If you answered yes to the questions above, this mod may be for you. This mod goes beyond just making combat faster. This overhauls some of the game's core systems to make it feel like you're playing through a new, yet familiar Armored Core experience.

IMPORTANT!!: To use the mod, it is recommended to download Mod Engine 2 and paste the modded regulation file inside the "mod" folder. Then launch the game using the Armored Core 6 launcher from Mod Engine with Steam running. It should bypass Anti Cheat I think and should be a better way to run the mod. Should also eliminate the need to back up vanilla regs and possible confusion as well.

Get Mod engine here: https://github.com/soulsmods/ModEngine2/releases


UPDATE 1.06.1.1: Updated to be compatible with the Vanilla 1.06.1 patch.

-Nothing New.



UPDATE 1.05.01: Updated to be compatible with the Vanilla 1.05 patch.

KRANICH CHAIN GUN

• Since FromSoft graciously provided us with a real shoulder mounted gatling gun/chain gun, the KRANICH CHAIN GUN version is now redundant.
• As a result, it will now fire a volley of 50 bullets in one trigger pull at extreme speeds, sort of functioning like a head vulcan from the Gundam series.
• The knockback when firing has also been removed and transfered to the SHAO-WEI to be consistent with the head vulcan concept.
• EN requirements reduced from 411 to 330
• Weight reduced from 5112 to 3112
  

DF-GA-09 SHAO-WEI

• Increased damage from 24 to 52
• Reduced heat build up for prolonged fire.
• Configured cooling speeds. Overheating will cool noticeably slower.
• Significantly increased bullet speed.
• Slightly lowered fire rate.
• Removed recoil.
• Increased range. Should recoil in around 450m or so.
• Reduced ACS strain build up.
• Reduced direct hit damage to be in line with other weapons.
• Added push back recoil when airborne.
• EN Requirement reduced from 404 to 385
  

VE-60LCB 

• Significantly decreased charge time to 1.2 secs from 4-ish.
• Charge shot ammo consumption reduced from 3 to 2.
• Slightly increased charged damage.
• Added a VERY slight homing capability to charged shot.
• Ammo pool reduced from 32 to 28.
• Removed recoil.
• Removed ACS strain build up.
• Reduced direct hit damage to be in line with other weapons.
• EN Requirment reduced from 803 to 376
  

WR-0555 ATTACHE

• Increased ammo pool to 1800 from 920
• Increased damage to 81 from 62
• Significantly increased bullet speed.
• Removed recoil.
• Reduced ACS strain build up.
• Reduced direct hit damage to be in line with other weapons.
  

PFAU/66D

• Untouched for now, since I'm not that too interested in hand held missile launchers.
  

PFAU/55D ISSUE: Will not display name and description in your inventory.

LAMMERGEIER: Adjusted AP values and Energy Requirements to match modded sandbox parts.

LAMMERGEIER PARTS ISSUE!!

• The newly added LAMMERGEIER parts (head, arms and legs) will have a string of numbers for their names and descriptions.
• Also, one major issue is that the LAMMERGEIER core will NOT appear in your inventory, but will be equipped IF you have it equipped on your AC in vanilla.
• If you want to use it, sadly, you'll have to run the game in vanilla, equip the core, and run the game with this mod.
• If you unequip the core, you will have to log back into vanilla to re equip it, sadly.
• These LAMMERGEIER issues will not likely get fixed any time soon.
  

UPDATE 1.04.35a Hotfix

• Double Trouble now builds up heat when revving and will overheat after around 3 seconds even if not released. You can cancel revs by pressing the reload button in case you don't commit to the charge attack.
• Fixed Emnity consuming more AP than originally intended.
  

UPDATE 1.04.35 SLIGHT CORE EXPANSION REWORKS

So I kinda forgot the existence of other core expansion options aside from the Assault Armor. My bad. Thanks to HorizoneARC for reminding me. This update rectifies that situation and buffs all of the existing expansion modules to give them more unique characteristics. Also, do know that these are EXISTING expansion modules, which are also used by friendly or hostile ACs! :)

CORE EXPANSION CHANGES:

PULSE ARMOR: Increased potency of shield by around 50%. Pulse Armor now also decays MUCH slower compared to vanilla. Vanilla fully decays the shield in 10 seconds if untouched, now the new Pulse Armor shield can last a full 2 minutes! Of course, this is on top of its vanilla effect that it clears any built up ACS strain on your AC. In order to balance out the increase in shield efficiency and potency, the shield is now 50% bigger, which means that projectiles may damage it even if they would otherwise miss your AC.

TERMINAL ARMOR: Probably the least popular among the bunch vanilla-wise. Terminal Armor invulnerability now only lasts for 2 seconds instead of 5. BUT! Now for 15 seconds, your AP will constantly repair and you also receive an impressive 75% increase to all damage types AND an impressive increase in Energy production (around 5% of your total energy per second) to boot. If you're not hit during this time, Terminal Armor can restore up to 50% of your AP. BUT!! For the duration, you will take 5 times the damage! It's a high risk, high reward effect if you dodge right with the increased energy and utilize the damage buff. OR, you can use the energy generation to play defensively and try to preserve the 50% repair you get until your defenses return back to full function. Using repair kits during this period would be ill-advised. You'll know when your armor and damage have returned back to normal once your core expansion hatch closes.

PULSE PROTECTION: 3 repair kits not enough? Aside from deploying an impenetrable dome, Pulse Protection will repair half a repair kit's worth of AP (~2000) to the user once deployed. With 3 charges, you effectively get 1 and a half extra repair kits to bring for your sorties, albeit with a cooldown attached.

ASSAULT ARMOR: Since everything got buffed, Assault Armor is in need of a bit of love. Aside from instantly staggering anything hit by the blast at close range (medium for Coral), Assault Armor now gives you a brief period of damage buff. For 5 seconds after using Assault Armor, you gain 20% increased damage to all damage types. The fact that your target will likely be staggered during this time magnifies this effect. Cooldown also reduced by 5 seconds.

Note that these buffs will make the core expansions very effective in the right circumstances, so all enemies, including bosses, receive a 5% damage increase across the board.

FIXES:
Activating Coral Drones and Turrets no longer prematurely cancel Pulse Armor.

Up next I think would be alternate parts for more options and variety when building your AC.


UPDATE 1.04.30

AC AP CHANGES:
In an attempt to prolong engagements with enemy ACs, I once adjusted all parts values to 250% in a previous update. However, that presented a few problems regarding damage scaling, repair kit scaling and some unaffected ACs so I had to scale everything back down to vanilla. Now though, I can simply get rid of the repair kit bonuses from the OS tuning upgrades and add them to the AP pool. So at max upgrade, we get 2000 AP extra from each repair kit (3). Now that I've disabled those, I added them to the AP pool of all ACs. So everyone gets to enjoy the 6000 extra AP, including hostile ACs. I still want a bigger AP pool of course, but for now, the extra 6k AP would somewhat prevent burst scenarios against hostile ACs and extend the fights with them.

To that extent, I've also reduced the effectiveness of the offensive OS upgrades to around 50% since I don't think enemy ACs have access to them.

GENERATOR CHANGES:
Personally, it didn't make sense that the light generator sets had the least amount of EN firearm specialization stats, given that light gens already offer the lowest EN capacity and Output, and are the hardest to build around. There wasn't much reason to use the light generators apart from their low weight, and most builds would just opt for bigger generators that offered more output, capacity, and EN firearm stats. As an attempt to correct this issue, I decided to switch the EN firearm stat values across the generators. So if you want to use EN-scaling weapons with with as much damage as possible, you'll need to be conscious of your EN load since you'll be looking at lighter generators and their EN weapon compatibility.

• Large generators now offer the least EN firearm stat, but still offer the best capacity and output.
• Medium generators offer medium firearm stat and gives medium cap and output.
• Light generators now provide you with the best EN firearm stats within their generator set.
  

The more comfortable you get in your EN Output with heavier gens, the weaker your EN weapons will be. So now, it will require a bit more EN budgeting instead of just slapping on VE-20C/B for your EN weapons. 

Speaking of VE-20C, it also didn't make sense that the VE-20 generator line had the highest output AND EN firearm support. So now, while the VE-20 gens retain their top notch EN firearm stat, their EN output have been adjusted to that of the VP-20 series. Now, the VP-20 series inherit the VE-20C energy output, which gives them the defining characteristic they needed.

In summary, generator characteristics are a follows:

• BAWS (AG) line offers the least weight with okay overall stats.
• DA FENG (DF) line offers the highest capacity and fastest overheat recovery at lower output.
• Arquebus (VP) line now offers the highest output with decent capacity, thus the providing the most comfort outside of the "Super Generator".
• Arquebus ADD (VE) line offers the highest EN firearm stat while still being above average regarding output at the cost of weight and capacity.
  

BOOSTERS RESTORED:

Well, not technically restored, but you can now purchase the vanilla versions (named v.1) of the boosters from the shop! No need for booster presets :D
However, since they are now reintroduced to the sandbox, all modded boosters now cost 10% more of the base vanilla values due to their performance improvements, and v.1 boosters cost half of their modded counterparts!

