Jagged Alliance 3 - DevDiary 4 - Character Progression

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.

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