Messages

1

Q&A / Re: Some obvious or not obvious inquiries

« on: July 09, 2014, 04:45:41 pm »

I'll try out some better weapon combinations, and maybe suggest our crew to bring some of those ammo types if I do keep trying gatling+flak. And I honestly forgot about the chute, I never had a situation in Novice games where I really needed it, but I should probably have it on a Galleon due to it being such an easy target for flechette.

As a Galleon, do people expect a certain offensive role? i.e. do most people prefer a good Galleon to fight up close with mortars? Or is going with a heavy long range set a valid preference?

And for Galleon's starboard, is it more of a secondary resort? Having only heavy weapons on that side seems unable to get past armor...

Oh, and an irrelevant question. How's the Mercury Field Gun? I ran with Pyramidion's C preset in novice games, which has that and a flak as the fore guns, but it didn't feel too exceptional. Is it just for poking?

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Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Control the lobbies

« on: July 09, 2014, 04:55:20 am »

I love that idea. What I want most is a specific weapon command. Something like when you hit V > A, you could press a number key to choose the corresponding weapon on the loadouts, and maybe the gun's icon would highlight. There's been a lot of times where I really want someone to get ready on a specific weapon, and if it highlighted like that it'd really do the trick.

If we had that, and a way to communicate commands to a certain crew member (your suggestion), I think it'd go miles in helping team synergy in public matches. Make the crew text chat more noticeable visually and audibly, and that's all you really need.

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Q&A / Re: Some obvious or not obvious inquiries

« on: July 09, 2014, 04:31:40 am »

I finally forced myself to leave novice for good... It's been interesting. Started out pretty terrible... One match a Goldfish took out our balloon, and kept taking it down near instantly every time (carronade?), and so we were just stuck on the ground 'till they just swooped down with flamethrowers taking us out miserably and slowly on the ground, our balloon instantly going down repeatedly. I also got called a terrible captain. What am I supposed to do?

I changed our set later to four heavy flaks, and a hades cannon. Yeah, laugh. It was kinda hilarious, the crew went along with it, but we kinda steamrolled that much staying close to our ally. Wasn't serious, just experimenting with the game.

But in any case, how's heavy flak, manticore, and a hades cannon up top for port side? For long to mid range combat, and starboard will focus on more up close. Honestly though, I don't understand why flak + gatling is bad. What I liked about it on the Junker was that it's an accurate pair that hardly lets up on the offensive at variable ranges, and they're fairly easy to aim. To me, it felt like it struck a nice balance of anti-armor and anti-hull streams. But I'll probably go with hades as a Galleon.

So yeah, I'm really wondering what to do if a ship focuses on disabling your balloon.

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Q&A / Re: Some obvious or not obvious inquiries

« on: July 08, 2014, 04:32:33 pm »

I'm not saying I try to go full speed and dance around ships and stuff, but I do prefer to constantly move (at a controlled speed), while keeping my gun arcs as stable as I can (my top priority), and keeping a good position on our enemy, possibly forcing them to turn, trying to spread out our own taken damage, trying to maintain a position where we can take out their engines, etc.. If I just park, my crew gets DPS, but a lot of times I feel maintaining positioning, however minimal, can be more advantageous, and harder to react to, if we have the momentum to keep the pressure, or and can quickly make some distance if we lose our main offense. The quicker ships can tend to slip away if we have no acceleration.

I don't expect gunners to always hit, though, that's fine for me, I can accept a good 75%ish hit rate, more or less depending on the weapon and our position. But I take back what I said about not using mortar. The Lumberjack is completely different than the Scylla mortar, didn't know that. The light mortar was a nightmare... Lumberjack seems like a very solid weapon for mid to close range.

I really liked Junker's solid gatling + flak on one side... But what should I run on one side on the Galleon with heavy flak? The top port-side gun is a harpoon, so I'm not sure what to use as a heavy gun to get past armor (no heavy gun proficient at taking down armor?). Heavy flak + Lumberjack/Manticore? My friend loves the flak weapons and tends to be a great shot with them, so keeping it is preferable.

For starboard, I'm thinking of Carronade + Manticore for strong disabling power up close.

5

Q&A / Re: Some obvious or not obvious inquiries

« on: July 07, 2014, 05:28:10 am »

Yeah, I'm not expecting to do much acrobatics, but the ship just felt very controlled to me. When I read 'the hulking tank' on the site, I expected a molasses cannon. But I think it's surprisingly agile for what it is.

