My Thoughts on Beta Footage So Far

[anon474]

thoughts on the beta footage so far:

firstly I would like to congratulate the development team on a job well done, it's very hard to make video games and the development team has certainly outdone themselves here.

I also have some feedback on two topics, the writing, and the gameplay.
1 on writing. the writing outside of dialogue is generally pretty amazing, really top notch. the "we know what you're thinking AGAIN!" is a great example of humor, as is the IMP questionnaire, really captures the original heart of the writing in JA2, and even maybe improves upon it. However, some of the one-liners, I think, can do with a bit more work. Examples: steroid on strategy screen: "I will be putting oil on my chest". Fox: "Not enough time for a Quickie. Battle I mean". There are three problems with these and similar one-liners.
    
Problem 1: too on-the-nose. There's a difference between using euphemisms to describe what happens when a man loves a woman very much, and describing the act in unnecessary and graphic detail, sometimes even changing what that act is, and the intent behind the act. An example of how to rephrase Fox's line without being too overt and obvious in a crude way is to say something like "You've kept me waiting for SO LONG". It's clear that she's not just referring to the situation. But it's also not exactly clear what she's referring to, and this exists in the precise space between unnecessary and sometimes graphic and crude information, and telling somebody no information about something. By using euphemisms, and really making things unclear, you can avoid creating somewhat painful, crude or unnecessarily graphic one-liners. In fact a lot of the most memorable starcraft and red alert one-liners from units are ENTIRELY based on euphemisms. Almost entirety of starcraft 1s or red alert 2s VO for units is some kind of nod or euphemism or funny metaphor/play on words that has a double meaning in this precise situation. Look at Rocketeer (there are many examples) in RA2, it's a flying unit for the alliance, and the things he says are: "Ridin' high", "Check out the view" and "Igniting boosters", all of which take on new meaning when said by the flying unit.
    
Problem 2: There is a trend in modern writing, especially in places like marvel, to make characters quirky (or ironic and smug). And then the characters that aren't quirky, are desperate. And desperate characters (see this new IMP email, see Speck from the original JA2) can be funny, but quirky characters just come off as smug, or ironic. Fox I think comes off as a bit smug in this one-liner, and I wish she wasn't. Smug characters aren't endearing to listen to, or enjoyable to listen to, they kind of make you angry, because they're designed to make you angry.
    
Problem 3: Telling what the character is, vs showing. I don't need dialogue to tell me that steroid is a bodybuilder. His name is "steroid" and his bio already told me this. So when I hear one liners like "Haha I will kill the major myself, with my BICEPS!" (steroid's line from the first sector) or when he says things like "I will be putting oil on my chest", these are overt examples of what this person's background is. It's not necessary. In fact, most mercs in JA2 went (almost) the entire game without making any kind of overt reference to who they are, and it's not necessary for them to disrupt us by forcefully reminding us that "hey they're a bodybuilder" or "hey, they're a porn star". In fact, all they need is a ridiculous personality, and it doesn't even matter if we know what their precise background is. Steroid worked perfectly well as just a guy who was a bodybuilder but didn't tell us he was a bodybuilder constantly, he just spoke with a ridiculous accent and was very loud and brash and maybe a bit stupid. We also don't know anything about Maddog, does it mean he's any less of a character for it, no.
    
SOLUTION: 1 Broken english. Broken english is the king of adding character to mercs in JA2. It's a good start. 2 Euphemisms and non-overt references to aspects of the merc's background, personality, or just other unique mannerisms. 3 UNIQUE MANNERISMS. Perhaps more important than anything else, the mercs weren't just memorable because of their background, or their personality. They used unique mannerisms. Why does Tarballs call everybody "woody"? It doesn't matter! And there's probably no reason. If all you want to do is to give character to a merc, make them talk in a funny way (meaning tone of voice, and their apparent disposition via their tone of voice), make them use unique slang, some that may be very old fashioned, make them use unique phrases and words (this will be inevitable because you'll hear the same line 100 times so), and maybe give them unique observations that they come up with randomly during certain events.
    
