Xeth Nyrrow

I think it would greatly benefit them to do outside beta testing but I don't think it will happen. Anything bigger than an indie game these days seem to not do this and then they have Pikachu shocked face meme when big issues happen at launch. While it's true that, "design by committee" is often bad to keeping game development on track, it's equally as bad to not get enough feedback from true fans by keeping them at arms length. This happens because of lack of community involvement (which they are getting better about) and not letting people gets hands on with a beta or demo.

I never modded JA2 so I didn't know they used XML/JSON, I was referring to games now. Assuming this is true, it's funny that all these years later games are using the same methods. It's true that there are mods that change the code what you call, "cheats" or I often call, "hacks" but not all or even most of them. That isn't really, "modding" the game in a true sense but was often the only way to mod games in the past. Go look at Nexus mods or Steam workshop and you'll see most mods are just changing settings in files which can be altered with a text editor. Games today are made this way so that you can have multiple mods installed at once. If they required recompiling of the executable or dll file then you could only have that one, "mod" I don't want to go further down the rabbit hole of only talking about these hack type mods since the devs have apparently stated they will allowing modding. This tells me there with be things easily accessible to change like the variables I mentioned before. Now I hope we get more info on what sorts of mechanics, art, and data values we can change plus what format these structures will be in.

This is why I say it depends on the developers making things accessible. If they say it's going to be moddable it usually means they are going to allow certain aspects to be adjusted with mods using some sort of open framwork. The extent to which depends on how easy it is with whatever engine they are using and how much they decide to allow changes too. With a lot of engines these days you can modify parameters in files like XML for JSON to do different things. The knowledge and skills can carry over in to modding different games that use the same engines. I am speaking from personal experience having made mods for Skyrim and newer games as well as working with devs for various games either completed or still in development.

The ease moddability is mostly determined upon how accessible they make things. When a game says it can be modded usually that means you can add/modify files that make changes. This could be like the values or formulas for things, gun stats, merc and enemy stats, etc. It's also not 2011 where you need proprietary things like Skyrim's creation kit to make big mods. I have made mods for a game this year that only required me to, "code" with a text editor to make changes.

I haven't seen discussion on this so I'm wondering...what sort of modding capabilities are going to be available for this game? Steam Workshop day 1, eventually or not at all? Nexusmods? Can we change things via XML files and/or scripting? I'm wondering what will be, "open" for modding without having to recompile the code.

You are right, I just picked Xcom since it's the common example everyone relates to. I do think JA3 is straying a bit in to the fantastical too much with some of these things...more RPG character building than tactical TBS game. But that's what sells better most likely and is how they want to make it distinctly JA3 and not just JA2.5.

Not in the original game, but added in 1.13. I'm not disagreeing that it's a popular feature for sure. I think the issue of misses not having a chance to hit other body parts compounds the issue. Implementation is key because if it shows say a 75% chance to hit the torso does that mean the other 25% chance is a miss (like JA3 does it) or some combination of miss with chance to hit some where else? I like when games use the aiming reticle like Phoenix Point and Project Haven which is even more realistic than a hit %.

I didn't say if I wanted them in the game or not, just that they are unbalanced. I agree with you that they probably shouldn't be in the game either both for balance and realism reasons. This is definitely one of those influenced from Xcom things they added. Along with the really weird info revealed in recent streams plus the combat dev diary, I have real concerns about the game now. Fog reducing damage and not just accuracy, burst/auto fire making bullets magically half damage and stray shots not being able to hit other parts of the same target are some really bad balancing mechanisms they need to seriously rethink.

I also agree that having a chance to hit other body parts with, "misses" should be in the game. Maybe you could have shots that miss their targeted location become grazing shots if they hit other body parts as a balance compromise? Speaking of grazing shots, having fog reduce damage via grazing hits instead of accuracy is really bad design. A better way would be to dramatically increase range penalties (double or triple even) and have the penalties start at shorter ranges. This way shooting up close isn't impacted as much but shooting beyond short range in to the fog almost always misses. Depending upon how scopes work, I would make scopes have no vision bonus in fog as well to avoid having a spotter + sniper combo being so strong in fog and/or darkness. About the 50% damage reduction on burst attacks, this is another questionable design idea. Instead a moderate initial accuracy penalty for using burst/auto plus a cumulatively larger accuracy penalty per bullet like JA2 did would be ideal. Definitely limit the bursts to 3 or 4 bullets because above that it's too inaccurate and unbalanced.

Nice list, thanks for making it.

The free move and grit perks are the ones in particular I think are unbalanced. Maybe not many perks are unbalanced as I said before but these seem to be. Others look pretty basic and reasonable like +15% damage while flanking (maybe even a little weak). Still many more are unknown until we've all played the game.

Raider looks like an expired Dollar General version of Dr. Disrespect.

I agree that the perks seem to be poorly balanced on the over powered side from what we've seen. Free movement in a game like this is such a huge advantage that it's hard to balance unless it's made very small (like 1 or 2 squares at most). Hopefully modding will allow these XCOM style perks can be changed to other things which are impactful but not game breaking.

Seems like all the character portraits in general have a VERY similar art style where the eyes are pinched together and rather deep set. I would like to see more variation in the portraits in general as they all look too similar to one another, at least the men do. And yes, new Ivan isn't as cool looking as old Ivan I agree.

Hitman seeing many enemies at once, "My nuts are in a vice, ace!"

Fidel loves killing and Fidel loves MONEY! Meltdown, I hope she is able to say profanities still in JA3. Ice, I'm glad all my favorites are back.