Jagged Alliance fans?

Hey guys,

Anyone else a fan of Jagged Alliance? JA: Back in Action is out on steam. Just a couple of things if you are a fan of the series, but are unsure of this game.

It's basically JA2, but remade in "3D" vs the cartoony 2D of the beloved orginals. and when i say basically a remake -- i mean it's totally JA2, but with some tweaks. You don't get to use IMP to create your own merc (/sadface), but pretty much all the mercs are back. The guns are slightly different, but you don't get to make your own gear (beer can + string = alarm). So they removed two of the "fun" systems from the older games.

Oh and it's not exactly turnbased any more. Instead it uses a hybrid real-time/pause mechanic which I actually like. No more waiting on a merc to get the AP's to run across the Map. now you can click+drag the team, have them run to the spot, pause it, and give them orders when they arrive, and even have them do sync shooting...it's actually pretty sweet once you get the hang of it.

No multiplayer either. which is sorta understandable. No FoW + pausing games for commands + large maps makes sneak attacks pretty easy to spot. All-in-all, I'm having a blast playing it. Definately got the nestagia factor for me, but with newer game play mechanics to bring it up to speed. I really dig the way LoS works with Cover and how the "sound" mechanic works too. Got a loud ass merc? Great! sounds like plan disctraction man is in effect!

The game still has a lot of the trademark humor too, so i like that. Although, i remember that JA2 had a lot more "fluff text" for stuff. Also, I miss the hell outta those 2D character portraits, they look a lot better than the 3D models upclose...but the models update when you get them gear like sunglasses and what not.

If you're a huge fan of the series, I'd pick it up and take a walk down memory lane. If you haven't played it before, wait for the Steam sale to get it, if you're a fan of "tactical 3rd person (god view, not shoulder view) squad shooters" -- think Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, but much better.

Oh, and for you resource management fans, you still get to capture parts of the map that generate income so you can turn around and buy better gear/mercs.

i think the term you are looking for ir "Isometric view"

i cant figure out how to play the original i guess i missed that wave

I loved JA2 - does it have the same storyline? I wished it had a little more roleplay at times like Fallout 1&2 did or Diablo, but you could overthrow a small south american country and get PAID - who doesn't want to do that? Many a RPG I ran had some strong roots in the JA2 storyline, which seemed to me equal parts 7 Samurai and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

I really got into buying/ selling guns when I played JA2 - so made me feel like a real merc, lol.

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Originally Posted by Eusebius Rex

I loved JA2 - does it have the same storyline? I wished it had a little more roleplay at times like Fallout 1&2 did or Diablo, but you could overthrow a small south american country and get PAID - who doesn't want to do that? Many a RPG I ran had some strong roots in the JA2 storyline, which seemed to me equal parts 7 Samurai and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

I really got into buying/ selling guns when I played JA2 - so made me feel like a real merc, lol.

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It's the exact same story. It's the same country, same dictator, and same diposed ruler asking for your help. They did remove the "cut scenes" when Dieranna's henchman would give a "status update" and get slapped. poor guy was beat to a pulp cause of me...but that's what he gets!

They changed around a few things like i mentioned. It is a bit more time consuming to get your gun trade going, you'll probably hire 1-2 mercs (or use Ira cause she's a throw away, but fast) to shuttle guns back and forth. Also, I found that Blood is a really good merc to move goods around with. because of some other factors. But the best advice I can give is USE CRATES! just about every map has a crate of some time. Gather up all the useful crap from the map, dump it in the crate. and move on. There is no quick loot map option like in JA2 (a feature i would love to have back). Centralizing a storage dump greatly reduces the amount of time you'll spend trying to find where you stashed that thing you needed. trust me. The game is so new that I haven't found a good site with a break down of what is where on the world map yet.

But how do you avoid the over-exaggerated travel times? Here is how!
1) when your mercs enter a "map level" time basically stops moving. weird, i know. But say world time is "12:01 am" and you enter a map. for as long as you're zoomed in to that level, world time is 12:01am.
2) Maps are huge and represent more area on the "world map" than the green "zone" that the level map looks like. This means...
3) have a merc enter a zone. Run them across the zone. You just shaved off 2 hours of travel time.

Blood is a great merc at this because he doesn't loose a lot of stamina running and he can easily carry 3 guns (the max a merc can carry in their inventory) and a crap load of gear.

But using the technique above, I've been able to capture ~45% of the map by day 5. AND been able to defend every single attack D's forces have made. Is it cheating? Nah, i think they did it due to programming constrants. The travel times are so F-ed up. It's definately abusing the rules, but hey...i didn't program it.
This also takes up a LOT of the users actual time, so it's a cost/benefit. It could also be viewed as a reward for having to manually move your troops around.

Militia is back, but I don't see an option to train them like in JA2. Then again, it's only day 5, I have 45% of the map...maybe they don't have time to train and/or don't need to train.
To recruit them, you just give them a gun. and you don't have to pay for militia any more. you just give them a spare gun...This might sound like it's going to cut down on your gun running, but it's not. Oh god. it's not! I have more guns than i know what to do with at this point. and it's day 5.

another tip is shotgun mercs (wolf in particular) are great at running and gunning using the plan and go feature. Run him in a room, shoot twice with out aiming, and run him out. Shotgun mercs are beast up close.

Sniper mercs are still AMAZING. Lynx is my favorite merc still...but sniping actually takes time. Be sure to look at the "aiming time" before you decide to use that 50 cal...5 seconds is a long ass time when you could use the m14 and plug them 3 times in the same 5 seconds. It's also a bit more realistic I suppose. I usally run snipers in pairs. One sniper, one "spotter" with an assault rifle. This tactic seems familar...

overall, there are lots of little tricks like that I've learned over time. I can't get enough of this damn game.

My starting Mercs were:
1) Grunty
2) Igor
3) MD

I didn't know it at the time, but Igor won't join you at the start unless you hire Grunty first. I got lucky I guess. The Merc's like/hate relationships have a much larger impact. I was reading their community boards and a high morale can end up being a flat 10% boost for attacking stats! This can work out to basically a level or two bump in combat for a merc.

If you liked JA2, give this game a shot. I think it take a bit longer to get the money train rolling, but once you do, it's pretty solid.