Octopus Overlords

EzeKieL wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 11:28 pm I couldn't find any information on Steam Deck support. This might sway me as I don't get a lot of actual pc time (hogged by the wife).

This GamingBolt review suggests that it manages to hold its own on the Steam Deck after tinkering with the settings, but currently lacks a good control scheme option, leaving you with trackpad and triggers as the best choice.

You guys suck.

boughtened.

OK green man, you have an hour. I have to work at 9 so don't ruin my weekend!

**Jagged Alliance 3**: We'll be sending the pre-purchase keys out to coincide with the launch of the game later today, unless the publisher gives us the green light to send the keys out any earlier but there's no guarantee of this. As far as we're aware there's currently no pre-load on PC.

This was posted 4 hours ago so the "later today" isn't as bad as it may seem.

Key showed up right on time. 14.5GB download.

Launch day stream on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/thqnordic

Max Peck wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 9:07 am Launch day stream on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/thqnordic

Its cool they are streaming their launch party. They seem pretty happy.

Scoop20906 wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 9:08 am

Max Peck wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 9:07 am Launch day stream on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/thqnordic

Its cool they are streaming their launch party. They seem pretty happy.

They have Archinerd's money, of course they are happy

coopasonic wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 9:02 am Key showed up right on time. 14.5GB download.

Ooooh, I can make space on my crowded hard drive for this shiny looking game. Nice change from the 80-100+ GB downloads.

Created my squad and rage quit during the tutorial when goons kept shooting my squad even when behind full cover.

I can't even play. Huge mouse lag/input lag (many seconds) on the menu page. Changed video settings but didn't seem to matter. Off to troubleshoot. /sigh

Played for an hour, no real issues other than accidentally shooting because my brain and my fingers don't agree on the control scheme.

FYI, you can create your own merc right from the beginning but they don't actually tell you how that I noticed. I found it because I saw it a youtube video but look around the other tabs/options in the AIM/hiring site.

coopasonic wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 10:00 am Played for an hour, no real issues other than accidentally shooting because my brain and my fingers don't agree on the control scheme.

Is the control scheme that different from JA2?

Carpet_pissr wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 11:06 am

coopasonic wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 10:00 am Played for an hour, no real issues other than accidentally shooting because my brain and my fingers don't agree on the control scheme.

Is the control scheme that different from JA2?

I haven't played JA2 in more than a decade so damned if I could tell you.

I've installed and just hired my first team, using the recommended mercs and limiting the team to three as suggested. So far no issues.

I've hired a team and met the contact. The UI will take a bit of getting used to. Mostly because it has things that I expect to be on the left mouse on the right mouse instead. Not a big deal but awkward. So far no really terrible barks although Barry is much more Christian this time around which feels odd.

Yeah, getting used to the UI and need to learn the hot keys. Anyone know what the hot key to select the entire squad?

I started out with four Merc: MD, Livewire, Barry and my created Merc who is a 85 in shooting. I selected perma-death so I don't expect this run to last long. Settling in and it is starting to feel good.

Scoop20906 wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 2:36 pm Anyone know what the hot key to select the entire squad?

tilde

Currently save scrumming my way across Grand Chien as I get used to playing, honing tactics and walking back some boneheaded actions (some due to getting used to the various commands, some due to some very poor decisions on my part ). But not bad so far and very satisfying when I pull off a head shot or when everything comes together in an overwatch kill zone of my making.

$iljanus wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 3:57 pm Currently save scrumming my way across Grand Chien as I get used to playing, honing tactics and walking back some boneheaded actions (some due to getting used to the various commands, some due to some very poor decisions on my part ). But not bad so far and very satisfying when I pull off a head shot or when everything comes together in an overwatch kill zone of my making.

How are you finding the UI?

Carpet_pissr wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 4:01 pm

$iljanus wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 3:57 pm Currently save scrumming my way across Grand Chien as I get used to playing, honing tactics and walking back some boneheaded actions (some due to getting used to the various commands, some due to some very poor decisions on my part ). But not bad so far and very satisfying when I pull off a head shot or when everything comes together in an overwatch kill zone of my making.

How are you finding the UI?

Not bad. After a small learning curve I'm easily reloading or switching between weapons, tracking my AP, and the action bar at the bottom of the screen is pretty self explanatory. Sometimes having trouble determining if my characters are in good cover if they're in a lush or busy environment but getting the hang of it. I wonder if I can reduce the cursor speed a little because it seems a little quick for me but getting used to that.

After an extremely busy morning, I'm only now getting to sit down to this.

Madmarcus wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 2:11 pm The UI will take a bit of getting used to. Mostly because it has things that I expect to be on the left mouse on the right mouse instead.

Can you elaborate on what's in the wrong place?

Liking it so far.
Really like Grizzly.
Tutorial mission.
Grizzly sneaks in to where the 3 goons are.
Sneak attacks 1 in the head twice. Guess he had a hard head but he goes down in the 1st round.
2nd round shhot goon 2 in torso. Almost no ap left but just enough to throw his knife which kills goon 2.
3rd goon got taken out by orhers but Grizzly got his knife back do it's a win.

Questions.
1. Next mission Raven got wounded. Fix fixed her a bit but it won't let me heal her more. Says she needs gixing on Sat map but I can't figure it out. Do we need to be back at base?

2. How can I buy weapons? Am I just jumping the gun and it's too early?

Also for those wanting to build your own merc you have to go to the aim webpage and login.

Punisher wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 4:24 pm Sneak attacks 1 in the head twice. Guess he had a hard head but he goes down in the 1st round.

Is there a specific sneak attack? My personal merc is stealthy but I don't know how to use that stealth to attack. Like just a silenced weapon or knife throw or is there a melee kill?

Punisher wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 4:24 pm 1. Next mission Raven got wounded. Fix fixed her a bit but it won't let me heal her more. Says she needs gixing on Sat map but I can't figure it out. Do we need to be back at base?

On the Sat Map, there is an Operations button in the lower right side. That's where you go for healing wounds, training militia and other time consuming stuff.

I've got in just over two hours and I'm really enjoying it. The quality is noticeably good all around; the voice acting, the UI, the graphics, the maps, etc. I'm not really one to ask about UI difficulties as I tend to adapt myself to whatever is presented, I don't really mind learning a few new tricks.

In the tutorial I did OK, but in the next one my squad of three managed to lose Doc and get the other two wounded . But I was still learning all the tricks of combat and my next combat, which was to take the village, was much more successful with no KIA and just minor wounds. You do need to experiment with the tactics, look through all the screens and mouseovers and just in general be prepared to climb that learning curve.

There is no obvious "best" way to play the campaign, which I like as well.

Geez, I need to get started as I'm sure coop is going to finish it by Sunday...

coopasonic wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 2:46 pm

Scoop20906 wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 2:36 pm Anyone know what the hot key to select the entire squad?

tilde

Thanks.

And my first run is over... Squad wipe on the first island but I was super aggressive and trying things out. I have a opinion on how I want to build my personal MERC now. Also, I need to figure out how to stealth melee kills. I can see the opportunities but I need to get the right merc for it I guess.

SO FUN!

coopasonic wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 4:27 pm

Punisher wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 4:24 pm Sneak attacks 1 in the head twice. Guess he had a hard head but he goes down in the 1st round.

Is there a specific sneak attack? My personal merc is stealthy but I don't know how to use that stealth to attack. Like just a silenced weapon or knife throw or is there a melee kill?

Punisher wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 4:24 pm 1. Next mission Raven got wounded. Fix fixed her a bit but it won't let me heal her more. Says she needs gixing on Sat map but I can't figure it out. Do we need to be back at base?

On the Sat Map, there is an Operations button in the lower right side. That's where you go for healing wounds, training militia and other time consuming stuff.

There is an option to go into sneak mode. 2nd from left. That combined with careful movement to remain undetected can get you a sneak/stealth attack.

I found the Ops button finally but thanks. Totally missed it before though.

Now to just find out how to buy weapons. Found crafting for ammo but would rather buy that as well.

I'm liking it so far though. Mostly in sneak mode so it's slow going but still fun.

