Very nice! This will make grenades tremendously more useful in area-denial role.

I wonder, did you add an extra turn to non-player grenades? Otherwise, after the player throws a grenade, the AI still has its turn and can evade, while we can't do the same when hit with enemy grenades. Best solution would likely be to detonate player grenades at the start of player turn, enemy grenades at start of enemy turn and so on, but that requires twisting the explosion queue.

usFlags |= WORLD_ITEM_ARMED_BOMB;

(*pObj)[0]->data.misc.bDetonatorType = BOMB_TIMED;
if( !fGoodStatus )
{
	(*pObj)[0]->data.misc.bDelay = (INT8)( 1 + PreRandom( 2 ) );
}
else
{
	(*pObj)[0]->data.misc.bDelay = 1;
}

(*pObj)[0]->data.misc.usBombItem = pObj->usItem;

(*pObj).fFlags |= OBJECT_ARMED_BOMB;
(*pObj).fFlags |= OBJECT_KNOWN_TO_BE_TRAPPED;

// set high trap level
(*pObj)[0]->data.bTrap = 10;

AddItemToPool( pObject->sGridNo, pObj, VISIBLE, bLevel, usFlags, 0 );

// All teams look for this...
NotifySoldiersToLookforItems( );

if ( pObject->ubOwner != NOBODY && !fGoodStatus )
{
	MercPtrs[ pObject->ubOwner ]->DoMercBattleSound( (INT8)( BATTLE_SOUND_CURSE1 ) );
}

if( pSoldier->bTeam == gbPlayerNum &&
	_KeyDown(SHIFT) &&
	Item[ usItem ].usItemClass & IC_GRENADE &&
	Item[ usItem ].ubCursor == TOSSCURS )
{
	pSoldier->inv[HANDPOS][0]->data.sObjectFlag |= DELAYED_GRENADE_EXPLOSION;
}

On another note - if grenades can be picked up, can they be thrown back? If so, you could make grenades non-disarmable and always pick-up-able...

Edit: On yet another note: I'm currently not up-to-date with the trunk status - are you also committing this to the trunk?

Now it's possible to set grenade mode using transformation menu, also it will cost AP_UNJAM.

Very nice! Will you be releasing a new EXE soon?

Just a quick question: does 7609+AI include the fixes from 7609+fix? Or are they different things?

I tried ja2+AI on 7609 stable, but I can't see the cursor improvements (except the firing mode icon instead of the X). If I press ALT I see an additional gray circle but no other infos. If I add IMPROVED_NCTH_CURSOR = 2 in the INI, I see no difference. The cursor is always round, never oval if crouched/prone. On an unstable SCI installation I can see all improvements. I tried Omerta landing sector and enemies don't shoot much and come out of cover frequently. All standard settings. Is this normal?

Super. In the rain and the storm will probably not work?

Now all we need is a working fire extinguisher as well (which could double as this:

All NCTH cursor improvements are working, you don't need options to enable them.
Options from old experimental project don't work in Ja2+AI.
The NCTH cursor is always round in Ja2+AI, it's intentional.
About AI - can't say much without a save. In my games, enemy shoots a lot, but this can depend on the mod, settings, weapon progression etc.

adapt to NCTH the general changes to aiming levels you did for OCTH, or at least reduce aiming levels for shotguns (5 atm like rifles, should be 4 imo)

The few shots from enemies maybe depend from some setting, in UC113 there is a different setting for which enemies start to shoot even if out of range with their weapon, that is they don't wait they are in weapon range, I can't find this setting anymore though. Are there special settings (CTH constants and such) that you recommend with your exe (or in general)? Thanks.

MAX_EFFECTIVE_RANGE_MULTIPLIER = 1.5
MAX_EFFECTIVE_RANGE_REDUCTION = 0.1
MAX_EFFECTIVE_USE_GRADIENT = TRUE

BASE_EXP 	= 1.0
BASE_MARKS 	= 4.0
BASE_WIS 	= 1.0
BASE_DEX 	= 4.0

BASE_STANDING_STANCE = 2.0
BASE_CROUCHING_STANCE = 2.5
BASE_PRONE_STANCE = 3.0

BASE_DIFFICULTY_NOVICE = 0.0
BASE_DIFFICULTY_EXPERIENCED = 0.0
BASE_DIFFICULTY_EXPERT = 0.0
BASE_DIFFICULTY_INSANE = 0.0

AIM_EXP = 1.0
AIM_MARKS = 8.0
AIM_WIS = 2.0
AIM_DEX = 1.0

AIM_DRAW_COST = 0.5
AIM_STANDING_STANCE = 1.5
AIM_CROUCHING_STANCE = 1.0
AIM_PRONE_STANCE = 0.5

AIM_DIFFICULTY_NOVICE = 0.0
AIM_DIFFICULTY_EXPERIENCED = 0.0
AIM_DIFFICULTY_EXPERT = 0.0
AIM_DIFFICULTY_INSANE = 0.0

NORMAL_RECOIL_DISTANCE = 100

it's possible to cheat in the IMP design screen to get the stats you want: create an imp with no traits (or traits that won't set a minimum skill), select the skills you want then FINISH, then cancel, then set the right traits, then in the skill selection screen you have the old selected skills, you can click FINISH again and authorize money transfer to get your cheating IMP

