Jagged Alliance Two. Okay, something major has to be alterable in this game, or it is UNplayable.
Either you get LOTS more money, at least a few more action points, or you get the ability to apply medical care BEFORE the entire screen is clear of enemies.

The absolute requirement to do a bug hunt and clear the screen of enemies, while several of your mercenaries are wounded and slowly dying, just ruins
this game. It's like a hunk of steak with huge bits of broken glass inside.

Not only not fun, but actually makes you want to hunt down the game
designer and stab them in the face, over and over again.

So. HOW do you set the game so that you can apply medical care BEFORE all the enemies have been cleared?

No matter how much you push up Marksmanship, you miss at least 75% of the time, while enemies HIT you 75% of the time, on the EASIEST SETTING?

Please tie the designer to a chair, pour lighter fluid in his eye sockets, and set it on fire.

Take over a mine quickly to increase your income.

Don't let your mercs' energy drop too low. Mercs with energy will have fewer APs

You can apply medical care to mercs during combat. Just give a merc with good medical skill a first aid kit (or med kit) and use it on the wounded merc. (equip and aim as if it were a gun) This will not restore their hitpoints but it will stop them from bleeding to death.

Using a revolver to shoot at a target on the other side of the screen is very likely to miss. Make sure you're not trying to shoot at targets beyond their range.

Also don't try to fire the guns at their minimum AP setting. Right click to put extra AP into it for aiming purpose. This is what the enemy is doing, and that is why they are hitting you and not you them.

For first aid the merc applying first aid just needs some points in medic. An expert is unnecessary in this moment.
U should equip the loners and some of the mercs with first aid packs so if help is needed they didnt bleed to death.
Minor wounds heal themselves slowly just by resting. For bigger wounds u should consider flying into the hospital (cambria if i remember correctly) or assigning someone with high med skills and the big medic pack the task doctor. The wounded merc gets the task patient. So he heals faster.

Reading the manual is important for this game.

Btw. the ALT key u can walk sidewards and backwards. Thats important at critical spots so u already look into the right direction and getting a better chance for interruptions.

And often keep your head low and take/use cover. Shooting over long distance is more successful while being prone. If u shoot over a bigger distance than what the weapon can do (u get a warning) u need a high marksmanship and a sniper scope or much luck.
Increasing the AP with right mouse clocks for a well placed shot is definitely a must.

PS. first aid can be self applied as long the merc is not unconscious.

Thank you. This is the sort of thing that needs to be in an interactive tutorial before
the game begins. Right Click on WHAT to put extra AP into WHAT???? Yup, I've tried equiping someone with a med pack during battle but it doesn't DO anything.
This is the problem with all the Gog games. There is no EXPLANATION of the exact things you need to do with the mouse, keyboard, menus....to achieve a simple direct result.

Everything is BURIED. Things like this should be

SIMPLE

INTUITIVE

OBVIOUS


SIMPLE

INTUITIVE

OBVIOUS


I'd punch in the face of the designers, again and again. Each time my fist crushes bones, I will scream: MAKE. IT. SIMPLE. INTUITIVE. OBVIOUS OBVIOUS you fuckig sadisitic motherrufuckers

U place the med item in the left hand (main hand), right click, the icon changes to a medic cross, target the wound merc, left click.. he moves there and begins healing...

JA2 has a 56 pages manual with every concept covered.

And just jumping into a simulation isn't usually a good idea....
When i play old games usually the thing that is most cumbersome is usually the ui and controls.. and both are in my view damn close to perfect in JA2 once u mastered it.

Oh.. and u will have fun with the management of thousand items in the future.. xD

See, there was a time when people actually read the manuals for games, because if they didn't, exactly what your describing would happen to them. Game weren't expected to teach you how to play itself; that's what the manual was for. Manuals were pretty big too, and often were worth studying. The entire concept that gamers had to be told how to play the game by the game itself because they were too lazy to actually read the manual was a foreign one.

So yeah, download and read the manual, then come back with your questions.

Relaxing would be a good idea too (as well as reading the manual) I knew about the 1st aid kit and stuff straight off cos I knew this game was indepth and quite tough compared to today`s games. So I had a quick read of the manual. It`s actually not so bad once you know the stuff you can do. Wishing constant violence on the Dev of about 10 years ago isn`t gonna fix things either.

