Well, i replied in case you accidentally misspelled something or so, but the way you put it now it was just a deliberate offtopic right from the start. SAD!

It's a real pleasure to talk with you eh ... I've rarely seen guys as contemptuous as you and who have nothing constructive to say.

Anyway I'll delete my previous messages.

Have fun.

Hello DarzaR,
Jagged Alliance is my favourite game. I have lately played 1.15x on max difficulty: go ahead level with AIM GEAR INV parameters with no reloads and no exploits. I want to try the new version 115y with the new parameter IMPACT and further restrictions (no camouflage, some mercenaries forbidden). Although I would consider myself a veteran player, I still have some questions:
- what is the exact effect of sunglasses? Does it increase the range of a weapon?
- what is the exact effect of a sniper scope? Is that a simple increase in marksmanship, like maybe 20% or something else, only range increase maybe?
- is there any derogatory effect of a gasmask (except for that you cannot wear sunglasses at the same time, obviously)?
- what determines where is the antidote for fallow tree virus? I would prefer it was not in sector 42, so that I gain another spectra shield
- sometimes an item that was supposed to be in a crate is actually missing, is there any randomness applied?
- which stats determine interruptions? I feel the crticial statistic might by LVL, as Pops, that has otherwise horrible stats, got frequent interruptions
- I have noticed that occiasionaly a mercenary gains wisdom without any known reason. Isn't the wisdom roll acitivated also when a mercenary spots an item dropped by an opponent even without the "I see something" -type message?
- what determines the performance of guards when defending a sector?
- do guards and opponents have stats just like mercenaries? I suppose they might have some (except skills like mechanics, as that would be irrelevant), then are they completely random or affected by some factors?
- which items work the same independently of their condition? I suppose the answer may not be simple as some items may require min. 10% condition to work normally, that is not-useless (sunglassses?) and some min. 50% and otherwise there would be a chance of breaking it (wall probe and explosives?)
-related to the above: what is the probability of a grenade-type item to go off? As far as I know, there are two stages of going-off: instantly and with a delay, so I suppose it cannot be as simple as "probability=condition of an item"; is explosives skill in any way involved?
Greetings and thank you for providing all the useful information on Jagged Alliance game.

Hello man and greetings and thanks for playing and stuff. Ill try to answer ones that i can do fast, and mention ones that i hope to answer with some delay, as they are lengthy, from top to bottom of list:

"Intro" - and what amount in game days it took, btw? Im still not finished a max playthrough on yet it in reasonable time, distracted on new bugs appearing during gameplay. By max i mean getting all the quests and their messages and no sabotages; tho im not sure how to be with shipments, as playing till late shipments would make game laughably long. IMPACT would only do it slightly easier, banning Camo entirely sound like a good challenge, especially together with banning of mercs. I didnt tried it while doing a high performance game (while its not really important if playing slowly and with casualties permitted). The way this game works (really buggy way), many thing are sorta impossible to get for sure merely from in-game observations, so its perfectly normal to not know them even for really immersed players.

"Questions"

1. There are 2 different effects of them, one in increase of a seeing range, other in reducing of a distance to target for calculations.
Game is using 2 different mechanics for "seeing". One is for mercs, and other for world objects (unseen items, crates, signposts). Sunglasses do not affect first, but increase second. Basic seeing rules for objects are rather simple: mercs with ExpLevel lower than 3 have 7 tiles range, starting from 3 ExpLevel they have 8, SunGoggles increase that range for one more tile. Basic seeing rules for mercs more complicated. Max distance is 13 tiles horizontally and 14 tiles vertically (im not sure yet if fixing this bug wouldnt affect game too much in other parts of it, so not touched it); SunGoggles have no effect here, but Camo does, by decreasing max range to Camoed merc by 30% (so instead of 14 tiles it become 10 tiles etc (other Camo effect is lowering ChanceToHit chance by 5% if distance to target is more than 5 tiles) Note that Camo not work in buildings and water, even on a brigges).
SunGoggles effect on seeing is really minor, but their effect on firing is extremely important: they reduce distance to target for ChanceToHit calculations for shooting and throwing by 10%, effectively providing approximately 1.5% bonus per tile distance. Moreother, for shooting, that reduction also affect actual gun's range, as possible 1/2 ChanceToHit penalty for shooting out of range is calculated using a new value (say for Browning Actual range will be 11 and not its Default 10 while firing in Goggles). Note, that game will still use Default gun range for displaying flashing cursor, so player have to do own math about Actual range in case of using Goggles. Of course, Default weapon range is still used in other calculations, say for damage dealt, only in ChanceToHit ones. ItemQuality of SunGoggles do not reduce their action, though in 1.15 they do not work if its lower than 10%.

2. Scope works similar to Goggles, but affect only shooting. It also reduce distance to target for ChanceToHit calculations, but not by static value and instead by formula:
[ScopeReduction = (15 *AimingPoints * (15*ActualDistance (in tiles) - 150) / 100)*ItemQuality/100] (Note: the distance here is potentially affected by Goggles already, as they calcualted prior Scope),
further used in [ActualDistance = ActualDistance - ScopeReduction] if ScopeReduction is more than 0 (Scope cannot decrease the ChanceToHit).
As seen from formula, to make Scope work at least one AimingPoint increase should happen, and the ActualDistance should be at least 11 tiles. Bad ItemQuality could also make effect negligible.

