Wildfire is different from what I remember!

[lentracey]

Played the original JA2 and JA2 Wildfire to death back in the 90s and loved it. Picked it up here on a nostalgia kick. Have to say this version of JA2 Wildfire is a lot different to what I remember. There's a whole bunch of European mercs who've replaced some of my favourites for starters. I've also found the game play much more frustrating. The enemies don't drop any worthwhile equipment and the on-line store sells nothing of use. Your militia can't fight for crap either. Has someone altered the game to make it more challenging/frustrating?
Wondering how other people have found this?

[JandarGame]

cant say too much about good old JA, but new games that has come after JA2 reallyyyyyyyy frustrating and dissapointing me, cause imho they not even close to original concept of this franchise.

[zumrus]

Some of the old mercs have changed their agency and now are available through the MERC. But not from the beginning.

[Stenk]

The maps are different too, are you sure you're not mistaking JA2 & JA2 Gold for JA2 Wildfire? I had the box & online retail (topware), the mercs are different between JA2 & JA2 wildire (i.e Grace, ♥)

You've probably been too fast setting up your game. You need to select "tons of guns" so that enemies drops a lot more,.It's right after clicking "New game"! You can't modify Bobby's quantity without mod as far as i remember.

Generally speaking, Wildfire is way harder, remember the speech of the queen after you take Drassen? She says she's gonna send an army to retake the city but nothing happens. In Wildfire it's a massive counter attack, you wanna go to Chitzena after you finish the first quest (go to drassen and give up the city - for now)

[lentracey]

You might be right about mixing up the game versions, the memories getting old. I'm probably confusing JA Gold for Wildfire. I used to use the two ex-soldiers, Len & Gus, a lot and they seem to have disappeared from this version of Wildfire. I'll try your tip on going to Chitzena - thanks for that.

[Stenk]

Feels bad man, especially if they are your favorites. Well have fun with Wildfire but if you really miss Len & Gus, you could fire the original with 1.13 so that you get the benefits of Wildfire with all the mercs

[zumrus]

Originally posted by lentracey:

I used to use the two ex-soldiers, Len & Gus, a lot and they seem to have disappeared from this version of Wildfire.

Well, you can met them even in Wildfire if you go to the "Alumni" on the AIM's cite :)

[lentracey]

AIM Alumni! Well, time sure does move on - they've retired. Makes me feel old now.

[DedZedNub]

Wildfire was made after JA2 and OB. Basically, it started as a mod, I think made predominantly by Russian Modders, and then was sold and updated somewhat perhaps after its release. Its actual release on Disc was a nightmare, but few remember that.

Another still worked on mod of the original JA2 and OB is JA2v1.13. It is closer to the original JA2, but allows you to also add many features and so on, but the mostly vanilla maps are still there, plus the original Gus and Len -- with some more added if you wish and even the old JA1 M.E.R.C. mercs available and so on.

I'd check the Bear's Pit for more info on that. I've also posted in 2 other threads here today, where I gave links to it and so on.

[ShadowAngel]

Originally posted by lentracey:

Played the original JA2 and JA2 Wildfire to death back in the 90s and loved it.

Uh, how did you play Wildfire in the 90's, when it came out in 2004?

Originally posted by lentracey:

Have to say this version of JA2 Wildfire is a lot different to what I remember.

You clearly remember something different and not Wildfire. The changes to the Map, the bugs and the replacement Mercs have been there right from the start (and were the main points of criticism from just about everybody)

Wildfire is not great at all. Play the original JA2, either with Stracciatella (fixes bugs, has some improvements but keeps the game close to the original), 1.13 (lots of changes, not all are good though, the mod is vastly overrated actually)
Otherwise, the 2 best mods are Deidranna Lives and Arulco Revisited

[udav]

Originally posted by ShadowAngel:

Uh, how did you play Wildfire in the 90's, when it came out in 2004?

"Wildfire" is an autor' nickname.
It was a dosen of mods for JA2 back there. First started from weapons mods (sound, stats for weapons) then more complicated game modifications. lots of versions on different russian sites (freelancer, Gold's forum etc, autors homepage ).