port Patterson. However, the damage incurred by the collision with a mine and the near-miss with an iceburg during the extracting operation from Terminus Island has left the Naiad unable to dive. The sub will unfortunately be out of action for the duration of the war as repairs are conducted at the naval drydock in Port Patterson.  NAIAD The namesake of our very loud and enthusiastic infiltration submarine in this mission comes from the Greek mythological figures, the Naiads. Naiads were elemental spirits represented various fresh water bodies, including brooks, rivers, streams and even fountains. Their salt water analogs are the Oceanids, while the Nereids were representations of the Mediterranean Sea in particular. Wikipedia lists numerous individual Naiads that appear in various legends throughout Greek mythology, as most were only local deities worshiped by individual cults. A common practice was to discard the locks of childrens’ hair into rivers when they came of age or drown sacrificial animals in order to appease the Naiads and their life-giving waters. And yes, it’s with a measure of irony that the salt water-operating submarine in this mission is named after a fresh water spirit.  Medal: Sea Guardian Awarded for: Completing Mission 6B with less than 20% damage to allied naval forces on the MPG. Description: Awarded for keeping damage to the allied fleet at Terminus Island to a minimum. 
PALADIN  
★SUBMARINE Tracks featured in Mission 6B: DISC X nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Jul 14, 2021 |
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2019 23:14
|
|
|
Welcome back to Ace Combat Xi Skies of Incursion. gently caress this mission very much. This is where the need to take my fingers off the controls to take screenshots really started to kill me, repeatedly. There's not going to be many screenshots of the latter half of this mission for that reason. In fact, while most of the screenshots from this update are from my attempts on Normal, the rest of the LP will be on Easy.       Oooh boy, where do I even start? Well, good spirits are all well and good, but Sallqa's defenses without us around to baby them are... lackluster at best. Having us go down to Port Patterson to protect our boats is going to leave them wide open, even if enemy activity is reduced at this time. In fact, let me get my map...  Yeah, we're going to be a bit too far away to bail them if another five tanks decide to roll in. Anyways, time to start our escort quest!     We need to escort the four whole ships on our side to the edge of the combat zone for this mission. That means we need to kill all enemy ships so our allies don't get blockaded, and shoot down all enemy bombers so they don't die. It is unlikely that our allies will fire a single shot to help us. Also, hey Thalasa's captain, what are you doing here? Aren't you needed in Crow's escort mission?     Things start simple. A bomber spawns every 15-20 seconds, and then a Frigate and a Destroyer pop in, all in a fairly small area. The Bombers and Frigate take two missiles each, but the Destroyer takes four to destroy. This I could deal with, mostly, but by the time I was making my third pass on the ships there was already another bomber on the way. Speaking about the bombers briefly, you might have noticed they aren't regular bomber types, like B-52s or old Russian bombers. Instead they are probably a bomber variant of another Ace Combat Original plane, one that I also want to be shown off on something better than my lovely little ipod screen (if it were even in this game). The YRB-89 is a bomber that Leasath uses in the three missions in this game that involve bombers, then they never appear again in the whole series. I kind of wanted to make a joke about how there is totally a legitimate reason for this lore-wise rather than it being to save money licencing real bombers, but I can't be assed after this mission.     There is a lot of chatter this mission. Like a ton. This update is already image heavy, if I tried to get all the chatter and post it the post would be ridiculous, and it would be a massive pain. It is also at this point I pretty much gave up on getting everything, because...   