Impressions

Updated 20 Apr 2015



I noticed a lot of people visiting the Downloads page -- and bypassing the Home page! I update the Home Page also, just FYI. Anyway, I'd like to get your impressions on Arulco Vacations and realize this blog isn't the best way to communicate in that manner . . . so here's a page just for comments on your impressions of how Arulco Vacations plays. This page is also a place for you to share ideas, criticisms, playthroughs and comments of any kind. So . . . it's all yours, yo! Let me know what you think.

If you feel more comfortable on Facebook, there is an Arulco Vacations Facebook page also. As well, and even better, I am usually hanging around The Bear's Pit, so if you see me there don't hesitate to drop a line at the new Arulco Vacations topic forum.


76 comments:

  1. Flying home tonight so over the next couple of days I'll put some thoughts on paper.
    Would you prefer it here, on the Facebook page or The Pit?

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    1. It doesn't matter to me where -- whichever is easiest for you. I'll be happy just to get some feedback!

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  2. Expect some in about fourteen hours.

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  3. Ed it's great.
    I started with just one IMP to get the hang of it and to see if my installation etc was done properly.
    Quite a tough fight but coming out with an M14 and a silenced HiCap made a huge difference.

    I love the look of the maps though after playing the other version they feel a little small and I'm wondering how that will go later with larger forces and the use of taking snipers.
    I still can't figure some things out, like Cleaning Kits etc and I'm still working my head around load out styles and customization of LBE but that's my issue not yours.
    I've been playing it as much as I can the last two days and am really excited about it.

    Sorry for the brevity of this but i don't find it easy to type long messages on a phone screen.



    Zulu63

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  4. I'm glad you like it! New stuff coming in v1.03 that (I think) makes it even better.

    The maps, while the same size as before, now have more stuff in them. That works to change the tempo and tactics of the battle, for sure. Snipers are still extremely important as there are still long lines of sight in places. Remember that your characters cannot see across the map even if nothing is in the way. At best -- high noon, no terrain blocking, no sight limitations -- they can see 30 tiles away. That's half the map in the best of circumstances. So, yeah, if there's nothing on the map, it's not raining, it's high noon, and your sniper is in the exact center . . . then the sniper would be able to see the entire map. But otherwise, even in the best circumstances, your LOS is limited to less than the whole map. Now, in places like Drassen D13 which has 30 buildings in it . . . what happens is you set up your sniper at one end of a main street, and when the enemy pops their heads out from an alley . . . it's all over for them, yo. Never even see it coming.

    The situation also now highlights SMGs more. You can bunch a lot of enemy up in an alley with suppression fire, and while the SMGs and sniper are holding them in the alley you can sneak over with a grenadier down a back alley to lob a couple grenades into the pack from the rear. Send another SMG or 2-pistol gunfighter with him to clean up the mess.

    OK, it's not that easy . . . :-) but you get the idea. Tactics have changed, and the roles of your Mercs have changed in importance, but I think it makes urban & close-quarter combat more like urban & close-quarter combat.

    For wide open spaces there will always be the desert. Plains maps have gotten a bit less open -- with more tall grass -- but then a freshly mowed plains is not usually what you'll find out in the countryside of the Central American Caribbean. I could be wrong, though -- as I've never actually been there. :-)

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  5. Oh, I think the Sméagol Mod uses bigger Maps.
    Which are actually pretty painful until you get used to it but then good.

    With the larger Maps I'd have a stealthy spotter and his only job was to stay hidden and have Enemy in view so the Sniper could shoot at them even though they were not seen by him/her.
    Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the detail on your Maps and the ability to run or sneak from cover to cover is truly fantastic.

    As you point out, it also makes SMG's much more of an option which is truly great.
    And, I think it'll make it easier for my Covert Ops blokes to get into position and then cut loose.
    Which I am truly looking forward to,


    Zuly

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  6. Oh, silly, old tired brain of mine made a serious miscalculation there -- these maps are not 60x60, they are one hundred sixty by one hundred sixty -- 160x160! So, no, the characters cannot ever see the entire map, nor even half of it even in the regular size maps used in Arulco Vacations. But, yes, I believe Smeagol's AIMNAS mod uses the Big Maps Project which enlarges the sectors to 250x250 tiles. I haven't played on them yet . . .

