Howdy folks, FlyAwayNow here and this isn't another cryptic and mysterious prologue to our first campaigns in Vector Thrust.
No, this is something much simpler and tame.
Forgive the delay, we’ve all been a tad busy, personally I’ve been trapped under 70~ or so inches of snow as well, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end.
With the .9118 update came the introduction of a new battle scenario.
This has been put together by a few of VT's other developers and contributors, mainly MyHatisMyFriend, myself and ZakuTwo as a benchmark mission of sorts:
A clean, simple mission comprised of target elimination across the three main planes of warfare: ground, air, and sea, there should be little drama in knocking out these coup forces from one VT's main continents: Hono.
Perhaps it'll be a theatre we might explore in challenges and further battle scenarios, however I digress.
As part of the premier Loyalist fighter squadron: Dragon, you must knock out an airbase located on the coast of the mainland occupied by non-Loyalist forces.
This small little note in VT's world history will pale in comparison to the more complicated wars you will wage, but for now, revel in the slaughter of dissidents as we continue work on the first main campaign: campaign 01 which is already more than halfway done with the revamp. Campaign 02, Restless Bonds, is also under development at the moment.
Speaking from a development point of view BS01, Combined Operations, marks a standard of the vanilla missions that can exist in Vector Thrust, and has been used as a test as well, most chiefly for some new voice actors that will support VT through its lifetime:
So please give a round of applause for and look forward to them further in VT:
Benny Balmaceda
Trent Martin
Sasha “Rou” Abdurazak
Ian Deppa
Albert Kaito Kim
They are not the only people who have joined our VA efforts, so stay tuned and keep the airwaves open for them in the game’s stories. A total of ten skirmish voice packs as well are inbound,
further to be added as development progresses.
This Battle Scenario is also important in the small fact that this is VT’s first mentioning of one of its
continents (at least to my memory).
The continent of Hono is related to Japan at this point in only the fact that aircraft flown from there either fly colors associated to real world Japan or produce aircraft associated with Japan. It has been one of our MOs in the Vector Thrust team to only draw analogues from our Battle Weary World’s continents to the real world in terms of where equipment is produced at this point in development. We’ll go from there when development truly shifts.
For example:
Fulcrums and Flankers come from Tolstoj. Eagles and Falcons from Aestern. Typhoons and Jaguars from Voslow, Centera, and…
I digress, we don’t have a world map out yet with the designated continents, but I’m sure you get the point.
In the words of our Big Boss, this is how we will view world building further:
... Take that as you will.
Vector Thrust’s Battle Weary World will eventually be revealed in full earnest, probably in another report, but right now we’re worried about Vector Thrust as a game, not a story.
As some of you have noticed, the aircraft you fly in BS01, or rather, the aircraft we recommend, is actually a community made skin provided by Mike Durao: ZakuTwo.
He is one of the many people that have provided their own works for us in VT, and we’re very happy to take it and we’ll be happy to allow him to work with us in the future providing skins for the state militaries as they come to be created.
Give him a round of applause as well, and accompany him on creating user content for Vector Thrust.
Another note regarding BS01 is the volume issue, and I fully take responsibility for not kicking it all down a notch. However in a coming update this will come to be fixed.
The next black ops report will reveal details regarding Campaign 01: Hollow Thunder, the internationally backed organization of peacekeeping try hards called “Legion”, and a kingdom that the
world forgot. Until then, keep a lookout for a report from TS.
Also worth mentioning: Sound effects and a handful of other Battle Scenarios are in the works in the interim, as well as the final revamps of the original music tracks that were included with the game during the Desura Alpha. That’s right! No more clapping for five minutes as you try to shoot down a Fishbed with a underperforming Starfighter over a desert!
I’ve been listening to that Survival track for far too long…
*Applauds* :D
(buried)
TL:DR
TimeS wants a world filled with bitches, Zaku's awesome, yeah.
Rather edgy analysis there.
(buried)
And leaves out almost everything, but whatever.
So how many more pointless F-104 variants are we getting with the next patch?
(buried)
We have 15 (16 if you count the Starfighterski, or Ye-7P4).
Therefore, this new update MUST have 27 Starfighters. It's the only number possible.
Only those who know basic addition and Douggy Adams will get this.
That guy was fast to downvote me. I guess I'm just a magnet or something.
Well, you downvoters are biased to hell with me now, aren't ya?
Shomu posts a slightly snarky comment, and he gets -1.
I continue it with humour, and apparently I get -4.
There really is a downvote conglomerate
We still need a couple of other VTOL variants (what's the name? XF-109?) and XF-27 Lancer and there should be no more new Starfighter variants anymore in this game.
There is still quite a few Starfighters I would like to add if I had the time, although I don’t think I’ll be adding them any time soon.
But about the Starfighter, it may have been overwhelming at first but I don’t think 15 variants per family at this moment is something really noteworthy, now it is probably the average for the main families.
You can save them until take-off/landing & VTOL has been implemented I think.
Also, for Zero-length take off variant.
Why can't we add variants that were actually built instead of random paper projects? For example in the case of the F-16 family, add the 2-seat F-16XL instead of the F-16YZX, whatever the heck that is. And then the upgraded blocks, i.e. Block 40, Block 50/52, Block 60? I dunno, that's just me.
b-but yzx is deltacanard fictional awesome ;-;
But yeah, these paper planes and stuff are way to excessive. We need hornets and crap, not Ho 229 wannabes.
