Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon by Raine_BT in

Runner introduction starts at 0:00
Run starts at 1:05
Run resumes at 19:58
Commentary is provided by Cardinal, Edgecase and pmcTrilogy
Mr. Game and Shout is host
This speedrun was recorded during Awesome Games Done Quick 2024, a week long charity speedrun marathon raising money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 is just one of the many charity marathons organized by Games Done Quick. For more information on Awesome Games Done Quick 2024, find us at: gamesdonequick.com/
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[@gamesdonequick]

AGDQ 2024 is live right now! Tune in to watch at www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick

[@LotteBlueJays]

Zullie the Witch's videos about the scale of AC6 models are great. The mining ship is so huge it crosses the entire Elden Ring map. The grubs are like the size of a few bosses.

[@jeremyparsons2944]

While I would have rather seen a straight new game run, any Armored Core at GDQ is a win to me

[@ArcRay20]

yeah, i was way more interested to see how a NG run was gonna look. big sadge.

[@masontrevelyan2254]

I read this am b4 the add stopped stopped watching, thanks 😂

[@CatzyCatzy]

Armoured...SPEEDCORE!!!

[@GhostOfRazgriz10]

Sad to see the crashes derail at the start but the runner finished strong. Very enjoyable to watch live. Will definitely be checking out more AC runs in the future.

[@s13gaming72]

Having a roboticist and space scientist on the couch was an awesome idea! Great and entertaining run despite the unfortunate tech issues!

[@alexanderminas28]

"Technically, it is a Soulsborne.." Why do i hear grinding teeth?

[@joshpalm]

"We are trying to fly a nuclear-powered octocopter on Saturn's moon Titan" is the coolest sentence I've ever heard. 1:21:00

[@ripplecutter233]

this is the first GDQ i've watched start to finish. will forever be my goty 2023

[@NeverduskX]

The commentary for this run was amazing - especially in terms of how it covered gameplay, strategies, story, and even science lol. I don't think I've seen a run's commentary really go into the game from so many angles. They went from explaining categories, to mech builds, to faction explanations, to the real-life robot equivalents of different enemy designs. Love it!

[@notimportant768]

Some MTs are piloted and some unpiloted MTs. most you fight are likely piloted as many autonomous MTs are specifically mentioned to be so at some point and there is a fair amount of radio chatter from presumably the pilots. Killing MTs instead of michigan first in destroy the redguns even cuts radio chatter and you can cut off dialogue in the balteus mission when finishing off the MTs. Related note the enforcer is part of PCA defenses, it may contain institute tech but the complete lack of coral implies PCA if anything.

[@gophermanX]

Enforcer also refers to "closure" in its death line, something exclusive to the PCA's lexicon, and its naming scheme follows PCA standards rather than the RRI's

[@Dynasty1k]

The Nightfall AC fight kinda feels like fighting Nine Ball for me. Brings back so much nostalgia and awesome core memories of wearing out several Playstations playing AC1, 2 and more.

[@jeanclaudethedarklord6205]

The talk added sooooo much to the stream, first time I've enjoyed a stream this much

[@rakaydosdraj8405]

Concerning all the megastructure and space stuff, they clearly have some cheap, plentiful building material stringer and lighter than nanotubes or titanium. With that, armored cores that can shrug off bazookas, self supporting megastructures in a grid over the planet, and bulk orbital lift all become much easier.

[@notimportant768]

The vascular plant was not upgraded it was raised into position and repaired. Months passed when raven was held captive. Now as for why months passed while *all mind* is *keeping us safe* thats a good question. Maybe it was simply raised and in a minimally functional state thanks to allminds prepwork. I am not sure.

[@varyagace]

Honestly pretty bummed at the stability issues brought in by playing on a patch before these crashes were fixed. Would rather have seen a proper story mode run. Honestly even the runner played the wrong mission in order a few times. The strats and setups were cool to see at least.

[@konshance]

i only saw he missed one mission which is understandable considering the conditions. but you can play the missions in different orders naturally. the mission list usually has up to 4 missions available. you can play refueling after survey data and tunnel sabotage and VII for example. but you can do it before cataphract, heavy missile or survey city.

[@Onethonone]

What a game. Thanks GDQ!

[@kill3rfurby]

I feel bad for the way Edge exited, but I am glad G&S gave him a good walkout

[@ridjf]

You have to turn off Ray Tracing to make it more stable

[@ExaltedUriel]

Yeah, the first thing I have to do whenever I boot up a new game is immediately turn off raytracing, it's kinda silly lol

[@konshance]

It was off from what i hear

[@OleNesie]

Didn't even know this game traced rays lol

[@wolvie90]

I can't wait for 2035 when RT becomes relevant.

[@DarkonFullPower]

​@@OleNesieOnly on the garage screen does Ray Tracing happen. But it is very weird right now and can cause mega lag on said screen.

[@jzzycaprice]

39:29 Yeah if Cortana was made of like a substance that you could put in an engine tank but you could also eat then yeah ...so Coral is just self-aware corn then?

