My verdict so far...

[Solaris_Wave]

After being late to the party in playing the game, due to not having access to my gaming PC (in another country), I have finally got round to playing JA3. Everybody will have different opinions of the game and nobody is wrong in their assessment. Mine can only reflect my current progress and from one play-through at this time. While my verdict doesn't really matter (I am not a games reviewer), it is something that I hope others can agree or debate on.

First of all, the positives. The game looks fantastic. I have a pretty powerful PC and am able to set all the graphics settings to Ultra. The details and definition of everything is really well made. The graphics artists should be congratulated throughout. Grand Chien looks really nice throughout everything I have seen so far and I don't expect that to change.

The character models are very well designed. Like many others, I was unsure about some of the clothing decisions and the portraits. I understood the reasoning behind the look of each character, with the intent to make them stand out and have distinct personalities, helped by the fixed and individual look of clothing; but I shared the view that some mercs looked goofy and unprofessional. That view still stands to a certain degree but the general approach works very well for the most part. I don't even mind the static pictures of each merc and NPC. I said many times in the past that due to their increased palette and definition, as well as their hand painted look, that they would be harder to animate. I don't really miss the animated faces of JA2.

The voice acting is accomplished as well. I already have developed a liking for certain mercs that I have employed so far. I have only hired a few at this point, so I reckon there could be other favourites.

The music serves the game well with a lot of variety. While nothing truly stands out for me, it nonetheless plays its part in adding to the atmosphere, whether it is during peaceful moments or during combat.

Weapon sounds are pretty good but I feel many guns lack punch. Some even sound too quiet, whether the gun is suppressed or unsuppressed.

 

Now for the negatives. Unfortunately, for me, there are many. Some of it are things that could be tweaked with a patch. Others really work hard to annoy me and seem intent on trying to stop me having any fun.

In no order of preference or importance, I will list everything I have made note of so far:

 

1) There is a lack of I.M.P. portraits to choose from. I was hoping for at least twice the amount that are in the game as of now. There needs to be a greater variety of male and female faces in terms of ethnicity and hair styles.

 

2) Mercs shouldn't run everywhere in safe zones. At short distances from where you select, they should walk. Longer distances should cause them to run. You could even double-click to make them do so. It looks weird when your mercs are running everywhere around a populated area, while all the villagers casually walk around. I know walking has recently been patched into the game but it is currently clumsy in its implementation. You have to press several keys to perform a walk (and at the time of writing, doesn't work if you change the control method). Surely, my above suggestion is more practical?

 

3) As much as I like the graphical effects, there are little details that are either not present or not visible enough. I would like to see splashes of water when someone runs through a pool of water. I would like to see ejecting casings falling from most guns (except revolvers or other cylinder-loaded weapons until a full reload is performed). Muzzle flashes should be larger for certain firearms and smoke should seep out the barrel and ejection port. Little effects that add to the immersion.

 

4) Movement alternates between left and right mouse buttons, depending on the mode of play (combat and non-combat action on the tactical map). This can be confusing, especially when first playing the game. There was an option to alter the control method that was later patched in, then removed (maybe in error), then added in again. I am thinking that this should have been simplified before release.

 

5) While I was learning the controls and user interface, I had on two occasions, slightly mis-clicked, or the game wrongly interpreted what I was intending to click on, which caused the merc to fire accidentally. Instead of me clicking on the icon, the game thought I wanted to shoot the ground underneath the icon. Being aware of the limited availability of ammo further into the game, I was unhappy about this. Maybe there should be something like holding down a key at the same time as clicking, if you deliberately want to shoot at something other than a destructive object or enemy soldier?

 

6) Dual-wielding two weapons should cost the same amount of action points to fire as a single weapon. You are pretty much firing them at the same time. The downside to dual-wielding should be a loss of accuracy as it is much harder to aim at a target, and a higher cost to reload.

 

7) Not enough death sounds made by the enemy. Too often they just silently fall to the ground. Some sort of vocal noise would help.

 

8 ) Enemies often die too slowly. The kill shot often causes the enemy to fall in what looks like slow motion.

 

9) There is no difference in enemy behaviour or status when their health reading says 'Almost Dead'. They act and behave just as if they were at full health. They should behave worse, move slower, be crawling on the floor. An enemy that is listed as 'Almost Dead' should not be sprinting, rolling and vaulting like an Olympic athlete.

 

10) Head shots should cause penalties almost always, even if only for 1-2 turns. Concussion, fainting, accuracy loss, action point loss, etc. The current experience is if an enemy survives a head shot, they feel a little bit sore before going back to their usual super soldier behaviour.

 

11) The camera following the enemy during their turn is not always smooth. This might be down to my PC and not a widespread problem. However, it is the only time where I experience (a little) choppiness.

 

12) Lack of cinematic camera during a kill shot.

 

13) The pop-up UI frequently gets in the way of the enemy you are trying to shoot. I have seen it where it fills up the centre of the screen and blocks the target.

 

14) I would like to see a blind-fire option to try to overcome opposing Overwatch. Theoretically, an enemy could go into Overwatch and just lay there indefinitely, ready to blow you away each turn. Unless you are lucky to avoid the bullets, learn a skill to break Overwatch or have an ally to take them out from another angle, your merc could be potentially pinned down forever.

 

15) The fact that the enemy soldiers never run out of ammo is just ridiculous. It is often a great cause of frustration because they can fire burst or full-auto every turn without ever needing to reload a magazine or without ever running out of ammo all together. This, coupled with their excellent accuracy means your mercs are almost always badly wounded and/or close to dying. This situation is even worse when you are facing an enemy that has infinite Rocket-Propelled Grenades. That enemy will keep happily firing one per turn until you kill him. And until you do, his RPGs will hit and knock out your merc, causing them to bleed and become incapacitated, thus needing a medic, who needs to have backup while healing. Every turn.

