Miscellaneous

 Updated 19 March 2016

Here are Tweaks not covered on other pages . . .

miscellaneous does not mean inconsequential.

This page has not yet been fully updated to reflect changes in v1.06 in Arulco Vacations

Skill Settings INI:

Squadleader: Bonuses Radius Normal raised to the Arulco Vacations value of Base Sight Range: from 10 to 15. Base Sight Range itself is raised from 13 to 15 in JA2_Options.INI to compensate for increased Cover System Tree Effectiveness, which is raised from 50 to 60 so it is a little harder to see through, and shoot through, walls and rocks and things. These don't cancel out, rather it allows for better sighting when the target is moving between points of cover.

Doctor: Medical Bag Consumption By Surgery reduced from 100 to 75 50 (for v1.04d) 25 (for v1.07). Natural Regeneration In Sector Bonus raised from 10 to 15. Changes are based on my own experience as a medic, and my in-game experience. As a field medic you would never use up all your supplies if you had no way to replenish immediately. Note, instruments and medical tools are never 'used up', and having them is half the battle. As well, combat medics (and street medics, which I am) learn to use whatever is available, conventional or not (think MacGyver for medical). Hospital-type medics (Para-, EMT, Nurse, Doctor) are extremely wasteful in comparison, and much less attentive to their patients -- not the least reason of which is because a field medic's own life is at stake.

Throwing: For v1.07 added the following bonuses from the Demolitions Skill to the Throwing Skill: CTH When Throwing Grenades = 15, APs Needed To Throw Grenades Reduction = 15 and Max Range To Throw Grenades = 10. While throwing knives and grenades demand different techniques the Throwing Skill being limited to knives was much too restrictive. Note that the numerical value for each tag is reduced from that found in the original Skill.

Athletics: This skill, like Throwing, was much too weak. I added APs Needed To Throw Grenades Reduction = 15 from the Demolitions Skill, Throw Blades APs Reduction = 10 from the Throwing Skill, APs Climb Or Jump Reduction = 15, APs Change Stance Reduction = 15, & APs Turn Around Reduction = 15 from the Martial Arts Skill, and from the Melee Skill I added Bonus Chance To Dodge Blades = 15, and Bonus Chance To Dodge Blunt Weapons = 10. Note that the numerical value for each tag is reduced from that found in the original Skill.

I wanted to do the above, but it is impossible without code changes . . . sigh.

Reputation Settings INI:

Reputation Battle Lost reduced from -3 to -2, Reputation Town Lost reduced from -5 to -4 to allow for Hit-and-Run and Raid tactics. Reputation Soldier Captured made the same as Reputation Soldier Killed (hey, nobody wants torture over a quick death, yo -- well, except maybe Skitz & Reuben). Reputation Killed Civilian increased from -5 to -10 (you become international bad news when you kill civilians)."Soldier" here refers to your Mercs.

Morale Settings INI:

Morale Killed Enemy raised from 4 to 5. Morale Did Lots Of Damage raised from 2 to 5. Morale Malicious Hit raised from 1 to 2. Morale Battle Won raised from 4 to 5. Morale Ran Away lowered from -3 to -2. Morale Heard Battle Won raised from 2 to 3. Morale Town (sector) Liberated raised from 5 to 6. Morale Town (sector) Lost lowered from -5 to -4. Morale Mine Liberated raised from 8 to 9. Morale Mine Lost lowered from -8 to -7. Morale SAM Site Liberated raised from 3 to 5. Morale SAM Site Lost lowered from -3 to -2. Morale Hated Died lowered from 5 to -1 (anybody dies it is not good for the team, yo). Morale Low Death Rate raised from 5 to 6. Morale Queen Battle Won raised from 8 to 9. Morale Bad Equipment lowered from -2 to -3. Drug Effect Morale raised from 150 to 175. Alcohol Morale Effect raised from 175 to 186. Morale Mod Max (hourly) raised from 50 to 66. Morale Modifier Optimist raised from 1 to 2. Morale Modifier Dauntless Squadmate Died lowered from 3 to -1 (anybody dies it is bad). These and the Reputation changes allow for more Hit-and-Run and Raid tactics while still penalizing for Mercs getting killed.

For v1.05 I am considering adjusting these even more.

