Everybody is raving about swimming in money whilst constantly poor

[Murky]

I really have tough time in this game with money. I have only recruit level mercs and mostly not even the full squad because I simply cannot afford more. Even with the first mine under mine control I was constantly in red numbers which I don't get. Yet managed to liberate both towns. Expected that I would be able to sell junk I don't need, but unlike other JA games this is not an option, instead it is just weapon parts.

Problem is that that mine got depleted super fast before I was even able to liberate the other town Pantagruel. Despite liberating that other mine, the Rebels won't let me to access neither it or the repair shop nearby. I certainly have ran out of ammunition to most of my weapons, which again I cannot buy anywhere which sucks and the money are almost dry, so even if I would want to kill all the rebels in that area I would not be able to. The other mine is too far away with a super-strong stronghold standing in my way. I sincerely did not expect a mine run out resources this fast. In such a pace seeing how spread out they are, I might always just run one which is barely up for the job of feeding my cheapest squad. That's pretty frustrating.

[Paul]

Maybe it due to difficulty people play at? I am playing on first blood (but no forgiving) and have around 550,000 dollars at the moment with two or three mines running. Just hired three mercs for a second squad. I did find about 10 diamond cases so far, and hack everything I see. And mines make lot more money with high rep and quests done.

[HozzMidnight]

I would start over on a lower difficulty. If you are out of money and ammo and don't have a mine...just start over.

[Dre G Writer]

Well, im swimming in money because I use a mod that makes the mines never run dry so as long as my daily income is in the positive, the money just keep puring in.

But my daily is in the negatives now since I have over million in the bank so I hired a team full of legendary folk to train my main team and train the local militia.

So I got cash to just blow

Your situation is not hopeless tho. You can create a custom character that doesnt have a daily cost, but they have a flat cost you pay up front.

So if you run out of money and all your mercs leave, then at least you have that one character to fall back on.

Can make dude a melee character and not rely on ammo and just stealth kill enemies with the knife.

do those diamond caches around the map for extra diamonds to sell to get your money up.

Its wont be easy, but atleast you arent completely screwed and have to start a new game. You can still salvage your current save with that custom character.

[Murky]

No way I am starting over. But don't get it how the hell was I supposed to get to mine no.2 which I cannot even control and need to destroy several camps to get to mine number 3 and by then there is no way the mine 1 is still pumping money. I trying to finish as many quests as possible. So just a bad luck I guess. Already the haunted mansion was pretty brutal and cost me a merc and a lot of ammuniton. That is pretty scarce and almost never drops from enemies which is also beyond my understanding. I am playing on classic difficulty, the fights are not tactically challenging, but the scarcity is. I was really looking forward to be able to sell and buy stuff in town, what games offers instead comes as nasty surprise. Also the lack of general inventory is pain in ass. Funny thing is that even if I have the first mine still running, I would still go red numbers and I don't have a single veteran in my outfit :((

[weppenstolf]

How many days (in game) did you play and on what difficulty level?
@Paul has a point: hacking all the devices and intercepting diamond travel, accomplishing side-quests, etc.: they generate money income besides the mines.
The mines in the north are tough (Pantagruel you have to satisfy or fight the communists, Diamond Red is well defended)... the mine to Port Cacao is not that tough, so maybe take a south-eastern route. There are also so many quests around Port Cacaco that can help you increasing the income via loyalty.
Talking about ammo... that is really tough (at least was for me): Fleatown market at least allows you to purchase 7,62 WP a day; NATO is very scarce until you get to the Eagle's nest.
Also trading tiny diamonds for lootboxes in Fleatown is a good way to get some new weapons/useful items.

[FalconerHG]

Originally posted by Murky:

No way I am starting over. But don't get it how the hell was I supposed to get to mine no.2 which I cannot even control and need to destroy several camps to get to mine number 3 and by then there is no way the mine 1 is still pumping money. I trying to finish as many quests as possible. So just a bad luck I guess. Already the haunted mansion was pretty brutal and cost me a merc and a lot of ammuniton. That is pretty scarce and almost never drops from enemies which is also beyond my understanding. I am playing on classic difficulty, the fights are not tactically challenging, but the scarcity is. I was really looking forward to be able to sell and buy stuff in town, what games offers instead comes as nasty surprise. Also the lack of general inventory is pain in ass. Funny thing is that even if I have the first mine still running, I would still go red numbers and I don't have a single veteran in my outfit :((

Are you spending a lot of time training militia and doing R&R? That's where I find a lot of my cash goes. Sometimes it's worth not training up militia.

