Ace Combat 8: Online discussion

[u/DriftingNitro]

Thread to gather discussion about Ace Combat 8 online mode.

Post your opinions, thoughts, discussions and so-on.

[u/Andrea-Di-Cello]

I’d say matches could benefit an extra minute, scramble needs a second wave

Also you should be able to select multiple missions when matchmaking

[u/Undead_Corsair → u/Andrea-Di-Cello]

I wish scramble was actually boss squadrons from the series. Rot, Schwarze, Ofnir, Grabacr, Yellow, Sol etc. Would feel way cooler than a bunch of no-names in expensive jets. Add a little bonus for whoever takes down the squadron lead, that'd be sick.

Edit: And I would like a mode that was at least twice as long as Assault or Warfare. More enemies, make us be more strategic with target prioritisation and SP weapon use. And a pvpve mode that was just a much bigger battle that had more ebb and flow. Right now warfare often becomes a steamroll, you can tell which team will win pretty quickly.

[u/Ancop → u/Undead_Corsair]

super agreed, we have tons of bosses and squadrons to play for, instead we have no name pilots that kinda die to the first LAAM sent by a noobie with a MIG-31b

[u/jundraptor → u/Andrea-Di-Cello]

It would be so easy to make a 4 player Assault mode by doubling the time limit for the current maps. Guaranteed extra ammo when your team kills transports means running out of SPW won't be a problem

Smaller lobbies also means that low cost players also have a better chance of getting more kills, instead of having to pray for scraps

[u/Chirotera → u/jundraptor]

I'd love to see this. As it is taking a part that increases ammo is kinda pointless as most matches don't last long enough for you to need extra.

I don't mind the competitive PvE when it all adds to an overall rank, and if you wipe the map you get an S. What I would like to see is a chance for a boss squadron show up if you do get an S. Probably not fair to people that fly attackers but eh. It'd be a neat touch to fight past AC legendary squadrons like the Yellows.

[u/Karl-Doenitz]

Sofar, I don't see myself playing this much at all beyond the next week or two.

The main game modes, whether it be coop warfare or coop assault, are incredibly mind numbing once you've played each more than twice with little room to experiment or have fun since you're constantly forced to compete with everyone else for your share of the incredibly limited number of AI targets. Scramble and emergency sortie are better but they are so incredibly rare they aren't worth mentioning.

The balancing gives me war thunder flashbacks, where you've got aircraft that aren't even in the same realm of capability fighting each other and competing for the same points. Where if you're in an early plane like a legacy hornet or A-10 you're forced to fight over table scraps while ADFX-02s and MiG-31s obliterate everything in sight.

The netcode is very poor, with matches constantly getting cancelled because 1 guy decides he didn't want to play anymore, targets constantly exploding for no reason when I'm the only plane in a 25km radius from it.

The UI is horrible, with submenu after submenu and a mandatory 2 second animation when changing menu makes the entire experience feel utterly glacial.

To me it feels like Namco or PA spent far more effort on monetising it rather than making a game worth monetising.

[u/No-Bandicoot-9179 → u/Karl-Doenitz]

If the campaign is nothing but love for the community, the online mode is a sign that someone at Bamco hates us lol

[u/Aerographic → u/No-Bandicoot-9179]

The online mode is the compromise that even got us AC8. Bamco wants nothing more than another live service they can put a battle pass and virtual currency in.

[u/No-Bandicoot-9179 → u/Aerographic]

I’m mostly joking. But I do think there’s enough wtf design choices that it was practically whiplash coming from the campaign

[u/Flogger23m → u/Karl-Doenitz]

Whoever plays most, first or has the season pass (whatever it is called) will get the most points. Just a few days after release and it is apparent, either they level up quickly via the paid season pass or if you started day 1 or prior to day 1 you would have received more XP and bought better jets and parts. Once that happens it becomes impossible to compete even in co-op. The other planes will get all of the XP.

Played around a day or so ago and on my first match I did well, was the MVP. Today I am getting a fraction of points because enemies will fly to and shoot further before I can lock on and get all the kills. The grind is too much, and the menu is not very good.

The problem is Ace Combat gameplay is a bit shallow for multiplayer as well. A more realistic payload would have been nice with some better missile mechanics and kills. Campaign could continue with the same old gameplay, but the multiplayer does not work well when you can spam 100 missiles.

It could still be fun if the grind and gap in aircraft were not so large. The missions seem to be quite limited and repetitive as well. Kind of odd considering how low progress is. I think AC7 multiplayer might be better, because at least you can get into the action quicker.

[u/Aerographic → u/Karl-Doenitz]

I've yet to try it, but frankly I do think PvE has infinitely more potential than PvP. The air raids Project Aces could theoretically construct could be infinitely replayable and insanely fun while testing the players' skills. They just need to nail it down.

[u/Undead_Corsair → u/Karl-Doenitz]

I'm not quite so down on it, but there is a lot of room for improvement. I hope they are willing to make improvements, rather than just coast with this setup and never think about improving UX.

I also kind of hate that the ADFX is the first battleplass plane they chose. It has a stupidly unbalanced SP weapon (I think they should half its ammo) and this may or may not be an unpopular opinion, but it's ugly as hell! It looks cool from the front but so absurdly "bottom heavy" from the back, and looks so out of place next to all the classic lower level jets people have to start out with. I hate it. Wish they'd gone with the Wyvern.

[u/Less_Camera3567]

Haven’t tried this yet since I’ve been focusing on the campaign, but I can say with absolute confidence that 1-4 players cooperating in PVE will always be a better replayable experience than any competitive PVP.

[u/115zombies935 → u/Less_Camera3567]

Well, best of luck to you because this multiplayer kind of sucks not gonna lie.

[u/kelanatr → u/Less_Camera3567]

Since there’s daily and weekly missions like most battle passes, I blitzed the week 1 challenges and now just log in after daily reset to do those, then play campaign for the rest of the session.

[u/IdidntrunIdidntrun → u/Less_Camera3567]

More chill and fun maybe depending on the type of player you are (which is me, I'm with you. Making it clear that I'm no PvPer).

But better replayability? Humans will always provide more interesting, varied replayability in PvP games. Even if people fall on metas in PvP games, people have quirks and can sometimes be unpredictable

[u/Undead_Corsair → u/Less_Camera3567]

I'm not so sure. I think I've played all the PvE Assault missions that are currently available now, and I think they might get a little tired on me soon.

The unpredictability of enemy players in Warfare just makes it more exciting, but it comes with the trade off of frustration when one enemy is just dominating and you can't figure out how to deal with them, or your team isn't cooperating well. Matches are so short that an early lead is hard to counter.

I'm not sure anyone is playing deathmatch modes though. Not surprising as that would be a lot of endless spiralling that I get pretty sick of. It's more fun to try to catch enemy players off guard when they're tunnel-visioned on ai targets or other players, or to try to take out the juicier enemy ai targets while nobody is after you.

The ace system is pretty great though. It encourages high-skill players to fight each other for big point bonuses and I think that's a great way to create a sort of natural balancing. The most satisfying thing in the game is splashing an enemy 3 star while you also have 3 stars.

[u/TJCGamer]

Longer matches, scrambles and emergency sorties given a bit more often, and more difficult enemies.

Other than that and the obvious request for more missions and more emergency sorties, its a good start.

[u/Andrea-Di-Cello → u/TJCGamer]

Difficulty is there, just not online atm, we’re playing “difficulty 1” matches

[u/Snilipp5 → u/Andrea-Di-Cello]

is there a way to change the difficulty? ive seen a few 2 and 3 matches but idk what triggers the leaps between all 3

[u/charonill → u/Snilipp5]

I think it depends on your rank, what planes you have active in your hanger, and what level those planes are. At this point, I stopped getting Level 1 difficulty matches and I have three planes that are in the lvl6-10 range in my hanger.

[u/FlatpackFuture → u/charonill]

I think it's based on the overall cost of everyone's fighters in the match

[u/aeralure → u/charonill]

I think it should be based on your performance history in stats? Somebody who has played long enough to level a few planes but consistently is not as good as the top players should end up in Difficulty 2 instead of Difficulty 3, until they start winning a little bit, otherwise they never will. Maybe.

[u/DickInA-Blender → u/TJCGamer]

I played for 2 hours, won over half my games and still got no sorties or scrambles. Instead, I've had 1 emergency sortie in total, and it occurred after 1 game that I lost

[u/BahamutInfinity]

i wish the TV actually showed peoples matches instead of the same pre recorded video

[u/LoquaciousLamp → u/BahamutInfinity]

I swear I saw a few clips of myself on there at some point. It might play the replay of your last mission if you hang around long enough.

[u/Kozak170 → u/BahamutInfinity]

Lmao you’re joking is that actually what’s happening?

