Jagged Alliance 3 (again!)

[Blackhawk]

Some things that stand out:

There are several mods they made themselves that are available:

o a new AIM merc character with new voice lines
o a new weapon (the M1A1 Thompson) using a new caliber the .45 ACP
o a new operation – Scrounge (spend time looking for items)

Anybody got links to those mods? I've looked in the the Workshop and even searched but I'm not having any luck

They don't seem to be there yet. I'm guessing that they got stuck behind Valve's mod approval process.

[jztemple2]

Some things that stand out:

There are several mods they made themselves that are available:

o a new AIM merc character with new voice lines
o a new weapon (the M1A1 Thompson) using a new caliber the .45 ACP
o a new operation – Scrounge (spend time looking for items)

Anybody got links to those mods? I've looked in the the Workshop and even searched but I'm not having any luck

They don't seem to be there yet. I'm guessing that they got stuck behind Valve's mod approval process.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out. At least I know I'm not crazy... maybe.

[Carpet_pissr]

“Fixed an issue where using “Steroid Smash” resulted in Steroid falling through the floor or going through walls“

LOL I assume they mean that in a glitching way, and not (hilariously) from the strength of his attack. The latter would be epic.

[Blackhawk]

“Fixed an issue where using “Steroid Smash” resulted in Steroid falling through the floor or going through walls“

LOL I assume they mean that in a glitching way, and not (hilariously) from the strength of his attack. The latter would be epic.

I'm da jugganaut, beetch!

[Brian]

o a new AIM merc character with new voice lines
o a new weapon (the M1A1 Thompson) using a new caliber the .45 ACP
o a new operation – Scrounge (spend time looking for items)

One of those will, I think, appeal to a certain talking dog of our acquaintance.

A talking dog? Well that just sounds silly.

Wasn't the Thompson Ice's default weapon in JA2?

[Max Peck]

Some things that stand out:

There are several mods they made themselves that are available:

o a new AIM merc character with new voice lines
o a new weapon (the M1A1 Thompson) using a new caliber the .45 ACP
o a new operation – Scrounge (spend time looking for items)

Anybody got links to those mods? I've looked in the the Workshop and even searched but I'm not having any luck

If you launch the mod editor, it will open a tutorial in your web browser:

Four sample mods are provided for demonstration and starting point. You can find the sample mods in ModTools folder and some of them in the Steam workshop. Additional modding tools and a sample Blender scene are provided in the Steam folder ...\Steam\steamapps\common\Jagged Alliance 3.

[Blackhawk]

I'm going to wait and see if they show up in the Workshop. They would be a pain to update if they were installed manually and later changed.

[Blackhawk]

Here is the company's mod list on the Workshop, by the way.

[Blackhawk]

I'm going to wait and see if they show up in the Workshop. They would be a pain to update if they were installed manually and later changed.

Eh, who am I kidding. I installed 'em.

This is the new merc. They had to go with a model headshot (as they would have had to hire an artist for a painted portrait), but at $6,260, she's actually a good sniper with no wasted perks (although she doesn't have a 'signature perk'.)

[Carpet_pissr]

Why would they offer that as a mod instead of just adding her to the game? Weird.

Same for the other stuff…assuming there are ways to toggle anything new added.

[coopasonic]

Why would they offer that as a mod instead of just adding her to the game? Weird.

Same for the other stuff…assuming there are ways to toggle anything new added.

They are sample mods to help people see some things you can do with the modding tools.

[Carpet_pissr]

Not sure if it’s a bug, but in creating a new team last night (after patching) I was able to create a team with both Fox and Steroid.

When I tried that before the patch, Fox refused to work with him.

[Carpet_pissr]

Why would they offer that as a mod instead of just adding her to the game? Weird.

Same for the other stuff…assuming there are ways to toggle anything new added.

They are sample mods to help people see some things you can do with the modding tools.

Ah, ok thanks.

[Max Peck]

Not sure if it’s a bug, but in creating a new team last night (after patching) I was able to create a team with both Fox and Steroid.

When I tried that before the patch, Fox refused to work with him.

I believe that is working as intended. There seems to a chance that some mercs will refuse to work with others that they don't like, but it doesn't necessarily trigger on every playthrough.

[coopasonic]

Not sure if it’s a bug, but in creating a new team last night (after patching) I was able to create a team with both Fox and Steroid.

When I tried that before the patch, Fox refused to work with him.

I believe that is working as intended. There seems to a chance that some mercs will refuse to work with others that they don't like, but it doesn't necessarily trigger on every playthrough.