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  7. Been playing as much as I can and I've started a new game bringing all five of my IMPs on at once.
    Revised my opinion slightly.
    Really enjoying the combo of "smaller" maps, more coverage, and the fact that I seem to be hitting a lot less than other games I've played.
    Still trying to get used to/figure out how to optimize the LBE system but I don't think it'll take too much longer.
    I like the $3 cost for the IMPs, it's almost (in a role-playing sense) like they're the original team and the fee is airport duty or something lol.

    I'm having a lot of fun with this Ed.
    I don't think I mentioned this before but it plays a lot faster too. I mean the characters move faster and there is less waiting on load times.

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    1. I am glad you like it. I think you'll love v1.03 . . . coming soon!

      The faster part: the characters are faster because I fiddled with the settings. I have a 10 year old laptop I'm using and it needs a little help. I forgot to slow them down for people with newer equipment so I'm glad they don't move too fast. Let me know if they are too fast. As for loading times: that may be because I have been cleaning up the XML files as I tweak them. In some of the files there were a unattached and/or missing tags, so that under-the-hood fix should make the game a tiny bit more stable.

      The hitting score . . . I did not tweak the Chance To Hit variables in v1.02, but am in v1.03 -- just a very little to make Marksmanship more of an influence. I think what you're experiencing is the effect of the detailed terrain -- on my maps the terrain is no longer as flat and open as a table top. That demonstrates the depth of the original program.

      $3 for an IMP :-) it's a vacation, yo! Seriously, in the future (not v1.03) I will tweak the entire economic framework. There are some very gamey (i.e. PacMan) penalties and perks in the economic system that just don't sit right with me. In v1.03 I'm running up against that hard because I have enhanced and enlarged the loadouts of all the recruitable characters -- giving them what I think they would take on such a mission. In the vanilla economic system that makes their gear very, very expensive. On the other hand it changes the beginning game to be more in your favour -- but then, the massive counter-attacks have changed the beginning game a lot in the other direction so I consider it an equalizer. As well, the modders of v1.13 have eliminated a lot of programmed cheats (for the player and the enemy) so they levelled the playing field and there's no need for gamey situations like limiting everybody to pistols in the beginning.

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  8. Haha.
    I bought my little laptop/notebook just over three years ago when I was broke and homeless but I needed it to stay in contact with my kids.
    So it's NEVER been very fast!

    Will the newer Tweaks be uploadable over an existing game?

    I try not to cheat but it's sometimes handy, especially when I'm prepping a game to play with the kids.
    Gotta admit, I've sometimes just done it for myself too but I prefer to play a game through sans cheats first time.

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  9. I try not to cheat also, but sometime ya gotta in order to save yourself the hassle of starting a new game. Speaking of which, no, v1.03 will break the v1.02 savegame. It might work, but work wonky until finally just not wanting to work at all. There have been too many changes, especially the additions to the Items.XML the game will not like. I really should up the version number to 1.1 to indicate that, but I want to leave some room for future tweaks 'cause v2.0 will be incorporating a new release of v1.13. Then I can have two separate versions that use two separate versions of v1.13 and there won't be (too much) confusion. All v1.xx will use the stable release of v1.13, and all v2.xx will use a specific unstable release of v1.13

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  10. v1.03 will probably be in another 7-8 days . . .

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  11. I THINK I understand all that
    I'll probably stick to this one then.
    Unless there's a way to boost my IMPs stats.
    Too much work otherwise.

    Speaking of which, I'm flirting with the idea of trying to make a character for AIM.
    When I get some time and I'm not using it playing I might give it a go.

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    1. v1.13 is the Bear's Pit mod of JA2 which I am building off of. The stable version of v1.13 has been extensively played over the years and has very few issues (problems). The modders of v1.13 keep adding new and powerful features -- those releases are called unstable because the new features are not extensively playtested before release and may cause issues. When a bug is found then a new unstable version is released that fixes it. Usually you'll have to start a new game. Stable versions are few and far between because it is a lot of work, oftimes highly repetitive and boring, to playtest every angle of a feature to make sure it works right in all circumstances.

      Making a character for A.I.M. isn't that hard except for the voice and graphics files. You can, of course, re-use voice and graphic files already in-game, but then your character isn't truly unique. If you are interested in doing some voice-acting I might be able to hook you up with another modding team I am working with that is doing another version of JA2.

