Jagged Alliance 3 got a hotfix:

Jagged Alliance 3 – Hotfix 1.5.1 – Changelog

• Fixed missing HUD button for Fidel's personal signature perk
• Fixed some softlocks
• Fixed the audio stutters that appeared when running the game on older machines
• Fixed exploit where you could sell items you don't have
• Fixed issue where blood and mud stains would not disappear
• Fixed issue where Weapon Shipment items would disappear if the inventory is full

Henriquejr spotted patch 1.5.0 for Jagged Alliance 3:

It's a Modders World: Jagged Alliane 3 Gets Free Content Update Today!

With its latest free update, Patch 1.5 "Larry", the critically acclaimed turn-based strategy game Jagged Alliance 3 introduces new content in the form of optional and variable rule sets, enriching your campaign in Grand Chien with fresh challenges and opportunities. Among the examples of how to intensify the trials for your Mercs are features like "Body Count," where your fellow warriors confront larger enemy squads, "Hard Lessons," which prolongs the time needed for a Merc to level up, and "Ammo Scarcity," as the name suggests, introduces scarcity of ammunition. Conversely, players can also leverage rules such as "A.I.M Legendary Deals," which reduce the starting salaries of elite and legendary Mercs, aiding their strategic endeavors. Players have the liberty to combine these rules as they see fit, shaping their challenges as they embark on their mission to liberate Grand Chien!

Moreover, update 1.5 empowers dedicated modders with extensive tools to modify, enhance, and even rebuild most aspects of the game. We eagerly anticipate the release of outstanding mods in the upcoming weeks and months.

Update 1.5 "Larry" includes:

• New extensive modding tools: Create new campaigns, and quests, edit maps, and much more.
• 10 new game rules: Customize the difficulty of each playthrough with these optional new rules and combine them as you see fit
• Some issues fixed
• You can check out the full patch notes here

[...]

The multiplayer functionality is 'cross-gen', allowing PlayStation 4 players to team up with their PlayStation 5 friends, and Xbox One users to join forces with those on Xbox Series S/X.

A free playable demo is available on Steam. It allows players to explore Ernie Island, the starting region of the game. Try the demo.

Henriquejr spotted devstream #32 for Jagged Alliance 3 - expanded modding tools will come with patch 1.5:

Expanded Modding tools | Jagged Alliance 3 | DevStream 32

Mortismal Gaming checked out the new Jagged Alliance 3 DLC:

Jagged Alliance 3 - Free DLC Update

Jagged Alliance 3 will get a major update on December 18:

Going Underground: Jagged Alliance 3 Gets Major Content Update On December 18th!

The universe of Grand Chien continues to expand as Haemimont Games prepares to launch the upcoming update for Jagged Alliance 3 on both PC and consoles next week. Accompanying update 1.4 is a complimentary DLC for all Jagged Alliance 3 owners, introducing an exciting new quest line.

Update 1.4, codenamed 'Wolf,' introduces a significant mid- to late-game quest titled 'U-Bahn' (German for subway). Why the German name? Because you have the chance to uncover secrets hidden beneath Grand Chien since WW2, if you dare to confront the formidable adversaries protecting them.This new quest line comprises seven expansive maps within a laboratory complex. To complement the theme, update 1.4 introduces a new underground transportation system, ensuring the name's relevance.

But there's more – update 1.4 also includes numerous improvements, long-requested by the community. Such as Sat View improvements like a revamped Conflict Screen, multiselection in the inventory, sector stash overhaul, and tweaks to some Operations, as well as many other smaller fixes and adjustments.

Prepare for a Jagged holiday season as Update 1.4 is set to release on December 18th!

Thanks Couchpotato!

Jagged Alliance 3 has been suggested for the Steam Awards:

Jagged Alliance 3: Best Game You Suck At!

Jagged Alliance 3, the triumphant revival of a cherished franchise, has captivated fans and critics alike with its strategic brilliance. As developers, we bask in the warm glow of your appreciation for what we believe is one of the standout strategy games of 2023—a true heir to the Jagged Alliance legacy.

Yet, we can't ignore the elephant in the room—it's challenging, demanding, and we've witnessed many valiant souls fall in the face of its complexity. The question looms: Can you conquer the formidable challenges that await, or will you join the ranks of those humbled by the tactical intricacies of Jagged Alliance 3?

Thank you for your support on this Steam Awards nomination!

Thanks Couchpotato!

How the music for Jagged Alliance 3 was made:

Jagged Alliance 3 | Making Of Music Trailer

Thanks Couchpotato!

Patch 1.3 has been released for Jagged Alliance 3, introducing Bobby Rays. So from now on you can order your weapons to be delivered to Grand Chien (among various other fixes).

Thanks Kordanor!

Patch 1.22 and a dev stream will go live on Wednesday:

Hotfix 1.2.2 and a Dev Stream

Yo mercenaries!

Feanor from the programming team will join this weeks stream and answer some of your burning questions about combat while Lyubo continues Happy Ltl Accidents.

http://twitch.tv/haemimontgames
Wed at 17:00 (GMT+3)

And to start the week off strong how about some fixes:
- Fixed the black screen issue some users were encountering
- Fixed quest related crashes

Thanks Couchpotato!

Henriquejr spotted patch 1.2.0 for Jagged Alliance 3:

Patch 1.2.0 Released – Buns

Hello everyone,

We have just release patch 1.2.0 codenamed “Buns” that focuses on quality-of-life combat improvements. In addition, “Buns” offers tons of bug fixes and general improvements.

Highlights

Fast Speed – speeds up the time during the enemy turn to shorten waiting times. The Fast Speed button appears in place of the End Turn button during the enemy turn.

Inaccurate attacks may hit other body parts – There is a small chance to hit another body part of the target with an inaccurate attack (Community suggestion).

Free Aim firing mode changing – You can now cycle the weapon firing modes during Free aim using the Free Aim shortcut key while setting up the attack.

Improvements for modders – various improvements to modding, especially regarding weapon modifiers. Improvements to the Blender exporter (Community suggestions).

[...]

Bjohn045 spotted devdiary 16 for Jagged Alliance 3 - the patch roadmap:

DevDiary 16 - Patch Roadmap

Patch Roadmap
Hello, everyone! I am Boian Spasov, creative director of Jagged Alliance 3, and today I want to share with you a roadmap of our current plans for future free updates.

Release day came and went and it was awesome, but our work on Jagged Alliance continues and our team remains committed to supporting the game post-release. We’ve received so much feedback that it took us quite a while to go through everything and solidify our plans, but now we are finally ready to share them with you. This roadmap includes improvements suggested by the community and some of our own previously unrealized ideas as well.

We aim to release one patch per month, but with the usual disclaimers that plans may change down the road and we are also keeping a few surprises in our sleeves. So let’s get into specifics…

Update 1.2 - Codename: Buns (Combat Quality of Life)
The first upcoming patch will encompass various changes related to the combat aspect of the game – offering additional information in the UI, improving and deepening the bullet simulation and even providing the option to play through massive combats at a faster pace. Since this patch is close on the horizon, I can provide some of the highlights as well:

• Inaccurate attacks may hit other body parts of the targets incidentally
• Number of remaining Overwatch attacks is clearly indicated in-view
• Ability to salvage knives and other items that were previously unsalvageable
• Toggle button for faster enemy and ally turns
• Ricochet bullets able to hit and cause collateral damage
• Various improvements to melee animations

Update 1.3 - Codename: Vicki (Bobby Ray’s Guns and Things)
As Jagged Alliance veterans know very well, “Bobby Ray’s Guns and Things” is the finest, and quite possibly, the only online store for merc gear.

No other feature from Jagged Alliance 2 was requested as much from our community as this one! We miss Bobby Ray as well and we are glad to oblige and expand his services with delivery to Grand Chien! will allow you to purchase new and used armor, weapons and ammo and ultimately to gear up your mercs just the way you want to, as long as you can afford it!

Update 1.4 - Codename: Wolf (Sat View Quality of Life)

The next update focuses on improvements in the Sat View. It will enhance the Sector stash and the Conflict Screen interfaces. Both of these screens are currently somewhat confusing and we are looking into ways of organizing the information there in a more convenient way.

As part of this update we will enhance and rebalance some of the Sat View operations, such as Scouting. Finally, we are going to offer a way for solitary mercs to improve their stats by practicing without a trainer.

Update 1.5 - Codename: Larry (Modding Maps and Campaigns)

As we’ve talked before, our second modding update will offer powerful tools such as map and quest editors. The map editor will allow modifying existing maps by adding new objects and quests or creating entirely new maps from scratch. These maps can be added seamlessly into the existing game campaign or used to create an entirely new custom campaign, complete with new quests, NPCs, dialogues and interactions.

This will open the door for modding projects of massive scope such as recreating the old Jagged Alliance games in Jagged Alliance 3!

