Jagged Alliance 3 from Haemimont Games

[Grampy_Bone]

Does anyone actually use the Elite/Legendary guys for any length of time?

Raven already wants 25k/week, I can't imagine what those guys would charge if you built them up. I just had "the thing" happen and it would be nice to bring in the heavy guns to help out, but they're not even going to have decent gear so why bother.

 

[Shaki]

Does anyone actually use the Elite/Legendary guys for any length of time?

Raven already wants 25k/week, I can't imagine what those guys would charge. I just had "the thing" happen and it would be nice to bring in the heavy guns to help out, but they're not even going to have decent gear so why bother.

I started running a lot of them for fun in the late game since money felt unlimited at this point, but overall they suck, not only they're pricey, most of them are straight up weaker than some cheaper mercs. Magic is good with his +50% crit chance perk and great stats, but I don't like having niggers on my team.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Does anyone actually use the Elite/Legendary guys for any length of time?

Raven already wants 25k/week, I can't imagine what those guys would charge if you built them up. I just had "the thing" happen and it would be nice to bring in the heavy guns to help out, but they're not even going to have decent gear so why bother.

Money becomes pointless pretty quickly. I doubt you'd have problems even with all the legendaries on the roster if you've secured some mines and keep the towns happy. The main issue with the legendary mercs is that stats are too high for the cheapos, so you don't need them.

 

[Ghulgothas]

Shielding the Legendaries behind AIM Gold feels pointless since most of them don't carry anything beyond lowtier weapons you can find on Ernie Island, their solution to the trick in JA2 is pointless because they've erased the reason that made people do it in the first place.

Woulda preferred they at least made Len and Fauda non-Gold; high leadership mercs are valuable.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Does anyone actually use the Elite/Legendary guys for any length of time?

Raven already wants 25k/week, I can't imagine what those guys would charge if you built them up. I just had "the thing" happen and it would be nice to bring in the heavy guns to help out, but they're not even going to have decent gear so why bother.

Money becomes pointless pretty quickly. I doubt you'd have problems even with all the legendaries on the roster if you've secured some mines and keep the towns happy. The main issue with the legendary mercs is that stats are too high for the cheapos, so you don't need them.

I can see someone getting hit by The Thing and having all their income zapped, high tier mercs and a low cash supply. My burn rate is near 9k and that's at least two mines to cover, let alone build a surplus, and they do eventually run out. If I had a roster of legendaries and less foresight I could easily go broke. But yes, with proper play this isn't an issue.

 

[Alienman]

Shielding the Legendaries behind AIM Gold feels pointless since most of them don't carry anything beyond lowtier weapons you can find on Ernie Island, their solution to the trick in JA2 is pointless because they've erased the reason that made people do it in the first place.

Woulda preferred they at least made Len and Fauda non-Gold; high leadership mercs are valuable.

You mean the 20k thing? If you don't pay they eventually say that you get access to them regardless.

 

[Ladonna]

Are the cheap guys from the alternative merc site in? Like Gumpy and friends? It was fun sending in a "B" team in 2.

 

[PanteraNera]

Are the cheap guys from the alternative merc site in? Like Gumpy and friends? It was fun sending in a "B" team in 2.

Kinda, but that is a bit of a spoiler.

Spoiler

M.E.R.C. was contracted before the player. You can find, free and recruit Larry Roachburn.
There is another one called "Smiley" which was not in JA2.
Later on you have the opportunity to rescue Biff, but he will get out of the country.
There is some other characters, like Flay, you can recruit. They all work "for free".

 

[True Ukrainian]

Are the cheap guys from the alternative merc site in? Like Gumpy and friends? It was fun sending in a "B" team in 2.

The status of MERC is one of the mysteries of the game. MERC was hired and somehow fucked up, the locals think AIM if there to either rescue or silence them.

 

[Nortar]

The best melee weapon I found so far is The Thing, which you can get as early as in Good Place.
Is there anything better?

You can sharpen a regular machete to get more base damage than the Thing. I think it still has more crit % though.

I've finally found a sharpening stone and tested it.
You were right.

At 90 strength The Thing does 18 dmg and has 18% crit chance (and I think crit scales with level).
The Sharpened Machete does 24 dmg with 6% crit.

So machete would be the better choice for a dedicated melee merc with "True Strike" perk that turns all melee attacks into crits.

