Air Rivals / Aces Online Thread

Since it would appear we have enough players to need one, now.

Post your server/faction/main craft/level.

Artemis/ANI/Ag/75 here, my sponsored pilot is the queenofshells, a "cousin" to my Troper self. My brigade recently dissolved due to the brig leader Bimmer being banhammered due to cash shop sheniagans, so I've joined a new brigade, the Bacon Knights (yes, our brig flag has bacon on it; isn't it a delicious flag?).

I currently main an e7 (all accuracy buffing) Bigsmash with 453 dps max, and have 4 spare guns ready to go:

• e9 Jackhammer with -39 reattack, 444 dps max (My previous main gun)
• e10 Jackhammer with -37 reattack, 425 dps max (My other previous main gun, and my 2nd e10 weapon)
• e6 Lv40 legend Jackhammer, 420 dps max (a safe, if underpowered, Legend weapon, which I legended to clear my warehouse after buying that awesome L81 jackhammer for cheap. Eh, I can always get another, much better Legend weapon in the future...)
• e8 (-16 reattack) Supreme with fixes that add a monstrous +24% accuracy, 380 dps max (My crazy prob weapon)

My Terols have 520 dps max, and have Heart trails dropped during the Watermelon event (because they look like Koishi's Embers of Love), and I'm using an unenchanted Doublecoat Guarder v4. I'm still on my neverending journey to make a bigger gun, as is the need of all Ags.

edited 19th Sep '09 8:50:16 AM by AceOfScarabs

B-Gear, Prelude server, Arlington, level 28, operating under the name fortunehunter(Shoulda taken NathanZachary or something like it, but, eh).

Also, do I have to post my weapons? If so, I'll edit them in over this line after a quick check.

EDIT: Unrelated to my current stats: I'm looking for a file converter that's free and can take a heap of mp4s and make them mp3s. Any help is appreciated.

edited 19th Sep '09 8:36:34 AM by rallyfan9000

Listing your weapons isn't mandatory, although if you want to make Parsee jealous, you can.

I've been using a utility that can rip mp3 audio from an mp4 file, but it does so one at a time. It's a Geovid video2mp3 utility according to its internal filename that I acquired through Google Diving.

edited 19th Sep '09 8:49:36 AM by AceOfScarabs

Oh, cool. Link please? And how long does it take per file?

Here, I believe. I'm sure it utilizes any codecs you have on your machine to decode the file and file the audio, so I suppose it takes a little longer than the file's length, inclusive of time to start up the codec or plugin.

Might check that out. I just want some new music, you know? The regular in-game soundtrack has worn kinda thin.

EDIT: What I'd be listening to if I had them converted already.

edited 19th Sep '09 1:08:34 PM by rallyfan9000

Star Fox music? Neat. I run a lot of Touhou music while I fly - nothing beats running a gauntlet to the tune of ZUN's finest.

That's a whole damn playlist, most of it's from Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. Still damn good music.

Edit: For the record, Crimson Skies needs a page.(It's under Tabletop Games)

edited 19th Sep '09 8:58:55 PM by rallyfan9000

I've been considering Air Rivals for a while, and the recent MMORPG thread finally convinced me to join.

I am Helix/ANI/IG/level 37. My name? GlassCannon, just like the trope lololoololllol

so anyway yeah, I kinda like this game. Do we have a troper brigade? Cause I could sure use a brigade that isn't full of morons. Being away from MMORPGs for a long, long time kinda made me forget just how dumb some of the player base can be.

And...I'm considering an A gear. I might name it Mighty Glacier.

I'm considering opening a troper brigade under the name Troper Squadron. We only have one for Arlington that's yet to be made(for the record, I chose ANI because they aren't speciesist jerkholes, unlike BCU). Maybe a BCU troper will come by and open their own brigade?

I side with ANI because of the corrupt Bygeniou Council.

It'd be a little problematic to either jump over to Prelude or go to AR after having such a well-developed Ag on Artemis, though. I could roll up an Mg for Prelude, but the grind is a pain unless I go with an Attack Mg and use an Attack CPU until the 80s.

Damn. Okay, we need four troper-exclusive brigades, two for each server, one for each faction on that server. Jeez.