I think if you bring in Fox first it might work. Fox won't join if Steroid is on the team... and when I played, she wouldn't even join because Steroid used to be on the team. That was a bit annoying.

[Blackhawk]

Not sure if it’s a bug, but in creating a new team last night (after patching) I was able to create a team with both Fox and Steroid.

When I tried that before the patch, Fox refused to work with him.

I believe that is working as intended. There seems to a chance that some mercs will refuse to work with others that they don't like, but it doesn't necessarily trigger on every playthrough.

I think if you bring in Fox first it might work. Fox won't join if Steroid is on the team... and when I played, she wouldn't even join because Steroid used to be on the team. That was a bit annoying.

That matches my experience. She was on my starter team. I later replaced her with Thor, and moved her over to the B team. After a bit I hired Steroid for the B-team with no issues.

[Max Peck]

The interaction I'm recalling was between Buns and Fox. In both playthroughs I had started with Fox as my medic. In one case, Buns refused to join because I was working with Fox, but in the other she did join (but makes a lot of snide comments about Fox). It's always possible, of course, that there are some combinations of characters that won't happen because the dislike is too strong, but that seems like a less interesting outcome than having rivals that sometimes refuse to work together, but bicker with each other when they do.

[Carpet_pissr]

I wonder if there’s a morale hit if you are able to get them on same squad? Maybe some dice rolling in background?

I also struggled mightily to try Fox over MD (as primary medic). Hard to justify!

[Blackhawk]

I wonder if there’s a morale hit if you are able to get them on same squad? Maybe some dice rolling in background?

I also struggled mightily to try Fox over MD (as primary medic). Hard to justify!

Yes, there is. And there's a bonus if they're with someone they 'like.' The only thing I'm not sure of is if they apply if the problem individual is in the team, or only if they're in the same squad.

[Carpet_pissr]

I wonder if there’s a morale hit if you are able to get them on same squad? Maybe some dice rolling in background?

I also struggled mightily to try Fox over MD (as primary medic). Hard to justify!

Yes, there is.

Crap.

[Blackhawk]

In regards to one of the potential the fights involving Diesel:

Spoiler:

We need to attack a mine. We've scouted it out from a distance. We've walked through it. We know the layout, we know what kind of forces we're facing. We know where there heavy weapons are. Not only that, but we can move freely through the area and position ourselves wherever we choose. We can do this!

So, here's the plan: We walk down the middle of the road. When we're between the building and the cliff with limited avenues of movement, standing directly in front of the mounted weapon emplacements on top of said cliff, we pull out our weapons and start shooting. It's foolproof! Wolf, what's your take?

Wolf: "Uhhh.. yeah, gimme a sec… I’m coming up with thirty-two point three three uh, repeating of course, percentage, of survival."

Alright chums! Let’s do this…

[Blackhawk]

Updated the tips post:

• General: Overwatch. Use it. It's how you ambush, and it's how you coordinate shots. In combat, Overwatch is often a more efficient use of AP than manually firing.
• Team Comp/Loadout: There are several different hireable characters with a high Medical skill, but note that the medical perks are tied to Wisdom, not Medicine, and the top one takes a Wisdom of 90 (also note that Wisdom is the hardest skill in the game to improve, as it cannot be trained.)
• Team Comp/Loadout: The Inspiring Strike perk, when given to a sniper, can be very, very powerful.

[Carpet_pissr]

[*]Team Comp/Loadout: There are several different hireable characters with a high Medical skill, but note that the medical perks are tied to Wisdom, not Medicine, and the top one takes a Wisdom of 90 (also note that Wisdom is the hardest skill in the game to improve, as it cannot be trained.)

Please 'splain.

"top one" meaning "top medical perk"?

[Max Peck]

[*]Team Comp/Loadout: There are several different hireable characters with a high Medical skill, but note that the medical perks are tied to Wisdom, not Medicine, and the top one takes a Wisdom of 90 (also note that Wisdom is the hardest skill in the game to improve, as it cannot be trained.)

Please 'splain.

"top one" meaning "top medical perk"?

Perks have an ability prerequisite, and the highest tier requires 90+ in the associated ability, so the top medical-related perk (Painkiller) requires wisdom to be 90+. Since you can't train wisdom and it's therefore difficult to increase, if you want to get that perk you pretty much need to choose a medic who starts with a very high wisdom.

[Blackhawk]

Exactly that. There are three tiers of perks for each of the five non-skill stats, at 70+, 80+, and 90+.

