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  • DevDiary 5 - World Building

    The world of Jagged Alliance 3
     

    I am Radomir Mirchev, Senior Narrative Designer, and I will be your faithful guide to the world of JA3 and the country of Grand Chien - which is a crazy place, but we’ll get to that later.

    For those of you who haven't played the previous games back at the time, Jagged Alliance isn’t just another turn-based tactical game. It also features certain RPG elements that are its heart and soul. The player takes command of a weird company of mercs with all their differences, peculiarities, likes and dislikes, and not just a squad of replaceable carbon-copied soldiers.

    That defined our approach to world building. We wanted to create a game that responds to your actions, characters that have their own agenda, and events that follow their own logic. You can try things, fool around and see what comes out of it.


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    Freedom of exploration

    We decided we shouldn’t hold the player’s hand or force them down one path or another. Travel on the satellite map, talk to anyone you like, be naughty or nice - or just fight your way to the end of the game without giving a damn. The player freedom of exploration is the core of the Jagged Alliance experience.

    This approach however can easily lead to confusion. So we did our best to provide hints where the main content is - while we took care not to actually guide the player to “go there and do that”.

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    The quest notes can be picked in a variety of ways - you could find a clue to a story by interacting with an object, talking to a civilian or even overhearing the enemy. For example, a civilian may tell you about a “demon from hell” that is murdering poachers in the savanna and nailing horns on their heads in evil mockery; or you can just stumble upon one of the bodies. In both cases you will be gently encouraged to visit the Poacher camp where you will learn that indeed there is some psycho who enjoys hunting the hunters. You will be promised payment if you find this person and do something about him.

    satmap_small.jpg.30964b1cf3f5652db52fd171c23c9730.jpgThe game tracks the development of the story and provides little cues about the sectors it leads to, but you can act upon them at your own pace. In this case, asking around will give you the name of the culprit and possibly the list of the locations where the poachers practiced their not-that-noble craft. If you explore these maps and search the bodies, you may track, or perhaps be tracked by the hunter of hunters.

    Notice that a gang of bad guys happens to be making a diamond delivery just at one of the sectors you were looking for. This is not scripted, it’s a coincidence - but it surely sounds like two birds with one stone!


     

    And when you eventually find that guy, what will you do? Start shooting, or have a chat first? You may don’t like the poachers very much, but what if this person isn’t any better?

    It’s up to you.
     

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    We have more than 150 beautiful hand-crafted maps to explore, above ground and underground.

    It would be pity if they existed only as tactical background to battles, so we made sure to provide lots of little things to discover. Having a diverse mercenary team will open up possibilities - from just salvaging parts of wrecked equipment that can be used to improve the mercs’ weapons, to the whole complexity of a crime investigation.
     

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    Freedom of choice

    We wanted to give players as much explicit and implicit choice as possible. But what is choice without a consequence? Ideally, the game would react to every decision you do and reward you with narrative or mechanical consequences - though this is not quite possible to guarantee. Freedom of choice comes with a price: the more branches a conversation or a mission provides, the less content we would be able to create in general. We solved this conundrum by weighing up the content case by case: there are minor encounters that just tell you a story - if you care to look closer; and there are huge quests that span across the map and involve multiple characters and sectors.

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    In total, there are dozens of side quests in JA3, of which no two are alike. We refrained from creating simple “kill” and “fetch” quests. There is usually some kind of a twist or a trap, so watch your step.

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    Choices matter

    How the story unfolds depends on your actions and you should expect to pay the price for your choices.

    Killed characters will stay dead, and by dispensing frontier justice you may gain or lose Loyalty with the local population. Your own mercs may agree or disagree with certain decisions, resulting in a Morale boost or loss, and they will sometimes even take things in their own hands. Secret playable characters may decide to join you if they like the choices you have made.

    And ultimately, by the end of the game the way in which you resolved the main quests and certain side quests will determine the fate of your mercs - and the future of the country of Grand Chien.
     

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    The country of Grand Chien

    The wide Adjani river is flowing through barrens, jungles, marshes, savanna and slums. It is a country where ancient traditions are tangled with the somewhat more modern way of life, landmarks from times immemorial lay side by side with gaudy statues and wild gangs fight over the hastily dug diamond quarries.

    The names of people and places reflect the turbulent colonial history of the country. Although there are settlements with names that indicate their German origin - such as Landsbach and the ill-fated Wassergrab, - the most of the Adjani province is speaking French. That’s why at the foot of the Gargantuan mountains lies the small city of Pantagruel, and the map is dotted by Legion military camps with names like Camp Savane, Camp du Crocodile, Camp Chien Sauvage, etc.

    And since the name of the country itself has already raised some eyebrows, let me present to you the imposing, if not aesthetically pleasing, statue of its founder - the benevolent dictator Généralissime Chien.

