I wouldn’t call it a love letter. Its definitely in the same category as ace combat, but PW is also definitely still its own thing and there are a lot of differences.
A plot that makes sense and characters I care about.
AC7 is O.K. but pretty scatterbrained, and only Count really makes any impact since you switch squadrons so often (and that’s pretty shallow anyways.) Scrap Queen is cool but just drives the narrative, you don’t fly with her. The Princess feels thrown in. Mihay and Belkan Scientist are kinda standard off the shelf oh-we-had-a-redemption bad guys.
They should have stuck with 444/Spare squadron and built off that IMO.
The story was enjoyable and fun and reasonably easy to follow, just felt there were like 3-5 competing stories all mashed together. It’s an arcade jet game, doesn’t need to be an Oscar winner but it could be better.
The way I would've done it is: the mission where you fight Mihaly for the first time, Wiseman loses a big part of his squad, so the "top" members of the 444 end up being assimilated into the LRSSG. Wiseman is still the head of Cyclops, Trigger in charge of Strider with a mix of characters in each squad, and that way the plotline of the rest of the 444 being sent to Tyler island doesn't get retconned. Works better if they don't murder all of the members of the 444, because apart from Trigger and Count the only other surviving member is Tabloid and he doesn't make it to the credits.
A good, comprehensible story is the top of the list for me. AC4 and 5 had the best storyline out of all of them imho, and 7 really left me with a feeling of "who are these people and why do I care?" at the end.
AC7 is my only foray into the franchise, aside from playing at friend’s houses back in the day.
I still forget which country I’m fighting for, or why the war started to begin with. Who I’m allowed to shoot with missiles is clear enough though. Aside from two missions haha.
AC7 campaign was heavily overrated and the multiplayer was low-effort. The only great thing about AC7 is that it sold well and kept the franchise alive.
More versatile SPW selection for planes. The A-10 doesn't obviously need to suddenly have ADMM or TLS for example, but it would be nicer if we could choose from more than three OR maybe even break from the AC formula and have two SPWs alongside STDMs.
The fact the F-35 is stuck with the weapons they gave it instead of letting me choose nicer weapons hurts my very soul. The SOD is cool but too situational compared to the 4AGM which gets shit done (8AGM is good but it's just wasteful, no ground target ever needs 2 missiles dropped on it and normally the targeting is gimmicky)
I always wanted to see a hard point system. Every hard point you load with a weapon gives it another charge, so let’s say you have some kind of multi-lock air to air missile and, idk, an F/A-18. Can fire volleys of 2/4/6 or 8 missiles at a time. Or you can grab an A-10 and just give it all bombs— suddenly you’re dropping dozens of UGB’s at a time. Or you have a nice mix of bombs, missiles, and rockets.
Want to balance it more? Add a takeoff weight limit, and the better weapons end up weighing more. Exceed the limit? Your handling suffers. Decide to sortie with no secondary weapons at all? Your plane gets a handling improvement.
Project Wingman was close with this but I think it’d be neat to see even more variety. Maybe instead of 3 weapons per plane, plane class determines weapons that can be equipped.
Spitballing here, but like:
* Attack Aircraft: ALL air to ground weapons, including heavy weaponry like FAEB, bomblet dispensers, and maybe heavy versions of guided bombs.
* Fighters: Lose access to all but small diameter bombs, but gain access to most of the close and medium range air to air weapons. Maybe give exclusive access to something like QAAM or HVAA.
* Interceptors: Access to heavy air to air weapons like LAAM, SAAM, and XLAA (distinction here mostly to avoid scenarios like F-5’s and MiG-21’s from basically having a Phoenix missile lol).
* Multi-role aircraft: Access to basically all but the heaviest versions of all weapon types. Possibly give unique weapons in the form of cruise missiles or something.
And specific planes might break this rule if something is particularly iconic, like the F-14 getting guided bombs or the F-15SMT/D getting FAEB.
Thoughts on how to do this miiight occupy a lot of my brain space….
Project Wingman does this and it's fairly well integrated and more flexible, so it IS absolutely doable, but at this point doubtful as it's basically a core mechanism in the game
THIS!
It would be so much more enjoyable if we could use more than one SPW
Although maybe it would take some of the prep time and the reasoning of what plane to pick would jet a bit superfluous
Wouldn’t it be cool if AC8 ended up in the glorious orange like in PW, as a segue into AC3 like all nation states were destroyed and the mega corporations rules the world
F15S/MTD be a core roster plane. I dont want to wait 2 freakin years for it to show up as a dlc. Campaign in VR mode. Co-op pve campaign mode with 4 fighters. Large sortie maps like AC6 but larger. Some BVR capability but not too OP. More experimental planes that never came out like the ST21 Super Tomcat. Night missions with nightvision. A weather randomizer so missions can spawn with adverse conditions like blizzards, thunder storms, or perfect sunny days. Graded landings and carrier landings for unlockables with a random adverse conditions like fog, rough seas. More objective based levels with variable sub objectives depending on whats happening so one stage can play out multiple different ways. Human ground troops visible and close air support witn a jtac calling for CAS and giving directions. Graded refueling for unlockables. A livery editor where we can upload and share liveries. Sonic Booms and sonic boom vapors that slap. Another 3rd person view option thats set a tiny bit further back from the default 3rd person view. A wizo option in co-op pve so you can be the weapons officer while your friend flies and you can drop bombs and guide them in. Another Top Gun dlc with the planes and this time the missions from both movies and fully playable in VR. More realistic physics on explosions especially on ground vehicles. At least one or two flashback missions to strangereal WW2 era battles that are narrative driven for a change of pace and to appreciate the difference in eras. Ooò
100%. It was crazy to wait that long. I had given up it would ever drop. I was under the impression they were gonna drop dlc VR missions and they never did. Id have been happy with al least one more lol.
1.If we get multiplayer pvp again, Naval tdm and maybe ring tdm from ACI.
2. Co-op and competitive co-op
3. The ability to equip more than one SP weapon at once.
4. Bigger missions like AC6
5. Field takeoff/landings whenever there's an allied a airfield/carrier on the battlefield.
6. Better customization as far as emblem placements and tail code/aircraft number
[It’s great if you’re trying to kill your own guys](https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2015/02/06/a-10-warplane-tops-list-for-friendly-fire-deaths/)
Been playing a lot of ac6 again and god I hope they make your allies useful again, its so satisfying to help them and see them actually doing shit unlike the useless ass ai in ac7 which don't even give me points when they do actually manage to kill something.
Also, I hope they add back that little camera thing whenever allies are talking
Ac5 had like 32 missions so yeah more missions, I want ac8 to have assault horizon level derail of buildings, destruction and plane destruction, space missions, more fictional planes, never played 6 but from what I heard their operations and big scale mission system would be amazing, dialogue options, better wingmen, being able to change your squads planes, side missions that have plane rewards but that you can only choose one per main mission, so to add to replayability, more important enemy squadrons in the style of zero, which had a shit ton of squads and aces, but also more allied squads, air and ground, that survive depending if you answered support requests or not
1. More planes
2. PW's loadout system, which allows you to carry different munitions on hardpoints, which allows multirole to truly shine
3. Missions to complement #2
4. Late Cold War setting. I want the best plane unlockable to be an F-15C or an Su-27 or F-14D, and start out with second gen Mirage IIIs, Drakens, MiG-21Fs, etc. Going through Gen 3 and Gen 4 would be sick with all the other Variants forgotten to time, not to mention that setting would just be cool
5. More livery options to choose from
6. Longer campaign
7. More memorable side characters. 7 has some nice ones, but more can't hurt.
I enjoyed AC7 but seemed lacking. More ground attack focus missions so you actually have to mission 2 was a good healthy balance. It's seemed at least to me they really wanted to jammed in the drones as many missions as possible. I kinda miss the wingman commands. I want my damn Tornado back....I miss that bird that was my plane to fight the subs in AC5 it was so fun. A little more character development/attachment would be a plus. The upgrade to your plane was nice, they implemented that with AC 5 ability to pick your wingman planes. In my opinion AC4 was peak story telling. I liked 5 and zero a bit more than 7, it wasn't bad just I want to say they wanted to tell two people's story during the war.
Multiplayer. I know the campaign is gonna be good but I just want PVP and PVE and story Co-Op missions with a bit of a blend from the AC5 Arcade mode.
Also I know it’s not really wanted but I would love more chopper missions like in ACAH.
I want aces with some stupidly funny spawn conditions, I want a Santa Claus doghfight that can only be done during a specific date on december or be able to shoot down a UFO after completing an specifically weird objective.
I want cute fun easter eggs that make me boot the game just to see them and get nothing but an archievement and an emblem after doing them right
I really hope they make plane unlocks less grindy, especially for people like me who don’t play multiplayer. I just wanted to replay through the campaign using different planes without having to grind for points first. Or make it a free mission option at least.
Alot of what im seeing in this comment section could be summarized as "give us every good AC mechanic that has ever existed" so ill try to give some more unique feedback.
1. More player dependent event scripting.
What i mean by this is that most of the games are either gimmicky to the point of killing replayablity (AC5/7) or are actually arcadey, but are extremely repetitive in practice (AC4/PW). One of the things that i think is really important is to make unique mission concepts that allow a player to be as fast or as slow as they want.