The infinite ammo means the gameplay loop can end up being a case of your mercs all being wounded, trying to heal one another while the enemy gets to shrug off their own wounds and continue blazing away.

 

16) I would like to have the ability to throw back, or throw away, recently landed enemy grenades, especially if they have a turn to explode. It needs to be risky with a high mishap chance to throw where you want. I would prefer that to just currently being restricted to defusing, running away or standing there and taking damage.

 

17) I would like to see Flanking give different bonuses. I would personally remove the damage bonus to hitpoints. Instead, it would greatly reduce morale to that target (and quickly induce panic), break Overwatch, cause an accuracy penalty (hard to concentrate when being flanked) and give an armour penetration bonus against the target (as side armour will be much less).

 

18) Fog to no longer cause grazing hits. Instead, it causes a greater Line Of Sight reduction and an accuracy penalty. If the bullet hits, its damage should behave as normal.

 

19) Clearing a jam shouldn't damage the gun or require a Mechanic skill check to prevent damage, unless the gun is already in very poor condition.

 

20) If a target receives a critical hit to the leg or the groin, they should collapse and need to spend action points standing up. Furthermore, mobility should be lowered from then on.

 

21) Defused landmines should be able to be kept and re-used.

 

22) Timed explosives should allow you to choose how long the timer is set for.

 

23) A larger area for the mouse click to register on an object would be useful. Sometimes, you can't interact with some object in the world because you are not on the precise pixel it wants you to be on. The pointer doesn't always switch to the hand icon. This can be sometimes due to the camera orientation. It is especially annoying when you have a time limit to defuse an explosive and it won't let you interact with it. You then have to get the explosives expert to run for cover before they get blown away.

 

24) A prone target should be harder to hit in close combat if the one making the attack is standing up.

 

25) Many of the firearms are using incorrect calibres or have incorrect ammo capacities. I know this was partly done for simplicity but it wouldn't have created that much extra work. I know that modders can fix this (and I will have a go at it myself at some point, probably) but should it really be down to modders to fix this missing content?

 

26) Some Operations take too long. Healing takes a very long time. That in itself is understandable but I seem to spend the majority of my game, healing (or trying to heal) one or more mercs who are constantly wounded by the ever-firing, infinite ammo using, accurate super shooters known as the Legion.

 

27) Scouting, especially with high Wisdom characters, shouldn't result in them being wounded. It already takes long enough to scout. For them to need healing afterwards, means you are waiting even longer. Meanwhile, the timeframe moves forward and your mercs are due to have their contracts renewed, regardless of whether you have money or not. Which you don't, because you aren't moving fast enough or making enough progress, as you are spending all your time being healed.

 

28) For some reason, interior walls are tougher than floors. There was a hole in the upstairs floor, caused by a grenade on the ground floor. This prevented me from entering that upstairs room (which had items inside it). There was no other way to get into that room. I thought that maybe I could deploy a shaped charge to blow a hole in the wall, where the floor still remained, thus giving me an entry into the room. Unfortunately, the walls would refuse to be damaged or destroyed. If they did, the surrounding floor was destroyed as well. I was never able to destroy a wall, while keeping the floor intact. As a result, I had to abandon any ideas of trying to get into that room. I couldn't even craft a sodding ladder.

 

29) The camera for multi-storey buildings frequently gets confused. It doesn't know what floor to zoom in on, regardless of where your mercs are. It can often show overhead parts of the building, blocking your view, or making too much transparent, causing confusion as to what is actually in that room.

 

30) The transparency of walls is too confusing. They are too clear and this makes it harder to see certain windows, doors and other openings. Transparency should be more partially opaque to help show solid walls. This will also help the player tell what doors are solid and what are glass doors. Not only that, it would help them see where to click to open and close doors (which often can be done by accident).

 

31) Ammo frequently is low. There is too little to be scavenged, even if you are fully aware of the ammo shortage that dominates a large portion of JA3 and try to use single rounds.

 

32) I had a merc sneak up on an unsuspecting enemy and perform a relatively close range shot to his back with a suppressed Gewehr 98. There was no fog but it caused a grazing hit, allowing the enemy soldier to sprint off, roll over a barricade and get into a firing position. I don't know if that was bug.

 

33) C4 and other high explosives don't damage lookout towers. I had the great idea of sneaking up on a lookout tower, planting a timed C4 charge on one of the wooden struts of the tower and waiting for the tower to topple, killing the sniper. The charge went off and did nothing more than alert all the enemy.

 

34) Enemies don't seem to be affected by night, rain and fog anywhere near as much as your mercs do.

 

35) Items that are used for modifying weapons and creating attachments take up important inventory space on yours mercs. Things such as those would make more sense if they were placed in squad inventory with the ammunition.

 

36) Throwing knives that say they can be retrieved after throwing, can't. I have only used one throwing knife and it hit and killed a Legion soldier in the head. No knife was able to be retrieved.

 

37) As well as having infinite ammo, enemy firearms don't jam.

 

38) Your badly wounded mercs get less action points. Badly wounded enemies behave exactly the same as healthy ones.

