Jagged Alliance 3 from Haemimont Games

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I just tried the Tactical AI Project with Rato's Balance and Overhaul and it was fantastic. I suppose Tac AI is responsible for the new behaviors like flanking, suppressing and the new reliance on grenades. I barely survived the second map in Ernie, and I've been replaying it trying to come up with more dependable strategies. Entering sectors at night now seems much more optimal, even taking into account wasted time, and melee stealth now seems to require the stealth perk to use consistently, which is great. Timing stealth kills with aimed shots to down two enemies in the first turn is something I had to learn how to do, although it's not my favorite mechanic.

I'm quite apprehensive about going further in the campaign with the mod, though. The enemies now seem to have the ability to see you much before you can see them as soon as they go into Surprised state, even if you're in Stealth mode. And they'll put you in Overwatch without you noticing. The fact that even the lousiest enemies in the game have at least one grenade to lob at my mercs(I disabled extra grenades in mod options) also bodes ill for the future. Another thing they love to do is empty their clips at solid walls, but I can live with that.

Maybe having Tac AI and Rato's is too much and there's a more optimal setup. Or maybe I should just git gud at the expense of my sanity.

Something that really bothered me in vanilla was the broken training. No reason to hire expensive mercs, when you can turn Mouse into a sharpshooter in a single day. Audaki's Training Overhaul seems to take care of this, although I have no idea what a "train boost" is. I need to fiddle with the values, as it's probably too slow now.

I like the veteran voice from More IMP voices better than the default IMP voice.

Any good merc mods out there(apart from Key's Mercs)? I'm starting to get bored of picking the same mercs every time. Barry seems pretty much indispensable. Livewire/Buns are also no brainers if they don't haggle. Then either MD, Mouse/Fox or maybe Igor. The early game is definitely lacking in some choices, notably Leadership/Explosives mercs.

 

[Papill0n]

Here's some early game character mods to have some additional choices (in-country recruitables)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3247228583
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3250131779
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3295436850
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3259614411
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3260673037

(recommended for subsequent playthroughs)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3242147378

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3252198805

 

[destinae vomitus]

Livewire/Buns are also no brainers, Mouse/Fox

The literal womanly size of their inventory is going to make you want to ALT+F4 later on when you're getting loaded up on stuff and you happen to have two or more of these skinny bitches in a squad, speaking from experience. The game plays far better IMO with a squad of mostly if not entirely beefy/manly mercs that have decent or high STR since it really isn't a dump stat, unless you consider mid-lategame Quality Of Life and good loot to be things worth dumping, quite literally.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Buns' iconic lines, which was all I wanted.

I miss that "Hhahaha... It's not funny" line too.

Still plenty of iconic lines from Lilura Buns.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Buns' iconic lines, which was all I wanted.

I miss that "Hhahaha... It's not funny" line too.

Still plenty of iconic lines from Lilura Buns.

Her accent is not correct.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Her accent in 2 is ridiculous. She's supposed to be Danish but sounds German.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Her accent in 2 is ridiculous. She's supposed to be Danish but sounds German.

Might be southern Dane.

 

[Yosharian]

One of the best mercs for sure

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Her accent in 2 is ridiculous. She's supposed to be Danish but sounds German.

Who cares, it's funny. Lots of Germans in the North have Scandinavian names too.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I've been experimenting with Tac AI and Rato's/Gunfight Reworked(Rato's is more customizable) but I wasn't able to find the right balance for me. On one hand, I really like the new enemy behaviors and the tactical challenge, but turning every mook into the Terminator isn't my idea of fun. It's not that they're that smart, they just have the uncanny ability to hit you multiple times with auto fire from 30 meters away at night, or to run all the way around you and still have AP left to empty their clip into your back. Meanwhile, my interrupts can barely graze them even with height advantage. Are they using aimed shots every time when they already spent 15 AP on movement? Maybe.

I'm not sure if it's the buffed stats of MI difficulty combined with the new behaviors, or if the mods are solely responsible. I turned the difficulty down to Commando just to test it for a bit, and in fact the enemies seemed less accurate, but then, Steroid still got hit for 90 damage with AK auto fire while lying prone at night and some 15 tiles away. He's a big guy, but still...

If I weren't so autistic I could just play the game normally, but now I can't. Oh well...

EDIT: I've just found the mod Custom Difficulty Settings, which lets you fiddle with a bunch of parameters for each difficulty, including enemy stat bonuses. Apparently it's true, the enemy does get a ridiculous amount of free movement and accuracy bonuses in MI(and somewhat less in Commando), which isn't that big of a deal in vanilla, but with this new AI and Rato giving full damage to auto fire... that's just... too much. At least for me.

