7.62 Hard Life Addon pastebin

Courtesy of anon and anon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GEG STARTS HERE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

REGARDING ==GIVE EVERYBODY GUNS== MOD:

==IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE GAME, DO NOT USE IT. THE SHEER AMOUNT OF CRASHES IN ADDITION TO THE UNSTABLE NATURE OF THE BASE GAME WILL FRUSTRATE YOU TO THE POINT OF RAGEQUITTING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.==

Shits pretty popular right now so feel free to use it however keep the following things in mind:
1. Its very unstable and a lot of guns are buggy.
2. Ingame weapon textures are MISERY 2.0 tier bloated so they had to release a low-res texture version that didnt clog up your VRAM to the point of crashing.
3. You have to download the custom game executable from GEG forums in order to decrease the occurence of opening shops crashing your game. Note, its to DECREASE not to PREVENT crashing, your game will still crash aplenty trying to buy some ammo. The only thing it does is to prevent you from crashing the second time after crashing once opening a shop.
4. The game balance is all over the place due to several factors, including the head BRs inablity to understand the concept of "core game design".
	3a. Jamal with true sniper rifles the moment you leave the encampment.
	3b. Jamal with high-quality military grade weapons the moment you leave the encampment.
	3c. Jamal draws from the same weapon pool as Paquito.
	3d. You are able to aquire high quality weapons right from the start of the game, thus removing the hobo-phase from existence and
		making gear progression for the first half of the game functionally meaningless.

==TL;DR: Dont. But if you really, really want to, download the low-res version and the custom .exe to minimize the CTD wild ride.==

================
COMPATIBLE MODS
================

-Cheaper fuel by Silveryte: COMPATIBLE
-Alternative HUD / ALTERNATIVE HUD BLACK by al_reax: COMPATIBLE
-Alternative MAP+GRID / Alternative Map by al_reax: COMPATIBLE
-BSM Lambert Portrait by Silveryte: COMPATIBLE
-Better Kim Portrait by Silveryte: COMPATIBLE
-Cutscene videos by ges: COMPATIBLE
-Actor Detail by ges: COMPATIBLE
-Soundtrack mod / Bar Music Mod by ges: COMPATIBLE
-HighResPics by ges: COMPATIBLE
-ENBSERIES by ges: COMPATIBLE
-Images for some item descriptions by ges: COMPATIBLE
-High Res Modles by ges: COMPATIBLE
-Map Grid by Xelat: COMPATIBLE
-HUDfix by Uncle Benis: COMPATIBLE

================
NOT SURE IF COMPATIBLE MODS
================

-Alternative Ammo Pics: NOT SURE
-Symphony of War by [SPARTA] Apis in Memphis: NOT SURE
-Alternative Ammo Pics by [SPARTA] Apis in Memphis: NOT SURE

================
NOT COMPATIBLE MODS
================

-DoubleBarrelFix by Uncle Benis: NOT COMPATIBLE
-[WIP] Mercapocalypse Replaces by Silveryte: NOT COMPATIBLE
-Vorot's additional crafting stuff by Vorot: NOT COMPATIBLE
-Sorted Items by cachurro: NOT COMPATIBLE
-Big Handgun Workaround: NOT COMPATIBLE
-Sniper Camo Fix: NOT COMPATIBLE, CRASHES GAME!
-Flexible Magazine MOD: NOT COMPATIBLE

================
DOWNLOAD LINKS
================

Standart version
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=963744567
http://www.mediafire.com/file/afe5moe3po9kuwa/GEG_Non_Steam_1_0.rar

Low Res version
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=970871549
N/A

Custom EXE
http://www.mediafire.com/file/lw38q9dxd3u6asb/HLAshoprenderEXE.rar

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GEG ENDS HERE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FAQ

General

1. Whats the difference to vanilla or BSM?
A: HLA is neither unplayable nor HLA´s slanty-eyed cleptomaniac downs-afflicted little cousin.
In all seriousness BSM is a kitchen sink mod while HLA is a hardcore mod. Think AMK and OL if you´re into stalkan.

2. How do I install it?
A: There a dual language version avaliable on steam, however some material had to be cut in order to prevent copyright issues, mostly sound effects, videos and grafix.

UPDATE: The game has all of its cut content made restorable through steam workshop as a workaround. If its uploaded by user "hozyainbarin", "ges" or whatever the fuck he calls himself currently, its official restored content.

Theres also an option to DDL the full release from
http://hla-team.ru/
if you´re into slavrunes.


