Ace Combat: Infinity

[Paulie]

I've got the Jolly Rogers up to level 4 for this tournament, 6AAM still at level 1 but I might upgrade them to level 2. Before the tournament is over I would expect the Jolly Rogers to reach level 5. Since my Zipang was able to one shot orange targets on level 4 I'd expect the Jolly Rogers to be no different making it a capable Fighter. As I'm only going for the top 3000 to get the Black Widow skin I don't expect to encounter any dramas. It's going to burn me though that I won't be doing any challenges for the extra cash.

Edit: I just want to make mention that these new ultra tier jets do clear the path for upgraded special versions of top tier Fighters like the F-22 (Mobius) for example. It wouldn't be unfathomable to see a special F-22 or ATD-0 or something soon with an 800 base cost.

Edit 2: Oh and there's a dude on YouTube called Duck360Gaming2 who has spent over $1000 on this game!

 

[Vitocorp]

All the yeeeeessss

Now, take all my internets. They don't work anyway.



Ah ok. So whatever R&D you already had, it multiplies it?

Yep, it just gives you more credits or more percentage on the R&D bar the game is gonna randomly select, for example instead of 4% on 3 items in the three it gives you 6% on those 3 items.

I've got the Jolly Rogers up to level 4 for this tournament, 6AAM still at level 1 but I might upgrade them to level 2. Before the tournament is over I would expect the Jolly Rogers to reach level 5. Since my Zipang was able to one shot orange targets on level 4 I'd expect the Jolly Rogers to be no different making it a capable Fighter. As I'm only going for the top 3000 to get the Black Widow skin I don't expect to encounter any dramas. It's going to burn me though that I won't be doing any challenges for the extra cash.

Edit: I just want to make mention that these new ultra tier jets do clear the path for upgraded special versions of top tier Fighters like the F-22 (Mobius) for example. It wouldn't be unfathomable to see a special F-22 or ATD-0 or something soon with an 800 base cost.

That's why we are worried about the Mobius, for some speculations the F-22 is ALREADY inside the game.

 

[Paulie]

That's why we are worried about the Mobius, for some speculations the F-22 is ALREADY inside the game.

Well if it has the QAAM it would make one HELL of a TDM Fighter. I wouldn't know what to think if something so powerful came up in a tournament. I currently have just over 165 stocked fuels but expect to burn some for the Black Widow skin, something tells me you'd need well over 200 stocked fuels in addition to using as many supplied fuels as possible to obtain it.

 

[RACECAR]

So in the total time I've spent in playing the game, I now have the following aircraft ready for upgrades:


Special Aircraft

MiG-29A -Libra- (Lv.2) = 88800
AV-8B+ -Kim Aba- (Lv.1) = 55330


Standard Aircraft

F-4G (Lv.2) = 7500
Mirage 2000-5 (Lv.1) = 5360
F-16F (Lv.1) = 6360
F-14A (Lv.3) = 20780
F-16C (Lv.2) = 7500
F-4E (Lv.2) = 6880
F/A-18F (Lv.1) = 24000
MiG-21bis (Lv.1) = 3600


And I have these aircraft ready to place order on:

F-14D = 70540
F-5E = 18000


And I only have 92114 credits to spend. Suggestions? I know this is an absolute joke but with all the disconnections, its all I could manage before I just gave up on it.

 

[Vitocorp]

[...]

Special aircrafts are expensive and I guess you don't have much credits so I suggest to upgrade your F-18 and do a air to ground and air to air setup but the -Kim Aba- is a good A2G attacker but it needs to be upgraded, if you feel like you can do it create a good setup with 4AGMs.
Back then I pushed myself throug the aircraft three with my Fighting Falcon (but everyone was flying with **** tier planes) and got a solid Typhoon, now is still one of my main aicrafts.
The other GREAT solution is the F-4E with UGBs or LAGMs, that thing is fast, cheap and a good groundpounder for beginners. The Phantom II may be the best solution for you.

