Jagged Alliance 2 remake in 3D by bitComposer

Thanks for the answer!

New patch today.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action Update Released
Product Update - Valve
V 1.05
- Fixed some doors still not being open after loading a saved game that was created in command mode
- Updated Spanish world event messages
- Fixed crashes on worldmap in french, italian and spanish language
- Loading a savegame that was suffering from the invisible location bug (V 1.00 and prior) fixes display of location icon
- LOD for ground texture baking, reduced required video memory for texture baking
- Killcam option is saved globally, not in savegame
- Material of metal fences does not block cursor anymore

Has anyone else had trouble linking more than two actions in the plan and go system in delayed format? I can get all three people to do something at the same time but if I want Merc1 to move then overwatch, then merc 2 move then overwater after that I can. But the second I try to get Merc3 to do so after Merc2 by linking in the plan and go system, it just unlinks the first set of actions.

Paleocon wrote:

I started off with a three man team that left me with only like $600 left in the bank account. I went skills heavy, so they are light on equipment. As a result, I've been scrambling for ammo and trying to get the mission done with pea shooters.

I think I'll rethink this.

In JA2 I found it worked best to hire newbie mercs and let them skill up on missions than to get the really pricey ones. That leaves plenty of cash for equipment and more for replacements in case someone is injured during a mission. Cash reserves are crucial for Jagged Alliance.

MEATER wrote:

We actually already had LoS in at some point of the development but received mostly negative feedback on how if affected the game. For one thing made using the Plan & Go system a lot harder or at least less efficient (e.g. you cannot plan going around a corner and shooting a guy since you do not have LoS).

As an obvious comparison, Frozen Synapse doesn't have LoS either. This seems more appropriate for a Plan & Go game, but it does fundamentally change the structure of combat. Rather than a "realistic" encounter it ends up being a lot more like Chess. I haven't had time to play yet so I really couldn't say whether the choice is appropriate for a game like JA though. I guess I'll try it both ways and pick the one that feels more comfortable.

I just want to say I'm really enjoying the game. I only played a couple hours of JA2 about a year ago, so most of the story, setting, and quests are new to me, other than the main premise.

I started with MD, Bull, and Malice and these three were able to take the airport, the town to the south, a road block to the west, and the water plant. I found a pack of diamonds and was able to raise enough money to add Buns and Barry to the squad.

Together, my five mercs captured the first mine and a quest-related farm, which was full of weapons and riches.

Now I'm at the point where I can better arm the militia and my team. I may also need to think about putting another squad together or hiring enough mercs to split into two squads. Questions, questions.

I'm sorry for those who just wanted JA2 1.13 in 3D, since this is clearly not that. However, I think BiA is quite good and I hope it sells well enough that the devs and publishers will continue to support the game and think about making another.

So how do I hire/get militia? I had no clue about needing them (I've already sold several guns that I wasn't going to use) and haven't seen anything about how to actually add some to towns. What should I be looking at?

Tkyl wrote:

So how do I hire/get militia? I had no clue about needing them (I've already sold several guns that I wasn't going to use) and haven't seen anything about how to actually add some to towns. What should I be looking at?

Once you have a location liberated leave to the worldmap. Check the icon, usually militia should be available to hire right away. The number you can hire is the left one on the icon. Right one indicates how many you already have defending. Enter the location again.

There should be a fist symbol at the border of the screen indicating where the guys you can recruit are located (similar to the one that points out enemies or shop keepers or quest givers). Select the merc who holds the weapon you want to hand over to the recruit. A dialogue pops up, right click the weapon or drag and drop. You can also hand them armor which will improve their chance of survival.

The longer you hold a location the more militia will become available to recruit (check the loyalty rating of the location, indicates both the % of income and the % of militia you can recruit).

MEATER wrote:
Tkyl wrote:

So how do I hire/get militia? I had no clue about needing them (I've already sold several guns that I wasn't going to use) and haven't seen anything about how to actually add some to towns. What should I be looking at?

Once you have a location liberated leave to the worldmap. Check the icon, usually militia should be available to hire right away. The number you can hire is the left one on the icon. Right one indicates how many you already have defending. Enter the location again.