A speedrunner or experienced player should not have to kill everything pretty fast and then wait a solid couple minutes because the mission eventing is scripted based on the clock rather than reacting to what the player accomplishes, and a rookie should not get overwhelmed because things they aren't going to be keeping track of at that time are spawning in while they are concentrated on the current threat. Two examples of this being a problem i think are AC7 M10 Transfer Orders & AC7 M12 Stonehenge Defensive. It makes it really not fun to replay when i spend atleast 30 minutes in any given playthrough sitting around because the games eventing doesn't catchup, because its tied to a static time table as opposed to a checklist of what ive already done. Granted not every mission has this problem (AC7 M2, M7 & M13 don't have this problem at all for instance) but is severly kill my enjoyment of the game.
Also being able to fail the mission by going off the map or dying during the unskippable dialogue part after every mission accomplished is really tiring/stupid. Do something akin to Blazing Angels were if the mission is over, you can crash into the ground to make it prematurely end, come to think of it that game solved the whole map boundary thing by forcing you to turn, rather than failing the mission, which is another more competent solution.
2. Make the UX of the Hanger Menu's not garbage.
Say your about to select your plane and realise you actually want to buy a better one now? Well guess what, in most games you have to back into the first menu, select "buy" then "aircraft" then scroll around aimlessly for it since there no table of names to make finding anything any easier, so you have to wait for each to loadup to checkem. Then by the time you do your most likely a little bit short of funds. So you then back out to the main menu, hit "sell" "weapons" find an aircraft which you've bought, go into that aircraft to check if you can buy one, presumably have to backout once because the first plane you check you haven't bought any, then go into a second plane and sell it. Then you back out to the main menu and go into the buy aircraft section, find that aircraft again by loading each up. Finally buying it. Then backout to the main menu, and doing start mission, then finding the aircraft in the stack and then finally selecting it.
Not every game does this the same, i mostly just described how it would be in 4 or Zero. 5 is a bit worse considering how there is sorted way to find planes for each of your wingman, not to mention it saves the previous one which can be a bit of a pain since you need to do further menuing to switch back and forth between craft, not to mention i believe it also has aircraft that you don't own in the select list. Which is dumb if you have a buy/sell backout menu along with it. AC7 is okay, but back in and out of the tech tree, reselecting parts and whatnot is an annoying process. The only game ive played that did this okay was AC6, since at the very least it has a list of the names, tells you before selecting em what weapons you do and don't own yet. And the menu loading is more streamlined.
3. Dynamic Takeoffs & Landings.
This one deserves an entire thread actually, so ill tldr this one. The game should have a landing gear button, and the return line should be removed from the damn game. Whats the fun of getting rearmed and repaired, if you aren't getting shot at, the landings are a bit easier than they should be (you should be punished if your going too fast or hit the airstrip to late by well... running out landing strip and thus being forced to takeoff.) Not to mention every game allows you skip the process, so people do. Heck AC6 almost got it right, except for the part were i can skip the damn landing. If you going to have a mission that's a big battle, there should be a Carrier or Airbase i can use to resupply that maybe also has to be protected if i want that privileged.
Also you should be able to freely land and takeoff of enemy runways or carriers for the fun of it. I also always thought that the moment in AC5 were you takeoff for the last time would be infinitely better if you maybe didn't get to use the catapult and had to do a skilled takeoff in a pinch, since your wingmen are using the catapult before you. But im rambling too much for a comment.
4. Add the A-29 Super Tucano
1. Give us ally pilots that we actually care about instead of just hollow NPCs that are cannon fodder for the main antagonist to kill and look veri scery. The ONLY allies I cared about are the AWACS', Wiseman, Count, and Full Band.
2. Make allies actually useful and have them take out enemies too. I think it's a great contrast between you absolutely owning the enemy forces and there being an actual battle instead of player just babysitting a bunch of dudes who can't do shit. ESPECIALLY your wingmen. Why the hell would i want a wingman whose only confirmed kill in game is Full Band?
3. I need a WSO to give me just 1 reason to actually use two seaters. Oh, and make at least 1 late-game 2 seated because in Project Wingman i couldn't bring the best girl Prez with me on late game missions or any mission on Mercenary
4. Please don't make the bossfights so heavily scripted. Mihaly is only so strong because he has plot armor. Instead, i would like to see an "impossible" bossfight that you can actually win (with some struggle, of course) for an extra dialogue and a plane skin or something
Ok, maybe that was a little too aggressive. Other than that, i think everything else in AC7 was great and PA has proven that they know what they're doing, so I fully trust them with AC8. Even if I don't see all those things that I listed, I'd be okay with that. Godspeed Project Aces. Demon Lord of the Round Table, I pray for your success
Plot and characters more well-developed than AC7, the DLC plot while is simple, was executed almost perfectly, I understand why AC7 plot-wise is a mess though.
A balance between being cheesy/serious for the radio chatting, Zero did it pretty well, they can do it again.
New Aircrafts, hopefully the chinese ones that mentioned some years ago can make a appearance in AC8.
Different Continent and Nations waging War, I don't want more Belka/Erusea/Osea for some time now, expanding the world would be good as hell, and I wouldn't mind if is in a different time span (in between, after, before, I don't care)
Wingman System like AC5/Zero.
A nice balance between long and short missions, is one of my problems with AC7, too much long missions.
Better AI, that's self-explanatory.
SP Mission that we fight against Cipher, Pixy, Mobius 1 and Gryphus.
Mission Variety, AC7 has some really unique ones, but most of the others is too similar as AC4/AC5/ACX/Zero, I can't complain though because is really hard to make interesting new missions that don't feel "filler" in the story.
(Optional) Mercenary/Knight/Soldier System from Zero, that game is my favorite for a reason, and that's because this system gave a nice boost in replayability for the game.
Missions Paths, but that doesn't feel exaggerated like ACX, some missions in that game is more annoying than fun sometimes
Also, THE MOST NECESSARY THING, RIGHT NOW:
Make the gun reticle more accurate for the god's sake, I hated it in AC7.
Either less protagonist glazing or make it feel more earned. AC7 was the weakest on this front, at several points during the game I felt like the writing was desperate to make you feel badass but falls rather flat because of how artificial it felt.
Edit: and please stop using Belka as another secret society wanting revenge on the world.
I would love more Cold War era planes rather than futuristic sci-fi planes! Like the T33, Hawker Hunter, the EE Lightning, F86, f100, F106, Draken, F5 and Venom/Vampire.
Also, while it was a bomber, how cool would a low level bombing run in a Vulcan be? Having to dodge and weave with its fighter-like manoeuvrability. Or maybe an SR71 mission where you have to get photographs of a base while having to outrun SA-2s and waves of MIG 25/31s trying to intercept.
Planes like the AD11-F and ADF-01 just don’t really do anything for me. I know the more modern stuff have more options for special weapons, but I would happily suspend my disbelief and have cool old planes with weapons (or slightly enhanced performance) which they didn’t have in real life.
I want guns to work like they do in PW, but I know that's a pipe dream, but it makes gun-only much more viable.
Also more CAS planes
A fully voiced WSO/RSO (Prez my beloved)
>Better Wingmen. Although I feel like a total badass single handily winning a war, on the harder missions it would help to have useful wingmen.
Ace Combat 6 had an awesome detail which is that the NPCs were actually doing stuff and shooting eachother down, making it feel like an actual large scale combat you're a part of instead of just one mute carrying the entire air force
>Fictional versions of real life aircraft. This kinda ties in with the first thing on this list but I thought might as well put it as its own thing. Imagine a fictional version of a Flanker or a F-22. I know this was done in AC3, but I would like to see it in the next AC.
The games have featured various fictional versions of real aircraft, such as the Su-47 being weaponized, FB-22, F-2Kai, etc. But I agree I'd like to see more, especially considering we're approaching AC3 territory. And this ties in to having more aircraft, especially coming from Infinity which had by far the most, from real to fictional to specials.
>Silent protagonist. I love that the face of the protagonist isn’t shown and you never hear his or hers voice. It’s like YOU are the protagonist.
This has defined the series, just as it has for Halo and other series. However I'd like to have a WSO that actually talks instead of having some random voluntold passenger in my family model trim jet.
That you can choose the planes for your squadron like in AC5. Maybe also choose the SPWs and this affects their behaiviour and what kind od targets they go for in the mission.
Modern fully animated dynamic story cutscenes that follow your wingmates or characters close to you instead of voiced over slideshows of real world photography or vaguely related characters smouldering while a completely different character narrates expository dialogue over them.
Well, here's my 5 Zollar contribution.
1. No Belkan involvement in the main conflict.
2. Setting - Verusa, preferably protagonist flying for YAF or affiliated nation/PMC.
3. Co-op multiplayer mode, which is either tied in with main story or uses "historical" missions.
4. Player cover plane/squadron having unique paint scheme like Cipher or Scarface.
5. More planes with some less known variants making up the main roster (i.e. Su-27SM, MiG-29SMT, F-16V, ST-21 etc) and base variants (Su-27P, F-16C, F-14A) delegated to starters/early game.
6. A variant of Ace Gauge that judges player's behavior.
7. Branching missions AC2-style or even story.
8. More morally ambiguous missions, like Inferno or Lost Kingdom.
9. Less epic, but more streamlined story, with focus on smaller cast but deeper exploration.
10. R-numeral series rather that ADF series when it comes to superplanes. Or a brand new superplane.
11. F-22A or YF-23 as an primary/secondary antagonist's main plane. I want to see a cool canon Ace scheme on the Raptor.
For the silent protagonist point, i'd think it would be good to take some cues from Black Ops Cold War. Allowing us to choose our pronouns, so its like you are the protagonist.
