Completed Lets Play the latest Jagged Alliance 2 1.13

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Seems the unnamed posters are just "random", suitable images, as one is an aerial shot of a jungle/beach and so on.

Same.
Didn't have the dedication to wait till nightfall but I was totally proud when I found the secret monster lair level.
The best demo ever. Cool mercs, good equipment and pretty optimal difficulty level.

Iirc the projected full version still took like one or two years because of debugging, yet when it was released was still so buggy that it crashed every five minutes. Sir-Tech really had a thing for practical jokes.

UPDATE TIME, WAKE UP

AI in 1.13 is fucked up. Start up JA2 1.12 or old builds of 1.13 (2085 seems to be pre-decline) and compare it to the newer releases. In older versions, enemies actually try to shoot you when they see you. In new 1.13 builds they tend to shoot your mercs much less often.

I have a big respect for the 1.13 team, but they seem to have the same problem Dwarf Fortress guy has. They kinda overlook the big picture while implementing lots of "features", most of which are pointless anyway. And nobody seems to notice that the AI is brain dead in each build since 2009 or so.

They are currently working on new AI, aren't they? I seem to remember hearing about it.

And even now it sometimes works well - I just got surrounded and pounded while advancing too quickly to take Drassen airport.

Some AI tweaks are present in HAM 5 if I recall correctly. Still, currently 1.13 is too bloated for me. Nowadays I prefer 1.12 or 1.13.2085 with XML modifications done by myself.

yeah, it's become pretty bad in recent versions. Personally, i alternate between a mod based on 1.13 and one based on custom source code etc. and there's a world of difference when it comes to the AI. Some AI decision taking seems badly broken in 1.13

I think that it has something to do with HAM... Release 2085 is HAM-free and has AI working in order, release 3111 seems broken and already has HAM integrated. Also, I'm not a big fan of NCTH, NIV and some other new features.

Which "custom source" mod? I'd happily try something new.

I got so used with these new features I don't feel like trying older versions. I hope newer versions can improve on bullshit AI although the situations involving overwhelming enemy numbers make the stupidity a blessing in disguise because otherwise lame exploits like sneaking in, killing a handful, retreating ad nauseaum would be almost mandatory.

NCTH is full of WTF. It is impossible to hit anything with a rifle in its effective range without a scope and it seems the AI either cheats around it or attachments roll separatedly in the 50% odd of drop from the guns they are attached into.


============



Breaking the Prison of Tixa



After a stopover at Drassen to pick a Bobby Ray's Shipment, the team is dropped as far as Skyrider can without getting his helicopter blown up and through the powers of metagaming cheapness that is lamely justified due to the total lack of any in-game hint of how to get such an alternate means of transport, they head towards the unknown known.



Along the way, Cleve warns them that the Drassen mine is running out because obviously Neanderthal miners are so more effective than manboons they can extract all ore from a mine much faster than the Kwanstains. With such source of income doomed to deplete soon, they cannot waste much time. After the victims of Tixa are freed and Orta cleared, they must head quickly to Meduna lest the funding runs dry and forces them to delay the plan by seizing control of another enemy mine.



Then along the way, they get in the crossfire between puddycats and Deidranna redshirts. Rapidly they react.



Orgasm slices one of the creatures before it could threaten them. Unfortunately, by doing so she exposes herself to enemy snipers, is this the end?














By pure luck, it didn't kill her, but she now lies on the verge of death. Azira must tend her soon or she will die.



The rest of the team does their best to eliminate all the threats.



They prioritize the redshirts as the puddycats will as likely attack them as they will attack the Kodex Kool Krew.



Slowly their threat diminishes, but they remain numberful. Legions advance together and start to get dangerously close. Their overwhelming numbers could lead to the doom of the team.



Nails fortunately had one powerful weapon of



The Avatar of Decline thus unleashed could bring the solution to such threat. The FN SCAR of all Modern Gayfares has the best underbarrel grenade launcher.

Do you know why?

That is so obvious, because when in a popamole shit you can carry only two weapons no matter what, you can't have the luxury of packing a grenade launcher and an assault rifle separatedly and thus an AWESOME grenade launcher already attached to a rifle speeds up POPAMOLE and is of essence to such a symbol of shit consoletard FPSes and popamoles as the FN SCAR!







