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| Ideal Build for IMP[message #96898]
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Sat, 24 April 2004 03:49 
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 ariana |
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Messages:36
Registered:April 2004 |
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This topic comes up from time to time - but opinions change with more playing experience so I'll start a new thread and get current opinions.
Probably the basic choices are as follows:
1. Personality. I tend to stick with normal - aggressive may be a bit better but I forget which answer gets me aggressive but not psycho. Is aggressive the best and which answer is the key? Does psycho still carry negatives such as occasional loss of control over your merc's actions?
2. I tend to put all skills to zero figuring that even 15 points to get a skill to 35 is wasted since there are so many mercs with skills around and a skill of 35 is mostly useless other than medic to allow self-bandaging in an emergency. Is there a reason to do otherwise?
3. With all the heavy armor (and other gear) as I play more and more I tend to raise strength more and more over my JA2 norms. Assuming no "cheats" to raise attributes but only normal in-game increases is it wise to put them all at 85 other than strength 80 (do I need 85?), dexterity 80 (dexterity is important to the skills that I don't use - is maxed out dexterity important in combat?), leadership 35 (surely there are better uses for points - the IMP shouldn't be a primary militia trainer) and marksmanship 80? Playing hardcore I don't want to go TOO low on marksmanship lest I die and need to start over - but I know marksmanship goes up nicely with wisdom 85 so I guess the gut question is whether strength or dex of 85 is worth taking a hit to marksmanship?
Anything I didn't mention but shoud have?
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Private 1st Class
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| Re: Ideal Build for IMP[message #96903]
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Sat, 24 April 2004 15:18 
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| chanman |
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Messages:47
Registered:August 2001
Location: Delta, BC, Canada |
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In UC and JA2, I found that expert night ops gives the biggest advantage, if I want the other traits, I'll hire mercs with them, but because the first few days see you outgunned and outnumbered, having a first-see advantage pays big dividents
On stats, I max out health and intelligence because they can't be increased otherwise
I used to put mrks. at 80, but bumping it up to 85 makes a big difference, with the high intelligence, and lots of kills from night ops, my mrks is at 94 after 2 towns and 19 days
I keep 35 points in medical (for obvious reasons), mech (I have lots of tool boxes, so when they're resting/healing, they can also fix things), with high intelligence, that goes up quickly as well.
leadership, again, I leave at 35 for training militia, and it increases quiclkly too.
explosives are pretty much all or nothing, that gets a 0. the remaining points are spread over agility/strength/dex. to give 70 each. All can be quickly increased in a smart merc by punching cows (and isolated enemies). In the same time span, my IMP's agility/strength/dex are up into the low 80's now
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Corporal
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| Re: Ideal Build for IMP[message #96904]
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Sat, 24 April 2004 16:40
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| Boomer |
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Messages:114
Registered:February 2004
Location: In the heart of Transilva... |
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1. I didn't liked the psycho personality in JA2 and did not wanted to have an psycho IMP in UC. It just happened one time and I decided to give it a try. Yes, she/he eats up the ammo like nothing, but here is where the MP-5, the AKS-74U and the Bizon2 have an advantage in the first week. I had decided once that I will play a no trade game and I will fight only with what I will loot from the enemy, so I dumped into the trash bin all the weapons dropped by the enemies in Atremo that weren't used to equip my mercs. Then, I traveled south, cleared the military base in C-9 and headed for the casino in D-9 sector. I was surprised that this time (and in a second game I tried this), all the elites in D-9 dropped their SMGs when died (got three Buzon2 and an AKS-74U from there). If one is lucky enough, it can obtain an AKS-74U from the base in C-9. That weapon is randomized, but there are 8 clips of 5.45 ammo that were present there in every game. So, with one or two AKS-74Us and eight or nine (maybe more, sometimes I found 2-3 extra clips dropped by the elites in D-9, I have no trouble with my IMP using bursts every time he feels it's better this way. Besides that, my IMP is not always using a burst capable weapon. I've'd always hated the shotguns in the original JA2, but after I tried the Saiga2k in UC, my feelings changed. You can obtain ammo for it in each and every sector, and in the close range fights that are occuring in night ops mission it's a one shot - one kill weapon.
So, now I like to give my IMP a psycho personality because I can't change it to psycho later in the game. And I think psycho is even better than autoweapons. One level in autoweapons reduces the burst penalty to half (for the MP-5, an autoweapons specialists burst penalty will be 2 instead of four), but the psycho personality gives a bonus to the aiming while bursting. A burst has an aiming penalty of 10, while a psycho merc has an aiming bonus of 15 when bursting. So it's a +5 at the chances to hit the target when bursting. With the same amount of AP's needed to make a succesfull max.aimed shot, the psycho merc puts at least 2 bullets into her/his target. And with the amount of enemies, esp. greyshirts in Danubia, I still think psycho personality is nice to have.
Don't follow every time the advices the NPC's give you. First time I have played the game I listened to the manager's advice to use the bullet train and got a merc killed by Shark's gang. Then I listened to Charlie's advice to start with Calisto, as it's the most civilized town in the country, so I headed to Calisto and got whacked in no time...  Wandering a little in the coutry side can give you better weapons and more ammo to spend on taking on Calisto. I just hate to be pined in B13 because I have ammo left only for the pistols or to waste all the ammo Rude Dog comes in with in the three main sectors of Calisto. Thats why I wander for 3-4 days on the coutryside of Danubia and collect as musch ammo and good SMGs as possible.
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Sergeant
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| Re: Ideal Build for IMP[message #96905]
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Sat, 24 April 2004 16:58
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| Boomer |
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Messages:114
Registered:February 2004
Location: In the heart of Transilva... |
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@ariana
I am not sure right now, but I think I saw the dexterity involved in the formula used by the game to calculate the hit chances not only in HtH fights (knifing, boxing, martial arts, throwing, stealing) but also in the gun fights and in calculating the max AP's a merc will have in the first turn. I will look a little deeper into the source code in this week-end to see if it's like I think I saw it. But if you set yout IMP's medical stat to 35, she/he will improve it's dexterity over time. I set the med to 0 so i have the extra points needed to max the dexterity. I don't know if you use Crepagen in your games. If you do, then it's not that important to have an IMP with medical knowledge. But even without Crepagen, if you folow the advice to use every time two mercs for a job you think one merc is enough for, you can set your IMP's medical skill to 0 and let her/his partener do the bandaging when needed.
As for the marksmanship, sometimes I set it lower then 80 or 85, because my IMP is doing almost all the shooting in Atremo and by the time the town is cleared of enemies he already have his marksmanship at 82 or 83 points. And no ammo left for the CAR-15 when he is a psycho!
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Sergeant
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| Re: Ideal Build for IMP[message #96906]
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Mon, 26 April 2004 17:22
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| Smoke |
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Messages:3
Registered:April 2004
Location: Germany |
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Hello Everyone
Seems my Style of IMP generation is a little different from most players. I agree on avoiding psycho Imps though, mainly because I usually have at least Fidel, Haywire and Razor along. Using the Psycho-trait of three mercenaries to my advantage is quite possible, more than 3 Psychos though usually limit my tactical options to much.
Aside from that for UC I recommend the autoweapons/Hand to Hand Skillcombination. Also retention of minimal Skills is very useful, especially for UC.
My reasoning behind this is that the plentiful Urban and Farming Sectors in UC allow you to reduce and control the Visionranges and Angles quite comfortably without having to fight at night.
HtH is especially useful in obtaining Items (beating someone unconsious requires only a maximum of three hits even at low Strength). Also HtH and Knife attacks seem to ignore Armor.
As for Autoweapons I just love to burst enmies to pieces.
Medical Skill is always useful ever since I played Vietnam SOG69 I never go without it.
Mechanical Skill is probably the least useful but the ability to pitch in with repairing Stuff can reduce Downtime.
Explosives Skill at 35 isn't much but it allows you to use shaped charges and to place simple explosives without blowing yourself up to often and with the high availibility of explosives in UC every second (at least) member of my party carries one after Calisto.
As this leaves only very few points for the rest I have tried out various combinations of stats and had most success with keeping Leadership and Marksmanship in the fiftys and the remaining Stats somewhere between 70 and 80 the resulting Merc should be a capable Squadleader and have a good chance of survival.
Setting Wisdom to Max isn't really necessary with the many many many Opponents in UC (it really gets fun at expert doesn't it?) I didn't notice much difference in Improvement Speed between Wisdom 75 and 85.
Something else that makes me Wonder is that many Players seem to think about their IMPs Stats in Terms of 5point steps, setting a Stat at a value of 78 or 79 will have about the same effect as setting it at 80.
My momentary IMP Smoke (big surprise huh?) at creation:
Health 79
Agility 78
Dexterity 77
Strength 79
Leadership 50
Wisdom 71
Marksmanship 51
Mechanial 35
Medical 35
Explosives 35
Skills Hand to Hand and Autoweapons
The deadlyness of your Mercenaries lies only partially in their Stats, Tactics rule.
Smoke
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Civilian
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| Re: Ideal Build for IMP[message #96908]
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Mon, 26 April 2004 21:24
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| Smoke |
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Messages:3
Registered:April 2004
Location: Germany |
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@Boomer
In a Solo hardcore game that is definitely true, but in the first sectors I team my IMP with a good shooter like fidel for example and after I have conquered Atremo I have the best Marksman in my Crew teach him something about shooting.
As long as no Mercenary works alone especially my IMP and Rosebud everything works quite well.
Reloads because of a dead IMP happen no more often than because of any other dead Mercenaries in my Game. I don't play Hardcore but I only Save before fights and replay the whole Fight if something goes wrong so this should work quite well in a hardcore game too. I have too try the Hardcore approach myself soon but I guess I will only try it at experienced not expert at first.
Smoke
:bandit:
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Civilian
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| Re: Ideal Build for IMP[message #96910]
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Wed, 05 May 2004 07:39
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| bbaker |
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Messages:8
Registered:April 2004
Location: CA |
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I don't buy the whole "IMP's need Medical" philosophy. I go Steathy/NO, and max all the traits except Strength (70) and Leadership (35), with Med, Mech, and Exp zeroed out, with no regrets.
My imagination says that the IMP is the boss, and the lead killer, not some stinking handy man, that's Rosebud's job. My IMP brings others along to make up for any weaknesses. If my IMP gets winged and can't fight through it or get patched up by others, then I already screwed up and deserve the reload.
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Private
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| Re: Ideal Build for IMP[message #96915]
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Thu, 06 May 2004 11:40
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| chanman |
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Messages:47
Registered:August 2001
Location: Delta, BC, Canada |
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I like my IMP with med skill, mainly because if he bandages himself while wounded, that is one person not shooting, if the medic bandages him, the medic isn't shooting, AND my IMP likely won't be hitting do to the penalties (wound, unbandaged wound, being bandaged?)
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Corporal
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| Re: Ideal Build for IMP[message #96926]
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Mon, 10 May 2004 16:03
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| DaCheetah |
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Messages:74
Registered:March 2004
Location: New Mexico... Cleaner Tha... |
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God... I wish I could find me Fallout cd...
High wisdom is a good thing... by far the most important stat to me. A wisdom of 35... that is just suicidal, look at how slow Rosebud learns, and he is at like 50 something. Don't even start with Gasket... They just can't improve, and the RPG aspect of JA2 is one that requires advancement in skills. Unlike Fallout, (where only basic skill points were given on intelligence) ALL stats rely on Wisdom to increase. Of course, in Fallout, you couldn't "train" your other stats. A recommendation... put dex and agi down 5 points each and give at least 45 wis to your merc, the improvement will be legendary. Or, put 85 into wisdom and your other stats at minimums, and watch them fly. (My IMP started with 85 wisdom, and 80 MRKS, I have barely taken callisto and am on the way to Port Kip, my MRKS has gone up 11. Everyone else on the team, including rosebud, has also gone up at least 3 mrks points. The wonders of Wisdom... If only Solomon were here.
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Corporal
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| Re: Ideal Build for IMP[message #96933]
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Sat, 05 June 2004 22:16
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| Jotha |
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Messages:9
Registered:May 2004 |
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Quote:Originally posted by chanman:
In UC and JA2, I found that expert night ops gives the biggest advantage, if I want the other traits, I'll hire mercs with them, but because the first few days see you outgunned and outnumbered, having a first-see advantage pays big dividents
On stats, I max out health and intelligence because they can't be increased otherwise
I used to put mrks. at 80, but bumping it up to 85 makes a big difference, with the high intelligence, and lots of kills from night ops, my mrks is at 94 after 2 towns and 19 days
I keep 35 points in medical (for obvious reasons), mech (I have lots of tool boxes, so when they're resting/healing, they can also fix things), with high intelligence, that goes up quickly as well.
leadership, again, I leave at 35 for training militia, and it increases quiclkly too.
explosives are pretty much all or nothing, that gets a 0. the remaining points are spread over agility/strength/dex. to give 70 each. All can be quickly increased in a smart merc by punching cows (and isolated enemies). In the same time span, my IMP's agility/strength/dex are up into the low 80's now Just one thing... Have your mercs travel by foot loaded above 100% and you'll see their health increase :naughty:
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Private
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| Re: Ideal Build for IMP[message #96937]
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Thu, 17 June 2004 10:05
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| yellow |
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Messages:11
Registered:June 2004 |
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My IMP guy is always a shooter rather than a specialist. Reason being that killing enemies is the quickest way to level up, and if a hire is doing all of it they get way too expensive. IMP guy is free regardless.
That means high agility , marksmanship, wisdom.
Reasonsable health , dex, ldr. I dont usually max out health because I wouldn't be interested in continuing the campaign if my IMP died. ALT-L.
Zero exp, med, and mech. These skills are what teammates are for. My guys explore sectors at least in pairs so no med is OK for the IMP.
I always get night ops (expert). This plus UV gogles makes for an absolutely decisive advantage at night. This guy at level 9 or 10 can see almost as far at night as he can during daytime.
Personalitywise I like normal or agressive. No psycho. Psycho guys waste ammo and AP, and die when they dont have enough of either during an interupt.
I also like the portrait of the guy with the brown buzz cut and the voice #3. "Time to take out the trash! . . . Trash!!"
Well, that's my IMP.
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