Bearcat - I can understand you having trouble with Constructor - it's a hard game, but JA2!? You really need to take a bit more time to RTFM. I can win the game without hiring a single merc (except the crepitus, they are simply too tough for 1 merc, and you require too much ammo).

Here's the golden rule... Reduce the distance. Do not attack in the day, do not attack on open ground. Wait around a corner, somewhere hidden, fire a shot. The enemy will hear it, and walk around the corner to be encountered by you sitting 2 squares away. Then right click a couple of times to do a half aimed head shot, rinse, and repeat. Alternatively climb onto a roof.

Its funny how people dont bother reading the manual. My first JA was DG, which i got in a games pack without the manual. Thank god my IMP is by default an electronic expert and doesnt go psycho ;)

The thing is JG2 is a COMPLEX, strategy, tactical game. All these things cannot always be made so simple without dumbing down down, something people are so used to these days. The point of the complexity is it allows the User to do almost ANYTHING he wants, rather than being forced into just one way of doing things.

Even today, some games must remain complex or be dumbed down and then ruined. For example, IL2 Sturmovik 1946 is one of the best (and most accessible) combat flight sims ever, but if you want to get much out of it, you MUST READ some of the manual. I still remember one guy Online holding up our entire flight because he joined without even finding out the button to start engines! Starting engines only takes one button, but the guy was too lazy to even find that out in the manual.

Same for the Combat Mission series. You need the detail which can`t all be explained without a manual.

I`d rather a complex game and reading the manual that gave me freedom .

Thank you. The manual DOES explain things, albiet not always very well.
I didn't bother to look at it because 99.999999% of manuals out there are horrible.
They describe the game as if they were a TV commercial....describe, not explain!

Clearly, most manuals were pretty much thrown together BEFORE the game was actually finished. Just junk.

Even the really big manuals are usually pretty lousy. Civilization 3 comes to mind.

Without an alphabetical index, ANY manual is worthless, IMO.

Thanks again for the help.

What games need, and almost always lack, is a LOOOOOONG in-game tutorial that is interactive, and broken into repeatable segments. The "Black and White" game comes to mind. A crummy interface, but they SHOWED you how it worked!

I'd actually pay ten bucks more for this feature. Gladly!

Someone mentioned IL2 Sturmovik? Look....any sim should be scaled!
You go to flight school and are taught ONE control at a time.....not shown a three inch think manual, and told, "Here, memorize this, chump"

"Secret Weapons Over Normandy" was a joy to play, not frustrating. I would have loved to gradually add layers of complexity over that game, to eventually reach the level of something like the Flight Sims.......what I really despise about Sims is the PUNISHING.

You must know EVERYTHING and you must execute it FLAWLESSLY, and you must do this IMMEDIATELY......no learning curve. You're punched in the face, and thrown into the deep end of the pool to drown.

Why not a sim where you can CHOOSE how many controls you want to have to master?
Fake an automatic gearbox on a tank, so I can spend some time learning to shoot the gun! Don't be so ANAL about the accuracy......put it in, fine, but LET ME TURN PARTS OF IT OFF until I'm used to the game!

I have the manual open..
Page 1: Cover
Page 2: system requirements, and information for getting support
Page 3: Introduction and a section:
To jump into the game, just turn the page. The Tutorial will walk you through your
first exploits in Arulco. The rest of the manual contains detailed information on
strategy and tactics that you’ll need in the rest of your campaign. The battle for
Arulco is about to begin!
Page 4: starts with:
This brief tutorial will help you jump-start your mercenary career. It explains the
basics of recruiting mercenaries, exploring the world, and fighting battles. It doesn’t
cover everything, though. For detailed information on strategy and tactics, consult
the comprehensive Reference section that follows.

Then it goes on with starting a new game and create an IMP
Page 5: hiring soldiers
Page 6: the game starts, first sector, intriduction into basic controls controls

And usually after 1 minute or 2 ingame the first enemy comes up and the game turns into round mode...

I think thats pretty much a tutorial ^^

And, so, gaming is forever more and more dumbed down, because people are too lazy to RTFM...

Plus if you have to spend half the game gradually teaching stuff, there's no time for any real meat. By the time you get to explaining all the concepts to the player, the game's pretty much over.

Besides, Jagged Alliance 2 does throw you into it gradually. You don't fight any enemy force of any real strength for quite a long time.