Completed Lets Play the latest Jagged Alliance 2 1.13

[Gregz]

This game is so fucking great.

 

[Black]

Also I'd like for the (Drassen Airport) to be removed from the title.

Can't you edit your first post or does this feature come in a Codex DLC?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Didn't read because you're STILL at Drassen Airport. Call us when you stop fucking around and make some progress.

Seriously, how long can one be stuck fighting at the airport? Popamole next-gen decliners trying to play prestigious games

 

[Sky]

I loved the first X-com and I kinda liked fallout tactics but I never tried Jagged alliance.
Is Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire a good option or is better to go with the vanilla version?
I would not install any mod aside from a 16:9 res mod (if there is one...)
Any beedback would be appreciated

Best regards

 

[Thor Kaufman]

Vanilla is better. Wildfire just has a lot of annoying features and is more difficult.

 

[The_scorpion]

Wildfire isn't really more difficult. It comes at a higher resolution, some quests are slightly botched, feature wise there's hardly any difference but they switched some good old ja2 mercs to shitty new self-made ones (and i know shitty new self-made ja2 mercs) so starting with Ja2 is the better option if you can deal with the low resolution.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Also I'd like for the (Drassen Airport) to be removed from the title.

PM JarlFrank about it.

Also, onwards!

 

[Thor Kaufman]

Wildfire isn't really more difficult. It comes at a higher resolution, some quests are slightly botched, feature wise there's hardly any difference but they switched some good old ja2 mercs to shitty new self-made ones (and i know shitty new self-made ja2 mercs) so starting with Ja2 is the better option if you can deal with the low resolution.

I thought the new mercs were only for the german version? Guess I remembered that wrong. They were indeed terrible, almost as bad as the german dub for JA2 UB.

Anyway, as for the difficulty, iirc enemies had farther sighting range than your mercs plus some sectors had really terrible design where it was almost impossible to conquer them without getting shot to pieces because of enemy cover and sighting range. That and not being able to repair scopes and armor, lamest thing ever.

 

[The_scorpion]

the new mercs came with WF6, WF5 didn't have them yet. But i guess the english version of WF6 also had new mercs.

perceived longer sighting range is probably a combination of concealment (high grass) and restrictions on facial gear drops (especially important for night ops) but not an integral feature of WF that would make it so distinctly different from Ja2. Armour and optics not repairable was lame, but at least has a certain element of plausibility on its side since you don't really repair kevlar (at all) or advanced optics with a tool kit.

as for the map design, see, if the modder decides to wall his soldiers into sandbags, then he also makes them easy prey for grenades... bunch of sandbags in a road block without NPC's is just begging to get grenaded

i had to discontinue WF5 due to a game breaking bug, but WF6 was okay-ish i think and if somebody is new to Ja2, he can try playing WF on an easier difficulty if needed. unlike other shit games that have only one difficulty but no FoV mechanics to compensate for it

 

[Cassidy]

And it is back!

============

I saw a landsquid yesterday...

Bishop's Countdown

With no time to rest and many wounded, before departing the Kodex Kool Krew took several doses of POPAMOLE health regen to fix them up quickly, and afterwards they immediately headed towards the SAM Site, which they should hopefully arrive at while the sun still didn't fully rise, with Shank and Dynamo right behind them.

Meanwhile, Gaskett, Ira, Dmitri and kingconrad take defensive positions near the Alma mine entrance, awaiting the many horrible creatures and ready to stop them from massacring the town.

However, kingconrad replies to the order they are supposed to just wait there while the "ELITE" is to arrive to clear the mines:

"DERP HERP HURR DURR U THINK U R ELITE?"

With his honor at stake he choses to lead his team into the depths of the infested mines for as long as they can.

Something is stinking a lot there.

And not so shortly after they got inside...

What if they came from outer space?

Gaskett shares one of his most life-changing experience upon witnessing the Chigger, as Bee referred to those things. Wait, do we have a degenerate Kwa liberal sodomite right along the team? If he was Dutch we could probably call him Trash.