2 on mechanics
1 the emphasis on abilities vs stats and items. I think the core of JA2 was very much an emphasis on stats, and in terms of what you had to do in combat, it was very very simple, you just had to run around, and shoot. And that was it for 90% of the battles, and if you really had to do something extra it'd be the use of an item. It seems like in JA3 there's an emphasis on abilities vs items and stats, and I think this is a bad decision because it makes everything seem unrealistic, and moves us away from serious strategy, to more of a domain of "well as long as you have the right ability, it really doesn't matter what your stats are".
        
I can show an example of this. Take Igor (or any merc). Let's say we give him an ability called "battle rage", and he can come back to full HP after hitting 0 HP once per battle. Now is there anything inherently mechanically wrong with this ability? No. But does it feel wrong, and unrealistic, and not "WYSIWYG"? Yes. And this is the point here. Systems like "grit" and "freemove" take me out of the hard strategy of realism by creating this weird system of extra HP that doesn't really exist, or this weird system of movement that's not really movement. Mechanically all of these systems have justifications. But realistically, they're a bit out there.
        
I know this probably won't happen, but to solve this, I would go completely back, and turn JA3 into entirely a case of "stats and items" and make the things you can do limited yes, but also realistic and no "vashe zdorovie" and similar abilities and if there is an item that you want to give people buffs to, put it on the item, don't put it on an ability for igor, that never goes away and is on some flask that never dissapears and refills itself - WYSIWYG doesn't just apply to visuals, it can also apply to items. If a character uses an item or should use an item (like ammo) it should be in his inventory. In fact this is why ammo in squad inventories has already bothered some people, because it feels unrealistic and not WYSIWYG. Convinient yes, unrealistic, also yes. In light of that fact, should there be this level of convienince? I don't think so. In fact, I would say that it makes more sense to let mercs have extremely huge backpacks and unrealistic ability to carry all this crap around, than it would to create this magical top hat from which rabbits can be pulled out of with the squad inventory. Because one is exaggerated reality, while another is completely unrealistic. And if we want Igor to have a unique perk that gives him extra bonuses from alcohol, then that is a perk that applies to any alcohol Igor consumes, versus having some flask that only he can see. And maybe it's not a Igor-only perk (or maybe Igor has a stronger version of a perk everybody can have), but it's a "alcoholic" perk, that anybody merc can get, if they so wish.
 

Also please consider adding swappable models (not including the head) for mercs, because otherwise it really does look like we have a bunch of civilians holding guns which just looks ridiculous in my opinion. And if people are worried about their characters looking identical with the same gear on, you can vary up primary colors of the model (that shouldn't be too difficult, just change some variables on a material in the editor), or maybe there's about 5 or 10 generic outfits anybody can put on, like a jeans+tshirt+plate carrier type look (you often see this on guntube influencers), cargo pants+tshirt+plate carrier (been popular since 2000s), and a traditional camo shirt and pants with army boots (and then also urban versions of soldier uniform like you see in metal gear solid type games, basically a soldier's uniform only without camo and it's all black uniform).

Edited April 25, 2023 by anon474

[Grim]

Very well writen. I agree with you, especially about the writing. Some lines are way over the top, cringe, even. But the problems are deeper, you pointed at them brilliantly.

Sadly, I guess it's too late to change all that, voice lines are almost dubbed, game mechanics are established, and the models are probably too.

[anon474]

13 minutes ago, Grim said:

Very well writen. I agree with you, especially about the writing. Some lines are way over the top, cringe, even. But the problems are deeper, you pointed at them brilliantly.

Sadly, I guess it's too late to change all that, voice lines are almost dubbed, game mechanics are established, and the models are probably too.

My primary concern is that JA3 is truly becoming a very similar game to XCOM, where each character has very unrealistic and arbitrary abilities, and there's less of an emphasis on stats (or even gear for that matter).

