So I'm playing JA2...

[The_scorpion]

Has it really become this unplayable out of the box (i mean SVN)?
Might give me an incentive to try an unmodified game once more just for the lulz. Don't even remember when i played it unmodified for the last time (and for how long)

 

[laclongquan]

Not unplayable as such. Just hard.

Mod113 is a heavily reinforced mod, with more aggressive AI, more patrols and more of every thing. If you are a first time player, mod113, even at normal setting, could still kick your ass.

On the other hand, pre-113 is a patch 112, which is just bug fixes. Hell, even vanilla is one fine thing to run, with no game breaking bug. I ran vanilla 2-3times before I can patch to 112. And pre-112 game is just plain easier: less enemies, less patrols, less weapons. There's one guy modified his game so that EVERY sector got maximum redshirt just for him to kill. The game worked, as it served as a challenge for others years before the appearance of 113.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Activate SLOW_WEAPON_PROGRESSION.

definitely recommended, though certainly the enemy-drop-all faction wiill cringe

In fact before a new game, open the ini editor and read the description of every entry, instead of bitching about the game later. It surprises me how many ppl are complaining about drassen as if they haven't even heard of the ini.

Does the SLOW_WEAPON_PROGRESSION affect drop all as well? I'm playing now with drop all on and between this setting and normal web shop good equipment is much harder to find then before (which I really like). I hope this will last.

Another setting I would recommend is SUPPRESSION_EFFECTIVENESS = 100, which is for some reason set to 0 by default.

 

[Pliskin]

Activate SLOW_WEAPON_PROGRESSION.

definitely recommended, though certainly the enemy-drop-all faction wiill cringe

In fact before a new game, open the ini editor and read the description of every entry, instead of bitching about the game later. It surprises me how many ppl are complaining about drassen as if they haven't even heard of the ini.

Does the SLOW_WEAPON_PROGRESSION affect drop all as well? I'm playing now with drop all on and between this setting and normal web shop good equipment is much harder to find then before (which I really like). I hope this will last.

Not sure which version of 1.13 yr using, but in mine (build 09.07.15), there is no SLOW_WEAPON_PROGRESSION in the .ini.

It's written as SLOW_PROGRESS_FOR_ENEMY_ITEMS_CHOICE.

 

[Casus belli]

Is Wildfire for 1.13 worth it? I have played the standard 1.13 (with HAM) campaign a couple of times and I'm looking for something new.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Not sure which version of 1.13 yr using, but in mine (build 09.07.15), there is no SLOW_WEAPON_PROGRESSION in the .ini.

It's written as SLOW_PROGRESS_FOR_ENEMY_ITEMS_CHOICE.

Yea, that one must be it. I just copied the name from previous posters without checking it.

I'm now taking my second city (after taking Drassen and the east SAM) and have just found my first (poor) assault rifles. Quite an improvement over my previous run where I already had high-end assault rifles and sniper rifles at this point. This setting is a must if playing with drop all.

 

[reaven]

Is Wildfire for 1.13 worth it? I have played the standard 1.13 (with HAM) campaign a couple of times and I'm looking for something new.

The maps it comes with are nice, give it a try...

 

[MetalCraze]

On the other hand, pre-113 is a patch 112, which is just bug fixes.

And removed content. After 1.12 patch (aka JA2 Gold) JA2 "suddenly" started to have Teen rating *hint*

Talonsoft version 1.03 patched to 1.13 is the only kosher way to play JA2.

 

[laclongquan]

that tiny portion? I dont think it worth even a mention.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Who gives a fuck what little blood and sex they have taken out? I mean, how can anyone call this "teen"? Rotting corpses where you look, mercs cracking corny jokes about disintegrated heads? Heck, you can even murder kids, cut off their head, and play ball with it. If this is teen I don't want any more!

 

[spectre]

It's all cool for kids as long as there's no tits.

IIRC the content removed was the little bits of San Mona brothel (which aren't much to write home about in the first place).

 

[Burning Bridges]

Oh yes, I forgot that for Americans violence is part of normal life, but sexuality is off-limits. How naive my posting appears in that light

 

[TNO]

This game is the shit. Now have taken over three cities, including Alma.

I'm bloody impressed by the AI - sometimes they do show a tendency to walk one by one into your gunsights, but they generally do a pretty good job of trying to lock you down and bring their numbers to bear. Suppression fire _must_ be turned on.

One thing though - a couple of maps have small rooms with an elite facing the door with an autorifle. As soon as one of my guys opens the door, it reacts and murders him. Is there any 'safe' way of clearing rooms like that? Can you open doors 'side-on' so you aren't exposed?

 

[Zero Credibility]

One thing though - a couple of maps have small rooms with an elite facing the door with an autorifle. As soon as one of my guys opens the door, it reacts and murders him. Is there any 'safe' way of clearing rooms like that? Can you open doors 'side-on' so you aren't exposed?

Set some explosives and blow up the wall - preferably right next to the opponent on the other side.

 

[Pliskin]

This game is the shit. Now have taken over three cities, including Alma.