 

[gogis]

The main problem with comparing JA2 and JA3 that is very prevalent in this thread is the fact, that people conflate JA2 1.13 and vanilla JA2 into one entity.
Vanilla JA2 was also lacking in the tactical department and had similar problems that JA3 inherited from it. 1.13 pushed JA2 from the dual identity of being a turn based tactics game and a light rpg about action/adventure movies, straight into what turned out to be the best tactical simulation of squad based fights.
JA3 actually embraces the silliness of this action movie design and leans more into this light rpg side of JA3. There are still clearly worse elements in some regards, when comparing to vanilla JA2, but there is a lot of good stuff that it does on it's own.

Everyone looking in JA3 for a build-up on what 1.13 provides will be disappointed.
I wasn't and let the game surprise me and it was a good surprise. That's one of the single player games I had most fun playing in a long time.

Bullshit. I am at start of 1.13 run, it is not much different than vanilla JA2 and already tactical combat is much superior. There is no tutorial island bullshit, endless talking at start, short range engagements, blind and stupid enemies, stupid stealth systems, pod systems, overwatch cheese, blind and deaf enemies on the map that do not come to check out what is happening and so on.

You clearly not played much JA2 nor JA3 enough, your posts are outright retarded. I wonder why I keep reading this drivel. Praising JA2 AI is just outright out of asylum. Atleast JA3 have NATO themed troops with significantly diferent AI, while all enemies in JA2 have exactly same AI, just different color shirts

 

[Shaki]

The main problem with comparing JA2 and JA3 that is very prevalent in this thread is the fact, that people conflate JA2 1.13 and vanilla JA2 into one entity.
Vanilla JA2 was also lacking in the tactical department and had similar problems that JA3 inherited from it. 1.13 pushed JA2 from the dual identity of being a turn based tactics game and a light rpg about action/adventure movies, straight into what turned out to be the best tactical simulation of squad based fights.
JA3 actually embraces the silliness of this action movie design and leans more into this light rpg side of JA3. There are still clearly worse elements in some regards, when comparing to vanilla JA2, but there is a lot of good stuff that it does on it's own.

Everyone looking in JA3 for a build-up on what 1.13 provides will be disappointed.
I wasn't and let the game surprise me and it was a good surprise. That's one of the single player games I had most fun playing in a long time.

Bullshit. I am at start of 1.13 run, it is not much different than vanilla JA2 and already tactical combat is much superior. There is no tutorial island bullshit, endless talking at start, short range engagements, blind and stupid enemies, stupid stealth systems, pod systems, overwatch cheese, blind and deaf enemies on the map that do not come to check out what is happening and so on.

You clearly not played much JA2 nor JA3 enough, your posts are outright retarded. I wonder why I keep reading this drivel. Praising JA2 AI is just outright out of asylum. Atleast JA3 have NATO themed troops with significantly diferent AI, while all enemies in JA2 have exactly same AI, just different color shirts

Yeah, in vanilla JA2 you could win every encounter by literally just sitting behind a corner or inside a building, and waiting for enemies to come to you 1 by 1 and die.

 

[spectre]

Woulda preferred they at least made Len and Fauda non-Gold; high leadership mercs are valuable.

Yeah, weird what they did with Len. He's supposed to be that bargain choice that carries you through the beginning but quickly loses the edge cause of the "old dog" trade-off, making him a high-end choice defeats the purpose.
The map movement bonus from leadership is fricken bollocks, I don't think the differences between low and 90+ should be this dramatic without perks and traits coming into play.
As it is, your choice at the start of the game is basically: get Raider or max leadership on your IMP.

Looking a bit more at the mechanics, I'm not a fan of what they did with the AP. The system may compare favorably to EXCUM, but that's a pretty low bar.
Unsurprisingly, the devs figured coding in variable AP costs would be too much of a bother and we get shit like low morale mercs suddenly not being able to even fire a gun.

Also, all this talk about spending time on the firing range and the dumb fucks give us a Dragunov that fires 7.62x39 AND does burst fire?
Perhaps it's a local knockoff called Dragunoff, someone took an AK and swapped out the furniture. Jess, people... You basically needed to copy/paste from JA2.

I think there's already a mod that fixes it. Had to double check the title screen, still reads Haeminhnnnnng Games, not Bethesda.

 

[gogis]

Trying the game with increased auto/burst damage (not full, just 1.5x) and enemy is in general much more lethal.

Now I can't have Igor and Q just shrugging off gunfire in the open. And Prison Boss burst fire in his confined space pretty much one shot anybody not name Steroid jacked in heavy armor.

Machine Gunners change from "who cares getting tickled by overwatch" to actually lethal. Overall feels like the game is much better this way instead of Sniper headshot bomb fiesta.

30 hours in I feel they need to make the AI less suicidal, just stay in cover and overwatch (its good action economy as you get more attack per AP). As currently is they are too willing to get themselves in the open just to flank your cover. Hopefully mod manager can mod that behaviour in the future. Right now enemies only ever overwatch if they are low in HP and staying in cover.