If it isn't obvious enough... Chigger = Chinese Nigger, something like wigger. Don't ask me the relation between those things and a Chinese trying to embrace THUGZ LIFE.

Kingconrad tries to look professional when witnessing those things for the first time.

Horrible creatures! Avoid them whenever you can!

The monstrosities begin to charge against the four. They are holding their ground, for now.

Kingconrad and Dmitri are pretty much the only ones here that truly know how to shoot accurately, and that is more than welcome considering the situation. These things are way worse than the bloodcats.

After a while, they stop coming, and thus the team goes on the hunt.

Dmitri is seriously wounded by the claws of one of those landsquids. Fortunately the thing was promptly taken down after that, and Dmitri still can handle himself, after Ira gave him first aid. However Kingconrad in his ultimate wisdom didn't bring any spare magazines for his FN FAL, and thus had to get back outside to grab some.

With the outermost section of the mine cleared, they head deeper into the mine.

Those things are everywhere, just like mudcrabs. The team continues with the tactic of holding their ground and not advancing much as the enemies have the upper hand but are willing to come at them first.

Now that was a really close one. The inexperience of Gaskett and Ira is starting to show off but they still score hits more often than not. Believing it would greatly harm them Conrad tossed a frag grenade, but these creatures are too tough for grenades.

One of the walking colons, chiggers, landsquids or whatever you want to call them spits a toxic and acid gas at kingconrad, who is fortunately only lightly wounded by it. Quickly he runs away from the gas while Ira takes down another one.

A poorly thrown mustard gas grenade ends being completely useless.

This sector of the mine is at last cleared, but it came to a cost. Without gas masks the gas those things spit can instantly knock anyone out.

Their lack of appropriate gear thus finally gets into kingconrad's thick skull as he orders for them to fall back to the mine entrance.

And he also takes the opportunity to inform the head miner that Dynamo was freed.

Not that right now this will help much. The mines will only become operational again once those abominations are wiped out, one by one.

I wonder if Calvin Barkmore has any "unique" comment when it is the mine he controls that gets overrun by the landsquids.

Mercenary

And fortunately, while darkness was still in, the team arrived at the SAM site. They couldn't goof around much, for the sun would rise shortly.

Taking positions in the darkness, close to the checkpoint, they start their massacre.

And before you ask, long story made short I did something foolish when I was undecided on whether to give Ulminati the AWM, his current sniper rifle or another one I forgot the name of, I had to stop playing right in the middle of it, and in this I did the silly act of leaving all 10x scopes in the Humvee attached to other snipers and sending Ulminati to Tixa with an unscoped sniper rifle.

Although the OICW is not a bad weapon, just not his expertise.

Having 20 tear gas grenades in a clip surely can be handy. And thus they continued shooting at the foes as they showed up, until there were no more dumbfucks along the survivors, and the remaining foes decided to wait for the team to come at them.

Ulminati cuts some wires to open a path through the darkness for the team to get inside the site without being immediately spotted by everyone, and it seems this will be a complicated infiltration, for obviously there is a minefield there.

Thus EXTREME Nails comes first and check for all the mines near the gap, and once he identified all mines nearby, the team begins to climb over the building.

Azira becomes the last one to climb, but first he puts down a curious Deirdranna grunt.

Taking positions to cover all directions, the await patiently. Not much, for soon a foe climbs in, which is quickly taken down. Then, suddenly:

Holy shit they got a mortar! It is pure luck Black and Ulminati weren't raped right away.

Better to take down any potential spotter, and quickly!

Fortunately silence returns, and the remaining enemies seem to afraid to try climbing up and coming at the Kodex Kool Krew. The dangerous hunt begins, and they better not give any split second for whoever is packing that mortar to react lest they die very quickly. (Can mortar-wielding foes get interrupts?[/yougonnagetraped])

Another one down. And after that definitively the odds of more of them foolishly coming out of their covers is small. Carefully the team members begin to reposition themselves over the rooftop, getting closer to the edges to get down soon through an unlit spot.

