The Fine Tuned mod V 1.7

[Foraven]

I really doubt they will ever make an expansion or a follow up. Matrix game got it from Russian developers who intended that game to be Jagged Alliance 3. But for some reason they had to drop the project, and Hired Gun is pretty much what they had done minus all the Jagged Alliance names and story. I don't even know if someone is still working on the patch, last i heard about it was months ago...

I don't think they used any proprietary stuff to make that game. From what i know from Russian developers, they don't reinvent the wheel when it comes to coding. They can make pretty good games but won't innovate code wise.

[Harry Renquist]

What I meant by propietory was they write code for their own editor and write a plugin script for 3dmax from the 3dmax sdk. The UFO series; Ufo Aftermath;Aftershock;Afterlight; a bunch of people asked the developers about a map editor and they replied that it was part script part code but it was basically a plugin for Gmax or 3dmax and required a $30,000 license fee in order to distribute it to the modders; so thats why. The editors rarely get included with games atleast not in turn based squad level games like these; which are my favourite. I saw someone once edit the maps and everything for the silent storm engine but stopped. I later learned he was a game developer.

Hired Guns was never supposed to be Jagged Alliance 3; atleast that's the news I've read over the last 4 years. I believe it was made by GFI;Game factory or Peter Games I can't remember.

As for Jagged Alliance 3(Which strategyfirst owns the license to) its been handed to a number of developers including F1 and who knows what. Now as I guess you know; Bitcomposer is the current developer for JA3.


http://www.bit-composer.com/www_en/news ... 814749efc9

I myself liked Xcom the best; Rumour had it 3 years ago 2K was going to be the developer; which it now is public knowledge; but their version is a FPS; instead of turn based squad level game. But there is also the rumour that Firaxis was handed the job of making a turn based squad level version of the New Xcom. Atleast that's the rumour.

[Foraven]

But as someone who did dig into the code of Hired Guns, i can say that they DID intend to make it a JA 3. They just renamed most of the characters and entities in the game, but in the code/database it still refer to the original names. Just look yourself in the code and you will find a lot of reference to Jagged Alliance. I did read an article about this long ago, but unfortunately, i can't find it on the net (don't remember how i found it back then).

Edit : Finally i found what i was searching for : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagged_All ... 8series%29. HG was intended as J2 in 3d, but the project got dropped due to disagreements between SFI and GFI. Hired Guns is just an attempt to salvage the code, it was never a finished product and most likely never will be.

[Harry Renquist]

Is there Russian mods for Hired Guns out there? The Russians usually do alot of modding for games like this.
I searched the net but couldn't find any.

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Ya, you were right. Strategy First hired GFI who then hired Mist land to make a JA3 game. But for some
unknown reason. SF pulled the plug and cancelled. So Mist land was left with a partially finished game and renamed it African Alliance, then Jazz Hired Guns.

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I installed your mod right after installing the game. I notice alot of ammo at Dickie Jays has no description. There is a picture of the ammo but no item description of what type of ammo it is? Is this your mod or the game's bug?

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I just found this interesting article on a Russian website about Mist Land's JA3 version. Apparently the reason why Strategyfirst cancelled was that the Mistland version had smart pause mode in it? Duh ! Smart pause is alot better than rigid turn based for this game. Anybody who's played Aperion games longer than five minutes would know this. The tactical screens for one are larger than JA2, also smart pause has options to allow you what to pause and not to pause on. It ends up with alot smoother gameplay and of course faster encounters. Also I found you don't need to reload a save game(unless it has CTD bugs). In Aperion games when aiming it tells you the chances of hitting target;low;bad;good;outstanding etc etc. So you know whether to waste ammunition or not. In Hired Guns your guys frequently miss the target or hit it for 2 hp of damage? and everyone dies and you have to reload a save game. Its very poor game design if you have to reload any save.

http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl ... =firefox-a

[blemishednicely]

Right on, I'll have to try that once I'm motivated again. 2nd period of this year has been just AWEFUL on pretty much EVERY front! I only just noticed your reply, but I didn't even try to do anything with the M2-figured it was totally busted...I THOUGHT it was odd having only one gun with issues-beyond the occasional name/description/photo missing. That's kind of WHY I was beginning from ground-up...if I ran into any such issues, figured it'd be easier to catch/ID & fix one at a time instead of in a bulk-load of data (DL'd MODs). Maybe it's just an issue with the ammo as you suggest, possibly then I can "rework" the ammo it's slotted to use, or failing that go with 5.56 as per your post here. Thanks for the tip-I admit I hadn't even considered it that far beyond just "broken". If I CAN get it functioning, ESPECIALLY with the special ammo it's listed to use ('steado 5.56 or mb even with), I'll upload it or PM it to you (if I CAN PM it-never tried anything but a .PNG) if you want. THANKS, FORAVEN!!!