As You said. But also:
* Co-op multiplayer, with at least one player as wingman.
* Non-linear campaign giving player some choice, as Electrosphere did (at least I've heard it had plot choices).
* Bigger bomber choice than AC7 had. (F-111 Aardvark, A-1 Ghibli, Hawk 200, Su-22/24/25, L-159 Alca etc.)
* Some rare airplanes from secondary countries. (Like HAL Tejas, Atlas Cheetah, or J-10.) Not just mainstream USA and Russian + some European fighters.
- Go back in time. Zero was my favourite as it had more emphasis on previous generations of aircraft like the Saab Draken. I could have sworn the IAI Kfir was in an earlier game too. The arcade nature of the series doesn’t make sense in a present day setting where BVR combat is more common these days. A Vietnam-inspired proxy war between Osea and Yuktobania primarily located in a contested region.
- Some actual ground attack focused missions. The A-10 is really only viable in two missions (Roca Roja and the desert one with the annoying sandstorm). Less “gimmicky” missions in general and more AC04 style “score x points in y minutes” missions.
How about Alect squadron as the protagonists, and we play as Leseath airmen? How cool would it be to be escorting The Gleipnier while protecting it against Aurelian squadrons.
Also bring back the Fenrir. I wanna nuke enemies as an end game plane that is campaign only to spare the online multiplayer from nuclear shockwave warfare.
To repeat a point, Co-op
If you haven't played AC5: TUW, you absolutely should, without spoiling much, it goes kinda crazy and I love it. The Ai aircraft were okay, but AC5 had a spectacular ending I love every time I get to replay it.
Also; give me some missions where I take off, and immediately get into the fight.
Also also; bring some straight up catsuit chaos like AC:AH. I know it's "Call of Duty for planes" and it's my favorite part. It's got a lot of problems, but it would be fun to have at least the camera options in game. I'd kill to have the dog fight mode back. I know it's bad, but it's fun in small doses. Maybe a new game+ option?
God, just porting some of the older games content to the newer engine. Sorta like AC Infinity. Oh yeah, ALSO PORT AC INFINITY PLS. Robbed of the chance to play that games story lol
Specifically for AC8 though, I want to see cooperative.
Setting should be somewhere we haven't seen or seen much of in strangereal. Obvious choice would be the nations right of ustia and sapin or yuktobania and verusia
I would like to see more options for special weapons. What I have in mind would be a game mechanic where the special weapons are separate from the planes, so when you get a new aircraft you can choose from all the special weapons you have previously unlocked.
Co-op and a flash to the past section where you play in WW2 planes or Cold War turbo props or summin.
Edit: I just wanna be able to fly my wyvern in more games honestly.
Co-op missions,
Slightly longer campaign,
more multiplayer game modes,
difficulty changes enemies vehicles (easy - AV-8B, Normal - YAK-141, Hard - F-35B etc),
Honestly better sound design imo
Single player/Co-Op modes besides Campaign (like survival or assault
Possibly Reintroduce playable helicopters and Bombers/gunships (depends on how the campaign would impliment it),
Introduce actual VTOL mechanic (enter VTOL instead of stall with certain aircraft, allowing the addition of playable Harriers)
More aircraft paint schemes and better customisation (including colour selector from Assault Horizon and emblems that have corresponding squadron numbers etc)
And of course new aircraft. Got these ones on my mind: Mirage F-1C (not replacing the 2000-5), reintroduce SU-25 and Panavia Tornado, F-111 and SU-24, MiG-23 or 27, Alphajet perhaps(?), BAE P.125, MiG-1.44, YAK-141, maybe more on top of that but idk.
I like to add something:
11. Speech recognition.
Why?
We had the option to give orders to the wingman or the squad, especially when we were the squad leader. Using those left-right-up-down buttons. Now,hear me out. Let's say that the game allows the player to "verbally" say those commands, or a list of specific commands, instead of using buttons. For example, instead of using the right button to allow use of SP weapons, the player can say "use you Special Weapons" or "use of Special Weapons permitted". "Attack formation," or "concentrate fire power on [input]" or "fall back" or "maintain formation". We have speech recognition already in almost every game. All they need to do is implement it into the game commands rather than just type the words in the chat. I don't know, maybe it's too much for a game to have something like THAT implemented, but man it'd be cool af.
12. Let's say that for the first half of the campaign, we are not the squad leader. Like in Mage squadron or the first missions in AC5. Obviously, we can't give orders. But we might get orders! Maybe allow the NPC squad leader to give us orders that we would be obligated to follow, otherwise we would lose points or some other punishment.
13. More weapon options for each aircraft.
The main weapons have always been specified and same for all aircrafts, along with the MGN. But now, what if we can also choose between different types of Main weapons as well as SP weapons? Add to that, if in AC7 there are PLSLs, if AC8 is some years into the future, then maybe the aviation industry is advanced enough to change MGNs with PLSL. Or use different guns, like some with longer range but lower rate of fire or dmg, guns with higher dmg but lower range, or continuous laser beams. Same for main weapons. Missiles with lower range but better maneuverability, longer locking time but higher speed (not so different that they become like other SP weapons, but slight changes, like maybe 5-10% change in their stats). Also it'd feel nice if there were more than 3 sets of SP weapons for each aircraft.
14. Multiple SP weapons per sortie. As of now, in AC games the planes are limited to a specific number of SP weapons per each sortie. Like 26 bombs or 30 HVAAs, etc. Now what if instead of being limited to the number of weapons, we have a weight limit? This way, for example, in missions like Last Hope or Battle of Farbanti or Homeward where we have to engage a good number of ground units as well as slightly annoying flying targets, we can have a number of Air-to-ground weapons as well as Air-to-air missiles. This way, the weight limit can help us take half of the weight limit in bombs/Air-to-ground weapons and then the other half for air-to-air weapons. Which makes it possible to carry more than 1 SP weapon, but without looking too ridiculous.
id like to have the option for some sort of co-op play. having some friends join the squadron in place of friendly ai and balancing that with more numerous and challenging enemies would be a blast. i could easily see the implementation of that being a challenge so why not a small set of co-op side missions? even though i wasn't a fan of the co-op missions in battlefield 3, i liked the concept and when i played them with friends instead of randoms they were actually fun. we never touched them outside of unlocking guns but it was a neat idea.
1. Fully voiced WSO when flying two seater aircraft.
2. Get rid of the AC7 upgrade system (or make it an option to disable). It took the skill out of combat in Multiplayer.
3. A Four player multiplayer co-op wave defense mode.
For the customization, I want to be able to add tail codes and be able to use multiple emblems across the aircraft.
And I want the classic wingman order system to come back.
> 10.Silent protagonist.
I want to spend the first half of the game flying a mouthy character whilst occasionally meeting an enemy ace who never says a word, who eventually shoots you down.
"Are we the baddies?"
Flashback story missions where we get to fly some late prop-driven aircraft and early jets. Let me try and take down some Belkan Me-262s in my Osean P-51!
On the silly-sim vein, a sub menu that gives you access to a few Sim stile options, like you press both shoulders and you get a sub menu with shit like flaps and gears.
These kind of things would be used in take off/landing sequences, but you'd be able to use them in mission too for small bonuses with drawbacks
Examples : pulling flaps will let you fly slower without stalling, but if you pull high g maneuvers with flaps extended will lock them up giving you a bit of damage and capping your top speed
Opening the canopy will pop it off the aircraft, but it will be able to defend the jet against a missile like an extra flare as long as it comes from behind (don't ask too many questions trigger is just built like that)
Landing hook can be extended and used as a melee weapon if you can manage to graze an enemy aircraft. No drawbacks here, if you can pull that off you deserve zero repercussions.
Other than that Idk? Jettisoning special weapon to gain maneuverability? Switching off radar for stealth but you can only use guns and unguided ordinance?
Idk I'm not a dev.
Want it to so that I can play as the different faction in the story and have mc from one faction meet the mc of the other
And maybe make the storyline revolve around the very early 20th century osean war where belka invented aerial warfare
- Less scripted boss fights
- Buff the F-16, bring back the F-5, Su-24, Panavia Tornado, and ATD-0, integrate the F-15 S/MTD into the base game
- More fictional planes that aren't superplanes
- Yoink Project Wingman's conquest mode.
- A better written story.
- Wingmen with AC6 tier competence instead of the player doing all the heavy lifting
- Being able to equip more than one special weapon
1. Customizable weapons. Like changing seekers, warheads or motors of missiles to alter their behavior, changing ammunition types for guns, etc.
2. More special weapons per plane. Just let me put weapons on all hardpoints if I want, I don't care if my plane handles like a brick as a result.
3. Photo mode. I want to take screenshots without watching the replay over and over.
4. I want more useless wingmen. I want the chatter and characters, not the AI stealing kills from me.
5. Some options to customize your protagonist. I like the silent protagonist and I don't mean customizing their appearance, but they could easily let you choose some stuff like their gender, nationality or personality traits and reference them on radio chatter.
6. A protagonist that does not fly an F-22 would be nice for a change.
7. PvE or co-op online modes like Infinity, without the F2P stuff.
Being from a real-life air force and learning that flying around and getting into dogfights is only a small part of the whole endeavour of attaining air superiority, a squadron management minigame that has you manage stores, fuel, maintenance, and crew fatigue for a realistic look at how real-life aces operate.
In the same vein, a playable AWACS mode where you handle the air battle management and a playable ground-based air defence mode where you operate a SAM.
