Well unfortunately, most of us still don't have next-gen consoles. *sob sob*
Even though you may not be familiar with previous AC games, pretty much all the points you brought up are still applicable to our discussion anyway.
Copying designs and play styles is something that has been happening since the very first Armored Core. It's something that happens in pretty much any video game and even in real life. I'm not saying it's a good thing... only that it is inevitable.
Take U.S. online play in Last Raven, for example. Since some of their best players are fans of overboost (and really good at it too), several other players got the impression that "overboost is top-tier!" leading to the majority of Western players using OB lightweights/mids.
In Japan, however, this wasn't the case. Hanger cores (the UA, in particular) on mids (usually) were what they considered top-tier. Hence, their designs had a tendency to look like one another too.
As for our local LR scene, I can't really say whether or not we're doing it better than Westerners or the Japanese, and it doesn't really matter much. I'm just happy that the designs I've seen in our tournaments are quite unique, with each being a reflection of that player's personality rather than being a copy of something already proven to be effective.
Now about useless stats... Well they've been in pretty much every armored core series. Recoil control, max core weight, arm "accuracy", etc. etc.
EDIT - I just realized another point to show FROM's inherent bias towards humanoids: Every top-ranked raven in the arena of every AC game ever (as far as I can remember) has been a midweight biped.
Even though you may not be familiar with previous AC games, pretty much all the points you brought up are still applicable to our discussion anyway.
Copying designs and play styles is something that has been happening since the very first Armored Core. It's something that happens in pretty much any video game and even in real life. I'm not saying it's a good thing... only that it is inevitable.
Take U.S. online play in Last Raven, for example. Since some of their best players are fans of overboost (and really good at it too), several other players got the impression that "overboost is top-tier!" leading to the majority of Western players using OB lightweights/mids.
In Japan, however, this wasn't the case. Hanger cores (the UA, in particular) on mids (usually) were what they considered top-tier. Hence, their designs had a tendency to look like one another too.
As for our local LR scene, I can't really say whether or not we're doing it better than Westerners or the Japanese, and it doesn't really matter much. I'm just happy that the designs I've seen in our tournaments are quite unique, with each being a reflection of that player's personality rather than being a copy of something already proven to be effective.
Now about useless stats... Well they've been in pretty much every armored core series. Recoil control, max core weight, arm "accuracy", etc. etc.
EDIT - I just realized another point to show FROM's inherent bias towards humanoids: Every top-ranked raven in the arena of every AC game ever (as far as I can remember) has been a midweight biped.
