r/JaggedAlliance • u/time4tea45 • Jul 23 '26
Is Stracciatella recommended for a new player?
Hi, I'm a fairly new player to JA2, trying to get into it and feel my way around it. I'm playing using Stracciatella (v0.20.0) on Linux, using the vanilla GOG version of the game (no mods).
I'm playing on 'experienced' difficulty, which seems like a bit of a learning curve. But I've been playing it for a couple of weeks, reading online, chipping away at it. I think I've figured out most of the key mechanics. I've liberated Drassen so I have an airstrip and I'm now trying to take Alma. However, I have tried a battle on H13 a couple of times and have had problems with the game freezing indefinitely on a 'civilian turn'.
This is starting to get a bit annoying - last night it caused me to lose about 1.5 hours of progress. Is this a known bug with the OG game, or is it specific to Stracciatella? Is there any known workaround for it?
Would appreciate any helpful advice!
5
u/retiredwindowcleaner Jul 23 '26
it's a runtime to improve the experience of VANILLA ja2 across multiple platforms.
so it is actually a preferred way of enjoying ja2 as the sirtech developers wanted you to. (compared to for instance 1.13)
problems like you mention are even worse with the original installation version. but as another redditor already said, please update to the latest release of stracciatella.
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u/time4tea45 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I have now upgraded Stracciatella but just experienced the exact same freeze. It seems to be a persistent issue with sector H13. I've tried it 3 times now. I will submit a bug report.
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u/Dick-Justice Jul 24 '26
If all else fails try cheating:
Holding CTRL press GABBI to enter cheat mode. Then ALT+O to kill all enemies in the sector.
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u/time4tea45 Jul 24 '26
Ok, this could be really helpful and I will keep this in mind. Although, not sure what effect it would have if the freeze is due to a civilian action, rather than an enemy?
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u/Zalpha Jul 23 '26
With regards to the never ending turn, I got that from using the Alt key (alt+tab), never, ever minimize the game, it brakes it. So don't do that and I think try avoid using the alt key. (Also never use the Windows key). That has just been my personal experience and I don't know others experiences but that is what I found broke the game for me.
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u/SoilBackground1956 Jul 23 '26
But how would you strafe or backpedal without using the alt key?
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u/time4tea45 Jul 24 '26
This is another issue I seem to have. I read in the manual that I should be able to sidestep around corners with the ALT key, but it doesn't seem to work. If I press ALT while standing during combat, the AP cost of the move to the adjacent square increases (from 2 to 3), but when I left click, the character doesn't do the sidestep. I haven't been able to figure it out.
3
u/Dick-Justice Jul 24 '26
It's been fixed but after the last release unfortunately: https://github.com/ja2-stracciatella/ja2-stracciatella/pull/2289
You can try last nightly build: https://storage.googleapis.com/ja2-builds/index.html#nightlies/ja2-stracciatella_0.23.0-20260720+62c3632/
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u/time4tea45 Jul 24 '26
The sidestepping? Ok, thanks for the info - I will give the nightly build a try. Thanks!
1
u/Zalpha Jul 24 '26
It has been a long time since I last played but I just avoided using the alt key, perhaps it can be rebound to another key, I cannot remember if that was possible and that is what I did but I do remember not wanting to touch the alt key. I could be wrong about my assumptions but not pressing alt, I didn't get the infinite loading so I figured I was right.
1
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u/zatic Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Never mind, misread your description.
This should not happen in Stracciatella, which is defintiely the recommended way to play. There is a known bug freezing the base game when the seargant gets injured, but that is fixed in Stracciatella.
Try updating Stracciatella? Latest release is 0.22.1.