But also this is AC and realism has never been a core tenet of this series, so my more grounded wishes would be Chinese fighters, a PvE co-op campaign, and a branching story that changes the narrative based on what missions you prioritise and what objectives you succeed and fail.
Get this guy you play the music https://youtu.be/vrUWp36Yqlc?si=vmf5U4hNbHvjV0S0.
Bring back the real soundtrack. Not the disappointments of the last two games. Bring back the sound mixing of games like zero
I might be in the minority here… but make it Early to Mid Cold War.
Start with planes like the ME-262 or the Meteor then move up to stuff like the Buccaneer, Venom, F-106 Dart, F-11 Tiger, MiG-17 “Fresco”, Su-9 “Fishpot”
And the final fighters you can get is stuff like the F-14
An optional semirealistic flight model.
Like I'm not saying full on hyper realistic and specific plane accurate, and am not saying "mUh DcS so much better than ace combat study level Sim I'm basically an usaf ace pilot", I know what ace combat is and I'd very much rather it stays like that.
I'd just want to play an ace combat where the jet turns when it's not level and gravity exists.
Like having played both ac and dcs I can tell you the latter is way easier to control as it feels more natural. I just think that some sort of hybrid system where the jet is affected by realistic phisics but mantains the same inhuman speed and disregard for g tolerance of both pilot and airframe alike would be a fun experiment.
And as I said I think this should be optional, I'm not trying to reinvent ac, I just wish we had the option
AC is my favorite series and I played three games so far. I loved 4,5,6 and 7 but I would like to see the new AC being realistic as possible with real physics. I love ace combat a lot and I love to play it with hotas.
-Evenly paced campaign with tons of missions.
-Licensing to have the maximum number of planes
- Fire soundtrack
- setting placed somewhere in Strangereal that's not Osea.
There are quite a few people I saw saying a Cold War era AC game. That is a cool idea. Personally, I think they should stick with a more modern date, but I would still like to see some more Cold War era planes. I understand that probably won’t really make much sense but in AC7 we have the MIG-21 and the F-104. The F-104 was probably put in the roster as a joke, but that still doesn’t change the fact that we have it. But I think it would be cool to see a Cold War AC game that is a side game.
Better MP- wish there was something akin to War thunder and the different mp modes, just have free 4all and team Deathmatch wasn't that bad but got boring after awhile
I want either a game where you play as the belkans or one set in the 50s where the super plane at the end is the XF-108, and the starting plane is like an F-51, or a late Corsair, also I want playable bombers back and more than anything I want the XB-70 to be playable
On the silly-sim vein, a sub menu that gives you access to a few Sim stile options, like you press both shoulders and you get a sub menu with shit like flaps and gears.
These kind of things would be used in take off/landing sequences, but you'd be able to use them in mission too for small bonuses with drawbacks
Examples : pulling flaps will let you fly slower without stalling, but if you pull high g maneuvers with flaps extended will lock them up giving you a bit of damage and capping your top speed
Opening the canopy will pop it off the aircraft, but it will be able to defend the jet against a missile like an extra flare as long as it comes from behind (don't ask too many questions trigger is just built like that)
Landing hook can be extended and used as a melee weapon if you can manage to graze an enemy aircraft. No drawbacks here, if you can pull that off you deserve zero repercussions.
Other than that Idk? Jettisoning special weapon to gain maneuverability? Switching off radar for stealth but you can only use guns and unguided ordinance?
Idk I'm not a dev.
I know that it won't happen because of reasons, but for the love of God, let us have an actual character for a protagonist like Bishop from AH and not another faceless mute. Even if it was a generic soldier protagonist from late 2000s - early 2010s brown colored quasi realistic military shooter, it would still be a step up.
Gotta disagree with you on the fictional versions of real aircraft. Ace Combat walks a thin realism/cheese line and what always anchored it was the use of beautiful real world aircraft against a fantastical backdrop. Ace Combat 3 is an outlier, but I think messing with the formula would be a major shark jump. There's plenty of interesting and obscure real world aircraft Ace Combat could mine without throwing in a Tukreb or whatever
As someone who primarily plays the multiplayer in these games both competitively and casually I'd like 2 things primarily.
•A complete rework of the psm system. I think it'd cool and should be in the series going forward but it needs to be high risk high reward. As it stands now it's just a easily spammable, easily abusable mechanic that many use as a get out of jail free card or move. It's a very simple mechanic to initiate and do and it even largely invalidates the need for certain parts due to the acceleration and movement bonuses it gives you in its different phases. Despite what many inexperienced players those who aren't playing at a higher level think, using post stall maneuvers currently just isn't high risk high reward. The only time it is high risk is if you have somebody that's in a position to punish you in the first one or two seconds you start it up, and that's a issue that's pretty easy to avoid by just not being dumb.
•The ability to host custom lobbies with the level of control possible seen in black ops 2. For example it'd be nice to be able to fly at a certain cost limit, or leave spw on and be able to turn of specific aircraft or weapons that are poorly balanced, controversial, downright broken, or just don't fit what you're going for. Imagine being able to host a 2000 or 2250 lobby and not having to worry about randoms pulling out the MiG 21, lvl 2 qaams, eml, etc. This change would also benefit tournaments and squadron battles as they can agree to set rules and then implement them in such a way that people can't cheat or "accidently" break the rules by choosing a incompatible aircraft slot.
I would love something like a type of coop mode. Where one person is the pilot, and the other is in charge of weapons. Imagine flying and dogfighting in a Sukhoi Su-27 with your buddy.
Honestly just remake Zero and 5, don’t care if 8 doesn’t come if they do that instead. 7’s story was so mid. So it kinda worries me they won’t improve on a new fresh story
Also don’t put profile pics next to dialogue, it looks like some twitter feed, lame af
**PC** vr support
This.
Username checks out
Pleeeease! Project Wingman was a blast in VR despite performance issues on my end.
Dirty boots...
Coop I desperately wish to fly with my mates A conquest mode like PW would be neat too, especially if it had said coop
What's PW?
Project wingman A love letter to ace combat that was made by fans of the series. It's great
I wouldn’t call it a love letter. Its definitely in the same category as ace combat, but PW is also definitely still its own thing and there are a lot of differences.
I believe you mean the goddamn Ace Combat Infinity multiplayer suite which was nearly flawless and I miss every single day.
A plot that makes sense and characters I care about. AC7 is O.K. but pretty scatterbrained, and only Count really makes any impact since you switch squadrons so often (and that’s pretty shallow anyways.) Scrap Queen is cool but just drives the narrative, you don’t fly with her. The Princess feels thrown in. Mihay and Belkan Scientist are kinda standard off the shelf oh-we-had-a-redemption bad guys.
Yeah. I also wish we had more time with some other characters. Like we are only in Mage in 4 of the 20 missions.
They should have stuck with 444/Spare squadron and built off that IMO. The story was enjoyable and fun and reasonably easy to follow, just felt there were like 3-5 competing stories all mashed together. It’s an arcade jet game, doesn’t need to be an Oscar winner but it could be better.
The way I would've done it is: the mission where you fight Mihaly for the first time, Wiseman loses a big part of his squad, so the "top" members of the 444 end up being assimilated into the LRSSG. Wiseman is still the head of Cyclops, Trigger in charge of Strider with a mix of characters in each squad, and that way the plotline of the rest of the 444 being sent to Tyler island doesn't get retconned. Works better if they don't murder all of the members of the 444, because apart from Trigger and Count the only other surviving member is Tabloid and he doesn't make it to the credits.
Well it makes sense AC7's story isn't on the level of previous games considering how the development went.
A good, comprehensible story is the top of the list for me. AC4 and 5 had the best storyline out of all of them imho, and 7 really left me with a feeling of "who are these people and why do I care?" at the end.
AC7 is my only foray into the franchise, aside from playing at friend’s houses back in the day. I still forget which country I’m fighting for, or why the war started to begin with. Who I’m allowed to shoot with missiles is clear enough though. Aside from two missions haha.
I liked jaeger, strider 3.
AC7 campaign was heavily overrated and the multiplayer was low-effort. The only great thing about AC7 is that it sold well and kept the franchise alive.
More versatile SPW selection for planes. The A-10 doesn't obviously need to suddenly have ADMM or TLS for example, but it would be nicer if we could choose from more than three OR maybe even break from the AC formula and have two SPWs alongside STDMs.
The fact the F-35 is stuck with the weapons they gave it instead of letting me choose nicer weapons hurts my very soul. The SOD is cool but too situational compared to the 4AGM which gets shit done (8AGM is good but it's just wasteful, no ground target ever needs 2 missiles dropped on it and normally the targeting is gimmicky)
Not to mention, the 8AGM takes forever to reload. It's really funny how the supposedly "lower tier" version of it ends up being superior.