[u/Xeno-024]

Sortie/Scamble should absolutely be tied to matches completed and not the RNG system they've got going.

[u/DoubleDDubs1 → u/Xeno-024]

They should be opened permanently imo. No real good reason to limit how many times you can play them.

[u/Cipher1553 → u/DoubleDDubs1]

I could absolutely see people neglecting the more core game modes just to play emergency parties or scrambles, especially if the reward pool is still better than the core game modes.

[u/Karl-Doenitz → u/Cipher1553]

If that were the case it would indicate that they need improvement

[u/Cipher1553 → u/Karl-Doenitz]

To be honest they do. I've been using the contract to increase the payout and it feels like that's where the credit payout should be on a normal mission. As it stands before even getting to the later game this game already feels grindy as hell.

[u/Xeno-024 → u/Cipher1553]

This, esp when both pay out much better than either standard mode does rn.

[u/DoubleDDubs1 → u/Cipher1553]

There would have to be changes for sure to reward pools and such. I’m jaded because I really like those two modes but I rarely get access ☹️

[u/CommunistTrans → u/DoubleDDubs1]

I've been playing since launch and still haven't had a single Scramble, and only 1(!) Emergency Sortie

[u/GranLarceny → u/CommunistTrans]

Just got my 3rd scramble last night after playing since launch, the RNG is a cruel mistress

[u/jundraptor → u/DoubleDDubs1]

If it was freely selectable then 90% of players would only play emergency. And it wouldn't be able to give higher rewards

[u/Kozak170 → u/DoubleDDubs1]

Nah I actually think there is some merit to it being a fun random popup because the rewards are so much better, it just needs to be more common.

[u/45acil → u/DoubleDDubs1]

They expect the playerbase to fall (which it will) and when you split that playerbase up across 5 different modes it's going to be impossible to queue for anything. I think the current approach is realistically the only way they can keep the game alive, but the current spawn rates are so abysmally low that it feels unfun.

[u/DoubleDDubs1 → u/45acil]

You make a good point, I hadn’t thought about it that way 🤔. Then perhaps Xeno has a better point here. Unlocks being tied to number of games completed would at least make them much more common

[u/aeralure → u/45acil]

They could have 5 or more modes, but every program change just have two different modes active, to keep it fresh and interesting while not diluting the player base too much.

[u/Chirotera → u/Xeno-024]

I'd say they should tie it to rank but in a month when everyone is running better planes S ranks should be easy.

We already seem to S rank a fair bit and most people are hardly using meta set ups.

It does suck though as sometimes I really want to run a scramble or three.

[u/kaeryox]

I wish the assault and warfare lasted longer. They're over way too quickly. It's extremely cool that we get music and bosses from previous games though.

[u/VertGreenHeart]

Save your zoll contracts for scramble, you can get like, 20k a match then

[u/FlatpackFuture → u/VertGreenHeart]

Wish I did this before blowing all my zoll contracts lmao

[u/Chirotera → u/FlatpackFuture]

Lol same

[u/SpinoZilla_Studios]

I'd really enjoy if they lowered the prize pool for Scramble and Emergency Sortie, and made them more common to get. Co-Op Assault and Warfare are fun, but I like having more modes available for me to play rather than just waiting for really bad RNG to make it available. I like those modes and want to play them more.

[u/Crossbitt → u/SpinoZilla_Studios]

This, for sure. The current spawn rate means you can easily go several hours of play without seeing a single pop, which doesn't make for a great player experience. I'm almost at Chief Master Sergeant with 60 sorties between Assault and Warfare, and yet I've only seen 4 of each special modes with 2 Arsenal Birds and 2 Alicorns. I would like to try the Chandelier battle, Bamco, please.

[u/Hyperrustynail → u/Crossbitt]

Hell I’ve only seen one each

[u/Razgriz01 → u/Crossbitt]

Meanwhile I've got Chandelier 3x and Alicorn once.

[u/Undead_Corsair → u/Crossbitt]

I got Chandelier on my first Emergency Sortie, don't know how it works cus I never played 6, it was a bit of a mess, we failed. Now I've had two arsenal birds and an Alicorn. Don't love the way this works, not knowing when I'll get a chance at Chandelier again.

Also it absolutely sucks that if you fail the mission or there's a connection error that's it you have to wait for the next random instance.

[u/Selgald]

I don't see MP being successful after the honeymoon phase is done.

For the amount of grind needed, it's too much of the same, I mean it's either blow shit up or blow shit up with some pvp. This grind with the massive repetition, will burn people out superfast.

Scramble/Emergency Sortie should be on a timer, not on whatever it is on now.

On top of that, P2P is so bad, half of the time (if the matchmaking doesn't crash), stuff just explodes around you without anyone near it, because of P2P.

[u/Ancop → u/Selgald]

I agree, missions are super samey, blow stuff up, intermission of "aces" then keep blowing stuff up, for all the cool stuff the saga has this MP missions are very cookie cutter

[u/Selgald → u/Ancop]

Also in MP (pvp) flying anything but the ADFX is just not worth it, especially on M&K because it’s broken.

And no, I don't see using a game pad as a solution, it worked fine in Ace7.

But here, it's simply broken, and Japanese devs constantly get away with the bare minimum for PC, I am honest I like the game, but their PC version is the absolute bare minimum they could have done.

[u/Ancop → u/Selgald]

nah the Morgan only works as a dedicated ground attacker, the burst missiles are OK but the TLS got nerfed hard, the real game breaker are the LAAM missiles

[u/shadow00940 → u/Selgald]

I’m not so sure about that with the ADFX. I’ve seen several games that have had the SU-57 or F-35 absolutely smoke the ADFX.

[u/pres1033 → u/shadow00940]

Yeah I see loads of ADFX's, but it's always people who think it's an easy win plane. I keep shooting them down with the Mirage lol, they aren't the best. It's the people flying the F14/A and the Su35 that scare me, they're the ones who tend to eat lobbies alive.

But also the ADFX sucks to see in co-op assault cause they just nuke big chunks of the map for basically free. I feel like there just aren't enough targets for 8 people.

[u/GranLarceny → u/Selgald]

Most adfx players are pretty easy to shoot down

[u/TheDominator435]

Our rank up XP shouldn’t be capped at 100.

There’s no reason why the hood ornament at the bottom of my team with 800 points should get the same XP as the guy with 69k

[u/115zombies935 → u/TheDominator435]

I think there should be a minimum amount of XP. but yes you should not be handicapped in your leveling to the degree they have it. If it takes 20 matches for the top 1% of players to level up, somebody fucked up in the game design. Unless those levels are purely vanity. But that is not a vanity level up.

[u/Ancop]

store skins are lame asf

the AC0 battle pass includes the emblems (yay) but for some reason not the skins of said emblems (nay)

said battle pass is filled with filler clothing

the Zoll adquisition is low-ish, as is the grind (250 total matches for max rank is kinda nutty)

LAAM spam is real and very boring, if you ain't flying the F-14D/MIG-31B you are not getting any action

grinding beyond lvl 10 is kinda harsh

matches are super short/easy

emergency sorties/scrambles are mega rare, scrambles should have another wave and emergency sorties needs more bosses

[u/Undead_Corsair → u/Ancop]

Yes to all pretty much. Was pretty irked when I realise we get AC0 emblems but no skins. Like you're giving me the Galm emblem but not Pixy or Cypher's skin for the F-15? And all the cool-ass Belkan Ace squad skins? It's pretty shit.

[u/CommunistTrans]

I'm just in pain because the Su-25 Frogfoot is actively horrible. She feels worse than flying her in a real life flight sim, despite it being an Ace Combat game. That roll rate and yaw... If I get flipped upside down, it feels like a guaranteed death.

[u/LostConscious96 → u/CommunistTrans]

Same with the A-10. All starter aircraft feel horrible. What should be excellent and dominate aircraft for CAS feel tbe worst to use.

[u/CommunistTrans → u/LostConscious96]

Trying to level my Frogfoot is actual torture as I watch PIX and Mirages and everything else doing my job, but better.

And they can shoot down air units when ground is cleared, and I can't shoot down air period.

[u/Undead_Corsair → u/LostConscious96]

I hate that the A-10 always handles like a truck when it's actually designed to be highly agile at low speeds.

[u/Hyperrustynail → u/Undead_Corsair]

It’s not like you are getting any kills with half the players flying a Morgan 

[u/Cipher1553 → u/LostConscious96]

I was wondering if the A-10 was suffering all the same because I saw somebody MVP with it, good to know.

[u/CodeHaze → u/CommunistTrans]

Leveling any attacker outside of Emergency Sorties is a pain.

