Just Cause 2 Catch-All

CptGlanton wrote:
SommerMatt wrote:

for example, if I remotely blow up a target, how in the hell should they know *I* am responsible, even though I am a half mile away? I can understand that they'd go into a Metal Gear style of "high alert," but they never let up. Why should the military be MORE suspicious of me if I am flying/driving a military vehicle?

I've become very tired of this sort of problem. I've gotten warning levels merely for driving on the highway. Ugh, a real fun killer. JC2 is a game with lots of good things going for it, but I'm working my way through very, very slowly.

I just tested this again tonight, for the perverse thrill of proving myself right.

Put triggered explosive on propaganda truck, moved myself over 1000 yards away (on a rooftop), and pressed the trigger. On explosion, every soldier in the vicinity made an unwavering beeline towards my location.

I've gotten a good 60 hours out of this game already, but I think my time may be running out.

I agree, it's a shame the alert levels and enemy aggression is so high. Same reason I stopped playing GTA III back in the day; the fun for me was running around the city, finding secret packages and just messing around. Once all the gangs were mad at me it wasn't fun to cruise around the city any more.

I'm playing on the 360 and put the difficulty level down to casual. I still die from time to time but can suck up a lot of hits which makes the game way more enjoyable. I just want to run around, cause massive destruction and mess with people. I'm not sure if the threat level goes up slower on lower difficulty levels but at least you don't die as fast.

Still having a lot of fun with the game though. I'm not sure I will ever get tired of grapple parachuting around the island.

SommerMatt wrote:

That just seems to be the way they decided to handle combat in JC2. Maybe it's because of the massive amount of land area, and they were worried about there NOT being enough of a response. Not sure.

I agree that it's extremely annoying.

I just hit this stage of the game. Mother of the gods, the response is insane. I finished a major story mission, and just went about my usual business of causing chaos in a small village. Not a military base, mind you, just ma, pa and the kids and a gas pump. At one point I had 3 choppers on me. As I was trying to jack one, two others were shooting, ripping me and my hijacked chopper to shreds before i could even get in it. There was no getting away either, even through heavy forests. The enemy choppers can fly through tall trees and they were launching an endless stream of heavy fire and rockets.

First time in the game that it wasn't fun.

I *think* that as you destroy more of the military communication equipment (broadcast towers etc.) the response begins to moderate somewhat. I finished all of the missions, and have just been playing the game to complete a few locations now and then, run a few races, but it feels like the response has started to decrease a bit when I attack a base. That might not really be the case, but it seems like it.

I'm at ~54% completion and have cleared ~100 locations to 100%.

Tach wrote:

I *think* that as you destroy more of the military communication equipment (broadcast towers etc.) the response begins to moderate somewhat. I finished all of the missions, and have just been playing the game to complete a few locations now and then, run a few races, but it feels like the response has started to decrease a bit when I attack a base. That might not really be the case, but it seems like it.

I'm at ~54% completion and have cleared ~100 locations to 100%.

What's odd is that after I posted the above, about getting completely buried in helicopters on a tiny mom & pop village, I went to a HUGE military base, completely fubar'd the entire thing, and never saw the first helicopter in response. Go figure.

I felt I needed to progress toward an objective rather than just wanton destruction and crate-hunting, so I buckled down and tackled the last few missions. The Three Kings I thought was rather fun and unique. The rest I found less fun and more frustrating, especially the final mission. But now that's out of the way and I'm in 'Mercenary Mode'.

About 30 hrs in, 28% complete. I have about 1/5 of the map that I haven't been to at all (the right lower quadrant).

I'll come back and dabble with it here and there, but have no plans to try to 100% this game.

Apparently a totally rad dude calling himself Gibbed has released some mod tools.

http://www.moddb.com/games/just-caus...

Here's hoping this will lead to some really creative stuff. The current crop isn't exactly the most ambitious of things.

That dude is rad.

