You don't actually need to read the japanese text for the most part - the translation guide up on Gamefaqs is enough to get by, I find. I've got an even shorter "events that make a difference" timeline that I step through it with - it's barely a page long, so I'll paste it in here. Of course, you still have to do the dating thing to raise your love-meters enough (four big hearts for the best bonus) to earn lots of red, green, and blue points and buy your stats up, and you have to play the academy through half a dozen or so times before you stop getting bad grades on things, but people have gotten close to max characters without cheating. I, having already hacked my PSP, and put about a hundred hours into Ace Frontier to raise not just my pilot's stats but also my wingman's too all-99's, hav eno compunctions aginst turning on the ol' cheat machine and making it so in MTF, since apparently people stop learning anything after they leave high school. Grumblemutter curse... they should have just made it so you buy the skills with dating sim points, and let the pilots' ability scores increase by experience like the first two games.
Anyway, to explain my notation: An underscore means it doesn't matte what choice you make in that space, a capital O is when you make the choice, and the small latters stand for the choices made. Simple, yes? I note that you have to play through the Academy three times before Omake Mode is available. Of course, you have to play throught he academy eighteen times plus whatever it takes to get Ranka in order to get all the story segments (Klan and the rocker-dude have different endings based on your pilot's gender, so twice each for them - also, Klan likes people from the third homeworld option (planet Zola from Dynamite 7) more, it seems she's got a kink for marsupials.)
The date locations changing isn't on here - that happens on month 12, 3, 6, and 9, and the music changes also.
_ _ _ 2057-09-w1 Start date
_ _ _ 2057-11-w1 EX Gear course (rings in grey tunnels)
O _ _ 2058-01-w2 Omake mode option: 1 yes, 2 no
_ _ _ 2058-02-w1 EX Gear course (rings in green tunnels)
_ _ _ 2058-04-w1 EX Gear course (rings in canyon)
_ _ _ 2058-06-w1 EX Gear course (targets in room & mini-VF-1s)
n O _ 2058-09-w2 Blond dude: Will you be a pilot? y yes, n no
Choosing “No” means you'll be in the shelters during Vajra missions,
_ _ _ 2058-11-w1 EX Gear course (melee dummies in grey tunnel)
_ _ _ 2059-02-w1 EX Gear course (boxes in grey tunnels)
n y O 2059-02-w4 blond dude: Join who? n N.U.N.S., s S.M.S
_ y _ 2059-04-w1 EX Gear course (rings & platforms in space)
n y s 2059-04-w3 VF training vs Q.Rea Klan-Klang & two Ace Q.Rea wingmen
n y n 2059-04-w3 VF training vs VF-171 ace
n y s 2059-05-w1 Medical checkup, heal some HP & MP
n y _ 2059-05-w1 VF vs Vajra Sm, Lg & Sm Ship
n y s 2059-05-w3 Lose some HP & MP
y n / 2059-05-w3 What do you want healed? HP top, MP bottom
_ y _ 2059-06-w1 EX Gear final (rings/targets/box in field w/ hangars)
y / O 2059-06-w2 Blonde chick asks who to join: s SMS, n NUNS, c civilian
n y _ 2059-07-w1 VF vs Vajra cocoons & Lg ace in grey tunnels
_ n _ 2059-07-w4 What do you want to lose? HP top, MP bottom
n y _ 2059-08-w1 VF mission
..... NUNS vs Vajra 2 Sm ships, Lg
..... SMS vs Vajra ship, Lg Ace, Carrier
n y s 2059-08-w2 VF mission escorting VB-6 w/Ranka vs Lg & Sm Vajra
n _ _ 2059-08-w3 Curfew! No more dating for you!
