D13

ping @Solaris_Wave 🙂

40. UI blocking other UI. Has been an issue since 1.0 but seems to have gotten worse with recent updates. Aim info pane should never hide firing mode and body part buttons.

I have only played for about 45 minutes, and mostly to see if I would notice any differences. Overwatch felt a bit more powerful than it used to, but to be fair there's always an element of luck with Overwatch shots - after 4-5 battles it's hard to say if it was really because of the patch. Time will tell. There are still some known bugs that I had hoped would be fixed by now, and I have already found some new ones (nothing major). On the bright side, they did fix some bugs that affected me personally. For example, 1.1 broke one of my saves by making mercs invisible and enemies immobile, and these issues no longer occur with the existing save.

Something is still broken. On the Activity page (https://community.jaggedalliance.com/discover/) and your profile page, there are spam images below your text: Another issue is that I cannot open these topics: Even though the content is there and can be previewed by hovering the mouse pointer over the topic title: But then clicking on it gives this error:

There's an issue with some topics that cannot be accessed. I think it started with the most recent spam wave: https://community.jaggedalliance.com/forums/topic/5616-old-pals/ https://community.jaggedalliance.com/forums/topic/5653-suggestion-on-burst-fire-damage-and-accuracy/ https://community.jaggedalliance.com/forums/topic/5704-jagged-alliance-3-is-to-easy-even-in-hardest-settings-to-much-overpowers-for-human-player/ "Sorry! There are no posts to show"

@Solaris_Wave Yes, it already has Xbox and Playstation entries, and there's this "Console Announcement Trailer":

If you mean this mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3006328940 then that's https://steamcommunity.com/id/FailChapi

Still 1.1.1. I have read somewhere that they're planning one patch per month for the foreseeable future. I think the Steam page is the best place to check for updates: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1084160 That, and the Discord "Announcements" channel for occasional Twitch stream announcements. There was one a few days ago but mostly about controller support and getting JA3 on gaming consoles.

Activity across all community platforms has seen a noticeable decline as of late. If that continues, together with the spam issue, I fear the cost/benefit ratio could reach a point where they may have to shut the forum entirely.

For the most part, including its trigger and tactical purpose, I think so as well. But there are some subtle differences, such as increased accuracy, and the AP cost to end setup and become mobile again. (There is also the convenience of not having to draw the cone afresh every turn, which is something I would like to see for regular Overwatch.) I don't know how much of a difference the accuracy penalty makes, but Grizzly has an MG specific talent, and in its description it sounds quite severe:

I too take issue with these events, even though I think they're not badly designed if considered individually, but that they clash with the overarching JA3 narration style. I make that distinction because with the proper setup, they can all be beaten, and even on the first try. But if you don't know when they're going to occur, you have to approach every conversation, every sector, and every step inside a sector with a tactical formation, with every merc positioned in tactically advantageous locations, always ready for battle as if entering a hostile sector. Which would be fine in a game that greatly values realism - after all, in JA3's setting, extreme caution at all times would be quite appropriate. But JA3 is not that type of game, and prior to the first scripted attack event, it teaches the player that it wants to be light-hearted and forgiving, not ultra realistic.

What you could try if you haven't done so already is to set up Overwatch cones yourself, and only then start the attack. Overwatch should be triggered during the enemies' repositioning turn, and remain active for your following turn (assuming your Overwatch attacks have not been spent by then). I find the resulting action quite realistic, considering that most mercs are not elite soldiers who can pull off perfectly synchronized attacks: while everything is still quiet, the first shot can be a well-timed head shot with the highest aim level. But then all hell breaks loose, and although the other mercs still have the element of surprise on their side, they can now only use the less accurate Overwatch shots. To illustrate this with an example: Out of six enemies, my initial attack with a grenade wounded two, killed none. After their repositioning turn, two are dead and three wounded thanks to Overwatch. The risk here is that you commit to Overwatch for your first turn, which means that you end up without APs after the initial enemy movement. But three Overwatch cones are still active, and they will be triggered again during the enemies' first proper turn.

Your explanation makes sense. Maybe I'm confusing it with situations where you manage to stealth kill in real-time, but you don't see all other enemies, so at first the game stays in real-time. But then as soon as the dead enemy hits the ground, the kill is immediately noticed by an enemy ("enemy noticed someone die"), and enemies get their initially hidden repositioning turn. In that situation, my advantage following the kill is reduced (compared to the previous example, where all enemies stood next to the one who died, but nobody could act on it). Here is a similar situation. I kill this trooper in real-time: Target dead, enemy notices: Now I get my first turn-based turn only after the enemies have repositioned (Kalyna still hidden) But there is some inconsistency. I have just replayed this turn multiple times, sometimes there was repositioning of all enemies, sometimes only of one or two, and sometimes none at all. (always kill+noticed+still hidden).