 

 

Now those are a lot of gripes, I will admit. The ones that niggle me are the lack of weapon realism and authenticity. However, such things can be hopefully modded if the developers have no plans to alter those. What actually affects my enjoyment of the game, what raises the question as to whether I am actually having fun or not, is the blatant behaviour of the enemy AI and how they don't play by the same rules you are forced to. They have more action points, hit more often, don't seem affected by night or weather, have infinite ammo, can fire all day on full auto, suffer no psychological effects such as morale and panic, have far more health and hardly become affected by crippling shots. They are, in effect, not militia but highly trained super soldiers, cloned in vats with select attributes and enhancements. The most annoying and obvious battle that infuriated me was when I was fighting Pierre on Ernie island. I managed to defeat him on my second try of the battle but the first time, his 3D model was covered in head to toe in blood, due to being shot several times by 2x G98s, an MP40, 2x AK-47s and a double-barreled shotgun. Not only that but he was hit twice by grenades. In the meantime, he was constantly firing bursts from his own AK, wounding all of my mercs, repeatedly incapacitating my I.M.P. (who would get revived and then knocked out again), pausing briefly to run up and melee kill one of my badly wounded mercs. Before I quit the game in disbelief, Pierre was only regarded as 'Severely Wounded'. I was convinced that he was a Terminator who's mission objective was to be a Royal Pain In The Ass.

Why are the Legion so much better than your A.I.M. mercs, if they are supposed be bandits and militia with only basic organisation and training? I don't want to find the game hard, exasperating and tiresome because the enemy cheats and doesn't play by the same rules you have to. I want the game to be a challenge by other means. So far, my gameplay seems to consist of usually lopsided battles in their favour, running out of meds because of the need to heal, running out of money because I need to spend game hours healing, resting and repairing destroyed armour; instead of pushing forward and taking sectors so I can afford the salaries of my mercs.

I am not playing badly either. I am using cover, keeping a low profile with my mercs (crouching or prone), using covering fire and keeping the team together. It doesn't seem to matter. The enemy knows where my mercs are as soon as I use a suppressed rifle from a long distance away, or can see and comfortably shoot my squad through fog, thunderstorms and night. Meanwhile, my mercs have to get closer to achieve the same effect and often delight me when they miss a shot when an enemy is one space away. Legion seem to love targeting my I.M.P. more than the other mercs and he is often needing to be healed, slowing the game down or going into battle with 50% health due to me needing to make progress and not being able to waste time healing.

If the enemy had to operate with the same mechanics that you do, I think that this game would be a whole lot more enjoyable.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Solaris_Wave

[D13]

1 hour ago, Solaris_Wave said:

9) There is no difference in enemy behaviour or status when their health reading says 'Almost Dead'. They act and behave just as if they were at full health. They should behave worse, move slower, be crawling on the floor. An enemy that is listed as 'Almost Dead' should not be sprinting, rolling and vaulting like an Olympic athlete.

That's also one my main gripes, and not because of realism, but because it unnecessarily reduces tactical depth. We've discussed this before on this forum, even before the release. Since then, I have encountered Army units with dedicated medics that bandage wounded soldiers. And I wonder - what's the point in that when there's hardly any difference between healthy, wounded, and bandaged enemies? Sure, their patients may occasionally survive one more bullet. But having medics restore enemy HP in JA2 would have been such a great feature with a noticeable effect, whereas in JA3 they serve as little more than combat eye candy (and, as one JA2 IMP would put it, a good time for a grenade).

I wonder if the presence of medics is a leftover of initial plans to make enemy wounds more of a factor, and which were then abandoned for some reason.

 

1 hour ago, Solaris_Wave said:

I am not playing badly either. I am using cover, keeping a low profile with my mercs (crouching or prone), using covering fire and keeping the team together. It doesn't seem to matter.

That resonated with me, because I felt the same at the beginning of my campaign.

In my case, I was playing JA3 too much as if it were JA2, and in my experience, JA3 puts less emphasis on stance and using objects as cover. In JA2, my highest priority was to not get wounded because of the severe negative effects (AP loss, continuous HP loss until bandaged, reduced carrying capacity).

I find that JA3 does not reward the careful approach as much. Primarily because the effects of getting wounded are not as severe, but also because many enemy types close in quicker and with less concern for their own safety, and so APs are often better spent on firing from the open and killing enemies quickly than on seeking cover.

Your mileage may vary here, but that's what I learned from a few "practice battles" during which I had intended to experiment with combat mechanics, without much consideration for my mercs' health - only to find that those battles went much better than the ones I had taken seriously.

 

1 hour ago, Solaris_Wave said:

Legion seem to love targeting my I.M.P. more than the other mercs

I'm glad someone is finally mentioning it! I was beginning to think my IMP might have a hidden "bad luck" trait. I've even had hyenas run past my AIM mercs, only to bite my poor IMP 😄

[sandman25dcsss]

There is a mod for 35.

I disagree with most points and it is great mods exist so you can try to create mods for your personal taste.

[sandman25dcsss]

For instance I like that there is no difference between healthy and almost dead enemy, it makes shooting at arms or legs more useful. Otherwise you would not care about debuffs and would go for the highest damage every time, killing enemies would be less important resulting in shooting at enemy with the best CtH.

[CersaisAdvocate]

I agree with most of your points. But I do not understand 24. Do you mean melee combat? It is rather hard to defend against a melee attack If you are kneeing or lying down.

[wilku]

46 minutes ago, CersaisAdvocate said:

I agree with most of your points. But I do not understand 24. Do you mean melee combat? It is rather hard to defend against a melee attack If you are kneeing or lying down.

I was about to say that: in h-th it's DEFINTIELY easie r to hit someone prone when you're standing up. No debate here 🙂

I would like to see the enemies care about their life though. Like if they're severly wounder or almost dead, I'd assuem they'd at least spend one round to fall back, find some cover, maybe reach a medic. Instead they barge all-in, just to meet my overwatch. This is absolutely stupid and sort of boring.

[CersaisAdvocate]

I think if the ai would play more defensive and used superior numbers. You should create challenge by numbers and believable defensive tactics rather when supersoldiers running at you without regards for their life.

