Jagged Alliance 2 is how I want my SR combat to be, Thanks to those who recommended it Options

[Arethusa]

Yeah, I know how they work. I tried doing a realism edit for the original JA2, and the limitations there (only two mag sizes per caliber, among others) drove me crazy. I still think it's worth doing, even if there are more pressing issues.

[Austere Emancipa...]

It's certainly worth keeping in mind. It's just one of those things that I, personally, am not going to edit in, because it'd just take too much time. And the same goes for re-describing the armor -- I'll just change the ratings, prices, degraderates and repairability, probably also Coolness, and let the rest of it be.

[Wounded Ronin]

[Wounded Ronin]

[Austere Emancipa...]

I went back and re-did the EnemyGunChoices.XML (up to High-end SMGs this time) to suit a more rag-tag Middle/South American setting, such as discussed above. Less ex-Soviet stuff, much more M1911s, Thompsons, Garands, M14s, etc. But damn this is slow work.

[Arethusa]

[Austere Emancipa...]

I'm trying to keep a healthy mix of both Eastern and Western guns, both at the lower end and the higher. For example, the low-end SMG/shotgun list currently looks like this:
2% Beretta M93R
2% Ingram M10
2% Ingram M11/9
2% Type 85
2% Micro-Uzi
2% Mini-Uzi
2% Benelli M3
2% AEK-919K
2% Neostead
2% Sterling L2A3
2% Steyr TMP
2% Thompson M1928
4% PP-93
4% Winchester 94 Trapper
4% Carl Gustaf M/45B
6% Thompson M1A1
6% Remington M870
6% Saiga 12K
6% Agram 2000
8% Colt SMG
10% UZI
10% Skorpion
12% PPsh-41

...though that might be a bit too much variety, with 23 separate guns for 50 slots. The low-end rifle list, on the other hand, only has 12 guns, with something like a 60-40 split between AK-47s and variants/clones, SKSs, Mosin-Nagants, etc., and Garands, Mini-14s, etc. I didn't dare place M14s, FN FALs and G3s into the low-end rifle list, because select-fire 37-damage weapons are a bit scary even if the AI won't hit shit with them.

If you wish, I can send you all the xml's I've edited (now revision 479 compatible). Then we just have to make sure we aren't both editing the same things at the same time. :)

[Arethusa]

Sounds good. If you've got AIM, that would probably be a better way to coordinate this.

[Austere Emancipa...]

Nope, sorry, the only IM I've got is ICQ, from way back when. I'm uploading the xml's onto a wiki page so that whoever wants them can download them at will.

One thing some fellow gunhead could do is go through Weapons.xml again and hammer some sense into the Accuracy and Range attributes. I've got those values for ARs and MGs set too high and not variable enough -- and accuracy in particular could easily range from significant negative values for many handguns and the crappier long arms to the 10+ positive values for sniper rifles.

[Edit]AmmoTypes.xml
Armours.xml
EnemyGunChoices.xml
Items.xml
Magazines.xml
Weapons.xml
Note: these might not work on earlier builds, so you might want to update to the latest revision if you have not already done so.[/Edit]

This post has been edited by Austere Emancipator: Aug 28 2006, 06:30 AM

[Arethusa]

I'm a little reticent to do that because I'm not familiar enough with the JA2 mechanics to know just what a point of accuracy in either direction means. I realize they're abstracted, to a degree, but it seems like there's real potential there to screw it up SR3 choke rules style.

Range is easier, but for consistency's sake, I'm not sure if I should be looking at effective range or maximum (low angle) range or what. I mean, effective range for a shotgun loaded with buckshot's not going to be more than 75-85m (roughly), and I think that would just piss me off with the way JA2 handles ranges. Same for pistols not being able to make it to from the front door to the other end of a shack.

[Austere Emancipa...]

I'm assuming they're straight percent figures added or subtracted from the Chance To Hit calculation. My rule of thumb was originally that average handguns would be zero while long arms hover above and below 5 for the most part, but reasonably the values could range at least from negative 10 to positive 15 or so.

With the ranges, well, I don't know how to handle those things any better. :) From a hit probability standpoint I'd say long arms should mostly take an "effective range" value, simply because they are usually quite easy to hit with at their max in-game range, which gets a bit freaky with 500-meter ranged assault rifles. After all, they can still be fired well beyond the in-game max range.

Oh well, it's 9 AM again, I guess I better hit the bed soon.

[Arethusa]

Hm. Now that we're getting into mechanics, might be time to get a thread started on the Bear's Pit. Well, maybe tomorrow.

I think with rangers, might be best to do effective range with long arms and max range with pistols and shotguns, just to keep things playable. That's very nearly what the game already does.

By the way, what xml editor are you using? I'm not extremely familiar with this format. I've been using Cooktop, but probably not as well as I could be.

[Austere Emancipa...]

Wordpad all the way. :) The heavy lifting of changing versions (which included thousands and thousands of various multi-line search/replaces) I did with the EditPad demo version

[Crusher Bob]

Notetab Light is also worth a look.

From what I remember of what I did to the JA2 ranges, back when I edited my JA2 files was scales the ranges by the weapon type. So pistols and shotguns were (realworld range/10)*2, SMG were *1.5, and rifles were .75.

This gives the sample values of:

[Arethusa]

[Crusher Bob]

borken linky. should be moonedit

[Arethusa]

Fixed it. Missed a w. Sneaky w.

[Shrike30]

Finally finished moving, setting up my box, and got this mod installed.

Is it just me, or are there a ridiculous number of local militia to get into fights with? I was digging on the interface upgrades and the better range with weapons (finally, I can hit something with a handgun!), but on the road to Drassen I bumped into what the map indicated to be 5 bad guys.

"No problem," I figure... early game, 5 guys versus my 3 should be a cinch. I was certainly not expecting to see that 5 guys skyrocket, with tons of lead flying my way. Maybe I should poke through their forums some more, see what other tweaks they've made.

I do like the single-shell shotgun reloading, though :)

[Austere Emancipa...]

I imagine that happens when the enemy has somehow spotted you and calls for reinforcements from bordering sectors -- just like you can call for reinforcements from nearby militias. You can turn these settings off in the Ja2_Options.ini file in the Data-1.13 folder. Personally, I would suggest turning moving militia OFF, or else you will never have to fight any battles other than city/strategic objective assaults.

[Shrike30]

Yeah, I'm learning more about this as I poke at their forums. There seems to be a variable for turning off cross-sector reinforcements (without turning off mobile militia) but I think I'll take your advice re: mobile militia. Field fights are amusing (and some of the out-of-town locations are pretty interesting).

[Wounded Ronin]

Well, I like writing. If you guys are busy revising weapon stats or armor types maybe I could help by writing new groan-worthy text for the items that don't already have an appropriate description. How would that work out? I could just email the text to you or paste it here and that would give the edits a nice completed look while saving you guys work.

[Arethusa]

If we can just get a MoonEdit server running with those files open, you can edit them at the same time as the rest of us.

[Kagetenshi]

If the Linux or FreeBSD versions will compile for me, I can probably set up a server. No guarantees, though.

~J

[hyzmarca]

[Kagetenshi]

So much for that idea. Hadn't realized MoonEdit wasn't open source—you guys are on your own, sorry.

~J