3. The camera is fucky, what do?
Do the following:
- Use Shift to move the camera faster
- Go to Setting > Control > Camera > Change the Sensitivity and Camera Speed to the maximum. Note that Sensitivity makes the camera react faster when trying to turn, and Camera Speed makes it move around faster.
- Go to the game folder and open the file Autoexec with a text editor. Add the following lines into that file and then save the file:
Cam_UseAngles false
FreeCamera True
- Start the game. You will now be able to turn the camera properly. Also, the camera will now feel much more responsive, you won't be limited by the map boundaries anymore and you can tilt it any way you want (useful for when you want to zoom in to see if you got a good firing solution on the enemy).

4. My game crashed whats the deal?
If you

>play the game in windowed mode
>have the game for longer periods of time
>dont save for longer periods of time
>quicksave/load while something you dropped still didnt reach the ground
>pick up activated smokes
>create a stash on a special encounter map
>use the slowmo feature while working buckshot
>initiate battle out of dialogue with named NPCs
>read the catalogue in the store window

you can and WILL get crashes.

Avoid the above to minimize butthurt.

5. What the fuck is all this engrish, did they just ran the game through google translate?
They quite literally did.

However theres a thing called HUDfix Ive been working on and it fixes a lot of engrish in the game, most notably it renames "Adoptation" to "Familiarity" and a lot of other assorted shit like system messages, item and car interaction.

You can get it here
- http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=830026780
Go get it because its a straight upgrade to vanilla translation without any known downsides.

6. Known bugs

-Ammunition is displayed with its russian item name in the english localization
	Status: Effectively FUBAR, can be fixed with more effort than its worth

-Coach Gun is classified as military grade instead of civilian
-G3A3 and G3A4 accept the wrong grenade launcher types
	Both fixed: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=832272225

-Belt with Large Holster is not actually a holster and cant be used as one
	Status: FUBAR
	Workaround: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=835950467
				Allows you to shoulder your compensator or sling it around your neck.

-Some items that are supposed to be craftable are not
	Partially fixed: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=837508970
					 Re-adds nigger rigged suppressors, beer can grenades, item disassembly and restores a bunch of
					 weapon crafting recipes that were removed for some reason. Also avaliable in russkie.

-MG3 ejects casings on the wrong side
	Fixed: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=842322948

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv GAMEBREAKING BUGS BELOW THIS LINE vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

-Not entering the green zone before reaching CGL 7 breaks the police subplot. So will getting Corvini killed during Brothers and Bandits.
	Status: FUBAR

-Missing a rent payment for your gunstore, or trying to switch your gunstore trader merc after your first rent payment, permanently and irrevocably breaks the gunstore.
	Status: FUBAR

-Calling the trader on mobile in a non-randomized area may remove him completely from the game
	Status: FUBAR

-Not talking to Corvini right after getting the quest Brothers and Bandits from Querano WILL break your game later down the line, permanently aggroing everyone ever should you try hiring mercs after completing the quest "Dagger".

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ GAMEBREAKING BUGS ABOVE THIS LINE ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FAQ

Gameplay

1. Through sheer luck I picked up this totally awesome gun right at the start of the game, but its shit and does barely any damage compared to an M1911, I mean WOW 1 damage to the head RNG bullshit bad game design just WOW why is the balance so shit in this game?
A: You found what is commonly referred to as shitFAL. Stop using the shitFAL and its shitty palinerian ammo. Get another gun, ANY gun really, or demon-fuse 8 shitFALs into a Pixie with the help of a manual and a cleaning kit. You´ll get a decent 0% wear shit-FAL running at 41 accuracy, 25-85 damage, auto-fire enabled and after cleaning your fucking ammo close to no jamming.

1.1 Whoa whoa cleaning ammo wudat?
A: Create a sufficientely big pile-o-ammo and look at its description. In the lower left corner you will see ammo quality percentage. Take a handfull and then RMB in your hands.

CLEAN YOUR FUCKING AMMO

1.2 Where the fuck am I supposed to find the shit needed for a gudFAL this early in the game?
A: One of the guys you recruit for the village quest as a cleaning kit on him, alternatively soldier patrols and some jamal encounters drop the cleaning kit. The tech manual you get from the Quart.


