I'd argue that armored core is somewhat more grimdark than 40k, since its dystopic aspects are entirely man-made and also more realistic
>>93420787Yes, and?
>>93420787Yet you’re setting sucks compared to 40k, which is why 40k is one of the most popular franchises on the planet while AC is enjoyed only by asians and weebs
>>93420787Would you like me to fix your gif for you?
>>93420825that would be great
>>93420817AC is riding Fromsoft high wave after elden ring so I don't think its popularity is in trouble now.
I began the game and it looks more bleak that grimdark right now, even with all the hints they give you about you and your kind being totally expendable (like calling you by number wasn't a big hint already). Things are not helped by you working as a merc, that is basically a recipe for seeing the worst any setting has to offer.
>>93420856For me it's how you are helping one side in a mission and then curbstomping their most valuable assets in the next as if that's the most normal thing in the world.
>>93420856Bleak is more unsettling than grimdark imo. The evil's banal and has no punchable face when it arises from hordes of ignorant self-interested actors. Shades more easily into real life's challenges.
>>93420883That's pretty normal for merc games, mechwarrior can be the same, even if you can have more control over who you side with in 5.
>>93420888Yes, that's pretty much the impression you get. A faceless evil (helped by the fact that everyone is literally faceless). You are plunged in the midst of the worst people that can be around. Greedy assholes, psychopatic pilots, callous businessmen. Most of those you interact with match the description, and most of them you kill. And then you kill even those that don't fit, like the occasional idealists here and there.
>>93420817>why 40k is one of the most popular franchises on the planet*laugh in gundam*
>>93420787armored core is grim-bright if anything. shit sucks but usually (you) are the catalyst for large scale change or whatever.>Someone is Always Moving on the Surfacehttps://youtu.be/Qf6-uOP3pa0
>>93420817>enjoyed only by asians and weebsThe true mark of high taste compared to the masses of british specimens.
>>93420817>one of the most popular franchises on the planet This is extraordinarily untrue. It's actually kind of sad that someone could imagine this to be even remotely the case.Warhammer is the most popular war game, but war games are a tiny niche, so small that it still counts in millions while the actual heavy hitters are counting in billions.Warhammer gets mogged by shit like Care Bears and Ben 10. It's not even in the top 100 most popular franchises, and I think a lot of the inflated ego about Warhammer comes from British people forgetting that they're no longer a major power, but just a small island with a population smaller than Thailand. Even if Warhammer is popular in England, it's largely unknown outside of it, and its world-wide fanbase is miniscule.On the internet, Warhammer has the advantage of having a largely English-speaking fanbase, which may help to also inflate the percieved size of the franchise.
>>93420828here you go. its odd, usually that stutter happens from incorrectly including a duplicate of the first frame as the final frame, but it seems whoever made it actually had it set to linger on the final frame for a few hundred milliseconds longer than all the others for no good reason. you can just open these in gimp and reexport them fairly painlessly if you want to fix them yourself
>>93421251ah, wrong frame dispersal. should've seen that coming, that one's on me
>>93421258AND i forget my attatchment. classic.
>>93421265here's the fixed slow one at the correct dispersal
>>9342081740k is too nazi for its own good and it can't be sanitized without removing things that make it special. As such it can never become as mainstream as most other things.
>>93421273coolthanks anon!
>>93420787Isn't the Coral a sentient alien species though?
>>93421687Sort of? It seems implied that not all Coral is intelligent and that Ayre is something of an anomaly. C-weapons have a kind of animal intelligence to them, like the worm, but besides that the only other waveform individual we know of is the one that managed to contact Dolmayan. I think Coral is essentially a swarm of infomorphs that can be spurred to intelligence and self awareness, but that isn't very common. Ayre can interact and manipulate all sorts of machines and information; if all Coral was capable of that natively then 621 wouldn't be necessary and the war would have ended before it began.
>>93421309Just wait.
>>93421823It's implied in the dialogue that Coral is intelligent, but its perception is so wildly different from humans that it takes being filtered through a human brainstem for it to realize humans are intelligent and they're doing things. I believe Ayre is using 621's implants and his AC to access machines and information too, Coral can't do it natively. Most likely coral can only effect human machines while hooked up to a human in some fashion, and in the game many of the pilots have their implants come from post-coral methods. It's why you and Iguazu are fucked because you have shitty 4th gen mods that used coral and had a terrible failure rate, but it's also why you can have your coral waifu.
>>93420787Yeah grimdark isn't even a real genre it's just a marketing buzzword that makes warhammer sound more unique then it actually is. Plenty of sci-fi is darker than it.