And I guess you could walk a fine line with this. You could have a very unrealistic but deep RPG where items matter, and flasks have very unrealistic and significant bonuses like maybe one flask has +4AP bonus for that round on 4 turn cooldown, and you can upgrade it to +10AP bonus on cooldown. Maybe there are other items, like a laser pointer that adds +10% accuracy to anybody aiming at a given character, and it's also on cooldown and also requires a certain amount of AP to use. You can design these unrealistic mechanics around real-life items, and as long as you're thorough it wouldn't be that bad (and as long as you commit and have LOTS of abilities and items like that).

But back in JA2, there was very little action you could make in the actual combat which wasn't either move, or shoot, and I don't want to move away from that, because then we are moving towards a less realistic, less WYSIWYG strategy. I think the majority of depth in JA should be on the back end, in the stats and in the items, not in the special abilities only that merc has access to (somehow).

Edited April 25, 2023 by anon474

[anon474]

Also I think some of the crafting systems, like the ability to craft modifications (or ammo) can be a bit too easy and forgivable for people, in that you don't have to go look for silencers now, you don't have to go look for ammo, or make sure to keep a good stock of it, or always buy it anytime it comes in the shop. And that can be a lot of the fun, just making sure your squad is always well equipped with ammo, and making sure that even if you do find a good gun, well, do you have a silencer for it yet? Maybe you don't. But with craftable silencers it might be a bit too easy, imo.

[Ivan Dolvich]

I couldn't agree more with the opinions in this debate. I feel like the developers completely missed the essence of the Jagged Alliance series and its player base.

Jagged Alliance has always taken itself seriously, complete with funny but not silly one-liners, including Elliot. The humor was not forced and slightly subtle. Serious also in the sense that the players took their mercenaries seriously, developing them into real soldiers. There's a civil war going on, for God's sake, and not some battle for neighborhood supremacy between two street gangs of overbearing teenagers. No one would hire a mercenary and let him run around in a pink shirt and white pants during the height of the civil war. It looks silly, and it's silly from a warfare perspective.

I got the feeling that almost everything in JA3 is designed to please everyone - new, young players and old, seasoned JA players who carry JA in their hearts. In a sense - we take the war and the mercenaries from JA2, but for the Fortnite generation to be able to identify with something, let these mercenaries be cute, trendy dressed overly self-confident heroes with a 10-year-old level of humor. I'm telling you this will be a recipe for disaster.

From what we've seen, this doesn't look like a decent successor to JA2 so far, but more of a Jagged Alliance: Fortnite edition.

[Lunokhod]

1 minute ago, Ivan Dolvich said:

I feel like the developers completely missed the essence of the Jagged Alliance series and its player base.

Absolutely correct. Wrong direction. Everything has fallen into a cheap clowning. Shame.

2 hours ago, anon474 said:

firstly I would like to congratulate the development team on a job well done, it's very hard to make video games and the development team has certainly outdone themselves here.

U would like to what?! Congratulate?! Elliot!!! ... The game failed!!!

55 minutes ago, anon474 said:

My primary concern is that JA3 is truly becoming a very similar game to XCOM

Oh, dont worry about that, JA become nothing after all of this. Thanks THQ! Great Job!

 

[anon474]

50 minutes ago, Lunokhod said:

Absolutely correct. Wrong direction. Everything has fallen into a cheap clowning. Shame.

U would like to what?! Congratulate?! Elliot!!! ... The game failed!!!

Oh, dont worry about that, JA become nothing after all of this. Thanks THQ! Great Job!

 

Ok negative nancy

Keep hating irrationally and emotionally, without making any specific or concrete of fixed criticisms

i.e. the opposite of what I'm doing

[anon474]

1 hour ago, Ivan Dolvich said:

I couldn't agree more with the opinions in this debate. I feel like the developers completely missed the essence of the Jagged Alliance series and its player base.

Jagged Alliance has always taken itself seriously, complete with funny but not silly one-liners, including Elliot. The humor was not forced and slightly subtle. Serious also in the sense that the players took their mercenaries seriously, developing them into real soldiers. There's a civil war going on, for God's sake, and not some battle for neighborhood supremacy between two street gangs of overbearing teenagers. No one would hire a mercenary and let him run around in a pink shirt and white pants during the height of the civil war. It looks silly, and it's silly from a warfare perspective.