2. Is there a way to get my car back from the rebels?
A: You just sacrificed your drive for the sake of glorious people´s revolution, comrade! If you really wish, you may wait a week and have it back for the symbolic contribution to the proletariat´s cause of JUST 45 000 eldo ;^)

2.1 Is there a way to get my SECOND car back from the rebels?
A: Aye, only 25 000 eldo after you run the quests that require it, it really IS a bargain ;^)

2.2 I really want a car tho and I aint payin.
A: Clearing the Mine nets you a GAZ, leaving Puerte Viejo on foot nets you a Ford, roaming Cali Cantinos nets you a cop Sedan, all 100% free and without such totally unnessesary things like papers, who needs that shit right?

3. Where do I get a pair of glasses?
A: Sagrada, you get them from a doctor there.

4. Im getting my ass kicked in Villarado, what do?
A: The mission is called "Seven" because you´re supposed to be 7 men strong by the time of the stand-off. You can recruit most named NPCs in the camp, including the cook.

5. Why do my pawns spend 60% of fights knocked out?
A: Fatigue, hunger and lack of sleep give a penalty to endurance. Eat and sleep regularily.
You can see how big of a malus to stats you have in your journal.

6. The game freaks out with infernal stuttering from time to time, whats the deal?
A: Dynamic missions such as "Alguerian-style Robbery", which is one of the biggest culprits of the issue, have to load scripts that constantly add and remove flags to individual pawns, of which there are shitloads, which result in constant checks that tank your framerate hard.
You may also have had your game on for an extended period of time, after which the game starts to behave fucky in regards to framerate.
Another issue causing stuttering can be faulty AI pathfinding. To resolve issue apply concentrated fire on enemies stuck in walls.

7. How do I save the Forest Camp prisoner?
A: Give him a blood pack, then load YOUR OWN pistol with the blanks from the crate, since the Makarov you get from Tanya is 9x18, and the blanks are 9x19. Get him to the execution ground and shoot him in the face, he should "die" from one shot. If he doesnt, get closer m8, they´re blanks.

8. Why do the cops try to shoot me in the face immediately after entering Ciudad-de-Oro?
A: You havent taken the mandatory "Espionage" mission that resets your standing with the gibmint and bolis, which also initiating the main quest-line.
Otherwise don an army/bolis uniform and dont come too close to soldiers/cops.

8.1 Why does everyone try to shoot me in the face immediately after entering Olividad?
A: You shot Slab Beefcake after letting him go in Santa-Maria. Never ever initiate combat outside of dialogue against named NPCs, its super gay.

9. After I spoke to the fence Balboa in Puerte Viejo, he went off and an heroed in an ally behind the Bar, why is he such a thin-skinned faggot?
A: Theres a quest in Puerte Viejo regarding a landmine placed behind the Bar. Even if you dont spot the mine, someone eventually will step on it. And chances are it will be either one of your mercs or the fence.

10. Brothers and bandits is bugged, the head cop does not respond and as soon as I grab the money bag the bolis goes hostile, am I fucked?
A: You´ve got to leave the locale and speak with the cop back in Sagrada to recieve your 10k cash. Usually theres a message that tells you to leave but in this quest its missing for whatever fucking reason.

11. I forged X but I still got busted.
A: Forgery is MOSTLY safe, meaning that you still can be busted, albeit unlikely.
The only way to never get busted is to attain legit papers through wet-work, ass kissing and bribery.

12. Does the Jeep the Quart in Forest Camp sells back to me for 45k has papers included?
A: HAHA NO. Its the Quart what did you expect?

13. Is there something akin to bobbyrays where I can get the hottest shit and the best rail mounts?
A: The closest to bobbyrays would be Kali-Kantinos gun store, but its a bitch to get there. Sells the hottest shit and the shittiest ammo.
>The Hunting Store in Puerte Viejo sells boring but practical shit like AK pattern sniper rifles, hunting rifles, semi-auto shotguns and the occasional cop gun.
>The dealer in Santa Maria sells the cool but questionable shit like sawn off nuggets and deagle brand deagles. Also sells car stuff. Also features on wheels wholesale bying in the open zone.
>The toy store in Campecino sells TACTICOOL and TACTICOOL accessories, actually only accessories. Night camo, bags, scopes, manuals, books.
>The guy in Sagrada sells high-tech shit like NV scopes, laser pointers, flashlights, computers and IED components.
>You can convince the Barman in Ciudad-de-Oro to take up guns business with a gun catalogue somewhere in your pockets.
Overall theres no centralized gear supply as such.

