JA3 Jagged Alliance 3 - Some tips to get you started

[Redglyph]

I think @Redglyph meant adding a selectable thread prefix; that's available now.

Thanks!

I had no idea about the edit / tag thing, good to know.

 

[henriquejr]

Hi all!
I started to play JA3 last weekend and I think I'm also about to hit that wall of lack of money everybody is talking about, even recruiting the cheapiest mercs available (initially: MD, Igor Dolvich, and Mia Khali.... errr, Livewire, then Grizzly and lastly Barry).
Questions:
1) We receive $ 40,000 initially, but how often (if so) we keep receiving this incoming?
2) I found a bag of diamonds and the game has two options: cash in ($ 500) or cash stack ($1,500). What are the differences between these options? And where is located this "cash stack"?

 

[Kordanor]

Hi all!
I started to play JA3 last weekend and I think I'm also about to hit that wall of lack of money everybody is talking about, even recruiting the cheapiest mercs available (initially: MD, Igor Dolvich, and Mia Khali.... errr, Livewire, then Grizzly and lastly Barry).
Questions:
1) We receive $ 40,000 initially, but how often (if so) we keep receiving this incoming?
2) I found a bag of diamonds and the game has two options: cash in ($ 500) or cash stack ($1,500). What are the differences between these options? And where is located this "cash stack"?

These were one off payments to get you started. You are supposed to liberate mines which give you income (these will dry up after a time though). You can also earn additional money by capturing Diamond shipments.

There is no difference between Cashing in and Stack Cash in. It just means that you are cashing in all of your 3 diamonds at once. You might be able to use Diamonds later on for other stuff though.

 

[Redglyph]

Hi all!
I started to play JA3 last weekend and I think I'm also about to hit that wall of lack of money everybody is talking about, even recruiting the cheapiest mercs available (initially: MD, Igor Dolvich, and Mia Khali.... errr, Livewire, then Grizzly and lastly Barry).
Questions:
1) We receive $ 40,000 initially, but how often (if so) we keep receiving this incoming?
2) I found a bag of diamonds and the game has two options: cash in ($ 500) or cash stack ($1,500). What are the differences between these options? And where is located this "cash stack"?

I don't have this problem yet, after securing one mine and freeing a nearby town. I started with 3 mercs since the beginning is quite simple; then added one to finish the island, and another one when leaving the island because I didn't have any explosive expert. I've surely wasted some days and took some time for R&R, training, repairing stuff, and so on.

The "cash stack" simply means cashing the whole stack of diamonds instead of just one. In you case, there must be 3 of them: 3 * 500 = 1500. There are a few other commands involving item stacks.

Regarding the diamonds, it's also possible to sell them at a better price later, and with other benefits, so don't sell them too early unless you're completely broke. And as Kordanor said, there are shipments you can capture from the enemy, one being quite early in the game.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I don't know, I've also seemed to hit another lack of money and/or resources. And I have one mine under my control. I've also added another veteran merc, for explosives.
And man, the costs are really piling on. I've reached points where I could only recruit all my mercs for 3-4 days, down from the default 7 days.
Also, I can't manage control of my areas with just one squad of mercs. Running from island to mainland, and back, every time an area is under attack is becoming unmanageable.
But I can't imagine hiring another squad of mercs, when I can barely keep these ones healthy, equipped and ready to go.

I also identified another issue I have with JA3, and it's how the combat encounters transition from real-time to turn-based. I really don't like that you have to initiate combat to turn to turn-based. I wish you could just control it and switch back and forth on command. At least until you break stealth. I really don't like that I have to do the stealth parts in real-time.

I think I may put the game on hold for now. I've loved what I played, and definitely plan to return. Maybe on a lower difficulty? Maybe with that forgiving mode? I'm currently on the middle difficulty setting.

 

[Kordanor]

I think regarding money you will likely do much better if you incorporate some tips, like taking high leadership on the Main character, and try to spend less time for resting or something like that. Also I dont think you would need two explosive experts. At least not early on. That sounds like Luxury.

Regaridng the transition into Turn based mode: I dont like that either and there are many complaints about it. I hope they are going to improve that in some way in a patch.

 

[Redglyph]

I think regarding money you will likely do much better if you incorporate some tips, like taking high leadership on the Main character, and try to spend less time for resting or something like that. Also I dont think you would need two explosive experts. At least not early on. That sounds like Luxury.

Regaridng the transition into Turn based mode: I dont like that either and there are many complaints about it. I hope they are going to improve that in some way in a patch.

I'm still missing a merc with good leadership, that's one sacrifice I had to make. JA3 has undocumented but high requirements in several areas, which makes the beginning a little chaotic because you just don't know what is required, and you can't have everything.

I think he only has one explosive merc, and I can see how it helps: it saved me a lot of trouble in more than one fight. You also need one or two with enough agility for stealth approaches, someone with enough wisdom to discover enemies and landmines...

