Jagged Alliance 2 has SPM!

[Harry Renquist]

I've been keeping up to date with JA2. If you read the Gamestar Preview and Dev Diary 4(pdf) it has a smart pause mode, which they are calling stop-go mode but is the same.

I also notice on the forums, alot of the Purists are upset that its
NOT going to be turn based. I think alot of people complain not because of valid game design reasons but psychological reasons, some people just want to sound important and will argue about anything...

http://www.jaggedalliance.com/en/

[IceShade]

Ha, a non turn based JA. I might actually play this, then.

Turn based stuff is just awful.

[Harry Renquist]

I wouldn't go as far to say turn-based is that bad. Simply SPM is the next logical game design step for squad level tactics.
Two of my favourite games still are Xcom and Silent Storm.

But can you believe a bunch of people are getting together a petition to try to get them to change JA2 BIA into a turn based only game?

[IceShade]

It depends on how and for what it is implemented. Turn based strategy is fine for me. Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is an excellent game, and turn based.

Turn based tactics don't do it for me, especially when it is done in a realistic setting. I think it's silly you can use action points without being hindered by anyone else, just because it is your turn.

[Hurzwa]

I've been keeping up to date with JA2. If you read the Gamestar Preview and Dev Diary 4(pdf) it has a smart pause mode, which they are calling stop-go mode but is the same.

I also notice on the forums, alot of the Purists are upset that its
NOT going to be turn based. I think alot of people complain not because of valid game design reasons but psychological reasons, some people just want to sound important and will argue about anything...

http://www.jaggedalliance.com/en/

I guess you mean JA3...
Because it will have some sort of SPM doesn´t mean it must be well made. The UFO:After... series had SPM but it was awful compared to the one BE5/7.62 has.

[Harry Renquist]

No I'm actually talking about JA2 Back in Action. After this they promise to work on JA3.

Alot of people never gave the UFO series a chance. I still think its underrated. The only problem with UFO Aftershock was the limited number of random encounters. Someone recently modded it and added the missing random encounters that were supposed to be included in the game. Its still a good game.
Alot, alot better than other games like UFO:AI and UFO: Extraterrestrials.

UFO:Extraterrertrials was so bad...well it was unbelieveably incomplete. I can't believe I paid $50. for shareware.

[IceShade]

UFO: After-x were a great bunch of games, although the first two both suffered from "egh, I'm so bored. 20 more countries to capture, here we go."

And Afterlight was just garbage, imo. They all lacked polish, but thats to be expected with obscure games.

But at least I had fun. It had disposable mercs, wide range of weapons, research and technology (kinda like CGL, I guess), and a sort of dynamic world.

Not the best SPM engine, but SPM nonetheless, and thus better than pure turn based.

[Inverted]

I can understand the people who whine about the turn-based system, especially as the game is called JA2, and supposed to be some kind of remake.
Turn-based and SPM are very different, and while I like both I can see why many people dislikes one of them, and with that name on their game they are now asking for the hate of TB-lovers.

What I really cannot understand is why the devs made the decision to make it SPM only, which will result in some bad reviews for sure, even if the game will be great.
With a working SPM system it doesn't take much effort to create a turn-based mode, and all the die-hard fans would be overjoyed. It was already done in X-COM Apocalypse, actually.

[Harry Renquist]

What I really cannot understand is why the devs made the decision to make it SPM only, which will result in some bad reviews for sure, even if the game will be great.

Ok. you see what I mean about crazy, turn based fanatics? Even if the game is great they will still Not buy it and may even sabotage its sales, like some gamer fanatics have done to other games.

Its true Xcom3 had an option for SPM or turn based. I think the two reasons at the time were; they didn't want to bring out something different so soon to their regular audience; and two Not all computers could handle SPM of Xcom 3 at the time. I know because when Xcom 3 came out, I tried SPM and my computer wasn't powerful enough, most computers could NOT handle Xcom 3 at the time; it was very ambitious. In fact they didn't even finish the game completely, it had to be patched severly and alot of features were missing.

Anyways, I still think the old-school turn based people are pushing turn based too much. Computers can handle SPM now.

Maybe Bitcomposer will offer two options. It might be hard to balance the game right though. Since SPM allows for bigger play areas.