Another update has hit the flashback universe, and here´s the new thread for it. I´m testing the public_testing version, but i´m confident that it works and should be available for all soon.

I want to give my 2cents first. I´ll list all positives and negatives i have found so far. Surprise, there are far more positives than negatives until now. ...

Positive:

+ the shop looks fine and works well for me. Good things especially are, that you can choose the amount of ammo you want to buy, and that you can re-buy things you have sold.

(edit:) I use the PC version. There seem to be serious issues with the linux/mac versions though.

+ there are more and enough loot-containers in the starting sector

(edit:) since 1.05? i dont know if it´s really a 1.06 feature, updates came so fast...

+ the new sound for the beginning of the player´s turn is exactly as good as the old one from JA2, Enemy turn sound could get improved, so its listed at the negatives below, although its good enough atm.

+ Enemy turns seem a lot shorter in length

+ loot containers are easily clickable now, maybe they should also blink white when dragging over them, but thats not neccessary.

+ moving items between squad inventory and mercs works flawlessly now in combat mode... 

(edit:), but i still have to test it more in strategic view, i will update this as soon as i did so....

+ Game crashes did not appear anymore at enemy turn.

+ Stealth seems to work now,

(edit:) but you are gaining stealth points for just moving around in the presence of enemies, kind of weird. Maybe too fast? Also it would be clear that you are currently using stealth, when there would be a stealth button like in JA2, making your moves more expensive)

+ Multiple selected mercs seem to move correctly now. They start moving correctly and they don´t stop without reason anymore.

+ All mercs seem to stop correctly/instantly now when enemy is sighted. 

Negative:

- I can´t change the active merc via merc portrait, when i open the inventory with sydney first (he´s the second of two mercs in my squad). When i open the inventory with my custom merc first, it works.

- the sound for enemy turn (the clock sound) has too much reverb for my taste (the sound designer will know what this means). It contradicts the rest of the sounds that don´t have as much reverb, what makes it feel weird.

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Some questions:

Has the enemy AI been improved? It seems to me this way, but i could be mistaken though.

Do enemies now loose AP when you hit them? If so, hell yeah :) But this impression could also occure due to the beginning of the campaign (that enemies don´t have as much AP yet). 

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That´s it for now. I guess more will come, but this far i´m very satisfied with the update.

greetz

Well as for me I have serious problems with JA:F now. With or without patch the game now starts (doesen't matter if windowed or fullscreen) and at the moment the menu should appear the screen just goes black - I hear the background music playing, that stops short time after and I have to reset my computer. I'll investigate on that ...

Edit: Of course other games just run fine, no changes to system were made since yesterday, too

I guess this is NOT the game ;) you have to take care of your system... which means:

1. Did you check your driver software ? (graphics card/mainboard/ especially soundcard... i have experienced serious issues, when those ones were not up to date...

2.  also, use the combination of "avira anti free virus" and your personal preferred firewall...and then check your whole pc! ( i know you can choose others, but this one does the trick)

3. Have you used a registry cleaning tool since you used your PC? If not USE it!

4. update all flash codes via homepage

If your game still doesn´t work after all that, maybe your graphics card or someting else fails...

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greetz

Hi Glettkin, I know this isn't the "fix my computer"-thread but I was really shocked that this happens from one day to another.
- I reinstalled the most recent (stable) AMD display drivers
- I have a whole exception for the entire stream folder in my Symantec Endpoint Protection AV
- haven't checked with registry cleaning tools
BUT
- changed the GFX card (now Radeon 5700, before Readeon HD 6950)

The game is running again but I'm not sure why all of the sudden this happened. Anyway I appreciate your response and kindness to help me out.

Edit: Because stuff like this makes me crazy I investigated further:
- put my HD 6950 back into the system
- checked every setting in the CCC (Catalyst Control Center)
-> Under "my DVI Display" I selected "use GPU for upscaling"
--> Game starts, Sound is there, Video is there, can play without a problem

This pretty much fits my symptoms I think because the screen(s) go black right in that moment the game is finished with loading and "upscaling video to desired resolution" (it doesen't matter which resolution I had selected).
 

So I guess this might be helpful to share with you ;-)

& humble version still 1.04.

What the heck ? Give me update !

Just noticed this now, don't really know if it's been reported in the previous patches.

When I've lost contact with any enemy, the voice alert of it was from a merc that wasn't in the sector, but in another squad.

Strange bug to report here.  I put all of my mercs in crouch mode in an enemy sector and had them creep up to the enemy.  Several mercs received a +1 to sneaking while only sneaking 20 meters or so. Turns out, you can continually have them sneak around in a circle (or around a rock in my case) and essentially gain unlimited sneaking points AND merc levels.  Not sure if they have to be in certain proximity to enemies for this to trigger.     

I don't know if it's just me but I can no longer loot containers on a 1.05 save.