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  12. Sure.
    I can do that!

    I'll stick with your current version I think then.
    Otherwise I'll just end up chasing all the shiny and never finishing a game.

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    1. I think you'll really, really want v1.03 of Av . . . I do! I'm working on it as fast as I can!

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  13. Lol.
    I bloody know I will.
    But I sort of wish you'd go slower so I can finish this one first Ed.

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    1. Once v1.03 is done then I will slow down. I have to prepare to get moving to another part of the country in real life. That's one reason I'm working hard on this now.

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  14. Hey Ed.
    I've just taken Drassen airport and there's no Pablo.
    I thought I may have killed him by stray fire so I went back to a previous save but he's not there.

    Also, my Sniper has a Spas-12 for back up (he's a Hunter).
    I've fired about twenty shots through it and it's gone from 100% to 87%.
    Is that normal?
    He has three pouches for 12g on his webbing. One of them is Molle and holds 2 lots of 7 shells.
    The other one is beige/tan and holds one lot of 7 shells.
    When I auto load from the tan pouch it only reloads 2 of the 7 shells.
    Is that supposed to happen that way?

    Great game mate. Loving it.


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    1. If you shot Pablo by mistake, his replacement Sal will turn up in a day or so.

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    2. I haven't tweaked any of the weapons so . . . looking at the SPAS-12 stats in ITEMS.XML it doesn't look like it should decrease that fast -- but I'll look in the connected XMLs to see if there's another modifier that affects shotguns.

      The reload is normal because it takes more time to load than the few seconds (5, is it?) of a combat turn. You'll find that weapons that are reloaded 1 shell or cartridge at a time take varying amounts of time, and each time you do it might give variable results because of other factors. The game engine is very deep and takes into consideration lots of different variables for each action.

      Pablo doesn't stay in the Shipments hangar in Arulco Vacations. He has an office in the back of the new A.C.A. building inside the airport. There's a door to his office inside the building, and a back door which exits out the back of the building. He is centered in his office but he will walk around. He also has a trash dump outside the fence behind his office through the gap in the fence. He could be over there. He also could be anywhere else inside that A.C.A. building, and anywhere within a radius of that building equal to the distance from his office to the Shipments hangar. He's free-roaming over a limited area. Another reason to get annoyed with him ;-)

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    3. I haven't tweaked those pouches either -- the beige-tan one is the bandolier, right? That would explain it as in the bandolier each shell is held individually so you are choosing and loading one at a time. In the other pouch . . . I guess you can grab a handful all at once :-) I haven't found the relevant modifiers in the files yet. As I said, the game is deep, and everything is connected to everything else which sometimes means searching through a few XML files to get the entire picture.

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    4. Checking the stats for the SPAS-12k, and nothing is amiss in the files. What happened is probably you came across a run of bad luck -- there's a base 10% chance of damage happening (which seems to be the average baseline. Random number generators are notorious for generating a streak of numbers in the same small range. You might have hit upon such a streak at the low end of the scale. IOW, bad luck.

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  15. Oh don't look for it!

    It actually makes sense to have them like that.
    I used to own a Spas-12. Hunted pigs with it.

    The different pouches and reload style makes sense though I have plenty of APs left to keep reloading. But it does take longer withe the NAS Shotgun Bandolier than with the 3.11 Shotgun Ammo Pouch.
    I quite like the AP cost for Inventory manipulation and having different pouches with different ease of access will make finding more 3.11's a sweet and exciting thing rather than just being a non event.

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    1. Well . . . seems something is definitely amiss somewhere . . . sigh. I haven't had any problem with B13 or the MapEditor until today. It might be my computer finally dying . . . I hope not. But it might be something about that specific map. I'll continue troubleshooting . . .

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    2. Pablo turned up.
      I couldn't find him so I used Gabbi and when that didn't seem to work I just gave up.
      Took the rest of Drassen, went back to the airport and there he was.

