Making a Mercenary

[Luthghasgo]

3 hours ago, Solaris_Wave said:

Surely, anyone who served in the French Foreign Legion could have potential interest as a mercenary, French soldiers themselves who could have previously been in Africa. Then, because of the timeline, more British who could have been in Africa. I am thinking of old-school, slightly refined British who insist on wearing a beret and mesh scarf or a more modern no-nonsense talking Brit.

Sorry coz, gonna have to wait for the MERC Expansion before we get Gaston back.  And who even knows if they're going to go the length of adding in Frederick, too.

[Solaris_Wave]

46 minutes ago, Wigen said:

I will be very disappointed if microtransactions are used to personalize the mercenary.

At the same time, I am sure that will be exactly the case.

You raise a good point. How much customisation will there be for your personalised merc, for there to be an avenue for micro-transactions to be utilised? I am hoping that such a thing is not necessary. Time and time again, the CEOs for the big publishers will insist that in today's environment such things are needed. It is always met with negativity by the public, which should hurt opinions and sales of a game. It is usually ignored by the publishers and then another game will come out that does the same thing and is accompanied by talk about needing micro-transactions again.

How would people feel if a language pack was classed as DLC but cheap? Would that cover the cost  of getting some voice acting in, or would the gaming public that natively speak that language feel like they are an afterthought?

I don't mind certain DLC, such as extra storyline or content packs but there needs to be substantial content in each DLC. Years ago, a game might get an expansion and if it did, it was a significant, all-in-one add-on. Today, that doesn't really happen and instead you get DLC for certain content, another DLC for something else and so on. There are pros and cons to that. You might be a completionist and want everything, or you might feel that one of the packs is unnecessary and just get the others. I do think that having too much optional DLC can make a game feel disjointed. There are a few games out there that have actually put me off buying them because there is so much DLC, not only raising the price over the base game, but making the whole thing look bloated while still giving you the worry of missing out if you don't buy everything.

How do others feel about that?

[LoboNocturno]

@Hendrix You said

"Marksmanship + Dexterity + skills/perks for one handed guns.

Marksmanship + Agility + skills/perks, for shotguns and smgs.

Even wisdom could come in to play for sniper rifles (needed to calculate shots)."

Dexterity means how skilled a person is in handcrafting right ? Like combining different objects together, as the mercs with higher dexterity will craft flawlessly as the mercs with lower dexterity will be still able to craft but it would have a lower condition as well, it was already like that since JA1.

What should do agility (how fast or mobile you move) with shotgun ? Even a static person could easily use a shotgun.

Wisdom with sniper could make some sense somehow.

 

Oh ok it was just a example but i do agree with the logic generally, few stats could be combined with some perks.

1 hour ago, Solaris_Wave said:

I was looking at the list of mercenaries on the Jagged Alliance fandom page and noticed that the overwhelming majority of mercs are American. Hopefully, there will be more from other countries. There were only a few British (although one was classed separately as Scottish), hardly any French, no Irish and even Central and South America didn't have much to show for it (Arulco not included).

Surely, anyone who served in the French Foreign Legion could have potential interest as a mercenary, French soldiers themselves who could have previously been in Africa. Then, because of the timeline, more British who could have been in Africa. I am thinking of old-school, slightly refined British who insist on wearing a beret and mesh scarf or a more modern no-nonsense talking Brit.

There are lots of regions that could have generated mercenaries because they gained a lot of experience fighting but the wars are over, so they don't need to stay within the country (many revolutionaries wouldn't have time to go elsewhere, unless they are like Ché Guevara and went looking for revolutions to fight in).

This is a topic i could talk for hours lol, also mentioned a few times in here but it didnt get much of a reaction as i remember. I will create even a topic this days about it, as i think its a very important topic.

 

Yes mostly are sadly Yankees, Red is also a Scottish (with Fidel the best explosive expert) but yea lots of mercs are missing from certain locations, i complained about this in couple of topics, there should be minimum 4 to 5 more mercs from different South American countries, would be the happiest man on planet if there would be a epic merc from my country Ecuador, a Colombian & Venezuelan merc would %100 suit to the Jagged Alliance environment, Hector Alvarez was a must go for me in Jagged Alliance 1 even if he said only a very few Spanish words (am expecting hopefully more Spanish words this time from Fidel), a Mexican merc is a must like cartel backgrounded sicario, a Colombian guerilla would suit so well to Jagged Alliance, a Brazilian thug from the favellas would suit so well too, from different African countries few more merc should be there as example Nigerian, Ghanaian, Liberian etc... or from East Africa a Somalian ex pirate turned into a merc would be very cool, imagine all those mercs with their native accents would give us much more atmosphere.