MercProfiles.XML:


The next few are RPC tweaks (Recruitable Player Character). As RPCs they are a little different than your regular out-and-out Merc PC (Player Character) -- but once recruited they are basically the same . . . almost, kind of, sort of . . .

Shank and Dynamo are very interesting characters that many Players (including myself, of course) want to have hang around a while -- judging from online comments. However, both are seriously deficient in certain areas. What I have done is tweak their Attributes a little in order to make them more survivable as mercenaries, and believable as characters.

Shank -- the main things I did for Shank: I increased his Dexterity from 43 to 83 (reflecting that perhaps he got his nickname because he's good with knives . . .), increased his Strength from a totally horrible 31 to a very weak 41, and increased his Mechanical from an outright unfit-to-make-a-shank 11 to a workable-but weak 41. I did not touch his Skills -- he has Throwing and Demolitions. At his vanilla stats you couldn't trust him to throw a grenade far enough not to blow himself up, or even a knife far enough to hit anybody that wasn't standing within arm's reach. As for attaching detonators to bombs . . . I don't even want to think about that with a Mechanical of 11. Consider that even with these changes he has half the points in Attributes that a starting Level 1 Player Character gets. For v1.06, I took away his Demolitions Skill and replaced it with Hand-To-Hand -- in keeping with his 'shank-ness'. I also upped his stats a bit to be more in line with the rest of the characters in the game -- though not quite on a par with them. His native 80 Wisdom means he can learn fast -- but there's not much time left by the time you get him, so don't waste time!

Dynamo -- is a bit better all-around than Shank, but still a bit shy of 2/3 of a starting first level PC. That actually isn't too bad considering the vanilla stats of other RPCs in the game, including A.I.M. & M.E.R.C. mercenaries. So all I did for Dynamo to make him more like he claims to be is raise his Mechanical from 67 to 77, his Dexterity from 67 to 77, Strength from 55 to 73, and Wisdom from 78 to 84. I also raised his Leadership a bit to 35, to reflect his reputation in Alma, and tweaked his other stats a tiny bit.That puts him basically at what a starting PC in Skill points has. It also enables him to be a decent mechanic, but still not the dynamo he claims to be.

A far-reaching, probably controversial, but exceedingly minor, tweak made concerns Medical and Mechanical skills. Any and all A.I.M. mercenaries (and some others, see below) that did not have at least 10 in Medical or Mechanical got that Skill raised to 10 -- which is still exceedingly inept. At least with a 10 they can put a band-aid on, and maybe actually unjam a jammed weapon -- two things they must have done numerous times at some point in their mercenary careers. These two skills are connected in real-life. That seems to have not been known by the original game designers. A good medic is a passable mechanic, and a good mechanic is a passable medic. Note that I didn't say they'd be good at both -- just passable, meaning, the mechanic can fix an obvious medical problem (laceration, broken bone, etc), and the medic can fix an obvious mechanical problem (jammed weapon, faulty flak jacket, etc). A Skill level of 10 is still not passable, but at least it's a start.

M.E.R.C. mercenaries, on the other hand, are meant to be absurdly comical characters in contrast to the just plain comical characters of A.I.M. -- so I did not raise M.E.R.C. mercenaries' Medical or Mechanical Skills. As I said, it is only a very minor tweak, but it affects quite a number of characters -- and for that alone it might be controversial even though it doesn't amount to a hill of beans. This tweak extends to Ira, Devin, Kingpin, Maria & Angel DaSilva, Damon, Kyle, Pablo, Father John, Fatima, The Warden, Fred, Layla, Jake, Dave, Skipper, Hans, The General, The Sergeant, Franz, Howard, Sam, Elgin, Arnie, Tina, Jenny, Waldo, Doreen, Oswald, Calvin, Carl, and Manuel. Admittedly, except for Ira & Manuel, who are RPCs, this tweak doesn't matter in the least. I did it simply for obsessive-compulsive sake.