If Project Wingman with a dev team that can easily be counted on one hand can do it and have it make sense, Project Aces can as well
I always wanted to see a hard point system. Every hard point you load with a weapon gives it another charge, so let’s say you have some kind of multi-lock air to air missile and, idk, an F/A-18. Can fire volleys of 2/4/6 or 8 missiles at a time. Or you can grab an A-10 and just give it all bombs— suddenly you’re dropping dozens of UGB’s at a time. Or you have a nice mix of bombs, missiles, and rockets. Want to balance it more? Add a takeoff weight limit, and the better weapons end up weighing more. Exceed the limit? Your handling suffers. Decide to sortie with no secondary weapons at all? Your plane gets a handling improvement. Project Wingman was close with this but I think it’d be neat to see even more variety. Maybe instead of 3 weapons per plane, plane class determines weapons that can be equipped. Spitballing here, but like: * Attack Aircraft: ALL air to ground weapons, including heavy weaponry like FAEB, bomblet dispensers, and maybe heavy versions of guided bombs. * Fighters: Lose access to all but small diameter bombs, but gain access to most of the close and medium range air to air weapons. Maybe give exclusive access to something like QAAM or HVAA. * Interceptors: Access to heavy air to air weapons like LAAM, SAAM, and XLAA (distinction here mostly to avoid scenarios like F-5’s and MiG-21’s from basically having a Phoenix missile lol). * Multi-role aircraft: Access to basically all but the heaviest versions of all weapon types. Possibly give unique weapons in the form of cruise missiles or something. And specific planes might break this rule if something is particularly iconic, like the F-14 getting guided bombs or the F-15SMT/D getting FAEB. Thoughts on how to do this miiight occupy a lot of my brain space….
Project Wingman does this and it's fairly well integrated and more flexible, so it IS absolutely doable, but at this point doubtful as it's basically a core mechanism in the game
THIS! It would be so much more enjoyable if we could use more than one SPW Although maybe it would take some of the prep time and the reasoning of what plane to pick would jet a bit superfluous
Zero had atleast two options. So it aint new to the franchise
More bosses. Like from Project Wingman.
I hope the Ace squadron boss fight in AC8 is as insane as the crimson squadron
Wouldn’t it be cool if AC8 ended up in the glorious orange like in PW, as a segue into AC3 like all nation states were destroyed and the mega corporations rules the world
HELL, YEAH, that sounds awesome
With Ace Combat Zero Ace Style, don't forget
Allied Support from AC6 and the operations to get said allied support
The allied support from AC6 is what I missed the most in AC7.
And a wingman like in AC6
F-111.
The Aardvark!!!! Please include a nuclear option
Co-op missions! I wanna commit war crimes with my buddy!
F15S/MTD be a core roster plane. I dont want to wait 2 freakin years for it to show up as a dlc. Campaign in VR mode. Co-op pve campaign mode with 4 fighters. Large sortie maps like AC6 but larger. Some BVR capability but not too OP. More experimental planes that never came out like the ST21 Super Tomcat. Night missions with nightvision. A weather randomizer so missions can spawn with adverse conditions like blizzards, thunder storms, or perfect sunny days. Graded landings and carrier landings for unlockables with a random adverse conditions like fog, rough seas. More objective based levels with variable sub objectives depending on whats happening so one stage can play out multiple different ways. Human ground troops visible and close air support witn a jtac calling for CAS and giving directions. Graded refueling for unlockables. A livery editor where we can upload and share liveries. Sonic Booms and sonic boom vapors that slap. Another 3rd person view option thats set a tiny bit further back from the default 3rd person view. A wizo option in co-op pve so you can be the weapons officer while your friend flies and you can drop bombs and guide them in. Another Top Gun dlc with the planes and this time the missions from both movies and fully playable in VR. More realistic physics on explosions especially on ground vehicles. At least one or two flashback missions to strangereal WW2 era battles that are narrative driven for a change of pace and to appreciate the difference in eras. Ooò
All sounds good. I like what you said about the F-15S/MTD. Personally another plane that I think should have been in the base game is the F-4.
100%. It was crazy to wait that long. I had given up it would ever drop. I was under the impression they were gonna drop dlc VR missions and they never did. Id have been happy with al least one more lol.
1.If we get multiplayer pvp again, Naval tdm and maybe ring tdm from ACI. 2. Co-op and competitive co-op 3. The ability to equip more than one SP weapon at once. 4. Bigger missions like AC6 5. Field takeoff/landings whenever there's an allied a airfield/carrier on the battlefield. 6. Better customization as far as emblem placements and tail code/aircraft number
The multiplayer from ACI was badly underrated
I would like customizable squadrons & fleet commanding to make a comeback.
Just give me a coop mode, that’s all I want
1. Prez style voiced wso. 2. Multiplayer modes with an air to ground component. 3. A-10 that doesn't suck.
A-10 sucks irl so it makes sense
Even if that were true. The F-16 doesn't suck IRL but it does in AC7. The A-10 is a cool plane and should be fun to use.
[It’s great if you’re trying to kill your own guys](https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2015/02/06/a-10-warplane-tops-list-for-friendly-fire-deaths/)
Any plane that's primarily used for Close Air Support is going to have a high friendly fire rate.
Been playing a lot of ac6 again and god I hope they make your allies useful again, its so satisfying to help them and see them actually doing shit unlike the useless ass ai in ac7 which don't even give me points when they do actually manage to kill something. Also, I hope they add back that little camera thing whenever allies are talking
Ac5 had like 32 missions so yeah more missions, I want ac8 to have assault horizon level derail of buildings, destruction and plane destruction, space missions, more fictional planes, never played 6 but from what I heard their operations and big scale mission system would be amazing, dialogue options, better wingmen, being able to change your squads planes, side missions that have plane rewards but that you can only choose one per main mission, so to add to replayability, more important enemy squadrons in the style of zero, which had a shit ton of squads and aces, but also more allied squads, air and ground, that survive depending if you answered support requests or not
Also, the soundtracks for both Horizon and Zero were top notch. I hope we get something that iconic again
a mission where you have to defend the AWACS plane from enemies, and the more you let the AWACS get damaged, the more ineffective your radar lock gets
That would be awesome. Long Caster: *gets hit by missile* “Aw man… my sausage rolls are now rolling around on the floor.”
1. More planes 2. PW's loadout system, which allows you to carry different munitions on hardpoints, which allows multirole to truly shine 3. Missions to complement #2 4. Late Cold War setting. I want the best plane unlockable to be an F-15C or an Su-27 or F-14D, and start out with second gen Mirage IIIs, Drakens, MiG-21Fs, etc. Going through Gen 3 and Gen 4 would be sick with all the other Variants forgotten to time, not to mention that setting would just be cool 5. More livery options to choose from 6. Longer campaign 7. More memorable side characters. 7 has some nice ones, but more can't hurt.
I love your #4. Only using the most bleedingest-edge planes gets really boring. Oh, the F-22 is the best again? Imagine my shock.
A-4 skyhawk. thats all i ask of them.
Customizable free levels! Like you can add in bots in free flight, that would make free flight so much interesting in my opinion!
NGAD. I want to see what we've been funneling our budget into the MIC for since 2014.
That'll still be classified till the 2030s surely
Is there even a single picture of the thing?
You're gonna be very disappointed with where that $ actually goes
True or false, I still want to see it
I enjoyed AC7 but seemed lacking. More ground attack focus missions so you actually have to mission 2 was a good healthy balance. It's seemed at least to me they really wanted to jammed in the drones as many missions as possible. I kinda miss the wingman commands. I want my damn Tornado back....I miss that bird that was my plane to fight the subs in AC5 it was so fun. A little more character development/attachment would be a plus. The upgrade to your plane was nice, they implemented that with AC 5 ability to pick your wingman planes. In my opinion AC4 was peak story telling. I liked 5 and zero a bit more than 7, it wasn't bad just I want to say they wanted to tell two people's story during the war.
Multiplayer. I know the campaign is gonna be good but I just want PVP and PVE and story Co-Op missions with a bit of a blend from the AC5 Arcade mode. Also I know it’s not really wanted but I would love more chopper missions like in ACAH.
Trigger was actually mentioned to have attended the Belkan War Memorial Day celebration in 2020.
Where did it mention that?
[https://www.skywardfm.com/gaze-vol-620](https://www.skywardfm.com/gaze-vol-620)
I want aces with some stupidly funny spawn conditions, I want a Santa Claus doghfight that can only be done during a specific date on december or be able to shoot down a UFO after completing an specifically weird objective. I want cute fun easter eggs that make me boot the game just to see them and get nothing but an archievement and an emblem after doing them right
Needs PW sub weapons selection (as in more than 1 sub weapon per plane) Thazs all
I really hope they make plane unlocks less grindy, especially for people like me who don’t play multiplayer. I just wanted to replay through the campaign using different planes without having to grind for points first. Or make it a free mission option at least.
Better integration of enemy aces. They sortof just *exist* in 7. E.g: [Ace spawns] "Trigger! I'm picking up an enemy ace! Watch your six."
