Hi and thank you for your efforts in improving the game!

I need a clarification on how the command line parameters works: using them will ENABLE their respective effects or will RESTORE the original behaviour?

To set things straight, in a fully (unofficially) pached JA installation:
- using "JA.EXE" will run the 1.13b version
- using "JAX115.EXE" will run the 1.15x version, without gameplay-affecting features
- using "JAX115.EXE <PARAMETER>" will run 1.15 with a specific enhancement ENABLED

Is that correct?



And since we're here: which parameter combo would be the more appropriate for a newcomer, not so interested in quirky behaviours?

HEALTHY (bandages restore mercs capabilities instead of penalizing them) => will make the game more fair (easier?)
AIM (chance-to-hit algorithm changed to linear) => will make the game more predictable (and less exploitable)
AIR (make gasmasks useful against mustard gas) => will make the game more fair (and inventory management more critical)
GEAR (fixes missing enemy armor) => will make the game work as intended (harder?)
INV (set initial armor values) => will work on top of GEAR, no substantial impact on difficulty

From the later part of your message (according to explanations of parameters effecs) it seems that you actually know the answer, but still: yes, those parameters are optional bug fixes that player could enable if he want by adding them to command line; otherwise original behavior will be used.

Yes, tho {using "JAX115.EXE <PARAMETER1> <PARAMETER2> ... <PARAMETERn>} more clear way i guess.

Sorry, cant answer here without "quirky behaviours" being actually defined.

HEALTHY will make a game significantly easier;
AIM, beside of mentioned above, adds small penalty to a far (outside of actual view range) shots players often use in late game, so make it slightly harder;
AIR could be exploited by player, and of little help for enemies, due to low amount of Mustard at player disposal;
GEAR make game significantly harder {typical late game scenario: player spot some heavy-weapon high-level enemy with spotter and shoot him 3 times with a sniper outside of enemy view distance (so no interrupt is possible) with rifle/mod pistol, then spotter do a finishing shot; with each hit yield 20-25 dmg. no GEAR enabled - enemy reliably die without any responce; GEAR enabled - enemy got 0 damage, and ready to action}.
INV on top of GEAR will make game even more harder, because afffected enemies will always get the best possible armor for them, no matter the random roll outcome affected by game progress.

This is a very basic question. I've only done a cursory search, but neither the wiki nor the Bear's Pit turned up a concrete answer: What are the stats of the JA1 weapons?

Back in the day, I assumed that the caliber of guns was a factor, and hence the .357 was better than the 9mm and the M-14 better than the M-16, but that doesn't seem to be the case?

That is not very basic question, you have to define "better" first. Say, Magnum do more average damage per shot than Beretta, while Beretta could do more damage per turn; while M-16 outperform M-14 in all senses. From where you get the mentioned "doesn't seem to be the case"? wiki (assuming its that weird JaWiki) or Bear's Pit have very limited info about JA1, little reason to check there.

Wasn't it you who wrote that the theoretical maximum damage per shot is done by a M-16, when talking about shooting locks? Another post I read said the 9mm only did its surprisingly high damage because of the armor bug, so I assume it's good due to its faster firing rate, but it may do less damage per shot than the .357.

I thought it's a basic question since I assume the weapon stats are available in the strategy guide, so anyone who has it could post them; nevertheless, they don't seem to be available on any JA1 site.

What weapon stats are there? range, damage, AP cost, magazine size? Are there any further differences? What difference does upgrading them with the metal chunk make?

Mind you, I haven't played JA1 in 25 years, but the 1.15 patch looks like exactly the thing to inspire another playthrough. I'd just like to understand the game mechanics better beforehand.

I dont know, maybe they are, i dont have a strategy guide and never had a chance to read it beside some pages, available in other thread here. Also note that from the data posted on wiki, supposedly originating from that guide, clearly show that some mechanics were changed after it went to print, so work other way in actual game.