[Solaris_Wave]

19 hours ago, D13 said:

That's also one my main gripes, and not because of realism, but because it unnecessarily reduces tactical depth. We've discussed this before on this forum, even before the release. Since then, I have encountered Army units with dedicated medics that bandage wounded soldiers. And I wonder - what's the point in that when there's hardly any difference between healthy, wounded, and bandaged enemies? Sure, their patients may occasionally survive one more bullet. But having medics restore enemy HP in JA2 would have been such a great feature with a noticeable effect, whereas in JA3 they serve as little more than combat eye candy (and, as one JA2 IMP would put it, a good time for a grenade).

I haven't seen the army units yet but reading that they have medics sounds pleasing in some ways. However, knowing that it ultimately means nothing because the Legion act like robots or drones that keep going at you until you reduce them to zero points, is a massive shame.

On another note, I forgot about that I.M.P. quote!

 

19 hours ago, D13 said:

I'm glad someone is finally mentioning it! I was beginning to think my IMP might have a hidden "bad luck" trait. I've even had hyenas run past my AIM mercs, only to bite my poor IMP 😄

I am also glad that you have noticed that too! I thought there was something wrong with my I.M.P. and if I mentioned it on the forums, that people would just say I was playing badly. The thing is, my I.M.P. isn't that great. His marksmanship is high but not the highest. I put more emphasis in having higher Leadership because I read on these forums that it was a good attribute to have for your I.M.P. Therefore, is he Legion's primary target because he is your custom merc and they are ensuring that you don't view them as the star of the show? Or, are they picking him out because the Leadership attribute somehow sticks a visible floating rank above his head and they feel they need to remove the leader of your group?

[qwaqwe]

In my opinion, the main issue is that the eastern lower quarter of the map is empty of events and enemies.4

[Solaris_Wave]

14 hours ago, sandman25dcsss said:

There is a mod for 35.

I disagree with most points and it is great mods exist so you can try to create mods for your personal taste.

That is handy to know that there is a mod for that. I am playing unmodded for my first play-through, just so I can see what the developers intended the game to be. It will also help me spot what I feel needs changing.

Please can I ask why you disagree with most of my points and which ones you do agree on? It is nice to get a different perspective.

 

14 hours ago, sandman25dcsss said:

For instance I like that there is no difference between healthy and almost dead enemy, it makes shooting at arms or legs more useful. Otherwise you would not care about debuffs and would go for the highest damage every time, killing enemies would be less important resulting in shooting at enemy with the best CtH.

The problem with that (obviously just from my perspective) is that they don't really behave like human beings and also, only your mercs suffer diminishing abilities as their health condition worsens. The Legion don't feel like they are people that have been recruited from the poor population but instead made on an assembly line.

The point about the highest damage was something that affected JA2 and why I tried to get a gameplay change with JA3. To repeat myself again, single shots allowed body part aiming and you could aim at any visible body part, no matter how small, at any range. This meant that single shot, aimed fire was invariably the way to play and burst and full-auto fire was less useful. It was less accurate and the enemies in JA2 were bullet sponges because their armour took so much punishment (they could survive multiple grenade hits too). The quickest way to defeat a single enemy was to aim at their head, which created the most damage per bullet. Also, the best weapons to achieve that were the sniper rifles, as they caused the most damage per bullet.

I made repeated suggestions to restrict body part aiming to close range, to reflect how hard it is to actually aim at a specific body part. Additionally, you could also aim at a body part if your merc was looking through a magnified telescopic sight, was highly skilled, and the target was not running. At all other ranges and situations, you could only target the enemy in a general manner. The bullet(s) would then randomly hit a body part with the torso having the highest chance to receive the hit, the arms and legs second and the head last. This would make the battles unpredictable and exciting, especially when you got that headshot when you were just firing at a general target in the distance.

Instead, JA3 is like JA2 where long range sniping is the dominant choice, you can aim at a body part at any range and you will prefer to shoot at a location that kills the enemy the quickest. The only difference between the two games is that with JA3, a supposedly weak or nearly dead enemy is just as capable and as dangerous as an enemy at full health, full-auto fire is even weaker due to the damage reduction when firing in that mode, and the enemy soldiers are still bullet sponges but not because they are necessarily wearing armour.

[Solaris_Wave]

 

10 hours ago, CersaisAdvocate said:

I agree with most of your points. But I do not understand 24. Do you mean melee combat? It is rather hard to defend against a melee attack If you are kneeing or lying down.

 

9 hours ago, wilku said:

I was about to say that: in h-th it's DEFINTIELY easie r to hit someone prone when you're standing up. No debate here 🙂

I was meaning melee combat. If two combatants are both standing, they have an equal chance at hitting one another, the same if both are crouched or both are prone. If someone standing was trying to stab someone prone, that would be difficult as they would need to get lower to do so. It would also be harder for a prone combatant to stab a standing combatant. Therefore, I was thinking that there should be a larger accuracy penalty if the attacker was two 'stances' different to the target, and a smaller accuracy penalty if only one stance different to the target. Crouching would be the average stance against standing or prone targets.

I was thinking about it when a Legion soldier happily ran up to my prone merc who was providing long range fire, stood one space away and started slashing with his knife. He never missed once and did lots of damage each time. I wasn't trying get my merc to attack him back via melee. I was trying to shoot him or move out of the way. Everything I did caused an interrupt where the Legion soldier got a free attack because he was in melee range. My merc was quickly knocked out and I had to spend a few turns shooting at the Legion brawler with another merc. In the meantime, the Legion soldier just stood there taking bullets like a champ (or a robot/super soldier) without ever thinking he was in pain or that it might be a good idea to find cover.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Solaris_Wave

[sandman25dcsss]

There are mods which reduce/remove burst/full fire damage penalties.

