Armored Core

"The test is over. From this moment on, you are... a Raven."

Armored Core is a third-person mecha action game released for the Playstation in 1997. It's had twenty-three games and at least four distinct timelines between them, but it generally lacks serious plot that needs to be addressed. There are, however, thematic and technological elements inherent in the games that ought to be addressed for integration.

This file will cover the original Armored Core and its timeline.

Thematics and Organizations

• A Better Future, Underground: Armored Core assumes that a significant portion of humanity retreated into underground Vaults cities, called "Layered" for being, well, multiple levels layered on top of one another, in the face of an unspecified cataclysm. In our adaptation, the Layered cities, such as the prosperous Isaac City, were instead built in response to the conflict with the Zentradi and populated by the not-insignificant number of doomsayers who survived it. They were subsequently proven correct during the following decades, much to the chagrin of the people who hadn't moved in. Effectively, they're PLANTs but designed to be terrestrial, and, as they were privately-funded, designed to be corporatocracies.
  • Changes:
    • Armored Core does not require there to be a singular world-ending cataclysm, and there have been plenty of drastic shake-ups and catastrophes in recent history to fill its reactionary tech development quota.
    • Layered cities can be anywhere, and just about any size, and don't need to be the focus of anything but the occasional scene. The only notable one at this time is Isaac City, which is Chrome's private corporate paradise.
• The Ravens' Nest: A mediation group designed to facilitate contracting mercenaries, be they individuals or full-on PMCs, with those with the capital to afford them. Mercenaries that use the Nest's services are often referred to as "Ravens," and, in return for a modest fee taken out of mediated contracts, are granted resupply and repair services in many places in the Earth Sphere where Nest-aligned merchantile and mechanical interests reside. Notably, the Nest itself does nothing to support a Raven that gets themselves into trouble with their employers or their targets... unless a substantial breach of contract has occurred that may jeopardize the Nest's continued existence.
  • Changes:
    • The Nest was never meant to be a big cool factional base, and is actually more like Battletech's Mercenary Review Board: it's Indeed and Craigslist, but for paying to have people killed, with AAA membership bonuses attached. The Ravens' Nest is part of the PMC Forces faction.
    • There's supposed to be an actual base in Isaac City, one of the Layered settlements, but Zilkhstan seems like a fantastic place to base them out of. (The Ravens retain major presences in most nations that have major mercenary presences.)
• Chrome: A corporate conglomerate based out of one of the Layered settlements, Isaac City. Chrome is a leading player in pharmaceutical and medical development, and fantastically wealthy due to its firm control of a metropolitan center and its ruthless exploitation of numerous precious mineral deposits on Earth. Chrome is a monolith in the business world, and through excellent marketing and product placement, sees very few vocal pushbacks to its continual attempts to quietly claw power away from the Federation government.
  • Changes
    • They ate a subsidiary they were associated with and are now Big Pharma Google.
    • Chrome is part of Amalgam, an organization which likewise seeks to divide the world into smaller pieces to distribute its power. Chrome's star is presently rising within the organization, with the expulsion of Anaheim Electronics.
• Murakumo Millennium: Chrome's chief rival. Murakumo is renowned for its industrial technologies and manufacturing capacity, with a technical prowess that is constantly pushing the bleeding edge of science and industry. While not as widespread and wealthy as Chrome, Murakumo Millennium nonetheless does its damnedest to hamper Chrome's expansionist tendencies -- because it wants the power instead, of course. Murakumo is known for its orbital developments, for its production of high-end mobile weapon electronics... and, quietly, for its development of the Human PLUS program, a Cyber-Newtype project of questionable efficacy with compulsory participation written into the fine print of its mercenary contracts' failure clauses.
  • Changes:
    • They're pretty much presented as-is, which is to say, terrible people willing to pay other people to also be terrible.
    • Murakumo Millennium participates primarily in LOGOS, and by extension, its assets that are not part of PMC Forces will usually be in G-Hound.

The Robots

• Armored Core: Modular mobile weapons standing between 9 and 12 meters in height. Produced with the MULS-P2 standardization agreement in mind, Armored Cores are typically deployed by private militaries and individual paramilitary contractors who need to do more with less. Technologically, the average Armored Core is the AK-47 of the combat mecha world: it won't win any prizes for sleek, cutting-edge style, but it's easy to operate, easy to repair, and can take a serious beating due to a robust internal construction. The further from a "standard" humanoid design a given AC diverges, the less this is true, with quadrupedal variants, treaded designs, and even ground-skimming hovercraft fielded by more veteran pilots.
  • Armored Cores use a multi-monitor display to mimic a panoramic cockpit, with a floating HUD overlaid via secondary panel in front of the pilot's field of vision.
  • Curiously, ACs eschew standard design considerations to use a dual-battery system supported by an AC's own internal generator: standard operational power is handled with one battery, while the other is rapidly depleted and charged by the AC's generator. This allows them to be tuned for bursts of exceptional mobility or even fitted with energy weapons, including their now-iconic short-burn, high-intensity "laser blades."

• General Purpose Armored Cores: Stock Armored Cores are separately referred to as "General Purpose ACs," with the default assumption of an AC's usage implying heavy customization by the pilot. GP-ACs are sold by several major military manufacturers, and are largely attempts to do what a terrestrial-use Mobile Suit does but with cheaper and easier refits available. Many personalized Armored Cores begin their life as a GP-AC, and are gradually converted into a true AC as superior components become available.
  • Examples:
    • https://armoredcore.fandom.com/wiki/Heat_Wave
    • https://armoredcore.fandom.com/wiki/Ariake
    • https://armoredcore.fandom.com/wiki/Shiranui
    • https://armoredcore.fandom.com/wiki/Sagiri

• Muscle Tracers: Several of the nigh-infinite variations on the Wanzer, the Muscle Tracer is nominally geared towards heavy industrial use and practically outfitted with whatever weaponry a security force can bolt onto it. Muscle Tracers are a step backwards in modularity, being instead favored for the speed at which they can be stored, deployed, and even repaired once they are inevitably overtaken by conventional mobile weapons. Muscle Tracers are notable for being the step in the technological evolutionary ladder preceding GP-ACs, not for their overall combat effectiveness.