i added her to the game since i started a new run and when it came to the merc selection i then realised theres no reason to actually pick her up.
stats-wise shes mediocre at best, except explosives but then theres no reason not to pick Barry over her instead.
hes also mediocre in everything but at least his explosive skill is high enough not to miss any mines.
just my 2 cents

just copied Fox with overpowered stats?..

"influential politician"

"Pomona, CA"

pick one lmfao

Pls update, thx!

I hope the author decide to update all the modded mercs. These are some of the best in the whole Workshop, feeling like official extra content.

This merc has nice stats and the profile picture is nice but why the body picture has different face?

all yall simps i hope you know

Her inventory screen picture looks like she was made with AI, her thumbs are seriously long.

The "Striking Looks" perk shows "When Fox open combat [...]".

love this mod man and the voice too is really good 101%

+ 1 for the Mr. Fixit perk!

Thanks for all the mercs you're making, I love them all.

Small problem though: Sonja's Striking Looks talent doesn't work in my game.

@Otherguy

I gound the mod conflict. It's "Show Armor". But else it works fine when I deactivate it.
Anyways. Great mercs, hope you make more :)

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for your suggestions, feedback and questions!

@NoDMoD:
I just double checked "Sonja" in my current save as well as in a new game and all looks good and seams to work as intended. I could not detect any problems with her standing animations and overwatch is behaving exactly like it should. As a short sidenote, I only use some convinience mods for my current playthrough: ScrapMore, Evermine and CraftingItemsToSquadBag.

If I had to guess, I would say that some other mod might cause this issue for you. "Sonja" itself uses a default appearance set for visualization (mostly from Fox) that should have no problems with animations at all and does not change anything relating the default overwatch behavior or mechanics. I hope this info is helpfull in finding out which other mod might screw up things for you.

Have a relaxed evening!
Your Otherguy

I am currently using sonjy with some other mods (gun rework and such) and shee seems a bit broken. Overwatch takes quite a long time with her and the standing animation is bit screwed. Is there any known bug or mod compatibility problem?

Suggestion for Sonja, she's proficient in explosives but I keep getting her blown up trying to defuse mines and traps. Maybe add that disarm perk to her?

Thanks Otherguy, I already 'regret' getting the idea of doing some modding, then I thought I try to do it right and got annoyed by the base voices - Now I have an idea, the tools and not really the time but I will definitly try to get to the voice editing.

love this mod and i like how there is a voice now man thanks so much really nice

Thanks for you response Otherguy! If you like I would have more ideas for custom perks and even new mercs maybe if you like.

Hey Everyone

@Crackb0ne @armbarchris
First of all: Thanks a lot for your feedback and perk suggestions on my mercs.

@Crackb0ne
To answer your question - i think you asked it at "Sam" as well - if all of them are going to receive a individual custom perk: Yes! That is the plan, and I will add them in step by step. I really like your three suggestions (Annie, Sonja and Sam) - especially the one for Sam. I struggled a little bit in finding a good and fitting starting point for a perk idea for him myself.

I'll take a deeper dive on how to implement something like you suggested on the upcoming weekend. Perhaps I'm going to adjust the ruleset for your "Annie" and "Sonja" suggestion just a little bit - but i want to think about it in more detail first. Funny sidenote relating Sonja: I had something like "Enigmatic Appearance" in my mind so the "Stunning Appearance" is not that far off i guess ;)

I'll keep you updated! Thanks for your effort in improving the mercs.
Your Otherguy

Hello Everyone,

I just deployed the necessary update for the official Jagged Alliance Patch Version 1.1.0 for "Sonja". Please make sure to update your mod to the latest version (1.04-423). You can check the current mod version you have installed in your Mod-Manager.

As far as I'm aware, this update should be fully compatible with existing saves. I just tested my own save and everything seams to work as expected. Nevertheless, if you are encountering any unexpected issue related to the merc after you updated it, just drop me a short message here and I will have a look at it. Thank you in advance!

