Xeth Nyrrow

It has nothing to do with stealth or detection, this happens in the middle of combat they are saying. So the issue is there's not enough counter threat (interrupts and overwatches) to you just moving your mercs around the map in the middle of combat.

Nice list, could you add a column (and thus a sorting option) for, "AIM Category" please? Recruit, Veteran, Elite, and Legendary are the groups they are in. Thanks!

I think I understand what you're saying by the appearance of complexity. A lot of games do that like adding a bunch of features that actually do the same thing in different ways but really are only 2 choices not many. But that doesn't make sense in the context of CtH showing or not so maybe not? Without CtH the player is supposed to calculate these things mentally and decide if it's, "good enough" to take the shot. Range, cover, environment, gear, skill of a merc are all considered then estimated. Good players will do well, bad players won't. Showing CtH removes all this player skill and reduces the decision to if that number is, "good enough". There are of course other tactical factors of skill like enemy positioning, amount left, condition of your team, etc. But those are shared regardless of CtH showing or not.

In what ways does it increase complexity? The devs said it best when they said it changes the game to be about playing the numbers rather than tactics. Also like you said people aren't calculating percentages but are using the number as an easy guide to follow. 50% = coin flip, 66% means hitting 2 out of 3 shots on average. We take the percentages and dumb them down even more in our head to something relatable and decide from there.

I think the issue with collector's editions is that the people who procure them aren't in touch with their player bases at all and aren't gamers themselves. They probably have never purchased a collector's edition of a game either. Part of the reason is companies that make these things, "have a deal" on something that's unrelated (like a box). But to the buyer, a great deal is a great deal! Ironically the JA3 t-shirts are almost a no brainer and should have been in every collector's edition box. Music bands make a bunch of money off their t-shirts and stickers and it seems to me games could get in on this by selling game branded stuff like this for extra money quite easily. Imagine if they sold minis of all the mercs from the game, they could have made a a nice sum doing that. Also popular are collectables that do something such as a small, JA3 branded laser pointer shaped like a gun that activates with a trigger pull.

This is the point I was going to make, that showing CtH is actually a, "dumbing down" feature is why it's in so many games. I'm sure this idea will shake Godzilla's core because he's of the mind that it makes the game more complex but it's actually a simplification of game mechanics being reduced to a single number to help the player only have to consider that number instead of all the other factors. Developers have to decide what things they want to make easier or harder and that can be the interface itself many times. I applaud JA3 for going this route as it's obviously a controversial decision but a good one.

This is how I understand it too. The only point of contention I think really is if the mercs can access the squad inventory in battle. If so, even just ammo, that's horrible. If not then I think it's fine. Best would be that it's accessible upon first entering a sector until combat starts. Then it should be inaccessible until ALL enemies have been cleared from the sector. Having a physical bag on the screen that you can run all the way back to for more equipment/ammo during this inaccessible time would be a nice touch though.

Project Haven just released another demo today. This is how tactical combat gun play should be done: Project Haven

Yeah, usually movement is used not to increase hit chances but for alternative firing angles because of cover (flanking falls in to this) and/or to get better cover. Getting closer is the direct way to increasing hit chances but it's a double edged sword where you become easier to hit as well. And any half way decent play knows you'd rather keep good cover with bad shot chances over bad cover with good shot chances unless you are mopping up the last enemy maybe.

The issue is that the communication has to be both ways earlier in development. We are getting info sent to us but not really much feedback from what we've suggested. This is typical of any game dev once they are of a certain size. They have been responding directly more recently but it's in the form of answering questions about what's already been decided and not able to affect change.

This list is extremely solid and I think the majority of people can agree on the majority of the points raised. I think I had an epiphany here, a solid JA successor game isn't really possible in today's game development culture/business. The game we all want takes too many resources for an indie studio to pull off and studios with enough funding don't have their ear to the ground with the player base to be able to capture what we are asking for. JA3 devs are trying their best though but relied on internal testing too much. If they did any external testing, it was from people who are not big JA fans. Also throw in that pretty much no dev team wants to make JA2+ and wants to put their own spin on it as well as market pressures to make a game for the, "cool kids" of today and here we are.