I disagree with OP on some points:

- New shops are worse, awfully huge items, few random items ie a bizarre scarcity not matching the general design of the game, almost no ammo with pointless special ammo types (that addition was quite awful, 11 ammo types to manage was more than enough, 33 is ridiculous). And clearly those new shops require tabs weapons/armors/ammo/misc and a tab not shown if empty.
- I don't think the loot container change is from this version but the previous that already changed a lot that point, perhaps for the startup area it's from this last change.
- Stealth has no change for me, beside for skill increase quite fast (too fast?) and it brings XP too. Other it's still as much obstruse and hard to understand.
- Moving items with drag & drop in global map is still not working properly, at least on Mac, only the second drag&drop of an item garanty it works, for the first attempt it's very random and most often not working.
- Multiple selected mercs is right like before, still working but very uncomfortable a select all button is classic and would be very useful.
- Mercs stop when enemy is sighted, no change, it was working before, it works the same neither better nor worse.

And there's still the same bugs I had already quoted:

Except when mentioned, all bugs bellow are also with version 1.0.6 but they was already in the two previous versions. All are with Mac, OSX 10.9.5, ATI Radeon HD 5770, 4Gb RAM. I didn't check if I had them with Windows.

- When in an area, any area, when North is at bottom right for the minimap, in middle of the screen there's always and constantly the stacked names of the mercenaries in other squads not in the area (or of some but at least one name).
- The Reaper Achievement is blocked at 250 kills.
- In global map, item drag&drop from a mercenary to another mercenary or from a squad inventory to a mercenary of another squad, it rarely works at first attempt, a trick is drag&drop quickly the item in the origin inventory and then do the drag&drop intended, and then it always work. There isn't this problem when a squad is in an area.
- Command tab to switch to another application never works. Trick is use Command F for window mode and then switch manually to another application.
- Mechanical skill never increase even for mercenaries doing all the repairs.
- The Parrett N82A1 is described as an improved version of the Parrett N82 but all its attributes are the same.
- If you never go in underground base and then never free the doctor locked in it, when you destroy the 4 air defense he is still available for hire like if he was freed. I haven't tested this with version 1.0.6, but with the version 1.0.4.

New in 1.0.6, it's almost a bug, the level up is, hahem, too fast. The cause seems to be the Stealth.

- new shop system is a mess: under linux nothing works, the shop showing several images of weapons on the same place (but it seems different layers), balance showing always 1 mio $. I can sell stuff that I don't own etc. ...

- New shops are worse, awfully huge items, few random items ie a bizarre scarcity not matching the general design of the game, almost no ammo with pointless special ammo types (that addition was quite awful, 11 ammo types to manage was more than enough, 33 is ridiculous). And clearly those new shops require tabs weapons/armors/ammo/misc and a tab not shown if empty.

The items are just as big as wasteland 2 has them in shops. A game that got very good reviews. Imo it fits the style of JA, look at the shops of JA2, they´re almost the same in size of icons ... the special ammo types are exactly the same as in old JA2...ok i agree about the tabs, those could be included if people get confused with 10-20 pictures at one time.

- I don't think the loot container change is from this version but the previous that already changed a lot that point, perhaps for the startup area it's from this last change.

Could be true, i haven´t started a new game at the time change from 1.04 to 1.05. Just went on to play my saved game. If that´s true i´ll delete this positive entry on the 1.06 post and insert it in the 1.05 one.

- Stealth has no change for me, beside for skill increase quite fast (too fast?) and it brings XP too. Other it's still as much obstruse and hard to understand.

You don´t have to be in "stealth mode" anymore to sneak upon enemies (like in JA2), but it´s possible. If you spot an enemy now (and he doesn´t see you) the turn based mode starts and the enemy dooesn´t start to shoot at you. In previous versions the enemy automaticaly recognized you and shot at you when turn based mode started. So stealth was broken. You can sneak up onto them now.

Could be the definition of stealth. But to be fair i can´t remember doing a kind of "assasins creed" stealth in good old JA2 neither, and we´re trying to reach the qualitiy of JA2 atm.

- Moving items with drag & drop in global map is still not working properly, at least on Mac, only the second drag&drop of an item garanty it works, for the first attempt it's very random and most often not working.

I had problems with this, too, in previous versions. Works fine for me now. I turned down graphics a bit last time i played...maybe the bug is connected to the graphics setup^^ i don´t know...will test it again for fairness.

- Multiple selected mercs is right like before, still working but very uncomfortable a select all button is classic and would be very useful.

Agreed on a "select all mercs" button, but my point was about multiple mercs now corretly starting to move, and continuing to move (what they didn´t do before). Have made it more clear now.

- Mercs stop when enemy is sighted, no change, it was working before, it works the same neither better nor worse.

It´s supposed to be that way, but many times an enemy was sighted in the last versions, your mercs just went on moving towards the enemy. Huge bug. Mercs should all stop instantly when enemy is sighted and turn based mode begins. It does now from what i´ve seen. 