3. No such effect. In game without AIR option enabled, probably the most important GasMask effect is changing of AI behavior if that merc wear one: AI is programmed to overreact on a TearGas, and prioritize moving out of area above more reasonable things to do (thus making TearGas is usable for player). Wearing a GasMask will make AI merc to behave as if no gas danger is present (though even in non-patched versions bad ItemQuality of mask would let Breath drop to happen still).

4. Described in https://www.gog.com/forum/jagged_alliance_series/ja1_unofficial_115_patch/post14 . You could manage ownership status of sectors to get desired result (pretty weird you mention 42 tho, as i pretty was sure its always default to first 55\07 pair in "normal" gameplay),

5. Im afraid i need clarification here.What you mean by "supposed to be in"? It mentioned in SectorData.pdf for that crate, but not present in actual game? Then there is some possibility of error of mine for .pdf, or for some unknown for me bug. Only valid explanation is a case some item (say, thrown grenade) has been placed on the tile with that crate, it would "destroy" item (not really destroy, but its the way game's engine operate with hidden items, player even can exploit it to get rid of mines etc). In any case, please, clarify the description for this one.

6. It worthy of its own Stuff on it, as is pretty complicated and sometimes counterintuitive, so maybe in some time ill do. The only merc stats that do directly affect it is indeed ExpLevel. All other factors are situation-based (so yes, taking actual in-game situation aside, Pops is simply the best interrupter in a whole game).

7. Assuming you did read Stuff on Stats i have 2 comments.
Im indeed failed to mention a case of "Taking an item from some object (box, wall, etc, but not simply picking it from floor): 3 rolls.", updated with it now, great thanks for noticing it. Thus opening a box, finding item there, then grabbing that item yield 6 Wisdom rolls, while grabbing item from already opened box yield 3.
No, as those dropped items are "seen already", there is no discovery event for them. Its easy to check in case enemy is dying out of sight: dropped items are appear on automap.

8&9. Im afraid i need clarification here too. You mean in Auto battle, when mercs are not in that sector or in regular Tactical? Auto battle is worthy a Stuff on its own too, but in short:
Participants there do not possess usual attributes (HP, weapons etc), but have a AutoBattlePower value instead (Enemy: 60+5*ReceivedShipments, then /2 for attack over water barrier, or 4x for Quest attacks of Laboratory and SouthPlant; Guard: 40+5*ReceivedShipments; Tapper: 2). Then every battle round a roll made versus sums of AutoBattlePower of each side, and losing side have a guy killed (example: 5 Enemies attacks 8 Guards, Enemy TotalAutoBattlePower is 60*5=300, Guards TotalAutoBattlePower is 40*8=320; roll of 620 is done, and if it >300, Guards score a kill. For next round after recaclulation Enemy TotalAutoBattlePower is 60*4=240, Guards TotalAutoBattlePower is 40*8=320; roll of 560 is done, and if it >240, Guards score a kill etc). Note, that unlike Tactical battle, Tappers DO fight in AutoBattle (and can win fight on their own).

In Tactical all mercs possess all attributes, even ones they not really use in case of AI controlled ones (Mechanical etc). Initially set enemy mercs are not random, and its described in readme in GEAR and INV part (in short they do possess certain attributes, yet some of those attributes sometimes could be improved over progress of game (say if enemies receives a Shipment)). Enemies, that replaces already killed Initially set ones have some attributes static (like hair colour), while other ones as random, game progress-affected. Enemies, who come as reinforcements during tactical battle as fully random, game progress-affected. Guards are generated similar (though not exact), random, game progress-affected way, so in very late part of game player can get a whole packs of 9 level Guards, while Enemies normally would be 8 level max (yet 9 level is possible for really rare cases).

10. In case item is used-in-action (say gun or key, but not armor or radio), its condition (almost always) matters. In cases ItemQuality is not shown, like in Rock or Key, it usually not affecting its action (with exceptions of Keys, where it determine its Value). Ways it does could be really different for different items (spending of Camo kit, checking a Key-to-Door value, penalty of accuracy for gun etc). Non-patched game used to describe item with ItemQuality less 10% as "useless", despite it was not always the case in actual game calculations. In 1.15 useless ones are useless. Some items also could break in an attemp of use: ones that change the cursor (with exceptions for ones, that have no ItemQuality shown, like Keys or Combination, and, as a special case for Mine). For all of them except Crowbar check of comparing of Roll[0-79]+20 vs ItemQuality+50 is performed on every action, and if Roll is higher item breaks. For Crowbar, in case value of crate\door strenghth is more than ItemQuality of Crowbar, Roll[0-99] is done against their difference, and if failed, Crowbar breaks (say, if 20% Crowbar is used to open a 30 strength crate, there is 10% chance to break it).
Notable exceptions for mentioned above: SunGoggles and Radio provide their effect in a whole (in theory Goggles effect could been decreased) if in "working" condition (and always works even as "useless" in non-patched); Compound17 effect is not affected by its condition, and always works if applied, likely an early change by game's authors.