14. How do I gather intel for the Espionage quest?
A: RMB on your dogtags.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FAQ

PROTIPS:

1.How to optimize your first shot
Tired of never getting the first shot off, it could be the fault of a mechanic you never realized was there. Basic idea behind the shot optimization is pressing "ready weapon" button (P) in order to raise your weapon and to keep it raised.
However, doing that actually doesn't make hip shots happen any faster and only cuts down the prep time of an aimed shot by half.
This is because the hip shot has a separate ready stance (at the hip duh!) and what "ready weapon" does is cut down all the prep time for a snap shot as it only raises the weapon, but doesn't sight it.
So what to do?
To prep for a hip shot for when you're expecting company to show up around the corner and you need to squeeze a round off in a fraction of a second, all you have to do is use the "aim at point" (\) function to prepare for the correct at hip stance. Once your timer for prepare weapon has passed and the character is now aiming, press the "prepare weapon" button, which causes the at hip stance it to remain active. Now you're free to run over the corner and hip shot the person immediately upon seeing him.
Aimed shots and scoped shots work the same. Bring the gun up to aim at a point to make your guy fully utilize his sights (Note: this may restrict your vision if you're using a scope. Always have spotters if you plan on scoping) and then press the prepare weapon button. You can now squeeze off an aimed shot in one second flat if you were using an AR 15.
Note: Do not do start prepping if you're prone unless you're trying to camp a corner. You will break the weapon's stance whenever you turn. Going prone also breaks whatever aim stance you had previously.

2.How to buy fuel for cheap.
Tired of of paying 20-25 eldos per liter whenever you are driving in the government border? Well there's a solution that requires you to pay attention on your part. Most shops sell a full 20L jerry can of fuel at at 200-300, which is already much less than what you're paying premium. Funny thing is the trader/mechanic in Santa Maria charges 25 per liter, but sells full jerry cans for as low as 90 eldos each.
NOTE: Cheesing that hard, might as well turn off fuel consumption in options launcher.

3.Merc´s locations list

Artrigo (Bar) 			– Spartan, Dingus, Madman
Artrigo (Palace) 		– Cameron
Campecino 				– Pepe, Toker
Cali Cantinos 			– Lambert, Plaster (Patch), Slick, TNT
Puerte Viejo 			– Caesar, Hawk
Forest Camp 			– Alexei
Olividad 				– Badabing, Einz-einz-zwei (Hilda), Sonar, Kim (after special encounter "Lone Traveller")
Sagrada (std hiring) 	– Coyote, Savage
Sagrada (AIS) 			– Sniper, Masha, Gunnar, Beaver, Ali, Cobra, Warlock, Checkout
Ciudad-de-Oro 			– Pops (Mayo), Bullseye
Santa-Maria 			– Skitter, Scalpel, Dessert, Earp, Verchick
Base 					– Christina
Fuerte-Hos 				– Gabriel (Jaguar)
El-Vertigo (in lockup) 	– Sanjay

4.Complete vehicle list:

>No papers:
Willys Jeep 			– Villarado, condition: quest "Seven"
GAZ-69 					– Mine, condition: crashing the shaft with no survivors
Ford 					– Special encounter with the broken down bus, condition: last enemy surrendered
Yamaha 					– Olividad, Carlos Montega
Kawasaki 				– Base, condition: quest "Secret Documents"
Cop Sedan 				– Special encounter, condition: CGL 4
UAZ-469 				– (50k) Villarado, Village Elder, condition: quest "Seven" and bought gold sand worth 45k

>With papers:
Hummer 					– (100k) Forest Camp, Quartermaster
BTR-40 					– (750k) Forest Camo, Quartermaster
Milspec URAL 			– SE "Ambush", quest "Interception"
Civ URAL 				– Forest Camp, Marcelo Tron, quest "Radio Contact"
Hummer SAF 				– Artrigo, Juan Kaderas, quest "Warehouse"
Civ URAL 				– Mine, Daniel Vasques, quest "Mine"
Milspec URAL 			– Cali-Cantinos, Willy Krauf, quest "Dagger"
GAZ-69 					– (60k) Anywhere, Fence/Con Artist, quest "Taxes"
Hummer 					– (100k) Artrigo. Quartermaster
Willys Jeep 			– (60k) Del Reservo, Rico
BTR-60 					– (1kk) Del Reservo, Rico
FMTV 					– REMOVED, replaced with BTR-40

>Temporary
GAZ-69 					– Sagrada, Fence, condition: Professionalism 50+
Unimog 					– Puerte Viejo, Willy Krauf, condition: quest "Dagger"

5. Setting up the Mine

Short version:
Your Trade skill affects the selling price CONSIDERABLY, you can only negotiate the price ONCE for each buyer, so start reading and selling wholesale.