Eventually all get down, and still no signs of more enemies. As it becomes obvious they are not coming any more, it is decided that the best Night Ops specialists, Black and Ulminati, will go ahead for the hunt.

Black's SM-1 rifle proves itself again, and now their numbers are very small. Their victory is only a few more enemies, yet mistakes could still bring casualties to the team.

After being lured by a grenade, yet another one is taken by Black's rifle. A through search is done and no more enemies are found outdoors. The last must be inside this large building which surroundings are partially mined.

Black opens its front door, crawls and spots one of them on the other end of the room, but he feels queasy about advancing further, because if there is any enemy to his left, odds are he won't make it through. Instead, a tried and tested method of safely disposing of enemies behind walls will be used.

Kicking doors is for wussies... truly EXTREME men open new doors with explosions.

First nearly killed by the explosion, the last thug dies easily, and victory is at last ensued in this site. Immediately Skyrider is called to arrive here and send the Kodex Kool Krew to the Alma Mine ASAP, for it has been over six hours since the four mercenaries under kingconrad tried with limited success to clean those mines.

But this time they won't fail. They will be packing enough to exterminate all those horrible landsquids and send them into the depths of Oblivion.

Yet they must not forget that this SAM site won't be left undisturbed for much longer, but for now, securing the Alma Mine is a much more urgent priority.

Who knows how quickly those things can reproduce and spread if left unchecked?

 

[The_scorpion]

wait for a while until the creatures get out of the mines. They're more interesting combat-wise when outside :p

btw. Calvin barkmore does indeed have a few unique comments if the creatures infest his mine and if you've read some Cleve vs. Wizardry-never-to-be threads, it may sound familiar what he sais...

 

[Cassidy]

wait for a while until the creatures get out of the mines.

I was hoping they would show up before the main squad was ready.

I have an update ready but I really need page 14 because it has lots of images.

 

[Roderick]

bump for MOAR

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[Black]

Bumpage.

 

[pipka]

"Arewethereyet?" bump.

 

[The_scorpion]

wait for a while until the creatures get out of the mines.

I was hoping they would show up before the main squad was ready.

I have an update ready but I really need page 14 because it has lots of images.

i think they need quite a lot of time to actually move out of the mines. but in case of Alma, there's flat roofs west and southwest from the mine area so crepitus aren't much of a threat for your guys anyway.

 

[Cassidy]

wait for a while until the creatures get out of the mines.

I was hoping they would show up before the main squad was ready.

I have an update ready but I really need page 14 because it has lots of images.

i think they need quite a lot of time to actually move out of the mines. but in case of Alma, there's flat roofs west and southwest from the mine area so crepitus aren't much of a threat for your guys anyway.

Also crepitus have a way better night sight than humans and my best nvg is a NVG II

So I'm not so sure if they'd be tougher to kill the open.

=======================

The Chigger Queen

Alien 3 music montage

SUFFER NOT THE XENO

But first, Shank is sent to Estoni to set up a fuel deal.

There he finds an old man who lost everything thanks to the tyranny of Deirdranna. Another of many histories like this in the latest years of Arulco.

And finally, Jake himself.

Now Skyrider will be able to use this place as a base, provided it is free from enemy presence. But he is currently busy. After shipping the Kodex Kool Krew to Alma Mine, the Krew was resting a little before going in as some of them were way too tired and they should really be ready before getting inside to face those horrors. Ira, Dmitri and Gaskett were covering the mine entrance just in case.

Once the xenos threat and Orta are explored, then the most decisive moment of this conflict shall begin. To have resorted to such horrors is indeed a sign of desperation from the petty and cruel dictator of this country, for the freedom fighters are at the gates of Meduna already.

Shank also takes the opportunity to buy some stuff. A compound 18 and some glass jars. It is known some people would be interested in samples of blood and other liquids from those things, thus because the Kodex Kool Krew is still resting in preparation for the coming and likely terrifying battle, he is called to fly off to Alma Mine and drop off the jars there. And after that he will go to the recently conquered SAM site and observe kingcomrade as he trains militias so he may learn enough to become a militia trainer himself rather than worthless.