This mission loving sucks! You constantly have to be flying from a set of ships that you need to take down so your allies can continue to the bombers that are constantly spawning to kill your allies, all while the enemy's SAMs have a better range than you. The enemy ships take too many missiles to take down in a reasonable time frame and you don't get any method of mitigating this. No special weapons, no allied planes, nothing. Because of that you need to spend way too long in SAM range, dodgy controls making it hard to dodge, and making it difficult to accelerate and shoot or maneuver at the same time. After this I threw myself against the mission for around half an hour, and got shot down at least a half dozen times. Eventually I snapped and restarted the campaign on Easy (You don't even get briefings if you are in Free Mission mode)    After that it was pretty much a cakewalk to go through the mission. Easy mode means all the ships take a single missile to kill, and only half as many bombers spawn. And at the end of the mission, when a final blockade spawns, only half as many ships are part of it. I had to go back later to take a look, because I had thought the enemy carrier was a bit small, but I guess it was just the screen size and such making me think that.   Anyways, mission complete, the fleet from Port Patterson is on its way, and now its time to take the fight all the way to Leasath's turf.  But wait, Crow had to liberate Port Patterson back in mission 3, and the next mission is the last one for Skies of Incursion. So what happens to set the course of the war to what it was at the start of Skies of Deception? Well, the only mission they put any real effort into, for one thing. No Analysis again, Crow already covered Patterson much better than I ever could.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2019 02:13
|
|
|
I think you accidentally kept in your mic's audio during the briefing, since it sounds like you're having a one-sided conversation. IIRC modern nuclear submarines can go pretty fast when submerged as long as they don't care about being quiet. Diesel-electric subs were (and are) relatively slow. Sindai fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Mar 24, 2019 |
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2019 06:50
|
|
|
Sindai posted:I think you accidentally kept in your mic's audio during the briefing, since it sounds like you're having a one-sided conversation. Agh. Nice catch. I'll reupload a version without the audio as soon as I can.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2019 07:17
|
|
|
Here we go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOZPxElnLp8
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2019 07:48
|
|
|
A diesel sub is going to struggle to hit much more than 20 kt and can be chased down by any reasonable warship. A nuclear attack sub is pretty quick if it's not bothered about running silent. Not going to outrun a proper fast-corvette or designated sub-hunter, but probably fast enough to gently outpace most mid-size warships and above. Not that it would matter, a lot of those ships would be carrying a helicopter with ASW option that could track said noisy travel. Subs forced to the surface in a combat zone are in for a generally unpleasant day. An ICBM carrier will necessarily be slower because of the bulk.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2019 01:39
|
|
|
Standoff in the Skies II Mission 7B: Standoff in the Skies II – November 12th, 2020 (Redo) Overview: The Aurelian forces launch an attack on Santa Elva to liberate the city from Leasath control. Everything has been leading up to this moment, and if the city can be retaken, then all of Southern Aurelia will be secured once again. As the Davis tank unit rolls into the city from the ground, Gryphus Squadron must hunt down and destroy the fully operational Gleipnir.  Guest Commentator: I am joined for this last mission of the “bad” timeline of Part 1 by my constant in the starry LP sky, the king of gastrointestinal issues, CJacobs. While he’s primarily switched over to streaming now, he has recently started an LP of Ashen, so go check that out while you’re busy very pointedly not posting in this thread, yes, I see you.  SANTA ELVA Located just off the eastern shore of southern Aurelia at the mouth of the Lenal River, Santa Elva is the second most populated city in Aurelian territory second only to the capital of Griswall. The city is also the capital of Lenal County. Along with Port Patterson and Challwa, Santa Elva is one of Aurelia’s primary port cities, servicing shipping traffic from western Osea, Sapin, Nordlands, Sotoa, and the Usean continent across the ocean. Port Patterson, meanwhile served shipping transit from eastern Osea, Yuktobania, Verusa, and Emmeria. Goods passing through Santa Elva would then be shipped up the Lenal River to distribution centers in the Aurelian heartland. Beyond that, there is not much else remarkable about Santa Elva as a city beyond its strategic geographic importance due its close proximity to Griswall. There is actually a real life town in Peru called Santa Elva in the Lambayeque of the country, but there’s not really much else available on the town itself on English websites to give any details. In Spanish, Elva is a variant and diminutive of Elvira, which means “truth”, “white”, and “beautiful”. So roughly Santa Elva equates out to “The Saint of Truth” or “The Saint of Beauty”.  