11. Short answer is indeed: its only affected by ItemQuality, and not affected by Explosives skill (that skill affect only making of explosives, disarming and detecting them (while not even affect some of detections, say Mines with MetalDetector), but not using them).
Assuming the grenade-like object didnt break at attempt to use it (see #10), it tossed, and on landing perform additional checks to determine if it explode outright, will have delayed explosion, or will fail to explode:
ItemQuality compared to [ThrownExplosionChance = Roll[0-99] - Roll[0-49]], and if ItemQuality is higher than it, item explode.
Otherwise, that comparison is re-rolled again, and if ItemQuality is not higher than it, item fail to explode.
The case of ItemQuality is higher than ThrownExplosionChance on re-roll results in item's delayed explosion on the same or next turn, but complicated with a bug, that effectively turning ~1/3 of such items into "fail to explode" state. As fixing it will effectively make almost every not-immediately-detonated-grenade to detonated-with-delay and failed-to-explode ones will be really rare i didnt fixed this one.


Hope thats of some use, and ill try to write 2 more Stuffs bout Interrupts and AutoBattle in some foreseeable time. If some of stuff above is vague, tell, ill try to rephrase it then.

Thank you for the answers, that is very helpful.
"Intro"
I think my answer will suprise you, but I have to say I have never been indulged by doing it as quickly as possible (although I did the "win on first day" challange). I prefer to do it "properly", that is completing all quests, no reloading, no exploiting. I also like to make good mercenaries out of mediocre ones. So it takes over 60 days now. Yes, that many, but I'll explain. On this level of difficulty (go ahead, aim gear inv and I have already applied no camo and no Ivan) it is a challange for me to get to shipments on time, I really don't have to wait or "go around" a sector (the only wait is for the fourth shipment, I take that one and repair items). In late game, I take 1 or 2 (if it goes well) sectors a day, then I take a day off to repair and heal. That often requires raising the natives' salary, but I still find this way more convinient. And for the endgame, I resolve it by sitting on S2 and waiting for their hordes to attack me until they die out. This is by the way the only good use of mines I collect throughout the campaign. There are like 770 of opponents in the whole game, but since it takes me so long it's not like I have to sit there forever. Then S1 is as easy as other sectors. On lower levels of difficulty I used to collect stun grenades for sector 1and tried to keep them stunned so they do not respawn, but since I discovered they are limited I use the descibed method. It also lets your mercenaries progress more and give the satisfaction of killing them ALL, ha ha.

"Questions"
1. This is all helpful, but you mention ChanceToHit calculations, I don't know much about it, is there a formula?

2. As above, it seems like ActualDistance is part of some ChanceToHit formula.

3. Understood.

4. Right, I overlooked that. Had you known my games aren't "normal" by your standards, you would probably be less surprised by me mentioning 42. The thing is, I leave sector 55 for later as I rush to take the plant first.

5. "supposed to be" means "I have played this game dozens of times so I cannot be wrong". More seriously, yes it is in Sectordata (I have seen it, but another limitation I put on myself is not to look there, too much of a spoiler, although I remember many important details, like item placement, anyway), but the crate turns out to be empty. The case I remember best is first shipment - the oil can was missing and something else also (.12 ammo, I think), so this might only concern shipments. Anyway, your explanation may be very well correct - in sector 36 there is a guy throwing stun grenades at you (and I entered from top right), so maybe he threw them on the crates and that is how items went missing?

6. That is what I wanted to know. I read somewhere dexterity comes into play (seemed odd considering Pops' interrupts), but that might have been about JA2, or just wrong. I would appreciate further description of interruptions, of course.

7. Resolved, I think.

8. Yes, I meant Auto battle. Your answer is already helpful, but if you are willing to elaborate, go ahead. I forgot about the tappers, but yes, I have seen them defending a sector (it seems a bit inconsistent with them being helpless in tactical, doesn't it?).

9. Good enough for me.

10. Pretty clear, but I have additional questions: does wall probe work the same at all conditions (except for possiblity to break below 50%)? Also, is Extended Ear an exception like Radio (condition not important)? It would be good to know if it's worth repairing them.

11. Resolved.

12. Another one: what determines the "running away" state of the enemy? From experience, I think it should be: his damage, number of mercenaries he sees, number of other enemies (his allies) in the sector. Is that right? Is there anything scripted about it? Defenders of plants never seem to run away, for instance.

I'd like to make an additional comment on this.
First, since ThrowingObjectRange=always 8, let's simplify the formula to
(CurrentHealth +70)/15.
I don't think there is any "-1" deviation in the column. They just seem to follow a slightly different formula, maybe the original one, changed some time along the way. The intervals are also 15 points of health, but are moved 5 points lower, that is for example 60-74 instead of 65-79 for the throwing range of 9. That yields fomula (CurrentHealth +75)/15, although there is one curious exception - health 90 gets 10 (75 is already a 10). I have always thought this to be true until I read the above and made a test to confirm it. That makes It a better value for money, as he turns out an even more exceptional thrower in terms of range(only 5 of them). And Ivan isn't one, neither is Wink (poor thing, even less redeeming qualities).

An additional hint that the now wrong formula was the original one is that the game classifies health status by the same intervals: 0+ - Dying; 15+ - Critical; 30+ - Wounded; 45+ - Poor; 60+ - Healthy; 75+ - Strong; 90+ - Excellent. BUT this is also an info from fandom and is to be confirmed by DarzaR, cannot really be tested. All I know for sure is a merc turns to dying state below 15. On the other hand, the scarcity of "excellent" characters suggests these intervals might have also been changed.

I'd like to add, that this problem arose with 1.15y. I've used 1.15x with core=auto and no problems. After updating to 1.15y it crashed at opening the laptop ("Contact AIM") and then core=normal solved the problem.