Yes, but I haven't really figured out how it works. I have one save where I can easily replicate it: Here, Kalyna and Buns are hidden, combat has not started, both have sniper rifles without silencers. Kalyna kills one enemy, the others are surprised and right next to the body. But I get the first turn, and now Buns can kill a second enemy. Only then will they get their repositioning turn. If I do it the other way around (Buns, then Kalyna) it will work as well. But if the first shot does not kill, it will not work and they get to reposition immediately. I'm not sure if this is a bug, as I don't think it worked that way in version 1.0, or if it is a feature to reward a clean initial kill with everyone being startled for a second.

Overwatch does not always trigger, even with enough AP/attacks left, and the status bar at the top of the screen (where it says "player's turn" etc) will then read "Overwatch failed". When you move the mouse pointer over the Overwatch button (the one used to set up the Overwatch cone), a tooltip pane opens with the AP cost, and at the bottom it will state the maximum number of resulting Overwatch attacks. I will try to answer backwards: if a regular attack really is sufficient, then I usually prefer the regular attack, simply because it grants more control over the situation. But let's say there is an enemy 20 tiles away, carrying a pistol with range 10, and your rifle's effective range is 15. In that situation, I might set up a short Overwatch cone to only attack the enemy if he gets close enough to become a danger, and close enough for my merc to actually hit them. For what it's worth - in my experience, Overwatch becomes more useful (and fun) as the game progresses, as maps become more complex, and as enemies become more varied. In the very early game (Ernie island and maybe ~5 more sectors), Overwatch often felt like the solution to a problem I did not really have at the time. In addition, I may have made the mistake of treating it too much like an interrupt setup in JA2: I set it up just so it would trigger and grant me additional attacks, rather than guarding tactically important areas. Overwatch shines on maps with choke points, in situations where enemy presence is tolerable just as long as they don't get beyond a certain point, and in situations where combat starts before you had the chance to secure the area behind or next to you. On Ernie, most map setups are too linear to be approached in ways other than the obvious one, which is fine for a "tutorial island". But later maps are less of a one-way street.

38. Elite enemies should not step on their own landmines. 39. When moving across multiple tiles in turn-based, movement should stop when a new enemy is encountered during that movement. Otherwise it is beneficial to move one tile at a time, which is tedious. Currently, new enemies seems to become visible only at the end of the movement.

I could see them bypassing armor at point blank distance, as in reality it is probably easier to point a handgun at an unarmored area of a body part (?) And there are enemy classes that get close to a merc, and then when you want to shoot them they get to attack you first with knife or shotgun. If handguns allowed for point blank shots that do not trigger immediate enemy response actions, I think that would make them very useful in a somewhat realistic way (= being faster in point blank situations).

@sandman25dcsss Not really, release notes only say: "Revolvers now get reduced penalty when targeting body parts like handguns". Not sure about run&gun, but for point blank headshots with the Hi-Power I see a big difference (more hits with less aiming). Can't back it up with numbers though as I don't have the CtH mod.

Interesting exchange; I share many of @Solaris_Wave views, but seeing some of @sandman25dcsss counterviews makes the design decisions easier to accept. --- 20) (leg hits) I'm under the impression that leg hits work the same for both sides; 300% increased movement cost for next turn, then after that turn, back to normal. I don't mind them shaking it off after a while, but having that massive penalty go away entirely after one turn I find a bit weird (it would feel more natural to have the effect lowered by perhaps one third per subsequent turn, until it becomes barely noticeable). 9) (injured enemies) It's true that automatic AP penalties due to HP loss devalue body part targeting. I have to admit that in JA2, I hardly ever aimed at legs, maybe occasionally if other body parts were too heavily armored, but I suspect the majority of my leg hits were actually stray bullets. Most of the time the decision would be between head and torso, based on CtH and armor. In JA3, I'm more frequently aiming for arms and legs. In a way, arm and leg hits already deal an action-specific sub-type of suppression in the sense that the lack of accuracy and mobility are the result of the body part-specific penalty, rather than of not having enough APs to aim and move. Perhaps this could have been combined with the more lasting effects I described above (20), and with tracking and accumulating body part damage: if an enemy is "almost dead" after three *arm* hits, they could still move but no longer aim properly until bandaged, and if someone is about to die from three *leg* wounds, they could still aim but no longer move. Just wanted to say that with one of the recent 1.1.x patches, some handguns (all?) have become more dangerous. I didn't check if it's due to higher accuracy, or range, but probably accuracy. What you're saying here is still true, but their disadvantage is no longer as big as in 1.0, and with pistols being easier to obtain and them using up only one inventory slot, I now find it more reasonable to carry them. Personally, what I like to do is to load handguns with special ammunition, either AP while it is still rare, or HP later in the game. Makes it feel like the handgun really has a special purpose, which is to deal high damage when an enemy has come too close and my merc's survival is at stake.

