Hongweibing

That's the thing - I don't think that the problem is that the JA3 characters are one-dimentional, while the JA2 characters were two-dimentional. Rather, the problem (assuming that it is a problem, of which I am not convinced) is that you take a two-dimentional character, and instead of expressing it in ca. half a page of text, you have to do so in ca. 2.5-3 pages of text. Because in JA2 mercs did not talk so much, one could more easily assume/imagine (often mistakenly, I would argue) that they were more serious/professional etc. and not defined by their quirks. Whereas if you need to stretch that two-dimentionality over much more dialogue, you have to either make the mercs sound generic (which is a problem when you have 40 characters), or lean into their quirkiness, to make them more unique/distinguishable/memorable. The developers chose the latter. This, in turn, leaves little room for doubt regarding their seriousness/professionality (or rather the lack thereof, in many cases). Personally, the JA mercs never felt too professional/serious to me, I always (well, with some exceptions) had the feeling that I'm dealing with a ragtag group of people of questionable professionality (not to be confused with skillfulness) and of even more questionable sanity (admittedly, JA2 was an improvement in that sense compared to JA1 and DG, but not by much, especially if you consider M.E.R.C).

Voted for the vanilla JA2 option. It was definitely an improvement over JA1 and DG, and perhaps my only problem with it was that it was a bit too generous in terms of space, but it's a game, after all. I played JA2 1.13 once, and the system felt too overwhelming for me, didn't have the patience for all that granularity, it reminded me too much of organizing things in real life - not something I wish to see in a game. The problem with the JA3 system is that it doesn't make much sense - the number of slots is defined by one's strength, but obviously, size does not necessarily equal weight. Now, I realize that they are unlikely to change the system, but a fairly easy way to make it more similar to JA2 would be to set the same number of slots for everyone (no need to redesign them), but introduce weight as a factor (which really only requires assigning a weight to all items, and defining how much weight one may carry per point of strength). As for the shared inventory, I'm fine with it for miscellaneous items, quest items, spare parts etc., but ammo and medical kits should be in each merc's inventory.

The starting funds are a bit lower in JA3 (compared to JA2) and IMP is much more expensive, so it would be a bit different: 1) IMP - emphasis on leadership. Perks: negotiator, night-ops, stealthy. 2) Hitman - I always hire him 🙂 - good sniper, high experience level, funny personality, plus - good for training militia and teaching. Admittedly, he's not as good as he was in JA1 and DG, especially with the lower agility compared to JA2, but still, can't see myself not taking him. 3) Kalyna - apart from the fact that she's a new character, she seems a fairly good sniper (and one of the only affordable mercs with a rifle, which is especially nice considering her "armor penetration" perk), a decent mechanic (and there aren't many of those, it seems), and has decent leadership - the low wisdom is a bit of a problem, but one has to compromise. If she's unavailable, I'd go for Livewire instead (who is probably the better option in the long run). 4) Mouse - a nice all-rounder - good for stealth and melee (seems more viable here than in the previous games), OK medic (I don't usually use medics anyway, in JA2, on normal difficulty, I usually manage to avoid getting seriously injured, so there's no need for first-class medics - hopefully, the same will apply here), not a horrible shot + good wisdom, which means that aspect could be improved fairly quickly. If she's unavailable, I'd go for Blood instead. 5) Barry - the most affordable explosives expert, high wisdom, OK mechanic, not a horrible shot - what's not to like for a mere 2,990? Though if I had more funds, I'd go for Red instead. After getting a bit more money, I'd add Ice as no. 6. Or maybe just get an RPC instead.

Yes, just saw that, there the explanation is simple - there are not enough APs (if you're referring to the scene with Fauda). It also shows that if a weapon does not have auto mode - the icon does not appear at all - so that's not the case. Checked a few more videos, indeed, Carmine is right, the explanation is, unfortunately, simpler than I'd hoped - in this case it is just the fact that there are not enough bullets, which I agree, doesn't make a lot of sense. So basically, the icon will (only?) be unavailable if you don't have enough APs or ammo (same would go for the burst, by the way, if you don't have at least 3 bullets, but that makes more sense): Personally, I don't see myself using auto mode, as it seems too wasteful, so I don't mind it too much, but I see no technical reason why it shouldn't be made available even with less than 15 bullets (especially since this is not a real life requirement for auto fire), as long as players are aware they're spending the same number of APs. Let's hope that the devs will address this issue at some point.

