Solaris_Wave

I think Red Scorpion used a modified FAL for the custom big gun. Missing In Action III is a film I have only seen once but I remembered Chuck Norris having a gun with a large grenade launcher. According to IMFDB, he was using a H&K G3A4 with the same multi-barrel grenade launcher from Predator strapped underneath. Apparently, it also had a auto-telescopic bayonet, so my previous fantasy jokes weren't too far off the mark.

I'm glad they didn't go with the original design either! The Predator from the sequel looks different enough to stand out from the first one and his expanded arsenal of weapons went a long way to being the reference for the computer games. Some people still criticise the film and say that Danny Glover is no Arnie. The thing is, I don't think he ever tried to be. The only indication that the main protagonist was meant to be a big guy was when Ruben Blades' character says to Glover, "You couldn't lift him up there!" or words to that effect, when they see bodies have been hoisted up to the ceiling. The animatronic close up of the Predator's face is dated, in my view, and was probably never needed. Other than that, I think it is an excellent sequel and an important part of the lore. It is just a shame that the sequels had to alter the species and create…ahem, Super Predators. Also, the Alien Vs. Predator films could have been so much better. At the very least, the first film could have followed the novel's setting. The second film could have been a lot easier to see visually and the PredAlien Queen was a silly idea because its incubation method did away with both the eggs and Face Huggers. Not only that but the chest bursters matured and hatched too quickly (in both films, for that matter).

The lack of usable vehicles is one factor. Instead of a shared inventory, they could have had a vehicle present somewhere. In JA2, after battle, when going through the sector, collecting everything you can possibly carry, an alternative could have been made here. Automatically storing items in the helicopter or Humvee (although the helicopter never had any storage option, for some reason). I rarely had a problem with carrying too much but after a battle, automating the process by having some sort of transportation of everything back to Drassen would have been useful. I don't see why something likewise couldn't be employed for JA3. Your mercs are not travelling everywhere on foot, so something could have been implemented. Anything better than the shared inventory. Or, if insisting on having the shared inventory, restricting what items that inventory can have and when that inventory is available. I usually gave my mercs about 4 mags each of various cartridge types. I might have less if secondary ammo was needed, such as 40mm grenades. I too, rarely ran out of ammo but that was because semi-auto fire was too effective and too easy to use. You rarely needed full auto fire and it didn't compare to a single, aimed head shot. I was really hoping that JA3 would encourage the use of automatic fire by making it harder to hit moving targets, especially if looking through a magnified scope; and restricting body part aiming to close ranges (can you seriously choose to aim at an enemy's hands at a long distance away?). Things like that would encourage full auto fire and ensure you had to consider whether you were carrying enough ammo. It seems, that with full auto damage reduction, dominance of sniper rifles (which happened in JA2) and the ability to aim at any body part at any range (regardless of whether you actually hit or not), means that JA3 might not be the tactical squad battle game I was hoping for. Also, some of those things don't sound like I can mod them.

Predator is such a good movie because it has more than one theme. On the face of it, it is just a big, macho, gung-ho movie with lots of action stars. The attack on the enemy camp has a typical '80s feel to it with lots of bullets fired (with some enemies getting more bullets than needed), lots of fiery explosions and finally, seeing the minigun in action. The minigun is totally impractical and completely overused by now but Predator was one of the first movies to feature it, probably the first to see it used by one man on foot, and it quite rightly wowed everyone that saw it in action. So, while the camp battle scene could be seen as dated, there is so much more to the film. As I said, it starts off looking like an action movie. Then, it becomes a murder mystery, a sci-fi horror and a survival movie. Arnie's character, Dutch is in over his head by the end of the movie and in the final scenes, you can see how Dutch is forever changed by it all. He and his team were together for so long and they were the best. Then only he remained and even that was a close call. Not only that but he now knows aliens exist. Lastly, I think the Predator is one of the best looking aliens of all time. Its overall appearance, its technology, its movement and strength. Other than Predator 2, they haven't really stuck to those aspects and tried to change the Yautja species in unnecessary ways. Also, they have never since got the mouth right with any of the movies after the first two. The mandibles need to be more closed over the mouth. They altered it so the mouth is more exposed. I'm not sure why that change was made. When you see the Predator reveal his face for the first time (especially if you never knew what he looked like), you can see one mean looking alien.