Okay, so I have a question. How do you keep from dying so quickly? I love this game, I've put about 17 hours into it, but I'm reaching a point where anytime I so much as fire off a bullet I get swarmed by bad guys who kill me pretty quickly. With ammo in short supply and missiles being fired from seemingly everywhere I can't figure out how to avoid dying so frequently and so easily. Even when just destroying random stuff in cities. Is there a way to increase my health? Can I buy body armor? Help.

DSGamer wrote:

Okay, so I have a question. How do you keep from dying so quickly? I love this game, I've put about 17 hours into it, but I'm reaching a point where anytime I so much as fire off a bullet I get swarmed by bad guys who kill me pretty quickly. With ammo in short supply and missiles being fired from seemingly everywhere I can't figure out how to avoid dying so frequently and so easily. Even when just destroying random stuff in cities. Is there a way to increase my health? Can I buy body armor? Help.

1 - Don't dual wield SMG's even if they are the best 1-handed weapon. Your max ammo for any one weapon is the same whether you have 1 or 2 equipped.

2 - Use cover like standing around the side of a building.

3 - Use detached gatling guns where ever possible.

4 - Pick up guns of downed enemies even if only to use for a few shots here and there and then go pick back up your default gun. I typically will pick up sniper rifles and rocket launchers and deplete them before moving on.

5 - Hit and run is a very valid tactic. Particularly with a fast car.

6 - Try taking out communication devices.

7 - Work quickly, you will get surrounded and overwhelmed if you don't kill off enemies as the show up.

8 - BOOM! Headshot. Much easier with mouse + aim mode, but possible by aiming right at their face.

9 - Take everything I'm saying with a grain of salt as it's just me rambling after 30-some hrs of play.

I hardly ever have ammo running out on me and I've only ever bought a few guns. Recently, with taking out communications towers and making sure I'm near cover I die very rarely and it's almost always when I wander out into the open. Also, I fully upgraded my SMG and assualt rifle.

That's good advice. I'd particularly emphasize moving a lot and using cover. Make use of sprint and evade, since they disrupt enemy aim. Try to prioritize threats (take out rocket launcher dudes first).

Also, upgraded weapons and armor are very helpful to your long term survival. Every five armor pickups increases your max health, and fully upgraded SMGs, ARs or MGs make a big difference in how quickly you can drop the mofos that are shooting you, and also in how much ammo it takes to achieve that. If there's a minigun nearby, pull it free and carry it around for a bit. Once you kill everyone in the area, your heat level will decrease and dudes will stop spawning until the next time you piss them off.

Podunk wrote:

That's good advice. I'd particularly emphasize moving a lot and using cover. Make use of sprint and evade, since they disrupt enemy aim. Try to prioritize threats (take out rocket launcher dudes first).

Yeah, I actually mapped Evade to one of the side buttons on my mouse. Helps a lot.

Jeff-66 wrote:
Podunk wrote:

That's good advice. I'd particularly emphasize moving a lot and using cover. Make use of sprint and evade, since they disrupt enemy aim. Try to prioritize threats (take out rocket launcher dudes first).

Yeah, I actually mapped Evade to one of the side buttons on my mouse. Helps a lot.

I need to do this as tab is way too far out of the way to use while running for cover. I just default to grappling away because of this.

-You can grapple forward (onto the ground ahead of you), which moves you even more quickly than running. Repeat often.
-Armor crates will increase max health for every 5 you find.
-Destroy comm towers (the large ones held down by 3 wires) which is supposed to decrease the response. Also the satellite communication towers (the one's that pop out of the ground). I don't know if it actually does so, but you get a message when you do it.
-If there are SAM turrets, take those out early. It makes your helicopter-based destruction much easier. If you aren't using helicopters yet, you haven't quite gotten started. Eventually you can order one from the black market, but even before that, you are able to either steal one or hijack one when they come after you.
-Tanks, when you find them (or unlock them) work even better than helicopters.

My primary weapon was the assault rifle, which I fully upgraded as quickly as I could. 2nd was the SMG. Shoot, run, grapple to new spot. Repeat. yeah, you die sometimes anyway and the armed response seems out of proportion to your handiwork, but as the game moved on and I had taken down more and more infrastructure and unleashed more chaos, it did seem to decrease.