 

Some more mercs from various European countries should be there as well, French Foreign Merc would suit too, remember the movie Lionheart with Van Damme (its 1 of the first things that comes to my mind). 😉 

A Italian, Spanish, may few more mercs from Balkan are missing, a Turkish merc is most definitely missing (would probably not get along with Fauda), Turkiye a country of 85 millions were also lots of gamers are, even to bring 1 merc of each of those countries would boost the audience of Jagged Alliance community overall a lot. See Ivan Dolvich in Russian community he is celebrated as a true hero (fictional). 😁

 

From Asia continent i could imagine, 1 merc surely from India (i dont mind if also a tech geek comes like once @Kordanor said), may a Mongolian hunter with high dexterity (yes they are 1 of the best hunters in the world, in very hard conditions), a Chinese merc is missing most definitely as well.

 

I mean 10 American mercs from a roster of 40 mercs would be seriously more then enough, the rest from other countries.

Not last but least we really want see more realistic battlefield ready mercs instead of silly mercs like Livewire or Smiley lol. 

[Carmine]

No avatar system ? So sad.

In fact , my friends and I love mercs dress like christmas trees !

[cachirro]

23 hours ago, Wigen said:

I will be very disappointed if microtransactions are used to personalize the mercenary.

At the same time, I am sure that will be exactly the case.

i hope they don't fall into that road, that has potential to destroy everything.

I'll gladly pay AAA price for the game, just don't add micro-transactions, login rewards, all that FTP crap please, you can build a good game, get full price, build a good base that later you can use to sell expansions, new maps and missions, etc..., keep updating the core game, keep adding mercs, but not in a way that it renders older ones useless.

Just give us a good game and everyone will gladly pay for it.

[DougS2K]

1 hour ago, cachirro said:

i hope they don't fall into that road, that has potential to destroy everything.

I'll gladly pay AAA price for the game, just don't add micro-transactions, login rewards, all that FTP crap please, you can build a good game, get full price, build a good base that later you can use to sell expansions, new maps and missions, etc..., keep updating the core game, keep adding mercs, but not in a way that it renders older ones useless.

Just give us a good game and everyone will gladly pay for it.

This is the key. Make a good game and it will sell. I don't want any microtransactions or the likes for many reasons but mainly because it takes away time that could be spent to make the game better gameplay wise.

I would be open to DLC down the line as long as the core game is solid. Maybe a mercs expansion DLC with more missions or something, that would be fine. The potential for this game is really promising compared to other attempts in this series. I just hope that this one stays on course and becomes worthy of the Jagged Alliance 3 title.

[LoboNocturno]

13 minutes ago, cachirro said:

i hope they don't fall into that road, that has potential to destroy everything.

I'll gladly pay AAA price for the game, just don't add micro-transactions, login rewards, all that FTP crap please, you can build a good game, get full price, build a good base that later you can use to sell expansions, new maps and missions, etc..., keep updating the core game, keep adding mercs, but not in a way that it renders older ones useless.

Just give us a good game and everyone will gladly pay for it.

What you really mean by micro transactions ? Like DLC ?

 

I dont even mind to pay for the game at least 300$ for the 20+ years waiting seriously. So paying a full AAA price (around 40 - 55 $) is a must for the hardcore fans, but the estimated price on Amazon is 39 $.

 

Of course we would invest lots of money for all the DLCs like new maps, new missions and new mercs etc...

[DougS2K]

1 hour ago, LoboNocturno said:

What you really mean by micro transactions ? Like DLC ?

 

I dont even mind to pay for the game at least 300$ for the 20+ years waiting seriously. So paying a full AAA price (around 40 - 55 $) is a must for the hardcore fans, but the estimated price on Amazon is 39 $.

 

Of course we would invest lots of money for all the DLCs like new maps, new missions and new mercs etc...

When I think of how many hours I got out of JA2 for the last 20+ years, I think the cost of my CD copy way back when was well worth the cost. I lost that CD so I had to buy it again on Steam years later. I know it's around somewhere but I imagine it's in a box somewhere that never got unpacked after all the moves. I really should look for it again.

[LoboNocturno]

19 minutes ago, DougS2K said:

When I think of how many hours I got out of JA2 for the last 20+ years, I think the cost of my CD copy way back when was well worth the cost. I lost that CD so I had to buy it again on Steam years later. I know it's around somewhere but I imagine it's in a box somewhere that never got unpacked after all the moves. I really should look for it again.

