Most important MUST HAVE mods

[Melliores]

I actually took Omryn in the bunker fight in the Rust. I thought that the penalty will be small and won't make a difference. Lo and behold, it stuck for 30 days!

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this and when I reached the Old Haunted Mansion, before going to the basement I made sure to move Omryn to a new squad and leave him above ground. I did not know whether there would be a fight underground or not. 🙂
The merc's negative trait actually made me play differently which in my book is a good thing. They are not just pawns with numbers attached to them.

And by the way, I have seen some people with limited Agoraphobia or Claustrophobia. They definitely were not ok the moment they went outside in an open area. It took them quite a lot of time to recover properly - it is a physiological condition and can linger for a long time. Currently the way the game portrays them is as severe fear. The mod makes them seem like an allergy, which they are definitely not in real life. But even for gameplay purposes - you should have them stay for a lot longer than one sector or one fight.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Melliores

[D13]

If mercs can suffer wounds from headshots and be healed the next day, then I don't think the effects of being in an underground sector should remain for a month.

[Claypl]

@Melliores I agree with having to work around the limitations but penalty is just too severe.

I think that good game decision is not to totally forbid character to get into area but instead have a reasonable trade off.

IMHO 30 days = access forbidden, 7 days reasonable tradeoff/penalty.

I do not know any person with these phobias, but IMHO it has to be gameplay reasonable not reality based.

[marcinl0]

I see new mod Trap is Mechanical or Explosive

- it is so important (for Livewire for example) - what do you think.

[mrflagio]

4 hours ago, Melliores said:

I can attest that Claustrophobia, Guilty, Sinful are working as intended - the game expects that you have some longterm morale penalties by making certain quest decisions. I actually thought they were permanent effects, but it appears that they last 30 days. A long time in JA3 but still a meaningful penalty.

By installing that mod you are essentially making them meaningless since you can sleep off/train/repair and get rid of that debuff.

It's actually a bug.  The code was overwriting changes to unit data from changing the map.  The debug statements in the code even said that the effect was removed when the map changed, but then the unit data from satellite view was copied back over I believe.  The mod actually makes things harder anyway since it also no longer allows you to have bonus AP from stuff like Proud for longer than a day which is what was intended from the code.

There are other bugs related to this:

- If an enemy (or maybe mercs too?) use all their overwatch attacks with an MG and you go to satellite view and back again, it will refresh all their attacks.

- When you have a status effect and move maps, the game will remove your status effects and then re-add them.  For wounds this causes a bug/exploit since when wounds are removed you have a chance to raise Health, so you can go into and out of an underground area repeatedly while wounded to level up Health.

[Stuurminator]

I'm playing my first game fully mod-free, but on subsequent playthroughs I think I'll pick up these:

• Descriptive Ammo Icons, because I can never tell them apart
• Trap is Mechanical or Explosive, because I know the disable/disarm distinction but struggle to remember which is which
• Explain Morale Influences, since I enjoy seeing the fruits (and consequences) of my efforts laid out before me
• Longer IMP Names, so I can format my IMP's name like the base game characters
• probably a zoom mod so I can see my mercs up close and the whole map at once
• some IMP options to change things up, but we'll see which specific ones when the time comes since there's more coming out every day

So mostly interface/quality-of-life type stuff.

[Melliores]

@mrflagio

Proud/Righteous always lasted a day or so for me. From what I have seen from the dev/debug notes, some of them seem to be outdated compared to the code that is currently there. I would wager that this is working as intended as per the release version.

Both positive and negative morale effects should last more than one sector or one day. Especially on Mission Impossible difficulty.

Could it be that this is difficulty related and they have a check for your difficulty tier before applying these morale effects?

[Stuurminator]

Bug or not, I'm fine with the long-lasting morale effects (so long as they're not permanent). I like feeling the effects of my actions for a long time.

[mrflagio]

22 minutes ago, Melliores said:

Both positive and negative morale effects should last more than one sector or one day. Especially on Mission Impossible difficulty.

Devs disagree based on code and tooltips.  If this bug weren't there, would you really think Claustrophobic should give a near-permanent morale debuff that can be totally circumvented by just splitting squads and/or a total noob trap whereby a merc looks at some rifles in a grave and enters The Rust bunker and now has Steroid-level AP and new players have no idea why -- or even that they do?

Edited August 3, 2023 by mrflagio

[Melliores]

Both the mass grave and the Rust bunker give you ample warnings what not do. Mercs who will have an issue with your course of action speak up and it is up to you how to continue. In my game I went with Omryn in the Bunker and had - 2 AP for the next 30 days.

However this can be remedied with positive bonuses as well. That is why I reckon this is not a bug - the devs simply went with the design that you can offset this debuff with a morale buff in any other sector or battle. 🙂

And I do like the question it poses - you have to really ponder what choices to make as your actions will have meaningful ramifications.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Melliores

[mrflagio]

Anyway, the bug that causes Claustrophobia and other status effects to persists also causes other issues as I pointed out (bonus health when going into/out of underground sectors, overwatch attacks refreshing, etc.).  They're bugs unless you also think those things are intended.

[mrflagio]

Just now, Melliores said:

Both the mass grave and the Rust bunker give you ample warnings what not do. Mercs who will have an issue with your course of action speak up and it is up to you. In my game I continued with Omryn in the Bunker and had - 2 AP for the next 30 days.

However this can be remedied with positive bonuses as well. That is why I reckon this is not a bug - the devs simply went with the design that you can offset this debuff with a morale buff in any other sector or battle. 🙂

And I do like the question it posses - you have to really ponder what choices to make as your actions will have meaningful ramifications.

