Jagged Alliance 2 basics?

[Eyestabber]

I'm gonna start playing JA 2 tonight (ty, codex), but I would appreciate if someone could give me some very basic pointers. Anyone knows some good reading material on this game's mechanics? Basic tips? Anything a person who never played JA 2 might find useful. Also: i'm using the latest 1.13 patch/mod. Thanks.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Just remember to look at your enemies (L key, then click on the enemy) to get best shots.
That's what I learned someday. Not that necessary in 1.13 though.

 

[sser]

Early game-ish spoiler

After taking Drassen, you better be ready for a massive counter-attack. This part of the game stonewalls most people right out of the gate.

 

[Severian Silk]

Early game-ish spoiler

After taking Drassen, you better be ready for a massive counter-attack. This part of the game stonewalls most people right out of the gate.

He should be playing vanilla first instead of 1.13. 1.13 messed up the game balance.

 

[spectre]

Yep, 1.13 is not the best place to start. Too easy to get overwhelmed
I'd start with Ja2 vanilla, RTFM, choose a balanced team (shooters, medic, repairman, talker), go have fun.

 

[Gregz]

There's always a risk that a person will only play a game once, in that case he should go ahead with 1.13 because it's such a universally excellent mod. One of the top 5 mods ever for any game imo.

The extra guns and gear alone is awesome.

I also really appreciated the XML file you can edit to do just about anything. I personally hate the idea of party banter and incompatible party members, so I turned that shit off in the XML file. Others love that shit. Regardless, it's nice to have that kind of flexibility available if you need it.

 

[SCO]

Look up a shortcut list. There are more than might be apparent, for instance, ALT allows you to strafe and shift drag shoot allows to burst fire more than one square... or something like that, i forget.

 

[Gregz]

Make sure you use the mousewheel when aiming too, I discovered that late on my first playthrough. Awesome feature.

 

[Severian Silk]

redacted

 

[spectre]

Way to go guys, throw key sheets, some of them cheat codes, at a guy who's about to pop his freaking cherry.
It should be special and we should make it feel special. Bad Codex, bad.

There's always a risk that a person will only play a game once,

Negro, please, we're talking JA2 here. You do not play this once (well, you may beat it start to finish just once, but that's tangent).

 

[Eyeball]

Once you get to the airport in Drassen, you will meet Pablo. You will want to take, say, 150$ out of your cash account and give it to Pablo.

Trust me on this.

Also, you will want to edit the INI file for 1.13 and disable the Drassen Counterattack. It is bullshit.

 

[Eyestabber]

Thx a lot guys. Some more questions:

- On the very first mission, is it better (for a newb) to pick fewer stronger guys or more not-so-strong guys?
- I kinda dislike shotguns. Are they really bad or am I missing something?
- Money management: is it a big thing or does it quickly get to the point where I'm swimming in cash and hiring the most expensive merc for the maximum allowed time on every mission?

 

[Bibbimbop]

Thx a lot guys. Some more questions:

- On the very first mission, is it better (for a newb) to pick fewer stronger guys or more not-so-strong guys?
- I kinda dislike shotguns. Are they really bad or am I missing something?
- Money management: is it a big thing or does it quickly get to the point where I'm swimming in cash and hiring the most expensive merc for the maximum allowed time on every mission?

Probably a decade since last play-through.

- Both. As I recall, Buns is good to develop over long contracts. Hitman. Grunty. However, for the first day, get a high-priced guy for the shortest period, maybe 24 hrs, and take his gear for your best longer-term recruit. That is, give Buns his rifle.
- I recall never using them. Must have underwhelmed me.
- I don't remember money as a problem, within reason, but I played with cheap characters trained up.

 

[spectre]

- On the very first mission, is it better (for a newb) to pick fewer stronger guys or more not-so-strong guys?

I guess you don't mean "strong" as in their strength stat.
You can go either way, nothing wrong with picking up two expensive mercs and a bunch of greenhorns, there are top dogs who will deliver top notch performance, and there a diamonds in the rough, ready to be discovered.
Just make sure you cover your bases - you will be needing at least two guys who can shoot straight (80+ marksmanship), a medic (good Dexterity, 60+ medical is enough - make sure you have at least one doctor's bag) and a talker guy with high leadership to train militia in a reasonable time.
Mechanics will be useful a bit later (at first you will use them to repair stuff that drops and for picking locks), a demolitions expert will be handy when you start seeing booby traps and mines, but is not immediately needed.