It's just niggers who rush and retarded. Have you triggered mid game event when half of enemies are government troops? They always take cover and have much better/scarier weaponry. Government/Siegfried troops act smart

 

[InD_ImaginE]

It's just niggers who rush and retarded. Have you triggered mid game event when half of enemies are government troops? They always take cover and have much better/scarier weaponry. Government/Siegfried troops act smart

Not yet as this is my 3rd restart to feel around the system. Tempted to restart again because the game is kinda retarded and doesn't work with sequence breaking well on the quests (I go to prison before meeting Blaubert and it just kinda breaks the dialogue)

Good to hear that later game enemies are better tho

 

[gogis]

The best melee weapon I found so far is The Thing, which you can get as early as in Good Place.
Is there anything better?

You can sharpen a regular machete to get more base damage than the Thing. I think it still has more crit % though.

I don't know if it's bug or not, but sharpening always fall off after a while. I don't have so many whetting stones drop in my game, so Thing is probably better overall. Although, extra crit is wasted on dedicated melee.

 

[gogis]

It's just niggers who rush and retarded. Have you triggered mid game event when half of enemies are government troops? They always take cover and have much better/scarier weaponry. Government/Siegfried troops act smart

Not yet as this is my 3rd restart to feel around the system. Tempted to restart again because the game is kinda retarded and doesn't work with sequence breaking well on the quests (I go to prison before meeting Blaubert and it just kinda breaks the dialogue)

Good to hear that later game enemies are better tho

Lol. exactly why I restarted first time. I got to prison first, then I went to fleatown and then again - straight to sanatorium and confronted professor without all clues and preparation to plague questline. She gave me 10 days to get samples which is almost impossible to do starting from the end. Overall I managed to break 5 questlines in my first try and approached them from the end, being puzzled of what's going on. It's funny how game allows you to do that.

 

[gogis]

So, another pod bullshit that makes me regret playing Ironman:

Basically I talked to this working girls abuser and the AI turn started - before I could do anything Dr Q was slashed for critical 127 dmg.
Shit like this is unaviodable without savescumming or preapring in advance with multiple overwatches for every conversation, unless you know that you are perfectly safe (vide: savescumming)

To be fair, this is a natural consequence of the game having dialogue that can result in hostilities, unlike previous games. If it didn't have the pod system you'd be subjected to an initiative roll instead (or worse, automatically lose initiative the way enemies do if you provoke the attack). The only solution that doesn't result in bullshit deaths is if you're automatically granted the first turn every single time combat starts, which would be ludicrous. For better or worse, the fake first turn the enemies get will result in fewer bullshit deaths than any reasonable alternative, as enemies rarely spend it attacking.

I've lost 3 mercs NOT playing ironman. What's the problem? Hire another one, it's just a merc, they die, who cares. More dialogue!

 

[Shaki]

The best melee weapon I found so far is The Thing, which you can get as early as in Good Place.
Is there anything better?

You can sharpen a regular machete to get more base damage than the Thing. I think it still has more crit % though.

I've finally found a sharpening stone and tested it.
You were right.

At 90 strength The Thing does 18 dmg and has 18% crit chance (and I think crit scales with level).
The Sharpened Machete does 24 dmg with 6% crit.

So machete would be the better choice for a dedicated melee merc with "True Strike" perk that turns all melee attacks into crits.

Doesn't The Thing have a special perk that makes it get bigger bonus damage from strength or smth? I didn't have a melee goon so never used it, but I seem to recall something like that mentioned in its description.

 

[Nortar]

Doesn't The Thing have a special perk that makes it get bigger bonus damage from strength or smth? I didn't have a melee goon so never used it, but I seem to recall something like that mentioned in its description.

Yeah. The Thing description lists "extreme" damage bonus from strength, while macheted has it only "increased".

The base damage does not change on the item card, the actual numbers can be seen in an attack:

So despite item descripiton the scaling seems to be linear and the damage difference stays the same 6 points.
Livewire with 44 Str (Thing/Machete): 18/24 -> 34/40
Igor with 90 Str: 18/24 -> 50/56

 

[Beowulf]

It's just niggers who rush and retarded. Have you triggered mid game event when half of enemies are government troops? They always take cover and have much better/scarier weaponry. Government/Siegfried troops act smart

Not yet as this is my 3rd restart to feel around the system. Tempted to restart again because the game is kinda retarded and doesn't work with sequence breaking well on the quests (I go to prison before meeting Blaubert and it just kinda breaks the dialogue)

Good to hear that later game enemies are better tho

Lol. exactly why I restarted first time. I got to prison first, then I went to fleatown and then again - straight to sanatorium and confronted professor without all clues and preparation to plague questline. She gave me 10 days to get samples which is almost impossible to do starting from the end. Overall I managed to break 5 questlines in my first try and approached them from the end, being puzzled of what's going on. It's funny how game allows you to do that.