I got a unused like new JA2 Wildfire CD with full package including the book inside but its in German, only the package is a lil damaged. Who is interested buying it, could contact me. 😉

Edited March 12, 2023 by LoboNocturno

[Solaris_Wave]

I doubt there will be silly things like login rewards and such because it isn't going to be Free To Play, nor is it a multiplayer only game. Therefore, none of that 'live service' stuff.

As I said before, I don't mind certain types of DLC but I absolutely don't want to see micro-transactions that end up making a parody of the game. As soon as we start seeing cosmetic DLC to give your custom merc a wooden peg leg, or the promo text says something like, "Love Doritos? Equip your custom merc in a Doritos baseball cap and jock-strap with our fabulous Doritos promotion!!!"

At that point, you just know that some suit in a boardroom somewhere said, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if…"

To which I will reply and say loudly, "NO!" as I burst into the boardroom and smack him silly with a foam baseball bat.

[Phallus_Maximus_Sextus_Non]

It's good to see how much the Devs seem to care about the identity of the Mercs. I liked to see my beloved Tex coming back with his "six-shootah" and I enjoyed the discussion about Fauda; I am sure she's a Merc everybody will want to have on their teams. With that said, I did spot a problem with the design of Ivan Dolvich since the first trailer released. As I delineated in this topic here, he needs a total re-work. To sum it up, Ivan needs a better face (no unshaved beard and hobo face), better clothing (begone with the jacket) and buffed (get him muscular).

[Wigen]

If Fauda is an explosives expert, why did they give her an agility of 45? All JA2 mercenaries with this skill always had at least a high stat.

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Wigen

[Solaris_Wave]

Well spotted! I wonder how much the Dexterity ability works in conjunction with the Explosives skill in JA3 particularly? Dexterity is all about finesse and ability with the fingers, so it does seem rather low. In her bio, it says that she is handy with thrown explosives, which would suggest the use of the Agility stat but unless she is only skilled in pulling a pin and throwing a manufactured grenade (which sounds limited and not something you would especially list in her bio), it is going to be a problem.

With Dexterity that low, that gives the impression she can't make improvised explosives, set up charges or plant mines. Not only that but she would be dangerously unskilled in defusing any explosives she finds!

[Wigen]

In the Jagged Alliance 2 source code, the following skills are responsible for planting and disarming explosives: experience, intelligence, explosives, dexterity and the amount of energy, and possibly some dedicated skill.

Dexterity, shooting and the amount of energy used are responsible for the accuracy of throwing. Here dexterity had the most attention.

From Fauda's description, she's mostly a throwing explosives specialist, so taking JA 2 as an example, when it comes to throwing accuracy, 45 agility on a character like Fauda is actually a disaster.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Wigen

[Wigen]

*I couldn't edit my previous comment.

Unfortunately, it is not known exactly what bonuses the explosives skill in JA 3 gives.

[LoboNocturno]

Its her dexterity that is 45 not like you guys talked about her agility, its 79 very decent movement stats.

But true with low dexterity it will be hard for Fauda to craft stuff, may she will find success once from 2 or 3 tries but with bad condition bar most times. But you also need to realise her wisdom is 81 which means she will be a pretty fast learner.

[Phallus_Maximus_Sextus_Non]

Question for the Devs: did you guys ever read the book Dogs of War (1974) by Frederick Forsyth?

[elfstone]

On 3/11/2023 at 7:00 PM, Wigen said:

I will be very disappointed if microtransactions are used to personalize the mercenary.

At the same time, I am sure that will be exactly the case.

I think, that they will not do microtransactions. Why not: The target audience is simply not the target audience for micro transactions. I think micro transactions, and F2P works very well for a younger audience, while JA3 is most likely targeted at fans of the old JA-series (and let's be honest, we're not part of the younger audience anymore).

Also microtransactions for cosmetics work very well in multiplayer games, where you want to "show off", but it's rather uncommon in solo player games to pay for cosmetics. And if it's there, it's mostly a small add-on to support the developers, not the pay-to-win or annoying kind of micro-transactions from other games.

I still fear that they will f up things in other ways, but micro-transactions is probably not one of them.

[Solaris_Wave]

20 hours ago, anon474 said:

Familiarity levels for weapons, maybe if you have a guy who used pistols for last 10 levels, he has unlocked some unique buffs with pistols that he doesn't get for other weapon types. You want snipers vs pistol wielders vs smg users vs AR users vs DMR users etc. Not exclusively, so not like XCOM where you're locked to 1 weapon type, but to where mercs are "known" for one weapon type (or more than one maybe).

