Part 1: Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin

Imgur is sort of back up, show is sort of back on the road.

Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin

First thing is to find Rezvi and get the lowdown on the contract. Vanilla 7.62 starts with your hero already there.



NPCs in 7.62 have generic labels until you speak to them and learn their names. It's a good idea to run around and glad-hand everybody when you come to a new town, so you can ID them quickly if you need to murder find someone later.



Rezvi wants Ivanov to find a guy who screwed over a bank in Russia.




He's taking a hands-off approach to the job. Incidentally, that 'Con Artist' label is either a mistranslation or a joke that doesn't carry over. The guy is actually a weapons vendor.



Down the street is a bar. Outside the bar are a couple of dudes who work together.




Ivanov can't even get into the bar before someone else flags him down.



Mister Lond wants Ivanov to clear some thugs out of an abandoned NATO base and recover something from there. This is an important side quest, as we'll see later.



The bar is otherwise occupied by one trader, one bartender, and one sour kraut.



The trader sells guns and gear, like the 'con artist' outside. He can also repair your mercs' weapons. His selection will get bigger as the game progresses.




Bartenders also sell stuff, but they're more useful for their other offerings. In vanilla 7.62, mercs can be found hanging around bars, but BSM replaces this with a hire-by-radio service run by the bartenders.



The German dude gives another important side quest later on.



You can chat with random people on the street:



There's a hospital with a doctor, and a creepy BSM NPC in the back office.




Next comes the police station and a friendly encounter with the chief and his deputy...



And then a museum curator with a thing for sssnakes.



Mayor characters give some minor random quests, and are important when you get to the city-conquering phase.



BSM adds a bank, for your conquest financing needs.



Pullin' gats, bustin' caps

Now that we've had a brisk run around town, it's time to take on some easy jobs.





Someone has been threatening a lady. This won't do!




Down in the left part of the interface bar, you can see some bullet pictograms and man-with-gun pictograms. These control the selected weapon's firing and aiming modes respectively. The aiming modes are, top to bottom, shooting from the hip, snap shot, aimed shot, and aimed shot using optics. Each mode in turn is slower but more accurate than the last, with the aimed shot setting allowing your mercs to target enemies' individual limbs. Left-click to fire one shot/burst, or hold Alt and left-click to have the merc keep firing until the target dies or moves behind cover.




The drunk gets a round in the head and justice is done.



Opening a merc's inventory while there are dead bodies or loose items on the ground will bring up additional windows:



The lady's reward is a gun which I immediately sold because Ivanov literally did not have space for it. 9x19 is easier to get than .40 S&W right now anyway.



The third hooker...



Well, a person in distress is a person in distress. True to his word, hooligans are coming from all directions.




Fuck you, hooligan.



Fuck the police, too. They don't care if you're blowing away people on the street so long as they aren't government people.



You can toggle colored planes which show the merc's fields of view and fire. There's also a first person view, but it's not much use.



If your merc hears an unseen enemy, the sound's position is marked. This can give away enemies flanking your team or hiding behind cover.



Han shot first. So did the hooligan, not that it helped him.







The others come running one by one.






Kill dudes, take their stuff. If you selected the Easy Money difficulty option, you can get rich fast by collecting and selling dropped guns.



The Beretta's already picked up some fouling. The most common ammo in the popular calibers is cheap ball made at a state arsenal in Palinero. It's reasonably effective, but dirty.




Buy a cleaning kit and use it to wipe down your weapons after every fight. Excess fouling accelerates mechanical wear.



Hooligan milsurp:




Once you have an Info window for a weapon, you can also right-click on another and compare their stats.



Mister Sister pays Ivanov a thousand Eldos for the help and gives him a second job. This one is worth the effort.



We've gotten some work and metten some people, and it's not even time for breakfast.



In vanilla 7.62, leaving Puerto Viejo for the first time leads you to a bandit ambush, sponsored by the man you're looking for. BSM uses that map for the opening scene and drops the ambush.

Ivanov buys a tactical vest and hits the road, taking one of the Hi-Powers for backup. On to Artrigo and the tyrant's doorstep!