Jagged Alliance 2 Gold

[professorspatula]

Do you know what the 'Anywhere Save' means? I got that once instead of Quicksave when I tried to reload a save game. It only appeared once though.


Anyway, an update. I managed to get to grips with stealth stuff when I hired Shadow. He'd sneak around the enemy positions whilst my team where pinned down and hit them from behind! Feeling I'd got to grips with the game and stealth stuff a bit more, and seeing as I was on novice level and only had the capital to secure, I thought I'd start over on Experienced level so I didn't ruin the surprises at the end of the game.

I chose to play solo, however. I created a stealthy/night ops merc and had them take on the enemy alone. With a mechanic for after ops repairs and lock picking/trap disabling. Wolf was the ideal choice for his med skills as well, plus he was my hero in the previous game. I also hired a couple of those awful MERC people and Ira to train militia, although for the most part I think I didn't need them, but it lets my main merc focus on his task at hand I suppose. At times it's been the most fun I've had in a game for a very long time when my stealthy assassin wipes out sector after sector of enemies whilst barely getting a scratch. His psycho personality and penchant for burst fire makes things tricky at times, but I find I need to use burst fire 95% of the time just to finish the enemies off now anyway.

I've noticed a few minor stealth oddities though. I can sneak up to behind someone without them being aware if there's an object between us so they can't see me until I'm right behind them. But in the open, as mentioned before, it's seemingly impossible to give chase in stealth mode as they instinctively turn round. I don't think it's random either, or they're following a patrol - they heard/saw me. Really I'd like the option to keep the game in real time mode whilst in stealth mode until the enemy spots me or I decide to enter combat, ala Fallout. Also, my merc has eyes in the back of his head. Often he spots the enemy from far away whilst facing the opposite direction! Is this what the AI can do too? Another annoying thing is how alarms/gas explosion-type-things go randomly off whilst in stealth mode and I've not been spotted for the entire battle. But no big deal I guess.

So anyway, I'm really enjoying JA2. I've developed an internet shopping addiction though and can't stop myself buying stuff from Bobby Ray's store! I don't even need half the ammo -- although my stealth character chews through about 120 rounds of .45 ammo per sector. But 1000 rounds of 7.62mm Nato rounds is a bit overkill methinks, and then there's the 100 or so guns I'm hording.

I think if I ever get through this semi-solo campaign, I'll try the 1.13 patch and some of the things in it. What's really good is how they've made it so you only use the parts and additions you want, as some of their additions I'm a bit unsure of.

[Husar]

Hmm, have you already sent Deidranna some flowers?
That your mercs can see enemies behind them never bothered me, I just think that they heard a sound and turned their head around.
If by the gas-explosion thing you mean the gas explosion in Alma, this one is triggered.
I always hire Lt. Konrad Gillet there, IMO he's the funniest character in the game.
If you can read German, you might also want to have a look at this fanpage. Lots of info to be found there.

[Ciaran]

So anyway, I'm really enjoying JA2. I've developed an internet shopping addiction though and can't stop myself buying stuff from Bobby Ray's store! I don't even need half the ammo -- although my stealth character chews through about 120 rounds of .45 ammo per sector. But 1000 rounds of 7.62mm Nato rounds is a bit overkill methinks, and then there's the 100 or so guns I'm hording.

I think if I ever get through this semi-solo campaign, I'll try the 1.13 patch and some of the things in it. What's really good is how they've made it so you only use the parts and additions you want, as some of their additions I'm a bit unsure of.

Have you found Tony? He could help you with your excess guns.

Patch 1.13? Oh my, I´m really not up to date of JA2 development anymore. And I´ve started my forum career at the one husar mentioned, though you´ll find nothing active of me there for about one and a half years .

[professorspatula]

Yea I found Tony, but I can't be bothered to sell much stuff to him, it's too much bother unequipping my pack mules, loading them with guns, and shipping them off to Tony's for a few bucks before returning back to base to get equipped again, plus I'm drowning in bucks anyway.

The 1.13 patch does a hell of a lot of stuff, but it's not official. See here: http://ja2v113.schtuff.com/features

It's incredible how much people have been able to mod the game. From upping screen resolution, to changing the AI, and altering all kinds of stats and things. I see one screenshot from the mod where Drassen is invaded by 130+ Elite soldiers !! That's a hell of a battle! I think I'll give it a go after I finish my current game.

