What kind of country could a Jagged Alliance 4 be set in?

[deuxhero]

If there is a Jagged Alliance 4, what kind of fictional country do you think the best place to set it? JA1 was a Pacific island, Deadly Games was around the world, JA2 was a South American junta, UB was a more developed South American saber rattler, JA3 is an African country taken over by warlords.

The obvious regions I can think of meeting the requirements for "total war", "in area you could stick a new country without breaking everything", and "not somewhere an established neighbor would slap any major unrest" are an Eastern-European (+Yugoslavia) former communist, Middle East, and Southeast Asia (+maybe Inner Asia).

I think Middle East is super touchy, and early 2000s are a bit late for eastern Europe to be totally unstable. Southeast Asia would lend itself to fun arsenal picks without crazy cartridge variety. The Chinese converted all sorts of whacky stuff to 7.62x39, including AK fed Bren guns, single shot Arisaka conversion (with some further modified to make the magazine work). Would be easy enough to explain obsolete Chinese guns in the area (bought up as surplus/given away for communist/failed invasion ala Sino-Vietnamese war). It's also the kind of area US would dump old stuff for (counter-)revolutionaries. Some kind of cooled-down-but-not-settled civil war that was used as a proxy war has reignited?

 

[Sweeper]

The Balkans.

 

[Cologno]

Southern California.

 

[Ghulgothas]

Feels like there's no escaping the eminence of the Banana Republic for all squad-tactics descended from JA, even JA3 couldn't get wholly away from it but there it was constrained to it's tutorial island. Shame too, there's plenty of inspiration to draw from modern armed conflicts in the past 50 years.

Apart from above, one set a Central American/Colombian pastiche cribbing from assorted Drug Wars could be interesting. Having the opposing force be an expansive and overmilitarized Cartel would be fresh. Crossfire toyed with somewhere in Southern Asia, maybe somewhere more vaguely Cambodian or Thai; something that feels like Burma did in Commandos 2.

Unironically, you could take some notes from the modern Far Crys, Ubisoft Tower-Centric design doctrine notwithstanding. They've got the creation of culturally-themed Ruritanias built for the express purpose of being conquered down-pat.

And I guess here's where we spitball about dream settings if the IP hasn't been totally lost in the Embracer Dissolution & THQ Nordic's reshuffling. JA3 Expansion maybe never ever.

 

[Haba]

Iceland, of course.

 

[tomphonse]

Ukraine

 

[thesheeep]

The Moon

 

[Johannes]

Bottom of the ocean. Jagged Alliance: Terror from the Deep.

 

[Reinhardt]

london. start with plastic spoons and upgrade to machete bike gang by end game.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

The Balkans in the '90ies

 

[mondblut]

russia in 5 years

 

[Luka-boy]

Black Lagoon makes me think a SE Asia setting would work really well for Jagged Alliance and its cast.

 

[Ryzer]

France

 

[destinae vomitus]

A made-up SE Asia country with a reintroduction of swimming + vehicles (namely boats) to go with it.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Southeast Asia would be my bet. I always thought it would be cool to have a JA game in an arctic setting. Maybe some insurgency in the north of North America, or a fictional country near a mountain range like the Urals or the Andes. I think there's a lot of fun you can have with that, both from a story and gameplay perspective. Introduce some light survival mechanics or something. Unfinished Business sort of teased it with the visuals a bit, but nothing more.

 

[udm]

A made-up SE Asia country with a reintroduction of swimming + vehicles (namely boats) to go with it.

Not-Myanmar would be pretty cool. It's a country ruthlessly usurped by the junta, with the former Prime Minister having been unlawfully arrested. Rebels have been hiding away in various villages striking back where they can. It's also got a lot of cool localities like temples and rivers for conducting ambushes.

 

[Grokalibre]

Ibiza

 

[Johannes]

Southeast Asia would be my bet. I always thought it would be cool to have a JA game in an arctic setting. Maybe some insurgency in the north of North America, or a fictional country near a mountain range like the Urals or the Andes. I think there's a lot of fun you can have with that, both from a story and gameplay perspective. Introduce some light survival mechanics or something. Unfinished Business sort of teased it with the visuals a bit, but nothing more.

Antarctica, with some sort of JA1 like scenario where ppl mine unobtanium there.

Always felt JA2 was too big in scope with fighting an entire (micro)nation, incongruent that you'd do that with a mercenary company of a dozen guys.

 

[Alienman]

Yeah, snowy woody environments would be cool. Thinking maybe Alaska, fighting a corrupt oil company or something like that. Hired by locals, as they have been bullied for years by the company with the state ignoring the issue. Sounds a bit like a Steven Seagal movie perhaps but I think it could be fun.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Yeah, snowy woody environments would be cool. Thinking maybe Alaska, fighting a corrupt oil company or something like that. Hired by locals, as they have been bullied for years by the company with the state ignoring the issue. Sounds a bit like a Steven Seagal movie perhaps but I think it could be fun.

Jagged Alliance 4: True Detective S04

 

[RobotSquirrel]

North Korea. As the game progresses they get better technology. You start off fighting late 80s tech, by the end of game you're fighting modern equipment they bought from China.

 

[anvi]

UK is already like that.

 

[Fargus]

JA3 was set in early 2000s. If people want to see most of the old merc roster devs can set it one year after in some fictional sand nigger country.

 

[ropetight]

Haiti.

 

[zool]

South Africa in a civil war in the 80s/90s would be cool. Not an African tinpot dictatorship but a relatively modern country in an African setting with an apartheid-like situation, mercenaries and factions all around and guns, lots of guns.

Would be cool to find Blood fighting with the ANC on one side and Cliff with the whiteys on the other side.