It was evening in the Valley of Questions. A small, confused mob of players of Jagged Alliance 2 walked along a path, and the sounds of their arguments and lamentations carried up into the sky. There were those who declared that sniper rifles had no use, and there were those who questioned what a gun's range meant, and what it meant to be “Out of range”. There was much supposition and discussion, but over all there was confusion, for the answer was nowhere to be found.

But after a time the figure of a man appeared above them on a ridge, silhoetted by the setting sun. And he cried “Lo! I have heard your cries, and have journeyed long and far from Mount Sir-Tech, and on these clay tablets I hold the Truth!

Tablet 1: Out Of Range

The first question is simple: what does a gun's range mean?
It's a simple question, but fortunately, the answer is equally simple. When you make one of your mercs fire a gun in Jagged Alliance 2, the merc's chance to hit is calculated based on marksmanship, weapon condition, whether they've just been shot, or whether they're firing their gun from behind their back while jumping up and down singing The Star-Spangled Banner. Well, you get the idea. Then, whatever the merc's chance to hit the target based on all other factors, if the target is out of range, that chance to hit is halved.

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Tablet 2: Accuracy

Okay, you now say, I have a MP5K sub-machine gun, and I have a Steyr AUG assault rifle, and I need to get a hit on an enemy who is 18 squares away. Both guns are in range, so does it matter which I use?
The answer is - definitely! The AUG will give you a better chance to hit. Aside from the “out of range” penalty, there is an additional penalty to hit based on the gun's range, which is calculated with the following formula. If the formula produces a negative value, then it's ignored.

(Current Range x 3 - Gun's Maximum Range) / 1.7

At range 18, this formula works out to:

MP5K: (18 x 3 - 20) / 1.7 = 20
AUG: (18 x 3 - 50) / 1.7 = 2

So the MP5K has a -20% chance to hit, and the AUG has -2%! I know which gun I'd use!
To give a broader perspective, here are some range penalties at a distance of 26:

GUN TYPE	RANGE	PENALTY
Glock 18 *	12	-38%
MP5K *	20	-34%
G41	30	-28%
Steyr AUG	50	-16%
M24	80	0%
*These guns would also have their chance to hit halved for being out of range.

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Tablet 3: Is that all?

I heard that a sniper scope reduces range penalties, so does that mean that there's no point in putting a sniper scope on a sniper rifle?
Well, no. I didn't say that the gun-range penalty was the ONLY penalty due to range, did I?

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Tablet 4: Sniper rifles

So are sniper rifles any good in JA2?
The answer to that question is up to you!

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