Features of JA2 Stracciatella vs. unmodded (vanilla) JA2
This list is far from being complete but gives a quick idea. More information can be found here:
Ja2-stracciatella.github.io
The philosophy:
The goal of JA2 Stracciatella is to make Jagged Alliance 2 available on a wide range of platforms, improve its stability, fix bugs and provide a stable platform for mod development.
Main features:
- Compatibility:
JA2 Stracciatella (Stracc) runs natively on a variety of systems including all recent versions of Microsoft Windows (32bit and 64bit), Mac OS and Linux. That means, you won't encounter problems running JA2 on Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 and you don't have to use an emulator to get it to work on Linux.
We're also working on making JA2 Stracc work on Android!
Vanilla JA2 doesn't run on newer version of Windows or on Linux without some flaws and much tempering around. - Resolution:
JA2 Stracc supports the use of higher display resolutions. Custom resolutions, as far as they are reasonable, are also supported. Playing at 1024x768 or 1920x1080 pixels? - No problem!
Vanilla JA2 always runs at 640x480 pixels. - Screenmode:
JA2 Stracc can run the game in both fullscreen and windowed mode. You can switch screen mode while playing and you can also minimize the game with [alt]+[tab].
Vanilla JA2 only supports fullscreen mode (at 640x480 pixels). - New game mode: Dead is Dead:
A new and Stracciatella-exclusive game mode is added: Dead is Dead (DiD). This mode is a "true" hardcore-mode and drastically increases the difficulty by preventing the player from saving the game at all. The game is only saved when exiting. All choices are permanent. - GUI Launcher:
A graphical launcher is added to make launching the game as comfortable as possible. - BUGFIXES!!!
JA2 Stracc fixes TONS of bugs still present in the original game, after the official patches were applied.
JA2 Stracciatella is the only mod for JA2 which truly fulfills
the role of an "unofficial patch".
Other notable features:
- JA2 Stracc stores relevant data (e.g. saved games, screenshots, other user data) in the user directory (My Documents) and not inside the game directory.
- The Map Editor is integrated into the game .exe file and can be started with a command line.
- JA2 Stracc externalizes some of JA2's data to files that can be edited by hand. By this, many aspects of the game (e.g. items, starting cash, starting gear for the I.M.P. character...) become easily moddable without any coding skills needed.
- JA2 Stracc adds (optional) hotkeys to the game (e.g. [j] for jumping/climbing) which make the controls more user-friendly.
As noted above, this list is not complete. Visit the JA2 Stracciatella development homepage to find out more: Github.com
