Jagged Alliance 3 from Haemimont Games

[Ivan]

Thanks, that was the biggest pain in my ass. I'll give it another shot.

 

[RunningWolf]

Anyone playing with self-imposed rules? Looking for some ideas, to make the game harder without making it unrealistic and retarded.
So far my rules in the fresh run:
1) No re-stealth after the start of combat, as it breaks the AI.
2) Only 1 sniper per squad, as it also promotes sniping across the screen and trivializes encounters.
3) No melee, because a machete guy slaughtering entire squads of guys with shotguns and AR in the open is dumbest shit i've ever seen.

Not looking to remove certain mechanics, just make it more interesting.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

No melee, because a machete guy slaughtering entire squads of guys with shotguns and AR in the open is dumbest shit i've ever seen.

Bigbrain take.

 

[Yosharian]

Anyone playing with self-imposed rules? Looking for some ideas, to make the game harder without making it unrealistic and retarded.
So far my rules in the fresh run:
1) No re-stealth after the start of combat, as it breaks the AI.
2) Only 1 sniper per squad, as it also promotes sniping across the screen and trivializes encounters.
3) No melee, because a machete guy slaughtering entire squads of guys with shotguns and AR in the open is dumbest shit i've ever seen.

Not looking to remove certain mechanics, just make it more interesting.

I'm currently planning a new playthrough with mods that fix some of these issues, the list is on my steam page

 

[destinae vomitus]

Anyone playing with self-imposed rules? Looking for some ideas, to make the game harder without making it unrealistic and retarded.

Unless you have some mod that tweaks their unique perks, I'd abstain from hiring Barry, Thor, Livewire or Ivan. The former two produce obscenely powerful items for free (while being competent combatants to boot), Livewire's wallhack ability effectively makes the game less fun on top of being OP, and last but not least, Ivan is a literal one man army who can solo the game if you know what you're doing.

 

[Shaki]

Anyone playing with self-imposed rules? Looking for some ideas, to make the game harder without making it unrealistic and retarded.
So far my rules in the fresh run:
1) No re-stealth after the start of combat, as it breaks the AI.
2) Only 1 sniper per squad, as it also promotes sniping across the screen and trivializes encounters.
3) No melee, because a machete guy slaughtering entire squads of guys with shotguns and AR in the open is dumbest shit i've ever seen.

Not looking to remove certain mechanics, just make it more interesting.

I wrote about it in this thread some time ago:

I started a new playthrough, on ironman and using roleplay builds rather than optimizing (eg. my Vicki is running around dualwielding pistols even tho it's dogshit) and limiting myself to only 1 sniper rifle/machinegun per squad and not using Ivan/Livewire, it's actually kinda fun. It sucks that you can't really play around with optimizing characters and squads, since the game is so easy that any kind of metagaming breaks it and makes it trivial, but if you build for RP and have shitty tools to use, then fights themselves can actually feel kinda fun and challenging.

Later I also added rule about not using melee builds at all, since this shit is completely broken and retarded, even after they fixed the endless AP bug that was in the game at release. I never had patience to care about using stealth, but afaik it also lets you trivialize the game, so probably shouldn't abuse it too.

To summarize:

No Ivan
No Livewire
No Melees
Limit snipers and machinegunners
Don't abuse stealth too hard

I had much fun playing the game like that for my second playthrough, and I was one of the people who shit on the game at first because it was far too easy.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'd abstain from hiring Barry

Dammit, that guy is actually good to have around. Real bro.

Livewire

This one can talk a long walk off a short pier though.

 

[Yosharian]

Barry alone is insane, free grenades and they are way better than standard nades, they have a more optimal blast shape and do more damage. He is completely nuts. And he's dirt cheap.

 

[deuxhero]

He also has a really high Wisdom. When hiring an extra team I saw his listing on AIM and went "Wait, Barry was a Novice?" He's way better than Fidel: Double grenade sounds cool, but depends on enemies being bunched up (which they rarely are) and in range of a grenade while having little overlap in in burst (the best use is, by far, destroying cover/rooftops more thoroughly), plus grenades aren't that common and Fidel gets pissed and refuses rehiring if he doesn't get a kill in every so often.

