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Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345413] Wed, 11 May 2016 07:54 Go to next message
gimmehints

 
Messages:140
Registered:May 2016
I'm using the oct 25 2014 update (edit: Release 7435: 25 October, 2014 (Build: 7609)), and started a fresh game at novice to try out new features. My goals include reducing reload count and play "as it comes", while avoiding ironmade due to crashing issues. I have limited experience of older 1.13 versions. My experience of the current version applies to novice with 10 IMPs (one specialist each for testing), max team size 10 and all other new settings set to on (and default), with the exception of the food system and sci-fi mode. Well, tons of guns isn't default I guess. All rebels can be recruited right away after making contact (glad to see the level gain is no longer 4-5 for doing so).

So far I've been fairly successful re reloading, and militas keep the enemy off my back for extended training sessions etc. I've freed drassen, chitzena, cambria and alma, and took 3 SAMs. Tixa and estoni have been visited and are largely kept free of enemies due to roaming milita.

My questions so far:

* speaking of milita, there is now a limit? After freeing everything but meduna, balime and grumm I maxed out milita in all cities, then proceeded to max out mobile militas. Unlike before, I'm not told I need to conquer more city sectors to train more milita, I'm now told to recruit more rebels - all of whom belong to my starting team... What are the limitations on number of militas, mobile or otherwise? Are there any more rebels I don't know about?

* I dont get the spy role. Like, at all. Help? I've read around a bit, but don't get the scope - can you fully clean out enemy sectors with a sole spy? Does he have to enter the sector alone? how do disguises work? civilian vs soldier disguises? Any detail on this would be appreciated, go to great length if possible at all! While we are at it, what constitutes covert weapons for spies, exactly? and does it work in normal team-based combat? My standard IMP spy is stealthy.

* likewise, radio operator - I gather now one is required if you want to call in milita from other sectors at the start of combat? That's fine, but how do I call in artillery (requirements for that?), and how do I jam a frequency? I don't see an option.

* this reminds me of spotters... I hear about a proper spotter mode that will take some turns to activate - how do I do that? can a spotter change view direction without having to go through those steps again?

* is there any way to change max occupants for vehicles? I dislike team switching, so I prefer to play with 10-man teams rather than having two teams of 6, but 10 don't fit in the chopper or hummer. I didn't see any option in the ini file.

* how do I build fortifications? I bought sandbags and a shovel, but I dont see any option for it. What types are there? How do you build them?

* is there a facility list for all the cities, or do I need to take notes in my novice game? I'm considering using stay-behinds and cheap hires for ACA manning etc.

* in my pre-installed (now updated) ja 1.13 version on this machine, aimed burst fire was crazy effective. It seems it got more expensive in terms of AP and far less reliable even with a machinegunner - true or imagination?

* teachers: it says skill is considered 25% higher for the purpose of teaching other mercs... but a skill of 80 only allows training to 68 or so in my latest attempt (perhaps even lower). How does that work exactly? Also, often enough I use a teacher or a facility to train mercs, but it says 1/1 on their picture either way. Is it still faster than self-practice or not?

* While martial arts manages to impress with the interrupt bonus on short range (how far is that exactly btw?), even it loses it's importance in the late mid-game it seems. gunslinger does quite well still at this point, but ranger seems terrible. Are there any good rifles that aren't worse than single shot ARs, and why wouldn't I want a(nother) sniper rifle instead? Shotguns seem crap and unable to compete at all. Snipers, autos and heavies seem so vastly superior its not even funny... Thoughts?

* likewise, throwing and melee seems almost useless as a skill. Bodybuilding helps carry and grants mighty 25% dam res, but I've grown more fond of athletics for almost anyone - that faster movement seems vastly more useful unless you want to reload. Can you offer another perspective?

* whats the best burst/auto gun you can ambidex? Worth making one ambi auto IMP rather than a gunslinger?

* what are PET bottles for? I thought of them as disposable (like, drink-in-one-go) water bottles, but they don't seem to have any use I can find.

* am I going mad, or are AIM mercs different now? Can't find Shadow (from base game), nor thor or monk.

* are there other NPCs you can hire now? I've resisted trying to recruit some of the arms dealers, like the one that buys explosives and bloodcat parts. I don't know what I would do with him, but are some people now hireable that usually weren't? I'd be interested in a full list, nevermind spoilers.

* which reminds me, as I understand it bobby ray has item progression settings, as does the enemy. Is there any way to increase the availability of specific items without modding myself? I have a particular hankering for making attachments vastly more available (be able to kit out any gun you find, basically), but not changing the BR/enemy settings otherwise. Doable at all? Also, I set other vendors to use BR setting in the INI. Tony used to have a better selection than BR - does he use the same setting as BR now, or is it still worth parking someone to buy advanced stuff?

* is there a list of what precise effect different BR/enemy settings have? There are more stages than you'd think, and it's kind of harsh to start a new game only because of those two settings not working out.

* what do sleeping bags do? is that related to the food feature, or useful in general? Does the food setting do anything more than require carrying food and water?

* how influential are sexism and racism? I'd like to get meltdown in my new hire-based game for startup, but she's "very sexist". Also, gunther is a cheap hire, but german and IIRC at least one of the rebels hates germans extremely. Will the situation be untenable, or can I make it work? How large is the effect? Btw, what does "gentleman" mean? Leech (name?) was one I think.

* I'm not a fan of holsters and rigs so far. There is a confusing multitude of options, and some are moldular to boot. I usually settle on dual SAW pouches for everyone, only PISTOLS (it's his name, sorry) has two large holsters. Am I missing out? In the same vein, TT utility vests are superior to almost any other vest out there IMHO. Am I wrong about that too?

* how do you take prisoners, and how do you keep a jail? Also, how do you steal enemy weapons?

There are probably tons of more questions that I can't think of right now. I'm pretty set on playing more JA2 in the future, otherwise only (d)nethack is occupying my gaming time and the bear pit channel is... well, let's call it unresponsive. I'd really appreciate any help you can give me, including reload-count reducing combat strategies and telling me about new features not listed above. Thanks in advance!

[Updated on: Wed, 11 May 2016 23:50]

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Sergeant
Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345415 is a reply to message #345413] Wed, 11 May 2016 09:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
DepressivesBrot is currently offline DepressivesBrot

 
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Ok, two quick things:
One, there are threads for each of the big features like radio, spies and sandbags - read those first.
Two, the vast majority of IRC dwellers live within an hour or so of CEST, so try it later when we are actually awake and home from work and such.



Chat with us!
#bearpit on IRC
Discord
Get your latest 1.13 Builds
(Pls don't use my forum PMs for general game queries)

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Captain

Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345418 is a reply to message #345413] Wed, 11 May 2016 12:12 Go to previous messageGo to next message
pheloncab is currently offline pheloncab

 
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gimmehints wrote on Tue, 10 May 2016 21:54
I'm using the oct 25 2014 update, and started a fresh game at novice to try out new features. My goals include reducing reload count and play "as it comes", while avoiding ironmade due to crashing issues. I have limited experience of older 1.13 versions. My experience of the current version applies to novice with 10 IMPs (one specialist each for testing), max team size 10 and all other new settings set to on (and default), with the exception of the food system and sci-fi mode. Well, tons of guns isn't default I guess. All rebels can be recruited right away after making contact (glad to see the level gain is no longer 4-5 for doing so).