Nails was even behind the cover of a bush when he did it, truly honoring the legacy of the FN SCAR.



And as the number of moles increased, another grenade, this time of tear gas, went into the moles to pop them down again.

And I forgot to mention Bee also had luck just like Orgasm did. With the chaos of the tear gas the enemies dispersed and became easy targets for the Kodex Kool Krew behind cover.



And along the slaughter, Black's new weapon proved its usefulness. the HEZI SM-1 is essentially a modern version of the venerable M-1 Garand. By its own its particularly unimpressive. Some SMGs have similar effective range except they can't be fitted with 4x scopes and the vast array of improvements this weapon supports, including most importantly support for being adapted with a 3-round burst mode, that funnily, due to the internal action of this particular weapon, functions similarly to the G11 and AN-94 burst modes: all bullets fired under such burst are almost totally guaranteed to hit the same place under a skilled marksman. Combined with the natural skill of Black with such types of rifles, it proved superior so far in his hand compared to conventional ARs.

http://www.securityarms.com/20010315/galleryfiles/2800/2803.htm

And of course, like the TAR-21 and WTC, guess who did this rifle?



The battle continues, but the enemy forces were already broken.



Although many got seriously wounded, another victory too. And lots of loot. A car trunk would be very useful right now, and that is why they are going somewhere else than Tixa. Due to the awareness a mine will soon dry out, and the danger of new patrols on that road, they decide to risk getting there wounded.



To make things even better, it's raining which means the engagement will be deadly and very dangerous.



Thus they take advantage of eliminating as many enemies as possible in the most silent way while they can.

They get closer to that place that looks like some long derelict gas station, always very carefully. Surprising the enemies they begin their attack.



But the enemies also surprise them, a suppression fire could have easily killed one of them if they made any wrong move. Having spotted the source of the firing, Nails has an idea.



Even without a visual, he fires a tear gas grenade there, neutralizing the machinegunner.



Other foes get dangerously close, only to be mutilated by a fragmentation grenade Orgasm threw.



This was one of the most tense battles they ever fought, but at last the area is clear.



The owner of the place, a bold and enterprising Kwa who went there back when Arulco was a touristic hot spot, has a car for sale. He's probably both desperate because nobody else will want to buy it considering the situation of Arulco, and being generous for his own benefit as he knows that if the mercenaries put Deirdranna in her place his business will flourish again. He asks for them to wait a day while he makes some adjustments to get the car ready for use. Azira decides to heal everyone while they wait.



Meanwhile, mobile militias achieve another victory, but at a cost. It has been decided to not replenish their losses due to their high upkeep costs being a hindrance, specially now that the Drassen mine is running out.

Eventually the car is ready, and everyone is also healed. Unfortunately they discover that if they go through the way the car can cross they will have to fight 30 soldiers before even reaching Tixa. Thus they take a detour on foot to get straight to their goal.



After enduring the desert heat and coldness, at night, they arrive. Ahead they spot a small house separated from the main compound. Someone must live there, obviously, Perhaps it's the home of someone who works in this place, and thus naturally worth checking out.

Sneaking in the small house they find some kids and a disgruntled man. The man introduces himself as the husband of the prison warden, and tells them she is as much of a bitch as Deidranna, if not more and that he married her just for the cash. More importantly, he gives the key to her office so they can get inside the prison through the back entrance, and mentions something on how the sociopathic bitch installed an AWESOME BUTTON that unleashes tear gas all over the prison, and more importantly:



He gives a very useful hint to help wiping out the guards inside the compound. Those outside of course won't be affected.

Instead of trying to get in the office through the well lit path, they get back through the hole in the grate and move northeast, to sneak through a less well lit area.



Ulminati carefully observes the movement of enemy patrols, measuring a possible opportunity to sneak in. After some minutes the team quietly sneak and stick to the walls, when finally Ulminati unlocks the office door, taking the warden by surprise as he throws a stun grenade at her.



Bitches gonna bitch.

But another enemy inside hits Ulminati, while the team rushes to defend him, a short engagement happens where they are neutralized, but by now it's a matter of time before more of them come.