There should be a fist symbol at the border of the screen indicating where the guys you can recruit are located (similar to the one that points out enemies or shop keepers or quest givers). Select the merc who holds the weapon you want to hand over to the recruit. A dialogue pops up, right click the weapon or drag and drop. You can also hand them armor which will improve their chance of survival.

The longer you hold a location the more militia will become available to recruit (check the loyalty rating of the location, indicates both the % of income and the % of militia you can recruit).

Ah, that makes sense. I've seen the option to give people items, but I just thought maybe it was some kind of reputation increaser. I'll have to try that out (once I find more guns and armor.)

Niseg wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I started off with a three man team that left me with only like $600 left in the bank account. I went skills heavy, so they are light on equipment. As a result, I've been scrambling for ammo and trying to get the mission done with pea shooters.

I think I'll rethink this.

Who did you pick?

I'm drowning in ammo . just kill a bunch of people and you'll find it. You can also buy some from shops. As you conquer more points of intrest you'll gain daily income from there. There are also a few "hidden gems" you can use to make money . If you have a merc with 50+ mechanic you can fix weapons in the red(with the right tool) which make them more valuable . After fixing weapons you can then sell them for profit . I think the cheapest sold gun is worth 400$ fully fixed . If you are really desperate you can sell one of your starting guns for cash until you find something else.

You should also not go crazy with burst fire when you are low on ammo because some of the guns like the 93 can empty a magazine in 3 bursts . It's generally cheaper to shoot people in the head . you can also sneak up and melee them but I haven't tried that yet. I still noticed none shoots from point blank - they always melee from very short range.

Robear gave me all manner of crap about this, but I picked my mercs on the basis of which voice acting annoyed me the least. This resulted in my taking the Scottish bomb guy (Red?), the French knife guy, and the male doctor. The doctor was the cheapest and the knife dude the most expensive. This left me with very little cash left.

I decided on this strategy because, during my first game, I had the nudist girl, the steroid guy, and some other guy with an atrocious Russian accent and the combination of the valley girl voice and the horrific Arnold imitation just made the game unplayable.

All three of my guys have 9mm pistols and it seems that all the ammo I find is .38spc. I gave the French dude a .38 so he can use the ammo and split out the remaining 9mm to the doctor and the Scotsman.

I'm not doing any spray fire. All I'm doing is lining up in firing squad formation, kneeling down, and volley firing Napoleonic style. It seems to work pretty well, but it uses up about 6-9 shots per kill. I've knifed 4 guys with Frenchy and find that that dispatches folks quicker, but it can be hit or miss when I'm trying to peel folks away from a group.

So far, I've just liberated the airport and the church town with the expired mine in it, so my income is non existent. I suspect it will probably get better once I hit the town with the operating mine in it.

complexmath wrote:

As an obvious comparison, Frozen Synapse doesn't have LoS either.

Frozen Synapse does have LoS. There's different series of game modes (Light and Dark) that feature it, and the way the game is played changes radically depending on which you choose.

There's no Dark mode in Single Player (AFAIK) because it would make the game absolutely impossible to play/win.

I'm not sure it's a good comparison to make in any case though Frozen Synapse is a turn-based game with a rock-paper-shotgun system.

It would be very interesting to see that kind of unpausable, premade-plan system implemented in a Jagged Alliance kind of game though (like the Rainbow 6 comparisons someone was making earlier).

Just a warning that, since patch 1.05, you can no longer heal dying mercs. Might want to wait for a fix before risking any of your favourite people.

ebarstad wrote:

Just a warning that, since patch 1.05, you can no longer heal dying mercs. Might want to wait for a fix before risking any of your favourite people.

I noticed that heal/repair bug yesterday and it seems random. I couldn't heal or repair Igor but when I changed his stance it started working I'm not sure exactly what it is. On the official forum they said it's related to where each merc is facing I guess by dispersing the crowding around merc you can use heal/repair on it.

BitComposer_Michael said the Devs are aware of it but didn't say anything about how to deal with it. I posted a question on the related thread on the official forum .

Edit: I got a response from Michael. I Highlighted the relevant info :).