It is possible to complete the Outbreak quest without preparation in 10 days. I just did that on my first playthrough. And I also went to prison first, before visiting BLOBERT and it played out just fine, even though the dialogue felt a little awkward in prison, from what I remember.

Just FYI, you can disable combat HUD by pressing Shift + i

The game ceratinly is a looker

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I got the virus quest, hit 3 out of the 4 spots with time to spare, but on the 4th one Fox did not have the medical skill to actually get the sample.

So I hire Dr. Q with Raider to escort him (leadership bonus!), fly them to Cacao, take a boat inland, grab the sample, and just barely make it back to the Sanitorium on time.

 

[GloomFrost]

It's just niggers who rush and retarded. Have you triggered mid game event when half of enemies are government troops? They always take cover and have much better/scarier weaponry. Government/Siegfried troops act smart

Not yet as this is my 3rd restart to feel around the system. Tempted to restart again because the game is kinda retarded and doesn't work with sequence breaking well on the quests (I go to prison before meeting Blaubert and it just kinda breaks the dialogue)

Good to hear that later game enemies are better tho

Lol. exactly why I restarted first time. I got to prison first, then I went to fleatown and then again - straight to sanatorium and confronted professor without all clues and preparation to plague questline. She gave me 10 days to get samples which is almost impossible to do starting from the end. Overall I managed to break 5 questlines in my first try and approached them from the end, being puzzled of what's going on. It's funny how game allows you to do that.

It is possible to complete the Outbreak quest without preparation in 10 days. I just did that on my first playthrough. And I also went to prison first, before visiting BLOBERT and it played out just fine, even though the dialogue felt a little awkward in prison, from what I remember.

Just FYI, you can disable combat HUD by pressing Shift + i

The game ceratinly is a looker

That's why I for the life of me could never understand people on Dex calling this game "ugly" and saying how much better JA 2 looks. Especially considering its not AAA product.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Just FYI, you can disable combat HUD by pressing Shift + i

Oh goddamn it. Do you know how many times I've lined up a cool screenshot and had it ruined by the UI getting in the way? I swear I looked for a way to hide the UI in the settings

 

[ArchAngel]

The main problem with comparing JA2 and JA3 that is very prevalent in this thread is the fact, that people conflate JA2 1.13 and vanilla JA2 into one entity.
Vanilla JA2 was also lacking in the tactical department and had similar problems that JA3 inherited from it. 1.13 pushed JA2 from the dual identity of being a turn based tactics game and a light rpg about action/adventure movies, straight into what turned out to be the best tactical simulation of squad based fights.
JA3 actually embraces the silliness of this action movie design and leans more into this light rpg side of JA3. There are still clearly worse elements in some regards, when comparing to vanilla JA2, but there is a lot of good stuff that it does on it's own.

Everyone looking in JA3 for a build-up on what 1.13 provides will be disappointed.
I wasn't and let the game surprise me and it was a good surprise. That's one of the single player games I had most fun playing in a long time.

Bullshit. I am at start of 1.13 run, it is not much different than vanilla JA2 and already tactical combat is much superior. There is no tutorial island bullshit, endless talking at start, short range engagements, blind and stupid enemies, stupid stealth systems, pod systems, overwatch cheese, blind and deaf enemies on the map that do not come to check out what is happening and so on.

You clearly not played much JA2 nor JA3 enough, your posts are outright retarded. I wonder why I keep reading this drivel. Praising JA2 AI is just outright out of asylum. Atleast JA3 have NATO themed troops with significantly diferent AI, while all enemies in JA2 have exactly same AI, just different color shirts

Ok , I will admit I have not seen this advanced JA3 AI as everyone I watched does the same. Put everyone into stealth, move hilariously close to enemy during day, set up overwatch and then murder them all easily and then do same to next pod on same map. This is why I call AI blind and deaf.
In JA2 1.13 there is no way I can approach enemies inside effective range of my weapons before they also see me. I cannot even see them much before they see me without having one person use binoculars that gives tunnel vision instead of nuxcom 360 vision.
And once combat starts they come from everywhere on the map to murder my guys and there was certainly attacks of 4 or 5 guys at once and from multiple directions. Luckily so far enemies mostly have just pistols so they are forced to rush into range but it is going to get very interesting soon.