Jagged Alliance 2 mods

Hi everybody!

I just installed my GOG version of Jagged Alliance 2, and I wanna know from you some opinions about the good mods this game does have. Everybody keep talking about JA2 v1.13 mod, but how about "Deidranna Lives" or "Urban Chaos" ? Are they good ? Outdated ? JA2 v1.13 encompasses them ?

If you have any hint about other good mods, I'm all ears

Thank you!

Deidranna Lives and Urban Chaos are very good.

My favourite mod is JA2UB Vietnam SOG69 - you need Unfinished Business for this one.

I enjoyed playing the Alrulco Revisited Mod. It's basically a more fleshed out based game. New sectores, better roads, reworked old sectors and so on.

http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&th=19441&prevloaded=1&&start=0

five new towns (Aldea, Baldio, Escondite, Orilla, Recreo)
old towns have expanded (more sectors) and/or are denser populated (more buildings)
two new SAM sites (there are now six in total)
new "air control table"
a new island south of Balime
more (~20) accessible sectors in Arulco
many, many new sectors (including modified sectors from UB, WF6, Demoville, heavily modified sectors from vanilla JA2, community-made campaigns and completely new sectors)
sector overhaul: just about every "old" sector that wasn't replaced by a new map has been edited to look & play nicer
less sectors with just "empty wilderness" in them
roadblocks and hidden military bases throughout the whole country
more enemies patrolling Arulco
more enemies guarding the cities (including parts of San Mona)
a new faction: arms smugglers with hideouts throughout the whole country
it's now possible to train militia in all towns (including Omerta, Estoni, San Mona and all new towns)
lots of items to be found within sectors, including v1.13-items
more roads to make the ice cream truck more useful
new audio tracks for many situations
new main menu backgrounds
a balanced "live of the land

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Thank you both Kordanor and HiddenX for pointing out the good JA2 mods ! I already downloaded them all

A quick question, if you could help me:

I installed the mod mod JA2 v 1.13 and, in Preferences menu, I can't choose the Inventory/Attachments settings. It is stuck on Old/Old, but I wish to change it to New/New. The arrows that would allow me to do that don't even appear. This is the only option I can't change on Preferences.

What could be wrong ? Will I have to tweak some .ini file in order to change Inv/Attachments settings ?

Thanks!

It might depend on which modmod you loaded. But yes, it might be necessary to adjust the ini file. However 1.13 already comes with an ini configurator, which you can just start and where you can adjust a lot of stuff. Also things like how many enemies can be in a sector at once and so on.

Kordanor said:

It might depend on which modmod you loaded. But yes, it might be necessary to adjust the ini file. However 1.13 already comes with an ini configurator, which you can just start and where you can adjust a lot of stuff. Also things like how many enemies can be in a sector at once and so on.

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Kordanor,

At this moment I'm only using JA2 (GoG version) + v1.13 mod, but I think I fixed the error. I just uninstalled JA2 and the v1.13 mod, and installed both again.

Maybe this error has been provoked because I had two folders: one folder did contain original JA2, another did contain JA2 + v1.13 mod (I had two shortcuts on my windows desktop - JA 2 and JA2 1.13 - each one pointed to its own folder).

I did this because I was thinking to play both - sometimes playing original version, other times playing modded version. And I played the original until my team conquered Drassen Airport and Drassen Mine (Ira died on Drassen Mine sector, at Expert difficulty). Then when I tried to renew all contracts (7 days), Igor Dolvich just told me he was out (is that common, mercs giving us bye-bye ?)

Then I realized: JA2 seems to be a huge game. I think I won't have spare time to play it twice - modded and un-modded (who has nowadays?), so I prefer to play it modded, starting with v1.13, finishing it, then going to the other mods you and HiddenX suggested me.

Edit: my starting team was: I.M.P. merc, Fox, Grunty ("who do I look like? Siegfried & Roy?"), Igor Dolvich and Barry ("is terrible!"). Then I recruited Ira.

Thank you for your help!

You can play with the mod I suggested right away. I just improves the game. It doesn't completely restructure it as Urban Chaos does for example.

Nice starting group btw. I think at some point I also most of the time add Fox, Grunty and Barry.

btw: I like to build clusters of friends as it makes it more entertaining.
My favorite Dream Team are the two maniacs Razor and Haywire (MERC).
But early on another friend-connection is Fox, Grizzly and Wolf.

If you want to spoil who likes and hates whom (from the base game), I put together an interactive overview over here:
http://ndnw.net/JA2/relationships.html

If there's less than a week left on a merc's contract, he may renig on a renewal. Always renew before 7 days are left.

Yep, the exception is MERC. Their payment adds up and once in a while Speck asks for your money (one of my favorite Dudes from JA1)

Thrasher said:

If there's less than a week left on a merc's contract, he may renig on a renewal. Always renew before 7 days are left.

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But Thrasher, how can I renew before 7 days are left since I hired them all (except for I.M.P. merc, obviously) for a 7-day contract ? The starting money isn't that big!

EDIT: I am talking about the unmodded JA2's starting money. I know we can tweak a .ini file on v 1.13 mod to increase our starting money, but I think I won't go that route. Well, unless.... unless (in a near future) I start a game on Insane difficulty and choose to hire the high-profile, more expensive mercs (Gus Tarballs, etc). Now it would be a good thing to play with!

I normally start with a tiny team. That's the merc you create with the personality check (don't forget to do that!) and normally 2 other people. That's normally enough to get started. But of course it all depends on difficulty and so on.

Make sure you have one Medic with you (e.g. Fox)

Oh, also something which you might find very helpful: Make sure to visit Hans in his Porn shop in San Mona.

