I've been watching pretty much all the stream videos and YouTube previews of the game that I can find and Tthere are a few things that I've found actually are the biggest gameplay problems for me:
1. No mini map. If you can pan around in all directions and you're quite zoomed in compared to JA2, I'd really want/need a mini map. Also to know where all the spotted enemies are so I can make a better-informed decision as to where to move my mercs.
2. The gun repair and modification mechanism is just... so ridiculous. So you're saying you can break down all kinds of random objects in the level and have completely generic "parts" that you can fix guns gun with? So a car has parts that I can put in my gun or something? That's just so unrealistic it borders on laughing the players in their faces imo.
I've seen that you can scrap weapons you don't use, so why not just use those for gun-specific parts to repair guns with? The system could then look a bit like this:
- You can scrap guns for parts that you can use for the same type of gun, i.e. AK-47 parts to fix AK47s, M16 parts for M16's, you get the picture. Same with mods/attachments, if you want to go that way.
- Scrapping could provide you with parts that each have their own rarity based on what parts would be more likely to stay good or be damaged and the status % of the gun you're scrapping,, i.e. (purely hypothetical) for an AK-47, the firing pin is very sturdy, so you'd very often get one from scrapping, whereas the magazine holder often breaks, so it's less likely to be good on a 44% weapon you're scrapping. It would add an element of anticipation when scrapping a gun.
- This would make it a priority to equip guns that break less easily, or to stock up on parts that break often.
- To balance this out, there could be a merchant that sells and buys gun parts, and/or you could find stashes of gun parts around the map where enemy strongholds are, because they also need to fix their guns, of course. Could even add convoys of gun parts like the ones for diamonds.
- Maybe the percentage of the status could then be based on the rarity of the damaged/broken part, so the rarer the part, the more the status goes up in %. Or replace the % altogether with "4 out of 10 parts damaged"
- (ideally you'd also be able to see which parts are damaged and what you need to replace, but maybe that's too much detail)
Also, what's the deal with not being able to remove attachments from guns? You put them on, surely you know how to get them back off?
3. You pick herbs and you magically get... pills (? haven't really seen what they turn into) that fix your health. I mean sure, you can make medicine from herbs, but just picking generic "herbs" feels way too... well, generic. And pills don't heal wounds. Just provide the player with more first aid kits and medical kits.
If you're going to pick herbs, why not turn them into boosts like the one from Thor, where you get a bit of extra health for 1 or a few turns, or maybe a boost to your agility if you eat another type of herb (leaves from the plant that coffee is made from maybe, so you're more alert and have more energy, so more AP? Just brainstorming here) Maybe you can use certain leaves as a makeshift bandage to stop or at least decrease bleeding until you can get an actual medic to your bleeding merc? There are so many possibilities here, that just picking generic "herbs" to heal health points with makes it seem like not much effort was put into thinking about this mechanic.
4. So there are quite a lot of random machines that you can hack, and they just spit out money. I'm not sure what kind of machines these are, but again this feels like a very generic way of providing funds. "Touch this item, make a mechanical skills check (or whatever it is) and get money". It should be difficult to get money in Africa! You shouldn't be able to just take a mechanic and loot 3 or more machines in one sector to get thousands of dollars (which is several years' wages for some of these poor villagers!)
Maybe the frequency of these hackable machines decreases once you get off the island and can secure a mine, but it just seems like a lack of imagination to me. Plus it just seems to be a lack of imagination as to how to get your funds.
Also with the convoys of diamonds and you being able to just sell these from your inventory (I think?), why should there be money just basically lying around?
Maybe you could:
- Have more regular convoys
- Intimidate/convince more low-level bad guys to part with their diamonds or money
- Just have safes in buildings (of bad guys, but maybe also villagers if you really want to let players do whatever they want... but then there could be consequences maybe)
More things to sell (like rare comic books to a specific comic book aficionado, or a bloodcat pelt/teeth etc. equivalent for hyenas or other wildlife (not any endangered animals, of course. Or maybe do, mercs don't have to be goody-two-shoes, do they? Then the ones who do have morals could threaten to leave if you try to sell an elephant tusk or something), or football (soccer) jerseys of famous football players (you see those quite often in Africa afaik), so why not make someone buy those?
- Just make the choice between selling or scrapping guns harder by not having money lying around at all. In combination with the repair mechanic outlined above, it would make an interesting constant dilemma for players whether they want to sell the guns to be able to bring in that one merc earlier or extend that one merc's contract that's running out, or to scrap it because one of the guns' status is getting dangerously low.
5. The overwatch system... I like overwatch, and I like that you can set exactly which area you want them to overwatch, but as some streamers/YouTubers have said, it seems ridiculously strong. From what I've seen, mercs can shoot more than once, even if they don't have many AP left. And the hit chance seems quite high?
Maybe I'm seeing things that aren't there concerning overwatch, but imo the system for interrupts in JA2 was excellent: if you have enough AP left to shoot, you can overwatch (maybe it costs 1 extra point to ready your gun or something, don't know). Then depending on how many times you could shoot with those AP, that's how many times you can shoot during overwatch. And you only shoot at the most "zoomed out" level, so the least AP you could spend to shoot, because overwatch is meant to be a reflexive shot system, afaik. So: need minimum 7 AP and you have 9 left? Guess you can only shoot once. First enemy that moves within your cone gets it. Any other one can move right on through.
What do you all think?
