Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 - Geneva convention doesn't apply to mercenaries!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 - Geneva convention doesn't apply to mercenaries!

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Welp.

Came around looking for info on the new Back in Action game, and because of all the negative stuff I've read so far, I just decided "gently caress it" and heated up ye olde JA2 again, especially since 1.13 seems to have a lot of new stuff from when I last played.
Rolling with two IMPs, mainly to get me through the tedious early stuff faster, and imo one extra IMP won't make things that super-easy or anything. One's an ambidextrous gunslinger with high leadership, and the other a sniper/hunter with a bit of mechanical ability. Had to restart the game after a few minutes though, because I AGAIN managed to pick the most annoying voice set for my female IMP because it had the best sounding sample. Goddamnit I do that poo poo every time.

As for other mercs, I hired Steroid for the first time, well, ever, and holy poo poo how have I not done this before? That guy is loving hilarious. I do kinda miss my usual homies (Igor, Malice, Fox, Hitman), but I wanted to get some different faces for a change. Ira I will give the same treatment as before, that is using her as a decoy until she eventually dies. I don't care how useful she is as a trainer and/or backup medic, I loving hate her guts. Another option is to keep her alive long enough to marry her to the hillbillies.

EDIT: Oh yeah, about the new skill/trait system. I think it's really cool to finally see accurate descriptions of what does what and all, and the new stuff is really cool, but from the OP I was under the impression that I could pick either one main skill with expert level, or two normal, plus one minor trait. However, I was actually able to pick one skill at expert and one normally, or three normally, AND the one minor trait on top of that, or one expert skill and two minor traits, or other such combination. Didn't even find an .ini option for that. Is it supposed to be like that? All the standard mercs I hired have them as it is in the OP.

Nordick fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Feb 18, 2012

# ¿ Feb 18, 2012 07:40

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 09:50

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Yeah, you don't really get anything tangible out of marrying someone to them. Just the satisfaction of subjecting Ira to a life of being sodomized by a near-apelike inbred redneck for the rest of her life. Not that I'll be doing that now, she died on the way to Drassen when an enemy jumped out of a bush with a Skorpion machine pistol and riddled her skull with 9x18mm bullets. So I'll probably just mow the hillbillies down as usual. Though I might get Flo just to giver her to them. I remember reading somewhere that she actually likes it.

Other noteworthy stuff so far:
-Spider is kinda scaring me. In Omerta and on the way to Drassen she killed three enemies with highly improbable headshots when I was just trying to lay down suppressive fire.
-I found a Tommy gun with two full drums of glaser rounds. Gave it to Steroid. It's pretty terrifying, though I guess that lummox isn't the most effective user for it.
-My gunfighter IMP with dual Skorpions can reliably hit targets nearly as far away as my sniper with an (unscoped) SKS, and naturally with far less AP cost. She's absolutely wrecking poo poo.

Speaking of pistols, is AET ammo still as ludicrously powerful? The last time I played a pair of pimped-out FN Five-Sevens with AET rounds were borderline OP because they were fantastically accurate, cost a pittance of AP to fire, and did inordinate amounts of damage even to elites.

Nordick fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Feb 18, 2012

# ¿ Feb 18, 2012 12:04

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Mad Pills posted:

*Spots bloodcat*

"PUSSY! "

All my male main characters have used that voice ever since I heard that, it's just the way he says it that makes me laugh every time.

For some reason the way he keeps saying "Jesus K-Rist!" nearly puts me in hysterics. It sounds like he's this really macho merc man, but then has these frequent moments when he nearly loses his poo poo.
That image actually fits, because I picked the "nervous" disadvantage that says he can have panic attacks if left alone. I thought it would be a funny pick since I chose Loner (works better when other aren't nearby) as his personality trait.
Because it's just not Jagged Alliance if your mercs are, you know, sane. :v:

Nordick fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Feb 18, 2012

# ¿ Feb 18, 2012 20:35

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Copper Vein posted:

Can somebody tell me why my healthy Marksman->Sniper IMP with 85 in the Marksman skill can't hit poo poo with her new Mini-14 even while prone but Buns seems to be never missing at the same range crouched with that starter 10mm MP5?