In my time playing, I've really enjoyed playing the Junker. I love its survivability and broadside capabilities. I think by far I've been most successful with it. It's slow, but enough to squeeze out some maneuverability. Well, Galleon is pretty similar, I think, like a bigger Junker. It turns way slower, but I don't think it's much slower in speed. It felt steadier to me somehow.

I know I'm not nearly as experienced, but I really want to push the Galleon's capabilities to its limits! My top focus in combat is good arcs for the gunners, but I don't want to just rely on the armor if I can move well, you know? It has movement stats, I'll use them! I like to keep momentum, with the Junker, it's gotten me through some crazy stuff. Granted, Galleon's no Junker, but I feel it's enough for me! I mean, sure, I'll tank if I know we can pile some decisive shots (done some parking with Junker), but to me, the most important things as a pilot are survivability and momentum.

I trust my gunners can aim decently even while moving, with most weapons anyway. I gungineer'd a lot and had no trouble shooting some guns like flak or mercury field gun even as we flew at higher speeds... Honestly I don't plan to use something like mortar because it was too unreliable for me.

If a balloon is down, what happens if you shoot it? Will say, flak, still just hit the balloon if you shoot below you at a ship, and do nothing to the hull? Should I try to crush them at that point then?

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Q&A / Re: Some obvious or not obvious inquiries

« on: July 06, 2014, 09:36:23 pm »

Thanks for the replies. I think I'm gonna give up on the range finder.. I believe it can be useful, but 90% of the time I've never been able to use it because there's tiny pixels of cloud/fog constantly during fights. I hope they change that... Would it warrant use if it tracked (guided weapon leading) enemies even through clouds? Maybe too good? Oh well, it's just practically useless right now because it's obstructed the majority of the time.

So, I tried the Galleon. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it my primary ship (my other two favorites are Squid and Goldfish)... But I have to ask, do ships have any hidden stats? The Galleon feels so... Perfect to me. I thought it would be totally against my style because of its stats (I love versatility). But when I tried it in Practice, it seemed... Extremely responsive? It felt like it could transition from turning hard right to hard left very quick (even without the Claw, and it felt like changing the acceleration direction was also fast.

So is is the low maneuverability, in a way, a plus side? Do ships have different drag stats, or does the Galleon's mass have an effect on that? Or is it just my mind playing games and just somehow feeling very at home with how it controls?

And another question, what do pilots bring as engineer tools? I had a spanner, which sometimes I've used in emergencies if most of our controls are down (to either repair or rebuild whatever is nearest). Recently I started to run with a Dynabuff, and buff the engines and balloons when we're moving long stretches.

7

General Discussion / Re: Just communication.

« on: July 05, 2014, 10:03:26 pm »

That would be me, yes. It's a (pleasant) suprise to be recognised!

Nice, just curious. The AC community's pretty tiny. Cool to see another fan of that series also playing this game (and also relatively new, at that).

I'm just going to say that I have a real hard time keeping an eye on the voice chat.  generally I'm too preoccupied with not hitting that cliff or putting out fires or watching my aim to pay it any mind until we're waiting to respawn - and I suddenly realize there were messages.
if crew chat - the entire message - were bolded or a different color, that'd probably catch my eye a little better.
if a crew mate uses the preset commands though, I'm good. 

That's what I'm concerned about. It's a medium of communication in this game that is pushed into a little corner. The text doesn't stand out too much, so you don't notice it unless you get accustomed to checking it constantly. It'd be nice if the text was a little larger, or stood out more, but more importantly, I would really like to see audio cues for messages sent by your team and crew, something that simple would make a big difference.

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General Discussion / Re: Just communication.

« on: July 05, 2014, 04:58:49 am »

Yep, I've mostly just been piloting, but I've played some of the other two for precisely what you said. After that I got better at knowing how to engage at angles where the front and side weapons both can hit, and how to react to try and give my engineers an easier time.

Well, I don't really mean it's scary, but leaving novice games is quite a gap. In hindsight, all the different ships isn't that much to take in, but you never know what weapons you'll be dealing with. There's a lot more options... Like flamethrowers on two sides. Goldfish can squeeze in anything they want along with those manticores, unlike being bound to one preset like in Novice where you know what to expect.

I do look forward to it, though, but I'm very wary of some sets I've been hearing of that can really mow ships down. For now, I'm gonna step down from the wheel a bit to focus and see more up close and personal more on how each weapon hits and hurts, so I can plan for and against loadouts.

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Q&A / Some obvious or not obvious inquiries

« on: July 05, 2014, 04:30:24 am »

Kinda new, but I'll try to not bore you guys with overly obvious stuff. Some of this is opinionated, at any rate.

1.) Range finder. Okay, I know how it works, but... Is it as pointless as I think? As a pilot who could have a more intuitive skill, anyway. Good players should really be able to judge (roughly) distance and how to lead/arc shots, right? The biggest issue is this game is chock-full of clouds, and I've had entire games where it's been unusable because it seems even the most invisible clouds block it.

2.) Gunner ammo. I noticed a gunner can load ammo, then dismount, and the weapon will have the skill icon still. Can a gunner go around loading shots on weapons for anyone's use?

3.) Moonshine or... Kerokero. Is a 50% difference of moonshine worth the 200% more it hurts compared to kerosene? 200% thrust is no joke, but I activate it for two seconds and R.I.P. engines. It's saved me from ramming and flames... But did it save me? I wonder if engineers would have an easier time with our side getting burned than three engines burned up.

4.) Harpoon. Proof of concept or useful? I really like this thing, but I can't help but feel having firepower outweighs it in any case. How strong is the reel, really, and is the damage more than just 'well, it does something more than nothing?' Brainstorming, it feels like even a specialized close range ship is better off with a gun... Can a Squid save the day by reeling in a flamer away from a friend? Can it turn my ship into a decent ether lance if I focus on ramming with impact bumpers?

5.) Flak. Or... In general, really. Flak's effective against the hull, so... Does it pose very little threat against armor? If I shoot flak at a balloon, is it just laughable? Mostly using flak as a reference example, but I wonder how ineffectiveness works.

6.) How is a gunner useful? An engineer with the same skill is the same. But a gunner gets three... What if three engineers just collaborate skills? A dedicated gunner is good to have, but faster repairs/buff/chem spray fixes overall means more people on more guns more often, the ship will be crippled less and survive longer, and they still have a buffed ammo type. I feel like I'm missing something here...

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General Discussion / Re: Just communication.

« on: July 05, 2014, 03:44:25 am »

I actually did accidentally end up in a non-novice room. I noticed but just rolled with it, hopped onto a Squid. It was pretty fun, had a run on the canyon map and the city ruins map. The Squid's speed and control in both of those maps full of obstacles was a fun change of pace. Went up against some new ships, and a double flamer Squid... It's scary but exciting to see new things like that in combat. In the canyon map I managed to coordinate a pincer flank around a wall with our other team! Seems like pilots get more options outside of novice.

But currently I think I'll stay in novice rooms a little more, gonna spend some time with the other two classes for experience and insight, without worrying about much else.

Hey, obliviondoll, are you the same guy who plays Armored Core?

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General Discussion / Re: Just communication.

« on: July 04, 2014, 06:46:58 pm »

I feel a bit more confident, thanks for all the replies. And when I mentioned the environment here, I meant... Here, where I am. I haven't been around too long, but this is easily one of the nicest communities I've ever experienced, plenty of good sportsmanship going around and no hard feelings, discussion with no insults. It's almost like flying a ship in heaven after some of the game communities I've been through. So yeah, that's not the problem.

Of course, I'm still in Novice rooms, but I've been able to lead some satisfying triumphs and gotten out of tough spots with chat and voice commands. Maybe it helps that I can act more charismatic without sounding a little silly IRL? 

Right now, explaining builds is minimal with only three ships and three presets, but I kind of dread that leap into the real world where people can run any of the other list of ships with totally free customization, but that's a story for another time... I think I should just find/form a crew of keyboard warriors (not in that sense), but I'm going to be playing with more randoms for a while.

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General Discussion / Just communication.

« on: July 04, 2014, 03:28:54 am »

Yeah, title's a reference to something for some reason.

So, I got this game while it was on sale, along with a friend. Amazing game. I've been piloting mostly, and have gotten the hang of it pretty well. I use the V voice commands often, and try to quickly give a gist if I'm going to change our course of action.

But... I chat via keyboard. Long story short it's just a preference due to the environment here. I noticed this is a game where people voice chat quite often. I do try to communicate a lot, me and my friend have no trouble. But sometimes we get a chatty guy in our crew, and it's a little awkward, really. Sometimes I feel like I may be hindering them, partially because the chat box is very small and has very little notification, but it's a little weird to have two types of communication like that... V chat helps a ton, though.

What do you guys think? I kinda wish there were a few more preset voice options, though that's not really the issue at hand. I think I'd feel more useful/fitting if my crew chat was more notable to them. Guess it just feels like I'm not sure if a pilot of written words is deemed acceptable in a game like this.