And there is more to come!
Stay tuned for more updates to be announced at a later date.

Thank you!

In conclusion, I want to take the community for their passion for the game – this roadmap is based in large part on community suggestions and we will keep incorporating such suggestions in our plans for the future, as well as marking them clearly in our patch notes. If you have your own suggestion for improving the game, don’t hesitate to share it with us either here, or in Discord – it may even see the light of day in one of the upcoming updates described above!

Kordanor has made a video showing the changes in Jagged Alliance 3 since patch 1.1.0.:

Jagged Alliance 3 - Patch 1.1.0/1 Biggest Changes & Look into the Future [EN] by Kordanor

Thanks Redglyph!

The RPG Codex reviewed Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 Review

Not at all in the same way that Carlsberg is probably the best beer in the world, Jagged Alliance is probably the best turn-based tactics video game series in the world. It is a perfect blend of small-scale squad management, hilarious action-movie homages and excellent turn-based combat. Jagged Alliance 2 might be my favourite game of all time.

That’s precisely why my reaction when a new game was announced was: not this shit again. The Jagged Alliance games that have been released this century are best described in words not appropriate for a family-friendly magazine such as this. Suffice it to say that each of the studios that made them was forced to shutter its doors more or less immediately, in a rare example of karmic justice in the video game industry.

[...]

Conclusion

What do we have here, then? At its core, we have a game that takes the Jagged Alliance formula, tries to replicate it faithfully, and largely succeeds. For every new feature it introduces to the series, there are two others that work more or less the same as they did in 1999. You will have noticed that a lot of the text in this review is devoted to the game’s faults. The reason for that is that most of its strengths can simply be summed up as: it’s like Jagged Alliance 2. That doesn’t take up a lot of screen space, but it is a big deal. It may sound negative to conclude that the parts that make this game good are the parts that Haemimont Studios stole from the game they were making a sequel to, while the wonky parts are the things they came up with themselves, but that’s mostly how it is. The new stuff ranges from decent to completely idiotic. The much expanded dialogue, quest, and character development systems are competently made, and take the series in a new direction – whether you’ll like them or hate them depends on your taste for such things. Meanwhile, everything having to do with how combat starts reeks of efforts to minimise frustration by giving the player unfair advantages and then giving the enemies different unfair advantages to compensate, resulting in a big mess.

But that’s small potatoes. The fact is that when I finished the game, I immediately started a second playthrough, not for reviewing purposes but because I was having so much fun. I then finished my second playthrough without having to take a break, which is something I very rarely do in a game. Simply put, Jagged Alliance 3 is the worst true entry in the series, but it is that: a true new entry in the series. It may not be the timeless classic we feel any sequel to Jagged Alliance 2 ought to be, as it’s dragged down by some truly baffling design decisions, wonky balance and a lot of horrible clicking, but it’s also the best game of its kind that we’ve had in twenty years.

If I were working for IGN, I would say that the game is too afraid to try new things, and hangs on to obsolete mechanics that don’t belong in the modern era. What I will say instead is that it gets the balance between old and new absolutely bang on, mostly respecting the old while not being afraid to try new things. Whether or not you will like the game depends entirely on how offensive you find the areas where the game tries new things and fails. There is a free demo available, so you can decide for yourself without spending a dime. I myself was sceptical at first, and while there is no denying the game’s flaws, I can safely say that Haemimont Studios won me over. If you like Jagged Alliance, give this a try.

Henriquejr spotted patch 1.1.0 for Jagged Alliance 3:

Patch 1.1.0 Released – Modding Tools

Hello everyone,
In this patch we are releasing the first stage of our modding support (more details below). The second stage of the modding tools (map and campaign editors) is still in the works and will arrive in a later update.

We have added new popular request features like Active pause and Photo mode. Patch 1.1.0 also includes gameplay tweaks as well as many fixes to mechanics, quests and content.

Highlights

- Modding Tools – you can access the modding tools from the Main Menu -> Mod Manager -> Mod Editor button. This batch of modding tools allow you to modify the mechanics of the game, create new mercs, IMP characters, weapons, UI, localization and even voiceovers for new languages. You can import assets you have created via our Blender exporter. These include new character models, new weapons, and new game assets.

The documentation will automatically open when you enter the Mod Editor.

- Sample Mods – we have prepared a series of sample mods (available on Steam Workshop) to demonstrate our modding tools. These include:
a new AIM merc character with new voice lines
a new weapon (the M1A1 Thompson) using a new caliber the .45 ACP
a new operation – Scrounge (spend time looking for items)

There is additional information about the sample mods in the documentation.
- Photo Mode – found in the in-game menu. Photo mode offers free camera, a variety of sliders to tweak the picture, and options to hide or show the game UI.

- Active Pause – you can now pause time while exploring tactical maps in real time. This will allow you to better plan your actions and manage stealth approaches without worrying about quick reflexes. By default, tactical pause is set to the Spacebar key on the keyboard. (Community Suggestion)

NOTE: It is impossible to execute multiple attacks at the same time. Any attack will un-pause the game.

- Weapon Shipments – enemies can now send weapons shipments (similar to diamond shipments) that contain weapons, ammo, meds, and parts. Intercept them to gain some extra resources and items. (Community Suggestion).

- Satellite travel speed balancing – Changed the way Leadership affects travel time, resulting in Leadership having less of an impact (Community Suggestion)

[...]

Kordanor checked out the tactical edition of Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 - Unboxing: Tactical Edition / Collector's Edition [EN] by Kordanor

Redglyph spotted patch 1.03 for Jagged Alliance 3:

Balance Patch 1.03 released!

Highlights

• Enemy attacks from guard posts on the First Blood difficulty trigger less often
• Diamond mines deplete to 50% income on First Blood difficulty; 20% on Commando difficulty; 0% on Mission Impossible (Community Suggestion)
• Mines now show how close they are to depletion in their tooltip
• Fixed a bug that scaled mine income up when depletion began
• Machine gun damage reduced
• Machine gun number of interrupt attacks are now based on current AP not max AP (calculated at end of turn) (Community Suggestion)
• Fixed a bug with Machine guns interrupt attacks getting aim bonuses when they shouldn’t
• Grenade and Rocket-Launchers mishap chance and deviation now depend on distance to target (Community Suggestion)

Balance

• Increased drop chance of black powder
• Increased Scully Health so he qualified for the golden perk he starts with (Community Suggestion)
• Savior perk no longer grants Free Move
• Fix for bonus damage from explosives applying twice when using grenades (Community Suggestion)
• Changed thresholds for displaying keywords for mishap chance with explosives

[...]

The 2 Headed Hero checked out Jagged Alliance 3:

So... How Good is Jagged Alliance 3? (60+ Hour Review)

RPG Division reviewed the strategy RPG Jagged Alliance 3:

Brilliantly Addictive - JAGGED ALLIANCE 3 Review

Haemimont Games and THQ Nordic released a Jagged Alliance 3 demo that allows the player to explore Ernie Island, the starting region of the game:

Here's Jagged Alliance 3's Accolades Trailer - and the Demo!

Apparently, We didn't F*** It Up! Here's Jagged Alliance 3's Accolades Trailer - and the Demo!

Two weeks ago, Jagged Alliance 3 burst onto the gaming scene, captivating the hearts of thousands of players eager to embark on the mission to free Grand Chien. Haemimont Games and THQ Nordic are beaming with pride and relief as it seems we have struck the perfect chord. An impressive 86% of Steam-Reviews as of July 27th reflect the positive reception, and the game has garnered critical acclaim with an outstanding 81 on Metacritic.

We've been absolutely delighted to witness hundreds of content creators taking on the challenge of mastering the game and are overwhelmed by the positive feedback pouring in from players across various channels. We want to take a moment to express our sincere gratitude: Thank you to everyone who has already delved into the world of Jagged Alliance 3!

For those who haven't yet, we're excited to announce the availability of a free playable demo. This demo will allow players to explore Ernie Island, the starting region of the game.

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

Kordanor explains the leadership skill in Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 - Use Leadership the right way!

Mortismal Gaming reviewed Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 - Review After 100%

Jagged Alliance 3 has received its first patch, and Haemimont Games have posted a new dev diary to say 'Thank You':

DevDiary 15 - Thank you!

A huge Thank You

It's finally here! Hi everyone, I am Boyan Ivanov and from both me and the entire team here at Haemimont Games thank you for believing in us and making the release of Jagged Alliance 3 our best release to this day.

Release day is always exciting and fun. This time it was even more special as we got to share the excitement with you during our stream. We had great fun chatting and playing the game live, as well as reminiscing on the development journey with Brad, Ian and Strezov. And of course, laughing aloud as Angry Joe made his entrance.

