Combat Evolved is a mod overhaul for the Jagged Alliance - Back in Action game that expands/improves the vanilla game in many ways, from adding items, fixing bugs, increasing difficulty, to restoring some of the soul the Jagged Alliance mercs used to have. To date, except the translations, this continues to be a one-man project so the development might be slow at points, depending on my time, but I'll always try to deliver compatibility patches with the latest game version within 24 hours from release. Other than that, if you feel like contributing in some way, drop me a line.
Added items:
over 50 weapons (new models, not only description pictures) with stats reworked from scratch, which will result in a change in gameplay and make all weapon types useful;
9 new gun attachments, offering more tactical approaches per weapon type;
5 new ballistic vest types;
11 other uniform/clothing items;
13 new ammo types and modifies the stats for all ammo to reflect their real life counterparts;
2 new grenade types;
some more misc/quest items;
Gameplay and difficulty changes:
A.I.M. and freebie mercs are tweaked/changed (stats/gear/traits) to reflect their actual bios, improve immersion and add a bit of soul;
Deidranna's soldiers gear and stats changed to offer a better game progression and to look like an actual army;
Hillbillies stats and gear are changed (mostly for immersion purposes);
Slight changes to certain vanilla quests;
New quests (2 for now);
Enemies amounts and levels in each area to enhance game progression and difficulty;
Traders inventories and containers contents;
Custom AI templates to fit the enemy soldier templates (recon, medic, grenadier, sniper, machine gunner, officer - over 20 AI templates). Enemy behaviour will now be varied and will involve better tactics;
Increased number of templates for enemy soldiers (around 40) and hillbillies (7) allowing for greater variation in gear, tactics and looks;
Medical skill and items (bandages don't heal hp anymore, canteens now restore energy, not hp, syringes can now be found in limited amounts) changed to encourage hiring of mercs with high medical skill;
Modified militia stats, gear and given them concealable ballistic vests to make them more useful overall;
Changes to stealth:
Ever cursed when your stealthy merc sneaks to the door and then he/she just kicks the s**t out of the door raising alarm in a 100y radius? Well, no more! Door opening is stealthy by default (includes sounds and animations to fit);
Running is now noisy, as it should be, you can't run at full speed towards an enemy without being heard; on the other hand, crouching and crawling are slightly stealthier now;
Silencers have a greater impact on stealth approach;
Fixes to the vanilla game:
a lot of typos/description issues in the vanilla game;
some attachment points for vanilla weapons;
wrong ammo type for some vanilla weapons;
wrong coordinates for some vanilla item icons;
a bug where not all the hillbillies would spawn at farms;
And last but not least, a slick new interface, MrRaven's Az GUI
- Short jeans - Black jeans - Leather jacket - brown - Leather jacket - black
== Misc items ==
Spoiler
- Painkillers - Energy drink - Caffeine pills
== Installation == 1. By default, the mod uses Az GUI icons and pictures and the difficulty is set to normal. To install the mod with the default options simply extract the contents of the archive to the game folder. 2. To play the mod on easy difficulty, AFTER installing the default mod (see 1), extract the content of the CE-Easy.zip to the game folder (archive will be found in the game folder). 3. To play the mod with the vanilla-like icons and pictures, go to <game folder>\bin_win32\textures\interface and delete all the file whose names begin with "ui_equipment_". After that, extract the content of the CE-Vanilla-Icons.zip to the game folder (archive will be found in the game folder).
A FAIR WARNING: easy difficulty affects the amount of noise your mercs are doing when performing actions, the amount and levels of the enemies defending the sectors, the accuracy of the enemy soldiers and the hiring price of your mercs. It is recommended that you first try the normal mode and only if that is too difficult for you, install the easy mode. Starting a new game is highly advisable after installing the easy difficulty.
== Requirements == The mod is compatible with game versions 1.13e to 1.13g. Using any other game version will most likely result in crashes and/or unstable behaviour.