Are you aware there is -40% penalty when targeting head? It makes huge difference especially early game. Most of my shots are not at head early game.

[sandman25dcsss]

Ok, here is my lazy list of disagreement.
1. 6 portraits are more than enough (I used 2 in my 7 runs). Mods add literally hundreds of IMP characters
2. Mercs should run to save player's time, I would prefer mercs to run even while prone or crouched. There was a mod for that, but unfortunately it resulted in freezes sometimes and was removed by author. Wasting several minutes on every map for "realism" is unacceptable, this is why I explore map without stealth and standing, this is why I love Livewire.
3. I don't care about graphics and I am already down to 30 FPS on some maps (hospital with fog)
4. It saved me several times when I didn't realize I am still in tactical combat. Different controls ensure player knows what mod he is in.
5. Agree.
6. No, extra damage from the same weapon should never come free. See burst fire damage, it deals 150% damage for 3 bullets, you want 200% damage for 2 bullets and the same AP cost.
7. I don't care about sounds. Repeating sounds annoy me, I turn off even in-game music and am listening online radio for variety
8. If you mean animations are too slow, I agree.
9. Already discussed.
10. Buffing headshots is a bad idea, it is already the most dominating target and you complain about it in another point
11. Agree.
12. It is customizable as far as I recall. I turn it off, the less delays while playing the better for me.
13. Agree.
14. There is a skill to cancel overwatch. There is another skill to ignore overwatch.
15. I like the enemies never run out of ammo. There is no time limit, baiting enemy into wasting their ammo on low accuracy shots would be a cheap tactics and players would complain about stupid AI even more.
16. If it was risky, the best option would still remain the same i.e. disarming
17. AI is quite good at applying debuffs, but extra damage should stay default option. I had situations when my single merc was attacked by 10+ enemies, now imagine how bad it would be if it guaranteed panic or caused stacking accuracy penalties.
18. Fog is amazing. The most difficult modifier for player.
19. I don't care, I have never cleared a jam.
20. Mobility is already almost zero when wounded in leg. Triple AP cost.
21. No. I would hate yet another reason to spend time on disarming mines. By the way I created a mod for instant interactions so there is no progress bar and delay when disarming mines, hacking devices, gathering plants etc. and another mod which prevents mercs from exploding on revealed mines.
22. I don't care, but probably agree.
23. Agree.
24. No, already discussed by other forum members
25. I don't care about realism, but I would not want to see even more calibers in the game.
26. Agree. All operations are really bad, even XCOM Chimera Squad operations are more fun.
27. Agree. Tried to create a mod, but can't find where possible events are stored.
28. Funny read, thank you 🙂
29. Agree.
30. Agree.
31. Agree. I created infinite ammo mod and there are other mods which boost ammo drop, ammo shops and ammo crafting.
32.Probably bug. Never seen grazing hit without fog and alike. Was there some smoke from smoke grenade?
33. Interesting read, thank you. Agree.
34. They are affected the same way, code is shared and they use exactly the same mechanics. 
35. Agree, there is a mod for that which I use in all my games. Treat it as fix for game design mistake.
36. Never seen it, always able to extract knife after fight. Maybe a bug.
37. Same as my weapons 🙂 They start fight with 100% weapons.
38. I am not sure. It's just AI gets +60% extra free movement on mission impossible so 1 AP hardly makes a difference

Edited August 28, 2023 by sandman25dcsss

[D13]

On 8/26/2023 at 11:29 PM, Solaris_Wave said:

12) Lack of cinematic camera during a kill shot.

As @sandman25dcsss mentioned, there is an option named "targeting action camera" or "cinematic camera view", or similar. But there is also a bug in recent versions (starting with 1.1.0) that affects automatic camera settings, both the zoom as shown here and the switch to the "over the shoulder" camera. I hope they're going to fix this as I was really happy with how the camera's zooming and positioning worked in previous versions.

 

11 hours ago, Solaris_Wave said:

Therefore, is he Legion's primary target because he is your custom merc and they are ensuring that you don't view them as the star of the show?

I'm thinking it's either that, to increase tension and drama, or that enemies are focusing on the character they consider easiest to kill, and my custom merc has lower health than 6 out of my 7 AIM mercs. If it's the latter that would make sense to me, as I'm frequently doing the same when deciding which enemy to target. How does your custom merc compare to the others, health-wise?  But maybe there is no such logic and all of this is only in my head, and I'm simply noticing IMP wounds more than when others get hurt.

[sandman25dcsss]

11 minutes ago, D13 said:

I'm thinking it's either that, to increase tension and drama, or that enemies are focusing on the character they consider easiest to kill, and my custom merc has lower health than 6 out of my 7 AIM mercs. If it's the latter that would make sense to me, as I'm frequently doing the same when deciding which enemy to target. How does your custom merc compare to the others, health-wise?  But maybe there is no such logic and all of this is only in my head, and I'm simply noticing IMP wounds more than when others get hurt.

I think the latter. Recently I had a fight where my melee IMP was standing in the middle of enemy group and yet enemies were shooting at my other mercs who were prone and further from the enemies. I think it happens because AI knows how grit works (my IMP had 30 grit).

Edited August 28, 2023 by sandman25dcsss

[Solaris_Wave]

4 hours ago, sandman25dcsss said:

There are mods which reduce/remove burst/full fire damage penalties.

Are you aware there is -40% penalty when targeting head? It makes huge difference especially early game. Most of my shots are not at head early game.

I am aware of the mods which remove the damage reduction. It is also something that I will add to my own mod if I can get everything working in synergy. Right now, I wouldn't even try using the mod as Legion fire full auto all the time and are too accurate with each hit.