NEW WEAPONS:

• EL-PW-02 FALSEYES: [EDIT: Right back Exclusive] Having developed the first high velocity guided projectile launcher, Elcano released a modified version of the TRUENO. The EL-PW-02 FALSEYES releases a volley of 40 guided Kinetic/Energy hybrid projectiles at extreme velocity in a slight arc. Capable of dealing massive output in a mixture of kinetic and energy damage, the FALSEYES was designed as an engagement starter, using its opening volley to start an encounter at an advantage. It is highly accurate at longer ranges, but can still be quite effective if you manage to get a point blank volley against a staggered target. EN Firearm Stat improves both its damage AND reload speed. Ineffective against highly mobile targets at close-medium range.
• SB-034MM MISTRESS MINE: Right back exclusive. What was once the modified Morley is now its own thing. BALAM's answer to MELANITE's EARSHOT, armed with proximity detonation features, the MISTRESS MINE fires a set of 5 groups of timed grenades that detonate at medium range in an "M" pattern. It can easily deal with aerial targets due to the grenades having proximity detonation modules installed, and will automatically explode when getting within 20 meters of their target. Can also take care of the BIPEDAL MTs + DRONES configuration in the test area relatively easily.
• SB-039DD DOMINUS DOMINORUM: Left back exclusive. The concept of domination through excessive force is what sparked BALAM to develop the SB-039DD. Armed with lightweight, weaker explosives, the DOMINUS DOMINORUM is capable of bombarding an impressively large area with its 9 Multi-Detonation rockets that explode three times during flight, but sacrifices its generalized single target damage capability as a result. However, pilots may be still able to get EXTREMELY potent single-target results when firing a point blank shot from the air against grounded targets. Also EXTREMELY effective against larger targets.
• AURIGA'S WHISPER: Shoulder mounted coral particle launcher able to fire 10 coral beams [whispers] that track your target to remind them of their mortality. What sets this apart from other launchers is that the projectiles launched destabilize your target's armor for 3 seconds. As a result, they will be susceptible to kinetic projectiles and receive 50% more kinetic damage for the short duration.
• MARTIS HASTA: A multi-charge Coral Rifle that can charge up to 2 times. Charge one will shoot 5 guided coral projectiles that are effective in medium range, but highly ineffective at closer ranges and expires before reaching long range. Second charge fires an intense coral beam that that triggers an explosion, leaving behind an area of coral corrosion that damages anything inside. Being a coral weapon, it is able to inflict a steady build up of strain, while costing less EN load than the KRSV. DOES NOT PASSIVELY COOL.
• KARASAWA: A prototype heavy laser rifle exclusive to the right hand that does massive damage in its shots. Although theoretically very effective, the KARASAWA being in its earlier development period, suffers from energy conversion incompatibilities with modern power generators. As a result, it drains a significant amount of energy per shot, and given its already massive EN load requirements, makes this rifle very difficult to wield.
  

WEAPON REWORKS:

To the guy looking for new drones that fire coral stuff, I had a tough time trying to make one from scratch and opted for slight reworks of the existing drones instead. I'll make new drones once/if I figure it out in the future.

I know I should be avoiding reworks, but For now:

Vvc-60LT REWORKED TO Vvc-60CT: Can now deploy six drones randomly above the player AC that will each find a target and maintain their positions providing supporting fire for 5 seconds. These are more accurate than the standard 60LT, and will be able to reliably hit mobile targets to an extent. As a result of the coral conversion, your AC will be slightly more susceptible to incoming damage (15% more damage taken), and your armor will be returned to its standard state after 7 seconds. Effect does not stack but refreshes.

Vvc-700LD REWORKED TO VVC-700CD: Maintains its original function, but the six drones that follow the target now fires highly accurate coral beams. Much like the 60CT, deploying the drones will leave your AC more vulnerable to incoming fire (15% more incoming damage), and your armor will be at full functionality once 7 seconds have passed. Effect does not stack but refreshes.

RESTORED WEAPON FUNCTIONS:

SB-033M MORLEY - Gave it a bit of a damage buff from vanilla version, but with less ammo.
KRANICH/60Z (Not technically restored, but Schneider reconverted the converted bullets back into pulse particles. So you'll have to purchase it from the shop. Pater will still be using the Chain Gun version.)

GENERAL CHANGES:

• AORTA: Adjusted EN firearm stat from 95 to 100.
• Fixed Moonlight Redshift basic attacks not dealing damage to targets
• Fixed 66LRB sometimes dealing no damage
• Fixed 66LRB unintentionally doing 4x the damage from previous versions
• Lowered 66LRB EN load to 321 but I forgot the baseline.
• LCS Back laser total ammo increased from 24 to 36
• LCA wing laser total ammo from 21 to vanilla 24
• PHALANX total ammo increased from 14 to 21
• LUDLOW inaccuracy decreased.
• UNILATERAL ANACUSIS ammo increased from 10 to 12, rocket damage increased by 5%
• 703PM, 706PM and 70VPM plasma damage per hit increased from 145 to 171
• Front-facing ballistic missiles receive 2 extra volleys worth of ammo
• Wuerger basic attack effect temporarily changed to a wave effect until I can find a way to reduce VFX stuff.
• All arm rockets *except jvln alpha* reload reduced from 75% of vanilla to 50% of vanilla values
• JVLN ALPHA reload reduced to vanilla from 4.8 to 4.3.
• DOUBLE TROUBLE now does 4x stagger build up during its Charge Rev animation.
• DAWN CHORUS total ammo increased from 48 to 60
• KRSV energy load from 374 to 384
• KRSV charge 1 and 2 damage decreased by roughly around 5% and 15% respectively. charge 1 now overheats, same with 2.
• KRSV weight reduced by 20%
• AURORA energy load from 311 to 326
• EMNITY reduced AP cost per shot fired from 2% to 1.5% due to AP increase.
• EARSHOT second explosion damage reduced by around 12%
• EARSHOT reload increased from 2 to 6 seconds. (Unilateral Anacusis now exists)
• EARSHOT first explosion no longer knocks back target, so it will now get hit by the second explosion while being in the dead center of it.
• 60SNA NEEDLE LAUNCHER damage reduced by 5%. It's more difficult to build EN firearm now, so a 5% damage decrease should be enough to prevent the 60SNA from overperforming.
• KRANICH CHAIN GUN pulse armor damage reduced by around half.
• KRANICH CHAIN GUN increased total ammo from 1500 to 1700.
• AYRE BOSS AP reverted back to vanilla value. Was previously 7% less.
  

UPDATE 1.04.20: 7 NEW WEAPONS, 2 EXISTING WEAPONS REWORK, AND FINALLY, IN-GAME DESCRIPTIONS!





7 NEW WEAPONS: Can be bought from the Shop quite early on, but are expensive to purchase.

DIGNITAS and AUCTORITAS 

AUCTORITAS: 02-V3R61L Aura Caster (Right back exclusive) 
Not in any way related to Vergil, since he's blue and this one's purple. Will randomly cast energy explosions ahead of your AC for 9.5 seconds and if something comes into your vicinity, the explosions  will automatically target them instead. Has decent range and damage output. BUT! It is highly delicate during operation and WILL break under certain conditions like flinching, getting staggered, using expansion slot, kicking, or even hard landing.

DIGNITAS: 03-D4N73 Aura Caster (Left back exclusive)
Not in any way related to Dante, since this one has a different shade of red. Will randomly cast coral explosions ahead of your AC for 9.5 seconds and if something comes into your vicinity, they will automatically target them instead. Aura has shorter range than AUCTORITAS, but has way better damage. Also will break under the same conditions that apply to AUCTORITAS.

EMNITY: Pure Hatred (Left Hand exclusive)
With 8 rounds in the mag, it bombards your target with extreme violence dealing HEAVY damage, neglecting the safety of your pilot. Powered by its experimental "Fervor Conversion Module" and does not consume ammo, but it means that it will damage your AC armor every time it is fired due to the highly unstable nature of its "FCM". Will consume 2% of your total AP pool per shot fired.

ACA-01 CATO: Autocannon
The blueprints for the ACA-01 CATO Autocannon has been developed nearly a century ago, but production has only been started in recent times thanks to BALAM. It is a heavy forearm-mounted Autocannon that utilized high caliber rounds as ammunition. It is highly effective, but weighs appropriately and drains energy substantially more than most standard, ballistic weapons.

TRIUMVIRATE: Chromatic Rifle
Chargeable chromatic rifle that does multiple damage types. Arquebus' attempt at cornering the multi-use case weapons market. Basic fire inflicts a mix of kinetic, energy and coral damage while charged shots will trigger a set of three explosions, one after another. Charged shots trigger energy, coral, and explosive damage and is highly effective. Downside is that it eats up a lot of EN, and may be difficult to dual-wield in most cases.

UNILATERAL ANACUSIS: Van Gogh (Left back exclusive)
Fires a rocket that detonates in a medium sized explosion after a brief period on a 2 second reload timer. While it is limited in regards to its range, its rockets will leave scorching fire if it explodes close to the ground. Produces High total damage per shot and can carry 10 rockets.

