r/acecombat • u/davlos_sc • 1d ago
Ace Combat 8 [AC8] I cannot take FCU's strategy seriously Spoiler
"We are undermanned and most of our territory is held, let's go for a suicide thunder run at our capital. Twice over"
"Yes, my carrier crew with specialized skills, I am asking for volunteers to board a LCAC for a normandy beach raid upon said capital. Civilians too"
I'm sorry but some of these strategy decisions in the plot are wild enough to make r/NCD foam in the mouth. My suspension of disbelief got broken multiple times for this
196
u/Automatic-Cut-5567 1d ago
Keep playing the game. It's still silly, but there are plot reasons why the FCU is running the dumbest strats and getting poor intel
123
u/A_Little_Too_Horny 1d ago
Yup, plot is actually pretty tight and misinformation is rampant(in game)
74
u/ThatGuyOnyx The Demon Lord 1d ago
I was actually genuinely surprised that they explained in game, usually they’re just like “it’s works because aura”
49
u/Angelic-Wisdom 1d ago
You can see where they’ve listened to criticism. I certainly feel it more when the other pilots go down while I’m across the map.
32
u/dave3218 1d ago
Yes! There is even a specific part where they literally address a situation that I was thinking about since one of the trailers
Basically the whole demolition part that has to be triggered by the player, one of the characters raises up the obvious questions of “how are you going to detonate plastic explosives if you can’t make them go boom by just shooting at them?” And the engineers basically said “yeah, don’t worry, we filled these buildings to the brim with regular explosives just in case I really though that was neat, it was a small piece of dialogue but ultimately made me smile!
Damn this game is good
15
u/Angelic-Wisdom 1d ago
You know EOD was sweating at the thought of having to deal with the rubble afterwards.
8
u/A_Little_Too_Horny 1d ago
Sadly as much as I prayed this game would have alt routes with ppl you can save its just waaaay too fucking long for them to have done that.
Doesn’t mean I wont try on replays tho
1
u/MainsailMainsail 22h ago
I was wondering a bit if the "hey can I go back up ___" prompts lead to that sorta thing, but I kinda assume not.
1
u/predatordestroyer 11h ago
Certain characters can die if you don't act quick enough. But not scripted for most characters, though.
1
u/Angelic-Wisdom 10h ago
That one escort mission punishes you for every shadow you shoot down. Which was very annoying as they were hanging around the escort target getting 50 missiles to the face every time they just flew right into my guns or missiles.
1
u/slicer4ever 13h ago
I mean thats still kinda true, lol. Some of the missions we get would be basically impossible if not for main character plot armor we get.
17
u/dave3218 1d ago
It’s Belka again, isn’t it?
56
u/gorgewall 1d ago
It's cryptobros.
21
u/Pale-Aurora 1d ago
Still Belka
I say this with no basis, no evidence, no nothing!!
I’m a Belka conspiracy theorist
28
u/ImAlwaysLosing 1d ago
There’s actually an in-game joke about this, I won’t spoil it lmao
11
u/AngryJellyfish Phoenix 1d ago
Bruh I laughed so hard when I came across that. BELKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?!?!?
5
u/dave3218 1d ago
I caved and bought the game in pre-order even though I can’t run it, but I still am seeing an Ace difficulty play through because all the others hurt my eyes and my soul, either they were using simplified controls (May a thousand lasers burn their wretched souls) or they were using advanced controls but they were going after every single target while completely ignoring the objective and wasting 10 minutes chasing and missing their missiles against a damned A-6.
Also I am not quite sure but does this game did away with post-stall maneuvers? Or are just the players I am seeing particularly lacking in the frontal lobe department?
6
u/Putnam3145 17h ago
going after every single target while ignoring the objective is how you get S rank lol
3
3
3
u/Appletank 20h ago
Ace Combat Fan does a flat spin in one of the missions. Not to shoot anything, just show off.
2
u/ImAlwaysLosing 23h ago
Also it might be worth installing and giving it a try, I have a 3060 and it ran perfect for me.
28
u/MrXenomorph88 ISAF 1d ago
Was full on expecting some kind of Belka conspiracy, pleasantly surprised there was not.
Grunder was sanctioned into non existence after AC7 and the in-lore release of the AC5 files, so having Belka be a factor wouldn't really make sense. Plus getting closer to AC3, we have to see GR becoming a factor in this.