You can almost always call for a black market item drop (vehicle or weapon/ammo), regardless of how high your alert level is. You can not call for an extraction unless your level is 0. If all else fails, call for a vehicle and get out of dodge. Money ends up being a non-issue very quickly.

This is probably self evident, but keep an eye out for first aid on the sides of buildings. Most military bases have at least 3-4 of them. If you are in a village, just leave the area (keep moving until the % completed sign goes away) and hide until the heat level goes down. If you have a helicopter following you, kill it then hide.

Sinkwater wrote:

This is probably self evident, but keep an eye out for first aid on the sides of buildings. Most military bases have at least 3-4 of them.

Definitely. Health can run out ridiculously fast in this game, especially if you end up between two set of enemies. There appears to always be a health pack on every gas station.

If you know you're missing something in a settlement/base/etc. that's preventing you from 100% completion, expand your search beyond the obvious borders. There's often a secondary group of buildings just below/above the area.

If you see one of the tall towers (bell towers? prayer towers?) in the center of a settlement, there's a very high chance that there will be some kind of pickup near the very top.

If you see a long pipeline, there will be a console somewhere along it to destroy the pipeline. I think this disrupts their oil supply, though I'm not sure what practical benefit that has. It's also easy to disrupt the supply by destroying the oil rig shafts all around the island, blowing each one away at long distance with a rocket chopper. Just remember to take out those SAMs first.

I loved this game and it's one of a handful I actually maxed out the achievements on. The combat and high alert levels can be frustrating until you get a feel for the pulse of the game. Once you do that, you will find death (your own at least) to be a very rare thing.

I played through a second time on the hardest difficulty and found the upgraded machinegun to be a better pick than the assault rifle. If you are in a crazy firefight and don't have time to headshot everyone you can just spray and pray with that thing and it will mow the baddies down right quick. The machinegun and triggered explosives were pretty much all I used to beat the game the second time around.

If you're in a helicopter and the heat gets too high, you can just fly away for a minute or so until the heat drops. The enemy choppers can't/don't fly as fast as you do.

Best tip of all - don't be afraid to run. You will often get into a fight you can't win if you try to hold your ground. Stay on the move, get away from the mob, and circle back on your own terms to deal death and destruction.

DonD wrote:

Stuff that I agree with.

What he said. It may be anecdotal, but destroying comm towers anywhere you find them seems to reduce enemy hostility, response time, and severity. Also, upgrade your weapon of choice to at least 4 stars as soon as possible. Any encounter is much simpler with an upgraded gun and plenty of C-4 or upgraded grenades.

Once things get hot and heavy, leave. It's as simple as that.

So I've recently discovered how great this game is. I'm not usually a fan of these types of games, GTA3 being the last similar game I've played, but this game is great!

I'm only about 15 hours in and I've just increased the military to "grade 3" so they seem to actually bring multiple helicopters in to try and stop me. How far up does the military grades go?

I skimmed a lot of this thread but one thing I wanted to recommend were faction missions to increase the presence of people who will ally with you. There have been a couple times now where I'm low on health and trying to get away from several military vehicles and just when I think I'm going to die some buddies from whatever gang I helped come out of nowhere and draw their fire.

I've found the jet fighters to be very effective and have yet to have anyone shoot me down or even come close. I eventually just want to do something else so I crash the plane or jump somewhere else (Mile High Club was cool).

mrwynd wrote:

I've found the jet fighters to be very effective and have yet to have anyone shoot me down or even come close. I eventually just want to do something else so I crash the plane or jump somewhere else (Mile High Club was cool).

Jet fighters might be hard to shoot down, but I have a hell of a time taking out targets with them. I can't aim for crap with them. I think part of the problem is there is no yaw control for aircraft.

EriktheRed wrote:
mrwynd wrote:

I've found the jet fighters to be very effective and have yet to have anyone shoot me down or even come close. I eventually just want to do something else so I crash the plane or jump somewhere else (Mile High Club was cool).