[Nikpalj]

Hey guys,

I've started playing patch 1.13 on Experienced, but I've modified many settings in the .ini, tweaking the game to resemble more the Insane diff lev, but without hordes of enemies...

I, for one, want my JA2 experience to be as close as possible to realistic, modern day squad lev (gun)fighting.

The immediate complaint that I've had when I first played JA2 in 1998. was that the sighting range (at which bandits become visible) in the game is absurdly short - I've been in the army myself and I can tell you that 300 meters of range is LONG - it would take you a few minutes to walk this length of space.

At 200m you can see the targets as small specks in the distance, but you can SEE them, always and at every weather condition if your LoS is unobstructed... unless you're wearing a rag over your face or have a duct tape over your eyes!

So wtf is all this "out of range" and invisible enemies nonsense in JA2? I know that the lengths have been scaled down, one tile representing 10m - but I'm not playing Panzer General here (what's next, 5 mercs occupying a same tile?), if I can see a target half a mile away in the real world, then I want every single character in the game to be able to see theirs in the same way!

The second complaint is that the weapon damage seemed waay too low to what we've seen those babies can do here in Croatia during our independence war...

A bullet or two from an AK usualy killes (or leaves you with broken ribs or squashed lungs if you're wearing that oh so precious body armour - virtually incapacitated for the rest of the battle or worse), HMG's tend to ripp a man's torso in half and people don't usually jump right up after a handgrenade explodes at their feet...

So... where's all this fun stuff in JA2???


Because the facts stated above, what I wanted to reccomend you try out ('cause I've found it had enriched my game in a wonderful way) is this:

Try increasing the BASE_SIGHT_RANGE value (located at the lower part of JA2_Options.ini) to 19 and the GUN_DAMAGE_MULTIPLIER value to 25 and explosives to 150 if you're man enough).

I have found these settings to be much more realistic and enjoyable then the original ones (not too soft like before but not too hard to be unrealistic) - it almost feels like it's a new game altogether, 'cause bullets tend to really hurt now, and you can see the enemies at ranges that you would expect them to be visible at in the real world...

You have to play much more carefully then before but all of this boosts immersion to a new level!

Unless you're one of the Elite who're playing this on Insane, of course, heriocally wiping out waves of hamster-like enemies using mortars and burst fire, all the while expertly hiding out of their range...

Try this! :)

[Ciaran]

Whoa, that sound a lot like all manners of stuff I´ve wished (especially standing ready, it was possible in JA1, commanding militia or goggle-switching) for in my JA2 time. I just wonder, does that patch work on a JA2 version other than Gold? I´ve still got the old (pre-Gold) one. I´ll ocassionally have to come back to JA2, it´s decidedly the best squad-based game around. Aged Graphics? Maybe, but the Gameplay hasn´t been achieved by anything else I know of in the genre.

[Crandaeolon]

So wtf is all this "out of range" and invisible enemies nonsense in JA2?

It's for reasons of convenience and practicality. Compressing distances is pretty much always done in non-FPS games, it keeps the battle more compact. There's less need for scrolling around, the maps can be smaller, fights take less time and so on while tactical maneuvers are still possible.

The second complaint is that the weapon damage seemed waay too low

Another game design 101 point. JA2 is a game where small squads of player characters (PCs) take on much larger numbers of non-player character (NPCs). The PCs should win most of these encounters and also stay alive to allow character development, but the game must also deliver a plausible challenge and an illusion of "equal footing" - to make weapon effects, wounds etc. appear similar on both PCs and NPCs. JA2 already stretches this illusion a lot - the PCs generally have much higher stats and hitpoints than the enemies.

Upping weapon damage would favor the NPCs (thus increasing difficulty) and result in more PC deaths. To have roughly the same balance, NPC accuracy and other stats would have to be lowered, or NPC numbers thinned. (Actually, NPC numbers don't matter all that much in JA since they rarely come all at once.)

The weapons can be tweaked to be a bit more damaging without problems, but going for one-hit-kills results in all kinds of tricky balancing issues.

