[PS2] Ace Combat Thread (a.k.a. We Do Not Have Air Superiority)

Originally Posted by Mobius One

Has anyone beaten Gauntlet yet?

After about 20 retries and one mostly-smashed Dual Shock (I have no self-control while playing games), I managed to clear Gauntlet on Ace difficulty. It's really, really hard...except for Espada, who are lucky to even get a missile shot off no matter what difficulty you're playing at. Schwarze and Schnee squadrons are particularly nasty.

Spoiler:

Mobius One (well, MOBIUS anyways) actually does show up if you beat it fast enough. He flies a Raptor, he can shoot off 4 QAAMs at once, and he turns faster than any other enemy in the game. He's nearly impossible to kill...took me about as long as the entire Schnee squadron.

Don't even think about using the TLS or burst missiles against the bigger Ace squadrons. They aren't nearly as useful as you'd expect them to be. By the time you've managed to line the laser up on one guy, three other planes will be shooting at you, and that equals pretty much instant death on Expert and Ace.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Mobius One

There's a return line right (or is it gone in Ace mode?)? A cheap way to beat it would be to fire a burst missile (which will only do some damage, but they can't dodge it so it's a guarunteed hit) and then cross the return line to restock. The laser is useless? Damn. So what did you use to beat it with? Do you think the F-22 could be used to beat Ace mode?

The return line is still there. I actually wound up using it once, since I ran out of all my missiles while chasing Mobius (who can turn at least as fast as the Morgan) around. It's hard to break away from the main Ace squadrons long enough to return to base, though getting away from Espada isn't hard.

After trying the F-22, the X-02, the Su-37 Terminator, and the Falken, I wound up using the ADFX-01 with ECMP. I'm not sure how useful ECM is, though it makes it a lot less nerve-wracking when you're trying to kill that jammer that pops up with Schnee squadron. The ECM doesn't last long at all and you only get a few charges for it, so you still need to know how to dodge and get away from other planes, of course.

The laser does kill ace squadron planes instantly. I just don't use it, since trying to line the thing up without getting at least one other plane on your tail is nearly impossible, and one missile kills you on Ace.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Tokubetsu

Ugh, SORCEROR squadron on mission 16 is really frustrating me. I can usually take out 2 before the rest converge on me and quickly kill me.

Yeah, you have to kill at least one member of each wave before the next group shows up. Otherwise, you'll probably get swamped unless you're really good or playing on very easy. :\

If you do wind up fighting more than two or three planes, set PJ to disperse or attack and let him use special weapons. He probably won't kill anyone like Pixy, which is why so many people (incorrectly) think he's worthless, but he can at least break up their formations a bit, and he'll usually drag one or two fighters away from the main formation. If that happens, go after the lone plane for a fairly easy kill. That's probably the only reliable way to beat them on Ace difficulty, though I've managed to beat them once in The Gauntlet, sans PJ.

If you beat them, you get their cool-looking F-15S/MTD, which is my favorite plane...nice reward. ^^

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I actually think that the F-15S/MTD is the best normal plane...it has XLAAs and FAEBs, and it seems to be just a tiny bit more manuverable than the Su-37 at low speeds. Plus, it has the blue+white Sorcerer paint scheme. <3

For what it's worth, I couldn't clear The Gauntlet on Ace using the Su-37 in 20 tries, but I beat it in under 6:00 (fighting ROT, SCHWARZE, and MOBIUS, no less) using the F-15S/MTD...20 seconds faster than my best time with the ADFX-01.

Oh, and I noticed that my hangar screen just gained a bunch of GALM banners and Ustio flags. I'm not quite sure what I did to unlock them...they do look nicer than the bare metal walls, though. ^^

Originally Posted by Mobius One

MOBIUS doesn't appear in the gallery of downed aces. I was hoping for a bio of some sort.

That fight was intense. He took 4 burst missiles, that's almost as much as Pixie. I had to cross the return line once just to escape him (I always fight next to the return line on Gaunlet). One of these days I'm going to down him in his own F-22. Dear god that will be an undertaking!

So, how do the burst missiles work against the regular ace squadrons? I don't think that I've ever tried using them on Ace. At the very least, I'm guessing that they'd make Schwarze pretty easy, since the MiGs seem to clump together.

Oh, and I managed to shoot down MOBIUS in the Mobius One paint F/A-22. It was a bit of a pain, probably because I don't use the Raptor that much, but he's not hard. He's amazingly good, but there's only one of him versus 8 very good planes in GAULT, WIZARD, or SORCERER.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?