TRUTH WILL OUT With the Gleipnir down, this mission marks the functional end of Part 1 of the game, and with it comes another story dump cutscene from our buddy Albert Genette. Genette’s promise to poke around at the loose ends of Navarro’s financial paper trail has paid off in spades. Through his research, he was able to uncover vast amounts of previously sealed financial information and government documents that have revealed the first layer of truth about Diego Navarro’s grand deception. As it turns out, Navarro’s claims of exploitation by Aurelia were nothing but lies, and the truth is that Aurelia was and still is Leasath’s top contributor of financial, medical, and other humanitarian aid. Navarro and his command retinue have simply been funneling the financial aid from Aurelia, Osea, Yuktobania, Usea and Emmeria into the coffers of Leasath’s military, buying vast supplies of weapons and battlefield technologies from firms like North Osea Gründer Industries, MacMillian Heavy Industries and General Resource Ltd. He then used the ongoing financial and humanitarian crisis inside Leasath to paint his people’s hardships as the result of lies and exploitation from the wealthier nations of the world. And with the real facts of the matter being known to only a handful of people, all loyal to Navarro, the world was none the wiser. And with the world still recovering from the chaos of the information network blackout caused by the Kessler syndrome catastrophe of September 2019, it’s easy to see how this information was able to be buried so effectively and how hard it is going to be to get the truth out, even for a famous reporter like Albert Genette. This vast and fraudulent accumulation of wealth allowed Leasath to construct its two flying fortresses, the Gleipnir and its predecessor, the Gandr, each loaded with top of the line weapons and defensive technologies a supposedly impoverished nation like Leasath would have no means to even develop let alone deploy. To complicate matters even further, once Navarro assumed control over Leasath at the end of the civil war, he also took complete control over its arms sector, which he was heavily invested in before even the outbreak of the civil war. The assault on Aurelia is just one of a number of eventual pre-planned artificial conflicts concocted by Navarro and his cronies purely for the purposes of driving arms sales around the globe and increasing his already vast wealth exponentially. As Genette and Gryphus 1 each come closer to unraveling Navarro’s deception in their own respective ways, each man now has a target on their backs as Leasath grows ever more desperate. But if the truth can be revealed, maybe this war can come to an end sooner than anyone thought. After all, who wants to put their life and career on the line for a selfish liar who’s only out to enrich himself… No, don’t answer that one.   GLEIPNIR The Gleipnir is the centerpiece of the Leasath forces’ might in South Osea, and the currently most powerful weapon in Diego Gaspar Navarro’s arsenal, though other weapons are being hastily completed as the Aurelian forces retake more and more of their lost territory. Developed covertly in the aftermath of the Leasath Civil War under the directive of General Diego Navarro, the Gleipnir is a multi-purpose heavy assault platform that is actually only one part of a two-pronged weapons platform. The second part of the weapons project, codenamed “Fenrir” was still in development at the time of the Gleipnir’s destruction over Santa Elva. Captained by Leasath Air Force officer Frank Burlington, the Gleipnir was Leasath’s primary offensive weapon for the early days of the Leasath-Aurealia War. With its revolutionary stealth and optical camouflage systems, the Gleipnir could cruise into a combat zone virtually undetected, deploy its devastating SWBM ordinance on a target, and disappear again without a trace making it practical impossible to defend against. The Gleipnir’s airframe made it remarkably maneuverable for a craft of its immense size. It could fly for prolonged periods in a 45°+ stall angle thanks to its powerful engines, and could even fly completely upside down for brief periods. The craft was frequently the subject of propaganda speeches by Diego Navarro, touting it’s invincibility and the destructive force of its weaponry, turning it into a symbol of Leasath as a nation, not just its military might. Navarro was so proud of its accomplishments he even had artwork commissioned of the Gleipnir to hang in his office in both Gaiuss Tower and the presidential palace in Alendal. It was even a grim joke among Aurelian pilots and soldiers that the only way you could tell the Gleipnir was near by was by spotting the LAF chase planes trailing it with cameramen in their cockpits there to film it in action. In addition to its conventional air-to-air and air to ground defensive ordience, the Gleipnir utilized two highly specialized and powerful weapons: the Shockwave Burst Missile, and the Shock Cannon.  