Byeohazard: Thanks for the post robobrien! I tried the 1.12 but it tells me that I do not have JA2 Gold installed on my system. I think I may have tried the 1.13 mod quite some time ago but do not recall if it changed gameplay far beyond "fixes". I may try the mod again..you recomend it? I wonder what the general thoughts on the 1.13 are for someone starting anew.
Thanks!
For some reason i briefly thought the version i playing was my old JA2 cd, it's not i have the Gold version on Steam...so yeah you will need that one.
1.13 is a must for me now, i think if you play through JA2 vanilla (which still rocks!) and want more then definitely give it a try. Some of the things it adds...
Higher resoultion, added weather effects, totally new inventory system, weapons, gear, items, you can configure a ton of options to your own taste, order miltia to points on the map or have them patrolling.
The A.I is much improved, enemies will flank, snipe, use supressing fire and actively use higher ground - climbing onto rooftops or getting their ass off one.
You can create more than one custom merc and have total control of his/her abilities.
Once you take Drassen though their is the infamous 'Drassen Attack' where you will have a short time to prepare for what is a pretty hectic firefight :) There is a way to disable it though if you find it to tough.
So while 1.13 adds a whole bunch of content (and their are many other total conversions that use 1.13) it will make the game harder than previous plus all the new items and gear can intially be a pain to wade through and sort out.