JA3 patch needed - urgent

Mon, 17 July 2023 18:23

in some moments poor optimization, sometimes it can lag, especially with zooms,
the graphic design is standard, it does not delight the eye,
no chance to hit in the official version, even as a choice,
no all JA JA2 JA2.5 mercenaries,
the faces of some of our heroes are quite different from the original,
the characters always have one outfit, you can't see any changes when we mix their wardrobe,
mercenaries always follow a marked path, even if there is a visible mine on it,
Shadow is not wearing such a strong and distinctive camouflage as in JA2,
no camouflage skill or camouflage kits,
stealth mode not working properly, enemies will see you anyway,
not very intuitive interface,
no possibility to change the camera angle while zooming,
inability to switch to turn-based mode at any time when the enemy is in the sector,
the ability to turn a mercenary standing still has not been implemented during combat,
grenade explosion does not knock down enemies, they take damage while standing still,
the game does not have simple mechanics, it is a bit complicated because the dependency system is large and you have to learn it and spend a good few hours on it,
small maps,
no minimap
no tactical break
no Bobby's Ray lack of ammunitions

JA 3 Wish List | 1 comment

Healing and wounds

Sun, 16 July 2023 16:45

Since I was a bit confused myself, I want to clarify this for new players.

During combat or exploration you can BANDAGE mercs if you have medkit/bandages. That restores a portion of total HP, but not all. And does not cure wounds/afflictions.
On the map/strategic view, if you're in a safe/own sector you can TREAT WOUNDS with your medics (JA2 classic stuff). Each wound equals -10 HP. "Unwounded" HP will be eventually be recovered by idle resting (or faster with paid RR).

Now the confusing part was that your medkit/bandages are useless for treating wounds. You need medicines (stored in squad inventory, they look like pill bottles). Different item. You get them by harvesting plants found on maps and they also can be used to refill medkits. Hope this helps.

JA3 Solutions,Tips & Spoilers | 3 comments

Holy fuck landmines!

Explosive expert is the new hot job in JA3; Sun, 16 July 2023 16:33

Basically as soon as you step out the noob island, there are a billion mines to disarm or you'll keep blowing yourself up. Barry Unger is a great addition to the team. Without great explosives skill mercs won't see the mines, nevermind disabling them.

JA 3 General Talk | 1 comment

A JA3 weapons summary

Weapons that work and weapons that don't; Sun, 16 July 2023 13:31

Pistols
They are supposed to be the ideal sidearm but dont work. Game dumps you vs AKs and Gehwhr 98 snipers from day one. Burst fire seems to be quite accurate. You puny pistol will be outgunned hard. All they're good for so far is to scrap and get pipes to upgrade the range of your rifle.

SMGs
Here I am on the fence because I would love to use them and they're definitely a better choice for a side arm than a pistol. Also Uzi and the MPs use the widely available 9mm ammo. But the game has hardly any penalty for CQB for long weapons (I can headshot an enemy with a sniper a tile away, why would I switch to a smg and do 9-11 dmg?)

Rifles
You get loads of Gewehr 98s, a damn fine rifle.

. Kit it out and becomes a valid sniper rifles until mid game. Only issue is the ammo (7.62 NATO), but you'll soon find Winchester 1894s that work with .44 and are equally good. The game drops a lot of M24 fully kitted sniper rifles on you rather soon and only then you can say they become obsolete.

Shotguns
So far found only two, a handcrafted single shot one and a most common double barrel. If CQB had worked (meaning the AI wouldn't desperately try to keep fight at extreme ranges most of the time, even some shouting to "keep your distance") then shotguns would be vicious against groups. The double barrel option to dump both shots makes it so far the best finisher in CQB so it's a good sidearm. Its only downside is that you can't perform "run and gun" or "move and shoot" special actions with it.

LMGs
Again, game dumps one on your right from day one, when you are sent to recover an MG42 from the cave.
The fact that you can set it up in an automatic, multiple shot overwatch, it is life saving against hordes of incoming enemies. It has an OP accuracy for burst too. Only downside, burns ammo damn fast. Same with the RPK-74, equally good, burns ammo fast (I keep both and switch according to ammo supply). Also must note that it needs to be fire from prone so an clear fov is a must or you'll shoot your cover.

