Jagged Alliance 3 from Haemimont Games

[Khor1255]

Well, it's true. Expect too much and you set yourself up for dissapointment. I have to say from what I've seen it looks promising. If this was 10 or 15 years ago I'd be very excited.

 

[Grotesque]

End State will be better than this game?

If it is ever released maybe it could be. That is a big IF.

^this guy is on point

 

[ropetight]

End State will be better than this game?

If it is ever released maybe it could be. That is a big IF.

View attachment 33491
^this guy is on point

Good point.
No mechanic in JA2 was shallow or just decreasing/increasing some stat and then forgot about it.
Being wounded made serious problem in that mission alone (bandaging didn't actually heal HP), but it also persisted to the strategic map.
You had to let wounded mercenary to rest and heal and use replacement in next mission - less capable or massive strain on your finance.

Using mercenaries as instructors also had its benefits and drawbacks - you paid them to make others more capable and they were out of fight.
Etc etc.

Having RISK-like strategic map and wargame miniatures tactical missions never felt like separate parts that were awkwardly fused together.
They were blended together to (almost?) perfection and that is the reason why it is hard to replicate it.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Making a Mercenary​

Hello and welcome to another DevDiary for Jagged Alliance 3. My name is Boyan Ivanov, and I am the co-Creative Director of Jagged Alliance 3. Yes, another Boyan no to be confused with my dear friend and college Boian, whom you already know through the first DevDiary.

What made Jagged Alliance 1 and 2 so special was the cast of unique and quirky mercenaries under your command. There were many memorable personalities, and every player had his favorites. Some of mine are Barry, Fox and Tex from the first installment.

We knew that to make a great Jagged Alliance sequel we had to have a big roster of mercs, and we had to get them right.

Tex – Cowboy of the Rising Sun
Speaking of Tex, while he was a bit too busy being a B-list movie star in Jagged Alliance 2, he’s back in action in Jagged Alliance 3.



To tackle the challenge of recreating the old mercs like Tex we need to do our research. We began by creating a profile document for each merc with their background and story or at least what was known about them.

We then extracted all the voice lines from Jag 1 and 2 to get the vibe and feel of the character. Combing all of those for additional information and character quirks and idiosyncrasies. Like Tex calling enemies rustlers and asking you if you prefer Clint Eastwood or John Wayne.

We knew we wanted to advance the timeline only by a couple of years and we wanted to reflect that in some of the characters. For Tex things weren’t going all that well in Unfinished Business (the expansion to Jagged Alliance 2) and as B-list action movies fell out of fashion he had to don his six shooters once more and sign back up with AIM.



Suit up!
The next step was to create a visual concept for the merc. We had to recreate the characters as full 3D models in the game world. This was a big challenge – recreating the faces was the first hurdle. We had portraits from the original games and those portraits managed to convey a lot with just a few pixels. Translating that to a 3D model proved a big challenge.

One source of inspiration were your discussions and comments. We have been reading and listening to forums, discord and reddit. We greatly enjoyed the fan casting in the thread and tried to imagine the awesome hypothetical Jagged Alliance movie. All of this inspired us to make our character concepts even more detailed and thorough.



Next came the merc’s outfit. Initially we began with a system of combining uniforms, different armor and combat gear pieces. Reflecting what the character had equipped. This didn’t turn out as well as we expected. Mercs were hard to distinguish from enemies and looked very similar to each other. Their uniqueness was completely gone from the visual side of the game. We played around with colors and attachments. Turns out you can’t change the colors of camouflage gear all that much and with too many attachments characters started looking like Christmas trees.

We decided to go in another direction – each merc has a unique model with his own style. Reflecting the character rather than the situation in which the merc is right now. We designed each outfit based on the personality of the merc to make him or her look instantly recognizable.



Each character profile was filled with references of what we wanted them to look and small details to make their personality stand out. Tex was easy to figure out – after all he’s a modern-day cowboy, action hero - but some characters were notoriously difficult to pin down. We had to dive back to our memories of the early 2000s and research trends from back then to get the time period correctly.



The Newcomers
As is tradition, a new Jagged Alliance installment brings some new faces to the ranks of AIM. Creating new mercenaries was one of the most fun aspects of developing Jagged Alliance 3. One newcomer you might have seen in the cover art is Fauda.



Kevi is a veteren heavy weapons and explosives expert. She joined the Peshmerga with her brother Zoran but after his death she was retired and joined AIM as a life of fighting was all she ever knew.