DAWN CHORUS: Let it sing. (Right back exclusive)
Fires six grenades in full auto that do multiple explosions in medium range. Extremely high burst damage with decent ammmo capacity of 48 but has a smaller area of effect coverage than the standard Songbirds.

WEAPON REWORKS:

SWEET SIXTEEN: The Invincible Shotty
Now fires bullets that will deal an extra instance of weak explosion damage as soon as you finish your reload. However, if you manage to stagger your target at the right time, the explosions will do SIGNIFICANTLY MORE damage due to their compromised ACS. When RaD took a closer look at the gun, it would seem that Rummy wasn't as drugged up as they imagined since the SWEET SIXTEEN actually DOES provide the AC wielding it a brief moment of invulnerability upon firing. Upon further investigation, the RaD engineers were baffled that the gun actually made automated repairs upon firing as well, albeit in negligible amounts.

MORLEY: Anti-test area BipedalMTs + Drones
BALAM wanted to develop the best shoulder mounted scatter grenade launcher to efficiently take out the Bipedal MTs + Drones configuration in the test area. Thus, the MORLEY was designed. It features a firing mechanism capable of deploying its grenades in an "M" formation, and is highly capable of destroying the Bipdeal MTs + Drones setup as long as their AI are deactivated. Unfortunately for BALAM, the MORLEY was deemed to be only the second most effective in destroying the Test Area Bipedal MTs + Drones.

Q1 MICROWAVE: FIXED
Lowered range and damage, and now will only heat up an area if there is a target present.

GENERAL CHANGES:

• Added in-game text descriptions to stuff had functions reworked.
• Kick damage reduced by 33%. Will still deal 10x the damage to staggered.
• Lowered reverse joint kick damage to be in line with other leg types.
• 66LRB EN requirements lowered from 355 to 331.
• Q1 Microwave gun: Lowered range and damage.
• Wuerger: Increased basic attack damage, but I forgot to note how much >.< Lowered visual effects of "punching" to be less blinding. and Charged "punches" now punch 3 times in quick succession.
• MLREDSHIFT: Basic attack waves can hit targets a bit more easily.
  

UPDATE 1.04.10: Vermin Swarm

First and foremost, a very big thanks to george/kingbore over at discord helping me out on updating some of this mod's params. Well, helping is an understatement. I feel like it was a headache teaching me how to do it, since apparently I haven't properly updated any of my crap, not even once, so he pretty much did the whole updating thing himself. So, VERY BIG THANKS FOR THAT! And also everyone behind DSMS and Witchy as well!

WEAPON REWORKS:

EULE/60D: Due to breaking even from their most recent project, the Kranich Chain gun and its solidified pulse bullets, Schneider now set their eyes on reverse-engineering guided missile technology used by their competitors. Thanks to the exceptional minds tirelessly working in their engineering sector and their gathered data, they have concluded that missiles are actually tiny aircrafts piloted by tiny people. Knowing well the absurd cost it would take to hire countless tiny people to pilot countless tiny aircrafts, they have settled with the next best thing - which is genetically manipulating mice and training them to pilot the aircrafts instead. Unfortunately, given that the vermin are injected with a series of concocted serum to heighten their senses, an intense wave of ADHD kicks in after the moment of launch. As a result, the EULE/60D launches highly inaccurate SWARM of VERMIN missiles pictured above. But know that the closer you are to your target, the less chance the ADHD from the mice has kicked in yet. Also, the bigger the target is, the easier it is for the mice to see. So it is overall more accurate against bigger targets. Now Snail-approved.

TAI YANG SHOU REWORK: Did somebody say PHALANX?! Basic attack throws a set of bombs further forward in a phalanx formation, carpet bombing the ground that you're facing thereby extending its reach. For fans of explosive kunai things, don't worry. Charged attack now throws the set of timed bombs that will explode multiple times in close range forming a wall that covers both ground and air, before unleashing a massive explosion at the end that heavily damages anything foolish enough to come close to your AC. Charged attacks can now hit 3 times, while basic attack has longer reach while grounded.

WUERGER REWORK: Ora ora, Raven. Wuerger now functions as a Facepuncher. Bob and weave. Basic attack is a mobile punchy version of its previous charged attack, and now scales with Melee Specialized arms. Charged attack fires a set of seven beams horizontally outward in a fan formation. Deals devastating damage at close range if you get all the beams to hit which also scale with melee stats.

TRUENO REWORK: Now fires a set of 6 extremely fast and slightly guided projectiles with a quicker reload time and near instant lock on. Note that while it can be a steady source of good damage, it now builds up heat and will overheat after 3 volleys if you neglect to let it cool in between bursts! Still has decent Direct Hit damage bonus.

AURORA REWORK: Up for a lightshow? The Aurora inherits some of KRSV's Hardlight characteristics in which it can still inflict temporary strain while still being a light based weapon. If you liked the KRSV's new charge 2 attack, you may love this. The Aurora initially spawns 5 photon projectiles that behave erratically. Once they get near your target, they each spawn 4 more photon missiles (for total of 20) to converge on to it. Using it on the ground against other grounded targets may prove to be an ineffective tactic, since some newly spawned projectiles are bound to hit the floor. However, aerial targets or getting directly above your target will enable the mini-aurora missiles to fully spawn much like KRSV's second charge shot. No longer scales with EN firearm like the KRSV.

THERAPY REWORK: Basic attack no longer does damage but still produces a bit of strain. BUT its charged attack will now fire a set of 3 mini electric storm discharge that will slowly pace forward, constantly applying heavy strain to anything unfortunate enough to get caught in it. Electric discharge also deals no damage. Limited ammo.

STUN BATON REWORK: Basic attack now does reduced damage compared to vanilla, but can now be used without producing heat. Charged attack now deals no damage but guarantees a STAGGER to anything at the end of the needle explosion. It will overheat the baton though, so make sure that you can switch it out with another hangar weapon if you have it. 

STUN GUN VP-66EG REWORK: Now functions as... a stun gun that does no damage. With blinding light thrust upon your enemies, the VP-66EG inflicts MAJOR temporary impact, but is not able to build up a steady strain by itself. Should be used with other arm or back weapons that can build up a steady strain on your enemies, or dual wielded, I guess, if you like doing no damage with your arm weapons but stunning things. Works absolutely well as a hangar weapon that finishes stagger buildup. Somewhat limited ammo.

EARSHOT REWORK: Since a lot of things are good at staggering targets now, the Earshot kind of lost its place as the one-shot stagger heavy. It still does stagger everything in one hit, but now it does a 2-part explosion. The first is a medium sized explosion that deals low damage but guarantees a stagger. A second larger and more powerful explosion follows the initial hit, and deals heavy damage as well as stunning anything that was out of the initial explosion's radius.

HI-16: GU-Q1 Pulse Gun REWORK: Ever thinking about cooking the internals of your targets using Takigawa's Target Scan tech? Well now you can with the newly reworked pulse gun. It now functions like a Coral Microwave, nearly instantly building up extremely high Coral Temps from the inside that quickly extends outwards. Just scan the gun at your target and it will automatically determine their position and heat up the area automatically. Highly effective against immobile targets and will go well with the new stun weapons! Also, Maeterlinck says Hi!

Also, Iridium rocket now auto detonates at a closer range and functions like a bit of a handheld flack cannon.

As a result of updating the parameters of the mod, any changes made by Fromsoft that have not been manually tweaked on the mod are now in effect, like how stability values on parts now match vanilla 1.04 values, for example. And I no longer have to manually change them like I did in a previous update lol.

GENERAL CHANGES:

• Gave generators extra capacity to widen the gap between generator weight classes.
• Light generators receive 30% extra capacity. Middleweight generators get 45% extra capacity. Heavy generators receive 60% more capacity.
• Light generator weight reduced further by 40% of their current modded values.
• Kicks now deal 10x more damage to staggered enemies! Should work well with the new set of Stun weaponry.
• Boosters now completely deactivate when moving in a direction in the air, and directional falling velocity will now increase as if you're on a neutral fall.
• Quickboost cooldown have been increased from 50% of vanilla values to 75%. Boosters will be individually looked at in a future update.
• [EDIT: failed to include] All arm rockets except JVLN ALPHA reload further reduced from 75% to 50% of vanilla values.
• [EDIT: failed to include] JVLN ALPHA reload reduced from 4.8 to 3.5.
• Scudder mag size decreased from 38 to 32. Damage increased from 59 to 62. Reload decreased from 2 to 1.9. Should now pair well with Turner.
• Slightly increased KRSV charge 1 time from .5 secs to .9. Laser hand gun charge time also increased from .4 to .9. These will still be reduced by EN Firearm stat but accidental charges should be somewhat minimized.
• Ludlow ideal range increased from 275 to 320. Damage remains the same, but gun is now evenly highly inaccurate, finally!
• Viento damage increased from 86 to 91. Energy load decreased from 162 to 148
• ML Redshift from slightly reduced damage by around 7% but basic attack waves range slightly increased.
• Coral Oscillator damage increased by a small 4%.
• Zimmerman ideal range increased from 150 to 200. I feel that it may be too effective now, so total damage per shot reduced from 340 to 320.
• Decreased Etsujin damage from 44x4 to 41x4. Was overperforming for its light weight and EN load.
• Gave the Gatling Gun a bit of inaccuracy at around the end of mid range.
• Fixed KRSV accidentally scaling with melee. Now scales with nothing, as intended.
  