Yeah, my Sniper IMP with his SKS isn't exactly sniping anyone either. And as I said, for some reason I could pick a total of three major skill traits for my IMPs, and this guy is Marksman->Sniper PLUS Hunter. This totals to a +15% chance to hit with Rifles, but it certainly doesn't feel like that. He still hits things, though, just not quite as far away as I'm used to hitting with that gun. I guess it'll improve with attachments, though.

As for merc lines, voices, Hamous is loving awesome. I once made a sniper of him, gave him some powerful pimped-out bolt-action sniper and stuck him on a roof. And when enemies started crowding into his scope view, he went like this:
"Veery baaaad. Veery baaaad. Veery baaaad. Veery baaad." *shoots one enemy's head off* "Veery GOOOOOD!"

Nordick fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Feb 19, 2012

# ¿ Feb 19, 2012 02:13

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

brainwrinkle posted:

tl;dr Rifles are absolutely awful without scopes, but scopes are the best thing ever in NCTH

Well, by my memory scopes were the bee's knees (means really loving good) in the old system too.
But yeah, I got meself a couple battle scopes from Bobby Ray and put them on the two SKSs, and now they're actually hitting faraway guys quite consistently.

Oh, and the two scoped Colt Anacondas on my ambidex gunfighter IMP are pretty beastly too. :3

Just took Chitzena, drat near lost Dimitri in the process. Now I just gotta find Hamous and I'll be off to Cambria.
I probably have to kick up another squad, I have so much cool poo poo I wanna try shooting things with.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2012 12:00

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Mister Bates posted:

And getting on a roof is a matter of standing next to it and then click-dragging like you're changing stances, up past 'standing'. Getting down works the same way in the opposite - stand at the edge of the roof and click-drag your merc's stance down past prone.

Or, simpler yet, just go next to a wall / to the edge of the roof and press J. That "dragging" method can be a bit janky.

In other news, I gave Haywire an Ares Shrike with an ACOG x4 and a few hundred tracer rounds. The results have been hilariously violent.

EDIT:

Copper Vein posted:

How do you repair items? If there's one gun I want fixed over anything else, how do I get that one gun fixed first? I had a merc with a repair kit, set to repair, with a 75% gun that was jamming in his inventory and in 35 hours he had not touched that gun, but the kit had been reduced.

Put the gun in his hand below the repair kit, that should make him repair it before junk in his pack and pockets. Equipped items always get priority.

Copper Vein posted:

Is there a shortcut to move all magazines out of a pocket in sector inventory? Or rather, what shortcuts of any kind exist to reduce the tedium of dragging mags around one by one. I got the crating thing down, but emptying a dozen misc mags into sector sucks.

Hold down shift while clicking on stuff in the inventory to pick up the whole stack at once.

Copper Vein posted:

Is there a way to unload a specific gun?

Right-click on the gun to see the description window, click on the ammo icon in the corner, right-click again to close the description window.

Copper Vein posted:

What does it mean when the ammo counters display anything other than a number? I see ???'s mixed with L's and M's sometimes.

It means your merc isn't sure how many rounds there's left. The letters are rough estimates: L for low, M for medium and H for high.

Copper Vein posted:

Is there a place to buy med kits other than shipping them in?

I think someone in the Cambria hospital might sell them. Not 100% sure.

Copper Vein posted:

I thought the game used a 100pt AP system. I seem to remember my mercs starting out with 100ap, maybe I'm wrong. Do the stats effect max AP? What circumstances could reduce the stats of a HEALTHY merc? I've got some dudes with like 65AP max now.

Armor, low agility, low energy (stamina) are the foremost things I remember that lower the AP amount. Also, if you keep using up all your AP each turn, you won't have the maximum amount of them for a given turn. So doing less or even skipping a turn will give you more AP for the next turn.

Copper Vein posted:

What does the weight % effect? AP? What is the threshhold or equation?

Going over 100% will reduce your AP and make you tire faster. But on the other hand it will make your strength and health go up faster when you move around, from the extra exercise.

Copper Vein posted:

When a merc gets wounded and loses points in a stat, do those points come back upon bandaging to orange or only upon doctoring back to red? Does a doctor treatment or hospital visit cure all debuffs and restore the merc to showroom condition?

Stat damage needs doctoring, but it doesn't take horribly long to restore them back to tip-top condition, especially with a good medic or even two.