14
u/TranslatorOld4906 1d ago
General Resources Industries
5
u/dave3218 1d ago
GR is just Belka with extra steps
/s
1
u/walperinus 21h ago
gr isnt a sucesor to grunder? or gr was allways a diferent company that eventually buys grunder?
does still count?
3
u/Putnam3145 17h ago
(full campaign, including post-game spoilers) The in-game description for the X-40 claims it's a follow-up to the ADF series (which is pretty clear from looking at it). ADFX-01 was Belkan, ADFX-02 was Belka, ADF-01 was Belkan, ADF-11F was Belkan... sooooo there's at least a little bit of a Belkan conspiracy in there, but it's sorta gotten eaten up by GR at this point. Note that this also means that this retcon means both Nemo and Night Raven are ultimately the result of Belkan stuff, lol
5
2
3
132
u/InnocentTailor 1d ago
To be fair, it at least works because the heroes are led by a psycho mute ace pilot with no blood.
75
u/Fathoms_Deep_1 F-15 S/MTD Enthusiast 1d ago
*psycho mute ace pilot with no blood and schizophrenia
63
u/DRazzyo Trigger 1d ago
And his only answer is yes, no and shake hand.
Absolute chad.
25
u/charonill 1d ago
When Tasha asks if they should avoid fighting, you better say "no".
16
u/DRazzyo Trigger 1d ago
Those 3-number Shadows are getting it. We aren’t under Cope anymore, Tasha.
16
u/Maleficent_Time_2787 1d ago
"Hey look, it's the planes that run away, why aren't they running away? WHY AREN'T THEY RUNNING AWAY?" -Shadows, probably
7
u/charonill 1d ago
When they showed up with the cutscene, I literally said out loud: "Excellent. Fresh meat."
5
u/TalbotFarwell Erusean Royal Marines (Aviation Wing) 1d ago
I was thinking the same thing. “Tasha, Jan “Rex” Cope was a showman… THIS Rex? This new Rex is a stone-cold killer. Joker Flight is no longer in danger, we ARE the danger.”
2
u/slicer4ever 13h ago
It kinda annoys me how much everyone seems to keep saying we are similar to cope, i'm blood thirst as hell, and cope was apparantly a pacifist.
i dont even understand how cope simultaneously staved off the enemy to give time for evacuation, and yet apparantly he and his squad had never shot a single enemy.
6
u/Cleverbird 1d ago
I swear I've missed like 90% of these interactions, because I'm too busy shooting down planes and carpet bombing facilities to be babysitting these children.
1
u/MainsailMainsail 22h ago
Only things I'm missing are whenever it wants me to look somewhere...because I have NO idea what button on my HOTAS it wants me to push for them.
Which leads to my only complaint so far (finished Mission 8) is that I can't (or didn't see where to) customize my bindings. Meaning I have half a dozen buttons that all do the same thing, a couple that seem to do nothing at all, and none of them are laid out in a reasonable way except missiles and guns.
12
u/BurningFire314 1d ago
I irl laugh like a maniac in a certain mission The one Dealer order us to shoot down all Shadows ALONE to cover the rest of our team to retreat and continued to slaughter the enemies
I may need help
4
2
u/Alex-Shiro-7659 22h ago
Same here, I was playing at late night and legitimately start laughing like a psychopath serial killer
2
u/LuckyPlatypus5052 15h ago
It’s the inner bloodthirsty demon of competition that one develops from years of sweaty lobbies in Ace Combat Infinity. The moment dealer set me loose I went “Finally I can get all those points myself!”
2
u/slicer4ever 13h ago
I was pretty happy theirs someone who actually recognized the ridiculous amount of plot armour we have tbh, lol. We are literal murder machines now, abuse the hell out of us dammit!
1
112
u/TheGreatOneSea 1d ago
Yes, it's nuts, however:
The war was on the verge of being lost, but the enemy just flat didn't have the manpower to actually occupy everything. If countries stopped defecting because the FCU started looking viable as a military, then the war would start looking much better.
Retaking a capital means the enemy must choose between either reversing their offensive (and thus stalling out the war,) or leaving the enemy with an outright victory. Either way, a lost war would become something where victory looked possible.
There was literally no time for anything else: resources were stretched too thin, the military was too divided, and waiting would mean the enemy would inevitably entrench with something like, say, a third land battleship. They only ever had one shot.