== Known issues == - all the handgun attachments will change the firing sound to suppressed (can't be fixed by mods yet). - the weapons with built-in silencer are not actually silenced (can't be fixed by mods yet).
== Compatibility == Given the fact that I ended up modifying quite a lot of files, there is most likely no direct compatibility with mods that alter config files. If there is enough interest in a certain combination of mods, most likely we'll be willing to make them compatible.
added new clothing/armors: Dragonskin body armor, Blackhawk HPFU pants and Blackhawk HPFU jacket;
added new weapon attachments: PSO-3 scope and rifle sling;
added new HP/energy restoring items: painkillers, energy drink and caffeine pills;
changed mechanics for ARs and MGs;
entirely reworked merc prices and tweaked stats based on a brand-new formula that considers each stat's utility in BiA;
changed some enemy soldier loadouts;
removed weapon and attachment types from the items descriptions for all locales;
added type icon for attachments;
sector loot continues, I hope it'll be done in the next version. Now, also the loot is slightly less abundant, it is more useful overall, which keeps it balanced but neater;
traders shops almost 100% done, the progression should follow a decent curve now;
added voices for hiring dialogs for "M.E.R.C. is back" mod mercs;
added an "easy" mod option;
added an option to use vanilla icons;
fixed some misleading dialogs in some quests;
lotsa other small things that I forgot to write down when doing them;
v1.06.60812
included zero's "M.E.R.C. is back" with his permission. Many thanks, again;
changed new mercs portraits, gear, stats and looks to fit CE;
fixed an issue where the additional info was not displayed in the right textbox for the new mercs;
decreased range for 7.62 NATO chambered ARs and rebalanced stats accordingly;
tweaked accuracy and durability for some weapons;
increased range for 5.45 chambered ARs;
tweaked some stats for sniper rifles;
changed syringe medical requirement to 0 as it should've been (thanks Gen. Drax);
modified some merc stats;
added icons in weapon picture for weapon types and removed weapon type from text descriptions;
added 7 new weapons (PPSh-41, Mosin-Nagant M59, AK-74, OSV-96, Skorpion vz. 82, SPAS-12 and baseball bat)
changed loadout for some enemy soldiers;
rebalanced the numbers and levels of enemies in some sectors;
rebalanced some mercs;
modified loot sectors and trader inventories (this is spreading across several versions);
modified a few dialogues for immersion purposes;
made Deidranna slightly more difficulty and slightly more paranoid;
fixed Blood not being able to use his medkit (thanks reVurt);
fixed Steyr Scout magazine size (thanks reVurt);
fixed AKS-74U attachment point (thanks Specter);
fixed a problem with the Neoprene skull mask textures - this time for real! no joke! (thanks Aemun and Guy);
fixed Nightblind and Night Ops tooltips (thanks Specter);
fixed a loading screen tip about CQB (thanks Blondy);
fixed the flat cap not having a name and description (thanks Landwalker);
removed laser sight light ray;
Note: If you have a vanilla savegame, a new game is highly advisable since there are too many changes that won't take effect and unwanted behaviour might occur. If you have a 1.05/1.05b CE mod savegame, it should be compatible, except for the fact that things like stats for the already hired mercs and content for the already looted containers won't come in effect. Also, if you have a 1.05/1.05b CE mod savegame avoid trying to hire the new mercs. The game will crash to desktop.