Still more! Some NPC (Non Player Character) tweaks here: the Terrorists and the Kingpin's Assassins have all been tweaked a little in their ability scores -- see the Terrorists page for more info on them, but be aware that page is a major spoiler. If you don't want to spoil the surprise then it is enough to know that the Terrorists were all tweaked a bit in their skills and attributes to make them more compatible with their biographies. The Kingpin's Assassins were all individualized as to weapons and skills, and their Background was modified when I modified all the backgrounds (see below). I'll leave it at that for now. Suffice it to say that I prefer competent foes, and I hope you do too. That is what makes for good role-play.

Kingpin's accomplices, the named NPCs such as Damon Warrick (his bodyguard), have also been given skills -- and have been given Backgrounds also. In fact, Kingpin and Queen Deidranna were both given Squadleader to reflect the morale effects they would have on their underlings while alive and also when killed. I would have thought that was a given, but evidently not. There are a lot of NPCs without skills so I have assigned appropriate skills to them. That is the substance of role-play. There are still a few minor civilian characters that need a little tweak.

For v1.04 I also raised the Level of certain very important NPCs. Characters like Tony, Kingpin and the Queen (!) got Level adjustments, as well as their main underlings. This will make them more competent, dangerous, and believable. Things just got a lot more serious in Arulco Vacations!

Speaking of which . . . be advised that San Mona is more dangerous a place than is usually the case in JA2. However, the rewards are greater as well.

Having NPCs with appropriate Traits, Skills, Levels and Backgrounds rounds out their characters and enhances the role-play aspect of the game without resorting to gamey AI cheats.

Check out the Mercenaries page for more tweaks to the recruitable mercs from A.I.M. and M.E.R.C..



Item_Settings.INI:

I instituted a change from one of the new v1.13 releases into this Tweak -- it increases the rate of fire of shotguns because it was deemed too slow as is. I agree. It's part of a very comprehensive change in a new release that also modifies the Hunter and Ranger skills. The specific changes I use here brings shotgun rate of fire up to equal with their non-shotgun counter-parts as it was in the original game.


CTHConstants.INI

OK, here we go! This file controls a whole host of Chance To Hit variables for the NCTH (New Chance To Hit) system! After much game-play and much play-testing I have decided to tweak some of these variables to smooth out some of the niggling little annoyances that crop up from time to time. I also had my ear to the ground (different JA2 forums) on what the more vocal Players have had to say about NCTH, good and bad.

I decreased the aperture and vertical bias a little bit. This tweak made a negligible impact on game-play. Statistically, I imagine it is definitely measurable, but the feel of game-play was not changed. What it means is that the distance vertically and horizontally a shot will miss the target is little less. The impetus for this change was to lessen the times a prone shooter will shoot into the ground a few feet from where they are. Also, to decrease the distance a wide shot will be from the target. This will cause more shots to be closer to the target, but not so much as you will notice the difference in the heat of battle.

What did make a noticeable difference has to do with a host of other tweaks within this INI file. First, Experience. I agree with what some Players have mentioned on the forum that Experience did not seem to matter with the older Mercs -- that their extensive experience did not equate into alleviating the massive penalties that age levies against their Agility & Dexterity. In other words, they couldn't hit the side of a barn when standing 10 meters away. So, in effect, what sense would it be to hire these elder mercenaries?

As well, I increased the effect Marksmanship and Wisdom have, while decreasing the effect Dexterity has. The reasoning here is that Dexterity is about minor adjustments on the same target. The game system here is not so fine-tuned that it matters where you hit within the torso, head or legs -- just that you do hit. Wisdom and Experience go hand-in-hand; Experience is not helpful if one does not have the Wisdom to learn from it. Together they aid a shooter in knowing when to fire, how to follow a moving target, and what is the best shot to take under the present circumstances. Therefore, an elder shooter with low Wisdom will not have their Experience matter as much as an elder with high Wisdom. Keep in mind that an elder also has Agility & Dexterity penalties, therefore making them unable to perform as well as they did when younger. These changes also mean that a Mercenary in his prime who is of a mid-to-high Experience, and not deficient in Wisdom, will perform as expected. At least, how I expect they should perform.

That leaves Marksmanship and how all of these tweaks perform together. I am of the opinion that Marksmanship did not have enough of an effect in gameplay until it reached very high levels. I am sure there must be a statistical effect, but I could not see any advantage of a 70 Marksmanship over a 60, and not much more effect than a 50. One shouldn't have to have 90+ Marksmanship for it to make a noticeable effect. Therefore I increased the value of Marksmanship in the overall computations. I also increased the value that all of these particular changes had as a group upon overall accuracy.