And shortly after, evertyone of the main team is fully rested and ready to get in, to face these abominations and wipe them out at any costs.

Right at start it becomes clear they were about to break out from underground and get to the surface, which could have been disastrous. Ulminati misses a tear gas grenade aimed at them, while Orgasm delivers a burst severely harming the first two. The corpses of those monsters kingcomrade and his team wiped out were still there, their stink being an additional obstacle to the absolute darkness.

Azira finishes off the abomination, while they position themselves under the cover of mine carts, tables and beams.

Black takes down another of these horrible creatures I saw yesterday, to be avoided whenever you can. But it's far from over, even in this first area, and this probably goes much deeper than they'd wish.

Nails wipe out another one. Is it over now? The stink must be as nauseating as that of the cockroach-ridden Prosper's microwave oven.

And Black puts an end to this... at least in this sector. But they must go deeper, until the very source of this infestation. Thus they move further south into the mine, at the place where the first team found the hole those things dug.

Right at the start they already face more of these Chinese niggers(as Bee likes to call them).

Azira takes down another one while they carefully advance to safer positions.

Moar liek Big Fucking Slinky.

At this level, it was the last one Black put an end to. Now they looked at the dark, fetid hole, knowing that things ought to become more and more dangerous the deeper they got in.

Speaking of it getting more dangerous, they end in a totally exposed and open cave and Nails gets hit right away. Luckily it was a glancing shot of that very corrosive acid. Otherwise he could be very badly hurt, or worse. Immediately they engage that thing, and obviously it isn't the only Landsquid here.

Those things not only have a deadly acid spittle and are equally deadly on melee, but also they can see way farther than a human wearing shitty NVGII because Bobby Ray's store still doesn't offer better stuff than that and I won't waste time in Balime just for the sake of buying stuff from that electronics store.

Fortunately the bold Orgasm corrects this disadvantage by charging recklessly before those things could react, scouting two of them and killing one.

Black finishes the job, but those were only some of these things here. With the awareness they can see farther in the dark than any member of the team except perhaps for Black, he takes the lead and scouts ahead, sneaking around and enduring the tension.

Fortunately the last one was just a slug incapable of defending itself that was promptly exterminated, and now they were to head further into these dark depths. So far no serious casualties, only minor wounds, but these enemies are more than capable of wiping them out if they make any mistake or just end in the bad luck of being forced to advance through a very open area.

The next area is even more complicated, with little cover and lots of places the chiggers could come from. They position the best they can and get ready for the battle.

Black neutralizes the first, and then the enemies show they are more cunning than the Deirdranna redshirts. The rest of them simply refuse to advance, instead waiting to ambush the team when they least expect it. With the fear of those hiding in the dark, they advance slowly and carefully through the best cover they can get in these caves.

Another close one, but fortunately Orgasm took it down just in time.

They head near a hole going even deeper, and then take positions near the tunnels leading to it as they prepare to meet more of the horrors.

Black takes down a disgusting landsquid child. Of course doing so won't grant him the Childkiller trait. Xenos don't count. However, one would have to expose himself too much to cover his back... which was an open invitation for.

Black is lucky for sure, and he quickly takes down the crepitus going behind him, and now sticks to direction that position while Azira will cover the direction he was facing before. And before I forget, in one of these nasty encounters Nails got hurt bad, and is now staying behind in less riskier positions, as if they could exist in a place like this.

After these ones, again they don't advance, but instead wait for the team to come at them so their ambushes will succeed. Sticking close to the cavern walls, Blacks sneaks to get inside a crevice that would provide him relative safety while others follow him.

Before he gets in another one shows up.

And dies.

They managed to lure more of them, and now they just need to not fuck up.

Holy shit! Looks like most of them were just in waiting to ambush the Kodex Kool Krew after all. Bee, don't miss it, don't miss it! Your life depends on hitting a lot of bullets in that thing!

