When playing a RPGish game, I often want to play those characters in JA2. So like any sane person would, I then use tools to wade through the games intestines, pull out horrifying amounts of sound files and then create new mercenaries. This always takes a hideous amount of time and is highly demotivating in the process (every time so far I quit modding for a few months), but, ehh, that’s the price of doing things or sth.

Anyway, Sara & Scott Ryder are now two new AIM mercenaries.

Both Ryder’s are basically rookies. Think of proto-Shepard. Both have potential, but still have a long, long way to go. Both lead squads in ME:A, so Deputy is a set trait. While edmortimer will likely object due to their abysmal leadership, this is actually intended for once. A somewhat interesting part in the game is that they basically earn their rank by a combination of nepotism and everybody wearing idiot hats, and they have to measure up quickly. In that regard, the Deputy-trait only reaches its full potential if the merc has a higher level than others, so… these 2 better learn fast 🙂

As to their ingame persona, Sara has a rather sunny disposition, dabbled in archeology and had brief military training as a comms specialist in a scout regiment. That sufficiently justifies the scout trait, and we finally have another merc with radio operator. It also leads to her buddies & hatreds:

The files are all based upon GameDir r2399. They will also work for older releases, like anything r7609-based. In that regard, the voicesets I used are, like the profile slots, 212 and 213, so there will be no need to rename them in r7609-releases.

And here is the link to the files (thanks to DepressivesBrot, now on ftp): http://kermi.pp.fi/JA_2/Mods_v1.13/Flugente/Additional_Mercs/