Haemimont_Boian

Thanks for the question! I would say the level-up speed for each individual character is slower than many other games (both tactical and RPGs) - this is both because of legacy reasons and because we have more characters to level up than most other games. Still, level 10 is reachable, although not easily, throughout the campaign with your I.M.P. merc that starts at level 1. Keep in mind that we are still tweaking game balance so this may yet change on the road to release.

Just wanted to drop in and share that I am very happy with the reaction I am seeing here. Fauda is one of my favorite new mercs as well and I think she fits the gritty world of Jagged Alliance very well. We needed several rounds of casting to get her voice right and I am pretty happy with the end result and can't wait for you guys to hear it.

I want to add my voice to the choir here. Working together with Ian on JA3 is a rare privilege! He is a really cool colleague and a tremendous creative asset for the project! Not to mention that his creations inspired me and gave me many pleasant hours of gameplay just like with the others commenting in this thread.

Hey Korandor, Glad you picked this up! The new trailer actually doesn't suffer from the problem we discussed before but there is a reason behind what you are observing. Different weapons and even ammo are more unique in JA3, hopefully more realistic as well. Specifically shotguns often have a close range "area attack" combined with their normal simulated attack, the idea behind this being that some kinds of shotgun ammo inflict practically guaranteed collateral damage at close range (unless there is an object that shields the target from the blast). This is also indicated by the cone you can observe while the attack is being set up. The collateral damage is much less than the damage from the simulated attack but can sometimes be useful to finish off an enemy or wound someone standing next to the intended target. On the other hand, an ally in the way makes things more complicated in this case, creating interesting gameplay situations and decisions. Different attacks may use one or many simulated bullets. If this was a assault rifle on autofire every individual bullet would've been simulated instead. More on this when we dissect combat in the next Dev Diaries! Edit: Funny how this is related with the discussion for missing at point blank range we had in the very same thread. In case of the shotgun blast shown on the trailer, you will usually deal some damage to close targets, but it will be much less than with an accurate attack.

It is emblematic about game development in general 🙂

Thanks for your thoughts! I just wanted to clarify that while other playable characters are in the game and can join you, they are included in the number above (40). Don't want anyone being disappointed, expecting 40 mercs in the roster at start. All of these characters are fully fleshed-out and with comparable number of lines and other content as the AIM mercs.

Thanks for the interesting questions. I plan to go more in depth when the combat DevDiary (or possibly DevDiaries?) comes up at a later time but it is good to know what you find interesting in advance and it might impact the content of the said DevDiary.

This is more in THQ marketing department's domain, however looking at their other titles I am certain there will be many differently themed trailers on our way to release.

I like Reaper as well, however we have not announced the full merc list at this time. Keep your eyes peeled for future announcements and trailers if you want to see if your favorite merc made it in to the roster!

Can't talk about this subject at this point, sorry. Edit: To clarify, I am not in a position to announce any unannounced features (or their absence), so I might sound like a broken record every time anyone asks me "would X be in the game". I am allowed, however, to elaborate on some details about announced features and especially what we have already talked about in a DevDiary.

Your thoughts as well as the thoughts of the people farther in the thread are in sync with my own... More importantly, the turn based combat is an abstraction for a real battle - I imagine these people are moving and dashing throughout the battlefield, not staying in place like statues, one might drop down, move unpredictably, unexpectedly push the gun barrel of the other when they are standing so close and so on. Let's talk more about this when the combat DevDiary happens!

Possible? Yes. It is possible that we don't release them as well. Edit: We do know that such tools are both important and desired and you passion here is appreciated!

I can only quote what we said at Gamescom:

Hi Solaris_Wave, Even if we don't react and reply in all threads, rest assured that we are reading everything! I just want to limit the discussions I engage in a bit in order to get other work done 🙂 There is a fine line between realism and gameplay demands in every game. For example, while the weapons in JA2 (and even more so in 1.13) felt very realistic, one could argue that their "effective combat ranges" weren't due to the size of the maps. Or that you shouldn't survive a headshot with a firearm as often as you did in JA2... Or that the damage should be more lethal in general... As stated in the DevDiary, we want our combat to "feel" as realistic as the combat in JA2 felt and we are always evaluating the design and balance issues from this perspective. That being said, it is not the only possible perspective - individual expectations for realism in specific situation vary and the gameplay demands sometimes present difficult choices before us. You will be surprised how many design discussions we had in which two "gun nuts" on the team didn't quickly agree about which approach will be more realistic or when we had to balance gameplay considerations, realities of development and realism against each other... For these reasons, while I think JA3 is more realistic than almost all tactical games out there, even than JA2 in some aspects, I am certain some specifics will clash with individual expectations as well. One popular topic of discussion in the design team is "should you be able to miss with a firearm at point-blank range in a turn-based tactical game?" Currently this is possible in JA3, as it was in JA2, however you would be surprised how many people find it unrealistic due to their own expectations. What do you think?

I will comment more on this in a future Combat focused DevDiary, but I can assure you that the scenario you described is certainly possible in JA3 as well. I think you can see an example of a wall being destroyed in one of the trailers. Edit (found it!):

Don't forget about hearing our horrendous accents 🙂 Edit: Also, the dog mascot, I distinctly remember a dog mascot from the videos that we shot...

There was a camera crew in our office yesterday and the day before. We also have some pretty interesting footage from the months before. I will be very disappointed if I don't see video materials, although they sometimes might be released separately from the DevDiary articles.

Thanks for your kind words - they mean a lot both to me and to the Dev team! Yup, barring something unexpected, DevDiaries should come on a regular basis from now on. I am not authorized to reveal the schedule, but it exists (!) and you will soon develop a feel for the timing.

Hey Korandor! Thank you for the many interesting questions and most importantly - for your interest in the game! I am very excited to finally be able to share some more specific info, although I will have to keep some details for later DevDiaries. Trailer shots are sometimes recorded many times over and over, so it is important to guarantee the same outcome for each "take". In the specific trailer that you analyzed this was not done in the best way, resulting in the wrong impression. In addition we were still hammering out some kinks in the bullet simulation, which is one of the more involved and demanding systems in the game. Both accurate and inaccurate shots are randomized and follow different trajectories, damaging objects and units on their path, penetrating objects and bodies depending on ammo properties and materials and causing chaos and collateral damage. Without going into further detail (saving this for a combat DevDiary) I will say that barring bugs and trailer fakery, they should behave as you expect them to - e.g. a missed attack might hit another character standing next to the target and an accurate attack does damage to objects on the way before and after the target (if it penetrates its body). JA3 is set very closely after the events in JA2 (there isn't a time gap, like it was the case with JA1 and JA2) so we decided it is best to keep close to the original stats. Their stories and bios are developed as much as you can expect in this short period. What do you mean, there were JA games after Sir-Tech😉??? Seriously, we are not considering these titles as canon. In any case, many of them are set after the events in our story. Alas, there isn't an Alumni/Hall of Fame page, but you will learn what happened with some familiar characters. The Hamous/Ice Truck encounter is a nice example of our preferred approach.

I can't wait for this as well, but unfortunately I am not really in a position to provide such an estimate. I thank you all for your patience - I believe both the DevDiaries and the game itself will be worth the wait.

867, give or take a few (at least according to our developer database)

Hey Wigen, It is certainly possible to go prone - we feel that the ability to have fine control over your actions in combat, such as choosing your stance, is a key element that differentiates Jagged Alliance from almost all the tactical games out there! I can also confirm that vision range is limited and you cannot normally see all enemies. I can't comment on the camouflage at this time, suffice it to say that there is an involved stealth system that we will present in detail some day. Sorry for dropping so rarely on the forums - I have been very busy with development recently (good news is that the game is coming up excellent)! I expect to be here more often once we have green light for the dev diaries from marketing.

Gamescom was awesome! We thought the reaction was very positive and it felt like a huge morale boost for the entire team 🙂 Personally, I am happy that we finally shared some concrete info about the game!

Excellent questions and I believe we have good answers for them! Our team is currently at Gamescom, giving interviews and making presentations and I know that some of the answers will be revealed there, after the press embargo expires. Keep an eye out for articles and interviews published directly after Gamescom!

While I can't wait to answer all your questions, we are still waiting for green light from THQ marketing and really can't talk about anything specific before we have permission. My personal expectation is that specific information will be coming soon, but I have been wrong before 🙂