I'm bloody impressed by the AI - sometimes they do show a tendency to walk one by one into your gunsights, but they generally do a pretty good job of trying to lock you down and bring their numbers to bear. Suppression fire _must_ be turned on.

Meh. I still see the AI pulling alot of "chicken-with-it's-head-cut-off", running in and out of LOS to no effect, until it runs out of APs and becomes a target.

One thing though - a couple of maps have small rooms with an elite facing the door with an autorifle. As soon as one of my guys opens the door, it reacts and murders him. Is there any 'safe' way of clearing rooms like that? Can you open doors 'side-on' so you aren't exposed?

No. Just use a well-rested, un-wounded, high-DEX / AGI merc with most of their APs and hope they get an interrupt --- or have another merc with high-interrupt standing right beside / behind them.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Frankly expert pisses me off. I finished it once, never again. Abusing the AI for hours on end isn't my idea of a fun game. I would rather play ironman hard mode where you can fight at a leisurely pace and not have 10 billion troops everywhere on the map. But in any case, here are my suggestions:

In 1.13 you can have more then 1 IMP, I think its 6 max. Abuse this all you can. I go for max health, dexterity (or was it agility? whatever gives you more AP), wisdom and dump whatever you can spare in marksmanship, though I don't take anything to 0 because my powergaming sense wants to always end up with supermerc 100 in everything.

To get extra money early you can have a strong merc box in San Mona. Feel free to hire Mercs that you can't afford early on for a single day just to get their equipment. For example, Scope's M82 is pretty much an I-Win button early on IF you can get ammo for it. Avoid all fights you can, especially every fight during the daytime. If an area isn't producing money or giving you access to a store that sells important items, let deidriana have them. You aren't gaining much from them and you end up wasting ammo unless they are using the same weapons you are. Save it for later when you can spare the militia.

Take over the mine first. Any mine, it doesn't have to be the drassen one (though I chose drassen, Chitzena also works just fine). From there you HAVE to keep someone pumping out militia 24/7. Unlike in other difficulties, in Expert Diedriana has an INFINITE number of troops. You can't just wait for the attacks to stop, they never stop, so you have to constantly replenish forces. The good news is that it seems leadership doesn't matter all that much for this. Feel free to stick Ira or whatever training militia.

From there it gets much easier, though the roaming patrols are always a PITA. You get the airport to order ammo in, then you can take down just about any attack as long as its at night.

As for Drassen: I haven't done this on expert, but if you are lucky and the counterattack comes at night you can play cat and mouse, always keeping on the move.

How much do the newer versions of the 1.13 mod add? I tried it once and I saw I started out with 100 AP and I was like WTF. Has anything important been added in the past half year?

 

[Pliskin]

Frankly expert pisses me off. I finished it once, never again. Abusing the AI for hours on end isn't my idea of a fun game. I would rather play ironman hard mode where you can fight at a leisurely pace and not have 10 billion troops everywhere on the map. But in any case, here are my suggestions:

Sure you don't mean Insane mode?

Novice, Experienced, Expert aren't that much different (you get less, AI get's more, but there is a force limit). Insane is the setting with an infinite force pool.

Have you tried playing with the mobile militia function turned on? Helps to be able to train yr own mobile patrols to counter the red-shirts --- though it does mean having a merc on 24 hr militia training mode. (Anybody with Teaching skill --- Ira is perfect for this.)

 

[TNO]

Yeah, I've fiddled the pool upwards for expert (from 800 to 1500) but the only time I've really had to abuse the AI was the drassen counterattack.

I also haven't found mobile militia very useful. You pay 2,250, get five men, and they run off blindly to die to a 20 strong enemy patrol I generally just try and hire one 'teacher' per city (Buns, Ira are both experts) and go from there.

Money isn't an issue. The Alma mine alone is getting me 10k a day now.

The AI is a bit patchy, but the 'headless chicken' syndrome seems to occur mostly when I'm plinking them off with a sniper rifle at night, so I suppose you would panic if you couldn't work out what was going on. However, quite often they manage to spray auto at me to pin me down and surround. Climbing on roofs is a bit imba though.


One serious question - from looking at walkthroughs and stuff, I think I missed out some content in San mona and Alma. I stole loads of money from Kingpin so the entire town went aggro on me, but I hear there is content. For alma, the training facility apparently lets me recruit conrad, but I couldn't see a way to do it - whether I go friendly/direct/threaten he always goes aggro in my turn so I have to shoot him. Am I missing stuff.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Frankly expert pisses me off. I finished it once, never again. Abusing the AI for hours on end isn't my idea of a fun game. I would rather play ironman hard mode where you can fight at a leisurely pace and not have 10 billion troops everywhere on the map. But in any case, here are my suggestions:

Sure you don't mean Insane mode?

Novice, Experienced, Expert aren't that much different (you get less, AI get's more, but there is a force limit). Insane is the setting with an infinite force pool.