My questions so far:

* how do I build fortifications? I bought sandbags and a shovel, but I dont see any option for it. What types are there? How do you build them?
* While martial arts manages to impress with the interrupt bonus on short range (how far is that exactly btw?), even it loses it's importance in the late mid-game it seems. gunslinger does quite well still at this point, but ranger seems terrible. Are there any good rifles that aren't worse than single shot ARs, and why wouldn't I want a(nother) sniper rifle instead? Shotguns seem crap and unable to compete at all. Snipers, autos and heavies seem so vastly superior its not even funny... Thoughts?
* what are PET bottles for? I thought of them as disposable (like, drink-in-one-go) water bottles, but they don't seem to have any use I can find.
* am I going mad, or are AIM mercs different now? Can't find Shadow (from base game), nor thor or monk.
* are there other NPCs you can hire now? I've resisted trying to recruit some of the arms dealers, like the one that buys explosives and bloodcat parts. I don't know what I would do with him, but are some people now hireable that usually weren't? I'd be interested in a full list, nevermind spoilers.
* which reminds me, as I understand it bobby ray has item progression settings, as does the enemy. Is there any way to increase the availability of specific items without modding myself? I have a particular hankering for making attachments vastly more available (be able to kit out any gun you find, basically), but not changing the BR/enemy settings otherwise. Doable at all? Also, I set other vendors to use BR setting in the INI. Tony used to have a better selection than BR - does he use the same setting as BR now, or is it still worth parking someone to buy advanced stuff?
* is there a list of what precise effect different BR/enemy settings have? There are more stages than you'd think, and it's kind of harsh to start a new game only because of those two settings not working out.
* I'm not a fan of holsters and rigs so far. There is a confusing multitude of options, and some are modular to boot. I usually settle on dual SAW pouches for everyone, only PISTOLS (it's his name, sorry) has two large holsters. Am I missing out? In the same vein, TT utility vests are superior to almost any other vest out there IMHO. Am I wrong about that too?


Picking out those things I am pretty certain I have answers or opinions on: Fortifications are dependent on map tile sets, so if a map has the stuff to place the items you can, if not it doesn't work on that map. I know there are several topics that have discussed this.
Rifles vary by mod and by game progress.
early to midgame some of the rifles are pretty good on both range and damage, often having 10-20 tiles over the submachine guns and early assault rifles. Also many mods have expanded inventories or in some cases modified coolness so what is available when changes. When I played AFS there were a couple nice DMRs that counted as rifles and were very comparable to an assault weapon. I think most people get one or two rangers to speed travel more than for the rifle/shotgun perks.. then again, a shotgun especially early game does wonders for suppression.
PET bottles are a food item. if your not using the food settings.. its extra cash to sell them.
Some of the Mercs vs aim have been changed around but all those you specifically mentioned should be there. double check your sorting they might just be in a new order.
BR (at least on the later versions I have been running) has 2 settings Quality (boosts the coolness you start at) and Quantity (gives you more of what is carried) if you have the progress you should get most the items that match that coolness. its an INI tweak so it is set at the beginning of the game, changing it later may have no effect or destabilizing properties. To modify individual items you need to know what item and change the inventory files. on an older install the xml editor might work fine, on the latest builds its lagging behind the data and can break things.

Depending again on your exact mod/version bags change. there are a variety allowing you to adapt to the needs of the soldier carrying things. Some even have special attributes (Machinegunner vest that does belt feeding) and many can impact Camo, especially in the newer builds. The modular stuff is definitely optional, but it is cool and can be useful depending on how your equiped out.

in many cases things are really up to the player to choose, just like the variety in weapons, armors... you make it your way. a couple hours of reading can save you a lot of early restarting and it doesn't hurt to spend a bit of time in the ini editor or notepad++ looking over the ini files.

Good luck.

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Master Sergeant
Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345423 is a reply to message #345418] Wed, 11 May 2016 13:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
raditzvisnar is currently offline raditzvisnar

 
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shadow's picture dont have any camo in his face anymore...and monk too...


https://i.ibb.co/0mSksS8/KTsNb.pnghttps://i.ibb.co/wd9K45P/psp-in-the-pixels-w-menu-items-by-gfball84887-d8ai7q0-1.png

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Private 1st Class
Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345428 is a reply to message #345413] Wed, 11 May 2016 18:30 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ratpaz is currently offline ratpaz

 
Messages:137
Registered:April 2015
Location: Italy
Sure lots of questions big grin Let's see if i can answer at some

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54


* I dont get the spy role. Like, at all. Help? I've read around a bit, but don't get the scope - can you fully clean out enemy sectors with a sole spy? Does he have to enter the sector alone? how do disguises work? civilian vs soldier disguises? Any detail on this would be appreciated, go to great length if possible at all! While we are at it, what constitutes covert weapons for spies, exactly? and does it work in normal team-based combat? My standard IMP spy is stealthy.

I'm playing with a spy right now, is very useful on some maps, but also it will help to see how the enemy is displaced in the map.
Clearing a map alone will be pretty hard, but at night a skilled spy can do it, of course have to be very careful
have to avoid enemy leaders since they can discover spies, and make use of force turn based combat in some situations (CTRL+T)
but i think it's best used in the middle of combat to see where the enemies are approching and killing some snipers on backward of the battlefield.
Disguised as civialin you can't take weapons with you, unless you using a covert weapon, but as a soldier you can take at least a few, unless you carryng too much advanced weapons, you can test if your disguise will works by pressing CTRL+. then "test desguise"

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* likewise, radio operator - I gather now one is required if you want to call in milita from other sectors at the start of combat? That's fine, but how do I call in artillery (requirements for that?), and how do I jam a frequency? I don't see an option.

To call in the skills menu you have ot press ALT+Right mouse button, radio operators got some skills they can use there.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* this reminds me of spotters... I hear about a proper spotter mode that will take some turns to activate - how do I do that? can a spotter change view direction without having to go through those steps again?

Like radio operator, activate the skill menu with ALT+RMB, then "Various" and lastly "Spotter"
it will take 2 turn to get the spotter bonus and if the spotter move he have to activate the skill again.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* is there any way to change max occupants for vehicles? I dislike team switching, so I prefer to play with 10-man teams rather than having two teams of 6, but 10 don't fit in the chopper or hummer. I didn't see any option in the ini file.

I belive you can change that modyfing vehicles.xml
not sure if it will works though, last time i tried to add 2 more spots in the icecream truck the game crashed

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* is there a facility list for all the cities, or do I need to take notes in my novice game? I'm considering using stay-behinds and cheap hires for ACA manning etc.

Not sure about it, probably not
but you can take a look at facilities.xml if you want to sploil their position.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* in my pre-installed (now updated) ja 1.13 version on this machine, aimed burst fire was crazy effective. It seems it got more expensive in terms of AP and far less reliable even with a machinegunner - true or imagination?

It depends on the version you played before, it also depends if you play NCTH or not, i heard with NCTH burst/autofire is much more effective
anyway i'm sure is still effective right now even with OCTH especially at night.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* teachers: it says skill is considered 25% higher for the purpose of teaching other mercs... but a skill of 80 only allows training to 68 or so in my latest attempt (perhaps even lower). How does that work exactly? Also, often enough I use a teacher or a facility to train mercs, but it says 1/1 on their picture either way. Is it still faster than self-practice or not?

Yes teaching is faster, but the teacher need to have higher skills than the student, the bonus anyway is kinda low IMHO, usually i modify the teaching trait and train skill to be much more effective. If you want to do that look for the values "TEACHER_TRAIT_EFFECT_ON_LEADERSHIP" and "INSTRUCTED_TRAINING_DIVISOR" on JA2_options.ini

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* While martial arts manages to impress with the interrupt bonus on short range (how far is that exactly btw?), even it loses it's importance in the late mid-game it seems. gunslinger does quite well still at this point, but ranger seems terrible. Are there any good rifles that aren't worse than single shot ARs, and why wouldn't I want a(nother) sniper rifle instead? Shotguns seem crap and unable to compete at all. Snipers, autos and heavies seem so vastly superior its not even funny... Thoughts?

