Necessary upgrades before launch

[Jaywalker]

1 hour ago, Stuurminator said:

I know that when I play JA2, once I capture the airport and can properly equip my mercs, I typically give all my units two magazines and two first aid kits (unless they have 0 medical skill), because that's what stacks in one small cell. I almost never stray from that, which means I'm almost never actually making a real choice when I distribute ammo and medical supplies to my mercs. I can't remember the last time I've had a merc actually run out of ammo or medical supplies.

This is an accurate summary of what it all boils down to.

Base JA2 is not a hard enough game for logistics to matter in moment to moment gameplay, unless you're deliberately avoiding any possible source of ammo or specifically do some sort of speedrun strategy that relies on you getting a gun way above your current "coolness" level via 1-day recruitment or rushing a guaranteed spawn.

At an absolute best, you might not have enough grenades of a particular type on a specific person to throw them, and that aspect is still very much present.

[Solaris_Wave]

The lack of usable vehicles is one factor. Instead of a shared inventory, they could have had a vehicle present somewhere.

In JA2, after battle, when going through the sector, collecting everything you can possibly carry, an alternative could have been made here. Automatically storing items in the helicopter or Humvee (although the helicopter never had any storage option, for some reason).

I rarely had a problem with carrying too much but after a battle, automating the process by having some sort of transportation of everything back to Drassen would have been useful. I don't see why something likewise couldn't be employed for JA3. Your mercs are not travelling everywhere on foot, so something could have been implemented. Anything better than the shared inventory. Or, if insisting on having the shared inventory, restricting what items that inventory can have and when that inventory is available.

I usually gave my mercs about 4 mags each of various cartridge types. I might have less if secondary ammo was needed, such as 40mm grenades. I too, rarely ran out of ammo but that was because semi-auto fire was too effective and too easy to use. You rarely needed full auto fire and it didn't compare to a single, aimed head shot.

I was really hoping that JA3 would encourage the use of automatic fire by making it harder to hit moving targets, especially if looking through a magnified scope; and restricting body part aiming to close ranges (can you seriously choose to aim at an enemy's hands at a long distance away?). Things like that would encourage full auto fire and ensure you had to consider whether you were carrying enough ammo.

It seems, that with full auto damage reduction, dominance of sniper rifles (which happened in JA2) and the ability to aim at any body part at any range (regardless of whether you actually hit or not), means that JA3 might not be the tactical squad battle game I was hoping for. Also, some of those things don't sound like I can mod them.

[Povok]

1 hour ago, Solaris_Wave said:

if insisting on having the shared inventory, restricting what items that inventory can have and when that inventory is available.

This would probably be the best compromise in the given time. Have shared inventory before combat, make it unavailable during combat. Not great, not terrible...

[Solaris_Wave]

3 hours ago, Povok said:

This would probably be the best compromise in the given time. Have shared inventory before combat, make it unavailable during combat. Not great, not terrible...

I am wondering whether they could patch that or allow it to be modded as such? It might not be great, as you say, but at least it would be more sensible.

Edited June 25, 2023 by Solaris_Wave

[WILDFIRE]

I also noticed the less colorful and vibrant maps in the last trailer. I hope the devs haven't changed the look of the sectors, because they were perfect in the beta. 

 

When I talked about 'too colorful' I always meant the art for the portraits/characters. Mostly the character design for the mercs and NPCs is too cartoony. But the look of the sectors were never a problem.

 

So please don't change the look of the sectors how they were in the beta. The beautiful maps are one of the best parts of the game.

[Solaris_Wave]

They did say in an earlier stream that they went with slightly muted colours for the environment before going more with an African vibrancy and colour.