Ok, Ill write a small table about their stats, but real answer should require a lengthy explanations of the actual effect of those stats; aiming, firing, hitting etc. As the result doesnt looks like worthy investment from me, i will not write a long answer, it doesnt really needed in just some "another playthrough", only for high-tier attempts.

Name............. Amm Rte Evd Rng Dmg Fsv Isv Type

.38 Revolver...... 6..... 6.... 6..... 10....20...10...4.. P
Colt .45............... 6..... 7.... 7..... 11....22...11...4.. i
9mm Beretta.... 15... 9.... 8..... 12....24...12...5.. s
.357 Magnum... 10... 8.... 9..... 13....26...13...5.. t
Modified .45...... 6..... 7.... 8..... 13....26...12 ..5.. o
Modified 9mm.. 15... 9.... 9..... 14....28...13...5.. l
Modified .357... 10... 8... 10... 15....30...14...6.. s
.12g Shotgun.... 6..... 5.... 9...... 16....36...14...6. Shotgun
.12g Rifle........... 6..... 8.... 10... 18....32...15...7.. R
M14 Rifle........... 20... 9.... 11... 20...34...16...7.. i
M16 Rifle........... 20.. 10.. 12... 25...36...17...7.. f
Mod. 12g Rifle.. 6.... 8..... 11... 20...36...16....8.. l
Modified M14... 20.. 9.... 12... 25....38...17...8.. e
Modified M16... 20.. 10.. 13... 30....40...18...8.. s
Knife................... NA.. 7..... NA... 1.....20...0.....0. Knife
Combat Knife... NA.. 6..... NA... 1.....30...0.....0. Knife

Name: successful applying of ChunkOfSteel to a weapon "X" create a "Modified X" weapon
(.38 Revolver, .12g Shotgun, Modified weapons and knives cannot be modified).

Ammo (Amm): amount of ammo loaded by clip. Also affect the chance to damage a gun while firing - the more ammo in clip, the less chance is.

RateOfFire (Rte): value affecting the amount of AP firing/stabbing will require - the more value is, the less AP used.

EvadePenalty (Evd): value affecting the chance to evade a shot for a target - the more value is, the less chance (note, evade chance exist only for targets who moved and/or see a shooter, its not a static bonus to hit per se).

Range (Rng): Actual range for a knives, default effective range for a guns (in squares, equal to "flashing cursor" range in game). Shots, fired on targets out of actual effective range will get their accuracy halved (actual effective range also affected by SunGoggles/SniperScope, so could actually be farther than "flashing cursor" suggest). Also default effective range affect dissipation of damage over distance - the more value is, the slower dissipation is.

DamageModfier (Dmg): value affecting the damage weapon hit will yield - the more value is, the more damage on average a weapon will do (note, individual hits can deviate heavy, so weapon with lesser value could outperform other with larger one on a certain given hit).

Fire & Impact SoundVolume (Fsv & Isv): distance from source to detect a corresponding sound. Silencer could reduce FireSoundVolume up to 1 (depends on its condition), but do not affect ImpactSoundVolume (Impact bug also seriously reduces effectiveness of them, see 1.15 readme).

WeaponType (Type): affect the amount of AP required to start an attack (change of visuals) [pistol = 1 AP; shotgun/rifle = 2 AP; knife = 0 AP]. Also affect the breath spending on a shot/stab: pistol < rifle < shotgun < knife (being a shotgun have no other effect for a weapon).

Also weapon's condition could affect its damage/accuracy.

I fail to see a reason for that condition as the question was:

"What are the stats of the JA1 weapons? "

The section
"Back in the day, I assumed that the caliber of guns was a factor,
and hence the .357 was better than the 9mm and the M-14 better than the M-16,
but that doesn't seem to be the case?"

Is obviously only an explanation why the question was asked,
and also appears a reference to users definition of "better" for weapons IRLm instead of inGame weapons,
as in JA1 the M16 with crappy 5.56x45 has iirc a range of 25 assigned and does a lot more damage
than the m14 with range 20 assigned, although it fires the more powerful 7.62x51


Besides, the best weapon in the battle vs Santino and his goons is certainly the players brain.