"Intro2"
No, why, i expected something like that actually. I played such games decades (eh) ago: roughly it was about taking no more than one sector per day, and playing with cheapest possible mercs without deliberately losing them (tho with permitted casualties). I used a Camo, but its not of huge difference in such kind of game. Then i waited in sector 11 and camped enemies till they run out of Reserves. It take some tens of days, yes. Problem with that approach is drain of enemies, tho. Player have to attack sectors with about 3 enemies only, while all those good armed late guys just die in Auto battles against Guards elsewhere (where they expected to lose, unlike that laugh the Guards do in Tactical). So i decided to try a "playing with priciest possible mercs" approach, and while it sorta stupid on its own, it lead to "play on top performance" approach im on now. Btw, enemy Reserve pool is just 100, 200, or 300 per difficulty level (initially placed in sectors ones are not affect it, Reserve is only used for "new arrivals" during game's course (so yes, slightly less than 770 for Hard, or 772 (with Santino) for Go Ahead)), i didnt made it more for Go Ahead. But as enemy reinforcements are more often there, that pool would be drained faster too. I thought it still would be enough for normal fast game, but probably it should be increased there, if somebody play games of attrition. Actually i have a version im currently on now, with about 20 more fixes, but as nobody else test it anyway i planned to release it as a final one, when i will stop development.

Real pleasure to hear that you did it in one day too. Must say you definitely the best JA player i ever talked with (not because that one day stuff, but the overall amount of knowledge you freely operate is truly impressive), real surprize to meet you out of sudden seeming abosultely from nowhere.

"Questions"

1&2. Ok, then i have to write a Stuff on ChancetoHit too.
Small note about seeing range oddities: due to freaking isometrics, tiles works warped way for different things. They are like squares in chess for movement (but not only for it), but they could have width>height for some other calculations, like for visual detection (but not only for it), so 14 tiles horizontal is "farther" than 14 tiles in vertical. Yet they the same for movement and so on. Im afraid fixing it could make game's feeling too different, not touching it yet.

5. The only valid explanation i have is the placement of other item on it, right. If its not the case, its would be rather hard to trace, i never encountered it. The next possible explanation would be corruption of game files, and its not a good thing already. I'd just wanted to clarify my explanation about "thrown items", as i wrote it possibly confusing way. "Thrown" part not only not important, but also could be misleading, as i used Mine example there. Some undetected items are triggered with Thrown items too, say Mines. They will explode then, and its intended way. But some undetected items are not triggered, say hidden explosive, or item in closed box. But game engine still cannot operate 2 items on same tile (except attachments or stacks of same items), so it remove hidden one. That means, that player with enough Rocks could defuse ready to sabotage plant, for example. But items can also be placed in non-thrown way, say falling from a dead mercs, or deliberately dropped from a live ones. Such items will never trigger anything (say those Mines), so there could be case when dead enemy would drop some item on nearby box, and "destroy" the thing that box contain. Or player can defuse a whole areas of minefields or hidden explosives around him by dropping items to ground one by one or by whole vests (its pure silly exploit ofc). But again, if such "missed items" is caused by something else - i hope it would be reproduceable and found.

10. Yes, except WallProbe is unique item because it do Break check twice on any use, not once as all other does, so Probe in bad condition is less reliable. Ear is more complicated, as its have 2 effects - the Radio one, that work just like Radio described above; and Hearing part, that is condition-affected:
[ExtendedEarsBonus = 5 - (100 - ItemQuality)/20].
As calculations are in whole numbers here, ExtendedEars with ItemQuality over 80% provide a maximal bonus (maybe they intended something else, but they make it works that way). The only other bonus of this kind is that mercs starting from ExpLevel 4 have HearingBonus of 1.
[HearingDistance (in tiles) = NoiseVolume + ExtendedEarsBonus + HearingBonus]. (There is a penalty of 5 for hearing an inside-building noise when listener is out-of-building and vice versa.)

12. Thats pretty much right, but giving the notice how many rather simple and straghtforward things in this game is bugged, i wouldnt dare to hope AI is well and fine. As i will not write a whole Stuff on it, ill just do some short one here, to mention involved factors. AI mercs have pre-set attributes Orders and Attitude, as well as recalculating Morale (strictly saying all mercs have them, but only AI use them). Orders is roughly about how "campy" merc is, and Attitude is about how brave. Morale effect of fight or flight is modified by Orders and Attitude of given merc (so more brave merc could take other action while having a same moral as less brave). O & A are static, and unavailable to players knowledge (while player could try to memorize "usual behaviour" of some Initially placed enemies, say Enemy2 in sector59 (one with FirstAidKit) is extremely campy), while Morale calculated using outside factors, so could be somewhat measured.