As @sandman25dcsss mentioned, there is an option named "targeting action camera" or "cinematic camera view", or similar. But there is also a bug in recent versions (starting with 1.1.0) that affects automatic camera settings, both the zoom as shown here and the switch to the "over the shoulder" camera. I hope they're going to fix this as I was really happy with how the camera's zooming and positioning worked in previous versions. I'm thinking it's either that, to increase tension and drama, or that enemies are focusing on the character they consider easiest to kill, and my custom merc has lower health than 6 out of my 7 AIM mercs. If it's the latter that would make sense to me, as I'm frequently doing the same when deciding which enemy to target. How does your custom merc compare to the others, health-wise? But maybe there is no such logic and all of this is only in my head, and I'm simply noticing IMP wounds more than when others get hurt.

That's also one my main gripes, and not because of realism, but because it unnecessarily reduces tactical depth. We've discussed this before on this forum, even before the release. Since then, I have encountered Army units with dedicated medics that bandage wounded soldiers. And I wonder - what's the point in that when there's hardly any difference between healthy, wounded, and bandaged enemies? Sure, their patients may occasionally survive one more bullet. But having medics restore enemy HP in JA2 would have been such a great feature with a noticeable effect, whereas in JA3 they serve as little more than combat eye candy (and, as one JA2 IMP would put it, a good time for a grenade). I wonder if the presence of medics is a leftover of initial plans to make enemy wounds more of a factor, and which were then abandoned for some reason. That resonated with me, because I felt the same at the beginning of my campaign. In my case, I was playing JA3 too much as if it were JA2, and in my experience, JA3 puts less emphasis on stance and using objects as cover. In JA2, my highest priority was to not get wounded because of the severe negative effects (AP loss, continuous HP loss until bandaged, reduced carrying capacity). I find that JA3 does not reward the careful approach as much. Primarily because the effects of getting wounded are not as severe, but also because many enemy types close in quicker and with less concern for their own safety, and so APs are often better spent on firing from the open and killing enemies quickly than on seeking cover. Your mileage may vary here, but that's what I learned from a few "practice battles" during which I had intended to experiment with combat mechanics, without much consideration for my mercs' health - only to find that those battles went much better than the ones I had taken seriously. I'm glad someone is finally mentioning it! I was beginning to think my IMP might have a hidden "bad luck" trait. I've even had hyenas run past my AIM mercs, only to bite my poor IMP 😄

I don't think I have. The only time I see something resembling it is when I shoot an enemy at very close range (1-2 tiles), then the merc aims upwards at a 45-degree angle, and way above the enemy (but still hits them). Is it happening regardless of the type of gun?

37. Game occasionally goes back to "combat resolved" and real-time in the middle of a firefight, enemy can then be "surprised" multiple times. I had not seen this prior to 1.1.0. Three weeks ago we were complaining about the game staying in turn-based for too long; this is the opposite:

This looks promising: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/jagged-alliance-3-from-haemimont-games.140166/page-85#post-8638858

I think scouting needs to become more valuable, and by that I mean making the game harder without scouting. For example, instead of showing enemy numbers and types in nearby sectors by default, that information could be revealed only as the result of a successful scouting operation. If that operation was performed by mediocre scouts, show basic information, like ranges ("5-10 enemies in this sector"), and exact numbers and details only if scouts are good at scouting. It would not require constant scouting throughout the game - one can successfully take sectors without knowing what to expect, which can even be more fun - but for certain key battles, one would want to scout, and that's where scouting would shine. Similarly, why show enemy routes by default - instead, scouting could reveal shipment routes (because scouts discover the tracks left behind by frequent shipments, and mingle with the locals to gather intelligence about usual shipment schedules, and so on). In JA2, the strategic map would initially show enemy groups as question marks, and only reveal their numbers after reaching adjacent sectors. JA2 also left you in the dark about where a group of enemies was headed. JA3 shows the precise composition of enemy attack squads right after their departure, including their ETA, even behind enemy lines, all without scouting. So after JA3 gives me all that valuable information for free, I can spend resources on scouting, often only to learn that a map has a "flanking opportunity" and a "vantage point", which I could have figured out myself by looking at the map.