Indiedb.com
Given that it's been specified as XL-1, it's possible Ship 2 will appear, and three more blocks are listed here.
I think TS is waiting until the weapons to be made first so that he can easily arrange their loadouts by then.
70+ inches, like how I could not open my door last week : D
"final revamps of the original music tracks that were included with the game during the Desura Alpha."
But the new ones,like Tactical Symmetry and Green Celt and so on, are they gonna be revamped as well or keep the current version for the future builds of VT ? Well, I personally think the current ones are already nice.
Speaking of which, I wonder what type of mission that Green Celt track will attribute to. I like the mix of "wild west","medieval Europe" and "oriental" feels to that music. It has somewhat a cheerful and lively sensation. I also love the "yee-heeee" part at 01:15 :D
I'm assuming he ONLY changed the old tracks. Good, the were pretty crap.
The new ones, and I'm sure they're identifiable to the casual observer, won't be revamped.
As for Green Celt, that is our "crazy" challenge music. For things like collecting stars, speed runs, shooting down balloons, laser lightshows, etc.
please reconsider your decision to give planes national origins. One of the things I liked about AC was how every country had access to every airframe and you could have matchups between any 2 planes in a given game (compare that to assault horizon or hawx where you had the same old raptor vs MiG engagements for the entire game)
Every airframe has an origin, every model produced: a factory where it was put together. The world without borders that Ace Combat presents is and will always be novel. But we are not StrangeReal.
However I think your fears will be unfounded, they'll be enough aircraft variety thrown around during dogfights, regardless of nationality, and a lack of variety when needed.
Can they at least steal eachothers designs all the time?
It is important to note that there is no real defining rule in this regard, the aircraft availability is a case-by-case scenario.
Each Mission/BS/Campaign will have its own list, that will be selected accordingly to the story you want to tell and gameplay requirements.
In the scenarios that I´m working, each nations have their own list, but it is a mix and match of all nations and manufactures, and each fictional nation will only have access to a few variants of the selected families.
For example here is the list of aircrafts of the main nations of RB campaign:
Nyria:
YF-22
F-16
Su-25
F-117
Mig-31
F-14
Harrier II
Mirage F1
MiG-29
Antar:
Rafale
F-2
MiG-23
Super Tucano
Jaguar
Bird Of prey
LA-2000
J-7
Su-27
Jerney:
Su-47
F-15
J-35 darken
A-10
Lampyridae
Tornado
Yak-141
J-10
X-32
Surprise fighter
Only if you switch sides you will be able to play with other aircraft.
(this is the list of what each nation uses,but some of these aircrafts won't be available by the time of release and they will be replaced by other units)
If I'm not mistaken, you fly for a PMC in the campaigns, yes? If you don't, I might as well ask anyway for the lore.
Does a PMC's inventory follow the nation they're formed in, like a PMC stationed in Antar exclusively uses Antar aircraft, or do they mix-and-match to suit their needs?
And F-2 mentioned, have all of my yes.
@ SpootKnight no, the conflict will be mostly between tree small nations. a PMC will join the conflict but it will have a secondary supporting role.
This is the list of aircraft for that PMC:
YF-23
F-18
F-1
JAS 39 Gripen
Project 1.44
X-36
F-16XL
A-12
Q-6
Yak-141
Harrier II
J-10
X-32
So, J-10 and VTOL confirmed before we leave EA?
mbisonyes.png
@ Nergal01 nah, those are just for reference, this is to leave an unused slot in the campaign data for when these units are added, because changing the number of playable aircraft in a campaign after release will corrupt the saves.
*gets disappointed*
But will the number of flyable aircrafts by default and its default set of aircrafts for the campaign in the post-EA be the same as in EA or not ?
Just uh, you know, wondering if one of the jets from F-14 family will be available to fly by default in the campaigns (though perhaps it may be editable if it isn't).
(Sorry, an F-14 fan here XD).
@ Guest, the list of playable units will be changed from what is available now, some F-14 will be available, but the unit that you have the chance to play will vary accordingly to your actions in previous missions.
You can actually a do a lot more than just mixing and matching aircraft to make each nation unique. Try coming up with different doctrines. For example, a nation with a wide sphere of influence might favor long range fighters and bombers, while shunning short range aircraft like the starfighter. A a small (territory-wise) country with lots of hostile neighbors might favor turnfighters so they can avoid airspace violations. Some nations might be willing to rely on missiles whereas others would refuse to buy any plane that doesn't have cannons as well. Others might only operate multi-engine fighters for the sake of redundancy, or buy carrier capable fighters because their nation's terrain doesn't allow for long runways. And that's before you get into things like bomber inventories, or how different countries view the role of aircraft in the first place.
I actually really like the idea of different doctrines. It would really spice up how a particular nation feels like as an aggressor or as an ally. I mean, if Strangereal made all its nations a little homogeneous, it was just as much because the nations operated using similar kinds of force structures.
I mean, the only real point of differentiation I can remember was that the Belkans would sometimes lead you into traps.
@bornloser, I like that idea as well. The aircraft selected for each nation was made according to some characteristic of the nations, but it is no where close to be considered as individual doctrines.