Some weapons are better than others in some circumstances
of course a sniper weapon usally is the better choice in the day, but at night shotguns become quite effective especially on ranger hands and close quarters. Also martial arts is still useful in late game, well that's cause i usually like to steal good items to enemies, and a well placed fist can send many soldiers KO, and they will stay unconscious for some turns, that's why a hand to hand/martial art character is the best choice if you want to steal items.
I usually give a sniper weapon to all my mercs and a Close combat weapon, depending on the skills the merc have for night and close quarters combats.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* likewise, throwing and melee seems almost useless as a skill. Bodybuilding helps carry and grants mighty 25% dam res, but I've grown more fond of athletics for almost anyone - that faster movement seems vastly more useful unless you want to reload. Can you offer another perspective?

Until few months ago i will have thought the same about melee and throwing, but now i see they are awesome, especially on a spy (a spy if unnoticed get a extra bonus in melee too)
also throwing use very few AP, it may be even more realiable than a good pistol, since i belive throwing knives like melee weapons ignore armors...they saved my IMP character ass many times.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* whats the best burst/auto gun you can ambidex? Worth making one ambi auto IMP rather than a gunslinger?

Do ambidex give bonus to auto fire? i don't think so, it will help to reload bullets faster though.
Anyway ambi+gunslighter/gunfigheter all the way for me.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* what are PET bottles for? I thought of them as disposable (like, drink-in-one-go) water bottles, but they don't seem to have any use I can find.

I belive they are just like Canteen, xcpt they cannot be re-filled in cities.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* are there other NPCs you can hire now? I've resisted trying to recruit some of the arms dealers, like the one that buys explosives and bloodcat parts. I don't know what I would do with him, but are some people now hireable that usually weren't? I'd be interested in a full list, nevermind spoilers.

I'm not sure about the version you playing but on the latest 1.13 versions there are few new NPCs, like Manuel from UB for example.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* I'm not a fan of holsters and rigs so far. There is a confusing multitude of options, and some are moldular to boot. I usually settle on dual SAW pouches for everyone, only PISTOLS (it's his name, sorry) has two large holsters. Am I missing out? In the same vein, TT utility vests are superior to almost any other vest out there IMHO. Am I wrong about that too?

Modulars are the best IMHO, you can mod them depending on the stuff you need to carry, also they will give camo bonus
i belive they are essential if you want to reach 100% camo.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* how do you take prisoners, and how do you keep a jail? Also, how do you steal enemy weapons?

Take prisoners is a feature i don't have used much, but i belive you need to talk to them and offer to surrender or use handcuffs on them, to steal items enemies need to be unconscious, you can also steal weapons to conscious enemies, simply use CTRL+LMB on the enemy you want to steal.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

There are probably tons of more questions that I can't think of right now. I'm pretty set on playing more JA2 in the future, otherwise only (d)nethack is occupying my gaming time and the bear pit channel is... well, let's call it unresponsive. I'd really appreciate any help you can give me, including reload-count reducing combat strategies and telling me about new features not listed above. Thanks in advance!



Also take a look here: http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=thread&frm_id=283&
you will found lots of useful informations about the new features like spotter or radio operator Flugente have implemented to the game.

[Updated on: Wed, 11 May 2016 19:06]

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Sergeant
Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345434 is a reply to message #345418] Wed, 11 May 2016 22:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
Messages:140
Registered:May 2016
Thanks, that helped quite a bit! Note that I use the described version only, no other updates or mods though (parts of your answer mentioned those), and I won't be modding myself - editing the INI is about where my personal wisdom stat caps out.

I deleted a longer answer where I responded to each of your points, but it ended up being "Oh, I see" a lot and I don't want to clutter.

One specific thing though, do you happen to know the influence of BR coolness on Tony? I have the setting that makes other vendors use the BR setting because the INI comment said this would improve selection. However, I have - with default settings! - never seen Tony sell something that BR didn't sell as well. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the case in the base game, and it makes me not use Tony at all.

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Sergeant
Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345435 is a reply to message #345423] Wed, 11 May 2016 22:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
Messages:140
Registered:May 2016
raditzvisnar wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 12:07
shadow's picture dont have any camo in his face anymore...and monk too...


I'll have to check next session, but I think that might be it. I certainly scanned for the camoed faces.

[Updated on: Wed, 11 May 2016 22:52]

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Sergeant
Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345436 is a reply to message #345428] Wed, 11 May 2016 23:33 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
Messages:140
Registered:May 2016
ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
Clearing a map alone will be pretty hard, but at night a skilled spy can do it, of course have to be very careful
have to avoid enemy leaders since they can discover spies, and make use of force turn based combat in some situations (CTRL+T)
but i think it's best used in the middle of combat to see where the enemies are approching and killing some snipers on backward of the battlefield.
Disguised as civialin you can't take weapons with you, unless you using a covert weapon, but as a soldier you can take at least a few, unless you carryng too much advanced weapons, you can test if your disguise will works by pressing CTRL+. then "test desguise"


I see, that helps a lot - didn't know about leaders and how to test disguises. But I get the feeling this new feature isn't for me, shame.

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
To call in the skills menu you have ot press ALT+Right mouse button, radio operators got some skills they can use there.


THANK YOU! I read open skills menu all the time, but I never knew which keys!

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
Like radio operator, activate the skill menu with ALT+RMB, then "Various" and lastly "Spotter"
it will take 2 turn to get the spotter bonus and if the spotter move he have to activate the skill again.


alright, thanks. Just to be clear, changing view direction counts as moving?

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
I belive you can change that modyfing vehicles.xml
not sure if it will works though, last time i tried to add 2 more spots in the icecream truck the game crashed


Also not a method I'm comfortable using, so it's a no-go for me. But thanks, I went over the INI twice and you saved me even more repeats.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* in my pre-installed (now updated) ja 1.13 version on this machine, aimed burst fire was crazy effective. It seems it got more expensive in terms of AP and far less reliable even with a machinegunner - true or imagination?

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
It depends on the version you played before, it also depends if you play NCTH or not, i heard with NCTH burst/autofire is much more effective
anyway i'm sure is still effective right now even with OCTH especially at night.


NCTH is New Chance To Hit system? I use that, as well as the new interrupt setting (of which I have no idea how it works or even what it means).

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
Yes teaching is faster, but the teacher need to have higher skills than the student, the bonus anyway is kinda low IMHO, usually i modify the teaching trait and train skill to be much more effective. If you want to do that look for the values "TEACHER_TRAIT_EFFECT_ON_LEADERSHIP" and "INSTRUCTED_TRAINING_DIVISOR" on JA2_options.ini


Ah, so it still works - the 1/1 thing confused me. I'm probably fine then with default settings, as I don't mind holing up in cities and train everyone obsessively.

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
Some weapons are better than others in some circumstances
of course a sniper weapon usally is the better choice in the day, but at night shotguns become quite effective especially on ranger hands and close quarters. Also martial arts is still useful in late game, well that's cause i usually like to steal good items to enemies, and a well placed fist can send many soldiers KO, and they will stay unconscious for some turns, that's why a hand to hand/martial art character is the best choice if you want to steal items.
I usually give a sniper weapon to all my mercs and a Close combat weapon, depending on the skills the merc have for night and close quarters combats.


