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GODSPEED

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GODSPEED last won the day on November 17 2023

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  • Birthday 11/27/1984

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  1. Yep! Perks shouldn't give you superhuman abilities! Like dodging bullets.. More like "bonuses"; like a straight up 5% bonus to accuracy, better control of automatic fire, quicker training of militia... things of that nature that don't alter the combat in ridiculous magical ways.
  2. I talked about this on October 4th (2021), after seeing one of the early trailers. I was met with so much criticism that the Interrupt system in Jagged Alliance 2 is broken. After playing 70 hours of Jagged Alliance 3, I can tell you that the interrupt mechanics in JA2 are way more entertaining, unpredictable and simply have more depth and thought behind them. Some will come up with arguments that the Overwatch is way more "realistic" or much better... but the gameplay tells the story. Combat in JA3 is stale and becomes boring real fast. If you make use of Overwatch, it is so easy to get Ai within crossfire and combat is over within a couple turns, too easy. They counter that by giving perks and bullet sponge enemies, and weakening auto-fire on guns. Why? *puzzled* Interrupt didn't need any of that crap. It worked as intended. Low level mercs would get better soldiers to interrupt them, showing the disparity in combat experience.. while high level mercs would interrupt even the good soldiers, showing how much they are pros. But only if YOU decided to save enough AP's for the task. An interrupt, didn't provide you with more options that you had AP's available. AP's didn't magically multiply in interrupts. If you only saved enough to take an unaimed shot... that's all you had. You then decided whether you crouched, prone, or take that cheap shot. In JA3, the equivalent of 1 burst in AP cost, will give you 3-4 Overwatch interrupts. Those aren't even based on any kind of stat, they happen REGARDLESS if your merc is good or bad. So why do you get MORE AP?? It removed layers of Jagged Alliance unpredictability and the organic feeling of the rpg stats. Now it plays more like a boardgame, or like X-Com when they renewed the franchise.
  3. In JA2, you have many ways to waste money! Want to kit out your squad with fresh new weapons, buy loads of ammo and pay extravagant shipping fees? Sure, go ahead! So easy to sink $10k in one order. Oh.. and mercs are expensive in JA2 in comparison. Every single time a merc levels up in JA2, when you sign a new contract, he asks for more. Each merc will request more or less different wage upgrades. Dr. Q starts off fairly cheap, but ramps up to be a very expensive merc very quickly! I don't remember, but I also believe militia in JA2 (base, not 1.13) to be a daily upkeep. In JA3, a simple one time fee it seems. In JA3, I just signed contracts for 2 full squads. 14-days. After all those expenses, sitting on $250,000. 14D expected income nearly $500,000. I also buy every single item from every single vendor I come across. Just because I have too much money and nothing to do with it. Quite different from ANY experience I've ever had in JA2, where I've often looking at money, because I need to judge whether I can afford my next high-wage merc on a steady basis.
  4. I'll try and be concise... I've gotten tired of playing Jagged-Wasteland-Com 3. I have plenty of respect for Haemimont Games! Seriously, not trying to bash the game, nor the dev team. But the more I'm playing, the more I dislike the game. Writing that goes from 'passable' to cringe-worthy; I can't stand 1/2 the dialogues. I don't play Jagged Alliance to have a strategy game with filler side-quest content (aka Wasteland 3) and forced-humour. Nearly 1/3 of the map is locations for side quest content. Half the lines in the game just try too hard to be funny. I feel like I'm halfway between a Disney movie and some "trying-to-be-R-rated" thing. But I get it, I can - to some extent - ignore much of that. In the end, I avoided the mercs in JA2 that I didn't like very much. I, unfortunately, CAN'T ignore the game mechanics. Perks-galore. Merc Synergies. Perk-to-gun synergies. I don't feel like I'm playing a Tactical Trun-Based Strategy game anymore... but some pseudo mix of Dungeons & Dragons mixed with some Wasteland-like game. Just because it is sprinkled with many mercs I do enjoy, doesn't change the fact the CORE of what I always liked from the grounded approach Jagged Alliance took, is simply not there anymore. I've forced myself really hard to go in unbiased & open-minded. But I just don't find the game enjoyable anymore. I wish the best of success to Haemimont Games. I know they worked hard on it and it took serious balls to even work on a Jagged Alliance game in this risky business. I'll be happy for them if it is a financial successful. Lots of respect for the attention they brought to the franchise! But as it is, for too many reasons, the game has been a roller coaster ride of loving parts of it and hating others too much. The more I get into it (level 7-8 mercs), the more I dislike the game mechanics. The game is set aside for the moment. Maybe revisit in the future..