I got the feeling that almost everything in JA3 is designed to please everyone - new, young players and old, seasoned JA players who carry JA in their hearts. In a sense - we take the war and the mercenaries from JA2, but for the Fortnite generation to be able to identify with something, let these mercenaries be cute, trendy dressed overly self-confident heroes with a 10-year-old level of humor. I'm telling you this will be a recipe for disaster.

From what we've seen, this doesn't look like a decent successor to JA2 so far, but more of a Jagged Alliance: Fortnite edition.

I don't disagree that there was a change in philosophy, and I don't think they tried to change the tone or did change the tone (if they did it was more of a failed execution to re-capture the tone of JA2, than something they on purpose tried to do), and I don't expect them to change the systems they've implemented or how JA3 will work mechanically.

I just think that if developers are going to get a certain response, positively or negatively, they should be aware of the reasons. The worst thing that can happen is if the project underdelivers in some way, and nobody knows why or comes up with weird theories without understanding the concrete differences between JA3 or JA2. If we know what the problems are, we can precisely resolve them (or not, maybe you want to keep those features in place, but if you don't, you know what they are and aren't confused on the matter).

I think 1 grit system 2 freemove system 3 some of the perks and talents are very not WYSIWYG and a change in philosophy from JA2. (And other things as well, I'm sure there are other systems like grit or freemove, and a lot of the perks are based around those freemove/grit type systems). I'm also not the biggest fan of crafting mechanics especially for attachments (though I get some of the reasons for why they exist, like making attachments per-weapon, which makes attachments rarer than before, when they could be switched out at will), and things like squad inventory that is also not very WYSIWYG.

I also like the dialogue tree system with skill checks, I thought that was great. And I also like the new hackable objects and similar objects in the world/level you can find and interact with. I think that's also great.

Edited April 25, 2023 by anon474

[elenhil]

I really like the thought you put into your post. Thanks a lot. I really wish the devs take note of it.

However, I sincerely doubt the will substantially rewrite (and rerecord) merc lines because of cost concerns pure and simple. Sigh.

Your point about arbitrary abilities is spot on, too. I am reminded of me being really disenchanted with Civilization V (or was it IV?) when a couple of patches down the line I realized all these Civics and Tech tree unlocks were almost completely arbitrary (because they kept changing and rejiggering them), shattering whatever illusion of historicity I still had. They looked cool and historical, but were essentially arbitrary 'buffs' that bore little relation to their names or place in the system.

[Lunokhod]

42 minutes ago, anon474 said:

Ok negative nancy

Keep hating irrationally and emotionally, without making any specific or concrete of fixed criticisms

I like when u call me "negative nancy". ^__^

Well, brother, listen. The first thing they had to do was make a solid foundation for the game. They needed a good coder, specialist, who can create good GAI. Enemies looks so f*cking stupid, they didnt see anything. They needed good 3d artist, better 2, who know how to animate everything. It looks like only few people working on this project. Only mapper(world designer) trying to do something with that. He is a good guy. He trying, but he cant save this project alone. Huge mistake with artstyle... Jesus Christ... They had to make 2d pictures at the ending. So. What we have now? We have a game without solid foundation and with sh*t artstyle. Jesus! I dont understand how they going to release in 2023. Where is gameplay? Where is combat? It worse than 24 years ago. Half of the animations dont exist. Their idea was to redraw some mercs(like a clowns) and create a world. And they thought it was enough. Because everything else looks like completely sh*t.

But the most important thing i hate about all of this. How dare u sell this crap to people who wait 24 years for this game? 24 years!!! They deserve this? Really? Mr THQ Nordic please answer this question.

Im here with inspection. Imagine that Im a quality manager. And Im completely shocked by whats going on here.

[anon474]

1 hour ago, Lunokhod said:

I like when u call me "negative nancy". ^__^

Well, brother, listen. The first thing they had to do was make a solid foundation for the game. They needed a good coder, specialist, who can create good GAI.

Maybe you shouldn't like it, it's not meant to be a compliment

Bro, they have plenty of good programmers; they coded their own engine which is not easy to do. What are you talking about my friend.

