Jagged Alliance 3 from Haemimont Games

[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.

 

[Papill0n]

which mod is relevant for the 3 tutorial mooks becoming killer machines?

 

[Yosharian]

which mod is relevant for the 3 tutorial mooks becoming killer machines?

Probably the one that gives them perks and skills, Tactical AI (those are optional settings and I'm having second thoughts about them LOL)

I'm on the second map now having got past those 3 guys using a stealth tactics, but holy shit this one is on another level

 

[Yosharian]

Although Rato's overhaul mod does its fair share to increase difficulty, it's more in the sense that gunplay becomes a lot more complex, but these guys are throwing smoke grenades to cover their assault, avoiding overwatch cones where at all possible, using tons of stick grenades, just holy shit. I'm having to restart the campaign, I need to seriously alter my strategy to get past these initial maps.

It's insane to me that the tutorial level has guys using stick grenades on me lmao. I turned off C-UAE's Extra Grenades setting, maybe that will help some.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

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

What did you think of the game?

 

[deuxhero]

Pretty good. Some questionable choices (as covered), but overall great. 4/5, a JA4 could be an easy 5/5 if they do it.

 

[3 others]

which mod is relevant for the 3 tutorial mooks becoming killer machines?

Probably the one that gives them perks and skills, Tactical AI (those are optional settings and I'm having second thoughts about them LOL)

I'm on the second map now having got past those 3 guys using a stealth tactics, but holy shit this one is on another level

Some time back, I tried out Tactical AI + something called Gunfight Reworked (which fairly enough was listed as "Brutality & lethality of hardcore JA3 battlefield overhaul" on the Tactical AI workshop page). While the amount of tweaks the modders have managed to implement is impressive, making drastic changes to core mechanics would often require drastic changes in many other places too. Gunfight Reworked extends both the gun range and daytime visual range, and emphasizes the importance of cover and armor, which actually change the gameplay to an interesting methodical slugfest of soldiers supporting one another with overwatch and assaulting breaches with concentrated fire. However, by making the firefights more realistic, it just emphasizes how absurd the beginning of all Jagged Alliances is with your squishy unarmored idiots running around with their underpowered sidearms and getting shredded by natives and their SMGs. To get a sensible opening sequence, you'd have to alter the starting equipment to be more in line with what soldiers contracted to a warzone might arrive with, or alter the tutorial island difficulty otherwise, or something else completely.

Or perhaps the reason was using Tactical AI in combination with that. It really does make enemies impressively smart and well-equipped so every Goon that sees you is a potential grenade to your squad's neck the next turn. The fuckers were even able to be Hidden and deploy unseen overwatch ambushes (not sure which one of the mods did that though). I stopped playing the game after Ernie Village because the enemy overwatches had a bug where all the remaining attacks would fire at the same time, and receiving 150 bullets after wiggling one ass hair semi-visible behind a boulder, while hilarious, started feeling tedious.

I'm still waiting for some sort of consensus mod-combos to emerge from this "laboratory". This attempt had potential, and maybe it will provide a basis for an enhanced JA3 experience in the future, but the end product isn't there quite yet. Rato's Gameplay Balance works because it doesn't try to do anything this drastic.

 

[Strange Fellow]

This is all sounding very promising. I feel a replay coming on real soon.

 

[Papill0n]

which mod is relevant for the 3 tutorial mooks becoming killer machines?

Probably the one that gives them perks and skills, Tactical AI (those are optional settings and I'm having second thoughts about them LOL)

I'm on the second map now having got past those 3 guys using a stealth tactics, but holy shit this one is on another level

Some time back, I tried out Tactical AI + something called Gunfight Reworked (which fairly enough was listed as "Brutality & lethality of hardcore JA3 battlefield overhaul" on the Tactical AI workshop page). While the amount of tweaks the modders have managed to implement is impressive, making drastic changes to core mechanics would often require drastic changes in many other places too. Gunfight Reworked extends both the gun range and daytime visual range, and emphasizes the importance of cover and armor, which actually change the gameplay to an interesting methodical slugfest of soldiers supporting one another with overwatch and assaulting breaches with concentrated fire. However, by making the firefights more realistic, it just emphasizes how absurd the beginning of all Jagged Alliances is with your squishy unarmored idiots running around with their underpowered sidearms and getting shredded by natives and their SMGs. To get a sensible opening sequence, you'd have to alter the starting equipment to be more in line with what soldiers contracted to a warzone might arrive with, or alter the tutorial island difficulty otherwise, or something else completely.

