Grim

For all the critiques I've read here and on discord, the game seems to be surprisingly highly rated, this far. It's quite a surprise.

W-what? You, being somewhat positive about this game? Giving it 4/5? Are you ill? Did your cat write that on your stead? 🫣

Rating a game without having played it is a bit odd. Let's say it's a hype meter, then I'd say 4/5. (somewhere between 3 and 4 actually)

I am a little worried about mercs with level>1 since they will already have perks attributed. They can end up being very bad, or at least not what you'd want, where low level mercs are blank slates. You can put their perk points where you want while they level. This is part of the gameplay, sure, but since low level mercs often have excellent attributes and low cost, they might be the only way to go, leaving the higher end mercs to the bin.

AFAIK, there are talents, speciality traits, psychological trait, and perks. (names?) Talents are the special action or passive unique to a character. Speciality traits are equivalent to JA2 perks (ambidextruous, auto weapons...) Psychological traits are like in JA2 (hidden there), fear of insects, psycho, ... Perks are the boni you can get each level (so 9 max?), from the perk table, with unlocks by attribute level (70/80/90) and number of perk points already spent in the line. Now you can be more precise about what you want to talk about 😉

I got this one in the last humble choice. I had some fun playing it, however it reminds me what I didn't like in the new XCOMs : the enemy pods, spawning enemies when the game decides you have LOS on them, and forcing you to make little steps with your group. And their content getting stronger while time passes, forcing you to the arms race. Other than that, quite enjoyable.

Thank you Remi1987 for making those polls. They are by no means representative of the whole player base opinion, but help to shape some general tendencies.

Sir, you are stuck in JA2. For your own sake, you should go back and play it again. No other game will ever satisfy you, because it seems you only want JA2. JA2 remaster will never happen, this is not possible. If someone ever want to try this, you will not like it because it will never have exactly the same feel. The best thing you can experience is 1.13 or some other JA2 mod. If you want to play another Jagged Alliance game, you have to let go some of your expectations and embrace the new take on the licence, or you will ever be unsatisfied.

https://www.underground-games.rocks/faq

I thought about something like that, when several hot topics came up, yet it was very difficult to know the general opinion of players about them. This could provide a measurable feedback to the devs. Not perfect but still significative.

That "Ask thieves" site intrigues me, a lot! *hyped*

No, from what I've seen, medical herbs serve as consumables when doctoring (satellite map operation), or to refill healing kits. Mercs still need healing kits (medikits?) to "bandage" on the field. Those are items in individual inventories. I don't know, I didn't notice that particular action. I don't remember if item exchange can be done during combat. I guess so, unless rockets are inventory items only.

Above, I stated the facts, what we currently have. Now, what do I think about it? Well, I love equipping my mercs like dolls soldiers, JA2 1.13 with NIV was golden for me, with LBE, plenty of items, mags and all. I'd really love to have something similar here. However, I get that it's not for everyone, and understand the devs tried to take a middle ground here, simplifying ammo management, and not cluttering merc inventory with a ton of items, plus one hour to prepare them individually before each encounter. I hope they will allow this part of the gameplay moddable, so each one can tweak the system to his preferences. There are already slots, items taking 2 slots, strength affecting the inventory, and worn items with effects on the character stats. I guess this can be tweaked for other results.

AFAIK, inventory works like this : - Each merc has his own inventory, where he can put items in several slots. He can exchange items with another merc when close. * Slots : Their number depends on the STRENGTH value (more STR, more slots). One slot can contain a small weapon, an item (medic bag) or several small items (grenades, knives...). You can put ammo there too. Two slots can contain a large weapon (rifle, rocket launcher, etc) - Each squad has a shared inventory, dedicated to ammo, scrap and medicinal herbs. It is accessible by any member anywhere in the sector's map. It eases the reloads as ammo is taken from this pool. - Each sector has an inventory (sector stash), where any item can be stored. It can be accessed only from this sector, and not outside of it. I hope this clarifies a bit what we are talking about.

I wish great enjoyment to those who bought this CE. I would have bought one if the content was interesting to me. Sadly, I didn't find those goodies at my taste. Image Miroir mentions a few ways this could have gotten more interesting, adding something one could not find elsewhere. The collection cards could have been something of interest, however they offer nothing more than basic info and portrait you can find in the game. They could have contained special intel, hints about them, or present like a "file", helping the player to choose his team. Or be a card game in itself with stats to play with, or be part of a role playing game or anything. Collector's editions should be made by dev teams, not marketing teams. They need passion, detail, intellectual value more than gadget value, much like old game boxes filled with info dense manuals, maps, cyphers and whatnot.

Why? No, it depends on the sway given to the missed shot, but in many situations the odds of hitting should be non negligible. Shooting up close should give plenty of miss -> lucky hit. If you have played JA2 1.13 NCTH, all the shots use the miss code from JA2, with parameters to manage the hit cone width. In that mode, you actually hit people, you know, less often than in JA2 vanilla, but only because this is intended.