v1.05b
fixed a problem with the Neoprene skull mask textures;
fixed attachment point for Automag III;
added names and descriptions for 2 new quest items, round glasses and round sunglasses;
fixed Dyneema Vest price;
v1.05
added compatibility with game version 1.13e;
added quest "Key to your dreams";
added quest "Damn you, Romeo!";
reworked from scratch containers content from sectors (Drassen airport, Drassen city, Water pump, Road block #1, Cambria mine so far);
rebalanced Vicki from A.I.M.;
v1.04
added a new weapon (PP-19 Bizon);
added german translation;
improved spanish translation;
fixed some loading screen tips that were in german;
tweaked a few mercs;
Tony's and Jessie's shop inventories in San Mona reworked (as a side note, Jessie resupplies the uniforms on an hourly basis for all of you theme freaks out there);
changed most of the remaining shopkeepers inventories;
v1.03d
added compatibility with 1.13c game patch;
v1.03c
fixed a problem with Ka-Bar Knife's resource id that crashed the game when a character equipped it;
fixed Bobby Ray's page not becoming active after talking to Pablo;
v1.03b
added compatibility with the latest Steam patch (1.13b)
started a full revamp of ingame containers, npcs and preparing the grounds for the addition of some new quests;
v1.03
decreased the AK-47 price by 1,000 for the purpose of making the start slightly easier;
increased the L85A2 accuracy in all the stances;
slightly decreased M4's accuracy;
increased 12 gauge's penetration value and price;
changed descriptions for traits (thanks to luppolo for compiling the trait list and to Gonzo and Silveressa for the thorough testing and contribution);
walking/running now generates more noise;
door opening is now stealthy by default (changed perception value, sounds and anims, so it should not be immersion-breaking) - need feedback on this because I'm not sure i got to test all the possible variations;
tweaked/changed some items icons and pictures;
included Az GUI with MrRaven's permission;
reworked all items icons and pictures accordingly to fit Az GUI;
probably some other stuff that I forgot about;
v1.02
fixed 9x18mm Makarov using the wrong picture as reported by DaBoss;
fixed M16A4's name (thanks Marv);
fixed Rheinmetall MG3's range and HK53's classification, thank you pat;
Fixed the wrong ammo on Cliff, Sidney and Ivan's inventory as pointed out by pat;
fixed the "muzzle break" typo in DSR-1 description reported by daedalusxxi;
slightly increased the armor penetration and price of 12 gauge to make shotguns useful until the end of the game as indrid suggested;
Added descriptions for the shemagh scarves;
Recalculated TEC-9's RPM;
Reworked some icons;
added hruza's icons&pictures for vanilla ammunition;
added 2 new weapons;
reworked the rednecks from the farms, added 3 more templates, fixed a vanilla error where not all were spawned;
added loading screen tips;
reworked all weapon models but 2 (now they shouldn't have different silhouettes while paused either);
added model for laser sight;
fixed attachment points for all added weapons;
added localizations: ESP (by daedalusxxi), ITA (by Calippo) and FR (emmanuuel) (still need someone to help with GER);
tweaked enemy soldiers a bit more, changed some templates;
changed the medical items so that medics are more useful (and removed syringes from Bobby Ray's shop);
modified some of the traders inventories and some of the containers throughout the maps.
v1.01
Changed SPAS-12 description type to Shotgun (thanks Indrid);
Added descriptions for 9A-91 and CZ Scorpion EVO III (thanks Indrid);
Fixed a typo that added a KRISS to Scope's starting gear because I used AddItem instead of Attachment by mistake (thanks motorizer);
== Credits == First of all, a huge thanks to sbobovyc for his tools, without those none of this would be possible. Kevin MacLeod from http://incompetech.com for "Junkyard Tribe" (main menu song). Thanks to MrRaven for his great UI mod and for allowing me to make it a part of CE and modifying where needed. Credits to zero for his M.E.R.C. is back mod and thanks for his permission to include it in CE. I particularly want to thank daedalusxxi for the spanish localization, Calippo for the italian one, DaBoss for the german translation and emmanuuel for the (groovy!?) french localization. Thanks to Confus for the initial brainstorming, the nudge that I needed to get things moving and some weapons descriptions. Credits to the JA2 1.13 team for some weapons descriptions that I shamelessly ripped. Credits to SirTech for the mugshots. My girlfriend for not busting my balls while I was doing this the last weeks and even for assisting me with some data checking.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND... .. last but not least, I do not consider this project closed or final in any way. I'll keep adding stuff and improving it at a steady pace. Hopefully now that there's something to show for, more modders may be interested in working together to take JA: BiA one step closer to JA2 1.13. With Stan's priceless contribution and his tools the game becomes more and more moddable by the day, so, while we're a huge way from JA2 still, BiA is starting to show some potential.