The salary affects all your personell.
<50 and people leave
>75 and people come
>100 people come faster
You can have a maximum of 10 mechanics (personell), they repair the cars and modernize the equipment. The more mechanics you have the faster they work.
You can have a maximum of 4 trucks running.

Long version:
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

6. Setting up the store

Mercs chosen to be gunshop managers gains trade stat growth from gun sells.
I noticed that the higher my sells, the more the sudden upshoot of the trade state. ATM, I hired Pops to be the manager (experience 92, intellect 10, literally too stupid to read), and now his trade state is around 80.
Feeding the manager weapon catalogues also helps greatly.

Only weapons above your CGL will be sold in your gun store.

Have in mind that missing a rent payment for the store shuts down sales PERMANENTLY, even if you manage to pay up later.
I did not yet encounter a workaround for this shit.

7. Skill grind

Your pawn´s attrubutes and skills increase with usage, RPG style. You cant raise Stamina at all for whatever fucking reason. Mechanics is the only skill you cant raise naturally so you have to read manuals 24/7 to raise it to respectable levels.

HOWEVER

Theres daily caps, they are as following:
+1 per day on individual main attributes
+5 per day on individual skills

A new game day begins at 9:00.

Contrary to popular belief, you cannot use airsoft for grinding shootan.

HOWEVER

The outcome of an action has no bearing on the XP you get from that action. <- TRUE

You can logically plink away at empty cans and get your shooting skills to 100. <- OUTDATED BULLSHIT

UPDATE: Plinking away at empty cans only improves your familiarity with a weapon, but not the actual skill.
To improve a skill you need a live target to aim and shoot at, but you dont actually need to hit the target to get the XP.

UNCONFIRMED: Apparently simply readying the gun will increase familiarity, not sure about exact numbers.

7.1 Camouflage skill

Contrary to popular belief, Camo skill is raisable, but the way its done is completely retarded

when you´re on the overmap, either travelling or standing still, when you get a popup asking if you want to attack or not and you press YES your entire crew gets +1 to Camo skill

it is counterintuitive and also retarded as all fuck tho because you only start getting those pop-ups regularily at relatively high camo skill levels

meaning if you´re pro at smearing dirt and pigshit in your face already, you´ve got 100 camo in no time, however if you´re shit at Camo you´ll forever remain shit at Camo

7.2 Throwing Skill

Contrary to popular belief, throwing is raisable from throwing shit from your hand, but not your inventory. The other prerequisite is the thrown trajectory being shown as orange.

7.3 Heavy Weapons skill

You can train heavy weapons skill by shooting bursts from 5 rounds upwards. After the 5 round threshold the total amount of rounds in the burst does not matter.

7.4 Outstanding Feat

The first time you speak to Alexei Rezvy in Puerte Viejo he will ask you what you consider your outstanding feat.
Choosing one of the options will give you a +10 PERMANENT bonus to the attribute it corresponds with.
Choose wisely, you can either obtain an edge in a specific area, or eliminate your shortcomings (one of the otherwise unraisable attributes) instead.

7.5 Experience

Experience generally increases with misc feats BUT if you dont use ironman mode which gives you a limited amount of saves depending on your CGL THE STAT WONT INCREASE. Its bullshit if you ask me but its how it works.

8. Starting gear

Starting gear is assigned according to a combination of 3 of your highest skills
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
|			Highest					        |	2nd Highest					   		    |	3rd Highest			   |
|___________________________________________|___________________________________________|__________________________|
HIP		"Beamshot 5000S (HK)"					"Beamshot 5000S (WR)"						"Ammo Belt"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SHT		"Collimator Aimpoint Comp M (WR)"		"Insight M3 Tactical Flashlight (WR)"		"Tactical Bipod TL-BP16"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SNP 	"Optical Sight Leupold Mk4 10x40 (M24)"	"Optical Sight ACOG 4x32 (WR)"				"Book_Sniper"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
HWP 	"Tactical Armor Vest M100"				"Tactical Armor Wildkat"					"Steel Helmet"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THR 	"Defensive Hand Grenade Mk3A2"			"Flash Hand Grenade M84"					"Throwing knife"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
HtH 	"Smersh" Its a big knife				"Ka-Bar"									"Machete"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CAM 	"Silencer (9 mm Para)"        			"Camo Kit"									"Flask"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SAP 	"Book_Sapper"        					"Entrenchment tool"							"Wire"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MED 	"Field Paramedic Kit4"					"Book_Medic"								"Field Paramedic Kit3"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gameplay Concepts