Copper Vein posted:

Alt-Click selling things from sector isn't a cheat? Then why in the hell would I ever schlep over to Tony's? Does he pay more?

It is adjustable in the .ini, but by default alt-click selling only pays you a pittance of money, 10% of the item's real value/what a merchant would pay.

Nordick fucked around with this message at 08:35 on Feb 20, 2012

# ¿ Feb 20, 2012 08:15

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

etalian posted:

Especially to get the gruesome head shot explosion animation and hear the next amazing Merc one-liner reaction.

"You ain't been in combat, ace, 'till you've pulled an eyeball outta your pocket."
I love Hitman.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2012 05:48

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Rascyc posted:

When did 1.13 start defaulting to 4 skill selections for IMPs (3 max for major though)? I always thought it was 3 (2 max for major) for the longest time.

I already mentioned that "issue" a page or two back. Not that I know poo poo about 1.13's version history since I haven't followed it for like, a year and a half.

Anyways, I have a problem: I broke the M.E.R.C. website.
At one point I realized I'd forgotten to enable the .ini option to have all M.E.R.C mercs available from day one, so I switched it on. It didn't work. So I figured ok, it probably only works with new games, and turned the option back off, thinking the new mercs should be available soon.
So after a while I got three "more mercs available" emails from Speck, and got all giddy and went to browse the website, only to see this. :saddowns:

Obviously, this also prevents me from paying my current M.E.R.C. mercs' wages, which isn't fun because I'm using them extensively.

I guess I could just start over, but I just spent hours capturing and defending and recapturing and militia-training in Cambria, plus browsing new gear and shuffling it around and generally being a huge sperge over which new toy to give whom, and the thought of all that having been in vain is rather depressing.

In unrelated news, Biff and Flo managed to hold off a blackshirt assault by means of a meatscreen of green militia and liberal use of autofire.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 09:27

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Sistergodiva posted:

That's a scripted event. Just wait a few days.

Well, shoot. I don't remember seeing that before, despite having played the game several times over.
I guess it makes sense though, I mean if I actually managed to break it, the game crashing would be a more likely result instead of an in-game 404 error. I guess I managed to subconsciously rationalize it with something like "maybe the devs programmed that in just in case of bugs or something". I think I need more coffee, or some sleep. :v:

Again in other news, dual Five-Sevens and the P90 still feel pretty overpowered. Granted, the ammo is expensive as gently caress and highly rare outside of Bobby Ray's.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 10:02

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

The shotgun I've gotten the most use out of in my current game is the sawed-off (or sod-off as I like to call it) that my IMP sniper uses as his "sidearm". :v:

The funny bit is that the thing can actually mount a laser sight and a 2x scope. It's been quite handy in those "oh poo poo" moments when he has rounded a corner only to stare at some bastard's gun barrel three squares away, with 35 AP left.
"Oh you thought you'd ambush me? Well here, have a double load of buckshot in the face." :commissar:

Think I'm gonna make myself a goddamn shotgun maniac for the next game, too.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 12:36

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Rascyc posted:

What exactly is loot like if you don't use drop all items? I didn't think anyone played that way any more.

I tried the "drop all items" option for one game, once, and the sheer amount of stuff laying about was just too overwhelming so now I keep it turned off, what with 1.13 implementing its own loot tables now and all.
So now, in the beginning enemies just dropped some ammo clips and the occasional dingy sidearm, but the further I've gotten the more there are enemies that drop several items.
For example, out of 8 enemies, there may be 2 that drop nothing, another 2 that drop some ammo, 1 that drops a piece of armor and a 1st aid kit, and the rest drop their guns, a vest and a couple grenades. That's just a rough estimate I pulled out of my rear end, but it's in that vein.
Also, tougher enemies seem to drop more poo poo. Location MAY also affect it, I felt like the guards at SAM sites dropped more stuff than just random patrols. That's just my gut feeling though.

Sistergodiva posted:

I always forget something minor, wait for more money and waste it all on gear. I really love the detail in the eq. Sure it can be tedius sometimes, but having every pouch be an item is cool.

