JA2: Doors and ambushes

[hal900x]

I am not good at this game. But I love it.

So, what are some effective strategies for dealing with the following:

Enemies are waiting in ambush inside a room behind metal door(s). In this case, very close inside, but this is not always the case. I did not have any TNT or similar type explosives to effect a breach. I had some smoke grenades, sniper rifles, burst weapons and the like. Doors are easily opened, but the opening animation requires the character to stand straight in front of the door, leading to his death shortly thereafter from a burst to the face.

No amount of noise would prompt them to exit, wisely. I tried filling the area with heavy smoke to conceal the designated door opener, but it did not cut down visibility enough at that range, and he still got blasted inside the cloud. The door was impervious to bullets.

I ended up just putting all the best armor on my high agility guy, hoping for an interrupt but instead just taking lead in the gut and narrowly surviving.

I'd like to see a mod that allows opening doors from the side, or allowing AP ammo to shoot through certain materials. I wonder if 1.13 implements either? Anyway that's not my question. My question is how to get through those doors without getting whacked.

 

[The_scorpion]

Have a high level merc open the door. if you lack explosives for alternative entries and the door can't be opened from a distance through switches, it comes down to winning the initiative (assuming you're in real time). Often it is better to open the door in turn based mode anyway.
if you know where the enemy is located, you can also try to have another, ideally a high level, merc prone some squares behind the door, ideally camouflaged. (Such that, once the door is open, this second merc also has a chance to win the initiative)

and of course, especially if you're still in real-time, the stealth mode is your friend in such situations.

 

[someone else]

Best way is explosive, but ruling that out.

1. Have a merc shoot the opposite wall, this will make the enemies turn towards the noise and have their backs against the door when you enter. Worked for me.

2. Leave the sector and re-enter, the enemy might leave the building.

 

[hal900x]

Have a high level merc open the door. if you lack explosives for alternative entries and the door can't be opened from a distance through switches, it comes down to winning the initiative (assuming you're in real time). Often it is better to open the door in turn based mode anyway.
if you know where the enemy is located, you can also try to have another, ideally a high level, merc prone some squares behind the door, ideally camouflaged. (Such that, once the door is open, this second merc also has a chance to win the initiative)

and of course, especially if you're still in real-time, the stealth mode is your friend in such situations.

My camo says "woodland". I don't know if it would actually work in a lighted corridor. Anyway, is there a formula or at least a rule of thumb on interrupts? Meaning, what is more likely to get you one: agility or level? Obviously a combination of both is ideal.

As for shooting at the opposite wall, that wasn't an option. I did try unstealthing my roof guy and walking over the opposite wall, and also shooting at the location of the opposite wall from the roof, but they didn't budge. I guess the AI was working pretty well. This was in the army base.

 

[The_scorpion]

Have a high level merc open the door. if you lack explosives for alternative entries and the door can't be opened from a distance through switches, it comes down to winning the initiative (assuming you're in real time). Often it is better to open the door in turn based mode anyway.
if you know where the enemy is located, you can also try to have another, ideally a high level, merc prone some squares behind the door, ideally camouflaged. (Such that, once the door is open, this second merc also has a chance to win the initiative)

and of course, especially if you're still in real-time, the stealth mode is your friend in such situations.

My camo says "woodland". I don't know if it would actually work in a lighted corridor. Anyway, is there a formula or at least a rule of thumb on interrupts? Meaning, what is more likely to get you one: agility or level? Obviously a combination of both is ideal.

As for shooting at the opposite wall, that wasn't an option. I did try unstealthing my roof guy and walking over the opposite wall, and also shooting at the location of the opposite wall from the roof, but they didn't budge. I guess the AI was working pretty well. This was in the army base.

there's certainly an explanation of interrupts/ initiative on the BP forum. My personal feeling is that level is the most important. In 1.13, vision can be even more important (e.g. scopes, limited vision) but if you and the other guy face each other directly, no obstacle, no chance of being prone (door has to be opned in crouched stance) then it might very well come down to a pissing contest of levels.
I never had the feeling agaility mattered much. I don't really see how it should either, but again, it probably does, you can possibly look it up on the BP.


There's also some exploits like the shooting at the wall thing, jump through the wall thing ect. that you can use in case of emergency.
in 1.13, you migth already have high caliber guns. These can go through walls and you can force your turn that way. But it's an exploit and doesn't work with every type of wall.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Bullets can go though doors but only wooden ones, unfortunately in your case. Best idea is not to get stuck in a poor tactical situation - leave the sector, get some explosives and come back to fight another day.