You know, I just realized that my current game setup influenced my questions a fair bit... I play with 10 IMPs, one specialist each, and when I wrote this post I still assumed I'd be playing a new game with large numbers of IMPs again, but use like 4 autos, 1 sniper, 1 heavy or something. But in a game with hires, the pre-set skills become a lot more important and it's probably still better to give a ranger a shotgun than a jazzed up SMG or light AR. Although I feel like day or night, fighting is a lot more long range than it used to be. Additionally, enemy groups are so big now that you can't get anyone (not outside city sectors at least) close enough to the enemy to make use of the smaller weapons, because if you get that close you will have 3-5 enemies close by rushing at you. Mind you, I'm trying not to reload in combat, so while it's nice to sometimes take somebody out with a throwing knife, or run up and knock them out, I still feel it's hardly as powerful as a proper machinegunner with a mid to long range AR and one for short ranges. And shotguns are *so* slow, even on my ranger!

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
Until few months ago i will have thought the same about melee and throwing, but now i see they are awesome, especially on a spy (a spy if unnoticed get a extra bonus in melee too)
also throwing use very few AP, it may be even more realiable than a good pistol, since i belive throwing knives like melee weapons ignore armors...they saved my IMP character ass many times.


Fair enough. But outside of spies (which, as I mentioned above, I am getting less interested in)? Since those skills preclude athletics, you can't even run up to someone really fast to take them down (I think one hire has both though!). For example, Miguel has been with me since day 1, never used his knife once. Carlos never threw a knife after 4 or 5 disastrous results. I'm going to have to think about what you wrote carefully happy

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
Do ambidex give bonus to auto fire? i don't think so, it will help to reload bullets faster though.
Anyway ambi+gunslighter/gunfigheter all the way for me.


No, but it reduces two-handed penalty by 100% - so NO penalty for shooting two weapons at all, and if you are a machingunner that would apply to TWO burst weapons instead of one, right? My pistols guy is doing fine with the long range pistols, match ammo and his range bonus, but two burst weapons...

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
xcpt they cannot be re-filled in cities.


This is something I only now learned - you can refill canteens in cities? How do you do that?

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

* are there other NPCs you can hire now? I've resisted trying to recruit some of the arms dealers, like the one that buys explosives and bloodcat parts. I don't know what I would do with him, but are some people now hireable that usually weren't? I'd be interested in a full list, nevermind spoilers.

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
I'm not sure about the version you playing but on the latest 1.13 versions there are few new NPCs, like Manuel from UB for example.


I'm playing Update for Release 7435: 25 October, 2014 (Build: 7609)

ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
Modulars are the best IMHO, you can mod them depending on the stuff you need to carry, also they will give camo bonus
i belive they are essential if you want to reach 100% camo.


Ah, I had not considered camo effects. Blergh, now I will have to check them out after all :/


ratpaz wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 17:30
Also take a look here:
you will found lots of useful informations about the new features like spotter or radio operator Flugente have implemented to the game.


I've read there a bit, but got confused a few times by stuff that clearly isn't in the version I'm playing, and I think it applies both to things that got changed later or applies to mysterious updates not available from pbworks (not allowed to post a link it says, sorry).

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345437 is a reply to message #345436] Wed, 11 May 2016 23:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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I thought of another question - I keep outfitting my guns with like LAM and reflex sight and 4/7x scope. After reading around I get the impression you can switch between fitted scopes? Doesn't the merc use automatically the best one for the situation? And if not, what was the key again for that?

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345448 is a reply to message #345436] Thu, 12 May 2016 11:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ratpaz is currently offline ratpaz

 
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gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 22:33

One specific thing though, do you happen to know the influence of BR coolness on Tony? I have the setting that makes other vendors use the BR setting because the INI comment said this would improve selection. However, I have - with default settings! - never seen Tony sell something that BR didn't sell as well. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the case in the base game, and it makes me not use Tony at all.

I fear there is not such option, if you want to see tony (or other vendors) sell something that BR don't sell you have to specifically modify some XML, anyway Tony is still very useful when you want to SELL stuff and make money.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 22:33

I see, that helps a lot - didn't know about leaders and how to test disguises. But I get the feeling this new feature isn't for me, shame.

It's a shame indeed but if you plan to play a "softcore" ironman i guess experimenting all the stuff that the game offer will not be that easy.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 22:33


THANK YOU! I read open skills menu all the time, but I never knew which keys!

You are welcome =), i suggest also to watch under docs/manuals/JA2_113_Hotkeys.pdf, there are a lots of new useful hotkeys there you will find essential to learn.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 22:33

alright, thanks. Just to be clear, changing view direction counts as moving?

Yes.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

NCTH is New Chance To Hit system? I use that, as well as the new interrupt setting (of which I have no idea how it works or even what it means).

Yes, and the new interrupt system make the game much different than the old one
i belive with it interrupting take into account much more variables and skills
i don't use it, since i think it will make the game much harder, especially at night and at high difficulty levels with skilled enemy soldiers.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54


You know, I just realized that my current game setup influenced my questions a fair bit... I play with 10 IMPs, one specialist each, and when I wrote this post I still assumed I'd be playing a new game with large numbers of IMPs again, but use like 4 autos, 1 sniper, 1 heavy or something. But in a game with hires, the pre-set skills become a lot more important and it's probably still better to give a ranger a shotgun than a jazzed up SMG or light AR. Although I feel like day or night, fighting is a lot more long range than it used to be. Additionally, enemy groups are so big now that you can't get anyone (not outside city sectors at least) close enough to the enemy to make use of the smaller weapons, because if you get that close you will have 3-5 enemies close by rushing at you. Mind you, I'm trying not to reload in combat, so while it's nice to sometimes take somebody out with a throwing knife, or run up and knock them out, I still feel it's hardly as powerful as a proper machinegunner with a mid to long range AR and one for short ranges. And shotguns are *so* slow, even on my ranger!

Like i said the new interrupt system make the game much harder at night and in close quarters
with the old one you just need to save some AP and make your mercs watch in the direction you think the enemy will approach to have almost a 100% chanche to interrupt (unless the difference level of your merc and the enemy soldier is too big) while with the new one it will take much more into account your mercs skills, the enemy skills and a bit of luck i think, also you (and your enemy) may have a shit load of multiple interrupts in the same turn.
So yes, if you dont want to reload the game like crazy you need to play during the morning and with sniper rifles, unless you play with the old interrupt system.
Also i think IMPs are too powerful they dont need a wage and will allow you to make the perfect party,
Anyway is fun to use other characters combinations anyway so i tend to not have more than 3/4 in my games, but everyone have his way to play the game i guess, and the customization of the game is another great thing about 1.13.

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

No, but it reduces two-handed penalty by 100% - so NO penalty for shooting two weapons at all, and if you are a machingunner that would apply to TWO burst weapons instead of one, right? My pistols guy is doing fine with the long range pistols, match ammo and his range bonus, but two burst weapons...

You have a point, you mean your machinegunner guy is using 2 machine pistols instead of a two handed auto rifle weapon?
never thought about that...

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

This is something I only now learned - you can refill canteens in cities? How do you do that?

Press "CTRL+." then "fill canteens" it's free but it will works only in cities and outside combat.


gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

Ah, I had not considered camo effects. Blergh, now I will have to check them out after all :/

I think personalizating the inventory is fun, also camo is very important
the ability to see the enemy without being seen is one of the crucial aspect of the game.


gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 06:54

I've read there a bit, but got confused a few times by stuff that clearly isn't in the version I'm playing, and I think it applies both to things that got changed later or applies to mysterious updates not available from pbworks (not allowed to post a link it says, sorry).