[Lunokhod]

6 minutes ago, anon474 said:

Bro, they have plenty of good programmers; they coded their own engine which is not easy to do.

No, they havent "plenty of good programmers", its very small studio, probably developing mobile games. Mb they really not bad in mobile games. Why they dont use unity or unreal, i dont know, ask them. Bro they already spent 4 years on this game.

[anon474]

3 minutes ago, Lunokhod said:

No, they havent "plenty of good programmers", its very small studio, probably developing mobile games. Mb they really not bad in mobile games. Why they dont use unity or unreal, i dont know, ask them. Bro they already spent 4 years on this game.

Not so small that they don't have a few good programmers, contrary to what you said.

Edited April 25, 2023 by anon474

[Wigen]

25 minutes ago, Lunokhod said:

No, they havent "plenty of good programmers", its very small studio, probably developing mobile games. Mb they really not bad in mobile games. Why they dont use unity or unreal, i dont know, ask them. Bro they already spent 4 years on this game.

Haemimont Games isn't a "small studio".

[Luthghasgo]

I was skeptical of the Merc-specific unique quirks at first, but they've grown on me after seeing a few more of them.  Thought they were all going to be some over-the-top awesome button ability, but a lot of are actually passive effects, find that a lot more palatable.

I envision a scale where on one end you have a pure tactical combat simulation with little fluff and on the other you have a CRPG brimming with extra systems and combat options.  JA3 feels like it's tipping towards the CRPG end of that scale in more ways than one; which actually makes me more eager to see what the final launch product ends up looking like.  This can also be felt in the tone and writing.  YMMV, but I think I'd rather play an tactical action-movie RPG with an African setting that's more in the vein of Who Killed Captain Alex as opposed to Africa Addio.

Even though what's been shown off was their Beta, it's clear they're still iterating and working out the designs and systems they've got in mind.  And you can see this in some of the designs for the mercs.  I know Nails in particular got some criticism for his haircut and goofy smile, and that looks like something they're in the process of changing.

I was also worried they'd tone the pettiness of the mercs due to it being an inconvenience for new players, but I've noticed a surprising amount of interjections and insistencies from them out of all the preview footage I've seen.

The scrap-based crafting system and the med-gathering system do come across as concessions of convenience, but they aren't dealbreakers to me.  I do think the scrap system itself can be justified if we still get a wide breadth of weapon modification options out of it, one that breaks the bounds of a conventional inventory system.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Luthghasgo
Grammar

[Hongweibing]

Overall, valid points, just a few remarks:

- Regarding the writing - I think that you formulated the problems with it quite well. I do, however, think that we should also point to some of the reasons why it feels this way: first, I think that reading those lines (as many/most characters are not yet voiced in the beta version) feels much more awkward than listening to a professional voice actor saying them - I do believe that once all the characters are voiced, it won't feel so bad (I mean, try reading the script of a B-action movie - you'd probably cringe to death, while it usually is not so bad in the film itself). Second, this is an almost inevitable result of the significantly increased volume of dialogue compared to JA2 (and certainly compared to the older games) combined with the inherently (at least somewhat) caricaturistic and one-dimensional portrayal of the mercs (as has always been the case). It worked fine when each merc had about half a page of dialogue - you could distill his/her personality into that dialogue, without it being too direct and on the nose. Once you add so much dialogue to each merc, you find yourself in a tight spot - how do you keep each character recognizable, and fundamentally one-dimensional, without it becoming tasteless and redundant?

You offer some good suggestions, and one could also move a bit further away form one-dimensional characters to more complex ones - make them quirky and recognizable, but not defined entirely by their quirkiness, then you'd have more room for interesting dialogue. That is, of course, easier said than done - so in practice, all we can do is hope that fully voiced characters will sound better, mediocre dialogue notwithstanding. I do think that if we try to make an objective analysis of the writing in the previous games (detached from the nostalgia value and our familiarity with it), we'd probably find that it was not so great on balance (and, arguably, it did not have to be), but it was helped immensely by (mostly) solid voice acting.