UPDATE 1.04.01

Nothing new here. Just an updated version to work with today's vanilla 1.04 patch in case people have trouble getting the mod to run.

EDIT: Oops, accidentally uploaded the regulation I was playing around with. Anyways here are a couple of small changes accidentally included:

• Tai Yang Shou horizontal explosions can now bypas Juggernaut's front plating (somewhat inconsistently though). 
• FCS soft lock-on increased from 800m to 1000 meters.  This one's for the snipers out there.
  

HOTFIX 1.03.35a

• Fixed "Escape" mission AC consuming large amounts of energy on AB start up on other boost presets, For real this time! 
  

UPDATE 1.03.35

• Coral Melee Rework: In order to make the red blades stand out from the pack, WLT 101 and ML-Redshift normal attacks no longer instantly cooldown melee. Instead, you build up heat per attack, but once overheated, will have a noticeably slower recovery than otherwise. Both coral melee weapons receive a sizeable increase in raw damage output, but are no longer able to produce stagger buildup. At the same time, they receive increased effectiveness when dealing with pulse armor. The ML-Redshift's 2-hit basic slashes now vary in damage, the second slash dealing significantly more damage than the first but costs the same heat buildup.
  

GENERAL CHANGES:

• Added 25% more horizontal spread to Ludlow. Reduced ammo pool from 4960 to 3960.
• Coquillet damage increased by 6%
• Ducket damage increased by 10%
• LRA damage increased by 20%
• Increased Kranich "Chain Gun" heat buildup by 66%. Total ammo increased from 1200 to 1500.
• Fixed "Escape" mission AC consuming large amounts of energy on AB start up
• Fixed ML-Redshift having unintentionally low damage.
• LCA and LCD back heavy laser weapons recoil now properly reduced to zero as intended.
  

UPDATE 1.03.31

Not much here. Just want to push out a new version for those who can't start the mod up with today's latest vanilla 1.03.1 patch.

• Adjusted EN firearm support stats on non-coral generators to match vanilla 1.03.1 values.
• Adjusted Firearm specialization on arm parts to match vanilla 1.03.1 values. Should only be useful on specific attacks which still have recoil left in them, like the Ransetsu RF's charge shots.
• Reduced CURTIS recoil to zero on both regular and charged attacks.
• Removed 80 EN load from regular FCSs and redistributed them to back weapons - 40 to left and 40 to right back weapons. 
• Using non-OCELLUS FCSs will see a bit more benefit from purging back weapons compared to previous versions of the mod. 
• Ocellus remains at zero weight and load, but will see a very small decrease in its EN Surplus benefits.
• Increased Redshift's damage by around 15%. Ammo remains the same.
  

UPDATE 1.03.30: "Hardlight, Hardchild"


KRSV Rework Concept: "Hard Light". Unlike other laser weaponry, the KRSV highly condenses photon particles to closely match a solidified state and use it as its ammunition. Due to its ammo being in a semi-matter state, it can inflict high amounts of temporary impact, but is still unable to produce a steady buildup of strain in your target's ACS. Basic attack now instantly fires its vanilla charge one shot. Its new charge one shot now fires vanilla's devastating charge two shot. And what makes the KRSV special is its new second charge attack. It will now fire a set of 9 semi-solid photon projectiles that will expand in an outwards pattern before converging on to your target. Because of its unconventional semi-matter projectiles, it will NOT scale with EN firearm support, meaning it goes well with the NGI 000 coral generator. *SPOILER* It will be more effective when used in the air, much like what ALLMIND does in your final battle.

IA-C01W6: NB-REDSHIFT Rework Concept: "Hard Child". Unlike most laser weapons that use photon-based particles, the IA-C01W6: NB-REDSHIFT utilizes Coral younglings as its primary ammunition. Once fired from the gun, the coral younglings immediately gain consciousness but instantly perceive excruciating amounts of pain. Wanting the pain to end as quickly as possible, the red projectiles attempt to track your target, thereby giving the Redshift better overall accuracy and reliability. While the coral youngling projectiles don't technically inflict ACS strain, they produce something close to the effect directly to the pilots of your targets. Having realized they've been shot at by the Redshift, the pilots go like "IS THAT AC SHOOTING CHILDREN AT ME, WTF?!" and are dumbfounded and stunned after a few shots. Due to the short supply of existing coral young ones on Rubicon, the Redshift has limited total ammo capacity and may run out in extended engagements. *SPOILER* Ayre will happily be using this as a last resort to help you against ALLMIND. Yeah, Ayre's cold as ice, that sick bastard, and is probably canon.

ARM ROCKETS: All rockets ammunition have been set close to, or equal to vanilla and have around 20% faster reload and slightly bigger damage output. Small arms rockets, namely the Little Gem and Iridium, can now be fired while on the move or while shooting your other arm weapon.

JVLN ALPHA: Can now fire 4 rockets before reloading, and is also able to fire while on the move. It is able to dish out a good amount of stagger buildup due to its constant fire, but with a strong blowback when firing. 

MAJESTIC: Gave the majestic a small tracking capability, but now comes with a slightly increased EN load for the tracking module installed.

GENERAL CHANGES:

• Reduced some of the bosses AP, including Cataphract, Arqb Balteus, ALLMIND, Ayre, Enforcer, and probably some others I fail to recall. Increased damage of some of the attacks from Juggernaught, Spider and regular Balteus.
• Very slightly reduced the power output of light and medium generators and added the value on their capacity. Slightly increased NGI 000's output.
• Slightly reduced quickboost consumption.
• Increased EN drain of Kranich chain gun and reduced its total ammo pool to 1200 from 2100 to reflect light weight. Should still be VERY reliable.
• Lowered Scudder's fire rate to 6, but increased its damage per bullet to compensate.
• Increased Tai Yan Shou damage, but I forgot by how much.
• Viento now fires in full auto and mag size increased from 5 to 15. Damage reduced to compensate.
• Lowered recoil of Gatling gun and Ludlow to zero, but gave them a small bullet spread.
• Gave the Chang-chen a different muzzle flash to make it feel a bit inaccurate.
• Slightly increased impact of a number of kinetic weapons.
  

I think I'm probably missing some other changes. I forgot to jot down stuff because I was working on this in a very intermittent manner.

Also, video summaries on some of the touched aspects and reworks of this mod, before I organize this mess of a main description page.











UPDATE 1.03.25

Just some changes to values to fix melee, and proper balancing. Nothing new, but if you like it more balanced, get this. I should be covering arm rockets on the next update. And maybe update this page.


UPDATE 1.03.20

WEAPON REWORK: KRANICH/60Z CHAIN GUN

Schneider initially developed the Kranich/60Z as a counter to any pulse armor shenanigans your targets may have. Due to its cooling mechanism only able to do so much for its rapid-fired pulse shots, they decided to reinvent its purpose to function more like a true chain gun. Having its pulse mechanism condense energy particles into actual solid bullets, the Kranich/60Z now fires ballistic rounds at a full 3000 rpm and is still pretty capable of dealing with pulse armor due to its rapid fire. Who knew that the "Z" in 60Z stood for chaingun..

WEAPON CHANGES: Recoil on most ballistic weapons have now been decreased to 0. I originally wanted spray and pray weapons, unfortunately how the game handles recoil is pretty binary. Either your gun fires correctly and hits your target, or it fires towards the other end of the city. I tried finding anything that could narrow the cone of inaccuracy to make it feel better, but I'm throwing down the towel for now. I'll just set the recoil to 0 and some of the laser weapons received a buff in their damage output as a result.

EQUIPMENT CHANGES:

• Scudder now functions similarly to Turner, having more damage, but lower fire rate. This heavier version of Turner can be comfortably wielded on your other hand along with Turner without any problems.
• Songbirds now fire at a reduced interval, and reload has been reduced to half a second. Now you can use it to launch a barrage of grenade rockets at densely packed enemies since its recoil knockback has been reduced.
• The 60LCS has been give a new burst charge shot and new, more powerful laser animation. Now fires a burst of 3 shots consuming 2 ammo each, but with more damage per ammo spent. It overheats though.
• LR and LRA get a slight increase in their basic shots.
• Ransetsu-RF gets its weight increased closer to Harris, but still less.
• Melee weapons received around a 60% damage buff which is scaled to the current sand box. But their direct hit damage values have been adjusted. Will be adjusted further since some feel a bit too strong currently.
• VP-20S weight value now properly adjusted.
  

REBALANCE REBALANCED.

