WILDFIRE

It's simple, my team members are Kyle 'Shadow' Simmons, a knife, a gun, a rifle and the darkness.

Congratulation guys for the upcoming release. We all made it through the finish line! We waited over 20 years for this moment so let us celebrate the release day with all the Jagged Alliance fans out there.

That is a good compromise. I still think showing the CTH is not necessary, because it is against their design philosophy but with the mod everyone should be happy now.

@GODSPEED: You don't get what I am saying. You want 99% of the core elements of JA2. I know me too and thats fine. JA2 is a masterpiece and the mechanics were great. I wish we had interrupts and that we could directly aim with the mouse at body parts or that the inventory would be more complex. I wrote hundreds of posts about that. But in the end we sadly won't get that and I wanted to point out that we still get a good game. You can now criticize all day and run in a circle but we discussed all your point here many times and in the end you won't get what you (we) wanted. Buy the game or leave it. It is your choice.

@ShadowMagic: I also expected a different game in some areas but why can't you see the positive features? We get a lively beautiful game world with a detailed strategic map, weather effects, day and night circle and a deep combat that is true to the JA roots. Sure some important features are missing and not everything is how we expected but you can't only see the negative side. I am really disappointed with the lifeless portraits but I still appreciate the love for the detailed game world. I have to point out that JA3 is definitely not a nuXCOM copy, because the mechanics work completely different.(No CTH) Maybe there are elements from other games but in some cases they can also improve the experience.(the deeper RPG dialogue system with choices)

@GODSPEED: I also followed all the projects since Jagged Alliance 2 and was in contact with the devs. When Flashback was announced I was so excited and checked every day if the project was successful on kickstarter. I put my heart and soul in these projects as good as I could, because I wanted a good successor of JA2 so badly. So maybe many people can't understand why the game is so important to us. It is not just another game it is a part of our lives. Maybe this sounds a little bit extreme but just as Star Wars or Terminator it is a part of our past that we enjoyed when we were younger and that we enjoy to this day. There are not many products that can create this feeling. No one can expect when a dev team wants to create a successor of a legendary game that the fans are pleased with everything. In my opinion the game must feel like the old titles and in some areas (animated portraits for example) we won't get the game we wanted or imagined. But maybe in the gaming industry of today with a limited budget it is not possible to create the game we expect with all the features we think the game needs. That sounds really negative but I mean that in a positive way. We get a Jagged Alliance 3 that will be a good game with good graphics and a tactical basis true to its roots. Maybe we are lucky that we get that when we look at the market and the big competition. The publisher has faith in this old franchise although many people of today don't know the product. It is a risk and I guess it is not a small one. When I think about old legendary games I think about Diablo 2 or Age of Empires 2. Got these titles perfect successors? No! They were different and not exactly what every fan wanted. And these companies have way more money to create great games. So I wanted to say that we should be thankful that we get JA3 after all these years and maybe it will not be what we expected or wanted but for sure it will be a really good game and when could we say that in the last 20 years?

@ShadowMagic: There is a reason why I wrote 'not extremely important' when I thought about the walking feature. For me elements like lively animated portraits come first and I wrote endlessly about that topic over a year, because it is extremely important to me and many other JA fans. But in the end we won't get that and that is sad. Yes a walking feature is important and yes mercs should walk slowly when exhausted. Health, morale, weight and so on should influence the movement of the mercs but as I stated before I guess at this point we have to accept that we will not get everything we wanted. But maybe in the future the modding community will fix this.

The Coop Mode is an interesting feature for the Jagged Alliance Franchise. I am curious how it feels in the end when two players explore the world of Grand Chien together. There will be some great fun moments for sure. With Modding the game can reach endless opportunities for us to use all the potential of Jagged Alliance 3 in all elements of the game. New mercs, portraits, objects, weapons and realism features that can maybe rebuild the greatness of the legendary Mod v1.13 from Jagged Alliance 2.

I also think it is not extremely important that the mercs can walk but they should normally act more relaxed out of combat. As I stated that all mercs run like robots with the exact same animation should be fixed.

@Haemimont_Boian: Thank you for your answers. It is great to hear that you integrated so many details for the objects, explosions and all the beautiful sectors. I can see your passion for the project. I can't wait to test the equipment of the mercs to create my own 'entrances' in some buildings and to try new tactics in the fire fights.

I am already happy when at least all mercs don't have the same running animations. Variations in this area are definitely needed.

@Haemimont_Boian: Thank you for this new in depth combat dev diary. That stealth, the weather, darkness/light and the equipment have a deep influence on the combat mechanics is great. There are so many possibilities and circumstances where you have to change your tactics. You did an amazing job here! I am still curios about the destruction system in the game. How destructible are houses in detail? Can we blow up cars and objects to get new cover positions? Can we change the environment and the ground of the sectors? I mean something like explosion craters that can be used for cover? I know that's asking a lot but how does everything work in this area? I hope we find out in one of the next dev diaries. Thank you again for your hard work. I am counting the days until the release date. In just a few days we all can finally enjoy the game.

I also noticed the less colorful and vibrant maps in the last trailer. I hope the devs haven't changed the look of the sectors, because they were perfect in the beta. When I talked about 'too colorful' I always meant the art for the portraits/characters. Mostly the character design for the mercs and NPCs is too cartoony. But the look of the sectors were never a problem. So please don't change the look of the sectors how they were in the beta. The beautiful maps are one of the best parts of the game.

Great in depth dev diary. I love the detailed modification system for the weapons and that every change can influence the combat gameplay in many ways. Your weapon models are also very well done and look authentic. The sound design for the guns and environment is very detailed too and by far one of the best. I am curious if the different weapons can also have various effects on the enemy. I think it would be great if heavy weapons for example can scare weaker enemies so that they flee or that their aiming is influenced. Also is there a suppressive fire system in the game so that enemies can be restricted in their tactics? Overall I think we all can see how much work you put into the weapon and modification system. I can't wait to try out every gun and to change every aspect of it to get different fire fights every time.

I am really curious if the game has improved a lot after the Beta or if we get just small bug fixes. Knocked over animations for the mercs after explosions, improved stealth mechanics, better enemy AI, a sort function for the inventory, voice and body feedback (animations) for bullet hits and so on are definitely needed.