Ace Online

Ace Online
Developer(s)	MasangSoft Inc.
Publisher(s)	YD Online Corp. (Korea) GameForge4D (Europe) Suba Games, LLC (North America) Axeso5 (Latin America) Winner Online (Thailand) VTC Online (Vietnam) Yetime (China) Gamon (Taiwan) Arario Corp. (Japan) Innova Inc. (Russia) OhLaLa Interactive (South East Asia)
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	May 26, 2006 (International) September 26, 2008 (North American Relaunch) [1]
Genre(s)	MMO 3D Space Shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Ace Online and Air Rivals are free-to-play massively multiplayer online games (MMOG), 3D shooter, developed by MasangSoft and owned by YD Online Corp.^[2]

History

In North America, the game was previously released as Space Cowboy Online. Space Cowboy Online's client was made available for download in May 2006.^[3]

The Gala-Net version of Space Cowboy Online, was shut down on December 26, 2007. This was announced to the public with a letter from Space Cowboy's last active GM, "Xarfox".^[4] Yedang, the owner of Ace Online's license, decided to run its servers themselves, as Ace Online International.

In November 2008, Yedang also shut down the Global version which they hosted, presumably due to lack of players.

Ace Online is known as AirRivals in the European versions. Originally, the European version was going to be called Flysis,^[5] but the name was later changed. In Vietnam the game is called Phi Doi.

Gameforge GmbH and Suba Games are currently hosting the European and North American versions of the game respectively, although both also cater to players worldwide and have an international playerbase.^[6][7][8]

Arario Corporation has acquired the license to host ACE Online in Japan and launched sometime in the first quarter of 2009.

In 2011, the first release date for the Episode 4 release for the North American Ace Online was given. It was released on November 15, 2012. In February 2011, Axeso5 officially opened the first Latin American ACE Online server.^[9]

Gameplay

Collected kill points dependency on player level

In Ace Online, players pilot their own individual starfighters (called "Gears") throughout a number of maps, including terrestrial, lunar, and space maps. It has typical MMORPG elements such as leveling, currency, a skill system and combat mostly based on player equipment and level. Ace Online is a largely player vs. player-oriented game (PvP), with character leveling and item acquisition achieved through combat against non-player characters and the completion of missions. After completion of certain missions, more maps will be accessible to the player. Although a high level character will have better character attributes than most other players, no one at any level is invincible against other players in PvP. As in other MMORPGs, players can trade items, customize their gears, form parties ("formations") and guilds ("brigades"), and fight with other players via PvP combat. Almost all of the combat in Ace Online is aerial, from the third-person view. Players have the option to use an in-cockpit, first-person view.

When players create their account, they can choose their fighter, each with different play styles.

Item shop and enchantments

Ace Online is a free-to-play MMO, with the option of buying in-game items via an "Item shop" that can be only accessed whilst in the "Hub City" or "Supply Shop" from bottom right corner of the screen or the shop. In the International Ace Online version, a player can only purchase the items from the "Item shop" using yecoins that has been bought through Yedang website via a Ace Online account. There are many items available to purchase that affect sgear's weapons (e.g. change the trail effect of the missiles), stats (e.g. resets or partial resets of stats), experience (e.g. increase experience rate) or others for a limited time. This item shop was made available to players on June 23, 2006.

The Cash Shop also includes "Weapon Gamble", "Enhancements", Enchant Protection" and "Legending" services. Weapon Gamble allows weapons to be "gambled" and enchanted. This card randomly gambles the weapon stats with prefix and suffix to add extra attributes to the weapon. "Enhancements" affect a player's weapons and armor, to boost performance such as having faster missiles, higher rate of fire or damage. To limit the power of weapons and armour, only five enchantments can be applied safely to a piece of equipment. For the sixth enchant and onward there is a chance to break the weapon.

Nation War

Ace Online offers a PvP system of "Nation Wars", which revolves around a point system: "National Contribution Points" (NCP). The two nations in question are Bygeniou City United (BCU) and Arlington National Influence (ANI). Every time an enemy gear is shot down, the shooter's nation gains 1 NCP. NCP are also gained for other events, such as Strategic Points, Mothership wars, and Arena battles. Arena battles usually give a small amount of NCP compared to Strategic Points and Mothership wars.