Well if it has the QAAM it would make one HELL of a TDM Fighter. I wouldn't know what to think if something so powerful came up in a tournament. I currently have just over 165 stocked fuels but expect to burn some for the Black Widow skin, something tells me you'd need well over 200 stocked fuels in addition to using as many supplied fuels as possible to obtain it.

QAAM, HVAA and 6AAM are the holy trinity of Fighters, first two for TDM, the last one for co-op.
Can't wait to see the weapon selection and how much slot parts the Mobius will have.

 

[Flaren89]

Can't wait untill tomorrow to get my new F-117 -Stars and Stripes-
I'll keep upgrading Morgan and Su-34 -CN- up to their level 4 for special weapons I'll use with them (MPBM and LAGM), from tomorrow I'll put also F-117 -ST- in upgrade phase up to level 5 while the F-15C -PT- will be researched untill the finish of level 1 to level 2. At the time I will have only the F-117 -ST- (and eventually the MPBM if still up) with active research, I'll start to upgrade the FALKEN and the TLS.

I hope that with next Ticket Shop change they will put the non-standard upgrades lv5->lv6. I would like to spend all of my over 600 tickets for at least 3-4 of them. Although I don't think they will ever do that.

EDIT: I'm famous! (in some sort of way). I'm in the second video of the reviews Vitocorp posted, in the F-4G one. I was doing the ticket challenge with Mirage 2000-5 in that mission, here some proof pics (you could actually notice by watching the video):

 

[Flaren89]

Got my F-117 -ST-... Is... So... Beautifull *.*
At level 1 it got already better Air Damage stat than the base version at level 7. Now we know that base version is actually better because of "jump performances" planes got at level 4 and 7, but this already gives an insight on what will happen when special version will also reach level 7. I may be able to engage decently on air-air combats if needed

Talking about the past tournament, I really think that ppl were burning in first day to catch at least one (or all) between Morgan, Wyvern and/or FALKEN. In fact, after 12h the top 200 expectation was around 230k, after 24h was 200k, after 38h (half) was 180k, it ended with... I think around 150k. So ppl burned just in few first hours, when usually burn on last 24h...

For this one, well, I will just try to get top 5.000 with few stocked fuel on Sunday/Monday, if I see it's too far away, will completely pass and just catch 5.001-10.000.

 

[Paulie]

QAAM, HVAA and 6AAM are the holy trinity of Fighters, first two for TDM, the last one for co-op.
Can't wait to see the weapon selection and how much slot parts the Mobius will have.

I don't get it, HVAA has crappy homing capabilities and a low damage output, how could it be good at TDM?

Anyways, started doing sorties exclusively in the F-14D JR today, had a crappy first sortie where I only had an A rank at Weapons Base (trying to do the score 60k challenge) and it only sent 600pts, but I got 900pts on the next 2 sorties with S ranks on the losing team while performing badly. I think I'll change the Large speed upgrade to a Large stealth upgrade instead, you forget just how much you get targeted when you're not in a stealth jet! By the weekend the jet should reach level 5 at which point I'll be burning stocked fuel as required to get the top 3000 and the Black Widow skin, man I want that bad! I'll be really dirty if I don't get it!

 

[Vitocorp]

I don't get it, HVAA has crappy homing capabilities and a low damage output, how could it be good at TDM?

Anyways, started doing sorties exclusively in the F-14D JR today, had a crappy first sortie where I only had an A rank at Weapons Base (trying to do the score 60k challenge) and it only sent 600pts, but I got 900pts on the next 2 sorties with S ranks on the losing team while performing badly. I think I'll change the Large speed upgrade to a Large stealth upgrade instead, you forget just how much you get targeted when you're not in a stealth jet! By the weekend the jet should reach level 5 at which point I'll be burning stocked fuel as required to get the top 3000 and the Black Widow skin, man I want that bad! I'll be really dirty if I don't get it!