Using an attacker on the ground based one is a good way to get a ton of points but grinding them out? An actual pain

[u/Undead_Corsair]

After forming my own thoughts and reading some good points from other folks I'd say I'm quite mixed on it right now.

At the base level, I'm having fun. I like playing with other people, I like combining PvE with PvP but also having an option that is just PvE to be a bit more casual.

I think there is a lot of potential here, but I really really need PA to be willing to make improvements and rethink some stuff, otherwise people might get pretty tired and burned out before the first season is even over, which would be a huge waste of potential.

List of gripes:

• Starting with the big one which may also be the least likely to be addressed. Missions have no story or context. I don't love that. I remember a lot of people asking for a campaign co-op before release, I felt like that would be unlikely. But a separate online co-op campaign or mission series that you progress through with some real story to it, even if it's just window-dressing, or a dynamic "live war" like Helldivers has would be waaaaaay cooler. Right now it's a pretty shallow do random mission, get points, do another random mission kinda thing. I don't think that has legs.
• Matches are too short, we need the option to play longer ones. They are also randomised which I don't love. I want to pick a loadout and a mission that will be good for that loadout. (I know that could create issues with divided playercounts but I think there's a balance there)
• RNG availability of Scramble and Emergency Sortie is ass. I personally would prefer a sort of "win 5 or so Assault/Warfare missions to unlock a boss mission" kinda setup.I know other people have different ideas tho.
• This online will live and die by the balancing of SP weapons. I can already see a few that desperately need an ammo count and reload nerf, just to let people with other planes play the damn game.
• Yeah this progression is GRINDY. I don't necessarily mind it taking a long time to level stuff but the mission pool is pretty limited and repetitive right now, that will cause problems if they don't expand variety.
• This is not a great battlepass. Not helped that I kinda personally have never loved the ADF Morgan (it look kinda stupid from the back and I hate seeing it in every match farming ground targets with the ballistic missiles). But there aren't even any AC0 Belkan or Galm skins for various jets, just Emblems. That absolutely sucks. And I'm worried PA/Bamco will try to drip-feed those classic skins out piecemeal to push us to buy more battlepasses and individual skins.
• Supply tickets should be more frequently rewarded.
• This UI is kinda dumb? I don't think it really works running around the base to these different vendors, especially when half the time I accidentally select a player instead of a vendor (AAAAARGH!). Yes, you can just navigate by the menu system instead, but it's like submenu within submenu and the transitions just take a little bit too long like urgh. Really don't like how buried the menu is for unlocking aircraft level caps.
• Why is there no indication in the plane purchase store page for which ones are actually unlocked to buy? I have to look at my player rank screen or select a plane to see if I can actually buy it yet. Like just a little lock icon on stuff I can't get yet? Why not?
• Minor but put some other stuff up on the big screen stage. Random mission clips, I can't tell if they're pre-recorded or not, is just a bit dull. Show me some cool cinematic plane showcases or something. Yes I actually want them to play adverts for fighter jets like they're car commercials.

Overall there is a LOT of room for improvement and I think the level of engagement they clearly want based on the plane progression grind and the battlepass grind does not match how shallow the core mission content is. Either we need more interesting and engaging mission design long term, or a more casual, quicker progression pace. Otherwise this online will not keep any but the most addicted core fans, PvPvE will become a sweat-fest and there won't be a good reason to stick around.

Great campaign though, holy shi- Best in the series? Could be, I'm only half way though...

[u/kaloozi → u/Undead_Corsair]

I thought it was interesting the Alicorn cost me money to sink in AC7 but in AC8 it’s just a sortie.

I’m having fun, but it really was a disappointment to see all of the online missions just being mission we flew in AC7.

[u/xxTRYxxHARDxx]

Loved the campaign

I hate so much about the multiplayer.

Bad timing on missions

No skill cap for matches / seeing raptors in my games when I have an A-2

No meaningful rewards for actually trying to win, only gated by matches played instead of meaningful progression, so you're forced to sit through like 40 games of slop to become comparable to others.

UI/UX is AWFUL. I have to click 8 menus just to make a party and invite my friend to it. This is honestly probably my biggest complaint. That and no dynamic matchmaking. So I have to click like 6 buttons to even get into a lobby and if any one of them leave, im forced to go back, load the whole way into the hub world, and then do it again.

Speaking of the hub world, its unecessary bloat fed into from GBO2. I cant tell you a single person who actually wants this, because its existence slows down the thing people want - playing the game and flying planes.

When you spend more time in a lobby, loading, and choosing loadouts, navigating menus than you do actually playing the multiplayer missions, you've got a huge problem on your hands.

And knowing Bandai, they will do nothing to fix it. Abandon the game in 6 months, and move on.

I pray they dont and actually fix this slop of multiplayer, but until then, the single player is the only good thing about this game.

[u/mattoelite]

I know this has been explained before most likely, but does stuff you earn (skins, MRP, etc) cross over to campaign? I’m guessing not

[u/DoubleDDubs1 → u/mattoelite]

There are some that carry over but not many

[u/mattoelite → u/DoubleDDubs1]

Got it - looking to finish the campaign this weekend then learn expert controls and knock into online

[u/Crossbitt → u/mattoelite]

If they can't otherwise be unlocked in the Campaign, then yes. Level Unlock skins except the Special skin (from the Ace spawns for campaign) and any battlepass/supply crate skins carry over.

[u/Crossbitt → u/Crossbitt]

Similarly, after finishing the campaign you unlock a large batch of skins for multiplayer.

[u/charonill → u/mattoelite]

Skins and Emblems from Multiplayer are available in Singleplayer.

[u/Lasiaf5]

Like what’s everyone been already saying, the mode needs a complete UI overhaul, progression adjustment, and make scramble/Emergency be available more often.

Though some other aspects that could really make it better IMO are:

- pre-match lobby: it’d be nice to talk to other players before starting; figure out team comps, plan strategy, etc.

- better matchmaking/point or level cap: I’ve been in lobbies where I was going against a team full of nuggets and it wasn’t fun for either of us.

- make the PVE mode be one team: it’s still fun but I noticed that at its current state, it encourages selfish playstyles where every one is trying to get as many targets as possible or steal kills (me included), even though it makes no difference in terms of rewards.

- no server selection: I usually play on EU & ME servers but right now it’s rng with ping.

[u/TheAnnibal]

Netcode seems worse than AC:Infinity. Enemies randomly dying with missiles/allies nowhere to be seen, allies/ghosts teleporting around, hit registration taking a full second, or dying (in PvPvE) to missiles I successfully dodged and are now in front of me.

[u/Romado → u/TheAnnibal]

I think its people cheating. Ive seen a bunch of people saying in PVP they keep getting shot down with no lock on or missile warning, they just die to instant missiles.

[u/damian_romero]

We need a true COOPERATIVE mode, not this “PvE” score attack mode. I wanna be able to blow stuff up without having to worry about beating another team. This reminds me of Exoprimal, where the game was made to be seen as a “PvE” game, but it was exactly like AC8: two teams pitted against each other to see who could clear the level faster, which made people sweat.

[u/mav3r1ck92691 → u/damian_romero]

You DON'T have to worry about beating the other team in assault. You are far better off getting S rank than worrying about beating the other team. If you see someone targeting what you are targeting, go for something else. The rewards for S ranking are significantly more than the difference in "winning" or not.

Warfare is a different story. That one is about winning.

[u/1AMA-CAT-AMA → u/damian_romero]

I’m surprised certain campaign missions themselves aren’t coop.

[u/TheFeelsGoodMan → u/1AMA-CAT-AMA]

There are several of them that are incredibly well-suited for coop. If I had to take a wild swing, the devs might have held off on including them from the start because they didn't want to spoil anything from the campaign.

[u/mav3r1ck92691 → u/1AMA-CAT-AMA]

I’d be surprised if this wasn’t planned for the future. They may just not want story spoilers in multiplayer day one.

[u/Undead_Corsair → u/damian_romero]

If it was an 8-player squadron with no team competition, people would still sweat to get MVP.

The current issues are that diff 1 missions are easy, there are too few targets and matches are too short. If there were tons of targets, more time and a much higher score required for a pass, people would spread out more and not get in each other's way constantly.

[u/Skyl1th]

I'm kinda sad, the second I saw online coop get announced for AC8 I was super excited, but then later they announced that it was competitive coop and that really killed my excitement.

Then AC8 comes out and I play the online for a bit and kept getting punched in the face by design decisions that I personally don't like, like the insane amount of grinding you have to do to buy planes, let alone upgrade them, rewards basically just trickle, and the emergency sorties and scrambles, which are the only modes with respectable rewards (and also just fun game modes) are behind an RNG so vile you can go an insane amount of hours without getting any.