>>93421870There's got to be an extra step somewhere, because Ayre can up and leave and then take control of her own C-weapon in the FoR ending. It might be that contact is necessary for a Coral waveform to be able to parse human thought processes and technology but then that doesn't quite explain why Dolmayan's waifu couldn't act independently despite being able to communicate with him. Maybe the fact he only smoked to make contact meant she never learned to parse human technology
>>93420787>dystopicKill yourself retard
>>93420787>since its dystopic aspects are entirely man-madeDon't 3 of the 4 chaos gods have origins in human action? Nurgle was born from the Plague of Justinian or somesuch?
>>93420787ha haHhaha HAHAH oh man you would get a kick out of Votoms
>>93420787Isn't AC just a video game? Why did you make this thread?
>>93421016You say that posting a music track from the game that hammers in that you're not going to change much, and the two games that continue are simply a final defiling of White Glint's legacy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtji4oRvcdA
>>93421823Coral itself is not intelligent. But Coral can create life - Coral-based lifeforms. Ayre is described as a "wave mutation", I.E, a form of Coral-based life. I'll refrain from necrobumping this thread thanks to lore autism.
>>93426184>you're not going to change muchYeah not if you don't end up working with ORCA.
>>93426955ORCA is a corporate patsy, all you're doing working with them is allowing the corps to escape Earth and leave everyone else behind. Cue ACV.
>>93426963>ORCA is a corporate patsysince when
>>93422114Other way around. When Khorne was born, wars raged across the world, when Nurgle was born, plagues swept the lands, etc.
>>93427288Since their leader, Maximilian Thermidor, was Omer's Otsdarva undercover. If you do the final mission on Hard Mode he even shows up to dispose of you so he and Omer can take the credit for completing the Closed Plan. You were a pawn either way.
>>93421273Beautiful where u learn this?
>>93427328Oh I always thought it was the other way around where he was going to swoop in and take the credit, betraying you so that he could bring your head to Omer.
>>93427496Nope. No matter what you do, you're a corporate pawn. Well, there is one thing you can do if you want to refuse that fate. A certain old king can show you the way.
>>93427505>Old King counting by the millions>the 4[5]v1 ambush>One who will be the greatest monster mankind has ever seen, taking more lives than any other in history.Still some of the most metal shit I've ever seen.
>>93421908You talking about the bad end bossfight or the final end bossfight against MAN LITERALLY TO ANGRY TO DIE? Because in bad end she straight up jacks the PCA Satellite network.
>>93420787Tabletop games?
>>93421687>>93421823>>93421870>>93421908>>93428254Coral was a native lifeform of Rubicon before humans came and settled, and it's essentially a living wavelength type of life that is constantly evolving and changing. When humans made contact with it the coral changed and became more intelligent and aware. The coral is literally alive but it's described as a stream of consciousness and Raven was warned to wake up when first making contact with Ayre otherwise he risked losing his consciousness to the surge of coral.As for what Ayre is, she's a convergence event which is exceptionally rare. Convergence events are sudden surges of coral and people who have had exposure to coral end up getting effected by convergence events which is why people hear voices as a common side effect of augmentation surgery. All of the generations of AC pilots are augmented with coral surgery from generations 1 to 4, including the protagonist, C4-621 (the C stands for Coral 4th Gen, and he's sample 621 of that generation). Because the protagonist has had augmentation surgery AND he ends up at the exact location for a convergence event when he destroys the device which causes the coral surge he meets all the criteria for the convergence event to succeed.As a result, Ayre makes contact with 621 and matches his brainwaves and they become partners. Ayre is literally now a voice in 621's head but can leave because she's coral with a consciousness and conscious will which is rare as most other coral is more like undirected lifeforms or just subconscious thoughts in general perhaps. There have only been three or four convergence events throughout the story. The first convergence event ended with the Fires of Ibis, sometime later the leader of the RLF, Thumb Dolmayan, somehow triggers a convergence event and comes into contact with Seria but fears true symbiosis and rejects her. As a result, Seria leaves him permanently which is why he's a sad boy.