Even wounded, Ulminati reaches the AWESOME BUTTON and turns it on. As he ditched his gas mask not expecting to use it much as a sniper and having more useful things to store than it, he would stay in the office, with the entrance door closed, and guard it against enemies getting in until the tear gas ran out.



Azira gives the killing blow to the sociopathic bitch.



Another one tries to take them but is surprised before he could even try. Ulminati warily watches the office's door while Azira tends to his wounds.



They position themselves close to the windows so they can take down enemies on the outside from an advantageous location. Nails tensely picks the lock to the northern door while Orgasm standsnext to him ready to engage whatever is on the other side.



For strange reasons, perhaps related to the not so good condition of her gas mask, Bee suddenly falls to the ground. Meanwhile Nails finally opens the door, and an enemy is right there. Black worrily realizes how easily he could be overwhelmed but does not give up.



He pops someone's head off as the start of a glorious reaction that inflicts many casualties.



Both him and Orgasm take positions near the grated windows to engage outside threats. With the gas dissipated, Ulminati also gets on the main corridor and prepares to engage any enemies at the southern windows.



One of them opens the door to the office. It was the last action he did while his head was still attached to his neck. The battle rages on violently and the Kodex Kool Krew wisely refuses to come out of their advantageous position.



Considering the number of enemies showing up it was already obvious. Perhaps it would have been wiser to have engaged the 30 redshirts on the road to Tixa separatedly, but now it's done Besides this would not be the first time they had to face overwhelming numbers.

They shift positions: Nails and Bee will head to the southern windows to engage enemies on the outside. Azira and Ulminati will take down enemies coming from the north and from the office respectively while Orgasm and Black watch their west.



Nails unleashes a devastating burst, taking down two enemies at once.



Bee adds another one to the increasingly masssive piles of corpses outside.



Many enemies show off at near point-blank range, but fortunately redshirts lack the accurate reflexes of an EXTREME BIKER SHEPARD veteran of the Great Nordic Biker Wars so manly EXTREME he refuses to wear body armor and of a Crooked Bee that enjoys sniping crotches.



The SM-1 proves to be a mighty weapon in Black's hands, taking down many of the enemy forces. Sometimes even one shot only suffices while from longer ranges where certain headshots are difficult the accurate bursts pierce through body armor like butter even in the .30 caliber.



Courtesy of the modern child of the most common weapon in D-Day and of an awesome Ranger like those Texas Rangers from that movie starring that man whose facts are so beaten like a dead horse they don't deserve further mention.

Eventually they give up coming to the team. Azira cautiously crawls near one of the northwest windows to see if he could spot more of them.



He does.



Twice.





And after that one had his head surgically removed with a burst of 5.56mm rounds, the rest although dangerous were few, and carefully the team hunted and wiped them out.



When the sounds of battle ended and the Mercenaries made their one-liners about the defeated enemies, a cheer echoed through the west. Nails went there and unlocked all cells. Azira then spoke loudly on how they should head east to Alma, where they would find safety and freedom, and on how even if they died in the desert along the journey, it was still better than to stay in such hellhole, but most important of all, he found the man they came here to rescue.



Battered and with clear signs of the unspekable tortures he suffered under such hellish prison, as obviously pointed out by the large amounts of bloodied shackles on walls, of which one had a disturbingly decapitated hand still attached to it, the man couldn't believe. Dynamo although lacking in cybernetic augmentations was still, in spirit, a fellow Cybernegro.



No surprise he is so good at fixing electronics.



Azira tells him that they can't really risk staying in this place as it is, after all, they know there are even deeper basements of greater horrors than what the surface shows, of true Rooms 101. The entrance to this prison would deserve being inscribed with the infamous "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" or with the even more infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei".



Looks like what is happening in Syria times grimdark.