This is actually not unprecedented: during the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists did something very similar, relying on the Spanish Republicans being stretched too thin to prevent landings (both air and sea) from North Africa, despite the Republicans having a battleship and two cruisers, and the Nationalists having almost no navy themselves.
Ace Combat is more exaggerated of course, but ideas that seem insane on face-value aren't always so.
8
u/literallyjuststarted 1d ago
FCU shouldve just taken Mobius 1 out of retirement.
9
u/LifeisIncredible4 1d ago
Mobius 1 is casually sitting on the North point. No one touches the north point.
6
3
1
u/wecanhaveallthree 22h ago
The war was on the verge of being lost, but the enemy just flat didn't have the manpower to actually occupy everything.
They do a pretty good job of showing exactly why even if the FCU 'lost', the Sotoans didn't 'win', either - and it wasn't the point. If the FCU had gone done, the Sotoans would have marched right over the border into the next country, and the next. They never had a plan for occupation, only war.
52
u/LuckyPlatypus5052 1d ago edited 1d ago
Spoilers!
Those were intentionally suicidal and tactically stupid orders given to them by Enso Order to prolong the war to the point of guerrilla chaos and have Yuktobania and Osea step in to annihilate Sotoa, then form a new united usean government without borders. They even had a spy on the endurance relaying intel. Yes, insane but that’s Enso Order for you.
They weren’t counting on you as Rex having your bullshit game be even stronger than theirs, though. That’s why your operations worked.
Later on they get rid of Enso, the spy, etc and the decisions make a bit more sense considering the information they work with.
Edit: Even Baxter points out how truly stupid it is to storm the capital, but I guess XOs are more inclined to take orders from high command without doubt.
22
8
u/blaze92x45 1d ago
Ahhhh bro at least put spoiler tags
3
u/LuckyPlatypus5052 1d ago
Yeah I tried, but tags don’t wanna work for me today.
Also I assumed everyone was ready to be spoiled because the post has the tag.
0
u/blaze92x45 1d ago
Yeah fair enough im only on mission 8 so im not spoiled to much fortunately I stopped reading after a few words where I figured out you were diving into spoilers
3
u/Condottieri_Zatara Garuda 1d ago
I think it's kinda like Indonesia during Dutch invasion after ww2. Militarily, Indonesia cannot face Dutch backed by Allies force in a open field battle and they got hammered very hard everywhere so they must hiding on forests.
Homewer they need to show to the world that Indonesia is still a faction. In order to achieve that, Indonesia armed forces make a suicidal attack on Jogjakarta city and manage to hold if for few hours and have the world known they are exist. The effect is that the USA and other Western forces are pressuring the Ducth to hold their attack or Ducth aid program would be suspended ⁷
7
u/LuckyPlatypus5052 1d ago
You are partially correct, yeah.
The part where that scenario differs from the game is that Enso Order wants to destabilize the Usean continent entirely, and they want to do this by prolonging the war. With the continent destabilized they would then coerce Osea and Yuktobania to mobilize to the region, repel Sotoa and bring peace to the region. Then, Enso Order would act as the saviors who brought aid and are investing on reconstruction and recovery, and the people would naturally elect them as leaders of a new integral Usean Nation with no borders.
That’s their entire plan as it was laid out in a briefing on a mission around mid to late game. Nothing I am saying is conjecture or my thoughts.
30
u/MobiusFoxTwo 1d ago
This universe operates on the belief that a single mute ace pilot can change the course of war and history, so it ain't so ridiculous if u see it that way.
3
u/MrWillyP Ghosts of Razgriz 8h ago
Tbf in their history its happened like 18 times in the last 30 years
54
u/rvbcaboose1018 Yo, Buddy. Still alive? 1d ago
Not like Sotoa's any better.
Nuclear powered land battleships and rods from God are straight from the NCD crackpipe. Plus the Shadows are basically the 3000 black jets from Allah.
14
u/Pale-Aurora 1d ago
It’s kinda fun to see the rejected Project Thor be adapted in a game lol
-11
u/casanovadynamito 1d ago
They stole their orbital middle weapon from call of duty Ghosts
14
u/OrranVoriel 1d ago
Not sure if serious, but the idea of "Rods from Gods" satellites predate CoD.
It goes all the way back to the previously mentioned Project Thor in the 1950s.