Unfortunately, after so many headshots, a legendary number of enemies defeated, Bee failed when she needed her skills the most, at near point blank range, the sheer desperation and panic conspired to ensure her burst would mostly miss and be unable to stop the chigger from melting most of her body into a pool of gore and acid.

Bee NEVAR FORGET



They must not panic. If they simply run away now those things will reproduce, grow more numberful and eventually spread out. They must finish this no matter the cost!

With the unfortunate death of Irene "Bee" Honeychurch a replacement is quickly looked for. Someone affordable but of high skills. Due to our delicate financial situation since the Alma Mine was shut down because of those things, and just to be sure the daily costs won't be missed, only a daily contract is made for now with Stephen Rothman, whose leadership skills will most certainly be quite useful, and he knows how to blow shit up, although we already have a better specialist on this field.

Guys, how do I add custom nicknames to AIM mercs?

And thus, after wiping out all of them, leaving behind another great hero and patriot, they descend to what is most likely going to be even more deadly and dangerous than what already costed the life of Bee. The desire of making her death not be vain drives them forward despite the bad smell and the fear.

Once again, they are met with immediate threats.

No bullshit this time. To hamper their ability of spotting the team first, Ulminati drops a tear gas grenade, and Nails launches an illumination grenade at roughly the same spot. Of course those horrible creatures don't cry, but that was not the reason for that grenade to have been launched. It works very well and another one is cleared.

However, once again they refuse to advance, waiting instead in ambushes against the team.

Fortunately this time the cave has a perfect chokepoint, a tight cave with only two ways in. The rear way is guarded by Nails while the rest advanced through it, and tried to lure in more and more of the crepitus.

It worked! They kept coming this time.

Black and Orgasm wiped many of them.

This one is for Bee.



Then they stopped again, but thanks to Black's excellent hearing, they knew more or less where another one lied. Thus Azira went to draw its attention.

Except it didn't work and the thing remained in its corner.

Immediately after Orgasm threw a frag grenade at the same spot. A loud scream was heard and it began to move in. Orgasm advanced near the cave wall, and then:

Did something that was borderline insane by attempting to slay it with a Katana.

Except it worked perfectly.

That is how

a sushi master

does her job

Later all they find is more sushi.

Then after covering all spots but one, They go in the EXTREME way: Might makes Light.

After tossing a grenade there, Nails finds the last of them. Crazily some advance to finish the job.

It was just another worm, what a waste of a HE grenade.

Time to get into what hopefully is the deepest part of this hell.

And hopefully nobody else will die.

Bishop's Countdown

Immediately on arrival they are bombarded by acidic blobs. They must react quickly!

Those things keep coming, no retreat, no failure acceptable. They must succeed now, they must be very close to the source considering the numbers of chiggers that are coming.

Good thing they are very competent or Orgasm would become the dinner of one of those things.

Then, eventually they stop coming. They have switched to the ambush tactics again... great.

The team moves to the southern caves as they offer some limited cover. More aliens found. To the east of this one there is a very large and open area, which is better to avoid unless utterly necessary. To the northeast there is a wide but still tight passage filled with human skeletons. They advance carefully through that one.

Several abominations are lightened by a break light tossed at the end of this tunnel by Black. Then silence again. Further east lies some kind of antechamber, from where the noises of something gigantic can be heard echoing from another tunnel leading west. It must be the source! But they must ensure none of these things will be left alive, and thus, they decide to wipe out the smaller ones first. Around the antechamber nothing is found, which means a bad thing: they will have to move to that very exposed and open cave to finish the job. And no matter how carefully they do it, there is always a risk.

Unfortunately, right at the beginning, a barrage of acid manages to put an end to the already wounded EXTREME Nails. Once again an avatar of the EXTREME SHEPARD RENEGADE perishes, even though he did take some popamole health regen to reduce the extent of his wounds before this.



The survivors do their best to wipe out and locate these landsquids. Mudcrabs don't spit acid therefore these are worse than horrible creatures.

Holy shit! Behind you Azira!