Have you tried playing with the mobile militia function turned on? Helps to be able to train yr own mobile patrols to counter the red-shirts --- though it does mean having a merc on 24 hr militia training mode. (Anybody with Teaching skill --- Ira is perfect for this.)

Oh yeah, disregard some of what I said. Forgot the difficulty levels since I last played.

Mobile militia is pretty much useless. You get lots of small groups that end up mildly wounding a single person of a larger group before they die. Only reason to use em IMO is when you are swimming in money and might as well have them running everywhere. They would probably be useful, if not imbalanced, if you could train triple size squads for triple the cost or use the already veteran troops in the town or something. I imagine you could actually push back deidriana's forces completely, wiping them off the map.

One serious question - from looking at walkthroughs and stuff, I think I missed out some content in San mona and Alma. I stole loads of money from Kingpin so the entire town went aggro on me, but I hear there is content. For alma, the training facility apparently lets me recruit conrad, but I couldn't see a way to do it - whether I go friendly/direct/threaten he always goes aggro in my turn so I have to shoot him. Am I missing stuff.

Alot of the npc related stuff is buggy in some way or another in every version. Best just to keep some backup saves and don't cry when something goes wrong.

San Mona has a quest you can do along with boxing for money (horribly buggy though). I don't think I have ever recruited conrad.

 

[spectre]

For alma, the training facility apparently lets me recruit conrad, but I couldn't see a way to do it - whether I go friendly/direct/threaten he always goes aggro in my turn so I have to shoot him. Am I missing stuff.

Err, did you try the rather inconspicuous [Recruit] Option?
There's probably a Leadership check involved here, so better bing someone with it over 70 to do the face-work.
For some characters (like the hospital staff), there are other variables involves, like your standing with the local populace, but I think it's not the case with Conrad.

I also couldn't get roaming militia to work, I prefer them to just stay put in the city, otherwise it's a waste of good money as they get killed fast. Unless I am doing it wrong.

 

[Pliskin]

One serious question - from looking at walkthroughs and stuff, I think I missed out some content in San mona and Alma. I stole loads of money from Kingpin so the entire town went aggro on me, but I hear there is content. For alma, the training facility apparently lets me recruit conrad, but I couldn't see a way to do it - whether I go friendly/direct/threaten he always goes aggro in my turn so I have to shoot him. Am I missing stuff.

Ah, Conrad --- typical Eastern-European Codexer: Arrogant as shit and ready to gun you down in a heartbeat. Talk to him Direct once, then Recruit --- say NO to his initial offer of 500 a day, and he will counter-offer at 300. Take it.

Kingpin is tricky --- you can't steal from him or the whole town goes agro. Start on the far East of San Mona and work yr way West. Talk to EVERYBODY --- and I do mean eveybody! Best way to kill Kingpin: Win three arena fights, get invited back to his lair for a chat, hit him with mustard gas until he dies --- so long as you kill him in his office without shooting him, the rest of San Mona will be none the wiser. And you really want access to Tony the arms dealer.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Kingpin is tricky --- you can't steal from him or the whole town goes agro. Start on the far East of San Mona and work yr way West. Talk to EVERYBODY --- and I do mean eveybody! Best way to kill Kingpin: Win three arena fights, get invited back to his lair for a chat, hit him with mustard gas until he dies --- so long as you kill him in his office without shooting him, the rest of San Mona will be none the wiser. And you really want access to Tony the arms dealer.

I was unable to get to Tony at all in any 1.13 playthrough, the asshole blocking the door would never move even after I talked to him and he said he was letting me through. This fixed yet?

 

[Pliskin]

Kingpin is tricky --- you can't steal from him or the whole town goes agro. Start on the far East of San Mona and work yr way West. Talk to EVERYBODY --- and I do mean eveybody! Best way to kill Kingpin: Win three arena fights, get invited back to his lair for a chat, hit him with mustard gas until he dies --- so long as you kill him in his office without shooting him, the rest of San Mona will be none the wiser. And you really want access to Tony the arms dealer.

I was unable to get to Tony at all in any 1.13 playthrough, the asshole blocking the door would never move even after I talked to him and he said he was letting me through. This fixed yet?

Sounds like you got rid of the dyke, so I dunno --- I haven't had that problem since the original 1.06 days.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Always great to see that JA2 threads will stay alive so long.

I was unable to get to Tony at all in any 1.13 playthrough, the asshole blocking the door would never move even after I talked to him and he said he was letting me through. This fixed yet?

I could imagine there is some bug with Hans not moving, but if I was you I would make sure that you tried everything (talk to him from different positions, try to switch places with him etc). I remember vaguely a similar problem which prevented me from trading with Tony, but later I found it actually worked when I approached differently, and that I thought myself quite an asshole for not having tried harder.

I think I also heard that some people even kill Hans, but personally I wouldn't do it, I got too much used to him.

 

[MetalCraze]

that tiny portion? I dont think it worth even a mention.

It's all about atmosphere mang. Stuff like rotting corpses and crows that eat those corpses may not seem much but JA2's atmo does gain from it.