I mean, times over 9000 grimdark. This place must be pretty much a Hell on Earth if Dynamo isn't making it up. Although the mutilated hand and arm stump in a shackle and the amount of blood in the walls says a lot already. Not surprisingly, the Cybernegro is willing to join the team for a small price of $50 per day. Although Azira expected he to be willing to work for free against Deirdranna, he felt pity for such poor victim of utmost tyranny. Dynamo would wait for them as he got some gear from the dead enemies, an OICW integrated assault rifle and grenade launcher, full body armor, some grenades, some ammo and a tool kit, and he went outside to train a bit his currently poor marksmanship skills, while Azira explained they couldn't just left behind those deeper in the even more hellish sublevels of this prison.




Downstairs was dark and brooding. They decided to press on as they knew time was of essence for everything. They would descend into the deepest pits of this Hell called Tixa, and in the beginning of these stairs going down they could probably imagine the message even more clearer:

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"

What they found beneath Tixa will be a tale for another update.

Besides after it it'll be only Orta and then Meduna itself.

Is slinky-mode on? Cuz I forgot.

cool update. As for the "awesome" button, did it help much? For me, whenever i tried to use the tear gas on the Tixa garrison, it was kinda meh. If there's many enemies, usually most of them will long be up on their feet again until we reach them. How long lasts the tear gas, as few turns? So that "genius trap them with their own traps" thing in Tixa, i prefer not to activate the gas at all because that speeds things up.

as for NCTH, i tried that once because i didn't initally spot the new button to switch it off. I had read the design discussions and had anticpated from these discussions that it couldn't possibly work out well out of the box. Some modders are trying to balance it, though, hope they succeed. My own approach was to use OCTH in much mire varied ways than what is the default, and i have to say, there's tons of interesting options under OCTH to reduce the headshot-game issues commonly attributed to OCTH.

I often suspect HAM to be a premier bug-spawning pot, too, and some of the AI fuck-ups are clearly because of HAM, but i think some changes are simply a reaction towards other features in an attempt to balance things out, so shit AI is probably often a feature rather than a bug :/
What i saw way too often recently is the AI completely forfaiting their chance at firing at my mercs. raise their gun... and then do nothing, even if the had all the AP's needed for at least one shot. Sometimes, another enemy would rush at my merc who had been spotted and my merc gets an interrupt, killing both guys, the rusher and the undecided guy. Also, shooting to rarely, looking for cover even in the shortest distance, even with hit with a grenade... i mean yeah, AI, you're really smart to cover behind that impenetrable tree 10 tiles away from my mercs, but guess what, i have grenades and i'll kick you out of that cover. So what does he do in his turn? get back up and, yes, behind the same tree once more. Rinse repeat. Also, last guy crictially wounded and fleeing the battlefield has become annoying lately. Might be realistic, but it's not really offering much gameplaywise.

andrzej

These two are private mod projects for now, though an early version of the "custom source code" based mod was published at some point. If you don't mind playing with a weird russian-badenglish exe, i can give them links
it's basicly my old RR mod based on the russian ja2005 mod. I mentioned that mod because the AI is almost the complete opposite of the 1.13 AI, it fires extremely aggressivly, aims its long autofire bursts and only rarely leaves its defensive positions. So it has flaws of its own, especially the massive autofire bursts are a little annoying (it's always the last bullet in a volley that hits, always...) So basicly, i have two "opposing" AI issues, 1.13's sheep-herd-AI versus Ja2005's machinegun-campers. A mixture of the two would be what i'd probably like to see in Ja2

Good going... final stretch~!!

That really was a close one. Well done sir!

Same here. New AI tends to run around like chikens instead of doing anything.

I'd happily try this mod. I don't care about bad translation.

i just noticed the public version used to be on megaupload

so i'll go fetch the links for the private version and send you a PM.

Is there a way to edit a trait in the game (i.e. Hand to Hand) so that it more off more bonuses?

I want to play the game with 1 overpowered character who excels at everything.

Damn OP is lazier than bethesda developers.

Nice

That pic doesn't make a lot of sense.

If you want to pay me a regular welfare check so I can dedicate most of my time fully to LPing without worrying myself with RL matters go right ahead. I'll e-mail details. Won't accept less than $ 2,500 per month.

Why not get into kickstarter?

That's an awesome idea.

Blah blah blah. Now make with the killing. Nobody here is going to live forever.

sup prosper

I'll get this back on track in 2 or 3 weeks

*edit: to mods, leave that prosper post above plz I want my thread bumped