Am I the only BNU pilot here? Damned if I'm going to side with a bunch of animal rights ecoterrorists =P

I'm on Helix Server. Highest level pilot is a level 12 or so B-Gear pilot named Reispin.

That said, based on what I've been told, I think my playing style would better suit an A-Gear. I like slow with lots of dakka.

Also, can someone please for the love of god explain to me or give me a link with an explanation of how the economy works in this game. I'm a business graduate with the reflexes of a dead turtle. If I can't figure out how to manipulate an MMO's economy to my advantage, I'm a dead man walking, no matter what the game.

EDIT: You all play fuckin' Aces Online, doncha? I'm the only Air Rivals pilot, if the server names are any indication.

edited 20th Sep '09 12:54:25 AM by Korgmeister

Alternately, I could try making that Evade Ig I always wanted to try on Prelude/ANI.

Ecoterrorist nothing, I just hated the way Bygeniou treated us pilots back when I was in Freeska.

Also, AO's economy is mostly based on Supply/Demand. Three main markets exist:

• WTB Minerals (for use in crafting at the factory)
  • Universal Goods: Iron, Copper, Chrome, Aluminium, Tungsten, Nickel, Zirconium
  • Rare Goods: Aimaam Edcanium, Shine Titanium, Carbon Steel, Zirconium Steel alloys in Green and Blue, Strong Moissanite, Trevarion Edcanium (for Revival Guarder)
  • Other: Cadmium, Eggs, Honey, Seeds, DNA, DNA Cores, Mutant DNA, Catalysts, Shield Batteries. Chips, and other kit ingredients
• WTB Weapons/Cards
  • Bigsmashes for the Ags
  • Bawoos and Hawkys for the Bgs
  • Arrows for Igs and Mgs
  • Edrills for the Igs
  • Attack/Accuracy/Quickfire/Pierce/Shield/Energy cards for everyone
  • GOOD radar
  • Fast/Slow Engines, e.g. Accounters and Schuvizers for the Ags (Keep in mind Ags mostly use the 3x engines because they pump their attack and spirit!)
  • Kits, especially shield kits and SP "B" kits.
• GOOD STUFF (rares)
  • WP Armor
  • Shield Unique Armor
  • X Engines like the A-X and M-X
  • L86 speed Bg Engine
  • SUPER Gamble cards (sold in sets or Prefix+Suffix pairs)
  • Gemetria Scripts, Seraphim Bibles, Metamixes, Souls of Laplace
  • Premade Legend Weapons (e10)
  • Premade Legend Armor (e10)
  • Engine and Radar cards
  • Unique and Killmark CPUs

The main way to obtain stuff for sale is to either buy cheap or farm mobs for their drops. Refer to the various resources like the Acepedia and perhaps the official Suba forum for info.

Prices have a degree of variance, and rare items suffer price drops during events (Watermelon even made the Scripts/Bibles/Metamixes/Souls drop drastically in price, Script price fell from 25 million spi to about 8-4.5 million due to the watermelon drops).

Personally, I'm a small-time trader who mostly sells minerals an Ag doesn't need, like the Cadmiums, which are used by Bgs; sometimes I sell surplus kits, and I don't sell at crazy wallet-gouging prices (wts aimaam at 40k? you crazy, man!).

edited 20th Sep '09 1:21:45 AM by AceOfScarabs

OK, so where's the market? Please tell me it's not just standing around and shouting in local chat.

One thing that's always been a problem for me is that since my first MMO was EVE Online, every other MMO has had an utterly shitful market by comparison.

Back in the days of Gpotato's Space Cowboy, we had a whole undertown map called the Bazaar to set up sale/purchase stalls.

At least on Artemis/ANI, we sell in front of our warehouse's staircase. We were supposed to receive an Arlintgon City (1) map as a replacement bazaar, but the gms have to work out the kinks and bugs first.

Our chat is actually broken up into different channels:

• local chat
• !map chat
• @brig chat
• #formation chat
• $trade chat
• ^war chat
• "pilotname whisper chat

Of course, these days people use $chat only for wts/wtb ads.

edited 20th Sep '09 2:31:12 AM by AceOfScarabs

So it really is just shouting in chat.

Lame.