One of the initial problems this mod encountered is that enemy ACs felt way too squishy. Regular mobs and bosses were buffed in terms of health to compensate for the weapon rebalance and reworks, but there wasn't much I could do in terms of the enemy ACs without touching the AC AP pool, which affects the player. So basically in order to do that, I needed to increase the enemy damage output to scale with the incease in AP. It eventually presented 3 problems. Since enemy damage scaled to your AP, they did WAY more damage to defense objectives compared to vanilla, thus making defense missions difficult to do. Second problem was some of the arena combatants didn't benefit from the AP pool increase. I'm guessing Fromsoft actually assigned them special parts to use, maybe? Thirdly, it was more challenging to S-rank missions since it calculates a per-point basis on how much AP you lost. So now I had to correct it again. Instead of giving defense objectives more health and finding a way to give the special Arena ACs more health while at the same time tweaking S-rank requirements, I opted for a reset of the AP pool back to the original values. It was fun to see a 20k AP light mech, even if it was just as effective as 10k. But here we are.

• AC AP values brought back to original values. Everything else set to scale, enemy damage, boss damage, AC damage, etc. You're back to your old AP, but everything scaled down to it, including your damage. So this effectively means that fights with enemy ACs are now properly balanced, even on the arena. Trash mobs still retain their 20% damage bonus and you will feel no difference in enemy damage, AC damage and boss damage transitioning to this version.
  

UPDATE 1.03.15 - Balanced Bullet Speed modifiers, and Mod is now New Save-Friendly.

BALANCE ADJUSTMENTS:

• Ammo cost rebalanced. It should be now safe to start a fresh save to re-experience the game again!
• Added bullet speed increase to enemy guns and rockets only, and reverted everything back to vanilla speed. This also affect bosses, but only their guns. For example, Balteus now fires faster bullets on his shotgun, machine gun, and rocket attacks, but his missiles are unaffected. For Cataphract, it affects solely his machine guns, and his signature multi-rail gun attack and his missiles are at base velocity. Sea Spider also sees an increase in its Coral machine gun. Ibis and its drones are unaffected. You get the point.
  

(couldn't do much about cleaner though, so I just increased its damage by around 20%)
REBALANCED ENEMY DAMAGE: This is to close the difficulty gap between regular enemies and bosses.

• Now regular enemies scale harder with your increased AP pool. In total, they'll be doing 20% bonus damage to you. This includes MTs, drones, Cavalries, and also, Mini-bosses. This isn't at all a drastic increase, but remember that they now shoot faster bullets and rockets.
• Bosses, on the other hand, are toned down a bit. Instead of fully scaling with your new AP pool, they scale softer. In total, bosses will do 8% reduced damage to you. Boss attacks that do not use guns or rockets are at vanilla speed, and are slower than attacks that do. With faster quickboosts, evading these attacks is much easier, especially compared to vanilla. 
  

FCS REWORK: THE OCELLUS PAPER FCS

I love the feeling of having your targeting system struggle. It gives off that cool "locking on" vibe that you see on sci-fi shooty things. If you're like me, you're going to love this one.

• Almost as powerful as the VE-21A in terms of close range proficiency, the reworked IA-C01F: OCELLUS looks, feels, AND functions like a sheet of paper inserted in your FCS slot - It weighs nothing and consumes nothing, but also does... almost nothing.
  

WEAPON CHANGES:

• SAMPU: Now fires in full auto.
• VP-60LCS Laser Cannon: Increased basic attack damage from 1125 to 1350. (On the next update, charged attacks will consume less ammo, I sort of forgot.)
• CURTIS: Charged damage increased from 1420 to 1630 (display says 1950).
• HARRIS: Increase basic shot from 1421 to 1631. Charged shot still gives 100% bonus damage (display says otherwise though).
• (Ransetsu-RF will be given a weight increase next version, somewhere close to Harris' weight,. Just forgot >.<)
  

BUG FIXES:

Fixed LC not aggroing you during Obstruct Mandatory Inspection mission.
Fixed an MT that lost its will to live on the bridge just before Ibis.
Fixed Heavy Cavalry duo's slow reaction to you on mission Intercept Corporate Forces.
Added booster drain to tank legs.



UPDATE 1.03.10 - Tougher Enemy ACs, Finally.

With the initial release of the mod, the countless adjustments and player buffs resulted to much shorter engagement times with hostile ACs. This felt terrible, even if the enemy ACs received the same weapon buffs the player got. They just weren't smart enough to take advantage of their reworked weapons and resulted to the player just bursting them in one or two cycles of heavy weapons.

I initially took a look at the files and saw a list of the enemy ACs and it had AP values to them. I thought it was bonus AP they get that's separate from the parts AP. However, changes in these values did not make any difference at all. So the immediate way to creatively solve the problem needed me to individually change enemy damage values to scale with any AP adjustments I were to make.

This was supposed to take a lot of time, since this is my first mod and all I do is manually edit the parameters to get changes. This proved to be a tough endeavor since I test changes every time I make them, and if I made an overtune or make a mistake in the AP and damage values, it's back to sifting through the files finding and tweaking individual numbers. That is the reason why I was originally leaving damage, enemy projectile velocity and AC AP adjustments last. But lo and behold, instead of the changes and testing taking like 6 hours or way more, it only took like 10 seconds to edit the desired values using DS Map Studio!

I'm sorry, I'm rambling, but the point of this intro is that I just want to give a very BIG thanks to ProfessorElm and Dathide for leading me to use this awesome tool!! And an even BIGGER THANKS to DSMS and its creator katalash!!!!


PROLONGED AC ENGAGEMENTS:

• Increase Player AND Enemy ACs AP by 250%. This is to give enemy ACs a fighting chance, and you'll likely won't be able to burst them down in 2 heavy weapon cycles. Arena fights should last longer than 5 seconds now.
• Increased Enemy damage to 200%. This is to balance out the increase in Player AP. Notice this doesn't scale with the AP bonus. This will result in the mobs and bosses dealing 25% less damage to you, but...
• Your repair kits do not scale with your AP bonus. This basically means that your repair kits are only at 40% their original effectiveness! Sadly, this means enemy ACs also have weaker healing as a result.
• Increased Enemy projectile velocity by 70%. (is STILL being individually fine-tweaked.)
• You now only receive 30% stagger buildup from basic mobs and bosses. Playing like a potato should still stagger you though, but highly unlikely.
  

SHOULDER CANNONS: I was previously being barred from increasing any damage output regarding shoulder heavies since any increases I made would have given players one-shot tools for enemy ACs. With the increase in time to kill for ACs in general, it is now safe to adjust the shoulder cannon potency to feel even more like heavy weapons in general content.

EARSHOT: Damage increased from 3198 to 4212. Also increased its ACS buildup and pulse armor damage. WILL stagger almost anything, if not everything, in one shot.
66SNA NEEDLE: 2468 to 3013, but now also scales higher with EN Firearm support. Still has good Direct Hit Damage on staggered things. Reload is now at 4 seconds, from the previous asymmetrical 3 and 5 for left and right.
VE-60LCA Wing Laser: Increased basic shot damage from 1046x3 to  1346x3. Charged from 2561x3 to 3061x3 in display. Now does zero impact. Significantly improved cooling capability. Extremely powerful.
VP-60LCS Laser Cannon: Increased basic shot damage from 1025 to 1125. Charged shot increased from 1921 to 2021. Now does zero impact. 
VP-60LCD Diffuse Laser: Increased basic shot from 1788 to 1932. Increased charge damage from 2331 to 2766. Now does zero impact.
FASAN Plasma Cannon: Increased basic shot from 1860 to 2230. Increased charged shot from 5232 to 6274. Can still produce ACS buildup since it's plasma?


UPDATE 1.03.01

GENERAL CHANGES: 

• Fixed enemies being able to hit you from afar when your AC is starting up in missions Infiltrate Grid 086 and Eliminate the Enforcement Squads.
• Adjusted long range spec FCS to struggle acquiring targets beyond 500 meters.
• Readjusted Hokushi's EN Firearm support back to vanilla value (from 21 to 70).
• Decreased VP-20S weight from 4350 to 2650. Increased EN firearm support from 53 to 73.
• Reduced initial burst of speed at the start of assault boost to 1.0 release values (200%).
• Reduced bonus continuous assault boost speed to 20% from 40%. EN balance has so far been pretty good and can support slower AB speeds now.
• Increased existing boost efficiency bonuses of light cores by 50%. For example, vanilla Nachtreiher had 126 previously, now has 139.
  

UPDATE 1.02.22

GENERATOR CHANGES: Your surplus load will give you an idea of how fast your generator produces energy for your AC. The more EN surplus you have, the faster it replenishes supply. But if you fully deplete your energy, your generator will enter a lock out period, and will need time, depending on the model, to start up back again.

Widened the gap of cooldown period between weight classes. Small generators receive a reduction in cooldown time while large generators get a slight increase since they have stronger output and capacity. Medium class gens remain unchanged.

• JOSO reduced from 5 to 3.2 seconds
• LING-TAI reduced from 2.4 to 2.1 seconds
• VP-20S reduced from 4.8 to 2.9 seconds
• VE-20A reduced from 4.6 to 2.8 seconds
• HOKUSHI increased from 5.4 to 6 seconds
• SAN TAI increased from 3.2 to 3.4 seconds
• VP-20D increased from 5.3 to 5.6 seconds
• VE-20C increased from 5.2 to 5.3 seconds
  

AORTA: Decreased cooldown time from 1 to 0.8 seconds. Added EN firearm support last update (forgot to mention), which is now set at an above average 95. Energy capacity reduced from 2680 to 2150. You won't need that much capacity due to its extremely fast overheat cooldown but tradeoff is assault boost will be limited.

