DevDiary 2 - Legacy and Writing

[Wigen]

Translated interview with Ian Currie on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1084160/view/3664276023027669084

Edited February 1, 2023 by Wigen

[Kordanor]

The original interview has now been published in english and deedee is not mentioned there. So the Version by gamestar might have had that as off statement and assumption by gamestar itself. There it said "The mercenaries should all have their own personality, newcomers like Deedee as well as returnees à la steroid"

So it's possible that deedee is not going to be for hire at all.

[LoboNocturno]

😉

[WILDFIRE]

In case someone missed it, when you look at the legacy trailer(at 1:42) in one frame you can see the travel overview of your squad. There you can see the route of your team and the different terrain(urban, savanna) they must travel through.

 

Also the squad speed is visible(+4%), so I guess different elements like exhaustion, car repairs or the weather will influence your teams speed. The terrain will also be important for your travel, because you can see the categories easy and very easy next to the different types.

 

I am curious if the different terrain(swamp, savanna) types will also influence the combat. Will fights be slowed down, because of the swamp or will the sun dehydrate the mercs in the savanna so that they can not aim anymore?

[Solaris_Wave]

Those are excellent points. Several of us have commented on terrain and their effects on combat before but I think it goes further than that. General map travel should create more fatigue if the terrain chosen to travel through is harsh enough. The roads will obviously be the easiest and fastest route but the enemy might have those too well guarded and patrolled.

Needing to take an alternative route will possibly slow your mercs down in general travel. Additionally, if driving a vehicle, could it possibly break down or need refuelling mid-journey? Will your mercs need to carry more water or food to keep their energy up? Due to being in a hotter climate, that should be a factor, although not taken to the extreme that a previous Jagged Alliance game did (constant exhaustion issues).

Those alternative routes may also create a sudden random hostile encounter. If not against the army or bandits, what about deadly animals?

Will the enemy possibly experience fatigue when you engage them? Surely they get tired too?

What about weather? Will there be rain, thunderstorms, mist, haze or certain days with extreme heat? That will slow movement in general and in battle, plus visibility will be affected, meaning there could be shorter range combat.

Edited February 2, 2023 by Solaris_Wave

[WILDFIRE]

A great feature would be if the weather could always change throughout the week. So the same sector is always changing between muddy, rainy and harsh to clear, sunny and dry. When you return to that specific sector the gameplay and combat always changes too. Every walkthrough would feel different.

 

I hope we also get the same variation in the loot system so that the equipment you can find is always random. That would push the replayability even more.

[Solaris_Wave]

I can imagine how dramatic a night mission during a thunderstorm would be! That would be a great way of stealthily approaching an enemy compound, avoiding any lights and taking out guards with suppressed weapons and knives.

When you are talking about random loot, do you mean something that is in the sector itself or randomised equipment on the enemies you kill in that sector?

[LoboNocturno]

3 minutes ago, Solaris_Wave said:

I can imagine how dramatic a night mission during a thunderstorm would be! That would be a great way of stealthily approaching an enemy compound, avoiding any lights and taking out guards with suppressed weapons and knives.

When you are talking about random loot, do you mean something that is in the sector itself or randomised equipment on the enemies you kill in that sector?

Hell yea especially with shadow......

[WILDFIRE]

@Solaris_Wave: I mean the loot should be random in all sectors. All objects like chests, vases, containers and so on should contain random equipment so that the exploring gets more interesting. Sometimes you find a rare rifle or expensive stuff that you can sell for your mercs.

 

I think if you already know where the good loot is placed a second walkthrough could be less exciting. Also the exploring in general gets more interesting. No one has the exact same experience. The enemies should drop realistically their equipment you see on them but also random stuff that is in their belts or backpacks.

[Solaris_Wave]

Further play-throughs of the game will definitely benefit from random items, otherwise you would just make a bee-line for certain sectors to get the best stuff. There would be a limit to how random that loot is though. If the earliest shop you visit has got some top of the range gear, there needs to be some explanation how this lowly merchant got their hands on it.

Equally, only the better enemies should have the better equipment but you could put in a 1% randomiser that means a single enemy militia is carrying something decent, simply because they looted it themselves. During the Libyan civil war, there was news footage of some random male waving round an FN P90. Another one had an FN SCAR.

I also agree that whatever equipment was being carried by an enemy soldier when you killed them, you should be allowed to take for yourself, if it didn't get used up in battle against you. I have seen games in the past where you will get an enemy using all sorts of things but when you kill them, all you get is what has been decided you are allowed to pick up.

[uri91]

looking forward to the release of the game! It looks amazing!

[WILDFIRE]

To wait for the night and than to strike with a stealth approach only with specialized mercs and equipment while stormy weather is changing the whole scenery is what I also would love to see. 

 

Knives and silenced pistols nothing else.

[LoboNocturno]

17 hours ago, WILDFIRE said:

@Solaris_Wave: I mean the loot should be random in all sectors. All objects like chests, vases, containers and so on should contain random equipment so that the exploring gets more interesting. Sometimes you find a rare rifle or expensive stuff that you can sell for your mercs.

 

I think if you already know where the good loot is placed a second walkthrough could be less exciting. Also the exploring in general gets more interesting. No one has the exact same experience. The enemies should drop realistically their equipment you see on them but also random stuff that is in their belts or backpacks.

Totally agree with it, seems like we got lots of commun needs. 😉 Items and weapons etc should be surely randomly each playthrough, am guessing may we will have a option as well where we can choice just like in Jagged Alliance 2 if there should be less guns or tons of guns.

 

Also some RPCs should be appearing in some different locations like Hamous in Jagged Alliance 2 just as a example.

[WILDFIRE]

Yes I am curious what different NPCs we can hire for our team. It would be nice if we could meet special freedom fighters or lone mercenaries who already are working in Gran Chien. You can create so many interesting characters who could sell, repair or craft various weapons, items for us. 

 

First we should get the morale high in some areas with completed quests or the people wont trust us. Then we need the right answers in the dialogues so that we can convince the person to work with our team. Maybe we could also get special equipment only from these unique characters. If you kill innocent people and the morale goes down you maybe loose these persons and their equipment forever.

[Solaris_Wave]

Both good points. I especially am curious about what you mentioned in the first paragraph and whether that sort of thing would be available to the player full-time? Being able to hire someone who is from Grand Chien would surely be a useful addition as they would have the best knowledge about the enemy and how to get around the country. They wouldn't just be a worthy soldier, they would also be an important adviser.

[WILDFIRE]

A resident merc or freedom fighter could not only be a good advisor but also a great recruiter for the militia. He knows the people well and he could get a bonus in militia training.

 

That would help to get an easy entrance in defending your sectors, so that these special characters are very valuable for you team.

[Solaris_Wave]

2 hours ago, WILDFIRE said:

A resident merc or freedom fighter could not only be a good advisor but also a great recruiter for the militia. He knows the people well and he could get a bonus in militia training.

 

That would help to get an easy entrance in defending your sectors, so that these special characters are very valuable for you team.

Definitely. The locals are far more likely to trust someone native to their country, and if they have good leadership, also be inspired by them.

[Wigen]

@THQN Roger

When the next developer's diary (part 3)?

Nothing happened in February. 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Wigen

[LoboNocturno]

Of course we are so curious, dont know if they will be posting each & every month a dev diary still the game will be released, but the question is also how many dev diaries they planned to post, am expecting at least still part 4 to 5. Assuming the next 1 should be coming sometime around this spring.

[Solaris_Wave]

I am guessing they only want to include the fun stuff in the Developer Diaries, which is why they don't post all that often at the moment. Internally, their diaries probably have plenty of entries that say things like:

 

Day 342:

Still waiting on the destructible scenery assets that Billy is working on. Can't finish my bit until then. I might have to leave that section until later. I guess I could try animating those portraits.

 

Day 347:

Another unhandled exception error again! Just work correctly, you pompous piece of code!

 

Day 351:

I was so busy, I missed my cat's graduation party. I bet he's having a great time. Meanwhile, I'm stuck at this desk, eating a two day old pizza and wearing the same shirt since last Friday.

 

Day 372:

I thought all the guns in the game were done! Damn Solaris Wave and his weapon suggestions! Who does he think he is? The Royal Armouries Museum!?

[Bloodcat]

On 3/20/2023 at 4:11 AM, anon474 said:

Now I do hate the last two characters, some rando kid looking chick with hipster glasses, no thanks, called "bombastic", massive cringe, and I think the guy wearing the cap and blinged out chain is cringe, but there's nothing wrong with first two characters.

I think the new characters are disapointing, a little off, like in Mass Effect Andromeda or X-COM Chimera Squad.

They should have sticked to the 80s vibes or some more international diversity. Hong Kong Style Chow Yun-Fat would have been a great addition.

[Luthghasgo]

If anything, they seem to be doing their homework when it comes to designing Mercs that are culturally grounded in IRL regional conflicts like Fauda and potentially Omryn.  Hope they don't go that route for all of the newbs they have lined up, they ought to have one or two who are clear pastiches of action-movie stars or milfiction figures, like Steroid is to Schwarzenegger or Reaper is to Marcinko.  

 

Van Damme, Robert Z'Dar; always thought Henning could be salvaged if he was repurposed into an expy of Dolph Lundgren.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Luthghasgo

[Solaris_Wave]

Westwood Studios, of Command & Conquer fame created a great movie action hero parody by the name of Flint Westwood!

[Luthghasgo]

6 hours ago, anon474 said:

I MEAN...

do you want what's realistic, or do you want something that you think would look cool in a 90s action movie. I think the latter. If it doesn't fit in a Rambo II movie...it prob don't fit in jagged alliance lol.

I don't want either, I want both.  JA2 had just an many if not more grounded, military vets as it did action-movie archetypes and exaggerated stereotypes.  Both both had enough character and good writing that neither eclipsed the other.  It was a balance that gave it's roster palatable character contrast and variety. 

[Luthghasgo]

3 hours ago, anon474 said:

I don't know about that, almost every character in JA2 was colorful and ridiculous, from maddog to bull to tarballs. There was a merc called tarballs who calls you "woody!". Lol. Cmon dude. Every character was exaggerated and wacky, and I think that's a good thing. You don't want boring characters.

Colorful does not equate to ridiculous, and I don't consider mercs like Wolf, Len, Danny and Shadow ridiculous; rather, as elegantly understated.

No, I'd rather Maddog and Gus stand out like they currently do.  Making every merc as exaggerated as them would take their charm away and be far too annoying.

Edited March 26, 2023 by Luthghasgo