Project Haven has a very similar system (demo out tomorrow I believe) with their free aim system. The bullets cluster more in the middle and different guns have better/worse spread plus based upon your marksman skill. You can see it in action here: Project Haven: Aiming

Yes that one, I think the confusion comes from that...including my own. The M134 is the, "Minigun" that people refer to usually but the term, "minigun" is rather vague and could be applied to many things: M134 Minigun

I'm hoping at some point the mods here will realize just how much he is poisoning the conversations/community and just IP ban him. You and I both have seen on discord that fans have no desire to engage here anymore because of this one person making it an almost hostile environment.

0 to 12 as of now, all in favor for not showing CtH. I wonder how many alt accounts that kid will make to try and skew the poll.

The, "minigun" wasn't the vulcan type seen in movies but rather a different one that still fired an impressive 6 rounds at a time. Yeah if I had one at the time, LOL. I was mid game when I tried it and I maybe had one top end AR.

I never made it to the queen in the one time I went after her the, "traditional" way. I ran out of ammo half way to her and all I brought was HP ammo which was the most effective against them. The other alternatives are to use the robot or the smell camo which makes the whole thing too easy.

I liked what Sci-Fi mode brought to the game on the surface of it but it just became annoying. Also going after the bug queen was so not fun needing to either cheese the encounter or bring dump trucks of ammo that it wasn't entertaining in a tactical sense. The NPCs elements (like the wheelchair guy) and the robot though were cool additions though. Something like this I could see as a DLC but would take too much focus away from the core game to be in at launch.

It looks like they are using guns as a sort of progression system like JA2 did based upon everyone using a pistol in the games we've seen. As unrealistic as it is, it does make for a better feel of progression in the game. We can't upgrade from a sword +2 to a sword +3 so better guns is the way to go. There can be slight variations in stats of course but a gun is a gun unlike a lot of fantasy RPG weapons. With so few equipment options it's either force various gun types like pistols -> shotguns -> SMGs -> ARs -> LMGs/Snipers or add gear like armor, vision accessories, etc or even weird stuff like JA2 did with some devices you could build.

Not likely something that can be modded without extensive work, not an, "off the shelf" type mod. Anything in games dealing with the UI tends to be an order of magnitude more difficult.

My fondest memory of JA2 is a bug with the Shady Lady where Fidel got the key to the place but the enemies didn't mind if he walked around without paying. He was able to visit every single room, launching the, "sex" scene in each one after another, until he walked out the front door and immediately collapsed from exhaustion.

No Bobby Ray's but merchants at least. Sounds like more local merchants which would be less wait time for equipment than Bobby's Ray's. On the most recent stream one of them said NVG very casually, I think near the end. Inventory management simplification is often seen as a big QoL thing in games. I tend to agree with this, but maybe wouldn't have 10-15 years ago until I was spoiled. In JA3's case it takes away a significant game play element of ammo/gear managedment so I am against that part. There's nothing wrong with enjoying micro management of inventory but it's likely not popular with most players these days.

I suspect they made the maps smaller specifically to make shorter range weapons be more viable and longer ranged ones less so. They seem to be head over heals with the double barrel shot gun but who brings that to a war? Of course I was always put off by the fact the whole thing starts with pistol fights which make no sense but I disgress...

I agree with a lot of the list. #1, #4, and #7 are basically confirmed in the game in some fashion if you watch the dev streams. The one thing I'm not set about is that the new inventory system is bad or at least all bad. Is it realistic? Hell no. Does it save time so that I can play the game more instead of micro managing inventory? Yes. The missing part is that inventory is a non issue in combat now which takes away a strategic element. From that point of view I think reloading from sector inventory is bad and should not be allowed. A lot of the game play elements like perks/traits, bleed chance, militia size, etc...those will probably be moddable. I hope the same is true for adding your own custom merc pics. #9 is definitely a convenience thing to keep the player moving and not micro-managing to make a buck. Similar to inventory it's, "busy work" that isn't really fun so it's trading realism for more fun game elements. It's only of those things realism people want but after playing with it feels really nice and convenient.

You are much more likely to affect change by being kind, open to ideas and helpful than vitriolic as you have been. I have helped change be made to other games by being an active member in the community and garnering support for what I wanted to be changed. Your efforts here and on Steam actually have the opposite effect of pushing people and developers away from you and your goals because of the way you act. It's not the CtH issue going away people want to go away at this point but rather you and your extremely contentious attitude toward the subject. You aren't interested in discussing it, just trying to label people against your opinion as wrong or ignorant.