[Tip for meeting Corazon/Faucheux at Refugee Camp]

So in my previous game, I didn't go to the meeting, and the story progressed anyway. This time, I saw a squad leaving the nearby base, heading for the camp, so I sent my group to intercept, arriving at exactly the same time. Interestingly, while the attack had still taken place, instead of 'firestorm' weather, it was a clear day.

Rather than go and speak to Faucheux (and ending up surrounded), I climbed the tower to the south of the map, and free-aimed one of the soldiers on the mesa, which kicked off the battle. Sniping them all at range was pretty straightforward, and I managed to pick up some sniper rifles and other gear I otherwise wouldn't have had. Give it a go - makes for a fun little workaround to what is normally a very difficult situation.

[JA3 resource acquisition and strategic targets?]

I'm just wondering how this will be handled in JA3. In JA1, there were no towns as such, you just captured sectors with Fallow trees, and assigned workers (which you were supposed to protect, but didn't often end up having to). In JA2, the main strategic boons were when you captured settlements (and their mines), with other things of secondary interest to be found in other sectors along the way.

I'm presuming JA3 will do it the JA2 way, but maybe a bit of the old style from JA1 would work alongside this. Do we have any info on this currently?

[Do you have a favorite merc? (JA1, JA2, Wildfire, etc..)]

In JA1 there was a much greater divide between mercs that were at all usable, and ones that were just awful (I'm looking at you, Wink E. Dickerson). As a result, my early-game merc preferences from JA1 carried over to JA2, perhaps illogically. Although nearly all battles are won because of a. marksmanship, and b. agility. Thus:

Fidel - because 'Doggy doo'.
Ice - bad ass, honky-tonk, jive-talkin' mutha-lover
Ivan - who I find quite a boring character, but he can shoot

After this, it's just a case of down scale for mules, side scale for mechanics and teachers, and upscale for better shots. These three were always my classic starting trio, though.

 

[Things you would like to see IMPROVED from JA2]

16 minutes ago, Ruan said:

Hi guys,

huge fan of JA2.

On a complete coincidence (I tidied up my mail account) I have just found a document that I sent to the devs of Jagged Alliance Back in Action.

I think that adding the chance to hit to the game (and not making it possible to disable it) takes a lot away from the game!!

Let me explain:

When playing the original JA2 a lot of the special bond the player formed with his mercs came from just knowing what you could entrust them with and what not. You would look at the screen judge the distance, evaluate the enemies cover and then think:

 

„Ira just can't do that, I better let her aim really carefully (click 5 times)“

 

or „ok miguels got a scope but it's night and that guys behing that crate, maybe I can take a semi carefully aimed shot“.

 

Or „Man I've got level 9 I 've got high dex, I can aim quickly. I am gonna sneak up on him and take three quick shots“

 

You really had to weigh your mercs prows and skills aswell as the situation. If you add a percentage to the screen showing the probability, you take all these considerations away from the player. Maybe thus we will not bond as much with the mercs as before. With to-hit percentagees I will think „oh Ira only 60 %“ rather than „better aim carefully ira I know you are not a good shooter“

 

PLEASE do at least include an option to the game (ideally for a whole playthrough (so as not to tempt the player to turn on the display of percentages while playing) that disables the display of to-hit probabilties.

 

 

Otherwise: Looking forward to a -- hopefully worthy -- successor to one of my most favorit games of all times. It is always difficult with these pesky long time fans (like myself 😉 ) to get the things to change and to keep just right. But I do think there are lots of thing to modernize and lots of thinks to appreciate.

For me the most important things to keep are:

- Roleplay elements
- Management elements
- Great combat
- Great feeling of danger and imminent death
- Awesome characters

Bump - agree 100% with this.

[Should JA3 have an initiative system - or stick to IGOUGO?]

I'm a bit torn about this. I've enjoyed having initiative as a stat in other games (e.g. Battle Brothers, Wasteland 2/3, Fallout 1/2 etc), but notably, I never missed it in JA1 or 2.

Just wondering whether it would be a worthy inclusion in JA3? Anyone have any thoughts?

[What are the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM FEATURES you would require (or hate) for JA3 to be what it's name implies?]

Ooh, PS - just thought: this woul;d never make it as an official JA3, but sometime, somewhere, it would be great to have a merc management version of JA, a al Battle Brothers/BattleTech/Wartales etc. Instead of being the contractor hiring the mercs, you're the manager of AIM. I think that'd make a SUPERB game.

[What are the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM FEATURES you would require (or hate) for JA3 to be what it's name implies?]

Absolute minimum features? To be honest, I'd be overjoyed with a remake of JA2, just with better graphics, in a new setting.

That said, top of the list is 'turn-based'. I can't even bring myself to Google the names of the real-time pause efforts of recent past - it just has to be turned based combat, end of story.

Moving down the wishlist, yeah, I think the merc personalities should be a thing. Humour, and off-beat humour at that, should definitely stay. Building on the rivalry thing, in JA2, there were one or two rivalries you had to watch out for, otherwise one of them quit. This mechanism could stay, but be expanded upon - quitting doesn't have to be the final result. Other nerfs could be implemented to reflect inter-merc disagreements.

Stealth mechanics in JA2 were ok, but could really be improved upon. Somehow related to this, I want to say something about martial arts - kind of implemented in JA2, but you could never use it - it was just weak. Some kind of character build with stealth/martial arts would be superb. There would need, though, to be a mechanism to prevent both stealth and martial arts being spammed. Or maybe not - I dunno.

Next up, neither JA or JA2 really got the roster right, great as some of the characters were. In both games, a large proprotion of the availble mercs were useless at any point of the game, and nobody ever hired them, unless they really wanted a challenge. Put it this way - if you're hiring Pops McGillicutty because that's all you could afford, you might as well start a new game. The lower third of the entire roster in JA was junk, and much of the mid tier. I'm looking at you, Tex R. Colburn, Jimmy Upton, and Wink E. Dickerson - just no use, at all. In JA2, you at least had the likes of Bull, the cheapest Merc in the opening game, but at least he could open stuff for you - and he often survived to just do that, right to the end. Realistically balancing the economy with merc abilities should be key, with far less 'filler' mercs. Opening the game with Ice, Ivan, Fidel, and user-defined merc gets boring.

Moving on - maybe a bit of randomisation of stats among the well known characters. One of the things that grew tiring, as replayable as JA2 was, was that everyone was exactly the same, every time. It would be interesting if stats were changed up each game, meaning that when you're looking at the AIM roster at the start, you really do have to look and evaluate each time. Reviewing each character's value (both practically and financially) would breathe new life into things.

Stand/crouch/prone - say no more.

Weapon customisation - yes.

Strategy layer/tactical layer - yes.

Free roam on the strategy layer, as opposition permits - yes.

Resource procurement from captured sectors - yes.

Fragments of mystery notes the player needs to figure out within a time limit (like JA) - hell yes.

Voice-over descripton of objects with inappropriate amounts of reverb; 'A sausage - in good condition!'

There's much, much more I could list as things I'd like as a minimum, but much of the above is really a wish list. If we ever even see this game, I'll be amazed.