Yes, there you will find also new features not yet implemented in the ufficial release of the game, but that you can try playing the latest development versions of 1.13
http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&th=20380&prevloaded=1&&start=0
however there may be bugs that may make the game unplayable...

gimmehints wrote on Wed, 11 May 2016 22:48
I thought of another question - I keep outfitting my guns with like LAM and reflex sight and 4/7x scope. After reading around I get the impression you can switch between fitted scopes? Doesn't the merc use automatically the best one for the situation? And if not, what was the key again for that?

Yes, you can switch scope mode, since now you can't use a scope and get the bonus of a reflex sight at the same time
to switch scope mode press "." (dot), i belive they done that to make the game more realistic.

[Updated on: Thu, 12 May 2016 11:34]

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345456 is a reply to message #345448] Thu, 12 May 2016 21:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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Thanks again for all the answers! There are still a couple of things that haven't been addressed, but the whole thread helped a great deal already.

ratpaz wrote on Thu, 12 May 2016 10:16
i think IMPs are too powerful they dont need a wage and will allow you to make the perfect party


Probably true, but this massive IMP game with all rebels right away was still pretty fun (also, I wanted to test each role since spy and radio operator were all-new to me)! And not paying wages allows bypassing all cities for a while, which I like the idea of (although that's not what I did in this one). I also like the idea of using the rebels all through the game (which never happened for me previously, only milita trainers and mechanics etc) and joining up with them once you make contact feels like you make a real concerted effort to take back the country happy

Anyway, unless I get slaughtered by playing experienced next time, I intend to use the best cheapest hires (Grizzly, Leech, Meltdown, Gary, Hector), one mechanic+radio operator IMP and one... I want to say machinegunner+athletics IMP (or ambidex, see below), then recruit all rebels. Still allow for 10 IMPs, so I can maybe take deaths as they come and replace those with more IMPs. Should be fun! happy

ratpaz wrote on Thu, 12 May 2016 10:16
you mean your machinegunner guy is using 2 machine pistols instead of a two handed auto rifle weapon? never thought about that


Not currently, but that is the idea. At the moment, AUTO (again, it's his name, I'm not yelling) isn't ambidex and uses a Galil AR for longe range while trying out a Steyr-AUG A3 for mid ranges (I only now am realizing it's not all that faster than the Galil, and may have to go lower range for faster draw and firing). His 2ndary trait is demolition for throwing greades, but might as well be ambidex if the principle works out. I've only made ambidex gunlingers so far (using dual FN 57s for really short ranges - I gave up on the longer range revolvers - and a single CMMG 7.3 with a very respectable 36 range with match ammo for mid ranges. He carries some leftover FN-FAL for single long range shooting if needed - only 101% weight!), and those are pretty fun. However, an ambidex gunner seems promising for dual auto weapons in close range. Have him carry a longe range AR, then whip out dual MPs for clearing buildings or moving around houses!

ratpaz wrote on Thu, 12 May 2016 10:16
the new interrupt system make the game much harder at night and in close quarters


Agreed. I'm only learning now properly about draw AP etc, which I think are the reason using a "slow" FN FAL in close quarters results in far fewer interrupts, at least that's what it feels like. So now I'm learning about all the guns I pretty much bypassed once the (previously though of as) "better" stuff came along, and try to pick close-quarter weapons for everyone as a secondary. It's also why I am considering ambidex for my gunner btw, in older versions you could give him a good AR with long range and use it for all ranges, but that no longer seems to be the case and if I go down with range for a secondary, doubling up not only sounds fun but could be very powerful indeed. My only worry is that MP ranges may be too low, and only really good for night time CCQ.

[Updated on: Thu, 12 May 2016 21:03]

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345464 is a reply to message #345456] Fri, 13 May 2016 03:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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Radio operator isn't working for me. I can bring up the menu, but all options are greyed out, no matter whether or not I have the radio (with batteries) in my hand. It's both in and out of combat btw, and I even tried it in cleared sectors. What am I missing?

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345465 is a reply to message #345464] Fri, 13 May 2016 03:24 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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gimmehints wrote on Fri, 13 May 2016 05:20
Radio operator isn't working for me. I can bring up the menu, but all options are greyed out, no matter whether or not I have the radio (with batteries) in my hand. It's both in and out of combat btw, and I even tried it in cleared sectors. What am I missing?


Quote:
A radio set (item #1697) is worn like a backpack and requires special batteries (item #1698) on order to work.

Feature: Radio Operator



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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345466 is a reply to message #345465] Fri, 13 May 2016 03:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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Quote:
A radio set (item #1697) is worn like a backpack and requires special batteries (item #1698) on order to work.


You know, I doubted my starting radio was the same one that you could order from BR (because it says in the BR description something about backpack) so I got another one. It was the same as I already had, but I could never put that into the backpack slot... sigh

Thanks, I'll have to rearrange my LBE again it seems :/ Is there any - I don't know the slotname, where those 3-day packs go - gear that works with a radio in the backpack slot? Edit: nevermind, that was exactly the slot I was thinking of actually. A TIMS backpack doesnt work with a radio, and I suspect other backpacks won't either. I'll either have to rethink my engineer radio operator, or live with someone else having to carry the repair kit, no slot big enough as I see it... Dang. At least PISTOLS is rocking Grumm.

More edits - I have another question, in sector inventory mode it says "hold ctrl to compare". What is that for? I can't seem to get it to work either.

[Updated on: Fri, 13 May 2016 04:01]

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345468 is a reply to message #345466] Fri, 13 May 2016 04:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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gimmehints wrote on Fri, 13 May 2016 05:31
I have another question, in sector inventory mode it says "hold ctrl to compare". What is that for? I can't seem to get it to work either.


Description Box enhancement: Compare Items



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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345469 is a reply to message #345468] Fri, 13 May 2016 04:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
raditzvisnar is currently offline raditzvisnar

 
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Aaah...for radio device,can someone show me the picture of it? Cuz i cant find it in BR....or i miss something?


https://i.ibb.co/0mSksS8/KTsNb.pnghttps://i.ibb.co/wd9K45P/psp-in-the-pixels-w-menu-items-by-gfball84887-d8ai7q0-1.png

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345470 is a reply to message #345468] Fri, 13 May 2016 04:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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Thanks a lot sevenfm!

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345471 is a reply to message #345469] Fri, 13 May 2016 04:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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raditzvisnar wrote on Fri, 13 May 2016 03:14
Aaah...for radio device,can someone show me the picture of it? Cuz i cant find it in BR....or i miss something?


I made 3 screens here - radio only carried, radio ready to go, radio at BR:

http://imgur.com/a/U92Nd

Bonus team count view, just because I'm still awake: http://imgur.com/0lOJmy1 one IMP specialist per skill happy Pistols, sniper, spotter and heavy have been the most valuable so far. H2H hasn't done anything with his skills lately, and Auto has been underwhelming.

[Updated on: Fri, 13 May 2016 04:34]

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345472 is a reply to message #345471] Fri, 13 May 2016 06:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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gimmehints wrote on Fri, 13 May 2016 08:23
raditzvisnar wrote on Fri, 13 May 2016 03:14
Aaah...for radio device,can someone show me the picture of it? Cuz i cant find it in BR....or i miss something?


I made 3 screens here - radio only carried, radio ready to go, radio at BR:

http://imgur.com/a/U92Nd

Bonus team count view, just because I'm still awake: http://imgur.com/0lOJmy1 one IMP specialist per skill happy Pistols, sniper, spotter and heavy have been the most valuable so far. H2H hasn't done anything with his skills lately, and Auto has been underwhelming.