Morale have 5 levels, say from Confident (5), to Panic (1). Every time AI trying to do action in battle, it calculate Morale, and act accordingly to it (while AI is not fully sure about player's merc presence it assume Morale as Confident). Final Moral value is a sum of factors:
a. This one is the reason why im not planning to go deeper there: some overcomplex estimation of "powers" of "own team" and "known enemies", based on stats, equipment (AI know all the stuff about player's mercs here), and involvement in action. I dare not to hope its without faults. In very short if AI think it outperform, it is more confident. Note, that AI calculate known ones to it fair way: if only one merc been noticed yet, AI would compare own power to only that one merc. So if AI know already that player's mercs are in numbers, it feel less confident.
Important note: unlike player's side, if some enemy detect some merc, its not immediately become open info for other enemies. The enemy, who noticed other one, should "radio" about that merc to other enemies, that action cost a whole 5 AP (while not require any actual Radio). So authors tried to assign different "weight" to different mercs here: say some very "powerful" enemy who is not know of any player merc give little confidence to some wounded enemy who is facing many player's mercs alone.
In result of comparison of ratio of teams strenghts, AI merc get some initial Morale value of 1-5 to modify it further.
b. "Defenders of plants never seem to run away, for instance." While that is not wholly true, but SectorValue do affect Morale as [-1; 0; +1] for 3 SectorValue thresholds (lets call them VeryImportant, Important; NotImportant here). SectorValue is pretty interesting thing overall, as it affect AI Strategic movement. In short, AI will try to attack important sectors, while prefer to not move our of important sectors aswell. That value is not constant, but function of amount of Trees, Tappers, Factories, Quests and so on of that sector. But for Morale calcualtion its a +-1 max importance, they DO run away too here (there is possibility that its about ones, who rush to detonators, as they indeed will not run away, a very special mechanic for Sabotage missions (you could basically punch such runner wih fists, as long he have a way to reach his target, but if you will block the path entirely, will revert to usual hostility)).
c. Attitude of merc will give [-1; 0; +1] to Morale.
d. Breath of merc (impossible to check for player too) will give +1 if its more than 75; -1 if less than 40, and additional -1 if less than 10 (nearly collapsed).
e. HP of merc will give +1 if its more than 75; -1 if less than 40, and additional -1 if less than 20 (note, that it would result in different outcome for mercs, who otherwise stated as "Critical").
f. If merc is not recently (this or previous turn) under attack it will provide +1.

As some additional example of not going deeper is the way how Morale is used to decide fight or flight in battle (bug or feature?). Each level is assigned some value to compare to already calculated best chance to hit of that merc: [1 - 75%; 2 - 10%; 3&4 - 25%; 5 - 50%], and if chance is lower, merc decide to run for cover instead of firing (note, that AI "not aware" about always-hit nature of point-blank shots (intended feature), so could decide it would miss even in such case and run). Likely non-linear numbers are not errors, but attempt to simulate behaviour of Confidence (weighted shot) through Desperation (easy-going shots) to Panic (only clear shots or run). But for player, difference between level 1 and level 2 is huge. Overall still, good manageable tactic is "panic attack" - rush on one enemy with as much as possible mercs. Even if running over that 3 tiles is of no help for him, AI often use it. Its more like Day1 stuff ofc, where you can just restart, but its definitely worthy it.

13. Deal here is that column is not part of Book (and that Book have so many faults, it would be worthy Stuff on it, most hilarious one is they mention Remote Detonator guys at sabotage by their hair colour, and, well, do it always wrong). Blueskirt did it on his own, im not sure if he tested every merc or extrapolated some formula like one you propose here. The game work differently than that formula, that is. Problem is that im not even sure it works differently because its planned, or it some bug (id say its weird to throw out of max distance). I wrote about ThrowingObjectRange = 8 for all throwable objects in non-modded game simply to show how deep in details authors went there sometimes (compared to awful realization).
"That yields fomula (CurrentHealth +75)/15, although there is one curious exception - health 90 gets 10 (75 is already a 10). I have always thought this to be true until I read the above and made a test to confirm it."
^ must say i didnt got it. Mercs with HP 95+ (Ivan short of one needed to) could throw at 12 tiles (rarely, and maybe due to bug), and rather reliably at 11 tiles (the range shown by cursor in game). Every 15 HP less distances are less by 1. Maybe i misread something, as even under that modified formula 90 HP will, obiously, get 11 ((90+75)/15). It is indeed capable to max possible distance of throwing, unlike default Ivan and Wink, and rather good for his money, just normally useless as very slow and not improving.

14. Yes, this problem is directly related to changes in 1.15y. Problem is that is caused by DosBox behavior i cannot explain (need some pro here, im essentially lame amateur in all that IT stuff). And while i can make a version of patch to still work fine on Dynamic there, in that certain place about Laptop, i cannot be sure its the only such place, as i test stuff on Normal. And if similar effect happen somewhere more deeper in Tactical, so without an easy way to reproduce, it will be real hassle to investigate (due to extremely easy steps needed to crash on Laptop luckily i managed to find the cause miraculously fast). As i dont plan to re-check every change already done to work properly on Dynamic, it just easier to use Normal here, it doesnt hurt performance even on old PC for such kind of game. So, in short, i know this particular problem, i can fix it, but i cannot be sure there are no similar problem somewhere else. Also note, that core=auto vaguely described as "auto will switch to dynamic if available and appropriate." in dosbox.conf. As i dont know, that is "appropriate" in this context, i cannot comment it more than, likely, they didnt meant "so it crashes" there.

"Intro 2"
I think there are probably still some persons in this world that play and use the information, they just stay in "nowhere" and don't appear, so don't be discouraged and keep up your work.
Actually, I did show some activity before, but it isn't something I should be very proud of. I used fandom pages and did some edits, that includes attempts to extract formulas from numbers. I was correct about the lockpicking, something else maybe i don't remember. But since the numbers for Merge are wrong, I put the wrong formula (I cannot edit it now). To redeem myslef, the numbers were wrong but not laughably wrong, they actually correlate with real ones (just overrate DEX) and since Merge clearly involved randomness, there was no way to verify this from gameplay.

My "one day win" was done on lowest possible difficulty and with save-reload. It wasn't something overly entertaining for me, so I had no ambition to perfect it, do it on higher difficulty or without saves. I just know it's possible, enough for me.