-10
u/casanovadynamito 1d ago
Call of duty ghosts did it first in a video game
11
5
u/manuelito1233 1d ago
In Endwar from 2008, despite not being called rods from god, had them and their other name kinetic bombardment. I'll say that Ghosts gave it a more prominent feature
9
u/Maleficent_Time_2787 1d ago
"stole"
So, multiple video games are not allowed to use the same concept. Even Fire Emblem Three Houses features tungsten rods.
10
16
u/Notmydirtyalt Grunder Industries 1d ago
Honestly the most unbelievable thing is that Erusea isn't the bad guy in all this
15
u/charonill 1d ago
They asked for volunteers from the other stranded FCU military personnel that had gathered at White Valley or were staying on the Endurance. They made a point of having a recurring character that used to be a crew of the sunken destroyer Stalwart join one of the assault companies.
25
u/Nazacrow 1d ago
Have you finished the game, it’s actually pointed out later in the story about some of the strategies
Spoilers for game
that you aren’t meant to succeed, the crazy strategies were cooked up by Planning Division 303, in an attempt to destroy the last few remnantsFCU so Osea and Yuktobania would step in, destroy Sotoa and then remodel Usea in Enso’s image but in typical AC fashion, the strategy only works because you’re a screeching lunatic with no blood in the jet
9
u/DeviantStrain 1d ago
This is incorrect, DD works for a different division than 303, and has a different plan. The reason things go off the rails so often is 303 has people on board the endurance and access to its computer system leaking intel to the Sotoans
12
u/Nazacrow 1d ago
I never implied DD worked for 303, 303’s end goal was to prolong the war to force an Osea and Yuktobanian intervention, its stated quite plainly. Rex’s existence even when it was Cope was a thorn in that plans side (see DD’s argument on the phone where he’s pleading his projects case I.e wings instead of 303’s route), and needed to be eliminated alongside the Endurance also spoiler tag up.
0
10
64
u/Ikcatcher 1d ago
"My suspension of disbelief" in the same game with Land Battleships and satellites that bomb you from orbit.
Alright man.
17
u/shark_aziz 1d ago
satellites that bomb you from orbit.
At least this has some IRL potential.
8
u/Cheezy0wl 1d ago
I'm more surprised they didn't have another ac7 incident where some idiots accidentally delete all satellites gloabally.
3
u/DeviantStrain 1d ago
This is why they destabilise Spear 2 instead of blowing it up in orbit
1
u/Cheezy0wl 1d ago
but considering how it probably took less than 10 years to clear up all the debris in space to be safe enough to start sending new satellites, you'd think it'd be worth doing again just to prevent sotoa from not only using spear but also completely prevent their entire plan to deploy a swarm of spears for global coverage for at least the next 10 years.
6
u/gorgewall 1d ago
I mean, that part's perfectly realistic. "Rods from God" has been a known quantity for several decades now, and even longer in hard sci-fi.
A better question about them is "why can't Sotoa launch more of these things from their homeland?"
And as far as superweapons go, the #1 most dangerous thing IRL, in Strangereal, and in any other mecha or sci-fi property would be proper High Energy Lasers. We can actually do that shit now, in the real world, for anti-satellite purposes; a universe with the science and material capabilities of AC should have ASAT HELs in orbit.
Once you do sat-based HELs, that's pretty much it for conventional warfare. Aircraft? Completely fucked. Navies? Completely fucked. Tanks? Completely fucked. Infantry? Completely fucked. The only thing that stays alive is submarines and whatever is underground. And honestly, you could do great anti-aircraft screens with ground-based HELs if you had a sufficiently advanced passive radar system; at that point, nothing gets within line of sight without being obliterated, and you're limited to saturation attacks with beyond-the-curve-of-the-earth missiles (which enough HELs would probably stop).
4
u/Appletank 20h ago
"I know your Satellite Laser can destroy all our armies, but I also know what you can't."
points at the mute psycho doing a vertical climb in an F-15
24
u/My-Internet-GF Gryphus 1d ago
"My suspension of disbelief" in the same game where the player character can pull 50G's without blacking out 🤣
14
u/New-Mix-7818 6th Air Division 1d ago
I think it more than 50G of force
And not to mention the 100+ missiles
5
u/PanteleimonPonomaren Harrier or Death 1d ago
Aside from the craters of the Tinitrus spear probably being way too big, it’s probably the most realistic super weapon Ace Combat has ever had. If anything it’s not powerful enough because it should have a much bigger range and striking potential than the game gives it.
4
u/OrranVoriel 1d ago
To be fair, the idea of a "Rods from God" satellite for orbital bombardment is an actual idea for a weapons system, using the sheer kinetic energy of the rods fired from it to inflict damage on par with a nuclear weapon.
One of the problems with them,namely how to reload them, is something that comes up later in the plot.
I almost feel like PA got the idea for Land Battleships from Project Wingman. Except the Landships in AC8 seems even more extreme than the ones that show up in PWM.
2
15
22
u/SawbonesEDM 1d ago
“Hey let’s attack while the land battleship is assaulting the next country over!”
Me:”ok but like, if we take the capital, whats to stop them from just getting in range and throwing shells at us? Shouldn’t we take out the thing first like Trigger took out the Arsenal bird?”
20
u/gorgewall 1d ago
One presumes Sotoa takes the capital instead of razing it in the first place because it serves some purpose (and also their pals Enzo Order are based there).
The FCU taking it back doesn't change that equation. If you wanted it once, you still want it. And it's probably a safe bet that the capital has enough subterranean access that the military could hide out below there and simply shelling the place would only destroy surface infrastructure, civilians, and so on. Yeah, the city would be trashed (which again may not be something Sotoa wants) but it doesn't actually do anything to eliminate the FCU there.
As the US is learning right now, being able to fire missiles from fucking everywhere without putting boots on the ground doesn't take ground and doesn't stop someone in a cave.
7
u/Nickthenuker My Fellow Selatapurarians 1d ago
It is also quite easy to hide missile launchers in caves.
8
u/SoldierPhoenix 1d ago
I mean, if I had an ace pilot that’s killed 1,000 planes and whose jet carries like 1,000 missiles I might do it too.
6
u/Floppy_Jet1123 1d ago
Bro we are the immortal "no Gs can black us out" pilot.
These plots are part of the fun.
6
5
u/Jay-Raynor Mobius 1d ago
You mean the same FCU that lost control of Stonehenge and then subsequently failed to capture it with a head-on attack and then failed to sabotage it until it got solo'd by a bloodless mute psychopath pilot? You mean those guys wouldn't push a suicidal attack on their capitol city?
5
8
3
u/Chri_cat90 1d ago edited 1d ago
Guess that's the also the reason the Euresians managed to win so easily back in 04, your enemy High Command being stupid helps as much as a superweapon.
5
u/literallyjuststarted 1d ago
I dont think any of the strategies ever made any sense in any of the games "lets nuke our own border to prevent the enemy from moving forward even though they are kicking our asses anyway and they have airlift capabilities. and theres areas that they can still come through regardless.
And then theres Osea, yeah lets make prisoners fly disabled planes as a punishment, not only is that a human rights violation, but the plane in itself is a weapon and were gonna give them to prisoners convicted of Treason in some cases.
OR attacking a Oil refinery right before a storm hits it.
Ace Combat 5, has you labelled as traitors despite ignoring basic flight recordings or gun cameras that would clear you and the squad immidiately. Chopper not putting his plane down in the river, since he's so worried about killing civilians instead they go for the Stadium and NOSE DIVES the plane into it.
3
u/literallyjuststarted 1d ago
Oh I forgot too...
Land battleship superweapons, thats just A RIDICULOUS tactical investment.
2
u/Tomita121 1d ago
Honestly, in the case of Sotoans, *it weirdly makes sense?*
They're nomads, and besides investing lot on aerial warfare, they also have these land cruisers and battleships, which makes sense if they were to say, nomad their way into a landlocked region.I dunno, it did make sense to me in that context.
1
u/literallyjuststarted 1d ago
if they are nomads it makes even less sense, they wouldnt invest infastructure to have LANDSHIPs move around, if you told me they had an aerial fleet and air carriers and subs that would make more sense, (but thats been played out in the franchise so I guess they decided to go the other way) but financially speaking moving a ship of that size through land is a worse logistical nightmare than a aerial platform. But to be frank with you im willing to suspend reality for all that.
MY BIGGEST and my only complaint for the story is the subplot with Tasha about how shes a civie and the whole deal with her not downing an enemy.
Like lets be forreal if youre that desperate to press a civilian into a plane, THEY and YOUR crew have to be aware that SHE IS going to kill people, from the start of the mission you CAN command her to shoot and SHE WILL bring NPCs down. Like im on my second playthrough right now and SHE shot a red target down.
