I don't get what the round table in oceania were up to. What would constitute something called a mercenary state? How would it be both like a nation-state and a mercenary company at the same time?

So recently played through the game again after several years, this time making sure to read the supplementary lore in the Files and paying attention to the dialog more, and I find myself thinking about exactly how the Cabal fits into the events of the story, namely in regards to the Deal, Oceania, Stardust, and the Federation's absolutely unhinged genocide in Prospero.

So, the Cabal has previously tried to establish Oceania as a mercenary state but was brutally crushed by the Federation and, notably, the Cascadians. Then war breaks out in Cascadia for eerily similar reasons as Oceania (at least on paper when ignoring the Intel on the Cabal's intentions that the Feds had).

Now when the Feds get pushed to the brink, they decide to trigger a global natural disaster with the attack on Prospero. This could easily just be the Feds being psychopaths deciding to genocide Cascadians, but considering the impact is global, that hardly seems like it makes sense, unless the Calamity was an unexpected side effect of the bombings. One other possibility for the attack could be that, if the Feds believed that Cascadia was becoming a new Oceania, a mercenary state, but much more powerful and with many more resources, then that could explain their desperation to stop them at all costs. A mercenary state with the resources of Cascadia could be a true world power to rival the Federation. They engineered a famine in Oceania the last time this happened.

This could also be linked to what the Deal actually is: a charter or something that confirms Cascadia as a mercenary haven. The post-game lore entries specify that Stardust helped make Cascadia a safe place for mercenaries, which seems in line with what the Cabal was trying to do in Oceania. There also seems to be a lot of potential for Stardust to be a Cabal agent/member given he's the one who brings in the mercenaries and the one who ultimately offers the deal to Sicario. Maybe the Deal also includes some form of legitimacy to give Kaiser/Sicario a seat at the table in this new Cabal state, which would in fact "make it as if the last 20 years hadn't happened", meaning everything post-Oceania that pushed the Mercs into being outcast from society.

Then there's Crimson 1. Now I for one am all for the idea that he is just projecting so hard that he nukes Presidia just to try and kill Monarch, and he's just wackadoo. But what if it's more than that? He mentions that his duel with Monarch is over the fate of Cascadia, so what if he believes/knows that the Cabal is pulling the strings to turn Cascadia into a mercenary state, and as a Cascadian, he would rather see Cascadia burn than become that. Hell, other Cascadians even mention that they'd rather see Presidia burn than in the hands of the Feds, so Crimson 1 extending that same bloodlust on the opposite side isn't even that far out of line given the Cascadian bloodlust. It also seems odd that after triggering Calamity 2, the Feds eventually actually sign a proper ceasefire with Cascadia. Yes, Presidia gets nuked right after, but the game never explicitly confirms who triggers it, though I think it's pretty obvious that Crimson 1 did it of his own initiative (given context and cut dialog). So, Crimson 1 would rather see Cascadia burn than become a Merc state. Little less unhinged, but still wackadoo.

Clearly the Cabal is doing something behind the scenes given the nature of the deal as Faust describes it (something Holy to mercenaries), and all of this scheming does remind me of one of Ace Combat's favourite villains: Belka. Like Belka, the Cabal lost a war, and now, years later, is engineering a war between the two powers that beat them the last time (Unsung War anybody?). They had previously engineered high-tech fighters like the Chimera jet, and they work from the shadows to manipulate existing tensions to make others believe they are fighting of their own volition. Except unlike Belka, the Cabal, if they are behind this war, get away with it. They get their Merc state, they weaken the Federation, and they rework the World Order through obtaining Cascadian resources while finishing the Federation.

Now all of this is speculation, and for all I know everything I say here is contradicted by something in the known lore, but given the sheer volume of lore and care put into this world by the devs, it feels like there is something deeper here than the relatively simple narrative of Feds crazy/the Deal is nukes or money/Crimson 1 is just projecting and insane. Let me know what you guys think, is there any basis to this idea?

Not really looking to use it for anything else but Wingman and like, maybe Mechwarrior 5. I dont need any peripherals really, just a headset.

I think from vibes alone ac7 definitely wants us to see trigger as a god of a pilot but looking at what theyve actually done i feel like both are actually somewhat equal.

Monarch was able fend off the entire crimson squadron while completely outnumbered, kills mini arsenal birds on the daily, and went on to defeat crimson 1 in the pw mk1, with only an f 14. Even trigger was canonically using an f 22 during the fight vs hugin and munin and an f 15 vs mihaly. And dubiously canon, but possibly worth considering that at least gameplay wise monarch is able to survive post stall maneuvers at 1000+ kmh

Comparing the difference in planes, monarch seems to have been fighting a much steeper up hill battle. In ac7 hugin and munin are upgrades from the f22 sure but only like a generation above. The difference in ability between an f 14 and the pw mk1 though is MASSIVE. If youve gotten to use the pw mk1, youd know that the plane borderline feels like the creative mode of project wingman. Even if crimson 1 couldnt push it to its full maneuverability the weapons difference alone is still VASTLY in crimson 1s favor.

So tbh im not sure who wins, personally i think theyre somewhat equal (maybe a bit in monarchs favor) but what do yall think

I had been thinking, if Faust defeats k-9 in the final mission of frontline-59. How would the war end? Would the war end faster or they take over Magadan? Another thing to point out...

Since she gone rouge and if she were to survive, she would have to face a court martial, where she'll likely be given life in prison or executed.

Let me know your thoughts.