Weapon familiarisation has been requested by a few of us. It would be a great way to keep certain weapons relevant amongst the variety of weapons in total. It would make sense for certain mercs to prefer handguns or Russian firearms, for instance.

 

20 hours ago, anon474 said:

unique named weapons! 7 of them maybe, maybe 10. maybe they have unique textures on them, or textures that are slightly modified. basically the "unique" weapons are unique VERSIONS of weapons.

I actually hope this kind of thing doesn't appear in JA3. It isn't a 'looter-shooter' or traditional RPG where you get unique or legendary weapons with unique stats.

 

19 hours ago, anon474 said:

I appreciate the outlook, but this kind of attitude is a bit naive. "make a good game" with which resources, "it will sell" how big is the market, do the customers know about it, how big is "our" marketing budget?

Basically you're not entirely wrong, but the sentiment is a bit simplistic, and companies have to sell MTs in order to finance development because of how skewed and one-sided pricing has become, and how dead the videogame market is, and how little investment there is...MTs that are cosmetic, especially for a first project (and this is a first project, it's not like this is JA5 and the team just had a amazing year last year when they sold JA4 and are swimming in money) can make sense, and is something that I would worry the least about.

Lots of AAA studios don't even care about selling the base game and just give it away for free, because the price of the game is so cheap after decades of inflation that it doesn't even matter if its priced 0 dollars or not. That's why lots of titles like Torchlight Infinite and Lost Ark are entirely F2P. Also similar to POE, SW TOR etc.

I have never understood the opinion (and I have seen this comment made before) how the video game market is 'dead'. Games sell and continue to sell. It is a big, thriving business. Where it has suffered is that, apart from the economic climate having a negative impact at times, the budgets for games go out of control and the staff who actually work on the games suffer while the suits give themselves bonuses. There is a lack of creativity that is becoming apparent due to the last console generation's games catalogue being loaded with remakes, remasters and reboots, while the big publishers are afraid to try anything new (which can create new avenues of game genres). Even if you are only a PC gamer, the consoles generate the biggest user base and revenue, so they dictate the direction of the large profile games (which suffer creatively).

I miss the days when micro-transactions weren't a thing. Yes, they are usually optional, provided the publishers are kept in check and don't result to pushing them as an essential but obvious gambling feature. It is a shame though that they consider it necessary, when the public widely dislike their presence. As soon as they appear, talk of greed comes in, which hurts the overall opinion of the game and which then hurts sales. Cue less profit and then cutting any further development on a game, so work can begin on a new game (that will feature micro-transactions). That results in a lower opinion of the publisher for abruptly killing a game off and then further negativity for more micro-transactions in the next game in development.

DLC content packs and expansions I am fine with, as long as they aren't game breaking over-powered nonsense. But then, you could simply just not buy them. More story is always welcome, if you want to lengthen the game. I often buy those myself and aren't that much different from the expansions that sometimes came out for games before DLCs became a commonality. I sometimes buy DLC that gives extra weapons, units, etc. as it is often 'the more, the merrier'. I have never understood DLC that intentionally breaks the game or unlocks everything straight away. If you want that sort of thing, why play the game in the first place. I would have thought that gradual progression through the game is what would drive you. Again, those DLC are optional and not every publisher has those but it makes me wonder who buys them? Someone who wants to play the game but hasn't got time to play the game, maybe (as baffling as that sounds).

 

19 hours ago, anon474 said:

A lot of these are phantom fears. If JA devs are smart they would do two things if they need extra money/financing from MTs to cover cost of development: 1 cosmetic MTs that don't affect progression, different clothes for tex really don't bother anybody and if they bother you maybe you should speak to a therapist not to this forum…

That comment sounds harsh. In the event they don't share your opinion, they don't deserve to comment on this forum and need to see a therapist!?

Edited March 20, 2023 by Solaris_Wave

[DougS2K]

On 3/19/2023 at 10:53 PM, anon474 said:

I appreciate the outlook, but this kind of attitude is a bit naive. "make a good game" with which resources, "it will sell" how big is the market, do the customers know about it, how big is "our" marketing budget?

Basically you're not entirely wrong, but the sentiment is a bit simplistic, and companies have to sell MTs in order to finance development because of how skewed and one-sided pricing has become, and how dead the videogame market is, and how little investment there is...MTs that are cosmetic, especially for a first project (and this is a first project, it's not like this is JA5 and the team just had a amazing year last year when they sold JA4 and are swimming in money) can make sense, and is something that I would worry the least about.

