When playing a RPGish game, I often want to play those characters in JA2. So like any sane person would, I then use tools to wade through the games intestines, pull out horrifiyng amounts of soundfiles and then create new mercenaries. This always takes a hideous amount of time and is highly demotivating in the process (every time so far I quit modding for a few months), but, ehh, that's the price of doing things or sth.
Anyway, Sara & Scott Ryder are now two new AIM mercenaries.
Both Ryder's are basically rookies. Think of proto-Shepard. Both have potential, but still have a long, long way to go. Both lead squads in ME:A, so Deputy is a set trait. While edmortimer will likely object due to their abysmal leadership, this is actually intended for once. A somewhat interesting part in the game is that they basically earn their rank by a combination of nepotism and everybody wearing idiot hats, and they have to measure up quickly. In that regard, the Deputy-trait only reaches its full potential if the merc has a higher level than others, so... these 2 better learn fast :-)
As to their ingame persona, Sara has a rather sunny disposition, dabbled in archeology and had brief military training as a comms specialist in a scout regiment. That sufficiently justifies the scout trait, and we finally have another merc with radio operator. It also leads to her buddies & hatreds:
Buddies:
Sara obviously likes her twin, Scott. On that nore, it's kinda odd that sexism and looks would ever factor in between siblings (twincest?), but that's a code limitation.
Both twins also like Sam (why do all modern RPGs have a character that is called Sam or sth. similar?). Let's just say that he's an old family friend that they know since they were little. Yeah, that works.
Given that she's bloody noob, she is looking for role models, which Shepard would be. Somewhat one-sided, as Shepard has no time for babysitting.
Ice's friendly personality makes Sara rather appreciate him.
Raven is a another role-model for Sara.
Similar, she does grow up to like Stella, the gruff veteran with a heart of gold.
Hatreds:
As Sara has a degree in archeology, she has heard of the infamous Tomb Raider, and is more than a bit hostile to Lara.
Considering that Scully has a certain... reputation, it's easy to see why she would be wary here.
Jimmy is a notorious criminal. We might be new, but that guy is obviously bad news.
Rudolf is, well, an asshole. No further explanation needed.
Anybody listening to Sparky can probably agree that she can be rather annoying. Especially when she, like, talks and stuff.
While initially very friendly to Lance Fisher (another rookie! From Westpoint! This will be great!), his cowardice makes Sare hostile to him long-term.
Scott joined AIM after being bored in the military (somehwat hilarious in ME:A, Mom Ryder was a brilliant AI scientist, Dad Ryder was crack special forces (and also an abusive nutjob that should have been airlocked long ago), Sara was earning degrees in frontier archeology, and Scott... guarded the space equivalent of a slip-road). Compared to Sara, he is a bit more hands-on, so he gets throwing and Gunslinger. His buddies and hatreds are:
Buddies:
Sara, obviously.
Also, Sam.
He can be rather superficial, so... Fox for obvious reasons. Also decidedly non-mutual.
He got the idea to join AIM in the first place by a chance encounter with a few older mercs, like Hitman, who has taken a liking to him, and taught him a few things (see? throwing! It's all connected!)
Gary is another young man with a mercenary family, so the two have quite a few things in common. Not that their sisters would ever agree to that.
Hector is another rookie just starting his career, it stands to reason the two would get along.
Hatreds:
Boss's constant cursing and rough personality quickly gets on Scott's nerves.
Razor is more murderer than mercenary, soooo...
If you ask him, he'd tell you that Meltdown has more than a few screws loose.
Snake is some sneaky git. We obviously can't trust him.
How is Kaboom even employed anymore? That guy is unhinged!
Leech utter disregard for decency will alienate Scott in the long-term.
While creating these two, I did minor alterations to Lara - she now also hates Ivan, due to her traumatic adventure in Siberia, and also because that one voice line has her complaining that she doesn't know enough russian to understand, which, well, fits so much I made a hatred out of it.
Additioanlly, Lara and Shepard have more battle sounds now, so there is now more variation when ordering them around.
Furthermore, these mercs now demonstrate how additional dialogue works, because I added a ton of it (the entire thing is now ~88 MB).
As these mercs are not JA-canon, they obviously won't enter any official 1.13 release.
The files are all based upon GameDir r2399. They will also work for older releases, like anything r7609-based. In that regard, the voicesets I used are, like the profile slots, 212 and 213, so there will be no need to rename them in r7609-releases.
In case the link dies again, tell me so I can re-upload (I'm not touching OneDrive again, it's the Alabama of file hosting sites).
I'm sure there are a few points I have forgotten to post by now, I will do so once I remember them, duh.
[Updated on: Tue, 30 January 2018 03:28]
I know now that it could never work between us, as much as we wanted to, it could never be! Not because you're a rabbit, but because you're black.
If you want, you can donate to me. This will not affect how and what I code, and I will not code specific features in return. I will be thankful though.
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