1.Gunplay and Weapon Characteristics
The usual weapon stats are pretty selfexplanatory, however there´s some mechanics that arent explained in the game.

a) Familiarity/Ado(!)ptation
Familiarity gives you a bonus to accuracy with a specific gun.
You need a 100 shots to achieve 100%, burst fire counts as 1 shot. Theres an exploit with recording where a shot gives you twice the familiarity, reducing the count to 50 shots for 100%.
Familiarity is not item-bound, meaning you retain your 100% when some NPC snatches your dropped M1911 A1 and you get a new M1911 A1 afterwards.

PROTIP: Familiarity can be trained by shooting at walls. So all you need to do to obtain mastery is buy 100 rounds of ammo and dry run the gun. Beats going all the way to the forest camp and getting Quart to train you at it.

b) Balance
Balance of a gun is a value that ranges from 0 to 100.
If its >50, you get a bonus to aim time.
If its <50, you get a bonus to handling when in burst fire mode.
The more extreme the deviation from 50, the better the bonus.

c) Weight
If after tacticooling the shit out of your gun its weight exceeds 2.5kg+(Strength−50)×90, you get a juicy penalty to aim time.

d) Dirt and Wear
With usage your weapon gets clogged up with dirt and powder residue and all that shit, while also wearing up internal parts, which happens more slowly, but is harder to fix. Both lead to lowered accuracy and increase the peopability of a misfire.
See Weapon Maintenance for how to deal with that shit.

You can reduce wear up to -20%, with the need of 1 spare weapon per ~1% past 0 wear. -20% apparently allows for modernization but I never tested it successfully.

e) Weapon Permit
In order to be able to tote all your favourite shooters without the cops stripping your ass every time you show your pretty face in a town, you need to aquire a permit for it. There are several types of permits:
>Illegal. ID-less DIY guns of local origin, sawn-offs and IEDs. Unless its a nugget obrez, you usually dont want to use them anyway.
>Civilian. These include low-cap handguns and pump action shotguns.You can use civilian weapons from the start, and nobody will try to take away yer guns.
>Hunting. Hunting weapons include large calibre handguns, semi-automatic shotguns and rifles, as well as low-cap rifle mags.
>Service. The tacticool stuff starts here, high-cap handguns, high cap rifle mags.
>Military. High-cap mags, select-fire rifles, grenades, mines, the good stuff.
>Special Forces: Suppressors and weapons with integrated silencers.

How to aquire those permits?
>Illegal: never ever
>Civilian: included with the "New Game" button
>Hunting: talk to the bolis major in Puerte Viejo
>Service: Either work for the bolis or AIS for a while.
>Military: Work for the gubmint.
>SF: Work for the gubmint some more.

Alternatively, the latter 4, as well as other relevant documents can be acquired through forgery.
Hunting license also becomes availiable for purchase from the hunting store after 90 days.

f)CGL
You can see the guns CGL as a numbet in [brackets] while inspecting the gun. Higher CGL weapons of the same class are considered straight upgrades to lower CGL weapons instead of side-grades in terms of weapon progression.

PROTIP: You need some trading skills before you'll be able to see the CGL levels of guns. The trade skill also lets you see the true worth of a gun compared to what the store is selling it for. This is very handy for the gun store as the hunting store sometimes sells CGL 11-12 snipers for half of the actual price.

g)Favourite Weapon
You are given the opportunity to choose your favourite weapon when speaking to Alexei Rezvy in Puerte Viejo for the first time.
Using that weapon will give you a flat bonus to your Exerience attribute, which gives a bonus to any and all actions, aswell as a bonus to XP gain.

h)Weapon modifiers
Some weapons may have a number of modiefiers such as "Worn" or "Reliable" that affect the guns performance in one way or another.
You can remove negative modifiers by letting your own Base trader repair your weapon, this however does not seem to work in the english version due to more google translate shenanigans.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2. Combat

a) Adrenaline Management
Adrenaline level management is important for managing threat accessment. Low adrenaline results in higher accuracy but also higher response time, high adrenaline results in low accuracy but also low response time, making your shotgunner go faster and your sniper aim truer.

However, too high of an adrenaline spike resulting from spotting new enemies or getting shot sends your merc into a shock. To prevent that simply pop mollies and snort blow, but morphine and strong spirits are fine too.

b)Stamina Management
Your active stamina pool dictates how long you can perform straining tasks such as running, holding a gun at the ready and resisting pain. When your stamina reaches zero, your pawn falls unconcious.

Drink water to restore lost active stamina in combat.

Your total stamina pool is affected by hunger and sleep. Lack of sleep is indicated by the stamina bar getting shorter than the space in the HUD reserved to it. Hunger is indicated by falling unconcious the second a dragonfly lands on your shoulder, also constant whining.

c)HP management
Usually its pretty straight forward: you get shot – you die. Or you bleed, then you die.
So dont get shot.
Otherwise wear armor of adequate protection level to increase your chances of not dying in one shot.
Total HP can be reduced by battle wounds, additionally to reducing your active HP. When your HP reaches zero, you be ded.
Use medkits to replentish lost active HP and reduce bleeding. Regenerating total HP takes significant time, a visit to a doctor is preferable.

d)Stealth
Stealth maneuvers like repositioning and hit-and-run actually work in this game, go nuts.

e)Covering fire.
You can pin down and send enemies into shock from near-misses and strafing shots.

f)Grenades.
Use them. A lot.
Always have at least 2 frags and at least 1 smoke on you.

d)Melee
Snake, remember the basics of CQC.
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3. Survival

a)Your mercs have basic needs such as hunger, thirst and sleep.
Taking care of your mercs basic needs ensures happy, efficient and exciting murder orgies. Not doing so ensures mechanical fatigue of your F5-F9 buttons and, including but not limited to, severe colonal mutilation.

b)Wounds decrease your maximum HP until treated at a hospital propa.
Doing so disables them for a set period of time, same for the main character.
You can let them naturally regenerate but it takes shitloads of time for full recuperation.

c)You may perform certain actions relating to survival from your dogtag´s context menu, like gathering wood, procuring and cooking food items. Some options require certain tools, like fishing utensils or lighters.

d) Mobile Fridge
Having a mobile fridge in your car enables your mercs to consume food automatically while on the world map, also preserving perishables. RMB on the fridge box in your trunk to load all food into it.

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4. Vehicles

Across the game would you´ll have countless opportunities to buy, steal, and eventually lose several vehicles, including several motorbikes and a BTR if you´re that much of a bad dude.

a) Fuel
Vehicles need fuel to breathe if 6th grade biology taught us anything, g-d bless American education.
Your vehicles burn fuel at a rate thats calculated from vehicle type and weight, aswell as weight of the baggage, and speed. You can refuel directly from seller, or from the canisters you got onboard through the car key context menu.
Fuel is sold mainly by Barmen for outrageous prices, though other less bullshit means are availiable too.

PROTIP: Your vehicle's fuel consumption is based on kilometers traveled. Though going via national highway may be the fastest way to travel around, at times you're increasing the distance traveled by a good 50-100 kilometers give or take, which means more fuel spent and more money spent buying fuel. Optimizing your journey with the shortest route possible and you'll find that you need less spare fuel cans (which means more space for smuggling and guns).

PROTIP: Generally fuel becomes cheaper the further south you go.

b) Maintenance
Your car will break down, and it will break down often. You can perform field maintenance to find and eliminate most fauts on the spot, with the help of a toolbox and some spare parts and (in the best case scenario) a manual. Should you fail to properly maintain your car, you´re in for a treat pushing the car to the next availiable mechanic for the duration of the current fiscal year and some of the next.
PROTIP: Having a specific vehicle´s manual in its inventory increases your effective mechanics skill while performing maintenance on that vehicle by 35 points.

c) Car papers
You need car papers to be able to cross the closed zone, otherwise sooner or later your vehicle will be confiscated with its entire inventory by the bolis.

Legit bought cars come with legit car papers, however you may get papers for any car in your posession by the way of forgery. The "MOSTLY safe" rule applies here aswell.

d) Load
Different vehicles have different maxumum loads, exceeding which you can inflict serious damage to your vehicle´s internal workings, and increase your fuel consumption drastically.

e) Passengers
Each vehicle has a maximum number of passengers, exceeding which your entire squad moves at walking speed. Usually the game will signalize that you have too many people in your squad, however that message pop-up does not account for temporary escorts, while the script itself does.

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5. Hidden Statistics

a) Current Game Level (CGL)

CGL determines the severity of ass kicking you recieve, as well as the quality and amount of gear avaliable to you and generated NPCs.