I do think I would prefer both hit percentages and enemy sight lines to get a better idea of what they can actually see and where.

Punisher wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 5:54 pm I do think I would prefer both hit percentages and enemy sight lines to get a better idea of what they can actually see and where.

There's an official mod in Steam Workshop that adds hit percentages

Punisher wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 5:54 pm I do think I would prefer both hit percentages

Assuming you have it on Steam, the devs have uploaded a workshop mod that shows the chance to hit, although they do point out that they believe the game plays better without it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2993428346

Edit: What Exodor said...

Blackhawk wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 4:20 pm

Madmarcus wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 2:11 pm The UI will take a bit of getting used to. Mostly because it has things that I expect to be on the left mouse on the right mouse instead.

Can you elaborate on what's in the wrong place?

Mostly I dislike right mouse click to move and left to interact. I've switched to left click to move and it is better but what I really want is for move and interact to be on the same button (move to and interact).

Much less important is that when shooting I find selecting body parts other than torso feels much more awkward than in JA2 or Phoenix Point. I'm sure it will become second nature but I really didn't expect to find shooting to be something that felt different from other similar games.

I've now restated three times to hear some more barks. Fox is Fox but Monica does call her out on it! Grizzly is great even if not quite what I expected. I still can't stand Steroid. BTW, three restarts isn't enough to really tell but the two times I made my IMP first everyone was hired for their base amounts. The one time I decided I'd make my IMP last all of the AIM hires wanted more money.

Exodor wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 5:59 pm

Punisher wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 5:54 pm I do think I would prefer both hit percentages and enemy sight lines to get a better idea of what they can actually see and where.

There's an official mod in Steam Workshop that adds hit percentages

Good gosh the devs had mentioned modding tools coming in the future but this is the first time I've seen that the game already has Steam Workshop support. I thought we'd have to be going the Nexus mods route. Again, very cool that the devs have put up a couple of mods to show how things work.

Meanwhile I've managed to keep all four of my mercs alive and have found and cleared "the bunker" but now there are bad guys coming to attack the village. I've run out of medicine so Steroid is going to have to just live with three hits I can't heal

Starting off.

Made my custom merc. The portraits suck.

Hired Mouse and Kalyna. Want Wolf, but he's offline. Want a medic - but every single one in the first two tiers seems to be offline with the exception of Thor - and he won't join the team because ?

I guess I'll have to go with a filler merc until something becomes available, but I don't like not having a medic.

Yer doods will also not like it when they bleed out from a mere flesh wound.

FWIW 82 on Metacritic
76% (mostly positive) on Steam, with 476 reviews.

Carpet_pissr wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 7:40 pm 76% (mostly positive) on Steam, with 476 reviews.

I filter out any Steam reviews where playtime is less than ten hours. Which means I'll probably post mine tomorrow afternoon

Blackhawk wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 6:54 pm Made my custom merc. The portraits suck.

I've seen several comments echoing this, and also: mods incoming to correct it!

I’m a big fan of the recruit sniper whose name starts with an O. His constant banter about wanting snacks and naps never fails to make me chuckle.

So three mercs as recommended by the game or four? I know hiring a bunch of mercs from the get go will probably bankrupt you early on but I feel a little constrained with just three. Then again I suppose my mercs will level up and I can hire more in the future to fill out more roles on my team. Right now I have a custom merc, Fox and Ice. With the exception of Fox I might scrap everything and redo my squad yet again! Or maybe just resist the decision paralysis and go to war with what I have and just roll with it.

Blackhawk wrote: Fri Jul 14, 2023 6:54 pm Hired Mouse and Kalyna. Want Wolf, but he's offline. Want a medic - but every single one in the first two tiers seems to be offline with the exception of Thor - and he won't join the team because ?

I guess I'll have to go with a filler merc until something becomes available, but I don't like not having a medic.

I said screw it and restarted after the first mission. Mouse and Kalyna just weren't working for me (I was having trouble getting my head around my eventual CQB/stealth badass wearing yoga pants and a pink sweater.) This time I made my custom, then hired Thor, Raven, and Barry. I'm much happier with this group.