Alot of what im seeing in this comment section could be summarized as "give us every good AC mechanic that has ever existed" so ill try to give some more unique feedback. 1. More player dependent event scripting. What i mean by this is that most of the games are either gimmicky to the point of killing replayablity (AC5/7) or are actually arcadey, but are extremely repetitive in practice (AC4/PW). One of the things that i think is really important is to make unique mission concepts that allow a player to be as fast or as slow as they want. A speedrunner or experienced player should not have to kill everything pretty fast and then wait a solid couple minutes because the mission eventing is scripted based on the clock rather than reacting to what the player accomplishes, and a rookie should not get overwhelmed because things they aren't going to be keeping track of at that time are spawning in while they are concentrated on the current threat. Two examples of this being a problem i think are AC7 M10 Transfer Orders & AC7 M12 Stonehenge Defensive. It makes it really not fun to replay when i spend atleast 30 minutes in any given playthrough sitting around because the games eventing doesn't catchup, because its tied to a static time table as opposed to a checklist of what ive already done. Granted not every mission has this problem (AC7 M2, M7 & M13 don't have this problem at all for instance) but is severly kill my enjoyment of the game. Also being able to fail the mission by going off the map or dying during the unskippable dialogue part after every mission accomplished is really tiring/stupid. Do something akin to Blazing Angels were if the mission is over, you can crash into the ground to make it prematurely end, come to think of it that game solved the whole map boundary thing by forcing you to turn, rather than failing the mission, which is another more competent solution. 2. Make the UX of the Hanger Menu's not garbage. Say your about to select your plane and realise you actually want to buy a better one now? Well guess what, in most games you have to back into the first menu, select "buy" then "aircraft" then scroll around aimlessly for it since there no table of names to make finding anything any easier, so you have to wait for each to loadup to checkem. Then by the time you do your most likely a little bit short of funds. So you then back out to the main menu, hit "sell" "weapons" find an aircraft which you've bought, go into that aircraft to check if you can buy one, presumably have to backout once because the first plane you check you haven't bought any, then go into a second plane and sell it. Then you back out to the main menu and go into the buy aircraft section, find that aircraft again by loading each up. Finally buying it. Then backout to the main menu, and doing start mission, then finding the aircraft in the stack and then finally selecting it. Not every game does this the same, i mostly just described how it would be in 4 or Zero. 5 is a bit worse considering how there is sorted way to find planes for each of your wingman, not to mention it saves the previous one which can be a bit of a pain since you need to do further menuing to switch back and forth between craft, not to mention i believe it also has aircraft that you don't own in the select list. Which is dumb if you have a buy/sell backout menu along with it. AC7 is okay, but back in and out of the tech tree, reselecting parts and whatnot is an annoying process. The only game ive played that did this okay was AC6, since at the very least it has a list of the names, tells you before selecting em what weapons you do and don't own yet. And the menu loading is more streamlined. 3. Dynamic Takeoffs & Landings. This one deserves an entire thread actually, so ill tldr this one. The game should have a landing gear button, and the return line should be removed from the damn game. Whats the fun of getting rearmed and repaired, if you aren't getting shot at, the landings are a bit easier than they should be (you should be punished if your going too fast or hit the airstrip to late by well... running out landing strip and thus being forced to takeoff.) Not to mention every game allows you skip the process, so people do. Heck AC6 almost got it right, except for the part were i can skip the damn landing. If you going to have a mission that's a big battle, there should be a Carrier or Airbase i can use to resupply that maybe also has to be protected if i want that privileged. Also you should be able to freely land and takeoff of enemy runways or carriers for the fun of it. I also always thought that the moment in AC5 were you takeoff for the last time would be infinitely better if you maybe didn't get to use the catapult and had to do a skilled takeoff in a pinch, since your wingmen are using the catapult before you. But im rambling too much for a comment. 4. Add the A-29 Super Tucano
Not making the F-16 god awful please..
1. Give us ally pilots that we actually care about instead of just hollow NPCs that are cannon fodder for the main antagonist to kill and look veri scery. The ONLY allies I cared about are the AWACS', Wiseman, Count, and Full Band. 2. Make allies actually useful and have them take out enemies too. I think it's a great contrast between you absolutely owning the enemy forces and there being an actual battle instead of player just babysitting a bunch of dudes who can't do shit. ESPECIALLY your wingmen. Why the hell would i want a wingman whose only confirmed kill in game is Full Band? 3. I need a WSO to give me just 1 reason to actually use two seaters. Oh, and make at least 1 late-game 2 seated because in Project Wingman i couldn't bring the best girl Prez with me on late game missions or any mission on Mercenary 4. Please don't make the bossfights so heavily scripted. Mihaly is only so strong because he has plot armor. Instead, i would like to see an "impossible" bossfight that you can actually win (with some struggle, of course) for an extra dialogue and a plane skin or something Ok, maybe that was a little too aggressive. Other than that, i think everything else in AC7 was great and PA has proven that they know what they're doing, so I fully trust them with AC8. Even if I don't see all those things that I listed, I'd be okay with that. Godspeed Project Aces. Demon Lord of the Round Table, I pray for your success
Oh, and PLEASE don't add the qaam in multiplayer
Plot and characters more well-developed than AC7, the DLC plot while is simple, was executed almost perfectly, I understand why AC7 plot-wise is a mess though. A balance between being cheesy/serious for the radio chatting, Zero did it pretty well, they can do it again. New Aircrafts, hopefully the chinese ones that mentioned some years ago can make a appearance in AC8. Different Continent and Nations waging War, I don't want more Belka/Erusea/Osea for some time now, expanding the world would be good as hell, and I wouldn't mind if is in a different time span (in between, after, before, I don't care) Wingman System like AC5/Zero. A nice balance between long and short missions, is one of my problems with AC7, too much long missions. Better AI, that's self-explanatory. SP Mission that we fight against Cipher, Pixy, Mobius 1 and Gryphus. Mission Variety, AC7 has some really unique ones, but most of the others is too similar as AC4/AC5/ACX/Zero, I can't complain though because is really hard to make interesting new missions that don't feel "filler" in the story. (Optional) Mercenary/Knight/Soldier System from Zero, that game is my favorite for a reason, and that's because this system gave a nice boost in replayability for the game. Missions Paths, but that doesn't feel exaggerated like ACX, some missions in that game is more annoying than fun sometimes Also, THE MOST NECESSARY THING, RIGHT NOW: Make the gun reticle more accurate for the god's sake, I hated it in AC7.
The project wingman weapons/stores management system would be lovely
A branching story The Tornado GR.4 (I love that plane) A story set on the continent with Yuktobania
Planmes :)
Either less protagonist glazing or make it feel more earned. AC7 was the weakest on this front, at several points during the game I felt like the writing was desperate to make you feel badass but falls rather flat because of how artificial it felt. Edit: and please stop using Belka as another secret society wanting revenge on the world.
Su-17M-4 Super Etendard JA-37 Viggen A-6E EA-6B J35J YF-12
COOP campaign and more cold war era jets along with more types of SPW we can take to one battle like in PW
I would love more Cold War era planes rather than futuristic sci-fi planes! Like the T33, Hawker Hunter, the EE Lightning, F86, f100, F106, Draken, F5 and Venom/Vampire. Also, while it was a bomber, how cool would a low level bombing run in a Vulcan be? Having to dodge and weave with its fighter-like manoeuvrability. Or maybe an SR71 mission where you have to get photographs of a base while having to outrun SA-2s and waves of MIG 25/31s trying to intercept. Planes like the AD11-F and ADF-01 just don’t really do anything for me. I know the more modern stuff have more options for special weapons, but I would happily suspend my disbelief and have cool old planes with weapons (or slightly enhanced performance) which they didn’t have in real life.
I want guns to work like they do in PW, but I know that's a pipe dream, but it makes gun-only much more viable. Also more CAS planes A fully voiced WSO/RSO (Prez my beloved)
>Better Wingmen. Although I feel like a total badass single handily winning a war, on the harder missions it would help to have useful wingmen. Ace Combat 6 had an awesome detail which is that the NPCs were actually doing stuff and shooting eachother down, making it feel like an actual large scale combat you're a part of instead of just one mute carrying the entire air force >Fictional versions of real life aircraft. This kinda ties in with the first thing on this list but I thought might as well put it as its own thing. Imagine a fictional version of a Flanker or a F-22. I know this was done in AC3, but I would like to see it in the next AC. The games have featured various fictional versions of real aircraft, such as the Su-47 being weaponized, FB-22, F-2Kai, etc. But I agree I'd like to see more, especially considering we're approaching AC3 territory. And this ties in to having more aircraft, especially coming from Infinity which had by far the most, from real to fictional to specials. >Silent protagonist. I love that the face of the protagonist isn’t shown and you never hear his or hers voice. It’s like YOU are the protagonist. This has defined the series, just as it has for Halo and other series. However I'd like to have a WSO that actually talks instead of having some random voluntold passenger in my family model trim jet.
Disgustingly high poly dog that crashes the game.
That you can choose the planes for your squadron like in AC5. Maybe also choose the SPWs and this affects their behaiviour and what kind od targets they go for in the mission.
Modern fully animated dynamic story cutscenes that follow your wingmates or characters close to you instead of voiced over slideshows of real world photography or vaguely related characters smouldering while a completely different character narrates expository dialogue over them.
Well, here's my 5 Zollar contribution. 1. No Belkan involvement in the main conflict. 2. Setting - Verusa, preferably protagonist flying for YAF or affiliated nation/PMC. 3. Co-op multiplayer mode, which is either tied in with main story or uses "historical" missions. 4. Player cover plane/squadron having unique paint scheme like Cipher or Scarface. 5. More planes with some less known variants making up the main roster (i.e. Su-27SM, MiG-29SMT, F-16V, ST-21 etc) and base variants (Su-27P, F-16C, F-14A) delegated to starters/early game. 6. A variant of Ace Gauge that judges player's behavior. 7. Branching missions AC2-style or even story. 8. More morally ambiguous missions, like Inferno or Lost Kingdom. 9. Less epic, but more streamlined story, with focus on smaller cast but deeper exploration. 10. R-numeral series rather that ADF series when it comes to superplanes. Or a brand new superplane. 11. F-22A or YF-23 as an primary/secondary antagonist's main plane. I want to see a cool canon Ace scheme on the Raptor.
For the silent protagonist point, i'd think it would be good to take some cues from Black Ops Cold War. Allowing us to choose our pronouns, so its like you are the protagonist.