SWBM The Shockwave Burst Missile (SWBM) is a proprietary Leasath-engineered heavy weapon utilized primarily by the Gleipnir to catastrophic effect. Unlike the weaponry derived from the old South Belka Munitions Factory’s Multi-Purpose Burst Missile (MPBM), the SWBM relies on more advanced technology to deliver its destructive payload. Each SWBM warhead is loaded with a compact cyclotron accelerator capable of creating highly charged and intentionally unstable particle energy. This meson particle fuel is vented from the missile shortly before impact and then ignited by the warhead to create a massive shockwave that tears apart anything unfortunate enough to be caught in its blast radius. The shockwave is most powerful along its horizonal axis, thus making the SWBM ideal for air to air attacks, as air pressure differentials increase its effectiveness at higher altitudes while the explosion is less powerful at ground level. While the SWBM is intented as a long range weapon, capable of hitting targets hundreds of kilometers away if needed, the Gleipnir itself is able to survive close proximity detonations of the warhead in close combat situations thanks to its heavily reinforced airframe. Additional details are currently fragmentary, but intelligence suggests a further scaled down version of the SWBM is currently being developed by the Leasath military-industrial complex for use with the mysterious “Fenrir” weapon.  SHOCK CANNON Housed on the underside of the Gleipnir is a small-scale particle accelerator cyclotron ring capable of producing the same type of high energy particle charge as the ones on SWBM warheads, but more stable in nature. The “cannon” part of the Shock Cannon’s name is actually non-indicitive of the weapon’s nature. The device operates by seeding the area over a target with highly explosive gas and then igniting the gas cloud with a directed energy charge of meson particles fired from the cyclotron disk. The meson particles then create a fuel-air explosion producing a downward-directed shockwave that then crushes and then rips apart anything unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast radius. As with the SWBM bursts, the Gleipnir is protected from the effects of its own weapon by both its altitude above from the shockwave’s origin and its reinforced airframe. The Shock Cannon requires a prohibitive amount of energy to fire, however, so it is often used only as a last resort or as an overwhelming first strike on enemy forces. The cannon requires so much energy to charge and fire that the Gleipnir cannot maintain its optical camouflage system while the weapon is in use. This leaves a brief window of opportunity for attacking forces to locate and strike at the flying fortress while before it can re-engage its cloak. As a result of its infrequent usage (and the devastating results of its firing), its very existence was known only to the Gleipnir’s crew and the upper echelons of Leasath command.  As a part of the supplementary materials for Ace Combat X published on Project ACES’s website, there were three short stories written as well. Two of them are told from the perspective of Eugene Solano, and recount his point of view on the events of Skies of Deception and Standoff in the Skies II. The third story is written from the POV of the captain the Gleipnir, Frank Burlington, and recounts Standoff in the Skies II from the Leasath perspective. All three stories also include never before seen supplementary artwork done by the game’s cutscene story artists. They also confirm at the very least that both Ice Bound and Standoff In the Skies II are the “canon” versions of Missions 6 and 7, and also depict Gryphus 1 as flying the XFA-24 Apalis during Mission 7. Two of these stories were translated into English by the folks at Electrosphere.info. The third one, “Standoff in the Skies II: Leasath Side” was done by me for this LP. EUGENE SOLANO’S MEMOIRS: STANDOFF IN THE SKIES II quote:The Gleipnir had always been lingering on my mind since that nightmare of the battle where Gryphus Squadron was almost annihilated by the attack of just a single SWBM. Aurelian ground forces organized a formation to settle the score with that monster and were advancing toward the river side city of Santa Elva. STANDOFF IN THE SKIES II: LEASATH SIDE quote:[1]  Medal: Eye of the Storm Awarded for: Completing Mission 7A or 7B in six minutes or less. Description: Awarded for destroying the optically camouflaged airborne fortress Gleipnir. 