      Just had an awesome battle in D14.
      Came into 20 Enemy and they would have slaughtered me so I Tactically withdrew and cam up from E14 into the Eastern side.
      Gage had an FR-F2.
      Reece an FN Fal.
      Declan an SA vz58 (he's a Spy so he's got low Mrk)
      Belle a Diemaco C7A2.
      Dad an FN Fal Carbine.
      Holing up on the Eastern side they had to come over the narrow southern side and cross the water.
      With Gage visualling them with his 10x scope and never missing a shot the others hit most times to.
      Even on Burst fire because the Enemy was defiladed and bunched.
      I took a few hits but nothing serious and I went up a few points in Medical.
      Got flanked from the island but it was only one bloke and he went down fast.
      The LOOT I got! Oh man.

      Now it's back to Drassen to ReOrg and do my Cas&Ammo.

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    3. Sounds like a great battle! Very cool, yo!

      There is something wrong with that B13 map, however. I had a devil of a time with it all day. It must have gotten corrupted somehow regarding Waldo. Suffice it to say I finally got it fixed, and the new map is available on the Downloads page. If you have any other strange things happen on that map then install the new one. First, just to be safe, clean out the sector of all loot -- sell it or move it. You can put it all back after you install the new map.

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  16. I'd love to see this built in AFS, and since I noted a lot of stat/item changes as you went, I hope you checked into the Stock Data overhaul, I know it had a lot of improvements as well.

    on your map loot, are you using random items? From what I have been reading the random item functions are the way to go for 'future' proofing and I'd love to see this mod stay around awhile.

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  17. I tried to use the random item XML controls, but it wasn't working as I wanted. Now, that could have been, and probably was, my fault. I do plan on releasing the maps as an add-on to any mod -- and to do that I will have to go through and clean them up. I'll work on the random item stuff and see if I can get it working for the next map. If so, then I'll probably go back and re-do them all to include it.

    I did some research into a number of different mods as far as items go. I didn't decide to throw caution to the wind and freely mod Items.XML or the NCTH system until the end of the process. I am concerned about compatibility and incorporating important fixes other people have done -- so seriously looking into SDO is something I will do, but haven't yet.

    There was so much I wanted to do that I had to restrict myself a bit so I could get v1.03 out and ready for prime time. Now that it is out, and I am happy with it as far as it goes -- it is time to look into how to further improve it. Both of your suggestions are good ones that are definitely going on my To-Do List. Thank you!

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  18. Ive talked a bit about it on the facebook page, but id love to see some of the revisited maps incorporated into this. some of the army bases and towns )expanded or new) keep up the excellent work!

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    1. Yes, there are many similarities in overall design intent between Arulco Revisited and Arulco Vacations. Though the design ideas are in some ways similar, there are some real differences, as well. AR seeks to more densely populate the entirety of the country, while AV seeks to more densely populate the towns and 'jungle-ize" the country. AR created new military bases, AV expanded existing military locations (SAM sites) into bases. I wish AR was still being modded -- it is good to have different interpretations. I do really like his island idea, however . . . and an island may certainly be in AV's future.

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  19. This amount ot features is insane. Thank you. It uis only game I play. There is a problem with MOVE ITEMS. Did it in San Mona. Now i see imported stuff into sector but it is greyed oud and doesn't show its location on minimap. Can,t even sell to locals. Have to wait longer?

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    1. I'm glad you like it! Even more are coming for v1.07! The bug you've run into is a v1.13 bug they are still working on. You can read about it here: http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&th=22017&goto=333810&#msg_333810

      Basically, it can happen when using the MoveItem shortcut -- so it is best to move items manually for now.

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  20. Hey man, I am really happy that I found this. Seems like an excelent mod and I am gonna try it now! ..after couple of years :) I`ll be back once finished.

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    1. Enjoy! I'm working hard on v1.07 so maybe it'll be released by the time you come back! :)

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  21. Hey Ed, only found out about your mod a few days ago and waited patiently for the new release to try it.

    I've played about 3 hrs since yesterday, currently sitting in Drassen and waiting for reinforcements. Incredible work and attention to detail, well done!

    One or two minor bugs I've noted:

    M1 .30 cal and the 7,65 French ammo clips are not emptied automatically in the strategic screen. When I empty the gun manually, the ammo disappears into thin air.

    Secondly, for the homeboys and homegirls from the Aeropuerto group, instead of dialogue I get "Quote 11" etc. Maybe an issue with my install? Either way, the mod is running very smoothly and I'm looking forward to getting my head around all the new items tonight!