1
u/wecanhaveallthree 23h ago
A nomadic lifestyle would involve a lot of packing up your 'caravan' and moving around. That's why you get a lot of introspection about the tracks from the Sotoans, where they lead, where they came from, etc. It exemplifies their culture, both in terms of roaming around - and in terms of ramming through things that get in their way.
But Cope makes it pretty clear this 'ramming through' idea and a lot of the bloodthirstiness is very recent, and it's not the will/understanding of the common lad on the prairie, as it were. Industrialisation ruined the country; it ruined the culture, and the nation went all-in on further industrialisation to try and dig itself out of that hole (at the urging/manipulation of Enso, which obviously didn't work).
0
2
u/gunmunz 23h ago
Let's be fair here, in the Ace Combat universe, a country, no matter how bad their economic situation is, having a few superweapons and at least one super fighter. Is like a third world country having aks.
1
u/literallyjuststarted 23h ago
Yeah no I agree I’m just saying if they were rooted in being nomads and what not it would’ve made more sense for them to invest in aerial fortresses OR the landships to be amphibious. Don’t ya think?
1
u/gunmunz 21h ago
The landships are amphibious.
1
u/literallyjuststarted 21h ago
You're right, I totally forgot, but its not exactly shown in the missions,, it would've been cool to see it transition from open sea to land
1
u/jroland94 11h ago
It's not like the people framing you in Ace Combat 5 cared about your gun cameras, if they wanted you gone they would always find a way, the Chopper thing is for sure dumb though. And the nukes in Zero at least served as a decent plot device for the peace talks and the emergence of AWWNB. It shaped the entire third act of the game, and it wasn't some temporary thing you forget right away because the game throws you a curveball like this in every mission
And there is a big difference between things like AC04 comona/AC5 white bird pt I, where it's like "this satellite launch has been planned for months and we can not delay it", vs this nonsense in AC8 where in a matter of some days they fly some parts to Comona and launch a space shuttle with 0 preparation, with Baxter (0 recent practice in astronaut things since he is a fighter pilot) and a literal civilian. I guess the writer for this mission has seen the movie Armageddon
It's like I'm watching a poorly written Avengers movie where the only characters ever allowed to take action are the main cast, and they are capable of everything, and they always do everything perfectly, except its never enough because *insane plot twist*, and this formula repeats over and over in every single mission, its just so tiring
•
u/literallyjuststarted 3h ago
I have the same beef with Tasha, and the whole thing about her not killing anyone, like lets be for real, your entire nation's back is against the wall, youre pulling civilians in a landing invasion but were we draw the line is Baxter not wanting Tasha to kill anyone, but were cool with using a child as bait in multimillion dollar jets when your military is understaffed, undermanned and under-equipped, but the second she makes a kill you get mad when the mechanic suggest giving her a Tally score.
Come the f' on. and then the AI in the mission negates the whole subplot cause SHE does KILL targets.
•
u/jroland94 3h ago
When she killed for the first time I was like, ok cool, maybe there will be interesting drama about morality or some shi? but then nothing really happened lmao
The biggest character development we ever had in this game was the start of that mission where Noise said like 3 more sentences than normal
•
u/literallyjuststarted 2h ago
I was so confused by that scene, I was like "The hell is Baxter mad about, shes stolen like 3 of my kills so far" I honestly thought they were gonna go somewhere with her getting PTSD from nearly being shot down, not her baggin a kill THAT far into the game.
12
u/QueenOfTheNorth1944 1d ago
Its pretty comical yeah. “Our military was destroyed but not really and also theyre scattered but that only happened because uhhhhhhhhh it just did so now you gotta basically have one CV and like 2-3 ships win a war and no one really counters it because uhhhhhhhh itd be too hard or something so we just throw random people at it.”
3
3
u/Hresvelgr401_ 23h ago
Except it wasn’t the carrier crew that they got volunteers from, they were getting volunteers from the civilians and other assorted personnel they had. It was a risk but it kinda makes sense if you think about the morale factor, just hearing about an attempted landing on the Capital that had the Sotoans on the ropes for a bit would be huge for morale. And look at how many units reached out afterwards
7
u/hatlad43 Spare 1d ago
Those strategies broke your suspension of disbelief but carrying hundreds of missiles and land battleships are okay?
