What's the problem with 1.13? I played JA 2 for the first time to like 90% completion last year (burnt out before assaulting the deidranna's city), and it was pretty great, even considering that I turned ironman on (and the airport retaliation off
); it was demanding but to the reasonable extent. Sure, the early game is painful, with everyone using pistols and all (I think I screwed up a bit by not getting the tougher and more well-equipped mercs, but that's beside the point), but other than that? I guess I'm just not aware of what exactly the mod does and went with it on the whim, thinking that it was the best way to play possible, heh.
As for tons of guns, I think there were 67 pages of guns to choose from at the last 'game level' or whatever. The sheer number of possibilities was very large if gradually introduced. Many of those had similar stats, though. The option has more to do with atmosphere than mechanics as far as I'm concerned. Seeing the obviously low-end guns being replaced by the military-grade ones was... encouraging.
High powered scopes break the game. You can shoot people at such range that the AI can't handle it, and so the enemies just mill around instead of fighting back. Thus, maps like the hospital, which feature some of the most intense interior fighting in the game, can be rendered a walkover simply by moving three mercs into the edge of the map in a triangle, firing once to "alert" the enemy, and then plinking all the enemies from the edge of the map while they mill around unable to fight back. So, you kill them all while not only never being wounded, but without ever being even fired upon. Thus turning the game into a glorified shooting gallery.
High damage guns/ammo break the game. JA2 as designed tries to have a more realistic implementation of combat, so there isn't a lot of hp bloat in the game. Because of that, adding in a bunch of weapons that do more damage and that you can get ahold of earlier in the game then allows you to hot-knife-through-butter even enemies that are supposed to be tough. The mod attempts to mitigate this issue by sending more tougher enemies onto the map and sending them in earlier -- which leads to the usual type of enemy "bloat" toughness seen in many another game while not really fixing the issue.
High damage/ammo guns with attached high powered scopes thus turns the game into a cakewalk that you can solve with the pc + two high-end mercs + the aforementioned triangle formation. Never need to reload since you never even got shot at.
Implementing the Airport Retaliation is tough (if fought plain and not immediately sending in elite militia from the neighboring territory), but implementing and surviving the retaliation breaks the weapon progression by giving you access to tons of drops. If you also have drop-all active, the combo wrecks the entire game by handing you more weapons/ammo/armor than you will ever need. Thus giving you either more money than God (if you sell it all) and so wrecking the economy, or giving you a bloated stash that means you never have to buy anything ever again, and so wrecking the economy.
The additional HUD information the mod gives you puts a whole bunch of very useful info right at your fingertips, such as the chance of making a shot, thus meaning you rarely waste a shot. But this is a game where you, a human player, already have 60 billion advantages over the AI, so giving yourself even more info just allows you to pancake every enemy you face.
There are more items I could list, but by this point you might be noticing a theme. Essentially, unless you already know what you need to turn down from the default of 11 by having a thorough understanding of the game, 1.13 essentially flips on Godmode. Now, a newcomer to the game might not end up activating all of the available Godmode items in their first run, so they won't likely enter Godmode Elite and complete a run without ever getting shot at, but at some point they are likely to trigger at least Godmode Light without ever even knowing they have done it. And the true fun in JA2 as designed is overcoming its challenges through strategic initiative, not giving yourself so many bloated advantages that you pancake every enemy you face as soon as you see them. (Of course, your average Codexer prefers pancaking games and having a hoard of weapons and armor so massive that they couldn't possibly use it all in one lifetime, so if that describes you too, then your mileage may vary.)
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