Cool, play as you like, but don't go around telling people they're basically using exploits for using a bugfix mod for a known bug.

[Melliores]

I just made the distinction that this is not bugfix but a balance mod in my opinion. Not everything you read in notes or see in the code should be taken at face value.

Also I am not sure the other two instances you mentioned are only caused by this. I have yet to encounter them also in my 100+ hours of gameplay. Might require additional testing.

 

[sandman25dcsss]

If grave robbing or entering bunker is that important, they should request confirmation or at least give big red blinking warning. I am not going to carefully reread every long message to check if there is some 1 month long penalty there. Omryn said nothing when entering bunker, just started complaining when already inside. If I had claustrophobia, I would refuse entering and you would need to increase my salary or something.

Edited August 3, 2023 by sandman25dcsss

[mrflagio]

24 minutes ago, Melliores said:

I just made the distinction that this is not bugfix but a balance mod in my opinion. Not everything you read in notes or see in the code should be taken at face value.

Yeah, when the tooltips and the debug code both say that this should only apply to underground sectors I guess that really means that it should apply for the month after too.  You're being disingenuous here.

[Stuurminator]

19 minutes ago, sandman25dcsss said:

If grave robbing or entering bunker is that important, they should request confirmation or at least give big red blinking warning. I am not going to carefully reread every long message to check if there is some 1 month long penalty there. Omryn said nothing when entering bunker, just started complaining when already inside. If I had claustrophobia, I would refuse entering and you would need to increase my salary or something.

When you investigate the mass grave, the message questions your morality before giving you the option to confirm you want to raid it.

Claustrophobes speak up when they enter an underground map, but only suffer morale penalty when combat begins. Not to mention that you can see they're claustrophobic at any time in their character screen.

Do you want every morale effect to be preceded by a pop-up message saying "WARNING: THIS ACTION WILL CAUSE _______ TO SUFFER A MORALE PENALTY, CONTINUE?"

[mrflagio]

1 minute ago, Stuurminator said:

Claustrophobes speak up when they enter an underground map, but only suffer morale penalty when combat begins. 

Untrue.

Edited August 3, 2023 by mrflagio

[sandman25dcsss]

5 minutes ago, Stuurminator said:

Do you want every morale effect to be preceded by a pop-up message saying "WARNING: THIS ACTION WILL CAUSE _______ TO SUFFER A MORALE PENALTY, CONTINUE?"

If it lasts 1 month? Yes, absolutely.

[Melliores]

The Claustrophobia trait works only if you initiate combat underground. The merc will warn you that they want to get out of there at once, but if no combat occurs, no Morale debuff will be added to them.

I have tested this both in the Old Haunted House hidden basement and the Sanatorium's lab basement - if you do not go into combat, you are ok on the Morale front.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Melliores

[sandman25dcsss]

9 minutes ago, Melliores said:

The Claustrophobia trait works only if you initiate combat underground. The merc will warn you that they want to get out of there at once, but if no combat occurs, no Morale debuff will be added to them.

I have tested this both in the Old Haunted House hidden basement and the Sanatorium's lab basement - if you do not go into combat, you are ok on the Morale front.

This is not claustrophobia, this is "fight phobia". Really confusing.

[mrflagio]

Another bug caused the same problem causing the Claustrophobia bug as reported by audaki-ra in Discord (and the devs responded to):

Some mercs like Igor learn to like other mercs like Kalyna for a permanent morale bonus when together, but this happens in combat so when it copies the effects over (like it does for Wounded, Claustrophobic, etc.) it also removes that the mercs like each other.  But I guess someone will tell me that's not really a bug either and they should only learn to like each other during combat and promptly forget that they like someone, completely different from all other JA games.

Edited August 3, 2023 by mrflagio

[sandman25dcsss]

11 minutes ago, mrflagio said:

Another bug caused the same problem causing the Claustrophobia bug as reported by audaki-ra in Discord (and the devs responded to):

Some mercs like Igor learn to like other mercs like Kalyna for a permanent morale bonus when together, but this happens in combat so when it copies the effects over (like it does for Wounded, Claustrophobic, etc.) it also removes that the mercs like each other.  But I guess someone will tell me that's not really a bug either and they should only learn to like each other during combat and promptly forget that they like someone, completely different from all other JA games.

It is not a bug, it is a bad feature caused by previous games in the series. I use mod which removes all morale bonuses/penalties for relationship. It increases replayability (there are more viable teams to play) and removes unfun (for me) activities like checking a table of relationships between mercs. It does not remove dialogs so you still can enjoy them to feel the "soul".

Edited August 3, 2023 by sandman25dcsss

[Frank]

I don't know if this mod has already been made, but JA3 desperately needs a path-finding update that makes mercs automatically avoid fire and discovered land mines. Because now they are blindly charging into disaster like a bunch of Rambo lemmings.

[sandman25dcsss]

58 minutes ago, Frank said:

I don't know if this mod has already been made, but JA3 desperately needs a path-finding update that makes mercs automatically avoid fire and discovered land mines. Because now they are blindly charging into disaster like a bunch of Rambo lemmings.

Ideally it should be done in base game. It is not fun when merc with 100 explosives walks right into mine he was going to disarm and explodes (happened to me yesterday)

[CersaisAdvocate]

On 7/30/2023 at 7:37 PM, marcinl0 said:

Show Chance To Hit
Make IMP Great Again
Drop Everything but 50 Percent of it
evermine (mines never run out)
Active Pause BASIC TACTICAL MOD IMHO
Increased Damage Automatic Fire
Increased Firearm Damage
JA2 Mercs

Tony's Blackmarket" Trader Mod

Combat Suit

What is yours - about 10 must have JA3 mods - list

What is the combat suit mod?