ARs
The most common is the AK-47, insanely good for start weapon. Can be kitted to be silent too. Its only major downside is that if you use it as single weapon to save ammo it's no fun and AP is way too high to count vs AIs that keep using bursts against you. Other ARs are pretty rare (found a Galil, M14s and a FN-FAL) but they suffer from a severe lack of NATO ammo (5.56 in particular). It is the squad weapon of choice whether you like it or not.

Melee
You have a machetter and some knives. But without a plan and go and with a 360 view angle stealth is very hard with melee. So unless you want an extra hard challenge, you'll end up scraping them. Too bad. Same goes for unarmed punches, it is a nice thing it's an option, but you won't win a fight vs an AK dude. I did notice there are some crazy pumped up melee AIs that once they get in close range with a knife they do like 50 dmg, in a sort of a berserk mode. Good for them - I reloaded and blasted their heads off before they even made a step.

JA3 Combat/Weapon Academy | 8 comments

Non-Steam mods?

Are there any?; Sun, 16 July 2023 12:43

So far, only Steam Workshop has mods which are therefore unavailable for other platforms. Anyone knows of someplace that has some non-Steam mods?

JA 3 Modding Talk | 11 comments

JA3: The Bimbo of Jagged Alliance

Sun, 16 July 2023 07:38

Looks nice, but dumb as a box of rocks and has no personality or soul.

I wanted to be proved wrong about this one, that I was just an old grognard that hates new games and lives in the past. But mechanically, JA3 is utterly vapid and I was vindicated in my suspicions.

Sir-Tech Canada put so much love and effort into JA2, that much is clear. Autistic detail, some might say, but it was that detail that made the game something we still play today.

JA3 is a shell of a JA game.

JA 3 General Talk | 35 comments

Trader system???

They really didn't bother with a trader?; Sat, 15 July 2023 14:40

Being playing JA3 for a day or two and was looking for a trader to dump all the loot I've collected. In the second town I've found a lot of them, but to my surprise they have no inventory, just some lines and a couple of "tables" you can "loot" for money. A horrendously lame system, if you ask me. Is there a real trader somewhere else?

JA 3 General Talk | 9 comments

Weird Squad Sorting

Someting happened and IMP Squad sorting changed.; Wed, 05 July 2023 00:27

Howdy JA fans;

Now, you see; I have weird problem here. While playing, some weird shait happened and my IMP squads sorting changed.
At the beginning it was:

1- Squad Leader / Assault Support
2- Assault 1 (Front)
3- Assault 2 (Flank)
4- Assault 3 (Flank)
5- LMG
6- MMG
7- Marksman
8- Sniper

Now, it is: 3-6-4-1-8-7-2-5 (actually it really does not matter IMHO)
I specifically picked their Traits and Attributes for their jobs, but this new sorting... this is seriously buggin' me.

I'm beggin' ya for a solution to fix it, I want my 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 back.

v1.13 Solutions,Tips & Spoilers | 2 comments

Estoni and Shank

Estoni and Shank; Tue, 27 June 2023 23:01

Its been some years since I played.  I remember Shank and Dynamo being in Tixa, found Dynamo, is Shank still around?  Do I need Shank to be able to refuel in Estoni or has something else taken the place of that?

AIMNAS | 3 comments

Dead is dead mode on 1.13?

Wed, 07 June 2023 01:55

So I've recently discovered this game, I've been playing stracciatella for a while and I found the most enjoyable way to play is the Dead is Dead mode (where you can't reload your save, it saves automatically when you quit the game or load another save) because it eliminates the temptation to reload when I lose a merc or a battle goes bad (I'm aware ironman exists but it isn't the same because I can still restart battles whenever i feel like it and try different strategies risk free). I've got 1.13 up and running fine and have been tweaking it for my next playthrough, but I can't seem to find how to play it in Dead is Dead mode like on stracciatella.

I've found a "JA2 roguelike" mod online that I think the stracciatella mode is based on, but the instructions are only clear on how to install it on vanilla 1.12, and because it creates its own ja2_options.ini file I cant figure out how to incorporate it into 1.13 as obviously that also has its own ja2_options.ini, I've scoured all the documents for 1.13 looking for "roguelike" and "dead is dead" but I can't find anything about it, so I'm relatively sure the mode is not built into 1.13 although hopefully I'm wrong about this and it's an easy fix somehow.

Does anyone have any idea how to get this mode in 1.13? I've attached the roguelike mod i found online if there's no easy option to activate in 1.13 somewhere just in case someone can take a look at it and tell me if it's possible at all. Thanks!

v1.13 General Development Talk | 4 comments