If you feel like supporting this mod (which is in no way mandatory but is really appreciated due to the fact that JA: BiA modding tends to eat up my time in which I could be otherwise productive) you can (any amount is welcomed).
btw, it would be amazing if you could either reduce or even remove the Leveling effect of AI units. Gear and skill of units should be more determined by their position on the map than by the progress of the game. This would have a great effect on the realism and also on the areas you can travel to...
love your new armours and guns, and it's only been a couple of days since sbobovyc released his mesh tools ^__^
I have two three remarks/questions though:
M1A SOCOM 16: what do you mean by the sound travelling "twice as much" as the bullet? SOCOM 16 uses supersonic ammo, it travels at about twice the speed of sound, so the sound travels only half as fast as the bullet. If by "much" you mean sound propagation, then it's not really comparable imho, as a bullet travels a comparably short vector (well, ballistic trajectory), and the sound propagates noticeable further in all directions.
AAC Honey Badger PDW: the magazine seems to be missing from both the picture and mesh/texture - was it intentional?
Kel-Tec RFB: balance remark: with your stats it has slightly less range, noticeably less damage and lower RPM than the SVD, so unless you drastically reduce SVD's RPM in your mod, there would be no reason (apart from a cosmetic one) to use it instead of SVD. Idea: replace it with the CFB variant, changing type to AR, raising RPM a bit further (as the CFB will be lighter), lowering the range to 45-48m and adding burst mode (x2 or x3 I'd say)
btw, it would be amazing if you could either reduce or even remove the Leveling effect of AI units. Gear and skill of units should be more determined by their position on the map than by the progress of the game. This would have a great effect on the realism and also on the areas you can travel to...
Regards
Sonsalt
Unfortunately that's not possible.
love your new armours and guns, and it's only been a couple of days since sbobovyc released his mesh tools ^__^
I have two remarks/questions though:
M1A SOCOM 16: what do you mean by the sound travelling "twice as much" as the bullet? SOCOM 16 uses supersonic ammo, it travels at about twice the speed of sound, so the sound travels only half as fast as the bullet. If by "much" you mean sound propagation, then it's not really comparable imho, as a bullet travels a comparably short vector (well, ballistic trajectory), and the sound propagates noticeable further in all directions.
AAC Honey Badger PDW: the magazine seems to be missing from both the picture and mesh/texture - was it intentional?
Kel-Tec RFB: balance remark: with your stats it has slightly less range, noticeably less damage and lower RPM than the SVD, so unless you drastically reduce SVD's RPM in your mod, there would be no reason (apart from a cosmetic one) to use it instead of SVD. Idea: replace it with the CFB variant, changing type to AR, raising RPM a bit further (as the CFB will be lighter), lowering the range to 45-48m and adding burst mode (x2 or x3 I'd say)
M1A SOCOM 16 - just an attempt to make the description funny, ja2-like. English is not my first language, I guess you can tell. It was just a hint at the fact that the gun is loud, guess I blew it )
AAC Honey Badger PDW - unfortunately there's still no model exporter yet, what I did was based on the existing meshes, and I have 2 choices, either a way longer magazine or no magazine at all. I chose the 2nd, seemed to look cool at the time but I can easily change it
Kel-Tec RFB - stats are just copy-pastes from other weapons, slightly modified if at all, it was for showcase purposes only.
nice work so far. how did you manage to zoom in so close to your merc? cant wait for the first new weaponmodels keep it up
also can requests for certain weapons be made?
There are certain areas where you can zoom closer, usually the ground level under the camera and around it has to be as low as possible. And yes, weapons suggestions are actually welcomed, although I will take the liberty to choose what will be added based on considerations like game balance, available pictures/documentation and last but not least having a mesh that fits.
nice so without further ado my request: http://www.gundigest...ces-7-62-trio/2 its the HK G28 a designated marksman rifle based on the HK 417 plenty of images can be found on google i.e. :
Spoiler
unfortunatly i cant provide a mesh, but this one might be possible by retexturing a hk 417 mesh.