It's a damn fast missile and quite deadly at long range, the low damage input is the real downside.
It needs a good fighter with high payload of ammunition and a good amount of slot parts...
HPAAs are incredibly dumb and the reload speed is LOOOOOOOOOW,don't know why there are some enthusiast of this missile.
HCAA is the other type that needs a good amount of slot parts to get effective otherwise it's just another std missile.
With SAAMs you need to babysit the missile...but it CAN be effective in TDM, need to try those.

 

[Paulie]

It's a damn fast missile and quite deadly at long range, the low damage input is the real downside.
It needs a good fighter with high payload of ammunition and a good amount of slot parts...
HPAAs are incredibly dumb and the reload speed is LOOOOOOOOOW,don't know why there are some enthusiast of this missile.
HCAA is the other type that needs a good amount of slot parts to get effective otherwise it's just another std missile.
With SAAMs you need to babysit the missile...but it CAN be effective in TDM, need to try those.

Oh well, next TDM I might try the HVAA on my YF-23, do you have a recommendation for which types of parts to use to make it most effective?



EDIT: ARRGH! WTH!? I'm getting beaten almost every time by other F-14 pilots, my Jolly Rogers is now a level 5 jet, and in that last sortie tonight on B7R, it was only a 4 player room and everyone had Jolly Rogers, but I had my score nearly tripled by two other guys in the room, MR ~2000. I scored a pathetic 20,000pts, they were clearing the targets out like nothing I've ever seen, they must have destroyed all the emergency targets in like 10sec flat. HOW?!

 

[Vitocorp]

Oh well, next TDM I might try the HVAA on my YF-23, do you have a recommendation for which types of parts to use to make it most effective?

As long as I remember I used a particular setup for the Typhoon during the naval assault tournament but I've deleted it.
There's the new part for the HVAA which can be useful now.
Personally, I would go for speed L, the new HVAA range part (not tested yet but it increases the lock on range and the medium range aim) and you'll have 12 more slots to use.
Now, I would not recommend the aim part, unless you want to go with the L one (the aim part M does not make a great difference expecially in TDM, L should add some nice extra aim and fullfill the ammo parts to the maximum), you could spend the last 12 choosing between damage or quantity or keep the 2 things balanced, your choice.

 

[Flaren89]

Well, not feeling good in this Unsung tournament, I'm doing really bad performances, so much that my MR has dropped from 1.996 to 1.960 in 2 days... Ok, level 5 F-14D -JR- with level 2 6AAM is still not the best, I would need the plane at least at level 7... But meh, doing really bad =/ doing 900 tournament points each sortie or even less. Maybe for me is better to give up also for top 5.000 and start again to use Multiroles and Attackers...

 

[Vitocorp]

I keep doing slightly more than 1000pts/sortie, 2 hrs ago I still was inside the top 1000

 

[RACECAR]

Special aircrafts are expensive and I guess you don't have much credits so I suggest to upgrade your F-18 and do a air to ground and air to air setup but the -Kim Aba- is a good A2G attacker but it needs to be upgraded, if you feel like you can do it create a good setup with 4AGMs.
Back then I pushed myself throug the aircraft three with my Fighting Falcon (but everyone was flying with **** tier planes) and got a solid Typhoon, now is still one of my main aicrafts.
The other GREAT solution is the F-4E with UGBs or LAGMs, that thing is fast, cheap and a good groundpounder for beginners. The Phantom II may be the best solution for you.

So primarily based on the price, I decided to start with the F/A-18. I intend on trying to get a air-to-ground setup going. I've gotten some other parts upgrades so I can already get it to improve quite abit. Right now, these are the main aircraft I have in my sets with their respective levels and secondary weapons:

-MiG-29 -Libra- [Lv.2]
QAAM [Lv.1]

-Mirage 2000-5 -White Tiger- (or as I like to call it, White Tigerzord ) [Lv.4]
SFFS [Lv.1]

-F-16F -Desert Rock- [Lv.4]
SOD [Lv.1]

-AV-8B -Kim Aba- [Lv.1]
4AGM [Lv.1]

Also thanks to all the sorties I did about two days ago, I now have 157805 credits.