I hope you enjoy your time!
Your Otherguy

#Crackbone
I support both of those changes. Bit too similar to Fox right now.

Also turns out she doesn't get along with Meltdown, hence the lower morale.

First Nice Merc(s)!

I would change a starting talent.

Instead of Ambidextrous I would give her Martial Arts as that would fit to her high dexterity as well to her description as she is "skilled in various different self-taught combat techniques". And there is nobody at the recruit rank, which has that talent.

Also I have a suggestion for a custom perk:

Perk Name: Stunning Appearance

Effect: If Sonja is in sight of the opponent, the miss chance of explosives is 0% on that opponent(s).

Thanks for the response! I actually just found that mod right after I made that post and I'll be adding it in next time I play.

Hello Everyone,

as always, I like to thank you for your feedback first!

@armbarchris: There may be various reasons in the game why a certain merc suffers a morale penalty. Most common reasons are that a merc has to work with another merc he does not like or learned to dislike. Another one might be, that you made a certain story decision that a merc does not like or support. If you don't shy away from using a mod to explain the moral penalties in more detail, I can really recommend Audaki_ra's "Explain Morale Influences" mod. Just give it a short search in the workshop. It will list you the things that impact morale for each merc in more detail. I hope this hints you in the right direction.

Enjoy your weekend!
Your Otherguy

It might just be me being bad at the game, but she seems perpetually at -1 morale when the rest of the squad is neutral or positive. Can you think of a reason that might be?

By Grenadenerf in Update 1.4 Dubblethrowing the better Option

Nice job with the voices, she sure likes Donkeys!

Hello Everyone,

Thanks a lot for your feedback.

@AndyBara's - to answer your question:
Currently I am using different voice generation tools for my Mercs. Before i start with the creation, i always try to answer myself the following question first: What product offers a voice, that is going to fit the overall design of the Merc i'm currently working on. There are various generators out there that deliver acceptable results, but there is one thing you have to consider, just in case you are interested in using such tools for your projects as well. In order not to violate applicable rights in your country as well as the steam workshop rules, you have to make sure, that the software you are going to use, comes with a full commercial licence for distribution. Under this point of view I can currently recommend to take a further look at the products from ElevenLabs, Speechify, Replica and Murf. I hope this points you in the right direction for further investigation.

Your Otherguy

She is very much OP because of boosted free movement at the start of the turns in battle.
It is like one girl squad.

Thank you for your answer regarding the creation of the images !
Lots of work and it shows !

Honestly speaking, problaby the best merc mod here so far. And since I started a little playing around with the mod tools myself, may I ask what you used to create the voice lines, they are absolutely brilliant!

Hello Everyone,

Thanks a lot for your feedback! I'm glad that the volume blends in better now, so i guess its -6db for any future projects as well.

To answer the question about my image creation pipeline:
I use a stable diffusion system as a starting point to create a rough template for further work. Due the fact that stable diffusion currently tend to create a lot of artifacts, i.e. 7-Finger-Louie or broken face details - as well as the fact that the resulting images are very low resolution - i take the template and do a full high resolution paint-over myself in the second step. I use true 4k for portraits and true 8k for the body artwork. Last but not least i add in some rim lights in a seperate layer and try to get in some transparency antialiasing at the borders for a better blend with other assets ingame. All in all it takes me roundabout 10 to 14 hours for the art of a character - depending of the complexity and detail grade.

I hope this answers your question!
Your Otherguy

I'm curious what you're using for the merc portraits too they're really great.

Voice volume is way better now !

I have a question regarding the merc portrait: are you making them yourself or which AI generator are you using ?

I wish other addon Mercs are this good. If there isn't a custom voice in game, why bother!?

Hello Everyone,
Thanks a lot for your feedback! I'm very happy that you enjoy the custom voicelines.

Just wanted to let you know, that i dropped another update that changes the master volume of her custom voice lines from 0db to -6db. I'm not quite sure, if the vanilla mercs are using -4db or -6db but in terms of audio engineering -6db seams to be a reliable market standard - so i decided to give it a try. This should result in perceived loudness reduction of about 50%.