Wisdom is the only stat that can't be trained, and the way to increase it naturally is to find things (like herbs) that require a Wisdom check. Gaining Wisdom that way is so slow as to be irrelevant. I think I've only seen a couple of points earned that way over the course of the entire game, and the only way you could guarantee that they're on the right character would be to always move the character in question in front of all of the others so that he's the one that finds all of the herbs. And since there is no formation system, that means moving him, then moving them, then moving him - for the entire course of the game. And then you get to deal with the fact that you have your medic on point.

There are a few Wisdom books around that give +1, but they're very, very rare, and they take a long time to find.

So you're better of choosing a medic (or a character to turn into a medic) based on their Wisdom score rather than their Medicine. Even a mediocre Medicine score can be trained up fairly quickly.

[Max Peck]

Alternatively, you can just do without that particular perk. It's nice but not essential. If you want it, just pick someone like MD who has a high enough wisdom for your entry-level medic. My own go-to starting medic is Fox. She doesn't have very good wisdom, but I really like her "Striking Looks" ability and try to use her to open combat to get the initial surprise (particularly nice when the targets are initially bunched up, so it gives a chance to hit them with an AoE attack before they scatter) and AP refund. She can become a decent shooter, and is a good enough medic to deal with things like ability checks in conversations and the like.

[Blackhawk]

Absolutely. They're tips, not mandates. The goal is to give new players information when they are making their decisions early on, as some things aren't obvious. Whether the information factors in to those decisions or not isn't my job.

I used Fox as a medic/backup sniper before I had a decent income and switched to Thor, and Fox is still on my B-team. And I brought in MD for a couple of training sessions to bump everyone up (including Thor.) I also hired Vicki to train up my mechanics.

[Carpet_pissr]

Alternatively, you can just do without that particular perk. It's nice but not essential.

You completely shut down my almost huffy response "THEN THE ONLY CHOICE INITIALLY IS MD AS MEDIC!" But that's silly, linear thinking.

I ran into this thinking on the Steam discussion forums for JA3...and it really was annoying. There's a guy on there that INSISTS that you HAVE to take Barry when playing on anything above easy difficulty, because he is so OP (he IS OP, and almost ridiculously so), and everyone kept (reasonably) trying to tell him "OK man, so don't take Barry if you think he's so overpowered and ruins the game!" but no...he HAD to take Barry because he was forced to because...reasons (I think his argument was, Barry is so good, and so cheap, that you have to take him to have a chance to beat the game on the highest difficulty levels - and I have no comment there as I have only played on the Commando difficulty (one above the default).

I would argue that Livewire is almost worse in that regard, because her very cheaty-feeling PDA IMO. To be able to know where your enemies are before you even start exploring is TO ME quite surprising coming from the dev team...it just seems very much counter to what the game is...part of that "IS" is that it's difficult...purposefully. I think it would be interesting to limit available mercs based on the difficulty you choose. Maybe Barry and Livewire are only available (at first) if you choose the lowest difficulty setting (or either raise their rate considerably).

Other random thoughts: I see a lot of people complaining about the difficulty, but I wonder if they remember one of the best ways through JA2 was by using stealthy tactics - namely, wait until night to take sectors...use NVG's, silenced weapons, etc. Trying to brute force your squad through the game WAS possible, it was just super difficult (especially if you didn't know what you were doing). I think the same applies here.

The interesting/bad thing is that the combat stealth/hide mechanism is...well, pretty poorly implemented IMO. They spend so much effort (even in-game, suggesting that you use stealth either directly with words, or by design), and making sniper rifles quite OP, etc. but the system itself is not designed very well. I really wish they would overhaul it in a future patch.

[Max Peck]

The game does randomly make mercs unavailble, either because they're offline or just don't want to take a job at the moment when you contact them, so you aren't always going to be able to recruit your dream team at the start of every playthrough (barring restarting until the ones you want are available). I don't know if it is in any way tied to the difficulty level, though.

[Blackhawk]

I agree. Stealth is incredibly powerful with snipers, but it's a royal pain when it comes to CQB, like working your way through a building with an SMG.

Even if they want to keep the 360-degree awareness (which actually makes sense, as we can hear, smell, feel shifts in the wind, notice changes in shadows, etc), they should adjust the range in different directions. So, maybe have 120 degrees in the 'forward' direction that they can see even further than they can now (our binocular vision), a 190-degree field at which they can see about as far as they see now (peripheral vision), and have the remaining 170 degrees (representing other senses) about a third of what it is now.