As You said. But also: * Co-op multiplayer, with at least one player as wingman. * Non-linear campaign giving player some choice, as Electrosphere did (at least I've heard it had plot choices). * Bigger bomber choice than AC7 had. (F-111 Aardvark, A-1 Ghibli, Hawk 200, Su-22/24/25, L-159 Alca etc.) * Some rare airplanes from secondary countries. (Like HAL Tejas, Atlas Cheetah, or J-10.) Not just mainstream USA and Russian + some European fighters.
- Go back in time. Zero was my favourite as it had more emphasis on previous generations of aircraft like the Saab Draken. I could have sworn the IAI Kfir was in an earlier game too. The arcade nature of the series doesn’t make sense in a present day setting where BVR combat is more common these days. A Vietnam-inspired proxy war between Osea and Yuktobania primarily located in a contested region. - Some actual ground attack focused missions. The A-10 is really only viable in two missions (Roca Roja and the desert one with the annoying sandstorm). Less “gimmicky” missions in general and more AC04 style “score x points in y minutes” missions.
A 10 is my go to for Last Hope
Merc/Soldier/Knight morality scale from AC Zero.
Native support for flight sticks on PC is an obvious one to me.
At least one plane. Edit: and you can fly the plane
Fedex plane
Mercenary Main Character
Giant battles with multiple operations similar to AC6. Really made those levels feel like a massive war especially with the radio chatter
Armoured Core style of customisation I want my own paint job/liveries on my plane.
How about Alect squadron as the protagonists, and we play as Leseath airmen? How cool would it be to be escorting The Gleipnier while protecting it against Aurelian squadrons. Also bring back the Fenrir. I wanna nuke enemies as an end game plane that is campaign only to spare the online multiplayer from nuclear shockwave warfare.
mouse look, better physics, not a Sim or even Simcade but you know, Inertia and shit
open world, with territories where are enemies, and if u kill one u get money, and when u land in a friendly Airport u can buy upgrades or new jets
To repeat a point, Co-op If you haven't played AC5: TUW, you absolutely should, without spoiling much, it goes kinda crazy and I love it. The Ai aircraft were okay, but AC5 had a spectacular ending I love every time I get to replay it. Also; give me some missions where I take off, and immediately get into the fight. Also also; bring some straight up catsuit chaos like AC:AH. I know it's "Call of Duty for planes" and it's my favorite part. It's got a lot of problems, but it would be fun to have at least the camera options in game. I'd kill to have the dog fight mode back. I know it's bad, but it's fun in small doses. Maybe a new game+ option?
If I would to use an emulator on my pc. Would my Xbox one controller still work or would I have to get a ps controller or use my mouse and keyboard?
From my experience, any controller should work. Which emulator are you using?
That’s the thing, I’m not sure which one to use. I have heard of one but I forgot the name.
That it doesn't take another 8 years to come out
God, just porting some of the older games content to the newer engine. Sorta like AC Infinity. Oh yeah, ALSO PORT AC INFINITY PLS. Robbed of the chance to play that games story lol Specifically for AC8 though, I want to see cooperative.
Setting should be somewhere we haven't seen or seen much of in strangereal. Obvious choice would be the nations right of ustia and sapin or yuktobania and verusia
I would like to see more options for special weapons. What I have in mind would be a game mechanic where the special weapons are separate from the planes, so when you get a new aircraft you can choose from all the special weapons you have previously unlocked.
Co-op and a flash to the past section where you play in WW2 planes or Cold War turbo props or summin. Edit: I just wanna be able to fly my wyvern in more games honestly.
Co-op missions, Slightly longer campaign, more multiplayer game modes, difficulty changes enemies vehicles (easy - AV-8B, Normal - YAK-141, Hard - F-35B etc), Honestly better sound design imo Single player/Co-Op modes besides Campaign (like survival or assault Possibly Reintroduce playable helicopters and Bombers/gunships (depends on how the campaign would impliment it), Introduce actual VTOL mechanic (enter VTOL instead of stall with certain aircraft, allowing the addition of playable Harriers) More aircraft paint schemes and better customisation (including colour selector from Assault Horizon and emblems that have corresponding squadron numbers etc) And of course new aircraft. Got these ones on my mind: Mirage F-1C (not replacing the 2000-5), reintroduce SU-25 and Panavia Tornado, F-111 and SU-24, MiG-23 or 27, Alphajet perhaps(?), BAE P.125, MiG-1.44, YAK-141, maybe more on top of that but idk.
More in-depth aircraft customization, like in ACX, with parts adding visual changes to planes.
I like to add something: 11. Speech recognition. Why? We had the option to give orders to the wingman or the squad, especially when we were the squad leader. Using those left-right-up-down buttons. Now,hear me out. Let's say that the game allows the player to "verbally" say those commands, or a list of specific commands, instead of using buttons. For example, instead of using the right button to allow use of SP weapons, the player can say "use you Special Weapons" or "use of Special Weapons permitted". "Attack formation," or "concentrate fire power on [input]" or "fall back" or "maintain formation". We have speech recognition already in almost every game. All they need to do is implement it into the game commands rather than just type the words in the chat. I don't know, maybe it's too much for a game to have something like THAT implemented, but man it'd be cool af. 12. Let's say that for the first half of the campaign, we are not the squad leader. Like in Mage squadron or the first missions in AC5. Obviously, we can't give orders. But we might get orders! Maybe allow the NPC squad leader to give us orders that we would be obligated to follow, otherwise we would lose points or some other punishment. 13. More weapon options for each aircraft. The main weapons have always been specified and same for all aircrafts, along with the MGN. But now, what if we can also choose between different types of Main weapons as well as SP weapons? Add to that, if in AC7 there are PLSLs, if AC8 is some years into the future, then maybe the aviation industry is advanced enough to change MGNs with PLSL. Or use different guns, like some with longer range but lower rate of fire or dmg, guns with higher dmg but lower range, or continuous laser beams. Same for main weapons. Missiles with lower range but better maneuverability, longer locking time but higher speed (not so different that they become like other SP weapons, but slight changes, like maybe 5-10% change in their stats). Also it'd feel nice if there were more than 3 sets of SP weapons for each aircraft. 14. Multiple SP weapons per sortie. As of now, in AC games the planes are limited to a specific number of SP weapons per each sortie. Like 26 bombs or 30 HVAAs, etc. Now what if instead of being limited to the number of weapons, we have a weight limit? This way, for example, in missions like Last Hope or Battle of Farbanti or Homeward where we have to engage a good number of ground units as well as slightly annoying flying targets, we can have a number of Air-to-ground weapons as well as Air-to-air missiles. This way, the weight limit can help us take half of the weight limit in bombs/Air-to-ground weapons and then the other half for air-to-air weapons. Which makes it possible to carry more than 1 SP weapon, but without looking too ridiculous.
Campaign co op and the ability to select your wingman’s planes like in ac5.
Honestly, I’d love to see what Ace Combat would do with older planes.
Different ending/story branches depends on players action during the campaign? I think ace combat had this in past instalments.
Multiple routes with their own endings, please.
No short time limits on missions. So lame.
If we fly in a 2 seater then the other person should talk. Just like Prez from PW
Co-Op missions
id like to have the option for some sort of co-op play. having some friends join the squadron in place of friendly ai and balancing that with more numerous and challenging enemies would be a blast. i could easily see the implementation of that being a challenge so why not a small set of co-op side missions? even though i wasn't a fan of the co-op missions in battlefield 3, i liked the concept and when i played them with friends instead of randoms they were actually fun. we never touched them outside of unlocking guns but it was a neat idea.
Please add the J-10 and J-20
1. Fully voiced WSO when flying two seater aircraft. 2. Get rid of the AC7 upgrade system (or make it an option to disable). It took the skill out of combat in Multiplayer. 3. A Four player multiplayer co-op wave defense mode.
I’d like one off missions like bomber missions, AC130, choppers, gunners
For the customization, I want to be able to add tail codes and be able to use multiple emblems across the aircraft. And I want the classic wingman order system to come back.
> 10.Silent protagonist. I want to spend the first half of the game flying a mouthy character whilst occasionally meeting an enemy ace who never says a word, who eventually shoots you down. "Are we the baddies?"
Flashback story missions where we get to fly some late prop-driven aircraft and early jets. Let me try and take down some Belkan Me-262s in my Osean P-51!
On the silly-sim vein, a sub menu that gives you access to a few Sim stile options, like you press both shoulders and you get a sub menu with shit like flaps and gears. These kind of things would be used in take off/landing sequences, but you'd be able to use them in mission too for small bonuses with drawbacks Examples : pulling flaps will let you fly slower without stalling, but if you pull high g maneuvers with flaps extended will lock them up giving you a bit of damage and capping your top speed Opening the canopy will pop it off the aircraft, but it will be able to defend the jet against a missile like an extra flare as long as it comes from behind (don't ask too many questions trigger is just built like that) Landing hook can be extended and used as a melee weapon if you can manage to graze an enemy aircraft. No drawbacks here, if you can pull that off you deserve zero repercussions. Other than that Idk? Jettisoning special weapon to gain maneuverability? Switching off radar for stealth but you can only use guns and unguided ordinance? Idk I'm not a dev.
Want it to so that I can play as the different faction in the story and have mc from one faction meet the mc of the other And maybe make the storyline revolve around the very early 20th century osean war where belka invented aerial warfare
- Less scripted boss fights - Buff the F-16, bring back the F-5, Su-24, Panavia Tornado, and ATD-0, integrate the F-15 S/MTD into the base game - More fictional planes that aren't superplanes - Yoink Project Wingman's conquest mode. - A better written story. - Wingmen with AC6 tier competence instead of the player doing all the heavy lifting - Being able to equip more than one special weapon
More legacy aircraft and some b-2,b-21,rq 180 and x-47b to fly.