I'm going to start over(again!) and try do to a full campaign this time. It's starting to feel right.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Her accent in 2 is ridiculous. She's supposed to be Danish but sounds German.

Pastries can't talk you idiot.

 

[vota DC]

I've overcome my distaste of this game to a certain degree and I've been playing it a lot lately. I must admit a large part of it was a kneejerk reaction to their treatment of Ice, who I made the mistake of hiring for my first squad. I was offended, and rightly so. Come on, I've been playing with him since JA1! Thankfully, other known characters have been disappointing to a lesser degree.

I'm now in my second campaign in the Mission Impossible difficulty. The first came to an abrupt end as I found myself in a rather impossible financial situation. I'm not a bank, so no bailouts for me. Good of the devs for staying true to the old school game design, though. My second campaign is going much better.

I'm playing with the Key's Mercs mod, which adds a lot of cool characters, including old favorites like Razor, Hamoun and Maddog, who are of course 10x funnier than anything originally in this game. There are also some I don't remember, like Diego "Coach" Mendoza, a motivational speaker with 95 Leadership. He's also much funnier than the vanilla characters, despite his voice being obviously AI generated, which isn't entirely negative as it adds to his uncaniness. The mod does make the game slightly easier, though. For example, Razor is a killing machine, since melee is so strong now, and you can get him for peanuts. Flo is also dirt cheap, but still an excellent utility character due to her high Wisdom. All in all, I like having more choice in Recruit level mercs for this difficulty, as money is so tight.

I've also installed a mod that adds the JA2 voice to the respective characters, although it doesn't work that well for me. I still haven't heard any of Buns' iconic lines, which was all I wanted. The music mods also work inconsistently for me. I find the original selection too generic, and resent the addition of "wholesome African music", which doesn't fit the tone of JA, imo. Then again, that is part of the new game's "modern sensibility", its reversion to the mean in other words.

The gameplay is quality, even if it differs considerably from the classic JA formula. Some observations:

- Melee was barely there in JA2, now melee is king. Couple it with Commandos style stealth, and you have a super effective combination. I'd almost say it's broken, but then again, the game also throws Brutes at you, and you need your own melee guys to defend against them effectively. Like in Commandos, they work much better as a team.
- Perks are a real departure from the semi-simulationist design of before. There's a lot of fantasy stuff in the game now.
- High Wisdom is like a super power. I trained my IMP, Buns and MD to 90 Leadership in basically one day(with Coach Mendoza as a trainer). It also took one day for MD, Barry and Livewire to get their Marksmanship in the high 80s. Kind of broken, yes.
- The new interrupt system is a double edged sword. It's more predictable, but for that reason lets you play more offensively. I think one of the flaws of classic JA combat is that it privileged camping too much. Normally you'd want your mercs to have superior range and hide behind layers of defense, while here you can make more use of fancy squad tactics.

All the nitpicking aside, I'm having fun with the game and it's already made me lose a couple of nights sleep, just like good old JA.

It would be viable Reuban from Ja1 in Ja3 since melee Is king? He wasn't that good in melee too but he had 32 markmanship.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

It would be viable Reuban from Ja1 in Ja3 since melee Is king? He wasn't that good in melee too but he had 32 markmanship.

Sorry, I don't understand your question. You need high stats to make melee work.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

AAR: Had my first "game over" scenario with my IMP getting shredded in the Fleatown church map. The campaign had been going great so far, with barely a scratch on Ernie island and only one mishap in the mines, after one half-dead hyena jumped out of nowhere to chew on Livewire's face, getting her down to 3HP before Meltdown finally tore it to pieces.

When the fight broke out in Fleatown, my IMP and Igor, who had already put 3 guys on the ground in the silence of the night, took cover behind some flimsy tin panels south of the church in order to cover the western approach, while Buns, Barry and Meltdown took care of business from the north. Big mistake. I don't know if he was already hiding in the church or not, but some guy put my IMP on Overwatch and in the next turn interrupted him for 60 damage. I held on for another 5 turns or so, with my IMP desperately trying to cover his ass with smoke grenades while being continually suppressed and grazed, Igor bravely tanking shots with his grit and the other mercs forced to reposition under heavy fire(Meltdown even fell from the roof after it collapsed from constant fire!). Unfortunately it wasn't enough to save the Boss, who was finally taken out with a grenade, also leaving Igor in bad shape, who was shielding him with his body.