I see, thanks for clarifying. Though I'm not sure that's related - you can see the option is unavailable in some cases even when there are 30/30 bullets, e.g. here: Whereas here, with the same weapon, it is available: There are AKs without an automatic mode (only semi-automatic and burst), but most regular models (such as standard service rifles) have such a mode, I seriously doubt they went for the exception here, though it is theoretically possible. Of course, only the devs can give a proper answer.

Not sure what you mean by "lack of one bullet" - if you're referring to the semi-automatic mode, it is available, but not selected. If it cannot be selected (for which I see no indicators in the screenshot, but I assume it's part of a video) - it could be because Fidel is a psycho, so he may choose to just go for the burst regardless, as in JA2. As for the automatic mode being unavailable, based on what I saw, it seems to be disabled in situations in which it would be rather unwise to use it (such as the one above) - when your path is obstructed, and bullets are likely to ricochet and/or you'd just end up mostly hitting the object behind which you are taking cover, as you would not be able to properly control the rifle. But I'm no ballistics expert, so perhaps those with more experience would have a better explanation.

I tend to agree - while it doesn't necessarily have to be an easier difficulty, as someone mentioned in a different topic, the devs would have to do quite a bit of rebalancing for those choosing to have CTH (as the game as we saw it was designed around not having CTH). So making it a toggle option that can be changed at any time wouldn't work. If the option is added, it's something that one should choose at the beginning, which would change the balancing, even if not the difficulty as such. Not sure they'd go for it, as it's quite a lot of work, but it could be worth the extra players.

Wouldn't like to exacerbate anyone's paranoia regarding people defending the removal of the CTH, but I also think that its removal is for the best, though I think that commercially, it would be best to simply make it optional. As for the reasons for CTH being fairly useless: - It adds the illusion of knowledge, without adding real knowledge to the player - knowing the exact % doesn't help, as you are never guaranteed to hit, so you can have 90% but still miss, even more than once in the row, creating unnecessary frustration. You can fairly easily deduce what shot is more or less likely to hit based on distance, position (elevation, enemy's cover...), weather conditions, skill, body part etc. - It exacerbates tendencies to exploit certain types of attacks/preferring only some body parts (e.g. headshots). - It makes aiming less realistic - you never know the exact chance in real life, and the point is to estimate it based on the various conditions, while knowing that you can miss even if you do everything right or hit through sheer dumb luck - which is part of the fun in JA games. - There was no CTH in the original games, only in the JA2 1.13 mod - and that's, well, a mod. If the developers claim to remain true to the legacy of the original games, that's certainly part of it. Besides, I think it was rather elegantly done by the original games - a black indicator when you had no chance to hit (and the merc would also say that), a flashing indicator when the chance was low (usually because of the distance), and a regular indicator when the chance to hit was normal or high.

Pretty much everything has been said already, but just I'd like reiterate the point about the additional information regarding critical chance, accuracy, and damage modifiers being overall redundant (most of it is/should be intuitive), possibly confusing (like with the reduced damage modifier for auto/burst), and cluttering the screen. I do, however, understand the logic behind it for those players not used to the JA series, and would certainly not want them to avoid the game due to its absence, so perhaps you could consider making it optional? I've previously suggested in a different topic to have three options for aiming: 1) Show all information (basically, what we saw in the beta version + CTH) 2) Show detailed information (only what we saw in the beta version, without CTH) 3) Show minimal information (similar to JA2 - just choose body part and how many points you spend on aiming - no other details like damage, critical chance, factors increasing/decreasing CTH etc.) And I'd also join the others suggesting to further increase the accuracy penalty for burst/auto fire, instead of reducing damage. To the best of my knowledge, in reality, due to recoil, it is only useful at a (very) close range, against a group of enemies standing close together, or against a (very) large target at a longer range. Though I imagine that it would depend on the weapon, one's strength, and one's skill. (This is based on my very limited experience a long time ago - during my military service we were not even allowed to use auto or burst modes in the M16A1 (which is a fairly accurate rifle, with overall good recoil management) - not even during target practice - as, due to the recoil, you might have more chance of hitting a fellow soldier than a target - but we were not meant for real combat, thankfully, so we were also not particularly skilled, to say the least. I'm sure that more skilled and experienced soldiers would be able to handle it better).