     

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    Some of your mercenaries may express their confusion as to which of the two is the actual Generalissimus, but like I said, Grand Chien is a crazy place. Some mercs fit in naturally, others just try their best.

     

     

    As for the people of Grand Chien, there is no wonder that they do strange things while trying somehow to make a living. We refrained from going into mysticism, but we can’t promise that our characters don’t believe in weird stuff and act accordingly. So if they tell you there is a ghost in the abandoned mansion, or a witch is performing bizarre sexual rituals to the poor mine workers, just take it with a grain of salt, will you?

     

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    ...Unless it is teddy bears.

    Be always on your guard against teddy bears.

     

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    While building the world of Jagged Alliance 3, we aimed to deliver a realistic experience - and generally avoid fiction. However, time and again we had to go back to the confines of Mark Twain’s famous quote: “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.”

    With regards to good old Mr. Twain, at times we allowed ourselves a bit of fun.

     

    Soon enough it will be your turn as well to explore Grand Chien and see for yourself!

     

    Radomir Mirchev

    Senior narrative designer & writer of Jagged Alliance 3

    PS: If you have any further questions, or simply wish to chat about Jagged Alliance 3, feel free to join us in our DevStream on Thursday, 20th of April on the THQ Nordic channel: http://twitch.tv/thqnordic
    Until then, commander!

     


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    I really welcome the part "freedom of choice".. but isn't it in contradiction with "choice matters"? New screens are also welcomed (even in potato quality..). From new screens, world doesn't seem to be so cluttered as it did in trailers (except the last one here).

    For me, I am not sure if "dozenS quests + main quest", "crime investigation" and "searching for a clue" is what I need in JA2. There is a hint about "wisdom check" - what means some clues needs stats to be revealed, in one screen. If these things are optional, and not the main course of a game.. I don't mind.

    Thanks for new info! World looks beautiful in my eyes. Nice models, environment and atmosphere. With night/day cycle kicking in, it's gonna be adventure to explore the surroundings, I believe.

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    I think the world design looks great. Also the rpg part sounds good. I think

    What can we expect with "Travel on the satellite map"? From my understanding there is no helicopter or car, so does this work like in JA2, where you need a couple of hours to moove between the maps and can also run into ambushes, etc?

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    1 hour ago, Reloecc said:

    Based on statement "This is not scripted, it’s a coincidence", big question: So quests are somehow randomized?

    I guess he was talking about the convoy passing by, not the quest.
    Maybe quests have some randomisation though. In JA2 there was some for small quests, like the hidden outlaws, some stashes locations and such.

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    1 hour ago, Bloodcat said:

    I think the world design looks great. Also the rpg part sounds good. I think

    What can we expect with "Travel on the satellite map"? From my understanding there is no helicopter or car, so does this work like in JA2, where you need a couple of hours to moove between the maps and can also run into ambushes, etc?

    They talked about boat travels, and yes we saw in some trailers squads moving from sector to sector and taking time to do so.

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    Excellent update and I really like the new screenshots. I was wondering how much the camera would be zoomed in by default? I was thinking that, if zoomed in too close, it would give the impression that the battlefield maps would be somewhat small. However, it appears that the camera can be moved by choice and also if something is happening, such as conversation between your mercs and the people of Grand Chien, the camera zooms in to provide focus.

    Attacking convoys and capturing items or money looks like missions you can decide to do yourself. I assume that some form of intelligence, such as an NPC will tell you about convoy routes in the area but it is then up to you to decide if you want to intercept that convoy. Therefore, it isn't so much a quest mission or side quest, but rather an optional quest that occurs at random and every so often throughout the game.

    I am still wondering about convoys either by road or river. Roads would most likely be patrolled but you would be able to utilise these roads yourself to get around the country faster, while risking being spotted. Rivers, I assume will have patrol boats and other occasional traffic. This will be another quick way of getting round if you can commandeer boats (or hire them).

    What about airports and what methods will there be in shipping new equipment in? I read that there wouldn't be a Bobby Ray's equivalent, so how is better quality equipment brought into the country for your mercs? Will it be by road or river, if not by plane, and instead of it being a website to order from, will you have an NPC contact on site, either someone you get to know, or a liaison working with A.I.M.?

    Finally, can you capture vehicles to get around the country? I am thinking that if you are not buying vehicles or paying to be transported, there could be situations where you can take command of a vehicle from a convoy you capture, providing the vehicle remains intact. There might even be a short timeframe of it being usable to get past road checkpoints without combat immediately occurring. That is, until the enemy command structure realises one of their convoys never made it to the intended destination and work out that you could be driving a missing truck.