Edit: Just noticed I have one more aircraft available for upgrade:

AV-8B [Lv.3] - 21700

And two for purchase:

Su-25TM - 28560

X-29A - 283190

 

[Paulie]

Well, not feeling good in this Unsung tournament, I'm doing really bad performances, so much that my MR has dropped from 1.996 to 1.960 in 2 days... Ok, level 5 F-14D -JR- with level 2 6AAM is still not the best, I would need the plane at least at level 7... But meh, doing really bad =/ doing 900 tournament points each sortie or even less. Maybe for me is better to give up also for top 5.000 and start again to use Multiroles and Attackers...

I'm in the same boat as you exactly, same level jet and 6AAM, same ranking points each sortie. Though I've used a couple stocked fuel here and there, I'm hovering around top 2000. I'm playing against guys with similar jet costs and getting beaten all the time.

Edit: Had a couple solid sorties tonight, managed to be the only Fighter in a room full of FB-22s at Weapons Base and score 50k to lead the losing team. Scored 50k at B7R in a 4 player lobby. Then I had a woeful Weapons Base, dead last on the losing team of an 8 player lobby, score 28k pts. Too many of my kills were stolen by guys in FB-22s no less.

Edit 2: Even better this morning, encountered a SOLG and a SOLG II. Both S ranks, good ranking points.

 

[Flaren89]

New expansion keys are now purchasable.

 

[Louie_Schumii]

@RACECAR do you have a vanilla F/A-18? If you've gone that far down the aircraft tree you could probably look into getting the F-15 S/MTD. Once you level that thing to four it's very effective at sniping high value targets with LAGMs and it's insanely cheap for it's performance too.

I've got one at level 10 with level 5 LAGMs and is my all-purpose go to plane when there aren't any plane specific tournaments/challenges around.

How's everyone going with their goals for this tournament? Seems to be a lot of movement in the top 200. Top 1000 is only at ~33,000pts and I'm at ~9,000pts so that Razgriz emblem looks within reach for about 50-60 fuel by tourney's end. I fear that Mobius will be a bloodbath though so...

 

[Vitocorp]

@RACECAR do you have a vanilla F/A-18? If you've gone that far down the aircraft tree you could probably look into getting the F-15 S/MTD. Once you level that thing to four it's very effective at sniping high value targets with LAGMs and it's insanely cheap for it's performance too.

I've got one at level 10 with level 5 LAGMs and is my all-purpose go to plane when there aren't any plane specific tournaments/challenges around.

How's everyone going with their goals for this tournament? Seems to be a lot of movement in the top 200. Top 1000 is only at ~33,000pts and I'm at ~9,000pts so that Razgriz emblem looks within reach for about 50-60 fuel by tourney's end. I fear that Mobius will be a bloodbath though so...

Position 1'300, I've done a TREMENDOUS sortie in pipeline destruction, 70K points with the Mickey Simon, this patched the not-so-good sortie in Moscow later on.
Anyway, as the time passes I'm pretty convinced to give up even the top 1000 and stock fuel for the Mobius tournament and anything releated to AC04.
I'll catch the plane later on or I'll be happy with the Wardog, was a top 1000 so should be easy to get that thing...I just regret going for the Garuda at this point, I could have used the fuel for the top 200 of the Y13 tournament...
The only thing is, I've got plenty of plane to upgrade...

 

[Paulie]

Thanks for the sortie earlier @Vitocorp, it's really hard to find a lobby when you're looking for a very specific mission to complete challenges or rank in the tournament. After that I just went and did two B7Rs and got almost 50k pts in both, including an MVP. I was around 1750th when I stopped, but I'm only aiming for the top 3000 and that YF-23 skin. Tomorrow I'll probably burn a little bit of stocked fuel just to be sure (I have over 170 now).