Apart from the above, nothing wrong with picking guys if you like their speaking mannerisms or thier bio, it's also part of the fun with JA2.
Remember that you can make your custom merc to fill a niche role.

Len (decent stats overall, good leadership), Wolf (strong, shoots well, repair guy) and Fox (poor shot but can be trained, good medic) is a nice, budget starter team, you can use the rest of your cash at your leisure.

- I kinda dislike shotguns. Are they really bad or am I missing something?

Don't think so, but never used shotguns much myself, I guess they can be ok early on when wielded by a shotgun expert. Unfortunately, the JA2 system ultimately favors high range precision fire and low AP shooting, which the shotgun doesn't do.
And knives, smg and dual pistols always seemed much better for cqb, if only because they can be silenced.
You can load different types of buckshot and break down doors with them though, so they have some added utility.

- Money management: is it a big thing or does it quickly get to the point where I'm swimming in cash and hiring the most expensive merc for the maximum allowed time on every mission?

That's a pretty complex question. You will get money by liberating towns and getting on their good side,that's likely to be your main source of stable income for the most of the game.
It's also possible to do side quests and sell stuff to stores when you need a quick buck.
If you use the "enemies drop all weapons" in 1.13, it's possible to be swimming in cash and items very fast.

Once you liberate 3+ towns, put all your mercs on 2 week contracts, you might find that your money problems are more or less sold, but this depends on your playstyle and if you're careful with money. It's possible to blow lots of cash on expensive stuff or play the miser, counting every bullet.

If you want an all star team of top mercs, it'll put a dent on your funds quick enough.
It's quite possible to use cheap mercs and train them up in the field. There's a certain satisfaction when Flo actually starts getting kills.
For equipment, you can get by with buying used guns cheap and repaiing them, then there's the question of what ammo you use, it's fine to use whatever your enemy drops, or you can pay regular visits to the gunstore to buy high quality match rounds.

 

[spectre]

Some tips on stats to get you going:
Merc stats are divided into Physical Stats and Skills. They also have a specialization which more or less serves as a guideline on what role they are most useful in.
I'm a bit rusty on specializations, cause I remember 1.13 dicked around with it a bit, but for stats the rule of thumb is as follows:

70 in a stat is generally ok, anything lower than that and you'll see a noticeable drop in performance. 80-90 is the sweet spot and 90+ is nice to have, but you will be paying extra here.
Same goes for experience, exp level adds a little bit of oomph to everything a merc does, most importantly the chance to interrupt the opponent.
It's nice to have veterans on your team, but eventually you will earn them by fighting, so don't fret too much over this, as it really drives the price up.

It's best to look at the physical stats first:

Strength is arguably the least important, but you don't really want less than 60-something, otherwise the guy will get exhausted by all the vests and guns and things.
It's nice to have one strong guy to bash down doors with or to act as a mule.

Agility influences movement, actions points, melee combat, shooting, throwing all all that (it's more complex than this, cause JA uses pretty complex calculations for most of the stuff happening around, but it seems to be governed by common sense).
It's arguably one of the most important stats, especially for guys who will be seeing action.

Dexterity is mostly used for applying skills - explosives, medical, mechanical, so it's important for guys who'll be using these skills a lot. iirc it's also used when shooting

Wisdom affects learning speed which is nice to have. Usually low exp high Wis mercs are the diamonds in the rough waiting to be discovered,
however if his other stats are crap, you will be spending more time than it's reasonable just bringing him up to usable status.

Health - from what I remember, this was one of the hardest stats to raise. You need your guys reasonably healthy so that they can take a few grazing shots without bleeding out, so anything lower than 60 is a disaster waiting to happen.

Good physical stats are important, cause they generally are much more difficult to improve than skills.
After a few battles, a 60 Marksmanshop guy (with decent Wisdom) can up the skill to 70 which is not great, but becomes an okay value to work with, whereas if you start with 60 Agility, it will take ages to improve to a more reasonable level.