demolitions trait: gives a huge bonus to cth when throwing grenades (would better fit throwing trait imo), and makes it easier to remove traps, but then the remove traps checks against (and improves) mechanical skill, so you have an explosive expert that isn't good at removing traps even if he has demolitions trait. It's a good trait for the grenade cth bonus alone or with a technician/demolitions hybrid (what I actually did) but the skills themselves are misplaced imo. Either make trap removal check against explosives or rework the trait in some other way.

iSkill = EffectiveExplosive( pSoldier ) * 6;
iSkill += EffectiveMechanical( pSoldier );
iSkill += EffectiveDexterity( pSoldier, FALSE ) * 2;
iSkill += EffectiveExpLevel( pSoldier ) * 10;

@mg979

Unfortunately there's no full changelog, but all important changes are described in this thread.
There are no changes to NCTH aim levels in Ja2+AI, only OCTH max aiming levels were changed for better balance.
There were some fixes from the main trunk but I cannot remember anything that changes NCTH aim levels.

But in ja2+AI there is something that alters aim levels for ranger and sniper, you can see it in this saved game.

There are 4 mercs (hunter, ranger, sniper, marksman) with 4 weapons (AR, shotgun, sniper rifle, normal rifle).

With ja2+AI, sniper gets a bonus for sniper rifle and rifle, but not AR (in 7609 he gets -2 bonus)
Ranger gets -1 bonus with rifle(he gets no bonus with in 7609), but not with sniper rifle (as in 7609)

- demolitions trait: gives a huge bonus to cth when throwing grenades (would better fit throwing trait imo), and makes it easier to remove traps, but then the remove traps checks against (and improves) mechanical skill, so you have an explosive expert that isn't good at removing traps even if he has demolitions trait. It's a good trait for the grenade cth bonus alone or with a technician/demolitions hybrid (what I actually did) but the skills themselves are misplaced imo. Either make trap removal check against explosives or rework the trait in some other way.

With ja2+AI, sniper gets a bonus for sniper rifle and rifle, but not AR (in 7609 he gets -2 bonus)
Ranger gets -1 bonus with rifle(he gets no bonus with in 7609), but not with sniper rifle (as in 7609)

Even if unintentional, I think it's a good change. I would prefer weapon traits to be more elastic, something like (expressed in aiming level reductions):

Toggle Spoiler

and maybe adjust some base aim levels (bring base for ARs to 5 as for rifles, and increase by 1 for HW, to make them more difficult to handle for non-specialists)

Actually those were bugs that were fixed in the dev builds and then Sevenfm ported them like other fixes to the experimental exe.
Sniper was never supposed to get the bonus for more than semi auto rifles.
Rangers are most proficient with shotguns and somewhat with rifles. They aren't snipers but they profit more from scopes than non-sniper mercs.

So, aiming levels for assault rifles, smg's and machineguns are not covered by skills.
I don't plan to change it now, but I think there's something to think about.

Hello!

I don´t know if this is a problem i caused with a wrong installation or if this is a bug? With the german AI+fix_r239 exe the game crashes to desktop when crating an I.M.P. character. This happens at the point, where to decide the mnerc is hunter, squadleader, machinegunner etc. By clicking OK the game crashes. With the english exe theres no problem to create an imp character but the error occurs sporadically.

Cant post any links yet but if the game crashes there ist a white Windows dialog named Error with the text "Unhandled exception. Unable to recover."

Greetings
ArulcoLiberator

I tried to use the germen Ja2+AI exes back to r236. The Error still occurs. So i can't play well with that...

After that I took an English 1.12 Gold version and installed Arulco Vacations 1.07 with patch 2. This comes with latest english Ja2+AI exe r239. I.M.P creation works fine. But then suddenly in battle, the same error occurs.

heres the link: img5.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/unbenannt0xpgty9ask.jpg

Okay here is a qicksave i made just before the error occured. Maybe this helps...

filehorst.de/d/buGtwpcp

Sorry its not easy to give hints why the error occurs. The error with the german exe is easy to reproduce. But this happened suddenly in battle. Hard to explain what´s responsible for this...

Any more ideas, what can be done using item transformations?

Throwing skill is for throwing knifes. Throwing grenades is a completely different pair of shoes. That's why the bonus is on the demolitions trait.
The demolitions trait gives a bonus to disarming bombs and mines not traps. That's also a big difference. Disarming bombs and mines improves explosives skill not mechanical skill.