y / _ 2059-08-w3 (fake choice, yes or ok) YF-25 vs Alto YF-25 in canyon
n y _ 2059-08-w3 VF mission escorting Battle Frontier vs Lg Vajra Ace
y / _ 2059-08-w4 YF-25 w/Alto YF-25 vs. Micheal & Luca YF-25 over islands
n y _ 2059-08-w4 VF mission vs Vajra larva swarms, Lg, & Lg Ace
n y _ 2059-09-w1 VF mission 2-part:
..... NUNS
.......... 1 vs Vajra Sm, Lg, & Sm Ship
.......... 2 vs Ghost V-9s, VF-27s, & Battle Galaxy
..... SMS
.......... 1 vs giant holo-Ranka
.......... 2 vs Ghost V-9s, VF-27s, & Battle Galaxy
Ending the various routes with 500+ ability points will give a restricted skill:
..... Omake: Sense of Rhythm (Auto) 1.2x Song power
..... NUNS: Max World (command): Timestop
..... SMS: Pine Cake (auto): return to 100% HP at first death
..... Civilian: Supporting Fire: a (kind of weak) Macross Cannon fires from behind you
About Supporting Fire, the only real use for it is if you're stuck in an unarmed craft like the SNN Civilian Valkyrie from Macross II, it's big and impressive looking but the VF-25G's sniper laser is about as powerful. The damage may increase with more hearts between you and your Operator, though, I was testing it with a new pilot. The most useful command skill is unquestionably the little blue-green splashy squirt, found normally on Sivil but buyable in the Academy mode, which turns you completely invulnerable for ten or fifteen seconds. With the SP star auto-skill that makes all SP abilities cost one bar less on the pilot and max Arousal (the last Ability number) you actually gain SP enough faster than keeping this skill constantly active uses it to spam special attacks as well. I'd expect trying that tactic in multiplayer mode to result in frustrated cries to stp being so cheap, however, since it's even more cheesy than Max WOrld which at least costs enough SP you're not likely to use it often. Best auto skill is likewise the SP star, with the bleeding yellow star and yellow/black striped demolition trigger box tied after that, giving x1.5 and x2 damage versus enemy aces and ships/bases respectively after that, and a toss up between the targeting retucule (ignore enemy forcefields, IE kill bosses quick) or the VF-1J head with a gleam (double lock-on range and missile target lock speed, IE kill minions faster) for fourth place. If you don't fly with a wingman, like in deathmatch mode (and possibly for use by wingmen, though the two translations I've seen disagree on that - thouh my wingman has been unusually non-dying and has that skill) the four-pointed blue star with a fighter form in it is better than Ace KIller, because it gives you x1.5 damage versus all enemies and boosts your Defense as much to boot.
- CD
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
Anyway, to explain my notation: An underscore means it doesn't matte what choice you make in that space, a capital O is when you make the choice, and the small latters stand for the choices made. Simple, yes? I note that you have to play through the Academy three times before Omake Mode is available. Of course, you have to play throught he academy eighteen times plus whatever it takes to get Ranka in order to get all the story segments (Klan and the rocker-dude have different endings based on your pilot's gender, so twice each for them - also, Klan likes people from the third homeworld option (planet Zola from Dynamite 7) more, it seems she's got a kink for marsupials.)
The date locations changing isn't on here - that happens on month 12, 3, 6, and 9, and the music changes also.
