Game have hidden likes/dislikes mechanic giving permanent +1/-1 to morale.
Relationships between Mercs
So far it looks like the relationships are identical to JA2. Not sure yet if there is the regular friendships and also the “grows to like someone” mechanic same like JA2.
Far too many to list them all. Here is a link to some charts with the relationship likes and dislikes. Just be aware there are the names of many mercs who do not feature in JA3 as yet and may never. So ignore those as required.
- Igor, Ivan and Grunty are bros. – confirmed
- Red dislikes Livewire but will work with her.
- Raven and Raider are husband/wife.
- Raider was a cop and hates Hitman who was a…hitman – havent confirmed in JA3
- Buns hates Fox. – confirmed
- Steroid hates the Russians. – confirmed
- Fox loves Grizzly – confirmed
- Grizzly hates Dr. Q. – havent confirmed in JA3
- Magic, Blood, Ice are bros. – havent confirmed in JA3
- Buns likes Sidney, Grunty likes Buns – havent confirmed
One Important Note:
Livewire straight up refuses to join at all if you have a cop like Raven or Raider on your team; you can’t bribe her to join anyways, unlike most “dislike” type relations. Someone needs to explain how extradition and international law enforcement actually works to her, because Raven and Raider are officially off the cop clock while doing merc work.
Was unable to hire Fox while Steroid was on the roster, but if you hire Wolf before her, Fox will hire on even if you have Steroid.
Red won’t work with Buns, wondering if there is a similar way to get around this, but already hit the cap of 15 hired mercs
confirmed Grizzly doesnt like Dr. Q
you can hire both Grizzly and Q if you hire him before hiring Q.
he will have a -1AP debuff if he is on thesame team with Dr. Q
however Dr. Q helps Grizzly’s Pooping problem. unsure if they become friends later.
also Grizzly will ask for more money if you hire him when there is an X number of “foreigners” in your team lmao. I dont remember this on JA2 but it’s funny.
Not confirmed – Steroid like grizzly but grizzly is neutral to Steroid (as soon as steroid’s contract is over and left, Grizzly no longer ask for more money on hire, so im guessing he is neutral)
In JA2, Hitman had a crush on Raven and would flirt with her; even though she totally ignored him and maintained a neutral relationship, Raider and Hitman hated each other. I haven’t tested to see if that is carried on here.
Buns hates anyone that she sees as unprofessional, but in prior games she was only coded to actually take a morale/patience hit with Fox, Reaper, and Gumpy, regardless of what she said about anyone else. In the other direction, she likes fellow “blueblood” professionals, but only gets actual coding to gain morale from working with Sidney. And Grunty did have a bit of a crush on her.
Many characters from countries surrounding Russia are coded to not like Russian characters, but the hatred is usually not mutual; the Russians don’t really care and are just here to fight.
Fox is fond of both Wolf and Grizzly, coming in from JA2 with Grizzly and JA1 in Wolf’s case; she’ll explicitly tell you to also hire Wolf if he’s available this time around. Uniquely, Grizzly and Wolf get along despite the triangle, though only Grizzly actually received a bonus for being around Wolf.
In Deadly Games, Mouse would get along with Fox for a single mission, but would afterwards express fear of Fox somehow ruining the campaign; the disdain was not mutual, and I don’t know if it’s carried forward into this game.
I’ve noticed that Mouse regularly compliments other female mercs this time around in a very flirty manner, suggesting her committed relationship with her girlfriend is looking either a bit strained or very progressive for 2001; not sure if this actually has any morale bonus, though.