- Regarding the game mechanics - I fundamentally agree, but as you said, since gameplay is largely built around those elements, they are unlikely to be significantly altered. I hope that as some people have suggested, the developers could add more customization of battle, which could allow people to adjust the options to their preferred playstyle, without requiring an overhaul of the whole system. Then again, while I'm not a fan of the new system, I am fine with it - though it does need some serious rebalancing and adjustments. The reason I think it is fine is that the developers have their own vision of the game, and to the extent that gameplay (specifically, combat) is consistent (some work still needed here), deep, and engaging that's good enough, and we may grow to like it, even if it is not quite the same as in JA2. 

As an example, I was really surprised to see so many people (mostly not here) complaining in frustration about the lack of a CTH indicator (because they are used to it from other games), saying that it limits their ability to make informed decisions as players. I never thought of it as necessary, and even consider it redundant, as it creates a false sense of knowledge, without adding any real knowledge to the player. But then I remembered how I felt when I recently replayed JA1 - it was a very similar sense of frustration of having options to which you are used from JA2 taken away from you (aiming at different body parts despite it not being particularly realistic, shooting while crouching, having a significantly increased and not too realistic inventory space, not having to constantly be in turn-based mode, having more than one save slot, not being limited to playing during daytime, being able to climb roofs, having weapon vendors and quite a few other things). I don't know/remember how people felt about the changes made by JA2 (and some introduced in DG), but those are some significant changes, and most of them ended improving the sequel (though from the perspective of realism, not all were justifiable, and I'd say made the game significantly easier). So, perhaps after a few years we might see the JA3 system as natural (even if less realistic in some ways), and feel somewhat frustrated when going back to JA2 for not having some of them.

[Lunokhod]

5 minutes ago, Wigen said:

Haemimont Games isn't a "small studio".

Oh, really? How many ppl they have? 10? How many are working on this JA3 game? 5? Bro, they are based in f*cking Bulgaria... I mean who cares about Bulgaria? Probably no good coders in whole Bulgaria at all.

12 minutes ago, Luthghasgo said:

Oh Gosh... He looks like a joke... Sims4...

[chr_isso]

52 minutes ago, Lunokhod said:

No, they havent "plenty of good programmers", its very small studio, probably developing mobile games. Mb they really not bad in mobile games. Why they dont use unity or unreal, i dont know, ask them. Bro they already spent 4 years on this game.

Man, i really can't stand your negativity. we don't have any clue of the release date - there is plenty of time.
Do you actually know anything about the studio? They have more than 50 employees, so wtf are you talking about dude.
Stranded: Alien Dawn - 87% on Steam
Surving Mars - 85% score on Steam
Tropico 5 - 78% score on Steam since 2014!
Tropico 4 - 91% score on Steam since 2011

 

Quote

Absolutely correct. Wrong direction. Everything has fallen into a cheap clowning. Shame.

Uh yeah, totally. Warzone/CoD LITERALLY had Clown and Saw Puppet Skins. And those have been best sellers.
I absolutely see no issue at all, if they make the styles adjustable. It is zero to no problem to tint shirts to your own preference.
Hence, all they need to do is make it possible. And if not - don't use that merc which has a pink shirt, ffs.

This is not a simulation. This is a round based strategy game and it's looking the most promising it ever has.

Now, let's go on: Imagine they implement - MODS.
Can you imagine what this game will look and feel like, if this game will be made as JA3 1.13?

I see your fear, but you make a clown of yourself with all that crying..

[Luthghasgo]

I don't really mind the tongue-in-cheek one-notedness of the Mercs, that's part of the appeal to me.  They've always been a gallery of tropes, archetypes and stereotypes with their own voices and collections of witty quips; and that's to their benefit.  It makes each of them contrast and stand out from each other, and in addition to their stat sheet told you all you needed to know about them.  I regard them retaining those factors in and out of combat to be thematically appropriate.

It's the fallacy of applying book rules to computer games, what makes an entertaining character in the moment is completely different.  No one remembers Reaper for his deep moral code or esoteric philosophy towards killing, he's remembered because he was an effective murder machine that said stuff like "Return to your Master" and "Never the thrill I'm looking for." in a raspy voice while doing it.