While it may seem as if I increased accuracy a lot by these changes, that is not the actual case in gameplay. The OCTH (Old Chance To Hit) system is still far more accurate, unrealistically accurate, than my tweaked NCTH. But now Mercs with high ability scores and experience will perform noticeably better than than they did previously.

The last tweaks I made in this file concern being within a gas cloud without a mask, and being under the influence of alcohol. I increased the penalties in both cases. My experiences as a street medic in regards to Pepper Spray and Tear Gas indicate that staying within a cloud of these substances greatly increases the effects they have, and greatly reduces one's ability to do anything, even run. The effects on the eyes and lungs are enough to make it extremely difficult, if not impossible for most people, to aim with any accuracy. Prolonged repetitive experience with either chemical does indeed lessen their effects -- but maybe that tweak, if it can be made, should go with the Psycho Disability . . .

As for drunkeness . . . yes, I am one who can claim to have drank enough alcohol in my life to float a battleship. While I don't doubt there are people who can still shoot accurately while drunk . . . most people only think they can. Perhaps those that actually can should fall under the Psycho Disability. Being drunk increases tunnel vision and decreases the ability to perceive what is going on around you. In the heat of battle this is Not A Good Thing (tm). It also adversely effects one's Wisdom, Experience, Agility and Dexterity. A drunk Merc is a danger to everyone.

Hmm . . . perhaps a little tweak to the Psycho Disability is in order for later on. That said . . . in v1.06 I reduced the penalty for base chance to hit for Psychos from -3 to -2, and the base chance to aim was reduced from -5 to -2.


Backgrounds.XML

I don't consider any character, or game resource for that matter, to be a throw-away or useless. Why have them in the game if they are useless? The joke never gets played unless they get used, y'know. So everyone needs to be useful somehow, some way, some when.

Looking through the Backgrounds.XML file I noticed that resistance to fear, suppression and physical bonuses, and to a lesser extent penalties, were not equitably distributed among the different backgrounds. Military, mercenary, law enforcement, gang members, bouncers, mobsters, and a few other professions that deserve a bonus in some or all of these regards were glaringly absent -- in comparison to the few that had these bonuses. This could be because SUPPRESSION and MIN_DISTANCE_FRIENDLY_SUPPRESSION are options that have to be turned on in JA2_Options.INI. Full suppression is definitely necessary to have turned on in Arulco Vacations. Therefore I went through the file and added appropriate bonuses. Of course, I couldn't stop there, and began enhancing all the Backgrounds in appropriate ways. On the other end of the scale some Backgrounds deserved penalties, and were given them. All of the Backgrounds of Arulco Vacations are greatly enhanced.

As mentioned elsewhere on this site, I have added Renegade, Black Bloc (direct action protester), and Con Artist backgrounds to this file. The new backgrounds are available for I.M.P. use, and Renegade is also used for the Commander Shepard RPC. I have also added Arulcan Rebel, Daredevil and Athlete for I.M.P. use, and removed Hypochondriac from I.M.P. use (Hurl still has it, no worries there) -- as after I had appropriately modified it I imagine nobody would ever want it for their I.M.P.. As well, Peeper has been modified into Stalker in order to give it more . . . uh . . . I.M.P. appeal. For v1.04 I also added Extreme Athlete, Circus Artist, Mad Slasher, Serial Killer, Punk, Surveillance Expert, and Mob Hitman backgrounds for I.M.P.s.

I have enhanced the RPC & I.M.P. backgrounds in other regards to intensify the role-play aspect of the game -- keeping in mind always that stereotypes are the foundation of JA2 characters. Enhancing the Backgrounds is not in itself a daunting task, but keeping all the different Backgrounds equitable is quite difficult. But consider that these Backgrounds were already inequitable -- for example, when the Spotter Skill was added to the game a few of the Backgrounds got bonuses for spotting. However, no Background got a penalty -- thereby making non-military professions such as Office Worker as good a spotter as military professions such as Veteran Mercenary. That is no longer the case in Arulco Vacations.