"For every one person with a spark of genius, there are one-hundred others with ignition troubles"

[blemishednicely]

I can't remember WHO but someone in the MOD forums for HG here was using irfanview to smooth the gradients on the map borders/skirts, but I haven't checked it out enough yet to see if it's ONLY good for the skirt edges, or IF the map itself can be effected. Even though compatibility may be an issue, I wonder if there are any "homebrew"/other app's outside of what developer's used, or if it's possible to find a SIMILAR style/coded game w/map editor that can be adapted (skipping $30,000 licence fees and such)? Problem is good luck figuring out WHAT they even used to begin with for a base comparison. Good news is even the licenced program didn't come out of a genie's bottle, so there still HAS to be a way to do this-you just gotta find/figure it...who likes a challenge?

"set your goals ridiculously high. That way even when you fail, you will fail above all others successes."-James Cameron (I HATE that guy...but spiffy quote, so here it is)

[rakun]

your mod is absolutely fine.i really hope u can get together with Tidus97 and Renforce to activate the H.E.R.C site and reskin armoured soldiers so they can be viewable.all in all you have done a great job.have u ever been on the Bear Pit JA2 community.Hired Guns just needs a few tweaks to become the true Jagged Alliance 3D.Those russians should have the source code out by now,but maybe its in russian.Please all JA lovers if someone knows russian make the dream come true.

[MVP7]

This mod looks very good but I'm having some problems with it: New weapons and items don't have names or descriptions in shop.

I have only downloaded this file http://www.gamemodshosting.com/showfile-52/fine_tuned_17.zip' and succesfully unzipped it on original folder (no problems there). Should I have downloaded something else? Is this file just patch instead of standalone? I have steam version of the Hired guns but I doubt it matters. Size of the file at gamemodshosting.com is only 1.74 MB should it be larger? [&:]

Sorry if this has been discussed already, I didn't read the whole thread.

[Foraven]

ORIGINAL: MVP7

This mod looks very good but I'm having some problems with it: New weapons and items don't have names or descriptions in shop.

I have only downloaded this file http://www.gamemodshosting.com/showfile-52/fine_tuned_17.zip' and succesfully unzipped it on original folder (no problems there). Should I have downloaded something else? Is this file just patch instead of standalone? I have steam version of the Hired guns but I doubt it matters. Size of the file at gamemodshosting.com is only 1.74 MB should it be larger? [&:]

Sorry if this has been discussed already, I didn't read the whole thread.

Sorry for the late reply, i hardly come to this forum since i no longer have the game installed. Your problem there is you are using a non english version of the game, meaning all the renamed/added stuff isn't in the right folder... As for the file size; most of the changes are in text, that's why it's small. I did add some skins and weapon pictures, but that don't add that much to the file size.

[MVP7]

Thanks for reply. Do you have any idea what folders I should change? My game isn't actually non-engish but it has a locale folder 'english' when the mod is made for 'usa'. I fixed that but still can't see the names or descs on any new items. is there something else localized?

EDIT. Ok, problem solved. For some reason, I had to extrack the locale files to "russian" folder that was there with english folder (even though I'm playing game in english...). But I think I also used TFT rar that I had downloaded some weeks earlier but never installed it before, it was slightly different size than the newer one, dunno if that's because I might have edited the rar while strugling with this problem. Many thanks for this mod Foraven

[Foraven]

ORIGINAL: MVP7

EDIT. Ok, problem solved. For some reason, I had to extrack the locale files to "russian" folder that was there with english folder (even though I'm playing game in english...). But I think I also used TFT rar that I had downloaded some weeks earlier but never installed it before, it was slightly different size than the newer one, dunno if that's because I might have edited the rar while strugling with this problem. Many thanks for this mod Foraven

Glad i could help.

[Sirlancelot]

Foraven, the mod is lovely, and i really appreciate your efforts to improve the AI. Besides, i agree with you: the game has a lot of potential. It's a shame that you have uninstalled it from your computer and abandoned modding.

I'm currently playing with 1.7 version of your and Reinforce's baby and have not suffered any bugs with ammo unload or anything else yet.   What weapons were supposedly broken?

Excelent work. ^^

[Foraven]

ORIGINAL: Sirlancelot

Foraven, the mod is lovely, and i really appreciate your efforts to improve the AI. Besides, i agree with you: the game has a lot of potential. It's a shame that you have uninstalled it from your computer and abandoned modding.

I'm currently playing with 1.7 version of your and Reinforce's baby and have not suffered any bugs with ammo unload or anything else yet.   What weapons were supposedly broken?

Excelent work. ^^

Well, thanks. I stopped modding this game when i ran out of things i could mod/improve. I did ask the devs for some help but i never got any (and the new patch has never been released either). That kind of killed my desire to mod this game.