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    18 minutes ago, Solaris_Wave said:

    What about airports and what methods will there be in shipping new equipment in? I read that there wouldn't be a Bobby Ray's equivalent, so how is better quality equipment brought into the country for your mercs? Will it be by road or river, if not by plane, and instead of it being a website to order from, will you have an NPC contact on site, either someone you get to know, or a liaison working with A.I.M.?

    From my understanding, there will be vendors on the map that sell weapons. We haven't seen this yet though so so far all we know for sure is picking up weapons off of dead enemies. Man, I'm really gonna miss Bobby Ray's.

    18 minutes ago, Solaris_Wave said:

    Finally, can you capture vehicles to get around the country? I am thinking that if you are not buying vehicles or paying to be transported, there could be situations where you can take command of a vehicle from a convoy you capture, providing the vehicle remains intact. There might even be a short timeframe of it being usable to get past road checkpoints without combat immediately occurring. That is, until the enemy command structure realises one of their convoys never made it to the intended destination and work out that you could be driving a missing truck.

    They mentioned there would be no transportation by vehicle in this way in an old livestream.

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    The multiple vendors is understandable but like others have said, hopefully the shops within the country don't have access to high quality equipment, waiting for you to acquire the money before you can buy them. From a logical perspective, if the shops have good gear and the military doesn't, you can be certain that a number of those soldiers will simply decide to raid the entire lot and use it for themselves. Therefore, most vendors should only have what the local militaries have, except that they would have guns in better condition and the inclusion of the odd weapon here and there that is considered higher quality.

    That would then leave the black marketeers who operate secretly in the back of innocent looking shops or in bars and nightclubs. Maybe a travelling black marketeer is another choice.

    As for picking up better items off of dead enemies, I am hoping they will mostly be standard issue equipment, nothing special, with the random chance that one soldier might have got themselves something nicer through capturing something in the past, maybe off a dead merc who was in country before your team. High quality gear should be saved for elite enemy forces, named individual enemies, possible foreign organised gangs who have come to Grand Chien to profit from the carnage and finally, enemy mercs and Private Military Contractors that the enemy leader hires against your guys after you have become too much of a hindrance to him.

    Talking of enemy PMCs, I mentioned that some time ago how I think having something like that in the game would be interesting. They are hired by the main antagonist to wipe you out and work independently from his own armies. They have equipment that is high quality because they have all come from other countries. They would move around from sector to sector, undoing what you have done or trying to kill your mercs outright. If you manage to kill them, they don't replenish. In a way, they could act as a collective mini-boss.

    There could also be individual named enemies that are mercs. These are enemies who are already in Grand Chien by the time you get there. These mercs would kind of behave independently of the standard enemies but could randomly join them to fight you. As your mercs get better and make more of an impact, you could find that bounties have been placed on your mercs. The named enemy mercs would try to capitalise on this. They need to be a significant challenge and not killed as soon as you meet them. If the battle is going against them and they think they can flee, they will do it, leaving you to face them again somewhen. One of these characters could be a sniper, who may assist the enemy soldiers in a sector but independent enough to know when to leave if you start to win. Throughout the game they would then build up a reputation for the player themselves and maybe even affect the morale of your mercs if they realise this sniper is out there in the same sector.

    Some of us talked about this idea in another thread so, enemy mercs like this deadly sniper would be a good addition to the game and provide extra tension. Also, the bounty collection works both ways. The guys that have hired you and have the money to spend, or warlords that look to become a bigger player in the overall picture, could put a bounty on the enemy mercs for you to gain. If it was a warlord that has done this, you could initially be seen to be working together and take that money but you know that in the long term this warlord coming to power will do nothing worthwhile for the country, as they are just another despot or dictator.

     

    Lastly, it is a shame if vehicles cannot be used in any way. Rivers and roads would obviously be provision for them and if you had to walk everywhere, it would be slow. The option should be there, even if it means the risk is greater because the noise of the vehicle would alert enemies to your presence.

    Edited by Solaris_Wave
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    The world design and music are really lovely. You can feel the African vibes everywhere. The lively towns with all the villagers are great. I hope in the end our choices really matter and will have a big impact on our mercs, the combat and the story so that every playthrough will be totally different.

     

    But I am still missing some kind of animation or cutscene how the mercs arrive with their helicopter or boat. Hopefully such details will be in the final build. Also I hope that we can loot more enemies and objects. Exploring is really important and random loot could help to create a more fascinating and diversified world.

     

    I have to be honest but right now the portraits, conversations and comments of the mercs really feel lifeless. I really miss the lively animated faces and all the funny comments. Maybe the comments are reduced and not finished yet but there must be more dialogues between the mercs and in the combat situations. Sadly the stiff pictures of the characters (portraits, conversations) can not transport the JA2 atmosphere.

     

    It feels like XCOM with JA3 characters. A flickering hire screen is also missing. That does not feel like real conversations with someone on the other side of the planet. Lifeless pictures kill most of the atmosphere for me. It just feels like an interactive comic when I look at the conversations. The very colorful and cartoony art is also reducing the feeling that I act in a serious and brutal world. 

