Home » SIRTECH CLASSICS » Jagged Alliance: Unfinished Business » Vanilla Modding » more options to modify difficulty(beta released)
more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101307] Wed, 28 April 2004 06:01 Go to next message
Lanfear is currently offline Lanfear

 
Messages:46
Registered:April 2004
Location: The Netherlands

instead of the current 3 difficultylevels i'd really, really love to have control over each of the varying factors, enemy numbers, enemy quality, resource yield(be it from mines or from something else), local patience(dontcha hate it when loyalty starts dropping when you're still training militia/fixing stuff, and you have to take a sightseeing tour to keep them happy a little while longer?), and other such factors.

obviously this would require an entirely new screen, and the introduction of a number of a constants that would be used through-out the source to determine various things, but allowing these choices on starting a new game would make the game itself even more accessible for players ranging from green rookies to battle-hardened veterans, and if implemented properly, the actual values attached to the various choices would also be moddable, thereby still giving the modder good control over the difficulty spread of the game.

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Corporal
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101308] Thu, 29 April 2004 05:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Lanfear is currently offline Lanfear

 
Messages:46
Registered:April 2004
Location: The Netherlands

oh well, just went ahead and started work on this...guess i'll see where i end up. however, i could use some feedback on which aspects of difficulty people would like to have control over. right now i'm making 5 different difficulty settings for each of the following factors:

- Resource yield(how much do mines/trees/whatever yield in money)
- Loot(amount and quality of goodies dropped by enemy soldiers)
- Enemy Quantity(amount of soldiers in enemy squads)
- Enemy Quality(how tough the opponents are)
- Enemy Aggressiveness(self-explanatory)
- Local loyalty(how much are the locals willing to put up with, how much time of inactiveness on your side will they allow before support starts dropping)

some feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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Corporal
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101309] Thu, 29 April 2004 06:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
LordDario is currently offline LordDario

 
Messages:96
Registered:June 2001
Location: Washington, DC
Quote:
- Resource yield(how much do mines/trees/whatever yield in money)
- Loot(amount and quality of goodies dropped by enemy soldiers)
- Enemy Quantity(amount of soldiers in enemy squads)
- Enemy Quality(how tough the opponents are)
- Enemy Aggressiveness(self-explanatory)
- Local loyalty(how much are the locals willing to put up with, how much time of inactiveness on your side will they allow before support starts dropping)

some feedback would be greatly appreciated. [/QB]
I would love to see the ability to better conbtrol the quantity and quality of mercs! The loot, ,agressiveness, loyalty and resources arent such a draw, however (for me).

Then again, dropping loot to the lowest setting and going in with excellent equipment and being limited to the ammo you bring in would be interesting :bluesuspect:

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Corporal 1st Class
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101310] Thu, 29 April 2004 07:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Lanfear is currently offline Lanfear

 
Messages:46
Registered:April 2004
Location: The Netherlands

hmmm, the amount of mercs one can have, interesting thought, might just drop that one in as well Razz

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Corporal
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101311] Fri, 30 April 2004 06:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
PySnake is currently offline PySnake

 
Messages:9
Registered:March 2004
Ones that spring to my mind are:

- Militia Quality (same as enemy, but for the militia)
- Militia Agressiveness (I guess on the tactical map fights)
- Militia Costs (how expensive it is to train them)
- A setting for Bloodcats/Wildlife?
- Merc Fussyness (in personality conflicts and raise requests)
- Merc Costs (global modifier for merc prices)
- Merc Healing Rate, Morale or Stamina modiifiers (realism settings)
- Item Prices (global modifier for item prices, might also be fun to have a random variance setting)

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Private
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101312] Fri, 30 April 2004 07:12 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Lanfear is currently offline Lanfear

 
Messages:46
Registered:April 2004
Location: The Netherlands

Quote:
Originally posted by PySnake:
Ones that spring to my mind are:

- Militia Quality (same as enemy, but for the militia)
- Militia Agressiveness (I guess on the tactical map fights)
- Militia Costs (how expensive it is to train them)
- A setting for Bloodcats/Wildlife?

Believe it or not, but all these, except militia price, were already modified based on difficulty settings in vanilla JA2. I intend to keep them as part of EnemyQuality. As for Militia Aggressiveness, that's a tactical factor, whereas Enemy Aggressiveness is strictly Strategic, so how often they will send hunting parties after you/attack towns etc. Enemy/militia behaviour in tactical situations is partly determined by how experienced the soldier involved is, but since the AI needs a serious work-over, i won't be including this.

- Merc Fussyness (in personality conflicts and raise requests)
- Merc Costs (global modifier for merc prices)

Fussyness is kinda represented by morale right now, and i'd prefer to keep it that way. Merc costs, and item costs as well are just the other side of the resources medal, so no real need to change that imo.

- Merc Healing Rate, Morale or Stamina modiifiers (realism settings)

Nice point, will give it some thought

- Item Prices (global modifier for item prices, might also be fun to have a random variance setting)

See above

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Corporal
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101313] Fri, 30 April 2004 12:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Khor1255 is currently offline Khor1255

 
Messages:1817
Registered:August 2003
Location: Pleasantville, NJ
One thing I'd like to see at least toggleable is character stat increase. Mercs in Ja2 pick up ability points way too fast. While I'm sure some people have no problem with that, I feel it would definately add difficulty (and much greater realism) to have this slowed down in experienced mode and slowed even futher in expert. What would happen is
A) Mercs would remain somewhat unique stat wise clear to the end of the game on expert mode.
B) Each time you gained a point, it would really feel like you accomplished something.

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Sergeant Major
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101314] Fri, 30 April 2004 18:03 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Lanfear is currently offline Lanfear

 
Messages:46
Registered:April 2004
Location: The Netherlands

Learning Curve, gotcha. Will put that in.

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Corporal
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101315] Sat, 01 May 2004 05:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ancientgamer is currently offline Ancientgamer
Messages:3
Registered:April 2004
Id like to see an adjustable spawn rate for enemy forces. Multiple settngs like, 1.5x,2x,3x, etc. I dont know how easy it would be to find the code that controls the spawn though.

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Civilian
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101316] Sat, 01 May 2004 08:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
PsyckoSama is currently offline PsyckoSama

 
Messages:9
Registered:April 2004
Quote:
Originally posted by Lanfear:
Learning Curve, gotcha. Will put that in.
Isn't there already one?

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Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101317] Sat, 01 May 2004 08:47 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Lanfear is currently offline Lanfear

 
Messages:46
Registered:April 2004
Location: The Netherlands

Quote:
Originally posted by Ancientgamer:
Id like to see an adjustable spawn rate for enemy forces. Multiple settngs like, 1.5x,2x,3x, etc. I dont know how easy it would be to find the code that controls the spawn though.
The amount of soldiers the queen has at her disposal is currently regulated by difficulty level. I intend to include this number in my EnemyQuantity setting.

Quote:
Originally posted by PsyckoSama:
Quote:
Originally posted by Lanfear:
Learning Curve, gotcha. Will put that in.
Isn't there already one?
Well, yes there is. The higher one's skill, the more difficult it becomes to improve even further. However, it should still be possible to implement 1 fixed number overall, where for example at the lowest difficulty setting mercs will improve twice as fast as they do now, medium level it'll be the way it is now, at expert level it'll take twice as much time, and at extreme level it'd 4 times as much, for those people who prefer a more realistic approach.

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Corporal
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101318] Sat, 01 May 2004 12:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Khor1255 is currently offline Khor1255

 
Messages:1817
Registered:August 2003
Location: Pleasantville, NJ
Excellent! If you could make that happen it would be awesome.

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Sergeant Major
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101319] Mon, 03 May 2004 01:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Lanfear is currently offline Lanfear

 
Messages:46
Registered:April 2004
Location: The Netherlands

Well, looks like I have things up and running :wave:

beta version of the .exe is available here

download, unzip, and after making a backup of your current ja2.exe, copy the file into the directory where you have ja2 installed. for the moment it'll only run under the english versionof vanilla ja2.

if you have questions, look me up on irc or send an email through the board.

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Corporal
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101320] Mon, 03 May 2004 03:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
yuant.h is currently offline yuant.h
Messages:2
Registered:April 2004
cool...and..very good.

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Civilian
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101321] Mon, 03 May 2004 19:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
yuant.h is currently offline yuant.h
Messages:2
Registered:April 2004
hi,lanfear.
on learning speed..
Maybe ...
learning Capability.
Can only Advance 10% or 20%.
Instance:
str 35 + 10%= 39
str 85 + 10%= 94

......

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Civilian
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #101322] Mon, 03 May 2004 22:43 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Lanfear is currently offline Lanfear

 
Messages:46
Registered:April 2004
Location: The Netherlands

Hmmm, don't think that'll really take off, to be honest, and without wanting to go into discussion on whether the learning speed of ja2 is ridiculous as it is, it also wouldn't make too much sense, since there's nothing to stop a healthy individual from training and training until they've reached a certain point of skill/ability.

Due to varying circumstances even my own strength as a living, breathing, person has drastically dropped, say, from 70 to 40, over a relatively short period of time, and now, a couple of years later, i'm pretty much back where i was.

I think it would make more sense to apply limitations like this on individual mercs instead of all around.

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Corporal
Re: more options to modify difficulty(beta released)[message #204697] Tue, 23 December 2008 02:16 Go to previous message
kyrub is currently offline kyrub
Messages:3
Registered:August 2006
Does anybody have the modified Ja2.exe made by Lanfear, please?

The file on this page was an excellent piece of work... it was THE single mod able to customize the levelling of the characters.
But the link does not work anymore.

Any help would be much appreciated.

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Civilian
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