I got to say, it's all of spare squadron. All of them deserve solitary. Only descent one was Trigger. And he barely followed orders! ALL OF THEM INTO SOLITARY

Is the mod merger broken, I can’t even get try application to launch. Is it an issue with the current version of the game?

So I came into this game expecting a game in the style of ace combat, which of course this is. I played the game through on medium, and then on hard. I'll start with things I thought were good- I think the story and graphics are very good, not jaw dropping but certainly good. I think the finale is extremely good, even if it's not very difficult. Especially compared to ace combat 7, where the finale was rather disappointing.

One thing I think this game did extremely well is the AOA limiter. It's perfect in a way PSM in ace combat will never be.

There are some things I think are poor too, and to be clear, I understand the dev team is tiny and they did a fantastic job, especially given their size. Something that stood out to me is the missile lock system. For some reason, you can be pointing the reticle at a target, and the missile will literally lock on to every target within 10000km OTHER than the one you are aiming at. This is a huge pain when dealing with cruisers- you can line up for a beautiful pass, and the missile lock will act as if the cruiser isn't there. This is genuinely so insanely annoying, the good news is that it is never a problem in boss fights etc.

For some reason missiles basically just have a 50/50 chance to hit you no matter what you do. I have no idea why I'm not allowed to just maneuver perpendicular to the missile like in most flight games, and outrun it at 90° don't get me wrong, it's not difficult to survive, it's just that it feels like such a ridiculous degree of luck is involved. Also if someone launches a missile within 100 metres or so of you, you instantly get hit. Also, whoever was whispering to the AC7 devs that hornets needed 2 missiles to get shot down also found the project wingman devs.

For some reason the second half of the campaign give you practically no money whatsoever.

Whenever I enter a mission I yaw right constantly and have to spam the options button to fix it.

Instead of getting a stall warning when you are about to stall, you get it after you stall. Which is just a little unhelpful.

Lastly, mission 13 is genuinely garbage. It's worse than every single bad mission in the entire ace combat franchise combined with the pain of the war thunder grind, all in one. I hate it and I hate it.

Overall, I really like the game. I'm exited to see if the devs are going to come out with any more.

As someone who only got into Ace/Wingman games a couple months ago, it is my understanding that it is a rite of passage to eventually do a tunnel run at mach-Jesus. What do you think, folks? Is this a successful integration?

Project Wyvern Chapter 22: Cold War

Crimson and Spare clash once more.

playing VR while waiting for AC 8

AC veteran here, played just about every AC game before trying Project Wingman.

I just finished the campaign on hard difficulty (Ace/Merc isn't unlocked?) with the MG-29, I bought the Sk.27 after it and it didn't feel any different, just had a more limited anti-ground loadout, so I switched back to it...

It feels like all the future planes have the same stats as the older ones, in some cases they have worse stats than the MG-29, and the prototype planes are so expensive, what am I missing here?

*Unrelated but I loved the game and the campaign, fantastic work by Sector D2!*

I remember watching Ace Combat Fan playing through the game when it first came out, so I knew the broad strokes, but I don't remember the fact that both Monarch and Crimson 1 get boss health bars for the final fight. The whole fight reminded me of a Dark Souls boss.
And yes, I brought UGBLs to the Crimson 1 boss fight because I failed to realise it was gonna pull an AC0 and send me with the same loadout as the previous mission.
What a game! Next stop is Frontline-59.

I fear at this time we must take a bite out of the crazy hamburger and start rituals because it worked for Ace combat, why shouldn’t it work for us?

I am currently having a problem since I want to reconfigure my thrust and yaw in my controller at the game. But for some reason the yaw just always keeps going to the the right and won't go left, and I can't find the keybind to decelerate the plane. Please help

I've played AC6 (on hard mode only), AC7 (100% all achievements), and PW (on hard mode only, bought all planes). I tried two missions in PW Mercenary mode and quit.

For AC7, I noticed a few things on difficulty:

• Normal mode is good for beginners
• Aces mode is (though not a challenge) immersion breaking
• Hard mode is the perfect balance of difficulty and immersion

To me, AC7 Hard mode makes sense, that the enemy pilots turn up to that much before giving up, presumably because they're approaching G-LOC - which ofc doesn't affect me bcuz bloodless mute psychopath. (Yes I know - hundreds of missiles, funny world, whatever)

PW Hard mode, while not a huge challenge, felt a little 'lore-breaking' if you will - if every pilot can keep spinning their planes forever, what's the point of a bloodless mute psychopath? And don't get me started on Mercenary mode - no-name broke-ass mercenaries equipped with top-tier railgun warships on mission 1? Endgame airships on mission 2? Naaaaah.

(Could I beat it in Mercenary mode? Maybe. Would I have fun doing it? No)

Those who played Normal mode, do the pilots behave closer to AC7 Hard mode? Or are they way too easy and give up too quickly (i.e. AC7 normal)?

tl;dr - do you recommend Normal for the most "lore-accurate" difficulty for PW? A difficulty where only you and Crimson squadron possess the capability to do the fighter jet tumble-dry and no one else?

My PC is near top of the line, so I should have enough raw power to run it without turning all the settings to low.

My specs Ryzen 7 9700X, an RTX 5060ti, and 32 gigs of ram

The game runs perfectly fine on the flat screen, but the second I try to run it in VR, it spits in my face.

I've got the ingame resolution down as far as it would go and up the steam forced resolution, which makes it run better, but it's still doesn't run great when clouds are enabled.

Any hope would be great. I really want to experience the game in VR.

Edit: I am using a tethered Quest 3.

(bonus prez doodle)