I am also aware of the penalty to targeting the head but I was thinking more of the need to do so in JA2 (which is more important in mid and end game due to enemy body armour). For JA3, I am currently, in my early game, not often aiming at the head (except for Buns, who is an expert already at sniping with her suppressed Gewehr 98 and also her new SVD Dragunov).

The point about headshots causing negative effects was to try and direct it more towards a realistic point of view (but still within the game's limitations). However, I did really want this to operate hand in hand with the restriction on aiming at specific body parts except for close range and other conditions.

[Solaris_Wave]

3 hours ago, D13 said:

As @sandman25dcsss mentioned, there is an option named "targeting action camera" or "cinematic camera view", or similar. But there is also a bug in recent versions (starting with 1.1.0) that affects automatic camera settings, both the zoom as shown here and the switch to the "over the shoulder" camera. I hope they're going to fix this as I was really happy with how the camera's zooming and positioning worked in previous versions.

I was wondering if there was a kill cam and thought I read about there being one from older comments. I then wondered why I wasn't seeing one but I think it was one of those things that got broken by the time I started playing the game. When I started playing, it had already been updated past v1.0 .

 

3 hours ago, D13 said:

How does your custom merc compare to the others, health-wise?

He is above average. I changed the stats round after the questionnaire results gave him 67% health. I increased it by around 10 points. I don't know if the Legion are preferring to shoot him due to lower health as he is not the weakest in terms of health points. That said, he spends most battles with lower health than normal because I can't afford to fully heal him all the time. He also gets incapacitated the most because Legion like to shoot him, even if he is at the back, lying prone or partially behind cover. Battles often end up with him being incapacitated, sending another merc to perform First-Aid, reviving him and then having to do it again and again, as the Legion soldiers just sit there firing full-auto and hitting with most of the shots. Obviously, I am still using my other mercs to provide covering fire and to try to eliminate the enemies that are shooting at him.

[sandman25dcsss]

1 hour ago, Solaris_Wave said:

I am aware of the mods which remove the damage reduction. It is also something that I will add to my own mod if I can get everything working in synergy. Right now, I wouldn't even try using the mod as Legion fire full auto all the time and are too accurate with each hit.

I am also aware of the penalty to targeting the head but I was thinking more of the need to do so in JA2 (which is more important in mid and end game due to enemy body armour). For JA3, I am currently, in my early game, not often aiming at the head (except for Buns, who is an expert already at sniping with her suppressed Gewehr 98 and also her new SVD Dragunov).

The point about headshots causing negative effects was to try and direct it more towards a realistic point of view (but still within the game's limitations). However, I did really want this to operate hand in hand with the restriction on aiming at specific body parts except for close range and other conditions.

I hate realism in games. It is primary source of bad game design. It is often responsible for wasting player's time, introduction of boring activities and basically breaking game balance. JA3 examples are correspondingly 1) delay when gathering plants 2) item repair operation which costs 0 parts 3) pistols being useless because they are the worst in every category like damage, range, cartridge size. "Low" AP is not really low if you compare it to AoE shotgun for same 4 AP or 43 damage from Confidante rifle for the same 4 AP.

Edited August 28, 2023 by sandman25dcsss

[Solaris_Wave]

4 hours ago, sandman25dcsss said:

Ok, here is my lazy list of disagreement.
1. 6 portraits are more than enough (I used 2 in my 7 runs). Mods add literally hundreds of IMP characters
2. Mercs should run to save player's time, I would prefer mercs to run even while prone or crouched. There was a mod for that, but unfortunately it resulted in freezes sometimes and was removed by author. Wasting several minutes on every map for "realism" is unacceptable, this is why I explore map without stealth and standing, this is why I love Livewire.
3. I don't care about graphics and I am already down to 30 FPS on some maps (hospital with fog)
4. It saved me several times when I didn't realize I am still in tactical combat. Different controls ensure player knows what mod he is in.
5. Agree.
6. No, extra damage from the same weapon should never come free. See burst fire damage, it deals 150% damage for 3 bullets, you want 200% damage for 2 bullets and the same AP cost.
7. I don't care about sounds. Repeating sounds annoy me, I turn off even in-game music and am listening online radio for variety
8. If you mean animations are too slow, I agree.
9. Already discussed.
10. Buffing headshots is a bad idea, it is already the most dominating target and you complain about it in another point
11. Agree.
12. It is customizable as far as I recall. I turn it off, the less delays while playing the better for me.
13. Agree.
14. There is a skill to cancel overwatch. There is another skill to ignore overwatch.
15. I like the enemies never run out of ammo. There is no time limit, baiting enemy into wasting their ammo on low accuracy shots would be a cheap tactics and players would complain about stupid AI even more.
16. If it was risky, the best option would still remain the same i.e. disarming
17. AI is quite good at applying debuffs, but extra damage should stay default option. I had situations when my single merc was attacked by 10+ enemies, now imagine how bad it would be if it guaranteed panic or caused stacking accuracy penalties.
18. Fog is amazing. The most difficult modifier for player.
19. I don't care, I have never cleared a jam.
20. Mobility is already almost zero when wounded in leg. Triple AP cost.
21. No. I would hate yet another reason to spend time on disarming mines. By the way I created a mod for instant interactions so there is no progress bar and delay when disarming mines, hacking devices, gathering plants etc. and another mod which prevents mercs from exploding on revealed mines.
22. I don't care, but probably agree.
23. Agree.
24. No, already discussed by other forum members
25. I don't care about realism, but I would not want to see even more calibers in the game.
26. Agree. All operations are really bad, even XCOM Chimera Squad operations are more fun.
27. Agree. Tried to create a mod, but can't find where possible events are stored.
28. Funny read, thank you 🙂
29. Agree.
30. Agree.
31. Agree. I created infinite ammo mod and there are other mods which boost ammo drop, ammo shops and ammo crafting.
32.Probably bug. Never seen grazing hit without fog and alike. Was there some smoke from smoke grenade?
33. Interesting read, thank you. Agree.
34. They are affected the same way, code is shared and they use exactly the same mechanics. 
35. Agree, there is a mod for that which I use in all my games. Treat it as fix for game design mistake.
36. Never seen it, always able to extract knife after fight. Maybe a bug.
37. Same as my weapons 🙂 They start fight with 100% weapons.
38. I am not sure. It's just AI gets +60% extra free movement on mission impossible so 1 AP hardly makes a difference