_ _ _ 2057-09-w1 Start date
_ _ _ 2057-11-w1 EX Gear course (rings in grey tunnels)
O _ _ 2058-01-w2 Omake mode option: 1 yes, 2 no
_ _ _ 2058-02-w1 EX Gear course (rings in green tunnels)
_ _ _ 2058-04-w1 EX Gear course (rings in canyon)
_ _ _ 2058-06-w1 EX Gear course (targets in room & mini-VF-1s)
n O _ 2058-09-w2 Blond dude: Will you be a pilot? y yes, n no
Choosing “No” means you'll be in the shelters during Vajra missions,
_ _ _ 2058-11-w1 EX Gear course (melee dummies in grey tunnel)
_ _ _ 2059-02-w1 EX Gear course (boxes in grey tunnels)
n y O 2059-02-w4 blond dude: Join who? n N.U.N.S., s S.M.S
_ y _ 2059-04-w1 EX Gear course (rings & platforms in space)
n y s 2059-04-w3 VF training vs Q.Rea Klan-Klang & two Ace Q.Rea wingmen
n y n 2059-04-w3 VF training vs VF-171 ace
n y s 2059-05-w1 Medical checkup, heal some HP & MP
n y _ 2059-05-w1 VF vs Vajra Sm, Lg & Sm Ship
n y s 2059-05-w3 Lose some HP & MP
y n / 2059-05-w3 What do you want healed? HP top, MP bottom
_ y _ 2059-06-w1 EX Gear final (rings/targets/box in field w/ hangars)
y / O 2059-06-w2 Blonde chick asks who to join: s SMS, n NUNS, c civilian
n y _ 2059-07-w1 VF vs Vajra cocoons & Lg ace in grey tunnels
_ n _ 2059-07-w4 What do you want to lose? HP top, MP bottom
n y _ 2059-08-w1 VF mission
..... NUNS vs Vajra 2 Sm ships, Lg
..... SMS vs Vajra ship, Lg Ace, Carrier
n y s 2059-08-w2 VF mission escorting VB-6 w/Ranka vs Lg & Sm Vajra
n _ _ 2059-08-w3 Curfew! No more dating for you!
y / _ 2059-08-w3 (fake choice, yes or ok) YF-25 vs Alto YF-25 in canyon
n y _ 2059-08-w3 VF mission escorting Battle Frontier vs Lg Vajra Ace
y / _ 2059-08-w4 YF-25 w/Alto YF-25 vs. Micheal & Luca YF-25 over islands
n y _ 2059-08-w4 VF mission vs Vajra larva swarms, Lg, & Lg Ace
n y _ 2059-09-w1 VF mission 2-part:
..... NUNS
.......... 1 vs Vajra Sm, Lg, & Sm Ship
.......... 2 vs Ghost V-9s, VF-27s, & Battle Galaxy
..... SMS
.......... 1 vs giant holo-Ranka
.......... 2 vs Ghost V-9s, VF-27s, & Battle Galaxy
Ending the various routes with 500+ ability points will give a restricted skill:
..... Omake: Sense of Rhythm (Auto) 1.2x Song power
..... NUNS: Max World (command): Timestop
..... SMS: Pine Cake (auto): return to 100% HP at first death
..... Civilian: Supporting Fire: a (kind of weak) Macross Cannon fires from behind you
About Supporting Fire, the only real use for it is if you're stuck in an unarmed craft like the SNN Civilian Valkyrie from Macross II, it's big and impressive looking but the VF-25G's sniper laser is about as powerful. The damage may increase with more hearts between you and your Operator, though, I was testing it with a new pilot. The most useful command skill is unquestionably the little blue-green splashy squirt, found normally on Sivil but buyable in the Academy mode, which turns you completely invulnerable for ten or fifteen seconds. With the SP star auto-skill that makes all SP abilities cost one bar less on the pilot and max Arousal (the last Ability number) you actually gain SP enough faster than keeping this skill constantly active uses it to spam special attacks as well. I'd expect trying that tactic in multiplayer mode to result in frustrated cries to stp being so cheap, however, since it's even more cheesy than Max WOrld which at least costs enough SP you're not likely to use it often. Best auto skill is likewise the SP star, with the bleeding yellow star and yellow/black striped demolition trigger box tied after that, giving x1.5 and x2 damage versus enemy aces and ships/bases respectively after that, and a toss up between the targeting retucule (ignore enemy forcefields, IE kill bosses quick) or the VF-1J head with a gleam (double lock-on range and missile target lock speed, IE kill minions faster) for fourth place. If you don't fly with a wingman, like in deathmatch mode (and possibly for use by wingmen, though the two translations I've seen disagree on that - thouh my wingman has been unusually non-dying and has that skill) the four-pointed blue star with a fighter form in it is better than Ace KIller, because it gives you x1.5 damage versus all enemies and boosts your Defense as much to boot.
- CD
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows