Deadly Games FAQ Ver 1.1 HTML Version Written by Troy Nelson TABLE OF CONTENTS THE MERCENARIES STATISTICS °Salary °Health °Agility °Dexterity °Wisdom ABILITIES/SKILLS °Medical °Explosives °Mechanical °Marksmanship CHOOSING A TEAM PLAYING THE GAME USING ITEMS °Booby Trap Kit °Camo Kit °Canteen °Chainsaw °Compound17 °Crowbar °Grenade Launcher °Knives °locksmith's Kit °Mortar °Rock's COMBINING ITEMS °Eagle Screamer °Eagle Dog °Eagle Fireball °Molitov Cocktail °Modified Weapons °Explosives COMBAT °Getting a Good Shot °Taking a shot? °Close Combat. °Finding Items ODDS AND ENDS NOTES ** THE MERCENARIES --** STATISTICS ----**Salary Is the cost for this merc per mission. This is adjusted when, you let the mercenary rest, this pay's him half of his normal salary. Training leaves the merc behind to work on improving a skill for the day, this pay's him three quarters of his normal pay. A merc left behind to be a patient will be paid half of his normal salary. If they get a level increase it is adjusted by A.I.M. to a higher figure reflecting his new status. ----**Health Is the overall well being of a merc. Pops has a health of 38 and even though he has a decent marksmanship, he is almost always three or four turns out of the picture when it comes to a fight, he is past his prime. 100 gets you a merc that can do anything to his fullest. ----**Agility Is how well a mercenary reacts to outside stimuli, like being shot or, getting an interrupt when an enemy walks past him, and how fast he can walk. ----**Dexterity Is the ability to do precise things. A good mechanic with good dexterity does away with the need to find that hidden key if he has a locksmith kit. ----**Wisdom Wisdom is often over looked when hiring mercs, but it is quite useful when planning a campaign team, if you have a good mechanic with fair medical ability and high wisdom, leaving him back a few turns to study medicine will bring him up a few points. I have seen an ability rise as much a 7 points per turn, this is how Len earned enough points to be my doctor as well. --**ABILITIES/SKILLS ----**Medical Basic first aid to brain surgery. A good doctor can heal your mercs in the fields or in the hospital in a hurry and get them back out for more. ----**Explosives An explosives expert is almost a must have. If you cannot afford a "good" one then at least get someone with a rating above fifty. I assumed, for a long time, that Speck would not be out done at putting together a molitov cocktail, but that is not the case. I realized he was doing a lot of damage when putting it together. I thought it was poor quality materials, but when I had Fidel do it, it came out almost perfect. A good explosives expert besides finding the trap, can free that money that has been trapped on the desk by the enemy. ----**Mechanical A good mechanic can fit that chunk of steel to a gun without making the weapon and/or the pipe useless. A good mechanic is also a good locksmith. This can save you time getting into a building if you don't have to kill, someone thus alerting others to your presence. Shooting down a door kind of defeats the element of surprise, Ya Know Woody!? ----**Marksmanship A good marksman skill will save you a lot of trouble in the end. Picking off a guy before he sees you and before he can radio your presence to his buddies is a real help. I've come into an area and got my guy on point killed before he sees the enemy, then what happens? I have to walk another guy up to get shot at until I can see the enemy. --** CHOOSING A TEAM DG has far more mercenaries than the original and this should be taken to your advantage. With so many choices you can have a team of specialists i.e. two sharpshooters, a medic, an explosives expert, and a mechanic. Or a team of a few well rounded individuals , Mike, Scully, Len, Magic, and a few others. The first and second have advantages and disadvantages. A team of specialists will get the job done and done right but if it is to disarm a trap and your explosives expert has been killed you either have to start over or pick your next best guy who will might just get killed. Having the medic take a lethal shot to the head leaves the rest of your team in trouble if they get seriously injured themselves. This team can however be put together cheaper with more man power. A team of Well rounded and skilled individuals such as Mike, Scully and the others will run you big bucks. Mike alone costs $10000 per mission, he is great at anything however. What happens when you get into a situation where the numbers are against you five to one ten to one? Well the enemy fire is concentrated on one or two spots. When there is this much lead flying he is bound to get hit. If you are playing a normal campaign chances are you can only afford one or two at a time. You will not "miss" him as much if there are others that can fill in and pick that lock or defuse the bomb. If he is unconscious then they both die as there is no one skilled enough to head so and so's wounds. It is like the old expression don't put all your eggs in one basket. I prefer certain teams over others but that is just me. One of my favorite base teams is the following. Ivan, because he is has improved from the last game. With marksmanship, health, agility and dexterity all over 90, is a steal for $2200. Although hard to understand you can figure out what he mean if you are paying attention. Scope, hey, a sniper in you team never hurts. She has decent abilities, and does not give me any trouble by talking back. Buzz, is another excellent shot. She is even better when in a team with Lynx, got a little something going there. Just don't let one die the other gets upset. Lynx, has a decent enough overall ability but really stands out in marksmanship, rivaled only by a handful of others. He and Buzz go good to gather. Len, is my biggest expense, not a super shot but a decent one is able to do anything else, most of the time. Speck, why? Well it is not for his fighting ability, but his near perfect mechanical ability. Got to love that price as well. OK, now why these guys all together? Where is the doctor? You have no explosives guy! These are common responses to my team, now I'll tell you why. I prefer to fight at a distance, I do not like to get my guys hurt running up to the enemy with a guy that can take a few shots and still live. Would you be that guy? Chances are not for long. So why then do I have Speck, he'll get killed in battle! Probably, but I do not take him to battle, unless it is the last mission. He is too good of a mechanic, and when don't you have something that needs to be repaired? He sits back at camp all day fixing stuff, and for a mere $450 a mission let him, I believe in preventative maintenance. Well what do I do about a doctor? Len starts out with a medical ability of 35, if I let him train during two missions, like recon, he can advance that to almost 50. This is enough to save almost anyone in a timely fashion. He has an explosives ability of 47 which means he has about a 50, 50 chance of getting something un-trapped, and is quite capable of setting a timer without getting himself killed. Over all this is the team I use, if I start to accumulate more of money I might hire Scully or Magic because they are quite similar to Len, in the all around category. Or maybe a good Doctor or Fidel for an explosives expert. ** PLAYING THE GAME This section is about getting into the game and actually playing. --** USING ITEMS Items that are useful in combat if you did not have them before are things like Compound 17, camo kits and other stuff. °Booby Trap Kit°Booby trap- Can be used to trap an item. Useful in two or more player mode. The opponent has to have a merc that can see the trap and disarm it. °Camo Kit - A camo kit is very useful tool. When applied to the mercenary's chest area on the opened view, a camo pattern appears where it was black and the kit ir reduced by 1/5. This is most useful on your point man. I have walked within several squares of an enemy and ducked behind a bush without being seen. He can get even closer to me if he is walking. This gives your merc that extra edge. He can wait until next turn to fire. °Canteen - The canteen can be a life saver for the merc who has just been fragged a few times. Their breath/movement gets so low they cannot escape. hold the canteen up to their head and left-click, this uses movement points but they will have more the next time around hopefully enough to get away. °Chainsaw - I have used the chainsaw quite a few times as a "modified" knife. It can hit a guy for serious damage. I have had a 70 damage hit using a chainsaw! Not the easiest most efficient weapon to wield look at the Close Combat section for hints on using this effectively as a weapon. The chainsaw can also cut down trees, it takes a few turns but it will work. There are a few occasion when this is useful. °Compound17- A substance that when applied to armor increases the protection value by 20% I think. °Crowbar - A crowbar is used to get that little bit of an edge on the locked boxes or doors. A failed attempt at this reduces the players breath by quite a bit, so I don't suggest you stand in the open under fire and try to open locked boxes. **NOTE** I have jimmied open doors with pad locks successfully but I do not recall opening a normal locked door with the bar. Confirmations welcome. grenade - There has been some confusion on how to use this so.... Launcher When the launcher is in the dominant hand put a grenade in the accessory slot like a scope on a rifle. It has to be reloaded after EACH shot. Line of sight is VERY important when using this weapon. It fires in a straight low line, so if you are next to a tree it could hit the tree and explode in your face. °Knive's - Are more powerful than some gun's if used correctly. See Close Combat below. °LockSmith - Is used to open doors that are locked. Put it in the Kit the dominant hand and use it like you are going to shoot the door. Right-click, put the cursor over the door, and then left-click. A good mechanic gets this done a lot easier than someone with low ability. Some are not pickable unless the mechanic is perfect i.e. 100. °Mortar - The mortar like the grenade launcher need to be loaded before each shot. A word of caution, this is a powerful weapon, and a few safety guide lines should be followed for safe operation.The mortar shoots up at a 45 degree angle, this means DO NOT use this wile next to a tree/obstacle between you and your target. Take a step or two back or plan on getting it in the face. The damage area caused by this weapon is about 3X3 for max damage and lessens future out. A good shot with a few mortar shells can wreak havoc on the occupants of a building. One shot on the roof opens it up. A second shot in the same spot will fall through the roof and into the building. °Rock's - Rock's can be useful in the right situations. See Getting a Good Shot for details. --** COMBINING ITEMS °Eagle Screamer Is the combination of a Gas Can, with Oil, a Rag, and a Tear Gas . This can make the enemy vulnerable to you for a minute or two. Best left when retreating across a bridge. Have the last guy across drop it and keep moving. Get just out of sight and hope they cross before it goes off. Set like dynamite with a delay. °Eagle Dog Is the combination of a Gas Can, with Oil, a Rag, and a Mustard Gas Grenade. This can make the enemy very sorry, in this form the range of the grenade is doubled. I believe it makes it twice as powerful. Set like dynamite with a delay. °Eagle Fireball Is the combination of a Gas Can, with Oil, a Rag, and a Grenade. Gotta love it baby! Homemade portable door. Works as well as dynamite. Drop that bad boy on the side of a building and back off. This makes an excellent device to slow pursuit. Set like dynamite with a delay. °Explosives There are two main types of explosives, C4, and TNT or dynamite. When a detonator is added it becomes live. A good explosives guy can combine them and not lose any power. An explosives and mechanical are separate for a reason. They are not the same. °Modified Weapons Any weapons but the .38, and the .12 Shotgun. The .12 Gauge Rifle can be modified. A scope or a silencer can be added to the Modified .44 Redhawk, but cannot be added to the unmodified version. This makes for a nice quick, quiet, °Molitov Coctail Is the combination of a the contents of a Gas Can, with Oil, and a Rag, in a jar. Is to be thrown like a grenade. powerful weapon in combat. --** COMBAT °Getting a Good Shot Getting a good shot will help you greatly. Sounds obvious but some people shoot on sight. Playing the computer getting a good shot is easy enough. Try getting your mercs spread out into a half circle but not so close that a grenade will drop 2 or 3 of you guys. Preferably along a tree line in front of a clearing. Now toss a rock in front of you NOT as far as you can, this would be pointless. A Few spaces is good enough, when the AI sees it is a rock it will stop, you want him to stop in visual range. You can then let him have it. You will know if there is anyone even close because there will be a computer interrupt. Toss a rock at a door and see what happens. Having several guys around an exterior door and then blow it off it's hinges with explosives or a rifle and watch them file out. Making a lot of noise outside a locked door usually draws the occupants inside to the door, if you hear them drop some TNT on the door and get a free kill or two. °Taking a shot? What do I mean? I mean that there are shots worth taking and shots that are not worth it depending upon your style of play. Every time I see an enemy in combat I ask a few questions. One did he see me? Two did he hear me? How would I know if he heard me? Well I would need to look how close he is if he is 3 paces away he heard me but if he is across the open field I doubt it. So I am close and he heard me well I better shoot him first. If he is not aware of me yet I take cover and get others into position. Three who is close enough to help? It is always better to physically out gun the enemy, than to shot at him hit him once, and have to duck. Because now he has a turn to radio for help and/or get a shot off, then you become the one outnumbered. If at all possible I like to kill the enemy in one turn a long fire fight benefits no one. If you can kill him in one turn he cannot radio your position to others so no one comes looking, and you keep the advantage of surprise. °Close Combat. So you've made your way into a building, now each step counts. Most building have two doors, this can be used to your advantage. By making a lot of noise at one door you can usually get the AI to move toward that side. This lets you sneak a few fast healthy mercs into the back door and sneak up behind. Using a knife will cause more damage than most gunshots at medium range if time is allowed for aiming. this means pump up those action points to make sure you get them with a deep cut, this can increase the damage by 10 to 20 points. This is also a must when using the chainsaw. It is a big weapon that takes a fast merc to use but the effects are worth it. I have had hits of over 70 points when aiming. Guns work fine but a knife or chainsaw gives it that personal touch as Gus would say. °Finding Items If you are playing a campaign made by someone else search the first few maps carefully. Most people like to hid med kits in the bathroom, jars in the, kitchen and one of my habits is to hid a chunk of steel in the stove or sink. Once you establish a patter you can look in those places in the latter missions and save time. A metal detector will save you grief in the long run if you carry one with you. My doctor is usually the pack mule carrying most odds and ends, crowbar, metal detector that kind of thing. You'll be glad you brought it if you run into a map with a lot of mines. ** ODDS AND ENDS This is a list of little tips I can't really place. You can detonate explosives by firing at them. Computer enemies will hold onto their grenades until they've been half killed then they'll start using them on you. So? Kill them or leave them alone or be prepared to take damage. If Leech, Fidel, or someone else is stubborn and won't retreat until the enemy is dead, carry a knife and switch it for the gun when you want them to move. In the original JA you could just put bullets in his hand and he would give it up. When you fire a mercenary take all of his equipment, and pick up all equipment you can find. It is worth a few bucks. You can almost always get at least $5 dollars more for and item than Mickey originally quotes you sometimes more. I have found the more you buy or at least sell to Mickey the more often he comes around. ALWAYS carry extra ammo! Depending on the merc, and the fire arm of choice, carry adequate ammo. If I am using Scope with a fully loaded M16 I will carry an extra clip. The M16 is more accurate than the .38 so carry a lot of .38 bullet boxes, especially if the person is a poor shot. Carry a back up weapon. A rifle is great, until you get into a building then a pistol works better. Well, OK, faster. It is nice to have something to fall back on if your main gun jams. Put a silencer on a secondary weapon. This enables you to take out the first few guy's quietly, or at least have the front men carry them. It's cool to drop a guy who doesn't even know where you are. Uzi's make an excellent second weapon. Because of their capacity, and quick fire capability, a Modified Uzi with a silencer is the ultimate close combat weapon. There are two schools of thought I have come across when asking who gets the best weapon. One is to give it to the worst guy to help him. The other is to give it to the best guy to make him great, this is my choice. A good guy with a bad gun = bad guy with a good gun? Up to you. ** NOTES Updated Versions can be found at http://www.xmission.com/~tnelson/dg/index.html Or by Email at tnelson@xmission.com Some of this is taken from the manual, if all else fails read the manual, it usually contains the basics of what you need to know.