Fauda went through many iterations during development. She began as a young and eager expert sniper but that seemed to similar to other characters in the roster. We decided to switch her specialty to heavy weapons and explosives and with the change Ian Currie came up with the idea of ageing her and giving her a gruffer personality (if you don't know who Ian is, check out the second DevDiary). As the character took shape her story came about with her life as a fighter and the fate of her brother.



As you can see her look also went through a lot of iterations and exploration until we found something that fit her character well.



Finding a voice
The vision of the characters is definitely important but what was most striking about the mercs in Jagged Alliance 1 and 2 was their voice. Having fully voiced characters back in ‘97 and ’99 was rare. Having 40+ main characters and NPCs voiced was practically unheard of.

The mercs and characters in the world of Jagged Alliance 3 are fully voiced once again. And they have a lot to say. As in the previous titles, mercenaries express their quirky personalities throughout the game. They will often chime in with comments about the situation, your actions and their colleagues and teammates.

Missing a shot in a fight will have some mercs curse, others offer a helpful tip. If a merc thinks that a shot is particularly hard to make they’ll voice their opinions and cheer if they actually hit. They will also praise or complain about the success and failures of other mercs in your team.

Relationships and negotiating
Mercs have their own likes and dislikes. They have relationships with other members of AIM and these are not static – they can change in the course of the game. Tex for example likes to work with Fox and will often praise her even if she misses an important shot:

Tex: “Fox make even bad shot look good!”

While Fauda doesn’t really mind Fox initially as a teammate she can begin to really dislike her if let’s say Fox fires a stray shot and hits Fauda.

Fauda: “Instead of checking your make-up you should check your fire!”

Characters are also not always happy to work with you. They may have specific requests like having one of their friends on your team or proving yourself in combat first. Or they may judge your actions – Fauda won’t be happy to work with you if you haven’t won at least 3 battles in the recent days.

Tex: “Fox is there? She should be fighting in big movies, not little battlefields. She is so talented! I will be honored to work with her again. I will change schedule for this.”

Fauda: “Working for you is dull and pointless. I came to fight and kill the agents of Shaitan. Instead, I sit in camp doing empty work. I spit on this. If I am to be doing nothing you will pay me more!”

Merc’s wants and desires are not static and change and you will experience different events with each playthrough based on the team that you pick and what happens throughout the campaign.

Independent Agents
AIM isn’t the only place you can find characters ready to take up arms and fight the good fight. As you delve into the world of Jagged Alliance you may find characters that can join your team if you help them with their own woes. Though we will keep their identities on the down low for now to avoid spoilers.

And there’s one more web site that can help you find a mercenary that fits your specific needs. Yes IMP is making a comeback with a new personality test to make certain that they find the best match for you!



That’s all from us for now. See you soon in the next DevDiary.

Boyan Ivanov
Co-creative Director of Jagged Alliance 3

Source: https://community.jaggedalliance.com/index/dev-diaries/making-a-mercenary-r5/

 

[Ghulgothas]

Fauda went through many iterations during development. She began as a young and eager expert sniper but that seemed to similar to other characters in the roster. We decided to switch her specialty to heavy weapons and explosives and with the change Ian Currie came up with the idea of ageing her and giving her a gruffer personality (if you don't know who Ian is, check out the second DevDiary). As the character took shape her story came about with her life as a fighter and the fate of her brother.

Looks like they're making her into an older all-rounder like Len instead of just making her into FemFidel, hopefully they met their hip, new, modern character quota with Livewire.

Also, glad to see IMP formally confirmed.

Current Roster

 

[vota DC]

Nice to see Tex back. Ja 2 lacked noob mercs in aim from Ja 1 and DG, you had to wait for M.E.R.C.

 

[Alienman]

New character feels a bit too "real".

 

[Ghulgothas]

New character feels a bit too "real".

I think you can chalk that up to her bio, just compare and contrast her's and Tex's.

Not quite as witty, real heavy on the backstory. Feels more like something that'd be written on a character sheet than a something used to advertise the abilities of a mercenary you'd want to hire.

 

[Papill0n]

Yeah that Bio could be better. OTOH I don't mind the occasional "more gritty" character on the roster given there are easily enough comedy characters like Tex. Also, not all AIM Bios are really convincing arguments for hiring the respective merc, either. Still, the "left her traumatized" should probably be rephrased with a witty euphemism as to only hint at the trauma rather than spelling it out blank like that.

I don't envy the (obviously non-native speaking) devs trying to introduce new characters. It ain't easy and today's realities are different than 80-90ies action movie tropes. I'm also not quite sold on how witty the merc bickering lines they show on the dev diary will turn out to be. Let's hope for a good voice actor to deliver those lines and make the best out of them...