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    1. Thanks! I'm glad you like it! Unfortunately I've been having a problem with some ammunition - though this is the first time the French ammo has gone funky. And I thought I had fixed the .30 cal.. Have you downloaded Patch 2?

      Not all civilian factions have speech text files yet -- no problem there with your install. That is one of the things I will be doing now, and releasing as a Patch.

      Enjoy!

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    2. It was actually the 7,62x54R ammo that did it. Have not yet downloaded the patch but will do.

      Thanks again for the dedication - both yours and that of the other modders!

      I can tell that Arulco Vacations will take over my life =D

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  22. As a matter of fact, playing your Mod actually took over a good part of last week. JA2 now has to be played quite differently, and that is a refreshing change. My last game crashed 14 days in, fighting Bloodcats near Arulco's western shore.

    The one thing that does bug me (and yes, you have explained your motives) is that the quintuplets don't sell food. Like none. What do you think, couldn't they at least all have a basic stock of ... bread... or stew or the like? I've also noted that in some fridges the food is fresh (Cambria bottom right sector) while it goes bad regardless of whether I "uncover" it or not in others.

    I enjoy playing with food system on and would love it if you found a way to make it work in JA:AV.

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    1. I'm glad you're enjoying it -- that's strange about the quintuplets not having food to sell because they should have food. I don't play with the food system on but I tried to make AV food-friendly for those that do. Unfortunately, the food in the fridges starts to go bad once you enter the sector. I put all the food in manually at 100% freshness -- it was tedious, but otherwise it would be worthless. It would be nice if the code allowed fridges to keep food fresh . . . I don't know why food in one sector stays good, while in others it goes bad. Do the canned goods go bad also (look under sinks and in the wooden lockers)?

      Oh! Did you change the game setting to put Food System on? If off, then the quintuplets would not have food.

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  23. I start the game with the Food System box ticked. Anyway, my guys rely on canned food and MRE now, that's good enough. Though they will probably eat at restaurants for a straight month after this assignment ;)

    One quick question: How do I get Elroy to disguise as a soldier? No clothes combination works, he doesn't get the "spy hat" icon.

    Also, I've noticed that the game crashes in 2 sectors, namely I8 and H13 upon trying to open the sector inventory. Has anybody else experienced this? I can usually open the inventory just after a fight but it crashes after having opened all crates and lockers.

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    1. For Elroy: you have to take the clothes off an enemy (use a knife on the corpse). I've never tried it myself . . . yet, but will to see if it works.

      I'll check those sectors tomorrow -- it's after 2am here now. Check this message on the Bears Pit Forum: http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&th=22831&goto=347196&#msg_347196

      It links to a fixed Items.xml which might solve your problem while I sleep. :-)

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    2. >One quick question: How do I get Elroy to disguise as a soldier? No clothes combination works, he doesn't get the "spy hat" icon.

      If you are using Ja2+AI.exe, you need to press Ctrl+dot and select "Disguise" in the menu. IF soldier has colors which army uses (admins, regulars or elites) and his clothes are not damaged, he will disguise as soldier (and will always auto disguise later if he drops spy status when uncovered by enemy).

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  24. Thanks for your reply.

    I'm running JA2+AI r236 but don't get that menu option. Militia restock and Militia inspection are there but bottom 2 buttons are unused. How do I unlock it?

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    1. I can't post an image here in the comments, but you should see a menu that has 8 buttons, the bottom four are Militia inspection, Militia restock, unused, unused. The top 4 are Fill canteens, Disguise, Clean guns (Merc), Clean guns (Team).

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  25. Mine has "Bad Vest" on top right... Don't even know what that does. The rest is as normal.

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    1. >Mine has "Bad Vest" on top right
      This means that vest was damaged by hit (has holes and blood on it), so you cannot disguise as spy until you replace it with good vest.

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  26. I'm in awe. Thanks for the rapid response. Now I get immediate feedback if my disguise will hold. Fabulous!

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  27. Hello. Thanks for such great mod. I really enjoy playing it. I think you forgot attach sniper suppressor for Coltcanada C7CT. and mistype accuracy to 740. at version 1.08

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    1. Oops! Will fix for next Update! Thanks!

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    2. Is it possible to play this mod in windows 10.? my old cpu give up on me.