Now, a week after the release of Jagged Alliance 3, I still cannot stop smiling as I read your own personal moments with the game. I remember one of our first conversations with Ian Curry (the creator of Jagged Alliance) and his words of wisdom – “we just wanted to make a fun game first” and this has been a guiding principle for us too. Seeing so many of you having fun with Jagged Alliance 3, the combat, the characters, and the world is heartwarming.

The final push before launch is always straining and a bit of a tough slog. The extremely positive reception we got from you all uplifted our spirits and inspired us. Throughout the entire day on Monday, the office was filled with people discussing feedback, your suggestions, and critiques and how to make the game even better.

What’s Next

The immediate future we are focusing on solving technical issues and showstoppers that prevent people from playing Jagged Alliance 3. We are about to launch our first small patch later today, the patch notes you can read on Steam once the patch goes live.

We are receiving a vast amount of feedback from all of you. Both from our in-game reporting tool and on discord, forums, and social media. We are carefully reading, analyzing, and processing your comments, opinions, and critiques to assemble our priority list. In the coming weeks we will begin addressing gameplay issues, especially those that have quick and obvious solutions.

We will share more as we get a clearer picture of our roadmap forward.

Mods

As we have stated our focus directly after release is bringing the modding tools to you. We are amazed at how quickly some of you managed to both create and publish mods to Steam Workshop. At the time of writing this there are close to 100 mods available. This affirms our hope that you will see Jagged Alliance 3 as a platform to bring your own creations and interpretations to reality and share them with each other.

With the release of the modding tools you will be able to make mods easier and quicker and I am sure that the Steam workshop will continue to grow at a rapid pace. We cannot wait to see what you will come up with in the future.

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

GOG interviewed Haemimont Games about Jagged Alliance 3:

HOW TO MAKE A GREAT ADDITION TO THE ICONIC SERIES AFTER OVER 20 YEARS? FIND OUT FROM THE DEVELOPERS OF JAGGED ALLIANCE 3!

Jagged Alliance is an iconic series of turn-based tactics spawning all the way back to 1994. Because of its tactical gameplay, varied environments, great management mechanics and amazing replayability (just to name a few of its characteristics), it has conquered the hearts of players all over the world throughout those years.
Just a few days ago, 24 years after Jagged Alliance 2 was released, the latest entry in the series, published by THQ Nordic and developed by Haemimont Games has joined our catalog and the players seem to agree – the wait was worth it.
We had the pleasure of talking to the developers of Jagged Alliance 3, and asked them how does working on an entry in the iconic series differ from creating a new IP, what can we expect from the game and more!
Hope you’ll enjoy the read.

How does developing a new entry in an iconic series like Jagged Alliance differ from creating a title in an entirely new IP? Is it more challenging or perhaps the already established “base” of such a series is something more helpful?

Both approaches have their own challenges. Creating something entirely new offers a lot less restrictions but you can easily get lost in trying to discover the core of what makes your game fun. With Jagged Alliance we knew what made the first two games fun – the big and quirky cast of characters, the deep tactical combat and the open nature of the strategic layer.
With that being said, following in the footsteps of such cult classics can be daunting. Capturing what made these games feel unique can be difficult. We’ve had times we tried multiple approaches until we found the right path. Case and point is the chance to hit the indicator. Initially we decided to follow the current modern trend and have a visible chance to hit but we ended with something that didn’t feel like Jagged Alliance so we doubled back and changed that.

More than twenty years have passed since the release of Jagged Alliance 2 and that actually adds to the challenges. Back then visuals were limited and certain things worked because of these limitations. All the mercs were represented by the same small pixelated model in the world with a few different colors for shirts. This wouldn’t work today. We spent a huge amount of time discovering who these characters are and how they should look in Jagged Alliance 3. Not just their portrait but their outfits, mannerisms and even posture. It also set a more drastic limit to the cast as creating a new merc now requires a lot more work from character artists, animators, writers and voice actors.

What can players expect when it comes to the story of Jagged Alliance 3? Is it an essential element of the game or rather a background for the gameplay experience?

I feel that both the overarching main story and the small stories scattered throughout the world of Jagged Alliance 3 are an essential part of the experience. Yes, you can run guns blazing and just take over sector after sector and don’t care about the consequences but I think you will miss out on a lot.
It is the small stories of the people of Grand Chien, the fictional country where the story takes place, that add spice to enjoy the full flavor of the game. What are their problems, how are they surviving in this war-torn county, how can you help? Also what are the consequences of your actions?

This comes out clearly in the epilogue scenes where you will see the results of your actions (or inactions). You might have finished the job you were paid for but how did things turn out for the little guy? What about parts of the country you did not visit or didn’t care to explore? Seeing how things turned out can be a big push to make a new attempt and see how things will end this time around.

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

Mortismal Gaming checked out Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 - First Impressions

Thanks Couchpotato!

HeyPoorPlayer reviewed Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 Review: Rumble in the Jungle

War is an expensive business. When you’re paying people to risk their lives, that seldom comes cheap, and when playing Jagged Alliance 3, that was one lesson I quickly took to heart. Jagged Alliance 3 casts the player as the leader of a mercenary outfit tasked with rescuing the kidnapped president of a fictionalized African nation named Grand Chien from a vicious army of raiders known as The Legion. The first thing I did in the campaign was to recruit a team. Each character demanded a hefty price for fighting for me, with the insecure combat medic even asking for a higher price because he hates working with a swaggering musclebound mercenary on the team (aptly named “Steroid”). That was my first tip-off this strategy title was as much about managing people and finances as it is about the combat itself.

Jagged Alliance 3’s combat will be immediately reminiscent of the X-Com style of tactical turn-based RPG that’s been ascendant for the last decade, where characters move between full and half cover. What’s a little different about Jagged Alliance 3 is the action point system where characters have a pool of points they use for both moving and shooting.

[...]

Jagged Alliance 3 is a versatile strategy RPG, packed with personality and entertainment. You really have an opportunity to overcome tactical problems with your own personalized approach without being forced into playing a certain way. Any hardened SRPG mercenaries looking to take on a challenging but rewarding contract will definitely enjoy spending countless hours delving into the jungles of Gran Chien.

Score: 4/5

The Turn Based Lovers checked out Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 First Impressions - Did They Screw it Up?!?

The long awaited Jagged Alliance 3 will be released today:

Jagged Alliance 3

Grand Chien, a nation of rich natural resources and deep political divides, is thrown into chaos when the elected president goes missing and a paramilitary force known as “The Legion” seizes control of the countryside. Now, the President’s family has pulled together all their resources, including an arrangement with the powerful Adonis corporation, to hire a group of skilled mercenaries tasked with finding the President and bringing order back to the country.

In Jagged Alliance 3, select from a huge cast of mercenaries all with their own unique personalities, quirks, and backstories. Then go out and explore Grand Chien as you meet new people, earn money, grow your team, and ultimately make your own decisions that will decide the country’s fate.

FEATURES

• Engage in rich, tactical turn-based combat
• Recruit from a large cast of unique mercenaries, including many familiar fan favorites
• Loot, salvage, and customize an arsenal of weaponry and equipment
• Choose from a wide array of special perks to customize your mercs as they level up
• Decide the fate of Grand Chien in an open RPG structure
• Control territory, train the locals, command multiple parties, and defend against enemy forces in an alive, active world
• Experience the campaign with friends in online co-op mode

GamingBolt reviewed Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 Review - The Final Verdict

ACG reviewed the upcoming Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 Review So Far - Stop You Are Already Dead!

Haemimont Games and THQ Nordic posted their last Dev Diary before the release of Jagged Alliance 3. This time, they share an (auto?) interview with Boian Spasov and Boyan Ivanov, co-creative directors of Jagged Alliance 3:

A Double Interview and a Look Back

Hello and welcome to our last DevDiary before release! We thought it would be best to do something special this time, so you are getting not just one one, but two Boi(y)ans interviewed, as we are celebrating our upcoming release by taking a fond retrospective look at the great games that started it all. We are Boian Spasov and Boyan Ivanov, co-creative directors of Jagged Alliance 3 and today we will be talking about our fond memories of Jagged Alliance 1 and Jagged Alliance 2 and the way these memories impacted the development of the sequel!

Question: Let’s start with an easy one – for how long have you wanted to make a Jagged Alliance game?

Boyan Ivanov: I’ve been fascinated with Jagged Alliance ever since I chanced upon JA2 in the early 2000s. I played it constantly for an entire summer. I’ve been wanting to try to make a game inspired by Jagged Alliance ever since my junior designer days more than a decade ago.

I’ve reached out to Jagged Alliance for inspiration multiple times over the years while working on other projects. Now having the chance to actually make the third installment of the series is still a bit unbelievable and overwhelming at times. The series is very near and dear to my heart.

