Finished my 2nd run: solo with Ivan (Time is Money, MI, /w saving). AI needs some work. Spoilers.

[Attempt]

After I finished my first run on Commando with 2 full squads I gave a solo run with Ivan a try. If you are interested in the full details I will add a link at the end of this post but I am here to talk about the AI in late game battles, in particular the K16 and H4 fight.

I am kinda insulting the AI here but let it be known I am happy this JA3 is the successor we got and I am confident it'll become a jewel. And yes I save scummed a lot in my first solo MI run, getting a Winchester to replace a failing G98 was kinda important and unless you pass on weapon mods completely there is no way around it. It is easy to shit on AI with the benefit of saving and hindsight but just keeps reading and you'll see. Hopefully that gets all the potential bad juju out of the way.

 

A20 Battle

Went from 30 to 20 enemies by thinning the herd in stealth. After that the plan to first hug and then storm the hill didn't seem to work out, especially if I wanted to save the President. Instead I tried the next best thing: Kill a guy and run the fuck away. Down the hill around the mountain all the way to the other end of the map, taking out the few that got too close on the way:

It turns out that both the Legion and Spike himself, are too braindead to follow Spikes inevitable order to execute the President. If you get them to move out of range of the President fast enough they can't kill him.

 

K16 Battle

I entered through the tunnel and when I started by going to the roof trying to thin the herd of 29 it felt impossible to get a stealth kill without alerting everyone. After getting 2 measly kills I went back down to kill the Colonel real quick before returning to the roof where things started to get really stupid:

Pretty much all the Rocket Men and most of the Gunners on this elite late game military base have Moth AI (patent pending, presumably). I just occupied this one magic tile on the roof and they were all dying (heh) to get out there into the light. Grab a drink, lean back and kill em outright or go for arm shots on the Rocket Men for extra entertainment. Two of them tried getting a little close (smaller circle) and in total a single Brute joined me on the roof.

Next I headed to another popular hangout spot that I already knew from my first playthrough:

Whether you arrive with one merc of with 12, this is THE spot where all the snipers loved to make out before getting wiped by two grenades. Anyway onwards to the last big bad boss fight.

 

H4 Battle

Ivan already cleared the H4 overworld of enemies and has 100 AGL, so why fight? Take the lower route with the mines, go into the building sneaking past the guards inside who are only 2 tiles away from you and get into the underground. Kill the first two soldiers in the tunnel, advance through the rooms on the right to prevent the MG nest from getting manned. Now there are just about a dozen people and Santiago left in the final room.

Time to pick them off one by one as you slowly advance. Again only s single enemy tried pushing towards me and ran back immediately after getting wounded. You can literally wait outside this room, pop in for a quick shot and get back into cover without any of the enemies trying to push you.

During the A20 fight you get under pressure but K16 and H4 are a bit of a joke. I don't know if the game eases up on you due to the massive numbers disadvantage you are at (A20 and K16 have gas bombardment if you arrive in numbers), but at least the snipers clumping up in the back of K16 was the same when I arrived in numbers.

I had a harder time clearing the Fleatown Market sector because as soon as I started open combat I would get overwhelmed by all the Brutes rushing towards me. I never lasted on the roof of the house where loot box guy lives nor anywhere else. It took a lot of careful stealth kills with a lot of saving.

I am not saying the AI in endgame battles should be just as aggressive, but the sometimes passive and sometimes braindead AI in these late game battles made it a bit anticlimactic and didn't feel quite like the accomplishment I hoped for.

On the other hand: if you want to get the Lone Wolf achievement, now is the time. ^^  

 

Link to more details on my solo run:

https://www.reddit.com/r/JaggedAlliance/comments/15c2mgg/

Edited July 29, 2023 by Attempt

[brato]

Thanks for the info. That's helpful.

While the AI certainly is not the smartest, they don't always stay put. In my experience sometimes they come and rush me, and sometimes they stay away. Same fight, reload.

Not sure why.

[marcinl0]

yes, JA3 AI is really stupid at basic level - they disperse and ready to shoot - senseless.

In JA2 enemies were far smarter.

Edited August 3, 2023 by marcinl0

[MateKiddleton]

15 minutes ago, marcinl0 said:

In JA2 enemies were far smarter.

LMAO
They were dumb as bricks in JA2. You throw a light, and make them turn in the same direction. Then Razer creeps around behind and knifes everyone because they just crouch facing the same way and never turn around.

Edited August 3, 2023 by MateKiddleton

[marcinl0]

In JA3 AI is even worse from the first tactical move - with this stupid scattering without any thought.

Typical "cannon fodder" to shoot.