Jagged Alliance 3 from Haemimont Games

[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.

 

[Yosharian]

Second map is down. I got unlucky this time, got a broken AK-47 instead of the modded MP-40 I got last time, and Barry somehow managed to fuck up an 'Extremely Likely' Shaped Charge throw leading to him having to waste a second one. And Livewire got injured which will cost me $1100 which I give her the boot. Still, just managing to solve this map was an extremely exhilarating experience.

AI is very intelligent, but still predictable. Once you have knowledge of how they will respond to a given situation, you can prepare plans to exploit their movements. Still, their tactics are on a whole other level compared to vanilla. Very challenging.

 

[Zombra]

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!

What's the alternative? If you want a sense of progress in a game, you have to start small and build up to big. Would it solve the "problem" if all guns except assault rifles were simply removed?

 

[ropetight]

Is there any way to install mods form SteamWorkshop on GOG version?

 

[3 others]

Is there any way to install mods form SteamWorkshop on GOG version?

Yes

 

[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!

What's the alternative? If you want a sense of progress in a game, you have to start small and build up to big. Would it solve the "problem" if all guns except assault rifles were simply removed?

I never said I hate starting with guns . A good alternative would be plot-related - your team will be transported via regular plane so that they can smuggle just 3 pistols and a knife to the combat zone.

 

[Zombra]

I never said I hate starting with guns . A good alternative would be plot-related - your team will be transported via regular plane so that they can smuggle just 3 pistols and a knife to the combat zone.

Creative, I like it. It's so great when the fiction supports the gameplay. I will say though that once you commit to having a strong answer to every question about "why video game", you will never have time to do anything else ever again

 

[Yosharian]

Holy fucking shit. Just liberated Ernie village. That was fucking insane. If I hadn't managed to somehow split the two groups, I would never have been able to do it ( and that is a LOT more difficult when enemies have +60% detection lmao).

 

[destinae vomitus]

So has there been any attempt by modders to properly overhaul the inventory yet? And I don't mean just the UI (which stinks), it's so dumbed down compared to JA2 since ammo is all stored in "hammerspace" and there's no encumbrance even. I understand that some or maybe even a lot of people aren't into that kind of fiddly micromanagement, but for instance not having to make sure that everyone has spare ammo removes those odd few exciting moments where you need to toss a magazine to someone in the midst of a firefight, then again though you can't even throw inventory items in this so nevermind I guess.

 

[Papill0n]

I never said I hate starting with guns . A good alternative would be plot-related - your team will be transported via regular plane so that they can smuggle just 3 pistols and a knife to the combat zone.

Creative, I like it. It's so great when the fiction supports the gameplay. I will say though that once you commit to having a strong answer to every question about "why video game", you will never have time to do anything else ever again

Creative? More like simple plot device to justify pistol round?

A sense of progression can still be achieved even if starting gear is not complete garbage. There's strategic progression, i.e. we take over new sectors. There's character progression obviously (even more so in JA3 than Ja2 because of the level-up perks) and there can be non-weapon loot progression such that we find cooler stuff as we progress in the game. Can be anything, really. There's also weapon modfication progression as we only get hold of many parts and thus weapon modifications as the game progresses (and these matter a lot in Ja3). There can also be ammo /caliber scarcity that may force you to drop your gun (temporarily) for an AK-47 because you have ammo for the latter but ran out of 5.56 for the thing you brought. There can be quest progression in that quests may not be just annoying errands but such as they foreshadow that there could be reasonable reward for those quests (Example of how not to do them: middle of nowhere treasure hunt because, well underwhelming treasure for a long quest). There's story progression too, obviously.
I know a lot of people like the pistol round, I'm not taking it anyway from anybody, just saying that whoever doesn't really like it can still have strong feelings of progressing into the game with slightly less nonsensical weapon progression systems.

 

[Zombra]

Creative? More like simple plot device to justify pistol round?

 

[deuxhero]

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!

What's the alternative? If you want a sense of progress in a game, you have to start small and build up to big. Would it solve the "problem" if all guns except assault rifles were simply removed?

More variety in the trash guns that are trash in interesting ways. Like a JA4 in east asia might have rebored Arisakas in 7.62x39 (single shot only unless an easy mod is installed), pump shotgun, .22s, straight blowback SMGs (low accuracy at anything beyond point blank, no single shot) etc. Actually, that reminds me of something JA3 needed to do: Play with the AP cost of guns more for manually cycled. Weird to see semi-auto sniper rifle be just as slow as any other sniper rifle.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Just started this today. The game's been fun enough so far, but holy crap the art style... what a catastrophe. And the VA is just unbearable(wtf did they do to Ice?), and that's without going into the dialogue. You can at least mute the voices(which is sad, because JA/JA2 had so many great lines).