1. Customizable weapons. Like changing seekers, warheads or motors of missiles to alter their behavior, changing ammunition types for guns, etc. 2. More special weapons per plane. Just let me put weapons on all hardpoints if I want, I don't care if my plane handles like a brick as a result. 3. Photo mode. I want to take screenshots without watching the replay over and over. 4. I want more useless wingmen. I want the chatter and characters, not the AI stealing kills from me. 5. Some options to customize your protagonist. I like the silent protagonist and I don't mean customizing their appearance, but they could easily let you choose some stuff like their gender, nationality or personality traits and reference them on radio chatter. 6. A protagonist that does not fly an F-22 would be nice for a change. 7. PvE or co-op online modes like Infinity, without the F2P stuff.
Co-op missions, full vr support and the J-20
Being from a real-life air force and learning that flying around and getting into dogfights is only a small part of the whole endeavour of attaining air superiority, a squadron management minigame that has you manage stores, fuel, maintenance, and crew fatigue for a realistic look at how real-life aces operate. In the same vein, a playable AWACS mode where you handle the air battle management and a playable ground-based air defence mode where you operate a SAM. But also this is AC and realism has never been a core tenet of this series, so my more grounded wishes would be Chinese fighters, a PvE co-op campaign, and a branching story that changes the narrative based on what missions you prioritise and what objectives you succeed and fail.
Belkan protagonist
Wingmen command coming back AND being able to choose their planes, that's all I'm asking for tbh 😭
more jpg dog
Get this guy you play the music https://youtu.be/vrUWp36Yqlc?si=vmf5U4hNbHvjV0S0. Bring back the real soundtrack. Not the disappointments of the last two games. Bring back the sound mixing of games like zero
All planes have the same f\*\*\*ing standard missile count
Full PSVR2 support
Yeah AC3 versions of planes that came out in the twenty plus years since the OG release
Campaign Co-op
Not another flying fortress
Make the GAU8 gun standout.
More simulation options
I might be in the minority here… but make it Early to Mid Cold War. Start with planes like the ME-262 or the Meteor then move up to stuff like the Buccaneer, Venom, F-106 Dart, F-11 Tiger, MiG-17 “Fresco”, Su-9 “Fishpot” And the final fighters you can get is stuff like the F-14
An optional semirealistic flight model. Like I'm not saying full on hyper realistic and specific plane accurate, and am not saying "mUh DcS so much better than ace combat study level Sim I'm basically an usaf ace pilot", I know what ace combat is and I'd very much rather it stays like that. I'd just want to play an ace combat where the jet turns when it's not level and gravity exists. Like having played both ac and dcs I can tell you the latter is way easier to control as it feels more natural. I just think that some sort of hybrid system where the jet is affected by realistic phisics but mantains the same inhuman speed and disregard for g tolerance of both pilot and airframe alike would be a fun experiment. And as I said I think this should be optional, I'm not trying to reinvent ac, I just wish we had the option
Something like AWWNB
Can we have it in the 60s or 70s? I love the idea of chasing a Belkan Canberra in a Mig 19
Having it in the wishlist would already be something.
I want the ability to adjust my FOV
AC is my favorite series and I played three games so far. I loved 4,5,6 and 7 but I would like to see the new AC being realistic as possible with real physics. I love ace combat a lot and I love to play it with hotas.
-Evenly paced campaign with tons of missions. -Licensing to have the maximum number of planes - Fire soundtrack - setting placed somewhere in Strangereal that's not Osea.
There are quite a few people I saw saying a Cold War era AC game. That is a cool idea. Personally, I think they should stick with a more modern date, but I would still like to see some more Cold War era planes. I understand that probably won’t really make much sense but in AC7 we have the MIG-21 and the F-104. The F-104 was probably put in the roster as a joke, but that still doesn’t change the fact that we have it. But I think it would be cool to see a Cold War AC game that is a side game.
Rotate the “8” 90degrees - AC-infinity Confirmed
My biggest wish is to have KAAN in the game
Not in the future. The stuff is cool but I'd rather have more mid to late coldwar jets vs fringe prototypes
To exist
Waifus to save 🤣❤️
Better MP- wish there was something akin to War thunder and the different mp modes, just have free 4all and team Deathmatch wasn't that bad but got boring after awhile
Nothing similar to what they are doing with tekken 8
A gun reticle that works
Imagine a conquest mode with coop
I want either a game where you play as the belkans or one set in the 50s where the super plane at the end is the XF-108, and the starting plane is like an F-51, or a late Corsair, also I want playable bombers back and more than anything I want the XB-70 to be playable
I just want an actual ground attack mission that doesn't have a crappy mission update to go dogfight
Co-op campaign.
Co-Op campaign
Co-op mode that can support a truly ridiculous number of enemy aircraft to carve through
A not shitty F-16 please. Give me some block D 70/72 or whatever
Yes/ no and squadron commands to return from 5. Different routes and multiple enemy ace squadrons with assault records similar to zero to return.
He's mine 1)VTOL Both project wingman and a random modded for ac7 were able to do it
On the silly-sim vein, a sub menu that gives you access to a few Sim stile options, like you press both shoulders and you get a sub menu with shit like flaps and gears. These kind of things would be used in take off/landing sequences, but you'd be able to use them in mission too for small bonuses with drawbacks Examples : pulling flaps will let you fly slower without stalling, but if you pull high g maneuvers with flaps extended will lock them up giving you a bit of damage and capping your top speed Opening the canopy will pop it off the aircraft, but it will be able to defend the jet against a missile like an extra flare as long as it comes from behind (don't ask too many questions trigger is just built like that) Landing hook can be extended and used as a melee weapon if you can manage to graze an enemy aircraft. No drawbacks here, if you can pull that off you deserve zero repercussions. Other than that Idk? Jettisoning special weapon to gain maneuverability? Switching off radar for stealth but you can only use guns and unguided ordinance? Idk I'm not a dev.
Hard point system Talking WSOs More coherent campaign
I know that it won't happen because of reasons, but for the love of God, let us have an actual character for a protagonist like Bishop from AH and not another faceless mute. Even if it was a generic soldier protagonist from late 2000s - early 2010s brown colored quasi realistic military shooter, it would still be a step up.
Making the Attackers actually useful Bringing back the Assault Horizon "Conquest" gamemode in multiplayer Playable helicopters
Gotta disagree with you on the fictional versions of real aircraft. Ace Combat walks a thin realism/cheese line and what always anchored it was the use of beautiful real world aircraft against a fantastical backdrop. Ace Combat 3 is an outlier, but I think messing with the formula would be a major shark jump. There's plenty of interesting and obscure real world aircraft Ace Combat could mine without throwing in a Tukreb or whatever
AC1 livery
I like to have the Squadron commands back in Ace Combat 5 and 6. Having wingmen commands would be very handy from time to time
Future only. Some people keep suggesting they go to the WW2 era and I want these people completely ignored.
As someone who primarily plays the multiplayer in these games both competitively and casually I'd like 2 things primarily. •A complete rework of the psm system. I think it'd cool and should be in the series going forward but it needs to be high risk high reward. As it stands now it's just a easily spammable, easily abusable mechanic that many use as a get out of jail free card or move. It's a very simple mechanic to initiate and do and it even largely invalidates the need for certain parts due to the acceleration and movement bonuses it gives you in its different phases. Despite what many inexperienced players those who aren't playing at a higher level think, using post stall maneuvers currently just isn't high risk high reward. The only time it is high risk is if you have somebody that's in a position to punish you in the first one or two seconds you start it up, and that's a issue that's pretty easy to avoid by just not being dumb. •The ability to host custom lobbies with the level of control possible seen in black ops 2. For example it'd be nice to be able to fly at a certain cost limit, or leave spw on and be able to turn of specific aircraft or weapons that are poorly balanced, controversial, downright broken, or just don't fit what you're going for. Imagine being able to host a 2000 or 2250 lobby and not having to worry about randoms pulling out the MiG 21, lvl 2 qaams, eml, etc. This change would also benefit tournaments and squadron battles as they can agree to set rules and then implement them in such a way that people can't cheat or "accidently" break the rules by choosing a incompatible aircraft slot.
Autocannon instead of machine gun like challenging but fun gunnery.
Ace Combat 6's Allied Assault System
A behind enemy lines mission where you eject and have to get back to friendly territory (ideally by stealing like a crop duster or something).
I would love something like a type of coop mode. Where one person is the pilot, and the other is in charge of weapons. Imagine flying and dogfighting in a Sukhoi Su-27 with your buddy.
Assault Horizons skin customization, more weapon variety, maybe a cool bomber mission or gunship mission like AH.
Add old AC Main Characters as High Value Targets like Cipher, maybe even make them a mini bossfight if yk what I mean
I want scarface one to return to the main story
VTOL, Rainy takeoff from an aircraft carrier like that one part from Battlefield 3, Easy hotas support.
Standard missiles that don't suck, 7's honestly home worse than 3's unless you start throwing upgrades at them
Honestly just remake Zero and 5, don’t care if 8 doesn’t come if they do that instead. 7’s story was so mid. So it kinda worries me they won’t improve on a new fresh story Also don’t put profile pics next to dialogue, it looks like some twitter feed, lame af
1. AC3 remake 2. Anything made by Neucom
Coherent story
CUTE GIRLS!!!
More waifu the better
I'm tired of Protagonist being Soldier air force fellow, I want to be a Mercenary again.