FIRESTORM  
★CONT.SHIP Tracks featured in Mission 7B: DISC X
 Some beauty shots of our dear departed Gleipnir from the game’s cutscene artwork:   
nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Jul 14, 2021 |
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 01:58
|
|
|
nine-gear crow posted:air pressure differentials increase its effectiveness at higher altitudes while the explosion is less powerful at ground level. I appreciate that the goofy anime plane game has something reasonable plausible for why the kill-everything-that's-flying missiles don't work if you're too low.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 02:52
|
|
|
This is the Naiad! FIRE THE SHOCK CANNON! Oh wow, that was pretty impressive overall. Just a shame that weary Genette's voice acting is such a dreary drone compared to the rest.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 03:03
|
|
|
Cooked Auto posted:This is the Naiad! FIRE THE SHOCK CANNON! He really does sell Genette as being a tired old man now compared to young Genette seen in AC5. Shame they couldn't get Matt Mercer back to voice him on PSP Money though.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 03:18
|
|
|
Not gonna lie, I actually really liked those short stories. They added a lot of character to the destruction of the Glepnir, and that's really cool.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 03:36
|
|
|
Welcome back to Ace Combat Xi Skies of Incursion. Its the last mission for this little game, and this one probably got most of the budget, not that it says much.     Well, nice to see that our terrible escort quest paid off, I guess. And that description of the Gandr? Well, 20 times the thrust of a normal fighter is probably not enough for it, as you will soon see.  This mission obviously got most of the budget for the game, you can tell because it starts us off with the only cutscene in the game. You can see us there, flying over the fleet we saved last mission.  Hello there. Just so we're clear, before anything else, this particular superweapon does not have the Glepnir's special stealth systems. At best it may be something in the same vein as an B-2 or other stealth aircraft, but really the entire allied fleet failed to notice a flying fortress wandering towards them. You can probably guess where this is going.      Yep, a SWBM just hit the objects of the escort quest from hell, undoing all our work. How could it possibly destroy them at sea level? because while the destructive power of an SWBM might be higher at greater altitudes, the fleet was clustered and slow, meaning that even the lower power available at that height could destroy them.   Now we get our official introduction to our final enemy, the Gandr, the prototype of the Glepnir. Unlike 99% of video games and animes it is worse in every way from its successor.    Time to kill another flying fortress. All we have to do is kill the weapons on its wings until the actual weak point is exposed. On Easy (thank you mission 7) this amounts to killing two AA guns and two SAMs twice. On harder difficulties it would be revealed that Falco One is even shittier than we thought, as Chimera Squadron would show up to protect the Gandr as well.       After the first wave of weapons they decide to reuse more of the Glepnir fight and start launching SWBMs repeatedly to try and slow us down. It really does not work.    After taking down the second wave of guns the Gandr exposes its weak-point, a single lonely SWBM port. Compare to the Glepnir, which had like eight at least. The idea here, I guess, is that we need to shoot it as an SWBM is launched so it blows up in the tube, destroying the Gandr, but with the shoestring budget and the iPod Touch's capabilities...      Yeah, there was only enough in the budget for one cutscene, so the mission just ends. But hey, unlike every other mission in the game, this one has an outro blurb, so lets cap the game off with that!     ...Yeah, that is how Xi ends. Hooray, we won the air battle, but we lost in everything else. Our fleet was destroyed, leaving us with no naval power anywhere useful, and our ground forces are screwed since it looks like Sallqa got a visit from the Glepnir. Everything we've fought for is up in smoke, and we reach the canonical beginning of X. So, that's how they fit this game into the events of X, by making everything we've done pointless, by erasing all our work. Yeah, its no wonder I never came back to this after the first time I played it, beating the game leaves you with no feeling of triumph, or anything. In the time leading up to this mini LP I read through the plot of Skies of Incursion multiple times, but even knowing it was coming, actually getting here and having the game throw out everything I had done as worthless... It left me feeling hollow, useless. This is not a good note to end a game on. By the way, if I had beaten the whole campaign on normal I would have unlocked the last free plane available, the Falken. With no TLS. What even is the point?  