CGL is accounted for in your general mission progression, meaning certain quests only become availiable after you reach a certain CGL.

CGL is also accounted for when setting up the store in Sagrada, meaning it wont be able to sell guns below your CGL.

You can review your CGL in the context menu of your dog tags under "hidden statistics"

b) Mechanics

The MC aswell as all mercs have the hidden "Mechanics" skill. Its usually very low at about 10-15. Mechanics determines your capability of of crafting and repairing stuff, from crates and IEDs to your own vehicle.

Repairing your vehicle, combining items, reading manuals and magazines trains your Mechanics skill.
Manuals also give you a flat +20 bonus to Mechanics when interacting with the gun they accompany, as well as enabling advanced interaction with the specific gun.

c) Trade

Trade skill influences the trader prices and enables perks related to rubbing hands in satisfaction.
Most mercs have it at flat 0.

Trade is important for the merc to manage your gun store in Sagrada, if you decide to set one up.

d) Professionalism

Affected by your mission- and overall performace, affects quest givers and mercs willingness to cooperate.
Fucking up or abandoning missions or letting mercs get murdered decreases your professionalism, successful missions and alternative ways of completion increase your professionalism.
You can actually fuck it up enough to not be able to progress further in the story.

e) Reputation
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

f) Stealth
UNDER CONSTRUCTION


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6. Construction

You can place several battlefield obstructions/furniture in the game world, which may save your ass on more than one occasion.

a) Sandsack Barrier
You can place a Sandsack Barrier on the ground from accessing the shovel´s context menu while holding it in your hand.
Rotate with brackets.
PROTIP: You can holster a shovel as a melee weapon on your belt by accessing the belts context menu with the shovel in your hand.

b) Wooden Fence
You can place a wooden fence on the ground from accessing the toolbox´s context menu while holding it in your hand. Further materials are required.
Rotate with brackets.

c) Wooden Crate
You can place a wooden crate on the ground from accessing the crate´s context menu while holding it in your hand. Further materials are required.

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7. Craft and Item Manipulation

There are several levels of item manipulation in the game including repairing, combining, and crafting the craziest shit.

A) Weapon Maintenance

Mantaining your gun ensures a constant stream of metal particles in a desired direction, lack thereof ensures a rather lacking stream of metal particles in directions that may be concidered undesirable, including but not limited to your face and extremities.

Step 1: Cleaning your weapon.
There are 2 methods of cleaning your weapon in the field:

a) Cleaning Kit
The scrub way. May be used by the way of context menu or drag&drop to clean one or more weapons in one go.

b) Partial Disassembly
The /k/ way. Take the gun in your hands, then activate a tool of your liking.
Go through the correct partial disassembly queue, then clean and reassemble the gun.
PROTIP: Some weapons dont have accompanying cleaning tools, thus forcing you to use the scrub way against your brass-jacketed will.


Step 2: Repairing your weapon
Multiple ways are availiable, however the following two are the archetypes:

a) Trader
The scrub way. Get to a trader and use the context menu on your weapon to repair it. The gun will be unavailiable for a few days, when its done you can "rebuy" it from the "sold" window at the traders. Keep in mind that you may miss the time window and lose the gun forever.
PROTIP: Thats what you get for being a scrub.

b) Partial Disassembly
The /k/ way. Take the gun in your hands and have a second gun of the same type at hand, then activate a tool of your liking. Go through the correct partial disassembly queue, then repair and improve the gun.

c) Modernization
Weapon wear can be reduced up to -20%, which is explained away by the wear indicator displaying the wear and tear of the gun against the average condition of this type of weapon in the field.
At -20% you´re supposed to be able to modernize the gun but I have no fucking idea what that does, propably a locked feature only avaliable through certain NPCs I havent encountered yet.

B) Minor Manipulation

Usually works through drag&drop, some through context menues.

Examples:
>Double-stacked mag -> drag mag on identical mag while having tape in your inventory.
>Refilling mag -> drag ammo on mag
>Unloading ammo box-> context menu – take out ammo
>etc

You can find the full list of combination in itemcombinations.ini and recieps.xml, however some are disabled for the time being for whatever fucking reason. Like dont even try the ghetto-suppressor.

C) Advanced Manipulation.

Usually through context menu, however some from drag&drop.

Examples:
>Booby trap -> multistage crafting, first make a trap kit, then add grenade.
>Wholesale ghetto-nades -> shitload of beer cans, TNT, shellshot and some more shit
>Improving a shitGun -> 9 guns of the same type + manual + toolbox.