They are so exposed now. It's either to hit fast and accuratedly, or like Bee so terribly learned, die. Azira continues looking after there, and suddenly a legion appears. he fires the best he can.

But it proves insufficient. His situation is critical now, and the others aren't in a good situation either.

He did his best, but he was simply overwhelmed by crepitus abominations and never stood a chance. The man who saved the lives of the team countless times now also makes the ultimate sacrfice.

Azira, NEVAR FORGET.



With half of the team killed, now they still have gone too far to give up. Either their ULTIMATE DOOM will happen now or this will end in a victory, albeit a costly one.

Black, Ulminati and Orgasm do their best to hold up.

And shortly after Ulminati barely escapes from certain death.

Things are getting very nasty, yet Black is a lucky man. So far he didn't get even a scratch.

Eventually, it was clear. They checked all around besides the source of these horrible creatures. No signs of any more of them. However, the source would spawn more sooner or later. They knew what had to be done.

But first it's needed to find replacements for our unforgettable heroes.

A new doctor that is particularly bright, and thus will learn quickly given enough combat experience, is hired as the new main squad doctor.

And a new EXTREME explosive specialist from Hungary gets in too. Actually not as EXTREME as the Scot because his education was mostly theoretical, but once he puts theory in practice, then there will be lots of EXTREME. He also knows how to fix things, to an extent.

Positioning in crevices, the team wonders on how to approach the issue. It is more than known that these creatures have a superior eyesight in the dark compared to any of them. And considering what the acid spittle of the average landsquids did, if whoever gets in to the dangerous task don't shoot first, death is almost certain.

It was then that Ulminati was thankful of his decision of having saved the last tear gas grenade from his launcher.

He launched it on the entrance to the Queen's chamber, and then both Black and Orgasm crawled, covered by the smoke as they tried to hold on their nerves from hearing the shivering noises the massive creature was making.

Orgasm spotted it first and immediately fire her assault rifle. It was so big she didn't waste any time aiming accuratedly, she just pulled the trigger immediately after spotting it.

When something is very big. MORE DAKKA always will be a solution.

Also count how many rounds her rifle had before and after the burst. It was fired like a machinegun here!

Now the most important mine they have is back on track.But it seems that abomination left some green matter over the ground.

Perhaps it could be useful for something. This Queen, unlike the rest, was very tough to bullets and only the lots of DAKKA ensued victory here. Perhaps if this was applied to a body armor, would it toughen it?

Now, they will mourn for their fallen comrades and await for the new ones to arrive, knowing that they are getting very close to the final battle of Meduna. Once the secret base of Orta is finished, then all between the Liberty of Arulco and the Kodex Kool Krew is Meduna itself and Deidranna.

And for Bee, Azira and Nails, another:

 

[Running Fox]

Knife a man - check
Knife a beast - check
Knife a monster - check
Knife a tank - todo

M:

 

[Azira]

 

[Thor Kaufman]

Xtreme indeed.

 

[Cassidy]

Also as a bump for this thread and a question I am yet to find an answer for:

Is there any way to change the nickname of AIM mercs? I'll add others who signed up after the first six if there is one in compensation for the sad fact adding more than six IMPs if one or more of the first die tends to cause game-breaking bugs.

 

[Running Fox]

Save game editor?
Externalized in 1.13?
You could take something that does a full content search and go through the install location (also hope that the names are not compressed). Then open the files in question in a hex editor and change the hardcoded values. Cant make longer names though. Thats asking for bugs. Change the name, replace the characters that where previously there with dots.
Eg, "Walther Meyer" is gonna be "Running Fox..", same length. You could try "Running Fox " with 2 spaces at the end too.

I use XYplorer for my explorer needs and it has full content search.
WinHex, forensics edition, also lets you open harddrives raw and search for values.

 

[The_scorpion]

within a running game, hacking the save game might be the only way. I figured you already tested changes to mercprofiles and the like?

 

[The_scorpion]

i just tested hacking the save game, it seems to work, i didn't go into details.