There are two things that I've found that I hate with a passion. Both of them come from trying to force tactical situations on the player, but both of them break the theme's logic by forcing the player to commit tactical blunder after blunder.

First are the scripted events that drop you in the worst spot imaginable, like having me start a 'planned' attack right in the middle of the map with mounted machine guns facing me as opposed to me starting in cover or where I'd actually choose to start (on the road beside the machine guns where I can climb up and take them out early.) An actual ambush is one thing, but when it's a planned attack on a position I'm familiar with, having the player start like that as a 'gotcha' is just absurd.

Second is the lack of options for approaches on some maps. You have exactly one spot that you can deploy in, and it's often a small, terrible position. Yesterday I went in to a map against some very tough enemies. There's navigable forest all around. I have eyes to look ahead, I have scouted the area, and I've been there before. And yet the deployment position was a tiny square, probably 6x6 space with no cover, and it was immediately adjacent to a massive enemy patrol that outnumbered me 2:1. It was an impossible situation, even with the active pause, as there was no cover to run to, which meant that I had time for exactly one attack before half of my squad was wiped out. I tried four or five times before I had to leave, circle all the way around, and approach from a different direction. Again, there is a missed opportunity here: Give extremely limited, exposed deployment spots - until the location has been scouted. Then give the player more options.

[Carpet_pissr]

Second is the lack of options for approaches on some maps. You have exactly one spot that you can deploy in, and it's often a small, terrible position.

Oh God yes, a million times yes. I am surprised I have not seen this all over being complained about, so was starting to think it was just me that missed the very flexible JA2 method of deployment. I haven't even gotten to scripted deployments yet that you reference (I keep restarting!!). But hell, they all feel scripted to me due to how few options you have.

Honestly they might as well just kill that function because it's basically useless the way it's currently implemented. I was also thinking/hoping that the deployment options opened up on later maps, but every sector I have been to, the starting options are seriously restricted, like "OK, choose where you want each merc (I don't even think you can choose by merc can you?) within this 6 sq ft area! Take as much time as you need, as I know the possibilities are endless!! YOU'RE WELCOME!! ).

That seems like something that could be modded though, hopefully.

[Blackhawk]

(I don't even think you can choose by merc can you?)

After you place the group you can move individual mercs around by selecting them.

[Carpet_pissr]

For comparison (and nostalgia feels) here is the JA2 delpoyment screen...which is a hell of a lot more realistic IMO, and ALSO plays better, gameplay-wise...win win! Specifically, I loved that they showed you the entire map (again, I will complain about JA3 being too "zoomed in"...constantly):

[Blackhawk]

The Free Camera mod was an absolute must for me, mostly because you can't see what's cover, what looks like cover but isn't, and what's the bottom of a cliff from the deployment view. I switch it on, get a lower view, and then deploy.

[Blackhawk]

I just encountered a cameo from Jagged Alliance 2. Actual spoilers for the mid-to-late game (depending on what order you tackle things.)

Spoiler:

What an idiot!

[Punisher]

Anyone know where the free camera mod is?
Looks like it's gone from steam workshop.

[Blackhawk]

Anyone know where the free camera mod is?
Looks like it's gone from steam workshop.

The author removed it when they added the photo mode (which I dislike - when you hide the HUDs, it still leaves the photo mode interface on-screen, which works with the built-in screenshot utility, but not with anything else, including video.)

If you want it, I'd be happy to forward it to you (I normally keep copies of any mods I install for any game.)

[Punisher]

Yes please.
If it's not too hsrd to install manually id like to take a look at it.

[Blackhawk]

Yes please.
If it's not too hsrd to install manually id like to take a look at it.

I put it on Giggle Drive. Here ya go.

Just unzip it and put the folder inside in C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Jagged Alliance 3\Mods

(The finished folder should be C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Jagged Alliance 3\Mods\Free Camera Mode with metadata.lua and items.lua inside the Free Camera Mode folder.)

The instructions are gone with the Nexus page, but here are my notes:

Free Camera Mod

- SHIFT + C = Free Camera Mode
- SHIFT + I = Hide GUI
- ALT + SHIFT + H = Show Walls even when close-up

In Free Camera Mode the following is possible
- Mouse = Freelook
- WASD = move
- CTRL + WASD = move fast
- Q/E = move up/down
- CTRL + Q/E = Move up/down fast
- SHIFT + C = return to normal camera

[Carpet_pissr]

Gah, why in the world did he remove it? That seems like a great mod! As you mentioned, photo mode is not the same.