>>93429881The coral itself is alive and it's intelligent but it's also pure information, think of it like an internet cable that is also filled with the living subconscious of all its users. It essentially is the perfect conduit for data and information and you can imprint directives. It's alive and learns, and sucks up information like a sponge, and infinitely grows exponentially in the vacuum of space. This is why later on you run into the IBIS series boss who continues fighting and was entirely powered by coral, and this is why the ICE WORM switches its directive. The ICE WORM was sent after the player and Rusty but rejected that order shortly thereafter in favor of its primary programming which was to defend the coral which ends up leading to the joint operation. Because the coral while alive can also be hard programmed because it is pure information.Normal coral is just a normal life form until humans force it to be programmed to do something, or unless you get a convergence event which produces a unique coral lifeform like Ayre or Seria (and we don't get to see Seria). Most AC pilots from coral generations 1-to-4 will suffer from hearing voices as a side effect but they were quite literally hearing real voices from the coral the entire time (and you see glimpses of this with the battles against Iguazu).Anyway, a lot of the lore is hidden and you have to really dig deep to figure a lot of this stuff out. For example most people have no idea that ALLMIND is behind a lot of this stuff including all of the silent invisible drones that keep appearing. ALLMIND's goal is the third and final ending as she wants true symbiosis. Her original plan was to use Sulla as a proxy for the convergence event that leads to Ayre making contact but 621 defeats him and ends up taking his place. ALLMIND does not know that Ayre makes contact until much later though which is why she tries killing 621 multiple times, before switching and deciding that 621 is an asset.
>>93429894The ultimate plot is quite literally to choose whether or not to go through with the full symbiosis plan which is what ALLMIND, Ayre, and the coral ultimately wants. This would essentially cause humanity to stop being human as they would forcefully evolve humans and combine them with the coral into a joint entity which would push humanity towards an unknown future. It's arguably the only real outcome.Coral is resilient and survived the fires of Ibis, so if you choose the neutral route it's only a matter of time until the coral symbiosis event occurs. Dolmayan recognized this which is why he was doubting his own cause at the end because he knows that his hymn and empty sloganeering isn't enough to permanently stop the inevitable convergence from occurring. The only way to truly stop it is to burn it all which is what the Observers are trying to do with the FoR ending.So that's really what it comes down to. Give everyone their own version of an Ayre waifu and forcefully evolve humanity, choose neutrality and kick the can down the road, or choose to burn all the coral and destroy it and continue being human with business as usual.It's totally unknown how this change would effect everyone. Ayre is potentially the nicest example of a coral voice and she's really helpful but imagine if the symbiosis partner you get is a jackass or a psychopath. Also, who's to say that the coral won't brainjack humanity? As the coral is some sort of wavelength lifeform, can access information, it's very possible that the coral could end up taking over all of humanity or hijacking its hosts.What lead up to the fires of Ibis are the top scientists realizing that this could doom all of humanity. Coral multiplies exponentially when it reaches a vacuum and you see in-game that they built space stations and towers into the atmosphere to gather the coral. If left unchecked the coral would multiply and potentially doom humanity. So they decided to burn it all.Interesting plot.
>>93420787I think I'd feel more despair if I found out that there were four evil gods that want to corrupt and torture me and everything I love for eternity than if I lived in a time period where people committed war crimes in fucking sick mechs to be honest
>/tg/ - video gamesGo back to /v/ unless you're talking about an Armored Core ttrpg or wargame
>>93423705>>93428972>>93431030I think the implication is that OP is interested in homebrewing something to do with AC or just wanted to talk about the setting as if it were a tabletop setting.
>>93429894Why does Allmind want the symbiosis? Is it still loyal to humans?
>>93431569ALLMIND wants humanity to evolve and be superior and the best way is through symbiosis with the coral. ALLMIND also wants the pilot and the AC itself to be one and to act as a true extension of the body. So it's a combination of "You stupid humans, this will fix you" and "I exist for all mercenaries and it'd be best for all mercenaries if they were unified with their AC."There's probably more to it but that's definitely a major part of it.
>>93428972(You)
>>93431030There are multiple mecha systems so there's nothing wrong with discussing a mecha setting.
>>93422454>man created by God-Computer to take over the galaxy tells God-Computer 'Fuck you, I'm taking my bitch and peacing out'
>>93421231Ironically, one of the most massive markets of warhammer was that Eastern Europeans loved the shit out of Warhammer Fantasy, but they nuked that.
>>93434546eastern Europeans must not have loved it enough to buy it.
>>93427310Wrong, emps and horus fought so hard it created chaos when they time traveled. Stop being a lorelet.
>>93420787I've always liked the idea of mind uploading into mechs and the potential horror aspects of it sort of like in Robocop where a lot of the cyborgs would kill themselves or in Destiny where the Exos who go insane because their minds keep thinking they are dead inside of their new, fully robotic bodies
>>93431030Provided, here you go.