Boian Spasov: There is a story that my colleagues love telling around but it bears repeating. When I applied for a game designer position at Haemimont Games way back in 2006 I was asked during my job interview to name any three existing games that I would love to work on if I ever get the chance. That question turned out oddly prophetic – one of the three was Tropico, a game series that Haemimont Games successfully revived and is famous for right now and another was Jagged Alliance - our most ambitious project yet.

So, for me quite literally Jagged Alliance 3 is a dream come true! I am incredibly grateful and humbled to have this opportunity not only because I always wanted to work on a sequel as a developer, but also because for many years I really wanted this game to exist as a fan of the series.

And no, I am not telling you what the third game I named on the interview was just yet – I might jinx it!

Question: What do you remember about Jagged Alliance 1, the game that started it all?

Boian Spasov: I remember that in my eyes there was no other game quite like it. There were not many tactical games back then in 1995, but Jagged Alliance was not just a tactical game but an unique genre hybrid – there was a strategic element to it, an RPG element, as well as a humongous cast of fully voiced player characters, something unseen at the times!

Jagged Alliance 1 was not the expansive and refined beast of a game that Jagged Alliance 2 turned out to be few years later, but it was a special, quirky game with its own charm identity. One thing I particularly liked was how distinctive each merc was – all of them had hidden traits and distinct personalities and hidden mini-mechanics. For example, the old mercs lost stats instead of gaining them with experience, the native guides often reveled useful information for each particular area, some mercs couldn’t swim well, others were kleptomaniac, struggled with phobias or had hidden abilities and interactions...

It was unpredictable, at times even chaotic and I loved every minute of it - the game felt very different on each playthrough just depending on whoever you picked on the team.

Boyan Ivanov: I became a fan of Jagged Alliance mostly through the second game but I do have some fond memories of playing JA1. Mostly of Tex and Ivan and their voice lines, mercs bantering with each other, but also of the whole team management aspect. Hiring mercs, managing their equipment finding new nifty items to use like the extended ear or the metal detector.

On the other hand I loved the strategic aspect. Going through the island sector by sector and claiming all the fallow trees (your source of income). Advancing time day by day and managing your mercs over a long period of time.

There were a lot of experimental games back in the 90s and JA1 felt like a very unique blend of genres. It didn’t fully click with me until Jagged Alliance 2 but I definitely have some fond and not so fond memories of the original title. Oh my god it’s full of eels!

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

Jagged Alliance 3 will get mod support and a co-op mode:

Co-op mode & Mod support

Yo, gamers! I'm Vlad Abadzhiev-Jahn, a programmer and designer at Haemimont Games. Today, I want to talk to you about two major features - our two-player online co-op multiplayer and modding!

Ticket for One That Seats Two

Multiplayer brings a whole other energy to a game's campaign. It allows you to explore tactical differences with your partner and devise strategies together, experience and discuss the story side by side, and it also adds replayability.

Translating the single player experience as closely as possible while accommodating two people frictionlessly was a challenge both technically and design wise. Fortunately, we at Haemimont Games have some prior experience which gave us a strong foundation to draw from.

Let's start with getting you and your buddy to Grand Chien. One player is designated the “host” and the other the “partner”. The host is the one who initiates the game and the partner is the player who joins the host’s game. When creating a game the host has the option of starting a new campaign with their partner or inviting them into an ongoing playthrough.

We aimed to make the co-op gameplay as seamless as possible. The host can save and load games at any time as if they were playing alone and their partner will be there along for the ride. Additionally there is no functional difference between a save made in a co-op and single player, and the host can continue the game in single player if their buddy drops out. Both players can also load any of the saves (auto-saves or manual saves) created during co-op gameplay and continue them in singleplayer.

We found that in co-op games it is important for both players to be aware of what's happening in the moment-to-moment gameplay. We implemented a system where conversations with NPCs are controlled by the player who initiated them, but both players observe the conversation happening in real time. The non-controlling player can even offer suggestions for conversation options.

In order for both players to be aware of what is going on, we had to make some compromises. For instance, both players can only explore the same sector in tactical view. Splitting up to tackle Grand Chien separately might sound appealing, but the majority of missions take place on multiple sectors and it can get disorienting.

On top of that, there's the issue of how time advances when one player is engaged in combat in a different sector. It would be tedious for one player to spend 40 minutes in the Satellite View waiting for their partner to finish their tough fight with the Legion. Considering the technical challenges as well, having both players on the same sector made the most sense.

Mercs for me, and for Thee

Both players can hire mercenaries and manage squads, but since you're on the same side, you share funds and strategize together. To remain flexible the host player can assign and reassign control over individual mercs at any time. When in a sector (tactical view) players can only order their own mercs around, with both players being able to explore the sector and interact with it at the same time. During combat both players share a turn, which ends when both players click "Ready". Easy and simple!

In the beginning we were focused on preventing the players from trolling each other. This resulted in a sort of adversarial system which included mechanics such as only one player being able to control a squad in satellite view, or prompts for standing conversations with NPCs. Through testing and iteration we shifted our focus to a system that promotes co-operation and flow rather than preventing trolling. I mean, you can always shoot your friend's mercs, but remember, they’re your mercs as well! 🙂

During development we discovered an interesting case where the host may take control over all mercs and leave none to their partner to control. With the partner unable to interact with the game all they can do is watch, which indirectly creates a kind of spectator mode for the game. It was initially reported as a bug, but it turned into a happy little feature.

Navigating the Desync Minefield

On the technical side chasing down desyncs was the most time-consuming part. For those unfamiliar with the term - a "desync" is essentially a mismatch in the result of a player's action between the two players' computers. Sometimes this can be as simple as the virtual dice landing on a different number, while other times as elaborate as a different merc appearing as hired on each person's screen.

Desyncs may occur at any time as a result of any system. From the camera, through the inventory, combat, and even animations. While we fix every bug we catch, we don't want your game to be ruined because we missed one. If you encounter a desync while playing, a popup with a "Resync" button will open on the host's screen. Clicking it will trigger a quick loading screen and your game will be resynchronized, with no progress lost or rollbacks.

Modding also directly impacts multiplayer. To ensure the game remains synchronized between the two players, any mods in use must be installed by both players. Mods that add content using our internal systems, such as weapons and mercs will be automatically synchronized. However, modders who dabble in scripting and coding will need to consider how to keep their functionality from desynchronizing and test their mods in co-op if they choose to support it.

Your Game, Your Rules - Modding in JA3

Modding has played a significant part in the history of Jagged Alliance as community made mods have ensured the game's continued longevity. Long after its original release in 1999, Jagged Alliance 2's torch keeps burning thanks to mods such as the popular 1.13 mod. From the get-go we knew how important it was to build the game with modding in mind for players and creators alike, and enable modders to create JA3's equivalent of the renowned 1.13 mod and much more!

Modders will have access to the tools we use internally to create content such as mercs, weapons, items, quests, voice responses, and can even add support for new languages.

[...]

Haemimont Games and THQ Nordic have posted Dev Diary #12 on combat in Jagged Alliance 3 (the 2nd part):

Combat, Part Two

Hello and welcome to our second DevDiary dedicated to combat. In case you have missed it, here is Combat Part 1. I am Boian Spasov, Lead Designer, and I will tell you about some of the remaining combat mechanics. As usual, we will follow-up with a DevStream this Thursday where we will discuss all these combat elements, and more!

Combat Start
Although combat in Jagged Alliance 3 is turn-based, the game flows in real time outside of combat. Internally we call this “exploration mode”, since it is most often used when exploring maps either before or after combat encounters. While you are in exploration mode, combat might start for several reasons – the enemies might notice you or one of your allies; they might hear a suspicious sound like a gunshot, explosion or a cry of pain; they might also see something alarming, like a fire starting nearby. All of these lead to a transition to the turn-based “combat mode”.

Playing first grants a significant advantage in turn-based tactical games and it can often be critical for the battle that follows. Some games decide this balance issue by intermixing the turns of individual units from both teams but this limits the tactics you can use and more importantly, doesn’t feel true to the legacy of Jagged Alliance.

In Jagged Alliance 3 in made sense to grant the first turn to the player team – mercs usually have the initiative in engagements anyway and it never feels good to lose a merc character before you have chance to act at least once in the battle. However, this granted a bit too much advantage to the player – some combat encounters may become too easy when you are able to focus-fire on critical enemy units before they act or take the most advantageous positions before them.

To mitigate this advantage, enemies receive a short reposition phase when they become alert (unless they are Surprised – but I’ll get to that later). During the reposition phase they are allowed to move a short distance, or very rarely execute a single attack instead of moving. Note that these reposition actions are constrained by a much smaller AP limit that the enemy max AP and in no way equally powerful to an entire combat turn.

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

Haemimont Games and THQ Nordic tell us more about the guns of Jagged Alliance 3 in Dev Diary #11:

DevDiary 11 - Guns Guns Guns

Hey everyone, my name is Pavel Peychev, Producer at Haemimont Games and I am thrilled to share with you this DevDiary on a topic near and dear to my heart - the Guns of Jagged Alliance 3! We'll go over the types of weapons, how they fit into the overall gameplay and how we managed to represent the look and feel in the game itself. 