If i got it right, you assume "caliber of guns" in mention is of some their "real life analogues"? Then if its true, and was also a real intent by original poster - that explain it then. I dont know the performance of "real life analogues" and do they match their in-game representations or not, so i got it (likely wrong) as only their in-game mention by names, without a hint why one being treated as "better" than other provided. In any case, as seen from the table, some weapons could be better in something, while being worse in other.

Thanks DarzaR, I do appreciate the effort.

Yes, I was talking about the real-life differences between various calibers earlier. If you know a bit about guns the difference between the M-14 and M-16 in the game is very counter-intuitive.

It's also good to know what the difference between normal and modified guns is.

is this the old DOS game JA 1 ?
i know of patches and 'mods' from fanistes/modsites tried some but only problems, so i will avoid all those fan/mod sites with the socalled solutions that solve things :D

As more and more people worldwide have to spend their time at home, i decided to release a patch update, so they have an additional opportunity to spend that time more productively. Updated links to ver. 1.15y are in the first post.

I guess its something with image mounting, as it looks like pretty much the same problem as described in http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&amp;th=17678&amp;start=0& . But in this case it should mean that GOG installation will have the same problem aswell without applying patch, and its supposedly should arise earlier as a problem to somebody else. Personally i cant easily reproduce it tho (and also not have a GOG version to check), as in case of intentional non-mounting of CD image game simply not starting due to CD-ROM error (thats being pretty reasonable unlike a described crashing).

Thus:
1. Can you confrim that clear fresh install from GOG work well (goes past laptop etc) without applying patch? And what version it shows with "v"?
2. Can you post a mounting line from that "dosboxja_single" file here?
3. In case solution in that link do work, can you please confirm it?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the quick answer!

1. Yes, I can play well with a fresh install from GOG. And I can also play well with the patch 1.13b which I installed from the link where the 1.15y patch is. When I press "v" it shows me :Realease v1.13b Sep 07-95.

When I start the 1.15 patch, it shows me: Realease v1.15y Feb 20-20.

2. Thats all that is written in "dosboxja_single":

[IPX]
ipx=false

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.

@ECHO OFF
mount C ".."
mount C "..\cloud_saves" -t overlay
imgmount d "..\ja1.gog" -t iso -fs iso
c:
goto launcher

:launcher
cls
ECHO ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ&I acute;ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ&Iacut e;ÍÍÍÍÍ»
ECHO º ------------------------------------------ º
ECHO º Jagged Alliance Launcher º
ECHO º ------------------------------------------ º
ECHO º 1) Jagged Alliance º
ECHO º 2) Game DOS Settings º
ECHO º ------------------------------------------ º
ECHO º 3) exit program º
ECHO º ------------------------------------------ º
ECHO ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ&Iacut e;ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ&Iac ute;ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ&I acute;ÍÍͼ

choice /c123 /s Which program do you want to run? [1-3]: /n
if errorlevel 3 goto exit
if errorlevel 2 goto setup
if errorlevel 1 goto game

:game
cls
ja.exe
goto exit

:setup
cls
SETSOUND.EXE
goto launcher

:exit
exit


When I start with the 1.15y patch, i change under ":game" ja.exe to jay115.exe.


3. As far as I can see, the CD is mounted. But I am not sure, if it is done right. This is where my knowledge and understanding of Dosbox ends...

Well, if it works without patch obviously the mounting is working then, just description coincidentally pretty much matched one in that link.

4. "I remembered that there was already a premade starting team on savefile 1. Loading this works, but I cannot do anything then. All items are invisible, Mr Lucas' video message is without text and starting the day anyways results in another blackscreen."

Can you please try to load a saved game and try to proceed to other game screen without need to touching Laptop?

5. "But when I try to open the laptop, the game crashes back to desktop. "

It close all the dosbox-related windows in process and there is no some error message to catch in result?

UPD:

Ok, forget it, i managed to reproduce. The similarity of "Laptop crash" in that link misguided me too much.

Try to add lines

[CPU]
core=normal

in that dosboxja_single, please.