Playable characters mod for JA2 (version 0.95 BASIC) - by The_Scorpion
More info over at the Bear's Pit; Retrieved from the JA2 Archives and adapted for JA2 Stracciatella.
Download the contents of this repository, and put in the Stracciatella mods directory. Enable the mod with launcher or command line args.
This should work on any versions of JA2:Stracciatella since 0.17.0.
Some NPC characters, such as Maria, have fixed waypoints at specific spots in the map. It is likely not to work well together with any map mods.
Turned the JA2 characters Darrel, Perko, Maria, Skyrider, Fred Morris, John Kulba, Matt Duncan, Calvin Barkmore and Carl Tercel into playable characters.
All new playable characters have faces, speech and battlesounds, they also have character skills. They're free of charge.
Changes are very un-intrusive as to the integrity of the vanilla story, settings, maps etc.
Skyrider has his speech limited due to an overlapping issue from his function as a pilot. If the player prefers to have skyrider as the pilot (as in the vanilla game), he has a window of opportunity. After Skyrider is escorted to his chopper, he'll do his usual speech, then skyrider will walk towars his chopper. If you want to avoid Skyrider to join the squad but want him as a pilot as usual, go to the strategic map before skyrider has finished his way to the chopper. Then everything will be as usual. If you want him to join, wait for him to reach his chopper, he'll then turn playable.
John and Darrel will be automatically added to the player's squad. If you don't want them, you can just dismiss them
Darrel will only join if a female character is married to the Hicks. Make sure your female character has a path to the place where Darrel is walking to.
Perko can just be recruited, but need an active player input (click on "recruit").
Maria, automatically joins the squad after having met Angel. Like Skyrider, there's some time between the end of the quest and her joining the squad. After having talked to Angel, Maria will leave the leather shop and, once standing on the road, join the player's squad. In that time between end of quest (history log beeps) and her joining, the player can go to the strategic screen if he doesn't want Maria to join the squad.
Fred Morris as a head miner can only be recruited after the mine he leads has started to produce income for the player. Upon recruiting, he loses parts of his head miner function, parts might still be active and overlap. For convenience reason, it is advised to minimise the chances that the mining income is interrupted (either the bug quest is already over, or sci-fi mode is unselected) in order not to cause glitches.
For testing, he can however join as soon as the mine has started to produce income. Please report any glitches that appear in this situation.
Most contents are taken from UB and JA2 and reworked by me (The_Scorpion).
The speech of character 73 was designed and recorded by Khor 1255.