  5. Ok, I'll be blunt. I get it, some people don't like when we compare JA3 with JA2, mods or especially 1.13. SevenFM, one of the "popular" modders of JA2 had worked on a few Ai tweaks. Some of these can be found in the more recent 1.13, but lots of them just require one of his .exe files to use instead of the JA2.exe So, enemies, and especially the black shirts and also sometimes redshirts, were re=programmed to AVOID certain things. As an example, if you just entrenched your mercs and threw some flares in front, waiting for the enemy, they would actually AVOID walking into the light. They would flank and go around. If they saw a dead enemy in front, they wouldn't walk over or near him. Naturally, this made the game pretty much deadly, but solved the issue of boring Ai that just comes crashing into you like mindless zombies. Now, YOU have to move and act in a real "tactical" way. You want to bait the enemy, you REALLY have to work for it. When I talk about 1.13, some people seem to think that all we want is to have JA2 1.13 in 3D. While some of us wouldn't mind that, I think what most 1.13 fans want, is simply for some of the better tweaks to make it into a new game. Better Ai than in base JA2. Ai that actually REACTS to what YOU do. So.. you sit and camp and get headshots? The enemy shoudl react, they should retreat, throw smokes in front and try to advance under cover, flank or try something else. But none of that here. Ai doesn't do anything other than just sometimes take nearest cover if the range is acceptable, or simply run towards you like dead zombies. The game needs more work, the Ai needs serious work. As it is, the game is no upgrade over JA2, apart for graphics.
  6. Everyone keeps bashing JA2 for having lame AI.. The only difference here is that while combat isn't EXACTLY small pods like in X-Com, well it kind of is. The only way to attract other enemies from further away, is to actually walk further away, or shoot near another "pod" of enemies. So they kept battles tiny to avoid that "feeling" like AI that swarms you zombie-style. But in fact it's pretty much the same. Very few occasions I feel I need to even get up and move. I actually just do it to entertain myself, or else battles are all so short and end in a few minutes without much tactics involved. AI is pretty much braindead in this game. I've stopped even using overwatch, 'cause battles are often over before the enemy even get a second turn. I don't know if I've gotten "hardcore" because of some of the very hard JA2 mods, or maybe the JA Ai.exe got my brain to actually turn on in combat... but JA3 is FAR from being even close to what I've come to expect from turn-based tactical games. It a strange thing really. Back in the day of old dos games, early windows games. Many games were kind of hard and unforgiving. A few decades later, "souls-like" and games were you MUST die to keep going have become very popular. But in between those genres, games are become very streamlined - what I think we refer to when saying "dumbed-down" - where, the devs are so afraid of letting players learn on their own, that everything must be easy to get into, easy to play, easy to understand, easy to win, easy to finish. I remember the first times I played JA2. I had bought a used CD on ebay and did not have the manual. I just went in the game... quickly exit and uninstalled. Too hard, wasn't even hitting the side of a barn. Few days later, decided to find a manual online. Read it. Understood the whole aiming, ap, stance.. etc.. Nothing in the game holds your hand, yet, it's become one of my favorite games of all time. To the point where I read and tweak ini files just to get a kick out of a harder JA2. I think JA3 suffers from this modern touch of taking all its players for a bunch of weak-minded simpletons who can't figure anything out on their own. It's made to be easy to get into, easy to digest and easy to not really use much brain to play. Don't get me wrong, at nearly 70 hours, I've had some fun... but I'm losing my patience as I feel the game has become extremely stale. Where are the enemy squads? when will the enemy get better? When will I be challenged by actual tactics instead of simply bullet sponge armor and perks that provide "I knew you were going to shoot me, but I dodge your bullet". Is this a good revival of JA? Meh... I'm not going to bash it, because I respect the effort that was put into the game, but honestly, 2 more years of work would have been needed here. The game isn't ready for launch in this state.. I'm surprised how little work was put into basic enemy "artificial intelligence".
  7. Yep. So far, the mercs that have been with me since day 1; I think only one or two requested a bigger amount. When on the page below, when I clicked confirm, they would refuse and "ask" for a different amount. By clicking Offer a second time, you "re-negotiate" with their asking fees. Honestly, I was expecting a little more financial burden from mercs.