[@ArcRay20]

i never really understood what Coral was in the game nor what Ayre specifically was. up rehearing a cutscene that mentions that Coral is also a conduit for data flow, i then realize that "ok so she technically is an AI which is why she can interact with computers. meaning she isnt a weird ghost soul thing in the Lifestream of Rubicon, but more a self aware AI that isnt aware it isnt alive but thinks it is." as an aside, she HEAVILY assumes far too much of 621. a person who never once responds to anybody due to the whole "fried brain" thing Walter mentions at the start. meaning any way she reacts based on what she baselessly assumes about 621's personality and actions is entirely on her🤣

[@gophermanX]

@@ArcRay20 Coral is a colony of micro-organisms that can form data networks within itself with enough complexity to create sentient minds, Ayre isn't artificial intelligence just a non-human one formed of coral (presumably) mimicking a human mind. It's like functional neuron soup that also happens to be incredibly flammable.

[@Mordalon]

@@ArcRay20 It's presumed Raven does talk to people, we just aren't privy to those responses. It comes up primarily when Walter talks to others about some things Raven has been saying to him, like how he's hearing voices. There's also a couple lines from Carla responding to a joke from Raven.

[@Mordalon]

@@gophermanX The true ending implies Ayre and many other Coral consciousnesses aren't just mimicking humanity but are humans converted into Coral.

[@leSmokySmoke]

the host was insane! so funny

[@Adalore]

The MT discussion is silly because we ASSUME it is Muscle tracer because that was the canon term before but we have had nothing define the term in AC6. a term we also don't have explicitly defined is LC and HC which the PCA uses, which I think the consensus is that it is light and heavy cavalry. They do use more AI themselves (Balteus is AI based.) and have an AI we don't know anything about yet besides they run simulations like allmind (who is an AI) does. Later the discussion on AI, AI was the previous age of warfare within the setting before ACs supplanted them with the augmentation. I can't remember the number of generations but there is certainly more than 2, the player is like 4th generation or at least certainly the last coral based augmentation(this is why the player is valid candidate for the 'true ending' and can talk to Ayre). generations of augmentation after the player character's is no longer based on coral, the unobtainium. It is also pretty canon that being augmented makes the subject unable to function in anything but an armored core, later generations getting better at not disabling the subject. The latest generations having the least side effects. Something about it being a metaphor that that the augmented are stripped of their humanity to be made into a weapon, an object with one purpose. Without agency you only may deal in violence. THEMES. You're only fighting to be able to regain your humanity by having the augmentation undone. At least the stated goal. :P

[@AGrumpyPanda]

In AC6, LC and HC stand for 'Light Cavalry' and 'Heavy Cavalry' respectively, you can see it in the unit designations of some of the boss fights. Based on the name and how we see them employed by the PCA, they're intended for, well, a cavalry role- rapid response, spearhead manoeuvres, linebreaking as a part of a combined arms force, et cetera.

[@tekrit3249]

Nobody says "armored core" out loud in the game, so therefore I assume AC stands for air-conditioner.

[@MuggsisGune]

You've earned my respect. Experiencing all of those technical issues in front of a live crowd and jumping straight back into the run. Well done.

[@OleNesie]

Michigan was amazing

[@Warpded]

I've done many runs of this game, but I have never had AC6 crash. It's always been super stable for me

[@backburntoo]

lol why is everyone in the comments complaining about something? Incredible run, incredible commentary. Watched a few of Onecardinals videos months ago. When I saw AC6 was on here I was hoping he was gonna be playing but very cool to have the surprise of him on commentary!

[@CyroXero]

Regarding what 'MTs' mean, going back to the original AC1 games I'm pretty sure it was said it stands for 'Muscle Trainer'. I don't know what the name means other than it could be a Trainer for pilots seeking to become AC pilots. Speaking of which, an even lesser known fact is that Armored Core units are technically called 'AMTs', or 'Armored Muscle Trainers'. I guess it's because they use heavier armor plating and defenses or whatever. Who knows. How and why the nickname 'Armored Core' came about is part of the lore I can't recall.

[@Sharpscore247]

MT stands for 'Muscle Tracer.' they existed long before AC's. AC's aren't armored muscle tracers necessarily, they use the same tech for locomotion but Armored Cores are called such because they use the "core" system, which is that the core is the heart of the machine, while there are 3 other parts attached to create the frame (head, arms, and legs). they are all interchangeable at will without modifying each part to be compatible. That is the difference between MTs and ACs. MTs are also easily mass produced because they are essentially one step from being construction vehicles. AC1 literally has an example of a crane with a gun slapped on the front

[@Sharpscore247]

if you are interested, 'armoredcorelore' has videos on all the games and the tech that goes into them

[@MegaXron211]

MT stands for Muscle Tracer

[@AGrumpyPanda]

In some games the term comes from the idea that it's a modular weapons platform built around a 'core' control block that is then 'armored' by the components attached onto it. The evolution went from weaponised MTs, which were fundamentally the same as their civilian cousins, to Cored MTs, which had been upgraded specifically to serve in combat (starting from the 'core' where the pilot is, hence the name), to Armored Cores. Note, the lore changes between games, not every game is in the same shared continuity. Edit: Also, it's Muscle 'Tracer,' not trainer. It's never been explicitly stated what that means, but the common assumption is that they're either physically designed based on a copy of human musculature, or that their control system copies human muscle movement in some way.

