when do mercs upgrade their weapons?

[Art Blade]

Just had an encounter with two mercs that hopped off their AT and started firing at me with their PKMs. Before that, they fired with AK47s.

Before the encounter I went to the arms dealer and purchased a Star .45 pistol for fun and drove off, met the patrol and thought, wow, strange sound, and hey, they got different guns! So I reloaded my savegame that put me right in front of the arms dealer again, and I drove off without purchasing that pistol. Of course the patrol showed up and yes, they used AK47s to shoot at me.

OK, taking stock:

primary weapons
silent MP5

secondary weapons
Makarov
Silent Makarov (aka 6P9)
M-79
IED

special weapons
Dart Rifle

Now, when I purchase that secondary weapon, the star.45, the mercs upgrade. I don't believe that manuals for vehicles go into the equation regarding weapon upgrades for mercs, but just to mention it, I got all there are for Leboa.

Going to reload the savegame where I stand in front of the arms dealer again, and purchase a different weapon. Let's see if there is a relation :) Maybe I'll go back to a savegame after the first arms dealer mission, using weapons unlock to check it out :)

Be back in a bit.

[PZ]

Cool... one of these days soon we'll be able to decipher all the developer's secrets  :-X

[Art Blade]

hehe, they've loaded the game with them  ;)

Alright. What I've done so far is this: Use the same save game mentioned above, purchase different weapons. It didn't seem to matter which weapon, the mercs always had their weapons upgraded.

The arms dealer I "used" is the one in the southeast of Leboa, there is an AT patrolling and a GP nearby. So each time I played around, I checked both the AT crew and the GP crew.

Their upgrades comprise (new / as opposed to)

FAL paratrooper / AK47
PKM / AK47
SPAS / homeland

So I guess it has to do with the amount of weapons you posess, not which ones. But. I don't know if it plays a role in which order you purchase them. See, my inventory was basically the same from start, after the first convoy mission I unlocked all Leboa weapons and bought my loadout all at once. Now that I purchased one more weapon, the mercs upgrade all of a sudden.

Anyone out there wants to help investigate and/or share their wisdom? :)

[Art Blade]

"Argh, stupid" lol - I decided to go back to that savegame and NOT buy the star.45 so I could influence the barge mission. Now guess what. The next GP I "examined" had mercs with PKM and SPAS  ???

So my new guess is, it has to do with your overall game progress, like I recently reached "Act1-20%" and that is much more probable. I didn't pay attention to "upgraded mercs" because I used to shoot them from afar or blow them up before they had a chance. Since I never collect weapons from the dead, I didn't notice any change in their loadout.

Nevertheless, when do they upgrade? After 16%? 20%? Going back to a 16%-savegame to find out what happens if I buy a star.45 ;)

[Art Blade]

OMG, 16%, they have SPAS and FALs...

why didn't I notice that?!  :o

[Art Blade]

Ok, 12%-savegame. Didn't matter if I bought a star.45, the mercs did not upgrade to PKMs

But they already had SPAS and FALs, but mostly they used Homelands, G3-KA4s (sub), star.45s (lol), and of course AK-47s.

That leaves only one conclusion: They upgrade when you progress. Apparently those PKM appear at 20%. Funny how I never payed attention to when exactly stuff like that happens. I did realise mercs upgraded, but when... never much cared to check that out.

Man, anyone payed any attention to any of this before this topic?

Would you please give us details? :)

[JRD]

Hey PZ... how about changing Art's status to "FarCrylogist"  ;)

[Art Blade]

 ;D ;D ;D

[Art Blade]

Something just occurred to me: What if those mercs upgrade whenever you do an arms dealer mission? Ie, you get access to better weapons, so do they. Example: Carl-G RL. Some guard posts used to have RPGs and later they will use CGs.

Now my problem is, does the weapons unlock cheat have any influence on mercs upgrading? Gah... :)

[PZ]

Man, I must have missed the tail end of this thread entirely!

It is an interesting thought that the mercs also get upgraded weapons.  I'm new into Bowa at 54% and have not been to Sepoko where there is an RPG guy usually in the center of the area.  I'll pay more attention to which weapon he carries - although I may have already completed all the weapons dealer missions already.

[Art Blade]

I'm at 58% now and returned to Leboa for some leftover assassination missions, and the RPG guy at Mokuba now has a Carl-G.

[Art Blade]

yup, the very GP I started my observation and this topic with, now has mercs with Deagles :)

[PZ]

This is interesting news.  I wonder if there is any merc weapon difference in the different player difficulty levels.

[RedRaven]

wonder how much Merc weaponry is influenced by players weaponry ?
i've noticed in doing the Arms dealer missions first tends to see more mercs with AK47's.
but what Artblade says about the RPG upgraded to Carl-G is interesting, when i've played have never gone back north after hitting south map as i've done all i can up there before moving on. Didnt even know you could get back to north map. Cheers Art :-X

[Art Blade]

welcome :) Perhaps you'll find this Article interesting, then :)

[RedRaven]

already read it, nice :-X
its great that after playing FC2 for so long there is still stuff to learn and discover about it.

[PZ]

It sure is - for instance, the recent IED posts have set up an entirely new playing scenario for me.  This might hold me until Rage comes on the scene  ;D

[RedRaven]

when i discovered you could plant more than one IED at a time must of spent the next week or so blowing up everything and anything i could, still like to stick them on barrels then push them towards mercs ;D great for clearing outposts if you dont want to take too much time on it. just a shame its in the same slot as pistols, should be a special i reckon.

[Art Blade]

sweet, I did the same things :) yeah, I'd like to carry them on top of the three weaps hahaha  ;D

[RedRaven]

now that would be fun :-X
if they had put a bit more thought into it they should be more like grenades and molotovs, but instead of just picking them up you should have to collect them from destroyed vehicles and outposts.

[Art Blade]

I've kept this topic in mind and I thought of a simple approach: Not doing any weapons dealer missions. :) I started a new career and cheated with weapons unlock so I didn't need them. I observed the mercs and I found out that they do upgrade when you progress with the main mission. That's it, so simple  :)

[RedRaven]

Makes sense. Reckon on my next play through going to try to do it without spending any diamonds, just use weapons that other mercs drop, golden AK's etc. Should make for an interesting adventure ;D

[Art Blade]

if you don't spend any, leave the diamond suitcases alone that are out there in the wilderness. Like that, you'll keep the merc diamond hunters in the environment, which will add a few surprises and happy meetings :)

[RedRaven]

Indeed, first time I stumbled across one was north of the fort, west of oasis. thought he was lost so just ran over him with a Unimog ;D

[Art Blade]

hehe, sometimes there are diamonds near safehouses, so you have to kill the mercs locking it, and surprise, there comes another merc you didn't expect. Typically he arrives after you entered the newly unlocked safehouse and when you get out, you get attacked  :)