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iceklee
02-26-2012, 05:44 AM
I have played this game for 110 hours so far according to Steam and I have some tips that may be helpful.

SPOILERS BELOW. SPOILERS BELOW.

1) There are no bad mercs. Let me repeat that, there are no bad mercs. The cheap ones are actually outstanding since you can have more of them which they can be used in defense or to get a team of 6 earlier for team player trait. Ira and Bull can defend Cambria alone with no militia help. Put them on the ramp that winds up to go into the building with the quest giver. That gives them a shooting gallery in front of them since they can't shoot very good far.

2) There are no bad weapons. I am serious. Let me explain how "range" works in this game. It does not mean how far the weapon shoots exactly, although longer range weapons can shoot farther. It just means the best effective range for the weapon. That means rifles with 40+ range are great outside but are lousy inside. The best inside weapons actually have the lowest range. That is why it if you only use long range weapons you hve problems targeting fast. If you use a pistol against a guy carrying a rifle at close range you can shoot the pistol non stop until they are dead. Shotguns from the hip are a beautiful thing.

3) Don't buy gear at the online shop. You can find good weapons as you go. The only time I would buy a weapon there is if I wanted some extra of the armor piercing pistols, or the CAWS. Spending money early on weapons means you have less mercs which means you have less ability to hold the map which means you have less money. I admit I do like getting the CAWS shotgun but it is not necessary as the basic shotgun serves the purpose fine. There is also no need to buy ammunition at the online shop since you will find way more than you need. However, what you should buy is about 40+ frag grenades over the course of the game. They are cheap and are awesome, Plus they really help whoever is defending Cambria.

4) How I start the game. Airport- Drassen (talk to preacher, then IRA)- Water Pump (east side, run guys to building walll where they cant hit you), make sure you get bag of diamonds at shack after battle - Cambria Mine( run guys to wall and fight from there, fun times if you have melee guy and clear out the west side like psycho killer), Cambria (after battle you can sell all diamonds and junk and should have about 70k), hire more guys with money, then clear up remaining area aroud Cambria with the hardest one being the roadblock directly east as there is no cover and they all have rifles. After guys arrive hit farm next as that is great cash spot as you can sell more diamonds and all the weapons you can carry (more guys means you can carry more stuff to sell :)). From there, it just depends what side you want to do first, I prefer going to the west down to Meduna but Alma side is fine too. Make sure Cambria is always defended!!!! and you won't ever lose it. The only time I lose a sector is right in the beginning of the game when you only have one small team but even then only usually one sector all game. Oh, don't forget to get IRA she is not worthless.

5) Stealth is Ok but not necessary. The only time I really like it is when I can run without making noise. This happens at 100agi / 100 stealth or 90agi/90 stealth with very good morale. Then as long as you are not in their sightline you can cause chaos like running up right
behind someone and putting 5 silenced pistol shots to the skull. Camo is pretty worhtless unless you can get 100% don't worrry about it.

6) None of the skills are worthless. Agility is great for inside killers as they can pop around a corner shoot and then move back. I max this for shotgun killers. I also max this on Bull as it takes away his unfit trait if I use him early. Dexterity is decent. Put points in it if you have a guy with very high mechanical but low strength. Othewise, for long range shooters pump it up after markmanship and perception. Strength is great as it allows you to carry more, take more hits, throw grenades FARTHER, and with high mechanical open doors. Perception is awesome if you want to use machine guns, assault rifles, and sniper weapons. I always keep my guys on guard mode and high perception makes fights go much faster as you don't have micromanage every attack. I love this skill. You do NOT have to hit the spacebar and target every enemey in this game. For machine gunner types this is the number one skill to boost. Explosives are not that important in this game. I prefer to get a costly guy on the team who is a good fighter and has explosives as secondary ability. The best explosives guy has high explosive skill and high intelligence as disarming mines is most important. Mechanical is awesome. You should have a mechanical expert on you team. They will recover the cost of themselves easily. They fix all the weapons and if they are good they will open all doors. That is key as behind those doors are immense ammounts of cash. Trevor, Magic, and Steroid are great. To open doors you can go dex/mech or str/mech it doesn't matter which just the tool differs. Markmanship is good duh but it doesn't need to be maxed for every character. It is pretty secondary for inside fighters where agility is better. It is secondary also for machine gunners behind perception. Snipers should go markmanship, perception mix then lastly dex.

Ok that is all for now but if you have any questions post thema and I will answer them.

Skull-
02-26-2012, 07:41 AM
I gonna be honest with you. I think its a poor tip say to people not buy anything online.

lol, I just have 18 hire mercs(most are top mercs, like Gus,Reaper, Scoope, Shadow, Scully, Magic and so on) and I made over 300k on online shoping so far, and I have now almost 500k money to spare. Detail, I'm almost 60% total liberation and I can't see me running out of money.

So, I can say something, once you learn some stuff about this game, money will never be a problem for you.

iceklee
02-26-2012, 11:07 AM
I gonna be honest with you. I think its a poor tip say to people not buy anything online.

lol, I just have 18 hire mercs(most are top mercs, like Gus,Reaper, Scoope, Shadow, Scully, Magic and so on) and I made over 300k on online shoping so far, and I have now almost 500k money to spare. Detail, I'm almost 60% total liberation and I can't see me running out of money.

So, I can say something, once you learn some stuff about this game, money will never be a problem for you.