He's got a shop in the back where you can not just get some nice stuff, but also turm some items into money.

henriquejr said:

But Thrasher, how can I renew before 7 days are left since I hired them all (except for I.M.P. merc, obviously) for a 7-day contract ? The starting money isn't that big!

EDIT: I am talking about the unmodded JA2's starting money. I know we can tweak a .ini file on v 1.13 mod to increase our starting money, but I think I won't go that route. Well, unless…. unless (in a near future) I start a game on Insane difficulty and choose to hire the high-profile, more expensive mercs (Gus Tarballs, etc). Now it would be a good thing to play with!

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I am playing unmodded too. Hard? difficulty. The time may be less than a week. I can't remember the time or reference. 1 or 2 or 3 days? But don't wait until the contract expires to renew. That's asking for trouble.

Kordanor said:

I normally start with a tiny team. That's the merc you create with the personality check (don't forget to do that!) and normally 2 other people. <SNIP>

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Merc with personaltiy check only on v 1.13 mod, right ? When I play unmodded JA 2 and made my I.M.P. merc, I didn't see a personality check (only those questions and all).

Yeah, that's what I meant with personality check.
These questions generate a psychological profile and determine your strengths and weaknesses. E.g. if there is a burglar at night and you chose to sneak down with your night vision goggles (or something similar) then you get the night vision traits.

These traits can also make a huge different btw. In general: If a fight is too hard at daytime, try it at nighttime. A Merc with Night Expert and night vision goggles is a killer at night.

Oh man...just thinking about the possibilities you have in JA2 makes me wonder again why nobody else even tried to achieve that...

Kordanor said:

Yeah, that's what I meant with personality check.
These questions generate a psychological profile and determine your strengths and weaknesses. E.g. if there is a burglar at night and you chose to sneak down with your night vision goggles (or something similar) then you get the night vision traits.

These traits can also make a huge different btw. In general: If a fight is too hard at daytime, try it at nighttime. A Merc with Night Expert and night vision goggles is a killer at night.

Oh man…just thinking about the possibilities you have in JA2 makes me wonder again why nobody else even tried to achieve that…

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Can we check the traits our I.M.P. merc gets, when we answer the I.M.P. questionnaire?

My story with JA series isn't that long: I started years (eons) ago playing JA 1 few times. I don't remember exactly when I played it for the 1st time, but my mercs only kept dying and I gave it up. After some years I acquired a physical JA2 UB copy (I think it's still here somewhere…), and I played it for quite a while. It's from this game that I came to know (and like) Grunty, Fox, Igor Dolvich and others. Maybe for some of you, this "relationship" started in JA 2, but not for me

Then finally I bought all JA games available in GOG.

And I agree with you, the possibilities are enormous. In this era of simulator-this, simulator-that, I can surely tell you this game is the best "merc-simulator" available.

When Nordic recently acquired the JA IP (http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30076) , my only question was: can we hope now for a new, better JA game ? I can't accept "never" as answer!

Yes, here is guide to tell you what to get. Note that you can get at most 2 traits (not sure if personality counts, I think it does), or one double trait. Last questions answered override previous responses.

http://web.textfiles.com/ezines/EUROHACKER/ISSUE1/a09.html

Nightops is pretty fantastic, BTW.

Bookmarked both the page above and that one made by Kordanor (merc relationship).

Also which is maybe not that intuitive - you can see the abilities in the merc overview if you were not aware of that.
This is what I mean:


The relationships are somewhat impartant. Well, not exactly to have friends with you, but to avoid having people who hate each other because that hurts morale.
And while I am not 100% sure if in JA2 it is affected by morale, at least in JAG it could also help recruiting them.
For example: You just started and wanted to recruit Merc A he said "You are to inexperienced". Then you recruited Merc B, who joined. Then you went back to A and he said "Well, B is in your team, that will be a lot of fun".

Or…if you had Ivan Dolvich in your team (Igors iconical brother) and you recruited Reuben (who massacred his family with a chainsaw) he said (in the german Version) "Sie kommunist in Team…ich gehen, ich lösen Problem" - You communist in team, I go, solve problem. And the next Day Ivan was dead.

Also every merc has some lines about their friends and enemies. For example if Haywire kills someone in a good shot, Razor will state how cool Haywire is. Or when Waywire dies, he will say that he was the most insane person he knew.

But regarding past games: Up to Jagged Alliance 2 they were telling a continous story between Jagged Alliance 1 -> Jagged Alliance Deadly Games -> Jagged Alliance 2.
The best example is probably Lynx and Buzz. Buzz was introduced in Jagged Alliance Deadly Games. She was a writer and Lynx Lover and wanted to write a book about him. But that didn't work out well and in JA2 they hate each other.


Another, and a very important development, is the Roachburn family.
in Jagged Alliance 1 you had Gary, Larry and Sparky. In JA: DG there was only slight development (well, Gary got a beard ) but they introduced Leon, their father, who didn't really like his kids.
With Jagged Alliance 2 Leon died (you can read that in the past mercs history), but the most interesting thing is Larry: He was a drug addict in the past, but became sober. Just be aware that you must not keep him idle or let any drugs in your inventory. Because Larry, who likes "nice" people like Flo and Biff, becomes "Drugged Larry" who changes his friends, and becomes friends with Steroid (the Merc). From that onwards also his skills and attributes will start to degrade instead of increase.


And one last "development" I want to mention: In Metavira you were able to recruit one of the natives called Hamous. That guy became a Merc in Jagged Alliance Deadly Games. Between DG and JA2 he retired and bought himself an Ice Truck…and guess where he is driving around.