Armored Core 6 Speculations

[Lord_Leperman]

So, I spent the weekend speculating on AC6 instead of writing a new article for RR's front page (Don't worry, a new article will come up soon).

The following quote from IGN's interview struck me:

IGN: So it sounds like you're incorporating some kind of counter mechanic to Armored Core VI, maybe similar to what was in Sekiro.

Masaru Yamamura: Rather than calling it a counter mechanic, what we want to stress is this reason to continue attacking and to continue on the offensive. You want to create chances for yourself in combat and turn the battle to the player's advantage. So what we feel is this is going to create a really nice back and forth flow in battles in Armored Core VI, and create this nice mix of offensive and defensive play… but we want the player to feel like they're constantly able to pressure the enemy and that's why we incorporated some of these systems.

So on my thoughts, which I'll be copying a lot from Starsector's combat mechanics.

ACs would have three points of survivability. The first layer, would be Primal Armor (PA), which every AC would have (can be turned off when needed). The second would be the actual armor of the AC that we'll call Vanguard Armor (VA) which reduces the damage of any projectile that bypasses the Primal Armor, and then third is the traditionally called Armor Points (AP), akin to the health of your AC.

Every AC or enemy in the game would have some level of Energy Capacity (EC), or energy cap as known traditionally, and the generator of an AC will gradually replenish that EC. Firing a weapon, quick boosting, or taking damage through shields, diminishes any stored energy from your EC. Completely emptying your EC causes your AC to genbust/blow out, leaving you slower, defenseless, and open to attacks without any form of retaliation. The system incentivizes what Yamamura described as an aggressive and offensive playstyle. Since shields regenerate, a player must press on an attack in order to fully destroy any target.

The combat loop I'm envisioning in my head is to strip down all three layers of defense in order to finish off an opponent. Force an opponent to turn off their shields, otherwise they risk genbust/blowout, break through their armor, and maximize the damage output your AC has in the window of time your opponent's shields are down.

That said, here's the control scheme I'm speculating on if they're going for that system.

L Analog, Move
R Analog, Look
L Analog Button, Core Functon (OB, EMP, whatever)
R Analog Button, Lock-on (That souls influence)
[] (X)Button, Toggle Primal Armor
/\ (Y)Button, Prompts, Toggle autofire weapons
X (A)Button, Boost toggle / double tap to Jump (Boost hop!) and hold to boost in the air.
O (B)Button, Quick boost/evade
D-pad Up, Inside/Utility slot
D-pad Left, Left extension toggle
D-pad Down, hold + weapon to drop weapon.
D-pad Down + /\ for Manual Recharge (refill EC at x1.5 speed, but you'll have genbust status while recharging, has audio/visual que) 
D-pad Right, Right extension toggle
L1 (LB), fire Left back weapon, Toggle with /\ to auto fire
R1 (RB), fire Right back weapon, Toggle with /\ to auto fire
L2 (LT), fire Left arm weapon, Toggle with /\ to auto fire
R2 (RT), fire right arm weapon, Toggle with /\ to auto fire

Anyway, enough of my rambling.

On a side note, what do you guys think of AC abandoning the lockbox system AC has used all these years? I personally think it was one of the hurdles the game had in terms of game accessibility, and I'm fine with them shelving it for a lock-on system.