Making things even muddier is the fact that some designers have used Backgrounds to put bonuses and penalties on specific individuals which have no relation at all to their actual background. Instead, these modifiers are reflections of their in-game persona, Character Disability, Character Skill or Character Trait. Another whirlpool in the muddy water are the Backgrounds that are only half the story -- such as Pops McGillicutty having only the Undertaker when he is also a Veteran Mercenary. That happens a lot and is a disservice to the characters and to the Players. When the Players wonder why Pops, the highest level mercenary in the game, does not perform as expected even considering his advanced age it is because he was only given the modifiers of an undertaker. Then there are characters whose Backgrounds are entirely wrong -- such as Flo who is listed as an Arms Dealer when she is explicitly described as an Accountant (which is a new background just for Flo, so far). The entire set of Backgrounds is compromised in this manner, inequitable, and in desperate need of refinement. What I am doing now to enhance them will probably still result in some imbalance, but it will certainly have more solid foundation than what is there now.

Unlike traditional role-playing games with clearly defined character classes, JA2 v1.13's Backgrounds are but one part of what defines that which we can call a 'JA2 v1.13 character class' (but don't). Character Traits, Character Skills, and Character Disabilities are just as important a consideration in determining what exactly a 'character class' is in JA2 v1.13. As well, of lesser influence, but still important factors, are Appearance, Refinement, Race, Racism, Sexism, Carelevels, Nationality and Hated Nationality. All of this makes JA2 v1.13's 'character class system' the most unique and powerful role-playing system in all of gaming. It is completely free-form and totally non-linear. That means that keeping it 'real' is truly a Herculean Task for the game designer. I imagine that this difficulty is the reason why many modders choose to skim over this part of the game in favour of gun porn. But the rewards possible for the Player are just as equally Herculean as the difficulties are for the designer. My current tweaks of this role-playing sub-system of the game have just begun. Further enhancements and refinements will definitely be required down the road after I get feedback from the Players.

In v1.04 I have given a few appropriate Mercs the Drug Use tag to indicate they are more than favourably disposed to getting drunk and/or high, and will do so when the opportunity presents itself. I also fixed a couple of omissions to a couple characters' backgrounds that I somehow missed updating: most notably Carl "It" Goodman did not get the update I intended for him (see the Mercenaries page), and I also expanded Kirk "Static" Stevenson's & Louisa "Buzz" Garneau's backgrounds to include the fact that they are also Veteran Mercenaries.

For v1.05 I have finetuned the Backgrounds.XML -- adjusting bonuses and penalties to be more equitable across the board, giving better combat bonuses to the miltary backgrounds, adjusting and adding modifiers to the Approach interactions (Friendly, Direct, Threaten & Recruit). A majority of backgrounds had no modifiers for their Approach interactions, but for v1.05 this is no longer the case -- every background now has a modifier in one or more types of approach. There is still more adjusting to be done, but you will find the character backgrounds are much more robust in Arulco Vacations then in other mods.

If you have an idea for a Character Background, don't hesitate to drop me a note. You can do it here on this page in the Comment Field below, or on the Impressions Page, or on Facebook, or at The Bear's Pit.


Mike: for v1.05 I have included a scripting fix for Mike written by 'merc05' from The Bear's Pit. You can read about it here at the relevant thread. Basically it fixes the glitch of being able to hire him immediately.

DeliveryOptions.XML

For v1.05 there is another Arulcan delivery option - Cambria. The Delivery building in Cambria that is locked and trapped is now run by a Rebelista, and Bobby Ray's shipments can be found in the crate under the Shipments sign inside the building. Note, the building is only open from 9am to 9pm, as the Rebelista there locks (and traps) the doors for the night. The cost of shipments is higher for Cambria than Drassen, but then there's no airport and Bobby Ray's has to arrange overland delivery through not-so-legitimate means.

There have also been changes to the delivery list that are merely cosmetic -- other non-functional delivery options on the Bobby Ray's menu have been modified to include real-life mercenary hotspots around the world -- and places like Miami & Paris have been removed. I will mention here that Bobby Ray's is obviously not a legal business . . . independents selling military weapons, explosives and gear to mercenaries is not exactly something governments around the world approve. That it is a shady business also rationalizes the extremely high rices at Bobby Ray's.

More documentation coming soon!