Is there a list of mods to make this next-gen experience more palatable? There's a so-called "Art Restoration Project" in the Steam Workshop which restores some JA2 portraits, but its treatment of default portraits makes them arguably even worse:

I'm playing a game about mercs, why am I being reminded of college?

I like this style better, even if it's AI trash:

https://www.nexusmods.com/jaggedalliance3/mods/219?tab=posts

Unfortunately, it doesn't replace the default characters.

 

[3 others]

I think the art style is completely fine, and that there's nothing wrong with the dialogue quality, but some characters are certainly better personalities than others. Generally the mercs are written around a certain gimmick, and if you want to be charitable about it, they're going to be in character all the time. For some, this works. Nails totally nails the tone of a renegade 1%er, and some others are also good like Hitman the walking dad joke or Buns who only now feels like the "prim and proper" besserwisser she was intended to be in JA2. Tex is also an example of a comedy character done right.

Then there are the misses like Blood where a single throwaway line from JA2 has been elevated to a cornerstone of his personality (still like him, just feels like a totally different character), Ice who looks and sounds like an extra from Pekka ja Pätkä neekereinä, and Fidel whose tone is just completely off, a reddit user's idea of what a madman is like.

You're also being too charitable to the quality of voice acting in the previous games. Apart from the excellent Malice, the non-anglo accents were all over the place.

 

[Zombra]

Is there a list of mods to make this next-gen experience more palatable?

Found the mod you are looking for in one easy download. Click

 

[Percy]

I liberated Ernie, then fought the major and then accidentally started the colonel fight after going through the nazi tunnel. Didn't touch any of the map to the east.

Livewire had to be a self-insert of one of the programmers right, kinda like how that poojeeta Mindy Kaling made Velma an ugly fat brown.

Gotta say Spikes special attack is fun. If I replay will definitely go back to Ernie last.

I think I got the bad ending, the only thing I achieved was getting the mamasan and the communist married, didn't save anything and didn't cure the outbreak.

 

[deuxhero]

Gilius Thunderhead
Flo is actually internally tagged as having poor looks

Fidel whose tone is just completely off, a reddit user's idea of what a madman is like.

I hired Fidel as C team and only got his late game lines, but I think he has some pretty good ones there.

Characters who are nothing like the original except a few lines, I think Grunty is a good candidate. JA2 Grunty is super professional with slight ego, JA3 Grunty is just weird and talks about his mother regularly.

Edit: I think Barry is one who improves from making his entire personality a couple of lines from JA2. Somewhat generic character in JA2 who in JA3 leans heavily on the two lines showing he is religious.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Gilius Thunderhead
Flo is actually internally tagged as having poor looks

What is this in reference to? I admitted the mod I posted is AI trash. It has none of the character of the JA2 original. Still a good effort from the modder, who made something serviceable. Just being able to use JA2 mercs alongside the new ones immensely improves the game, imo.

I'm using it together with Surray's AI Generated Portrait Replacements , which fixes the JA3 mercs somewhat and they gel quite well together.

I'm not nostalgic, I just have high standards, specially when it comes to the coolest video game series of all time.

 

[deuxhero]

It was in reference to the Flo portrait

 

[Papill0n]

I think I got the bad ending, the only thing I achieved was getting the mamasan and the communist married, didn't save anything and didn't cure the outbreak.

Well I guess you could say...

...it doesn't matter

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

It was in reference to the Flo portrait

Yes, I answered that. It was not the modder trying to turn her into a cutie, it's just what AI does. It makes people generically attractive.

 

[Zero CHAR]

So, did the game sell well?

 

[Kruyurk]

So, did the game sell well?

It has 8700 steam reviews, so I would imagine that it was profitable. The other game that Haemimont released around the same time, Stranded: Alien Dawn, has a comparable review count, so probably it was not more profitable than JA3. If that is the case there would be no incentive to prioritize this other game compared to more JA. Of course, this is all speculations based on steam reviews count, but I am good with reading numbers and their hidden messages.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Haemimont are just contractors and whatever a game sells or not is not that big of a difference for them. If THQ made money, DLC/expansions or another game is up to be negotiated separately. Even if Haemimont is the oldest and most famous gaming studio in Bulgaria they are not even in top 5 by size or revenue and they often take whatever project they can to survive so I would not be surprised if their next game is something completely different (most likely city builder type game as that is their proficiency).

Looking at their 2022 financial statement just before JA3 release found this part

Jagged Alliance working title was "Zulu", "Beacon" is probably Stranded:Alien Dawn. Another interesting thing is that the studio has 71 people working for them and paid 4 million euro for salary for 2022 and their yearly revenue was 4,6 million euro (up from 3,6m in 2021).

Their stated plans for 2023 are finishing existing projects and starting to work on a "new one". So unless something changed they are working on non JA game.