 

[RACECAR]

So primarily based on the price, I decided to start with the F/A-18. I intend on trying to get a air-to-ground setup going. I've gotten some other parts upgrades so I can already get it to improve quite abit. Right now, these are the main aircraft I have in my sets with their respective levels and secondary weapons:

-MiG-29 -Libra- [Lv.2]
QAAM [Lv.1]

-Mirage 2000-5 -White Tiger- (or as I like to call it, White Tigerzord ) [Lv.4]
SFFS [Lv.1]

-F-16F -Desert Rock- [Lv.4]
SOD [Lv.1]

-AV-8B -Kim Aba- [Lv.1]
4AGM [Lv.1]

Also thanks to all the sorties I did about two days ago, I now have 157805 credits.

Update: My F/A 18F is now at Level 3 and equipped with 4AAM [Level 1]. It temporarily replaced the AV8B -Kim Aba- in my 4th slot while I was trying to level it up. Now that I've purchased a slot extension, it'll be put in one of the new slots instead and the AV8B will go back. Continually following @Vitocorp 's advice, I'm gonna start Leveling up the F-4G and have it in one of the new slots.

Also, my credits are now at 324331 thanks to three consecutive successful SOLG Sorties (and some of those challenges as well).

@RACECAR do you have a vanilla F/A-18? If you've gone that far down the aircraft tree you could probably look into getting the F-15 S/MTD. Once you level that thing to four it's very effective at sniping high value targets with LAGMs and it's insanely cheap for it's performance too.

As I posted, I do have it. Its currently at Level 3.


Edit: So not only is the AV8B -Kim Aba- ready for upgrade, but so is the 4AGM that it has. Should I upgrade it?

 

[Paulie]

If I was you @RACECAR I wouldn't worry about spending cash on the lower level jets, just get in to a strong jet like the previously recommended F-15S/MTD as fast as possible, then level it up.

 

[Louie_Schumii]

Position 1'300, I've done a TREMENDOUS sortie in pipeline destruction, 70K points with the Mickey Simon, this patched the not-so-good sortie in Moscow later on.
Anyway, as the time passes I'm pretty convinced to give up even the top 1000 and stock fuel for the Mobius tournament and anything releated to AC04.
I'll catch the plane later on or I'll be happy with the Wardog, was a top 1000 so should be easy to get that thing...I just regret going for the Garuda at this point, I could have used the fuel for the top 200 of the Y13 tournament...
The only thing is, I've got plenty of plane to upgrade...

Don't sweat it dude. In the end of the day everyone's just competing for pixels and lines of code which actually makes me question why I'm trying so hard in this game...but it's so fun though .

Update: My F/A 18F is now at Level 3 and equipped with 4AAM [Level 1]. It temporarily replaced the AV8B -Kim Aba- in my 4th slot while I was trying to level it up. Now that I've purchased a slot extension, it'll be put in one of the new slots instead and the AV8B will go back. Continually following @Vitocorp 's advice, I'm gonna start Leveling up the F-4G and have it in one of the new slots.

Also, my credits are now at 324331 thanks to three consecutive successful SOLG Sorties (and some of those challenges as well).

As I posted, I do have it. Its currently at Level 3.


Edit: So not only is the AV8B -Kim Aba- ready for upgrade, but so is the 4AGM that it has. Should I upgrade it?

Oops yeah sorry. Summer heat really makes it difficult to pick everything up that I've missed out on over the past week.

Re: Mercenary and Plant Investment Contracts

Plant Investment: Does NOT increase the percentage of research per part/aircraft that you do; rather it lets you research one extra item after a match if research hasn't been completed.

This is how research happens in the game:
* + 2 researched per sortie (regardless of result).
* + 1 researched if you're on the winning team.
* + 1 researched if you have a plant investment contract running.
* + 1 researched on the aircraft you used during the sortie if you used stocked fuel.

If everything goes well for you (such as when level 2+ special raids appear and both teams automatically win) then you could potentially research 4 parts/aircraft + the aircraft you're using at once. Ideally done with stocked fuel x3 to really make the most of the contract.

Mercenary Contract: Doubles your post-sortie credit reward.