     

    So please get more life in the portraits, conversations, hire screen and dialogues between the mercs. It is so important for a JA title or it will be a nice game but not a real JA2 successor. 

    Edited by WILDFIRE
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    While I am now personally okay with the fixed portraits (as they are hand painted, I assume and harder to animate), @WILDFIRE mentioned something that could be a good addition and that is some kind of interference over their portraits when talking to them via the A.I.M. website, prior to hiring them. Internet speeds were slow back then, broadband wasn't widely available and was primitive, and video camera resolutions were low.

    Edited by Solaris_Wave
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    When you look at the animated JA2 portraits, hire screen and conversations you could see and feel the emotions of the characters. Sorry that I sound like a broken record but that still beats every conversation in JA3 by far. Static lifeless pictures can never replace lively faces that are angry, happy and so on. 

     

    That is what I loved about JA2. Sadly no one can recreate that even over 20 years later.

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    The NPC screens look a bit meh, I much preferred the animated talking heads when having a conversation in JA2, it does look cartoony comic book looking. but I can put up with it. I don't think animated portraits are happening, maybe they see it as too difficult and not worth it to implement?

    Edited by Acid
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    On the positives though, the world design looks real good (hope there'll be some animal life in there), hope we can zoom out a bit more and from a top down view, I liked the sounds and music, getting the JA2 vibes from the music. Also the inventory seems ok, I'm not too bothered by it like some are. 

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    Now that I brought out my unfiltered thoughts about the beta with some criticism I will also give my feedback about the good elements in the game.

     

    The animations of the character models and the sound design are great. It seems like you heard some of my feedback or it was always in the game but the mercs really move their body/arms with their weapon now as if they were really aiming while they wait for orders. They also roll over objects or slide into cover and the movement from position to position while shooting a weapon looks so much more fluid and smooth now. When a weapon was shot you can hear scared birds that fly away and overall the diversified music is outstanding. All this details really bring this world alive. Very well done!

     

    That you can sneak through all sectors and that you can kill all enemies quietly is also amazing. That will give us some extra challenges. Can you beat the campaign completely in stealth mode? If this is possible we get a really diversified experience. And the weather is also implemented and is important on the battlefield. It will influence all combat situations. This is also amazing! Now that the game world will also react to all our actions and will change through the playthrough with all the decisions we have to make the whole experience will feel much more realistic and natural. 

     

    I have just one thing in the combat that came to my mind that needs to be fixed. The whole crosshair should be directly on the body part that you aim in that moment, so that it feels like real aiming and not just a menu. Also the crosshair maybe could move a little bit so that it simulates real aiming.

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    On 4/20/2023 at 4:51 AM, Phallus_Maximus_Sextus_Non said:

    Oh God...

    Shex.png

    it's disgusting... where?

    Jokes aside, i realy liked the article. The world would be dull and liveless, if there wasn't any quests or individuals taking the opportunity to "hire" you for their own tasks, when you are there to "help".
    So I'm looking forward to it and i usually like doing side quests as they can bring some valueable loot, most of the times.

    Plus: i really love the duality of things: there is usually no good or bad, just two sides and two perspectives. What seems odd to one, may be normal to another.
    So please don't make things black and white, but add layers and depth into the quests. 

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    The graphics are really beautiful and the presentation of the world is enticing.

    It seems to be tropical climate. Will we have rain and storms?

    Which kind of animals are living in the area? Could we interact with some of them?

    You were speaking of diamonds. Is there some diamond mine in the area?

    When the action is taking place? In the 2020s?

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    1 hour ago, Image Miroir said:

    The graphics are really beautiful and the presentation of the world is enticing.

    It seems to be tropical climate. Will we have rain and storms?

    Which kind of animals are living in the area? Could we interact with some of them?

    You were speaking of diamonds. Is there some diamond mine in the area?

    When the action is taking place? In the 2020s?

    It's in a fictional West African country. Yes there are weather effects that can affect map exploration and combat both (as I understand it).

    I don't know if there is any player interaction with animals or not.

    There are diamond mine(s) and convoys that can be used as an income source.

    I believe it is in the early 2000s (2001 is shown at the top of the laptop interface).

    Some others may be able to answer in more detail.

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    The graphics look very beautiful to me. I'm still not sure how well it will play on a Steam deck though, really want to play it on that device.🙂

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    2 hours ago, Zwolf said:

    The graphics look very beautiful to me. I'm still not sure how well it will play on a Steam deck though, really want to play it on that device.🙂

    While I don't personally have interest in the Steam Deck, I can imagine how excellent it would be to be able to play on your home PC, have it save progress to the Cloud and then carry on with the Steam Deck while out and about!

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