Jagged Alliance 2 remake in 3D by bitComposer

BlackSabre wrote:

Well it says it's 33% off for me. I'm assuming that's because I own the original. Still, I'm only on day 1 of JA:BIA, so I'll wait till I at least finish this one. Hopefully Christmas sale it will be 50% off and I'll grab it then.

Odd, I only see 15%, and i also have the original.

Well I notice on the main steam page is says 15%, but if I click on it, it says 33% off. Normally $29.99, discounted to $20.09.

Definitely going to wait on the new expansion.

While Steam says great things in its promo in truth from what I have read on the boards the expansion is only a new map, they didnt change any of the gameplay mechanics from patch 1.13

So bottom line, wait until the price is more like 5-10 and modders have a chance to work on moving their mods to the new map. So in other words about 2 months after release, or christmas steam sale.

I'm waiting for an Xmas sale too so I can gift the main game to a few more people (hopefully ones that will play it).

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I recently found something interesting when I started a new game on my father in law's PC ( testing performance before gifting it). The game let me recruit Buns at the beginning . I'm not sure if it's related to my achievements . As far as I remember Buns refused to join me when I started my first and second games.

I can't recall who I started with in my first game ( broke the saves) but in the second one I started with Raven(you can't afford anyone else if you take her).

Took out Cambria and the hospital/univerity all still on day 1. I just sold off Oswold's Diamonds and the diamond you get from the mine for a nice haul and bought 3 new mercs. A sniper, an explosive dude and a shooty dude. Yeah, can't remember who they were.

Really like the Wolf and Fox combo as Wolf just runs in and either goes for the knife or shotgun and Fox can quite easily camp back at range with the M-14 and the holographic sight. Also, gas grenades are kinda cool too. Can't wait to get my explosives expert to use them.

So would a 3 week gap be considered a necro thread? I picked this up on the summer sale but just started playing it a few days ago. I'd previously beaten JA2 when it first came out but only remembered the last fight so I haven't had too many instances of dejavu. I will say though, either I've gotten worse at strategy games or this game is just a heck of a lot harder than the original JA2. I don't even want to think about the hours I've wasted having to reload in the middle of fights.

I've read tons of Paleo's AARs in this thread looking for tips and strategies. Anyone care to toss out some general advice? It would be much appreciated. Early on I steam-rolled the enemies but lately I've been reloading like crazy.

Here's my rough setup: I've taken basically the northeast area of the map from Cambria to Alma though I've still got to take out a base north of Alma. I just filled out a full squad and have Shadow, Hitman, Buns, Grunty, Nails and Ira (? the one you pick up for free in some early village). I just got Nails and have literally fired maybe 2 shots with the guy so far.

I've been extremely disappointed with Shadow as he has about 6 seconds between shots and it normally takes him a couple of shots to down anyone. About the only use I've gotten out of him is treating him as artillery support that fires over the heads of my guys going in close or as bait to draw the enemy back to an ambush. I also apparently don't know how to use stealth well as Shadow is always getting noticed even at 100 yards while crawling on his belly in the shadows. It also frustrated me when I have Shadow open up on a group from maximum range, the enemy runs forward maybe 5 yards and then starts firing at Shadow with pistols and assault rifles killing him before he gets a 3rd shot off. The range advantage for sniper rifles doesn't really seem to help. Can't recall the exact weapon he's using but it uses 7.62mm NATO ammo. I've found a 50 cal sniper but I only have 6 bullets for it right now so haven't broken it out.

Grunty and Hitman have been my go-to guys for most of the game with Buns being turned into my squad medic. Not ideal, I know, but I didn't really research before hopping into the game. I've had Grunty using assault rifles, does that meet the requirement for the machine gun perk or do I have to equip him with one of the heavy squad machine guns that I can buy?

It also seems like body armor breaks down very quickly in this game. Should I just prepare myself for a massive outflow of cash to constantly buy new body armor as my guys pretty much go down with one exchange of fire at this point. I don't even want to think about how many med packs Buns has gone through patching these guys up.

Well since my last post, I haven't gone back to this. I want to, just can't find motivation as other games are easier to play like Saints Row 3.

I do want to get back into this, but I think I'll wait till I finish some of my other games and actually have the time needed to get into this.

Playing Crossfire. It's good to see that some of the mercs from the base game end up advancing. The problem is that my favorites are now too expensive to start off with and now I'm forced to make some hard choices.

I ended up going with Spider and the new girl. The new girl is practically useless, but she was cheap. Their beginning equipment is frustratingly underpowered as well, but it seems up to the job at least. This left me with about $15k left for equipment, but after clearing out the beachhead, I decided I really needed a mechanic instead and spent it on another one of the new characters. This is bound to piss off Spider though since he has the wrong urinary equipment.