5. I have just started a new game on 1.15y AIM GEAR INV IMPACT with other various challanging restrictions. I'll let you know if I will encounter this problem and will try to describe the whole situation in details. Problem is, one of my restrictions is "do not get shipments" and I really think it may be shipment-related, because now that I think about it the other instance was probably the third shipment and some explosives missing. But anyway, if I'm on time (I might not be, I'm already one day behind the schedule) I will make a few "test runs" of day9 (currently I don't have any save before shipment at hand) to see if can reproduce this event.

13.
What I meant here is just the wrong numbers given in the column, not real ThrowingRange, nor ThrowingRange+1(real real, but out of range according to cursor). The numbers in column all follow the formula (CurrentHealth +75)/15, except for 90HP, it SHOULD be 11 but this formula, but it's 10 (therefore actually correct). This seems too consistent to suspect the numbers are a result of some tests, contaminated by the confusion between ThrowingRange and ThrowingRange+1 (but maybe only 90HP was indeed tested, hence the exception?)
Anyway, it isn't of much importance, we know the correct numbers.
Do you confirm the intervals for health status (this is what makes me think the formula (CurrentHealth +75)/15 might have been the original one)? If they are indeed like that, what about 90 - is it Strong or Excellent?

15. Sometimes a warning trap appears to be missing. This is partly explained by what you wrote about them, specifically that enemies can trigger them, too. But there are instances, where I find it hard to believe an enemy was ever present in the area (like in sector 51). My hypothesis is that they also can be triggered by guards, with the same ExpLevel rules. Is that correct?

16. There are 2 similar paper notes I don't know the importance of. They say "H.Ward, Await Replacement, E.T.A. D23" and "P.Rompart, Await Replacement, E.T.A. D33". Does anything actually happen on day 23 and 33? (I doubt it)

Stuff about Auto Battle in JA1

AutoBattle occurs when Enemy and Guards and/or Tappers present in a same sector, while player's Mercs absent there. Its duration is always 5 game mins. It could be triggered by Enemies moving into player controlled sector during Enemy Strategic Movement, or by Mercs ceasing their presence in the sector (due to leaving or dying), or by arrival of Guards to already captured by Enemies sector.
Latter case is quite important: while its normally occurs when player want to move Guards to a freshly captured sector, it also create a "Lure" exploit. Enemy Strategic Movement involve calculation based on SectorValues of sector, that is a source of attack (enemy controlled), and target (player controlled), aswell as strength of defenders there, using the pretty abstract AutoBattlePower values for a type of unit (Mercs included, with laughable 50 AutoBattlePower each). Briefly: AI will not want to attack low Valued sectors overall, and even less will want to do so with well defended low valued sectors. But Enemy Strategic Movement do not take Guards in travel into consideration, sector with 0 guards stationed and 8 in travel is calculated as non-defended. So AI could decide to capture it with some small force, while it would just skip opportunity to attack in case Guards were already present. So constant moving guards between sectors player would want to lure Enemy in create useful situation of Enemies capturing an empty sector, then Guards arrive there and, likely, win a battle. As the only penalty for it is a losing a sector, thus only slightly decreasing amount of SuccessPoints of that day, and lowering Native pool, while providing an opportunity for a player to attack a depleted Enemy sector, in Go Ahead small penalty of 10% is added for Guards, who attack a sector (strictly speaking there is one more possible drawback of Lure: enemy could both re-capture the Guards destination sector, and reinforce it after, so battle would occur against more than expected powers of Enemies, but the same could happen even without exploit, simply on moving of Guards to a new sector). Duration of one game turn only lead into another, even more important point of notice:
There couldnt be any reinforcements during AutoBattle, and the way it works (see below), it require a maximum concentration of power from the team involved. Suppose usual 5 Enemy attacked player's sector with 8 Guards, lost, but also killed 3 guards. Player have to reinforce defence there, but preferred way to do so would be move remaining 5 Guards out, and send a pack of 8 new Guards. If Enemy will attack with other pack of 5 prior they arrive, likely they will recapture it back. But if Enemy would attack 5 remained ones prior those new 3 arrive, likely Enemy would win their battle, then will win other battle against small force of 3. Now into detailed explanation why they would likely win in examples above, the AutoBattle mechanics.

Participants there do not possess usual attributes (HP, weapons etc), but have a AutoBattlePower value instead assigned to them:

Enemy: 60+5*ReceivedShipments, possibly modified as /2 for attack over water barrier, or 4x for Quest attacks of Laboratory (S18 & S27), and SouthPlant (S54) (in those cases water barrier penalty doesnt applied);

Guard: 40 (36 in case of arrival to Enemy controlled sector in Go Ahead difficulty) +5*ReceivedShipments;

Tapper: 2 ( unlike Tactical battle, Tappers do fight in AutoBattle, and even could win fight on their own).