These stealth Overwatch interrupts are brutal, even after toning down enemy stats. You just can't assume there's no one behind a window or around a corner. You have to treat the enemies as velociraptors some times. You won't see them but they'll see you. It's also a bit suspicious how some of these shots are able to connect sometimes. I suspect Tac AI changed some values that aren't covered by other mods.

I try to avoid savescumming, but losing my IMP or one of the essential mercs means I'll just restart the sector. I suspect it won't be the last time.

Overall, I'm enjoying the game a lot now. I'm using Tactical AI and Rato's with default settings(except one setting in Rato's that removes penalties for AI, which I disabled), while mostly removing the enemy advantages in free movement and rolls with Custom Difficulty Settings(I still gave them 1 free movement , because their aggressive tactics seem to depend somewhat on lots of AP). Mission Impossible economy and the vanilla options for extra enemies and negative effects from wounds are also enabled.

Despite some of Tac AI "cheating" already mentioned, I think this is the closest to a "tough but fair" set of rules. If you want a more hardcore challenge, you can simply boost the enemies a bit more in CDS.

 

[BadassNonbinaryPrincess]

I got bored playing this game. Too much running around and the occasional combat was boring. I quit in about 5 hours or so and didn't see much because again, running a lot. To be fair it took me a couple of hours to figure out there are teleports. I truly hate this game though.

 

[Yosharian]

I got bored playing this game. Too much running around and the occasional combat was boring. I quit in about 5 hours or so and didn't see much because again, running a lot. To be fair it took me a couple of hours to figure out there are teleports. I truly hate this game though.

I heard there's a new Call of Duty game out, try that perhaps

 

[Beowulf]

I think his complaint is somewhat valid, as there is no walking speed indeed.
You should have given it a couple more hours, so you'd be able to figure out that you can go into stealth mode, if you want to see less running around BadassNonbinaryPrincess GenericAltShitpostAccount.

 

[gooseman]

Fidel

I hired him for my first squad. God, it's unbearable. Every 5 seconds he has a generic marvel redditor quip about how BORED he is. Shut the fuck up nigger. To add insult to redditry, he eventually became the most expensive merc in the game (despite not actually being that much stronger). And then I started training everyone, after getting a foothold. And the faggot just left. I dont think there even was a warning. Other mercs will ask for a raise if they arent happy, like there's not enough fighting, but he just straight up leaves. Permanently. With all the gear he had. Such as the unique shotgun and deathsquad armor I got from a quest (would probably take quest items and other shit with him too). Maybe there was a warning, but it didn't say he will leave and become unhireable and take all the gear with him.
Has anyone figured out how merc fees increase? I know they increase with level, but it seems there's something else, maybe getting kills or stats in the field, because it seems to increase even when their level stays the same sometimes. And no, this isn't the negotiations they do, it just increases next time you have to pay. It doesn't increase from training.

Overall, I liked the game, though it has issues. I think enemies are too tanky, why can they survive a few 7.62 headshots with no armor and don't even get any penalties? Tank 2-4 grenades? HP bloat is insane. First time playing, I went to the Good Place early with its speshul enemies who have what seems to be double or even triple the normal enemy hp. These nigger terminators tank multiple headshots and then run a marathon across the entire map to chop mercs up with machetes in a hit or two. Maybe you're supposed to shoot legs and arms to cripple them? But it's some weird crutch to force you to use this tactic, because the enemy HP is retardedly inflated. Or maybe you need hollow point ammo? But ammo is annoying to manage and craft and you aren't guaranteed to have it. That playthrough was before bobby rays update, not that it fixed anything, because bobby ray's more like bobby gay's he only stocks 12 shotgun shells a week (if at all), what the fuck? That'll last 1, maybe 2 encounters with just 1 shotgun user. Why can't i just buy a ton of ammo in one go and never bother with it again? Even after "upgrading" the shop once through progressing the story, it still doesn't stock that much. It's a lot of annoying micromanagement. Bonus points for $3000+ "steel pipe".

Only a couple of perks felt impactful, the rest are kind of meh. Stats are ok, but there's the issue of some characters being ultra gimped for their seemingly "intended" purpose, like Steroid, who's special perk is a melee attack.... except he has shit stats for melee: low dex and agi meaning less ap to move around and garbage accuracy when he does finally crawl his way into melee. I gave him an MG, seems pretty good for low AP mercs who are otherwise useless, though it absolutely destroys your ammo. First time around it took me a long time to start using weapon upgrades (maybe I missed a hint?), those change the game massively, it almost feels unfair. The last mechanic I ignored are the non-grenade explosives, too much micromanagement for me, but I can see how they would be very useful. Another thing that felt like cheating is the paki woman that gives you free intel and permanent maphack, why is that even in the game? And she's not even a bad merc, she has high wisdom and I think she's the top 3 mechanic (the better mechanics are I think the black girl and Magic, who are much more expensive, and she's one of the cheapest mercs in the game). I guess the tradeoff is listening to her insanely annoying lines and voice.