A lot of those answers are down to your personal preference, which is ok as everybody is different. I will add my responses to those, especially if I need you to clarify:

2) I was going for a realism slant and only wanting to see walking occur outside of combat. During the combat mode, walking is disabled. Walking around casually during a gunfight is reserved for John Wayne.

3) Enhanced graphical effects would be optional, like most games. The ejecting casings could be there by default though as they shouldn't slow down the game due to their size and infrequency. Even guns with high rates of fire shouldn't slow down the game. Unless you had a minigun.

6) I am confused about your answer for this one. Dual-wielding creates a mental action where you will most likely shoot both weapons at the same time, instead of one after the other. The firepower is still doubled but the timing is different. You would mentally try to fire them simultaneously, hence the same action point usage. You are still penalised for trying to do so, however. Your accuracy will definitely suffer. More so if you are dual-wielding and trying to fire both weapons on automatic. You also need more action points to reload because it is harder to do it. This means that ultimately, dual-wielding is something that isn't all out better to do. It shows its advantages for close range firepower if you can get in close and kill as quickly as possible. For longer ranges and prolonged fights, it becomes more of a disadvantage as you are less accurate and spend a lot more APs reloading.

7) Everybody has different tastes. I like lots of audio immersion in my games but I know some people mute everything or play their own music. I often do that with the music. For JA3's death sounds, there just aren't enough. For it to be implemented, you would need more than one sound effect and have them randomised to avoid repetition.

10) For headshots, please refer to my other comments about restricting the aiming. Also, the enemies don't seem to suffer any adverse effects, unlike in JA2.

15) Why should your mercs run out of ammo if Legion don't? Them having more resources doesn't make sense. Why can't you use the ammo left by fallen Legion? Why can't you capture their supplies? It is a case of them not having to play by the rules that you have to. Also, because they have infinite ammo, they can just blaze away every turn. That wouldn't be so bad if they missed more often but they don't. They are supposed to be militia with not a lot of training.

16) Throwing back a grenade would be available to any merc. Disarming depends on Explosives skill.

17) My Flanking bonuses and penalties argument is aimed more at Legion, who seem psychologically impervious. Also, I was going for a realism standpoint and basing it off other (more complex military strategy) games.

18) Fog doesn't bother Legion, who all seem to have thermal imaging optics surgically implanted. Again, you have to play by rules they don't have to. Are Legion militia from a poor country or are they cloned Super Soldiers with top tier upgrades and enhancements? If fog affects your mercs, it should affect Legion too. They do cause grazing hits but those are rare compared to your own hits on them.

19) I am going for realism here. Clearing a failure to eject or fire doesn't require knowledge of Mechanics or extensive knowledge of weapon mechanics, it just requires fairly basic knowledge  of your own firearm. I don't know the internal workings of every firearm I have seen, handled or used, but I know what to do to clear most failures to eject or fire, without damaging the gun.

20) Again, your mercs suffer where Legion doesn't. Why should they shrug off leg hits? JA2 had leg hits on enemies that would cause them to fall.

21) It would be your choice to re-use landmines. You could just disarm them and break them down for parts as normal.

24) Realism and physics.

25) Definitely realism. Haemimont went halfway with it. If guns are based on real life counterparts, do it right or make fictional guns. As a real life gun nut, seeing such inaccuracies infuriates me. If they used fictional guns, I would be less bothered.

32) There was no smoke grenade. The Legion soldier was just standing there in front of a building, blissfully unaware of Buns lining up her Gewehr 98 seven spaces away from the back of his head. It was a side shot but nevertheless a clear one, without any weather effects. Cue a grazing hit, a little "Ow!" from the enemy (despite the full rifle calibre round going into his head), followed by him sprinting off at Olympic speed, doing a fancy roll over some cover and then getting into a firing position. Hopefully, it was a bug, like you suggested.

34) It is interesting you mentioning that. I haven't checked it myself. I just notice that the Legion can pull off shooting and spotting actions that my mercs can't.

37) For militia, Legion seem very well trained and disciplined. In reality, despite how sturdy they are due to simplicity, I have seen some badly maintained and battered AK-47s/AKMs used by third-world countries. Screwed up sights, broken wooden furniture, worn out barrels, etc.

38) I am playing on Normal difficulty. Again, this is a case of Legion soldiers acting like robots, cyborgs or Super Soldiers, unaffected by anything until you kill them stone dead. Until that point, they all act as normal. Meanwhile, your mercs suffer progressive effects. They should play by the same rules you do, if they are supposed to be normal human people.

 

[sandman25dcsss]

@Solaris_Wave

Sorry, I am not interested in long discussion.

You asked for my opinion, I listed it.

We can just agree to disagree.