GENERAL CHANGES:

• Adjusted EN firearm specialization on Arquebus generators to be more uniform.
• Decreased Assault Armor bonus damage by half. It's still pretty damaging on staggered though.
• Increased parts AP by 20%. This somewhat should make fights with enemy ACs last 3 seconds longer.
• Reverted cores booster efficiency back to vanilla values, still 100 if original was negative. May be tweaking these moving forward, maybe adding a tiny smidge of output.
• Missile volley of 12-version vertical missile launcher properly reduced to default.
• Cleaner boss AP reverted back to original 100% value (previously had 43% reduced AP). Cleaner doesn't have many anti-air attacks, so flying WILL make the fight boring. be warned.
  

WEAPON CHANGES:

LASERS: this is to set laser weapons apart from ballistic ones to give the weapon type a defining characteristic.

1. Lasers should have zero recoil and must be pinpoint accurate. Lasers innately have somewhat slower projectile velocity than ballistics (because science is weird in Rubicon), so having perfect accuracy would make sense in a perspective of balance.
2. Lasers should deal no impact damage, but have increased damage output compared to ballistics. They will still have small direct hit damage bonuses like most weapons, but you're going to need to use other weapon types or Assault Armor in order to build up ACS strain on your targets.

Note that only lasers that have been balance-tuned or reworked have these characteristics.

• 66LR: 131 damage  to 161. Reduced recoil to 0.
• 66LRA: 118 damage to 124. Reduced recoil to 0.
• 66LRB: Increased EN drain to 365. Previously had drain lower than the 66LR which didin't make sense. Reduced recoil to 0.
• VE-60LCA: Reduced weight by 5000. Was extremely difficult to equip two of these. Should still weigh as one of the heaviest, and still needs a ton of EN load to equip.
  

UPDATE 1.02.21

GENERAL CHANGES:

• Missile tracking reduced to be slightly higher than vanilla, except for the basic missile launcher, which still has a decent bonus.
• Lowered EN drain values of some arm and back weapons. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
• Melee lunge distance has received a small reduction. More feedback from melee pilots would be nice.
• Switched VE generator stats to VP and vice versa to match in-game description
• Increased EN firearm spec on the VP generator class.
• Slightly toned down quickboost speed and Assault Boost continuous velocity.
  

FCS and Targeting Adjustments: Since the release of the mod, FCS stats remained unchecked. It was recently brought into attention since I kinda forgot enemy ACs also use FCS that are untouched. Since you can't really tell them to equip long range FCSs, I instead redefined the range categories to accompany the change in ranged combat.

• Close range is now anything below 200 meters. 
• Medium range is above 200 up to 500 meters. 
• Long range targeting is anywhere beyond 500 meters.
• Also, depending on the specialization of your FCS, targeting will struggle to acquire targets beyond its range specifications.
  

WEAPON ADJUSTMENTS:

• SCUDDER: Increased damage from 290 to 310. Total impact to 156. Increased ideal range to 510. The increase in impact should help up its total damage output.
• LUDLOW: Increased damage from 18 to 22. Reduced total impact from 4 to 3 per bullet. Now focused only with dealing mostly pure raw damage.
• HU-BEN: Damage increased from 33 to 35.
• ZIMMERMAN: Damage increase from 440 to 600 per shot. was underperforming due to its low range and impact.
• VE-66LRB: Basic shot increased from 277 to 285 charge time increased to 1 sec from .5. Cancelling second charged shot with quickboost will no longer prevent overload. 
• VE-66LRA: damage increased from 107 - 118
• RANSETSU-RF: Charged attack recoil increased from 12 to 25. Charged attack is already very strong, so it should be difficult to land hits the further you are. Keeps up with the concept too.
• CURTIS: Increased charge attack from 1332 to 1420 per shot. Fixed a bug preventing Curtis from overheating on 3 shots. Should now overheat as intended. reduced recoil of charged shots from 80 to 10
• HARRIS: Basic attack increased from 1266 to 1421. Charged attack bonus increased from 50% to 100%. Decreased recoil to 2 on charge.
• Vertical ballistic missile volley reverted back to original number. Doubled damage per missile and reduced ammo count appropriately to compensate. Increased lock on range from 500 to 700 meters since this acts like a catapult-like launcher. Sped up missile launch volley of 12-missile version by 40%.
• Decreased melee cooldown by half as a band aid for now.
  

UPDATE 1.02.20

Added an optional file which contains vanilla boost speed values and will continue to do so moving forward.

Energy Weapons Rework Phase One: The whole purpose of this rework is to bring out defining characteristics to energy weapons. I felt that they were like 3 of them that were just upgrades of each other. Whether that's the case or not, I'm reworking those three to give them more personality to set them apart from each other. 

Charging EN weapons WILL consume your generator's power up to near neutral production at worst! So if you boost while charging WHILE EN-starved, your generator will not be able to offset boost cost. If you have more EN surplus, this will help offset the charging, and can still give you positive power output.

• VP-66LR: Instead of the standard shot, the 66LRA now fires a burst of 3 shots in quick succession. Charged shot remains the same as vanilla. Charging will consume a bit of your EN output, but is easily offset if you have enough surplus or by simply purging one or two of your back weapons.
• VE-66LRA: Now fires in full auto with unlimited ammo. Arquebus' true energy weapon. Developed primarily for extended missions, the VE-66LRA no longer requires disposable ammunition batteries. But instead recharges itself fairly quickly with its exceptional cooling capabilities. Due to its battery's experimental nature, performance suffers as it can only fire 10 successive, somewhat low damage shots before overheating. Firing in short bursts will prove to be more effective but extremely limiting.
• VE-66LRB: Now both a primary AND a heavy weapon. When Arquebus couldn't make up its mind to engineer either a standard or a special weapon for their next product, they invested more time and money into the project and developed the VE-66LRB. Primary fire no longer produces heat, but what makes it special is its charge mechanic. Charging this weapon will halt your EN production regardless of your EN surplus but fires two EXTREMELY high damaging shots in succession instead of the vanilla 1-shot. However, doing so will overload the batteries and will need 10 full seconds to come back online. Also, charged attacks will consume 40 (20 per shot) of your limited 240 ammo pool. But you can use it either as a primary for smaller targets, or a heavy weapon against tougher hostiles.
• 
  

Sniper Concept Rework: Snipers were briefly touched upon during the initial release of the mod, but they lacked personality aside from the RANSETSU RF. Now they have been revisited and the three siblings are finally given their unique traits. Charging them do not consume power output.

• HARRIS: The eldest brother of the three. Always swift, calm and sure. Now only has one in the mag, and standard shot now fires with a little more "oomph". It now fires a more mobile version of its vanilla charged shot on a 2-second reload timer. However, if the standard shot is not enough, charging is where Harris is sure to kill. Charged shots deal around 50% more bonus damage, at the cost of bracing your AC for impact and overheating Harris that will be cooled in around 2.5 seconds.
• RANSETSU-RF: The adopted brother among the three. Commitment to killing its targets is what Ransetsu is known for. Standard shots fire much like in vanilla, but Ransetsu's charged shots is what makes him feared among mercenary groups. If you can commit for a full second, Ransetsu will fire ALL of its remaining ammunition for its charged shot. Yes, even while on a full mag of 20 bullets. As an AC pilot, your commitment will either be rewarded or punished as you cannot move during the firing sequence. Due to its hot temper, its charged shots forgo ammo economy as each bullet deals less damage than standard shots. 
• CURTIS: Sister to two older brothers, Curtis learned quite a bit of something from both. Regular shots are unchanged from vanilla, but charged shots is what makes her true to her siblings. Charged shots from the air imitate Harris' swift nature, firing one single, high damaging shot. While grounded, Curtis gains confidence and is able to commit to firing 3 of her charged shots in succession. Note that the third will overheat Curtis, much like with Harris, but you can cancel succeeding shots on the ground by simply moving or boosting, also especially useful if your target moves out of your kill zone. But if you want all execute all 3 shots, you will have to stay still in the open. and I mean, do not press any directional buttons.. :D
  

Speaking of siblings Coquillett, younger sibling to Duckett, now fires in full auto. because mous braek ><


UPDATE 1.02.11

EN Fixes:

• Readjusted most EN values across the board. This should make EN-oriented builds viable again. Just remember to build around a 10% EN surplus, otherwise EN output greatly suffers the closer you are to your max load.
• Readjusted Core multipliers for energy output from 100. But overall, generator output adjustments have been halved. This should be okay since most EN-hungry weapons have been tweaked based on their drain.
• Cores with negative output multipliers have had their adjustments set to 100. Unfortunately, they received a very small increase in EN drain to ever slightly compensate.
  

(I don't usually play with Energy weapons on AC games. For the EN people out there, more feedback esp. on things breaking EN would be greatly appreciated!)