The dumbest fight I've had yet was in the nazi tunnels, where we had to defend against hordes of african ubermensch, as one of them sat at the end of a corridor so long, even proper sniper weapons seemed out of range. But he was also in the dark (not an issue, sniper had nvgs) and in full cover. The entire fight this fucker just spammed his grenade launcher, which thankfully only had flashbangs. They do chip damage and inflict fatigue and then exhaustion (no free move, lower ap). It took so long to kill him and he managed to knock out 2 guys with grenades dealing 1-5 damage. It was very funny.

 

[Yosharian]

Yeah Fidel is a cunt

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Steroid, who's special perk is a melee attack.... except he has shit stats for melee

You're right about agi but if his dex is shit just take away his knife, bare handed seems to run on Str.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Fidel

I hired him for my first squad. God, it's unbearable. Every 5 seconds he has a generic marvel redditor quip about how BORED he is. Shut the fuck up nigger. To add insult to redditry, he eventually became the most expensive merc in the game (despite not actually being that much stronger). And then I started training everyone, after getting a foothold. And the faggot just left. I dont think there even was a warning. Other mercs will ask for a raise if they arent happy, like there's not enough fighting, but he just straight up leaves. Permanently. With all the gear he had. Such as the unique shotgun and deathsquad armor I got from a quest (would probably take quest items and other shit with him too). Maybe there was a warning, but it didn't say he will leave and become unhireable and take all the gear with him.
Has anyone figured out how merc fees increase? I know they increase with level, but it seems there's something else, maybe getting kills or stats in the field, because it seems to increase even when their level stays the same sometimes. And no, this isn't the negotiations they do, it just increases next time you have to pay. It doesn't increase from training.

Overall, I liked the game, though it has issues. I think enemies are too tanky, why can they survive a few 7.62 headshots with no armor and don't even get any penalties? Tank 2-4 grenades? HP bloat is insane. First time playing, I went to the Good Place early with its speshul enemies who have what seems to be double or even triple the normal enemy hp. These nigger terminators tank multiple headshots and then run a marathon across the entire map to chop mercs up with machetes in a hit or two. Maybe you're supposed to shoot legs and arms to cripple them? But it's some weird crutch to force you to use this tactic, because the enemy HP is retardedly inflated. Or maybe you need hollow point ammo? But ammo is annoying to manage and craft and you aren't guaranteed to have it. That playthrough was before bobby rays update, not that it fixed anything, because bobby ray's more like bobby gay's he only stocks 12 shotgun shells a week (if at all), what the fuck? That'll last 1, maybe 2 encounters with just 1 shotgun user. Why can't i just buy a ton of ammo in one go and never bother with it again? Even after "upgrading" the shop once through progressing the story, it still doesn't stock that much. It's a lot of annoying micromanagement. Bonus points for $3000+ "steel pipe".

Only a couple of perks felt impactful, the rest are kind of meh. Stats are ok, but there's the issue of some characters being ultra gimped for their seemingly "intended" purpose, like Steroid, who's special perk is a melee attack.... except he has shit stats for melee: low dex and agi meaning less ap to move around and garbage accuracy when he does finally crawl his way into melee. I gave him an MG, seems pretty good for low AP mercs who are otherwise useless, though it absolutely destroys your ammo. First time around it took me a long time to start using weapon upgrades (maybe I missed a hint?), those change the game massively, it almost feels unfair. The last mechanic I ignored are the non-grenade explosives, too much micromanagement for me, but I can see how they would be very useful. Another thing that felt like cheating is the paki woman that gives you free intel and permanent maphack, why is that even in the game? And she's not even a bad merc, she has high wisdom and I think she's the top 3 mechanic (the better mechanics are I think the black girl and Magic, who are much more expensive, and she's one of the cheapest mercs in the game). I guess the tradeoff is listening to her insanely annoying lines and voice.

The dumbest fight I've had yet was in the nazi tunnels, where we had to defend against hordes of african ubermensch, as one of them sat at the end of a corridor so long, even proper sniper weapons seemed out of range. But he was also in the dark (not an issue, sniper had nvgs) and in full cover. The entire fight this fucker just spammed his grenade launcher, which thankfully only had flashbangs. They do chip damage and inflict fatigue and then exhaustion (no free move, lower ap). It took so long to kill him and he managed to knock out 2 guys with grenades dealing 1-5 damage. It was very funny.