BitComposer_Michael wrote:

Hotfix will be available in the evening. The exe-file got damaged with the last update and will be fixed.
Workaround so far: Switch the angle or the character position (running, sitting e.g.)

-- End Edit

I also noticed there are a bunch of mods that came out adjusting weapon stats ,adding new weapons , and editing Mercs on the General forum. The devs said they won't release dev tools but they won't prevent people from modding the game.

--

Paleocon wrote:

I'm not doing any spray fire. All I'm doing is lining up in firing squad formation, kneeling down, and volley firing Napoleonic style. It seems to work pretty well, but it uses up about 6-9 shots per kill. I've knifed 4 guys with Frenchy and find that that dispatches folks quicker, but it can be hit or miss when I'm trying to peel folks away from a group.

This might work when you have a numerical advantage. In the demo there were more advanced enemies that threw grenades so it may not work that well in the future. I think that going with pairs works pretty well. Every shot that hits someone interrupts his/her aim which prevent them from shooting. One tactic I've found effective is run and shoot from short range either automatic or shotgun. The aim when shooting from the hip takes about 0.36 seconds while aiming from other stances usually takes a second or two . It's still risky business(especially if done in the open ) but if you can distract the enemy you can get one of your merc to rush them with an smg and spray them.

You said you are low on ammo so I guess spraying people is currently not the best tactic. From what you said you took Red,Malice and MD. It's not such a good choice because you don't have a mechanic . The previous selection of fox and steroid and probably Barry (Igor doesn't join unless you have Grunty and steroid doesn't like Russians). Fox hates steroid which would probably hurt her morale while Barry is a good choice. Maybe You should check the options to see if you can turn off the voice acting but it's part of the game's "charm" I guess some people don't like it.

You can just get some less irritable mechanic if you find some goodies to sell . You can get Grunty if you can stand his German accent . Many of the Brits and Americans are fairly expensive but each merc got his/her own annoying personality .

So, should I start over with a mechanic?

Paleocon wrote:

So, should I start over with a mechanic?

You don't have to start over but having someone with decent mechanic is very important because weapons break down through use and the guns you loot are broken from yellow-red which mean They will jam or break fairly fast and you can't get much money for them in the shop.

Some of the options you have other than starting over is find some stuff to get a half decent mechanic but I think you'll have to wait about two days for them (not a big deal) I think the guy at the airport sell some repair kits . You need the big blue one to fix anything in the red along with a merc with mechanic skill of 50+ . The best cheapest mechanic is probably Steroid(78 I think ) but you can take Grunty(44~) and level him and then get his mechanics up to 50+. There are other options but they are generally more expensive.Grunty is a pretty good shot and none hates him.

If you get desperate you can read ebarstad's spoilerific post :). You can also find a "piggy bank " of goodies in Drassen . You can also try to take the mine which gives a nice income. The other option is restarting of course and tolerating some annoying mercs . You can take Wolf as a mechanic he's probably less annoying but he's expensive .He's a good rusher being a gunslinger (shoot from the hip with little penalty) and a shotgun specialist. He can rush into a room and blast people to bits ( I think shotguns do 80-90 damage). I'm considering using shotguns as suppression fire because the pellet spread out a lot and each hit interrupts the enemies which can give the rest of the team a chance to aim and shoot at them.

I played a few hours of this based on the GB quick look and I am really enjoying it. I never played the original JA games, so everything is fresh. I really like the Plan and Go system. If they can fix some of the inventory problems and clean up the interface a little bit, I could see my self playing this game for a long time.

ebarstad wrote:

Just a warning that, since patch 1.05, you can no longer heal dying mercs. Might want to wait for a fix before risking any of your favourite people.

1.06 should come live soon and fixes this issue.

MEATER wrote:
ebarstad wrote:

Just a warning that, since patch 1.05, you can no longer heal dying mercs. Might want to wait for a fix before risking any of your favourite people.

1.06 should come live soon and fixes this issue.

It's out and the bug was fixed along with 8 other bugs :). Keep up the good work.

Is there any way to fix armor or clothing? I'd love to hire a seamstress...