How far along in the game are you in game days? Did you get the flakes? If you are way late in the game then buy, but my point is the early game period and finishing the map in a quick time period. Do you hold all maps down or let them get retaken? Once you have a team hold down Meduna (Day 10 or so) and another to conquer the remaining maps then money doesn't matter so buy what you want. Also, it depends on your game experience level. Newer players should focus on buying mercs intitially while more experienced players can buy whatever as they know how to get money.

evilwillhunting
02-26-2012, 11:15 AM
Thanks for the list, some good advice there. Here are a few of my own:

1ewh.) Going full automatic is fun, and is a good way to take down enemies with a firing line. Just be very careful, as this eats up a TON of ammunition. Those machine guns do little good when you have no bullets to go in there.

2ewh.) As in my "Gingerbread Sniper" post, there is a relatively risk-free way to take down hordes of enemies. Snipe, run away when they are around 1.5x view reticles. Eventually they will give up the chase, bunch up and cover all directions. Keep doing this till you reach the edge of the map, then lead in a different direction. This does take a while, but you reap a lot of reward for very few bullets. Also, resist the "wait for that one more shot" on a wounded enemy when they charge. When you're within firing range of these turkeys, you're dead meat.

3ewh.) The OP posted about that switchback entrance to the bar in Cambria. One of the best tips he gave was to drop some low-marksmanship merc in there with a powerful shotgun and watch the kills count up. But there's always 1-2 militia in there. A variation of this I've always done is to just keep a merc in the ramshackle merchant shack, and just wait. The militia (whom I gave a shotgun to) just cleans up and I go collect the rewards. I also have Barry mine up the way as nifty little extra XP for him.
NOTE: If you capture no further than Cambria, the enemy squad will ALWAYS go for Cambria, so you pretty much can waste weeks of time while these futile assaults continue and you continue to collect money!

4ewh.) Mines you plant will not detonate for some reason when you walk over them. Use this when enemies pursue you.
Conversely, your mercs will spot mines planted by the enemy, but will still happily jog right on top of them. Do NOT assume the character will avoid any detected mines. Even Barry himself will schlep right on top of the toepopper he just spotted.

5ewh.) Stealth is largely useless in this game. If you are in the enemy's line of sight, even though you are prone, playing Shadow and drenched in darkness, you are found 100% of the time. This is doubly annoying since enemies in this game have this incredibly intuition to turn around at teh right moment. I think the game is cheating. :)

6ewh.) Diversify your arms. Sure, you may sacrifice top damage here and there, but you also won't have 20 mercs using the exact same make of ammo while the warehouse is teeming with other ammo types.

7ewh.) When you have an All Star on the team, it's easy to send him in to get all the kills. Just remember that the rest of your team doesn't improve from the experience, in most cases.

8ewh.) You desperately wanted to avoid getting even scratched in the past Jagged Alliance Games, but here, it's not that big of deal as long as you don't go down. In fact, it's free XP for anyone with medical to patch you up, and medical supplies are everywhere. On top of that, you heal up pretty much instantly when you travel to your next location.

9ewh.) How this game DOES screw you, is Stamina. Thanks to the boneheaded absence of vehicles, your Mercs always end up at the action already tired. See that hashmark in their Stamina bar? You cannot get above that any more until the battle is over and the squad rests, and for someone like Bull, who needs to get in close, this him useless fast. You CAN instantly jolt up your stamina with beverages and some foods. If you can, rest up right outside of the upcoming battle for an hour or two. Then hit em.

10ewh.) Mines work wonderfully in this game. The explosives, not so much. First of all, the timed explosive BARELY gives your merc time to get out of damage range, IF HE RUNS IMMMEDIATELY. Why the developers made such a stupid decision as to not have a TIMER LENGTH option, I'll never know. But even with the superior remote controlled C4.... the explosion often is nowhere near an enemy, and in only 1 out of 200 walls can you use it. Mostly those explosives are best for breaching areas without a key. The enemy reacts just as quick and deadly when you come through the crater as if you came through a door, so there's no tactical advantage.

Skull-
02-26-2012, 07:03 PM
How far along in the game are you in game days? Did you get the flakes? If you are way late in the game then buy, but my point is the early game period and finishing the map in a quick time period. Do you hold all maps down or let them get retaken? Once you have a team hold down Meduna (Day 10 or so) and another to conquer the remaining maps then money doesn't matter so buy what you want. Also, it depends on your game experience level. Newer players should focus on buying mercs intitially while more experienced players can buy whatever as they know how to get money.

I'm in day 9 right now. Lost some citys, but it was very few times. Since day 5 I dont need to worry about money. You can check my review so far here: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2560458

I'm still playing so I update it almost every day;

Orosian
02-27-2012, 03:23 AM
5ewh.) Stealth is largely useless in this game. If you are in the enemy's line of sight, even though you are prone, playing Shadow and drenched in darkness, you are found 100% of the time. This is doubly annoying since enemies in this game have this incredibly intuition to turn around at teh right moment. I think the game is cheating. :)

Whilst I agree with regards to LOS, when it comes to noise stealth can be awesome. To start with you need to rely on crawling/crouching to sneak up on an enemy (and they can react to any level of noise), but once you get agility and stealth up to 100 you can run around and they're none-the-wiser.

If the enemy is passive then their cone of sight and hearing is pretty much all they have. I've happily run around the side of their view and driven an axe through their noggin. It's beautiful.

When the enemy is alerted, however, then it's a different ball game. On top of their 'twitching' (turning, moving), they also seem to be aware of what's happening to their side - and plus they see much further than usual. I've still managed to go the long way around and come up behind them undetected though.

As melee is the most silent way it's the best for keeping hostiles nice and passive. Strike from behind so they have to turn around and don't get to hit you back. I've taken out groups of enemy mercs by doing this. Only times I've alerted them was when there were two standing next to each other (but I had two mercs attack simultaneously so that alert was short-lived) and the times when I misjudged the flag and triggered it, causing all the enemies to suddenly turn and investigate. I hate that flag.