[Grim]

Lunokhod, you were a bad troll, but now you're being offensive. That's a big no no!
If you think the project is so doomed and has nothing more constructive to say, I suggest you go elsewhere, thanks.

[Wigen]

33 minutes ago, Lunokhod said:

Oh, really? How many ppl they have? 10? How many are working on this JA3 game? 5? Bro, they are based in f*cking Bulgaria... I mean who cares about Bulgaria? Probably no good coders in whole Bulgaria at all.

You're an exceptionally funny guy. 🤣

[Ivan Dolvich]

1 hour ago, anon474 said:

Maybe you shouldn't like it, it's not meant to be a compliment

Bro, they have plenty of good programmers; they coded their own engine which is not easy to do. What are you talking about my friend.

Why do you emphasize in many posts how hard developers work and how some things are difficult for them? They decided on their own to make this product and every path to success is difficult. People remember the achievement above all, not the path someone took to get there. That's the reality, that's the way the world goes. If you deliver an average product, it would soon be forgotten and in that case people will be even less interested in how you got there, if it was difficult or not.

The problem with these developers is that they took a legendary franchise, dumbed it down, put some eye candy on it and called it JA3. The expectations of the existing players are very high and there is no place for mediocrity or something that looks and feels more like the Xcom franchise than JA. 

There are currently a lot of problems with the game, which is supposed to be called Jagged Alliance 3, and if I understand correctly, the developers want to launch this game this year (someone talked about it on forums), which means that there is no time and no capacity to radically change some things.

To name a few of these things: 
- sectors are way too small and shooting distances to short, 
- characters looking cartoony with no visible gear that they are wearing, 
- equipment upgrades from parts,
-  collecting herbs (what are we? Animal Crossing?), 
-  miracle machines that spit out money when hacked and are apparently normal in Africa, 
-  opponents, who are stupidly looking around, even though they are currently in a shootout with someone standing a few meters away, 
-  opponents who apparently have only two states - alive or dead (judging by what is seen, they can be barely alive and still roll happily on the ground), 
-  a combat system that thinks I'm so stupid that I need a warning when the distance is too far for the weapon I'm using, 
-  an inventory system that's almost more primitive than in JA1, 
-  characters that aren't pushed by an explosion, let alone to fall and so on...

There are so many of these absolutely ridiculous things that I could go on listing them for quite some time... 

Even if it's all a beta thing, I think they will have barely enough time until the release to complete the missing animations and voiceovers. I don't know where they will find the time for all of the above, which should basically be done already at the prototype stage.  

So... all good, just don't call it Jagged Alliance 3.

It's terrible that we live in times where we can't call something shit. If something looks like it and smells like it, it probably is. On top of that there is always someone who defends the one who took a dump, saying how much effort he put into it.

[chr_isso]

If everything is so bad for you guys: you made your points, stated your opinion and maybe DEVs will read and think about it.

 

Some are legit imho, some arent. But i'd like to focus not on bashing nor crying, but stating constructive criticism. So can you keep the bullsh!tting a little lower and .. keep constructive, please? 

[WolverineX23]

sure, the game has some stuff that needs worked on...or maybe this was an old build....but in general i like what I see...I don't mind the more cartoonish look...

 I especially want the non reaction to grenades and the lack of sight range to be worked on...oh and the lack of interrupt is really hurting here....though i was often annoyed by that in Ja2 too...so maybe a different option here?

 And also aparently I am autistic...since I love the Tropico franchise...oh yea...we should stop feeding the troll

[Lunokhod]

38 minutes ago, chr_isso said:

and maybe DEVs will read and think about it

OMG "maybe DEVs will read and think"... Maybe they will start working! If they want to get some money. This closed beta footage looks just awful! People angry. People dont like it.

14 minutes ago, WolverineX23 said:

I am autistic...since I love the Tropico franchise

Yes, u love Tropico, cos u one of the developers of Tropico. I think thats the main reason.