• Raids - Two factions (BCU and ANI) are separated by a series of airspaces (maps). Nation Wars involve a constant battle between the two factions to raid and defend these airspaces. A successful raid gaining airspace over the opposing force provides strategic and economical advantages. For example, the boss "Pathos" only spawns in the BCU map "Zaylope Beach"; whoever controls "Zaylope Beach" would have the chance to destroy it and receive its rare drops if "Pathos" should spawn. Battling over these airspaces often results in tens to thousands of NCPs gained for neither or both nations, speeding up the spawning of motherships (see below for motherships). A map being held by a large enemy force means restricted access for lower level players, meaning they can not access and level up in that specific map.
• Skirmishes - Random, unorganized battles, often on neutral maps. They are a major source of fame and nation points. The one and only objective in these wars is to kill as many of the opposing nation as possible. Team strategy and things that grant the win in mothership wars and occupation wars is practically disregarded. These wars are often started by a single gear going into the enemy territory. The nation leader will then tell of this intruder and send people to respond to it. The intruder will then likely request reinforcements. If one nation is either outnumbered or outgunned, or if more people decide to come, more will come to the map. These wars are some of the most popular amongst players.

One of the most popular areas for these unorganized battles is "Bark City". Usually within bark city someone may alert that BCU are killing the NPCs of Bark City or that they are in fact killing the few ANI that go there, as more ANI show up, more BCU also show up.

• Mothership Battles - This is another part of Nation Wars, the nation leader (elected every month) chooses when the offensive Mothership spawns every week. At the time what the leader chooses the mother ship is spawned deep in the homelands of the opposing nation. If the mothership is not completely destroyed in two hours, it will despawn. Successful destruction of the enemy mothership grants the attacking nation a 5% increase in recovery rate of energy, shield, and skill points, also allowing access to the "Hornian King Habitat" and "Eopi". Successfully defending a mothership does not grant the defender any bonuses; instead, it prevents the enemy from receiving the reward. The BCU mothership, Anubis, spawns in Tylent Jungle, while the ANI mothership Horus spawns in Reynard Beach. Bonuses obtained from destroying/defending motherships are reset at the end of every month, as are NCP's. The fourth MotherShip of each side that spawns also gives a special reward.
• Strategic Points - Strategic Points are spawned in a random map at random times, and it will despawn one hour after its spawn if not destroyed completely. An announcement is made to all players of both factions of the map the Point has spawned in. When a Strategic Point is destroyed, all participants in the assault force gains a "SPI Capsule", which contains a monetary reward to both the player and their nation and 300 War Points. When a Strategic Point is successfully defended until despawn, the defender gains bonuses. Any nation's player that still loses the Strategic Point while being one map before/after the location of the Strategic Point will still gain 100 WP. All players that are in the map of the Strategic Point, or one map before it will gain 'Personal Contribution' which is a monetary reward based on the player's performance in combat.
• War Points- Players can gain War Points from attacking/defending Mother Ships, and Strategic Points. War Points can also be obtained in battles with another nation. War Points allow players to buy unique items from the Point Shop. These points can be used to buy stronger adhesives, armors, and other bonuses.
• Nation Leader- Every month players who are level 70 or higher, have 2000 fame and they own a brigade (a brigade is like a clan or guild in other MMO's) with at least 30 people in it and the brigade has at least 1000 fame. When all the players who want to be leader sign up the rest of the nation can vote who they want to be leader, and winner will be the nation leader until the next election, in a month. The nation leader of each side (ANI and BCU) gets a leader mark, and the leader adhesive, this gives them a defensive bonus, the leaders have a light green name for easy identification and they get war funds, that is, money given to the leader to help the nation's economy. The leader can also choose two sub-leaders, who can help them lead the nation. The leader is the one that can set the time when the enemy Mothership spawns, but this time cannot be changed on the same week as the preset time from before.
• Grinding Maps- Although players on the BCU side and ANI side are enemies, in some maps they will coexist and not kill each other very often, this happens mostly in grinding maps, maps where many will go to kill enemies, although this coexistence between BCU and ANI is not a rule within the game it has evolved as becoming part of the nature of the game.

Duels

Players can challenge other players in an 1 on 1 duel, or a formation battle (up to 6 players per formation).

• 1 on 1 - A 1 on 1 duel can be initiated by challenging another player and that player accepting the challenge, and vice versa. In a 1 on 1 duel, the two participants receive a 5-second warning, after which there is an unlimited amount of time to kill the other player; should one of the players die under any circumstance (being shot down by the other player in the duel, crashing into terrain objects, being killed by a member of the opposing nation, or being killed by a hostile NPC) then the surviving player is declared the winner; being disconnected results in a loss for the disconnected player, and moving to a different map will result in a loss, even if a player uses "Express city return portal" to teleport back to the city.
• Formation Battle - A formation battle can be initiated by the command /formfight [formation leader]. A formation battle can only start if all members of both formations are in the same map, logged on, and the formation leader accepting the challenge. Once a formation battle request is sent, no new players may be invited to the formation; existing formation members cannot be kicked; and the formation may not disband. A formation battle is won when all members of the opposing formation have been eliminated under any circumstance. When one member of a formation dies while the rest are still alive, they cannot respawn until the formation battle ends in either win or loss.

Notes and references

External links

• Masangsoft
• AirRivals Europe
• Ace-Online North America