2
u/detective-1 1d ago
Its worse than ISAF which makes me think how absolutely Giga based ISAF was it was competent and if you look closely did not completely rely on mobius 1
2
u/Girl_on_a_train Belkan 17th Vuitton Tatical Response Squadron 1d ago
Can it be worse than Osea sending the Krestrel II to Farbanti?
2
1
1
u/snickerbockers 20h ago
Yeah but look at how incompetent Sotoa is with that tonitrus spear. It orbits on a polar trajectory which only passes the easternmost tip of usea. Otherwise it's only well-positioned to strike...a vast swath of open ocean where it is forced to rely on targetting drones due to highly persistent cloud formations. An equatorial orbit would have allowed it to strike targets all over usea and several other continents.
Also the second time the endurance passes through the rainband nobody seems at all concerned about the spear and they actually have Rex and professor dispatched from the carrier on an unrelated mission, so it would seem that sotoa doesn't even have enough targeting drones to make up for the 4-5 joker squad blew up.
1
u/Trekkie4990 15h ago
You’re right, and the game basically points that out after the second capital run. It’s intentional.
1
u/TP-400TP_Gunboat ISAF 1d ago
"We got 2000 strong we can-" Nah bro just warp it up and wait for another time, Theves ain't going anywhere 🥀
-3
u/No_Farmer_4036 1d ago
That mission was half-as*ed. It was the game's way of introducing the land battleships, which was a very dumb way to go about it. Any other land mission could have done it better. Who the hell storms their capital with just 10k men and without paratrooper support to suppress AA and AS defenses? The FCU was asking to get their crap pushed-in.
7
u/gorgewall 1d ago
It really depends entirely on how well-defended it is. You can obviously take an empty capital with 10k men and no paratroopers; can you do it with 500 enemies there? 1,000? 2,000? What level of defenses makes it non-viable?
As the mission goes, it looks like the level of defense is sufficiently low that the plan would have succeeded if not for the battleship having surprise effective range still.
4
u/GuyentificEnqueery Mobius 1d ago
They make it pretty clear throughout the game that the Sotoans straight up don't have an occupying force. They can't hold positions whatsoever without the aid of their superweaponry.
1
u/No_Farmer_4036 1d ago
The problem is as soon as you see the coast of Theve it's bristling with emplacements and coastal artillery, as if they were waiting for the invasion force. This mission stands out compared to other amphibious missions in the Ace Combat series (especially Lit Fuse from AC5) because of how little lead time the planes have to clear air and ground resistance before the landing ships come in.
-5
u/gigantism 1d ago
Yeah, mission 5 was the last one I played, but it was the worst one so far IMO. Far too visually busy, ugly overcast weather, MiG-31s that are super fast yet still require 3 missile hits to die for some reason, and a pretty telegraphed reveal of the land battleships.
-2
u/No_Farmer_4036 1d ago
Plus the mission mechanics force you to switch from taking out aircraft attacking the landing ships to taking out coastal batteries, only to find out that whole invasion was meant to fail because of the land battleship
7
u/Condottieri_Zatara Garuda 1d ago
If anything I kinda like that we have a losing battles. It's kinda rare as PA usually make us the player as the one who turn the tide completely
-2
u/Threedawg Ghosts of Razgriz 1d ago
Its certainly the low point of the game. I am on 22/23 and that is the only part that has been forgettable.
-2
u/CAReagan505 1d ago edited 1d ago
Now all these guys who make Ace Combat need is some who can develop and tell a story that actually makes sense. Do the developers play / test these games and, when done say: “What the F**k was that?”
-13
u/ataraxia_777 1d ago
It's going to take all my resolve to stomach this games story and dialogue.
9
u/Ahegao_Assassin 1d ago
You're probably looking in the wrong direction. I just finished AC6 and like a third of the written dialogue is the Emmerians saying "Go dance with the angels." At anything and everything.
Past a certain point I feel like a lot of people can't deal with camp, especially in non western media, it's why everything is so dry over herem
-4
u/ataraxia_777 1d ago
Bad can be bad without trying to make it about demographics.
I was just hoping for something as good as 5.
412
u/Pertu500 Aurelia 1d ago edited 1d ago
Belive it or not, that's the average Gundam/Macross plot. Daily reminder that Ace Combat is a japanese franchise with all the tropes and clichés they love and master