Jagged alliance 2

>>2775041
Google ja2 hotkeys.
But ones I used a lot included 'r' and 's' for run and walk. 'B' to toggle between single shot and burst. Pageup and pagedn to crouch, go prone. Also 'alt' to sidestep around corners.

Also, play through the regular campaign once or twice, then download v1.13 and don't look back.

>>2775041
Most of the cheap starting mercs will be fine. A few will have conflicts with each other, like Barry and igor, or fox and buns. If you want to, you can hire a expensive merc for a day, and then keep his equipment when he leaves.

A team of 4 is a good start since you get Ira and Dimitri for free quite early.

Also anyone know if the 1.13 version of Urban Chaos is ok or should I just play it safe with the original?

>>2775041
as long as you hire hitman, you're good to go.

It's not that much of a problem starting with some cheap mercs. If you bring back those mines and train some recruits, you'll have enough money for whatever you want; having units with good aim, health and some specialization in repairing, medicine and leadership is a good way to start off. High WIS mercs, like Buns or even Ira, are a good bet for your future, since they'll raise their skills quickly; it also means they get more expensive due to their leveling, but again, if you free enough mines that won't be a problem.

>>2775781
Not really worth doing. The weapons you start with are more than enough and by the time you could get those ones normally you'll have plenty of money coming in. It's smarter to abuse it for medkits.

>>2775041
Meltdown is a murder machine in short-range combat. Her high shooting ability and ambidexterity makes her MVP in urban and complex sectors.

Also, when MERC becomes available, snatch up a few of them and train them up. They're far weaker than AIM mercs, but they tend to have high wisdom and their prices don't change. Spending time to train them is a very good investment.

Despite Enrico whining at you, there is no time limit on the game or even a game over condition. The only time when you actually "lose" is when all your mercs are dead and you are so poor you can't afford even the cheapest MERC goon.

>>2776952
UC with 1.13 has a few bugs involving the later 1.13 features (especially covert ops) but it works well for the most part.

Used to fap to the chick in op 's picture.

>>2775041
>Also, any way of changing the setting where the camera moves to where the bullet eventually hits?

You can change this in the in-game options screen.

>Any tips on starting mercs too?

Most of the time i play vanilla JA2 with mercs that like each other for the morale boost and banter, so starting mercs are Igor and Grunty (later adding Ivan), Blood (later adding Magic) and the IMP (max AGI, DEX, WIS, Health, min in explosives, Night Mission/Stealth or Nightmission/Autoweapons, Marksmanship can stay low since the stat builds up real fast. Some Leadership, another stat that builds up crazy fast, when training militia). I let Ira train up militia forever in Drassen.

I don't use multiple squads in vanilla but i usually hire Len and Raider for militia training mid-game and maybe one of the doctors.

>>2777021
Doesn't town loyalty drop if Enrico sends you too many angry emails?

>>2776990
that's right, ace!

>>2777820
Not as far as I'm aware. It drops if Deidranna takes back sectors though.

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>>2775041
>Also, any way of changing the setting where the camera moves to where the bullet eventually hits? Because of low accuracy this invariably moves the camera over to the other side of the map every time I shoot, which is fucking annoying.

Razor, Haywire and Fidel are an extremely strong tusk unit. You get two mercs with the Auto Weapons skill and a melee skill. You also get one of two mercs in the game with Knifing (Expert), the other one being at the top of the pay chart. They all also have the Psycho trait, which gives +15% to hit. This lets them shoot well above their stats, Razor especially because he has psycho and extremely high dexterity.

I am very much a fan of having mercs with melee skills for two reasons. The first is being able to always kill an enemy that surprises you from around a corner. The second is its fucking brutal swarming lone patrols in the dark to pick them off like its a prison yard.

La Malice is also a good early hire because his physical stats are all outstanding, same for Razor. Agility and Dexterity are probably the slowest training stats in the game, so mercs with good scores there but poor marksmanship / strength are always good hires.

Also stay away from later revisions of 1.13. The amount of retarded and frustrating changes they have made only continues to pile up. Any patch with "New Merc Skills" is going to be garbage can "I want the mercs I like to be the best" bullshit. They didnt even edit merc profiles to match their new skills and changed several mercs key features for no clear reason.