 

[SmartCheetah]

Next came the merc’s outfit. Initially we began with a system of combining uniforms, different armor and combat gear pieces. Reflecting what the character had equipped. This didn’t turn out as well as we expected. Mercs were hard to distinguish from enemies and looked very similar to each other. Their uniqueness was completely gone from the visual side of the game. We played around with colors and attachments. Turns out you can’t change the colors of camouflage gear all that much and with too many attachments characters started looking like Christmas trees.

We decided to go in another direction – each merc has a unique model with his own style. Reflecting the character rather than the situation in which the merc is right now. We designed each outfit based on the personality of the merc to make him or her look instantly recognizable.

Meh. Sounds like a decline to me tbh.

 

[anvi]

Each with their own personality, like the female Ghostbusters.

 

[Tyranicon]

"Realistic" characters shouldn't mean boring.

I got bored reading the second bio, while I at least was able to read the entire bio for Tex without my eyes glazing over.

 

[ropetight]

Next came the merc’s outfit. Initially we began with a system of combining uniforms, different armor and combat gear pieces. Reflecting what the character had equipped. This didn’t turn out as well as we expected. Mercs were hard to distinguish from enemies and looked very similar to each other. Their uniqueness was completely gone from the visual side of the game. We played around with colors and attachments. Turns out you can’t change the colors of camouflage gear all that much and with too many attachments characters started looking like Christmas trees.

We decided to go in another direction – each merc has a unique model with his own style. Reflecting the character rather than the situation in which the merc is right now. We designed each outfit based on the personality of the merc to make him or her look instantly recognizable.

Meh. Sounds like a decline to me tbh.

Nice way of trying to hide cheapness of production - not making additional models for characters depending on armor and clothing.
Because voiced banter and portrait in JA2 were more than to enough to distinguish mercs and give them more personality than in 99% games.
Next they will say that separate banter lines for characters in stealth is also reducing the character personality.

One of the strengths of JA2 was that every character could look differently depending on their equipment, so equipping armor and camouflage was really satisfying.
It is frustrating that these cheap fuckers with today's technology are unable to just emulate features of the game that is now 20+ years old.

If equipped weapon is also not shown because it puts mercs personality in danger or whatever, this game is one to skip.

 

[Zombra]

Meh. Sounds like a decline to me tbh.

Decline from what? Jagged Alliance never had visible armor models.

One of the strengths of JA2 was that every character could look differently depending on their equipment, so equipping armor and camouflage was really satisfying.

I don't remember this. My IMP dude wore the same white t-shirt and black pants throughout the game. Everyone else wore their color-coded shirt and pants and that was it. Been a while so I can be wrong but I need screenshots or something to believe you.

 

[Morroweird]

I don't remember this. My IMP dude wore the same white t-shirt and black pants throughout the game. Everyone else wore their color-coded shirt and pants and that was it. Been a while so I can be wrong but I need screenshots or something to believe you.

You are right, JA2 did not have the paperdoll thing. Not even helmets were visible. Only applying camo would just make the char green.
Visible equipment is not that easy to make in 2D without redrawing the entire sprite for each combination of gear.
But it never bothered me, better to have each figure have a distinct look (like the T-shirt and jeans look for the redneck types) rather than the same 'tacticool' snowman.

 

[spectre]

I'm quite rusty on vanilla, and it may be a 1.13 feature, but the only way to alter a merc's appearance was to stack camo % until it reaches a certain threshold which would turn it into the "elite" model.
Later 1.13 builds had those fugly overlays for stuff like NVG and there were some mods in the pipeline trying to add more sprites, but it was heck of a lot of work and I kinda stopped following progress on those.

Regarding the BIOs, I am once again frustrated that the devs aren't getting the finer points of the original. Being grounded in reality was never the point.
Part of its function was to "sell" the merc (even if the stats suck), play on some action flick tropes, but also somehow place them within the game world,
connect them to MERC or IMP as well as drop subtle hints about the hidden mechanics: likes/dislikes, personality, phobias and traits.

Tex's BIO at least does two things: gives us an action flick trope, and sorta implies that he may have a Show-Off trait (if such things are even in the game - it was in JA2).
The other BIO does very little.

 

[Humbaba]

Equipment not being visible even on enemies is the only legitimate gripe I have with the game. Not knowing if for example a guy's wearing a helmet but comparatively weak body armor can lead to you waste ammo on relatively ineffective shots at the head, when bodyshots would've been more optimal. Same goes for weapons but to a lesser degree because you never wanna get shot at anyway.

 

[ropetight]

Meh. Sounds like a decline to me tbh.