It's sort of nice going back to ambush basics now that I have to do everything with pistols and, if I'm lucky, subguns. I figure I'll bust out to the ruined temple and then sit back a little while until my cash position recovers to the point that I can get real equipment and my mechanic arrives.

Okay, I am moving slowly, but methodically through the game and have managed to fend off the constant escalation of counterattacks. The first few were tough because all I had were the two chicks armed with pistols while the enemy patrols kept getting better and better armed. I eventually got enough cash together to put together a full squad though and armed them with the salvaged weaponry I pulled off the dead patrols.

My primary squad consists of Flo, Spider, Vicky, Buzz, Raven, and Fox. I had to go with an all girl band because two of them have the Amazon trait. This works out pretty well though because two have the Team Player trait and all seem to get along. As a result, four of the five have very good morale while the other two have good.

I took the military base so I can now hold the ground with one squad while the other completes the quests. I have dug in in anticipation of a massive counterattack, but it, thusfar, has not been forthcoming. It has been four days since the last attack and I am starting to think I have bled the enemy white. There was a time when the attacks were coming twice or three times daily.

I can't seem to find the ring in the ring quest, but have managed to complete almost all of the ones that don't require me to take the temple. That gave me a ton of cash with which I hired five high priced mercs that I will arm to the teeth once my treasury recovers a bit. I have a ton of excellent weapons and ammo, but I need better armor.

I sort of want the counterattacks to begin so I can train the new squads up.

Okay. I ran into a bunch of bugginess that pretty much prevented me from finishing the game properly. Shame, because I was having a lot of fun with it.

Something happened that made the ring disappear from my inventory and, as a result, I was unable to finish the two quests that required it to finish. Additionally, I armed the hell out of the militia in the Mine and Roadblock sector and they immediately, and mysteriously, started migrating into hostile territory. As they approached one of my squads, the game announced "an enemy squad is approaching one of your locations". I didn't sweat it because I was ready for some green on green violence, but they just entered red territory where they went all the way up to the temple and came back down to the power plant. Weird.

When I ran a squad over to the power plant, it showed the armed militia. It even allowed me to enter the militia inventory page, but when I attempted to disarm them, it simply crashed the game. Also, it wouldn't let my squad enter the main map while I was near the militia. Weird.

Disappointing.

So I'm assuming this is the official catch-all for Jagged Alliance - Back in Action. Can't seem to find anything more appropriate. I snatched this game a few weeks ago on during the Thanksgiving sale and finally gave it a run.

How does one know what type of a weapon something is? I find myself puzzled, as the game gave me SCAR, which takes the same ammo as MP-53 that one of my guys has. So, now I'm somewhat confused over the classifications of these guns. Gunther(?) has a specialization in Machine Guns. Does this apply to SMGs as well? There is nothing in the description of SCAR, or MP-53 to define if it's an MG, SMG, AR, or any other classification. How do I tell if a merc synergizes with a weapon I'm giving them?

Another question: how do I heal wounds, before I get 80 medical rating to use med-kits?

As for the weapons, not sure. But the healing, you can use other devices like bandages and first aid kits. They have a lower medical rating but won't heal as much.

Naw... my guy has a "wound". And bandages don't say they make those go away. They just stop bleeding and recoup some hp. His hp is perma lowered, as is his strength. And he hobbles around. Veeeery slowly.

There should be one that needs 50 skill to use that will cure the wound.

That and if you successfully finish the scenario, he heals on his own.

My guy earned his wound while we were assaulting the first town outside the airport (Dresden?). I'm not sure if I had a mission for that. But I did free the town. And went back to the airport. But he still has the wound.

What is this scenario you speak of?

MoonDragon wrote:

My guy earned his wound while we were assaulting the first town outside the airport (Dresden?). I'm not sure if I had a mission for that. But I did free the town. And went back to the airport. But he still has the wound.

What is this scenario you speak of?

It takes a while to heal on his own, but it should happen. I have ended missions with folks with barely a sliver of health left and bleeding and they were fully healed after 48 hours.

Gotcha. That's all I needed.

I've just gotten back into playing BiA again. I'd stopped playing before the major patches had come out (i.e., pre-fog of war), but I have to say I really enjoy this game and I think it's definitely underrated. I'm playing with the Combat Evolved mod and having a great time. Having played the new XCOM, I'm not sure why people fawn over that game and dismiss/criticize BiA. I like both, but I've had fewer problems/bugs with BiA.

Happy to see someone is still enjoying the game!