Stuff become very complicated with the thing not really present in real game, but being matter of obsession of some creators of Game: Player's Mines. While normally none are present in game, every time player install a mine, it create not only a Tactical object, enemy could step into, but also a Strategic Mine, used in AutoBattle (enemy placed ones do not count here). Every time such mine is removed, in Tactical or Auto, Strategic Mine should be removed too, but in reality there present bugs on a bug related to it. Most noticeable one would be a case of player fail to defuse something from the Inventory screen. Erroneously it would also lead to removal of Strategic Mine too (even if it actually some enemy Grenade), and, as normally Strategic Mines amount are 0, to setting amount of Strategic Mines for a given sector as -1 (another bug here ofc). But as amount of Strategic Mines is stored in byte, later it would be treated as 255 Strategic Mines in AutoBattle for that sector (a bug, surely, eh). It could be even exploited for a huge bonus for a player (in non-patched version one can try to fail to defuse some trapped grenades from Inventory Screen (important) in a sector, then leave it undefended and wait to see whats happens to the enemies). But the intention behind it was to create an object that would help to defend in AutoBattle with its AutoBattlePower . Even if its not really a case in actual game, due to scarcity of Mines, still its a part of mechanic:

a) 5*Enemies
Strategic Mine: and
b) 1*(Guards+Tappers).

Thats it, each Mine add bonus to both sides, though more probable to kill Enemy.

Total strength of each side create an AutoBattlePower for that side:
[PlayerTotalAutoBattlePower = X*GuardAutoBattlePower + Y*TapperAutoBattlePower + Z*5*N{StrategicMineAutoBattlePower a)}];
[EnemyTotalAutoBattlePower = N*EnemyAutoBattlePower+ Z*(X+Y){StrategicMineAutoBattlePower b)}],
where X = Guards amount; Y = Tappers amount; Z = StrategicMines amount; N = Enemies amount.

Then every battle round a roll made versus sums of AutoBattlePower of each side, and losing side have a guy killed. Rounds are repeated till one side's personnel is eliminated, and other side is taking/keeping possession of a sector.
---------------------------
Example 1, most basic one:
5 Enemies attacks 8 Guards, Enemy TotalAutoBattlePower is 60*5=300, Guards TotalAutoBattlePower is 40*8=320;
roll of 620 is done, and if it >300 (suppose it is), Guards score a kill.
For next round after recaclulation Enemy TotalAutoBattlePower is 60*4=240, Guards TotalAutoBattlePower is 40*8=320;
roll of 560 is done, and if it >240, Guards score a kill etc.
----------------------------

Things are more complicated with determining of kills on Player's side if Tapper are involved. As individual AutoBattlePower of each of them is low, they would less likely die if weighting them fairly. Developers decided to make them more useful by having their probability to be chosen as victim 5 times more: every time Enemy win a battle round roll, another roll against sum of AutoBattlePower of Guards and Tappers is made, but TapperAutoBattlePower for that roll is 10 instead of 2, making them more probable to be chosen.

Stuff about Auto Battle in JA1 , continued

---------------------------
Example 2, with Tappers and Quest:
5 Enemies attacks 8 Guards and 12 Tappers at S27, during Laboratory Quest.
EnemyTotalAutoBattlePower is 60*4*5=1200; GuardsTotalAutoBattlePower is 40*8=320, TappersTotalAutoBattlePower = 2*12, PlayerTotalAutoBattlePower = 344. Instead of close, but slightly in Player's favor 300/320 chance of Example1, here is 1200/344, almost 4:1 to Enemy favor.
Round 1; roll of 1544 is done, and it is <1200, Enemies score a kill.
To determine a victim roll of 40*8+10*12=440 is done. Suppose its <320, and Guard is dead.

EnemyTotalAutoBattlePower is 60*4*5=1200; GuardsTotalAutoBattlePower is 40*7=280, TappersTotalAutoBattlePower = 2*12, PlayerTotalAutoBattlePower = 294.
Round 2; roll of 1504 is done, and it is <1200, Enemies score a kill.
To determine a victim roll of 40*7+10*12=400 is done. Suppose its >280, and Tapper is dead.

EnemyTotalAutoBattlePower is 60*4*5=1200; GuardsTotalAutoBattlePower is 40*7=280, TappersTotalAutoBattlePower = 2*11, PlayerTotalAutoBattlePower = 302.

Round 3&4 have another Tapper killed each, PlayerTotalAutoBattlePower = 298 now, EnemyTotalAutoBattlePower is still 1200. Player side lost 4 rounds in a row, but its still almost initial 4:1.
Round 5; roll of 1498 is done, and it is 1201, Player score a kill.

EnemyTotalAutoBattlePower is 60*4*4=960; GuardsTotalAutoBattlePower is 40*7=280, TappersTotalAutoBattlePower = 2*9, PlayerTotalAutoBattlePower = 298. One round turned it into almost 3:1.

Suppose Rounds 6 to 9 yield the results of Rounds 1 to 4, one Guard and 3 Tappers killed
EnemyTotalAutoBattlePower is 60*4*4=960; GuardsTotalAutoBattlePower is 40*6=240, TappersTotalAutoBattlePower = 2*6, PlayerTotalAutoBattlePower = 252. It still not reached 4:1 yet.
Round 10; roll of 1212 is done, and it is 1201, Player score a kill. EnemyTotalAutoBattlePower is 60*4*3=720 now, and ratio is already <3:1, despite Enemies won 8 to 2 rounds, and Enemy still have to win 12 more rounds yet.

The way Tappers are treated in AutoBattle make even the directly favored to Enemy Quest Attack being not so easy to win. Really, i have to put less Guards during it, as i tired to see Enemy keep losing it while i waiting for Quest to move to it next stage.
---------------------------

StrategicMines turn is to make it complicated more (even if they are not really present in reality). If StrategicMines are present, they treated as triggered similar way as in determining a Guard/Tapper victim, but without additional roll, as no rebalancing of weights is applied: what part of interval of winning Side's TotalAutoBattlePower roll is "landed", the "Mines" part, or "Mercs" part. In case StrategicMine is triggered, it removed from further calculations, being used up.