Lots of AAA studios don't even care about selling the base game and just give it away for free, because the price of the game is so cheap after decades of inflation that it doesn't even matter if its priced 0 dollars or not. That's why lots of titles like Torchlight Infinite and Lost Ark are entirely F2P. Also similar to POE, SW TOR etc.

I would disagree. Most games that have MT's are from a select number of publishers who put out regurgitated titles year after year. They are normally multiplayer games and pretty shallow overall offering cosmetic upgrades as MT's. JA3 would not fit into this category whatsoever. I personally don't understand why anyone would pay for MT's in a game but people must do it as companies like EA making a killing off them. 

[Sarin]

12 hours ago, anon474 said:

 Think about it, in 1995 nobody has ever heard of piracy and duke nukem 3D or some equivalent title, even half life, could only be procured via physical sales of CDs. Of course there was some piracy but it really wasn't that dominant.

 

Eh, I'm not sure how was the situation in the "west", but on the eastern side of former Iron Curtain, vast majority of games and software was pirated until at least early 2000's. In the heyday of piracy, it was easily over 90%.

[Solaris_Wave]

Piracy was around in both the 8-bit and 16-bit days of home computers (1980-1995). It was relatively easy to do a tape-to-tape copy of games on the 8-bit machines. It didn't always work but it was common enough. When 16-bit machines arrived, piracy really went up a gear. The Commodore Amiga was probably the best computer system of the early 90s and I remember encountering lots of games that were 'cracked' when I was a teenager. They would often have boot sector intros that showed who did it and how they 'proudly presented' the game. Usual sources of these cracked and pirated games were via Scandinavian groups. The cracked versions often had built in cheat modes and trainers. They might even come with viruses, often on the boot sector.

It was possible to do it yourself for some games here and there, using a program called XCopy. You could also use the Action Replay hardware attachment, if you owned it, to take a snapshot of a game in memory and then copy that snapshot to disk. As long as the game never needed to access the original disk again to load anything else in, that was another way to get a copy of a game.

I remember reading in PC magazines years later how piracy was rife in Eastern Europe, just as @Sarin said. Windows itself got pirated, along with games, as they exceeded the monthly salary of most people.

Edited March 26, 2023 by Solaris_Wave

[Haemimont_Boian]

22 hours ago, anon474 said:

"My name is Boyan Ivanov, and I am the co-Creative Director of Jagged Alliance 3. Yes, another Boyan no to be confused with my dear friend and college Boian, whom you already know through the first DevDiary." You know, maybe the devs should consider making two NPCs in the game, called the "Boyan brothers". "Our mother liked a singer in our country. Boyan popovich. So she named us both Boyan. It's very confusing." lol. Could be funny. Might be too similar to DeSantos brothers from JA2, so maybe might not work. But on other hand, good way for devs to have a good time.

Love this 🙂 There are some NPCs loosely inspired by Dev team members in the game, but no Boyan brothers yet... There was a poster of a circus ringmaster named Boyan in one of our older games (just so you can imagine the true nature of our jobs).

Edited March 29, 2023 by Haemimont_Boian

[LoboNocturno]

On 3/28/2023 at 1:59 PM, anon474 said:

"My name is Boyan Ivanov, and I am the co-Creative Director of Jagged Alliance 3. Yes, another Boyan no to be confused with my dear friend and college Boian, whom you already know through the first DevDiary." You know, maybe the devs should consider making two NPCs in the game, called the "Boyan brothers". "Our mother liked a singer in our country. Boyan popovich. So she named us both Boyan. It's very confusing." lol. Could be funny. Might be too similar to DeSantos brothers from JA2, so maybe might not work. But on other hand, good way for devs to have a good time.

If am not confused some characters of JA2 were from the crew, at least it gave that impression. Once you see the credits there was a team including with Miguel Cordona and other characters faces. May @Haemimont_Boian can give us better info here.

 

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by LoboNocturno

[WILDFIRE]

@Haemimont_Boian: I still hope that most mercs will have a serious background and look?! Sure some quirky characters are ok but overall you as a player must take the mercs serious.

 

Its a gritty, brutal and tough world JA takes place. The mercs are soldiers who risk their lives for money and they are on a serious mission. So I hope you find the right balance.

 

Rainbow Six Siege for example had mostly realistic operators that were grounded in reality in the first years but later they added colorful characters with crazy abilities that did not fit in the world anymore.

 

So please do not follow the same path. Most characters should be believable soldiers who operate in an realistic environment.