Decline from what? Jagged Alliance never had visible armor models.

One of the strengths of JA2 was that every character could look differently depending on their equipment, so equipping armor and camouflage was really satisfying.

I don't remember this. My IMP dude wore the same white t-shirt and black pants throughout the game. Everyone else wore their color-coded shirt and pants and that was it. Been a while so I can be wrong but I need screenshots or something to believe you.

You are right - unmodded, vanilla, version didn't have visible armor or equipment.
My bad!


https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/jagged-alliance-2-lobot-new-sprites-and-animations-mod.140222/

 

[SmartCheetah]

Meh. Sounds like a decline to me tbh.

Decline from what? Jagged Alliance never had visible armor models.

One of the strengths of JA2 was that every character could look differently depending on their equipment, so equipping armor and camouflage was really satisfying.

I don't remember this. My IMP dude wore the same white t-shirt and black pants throughout the game. Everyone else wore their color-coded shirt and pants and that was it. Been a while so I can be wrong but I need screenshots or something to believe you.

Decline from their original plans. At least in JA and JA2 guys looked kinda military I guess? I would like to see all those vests and stuff I put on my mercs. I'm not really a fan of a clown fest with cowboys, firefighters, office ladys and other weirdos shooting at military personel. Hopefully it won't be a case with most mercs and they won't go over the top with it - altough, this cowboy stuff looks pretty ridiculous already.

 

[Zombra]

I'm not really a fan of a clown fest with cowboys, firefighters, office ladys and other weirdos shooting at military personel. Hopefully it won't be a case with most mercs and they won't go over the top with it - altough, this cowboy stuff looks pretty ridiculous already.

Sorry bro ... if you don't appreciate characters like Tex, Postie, Dyno, Pops, Turtle, Skitz, Hurl, Haywire, Reuban ... you don't even know what Jagged Alliance is. Go back to tacticool milsim #235.

 

[SmartCheetah]

I'm not really a fan of a clown fest with cowboys, firefighters, office ladys and other weirdos shooting at military personel. Hopefully it won't be a case with most mercs and they won't go over the top with it - altough, this cowboy stuff looks pretty ridiculous already.

Sorry bro ... if you don't appreciate characters like Tex, Postie, Dyno, Pops, Turtle, Skitz, Hurl, Haywire, Reuban ... you don't even know what Jagged Alliance is. Go back to tacticool milsim #235.

Don't get me wrong - I appreciate them. lore, story and stuff. I don't appreciate battlefield clownfests that you can't even control. And they specifically said that they already had a system that reflected what you have equipped - why not just add those cowboy suits and whatever and let people decide? Specific humour and stuff is one thing, but making your mercs look like a bunch of weirdos is something different - at least to some people. Personally, I like to dress up my dolls and a lot of players feel the same. It's not a big deal, but giving the ability to change the looks of certain characters would be appreciated.
Ofc Tex model is the only one looking like that right now and I have no clue about the others - They might as well look very "military true" even for tacticool milsim enthusiasts.

 

[vota DC]

I am not sure AIM members decide what to write in their bio to promote themselves. Reuban has "on infinite probation".

I wonder if every mercenary will look different. In JA 2 you had only big, short and female (kid models, fat guys and women in skirt were civilians only and couldn't even punch), in JA 1 you had only silhouettes for inventory (I think 4: female, big, short, fat) but zero difference on battlefield. Unless you zoom in a lot it would be impossible without using clow outfits.

 

[Tyranicon]

I'm replaying JA2 now and man, it's crazy how real the decline was.

It's practically impossible for modern gamedevs to make a game like JA2.

 

[Gromoer]

I'm replaying JA2 now and man, it's crazy how real the decline was.

It's practically impossible for modern gamedevs to make a game like JA2.

As someone who’s completely missed JA2 (I believe it’s the overly simplistic visual part that was a dealbreaker for me at the time) I would really appreciate reading more about why it’s so much praised. I recall there was something on Lilura’s blog, but I kind of cannot stand her overly zealous, dismissive tone.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I'm replaying JA2 now and man, it's crazy how real the decline was.

It's practically impossible for modern gamedevs to make a game like JA2.

As someone who’s completely missed JA2 (I believe it’s the overly simplistic visual part that was a dealbreaker for me at the time) I would really appreciate reading more about why it’s so much praised. I recall there was something on Lilura’s blog, but I kind of cannot stand her overly zealous, dismissive tone.

It's the SMAC equivalent of the genre. Very good narrative design without being overindulgent and good gameplay that doesn't hold your hand.

Also, rather than Lilura's rants, I'd recc this guy's retrospective: