It used to be that everyone automatically wanted a Stealthy/Night-Ops IMP merc. That's seems less true in 1.13, and I think it's because the designers saw the overwhelming influence of that combination, and deliberately balanced it a little better.

I neglected to mention that type of camo matters. I usually write too much, so I'm always trying to leave things out so I reduce the amount. There's a table of which type is effective where, here: http://ja2v113.pbwiki.com/Features . Basically, if you're using standard woodland camo, which is all the Camouflaged skill does, it's completely useless on roads and inside buildings. This is a case where the game visuals are right in line with the mechanics. A woodland camouflaged merc stands out like a sore thumb on a paved road in the visuals, and he does in the mechanics, too.

Overall, my impression so far of 1.13 is that it's no longer enough to rely on a single set of skills and a single style of combat, like we used to with Stealthy/Night Ops. You're definitely going to need some of those, but you're also going to need Auto Weapons guys and Heavy Weapons guys for those times when direct assault is the only option, and to back the Night Operatives up when the enemy turns out to have Night Vision Goggles all over the place. In case rietori doesn't know yet, Auto Weapons increases the merc's ability to control muzzle drift during burst fire, which translates to fewer wild shots and more hits, and Heavy Weapons increases the chance to hit with mortars, grenade launchers, and a wild, fictional weapon you'll learn about as time goes on. You'll also want at least one or two Stealthy or high Agility mercs with Throwing and/or Knifing. Picture, for instance, the value of Scully or Sidney in urban camo on one of those town maps with roads and buildings everywhere. Small spoilers here, but with the Stealth Suit, the Stealthy skill is less important. And things like camouflaged armor, greater accessibility to multiple camo types, and the Ghillie suit, make the Camouflage skill completely obsolete. I'm becoming very tempted to violate one of my personal rules and create multiple IMPs, so I can get the balance of skills I'm talking about. I'm especially interested in creating both an Auto Weapons and a Night Ops expert. For rietori, Night Ops gives you about a 1.5 square increase in vision at night, so an expert would double that to three squares. Couple that with NVGs (you get both the goggle bonus and the Night Ops bonus), good camo, and a silenced sniper rifle (harder to pinpoint both sound and muzzle flash), and it seems to me you could take out a whole sector with just that merc and a well camouflaged and Stealthy forward observer to find the targets. Put an Auto Weapons expert near the Night Ops expert for those times when you get rushed by multiple enemies, but far enough away that a grenade can't hit them both, and you've got one hell of a team in just three people.

But I'm rambling again, so I'll stop now.

[Updated on: Tue, 25 September 2007 19:37] by Moderator

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