I will looking for it....so under LBE gear root...okay.thanx....
Because of IoV mod, BR like a online super market...ahhaahhahahahahh



https://i.ibb.co/0mSksS8/KTsNb.pnghttps://i.ibb.co/wd9K45P/psp-in-the-pixels-w-menu-items-by-gfball84887-d8ai7q0-1.png

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345473 is a reply to message #345472] Fri, 13 May 2016 07:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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Note that the way I read it, you need someone with "radio operator" to actually make use of it. I think I only saw one single AIM hire with the skill (I scanned quickly though, and he was fairly pricey I think), so an IMP may be a must. Didn't check MERC.

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345488 is a reply to message #345473] Fri, 13 May 2016 21:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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More questions:

* I read blue flags on mines are visible to the enemy? I think I set milita to be able to put flags on mines, that would be a disaster for my minefield. Is this true?

* There are 10 Bobby Ray quality settings, but weren't there only 8 levels of coolness? Is there a file/site somewhere where I can check what item becomes available at what coolness?

* enemy gear progression has fewer settings. Are those also coolness based, or do they use different progression?

* for both settings: those set a starting coolness, do I have that right? So what happens if I have BR set to 5th setting and conquer drassen. Where is my coolness now, did it advance for the first city?

* how do I check cover?

* how do I move items? I understand this only works between city sectors, but how do I do it?

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345490 is a reply to message #345488] Fri, 13 May 2016 21:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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As far as i know game progression influence enemy drops and BR settings the quality and quantity of objects you can buy from it
so if you really want to have slow game progression you should put BR setting slow as well.
I guess coolness advance with game progression, you can check game progress by pressing "V" in the tactical screen.
To check cover press "F", but if you want to see if the enemy can see you press "DELETE"
Green mean the enemy can't see you
Yellow mean your merc need to be at least crouched to avoid be seen
orange mean your merc need to be prone to avoid be seen
red mean your merc is seen.
Of course this rules apply to all the enemies your squad can see, if there are enemies your mercs can't see and at the same time they can see your merc you can't be really sure your merc is in a safe spot.
If you want to check your merc line of sigh press "END" the same color rules apply.

To move items assign a merc to "Get item" in the stategic map.

[Updated on: Fri, 13 May 2016 21:57]

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345491 is a reply to message #345490] Fri, 13 May 2016 22:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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ratpaz wrote on Fri, 13 May 2016 20:51
As far as i know game progression influence enemy drops and BR settings the quality and quantity of objects you can buy from it
so if you really want to have slow game progression you should put BR setting slow as well.
I guess coolness advance with game progression, you can check game progress by pressing "V" in the tactical screen.
To check cover press "F", but if you want to see if the enemy can see you press "DELETE"
Green mean the enemy can't see you
Yellow mean your merc need to be at least crouched to avoid be seen
orange mean your merc need to be prone to avoid be seen
red mean your merc is seen.
Of course this rules apply to all the enemies your squad can see, if there are enemies your mercs can't see and at the same time they can see your merc you can't be really sure your merc is in a safe spot.
If you want to check your merc line of sigh press "END" the same color rules apply.

To move items assign a merc to "Get item" in the stategic map.


all good info, especially the part about having to assign a merc... *headdesk* thanks!

Sidenote: a bunch of questions haven't been touched, some need some further clarification. Should I leave the thread as it is and hope someone will go over the whole thing, or should I collect them together and add in a new reply here?

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345492 is a reply to message #345491] Sat, 14 May 2016 01:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
DepressivesBrot is currently offline DepressivesBrot

 
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Better re-post them in one chunk. And maybe number them, saves a lot of time when replying.


Chat with us!
#bearpit on IRC
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Get your latest 1.13 Builds
(Pls don't use my forum PMs for general game queries)

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345497 is a reply to message #345492] Sat, 14 May 2016 10:24 Go to previous messageGo to next message
smeagol is currently offline smeagol

 
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I think those questions are actually very on spot. A lot of the stuff leaves new Players puzzled... I really think it is time to either update the JA2 Wiki or create a decent FAQ. The changelog is a good start, but I think most People who are not into developing can easily overlook this.

Especially new Features and hotkeys are not covered well enough. It`s easy to get lost in the plethora of new features.

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345503 is a reply to message #345497] Sat, 14 May 2016 17:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Tyro3 is currently offline Tyro3

 
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smeagol wrote on Sat, 14 May 2016 09:24
I think those questions are actually very on spot. A lot of the stuff leaves new Players puzzled... I really think it is time to either update the JA2 Wiki or create a decent FAQ. The changelog is a good start, but I think most People who are not into developing can easily overlook this.

Especially new Features and hotkeys are not covered well enough. It`s easy to get lost in the plethora of new features.


Amen to this, I am fairly new and trying to figure out which controls are essential is difficult.

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345507 is a reply to message #345503] Sat, 14 May 2016 19:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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okay, here the questions still unanswered or in need of more details:

1. milita, both mobile and regular: there is now a limit to their numbers. Sometimes I get told I need to conquer more town sectors, later in the game I was told to recruit more rebels (while I already had all of them at this point). What are the limits exactly, and do higher difficulties change them?

2. teacher 25% bonus for being able to teach a skill - shouldn't a skill of 80 let me teach as if I had 100? It doesn't seem to work that way.

3. is there a list of hires not in basic ja2? I'm not talking AIM or MERC, just people on the map.

4. enemy gear progression settings ("speed of item progression") - has fewer settings than BR, so is that still coolness-based and caps out at lower levels, or is the enemy scale adjusted to maybe skip a level or two to reach maximum coolness?

5. racism and sexism, how badly do they influence team cohesion? One of the rebels hates germans extremely, will I get problems if I hire a german one to pair up with the rebels? I have the "very sexist" Meltdown on my 24 man team without problems.

6. snitching - I get lots of messages like "X thinks your planning sucks" or "Y is worried about Z". Morale is great throughout, whats happening? Why do I care, and what is the benefit of these messages?

7. jail - leaving aside how exactly you set up one, what is it good for? What can you actually do with prisoners? I mean, enemy locations aren't exactly secret!

8. different scopes - now that I can switch between them, I wonder: does it matter which scope the weapon is set on for interrupts? do I need to have reflex sights active to benefit from the speed bonus (I forget for what exactly, I think it reduces draw AP?) for example?

9. blue flags on mines - can enemies now see them too? The loading hint only speaks of "effects on enemies" as well. Is there no setting that lets milita see mines and stay away from them without making them obvious to enemies?

10. in my current game, I am one sector away from attacking meduna (so I should be able to order *everything* from BR). I never see a CAWS weapon for sale - can't those be bought? Ammo is available. Likewise, I don't think I ever saw 43mm gear drop. Is that for sale only?

11. I've stocked up on mustard gas, but never actually used it. Made me think: do I still get loyalty hits when using it in city sectors? Milita and enemies use it quite freely.

FWIW, I second a FAQ or otherwise more improved documentation. Sadly, pretty much anything clickable on http://ja2v113.pbworks.com/w/page/4218339/FrontPage is out of date, and I think most non-developers like me have the same problems with sifting through what is still relevant. Might as well be overhauled.

[Updated on: Sat, 14 May 2016 19:53]

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345509 is a reply to message #345507] Sat, 14 May 2016 20:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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gimmehints
9. blue flags on mines - can enemies now see them too? The loading hint only speaks of "effects on enemies" as well. Is there no setting that lets milita see mines and stay away from them without making them obvious to enemies?

Blue flag is impassable structure for any soldier, you can even exploit it to block way for the enemy.
Friendly soldiers and neutral civilians will not step on player planted mines, so you don't need to flag them.



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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345510 is a reply to message #345413] Sat, 14 May 2016 20:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Torres is currently offline Torres

 
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My 2 cents...