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    3. AV is a mod of 1.13, so if you get 1.13 running then AV will run. There are some extra steps you have to take to get Windows 10 to run the game. Those steps are detailed at the Bears pit here: http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&th=23364&goto=349616&#msg_349616

      AV uses Sevenfm's Experimental EXE, the latest one at this time can be located here: http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&th=21864&goto=350676&#msg_350676 I believe Sevenfm has incorporated The Bob's fix for Windows 10, but I am not sure as I run Win7 and haven't kept up on the Win10 issues. If you have any problem with Sevenfm's EXE let me know. The latest 1.13 EXE, which has The Bob's fix, will not run on AV as AV is based on the 1.13r7609 EXE. However, Sevenfm has been incorporating all the current 1.13 fixes into his EXE, so all should be good.

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    4. Thank you. I do as you said, its work like a charm, not stuttering/slow. Enemy more aggressive and smartass. Clock freeze on enemy turn but its ok (play for 40+ minutes), bearable and not new to me. Hope i can complete this playthrough, never finished it in all version/mod.

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  28. Been playing AV 1.09 for the past couple of days, and I'm up to my neck in the Drassen counter-attack. The enemies sure seem a lot smarter than they were in 1.13. Spent quite a while playing cat and mouse with them in the dark before the main assault hit. I like.

    I'm going to have to stick up for Raven here. Sure, she does have a brattish superiority complex, and she certainly was a cop (only an idiot falls for the "few bad apples" lark, but the "few good apples" one has hopefully not been disproved yet), but I don't think she deserves the Malicious trait. Besides, I think Hitman is a pretty good judge of character.

    Also, at this point in time, Raven's name appears in purple, and there's a purple wine-glass looking icon in her portrait pic. I've never seen it before, and I can't find any info on it. Is it something unique to AV?

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    1. Sevenfm deserves the credit for making the AI smarter -- it's his executable, and he's always updating it. I'm glad you like it.

      I just got finished with the Drassen Counter-Attck -- 72 enemies vs 11 Mercs and 19 Militia. It was a fierce battle but I won. The major new factor I used was Biggins and two dozen mines. Without the mines I would have been toast. Usually, I let the enemy take the mine sector, and when they split up I attack the moving groups, eliminate them, and then retake the mine sector.

      You have a point with Raven, but perhaps Hitman is blinded by her good looks. You can change that Trait in MercProfiles.xml, but it has to be before you start a game.

      The Wineglass on her portrait indicates she has been drinking alcohol. The color of her name also indicates she has been drinking. While it is not unique to AV (in Vanilla only Larry got drunk) I have expanded it so that any Merc can get drunk if there is a bar or liquor shop in the sector.

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    2. Well, his AI is pretty damn good - I decided (for once) to make a stand at Tixla, and my four mercs (plus Shank) spent the entire battle playing hide-and-seek with about thirty of them inside the prison. Most nerve-wracking.

      Something weird I noticed in both the Drassen and Cambria operations - some enemy units seem to get "stuck" inside buildings that they can open during combat, but seems to be locked again once exiting combat mode. Not so much a bug (methinks, at least), but can cause difficulties if you don't know what's going on (I had to move my mercs north from Drassen mine just to get some sleep. It was only when I reloaded the game that the militia got him.

      Also... Sci-fi mode has activated itself after leaving Tixla (even though hitting V still tells me I'm playing on realistic mode - I really hate the sci-fi aspect). I tried fiddling with it... and aaaaargh! Reinstall time. Now nothing works.

      Anyway... the weapons balancing is far better than in the version of 1.13 I played, in my opinion. Shotguns and smgs are now useful again. Expanded facility usage is also nice... but a bit confusing. What does Military Governor do? And who the hell are these "Armas de San Mona" guys?

      Lots of interesting stuff here.

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    3. Yes, Sevenfm has done a good job with the AI. It makes for a very challenging game.

      The AI getting stuck inside locked rooms -- I've got to investigate that one.

      Sci-fi mode has been modified as far as weapons are concerned, but not for the Crepitus and Zombies. I have made all weapons produced before the year 2000 available (there were some only included in sci-fi mode, and I don't see the reason for that). All weapons produced after the year 1999 are sci-fi, and in sci-fi mode can only be found in Orta. What exactly happened in realistic mode that was sci-fi?