And there's still the same bugs I had already quoted:

You are right about all the bugs you have posted. Except the first one (at least for PC i guess?). I will test this one honestly again in strategic view, and if it occures to me again, will redo this chapter of my post.

I have edited the OP post in regards to all the valuable points.

greetz

woah...sounds serious :/..the first time i´m happy to not use linux^^

Glettkin:

Shops interface:
Perhaps there's something wrong in Mac version but it's not at all the same in JAF and WL2:
- In JAF the shop is more than 1/3 of the screen width, almost full screen height, there's 3 columns and 4 rows, it's just huge.
- In WL2 the shop is more than 1/4 of the screen, and only half of screen height, there's 8 rows and 6 columns. Ok some items use different space but only some. It's still not only smaller in the screen but there''s also two time more rows and colums.

Morever in JAF the clean graphic style of JAF makes look those huge items a bit weird. I don't have the same feeling at all in WL2 (that I have but haven't played much yet).

Finally eventually I would agree that WL2 shops aren't that cool, overall it's ok, but it's like there's too much place unused and the armor zoomed is far to be that cool. It's not because the game get good reviews that those reviews pinpointed the shops as great or even well designed.

Beside missing tabs I would add that it is missing ammo type for weapons. Otherwise I agree the sell back is cool, as is cool to be able to sell stuff, and it's meaning something in first parts of the game. Later I doubt it will be more than just a cooler and more handy way to clean inventory instead of putting stuff into a container.

Gameplay for new shops:
Otherwise from a gameplay point of view. I stopped my current replay (was anyway at end in last area and will play it later) and started a new game. So despite in general I like less shops with random stuff and prefer shops with tuned contents, for now (entering main island) I changed my mind from this replay experience, and I found it works quite well. It generates a good scarcity that adds management and random variation that reinforce the general random of the game and its replay value from this random. I'm more interogative for a first play point of view, but this one is far in my back, could work anyway even for a first play. Beside creating additonal random, it also improves the mood of the first parts of the game. Overall a quite good change and I don't mean only the more classical interface but the gameplay design change.

Loot and containers:
From my replay I confirm it's all stuff that was already in 1.0.5, good job in general, but there's just almost no work on it for the more common area. I hadn't saw startup area during my previous play with 1.0.5, I suppose it was already in 1.0.5 but I can't garanty.

For this first area they almost did too much, but it's cool for a welciome in the game and it generates a random dropping significant enough to add some variations to first steps. For this first area it's not only better containers design and many added, but also the area has been redone a lot and is much better.

Stealth:
What you describe was already in 1.0.5, not sure for 1.0.4. It was already possible to detect enemy and not be detected if you didn't shoot, stay hidden or move prone/crouch. But it's more easy now and this is a significant change and now you can play by using it, when before it was feeling more like luck and hard to exploit. For sure that it's more easy makes it less obstruse but it's still not that clear. The game should show more clearly when the enemy hear you or not and when they see you or not.

The skill increase is rather (too) fast and it brings xp. When I sneak multiple time in first combats, at third (farm) I had already level up to 3 and my Stealth had increase of multiple points. I know Stealth increase xp because I had level up just when moving.

Eventually the idea is good and I admit it was fun that it was that fast, but from a ballance point of view, it's too much I think.

In general skill increase also increase xp seems new and look like a quite good idea, it just need be tuned a bit. Overall that stealth is much more easy is also a good idea but I feel it would be better to have some visual hint on what happen. The game should show more clearly when the enemy hear you or not and when they see you or not.

Mercenary stop when they see an enemy:
I confirm that despite what you wrote it was already working like that with no exception, perhaps Mac version or 1.0.5 but I think it was already like that in 1.0.4 not sure. For me the game added a bug with 1.0.6 (tiny one) When the team has already spot an enemy, a mercenary can see and aim him, if he moves and enter in a range to spot this same enemy, now he stops his movement despite it's pointless as the enemy is already seen.

Select all and movements:
Now you explain, I think it's because you didn't played much 1.0.5. This 1.0.5 version already improved the pathfinding. It's not perfect but much better than before. And in 1.0.6 as in 1.0.5 sometimes not the whole group will go as close than possible to destination point. Exactely the same glitch and excatly the same improved but not perfect pathfinding.

For select all the error is to require include the mercenaies fully in the drag select, just touch them would have been better but anywway a button would be a cool addition.

Moving items in global map:
Well if it's linked to perf I can't say, I already play at lowest setting since some time. For me it's fine in term of perf, but perhaps it's not.

Bugs I listed:
Yeah Im' pretty sure the first is not in Windows, I would have seen it in let's play and there would be a lot of complain. :-) It's not a big deal but it's weird.

I quoted a new one, never seen with 1.0.5 and plenty hours played, seems that when you select the whole team and then save, when you load the team is selected, ok it's good, but then if you select a mercenary it's doesn't work the whole team is still selected and the only way is to use the protraits which will break the bug. Otherwise select mercenaries work in general as in previous version, that is ok overall but sometimes some glitches.