For the transition, when it's not possible to stealthily take down enemies one by one, I find that the better way is often to abuse overwatch with as many mercs as possible and have my medic trigger the fight. The enemies make their initial moves and get fired several times before the fight starts. Once, I had 10 overwatch shots in one turn with 4 mercs (it's actually a Steam achievement).

 

[Redglyph]

@Kordanor By the way, I finally understood why stealth attacks didn't work. Once you have prepared the takedown, there's indeed a dagger icon to launch the attack when hovering the mouse. But JA3 has a real pixel hunting problem and, at the time, this icon wouldn't show for some reason. Sometimes I have to fight the camera to get to interact with items and people in the tactical view.

 

[Kordanor]

My stealth video is still in the works, sorry it took so long

 

[Pladio]

All this talking about this game might make me buy it and play Dishonored 2 another time....

What difficulty are all of you playing on?

 

[Kordanor]

I am playing on Mission Impossible (Hardest)
And then additional option to not save during combat and Mercs dieing when being downed.
But when you expect to not like the money management I would consider activating the "forgiving mode", which is supposed to release some stress regarding the economy. Obviously with that other stuff will get easier as well.

 

[Redglyph]

My stealth video is still in the works, sorry it took so long

Hey, no problem, your other video was already very helpful.

And here, it's only a problem of camera view. I hope they can fix that bug soon.

Any idea what 'Aim level' means? I'm looking at the weapon modification system, but I don't see the impact of the modifications, just a vague and obscure description.

 

[Kordanor]

Aim level is when you spend additional AP for aiming

 

[henriquejr]

Once, I had 10 overwatch shots in one turn with 4 mercs (it's actually a Steam achievement).

Yeah, I got this Steam achievement too

 

[henriquejr]

For God's sake, is there any hotkey that can outline/illuminate what we found while exploring? When a merc founds herbs, if I fail to see the 1-second display of the herb's general direction, then pixel hunting starts.
Livewire found a hackable device in an enemy tent (after we leave the starting island) only to be seen by trained hyenas. After the combat with the hyenas, the damn device was nowhere to be seen.

 

[Kordanor]

Stealth Video finished!

View: https://youtu.be/TT3FVbvgGcE

 

[Kordanor]

For God's sake, is there any hotkey that can outline/inlluminate what we found while exploring? When a merc founds herbs, if I fail to see the 1-second display of the herb's general direction, then pixel hunting starts.
Livewire found a hackable device in an enemy tent (after we leave the starting island) only to be seen by trained hyenas. After the combat with the hyenas, the damn device was nowhere to be seen.

Yes, you can set the key and even decide whether it should be a toggle or only at buttondown. But! if its a toggle you need to press the key again after each fight.

 

[Redglyph]

For God's sake, is there any hotkey that can outline/illuminate what we found while exploring? When a merc founds herbs, if I fail to see the 1-second display of the herb's general direction, then pixel hunting starts.
Livewire found a hackable device in an enemy tent (after we leave the starting island) only to be seen by trained hyenas. After the combat with the hyenas, the damn device was nowhere to be seen.

To make it easier: by default it's ALT, you'll see it almost at the bottom of the bindings.

 

[Redglyph]

Great video, @Kordanor!

Little related tip: shooting the AK-47 in a prone position with a tripod gives a ridiculous amount of precision, and when it's used from stealth, it's deadly.

MD, who's usually pretty bad with weapons, achieved a few kills against enemies with one shot at a great distance, whereas all the other mercs had to take their turn shooting at a same enemy (and at closer range) to kill him. MD even kept his hidden status (it was night).

It's an expensive mod, though (60 parts).

 

[henriquejr]

Unfortunately I hit that wall of running short of money. Maybe a bit later than I expected, I confess: after liberating the 1st diamond mine, I had to get back to Ernie to fight Legion soldiers that took the city, then I had to get back to the same diamond mine I previously secured to fight more Legion thugs that took control of it while I was on Ernie.

I noticed that after securing the 1st mine for the second time, my daily income - that was already below $0.00 - kept negative. Maybe the mine ran dry, IDK (so why the hell the Legion would try and get it back?). The game could at least inform us when/if the mine is depleted, so we could avoid putting a fight to try to take back an exhausted vein of diamonds that will serve us NOTHING.

All that accounted, it is only a question of time until all my mercs disband from the squad That and also running out of meds. Can anyone tell me if at least the herbs we gather regrow after some time?

A merchant who could buy/sell weapons, ammo, medicines would be helpful as well. Or at least a merchant located "more early" in the game, because until now I found exactly zero people interested in paying for my whole pack of Gewhers and MP40s which would surely fetch a lot of money in a Gold & Silver Pawn Shop (from the History Channel's Pawn Stars)

Question: We have a Sector Stash located in the village of Ernie. In order to access the things that we store in it, do we have to get back to Ernie or can it be acessed somehow somewhere else?

There are things that could be implemented in a better way (or, as you wish, in a different way) like inventory management. But don't get me wrong, the game is fun. Maybe I just wasted an excessive amount of time in the early map sectors, this way wasting the little money/resources we have. I think it's time to start the game once again.