  8. Doing the "math" is probably better left in the hands of someone who would work in the field of projections, than me. 🤣 I simply look at how much money is coming in and how much my 14D estimate will be. That way, I get an idea how much I will have by the time I re-sign contracts. Don't worry too much about the "Burn rate". I had many times where the Burn Rate was higher than my income, especially early on.. and I've never even had to be careful in signing contracts. 2 full squads, never even came close to lack of money. Actually, don't even know what to do with it.
  9. Yes, its the same vibe as I got with Wasteland 3. Interesting, but somewhere it lacked the "depth" I was craving in Turn-Based Tactical games. It ticks almost every box, but manages to just fall short in some areas that are important to myself. Played Wasteland 3 once... never looked back. I'm starting to feel the same thing in my JA3 game, but much later on.
  10. They tell you about this among the first few battles on Ernie island. They even spell it out that Downed enemies CAN be killed and you most do everything to get help to them ASAP. The game is actually EXTREMELY easy because of this "feature".. as I've never suffered a lethal hit yet, in 67+ hours of gameplay. In JA2, I would have lost the equivalent of an entire 6-man squad already. In case such as this, everything must be done.. including putting more "attractive" bodies in front to attract enemy fire, using smokes, shooting hands to reduce enemy accuracy... etc.
  11. ...which is what I am asking. I've only "aimed" the shots the first few times.. then realized that not aiming more (spedning more AP/Aim-clicks) doesn't seem to make a difference. My question is.. What's the point in spending AP to aim your shot more? Why would I spend 8 AP on a shot instead of 5? It hits everything and anything within the triagle, regardless how many aim-clicks.
  12. Currently at while writing this (haven't played a game this much in so little time in years). I'm a slow player, I like taking my time. So this would be the equivalent of 40 hours for a normal player. I'm enjoying myself greatly as well! But so did I when X-Com was rebooted. The issue for me, is if I will play it multiple times. I'm very mixed about the game. Many things I like, but also many things I absolutely dislike. I do not have that "love/hate" relationship with JA2, as it provides me with way more freedom and fine-detail (and still haven't played all the mods for it). Where I really don't like Jagged Alliance 3; is down to the very uneven writing and the arbitrary boardgame-like ruleset. JA3 has some characters and storylines that are decent enough, and some others that feel like they got the modern Disney treatment; trying too hard to be funny. I've never played JA to have so much "forced" humour. Humour in JA has always been something subtle. That finesse in style and writing has become a sledgehammer here. Too many situations that really have me cringe at how 'not funny' it is, but how much it tries. Those moments, for myself, really throw me off and sometimes even make me want to close the game altogether and uninstall. Many mercs I used to like, now I don't even want to have because their lines are atrocious. The other thing I don't like is the boardgame-like ruleset. I honestly feel like I am playing a tweaked version of the xcom reboot, than playing a Jagged Alliance (I'm talking core gameplay here). In that EXACT sense, I actually even prefer the way Back in Action approached it (real-time with pause), as it feels more "tactical". In JA3, I feel I am more focused on perks, level-ups and builds than actually just focused on battles and hard mercs stats. I'm not holding my breath when it comes to mods, because that, for the moment, is too new. If such design and core mechanics can be changed, good. If not, I will probably shelf the game for 4-5 years and come back in the future. On the other hand, it feels really good to have a modern JA title. The art design and graphical design is nothing less than excellent! New story, new mercs... It's a really good step in the right direction. This kind of success is the one needed for smaller production dev to also catch the eye of the public. Just like X-Com has it's reboot, it also has it's own cult following and games that try to replicate it's old school very well (Xenonauts). What matters is that there is something for everyone. For myself, once I finish JA3, I already have a mod for JA2 I want to go try out. I miss the ultimate liberty and fine-management of JA2 +1.13 +mods.
  13. The question is, what is the point of spending AP to aim though? The triangle doesn't get smaller or wider. Everyone is hit regardless how much I aim or not. Does damage increase with aim levels?
  14. Ever since getting my hands on the M1014, it's been used every single battle. Equipping it on a merc like Dr. Q, with huge agility means I can move up quickly to a group of enemies and shoot their hands/feet/groin and either move in to punch an enemy unconscious, some melee or move back into a good hidden position. It's not the weapon that will get me that one 'headshot crit kill'.. but it reliably helps my squad in larger encounters, shooting hands means that every shot from those hit enemies will miss me (I've rarely shot enemy hands and then have one hit anything on its turn). Somehow though, it feels broken. I've never once felt the need to "aim" with it, regardless what body part I shoot at, it simply seems to hit anything and everything within the "triangle". Do you think this was intended? If so, what would be the purpose of aiming a shotgun?
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