1 You can edit the max sector militia in the ini and now you can even train the fearsome NAVY BLUE militia if you so choose by changing that parameter in the ini, about mobile militia well... not a big fan IMHO they're a waste of money when you can use small squads of mercs during night raids, well equipped and stealthy they take out an entire batallion lol

2 The spy role is the most overpowered thing I've seen so far, an expert spy can easily infiltrate anywhere and do anything, with high mechanical and explosives you can have an operative plant C4 charges before your main force arrives and then blow the strong points in any enemy outpost, they can also be used alongside your squad during tactical and act as infiltrated spotters as long as you don't do anything stupid you can have your spy sit behind a bush telling your other guys where the enemy is coming from and even take a few strays when they're not paying attention.

3 To call for artillery strikes you either need another squad with mortars and mortar rounds in the adjacent sectors or militia, also you need to throw signal smoke... great for some bottleneck places... it's literally a massacre if you edit the amount of damage explosives deals in the ini.

4 Spotter role is useful but not that useful though, if you know you're going to be at a great disadvantage you can drop your carbines, get some rifles, get the high ground and have the spotter give your nearby member squads some nice bonuses but I'd rather have they guy carry a gun and kill... works wonders if you team a spotter, a sniper and a spy. Silenced weapons, ghillie suits and hit the ground and snipe from afar, great combination for killing the enemy generals.

5 As far as I know you can't change how many mercs fit into a vehicle

6 To fortificate you need work gloves, shovels, time and the materials of course... you just lay the foundation and then order your mercs to fortify as a task (like medic or train) and they'll build and fortify where you told 'em over time.

7 the sectormap file has a list of all the facilities, you can even add facilities and even if there's water available.

8 Haven't grasped still the full concept of teaching, don't bother teaching good mercs... it's mostly useful for low stats mercs like Shank, in a few weeks he'll become a decent merc with the right teachers, other than that actual combat experience is far better for learning. Instead of training strength gather a few rounds of 40mm tear gas or tear gas grenades, grab some gasmaks, wait for the night and assault a not so well protected sector, lure the enemy and gas them, kill the ones with masks and the other ones in the ground are goin to be your punching bags, you'll raise strenght and dexterity to max in like 10 assaults.

9 About weapons, to each its own... having a machinegunner use a shotgun is not going to be the best approach, keep a balanced squad. Sniper rifles get a malus at close range, while carbined rifles are great for that, each weapon has a purpose, range and once you grasp it you'll be dealing a lot of heavy damage.

10 Melee and throwing aren't that useful unless you plan to go full Metal Gear/Splinter Cell operative, but it's not a good idea to get close to armed enemies with low level characters, and even the high level ones aren't meant to be Rambo.

11 damn I use AIMNAS there are tons of other guns for ambidex characters, can't recommend any if they're not in vanilla 1.13 sorry.

12 you can set the item progression when you first start a game, tons of weapons and fast progression will let you get the best items sooner.

about the MOLLE and carry equipment, fit each merc with something that fills its role, medpacks for the medics, grenade and ammo pouches for the gunners... there's no single super MOLLE vest that's good for everything.

To take prisoners render them unconscious or immobile and put some cuffs on them, or use the SPEAK icon and offer them to surrender, if your presence in the sector is stronger they will most likely surrender and be available for interrogation in your prisons, send a merc to interrogate them to gather intel from them. Try and get the officers, the sergeants have a bonus to reveal enemy generals locations, kill the generals and hinder the whole branch of command of the Queen's army.

[Updated on: Sat, 14 May 2016 20:53]

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345516 is a reply to message #345510] Sun, 15 May 2016 04:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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Thanks for your answer torres, although its a tiny bit unfortunate you were the first to number your replies after me posting leftover, numbered questions... I hope newcomers will realize you answered basically the first post big grin

Torres wrote on Sat, 14 May 2016 19:51
My 2 cents...


re your 1: I wasn't talking about strength of milita, or now many can appear in the same sector. I was talking about a total number of milita units you can have (mobile or stationary). I've been stopped from training both regular and mobile milita at different points in the game, so there must be a cap system.

re your 4: my spotter (edit: ranger, scouting, spotter background, loner) has been quite valuable, although it sure seems less than optimal spending an IMP on that. Not too many kills there, but the better binos give great detection, especially during daytime. Nightime is decidedly less impressive, even at novice.

re your 6: I'm going to stop and save my current novice game before the last sector for testing out things, but work gloves? Am I being too literal, or is that a real item? Because I've just conquered the meduna airport, and I've never seen one... If it's a saying, nvm happy

re your 7: could you be a little more precise on that file? because I tried something called facilities.xml once, but while it listed sectors, the actual thing on that sector wasnt defined, it was just a number value.

as for interrogation, what knowledge can you even gain?

[Updated on: Sun, 15 May 2016 08:49]

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345517 is a reply to message #345509] Sun, 15 May 2016 06:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
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sevenfm wrote on Sun, 15 May 2016 03:07
gimmehints
9. blue flags on mines - can enemies now see them too? The loading hint only speaks of "effects on enemies" as well. Is there no setting that lets milita see mines and stay away from them without making them obvious to enemies?

Blue flag is impassable structure for any soldier, you can even exploit it to block way for the enemy.
Friendly soldiers and neutral civilians will not step on player planted mines, so you don't need to flag them.


When did this change? I've had previous experience of civs blowing up mines by mistake and then my squad losing loyalty, but this may have been on older games and mods.

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345520 is a reply to message #345507] Sun, 15 May 2016 10:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Tyxe is currently offline Tyxe

 
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gimmehints wrote on Sat, 14 May 2016 18:46
okay, here the questions still unanswered or in need of more details:

5. racism and sexism, how badly do they influence team cohesion? One of the rebels hates germans extremely, will I get problems if I hire a german one to pair up with the rebels? I have the "very sexist" Meltdown on my 24 man team without problems.

6. snitching - I get lots of messages like "X thinks your planning sucks" or "Y is worried about Z". Morale is great throughout, whats happening? Why do I care, and what is the benefit of these messages?

7. jail - leaving aside how exactly you set up one, what is it good for? What can you actually do with prisoners? I mean, enemy locations aren't exactly secret!

8. different scopes - now that I can switch between them, I wonder: does it matter which scope the weapon is set on for interrupts? do I need to have reflex sights active to benefit from the speed bonus (I forget for what exactly, I think it reduces draw AP?) for example?

10. in my current game, I am one sector away from attacking meduna (so I should be able to order *everything* from BR). I never see a CAWS weapon for sale - can't those be bought? Ammo is available. Likewise, I don't think I ever saw 43mm gear drop. Is that for sale only?


5 - it affects moral, very manageable because the moral penalty kicks only once per day (and id did not kick bad) so no big deal. Moreover low moral is not awful and fighting will raise it back in no time.

6 - snitch is a flavour feature, no utility really (at best it tells you some mercs don't like other but you already know the like/dislike of mercs i guess).

7 - you can get ransom paid sometimes for a prisoner. He can also join your militia sometimes. He informs you about patrol movement which can be somewhat useful. A very nice mostly flavour feature, i don't bother with it though(i mean i don't take prisoners). A very comprehensive thread about this feature in Flugente section is available...!

8 - you need to have the reflex sights active to have the bonus

10 - some weapons will never be available on Bobby or find on enemies because not implemented in enemy possible inventory.

Also :

-For NCtH, (i only use this mode) shotguns are awful...except if you only use buckshots ammo which are very good to suppress. Nevertheless i use to modify this category of weapons by using the xml editors to lower their AP requirements by quite a bit.
Rifles are useless IMHO.
Gunfighter ambidextrous are massively overpowered.