Or perhaps the reason was using Tactical AI in combination with that. It really does make enemies impressively smart and well-equipped so every Goon that sees you is a potential grenade to your squad's neck the next turn. The fuckers were even able to be Hidden and deploy unseen overwatch ambushes (not sure which one of the mods did that though). I stopped playing the game after Ernie Village because the enemy overwatches had a bug where all the remaining attacks would fire at the same time, and receiving 150 bullets after wiggling one ass hair semi-visible behind a boulder, while hilarious, started feeling tedious.

I'm still waiting for some sort of consensus mod-combos to emerge from this "laboratory". This attempt had potential, and maybe it will provide a basis for an enhanced JA3 experience in the future, but the end product isn't there quite yet. Rato's Gameplay Balance works because it doesn't try to do anything this drastic.

So I'm gonna have to try the tactical AI thing together with my own mods someday soon. People usually make the AI "smarter" or "harder" by giving them super lame buffs. Will see
*edit* Too bad it requires some weaponmod stuff as a prerequisite. Well anyway.

The gunfight reworked idea is something I would have modded as well one day. Kind of just making better combat scales. Like not fighting from one crate to the next but really over some distance, with lots of objects in the way.

Starting gear can be changed quite easily. I am personally not a fan of the "Pistol-round" start in Ja2 and Ja3 and could easily do without. Just turn pistols into backup sidearms for snipers or soemthing and be done with it. But lots of people like it because it's the most challenging part. Getting the rest comparably challenging would be awesome, though.

 

[Yosharian]

I can't comment on Gunfight Reworked, but Rato is basically a genius who's trying to bring JA2-style gameplay to the game as far as I can tell.

Both Rato's and Tac AI have been worked on considerably over the last year and look pretty polished to me.

Yes it's a jarring start to the game but for me, this makes sense. I arrive on the island with very little cash, only able to hire rookies. I'm going up against pretty hardened rebels from the get-go. The odds are stacked against me, this isn't a fun walk in the park.

I'm ok with this. Just need to adapt.

 

[Yosharian]

Oh and yeah I agree somewhat with the idea of giving your starting mercs better weapons. But to be honest, weapons aren't the main issue haha.

 

[Krivol]

Oh and yeah I agree somewhat with the idea of giving your starting mercs better weapons.

Yeah, that is a common problem with combat squad games. In JA2 - let's conquer a military despotic country! With 3 pistols and a knife!
Wasteland? We have information that shit is going on in the desert! Grab that pistol, a crowbar and go fuck yourself!

But it's similar to the enemy's reaction - the country is burning? Let's keep our elite forces (and tanks!) in the capital city, rookies will do best!
Also, I wouldn't say I like the lack of morale in those games. "This band of mercs is kicking our asses, they just killed 15 of my friends, we are fighting for a bitch we hate! So what? Let's die for her!"

 

[3 others]

Well, to paraphrase Soren Johnson, the purpose of AI in single-player games is to lose in an intetesting manner, so making concessions to realism is acceptable, and usually essential in game design.

The Drassen counterattack in JA2 1.13 is a notorious example of an AI adversary behaving rationally, and it produces a scenario that's probably impossible for 99% of players to pass without savescumming. There's a time and a place for that kind of experience, but it is a hardcore niche.

Personally, I enjoy the "pistol round" early game against low-level mooks. It creates a steady sense of accomplishment as you progress to Mini-14s and SMGs in the midgame, and further into AUGs and PSGs later on.