My status: First Blood/Unforgiving. Liberated the starter island and the second peninsula, have 300k but there was a moment where things turned upside down and I was extending contracts of my two teams by 4 days each. Ivan is the most expensive merc on my team, most are tier one, the rest is tier two.

I did install the mining mod today. I didn't need the money yet and mines were running, but I want to take it slow. The 'mining timer' was harming my enjoyment even before I got issues with it. ;)

[A Drunk Surgeon]

Take the Port Cacao mine first, Only 2 fights, then use the port there to go to the Old Mine on the mainland and you'll be solid. Then you can stock up and take on Diamond Red, which gives 7.5K

[Kuhimgrass]

After capturing the city of Erni, go immediately to F5, capture the mine and deploy 8 militia. After that go straight to A2 capture the mine and deploy 8 militia. That should give you over 10k and ~50h (not ingame) hour buffer...Now you can conquer Fleatown, Pantagruel and everything else in the North Island. After that, both mines should be exhausted, the next step is the mine in C7 if not already done and then mine in K10.....

[UkrainianDoomer]

Once you capture 3 mines or 2 mines AND resolve commie quest in a whatever way which gives you a very profitable mine - you will be able to afford 2 full squads of veteran+ mercs.

Much like you I had to scavenge for diamons / attack convoys and sell them to keep a squad of 5-6 (with 1 IMP and 1 MERC which both are free) when I had 1-2 mines and cities with low loyalty. Furthermore my first mine got to run out (I think it may be a random one that goes out like with JA2 and I just got unlucky).

That's the Jagged Alliance difficulty ramp for you. You always have a tough start (or VERY tough in case of Jagged Alliance 2, to a point of being hard to get into) but once you gain momentum - you get the pay off.

[Kegeyn]

Did people complaining about money did the "starter island IMP merc powerleveling"? I wonder if wasting a lot of time makes the risk of running dry afterwards high.

Ultimately all the people saying its immersion breaking - No it is not, it is a mechanic that should make you focus on your mission (remember why you are here and why it is kinda urgent?).

Also you are not supposed to fortify in 1 place whilst training skill levels and militia for 30 days straight. It would be like demanding that starting island in RPG's should allow you to reach max level if you grind long enough - No it should not, it destroys game design and makes choices of a squad composition important not only in terms of stats but also their salary.

If you remember about those things, play smart, control your spendings on mercs etc you will be fine regardless of the difficulty. Timer on mines is also forgiving and you guys are panicking too much about it - your financial problems are comming from your bad choices in game, not its design.

[Teufelslama]

the other mines give a lot more money than the first one in fleatown. I almost ran out and kept myself over with diamond cases until I got the mine in A2 and solved the quest for the rebels and got their mine as well. Now I'm rich, at least for the time being.

[Put Greta Thunberg in JAIL!]

It all depends on how fast you get to the mines, I ended my playthrough with over 2 million on first blood, i'm guessing on harder difficulties it is still easy to get rich if you keep up good pace

[sooshon]

are you hiring people for 14 days at a time? you do know there are huge discounts for doing extended durations for most people right? (Ukrainian mechanic is an exception, she seems to have a set daily fee no matter the contract duration) Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but sometimes it's easy to miss some details so just making sure.

Like someone else said, don't try to fortify every place with full militia...it takes a long time, try to focus on the most strategic places and chokepoints where enemies tend to attack (their troops come from the forts, so taking these over can help defend your back ranks and let you focus troops on just a few key frontline places. For example the fort in sector G10 is a huge strategic place and if you take control of it you can control any enemy attacks going down river towards places like Port Cacao and Fleatown, since boats can't go around it. I haven't seen troops crossing the whole southern continent to reach Port Cacao myself, and if you do see troop movement that way you would at least have a lot of time to decide how to deal with it due to the slow travel time, whereas attacks downriver are fastest and can surprise you the most.

Speaking of militia, make sure your main squad is using their time wisely, are you spending a lot of time fortifying places with them and 4/6 are waiting around doing not much? It might be better to get a 1-merc squad only for militia training that you can move around while your main squad is focusing on objectives. Fox and MD are a good choice for this because of their teaching skill. Sometimes you may need to do 2-3 militia trainings on front lines in a newly-captured sector to make sure you don't lose it right away, but then you can have Fox finish up and also reinforce lost militia so you don't spend days moving your main squad around just to come back and do 1 militia training, that is a huge waste of their time, which translates to your bank account.