      Yes, shotguns and SMGs, as well as pistols and rifles and grenades, have been modified so that all are more balanced and useful (I think). I'm glad you like it!

      Military Governor needs a snitch with high level, leadership and wisdom (5th level, and 42 for both LDR & WIS) -- so the only snitch right out of the starting gate that can become a Military Governor is Leon Roachburn. It affects morale, and local and global Loyalty. I'm thinking of making it also affect mine income.

      The Armas San Mona guys are the gun smugglers working for Tony.

      Enjoy!

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    4. The Crepitus showed up right after I left Tixla - the hole was present in the dungeon (at least I think it's a dungeon) and I ended up there looking for Dynamo. As soon as my mercs left Tixla, the Crepitus attacked Drassen. I thought at first that I had left sci-fi mode on by accident, but the game version still says "realistic". Or did I miss something? I turned Crepitus off in the .ini file after my re-install, but I haven't visited Tixla again... so time will tell.

      Also, I saw someone else on here state that the barkeeps aren't selling any food - I can confirm that. First time round I just (again) thought I had left the food system turned off by accident, but second time round I made sure of it - and still no baked beans for my hard-up mercs (I'm at the stage now where I'm raiding every kitchen on the map for anything that hasn't rotted yet).

      Another thing... the game freezes in tactical whenever a bloodcat ambush happens. The only thing to do is to remove sunglasses or nvg and hotfoot it for the edge - as soon as a bloodcat enters a merc's vision, the game freezes up. Doesn't seem to happen when you enter a map containg bloodcats the normal way, though. I was surprised to find out bloodcats patrol now - there goes my easy agility training.

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    5. I don't know what's up with the Crepitus on Realistic mode. I'll see what I can find out about that.

      I also don't know why the bartenders aren't selling food -- their inventory includes the food items. If you haven't killed the Hicks check on them -- they should sell milk, cow meat and a some other items. There will also be food stored in the Tixa cafeteria and the Alma military cafeteria.

      The freeze during a Bloodcat ambush is a known problem with Sevenfm's executables. He hasn't figured out what is causing it yet, but when he does he'll have a fix for it. The bloodcats don't patrol, exactly, but i did extend their ranges. They are encounterable in a general northward line from their lairs -- yes, there are two lairs now, but only the original lair needs to be cleared out for the quest. Eliminating a lair will eliminate that group of bloodcats and their 'patrol range'.

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    6. OK, I checked their inventories and found a duplicated food item -- and that might be causing the problem. Here's a set of new inventories for the bartenders. Unzip and install all the files into ../Data-AV/TableData/NPCInventory. It can take as long as 2 game days for their inventories to refresh and use the new files. Let me know if this fixes the problem. Thank you! http://www.mediafire.com/file/l1i30mf2ncaglf3/Merchant-Inventories.zip

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  29. nice mod, but still buggy af
    -got ambushed by bloodcats ... crash
    -inventory buggy, crash by lbe gear modifications

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    1. The bloodcat ambush problem is a problem with the Experimental Executable. Sevenfm is working on it. You can revert to the vanilla executable for the ambush, then afterwards go back to Sevenfm's executable. It would be helpful to me if you can detail the inventory crash because I have not experienced it. not knowing what item(s) are causing it makes it virtually impossible to fix.

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  30. Just started playing AV for the first time and allready impressed, even if i'm still in omerta. This seems to became a lot of fun, thanx a lot!
    Since it is my first try, I'm also glueless about some things. For example, i couldn't find out, what's the meaning of these small numbers upon an enemy while i shoot at them (it's two or three numbers in different colours). A while ago I played ARv1.4 (also with NCTH) and that never showed up. I searched this blog and bear-pit forum but find nothing. As I most likely overlooked some entry I would be gratefull for any advice where to find more infos about this.
    As I said, it seems to became a lot of fun. I like the main idea of this mod/tweak and can see that there has been put a lot of work into it. Thank you ! Kitty

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    1. You are welcome! I'm glad you're having fun with it. The numbers that float above the enemy when you shoot at them indicate suppression, shock, AP loss, and/or morale loss. It's basically for modders to use to test their work but since this mod is a 'vacation' I thought it would be nice to give the Player a better sense of how their attacks are affecting the enemy. You can find the associated INI setting in JA2_Options.INI. The colors of the numbers indicate the following:

      light gray - suppression points from attack (they are calculated and shown after attack)
      yellow - shock points from attack
      blue - AP lost from attack
      green - number of morale hit events from attack