Edited August 28, 2023 by sandman25dcsss

[Solaris_Wave]

53 minutes ago, sandman25dcsss said:

I hate realism in games. It is primary source of bad game design. It is often responsible for wasting player's time, introduction of boring activities and basically breaking game balance. JA3 examples are correspondingly 1) delay when gathering plants 2) item repair operation which costs 0 parts 3) pistols being useless because they are the worst in every category like damage, range, cartridge size. "Low" AP is not really low if you compare it to AoE shotgun for same 4 AP or 43 damage from Confidante rifle for the same 4 AP.

That is a 100% different perspective to mine. Which is ok as we are all different. I find that realism keeps things in check and actually aids balance, especially in games involving weapons, combat and anything based on the real world. I have seen game balance, where it is done just for the sake of it, totally screw up the logic of things.

Now, there are different levels of realism and some can be considered fussy by some and not by others. Game balance can work but it really involves extensive play testing at the end of the day. If I know how a gun behaves in real life, I do not want to see it perform differently in a game. I would rather they just created a fictional weapon. In that sense, I definitely want realism. If I am picking plants or herbs, I don't mind it taking a second or two to wait until the action is completed unless (and I can't stress this enough) you have to do it over and over, in quick succession. At that point it becomes tedious and you are twiddling thumbs. I haven't experienced that kind of tediousness in JA3 but I have experienced it in other games like Far Cry 3 and Red Dead Redemption. In those, every time you needed to skin an animal or search a dead body, you had to wait for an animation to finish. Every sodding time. When you are seeing that for the hundredth time in the last 30 minutes of play, it can sap not only your enjoyment of the game but also your will to live. It is fine to see that animation once near the beginning of the game, or maybe randomly and sparingly. Every time? Watching your character slide his knife this way and that? No thanks.

Handguns in reality are very useful and capable weapons. In games, due to game balance or lack of creating enough parameters, they tend to be strangely more powerful than SMGs that fire the same cartridge, or weak and useless, waiting to be superseded by bigger weapons and then never seen again. I suggested to Haemimont how to keep handguns relevant throughout the entire game but I don't think it really went that way. I will see what I can do, if and when I mod the game. I will keep handgun cartridges consistent in terms of damage and will make it so handguns can be quickly drawn if your primary weapon fails or needs reloading. It can be quicker to draw your sidearm than it is to change mags or clear a malfunction with your primary. Very important if threats are present. Unlike some games, your pistol can save your life without needing to shoot the threat 10 times before they decided to drop dead.

[Solaris_Wave]

23 minutes ago, sandman25dcsss said:

@Solaris_Wave

Sorry, I am not interested in long discussion.

You asked for my opinion, I listed it.

We can just agree to disagree.

That is fine. Thank you for explaining your points. I was just giving my response to your answers rather than intending any long discussion.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Solaris_Wave

[D13]

Interesting exchange; I share many of @Solaris_Wave views, but seeing some of @sandman25dcsss counterviews makes the design decisions easier to accept.

---

20) (leg hits)  I'm under the impression that leg hits work the same for both sides; 300% increased movement cost for next turn, then after that turn, back to normal. I don't mind them shaking it off after a while, but having that massive penalty go away entirely after one turn I find a bit weird (it would feel more natural to have the effect lowered by perhaps one third per subsequent turn, until it becomes barely noticeable).

 

On 8/27/2023 at 6:44 AM, sandman25dcsss said:

For instance I like that there is no difference between healthy and almost dead enemy, it makes shooting at arms or legs more useful. Otherwise you would not care about debuffs and would go for the highest damage every time, killing enemies would be less important resulting in shooting at enemy with the best CtH.

9) (injured enemies)  It's true that automatic AP penalties due to HP loss devalue body part targeting. I have to admit that in JA2, I hardly ever aimed at legs, maybe occasionally if other body parts were too heavily armored, but I suspect the majority of my leg hits were actually stray bullets. Most of the time the decision would be between head and torso, based on CtH and armor. In JA3, I'm more frequently aiming for arms and legs.

In a way, arm and leg hits already deal an action-specific sub-type of suppression in the sense that the lack of accuracy and mobility are the result of the body part-specific penalty, rather than of not having enough APs to aim and move.

Perhaps this could have been combined with the more lasting effects I described above (20), and with tracking and accumulating body part damage: if an enemy is "almost dead" after three *arm* hits, they could still move but no longer aim properly until bandaged, and if someone is about to die from three *leg* wounds, they could still aim but no longer move.

 

1 hour ago, sandman25dcsss said:

pistols being useless because they are the worst in every category like damage, range, cartridge size. "Low" AP is not really low if you compare it to AoE shotgun for same 4 AP or 43 damage from Confidante rifle for the same 4 AP.

Just wanted to say that with one of the recent 1.1.x patches, some handguns (all?) have become more dangerous. I didn't check if it's due to higher accuracy, or range, but probably accuracy. What you're saying here is still true, but their disadvantage is no longer as big as in 1.0, and with pistols being easier to obtain and them using up only one inventory slot, I now find it more reasonable to carry them.

Personally, what I like to do is to load handguns with special ammunition, either AP while it is still rare, or HP later in the game. Makes it feel like the handgun really has a special purpose, which is to deal high damage when an enemy has come too close and my merc's survival is at stake.

Edited August 28, 2023 by D13

[sandman25dcsss]

37 minutes ago, Solaris_Wave said:

That is fine. Thank you for explaining your points. I was just giving my response to your answers rather than intending any long discussion.

Thank you for that, it was still interesting to read. It is just obvious to me that we have too different opinions (hate realism vs prefer realism), that's why I am hesitant to continue such discussion.

[sandman25dcsss]

@D13

I haven't noticed any buffs for handguns. Was it in release notes? My mercs still have 32% CtH for run and gun at enemy 3 tiles away.

Edited August 28, 2023 by sandman25dcsss