It seems weapon ranges are shrinked in JA3 like in JA2, to fit the map size and more importantly, to allow all weapons to be viable. Too large maps would actually be very tedious in a tun based game. I know the video/discussion you are talking about, I saw it. Yes it looks a bit ridiculous, but it was the same in JA2 and for a good reason, the same as above, the shrinked weapon/engagement ranges. Therefore, the mercs have to be able to close the enemy enough to engage with melee/pistol/throwing stealthily. In worse conditions, they will be able to engage really close, but if not silent, the fight will begin and alarm a lot of opponents. You know what, I guess I understand where you are coming from, I played AIMNAS + large maps and it was a blast, but this is a completely different experience, they are doing JA3, a tactical game with a lot of freedom of gameplay, not a military sim. They have to balance the game and make some hard choices in favor of gameplay and at detriment to realism. If you only aim at the general shape, you will never be a good shot. If you aim at a very specific thing, you will have a chance to do it. In the end, it may be a very subtle thing concerning your aiming action, like pointing very very very little upwards/downward/left/right depending on what you want to hit, but you can always "aim" at something. Once again, that does not mean you should be able to have good odds to do it. That's where the game has to calculate a reasonnable CTH or bullet trajectory. You may not understand how shooting is working in JA2 and JA3 : You have a CTH the target. >If you score under the CTH, you hit, and the bullet goes straight at the point you aimed at. >If you score over the CTH, you miss, and then the game calculates a random trajectory for the bullet, diverging on x and y from the original coordinates in the plane of the point you aimed at (or something like that). If that new trajectory crosses the path of something, it interacts (wound, ricochet, penetration...) If you aim at the head, the missed shot can end up anywhere, but statistically has a chance to hit the original target in the torso>arms>legs. Yes, it is taking artistic license far, I agree. But the gameplay benefits are non negligible. It seems in JA3 you will be roaming a big map, and not necessarily have a "base". The player has to be able to use mechanics and mod weapons in the field. Cluttering the inventory with dozen attachments seems a bad idea. That said, in JA2 there were some military grade attachments, sure, but there were the DIY attachments too. They did a mix of both worlds here. One other thing you might have missed is the other ingredients/parts necessary for certain attachments (steel tube, chip, lens,...?). A foregrip will only need scrap, where a scope will need lenses, as example. I agree with you on several topics, but I feel like you are pushing a bit too far on some aspects without considering the compromises that have to be made for the game to work (on several levels, gameplay, audience, complexity vs playability, fun vs chore).

1) I don't understand your point. The only way certain weapons would be less useful is with too large maps. Those would be melee, pistols, smgs, throwing, grenades... Too small maps may only affect snipers and rocket launchers at most, yet snipers are reportedly already very strong in the game. 2) No, you're talking about stealth detection, not line of sight. It can look a bit stupid, yes, but to balance the feature it is necessary to allow mercs to approach stealthily rather close to the ennemy. 3) I don't understand this critique. Of course anyone can aim at a bodypart at any range. The unlikely is to effectively hit that body part. My problem with this is with the current system of aiming, if you miss you cannot hit another body part. This is a major issue in the design yet Boian already said in another thread they would reevaluate it. 6) Boyan already said there were another sources of interrupts, and enemies later in the campaign would be more of a challenge. I've seen some perks with interrupt effects, like when shot at you can shoot back, or a melee one like attack of opportunity (D&D). 7) I loved JA2 and 1.13 inventory system, but let's pretend to be the devil's advocate. Heamimont system simplifies a lot the clutter. You need a weapon mod, you build it from only one stack of scrap. You don't have to amass dozens of secondary items in your inventory. It is logic with the inventory system they chose, simple and with only a few slots per merc. Actually closer to JA1 than JA2. My concern with this current system is that You cannot get back that scrap removing the mod it seems. I kinda agree with the rest.

Yes, Headrock nailed it with NCTH back then, I wish more games did the same. Phoenix Point did something similar. For JA3 they chose a system closer to vanilla JA2, I can't blame them. We have to live with it and give feedback to make it work the best way possible as it is. NCTH did at least one thing wrong IMHO, with the optics. They natively reduced the aiming cone. Instead, they should have allowed more precise aiming (more clics) at specific ranges. It has been changed over the time but never was perfect.

I just read an article about "Stranded : Alien Dawn", another game by Heamimont. Although it must be another team developping it, I was surprised to see character portraits very adapted to Jagged Alliance. More serious, realistic, centered and looking forward. This style would have been very good in JA3 (IMHO). Current portraits don't bother me that much, but the coincidence was interesting and fun.

Leader : IMP Mechanic : Livewire Explosives : Barry Medic, sniper, combat starter : Fox Heavy weapons : Grizzly Extra : Blood

That -50% damage on burst/auto bothers me too, but I get why they are doing it that way. An accuracy penalty would mean a lot of misses, and since we don't have a visible CTH, the educated guess would be messed up a bit.

Hongweibing is right.

Carrying downed mercs to cover would be a great addition indeed.👍

This is not confusing to me. You missed the body part you aimed, but the bullet trajectory went through another.. It's more confusing hitting ONLY the body part you aimed. My sentiment is, most people would prefer that and you may have to reconsider, from what I've read from the community.