Suggestions for Ace Combat 7, Second Batch

A few more ideas for 7 came about over the last week or so. Here are the latest batch of ideas I have for good or interesting features for AC7. 

Active Handicap Bonus

In simplest terms, it is an expansion of the target cost structure in the TDM. In the TDM, it is merely based on the relative CST of opposing aircraft and making their value as a target greater or lesser – a fully modded ADFX-01 is a much bigger point grab than a half-modded F-14A. In my suggestion, the value of targets would be based inversely on the CST of your own aircraft. In other words, if you’re flying an F-4E with no or very minor part upgrades, at a low-level, you get more points for shooting down a Su-35 than if you were in an X-02 at lvl 15 with all L-parts in all part slots and shot down the same Su-35. The rationale is that there is less effort for you as a pilot of such a superior aircraft to shoot down the same target as if you were in a more disadvantaged plane. Because this suggestion involves CST, it would take into account some of my suggestions from last time such as the bonus effects of emblems, as the use of emblems that provide some performance boost would effect a plane’s CST.

The idea behind this suggestion is to bring better balance and reward those who have dedicated time and effort to develop actual skills that translate to the game. If you are a great pilot and not someone who simply has been playing longer than others, or worked to the end of the tree faster, you would be rewarded for it. If you’re a beginner coming late to the game and just getting started, you now stand a better chance of accumulating funds and building up your hangar without the slog of being penalized for not being able to jump in right off the bat.

And best of all, it creates an organic added challenge, wherein it becomes a reasonable goal to stick to one’s favorite plane without the fear of losing out due to being unable to compete with those in super planes, or the forced false parallels in performance between aircraft. There is a more obvious rationale to trying to complete missions with low-tier aircraft aside from futile attempts to brag online that you beat some super plane.

The key will be how to properly gauge that bonus. It shouldn’t completely offset the advantages of a better plane, but it has to make it reasonable and effective to use a lower tier/level plane. But I reiterate, the point is to better reflect the person’s skills as a pilot, and divest that from the current system that aims at overly narrowing the performance band to make some aircraft more similar in performance than they likely should be. It will also require some deft planning, as it could become a cumbersome system to implement and/or manage as aircraft or weapons are added to the game.

Aircraft and Weapon Tuning

So, this idea is seen in racing games in general, but can be seen in many RPGs as well – tuning. Not just buying a part that changes performance to a defined point only, but that some parts also can be further tuned to focus on a particular specialty or effect.

The engine parts will be rolled into a single set, not one part that helps speed and then another part that helps acceleration. Similarly, so too will flaps and ailerons – so one set that does what the pitch, roll, and yaw parts all do. Then, if with the engine part for example, you can rebalance that performance to put the emphasis on top speed or on acceleration, or somewhere in between on a power/performance band. For the flaps and ailerons, it would be the same thing – you tune the set to have better pitch and yaw, but leave roll as is, or increase pitch and roll but decrease yaw, or anything in that spectrum.

Additionally, you can do the same with weapons – one part that can be tuned for better speed or alternatively for better range, another that can be tuned for better power or bigger blast range.

Essentially what the S, M, and L level on all parts would then become is the min/max band that these changes can be placed in (eg., S has a range of +/- 15, M has a range of +/- 30, L has a range of +/- 50). With this system, a part will at a basic level improve the stats it should deal with, but by tuning you can make it fit your own flying style more precisely, or fit mission conditions better, without entirely replacing the plane/weapon set you like. You like 6AAMs for the extra launches and longer range, but would prefer a little more speed? You can tweak it so the range is a little less, but that the speed is higher. It wouldn’t match the speed of the HVAA, but it would be a formidable option.

“Zombie” Mode and Bigger Penalties

I regret that I don’t know for sure what the title of this mode of play would be, so I went with “zombie”, but the idea is for a new online game mode. It basically functions like TDM, except that when you respawn after being shot down, you respawn on the other team. So, for arguments sake let’s say the teams are red and blue, and you start on the red team. You get shot down, you respawn on the blue team. You get shot down again, you respawn back on the red team. And so on, and so on, until the end of the match. The match ends when one team is entirely eliminated, or the winner is the team that has the most players at the end of a time limit an automatic sudden death mode starting if no team has an advantage at the end of the time limit.

I think that it would have to be 4v4 to work, so I’d say 4v4 would be mandatory. If they increase the room limits, then even better. I also think there should be some sort of “loitering” penalty so that players actually have to participate and can’t just fly about so they can stay on a team or get shot down on purpose to end up on another team.

As for other penalties, I think most can agree there are not very many penalties to being shot down in online play right now in Infinity. Again, like most things there is a reason one might discern for this. It likely wouldn’t do for a game with such narrow time limits to use the old penalty method of preventing the player from respawning for a while, especially when each sortie has a potential to cost around $.77 to $2.30, or in rarer cases $4.60. As it stands Infinity’s current time before respawning is less that it even was when the game first came out. On a whole this makes for more engaged play (pun not intended), and makes a lot of sense when you’re talking about missions that last 6 mins. tops.

Nevertheless, there is not much downside to being shot down in Infinity. I propose changing that by stiffening the points and rewards penalties.

With the likelihood 7’s online play will be “unlimited”, or as unlimited as it can get on the PS4, it would still take away from the experience to force a player to sit around for any meaningful length of time twiddling their thumbs after being shot down. At the same time, a stiffer points or rewards penalty would not be quite so detrimental to overall gameplay and progress for the player given the presence of a single-player campaign (I am assuming there will be a robust and meaningful single-player campaign where you unlock most stuff and get most money), compared to Infinity where severe penalties can literally all but stop game progression. 

That's it for today. Until next time.