Energy weapons still haven't been looked at from a balance and mechanics perspective though, so keep that in mind. But is next. Planning on doing energy weapon tweaks and balance check once the core mechanics of the mod have been solidified.

Boosting and Mobility

• Standardized all Cores' booster adjustments to 100. I need them on this value for the next bullet point. (From what I see, it doesn't reduce flight drain, only QB and AB values for some reason. If I do find the multipliers affecting vertical flight, I'll readjust these accordingly.)
• Standardized AB drain values to be closer to vertical EN drain. AB should be set at 10% more cost than regular flight. Activation cost is set to around one second's worth of boost. Prevously, it felt weird sometimes that AB cost less than regular flying depending on your boosters used.
• Increased Ideal weight for quick boosting by 10%. This should cover the overall increase in heavy generator weight.
• Decreased Weight of heavy generators by a bit. Still should be a bit heavier than vanilla.
  

UPDATE 1.02.10

Generator Balance Pass 2:

• Narrowed the difference gaps between generator weight classes. Which means every point of energy load will matter.
• Lowered energy drain of weapons based on their EN consumption. Higher EN drain weapons/back weapons received more drain reduction. This is to facilitate the new changes in generator energy output. (still needs a bit of tweaking)
• Repurposing the IB-C03G: NGI 000: Still a super generator. Now significantly lighter among its peers in the heavy gen class, it offers unparalleled power output and is capable of providing cores with the highest capacity while also being able to use Coral Assault Armor, which is deadlier than its regular version. Note that it is highly unstable and will enter a full 12-second lock out time if you overexert it, leaving your AC grounded.
• All core generator output adjustments TEMPORARILY standardized to 100. Will be tweaking these down the line together with boost efficiency.
  

Others:

• Increased QB cooldown. Previously was set at 25% of vanilla, now at around 50%.
• Reduced initial QB force resulting to maybe 15-20% less travel distance.
• Slightly reduced AB consumption and added even more burst of speed at its initial phase while also giving it more overall speed. Should still feel expensive to use on low EN surplus builds but very manageable if you have enough EN to spare.
• Reduced guard mech AP from 750 to 460. 
• Reduced copter drone AP from 180 to 50.
• Arquebus Balteus AP reduced by 37%
• Increased JVLN ALPHA velocity by around 110% for now.
  

Next update will contain EN value balance for AC parts, and generator + booster adjustments on cores.

UPDATE 1.02.01

Generator balance pass 1:

• Generator energy production increased.  
• Lightweight generators see a sizeable decrease in weight. 
• Medium generators received a slight increase in weight.
• Large generators received a hefty increase in weight.
  

Generator Characteristics:

• BAWS series (JOSO, YABA, HOKUSHI): Generally reliable and well-rounded.
• Dafeng Series (LING TAI, MING TANG, SAN TAI): Higher Capacity than the BAWS series generators and built generally lighter, but comes at a slower recharge rate.
• Arquebus Series (VP-20S, VP-20C, VP-20D): With exceptional recharging capabilities, this set gives you the highest energy firepower money can buy, but at a severely decreased capacity.
• Aquebus ADD Series (VE-20A, VE-20B, VE-20C) Experimental units with high overall stats. Heaviest set among the bunch. 
  



To accompany the generator changes, most Core parts received a slight buff to their power output adjustments. Will balance them out in a future update. (temporary balance adjustment fix for now. Thanks, SimonTheSeal for the tip)

Minor changes:

• Assault boost continuous speed increased by 20% for now. Will test more regarding the new generator buff on energy generation.
• Melee improvements - increased melee lunge distance and speed. greatly decreased consumption.
• Decreased Sea Spider, Cataphract and Light MT AP by 20%
  

Missile Tuning:

• BML-G2/P03MLT-06 Total ammo reduced from 216 to 204. Reload time increased from 4 to 6 seconds. Reduced EN drain from 404 to 354
• BML-G1/P05MLT-10 Reload increased from 6.4 to 8 seconds. Slightly decreased EN drain from 537 to 495
• BML-G1/P20MLT-04 Increased energy drain from 258 to 275.
• Fixed Left BML-G1/P03VTC-08 faulty EN drain. 
  

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Why down-tune stagger damage? Once staggered, enemies can receive up to more than triple your damage, thus encouraging you to just build up stagger and use your high cooldown heavy weapons/melee on them once they are stunned for massive damage. This results in maybe more than 80% of your damage dealt during stagger phases, and everything else feels useless if something isn't staggered.


This AC6 overhaul aims to:

• Rework energy generation for resource management to feel like a tug of war between booster energy cost and energy production like in previous AC games. 
• De-emphasize stagger and bonus stagger damage for the game to feel somewhat like its predecessors.
• Make weapons more effective even during non-stagger phases by buffing damage, range, and bullet velocity and increasing FCS lock-on from 450 to 800 meters.
• Re-adjust and evenly distribute difficulty between boss and regular encounters. There should still be difficulty spikes, but not as severe.
• Rework primary weapons to highlight their unique traits and characteristics and provide a better variety of viable and fun options.
• Encourage tactical use of heavy back weaponry in mission engagements and give a spotlight to the Auto-Purge system and its rewarding nature. It will feel like the player AC's "Second Phase" especially with constant energy generation.
• Improve the usability of missile launchers to be more competitive than other back weaponry.
• Increase and speed up overall mobility and energy generation in air, but punish brainlessly depleting generator energy.
• Prolong engagements both in boss and non-boss encounters and prevent any 5-second boss-bursting scenarios. Now you get to see most, if not all, of the bosses' attacks.
• Increase the threat level of enemy ACs for a more engaging experience.
  

GENERAL CHANGES:

• Constant energy generation. Your generator will be at a consistent state of providing your AC with energy. Energy-neutral and even energy-positive builds are a thing!
• Stagger De-emphasis: No longer will you be doing more than triple damage during stagger phases. Stagger damage multipliers have been severely tuned down by around 90%. At most, you can only produce around 30% or so extra damage during stagger depending on the weapon. Staggering will still be beneficial aside from the extra damage due to the small yet safe damage window it provides. But it should no longer feel like an extreme necessity like in vanilla.
• Weapon Changes: To properly balance the down-tuning of stagger damage, all weapons received significant increases to their range, damage output, and ammo capacity. And some weapons have been reworked. (WIP)
• Increased Enemy AP: Enemies received anywhere from 50-400% bonus AP, except for that dark souls wheel enemy (its AP got decreased). Most bosses received AP increases as well. Due to the weapon and mobility buffs, difficulty seems to have shifted a bit in boss fights. Notes on values below.
• Lock-on range increased to 800 from 450 to accompany weapon range buffs. FCS parts have not been buffed. I like the feel of having your targeting system struggle when locking on.
• Non-sniper/turret enemies received a buff in their detection ranges.
• Greatly increased Assault Armor damage and stagger buildup. Coral Assault Armor buffed even further. Beware of enemy ACs using this against you.
• Charge time of chargeable weapons greatly decreased.
• Head scan range increased and scan cooldown halved.
• Camera height slightly adjusted higher when grounded.
  

ARM WEAPONS: All range and bullet velocity values have been increased. Long range combat is now a thing.

• TURNER: Has been reworked into a proper 600 RPM assault rifle. Increased mag size to 56 and decreased reload time to 1.8 secs. Damage set to 68, fire rate set to 10/sec. Slightly increased weight. Baseline for tests.
• SCUDDER: Functions remain similar to vanilla, but received a buffed damage profile of 290 and decreased reload time to 2 seconds. High DPS, low total damage.
• RANSETSU AR: Nearly doubled vanilla fire rate for consistency, decreased reload time and increased mag size to 42. Slightly lower DPS than Turner, more total damage.
• LUDLOW: Reworked to function like an extremely fast firing SMG. Balam successfully engineered the first ever dual-wieldable handheld 6000 round-per-minute submachine gun. Has 120 rounds in its mag but chews through it in just a little over a second. High DPS, lower than average total damage.
• CHANG-CHEN: Reworked into a sustained fire machine gun with good staggering capabilities. RPM remains at 600, but mag count has been increased to 160. Designed for consistent stagger build-up through prolonged fire. Good DPS, low range and velocity.
• HALDEMAN: Received a major increase in damage profile and stagger build up. Think of it as a souped-up version of Zimmerman with a lower pellet count. Very high consistent DPS at close range. High impact.
• ZIMMERMAN: Reworked into a 6-round Full-Auto Shotgun with a 300 rpm fire rate. Greatly decreased impact. Increased weight to be in line with the gatling gun due to its major damage profile increase.
• ETSUJIN: Machine pistol. Increased fire rate and substantially increased mag size. High DPS at close range with low total damage. Lower than average impact.
• SWEET SIXTEEN: Slightly decreased reload time. Increased damage. (will revisit in a future update).
• HU-BEN Gattling gun: Doubled the vanilla fire rate, decreased heat buildup and improved cooling time when not overheated. You still get punished for overheating though. Good impact, DPS and total damage.
• COQUILLETT: The handgun received 2 extra bullets in the mag and a major increase in its reload speed. Below average impact, high total damage and DPS.
• DUCKETT: Packs a bigger punch at more than double damage than its younger sibling Coquillett, yet receiving less than half the fire rate and a way slower reload speed. Higher DPS than Coquillett, lower total damage than average.
• SAMPU: Exceptional 2-burst pistol with both high DPS and total damage, offset by its short range. More than doubled its magazine size and increased its reload speed. High impact per second due to good fire rate.
• RANSETSU RF: Received a major fire rate increase, increased mag size and slightly decreased reload time. Functions like a semi automatic scout rifle - consistent long range DPS.
• CURTIS: Behaves like vanilla Curtis. Received a major increase in damage. Mag size increased to 16, reload decreased to 1.9. A mid-range sniper rifle. Highest DPS/mag among the 3 in the archetype.
• HARRIS: Long range sniper rifle. Heavy increase in damage per bullet. Decreased Mag size and fire rate. Sped up reload to 2 secs. Highest total damage among rifles.
  