- Hand to hand/martial artist is useful even if you don't steal (and the skill is extremely useful only for that, i disallow the use of the stun gun which break the balance) or use it to attack because it lowers AP needed to change position (turn around, go prone, stand up and so on). You like athletics, try a martial artist with athletics and you will be amazed of the number of everything he can do.

- Throwing is only nice for night ops if you want to bother to use it, melee is uninteresting (you don't want to kill your enemies if you get close enough...)

- spy feature is very well done, very nice but i find it overpowered (warning : i have not test last improvements about it). Don't see how it could be otherwise though. I guess you have to limit ourself of what you want to do with it and it became enjoyable then.

As a side note, it's extremely easy (as easy as editing the ini) to use the xml editor to modify lot of things (like availability to buy items on Bobby, works perfect for that). It can take a lot of time and the editor can be buggy sometimes though.


[Updated on: Sun, 15 May 2016 10:22]

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345522 is a reply to message #345517] Sun, 15 May 2016 12:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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Hawkeye wrote on Sun, 15 May 2016 08:48
When did this change? I've had previous experience of civs blowing up mines by mistake and then my squad losing loyalty, but this may have been on older games and mods.

In r6582 of the main 1.13 development trunk.

Link: Achtung! Minen!

There are many changes in 1.13 mine planting/disarming compared to vanilla ja2:
- friendly soldiers will avoid player mines
- new disarm dialog, possibility to check mine difficulty or blow up mine intentionally
- possibility to auto take new similar mine item from inventory after planting (plant mine with SHIFT pressed)
- many small fixes and improvements in mine handling
- possibility to attach bombs to bombs and they will blow up correctly
- Flugente's Tripwire-triggered mines, directional mines (claymores), mines display, layered hierarchical trap networks, makeshift mines
- you can blow up map pre-placed mine fields by throwing some grenades/explosives (r7745)

[Updated on: Sun, 15 May 2016 13:15]




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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345523 is a reply to message #345522] Sun, 15 May 2016 12:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
silversurfer

 
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Tyxe wrote on Sun, 15 May 2016 09:17

-For NCtH, (i only use this mode) shotguns are awful...except if you only use buckshots ammo which are very good to suppress. Nevertheless i use to modify this category of weapons by using the xml editors to lower their AP requirements by quite a bit.

If you want to change properties for a whole class of weapons you could modify Item_Settings.ini instead.


sevenfm wrote on Sun, 15 May 2016 11:00

There are many changes in 1.13 mine planting/disarming compared to vanilla ja2:

Don't forget the option to blow up map pre-placed mine fields by explosives. That can become quite handy if enemy soldiers are close to their own mine fields. Just lob a frag grenade into the mine field. Sometimes they step on their own mines which serves the same purpose. big grin



Wildfire Maps Mod 6.07 on SVN: https://ja2svn.mooo.com/source/ja2/branches/Wanne/JA2%201.13%20Wildfire%206.06%20-%20Maps%20MOD

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345542 is a reply to message #345523] Mon, 16 May 2016 07:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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still a bunch of open questions, please read the latest comments if you are new to this thread. I'm just adding one other thing - in my novice game I took the first meduna sector then ordered from bobby ray. I had a loyalty of 10%, then I took two more sectors right after. Suddenly my loyalty was at 0%! what gives? I was going to train milita and fortify the meduna sectors with all sorts of stuff. I noticed it after getting the 3rd sector with the bloodcat arena. Never used mustard gas or anything, no civilians harmed.

Just because I edited this post for more details and I'm feeling like sharing: started a new experienced game after the failure to dig in in Meduna on novice. 10 max IMPs, 10 max team size, NCTH, new interrupt, BR quantity max (I just hate shopping everyday for hunting special stuff, and I want to let all my heavies use 40mm all the time instead of using an AR/rifle mostly like everyone else), BR quality 5 (half the max, last game 2), enemy progression fast (penultimate setting, last game one lower). Realistic, tons of guns, enemy does NOT drop everything (unlike in my novice game; this will cut down dramatically on ammo and "sell-to-locals" money). Starting cash jacked up high to 75k, no mine ever runs dry (last game saw me holing up in drassen and pre-paying my hires for ~30 days, then suddenly the mine runs dry...). I hired meltdown, gary, grizzly, igor, leech, and hector. Made three IMPs, ambidex gunslinger and ambidex machine gunner (the latter mainly to compare to gunslinger, which is crazy good if ambidex), also one engineer+radio operator. The latter will stay out of combat until his 25 str is resolved and his marksmanship is trained properly, but is part of the permanent 10-man combat team for his radio and increased repair skills. All rebels can (and will be) recruited right after making contact, but miguel and ira are permanent stay-behinds (miguel for milita, ira will be trained by him so she can become a teacher of all skills - which reminds me, I jacked up the teaching value from 3000 to 1500 (lower being better), will be fun to see how that plays like). Carlos will likely man an ACA building in the currently important city, while dimitri is destined to be trained by ira when he's not busy repairing anything to 100% to train dex and mec. The current plan sees me reload-cheating until I conquer drassen (mainly because I lack medical supplies at the start, and due to hires I need income ASAP), at which point I'll hole up and train, and collect money to outfit to the best of my ability with the new BR settings. From this point on, I am taking all (well, non-lethal) injuries with all consequences and try to play completely without reloading in combat (strategic map reloads are fine in my book). It's going to be fairly difficult, my first attempt without igor and only an ambidex gunslinger failed due to lack of medical pre-drassen. This settings/reload-cheating compromise will hopefully provide a good challenge while teaching me better strategies in tactical. I can always downgrade BR settings, starting cash and everything else later.

[Updated on: Mon, 16 May 2016 08:47]

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345544 is a reply to message #345542] Mon, 16 May 2016 11:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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Oh man, just a few more things, sorry:

1. I noticed the detail view for rocket rifles calls them just that - "rocket rifles". What category are they in? Are they rifles, or heavy weapons? Are they a special category not influenced by skills?

2. I notice you can use mines (the money makers) as explosives-training, but it requires very high skill. Is that only for late stage exp training, or does it do anything else?

3. do mortars now do very little damage to tanks maybe? I had three heavies in my novice game, and some of the tanks in meduna sectors took like 4+ shells. Rocket rifles were useless as well, as were 40mm grenades.

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345545 is a reply to message #345544] Mon, 16 May 2016 12:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
silversurfer

 
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1. Rocket Rifles are rifles.

2. If you want to use mines for training you should have a demolitions guy as well. A lower skill merc can plant the mines (that's the easier part) and the demolitions guy disarms them afterwards (that's the complicated part). For planting mines the explosives skill should be 30+ with a decent amount of wisdom to start with.

3. Mortars do a good amount of damage on a direct hit but rockets are better against tanks. Grenades are rather useless.



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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345553 is a reply to message #345545] Mon, 16 May 2016 21:37 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gimmehints

 
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re your 2 - I meant the facility "mine". I kept reading a few times you can increase the mine yield if you train explosives there, but never tried it out and I'm not sure it applies to this version anyway. Is that a thing?

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Re: Seasoned base game player getting into 1.13 - TONS of questions. Not kidding, TONS![message #345554 is a reply to message #345553] Mon, 16 May 2016 22:10 Go to previous message
silversurfer

 
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I see. The facility "mine" allows you to put mercs on different assignments. Which assignments are available depends on the map mod and the skills of the merc. Each assignment has a tooltip so you get a general idea what it does. If you want to know more you can check "FacilityTypes.xml".


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