[@CooleoNairb]

I googled it. It's muscle tracer. But better memory than I have. Ha

[@CatzyCatzy]

This has never happened: 15 minute fix is a first I've seen.

[@orichumo]

michigan did a great job

[@BirthdayBeyond]

Casually Balteus took me maybe an hour with attempts? Even after in NG= while it wasn't an issue, it would still be a 5m fight or so and to see it melt like that was cathartic.

[@PureBrawler]

The crashing really sucked the momentum of the run, I hope they get another chance in the future

[@palatonian9618]

Sick run I hope gdq does ac6 more often

[@KUWAITGRIPSVEVO]

“Umm soo fighting on a satellite? Yeah… a few questions come to mind heh. Gravity much? I mean like come on. I don’t say I’m an expert at physics or anything but you don’t have to be Carl Sagan to think, why aren’t we flying off into space? I don’t know, maybe ACs get gravity boots when they graduate raven college or something 😂 either way it’s a big oversight by Miyazaki. And they call this the “real robot” genre! I have some KZbin videos about space time I could recommend him if I ever meet him in person.”

[@stoffers6419]

If the satellite was thrusting upward to keep itself perfectly in place you could feel gravity. Normally when orbiting the "zero gravity" is just an illusion of free falling at the same speed as your spacecraft.

[@stoffers6419]

What we think of as gravity is actually resistance to gravity. Gravity wants to pull us to the center of Earth but the ground resists that force.

[@ge5744]

Anyone know what build he's using in this?

[@leSmokySmoke]

I am REALLY sad this was a ng+ run. would have LOVED to see a full new run. especially to get new people into the game. Also I would have loved to see actual live patch strats, not just the broken weapons we had in the beginning... I LOVE AC, pls bring back a real run next time around!

[@altnu9304]

I just finished my NG++ playthrough of this game, and PMC's pronunciation of "Balam" is driving me bonkers. Also, this is what you get for running on unstable PC ports instead of on console like god intended. >_>

[@Blazegaming-te7li]

So you can do speed runs on new game Plus?

[@ripplecutter233]

22:59 *bonk*

[@sashagaster9381]

Why wouldn't they reset the timer after the early crash?

[@draakisback]

Doesn't really matter, they can always retime the run from the restart if he wants to submit it to the leaderboard.

[@mwaithephoto]

I thought the same thing

[@coltonhaynie6174]

Think it’s because it’s like an exhibition. Someone could still find the real time by subtracting the crash time, if they felt it was necessary.

[@rorykelly3166]

Hey, I was part of the tech crew for the start of the run. My understanding is that we didn't restart the timer because we weren't starting again from the 1st mission. For what it's worth, I asked the same thing at the time :)

[@danlongname]

schedule

[@shiina4826]

lost judgement on the desktop??

[@definer0]

It’s out on PC you know

[@notimportant768]

Un combusted coral can be hard to see when not on coral, or to some extent it is either to see, implied at minimum. Further more coral can be kinda super combustable or something. Like once you do manage to reach their activation energy, which to be fair is rather high, its explosion is ridiculous for their quantity. Thus why it can be a threat an entire sector of space which is what destroy the generator was demonstrating. A chain reaction occured causing all coral in the area to detonate. It also could be that the generator was powering an observation station like the one you destroyed to bond with ayre in the first place.

[@Mordalon]

I have to disagree when they called this a Souls-like. While it uses the same engine as Elden Ring and has tonal similarities to other Fromsoftware games, mechanically there is nothing about this that is specific to Souls games. Just being made by Fromsoftware also doesn't make it Soulslike.

[@alexandrebrochu4265]

Don't see much of a point of speed running NG+ with an earlier patch to be able to have OP stuff...

[@geneirai]

literally everything in speed running is arbitrary, all the rules are made up and tend to only ever be in place to create a fun or competitive leaderboard enviroment. in this case, when you're submitting runs for world record times every second counts, hell in some highly optimized games every frame counts, so a highly skilled runner will care more about the few extra points of damage on their weapons over stability, cause in their casual setting on their own stream where they don't have to worry about the estimate they can reset as much as it takes to get a good run going. this applies as much for new game as it does for NG+ most people just run NG+ cause it's more fun and fast paced then new game in the setting of playing the same game over and over again in row in fast succession.

[@elfappo9330]

don't see a point of pointlessly handicapping yourself by playing on a new save without time saving unlockables

[@palatonian9618]

Yeah, another thing that's really cool about speed runs is that the rules and categories are pretty organic, like usually the community votes on them if I understand correctly. And the community who actually runs the game are the best people to make those decisions like which patch to use

[@nevanfr]

No, "technically" it's not a soulsborne, not every FS is this kind of game. Nice run though.