 

[Yosharian]

Yeah the best alternative is Red, who costs a LOT more than Barry and is roughly half as good. And he is has Pessimist which is terrible.

 

[3 others]

The default roster economy is really out of whack, since the low-grade mercs aren't that much worse than veterans but they cost much, much less. And by the time you can afford Sidney, Buns has probably improved to +90DEX/+90MRK herself while still being less than half the price. And that's not even getting to the additional fee you have to pay just to get access to the highest tier mercs.

Thankfully they added options to deal with all that. You can make top-end mercs cheaper, increase price hikes with experience gain etc. in the settings when starting a new game.

 

[Papill0n]

Out of whack is probably the best descripton for it. Makes you wonder what kind of testing they had, what kind of playstyle they tested etc.

Anf of course with the low level mercs, players can achieve any perk build they want, whereas the high level mercs are all set build-wise.

The exposive expert selection as discussed above is pitiful. Barry is king, the rest is meh. At least you can get a less OP Barry if you use this mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3247228583
I may just remove the pessimist trait from Red one day and have him in the focus of a playthrough because his lines are edgy enough to get a laugh from me. Is anbody using his unqie perk to good effect? Which grenades to use best?

 

[Krivol]

IIRC Barry was one of the best mercs in JA 2 - cheap, with excellent INT, decent EXP, good mechanics, good potential in shooting and leadership, rest stats ok. You could make him a support machine and still use him in battle. I always compared him to Trevor, who was also a decent all-arounder but his payment on 2nd level was so high, that you could be sure in the end he would be the most expensive merc in the game (if hired early).

 

[Old One]

Nails is a passable explosives merc as well. He's psycho, so you can get some dialogue options with him if you need that.

Good with a shotgun and he's got some funny lines with Raider and Raven.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Is there any 1.5 compatible mod that fixes the automatic weapons damage nerf?

 

[deuxhero]

Saved the president. Can't say I liked the layout of the area he's held in from a gameplay prospective: The trigger to start the execution (seems either based on crossing a line or removing a certain number of enemies) combined with poor line of sight is an unfun combo. Would have preferred something more like the fortress on the first island with honeycomb quests (I'm aware of the stuff that weakens him and did it all accidentally). Wound up stealth killing most of the outer enemies with Mouse, getting Grunty and his GPMG on top the guard post directly under the camp, and putting in overwatch in the one part where everyone trying to come down dies.

Now I just need to finish some sidequests before hitting the final showdown. Find the hermit, drag some treasures back to the museum, and get two teams in place to take out the trash.

 

[Papill0n]

Is there any 1.5 compatible mod that fixes the automatic weapons damage nerf?

one of mine does
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3264341041

There's probably many more though.

Nails is a passable explosives merc as well. He's psycho, so you can get some dialogue options with him if you need that.

Good with a shotgun and he's got some funny lines with Raider and Raven.

Goodness I forgot about Nails and Larry. They're good. Not Barrygood, but good

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

There's probably many more though.

Those that I found aren't updated.

 

[Yosharian]

Is there any 1.5 compatible mod that fixes the automatic weapons damage nerf?

Just use Rato's mod?

Use Tactical AI as well for the ultimate challenge

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Use Tactical AI as well for the ultimate challenge

Which one?

 

[Yosharian]

Use Tactical AI as well for the ultimate challenge

Which one?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3042581131

I have a complete list of suggested mods on my page at https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3017444441

 

[Percy]

I started playing this and next thing I know I was 12 beers down and it was 5 am. Not quite JA 2 but I like it a lot.

 

[deuxhero]

Beat the game. Final fight really shouldn't have forced the player to start in combat and too many flashbangs.

 

[BadassNonbinaryPrincess]

How is this compared to JA2? Dumbed down a lot? A little?

 

[Yosharian]

Alright, so I started my new modded game. Brought in Grizzly and Fox and edited them a bit. Went to tackle the first 3 guys in the very first tutorial battle.

Um. Ok so this is my fourth try and I got my ass kicked.

Yeah these mods aren't fucking around. This is a whole new game. Jesus christ.