Weapons are an important part of the Jagged Alliance legacy. Whereas other games in the genre use high-level abstractions, JA games aimed to faithfully reproduce real life weapons in a turn based tactical game by introducing things like selective fire, ammo types, penetration, effective range and more. 

In Jagged Alliance 3 we wanted the weapons to open up playstyles and feel different in the hands of different mercs while still keeping them grounded in reality.

The Guns of Jagged Alliance 3

There are 7 different types of ranged weapons in the game - Handguns, Shotguns, SMGs, Assault Rifles, Rifles, Machine guns and Heavy Weapons. They have their own characteristics, different effective ranges, and special attacks. We also have some melee weapons but this DevDiary is only about firearms.

For instance, Handguns are very accurate at point-blank-range. They also allow for Mobile Shot, where you can move to a new location and shoot at the closest enemy. This makes them useful even later in the game for dynamic and aggressive in-your-face builds.

SMGs (submachine guns) combine the Handguns’ lower armor penetration and high mobility with burst and autofire capabilities as well as the Run & Gun special attack that allows you to shoot on the move for a considerable accuracy penalty.

Nothing says “guns blazing” quite like dual-wielding. You can equip handguns and some SMGs to each hand and choose which to shoot or just pull the triggers on both at the expense of accuracy.

On the other side of the spectrum, you have Machine Guns that tend to excel with a more planned approach. They are Cumbersome, which means they don’t allow free movement at the start of your turn, are less accurate when fired from the hip, but can dominate an area when set to threaten it with interrupt attacks. Spitting lead downrange at an impressive rate.

Shotguns combine a regular attack with close low-damage AOE that represents the pellet spread. An accurate shot will do a lot of damage but even an inaccurate one will slightly wound characters standing close. They can be highly destructive at close range so check your friendly fire.

Assault rifles are highly versatile and allow for you to mod them in order to fit many different roles. But we’ll talk about modifying weapons and using attachments later in this diary.

Rifles, of course, have long range, low rate of fire… in most cases. Some rifles are very well suited for fast follow-up shots that bolt action rifles just can’t do.

Heavy weapons will allow you to send some love in the form of different kinds of explosive ordinance. Nothing demonstrates the destructable environment quite like a rotary multiple grenade launcher.

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

Haemimont Games and THQ Nordic explore the artistic style of Jagged Alliance 3 in Dev Diary #10:

DevDiary 10 - Art Direction

Hello and welcome to this week's DevDiary focused on the Art Direction for Jagged Alliance 3. My name is Nelson Inomvan and today I will have the pleasure of being your guide throughout the beautiful land of Grand Chien.

One of my many tasks as an Art Director is to help the art team in crafting a unique aesthetic for the project and make sure the original vision is preserved throughout the development process.

A Look Back

One of the first things we did when we started work on the project, was to go back and play the first two games. What we quickly learned was that what made those games be what they are was not in the realm of a specific color palette nor the technical bells and whistles of the time, but rather in what I call  “the fantasy” element.
The concept at the core of the game, the big idea that revolves around you as a player assembling a crew of mercenaries, embarking on a thrilling adventure reminiscent of action-packed movies from the 80s-90s and that should still be key when it comes to the visuals.

I still remember the rip-o-matic we put together and shared throughout the studio. It was a mash-up of scenes from some of our favorite action flicks of that time, and we used it to set the energy in the team. It was a good example of what we sought to convey with the visuals.

Making that deep dive into the first two games, made us also realize and appreciate how rich and thought out those titles are. The attention to detail (e.g. crows and the fallen enemies)  was on another level, and it became clear to us that we had to step up and match that standart at the very least.

Maybe this is the place to express our respect for the teams who created those classics. The immense passion, love, and elbow grease poured in those games is still visible even to this day.

The Road We Took

Throughout the pre-production phase, the game underwent multiple iterations until the visuals finally encapsulated the initial design concept we were striving for.

At one point, we experimented with a "dirty-gray" military aesthetic, but soon realized that something was missing from that picture, making the game look too generic. Thus, our search continued until one day something interesting happened, shaping all of our subsequent decisions.

We went back and took another look at the design documentation, which encompassed a vast amount of information about the world, and an idea sparked: What if we make the country of Grand Chien and, more importantly, the continent of Africa at the heart of our art vision, rather than the other way around?

This simple yet effective idea changed our thinking and the process led us to the concept of “contrast” or what we ended up calling it - “Wet and Dry”, those two words encapsulate the breadth of what the continent of Africa can offer and thus make it the central character in the stage of “art”.

Now we had the opportunity to explore the vast array of breathtaking locations, each boasting its own distinctive weather patterns, allowing players to immerse themselves in the continent’s remarkable richness. From the always wet muddy jungles filled with mosquitos to the dry savannas or scorching hot wastelands. Furthermore, many of these elements would have a significant impact on gameplay, thereby influencing your decisions as a player.

We've even taken into account minute details such as the presence of puddles in jungle areas and their potential impact on the effectiveness of your fire bombs.

Key features such as dynamic movement, exaggerated weather, strong lighting  and cinematic-style color grading all played a role in pushing the world of Grand Chien and achieving this distinctive art style. Additionally, the ever present signs of entropy that can be seen in all human made everyday objects added a unique depth to the world.

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

Another trailer for Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 | Wider Picture Trailer

Redglyph spotted the development diary #9 for Jagged Alliance 3:

DevDiary 9 - Satellite View

Strategic Gameplay

Hi everyone, I am Boyan Ivanov, co-creative director of Jagged Alliance 3, and today we are going to talk about strategy.

The 90s were a golden age for PC strategy games. It is no wonder that both big tactical games from that era - XCOM and Jagged Alliance – featured not only excellent tactical combat but also a deep strategic element. For me this blend is one of the key ingredients for their success and my own fond memories of spending countless hours with them.

From the early days of conceptualizing Jagged Alliance 3 it was clear to us that we had to capture this unique blend – turn based tactics, strategic gameplay in an open world and a quirky cast of characters. But what exactly is needed to make a fun and engaging strategic layer? And also, what makes a good strategic layer within the context of the Jagged Alliance series?

Strategic gameplay requires planning and tough decisions, managing different resources, be it money, time, or people. It also needs a big playground where these plans can unfold.

A Whole New World

Welcome to the Adjani Valley – the world of Jagged Alliance 3. This is what we call the Satellite View – the strategic layer of the game where you will command your squads of mercenaries.

As is tradition set by the game’s predecessors, the world map is divided into a sector grid. More than 160 of these sectors (including underground locations) have their own playable, handcrafted maps to explore. Collected into several different regions and environments, these maps offer not simply yet another battlefield but new characters and stories as we discussed in Dev Diary 8 – Quests.

[...]

Jagged Alliance 3 can now be pre-ordered on Steam and GOG with a -20% discount, 'no skins attached':

Hire Your Mercs Now: Jagged Alliance 3 Pre-order Is Live!

Ah, pre-order! You, yes you, getting the marvelous opportunity to throw your hard-earned cash at publishers and developers before the game is even unleashed upon the world! But why on earth would you do that, you ask? Because obviously there's something special in store for you: the glorious promise of shiny items, consumables or cosmetics for your soon-to-be gaming extravaganza!

Except... Not with Jagged Alliance 3. Sorry to burst your pixelated bubble, but we didn't hop on the costume-making bandwagon for our badass Mercs. No sir, no fancy frills here. And just when you thought it couldn't get any better, guess what? We won't dangle the tempting carrot of some days of Early Access in front of you, nor will we tease you with ludicrous horse armor. Oh, no! We're cutting straight to the chase and saving you from any horsing around... because there are no horses either. And we are also passing on any kind of pass here.

But hey, don't lose faith just yet, brave gaming warrior! If you dare to put your trust in us and the mighty developers of Jagged Alliance 3, if you're brave enough to take that pre-order plunge, we've actually got something for you:

You'll be rewarded with a 20% discount! That's right, amigo, we're slashing a cool 20% off the regular price for our digital pre-order.

That's it. No skins attached.

Thanks Redglyph!

Redglyph spotted the development diary #8 for Jagged Alliance 3:

DevDiary 8 - Quest Creation

The making of a story

Hello, I’m Radomir Mirchev, Senior Narrative Designer of JA3, and it’s story time once again.

This time I’ll tell you about how stories are created in Jagged Alliance 3 and how more threads are woven into them.

For that purpose I’ll guide you around one of my favorite places in Grand Chien. This is spoiler territory, but don’t worry – I’ll leave enough for you to explore and discover when you get to play the game and reach Port Cacao Docks. While I introduce you to the neighborhood, I may drop a hint or two about what’s going on there. It’s mostly stuff that anyone at the Docks could tell you.