>>2778748
speaking of melee/HtH skills, Bull seems to be very unappreciated. With a bit of luck he can knock out weaker enemies in just one punch. He's also great for the San Mona ring fight, I'd even say better than Blood or Dr.Q

also his dialogues are marvelous
>Looks better without a head anyway!

>>2777820
>>2778723

It does. If Enrico sends you 2 angry emails, your loyalty everywhere drops. To get around this, fast forward at the start of the game before you hire anyone until he sends both emails. Virtually no disadvantage to doing it, and you don't lose loyalty for not speeding through the game.

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I'm almost finishing this game for the first time. Today I started the attack on Meduna. Picture is the current status. It was everything I was expecting, and more. I'm using 1.13, though I didn't use all its features and edited the ini thoroughly.

My starting mercs were MD, Barry, Steroid, and an IMP. Eventually I also hired Mouse, Bob, Bud and Elroy. I love how each merc has their own personality, and aren't expendable. I seriously need to try other mercs next time I play.
I also got most of the RPCs, but I never found the guy with the ice truck, nor met anyone selling explosives. Slay left exactly as I was marching towards Meduna. He was supposed to stay for a few more hours.
This game also has a lot of humor. I was expecting it to be more serious, but it was nice to be wrong. Deidranna and Elliot are hilarious.

I got some bugs during the game, including: Skyrider never refueling, Joey's mom not recognizing him or ending the quest even though he was right in front of her, crashes as enemies enter wilderness sectors in tactical view, and all items disappearing from a sector as I was moving people and items through it with the hummer. I was able to work around all of them, but they were still annoying.

For some reason, the museum guard in Balime decided to attack me right after liberating the sector. I tried tasing and handcuffing him, but it didn't work, and retreating got me a crash. So I killed him by punching him in the legs with Shank. Also, Shank's parents didn't even recognize him, he doesn't want to attack them, and killing them lowers town loyalty. Is there anything I can do with them?

This game got me interested in guns, something I never thought possible.

cont

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>>2779574
Funniest parts of the game were: when assaulting Orta's basement, Elroy, disguised, throwing a stun grenade at a cluster of six soldiers, then Barry arming a C1 at the middle of them as they were helpless; guards stepping one after the other on the mines around the bloodcat arena in Meduna and exploding so hard they opened a hole in a wall; militia dancing a victory dance around a cowering enemy without killing him.

I have some questions:

1: Not even once I found "radio equipment" for the Radio Operator skill. Were them disabled because I have reinforcements turned off, because I'm using the old inventory system, or something else?

2: Before playing the game, I heard people saying punching cows was the best way to train STR. It didn't really work for me. What's up with that?

3: Is there ANYONE Dynamo doesn't hate other than Shank? Bud told me he even wanted to quit because of the fucking robot. The robot was also thinking of quitting because of him.

4: Other than the creatures, did I miss anything by playing on Realistic?

5: Any suggestions on how to kill Deidranna? I think I'll start by tasing her then dropping a tear gas grenade nearby, then taking turns punching her with all my mercs, then finishing with a LAW.

6: How's Unfinished Business? What about Wildfire, or Urban Chaos? Any other mods or whatever I should look into?

7: Lastly, I was never into the zombie fad, but I know this would be the perfect game for survival zombie action. Are there any maps or mods that take advantage of the built-in zombie mode or otherwise?

>>2775041
The hotkeys that helped me the most were W for look, S, C, X and R for movement, shift+C for cover and shift+V for view. Also ', to open the inventory, which also has buttons for actions like in X-Com if you want.

>>2777021
The price for Elroy changed as he increased in experience levels. He started costing 250 per day, and now I'm paying over 1000. Is that because of 1.13?

>>2779583
>Is that because of 1.13?
Yes, because Elroy isn't even in the regular version of JA2.

>>2779616
I hired a lot of people from the first game without knowing. RIP Bob.

>>2779574

>I got some bugs during the game, including: Skyrider never refueling, Joey's mom not recognizing him or ending the quest even though he was right in front of her, crashes as enemies enter wilderness sectors in tactical view, and all items disappearing from a sector as I was moving people and items through it with the hummer. I was able to work around all of them, but they were still annoying.

>For some reason, the museum guard in Balime decided to attack me right after liberating the sector. I tried tasing and handcuffing him, but it didn't work, and retreating got me a crash. So I killed him by punching him in the legs with Shank. Also, Shank's parents didn't even recognize him, he doesn't want to attack them, and killing them lowers town loyalty. Is there anything I can do with them?