Next come the Skills which work inconjunction with the Stats and directly influence your effectiveness in succeeding.

Medical - used with doctor's bags and first aid kits. While regular first aid to stop the bleeding doesn't need a lot of skill (even 20 skill guys can do this), you will want one guy who's good at it for emergencies,
like when someone gets seriously wounded or the whole team got shot up and you need them up and running in reasonable time.

Explosives - used to set/disarm traps, mines, blowing down doors and walls. Good fun for the whole family, but not terribly useful at the beginning.
You will want one guy that's very good at it. There are plenty of specialists available, so just take your pick.

Mechanical - mostly used for repairs and lockpicking. Also tested when you want to craft stuff and fiddle with attachments. Your equipment will wear out with use, and some of the good stuff you'll be picking up can be in poor condition.
One guy with ~60 mechanical should be enough for most of your needs

Marksmanship - pretty much self explanatory. Some see it as the most important stat in the game, and it's hard to argue with that. On the other hand, you will be doing a lot of shooting in this game, so it'll be going up pretty fast.
You want your main combat guys with plenty or Mrk, but don't obsess over it.

Leadership - main application is training militia (and other mercs). Good leadership means they will be up and running in no time, which is useful when you had just liberated a big town and neet to fortify it asap.
It's also used in some quests, low leadership guys can sometimes have trouble getting the shopkeeper to sell them things. Have one guy to act as your "talker" for such occassions.


Putting it all together is a nice challenge, but you should get the hang of it in time. Read the bios as they often give hints about the character's likes and dislikes (it can be a big thing in JA2)
Look at the character traits and specializatons, sometimes a "useless" merc can become extremely fun to use with a bit of spit and polish.
JA2 offers quite a bunch of ways of playing, sniping baddies from long range, showring them with machinegun fire, silent kills at night with knives and silenced weapons, beating enemies up and stealing their guns, be sure to check them all.

 

[KoolNoodles]

I usually make my avatar into a godless killing machine able to crush men like ants(Night Ops, Stealth, high Wisdom, decent Marksmanship, Expert Automatic Weapons, sometimes Ambidextrous, etc. etc.), and buy him all the best gear I can get, and then recruit the shittiest dirtbag crew of lowlifes I can afford with the spare change. It's a lot of fun, try it out.

 

[spectre]

And psycho, let's not forget psycho.
Unless someone had the bright idea to fix it and the flat CtH bonus is no longer there.

 

[Nutmeg]

Eyestabber,

First, stop playing 1.13. It's a terrible user experience today. NCTH and NIS add tactically and strategically meaningless complexity (the think to click ratio plummets in 1.13), and everything is half implemented or buggy. There's also some really cringeworthy stuff like the "racism and sexism" system.

I recommend using Stracciatella.

Here's how I recommend you approach the beginning of the game:

To begin with, hire a merc with a long range weapon, good physical stats and marksmanship (Shadow, Magic) and a merc with decent leadership and physical stats (Scully, Stephen, Len) on one day contracts with equipment. Also hire Dr. Q with no equipment, also on a one day contract.

Do *not* make an IMP (yet), do *not* hire bottom tier mercs (unless you enjoy grinding).

Obviously, the first order of business to clear out Omerta, talk to Fatima, and hire Ira. Give Dr. Q Ira's armor, medkit and a canteen or energy booster (if available).

Now, take Dr. Q to San Mona and do the leather store quest for $10,000. Use this easily earned cash, in combination with Dr. Q's martial arts skill, to make another $15,000 at Darren Van Hausen's fight club. This also earns you an audience with Kingpin, who you should pay a visit (he gives you a quest, and more importantly, summons $20,000 on his person). As the leather store owner told you after you rescued his sister, there's $30,000 begging to be stolen in the abandoned mine, so do that. You could stop here, but there's more fun to be had. Get Dr. Q to beat up Billy at the Shady Lady, and take his Mini-14; kill the proprietor of that den of iniquity for another $1,000 or so and camp in that corner sniping or beating up any adversaries. With care in your tactics, the sector should be clear of henchmen quickly and you should have some nice lower mid-tier loot. Next on the agenda is Mr. Van Hausen; the idea here is to close the door to the club, and surprise karate attack him. As soon as he's unconscious take cover underneath the bar table and finish him off with your Mini-14. AFAICT, this is very heavy cover, and it's highly unlikely the enemy can hit you firing from the entrance door (but you should be able to hit them). After a long, boring and drawn out firefight you should be victorious and another $25,000 richer. Now proceed with care to take out the rest of the sector, noting that enemies camped in buildings face a certain way and you can surprise them from behind shooting through the windows. Hollow point ammo shots to the head work well on Kingpin's men. Killing Kingpin himself will earn you a nice Steyr Aug and your final $20,000.