You can certainly see the similarities between those two shotgun prototypes. The Defender looks more complicated but also with more firepower. I can see how such weapons weren't just for law enforcement (had they been contracted) but also for Vietnam. There could have been use for clearing bunkers and tunnels (hearing protection would be a must) and there were a few prototypes and customised weapons also used in Vietnam, usually by Special Forces.

The Colt Defender Mk.I shotgun.

It would be a good time to ask how many people actually struggled with JA2's inventory system? Or at least, found it a chore? This can apply to vanilla and the v1.13 patch. If it did become a nuisance, when did you feel that way? Throughout the entire campaign, midway or only towards the end? I would be interested to know why Haemimont were so keen to create the shared inventory and how many JA2 players really asked for a different system. Did Haemimont do it based on feedback or did they just create something they all thought we wanted?

Good observation!

It isn't a survival sim, that is true. It isn't just an RPG either. It is a turn-based tactical squad control game. Those traditionally go with equipping your soldiers and managing the various inventory items, so there is a balance between being equipped well enough for the battles your men face but not over-encumbered. However, if you wanted to use the term 'RPG' as the argument for having a convenient shared inventory, almost every true RPG I have ever played, has inventory management and a weight limit. How often do your characters need weapons, armour and equipment, which take up weight (and often space)? Then, you will search locations for stuff, get into combat and end up with found items, which you try to carry as much as possible (and often get overburdened) so you can take it back to a safe zone to sell the whole lot off? Everybody has a different idea of what is a positive feature for JA3, but the shared inventory system just sounds annoying to me because it is over simplifying something I rarely found awkward, and I will be stuck with it. No doubt, games journalists will sing its praises for its convenient simplicity, just like they sung the praises of the simplification of the XCOM reboot. I meanwhile, like things based on logic and game ideas that match reality. I like to work things out. I like military strategy, tactics and logistics and if I have control over those aspects, it makes me feel more integrated in the process. If it was tedious and constant busywork, I might find it a pain to deal with and too much of a distraction. I never did though. It remained at a comfortable level for me.

Should I ask what they are advertising?

I wouldn't call it a QoL change either. JA2 vanilla might have a cumbersome system towards the end game (but only at that point, for me) and v1.13 might be more fiddly, but surely there is a middle ground? It is almost as if somebody had a quick go at either version of JA2, had zero patience and said, "Let's do this instead…" Either that or there is still this mentality that the modern generation of gamers are easily taxed or frustrated by such a thing. "Right, you need to make sure you have enough magazines, grenades and first aid kits for your mercs." "Naaaah, LOLZ! Where are my sick Kill Streaks, yo?" (It even pained me to write that last bit.)

That was what I was thinking. Either that or blowing away a whole flock of birds (which did happen). The problem is, the more barrels that fire at once, the longer it takes to fully reload if you want to achieve the same effect each time.

This really sucks. No AP usage so why even take spare magazines? No need to think about who carries what, due to their skills and strength, as there is no weight penalty. Who is your squad machine gunner? It doesn't matter anymore. Which means I can't fix it. Which also sucks.

Shotguns saw limited use with me because the enemy wore too much armour. They were only useful in the beginning. I could see them possibly being more useful or even overpowered in JA3. Unless they have fixed the AI and removed automatic damage penalty, you could probably run up to an enemy and shoot them in the face with shotguns. Sniper rifles did use a lot of AP but they dominated in JA2 because aimed, single-shot fire to the head reigned supreme, especially to mitigate the enemy body armour. Automatic fire was rarely useful for killing enemies unless you could guarantee those rounds would hit each time. Anything less than that and you had random bullets randomly hitting and peppering their thick body armour.

Whereas I am hung like a drawing pin.

Jagged Alliance 3000 A.D.

I haven't actually done more than look at the photo of the gun, so I don't know if you are able to fire off each barrel individually as well as release an entire salvo.

Maybe it could be reworded as such: Jagged Alliance 3 is a tactical game with role-playing elements, where you fight in a war-torn country of Central Africa. Using mercs from A.I.M., you fight those battles the way you choose to.