Design goals

But before we start, let me bring you back to Jagged Alliance 2 for a while.

In JA2, there were just about a dozen of quests and most of them were adoringly simple. They managed to do so much with so little – mostly because they were well-integrated into the framework of the game, made use of existing mechanics and provided different, sometimes quite specific quest outcomes. That helped bring the game world to life.

For example, you could convince Doreen to shut down her factory where she exploited child labor, or simply kill her – or both. You could obtain the Chalice of Chance by killing the poor old guard, or take great effort to sneak into the museum and steal it. The game reacted to these choices, for example by modifying Loyalty at the sector.

We wanted to keep this kind of integrated content and build upon it.

We had to make sure that we give you freedom of choice, including implicit choices. But as I said in a previous Dev Diary, freedom only means something if there are suitable outcomes that react to your actions – so you should be able to kill (almost) anyone, and the game should be attuned to your dark psychotic side.

In addition to that, we tried not to insult your intelligence by expecting you to follow series of fetch steps. As with other game aspects, we wanted to encourage you to try things and see what happens. However, we shouldn’t allow you to feel lost and end up scratching your head what you are supposed to do next. We decided to provide subtle hints here and there that were presented as notes in your PDA.

Now let’s fast forward to Jagged Alliance 3 and see how we built the Port Cacao Docks sector with these goals in mind.

Narrative concept

While building the sector, we needed to establish the scene first.

We wanted to show how tough life is in Grand Chien, and how people adapted to the realities of a post-war country that is on the brink of chaos once again.

A document is written that describes the general feel, features and specific points of interest of the place. It is important to supply it with real world visual references which will be used by the art team to produce the necessary assets.

[...]

Heypoorplayer checked out Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3: War is an Expensive Business

When you’re paying people to risk their lives, that seldom comes cheap, and when playing a preview copy of Jagged Alliance 3, that was one lesson I quickly took to heart. Jagged Alliance 3 casts the player as the leader of a mercenary outfit tasked with rescuing the kidnapped president of a fictionalized African nation named Grand Chien from a vicious army of raiders known as The Legion. The first thing I did in the campaign was to recruit a team. Each character demanded a hefty price for fighting for me, with the insecure combat medic even asking for a higher price because he hates working with a swaggering musclebound mercenary on the team (aptly named “Steroid”). That was my first tip-off this strategy title was as much about managing people and finances as it is about the combat itself.

Jagged Alliance 3’s combat will be immediately reminiscent of the X-Com style of tactical turn-based RPG that’s been ascendant for the last decade, where characters move between full and half cover. What’s a little different about Jagged Alliance 3 is the action point system where characters have a pool of points they use for both moving and shooting. Characters can spend AP to go prone, decreasing their chance to get hit and increasing accuracy at the cost of making it more difficult if they’re flanked and need to scramble to their feet to move to a better position. This extra complexity adds a sense of tactical depth to the proceedings.

[...]

Jagged Alliance 3 will be released on July 14:

It's Your Turn: Jagged Alliance 3 Coming to PC in July

Sofia, Bulgaria / Vienna, Austria, May 17th, 2023: When people talk about turn-based tactics games, very often Jagged Alliance is mentioned as one of the legendary forefathers of the genre. So creating a new installment in the series, almost 25 years after the first one has electrified gamers around the globe, is not a simple task: The memories of those iconic games remain cherished, but times have changed, and players now have different expectations. Nevertheless, developer Haemimont Games and publisher THQ Nordic are proudly adding the long-awaited "3" to the iconic title, indicating nothing less than: Jagged Alliance 3 shall be a worthy successor and an outstanding strategy game when it releases on July 14th, 2023 for PC!

In the latest trailer, we're gonna spill the beans on what Jagged Alliance 3 brings to the table - and what it doesn't. Battle-hardened mercenaries who've conquered the previous installments might scoff and say, "Been there, done that." But for you unfortunate souls who've never tasted the thrill of a Jagged Alliance game yet (shame on you!), this rad new trailer will answer the burning question you've been dying to ask: What is the gameplay like? Does it focus on tactics or strategy? Is there a crafting system? And so much more... Find all the answers you seek in the thrilling new trailer!

 [...]

Thanks Kordanor and Couchpotato!

Haemimont Games and THQ Nordic posted Jagged Alliance 3 DevDiary #7, with some details on the user interface. The next Twitch DevStream will discuss it on Thursday:

DevDiary 7 - User Interface

User Interface

Hi everyone! I am Boyan Ivanov, Co-Creative Director on JA3, and this time we will talk about a topic that is often overlooked when discussing the development of a particular game – User Interface. It is an all-engrossing topic as UI and UX (user experience – how you the player interact with the game) covers a variety of game elements. From aspects like controlling hiring your mercs, controlling them in battle, getting the right information for a specific situation, to the ways you as players interact with the game world and even things like having the proper video settings for Ultrawide monitors.

UI with character

Our journey with the UI/UX of Jagged Alliance 3 has been a tough one and this part of the game has gone through the most iteration and experimentation by far. Early on our initial take on the UI was to focus on a typical modern minimalistic UI and that is what we built for our very first playable version. This was quickly called out by the team as it lacked the Jagged Alliance feel.

Although a more modern approach would have made the whole journey of creating the UI easier we understood that this would come at the expense of capturing the unique feel of the second game.

As many of you know the UI of Jagged Alliance 2 while not particularly easy to use (even for 1999) or consistent, had a unique character that not only immersed you in the game world but also showed a fun and entertaining side of the game. Everyone remembers sending Deidranna flowers via the web shop or using the IMP website to make a merc.

Though these look like small details, having the SirOS laptop with the browser and all the websites really made you feel like the man behind the screen. The mastermind that plans and executes the mission away from the actual fighting. To this day this is one of the most memorable elements of Jagged Alliance and we knew we had to replicate that experience.

Party like it’s … 2001

We knew we wanted to make a direct sequel in terms of story and that firmly set the time frame somewhere in the early 2000s. That meant that to get the character of the UI we had to look back… way back. It was a trip we had lots of fun with – we remembered the old days of ICQ, mIRC and a very young Internet with non-functional sites, bad connections and popup adds. Ah, the good old days!

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

Take a look at the combat of Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 | Dev Stream #03: Combat

Thanks Couchpotato!

Henriquejr spotted the newest entry of the developer diary for Jagged Alliance 3:

Combat, Part One

Hello there! I am Boian Spasov and it is my pleasure to welcome you to a DevDiary on a subject that I’ve been wanting to write about for a long time – combat! Yeah, it’s a big one - there is so much to talk about that a single article won’t be enough and you can expect a second combat DevDiary down the road.

As stated in our first DevDiary “Game Vision” the combat is one of the pillars of Jagged Alliance 3. It is a deep, involved and realistic experience and is the single aspect of the game that we iterated on the most during development.

Combat in Jagged Alliance 3 is turn-based with your entire team taking a turn, followed by the enemy team. During your turn you are free to activate your characters in any order and intermix action between them.

A typical character turn in many tactical games can be described as simply as “I move to this position and attack with this skill”. This level of abstraction is perfectly fine for these titles and we have seen how it can create deep and engaging gameplay, but for a simulative game like Jagged Alliance 3 we wanted more precise level of control over your character’s actions. How exactly do you move - will you hustle recklessly or carefully crawl to the target location? How exactly do you attack? Do you take your time to aim carefully? Will you attempt to cripple the target shooting a burst at their limbs or gamble for a killer headshot instead? This is achieved with several game mechanics working in concert, the most important of which are the Action Point system, the movement stances, the weapon firing modes and the body parts targeting system.

Action Points
All actions that a character takes during their team’s turn are limited by their available number of Action Points (AP). A simple action like crouching may cost only a single Action Point, while a more time-consuming action like a carefully aimed attack with a rocket launcher may consume most of the characters’ AP for the turn. Attack actions may be modified by spending additional AP to aim more carefully, increasing the chance to hit precisely with the net benefit from Aiming also depending on the weapon and the character stats.

An average rookie merc has around 10-12 AP per turn. This number is increased for veteran mercs and when conditions are favorable, like at high morale, but never too much. We intentionally kept the numbers relatively low to ease the mental calculations related to Action Points that players do each turn. However, even though the available number of AP is always displayed as an integer, it is internally stored with higher precision and certain very simple actions like moving at a short distance effectively cost only a fraction of an action point.

[...]

Haemimont Games and THQ Nordic revealed the Collector's Tactical Edition of Jagged Alliance 3.

Gear Up, Mercenaries! Jagged Alliance 3 Collector's Edition Unveiled

Equip yourself with the right tools to gain an advantage in combat. In the challenging world of Jagged Alliance 3, having top-of-the-line equipment is essential for survival, whether you're battling in harsh environments or comfortably seated in your gaming chair.