---------------------------
Example 3, with Tappers, but way shorter, and with Mines

5 Enemies attacks 8 Guards and 3 Tappers at sector with 2 StrategicMines
Enemy TotalAutoBattlePower is 60*5 + 2*(8+3) = 322; PlayerTotalAutoBattlePower is 40*8 + 2*3 + 2*5*5 = 376.
Round 1; roll of 698 is done, and it is 1. Enemies score a kill.
Enemy Strength interval consist of 22 (Mines) + 300 (Mercs), for simplicity lets say that rolls <23 would be attributed to StrategicMines. One Mine is used up, but we need to determine a victim of Player's side: roll of 40*8+10*3=350 is done. Suppose its <320, and Guard is dead.

Enemy TotalAutoBattlePower is 60*5 + 1*(7+3) = 310; PlayerTotalAutoBattlePower is 40*7 + 2*3 + 1*5*5 = 311.
Round 2; roll of 621 is done, and it is 311. Player score a kill.
Player Strength interval consist of 25 (Mines) + 286 (Mercs), for simplicity lets say that rolls <335 would be attributed to StrategicMines. Last Mine is used up, and Enemy is dead.
---------------------------

StrategicMines turn is to make it complicated even more, again. If there are no Guards+Tappers, because they all killed, or, they are not present from mere start, there is a "bonus round" with its own rules: Roll[100] (not EnemyTotalAutoBattlePower!) is rolled against StrategicMinesTotalAutoBattlePower of Z*5*N (see above) each round. If roll failed, Enemy is killed, StrategicMine is used up, and next round is repeated with recalculated StrategicMinesTotalAutoBattlePower. If Roll won, "bonus round" is over, and Enemies won a whole Battle. If all Enemies are dead this way, StrategicMines succesully defend the sector (returning to bugs, mentioned above, its easy to see that 255 StrategicMines in a given sector would always win against 5 enemies).

Many numbers there, maybe i miscopied some of them, sorry in advance, they could be edited later in case.

"Intro3"
"the formula used in actual game is totally different, and all data in this column is plain wrong (while correspond to deciphered formula listed above). " I cant got why you have to "redeem yourself" for correctly interpreting the data you hardly been able to know as wrong one (i suppose that with some excessive tests it would been possible to see the data is wrong for Merge, but who would bother with such check?). Id say you did really well there, most of those stuff is impossible to get empirically, and some data plain wrong, so not really operable (like with First Aid).

"One Day win" is actually not really about game difficulty (as there is no need to fight anybody there) or save-loads, but about one certain shrub to blow in S1. After that (technically prior that) its about placement of one Enemy there, roughly 2/3 chance of success. Rock could help with that Enemy too (Rocks are pure cheat tho, the worst thing in a whole game, id removed it entirely).

"Shipments" - if you bother about "do not get shipments", you could just take a sector prior shipment and keep it the shipment day. So nobody would get one. If you want to give shipment to enemy, you have to wait with capture, right. And i hope there is nothing to reproduce, eh. Cant say im really encountered Shipments beside of some tests, so i hope there is nothing to break. Actually i just realized while i typed it that there is a limit on a items in a given sector. Its rather big tho, about 200 items, so, in theory, if player deliberately carried lot of items and dropped them there, it could result in some oddities like described one. But its not something that happen in real game i think.

"Throw Distance", Oh, i never checked all values in that table, i just noticed it inconsistent with reality with deviations to both sides, thats all. Later i realized its not even in Book. Thats very expectable that most data there are extrapolated using some formula, just that formula was created from faulty data. That formula is pretty likely to be consistent, with some errors to attribute to typos or so.

"Health Intervals" Im not sure i got still it right. The earliest version i have is 1.0, and it works there the same way as in later versions. If something was changed on it in pre-release versions i cannot know. Its Dying Critical Wounded Poor Healthy Strong Excellent per HP/15. 90/15 is 6, so its Strong, 91+ is Excellent. But those names are not necessary related to a "magic numbers" about some stuff in game (while they generally love things about 15).

15. Guards can trigger them too, sure. They can do it only in Tactical ofc. Im not sure if its intended (AI triggering it overall), actually, or bug (S40 is cruel about it).

16. No, they are just supposed to misguide player, there is only 4 shipments, and only 3 of them real ones, that affect something outside of box package itself (like AutoBattle bonus).

17. Isn't there a bug concerning explosives skill training? From your description it should work the same as medical, mechanical and marksmanship, but I'd swear it always goes up easier than those 3. And I have just made a small test to confirm this. I had Wolf (WIS already 75), hired Speck, Len, Boss and Lynx (so the initial values of skill to train is around 50 and no dramatic difference in wisdom) for the test. Results (from one go, but the probability it would deviate much from it is low):
Wolf trained MEC, went from 48 to 52 (+4)
Speck trained MRK, 49 to 54 (+5)
Len trained EXP, 47 to 55 (+8)
Boss trained EXP, 53 to 60 (+7)
Lynx trained EXP, 50 to 57 (+7)

Boss and Lynx have lower wisdom than Wolf and Speck, their initial values higher and they gain significantly more.

I don't think all that could be coincidental.
Maybe there is some mixup with EXPLevel (instead of explosives) somewhere in the calculations?