Not really, while trade can be done by 1-to-1 trade windows, it's mostly done via the buy/sell shop skill, which creates a player-controlled shop where you can either request items or sell them, based on the skill.

You drag/drop the item into the shop window and set quantity/price to sell, or choose the item you want to buy and set an asking price. After which, you type in the name of your shop and start buying/selling.

Much of my shopping in town is spent looking at other player's wares at the staircase "mini-bazaar".

$trade chat is used mostly to advertise.

edited 20th Sep '09 3:52:13 AM by AceOfScarabs

Oh, so there's player created shops. That's actually kinda cool. I'll clearly need to look around and try to find them.

Now, if only the movement system didn't suck ass so badly. Even choosing a female avatar can be cold comfort when you need to FUCKING TURN AROUND.

It's easy to see the player shops, they're just standing around with a massive green (if selling) or orange (if buying) shop name overhead.

Walking around town is basic sort-of diablo in 3d, you click around to walk, use the right mouse button to rotate the camera, and the mousewheel controls zoom. Much fun can be had Male or Female Gaze, if you're that bored.

Being a high-level Ag is tough when the lategame levels are more flight-oriented and full of aggro.

Hold on, right mouse button controls the camera?

*blinks*

Would it have fucking killed the tutorial programmer to have mentioned something like that?

Masang fails hard at making a tutorial. (Masang = the developers, Suba is just a host)

They don't mention flying upside down (by switching off autobalance in the Options), extra-tigh turns using the side-thrust from A and D (WSAD controls, W starts from a B-stop, S forces minimum speed, A and D give additional side-thrust which varies with the engine equipped), feathering (using the Booster in short bursts to reach impressive speeds without overheating), and other stuff like that, like rotating the camera in midflight by holding the mousewheel down (for rear-view) and dragging the RMB (to move the camera away from the rear-view angle).

Anyways, it's hard to be a trader Ag, because it's difficult to fight in the endgame maps where the best rares and high-level weapons drop - of course, being a small-time trader, I should be able to amass a sufficiently large stockpile of minerals and other items to make trade one day.

edited 20th Sep '09 5:09:02 AM by AceOfScarabs

So I should continue slugging it out as a Bg?

What I've read gives me to believe that playing an Mg is a thankless slog.

Being an Mg requires incredible dedication. Firstly, the grind is a long haul; secondly, without the crazy buffs like Siege Mode, Bombing Mode, and Frenzy/Berzerk, the Mg is stuck with just Elevate, which thankfully adds more accuracy as well, so the Mg can just spam pure reattack Arrows; thirdly, Mgs are a social airframe, meaning that they are meant to sortie in formations when warring with the rival nation, and it's hard for them to wage war solo (although they can fight mobs just fine with their superb defenses).

On the other hand, Mgs can easily reach 300Def/2000Spirit and do crazy things with spamming of buffs, heals and Purifications; with their inherently slower speed, most Mgs can just throw on their slow engines with the awesome 0 minspeed and just float there, using sidethrust to align themselves; with social networking, they make ideal merchant/medic wings that keep the form alive while hunting bosses or warring, because happy friends are more willing to pay you better for the goods (or let you claim rare drops from bosses).

Finally, you pick up Call of Hero and become popular for summoning people across the whole server, with a friend in town to invite people so you can Call them to the battleground. With a skilled buddy Bg, you can even pull off the Kill of Hero by Calling them through a gatecamp while their Big Boom is ticking.

Mgs can carry and/or lead very well with a skilled pilot at the helm, and work best if you have a supportive friend to help you stay sane while grinding. Personally, I'm more of a simple tank who can be surprisingly annoying when warring, so the Mg is less suitable for me.

Bgs are a fun gear to watch in action. Sometimes when I head to Island Dream, I get to watch bgs practice bombing runs on the Guard Messenger recolours, and duelling Bgs tend to end up in a tight turing contest to see who can land their bombs first. Occassionally, you see Bgs who even use their Charged Shots to add a little extra damage to a bombing run. I'm biased against them because I get wrecked by Bgs too often during den fights, where my fellow Bgs help to waste the BCU Ags.

I miss the war-hungry Mg Jazzyjet, who ragequit ANI/Art sometime in Q1/Q2 2009.

edited 20th Sep '09 5:27:04 AM by AceOfScarabs