Introducing the Jagged Alliance 3 Tactical Edition!

This comprehensive kit is housed in a sturdy and waterproof case, ensuring your gear remains safe and dry. The Tactical Belt with a Belt Pouch provides quick and easy access to your essential items, while the A.I.M. pin showcases your allegiance to the cause.

Get to know the characters of Jagged Alliance with a set of 36 character cards, each showcasing their professions and personalities. As you strategize and plan your next move, immerse yourself in the game's atmosphere with the official soundtrack on CD. With the Jagged Alliance 3 Tactical Edition, you'll be fully prepared to take on whatever challenges come your way!

Here's the full overview:

• Outdoor case, 100% water- and dustproof & IP67 certified
• Outer dimensions: 258 x 243 x 118 mm
• Inner dimensions: 235 x 180 x 106 mm
• Heavy Duty Tactical Belt for your pants
• Tactical Belt Pouch for your gadgets
• A.I.M. Pin
• Set of 36 Character Cards
• Original Soundtrack on disc
• The Game on disc in a limited Media Book

The Tactical Edition is available for pre-order now at an SRP of € 129.99 / £ 114.99 and will release along with the game this summer.

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

You can't plan everything in Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 is a chaotic action movie homage where all of your plans will go up in flames

Embrace the mess.

My international squad of mercenaries—the not-quite-heroes of Jagged Alliance 3—were enjoying a day at the beach, following up on some intel that an explosives expert was hanging out there. Instead, they found themselves in a sandy minefield surrounded by foes. Naturally, a fight broke out. Several goons were grouped together, which was convenient for my shotgun-wielding medic. One turn in, half of the opposition were either dead or close to it. Then my mechanic stepped on a mine.

Chaos took hold. One of my squad went berserk, ran out of cover and just started spraying bullets. Another panicked, tried to flee and, of course, stepped on another mine. Someone thought it would be a good idea to toss a molotov into the mix. More mines went off. Bullets pinged off rocks and thudded into the sand as shots missed their targets. There was shouting and screaming and threats. A miraculous headshot finally ended the carnage, and somehow my mercs walked away with only nearly-fatal injuries. Just another day in the office.

[...]

Some more previews for Jagged Alliance 3:

Turn Based Lovers

Splattercatgaming

Angry Centaur Gaming

Fextralife checked out Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3 Gameplay Impressions - Is it Worth It Should You Play it? (Turn-Based RPG)

Kordanor spotted the devdiary #4 for Jagged Alliance 3:

DevDiary 4 - Character Progression

Character Progression

Hello everyone, I am Boian Spasov and I am happy to welcome you to our fourth DevDiary! In it we will take a look at the way we model the mercs mechanically and how they become more powerful, unique and personalized as the campaign progresses.

From the very start of the design process for Jagged Alliance 3 we knew that we wanted a classless system for the mercs. Even though some characters might reasonably be considered “field medics” or “explosive experts” based on their starting skillset and indeed the Association of International Mercenaries (A.I.M.) might even advertise them as such on their webpage, we didn’t want to constraint them in such narrow archetypes, nor force the player to use or develop them in a particular way. Advancing your so-called medic to become a top-tier sniper or mechanic should take serious effort, but is ultimately possible and no artificial class definitions will prevent you from doing so.

Merc Stats

Like in the classic JA games, we represent the basic physical attributes and important skills of each character with a number between 0 and 100. Here is a list of the basic stats that each merc has and their direct effects – some of these may sound a bit cryptic:

Health - Represents both the physical well-being of a merc and the amount of damage they can take before becoming downed.
Agility - Measures how well a merc reacts physically to a new situation. Affects the total amount of action points, free movement at the start of a turn, and how stealthy the merc is.
Dexterity - Measures a merc's ability to perform delicate or precise movements correctly. Affects bonus from aiming and Stealth Kill chance.
Strength - Represents muscle and brawn. It's particularly important in Melee combat, affects throwing range and the size of the personal inventory of the character.
Wisdom - Affects a merc's ability to learn from experience and training. Affects the chance to notice hidden items and enemies.
Leadership - Measures charm, respect and presence. Important for training militia and other mercs. Affects the chance for getting positive and negative Morale events.
Marksmanship - Reflects a merc's ability to shoot accurately at a given target with a firearm.
Mechanical - Rates a merc's ability to repair damaged, worn-out or broken items and equipment. Important for lockpicking, machine handling and hacking electronic devices. Used for detecting and disarming non-explosive traps.
Explosives - Determines a merc's ability to use grenades and other explosives and affects damage and mishap chance when using thrown items. Used for detecting and disarming explosive traps.
Medical - Represents a merc's medical knowledge and ability to heal the wounded.

Some of you will recognize the names of these stats from Jagged Alliance 1 and 2 but note that some of the particular effects are working slightly differently now. Returning mercs have similar stats to their counterparts in the old games, but these have been adjusted just a bit to account for the time passed and some balancing with the new system.

Stats are not static throughout a merc’s lifetime. These can be improved in several ways, including getting trained by more proficient mercs on the team and using these stats efficiently in the field. Gains from field experience are limited and also loosely tied to the regular progression for levelling up – don’t expect your merc to become an expert marksman by repeatedly shooting at bottles in a safe situation!

We briefly considered lowering stats due to serious wounds and other negative factors, but ultimately decided against this – having your favorite merc permanently crippled is not very fun. Temporary impairments on the other hand, may create a better gameplay experience.

[...]

Tex R. Colburn - professional actor, cowboy, stuntman and mercenary comes back:

DevDiary 3 - Making a Mercenary

Hello and welcome to another DevDiary for Jagged Alliance 3. My name is Boyan Ivanov, and I am the co-Creative Director of Jagged Alliance 3. Yes, another Boyan no to be confused with my dear friend and college Boian, whom you already know through the first DevDiary.

What made Jagged Alliance 1 and 2 so special was the cast of unique and quirky mercenaries under your command. There were many memorable personalities, and every player had his favorites. Some of mine are Barry, Fox and Tex from the first installment.

We knew that to make a great Jagged Alliance sequel we had to have a big roster of mercs, and we had to get them right.

Tex – Cowboy of the Rising Sun

Speaking of Tex, while he was a bit too busy being a B-list movie star in Jagged Alliance 2, he’s back in action in Jagged Alliance 3. 

To tackle the challenge of recreating the old mercs like Tex we need to do our research. We began by creating a profile document for each merc with their background and story or at least what was known about them.

We then extracted all the voice lines from Jag 1 and 2 to get the vibe and feel of the character. Combing all of those for additional information and character quirks and idiosyncrasies. Like Tex calling enemies rustlers and asking you if you prefer Clint Eastwood or John Wayne.

We knew we wanted to advance the timeline only by a couple of years and we wanted to reflect that in some of the characters. For Tex things weren’t going all that well in Unfinished Business (the expansion to Jagged Alliance 2) and as B-list action movies fell out of fashion he had to don his six shooters once more and sign back up with AIM.

[...]

Thanks Henriquejr!

Ian Currie was interviewed by Gamestar about Jagged Alliance 3 - here's the translation:

Ian Curries Jagged Alliance 3 Interview

Recently Ian Currie had a brief interview about Jagged Alliance 3 with the German-speaking outlet Gamestar.de and we thought you guys would be very interested in what was asked and more importantly what he said..

Your official title is writer, but what’s your exact part in the team?

My role was to help ensure that the writing was high quality, both creatively and technically. This meant reviewing all the writing done by others and of course, producing a lot of new text (which included everything from dialogue to non-spoken text). Part of the role was to ensure consistency regarding grammar, culture, etc., but also with the JA franchise in general. In a nutshell, my job was to make certain that the writing was of the quality that fans of JA would expect. Working with the team, I also gave feedback on many things that weren’t writing related, but I think that’s just part of being a game developer.

The last installment of Jagged Alliance 2 is over two decades old, so a big part of today’s strategy gamers didn’t play it, or even don’t know it. As a writer, how do you reconcile these JA rookies and the veterans?

Well, that task goes beyond just the writing of course, but I think from a writing perspective you want to be able to reward veteran players without confusing new players. An analogy might be how Pixar can make very entertaining movies that include humor only adults will understand without diminishing the entertainment value for younger viewers. So perhaps we might reference something that only players familiar with JA2 may pick up on, but do it in a way that still works fine for new players.

JA2 offers dozens of mercs who are way more than just characters with certain skills shown in numbers: everyone has a background, strengths and weaknesses, is commenting what’s going on. How do you develop the old mercs further in JA3, and how do you bring new characters like Livewire to life?

Well of course that was one of the main goals of the JA franchise: to create interesting (and hopefully memorable) characters. To accomplish this in a strategy game setting was an interesting challenge and in order to make 40 different mercenaries unique we leaned on ethnicities, attitudes, interesting backgrounds, accents and of course good voice acting.