Played the demo mission. Thought I'd be sneaky and run down the bottom and take out those two guys by themselves. Snuck up behind and... they turned and opened fire wiping out all 4 of my guys. Don't think I'm doing it right!

Okay, I took over the mine and looted the helicopter crash site. I didn't keep it all. I actually did split it with the pilot like I said I would. In any event, that gave me about $30k to spend on recruiting and equipment.

I got Steroid, but he won't arrive for a couple days. I also got two assault rifles for MD and Red. Malice has a looted Mac-10 with a silencer I found on a bookshelf, but mostly, he kills folks with his combat knife. Btw, it seems like the combat knife is faster than the machete or the axe. Is that right?

MD and Malice have leveled up. I spent Malice's 7 points on stealth and MD's on marksmanship. Malice seems to be the major killing machine right now.

Btw, how do you defuse mines?

Paleocon wrote:

Btw, how do you defuse mines?

There's a defuse kit that you can buy/scavenge. equip it with someone decent with explosives and use it like you would a toolkit ("e" to activate, then right click on the mine). Be sure the merc is crouched or prone, I've had a guy run up to it on accident and the mine detonated.

Lucky Wilbury wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

Btw, how do you defuse mines?

There's a defuse kit that you can buy/scavenge. equip it with someone decent with explosives and use it like you would a toolkit ("e" to activate, then right click on the mine). Be sure the merc is crouched or prone, I've had a guy run up to it on accident and the mine detonated.

When you defuse a mine, can you reuse it? Red only came with one mine and I wasted it blowing up an axe murderer dude.

Oh, and why when you kill a bad guy can't you loot what he shot at you with? Most of the time they just drop a handful of change and a couple bullets.

edit: Also, the bad guys keep coming after that central town and the roadblock. Can I start a second squad just to fight rear guard actions?

Paleocon wrote:

Oh, and why when you kill a bad guy can't you loot what he shot at you with? Most of the time they just drop a handful of change and a couple bullets.

edit: Also, the bad guys keep coming after that central town and the roadblock. Can I start a second squad just to fight rear guard actions?

For the difficulty curve maybe? I mean in Diablo or Fallout or the like most of the time enemies have equipment different from what you loot from them. Otherwise you'd spend all your time hauling stuff from the battlefield to sell it off. Also, you'd probably have too much money for the game's design.

Just tell yourself it was broken during combat or something

I was sorely tempted to purchase the Barrett .50 cal, but noticed that no one was selling .50BMG ammo. That and I didn't think it was the best way to spend $12,000 when I was trying to overthrow a despotic government with 3 out of shape mercenaries.

I also noticed there was an M79 grenade launcher and LAW rockets for sale as well. It makes me wonder if there are going to be armored vehicles to worry about in my future.

I just wish someone sold a .308 bolty.

Yeah, after defusing, the mine will appear in merc's inventory.

Paleocon wrote:

I was sorely tempted to purchase the Barrett .50 cal, but noticed that no one was selling .50BMG ammo. That and I didn't think it was the best way to spend $12,000 when I was trying to overthrow a despotic government with 3 out of shape mercenaries.

I also noticed there was an M79 grenade launcher and LAW rockets for sale as well. It makes me wonder if there are going to be armored vehicles to worry about in my future.

I just wish someone sold a .308 bolty.

There's a bolt action sniper rifle at the online store, i believe. I think it was called M24.

I read that sniper rifles won't necessarily give you a 1 shot kill maybe if you shoot with two snipers and sync them. You should also be aware that some ammo penetrate armor better than others. the .50 BMG can be bought at the online store and it penetrate at 400%. Other hard hitters are the 5.7mm (fn57/p90) at 200% and the .357 ( I think it's 250% and higher damage) You'll have to take this into account when you start fighting armored enemies. I think 9mm and shotgun shell have the lowest penetration ( I don't use 38s ). The 5.45 and 5.56 have 100% so they are the standard.

I'm thinking about geting an Automag for Buns so she'll be able to hit harder. She does well with her fn57 but I should get something with a little more punch and longer range than a Desert Eagle /Barracuda .