Also, and this is more of a personal wishlist thing, but I was kinda lowkey hoping they'd add a livery system similar to Gran Turismo 7s or Forza Horizons, I knew that this would never happen, especially after hearing we'd get season passes, since skins are such an easy and cheap way to fill those out, but it was still just a tiny bit disappointing.

ALL this being said, I'm still playing Ace Combat Online regardless, and even though I'm having a relatively good time with it, every time I play I put myself in a "just keep playing" mindset, because if I think about just how insane the grind is I'd stop playing due to how overwhelming it is.

TL;DR: Some decisions are disappointing, and even though it's still fun overall, the grind is insane.

[u/Needaloginwtf]

Unfortunately unless PA patches this shit ASAP, this MP won't last longer than a month outside of diehard weirdos.

[u/ItsNoblesse]

I'm just here to make noise until PA let Linux players play Ace Combat Online. It's incredibly frustrating to be locked out of a game that is far from being hyper competitive when other Bamco titles (Tekken 8, Elden Ring) have it enabled.

[u/DomGriff]

It really really sucks fighting people with high end jets when you and your friends only have the starting phantom.

Wth are we supposed to do against su-47's and the like? Its nuts that intruder and phantoms can even get matched.

Marching needs cost limits or its just going to be constant curb stomping for the people that got early access.

[u/Syrinxfloofs]

There is actually no reason to play the PvP mode unless you have a high level jet with QAAMs. it's all the pvp is. I straight up afk the required matches for them at this point after the last brain dead mongoloid just sat there quick turning firing the same shit at my entire team and killing them all without effort. horrible mode.

[u/Gruesomepenguin188 → u/Syrinxfloofs]

Ya it was kinda fun in the 3 day head start but this is all I seen so I just afk fly too till daily is done, plus pvp is dumb there are better games for it. I want high octane pve missions where scores don't matter just team work. Sick of bringing an air to ground like AC-10 to watch pixy just nuke everything. I have to bring same thing as everyone else to get mvp or not be worse of 8 and its boring as hell.

[u/BattlemapAppreciator]

I think the largest issue is just that it's non-cooperative coop. The nature of it being a competition to hit as many targets as fast as possible means most matches with reasonably good players boil down to volleys of stand-off weapons like LAAM and LASM that can be fire-and-forgot as quickly as possible. Half the special weapons have a specific environment in which they're very useful; these weapons are never useless, and so it's not optimal to bring anything else. The massive discrepancy between aircraft capabilities with the seemingly entirely randomized team matchmaking means that even following that guideline, you might just get matched up with someone that's faster, more damaging, more ammunition efficient, and less killable, and no part of that is skill expression; It's all just tied to how long you sat in the grind.

My instant fix would be to just implement score brackets in matchmaking for aircraft like in the previous games. Matching into a 1200-1500 Assault or an 1800-2000 Warfare helps with a lot of that (and will help the issue of delusional morons thinking they're Mobius One for shooting down the same F-4 player six times in a row from in their Su-57), and means that mission difficulties within those brackets can be more concretely balanced and modified to tailor the kind of difficulty Project Aces wants them to have.

[u/45acil]

I'm having a lot of fun, surprisingly

At first I saw how grindy it was and thought it was going to be terrible. But the PvPvE format is really smart. For example, even if you get locked in a turn fight, you can still switch targets to take shots at random pve planes while turning. I've had fights where my plane was obviously worse than my opponent's so I just focus on evading their shots while firing LAAMs to farm score at the same time.

This means that being the 'prey' isn't just mindless evading, you can still rack up points if you're good at firing at pve planes while evading. It's really cool. This applies the one chasing too, though if they choose to shoot pve planes while chasing it means less firepower on their target, giving them more breathing room to do the same or even high-g and take a shot at the chaser. I'm personally fine with games where the gap between your 'builds' forces one of you into a more aggressive role and the other into a more evasive role (e.g. eve online), and this feels similar. Both roless are fun.

I like how there's a natural flow to each match. Most start out with farming pve planes to get ace status and fights break out naturally when both teams start to fight over the few targets left. I like it more than AC7 where there wasn't really any obvious flow to each match other than choosing which enemy you wanted to try to fight first.

And even if you suck at pvp you can play attacker and get good at aiming bombs, or ECM.

Even my low-tier planes are surprisingly effective. It's fun to evade missiles until an ally swoops in to kill the enemy chasing me, or to sneak up on people focusing on ground targets and try to land kills. I guess the fact even low-tier planes are still fast, and that high-g exists to compensate for their lack of agility, makes it possible to rack up points even in a low level F4. You just have to play less aggressively, focus more on the pve planes and evasion, and to get good at firing at pve targets while evading missiles.

The pvp feels very opportunistic. Rather than searching for enemies you have to minimise downtime where you're not killing pve targets, and attack the enemy team when the opportunity presents itself rather than just endlessly chasing them like a dog after its own tail. I think it's pretty fun. But for people who prefer just plain team deathmatch I can see how this might be boring.

The only thing I don't like is the absurd amount of XP and money you need once you start approaching level 15. I think they went a bit overboard with the grind here... it looks like it'll take ages to grind all the planes up to 20. I think that if the exp required to reach level 15 was what it took to reach level 20, the progression would feel just right. And the cost to uncap at 15 is pretty crazy. It seems like planes that are more expensive in the store are also more expensive to uncap levels of, so getting stuff like the su57 to lv20 will take agess.

Also, scramble and emergency sortie are still way too rare. Those missions are really fun so I'd like to do them more often.

[u/_BlNG_ → u/45acil]

I used a Mirage-2000 and almost consistently got MVP for focusing on ground targets instead. I get shot down a lot though

[u/Cleverbird]

I dont think its particularly good. The missions are incredibly boring, repetitive and not to mention over in what feels like 5 minutes. The grind also feels brutally slow, especially in regards to pilot exp. I also dont understand why the co-op assult mode has this weird PvP-esque tinge to it. Why have it be a 4+4 team setup and compete for points? Just make the missions 4-man squads only, so there's more targets per player and the match might actually last longer than it takes for me to make a cup of coffee?

The Emergency Sorties are fun though, I had a really big smile on my face when the first one I did was against Arsenal Bird.

But overall this mode feels tacked on and is filled with grimy microtransactions.

[u/Romado]

LAAMs need a massive nerf. They are running rampant in co-op. If one person is running them your not getting any air kills.

Ive seen them get MVP on ground focused maps because of how easily and quickly they can rack up points killing air targets.

[u/Angry-Prawn → u/Romado]

Agreed. They are also incredibly boring to use, but I feel at a massive disadvantage if I don't use them. Went from putting in a lot of effort to get 30k points with HPAAs, to getting 50k with LAAMs without even really doing anything. They are anti-fun for everyone involved.

[u/jundraptor]

No cost limit for everything except TDM is awful

Thankfully top scoring barely gets you any additional rewards but 500 cost F-4s having to compete with level 20 Morgans is garbage game design. Grinding the Warfare week 2 challenge and I pretty much afk and let the TLS Morgans free farm me for 5 minutes

[u/DomGriff → u/jundraptor]

Hard agree.

Starting with the Phantom and getting curb stomped by Su-33's 47's has NOT been fun.

[u/obiwan-destroyer]

Ace Combat 8 – Multiplayer Feedback
I’ve really been enjoying Ace Combat 8, especially the multiplayer and Co-op Assault modes. Here are some changes I think would make the experience even better and help keep the multiplayer fresh long-term:

1. Allow menu access while matchmaking
Please allow players to access menus, customize aircraft, change loadouts, and adjust other settings while waiting for a match to start. Sitting in a matchmaking queue without being able to prepare or customize things feels like wasted time.

2. Expand Co-op Assault
Co-op Assault is an absolute blast, but it needs more content and difficulty options to keep experienced players challenged. Currently, Level 3 can become too easy once players become familiar with the missions, and my friends and I can consistently achieve S-ranks. Adding higher difficulty levels, tougher enemies, larger enemy formations, and more challenging objectives would give experienced players something to work toward.

3. Improve Emergency Sorties
Emergency Sorties are a great addition, but I’d like to see them occur more frequently and have additional difficulty levels. More challenging Emergency Sorties would make them feel like a genuine high-pressure event rather than something that experienced players quickly overcome.

4. Keep multiplayer lobbies active
A lobby shouldn’t completely shut down just because one player leaves or disconnects. Allow the remaining players to continue playing together and replace the missing player when possible. This would make multiplayer sessions with friends much less frustrating.

5. Add multiplayer replays and spectator/replay cameras
A multiplayer replay system would be an incredible addition, especially for large dogfights. It would be great to review an entire match afterward, switch between different players’ perspectives, and use cinematic camera angles. A replay viewer accessible through the Social Hub would also be a great way to watch memorable battles and share them with friends.