The bug is with one of the rifle, the m2 carbine i believe... The is a bug with the ammo i created for it, but i could not find what was wrong with it without reinstalling the game (can't find where i put it).

[Sirlancelot]

ORIGINAL: Foraven

ORIGINAL: Sirlancelot

Foraven, the mod is lovely, and i really appreciate your efforts to improve the AI. Besides, i agree with you: the game has a lot of potential. It's a shame that you have uninstalled it from your computer and abandoned modding.

I'm currently playing with 1.7 version of your and Reinforce's baby and have not suffered any bugs with ammo unload or anything else yet.   What weapons were supposedly broken?

Excelent work. ^^

Well, thanks. I stopped modding this game when i ran out of things i could mod/improve. I did ask the devs for some help but i never got any (and the new patch has never been released either). That kind of killed my desire to mod this game.

The bug is with one of the rifle, the m2 carbine i believe... The is a bug with the ammo i created for it, but i could not find what was wrong with it without reinstalling the game (can't find where i put it).

I have gather some info to report and give you some feedback about the flaws of the enemy AI with your mod installed. I have some ideas to improve it. Do you want to hear it?

[Foraven]

ORIGINAL: Sirlancelot
I have gather some info to report and give you some feedback about the flaws of the enemy AI with your mod installed. I have some ideas to improve it. Do you want to hear it?

Well, go ahead, post away. But from what i learned while modding the game, adding smarter behavior would require to make quite a lot of code from scratch. What i did manage to implement (and fix) has been straining my coding skills... To make any serious improvements to my mod would require someone who is proficient with lua and coding in general (there is a lot i don't know about real programming, i'm just talented at tweaking and hacking).

[Sirlancelot]

ORIGINAL: Foraven

ORIGINAL: Sirlancelot
I have gather some info to report and give you some feedback about the flaws of the enemy AI with your mod installed. I have some ideas to improve it. Do you want to hear it?

Well, go ahead, post away. But from what i learned while modding the game, adding smarter behavior would require to make quite a lot of code from scratch. What i did manage to implement (and fix) has been straining my coding skills... To make any serious improvements to my mod would require someone who is proficient with lua and coding in general (there is a lot i don't know about real programming, i'm just talented at tweaking and hacking).

Oh, then it's pointless, i guess. Anyway, the behaviours i was going to refer to are the following:

-AI soldiers choose poor places for coverage

-AI soldiers almost never make use of prone before end their turn (Most of them should first look for coverage, then calculate how many action points would require reach that place, and after that, make a decision about their remaining action points. Whatever decision they would choose, they should end their turn as safe as possible. Other soldiers could be more agressive, but a most of them should use a tactic less risky than the original one)

-When you are proned behind a rock, AI soldiers walk silently (with the stealth mode) in your direction, but, when discovered, don't change their tactic or react properly in any way (i mean, they could run away to a safe position, use a grenade or something else)

- AI soldiers gather themselves in great numbers: that's a call for grenades.

[Foraven]

ORIGINAL: Sirlancelot
Oh, then it's pointless, i guess.

You never know, maybe someone will pickup where i left.

-AI soldiers choose poor places for coverage

That's something i wanted to work on. I found a function to look for obstruction, so it's possible to make use of cover... The problem is making the AI look for an hiding spot; i'm sure it can be coded with the existing functions the game has, but everything i came up with was awfully complicated (thus very hard to debug with trial and error).

-AI soldiers almost never make use of prone before end their turn (Most of them should first look for coverage, then calculate how many action points would require reach that place, and after that, make a decision about their remaining action points. Whatever decision they would choose, they should end their turn as safe as possible. Other soldiers could be more agressive, but a most of them should use a tactic less risky than the original one)

You should have seen how bad the AI was before i tweaked it. It's not as dumb as it used to be, i just did not have any means to make it use cover or deliberately hide (though it does know when no one can see it).

-When you are proned behind a rock, AI soldiers walk silently (with the stealth mode) in your direction, but, when discovered, don't change their tactic or react properly in any way (i mean, they could run away to a safe position, use a grenade or something else)

I did code different movement stance, and it's supposed to react when it does see an enemy. When not in sight, the AI will try to sneak (but not always). The AI can crawl, but making it use it when it does make sense is quite complicated.

- AI soldiers gather themselves in great numbers: that's a call for grenades.

I believe it's possible to code some proximity awareness and force then to split up, but that could cause some issue in some of the maps. I did have some plans for it, but making the AI aware of it's surrounding would have greatly helped.

[Anthropoid]

Finally gonna go back and try your 1.7 version Foraven! [:D]

[Foraven]

Cool then, have fun with it .

[Foraven]

I accidentally deleted the original link of the mod while doing some cleaning on the hosting server. I re-posted the old file from a backup i still had on my computer.