Gandr The Airborn Fortress Gandr is a Leasath superweapon, and the prototype of the Glepnir, with all the problems you might expect from a real world prototype of this nature. Pressed into service when it was unfinished, it lacks many of the features that make the Glepnir so fearsome, including the Optical Camouflage and the Shock Cannon, as well as being armed with less SWBMs and conventional weapons. These flaws, along with the crippling weakness presented by its lone SWBM launcher allowed Falco One to easily destroy the Gandr on its first combat mission. There is not much information available about the Gandr, so the rest of this is conjecture on my part. Meant to be a test-bed for the air frame developed for the Glepnir, the Gandr was likely never meant to do much more than get in the air and prove the air frame is effective. There is no evidence that the Gandr was ever intended to be fitted with a Shock Cannon or Optical Camo, though it is likely that it could have been retro-fit with said systems. It was launched incomplete, and there is no solid data on what the completed Gandr would have actually been capable of. The likely minimum that the Gandr would have brought to the table would have been a more robust series of conventional weapons, making it comparable to one of the Estovakian Gyges-class aerial warships, themselves capable of being a massive threat to any non-player squadron. More unlikely would have been a full retrofit to give it optical camo, which would have effectively given Leasath a second Glepnir.  Jormungandr The world serpent of Norse mythology. The middle child of Loki and Angrboda, and said to have grown so large it circled the world and took hold of its own tail. At the time of Ragnarok it is said that Jormungandr will release its tail and spew poison upon the land, and will be killed by Thor, but not before fatally poisoning the God. While it is not confirmed to be the name from which the Gandr gets its name, it fits with the naming scheme of other Leasath superweapons.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 03:38
|
|
|
Thank you to anyone who was interested enough in Skies of Incursion to actually read all of that. According to Acepedia there is supposed to be an 'Air Combat Challenge' mission, but I don't know whether it was DLC or if it is unlocked by beating Hard difficulty, either way I am not able to show it. To the rest of you, no more Xi updates cluttering up the thread from here on out! Yay!
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 03:44
|
|
|
Ashsaber posted:Thank you to anyone who was interested enough in Skies of Incursion to actually read all of that. According to Acepedia there is supposed to be an 'Air Combat Challenge' mission, but I don't know whether it was DLC or if it is unlocked by beating Hard difficulty, either way I am not able to show it. Thanks again for showing it off. Ace Combat X does feel a little incomplete without it either way, so I'm glad we were able to cover it in some capacity.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 03:46
|
|
|
Ashsaber posted:Thank you to anyone who was interested enough in Skies of Incursion to actually read all of that. According to Acepedia there is supposed to be an 'Air Combat Challenge' mission, but I don't know whether it was DLC or if it is unlocked by beating Hard difficulty, either way I am not able to show it. Thank you very much for taking the time to show off the game and its depressing inevitable story it’s like watching Titanic... even though we all know that the ship sinks, it’s still worth watching to see choice scenes between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, the latter of whom has a humorous accent in Blood Diamond but was really good in Shutter Island wait what are we talking about again
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 06:39
|
|
|
I hope CJacobs will provide running commentary or insights on Leasath cuisine.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 06:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 04:18 |
|
|
man, Leonardo DiCaprio really was good in Shutter Island, people don't recommend that film enough I think. edit: Also, this game fuckin rules!
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2019 06:50
|
|