(WIP arm weapons)

• TAI-YANG-SHOU: Increased damage, decreased ammo count to 20. reduced cooldown to 1 sec. 
• ASHMEAD (PileBunker): Damage remains the same, direct hit damage gutted.
• The rest of the melee weapons are untouched as of now, so they still have vanilla damage profiles which also include direct damage bonuses. (WIP).
• All energy weapons have received significant damage increases and more effective cooling. (WIP)
• All arm bazookas have received sizeable damage improvements, SIGNIFICANT reload speed improvements, but received a major decrease in ammo count. These are VERY capable of building up stagger and are meant to be paired with other arm weapons, so the ammo count adjustments are necessary. (Needs more testing, WIP)
  

BACK WEAPONS: Ammo economy has been adjusted and damage has been mostly condensed. Auto-purging back weapons will be a MUCH more common occurrence. Once purged, your AC will be lighter and will have improved EN regeneration.

SHOULDER CANNONS: Heavy weapons with limited shots designed for specialized use in missions. Asks the question "Should you use them during the earlier phases for a smooth start and get a lighter AC with faster energy recharge afterwards, or save them for the more difficult second phase but fight during the first phase with a heavier, more energy-demanding AC?"

• SONGBIRDS: Designed to "soften" medium-high profile targets. Significantly reduced cooldown (1sec). Slightly increased velocity. Reduced damage and ammo capacity. Slight reduction to stagger buildup. Remains to be a very useable back weapon to "soften" medium/high profile targets to finish off with your primaries. Can also steadily build up strain in enemy ACs or bosses.
• EARSHOT: Redesigned to function more like a mini nuke that can stagger MOST targets with one shot. Heavy weight, heavy damage, high velocity, VERY limited ammo pool of 4. Takes out enemy ACs and high profile targets relatively quickly. Feels good once purged. Currently my fave go to.
• MORELEY: Respectable damage increase spread across 5 rockets per shot on a 2 sec reload timer. Carries more total damage than Earshot, but weaker damage per shot.
• NEEDLE LAUNCHER: Major increase in damage per shot. Reduced cooldown to 3 secs. Reduced ammo pool to 8. Decent direct hit bonus damage.
• VP-60LCS: Laser cannon designed for extended missions. Slightly buffed damage, lowered heat buildup, sped up cooling, extremely increased velocity and somewhat reduced ammo count. Difficult to overheat.
• VP-60LCD: Laser Shotty. Has higher damage output, total damage and stagger buildup and a slightly bigger ammo pool than the Laser Cannon, but limited range. 
• VE-60LCA: Condensed damage across fewer shots. Greatly increased damage per shot to compensate for its extremely heavy nature while lowering ammo pool to 21. Feels good to purge.
• FASAN/60E: Plasma Cannon received a major increase in damage. Has slower velocity than other laser cannons, but has residual damage and will deal more total damage overall if target stays still.
  

MISSILE LAUNCHERS: More total damage compared to most back cannons and are designed for general use. Most missile launchers received a buff in their target tracking capabilities for more reliability but due to their light nature, received an increase in energy drain (which is offset by generator buffs further below).

• BML-G1/p20MLT-04: Basic missile launcher. Doubled missile volley to 8. Buffed damage. Major buff in homing ability. Lowered stagger buildup. Lowered ammo count. Low total damage count. Very reliable and damage is ALMOST guaranteed if used properly.
• BML-g2/P03MLT-06: Doubled missile volley to 12. Slightly weaker damage per missile and targeting than the basic missile launcher, but more total ammo and ACS strain buildup. 
• BML-g2/P05MLT-10: 10-missile volley version of BML-g2/P03MLT-06. Same damage and ACS strain buildup with more total ammo but heavier in both weight and EN drain.
• Vertical Missile Launchers: Doubled missile volleys across all 3 versions, increased damage, reduced ammo count. Tracking ability remains the same. Higher damage output than standard launched missiles, and better impact, but heavier and more energy demanding.
• Split Missile Launchers: Hefty increase in damage, but reduced ammo count. Improved tracking by a bit.
• (WIP back weapons)
  

Everything else not listed received a damage buff and reduced ammo count to balance, but haven't been either extensively tested or tested in any mission at all.


GENERATORS

• Generators have been given an uplift. Your generators will constantly produce energy for your AC, and will offset energy-consuming actions such as boosting or assault boosting. Energy generation has been equalized between grounded and airborne state. Generator values have been adjusted, and the difference gaps have been narrowed.
• This means zero recharge delay, so staying airborne is now a thing. The only thing stopping you is quickboosting too much or equipping too much EN-hungry weapons.
• Penalty when overheating generators is doubled! So be wary of that red line.
• IA-C01G: AORTA: REWORKED into a somewhat "safety" generator if you're having trouble with energy management. It's exceptional overheat recovery makes this a safe bet for those who aren't energy conscious.
• IB-C03G: NGI 000: REWORKED into a SUPER CORAL GENERATOR. At the cost of having the highest weight of all generators and a severe incompatibility with EN weapons, you receive the highest EN capacity and an EN generation that is second to none. WARNING: Overheating this generator will ground your mech for a full 12 seconds before it recovers.
  

BOOSTERS

• Quick Boosting has been hastened. All thrusters give out around 300% the boost force and are executed at half the duration. This yields around 50% extra boost distance at a faster execution.
• Quick Boost cooldowns have been reduced by 75%, but consumption has been increased by around 30%. Generators provide more than enough energy regen to balance this out.
• You will feel a sudden burst of speed when starting up Assault Boost which gradually decays.
• Assault Boost dodging is now executed faster and covers a bit more distance.
• Vertical Thrust has been strengthened by 30% and energy spent can be offset by EN generation.
  

Overall, it is effortless to fly, and extended aerial engagements is a thing especially if you purge your heavy weapons! 

FCS

No changes here. Likely to get good results using long ranged FCS though.

BOSSES: Increased the AP of MOST bosses. Take note that the Player AC has been severely buffed (weapons, mobility, EN generation, range, etc). I tested and tuned them using only dual wielded TURNERs and no back weapons. Overall, they are easier, but at least they last just a bit longer for fun fights.

• HC Helicopter received around 33% bonus AP.
• Balteus received near 100% bonus AP.
• Sea Spider received around 50% bonus AP.
• Cataphract received around 160% bonus AP. It's a tank...
• Ice Worm is untouched.
• Ibis Cel 240 received around 100% bonus AP.
• Liberator of Rubicon ending final boss is untouched.
• Fires of Raven Ending final boss received a small 10% bonus AP.
• Alea lacta Est Ending final boss AP untouched, but second phase "Acorn" ads AP increased around double.
• Decreased AP of Cleaner. Being able to fight while flying sadly trivializes this encounter, so might as well get it over with quickly.
  

Still figuring out how to increase enemy AC AP without affecting individual parts.

INSTALLATION:

First, make sure that you're playing in offline mode. Set your default start up method in the options in the game to OFFLINE. Once you start up in offline mode, the word "OFFLINE" should be visible at the lower right hand corner of the main menu. Do not go online to PVP with this mod, or any mod, for that matter. I haven't tried it, and you shouldn't as well.

Head over to your game folder. steamlibrary - steamapps - common - amored core 6 fires of rubicon - game. In this folder, make a copy of regulation file and keep it safe. Then paste the downloaded "modded" regulation file in the game folder.

To confirm if the mod works, equip Turner in the garage, check its stats by pressing "F" by default to show detailed stats. If the fire rate is set to 10, it's working. or you can just go to the testing area and fire the gun and see a very noticeable difference in fire rate if you remember vanilla Turner.

UNINSTALLATION:

Delete the modded regulation file from your Game folder. Replace it with your backed up copy of the original regulation file and everything's back to vanilla.


OPTIONAL FILE: Somewhat harder mode [contained in the initial release file] (on hiatus for now. Will be continued if balance stabilizes and weapons done.)

• The optional file contains all the listed changes above, but with enemy faster projectile speed(only some mobs, WIP). There have been a few bosses affected such as Cataphract and its multi rail gun attack and the true ending's final boss and its accompanying mobs (becomes a real hectic, challenging fight though, but doable).
• Also reduces most enemy stagger buildup dealt to you to 10%.