Yeah, it always happens to me too. I go to BR's just to buy a few medikits, and then I go "Well while I'm here, I might as well grab that too, and that, and I might need more of those too, and oooh that gun looks shiney, and what the gently caress how is the order form full already?"
Then I realize I need things for my new mercs to carry all the new junk in, so I go back to buy new LBE gear, and end up buying even more poo poo along with it. :v:

EDIT:

Bilal posted:

Flechettes are great. I gave Static a sawed off with flechette shells and he does -113 damage a shot. I think flechettes are only available in scifi mode though? I'm not sure, I don't play on realistic anymore because the items you can get in scifi are a lot of fun.

Nope, flechettes exist in normal mode too. It just takes a while for them to appear. And yes, they are awesome. My IMP sniper's sidearm sawed-off is now loaded with flechettes, and fitted with a duckbill. Firing both barrels at once looks pretty horrifying. :stare:

Also, what kind of new items are there in sci-fi mode nowadays? I can only remember those metal storm guns that were pretty funny. Might have my next game in sci-fi just for a change.

Nordick fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Feb 23, 2012

# ¿ Feb 23, 2012 01:49

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Or if you mean the "underarmor shirt" add-on, it helps with your camo.
See the thing is, having camo value on your armor is a moot point because the camo value of whatever LBE vest you put on top of it completely overrides it. The underarmor camo shirt just gives you 5% more camo value despite the LBE gear.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2012 11:56

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

God Of Paradise posted:

Anyone know how long it takes for MERC to unlock Cougar, Gaston or Stogie? Any tricks to speeding it up?

I've never seen these mercs and want to give em a shot.

Well, you can enable the .ini option of every MERC merc being instantly available, but that apparently doesn't work for an ongoing game (I tried), gotta start a new one.
Those guys are different from the early MERC guys in that they are actually really good for real, and their pay is accordingly high.
Gaston is loving hilarious in his absolute flamboyant Frenchess though, I highly recommend him.
EDIT: Also, Tex is in the vanilla 1.13 too, or at least was. I had him once, he was drat funny.
"I hear rustling. Could be rustlers."

# ¿ Feb 26, 2012 01:56

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Burns posted:

With the new hit system, having sidearms is an absolute requirement. I'm in the process of retaking Cambria with the latest version of 1.13 and I'm doing it with pistols and one or two SMGs. I have Danny in place of Fox and since he is also ambidexterous he can just lock down areas with his pistols.

Not to mention the new gunslinger->gunfighter skill trait. With those bonuses, pistols can get pretty goddamn powerful. I have an ambidextrous gunfighter IMP, equipped with two Colt Anacondas fitted with 2x scopes and laser sights, and she is an absolute loving terror.
Downside is that the metric rear end-ton of .44 speed loaders takes up a LOT of inventory slots. :v:

# ¿ Feb 27, 2012 16:08

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Of course I'm not wearing pants you silly woman, they'd just get in the way of the raging boner I get when I browse Bobby Ray's.

Anyways, I haven't used explosives a whole lot before, and just started mucking about with some stuff. I noticed I can't attach a detonator to a jar of RDX crystals. so what do I do with them, just put them on the ground and lob a grenade at them? Or are they like, an ingredient for making actual bombs somehow?

# ¿ Feb 28, 2012 12:56

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Alright, thanks. Gonna make use of that when I have to blow some holes in some walls.

I just wish you could prime explosives in your hand, and then throw them. Who'd need grenades when you could just lob a hunk of C4, eh? :v:

# ¿ Feb 28, 2012 15:51

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

I'm probably just being a total dumbfuck, but I just can't figure out how to actually target guys while doing the "hold Alt to spray your autofire like so" thing.
I mean, if I just "paint" on plain ground the red markers appear just fine and I can draw nice figure 8's and poo poo, but if try to "paint" over enemies it just puts a couple markers somewhere around them and results in a half-assed burst that barely hits anything. I guess I should just "paint" behind the guys I wanna shoot or something.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2012 23:15

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

captain_g posted:

Hence I need:
- Proper technician (Did Barry have that trait?)
- Proper doctor (Is MD paramedic?)

....

- Take Razor to combat despite the fact he'll learn slowly.
- Numb? (Never hired him)

Also has anyone had this happen? Some of the best top guys are dead and I didn't even touch them. This means Magic, Len, And Reaper.

- Steroid has Engineer, the expert-level version of technician. This means he'll fix your poo poo super-fast and will pick just about any lock you'll come across. He also has massive strength and the bodybuilding minor trait, so he'll carry a platoon's worth of heavy equipment without even getting encumbered. He's a pretty good shot, to boot.
- Spider is probably the most cost-effective doctor in the game. I guess MD works too, but he's so loving BORING. Give Spider a try.

- I have Razor running around with a pimped-out USAS-12 and a katana. He works just fine. Sure his marksmanship is poor, but that seems to have surprisingly little effect. Same goes for Haywire, I gave him the Ares Shrike LMG and he keeps putting 5 round bursts all on target like a loving pro.
- Numb is a good, solid merc. Stats aren't fantastic, but good ebough and he has night ops. He also has enough medical skill to give reliable first aid.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2012 11:10

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Haven't really been following the development of Flashback despite backing it for 25 bucks, so I didn't realise the release date was coming. Only found out when I saw it on Steam just some moments ago. And after some research:

bengy81 posted:

Full Control sent out Steam keys to the $25 kickstarter tier this morning.

...also found out that I never got one. Searched my inbox and the trash folders in case I'd mistakenly deleted it, nope. Not there.
Sent an inquiry to their support, let's hope there hasn't been any sort of irredeemable fuckup.

Nordick fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Oct 21, 2014

# ¿ Oct 21, 2014 21:01

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

bengy81 posted:

I would guess that it will take a day or two for your steam key to get sorted out.

Actually, it took less than an hour. :v:

I wrote this maybe kinda-sorta wordy (but very polite) email and just now they just replied with basically "Hi, here's your key: [key]."

Game's installed now, gonna try it out a bit before going to sleep.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2014 21:43

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Yeah it's pretty much a "poo poo that was supposed to be in the release version but got delayed" kinda affair I believe.

Anyways, first impressions on the game: Seems pretty solid, albeit somewhat bare-bones. Certainly isn't easy either, mercs can't take a whole lot of hits.
Really dig the sorta painted/cartoony textures. Some lighting/shadow effects butchered my framerate though, hope they get optimised.
As a pretty gross oversight, mercs seem to only have like one line for any single thing, so they sound repetitive as hell. That may get a bit grating in the long run.
All in all, not bad so far.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2014 00:12

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Croccers posted:

Flashback is $15 at the moment.
Is the game really as abysmal as the Steam reviews make it out to be or is the game a decent enough Squad TBS thing that's not Xcom/An Xcom derivative?
I ask because most of the Steam reviews mention or heavily imply they're heavy JA2 fans and nothing will please those people unless someone literally just perfectly ports 1.13 into a 3D engine and even then they'll hate it for some reason.

I haven't played it a whole lot yet, but it's by no means "abysmal".

It does show that they only barely reached their Kickstarter goal. The game is a bit bare-bones, as in it doesn't have a whole lot of features. There should be a free patch/DLC coming to add stuff that didn't quite make it into the release version, like gun attachments, a proper store interface (buying things from NPC merchants is done through dialogue at the moment) and some other stuff I can't remember now.

That said, what is there is a solid core system that already makes for pretty good gameplay as it is. It feels Jagged-y enough to me at least. There are some annoyances but I've still had fun with the game so far. It's drat challenging too, the AI might not be too bright but it still fucks me up something fierce.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2014 15:14

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 09:50

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

When militia fight to defend a sector, you can't help them.

Yeah, this is retarded as hell. To get around it I just move my squad to intercept the incoming enemies and then go back to resume the training once I've dealt with the enemy squad.

Defending sectors is a pain in general, since you can't pre-position your mercs. When enemies arrive in a sector the game just plops your squad down in a random heap around some central building or whatever, and you have a few seconds to scramble a couple of them around (which in itself is a crapshoot due to the lovely pathfinding AI).

I almost had an aneurysm defending the first mine like that and with poo poo gear, but it's been easier going once I found some better guns and figured out some tactics.

Croccers posted:

I like how you can't seem to be able to Retreat from a sector
I split my mercs up to train some militia in different places and one got caught on some crossroads alone.

Huh? I'm pretty sure there are both "flee" and "fight" options in the little box that pops up when enemies are encountered.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2014 20:00

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