I haven't noticed HP bloat, except on melee guys(Brutes, Slashers) who I always take out as first priority. I'm playing with Rato's mod, though, which changes weapon calibers and damage output based on those, I believe. Much more annoying to me was the AP bloat, with guys who can run a marathon and still shoot me, or get in melee range which is even worse. Thankfully I was able to tone it down with the Custom Difficulty Settings mod, although I have the impression some specific units aren't affected--there was this "Badass Slasher" at the Good Place who made an insane run around the main building, got supressed with an interrupt while passing by a window, managed to enter through the main door and then glitched out in front of my team, just running back and forth while getting a bunch of interrupts until finally running out of steam(Buns put him down in the next turn with a pistol). If he'd gone straight to one of my units, they'd be dead.

I never took Fidel, for one simple reason: Barry. His explosives skill is almost as good as Red's or Fidel's(it can quickly become as good with field experience + magazines), while being the cheapest. His shaped charges and the fact that he has no quirks or personality conflicts also put him above the others in absolute terms. Just train his agility a little bit so he can throw 2 grenades during a turn, maybe get some perks that improve mobility, and he's a great asset in a fight.

I know that fees can increase by leveling up, personality conflicts and making choices that they disapprove of. So maybe one of those. I've been lucky so far in my campaign.

I'm at the point where I reached the Sanatorium. I killed all the guards only to realize that's the "wrong" thing to do, even though the guards are marked as enemies... I don't mind "roleplaying" a mistake, but this is just dumb. Reload. Just had a fun run in with the Nazi troopers in the tunnels, after I'd sent just my IMP and Barry on a scouting expedition to a Great Forest square. I wasn't expecting to find enemies, only a couple of mines and traps maybe, then I go down this tunnel and suddenly have to fight 6-7 heavily armed gorillas. I just barely survived, and only because of Barry's shaped charges and my superhero IMP's skill with a sharpened machete and his perk that gives him grit by staying out of cover. No way I'd survive otherwise.

All of Fleatown and Port Cacao are liberated, with Kalyna and Hitman working overtime to train veteran militia in every province. I know the game will become much harder later on and I want to be somewhat prepared. I'm saving up so I can hire good mercs when the time comes.

 

[Yosharian]

Steroids attack doesn't use DEX I think it's unique to him

 

[damager]

I always ready "Jagged Alliance 3 from Hemorrhoids Games"

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Steroid can be useful in the beginning if you can't hire Livewire, but his stat distribution is all wrong. He can't be a frontline fighter due to his bad AGI, as it's crucial to be able to move from cover to cover. He has to stay in the back, but for that he'd need high DEX for sniping and he doesn't have that, either. What he does have is high Health and Marksman, which is more suited to the frontline. I suppose you could make him a machinegunner, but you already have Grizzly, who is cheaper, and Meltdown is much superior for only a little more. He's just not particularly good at anything and he's more expensive than more useful characters.

I find his lines very annoying too, more than Livewire, who I actually like.

 

[Papill0n]

Steroid can be useful in the beginning if you can't hire Livewire, but his stat distribution is all wrong. He can't be a frontline fighter due to his bad AGI, as it's crucial to be able to move from cover to cover. He has to stay in the back, but for that he'd need high DEX for sniping and he doesn't have that, either. What he does have is high Health and Marksman, which is more suited to the frontline. I suppose you could make him a machinegunner, but you already have Grizzly, who is cheaper, and Meltdown is much superior for only a little more. He's just not particularly good at anything and he's more expensive than more useful characters.

I find his lines very annoying too, more than Livewire, who I actually like.

I think I only used Steroid in one playthrough and I ended up using him as some sort of tank with a machinegun (when even using him in combat). If you pick some good perks and strong armour, get him prone with an LMG, he can tank damage like the classical RPG meatshield while the others do the damage.

But characters like Grizzly and Steroid are bad due to bad game design. Ja2 had the firing cost AP defined relative to a character's max AP in a turn. In Ja3, gun firing AP is absolute. So we'll sometiems end up with characters who can barely pull a trigger during their entire turn. I am also not sold on how essential dexterity should be for hand-to-hand combat. I mean do we expect a concert pianist to be most efficient at slashing somebody with a machete or rather a lumberjack? I think the skill system has a large flaw there which also punishes low dex characters that would normally be considered decent hand-to-hand or melee guys.