I mentioned those very things in one of the recent Dev Diaries. They are too synchronised and need a little randomisation to their timing. Otherwise, they look like some robotic hive mind. The crouch running seems to be done to speed up play but I hope it isn't always activated. There was also the issue of the idle animations. Too much movement, too often. The mercs looked fidgety. It needed spacing out and slowed down a little.

Well, don't quote me on that. They might have actually changed it since they said about the reduction in damage. They did say they tried alternatives and were looking at others but they also said that you could just run one of your mercs up to an enemy and fire full auto into them. I would have thought that the best way of trying to balance this out would be to increase recoil per bullet (so the more bullets you fire in one pull of the trigger, the greater the dispersion) and to make the enemy AI have better reactions, whether that is covering fire from comrades or to leave some action points for interrupts. If you are able to run up to them and shoot or melee them each time, that flaw will remain even with damage reduction. Also, what is to stop you from just taking shotguns and doing the same thing for max damage at close range? It still doesn't make sense if it is in the same sector. Unless the shared inventory is only available outside of combat and no enemies are present, it is too fantastical. Your mercs are not always close together and might be split up, getting ready to engage the enemy. During combat, how does one merc pass a magazine to another merc that is 10 metres away? Do they all have accurate throwing and catching skills (that bypass the actual throwing skill), do they have handheld teleporters, is there an unnamed but tirelessly devoted servant that carries one item to another or from the supply cart behind them (I often use that analogy)? Also, if one merc runs out of ammo for their primary weapon, they now don't have to worry about carrying a backup weapon, like a pistol. Unlike reality. House rules make sense for card and board games but less in the case of a computer game that can be more quickly revised or patched. I always liked battle preparation and tooling up for the next engagement. I admit that it did become cumbersome towards the late game when you needed mortar teams to compensate for the weight and size of each mortar shell, and when enemy tanks appeared, you needed a lot of M72 LAWs. However, isn't that like real life? Having to carry items and distribute between a squad to cover each situation they might face? As for your comments, @WILDFIRE, thank you for your explanation. I understand where you are coming from. I have said this before and I think that with the hand drawn portraits it has made it harder to animate such a picture. The JA2 portraits were from the era of less colours and larger pixels, with less detail. It was a lot easier to move eyes, eyebrows and mouths. Even then, they didn't change much and each movement was looped. Such a thing was very common throughout the games of the 1990s. It worked very well but resolutions, colour palettes and effects have increased since then. The only alternatives in the modern age of games seems to either have static portraits but one for each emotion, alternating between them (which I have seen in games), purposefully adopt a classic approach (like with games that have retro 2D graphics), or to take photos of an actor, use motion capture and map it to a 3D model.

Wolf is definitely one of the better looking characters. I am actually fine with many of the characters' portraits (though not all. Some could do with a little alteration). My actual biggest complaint is that so many of them have tilted heads (and possibly a smirk to go with it).

I love the 'stealthy' suppressor. There is an important reason, when using a sniper rifle, to try to remain towards the back of the room and not near the window, so your barrel doesn't stick out and give your position away. I think that in the case of this suppressor, you might be better off choosing the building before the building you were going to set up in.

I was definitely exaggerating, as @DougS2K said, but it still emphasises my concerns about how far fetched the general functionality of the scrap system is. As I have said before, I would prefer modifications built from scrap to be minimised. Even if it doesn't just break down into generic and singular 'scrap' and there are various scrap parts instead, it still remains the fact that many items are precise components requiring factories, mills and laboratories to build them. If your mercs can do all of that themselves, then how is that possible (and if so, why need assembly plants in the first place)? If all of this is readily available in Grand Chien, then its national wealth would be considerable, it wouldn't be a Third World nation and also, what is stopping the enemy militia from just having lots of fabulous equipment from the start? Surely, they would capitalise on such readily available production facilities?

Those are very nice screenshots of the environments. I was wondering just how much they would affect your mercs and importantly, also the enemy? Do mosquitoes cause negative effects if travelling through swamps? Do dust storms affect breathing, stamina and the ability to run? Can the sectors that have stifling heat cause thirst or exhaustion? Finally, I was watching the gif of the exploding cars and fuel bowser. I couldn't see whether that damaged the adjacent building in any way. Can such explosions pepper the walls with small craters, scorch the paint, blow out glass and doors, as well as the more destructive case of taking out walls?