For a realistic squad based game, try Op:Flashpoint. Games like JA2, Silent Storm, Fallout Tactics and other isometric games tend to take some liberties with reality for the sake of game balance.

[Husar]

Nikpalj, have you played ALFA Anti Terror?
I think that was it, in that game you plan your movements and thenklick go and your soldiers and the enemy will fight in real time for 30 seconds, then you can plan again and so on. I tried the demo and soldiers can really spot enemies and engage over the whole map, though even with cover my soldiers tended to get shot from everywhere so I quit and never touched it again...

Maybe you would like it.

[econ21]

I agree with Crandeleon on the gameplay vs realism question. I like the limited range and damage.

But I never noticed JA2 giving the PCs so much of an edge. Try getting your starter squad into a battle with a 12 strong patrol in the daylight. It's painful. The AI numbers do matter. It also seems to fight reasonably intelligently (maybe it is better at identifying cover); at least, I don't feel I have much of an edge (just surprise). And above all, in JA2 the rifle is king.

Maybe I am no good at playing, but those encounters typically mean I lose (reload time) or my mercs are out for days because they are so wounded.

JA2 gets much easier when you stick to the cities, have a night vision edge and have rifles.

[professorspatula]

Yea, daytime battles are a nightmare, especially if you're outgunned. Though I managed to have my special solo night op chap out-fox and kill 2 10-12 men patrols during daylight whilst performing a rescue mission for Flo who's Hummer had been more or less surrounded by foes.

Aside from quite using a fair few reloads, the biggest mistake the enemy made was to use teargas grenades against my lone gunman. Whilst my silenced Mac10 made little impact on large numbers of the AI, the teargas provided a cover for my gasmask wearing merc, and a great opportunity to kill the enemy at pointblank range as they ran blind into the smoke and into the path of my level 8 expert gunman. And then as the Mac10's reliability became an issue, and not least the lack of ammo, I pulled out my C7 and used burst fire on the last of the enemies. Damn, how awesome is that gun on burst mode! I felt like Chuck Norris as I gunned the enemy down 1 burst at at time.

After that, whenever I go on night ops, I take the C7 as backup to finish the job the Mac 10 takes too long to do. At one stage I had an enemy charge towards my merc every turn, and 1 swift burst killed each one. Six or seven enemies laid out dead in front of my lone merc - Awesome stuff!

Regarding the issue of sight and weapon damage, I too take the side of gameplay. I don't want to have to worry about being completely in cover from 3 screens away as unlike real life, I don't have a good field of vision to let me know whether or not those trees from 10 feet away are really blocking the view from the window where the enemy might be. I already think the isometric view gives some odd shooting opportunities - like being shot from the roof whilst laying prone and several feet from the edge and by a gunman 5 foot from the wall etc. Already the AI has an advantage at times - especially when it comes to throwing grenades and breaklights - it always throws right at you, even when you're under the cover of darkness. Damage wise, I suppose upping damage a bit is ok, but it depends on how you want to play the game. If you want to go sneaking around, you probably want more damage so you don't need 10 bullets to kill one foe. But if you're gung-ho and there's 10 of you with rifles, dropping the enemy in one or two shots can make things easier for the player - unless of course there's dozens of enemies around!

The great thing with all these mods, is you can in some ways play the game the way you want to play it. If only the TW games were so customisable. Perhaps one day CA will release the source code for STW/MTW (RTW might be a bit optimistic) and then we'll see what can really be done with the game.

[Crandaeolon]

The 1.13 patch has some very useful features that appeared originally in Unfinished Business, for example the line-of-sight and cover indicator buttons can be really helpful. Iirc DEL shows cover relative to the location of the cursor, and END shows line of sight. You can enlarge or reduce the information area with + and - buttons while depressing the key.

The Sell to Locals option is really convenient too.

Daylight battles right at the start of the game can be a pain, but you can always hire one or two of the more expensive mercs for a single day to get their gear.

[Ciaran]

Does anybody have experience with "New Jagged Union", some sort of inofficial follow-up of JA2? I´ve seen it today in the stores for the first time and was wondering.

[professorspatula]

I heard about that a week or two ago myself. I don't know much about it, 'cept it's 3D and has the Jagged Alliance feel to it.

Meanwhile, Jagged Alliance 3D is shaping up quite nicely too.