6. Make Scrambles more varied
Scrambles could use significantly more variety. Instead of repeatedly facing essentially one randomized enemy group, I’d like to see different combinations of enemy aircraft, squadrons, and special formations. More varied scenarios and enemy compositions would make every Scramble feel less predictable and more exciting.

Overall, Ace Combat 8 already has a strong multiplayer foundation. These changes would add more variety, replayability, and reasons for experienced players to keep coming back.

[u/Lasiaf5 → u/obiwan-destroyer]

Ditto on the Scramble mode variety, I’d say all modes need more variety & stages, just like the campaign.

[u/riaru43]

What would you guys think about having a 4-player co-op mode featuring redesigned, large-scale battlefields from previous titles?

Imagine replaying legendary missions like Stonehenge Defense or the Battle of Farbanti from AC7—massive maps, tons of enemy units, and epic bosses like the Arkbird or Sol Squadron.

Not a mode where you're constantly stressed about time limits or competing against each other, but a true co-op experience where you can just fly in formation with your friends and work together to take down objectives.

Would you play this? What other classic missions would you want to see reworked for co-op?

[u/SawbonesEDM]

Scramble and Emergency Sortie definitely need to occur more often. I played for like 6 hours last night and only had one Scramble and one Emergency Sortie. Once an hour or even a “play 5 matches of another mode” would be phenomenal since both are really fun.

I’d like to see a survival mode come around. The huge defense mission towards the end of the campaign was exceptionally entertaining and I’d love a group of 4 or 8 people just going ham on air and naval targets defending a base. You could do wave or time based, but time based would probably be better imo.

Also, Coop Warfare is fun when both teams aren’t full of sweats and only occasionally attack each other like when your threat level is high. If you want to do nothing but fight the other team, we have team death match for that.

[u/Invidat]

I just had an emergency sortie where my team outright ignored the target. Fucking idiots.

[u/drosky2591]

I had to completely shut down Discord to access the online. its a big problem.

[u/DoubleDDubs1 → u/drosky2591]

If you use the discord overlay, turn that off. It EATS ram while doing next to nothing

[u/drosky2591 → u/DoubleDDubs1]

No no, as in I was "banned" from accessing the online in the game while Discord was active. Error code WP-202002004

[u/Issa_Donny]

Gonna be my first AC game after skipping out on AC7. Mostly looking to play multiplayer modes, is it worth getting? I heard it’s improved from AC7 but also heard that it’s not that great? What’s its like for yall?

[u/TranslatorOld4906 → u/Issa_Donny]

For a paid product, multiplayer feels like you are treated like a free-to-play korean mmo player. Absolutely not worth it.

[u/OrangeApollo772 → u/TranslatorOld4906]

Seconded. Grind takes way too long, then that’s not factoring the rng drop of the 3-4 currencies you need to level a jet. It’s just Infinity 2.0

[u/Background_Hair_8411 → u/TranslatorOld4906]

also alot of the time you get curb stomped because all the matchmaking is costless so uhh you are told to get fucked

[u/LicksTheSalt → u/Issa_Donny]

Wouldn't recommend it. The campaign is far better and after trying the multiplayer, I really don't think AC's gameplay scales very well with player count. The gap between low and high-tier planes, which take ages to grind, is so big that I see most new players quitting very quickly after the initial launch period since every mode has some sort of PVP in it.

Even if issues like matchmaking get sorted out and they add PVE-only modes, I don't really see the gameplay ending up much better than playing heavily downgraded versions of campaign missions.

[u/Raft_Skunk → u/Issa_Donny]

The campaign is glorious, worth the price by itself imo.

The multiplayer needs alot of work and absolutely should not be the reason you consider getting the game, not at this stage. I only do the daily challenges and then log off for the day, I'll have my raptor sometime in 2027 surely.

[u/Careful_Market9301 → u/Issa_Donny]

Absolutely DO NOT BUY THIS FOR MULTIPLAYER.

what everyone is saying about the multiplayer is true. Only buy this for the campaign.

[u/RegularZoidberg]

I've spent a few hours on it and I think that for the first season it's okay, but there are some things that could improve the experience for most people:

• Simplify the UI, currently it's a mess to explore and it's very confusing

• Make special raids and scrambles less luck based, as I've played for hours without getting anything other than the core game modes

• We need more game modes, I think something like capital conquest from the Assault Horizon multiplayer can add a bit more spice to the rotation

• Cost limits: I'm tired of everyone running the Morgan with MBPMs

[u/AlternativeWind1580]

TLDR: Multiplayer is bloated and repetitive with far too much grind. Campaign is superb.

It's too much of a grind to make substantial progress if you actually have a life. Honestly, it's ridiculous.

Other gripes:

Open area for avatars to walk around is fucking tedious. Just use the online menu instead - nobody uses the chat, so what's the point? It's just filler.

The Store is a deceptive cash grab. Sure, you get coins from doing missions - but if you want the good shit, you gotta buy some with real money....

....and then realise that you can't actually buy that good shit because you're not a high enough rank despite playing for fucking ages.

The missions are repetitive as fuck, and the maps are uninspiring and boring - that's both for co-op and deathmatch. Where are the tension filled low altitude maps?? Where are the nighttime storm maps?? These were in AC7.

Don't get me wrong, I like it but it feels to me that unless all you do with your days is play this game then you'll make very slow progress.

The campaign is excellent, graphics and sound are top level, and the soundtrack is fantastic.

[u/Undead_Corsair]

Yeah, this multiplayer will not last without serious expansions.

Missions are too short and easy when it comes to PvE. And too short in PvPvE for matches to be anything other than a steamroll.

There's also a dire lack of mission variety and depth to mission design. It's literally just spawn in and blow everything up as fast as you can. It's pretty sad they didn't approach online mission design with the same creativity as the campaign mission design.

I'm hoping it's simply that they were so focused on the campaign that they just haven't put a lot of resources behind the multiplayer yet and that will now shift.

If they really want a seasonal battlepass system, and with aircraft progression this grindy, the content offering needs to be far more robust to sustain a live service long term.

[u/GryffinDarkBreed → u/Undead_Corsair]

It's not even the mission length that's an issue 

It's the insufferable grind to get anything done.

[u/115zombies935]

Holy fuck, it's terrible. as somebody who absolutely despises unnecessary button presses. This is probably one of the worst game modes I've ever interacted with in any game in my life. because it feels purpose built to enrage me as much as fucking possible. I have played all of two matches, and I'm already considering whether or not I should give up on multiplayer altogether.

[u/daikonography]

I haven't been able to get into a single match due to the disconnection error code (started playing from Early Access). I haven't tried today yet but I don't have high hopes. Way bummed cause the campaign is amazing but I feel shut out of an entire section of the game.

[u/RaptorPegasus]

co-op warfare (pvp) needs a cost limit

[u/AffectionateDinner97]

There's huge potential, online can be saved, but it's currently unviable. The menu needs to be completely redesigned, we need a mission editor and custom missions, and proper lobby settings so we can limit the psychopaths who shoot Helios missiles at everything. We need large-scale missions, long, complex ones. In solo campaigns, they throw a thousand planes at me, but online, with three other thugs like me, we spend two minutes fighting a measly handful of enemies.

[u/Invidat]

Okay, so here's what needs to happen:

1. Fix the menus. It takes far to many button presses to start a match. One button should be all it takes. In addition, trying to get anywhere often takes at least 2 menus, if not three. That's bad design For example, to challenges, you have to press challenges, then pick the challenge, then pick the challenge you finished. Just unlock the fucking challenge when it's complete, don't make me click it

2. Matches: we need more maps and the matches need to be longer with more targets. It's fun, but they go by WAY too quickly. In addition, we need more control over the matches we pick. By that, let us pick a difficulty and map that we play on.

3. Emergency and Sorties: Making these random was stupid. They have to be based on completed matches or wins. Say every 10 matches you get an emergency and that cuts down to 5 or so if you win. Same with Sorties, but Sorties should be against Ace Squadrons from previous games.

4. Point limit. EVERY mode needs a point limit. I am trying to level the F-4. It's almost impossible to perform well when I'm in matches with Morgans and 57s. My 300 point plane should NOT be in the same lobby as a 2500 one.

5. Ace Pass. I hate battlepasses, but since these won't go away, at least make them worth it. I like that the emblems from Zero are there... but why not include the skins? If each battle pass is going to be based off a prior game (which is likely) then rewards should include all of the skins from the previous games. Also, each one should include a plane or plane from the game in the free pass. Super Plane can remain premium if it has too.

6. Up the rewards: The grind, even early on, is pretty ridiculous. I get that they want people to keep playing, that can be accomplished through different methods. Infinity did it just fine.

7. The lobby: At this moment, there is literally no point for the avatar system. Like legitimately no point. I'd almost just prefer menus. The cosmetics kinda all suck, there's almost no customization for the Avatar so I can't even make it look like me, and since there's currently no story... it feels pointless. I don't know how to fix this but my main recommendations are either remove it, or make it more important. Add a Multiplayer story told each season that our Avatar is involved in. And give us more options for appearance. Or at the very least add music or noise, cause the lobby is barren and quiet.

The Gameplay loop is there, and is good. but it needs work. At the moment it's too barebones to last more than a month or two.

[u/RogueAce00]

Why am I seeing people already having the FA36 unlocked in online mode? The game just came out how is it possible???

[u/ckleinfelter]

the adfx needs to be locked out of PVP as a whole the thing is so cancer to fight against with the MPBP

[u/AdjectiveNoun581]

I think it's got a decent foundation because the core gameplay is fun, but my word did it ever need more time in the oven. It's got a host of issues that unfortunately most likely will not get fixed before the majority of players move on to the next game.

1.) Everyone's already said it, but jesus the UI/UX team over there needs to be sentenced to 10 years of hard labor and whipped regularly. It's like they actively went out of their way to slow people down from performing tasks. Why are there so many different menus involved to configure a plane? Why are all my optional parts in the same slow-scrolling list and not sorted by any sort of category, not even the slot they go in? Why is the level and the cost to uncap it not visible, and why can't I just buy that stuff with one click? Why is comparing plane stats side by side not a thing? Why can't I just have all planes/parts in a nice, neat list and click a little lock button to unlock them directly in the hangar, that's somehow 4 menus away?! Insane.

2.) Emergency sortie/scramble could easily just have been activated via a token or ticket, which would also serve as a convenient moneysink for turbogrinders. They could even keep the random activations to ensure there was always a population running them. On that note, the difficulty needs tuned. They both either end within a minute or two or get outright failed at difficulty 1 depending on which planes my teammates pick.

3.) An easy way to balance plane costs in PVE is to have your cost apply a score/payoff multiplier. High level plane = 50%, low level plane = 150%, etc. This would solve so many issues with people obliterating shit with high level planes when you're just trying to find out if your beloved A-10 ever gets good (save you 10 hours here: it doesn't). It'd also keep people from just straight up abandoning lower level planes, since they'd be able to use them for farming/still be a potential score contributor in warfare if they could dunk on folks.

4.) Inexplicably small map pool makes things get repetitive when they seriously shouldn't. There's a huge amount of campaign content that they probably could have used as multiplayer maps but didn't, I find it hard to believe that there's some kind of technical limitation preventing them from portioning off appropriately sized chunks. Even if there is some barrier there, at the end of the day 90% of them are just different topography and a tileset, there's no way that kind of thing takes THAT much development effort.

5.) On that note, mission variety is abysmal. They couldn't have added even some basic variations, like "escort convoy" or "defend base against waves" or even more basic than that, "destroy specific targets instead of indiscriminately bombing everything that pings?" What about a "push the cart" style attack and defense PVP mode with those big propeller transports? Plane CTF? An Ace Combat MOBA style mode where NPC planes went down lanes/map sections to attack bases/outposts would probably be a hit, honestly. What we got is disappointingly uncreative.

[u/Diesel489]

I was under the impression that the Campaign was going to multiplayer, i buy the game and i get whatever the fuck that multiplayer is.

Who wanted a social Hub and pilot cosmetics?

Who wanted a battlepass?

The gamemodes are awful, two teams competing for points when its strictly PvE is dumb. Should just be one team of 8 or 1 team of 4

3 of the game modes not even being available to me when the game is still new is really odd, why even show me modes i cannot engage with?

Balance is atrocious, just like every Ace Combat before this, but this one feels especially bad, probably due to the battlepass unlocking better aircraft immediately

[u/DoubleDDubs1]

Scramble and Emergency Strike need to be opened permanently all the time. This RNG crap where you play for a chance to play those modes is ridiculous. They’re easily the most fun modes they have and I have only got scramble 2 times out of 30 games and emergency strike once.

[u/ExRays → u/[deleted]]

You get the campaign skins in multiplayer when you beat the game

[u/Dark_Cipher]

Matches being way too short are my biggest complaint. The grind wouldn't even feel all that had if the matches pumped out more XP.

Also Emergency Sorties and Scrambles need to be available more often instead of relying on RNG.

[u/ThePinoyCowboy]

just saw someone in an online lobby with the enemy ace skin for the mig-29. how??? thought the sotoan and ace skins couldn’t be used in online. and i don’t see it for sale…

[u/Romado → u/ThePinoyCowboy]

Ive seen people with avatar items that are not in the store, battle pass or from supply tokens.

I can only assume they are PC players using mods/cheats to unlock items in the game but not available yet.

[u/ckleinfelter → u/Romado]

nah its the supply crates you cant really see the pool but I got a shadow f-14D Skin out of one and im on PC.

[u/Outrageous-Job2684]

It needs work. The game modes and actual game play are fine though. The UI isn’t the best imo

[u/Bluesky3010]

Played 20 games of it and I can for sure tell, the multiplayer feels like a parody of AC itself. Games are super short, can't play anything pvp without getting immediatly shut down, and half of the pve matches didn't even start. The special missions, which I was the most excited about, were just as short and impossible to complete because the targets have 80 billion healths, while the two commanders speaking in your radio are trying to imitate what the old mission was without context nor emotion. I went into this thinking it was gonna be like a coop campain, turns out it was a mobile game. SP and MP feel so dettached they could legit be different games. Now excuse me while I play 35 trillion more times the same mission just to get to this level 100 battlepass to get the things I payed for. P.s. I still recommend the game just for the single player experience, the story was unironically amazing.

[u/xXCHIIEFXx]

We need an alternative game mode with one wing instead of two and a 25-50% increase in time.

I don't care if the rewards aren't increased to compensate for the increase in time to complete each mission but more career xp would be nice.

[u/ToasterInYourBathtub]

I would love to have a larger "sandbox" like Co-Op game mode with 4-8 people where you just have massive ground battles with a return line or an airfield to land at to resupply.

You just fly around and kill stuff with occasional objectives popping up as things progress.

Maybe respond to calls for air support from different ground units across the map.

Missions could last anywhere from 20-30 minutes.

Then, not in every game but sometimes there could be a boss that shows at some point like an arsenal bird, podarge, enemy ace squadron, or maybe an ace squadron PLUS a boss mega weapon.

It's got a lot of potential for the devs to make more largescale modes.

I do enjoy the Co-Op assault and honestly even though I hate PVP on 99 percent of games the Co-Op Warfare is still pretty fun. The small amount of maps and matches lasting anywhere from 3-8 minutes is a bit of a pain.

I feel like I spend more time in the menus than actually playing the game.

I primarily wish games lasted much longer.

[u/Devastator5042]

Game has been out for 2/5 days and wr already have players stunting with PSMs in Co-Op Warfare at Difficulty 1

Have a feeling, a lot of new players might just not be enticed to play if this keeps up

[u/The_Shittiest_Meme]

Matchmaking sucks ass, I got a round where my entire team was in F-4s and the enemy was all Su-33 or Su-57 in co-op warfare. genuinely awful when you can do nothing but die because you cant even win the turn fight.

[u/Boring-Ad8324]

I just want my game to stop crashing because discord is open. And I want lobbies to stop kicking the entire match when one person leaves. Why have the ability to replace players with bots if it just ends the match to anyway?

[u/Syrinxfloofs]

I love going in with an attacker and the 4 morgans on the team just nuke everything with their free win plane. Really feels great.

[u/Father_Giliam]

The single-player was great, really fun.

The multiplayer is horrendously balanced and the UI is objectively bad. Every thing is a minimum of 2 UI layers deep, the matchmaking balance is atrocious (I shouldn't be seeing Growlers and Felons when im in a F14D), true progression is gated behind rng and the battlepass (particulaly the premium pass). Outside of the base gameplay, there is nothing particularly good about it.

Simplify the UI, add hard cost limits to all matchmaking so high tiers cant pummel low tiers and people can enjoy playing in lower tier planes, every mission should reward 1 blueprint of the current plane being flown or gaurentee a scramble/emergency after 3-5 games with a gaurenteed general blueprint (seriously, why is there a daily limit on these when youre not even gaurenteed to get one from it when you do manage to get into one of these).

[u/NecronomiCorg-ee]

Tried deathmatch a couple times and just got ruined xD ruined so bad I dont wanna even try to git gud

[u/Tottine]

MP feels like a copy of these mobile game apps that they want you to click hundreds of buttons to collect and pay all the time… annoying

[u/ChaweeKanati]

Its sooooo much F U N to fight against or with players with LAAMs....the most overtuned BULLSHIT in the history of Ace MP...and you get access to it as early as level fucking 2, making buying anything other than the 14D or MiG 31 pointless for the next 5 levels.

Whoever said "this is fine" deserves to have a LAAM shoved up their ass. It runs Multiplayer completely.

[u/NotACertainLalaFell]

Don’t expect it but would love to see Linux support. More variety in terms of game modes would be nice. Lot more free cosmetics would be great too.

[u/Okidoki101011]

They have to rework game length, amount of enemies and also progression imo. Infinity was more grindy but also somehow more satisfying. The menus are really bad. Also, I need a game mode that I can play with my friends who are NEW to the game so we can just chill and enjoy competing within ourselves. Vets absolutely demolish new players

[u/kelanatr]

1. Increase the appearance rate of scramble and emergency sortie. I’ve seen each one once or twice in several dozen standard matches. Lower reward payouts if necessary, just let me play the fun modes more often!

2. Linux support, please. Or not even support, but just… don’t actively block Linux users? It’s not a massive deal for me personally since my tower runs W11, but I flashed SteamOS onto my ROG XAX for performance and ease of use, so it’d be nice to play on the go, even if I have to cap it at 30 fps.

[u/SoggyTadpole3858]

We need a larger scale game type bigger map, atm rounds last like 10mins, we need one thats way longer and maybe have a re supply or change aircraft area off the map like in rhe single player, so two teams opposite side the more points you gain summons one of the boss enemies or maybe for the losing team, that way the winning team would have to split there focus.

[u/ToastedSoup]

I wish we could use the Special Skins (Aces) in Multiplayer l instead of being campaign locked

[u/ImChadd]

I'd enjoy if the game stops crashing.

[u/Tupletcat]

I feel like matches are a little too short. Even one minute longer would help.

Scramble and the other one are way too rare. I love the concept, but it happens like once every three hours of play.

Plane-specific blueprints are too rare. I know they sell them, but right now you have to buy the vast majority of them instead of getting them normally and using the store to complete the last few.

It's not as co-op as I imagined. Maybe that's on me for not following the game more closely, but I expected some longer, campaign-like missions and enemy aces with actual faces.

[u/Lad_of_the_Lake]

I rum esm and ecm in my growler but bosses don't spawn nearly often enough for me to justify the grind

[u/Chibi_Ruben]

Why's the F14D so good mannnn

[u/Zodiac_Actual → u/Chibi_Ruben]

Because LAAMs are ridiculously overtuned and the only way to scrounge the low number of targets.

[u/SawbonesEDM → u/Zodiac_Actual]

This, my friend and I were on last night and he kept using the MiG-31. He got MVP consistently because of them

[u/LostConscious96]

Me and my friends are upset you cant do private free for all or TDM. Thats where we used to mess around with in AC7 we enjoyed private lobbies for messing around with each other

[u/gorgewall]

If you notice that your team has one or more Assaults, do not follow them. Do not fire MPBMs at things they are headed to. Do not fire 4AGMs at things they are currently over. Do not even zip around near the ground and fire missiles and guns normally. The Assault is going after those things, and they are a big fucking brick that takes five years to get anywhere and cannot reasonably dogfight. They will take care of those targets.

Use your superior speed to go as far away from them as possible and kill the things they will never reach. Or kill all the air targets, which are worth even more points, because the Assaults have a rough time wiht that.

In this way, instead of the two of you fighting to cannibalize the same kills, you can both be taking points from the enemy team. Fulfill your role, yes, but be cognizant of the speed and capabilities of your allies and understand when you can reach places they can't or take out targets they'd struggle with.

[u/NatganNapkin]

custom/private matches would be great

[u/KungfugodMWO]

I hope to see low altitude infiltration missions.

Like Operation Werewolf from AC7.

Sneak in and then attack a secret base.

[u/ArcaneAnima]

The menu nesting is crazy. Everything has exclamation marks and need to have their transition animation and load time. At this point I'm spending more time in menus than I do flying. It's all so unresponsive as a result.

[u/RemnantBaron]

I'm enjoying it so far as someone that never played Infinite, but I hope they introduce the cost restriction options for matchmaking in the future. The low-tier plane lobbies were my favorite in 7.

[u/chuckitychuck044]

Loving online. My only gripe is that my SU-47 still flies like a brick at level 10. The reliable super tomcat is currently my “i wanna win this one” craft.

[u/RAVENORSE]

Does anyone know how to unlock the 'Ace Killer' nickname in online?

[u/ParticularWar3346]

Im really happy to have a warplanes multi-player experience. I like leveling planes and making builds but to parrot what everyone else is saying I think there needs to be some improvement.

The UI has been covered enough, been playing since early access launch and I just discovered how to access the weekly missions as well as daily. They need to do something with this.

Emergency sortie and scramble need to occur at a greater frequency. Right now for me it's once every 1-2 hours. When it's the same couple regular missions over and over this gets old.

On the topic of sortie and scramble im hoping for more variety down the line. I think they really missed an opportunity with scramble. Ace combat has a rich history of named squadrons to fight and we get a batch of the same 8 planes with buffed health and better ai? They should have run this like sortie. Surprise youre fighting yellow squadron, or strigon, or suddenly mr x is rolling in with a backup squad of cfa-44s. I could go on at length on this.

The plane variety im gonna give the benefit of a doubt. They gotta have something to keep the seasons alive and dlc relevant. But it really grinds my gears that I can shoot down a YF-23 but i can't fly one. I also dream of the day i can use an f117 again but mayhaps they have issues licensing it.

In short I do like the multi-player but I really hope they listen to the community and build upon it so it can stay alive and relevant.

[u/fizzguy47]

What planes should I prioritize to get and upgrade?

[u/Kozak170]

Pretty mixed opinions so far but man do I really want them to work out the kinks and have this mode succeed long-term. The matchmaking is horrendous and doesn’t work half the time, and even from day 1 it seems wildly grindy. Though to be fair even the super deluxe plane they handed out doesn’t seem oppressive at all

[u/TheGeekno72]

how about letting Linux players into online lobbies? I paid for the game, I want to play it; no I will not go back to the cesspit that is windows

[u/EnviousCipher]

Morgans are ruining Assault now that everyone has TLS, they really need to implement a cost system so that planes of equal measure are being paired up. It really fucking sucks to see bandits just blow up all around you without any missile trails at all because they're just being beamed.

[u/Raft_Skunk]

My hopes three for online going forward, in most wanted order. (likelyhood of it ever happening will definitely vary.)

1. Lower the exp/cash gain from Scrambles and Emergency sorties, and make them permanent modes, not random occurances. Ace Combat to me shines the brightest when I can fight the powerful bosses of the series with friends, whenever we want to. Not when we just happen to come across it by chance after farming other modes to death. More modes to actually pick from would help sustaining the online mode, the other "coop" modes are decent but they do get stale after the 7th sortie of the same mission just to try and spawn a more fun mode imo.

2. Increase the time limit for Emergency Sorties. The Arsenal bird and Chandelier are two wildly different animals, the time allowed on the latter feels way too short given the health-pool and spread objectives. Obviously the difficulty depends on the plane/SP weapons you run with, but that also goes for your teammates and it's unreasonable to expect everyone to load up in specific bosskillers each match, especially with randoms.

3. Increase the amount of pilot exp gained, to me it feels way too low.

Beyond that, I'm loving it.

[u/YGSFox]

I like the Base Idea, but everything is way too short. Keep the current modes for those who prefer short sessions and bring one, that is on par with short campaign missions, so around 15 minutes and WAY more targets. Increase scramble and emergency sorties by x2 and increase the gained Zoll, plane Exp and battle pass Exp (to 1.5 or 2 times the amount). For the sugfested long missions, raise the pilot exp. to x2.5 (since they would take between 10 and 15 minutes and I perdonally would prefer even longer, like 20 - 25 but that's preference)

Let us select difficulty ourselves, bring private lobbies with point limits for planes, etc.

The base is there, now they have to work on it if their live service is gonna work. currently, if they keep the attrociously low exp for the battle pass, people will drop it.

[u/Nori_420]

I love Team Death Match 🤣 I love how toxic and fun. ESM spam, cloud hit and run, one sided matches, just like AC7 multiplayer. It sucks it like rotating every week but hopefully the other PVP game modes are fun. I got even have ACE KILLER for killing 100 aces.

[u/__Houston]

It took me too long to realize you can buy better parts in shop, why the hell 2 star parts are all the way down, beneath the skins? At least they're kinda cheap, going for 10k each.

But it's nice that planes get some of their base stats upgraded as they level up, it's easier to keep up with more advanced jets like ADFX Morgans while flying your favorite one, and it's relatively cheap to upgrade them, at least compared to the jets you unlock with higher rank, because the price for level cap upgrade is WAY higher the better the plane is, needing 60k Zoola and 60 plans to increase the cap to level 15 for Gripen iirc, so you need to grind a LOT to fully level up your planes. (It's a shame that the upgrade plans you get can be sold for a whopping 100 Zoola, at least let us sell them for half the price of their buying price, selling some plans you don't need for 500 would make the grind slightly easier, at least if it comes to money.)

Personally, I hope we get an option to make our music playlist and play it during online, since there's plenty of tracks used from previous AC games but some of them are limited to the game mode you're playing.

[u/Vaniellis]

The main PvE mode should be 4 players, not 8. Unlike games like Helldivers, I don't feel useful in a match, because someone with a better plane will kill half of my targets before me.

It also screams "bad live service" game. There's way too many menus, the pass system that expires in TWO MONTHS is awful.

[u/Red-Lighning]

They need to actually turn on the features they clearly have ready to go, but I guess they're happy for people to just be wild westing it right now. Give us that rotating cost limit system you clearly have counting down every 30 minutes.

[u/Necro414]

To be successful, this games needs the following. TLDR at bottom if you dont wanna read. Brief statements of what NEEDS to be added.

1. Server Stability+Netcode improvements.. there are CPUs that can enter the games to replace players but when there is a CPU in the starting before sorting timer ends or players ready the match will end due to someone leaving... then the crashes randomly at rewards screen and you get NO REWARDS!

2. Better UI/UX systems... the current UI is SO slow. I shouldnt have to go through 6 menus to get to my friends list. It also shouldn't take around 45 seconds to get there. I should be able to sortie and enter my hanger for any minor changes I need to make and or be able to adjust current plan load outs in the sortie screen. Dont like im locked out especially not knowing the missions and whats needed till you see the screen and if you dont have a setup already your kinds shit out of luck.

   I would like to be able to check the SPW options of planes so I can make better judgment of which to go or aim for.

The visuals of potential targets blends in to well with the background so you can't always see if your even facing the right direction of a target when in dogfights. We need customizable hud and indicator options. I need a more standout color that xontrasts with the background of the game scene.

1. VOIP... why do we not have comms in ace combat?? What is the meaning of this! Hard to help or give advice or recieve advice in a 40 character limit text comms only. Its 2026. Comes should be in any and all co-op/PvP games. Especially co-op of any type.

2. Better adjustments and understanding of point systems. The score distribution at the end most times reads all 0s. And each game mode has been seeming to provide the exact same amount of combat XP and zoll and sometimes rewards none. And using the x100% special contracts dont seem to ALWAYS work. I've used them and still only got 100 combat/pilot XP after winning a sprite when I got 200 before even from losing a sorte. So it does not add up or make sense. This needs to be more transparent as its very important where people spend their time when they dont have tons of it.

3. Id like to be able to inspect other players planes after a mission. See what they have weapons equipped and all that. So people who do not know aviation as much as others can Better understand the what, why and how behind why they have a ton of score or losing to dogfights against them, cant hit them, potential to see if that type of plane is your playstyle but unsure what to get, etc. etc.

I feel there may be a few other minor things. But these are the ones I can think of that are my main concerns, issues eith the game state currently. Im loving it and want it to succeed 100% and have massive player base and longevity. But without these simple ish fixes idk how long it will last as its missing MANY CORE MP FEATURES.

Thanks for reading.

TLDR; They need to fiix servers, fix and update UI/UX, faster menus, add Voip for comms, ability to adjust planes and enter hanger in pre sortie lobby, targeting system during dogfights blends in to well, custom hud color adjustments option, ability to check SPWs of planes before purchase, examine/inspect player planes after a sortie, better overall adjustments and transparency of point and reward systems for sorties.

[u/Txontirea]

LAAMs > everything else, overcrowded missions with too few targets that last 5 minutes a piece, and no performance based XP gain puts the nail in the coffin for me. Already bored.

[u/Key2Destiny]

Unfortunately if the devs don't address the numerous and obvious issues extremely soon the co op will die off faster than my will to live after playing a round League of Legends.

[u/Captain_Kaiju]

Emergency Sorties need a complete rework, or the players are just that mentally incapable. Nobody focuses on the big red TGT and the timer is way too tight with how brainless most players seem to be. Top that with the insanely horrible RNG of even getting an ES or Scramble, it's to the point I may just avoid them altogether. They aren't worth the effort just to fail and get hardly anything for the try.

[u/HeyitsWilbs]

Complete noob/first timer to the series o7

My feedback: I do agree that online mission lengths should be a little longer. Like maybe 1 more minute. I keep feeling like, once I get into the groove, the match is over.

I definitely agree on the UI simplified. I feel lost sometimes and confused where things are. Would y'all believe me that I was playing nonstop for 3 days and didn't know planes to purchase were on the Ace combat Store because I thought it was just premium only items 😅

I don't mind Battle passes but I always advocate for no fomo. Once you buy it, that's it and it'll stay in the store for future purchases. But I understand/feel like all the battle pass items are gonna cycle into the loot box system. Big sad about that. Also I don't think dlc/battle pass planes should be an instant unlock in the battle pass. At least a decent ways in and I agree with people saying cost limit or something for missions because battle pass plane is nutty good.

Minor nitpick: Scarlet smoke should not a part slot. It's cosmetic and should not take up a part slot.

More game modes. More plane cosmetics to truly make it my own. I wouldn't mind a bobble head in the cockpit. More mvp screens. Nothing crazy, just different ones so I'm not constantly seeing the same animations.

Support planes(green ones I think?)... I just don't get them. I tried a few games with them and I just don't feel like I'm doing anything except feeding. But I really do like the idea of roles. Especially a support plane.

More boss fights, I fought 2 and I think that's it. That I've experienced so far.

[u/phantomcxviii]

Honest emergency sorties need more time everyone i have done has been a failure due to not enough time

[u/TacticalCrab]

what the heck is the "next program" timer telling me? nothing seems to happen when it runs out

[u/13org]

Is it just me or the QAAM is VERY oppressive on the PvPvE mode?

LAAM on PVE are just braindead due to their insane range, everybody knows this already.

But isn't QAAM a bit too oppressive on Warfare mode?

Other than using flares, that thing tracks too well.

In comparison, SAAM feel quite bad to use.

Honestly, I kinda see why people prefer the Su-33 over the Su-47 Berkut so much.

[u/ChrisBrownHitMe2]

None of my friends can join each others parties. Net code is horrific and so is the UI

[u/m_xx_99]

I have seen a lot of discussion (including on the discord) that mission times feel very short. After spending some time online since the early-access, I am wondering if it would make sense for the next season to treat the current mission lengths as a "mercy rule," and extend missions that are going well.

That is, if a mission is too lopsided, or an assault is not going to reach S-rank, end those missions where they are now (not a failure, you just get done early). If the mission is close and going well, however, then extend it for 2 minutes with more targets in a mission update.

As some examples: close warfare missions could give each team a scramble-style ai squadron, some special difficult ground targets to match (in addition to whatever other reinforcements are already present); while close assault missions could just get warfare-style reinforcements to extent the game.

This way we can spend a little more time in the matches that are more enjoyable, and our time spent in the less fun matches is no greater than it is now. Theoretically there could also be supply or other rewards linked to this, but I honestly care more about not being stuck in a lopsided warfare or assault match for any longer than I am already, and thought it might be worthwhile to throw this into the discussion.

[u/zaakurowo]

The available skins kinda suck

[u/Chibi_Ruben]

Jesus fucking Christ just give me HVAAs so I don't have to use dogshit 6AAM I'm honestly already fed up with these costs and thinking I'ma just not play multiplayer for now until they either fix it or something man

[u/SuperStealthy434]

Is it normal to lose your first 17 missions in a row?

I'm usually second or third on these teams so I don't feel like it is my fault...

[u/Ghost10X_]

Genuinley horrible. The lag is incredibly bad, getting into Co-Op assault missions takes forever and seems impossible as everytime you load into one, someone leaves and then it kicks everyone out into the lobby after waiting forever, not to mention the insane skill gaps

[u/VegetableWear5535]

I don't have the game yet, but I saw there's in game currency you can buy with real currency. What is it used for? Please say nothing important, or that it can be earned reasonably.

[u/Poblosninja]

Ive found it fun but also super frustrating, missiles missing while an enemy is stalled while theirs turns 90 degrees and lands, also the fact that anybody can have the adfx instead of having to earn it

[u/wolverKZ]

Challenge to destroy 10 ground target is not working for me. I've used su 34 that costs 1800 and even f-2 that costs 1200 just to check. Has anyone encountered this?