And considering we probably had about the budget and manpower XCOM had for prototyping before they even started preproduction that is indeed very high praise of you, sir!

I started playing this weekend, the game having languished on my pile for probably a year or more. A little disappointed the game isn't turn-based, but the pausable real-time order-queuing system they use isn't too bad an alternative.

My first game had a failed 3-man attack on the very first area, mostly because I didn't do the tutorial first! Having done that, I decided to change tack and splurge a bit on only 2 skilled mercs with rifles. This gave me Hitman and Sidney. Good at shooting, but little else. Sidney can't use medkits; Hitman can't even use syringes! Neither has mechanic skills worth noting. I did several missions with Hitman wounded and limping to keep up. When I could afford it, I hired Fox for her medical skills. Took the roadblock and water pump with the three of them and sold some stuff to buy Steroid's contract for his mechanical skills.

The AK-47 uses 5.45mm? WHAT DEVILRY IS THIS?

Finished up yesterday. Dedrianna burst out of a doorway into the barrels of six surprised mercs and just like that the game was ended.

Though I enjoyed it, when I look back I find myself thinking about the little issues or all the things they left out. They got the tactical part down pretty well. The standard stances, the shooting, all that good stuff. But argh, too often I got shot by enemies firing under walls (because of terrain divots) or from angles that somehow wouldn't let me see them. And without the cover graph of the original, I always felt lost as to where I should position to get the best defense.

Pathfinding in general worked, except when trying to pass another merc in tight quarters. Then they'll both enter the Pathfinding Ballet which literally sometimes goes into an infinite loop if you don't manually interrupt. Way too many spots on the maps are just narrow enough to prevent 2 mercs from passing each other and there's no reason they should have been.

Overland travel works except that my groups were constantly switching back to Shortest Path when I'd set them to Fastest Path. I liked that I could manage inventory -- including sector inventory -- from the map screen. I'm even more glad that I didn't play until they patched in sector inventory. I can't imagine how annoying it'd be without that. The militia system was an interesting change from old. I'm not sure if I liked it more or not. The queen's patrols felt ineffective rather than becoming fearsome near the endgame.

The gun stats are really... just kinda bizarre. I accept that they have to artificially skew various ratings to make some weapons better or worse than others. Why does the Steyr AUG have a range of 47m and the TAR-21 only 36m? The AUG has a longer range than any 7.62mm NATO assault rifle! Half the handgun damage scores are wildly inflated for their ammo type. The G82 description says it's a bullpup when you can tell from the game picture that it's not.

As for the stuff from the original Jagged Alliance 2 that got left out. Climbing surfaces for instance, rather than being stymied by every little terrain protrusion. While they implemented explosives to take out walls, they left out being able to cut fences with wire cutters. Even rockets can't hurt those chain-link fences! In the original you could get a helicopter to rapidly transport mercs and materials. You could change your delivery location if you captured another airport. Instead we get glacial-slow logistics the further you progress in the game. Even though they left out the modest crafting system of JA2, there's still all these things lying around that serve no purpose. Broken timers, remote detonators, batteries, empty syringes, iDevices. It all makes me think crafting was cut for lack of time.

The final fight was anti-climactic. She was just another faceless soldier mindlessly running through a door into my ambush.

The game was a good value for the money, since I got it during a sale. It's just a shame that it couldn't live up to the eminence of its predecessor.

Looks like another attempt!

Haha I posted in the remake thread about JA2 and this comes along!

I haven't played the Bitcomposer version very much. Not sure I'll ever get back to it really.

This looks very much like XCOM. In some ways this is reassuring but more importantly I hope they keep all of the key things that made JA2 quirky like the mercenary relationships and personalities, Bobby Ray's store and functional strategic sites like the airfield and AA sites. Also I hope they aren't seriously using dark skinned characters for the enemy. I mean if the series is set in an African dictatorship yeah I get it but JA was set in a fictional Eastern European nation.

Some more info on RPS: seems like it's the Dev of Tropico and Surviving Mars that pitched a JA concept to THQ: RPS article here.

Hope they consult with the guys in the Bearpit about the game (they worked on JA2 1.13).

I'm slightly more optimistic about this than the various previous attempts, but I'd still rather see a studio like Firaxis that has actually made some turn-based tactical games working on this.

Hard to have any optimism over this, but I'll be keeping an eye out for updates.

I very much enjoyed the series, but found the last one with the volcano pretty buggy. As much as I played through, I couldn't get the critical components to finish the main quest.

I wonder what state modded JA2 is currently in? The last time I poked my head into the Bear's pit (years ago), the latest version of the 1.13 mod was pretty jaw-dropping.