Merc War - Mercs vs Mercs, real firefight <incl savegame>

[PZ]

lol, that web is intricately woven!  On an aside, is there an AT in Pala?  I can't recall finding one (however, I miss many things!)

[Art Blade]

in the restricted area is a garage - coming in from the bus stop, go right towards Mike's, then you can see the white house with the diamond in it, as well as a white AT :)

[PZ]

Ah yes, I recall - forgot all about the ATs in the garage because I'm so viciously attacked when I go in there.  ;D

[Art Blade]

I walked around the garage to the gateway. One merc was on the right, next to the garage, and one was inside the garage. I killed the "outsider" first, then the one in the garage, got into the AT unmolested and drove towards the bus stop. That's when all hell broke loose, but I was already escaping full speed. Didn't even smoke my engine, but the Datsun came flying by - they've got to have nitro on board, bastards  ;D

[Art Blade]

Just on a sidenote, I just managed to steal the white Pala AT unnoticed. Apparently the Town Mercs are not always inside the garage or next to it.

[iGame3D]

I've not managed to pull anything off at CF yet, I tend to just ram right through there and into Pala on my way back from somewhere.

However, (did I post this already?) I did manage to have a guy in a SUV follow me on my way to the medicine house near the Fort when it needed to be unlocked.

Tried to ram the first guy I saw, only to hit a road block board and stop dead, so jumped out of my vehicle, torched the two guys in front of me, but took enough hits to the back on the way there and while pulling in to drop me into "run away and heal" mode. So I go left and around the building.

Then I hear screeching and screaming.

I step back around the building to see the SUV ramming dudes.
Forward, kill, reverse, kill, forward kill.

I was like "Oh wow", but also my reflexes for self preservation kicked in
and I fired a grenade just as the car was surrounded by blazing gunmen.
Safehouse unlocked.

I've tried using the flaregun to attract enemies to each other, but it never seems to w@&k.
It's hard to tell which faction is manning which place most of the time.
Guess I should pay more attention to their ripped posters when scouting.

[Art Blade]

they don't use uniforms - so when they mix you'll never know. The posters may be a good idea, for some reason I too never found any time to study them while amidst a fight for my life... hehe :) Maybe kill the mercs, check for posters, and try to memorise those. Hmm. Who knows :) Some "Guard Posts" don't seem to have those faction posters, however, especially those small ones. I didn't think it really had to do with factions, because I tried to drag various patrols and mercs with me across the map, and they usually just joined forces. The only "secure" place for mayhem seems to be around CF. The only other time I ever managed to start a war was at Goka Falls, when I had to kill one of their leaders, and I made some mercs follow me back down to the river. They attacked the boat house mercs, more like a feud than a war ;)

[PZ]

Quite often I've encountered dead mercs in various areas and I recall one in particular - a GP north of the bus stop in Bowa.  Several times I've seen a dead merc in the road, and one time I was stealthily approaching and made my way to the metal roof of one of the shacks at the GP when I saw a patrol come through and run down one of the GP mercs.  It was quite funny actually, the merc afoot casually strolled across the road expecting the patrol to stop, and just as casually, the driver of the assault truck ran him over with out blinking an eye.  For those of you in the States, it reminded me of the Geico auto insurance advertisements where the squirrel runs a car off the road.

[Art Blade]

I just had an idea about what may cause some (not all) of those events where you see dead mercs or stray mercs. I think iGames3D mentioned that the game renders only part of the area, and when you enter the next area, it will be rendered just by then. Now the tricky part: When you shoot a grenade really far, so far you don't even hear it explode, it may have left the rendered area and remains "on hold" until the next area has to be rendered. That is when you go somewhere and all of a sudden hear an explosion. Probably your own grenade, setting off nearby. I can now imagine that grenades that set off not just nearby, actually far enough so you don't hear them, will also lure mercs into checking it out. That's basically one way how you start merc wars. Maybe that explains several strange incidents :)

[PZ]

Interesting idea, and sounds plausible  :-X

[PZ]

Just for fun, I loaded one of Art's merc war saves and captured this video - it graphically depicts what happens when the mercs attack one another.  I used the ignore_player cheat so the mercs would focus on each other rather than me.
[smg id=1391 type=av]

[Art Blade]

hehe, last words in your movie "launch a flare" - "you got it" <popfsssssss POFF>

good addition to this topic, nice  :) :-X

[PZ]

Thanks - having much fun with the ignore_player cheat - allows you to see things you never could otherwise due to the aggressive nature of the mercs.

[Art Blade]

I'm just "back" from using ignoreplayer cheat a lot, and funny thing, I can say the same, without it "allows you to see things you never could otherwise" - like mercs chasing you from their posts across the map  ;D

That's when a quick switch comes in handy, ie. "uh-oh, there's some mercs there, them shootin' me up just ain't gonna happen" -- hit F5 (quick save), alt-f4 to desktop, double-click all cheats shortcut, and voilà, peace and quiet while passing them  :) And hell yes, it's so much quieter to travel, or even: cruise, across the land, when you're using ignoreplayer.

[PZ]

Sure would have been great if the writers of the trainer software would have put in a toggle to allow a single key press to switch between ignore_player and normal mode.  Would have added tremendously to my sense of immersion to be able to travel to a mission area enjoying the scenery.  :-X

[Art Blade]

well, at least we (PC) are able to cheat at all, one of the reasons I don't envy console players  ;)

[PZ]

Indeed.  I was just playing with the teleport system in the trainer where you can save up to 3 locations and instantly teleport back to that position.  One was at Mike's Leboa, and another was at the bus stop in Pala - the idea is to have quick transport between the armory, Pala bus stop, and from there to most anywhere in Leboa easily.  Although it kind of works, half the time I end up beneath the map looking up at the underside of Pala!

[Art Blade]

I think D_B mentioned long ago that the teleport system was buggy. However, it might be a good idea to go back on topic in case some people are more interested in merc wars than in how to cheat, if you agree :)

On topic,

I managed to sucker a merc from CF GP to follow me into Pala, and had him continue shooting at me (god mode on to extend that test) - strangely, the townsfolk was not present. My weapon was in an inoffensive position while he kept shooting at me. No other merc was there to stop him or attack him for violating cease-fire.

[smg id=1395 align=center width=400]

[iGame3D]

I managed to get a merc to follow me into ...uh the southern main town.
He changed his behavior, gave up shooting at me.
So I bumped him back to the edge of town (my rep was at 3 or 4) where nobody would see, then executed him to teach him a lesson about harassing me.

[Art Blade]

Mosate Selao, or Port Selao, in Bowa :) Nice, looking forward to visiting the south again soon... Did the townsfolk of Port Selao take any notice of you administering justice? :)

I'm currently on my third through, at 20% in Leboa, one buddy side mission and all assassination missions to go, then the rest of the main missions. Will take some time, and meanwhile I drive through CF as often as possible for some fun :)

[PZ]

I mentioned something similar a short time ago - in Mosate Selao (I could be wrong but that's what I call the main town; I call the place where the barge docks Port Selao).  Lured a merc from the eastern GP into within town limits, executed the bloke and no one took notice in town.  Don't know if it was a glitch or if it is repeatable.

[Art Blade]

I always thought Port=Mosate, but hell, who knows. :)

[PZ]

Probably is, but because two names for the same place doesn't make sense to me, I renamed them in my own thoughts!  ;D

[TheFishlord]

I think that's repeatable - if mercs wouldn't notice while they are "un-ceasefired" then they won't in the ceasefire zones. So if they don't hear it, and don't see it, they don't care...I once shot a target in the center of Monate Selao with a dart rifle. I don't think anyone was watching and since it was a headshot and silenced, they didn't hear it either. Though that doesn't explain why I can execute a merc in the streets of Pala when he gets mouthy with me and nobody looks at me funny after that...

[Art Blade]

I always try to be out of sight and earshot, but still the entire town jumps when I try to kill someone "silently" and "unnoticed"  :)

Come to think of it, they do that if they have seen me before. I remember I killed a couple of mercs who saw and heard me in Sefapane, but the other half of the town hadn't seen nor heard me, so they didn't care. Maybe getting into town unnoticed is the trick... but indeed that doesn't explain how it's possible to shoot someone in the middle of a street without raising the alarm.