A good example of what the contracts do above is in my SOLG III / Special Raid Tutorial. Note that I only get 4 items researched because my Su-37 -13- can't get any more research done.

Re: Planes / Parts / Special Weapons

In the end of the day it's your choice which plane you'd like to fly but aiming to have one of each type of aircraft (Multirole / Fighter / Attacker / Bomber [if you have the $$$ and/or need it for something]) is the best way to cover all the eventualities that you may face in AC:I. Make sure you check out the wikis if you haven't done so already since they're great for deciding what you want to work towards.

SeesaaWiki
G-Wiki
Wikia (Aircraft Only)

Hope this helps!

In other news:


Spot the innuendo .

Top keks achieved with this playing in the background:


Such maturity. Very ace. Much precision. Wow.

 

[RACECAR]

If I was you @RACECAR I wouldn't worry about spending cash on the lower level jets, just get in to a strong jet like the previously recommended F-15S/MTD as fast as possible, then level it up.

I'm on that development path, just haven't quite got it yet.

 

[Vitocorp]

[...]

It really depends on your priority, since you've got the F-4G as main attacker I would find a solid fighter, you can use your F-18 for now

 

[Paulie]

Thanks once again for the sorties @Vitocorp, such a bummer we lost by only a couple thousand points each time. B7R is by far not my favourite mission, in other missions, particulary when using my F-35, I can strategise my next target far better. B7R is chaotic, every time I turn around to target something there's so many targets in my face that I end up being locked on to something I can't hit, even though there's something else in front of me I could hit. Then comes the challenge of actually targeting the target I could hit. And let's not even forget how some targets magically evade your missiles while others straighten up and take it like a man. Add to that when you end up unintentionally firing at a yellow weakling, when there were orange targets in front of you that were better worth your missile. Sometimes you end up trying to switch from a yellow target to something more valuable and lose your chance to hit either as they fly past you. My head hurts.

 

[Vitocorp]

You're welcome, I don't like B7R either since you must steal targets from you opponents in order to win, is more competitive than cooperative.
Still, I think my STD missiles of the F-14 are s**t compared to others, very poor homing sometimes.

 

[Vitocorp]

@Louie_Schumii , next time you try to penetrate the satellite, go with those...

 

[Louie_Schumii]

@Louie_Schumii , next time you try to penetrate the satellite, go with those...

I was actually looking for something like the Nball music one but Oh Yeah just seemed so obvious. The soul ballet is smooth though. Very smooth .

 

[Paulie]

Has anyone seen the rankings so far on this tournament? I've burned 12 stocked fuels so far, and when I last stopped was just inside the top 1500, the guy in 200th was a massive 200k pts ahead of me, that's at least 200 stocked fuels! (Maybe less if your F-14 is level 10 or something). There are some people burning huge amounts of fuel on this tournament anyway. Forced sorties x3 are only giving me around 100 places at the moment, I sure hope I can keep top 3000.

BTW, February special supply items are not very enticing, Rafale M Vent D'Ange and a grey skin for it.

Edit: OK, I'm in ~1300th, I'm more than double the ranking points of who is currently 3000th and I've used 18 stocked fuels all up. I will get one last chance to do a couple sorties before work in the morning, but I'm hoping I've done enough to ensure a top 3000 finish. Utterly amazingly, the 200th position is a whopping 240 stocked fuels ahead of me assuming an average 1000pts/sortie rate (I average less than that with only a level 5 jet). Even so, with a high score (80k+), S rank and MVP, I don't think I've ever seen much more than 1300pts in a sortie. That would put 200th place an astounding 185 stocked fuels away from me presently, and all of Europe/USA still has most of their Sunday to go! People must be spending inordinate amounts of cash on this tournament.

 

[Vitocorp]

@Paulie , I'm still stocking tickets but I'm afraid we won't get tournaments stuff...Placing inside the top 3000 with supplied only, I'm stocking for Mobius, Mobius will be MANDATORY.

@Louie_Schumii added you in both account! I'm Encom_RT