IMO the entirety of San Mona should not have been included in the game, because it's just a free $100,000. There is no real strategic trade off (just the $1,500 opportunity cost of hiring Dr. Q).

In the meantime, your other squad should have taken Drassen. Leave Ira behind to train militia at Drassen mine, and continue to Skyrider (a woman in C13 will give you a hint as to where he is) and the SAM site (D15).

You will want to make some strategic choices at this point. Extend the contract of anyone you like to a week and hire some fresh talent. Good additions to your main squad are Ivan, Raven and Lynx. Cheap teachers (Fox, Hitman, Wolf, Stephen (the latter two are good enough to be main squad guys)) are also a priority . You will be taking at least two strategically important locations (mines, SAMs) a day, so you need to get good instructors in there to defend them. To this end, make an IMP with 85 leadership and expert teaching (IMPs are not suited for combat roles unless you want to grind).

To finish off Day 1. Dr. Q should be able to take the D2 SAM site and Chitzena with ease (thanks to his newly acquired Steyr AUG).

AFAICT, any other way to start the game is a self imposed handicap (at best) and "roleplaying" (at worst).

On day 2 you should concentrate on taking Alma and Cambria, priming yourself for an assault on Grumm on day 3.

 

[spectre]

The San Mona trick is a bit too "gamey" for my tastes. I wouldn't recommend it for a first timer.
Also, I think you need another char to go with Dr Q, cause his Leadership might be too low to get into the club, but it's been some time since I last done that.

On the other hand, a first timer might want to know about the rather inconspicuous gun store in san mona. It's in the XXX store, but you will have to remove the dyke first (violent or non-violent is both a valid proposition).

 

[Eyestabber]

So...killed every baddie in Omerta. Now what? That Fatima woman is the only NPC I found, but she doesn't say anything useful (and shooting her in the face seems to be a bad thing. Damn it!).

Also, why is the UI so fucking bad? 99% of the game's functions are hidden with no clue as to what they do. And don't give me that "herp derp, it's an old game, deal with it" bullshit, Xcom is older and had a more intuitive UI. JA 2 seems to deliberately hide stuff from the player for no good reason.

And wtf are those symbols on the left and right top corner of the gun Icon? If I press "." the top left symbol changes from a crosshair to an eye, and AP costs change a bit. But I have no idea what any of that does.

Yeah, and Ivan kicks ass. Finally I found a guy whose shots actually fucking hit.

 

[Sykar]

My favourite starting team:

Fox, Steroid, Grunty, Igor. Decent well balanced team. After this I usually try to get either Stephen or Raider asap.

 

[spectre]

So...killed every baddie in Omerta. Now what? That Fatima woman is the only NPC I found, but she doesn't say anything useful (and shooting her in the face seems to be a bad thing. Damn it!).

Give her the letter you got. Give option in the dialogue or click her with it.

And wtf are those symbols on the left and right top corner of the gun Icon? If I press "." the top left symbol changes from a crosshair to an eye, and AP costs change a bit. But I have no idea what any of that does.

That's 1.13 for you. Lots of undocumented shit with no apparent function. Don't say you haven't been warned.

 

[Eyestabber]

But 1.13 brought a lot of new items and interesting stuff...

Well, maybe vanilla provides a better newb experience?

 

[spectre]

Choices and consequences, faggot (;

 

[Eyestabber]

OK, reinstalled it with Straticcella (from here: http://www.moddb.com/mods/ja2-stracciatella/tutorials/installing-ja2-stracciatella-under-windows-eng)

Am I doing this right...?