That's all a little counterintuitive. The 5.56 (especially with NATO green tip ammo) has far better penetrating power than the 5.7FN round. Fire it out of a 20" barrel and you can go through both sides of a cinder block and still kill the guy behind it. That isn't the sort of thing you're likely to pull off with a 5.7FN. Both the 7.62 AK and the .308 with standard ball ammo will make a mockery of most non-ceramic hard body armor. If you get hit with a .308 round within 800 meters, that flak jacket you're wearing might as well be a tee shirt. Conversely, most concealable soft class 2a body armor will pretty reliably stop up to a .357mag.

Has anyone tried to put together an all female squad yet? It looks like there are only like 5 female mercs in the whole game and 3 of them are pseudo medic class. None of them have decent mechanical skill and according to the wiki, Buns doesn't like working with Fox. I thought I might try to do that just for the silly Charlie's Angels factor.

Oh, and how do you get your mercs to eat? I haven't figured that out yet.

Paleocon wrote:

That's all a little counterintuitive. The 5.56 (especially with NATO green tip ammo) has far better penetrating power than the 5.7FN round. Fire it out of a 20" barrel and you can go through both sides of a cinder block and still kill the guy behind it. That isn't the sort of thing you're likely to pull off with a 5.7FN. Both the 7.62 AK and the .308 with standard ball ammo will make a mockery of most non-ceramic hard body armor. If you get hit with a .308 round within 800 meters, that flak jacket you're wearing might as well be a tee shirt. Conversely, most concealable soft class 2a body armor will pretty reliably stop up to a .357mag.

I agree the game has tons of inaccuracies if I understand correctly it was done to somewhat balance the game. I'm not a gun expert but as far as I understood military/law enforcement grade 5.7mm can go through Kevlar but I'm pretty sure the 5.56mm has better penetration power. I heard on the news once (when a neighborhood in Jerusalem was shot with HMGs) that the 0.5BMG has crazy penetration power - it goes through cars and brick wall like butter.

Paleocon wrote:

Has anyone tried to put together an all female squad yet? It looks like there are only like 5 female mercs in the whole game and 3 of them are pseudo medic class. None of them have decent mechanical skill and according to the wiki, Buns doesn't like working with Fox. I thought I might try to do that just for the silly Charlie's Angels factor.

You were mislead by the wiki ( I saw the stats there are old) Vicki is a great mechanic with 94 skill.

Paleocon wrote:

Oh, and how do you get your mercs to eat? I haven't figured that out yet.

Right click if I understand correctly( I drunk alcohol that way) but I'm not sure what it does.

I have a buddy of mine that trains federal law enforcement and does a hellacious amount of testing with firearms. He mentioned that .50BMG with regular ball ammo will have little trouble going straight through a manhole cover and still have plenty of energy coming out to blow half your ribs out of your body. As he puts it: "When you have a .50 cal, there is no 'cover'. There is only 'concealment'."

The 5.7FN with military grade ammo will penetrate regular class 2 or class 3 soft body armor, but it is not going to do a whole lot against interceptor plates. That stuff will actually stop .50 ball, but you won't want to test it. The resultant blunt force trauma alone could very well stop your heart. At the very least, it will bust up a bunch of ribs and make you feel like you just got trampled by a herd of horses.

I can't tell if you can recruit more than six mercs, but this defending the entire island with one squad thing is getting to feel like a game of whack a mole. I don't have the cash to toss at a second squad yet, but I really would like to put together Pulp Fiction's Fox Force Five if there are five female mercs available.

Man, I love setting mine traps in this game. I was taking on a SAM station with some higher level enemies and set down a couple mines and got the enemies to run into them . It basically crippled them, letting Buns easily take them out with her sniper rifle -- pure sweetness.

My team so far (in order of acquisition):

* MD - Medic
* Bull - pack mule
* Malice - sneaky, silencer
* Buns - sniper, secondary medic
* Barry - secondary mechanic/explosives
* Trevor - shotguns, explosives expert, mechanic

This game is so much fun, though I do spend an inordinate amount of time sorting inventory and kitting out my mercs.

Also, I saw on the official forums there is a "realistic weapons and ammo" mod. Maybe that would address some of the things you're talking about, Paleocon and Niseg.