Jet fighters might be hard to shoot down, but I have a hell of a time taking out targets with them. I can't aim for crap with them. I think part of the problem is there is no yaw control for aircraft.

That, and if i get lined up close enough to be sure I can destroy a target, it usually means I might as well let the nose of the jet do the work as I'm about to crash.

Why is it every time I finish a car based race challenge, the first thing I want to do is find a really big clifff or jump and drive off of it at max speed. With the boats, planes and helicopters I hold onto them, though.

Anyone else do this?

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Why is it every time I finish a car based race challenge, the first thing I want to do is find a really big clifff or jump and drive off of it at max speed. With the boats, planes and helicopters I hold onto them, though.

Anyone else do this?

Yes. I like the 'splosion. Oh so satisfying.

Of note: in Red Dead Redemption sometimes I jump off my horse expecting him to continue coasting into the distance before erupting in a ball of flames. I am disappointed ev~ery time.

Mister Magnus wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

Why is it every time I finish a car based race challenge, the first thing I want to do is find a really big clifff or jump and drive off of it at max speed. With the boats, planes and helicopters I hold onto them, though.

Anyone else do this?

Yes. I like the 'splosion. Oh so satisfying.

Of note: in Red Dead Redemption sometimes I jump off my horse expecting him to continue coasting into the distance before erupting in a ball of flames. I am disappointed ev~ery time.

Something like this, perhaps?

EriktheRed wrote:
Mister Magnus wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

Why is it every time I finish a car based race challenge, the first thing I want to do is find a really big clifff or jump and drive off of it at max speed. With the boats, planes and helicopters I hold onto them, though.

Anyone else do this?

Yes. I like the 'splosion. Oh so satisfying.

Of note: in Red Dead Redemption sometimes I jump off my horse expecting him to continue coasting into the distance before erupting in a ball of flames. I am disappointed ev~ery time.

Something like this, perhaps?

Something exactly like that.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:
mrwynd wrote:

I've found the jet fighters to be very effective and have yet to have anyone shoot me down or even come close. I eventually just want to do something else so I crash the plane or jump somewhere else (Mile High Club was cool).

Jet fighters might be hard to shoot down, but I have a hell of a time taking out targets with them. I can't aim for crap with them. I think part of the problem is there is no yaw control for aircraft.

That, and if i get lined up close enough to be sure I can destroy a target, it usually means I might as well let the nose of the jet do the work as I'm about to crash.

Yep, that's pretty much my experience with the jets. I love flying them, and do fine until I try to shoot a ground target. Then I almost always: (i) miss the target, and (ii) crash.

Got the 50% achievement at exactly 41hrs 00 mins by the in game clock. I think I've done all the random and wanton destruction I need to. It's time to wrap up the 'story'. The only problem is, I tried that and even on my way via extraction, I got distracted for over and hour trying to make it to the Agency mission start.

I've also recently unlocked the 1000 items collected achievement and am approaching 1 million chaos. What long, explosive haul.

There's a free TukTuk Boom-Boom available for free starting today. It's one of those TukTuks, with a mounted cannon on it, operates like a tank and is pretty week but funny looking. Purchasable through the Black Market in-game.

MaxShrek wrote:

There's a free TukTuk Boom-Boom available for free starting today. It's one of those TukTuks, with a mounted cannon on it, operates like a tank and is pretty week but funny looking. Purchasable through the Black Market in-game.

NOTE: free automatic download via Steam. The vehicle is fully upgraded and about the 3rd one down in the default list. It costs $50000 in-game.

That vehicle's implementation is broken. Every time you fire the onboard cannon, like you would a tank, from the drivers seat, you also fire your equipped single handed weapon, and if it's an automatic weapon, it just keeps firing like it would while not in a vehicle. If you're using a semi-auto weapon, you can hold the fire button down and the mounted cannon will continue to fire at it's own rate of fire.

It's also really weak. I got mowed down by 3 bikers and 1 jeep that I killed quickly. Doubt I'll be using it again unless I want to hate life.

I don't think I ever bought a single ground vehicle the entire time I played JC2.