>1: Not even once I found "radio equipment" for the Radio Operator skill. Were them disabled because I have reinforcements turned off, because I'm using the old inventory system, or something else?

Collective answer: Those are 1.13 "features" that were not in the original game. The JA2 engine was not designed around people modding it. The people working on the 1.13 patch have been autistic about JA2 for over a decade and rarely receive outside criticism. This has lead to the patch bloating up considerably from mostly under the hood improvements and a bigger arsenal to trying to work a food system and zombies into an engine from 1999 that was never designed for it.

The entire "merc backstory" thing is another good example of what I am talking about.

The 2012 1.13 release is the best imo. It has the best mods that improve but do not drastically alter the gameplay.

>6: How's Unfinished Business? What about Wildfire, or Urban Chaos? Any other mods or whatever I should look into?

I have only played Wildfire out of that list but it is h-a-r-d as fuck. You can play 1.13 with the WF maps, which I personally like more than the originals.

>>2777456
Holy fuck man, all these years and I've never noticed it's a woman. Wouldn't fuck though, too skinny for me.

>>2780638
I always went full /k/ autist over the fact the gun she's holding isn't even in the base game.

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>>2780719
>not over the way she's holding the gun

>>2780741
eh, there are worse things than holding a SMG by its magazine. not many, but they exist.

Is it cool to ask a JA1 question in here? Figured I should ask instead of just doing so.

>>2780638
I've been wondering that for years, honestly. I'm still leaning towards it being a guy, though. Kind of looks like Gary Busey.

>>2780362
I was under the impression 1.13 was essentially a complete refactoring of the original C/assembly code into a more modern C++. But of course, if you keep adding stuff over the years without some code review, even that will end up being a bloated mess.

>>2779583
Dynamo likes Blood. And no, the real way to train STR to almost uselessly high levels is get to A-8, load up your mercs to an unreasonable point (300%), ordering them to go to A-7, and immediately cancel the travel. Do it a bunch of times, and you'll never need a dedicated packmule ever again.

>>2775041
Best starting mercs are Igor and Blood. Great agility, fast learners, can shoot, and get along well with most good mercs.

When hiring, the most important stats are Agility and Wisdom.

Agility means more AP in combat.

Wisdom affects how quickly mercs learn skills.

>>2781917
you shouldn't ignore dexterity though

Bull has not bad marksmanship, but shit dexterity
Ira has poor marksmanship but excellent dexterity
Ira will hit targets more often than Bull

>>2781923
Why not combine both Dex and Marksmanship then if they do the same thing?

>>2781956
>if they do the same thing
they don't, it's just that both apply to the same aspect (hitting targets)

dexterity is a more universal skill and used in many actions

>>2781978
Why have marksmanship at all then if Dex can cover this function and others? Seems redundant.

>>2782038
why have different skills at all when you can have just a single "skill" property for each merc?

>>2782060
Wut...

Nice strawman dude. I'm only saying that redundant skills are stupid. You should have as many skills as you want as long as they don't overlap.

>>2782075
it's a tactical RPG game, it's supposed to have at least some complexity

this game is clearly not for you if you cannot deal with some actions requiring multiple skills. perhaps The Sims will be more up your alley, since each activity there uses a single skill (if any)

>>2782075
>You should have as many skills as you want as long as they don't overlap.

That's dumb.

Besides, dexterity is a physical stat, marksmanship is a skill. Dexterity is used for a wide variety of actions. It'd be stupid if you could just max out dexterity and be a master surgeon, sniper and mechanic. You need to model both the characters physical ability to perform these tasks as well and their knowledge of the specific skill.

It's like the difference between having the endurance to run for a long time and being able to do parkour. The first is mostly innate and based on your physical fitness, the second you have to learn.

>>2782038
I believe the formula is an average of dex, wis, and marksmanship or something like that.

>>2782169
http://www.jagalaxy.com/index.php/faq/headrock-s-how-does-it-work/3008-chance-to-hit-cth-part-1-of-2.html

http://www.jagalaxy.com/index.php/faq/headrock-s-how-does-it-work/3009-chance-to-hit-cth-part-2-of-2.html

>>2781537
That method for training STR seemed so cheesy that I was sure they patched it on 1.13. It still works?

>>2782673
why would they?

it's not like 1.13 is balanced OOTB anyway