Please let me know, if they blend in with the vanilla voices better now, or if some more adjustment is needed!
Greetings Otherguy

This mod character is great !
I really like the overall feel and balance of the character and the voice sounds just how I imagined it.
Note: the voice lines sound louder than the vanilla mercs. To be clear, the voice lines sound really good, just a little high volume !

The voice volume is not game breaking, just a bit annoying.
Glad to know that you will have a look at it :)

I really enjoy the work you put into this character ! I need to check the other one you created

Hello Everyone,

First of all - Love your feedback!

Good to see that the main functionality is working as expected, so i guess now it's time to polish things. I can imagine, that the vanilla voice samples were mastered to a loudness of around -2db or -4db and therefore appear a slightly bit more quiet. I normalized Sonja's Voice-Lines to 0db and that would explain it. Thanks for this hint - i will have a look at this for the next update.

Regarding the question to the late game salaries: Yes - To be honest I was very defensive with the salary increase multiplier values for the first draft of the mercs because i really did not have any experience with that multiplied values in end game. But your hint regarding those numbers are a blessing to me and will help a lot to fiddel out a better increase values. I think i'll take a look at Grizzly's Settings and choose a somehow similar setup for the next update!

Thanks a lot for your help!
Greetings Otherguy

@otherguy

Hey question.... Is it intended for all these mercs you made to keep a very low salary? At level 10.. Jerry is apx 7k, Sonja & Sam are apx 6k (7 day contract). The average salary for level 10 vanilla recruit rank is apx $24k (7 day contract). Barry and Grizzly are the lowest at apx $21k.

The mods are all awesome and I love the voice lines you added. Also very impressive work without the mod tools. Thank you.

Very cool update with the voice lines !
My only (little) issue is that the volume of her dialogues are higher than the rest. Maybe it's only on my end ?

Very cool. Kudos to you folks for figuring out how to do this.

Hello Everyone,

i'm very happy to let you all know, that i just dropped a big update for Sonja Taylor. She received 130 individual custom voice lines in english language and will talk to you from now on with her own voice and responses.
Just to make things sure: I only had the chance to test the responses in my localized version but as far as i see (code-wise) things should work for any localization settings. Please let me know if you encounter any errors, glitches or if something does not work as expected (i.e. she does not talk to you). If everything works as expected - i really hope you are going to enjoy her with a unique voice even more!

Last But not Least I'd like to thank everyone who was involved in the research at the official modding discord to make this possible without access to the final modding tools. This would not have happened without your help guys! Thank you: Audaki_ra, Tobias, RyBack, Ivan Assen, Steel)

Greetings Otherguy

Hey Silence,
yes! As far as i understand (code-wise) - this should be possible.
I'm planing to add at least a custom english voice response set (to fit the other vanilla mercs in the game) to each of my merc in near future. Perhaps i will dive into localized voice sets later.
Greetings Otherguy

Hejo cool ; hab mich mit dem Thema Moding nicht befasst , aber könnte man auch eine komplett deutsche Sprachausgabe machen ?

Thanks for the heads-up, sounds great :)

Hey Everyone,
Thanks a lot for your comments. I appreciate that you like my work. I will take a closer look into the Creation of an IMP version soon.

Just to give you a short update on the other future work:
The past days i was working on her custom Voice-Response-Set and tried to integrate things with the current possibilities the mod-tools provide. After talking to one of the devs on discord it is currently not possible to hook any custom sound paths yet without overriding some default code functions. Due i want my mods to be as compact and compatible as possible i refrained doing this for the moment. Nevertheless they are working hard on an update for the mod-tools, which will enable us to do so.

I guess we just need to be patient till they finish their work.
Greetings Otherguy

Nice work! Love that you're keeping with the spirit of the game, art and statwise.

Lovely, can you also make her available as IMP?