With each new installment in the franchise one of the challenges is keeping it feeling fresh. From a character perspective this involves balancing the addition of new mercs with old favorites. As designers we can also try to imagine how some of the returning characters might have evolved.

You must build a squad of six JA2-mercs. Budget doesn’t matter. Whom do you choose, and why?

Hmm, let’s see. I’d probably go with Scope & Reaper for their magnificent marksmanship and attitude. Nails for his explosive ability while still being strong in other areas. Vicki is my go to mechanic. Dr. Q is a great medic and Gus as a tremendous well rounded, very experienced who can serve as a second medic.

At the end of the great Legacy Trailer you say there are some things you wish you could have done in Jagged Alliance 2, and now you can do them in JA3. Can you give us two or three examples?

The first things that come to mind would be anything that helps convey the merc’s personalities. The more they come across like real individuals, the more attached the player is to them and that has multiple benefits. In JA3 mercs have a lot more opportunities to speak and react to things, which is one of the ways we learn people’s personalities in real life. Some of these opportunities include conversations with NPCs but there are times when they might just chat with each other – make small talk, etc.

Another thing that comes to mind is the depiction of the characters while in the sectors (e.g. exploration and combat). Instead of a simplistic and vague figurine, the mercs have all been uniquely modelled. The team has done an excellent job with this.

Thanks Henriquejr!

Ian Currie is a part of the Jagged Alliance 3 dev team:

Jagged Alliance 3 - Official Legacy Trailer

Redglyph spotted the first devdiary of Jagged Alliance 3:

Welcome to the first Jagged Alliance 3 DevDiary!

The DevDiary is a place where we can discuss specifics about the game, share some insights about the development process, and offer perspective on what game-shaping decisions we make and why. We’ll do our best to talk about cool, interesting topics, of which we’d love to hear your feedback! Hearing your suggestions will help us make the best game we can, and also understand what our fans care about. 

It was really hard for us to keep silent for so long, since there is a lot we want to share about Jagged Alliance 3. It may go without saying, but thank you for all the love and patience, we really appreciate it!

Jagged Alliance 3: Our Vision

Hello and welcome to the first DevDiary of Jagged Alliance 3 in which we will present our vision for Jagged Alliance 3 !

Since many of us in the dev team are lifelong Jagged Alliance fans it is easy for us to assume that many readers of this article will also be intimately familiar with JA1 and JA2, however we will try to avoid this trap and present the information in a way that is accessible to newcomers as well.  Overall, our goal is not only to introduce you to our game, but also to the principles that led us through the years-long development journey. We don't plan to focus on details just yet, there will be time enough for this in upcoming DevDiaries down the road.

Ever since the first pitch document we wrote we were certain about one thing - there was a particular feeling from Jagged Alliance 1 and 2 that made them special and we wanted to recapture it in our sequel - a unique combination of simulative turn-based combat, colorful characters, strategic management and the exploration of an open RPG-inspired sandbox world. A true sequel should rely on all of these pillars in order to recapture the charm of the first two games, so let's visit each of these points in turn.

[...]

In Conclusion

To recap all of the information above, here are the pillars of Jagged Alliance 3, as our team sees them:

• Deep turn-based combat that takes a realistic approach and allows a fine level of control
• A large cast of quirky and unique mercenaries
• Strategic gameplay on the satellite view map
• A vast handcrafted open world to explore and shape with your decisions

We hope this article answered some of your questions about our vision for Jagged Alliance 3 and planted the seeds for many future DevDiaries! What aspect of the game excites you and resonates with you the most? What would you like to read about next?

Boian Spasov

Lead Designer 

Wccftech give their first impressions of Jagged Alliance 3 from a presentation at Gamescom:

Jagged Alliance 3 Impressions – Returning to the Past

There's little doubt that Jagged Alliance as a series has faltered, or more accurately, it never really managed to follow the high of Jagged Alliance 2, released in 1999. Having gone through many publishers and developers, THQ Nordic has been the owner of the IP since 2015, then publishing (under the Handy Games label) Jagged Alliance: Rage! Last year, they finally announced Jagged Alliance 3.

If there's one thing worth saying, developers Haemimont Games are the most experienced team to have worked on the franchise, having created titles like Tropico 4 & 5, Omerta - City of Gangsters, Victor Vran and Surviving Mars. While I couldn't get hands-on with Jagged Alliance 3 at Gamescom, I was shown a presentation and asked a few questions while at it. The inevitable question is what I thought about this first look at Jagged Alliance 3.

[...]

The question will be if Haemimont manages this. We won't honestly know until some unrevealed time in the future. THQ Nordic isn't pressuring Haemimont, letting them get the game right. I can't say if this will be a true Jagged Alliance; it was a thirty-minute presentation. My first impressions are that Jagged Alliance 3 is on the right track, but only time will tell.

Thanks Redglyph!

The showcase trailer for Jagged Alliance 3.

 

They took our home, our dream, our president! It's time to take it all back! In Jagged Alliance 3, you hire a team of unique mercenaries to rescue the president of Grand Chien, who was kidnapped by a paramilitary force known as "The Legion". Engage in intense battles and spend your action points wisely in strategic, turn-based combat. Use the environment and the strength of your mercenaries to gain an advantage over your enemies. Loot and customize an arsenal of weaponry and get the most out of your special perks to win the battle against "The Legion". Jagged Alliance 3 is coming to PC.

Jagged Alliance 3 is back:

Jagged Alliance 3 - Announcement Trailer

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 A true successor to a beloved franchise - Jagged Alliance 3 is coming soon to PC.

Grand Chien, a nation of rich natural resources and deep political divides, is thrown into chaos when the elected president goes missing and a paramilitary force known as “The Legion” seizes control of the countryside. 

In Jagged Alliance 3, select from a huge cast of mercenaries, all with their own unique personalities, quirks, and backstories to find the President and bring order back to the country.

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GameStar received word from Akella that they're "no longer working cooperatively with Strategy First on Jagged Alliance 3" (transl.) Publisher Strategy First still holds the rights for Jagged Alliance 3, but Akella won't be developing the game. Whether or not another developer will take over is unclear.

F3 Games' Andrew Kazakov has been interviewed at RPG Vault about Jagged Alliance 3:

Jonric: What circumstances and reasons contributed to the selection of a Russian-based studio to develop this title?

Andrew Kazakov: When choosing a team to develop a project of this type and scale, it was obvious that we needed Russian developers, the same people that created games with similarities to Jagged Alliance 2, both in genre and the time setting. I'm referring to releases like Silent Storm, Night Watch, Brigade E5 and others. Such projects have not been created in western countries for a long time, which can make development more difficult.

We haven't covered Jagged Alliance 3 for a while but with two new articles out today, it seems a good time to check in on the title.  First, StrategyCore has an interview that goes all the way back to E3:

SC: Tell me why JA3 will be the best game in the Jagged Alliance series?

AK: First of all, it’s now in full 3D. It's an evolutionary step from the previous series. Since we are working with Strategy First and the original designer of the series, Richard Therrien, this helps us a lot to make steady improvements. Also, the Silent Storm engine allows good destructibility of everything so we can demolish buildings and blow up cars which were not possible previously. This also helps in tactical situations where you can destroy a wall to get into a building from different points. Also, it’s more dynamic, more battle and combat oriented. There is less emphasis on micromanagement than the previous series. The player doesn't have to train troops or hold mines. What the player mostly does with the mercenaries is fight. The player commands a special squad, a special team, not a small army.

...and GameSpy has a very short preview that demonstrates the confusing heritage of this development, since they still list MiSTland South as the developer instead of Akella and didn't realise Strategy First is the NA publisher.  Here is an excerpt:

In Jagged Alliance 3 you'll have up to six mercs in your squad at a time. We got a chance to play an early level with Shadow, Scope and Malice. The game sports a new 3D engine which is sharp and a definite step up from the previous games which were never really all that pretty to begin with. JA3 won't win any awards for looks, but it is easily the best-looking game of the franchise. The interface is definitely improved, and we found commanding our squad to be easier than ever. The large strategic country map is back, only this time rather than having the land divided up in a grid the land will be broken up into more natural-looking territories. Also returning is the Action Point system from the previous games, so JA vets will feel right at home. 

Jagged Alliance fansite The Bear Pit has a summary of a Jagged Alliance 3 interview with new developers F3 garnered from a Russian print mag, titled Game World Navigator.  It seems this attempt at JA3 will be built around a modified version of the Silent Storm engine -- head here for more.

Thanks, Maximous!

After canceling their arrangements with MiSTland South, Strategy First has turned to Russian game house Akella and developer F3 Games  for the development of Jagged Alliance 3 according to this Russian press release.  A rough translation can be found on the RPG Codex forums.  Akella is already working with Strategy First, of course, on Disciples 3 (via developer .dat).