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    2. Thank you for the answer and description. I agree with the intention that this will give the player somehow more sense of what is happening to attacked enemies. Hopefully it will give me some hints on how to plan my next moves. I started playing JA2 vanilla in 1999, a few years later I came across UB and DL, which I enjoyed much. I was glad to see that the modding-scene for JA2 is still more then alive nowadays. 1.13 put it on a new level, I guess. AR on 1.13 has been fun, too.
      But since we are talking about nearly 20 years of development it is nearly impossible for someone new to 1.13 to find out which new features are implented, what they mean and how to use them correctly. I spent literally days in the bear-bit forum to get a small insight. Most things i find out by fortune, e.g. i haven't known about the ai+fix for 7609 by sevenfm (thanx to him) until you mentioned in your installation description that it's in the exe. In AR i spent hours trying to merge and create things until i realized that this wouldn't be able for all of what i've seen in forum or youtube since 7609 is not ready for all of them. I still haven't found out whats the use of oil, and I tried to merge with alcohol or fuel - which seemed the logical solution.
      So again, thanks for description. Only with this I can make any use out of it. Part of the fun at mods for me is also to find out what is possible.
      Your mod seem to be a whole new world for me and thats nice, i guess the vanilla campaign can be done blindfolded by me - so new stuff is good. And even being a noob, i can see that there is a lot of effort put on details, etc.
      Hope you will go on and best whishes, Kitty


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    3. Yes, a comprehensive guide would be very nice -- which is why I started this blog, but as you see it has fallen behind the development of this mod. I hope to get this blog updated before the end of the year.
      As for merges, in AV oil can be combined with alcohol and then combined with a rag to make a Smoky Molotov. Alcohol is the base item, oil merges with it, and then you add the rag. In AV you can also put marbles in a jar and then add C1/C4 to make a fragmentation grenade.

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  31. I just started playing and i love the mod already, but i have some performance issues. The game gets sluggish during real-time turns, but only if there are still enemies in the sector. Turn-based works flawless. This doesn't happen in every sector and i noticed it at first when i entered Drassen Airport, so it could be related to Towns. To be fair i use an old PC and run this on Linux, but 1.13 usually runs on this without issues, even AIMNAS with those big maps.

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    1. I started this mod on Linux so know it used to run better on Linux than it does on Windows. While there has been changes to the file sizes, and some have grown large, I think the main suspect here is the modified AI of Sevenfm's executable. The AI now takes a lot more into account, and has more decisions to make. Sevenfm added some performance enhancements in r515, but it may not be enough for an old machine. Try using the vanilla 7609 executable and let me know if the performance issues continue or not. If not, then we know it's the new executable, and we can inform Sevenfm with the specifics.

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  32. You are right, it's the AI and there are no issues with the vanilla 7609 exe. Because you mentioned performance enhancements, i now test the new r540. The annoucement mentioned a reduction of roofclimbing for the green AI, which might help. After replaying the Airport battle i think it got somewhat better, but it doesn't completely fix the issue.

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    Replies
    1. I notified Sevenfm and we'll see what he comes up with. He might have some ideas on INI tweaks to help.

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    2. If you can send a savegame that would help him figure out what's slowing things down. Upload the file to a file sharing site. Thanks!

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    3. http://www.mediafire.com/file/sxbooaans4yoe3k/SaveGame02.sav

      To better describe the issue: these are like minifreezes where the mouse or the movement of a soldier stops for a moment. I notice this when i move the mouse and it makes a small jump.

      the PC is a singlecore AMD Sempron LE-1250 with 2.2 Ghz and 4 GB DDR2 SDRAM

      So this is really legacy hardware and i don't expect too much. I just use it to run some old classics. Linux often works better with them than the new versions of Windows.

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    4. Sevenfm has released a new executable that improves realtime performance. You can read about here (download link is in his signature): http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&th=21864&goto=351693&#msg_351693

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  33. Hello Only Ed! I would like to send greetings and a big THANKS from Germany for an outstanding, beautiful, immersive an very well balanced mod which takes JA2 1.13 to new heights. Please keep up the great work! Regards, Joerg

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