The developers said in one of the streams that modding shall be available, but that at the moment, they cannot provide additional details. We'll probably know that closer to the actual release date, if not after it.

Doesn't the JA2 Stracciatella mod allow the game to run on Android? Their site says it does (didn't want such a port myself, so didn't try it, but it should work).

First of all, I do hope you understand that what I wrote was a meant as a joke. Second, I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that I decided not to purchase the game when it gets released. I wouldn't even mind donating some money, had it been necessary. Third, I have actually said that this is the best game we could have realistically hoped for, and that on balance, it's not bad at all, provided that the actual issues shall be addressed. Finally, concerning feedback - at this juncture, talking about the next installment is simply premature. Moreover, I believe that at this stage, all the practical feedback and realistic suggestions that could have been made regarding JA3 (based on what we saw in the beta videos), have already been made, and we are already getting into the realm of wishful thinking and fantasy or simply repeating the same things time and again. I'm not sure there's much point to it until we get some response from the developers or see some new progress. Besides, I'm not so sure that it's the developers and producers who actually want/need our feedback, but rather we just want to provide them with it (ego, hope to influence development etc.), while they allow it so as to garner interest in the game and keep potential buyers engaged. But perhaps I'm too cynical.

...along with his severed little finger? It should be part of a pre-order exclusive beta version collector edition. All the beta version problems must be kept, and by default one plays sci-fi mode, wherein one has to assist the stalwart adventurer (new recruitable merc), Lunokhod, in exterminating THQ-morphic giant bugs that are ravaging the local population, causing the locals to ignore exploding barrels and bullets etc. After destroying the bugs, one then switches to the normal version of the game. (Disclaimer: this is by no means a call for Mr. THQ Nordic to inflict harm upon himself. Long may His Corporate Highness reign.)

I'm afraid you're estimate is a bit off here. I certainly cannot claim that I know much about voicing characters in games, but from the little I know, it goes like this: 1) You write the text, and you should make each character sound unique 2) You look for the suitable voice actors, based on samples they record for you and their previous body of work - this seems like the most difficult stage, and it can take months 3) You record the text (you'd also need a studio for that), often more than once, to get small things like intonation, emphasis etc. just right 4) You edit the recordings and match them to the relevant events in the game. All in all, we can be talking about months of extra work and I can only guess how much that would cost. As an example, for some time I used to follow a project to voice JA1 in a different language - so we're talking about much less text than JA3 - it began in 2018 and is still ongoing, with most time and effort spent on finding the right voice actors (for reference, the price for getting a professional voice actor to voice a merc in JA1 - so just a few lines - ranged from 100 to 150 USD - and we're not talking about North America or Western Europe, where it would cost even more). Certainly, a proper company will be more efficient, but it is by no means a quick and easy process. One way or the other, it's up to the developers and producers to decide, and I sure wouldn't mind seeing more IMP and regular mercs. I do agree about preferring ammo management to additional voices 🙂

Oh, I'm not saying you shouldn't have more portraits and voices, I'm just saying that they're unlikely to allot the necessary funds and time for that, considering the fact that they decided to cut the number of regular mercs by about 20 (compared to JA2). One must be realistic in one's expectations, hence my more modest estimate, but as far as I'm concerned - the more the merrier. I could see them adding more portraits/models, but the voices are the bigger problem, because unless you want to have each voice saying the same lines, you have to write new dialogue for each voice (as was the case in JA2, but there was much less one needed to write). For the same reason it is unlikely they would give the option to add one's own voice, as people would have to voice a few pages of text. So I imagine we'd end up with two voices for each gender, though I may hope for more.