Really looking forward to this mod, Hope to add some shotguns like Mossberg 590A1.
I'll try to add a few weapons in which category, for variation purposes. The Mossberg 590A1 should be easy to do.
nice so without further ado my request: http://www.gundigest...ces-7-62-trio/2 its the HK G28 a designated marksman rifle based on the HK 417 plenty of images can be found on google i.e. :
Spoiler
unfortunatly i cant provide a mesh, but this one might be possible by retexturing a hk 417 mesh.
Here's my swing at it: As always, stats are for showcase purposes only, until otherwise stated.
also, can't help but notice your penchant for assigning multi-purpose battle rifles into the sniper rifle category - which isn't wrong(-er than arbitrarily putting them down as just assault weapons) - but it does seem strange to put it in line with SVD, SC-98 and MK-14 (as long as we have those mutually exclusive categories).
Balance-wise adding (configuring) those rifles will be a problem, apparently.
also, can't help but notice your penchant for assigning multi-purpose battle rifles into the sniper rifle category - which isn't wrong(-er than arbitrarily putting them down as just assault weapons) - but it does seem strange to put it in line with SVD, SC-98 and MK-14 (as long as we have those mutually exclusive categories).
Balance-wise adding (configuring) those rifles will be a problem, apparently.
Unfortunately there's no rifle category, so I kinda had to flip the coin. Those are not set in stone yet, though, and if you think that you can contribute in terms of stats balancing, I'd be glad to have a chat with you
thanks a lot for your good efford in making a good product even better. I have witnessed your posts and I am very satisfied. You are fueling my expectations.
I would like to excuse myself in advance, since my english is not that good. I hope you might get what I am trying to tell you.
Here are the things, that I think you "could be capable" of.
The "Dragunov" in JA II BIA is not an Russian/Soviet Dragunov rifle. It is an Romanian "PSL Cugir 97" Rifle, chambered in the same caliber as the AKM and AKMS (and other oldskool high calibre Assault Rifles).
You can easily distinguish the two rifles by the position of the Magazine, and the shape of the handguard (and the length of the barrel). Maybe you could work on the ingame Cugir model, and come up with an SVD Rifle? The SVD could also replace the ingame Cugir, for the sake of my happiness .
The "SVD Dragunov" performs better on long range due to its cartridge/design/ammo (+ barrel & overall length). The PSL Cugir is easier to handle on mid to long distances, because of less kick (less powder in cartridge).
As an additional request: Maybe you could add an Black SVD Polymer/Plastic Handguards/Stock Version (less weight),a shorter Barrel (less accurate), and if possible an Folding stock (less weight). This variant would be called "SVDS" (or maybe due to translation "SWDS"). It could be rare/unique, or only come with a mercenary that has it in his starting gear.
Here is a picture of the guns I have been talking about:
thanks a lot for your good efford in making a good product even better. I have witnessed your posts and I am very satisfied. You are fueling my expectations.
[snip]
Please let me know if you appreciate more suggestions.
Thank you for all the info and pictures I do appreciate any feedback and suggestions; problem is, meshes can't be altered just yet with what we have, but the good news is that sbobovyc is working on plugin. What I did so far was without altering the meshes, so unfortunately editing the SVD model is not possible yet. I might try something else to go around it, but if not i'll do it in the first release after the crf exporter is out (after I get myself a vssk vychlop model first though, it's been too long since I'm drooling for it). Btw, the VSS Vintorez looks a bit off as well, I'll try to tweak that a bit as well, but probably won't do it before the first release.
Edit: The initial beta release will include 24 weapons. New items can be added in future versions WITHOUT the need of starting a new game.
I'd just start going through 1.13's weapons, minus some of the more repeat items and such (IE, don't need several pages of AKs. A couple variants are enough). I'm particularily fond of the Veresk and the Diameco C7-A2.
Once we're able to import models, I might be able to to make some if you're interested.
(any amount is welcomed).
