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Alpha Protocol |OT| Bourne, Avellone, Denton, and the Agency's Sagacious Secrets

Seda

Member
The_Technomancer said:
When do we get those options? Cause I just started a new game, and all it had me do was select class and skills.

Check any mirror or closet, you see one pretty early in the game, and in every safehouse. Some of the options differ by location too, but there aren't that many.
 

Seda

Member
The_Technomancer said:
K, thanks. Man, I'm already planning three playthroughs of this game, haha.

I recommend playing your first run-thru as the "Recruit" class, as this unlocks the "Veteran" class, which is almost like a new game plus, you start out with many more skills points as a veteran, so it makes subsequent run-thrus a little bit more fun.

Recruit is like a handicap, as it starts you off with less skill points.

My first game was a recruit run-thru on hard. Some of the Bosses were tough.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Seda said:
Play your first run-thru as the "recruit" class, as this unlocks the "Veteran" class, which is almost like a new game plus, you start out with many more skills points as a veteran, so it makes subsequent run-thrus a little bit more fun.
Well the plan was to do a regular run as a regular Freelancer, then do a Recruit Tech Expert, and finally a Veteran Operative. How much more difficult does Recruit make the game?

Oh and roughly how long is the game?
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Don't forget that after the opening Saudi Arabia missions, you can go back and forth between the main mission hubs. You don't have to finish them to completion before jumping to a new one, and doing it this way may give you additional dialogue options as well as give you the chance to be better leveled up towards the end of each hub. So if you're stuck/aggravated by a certain level, go to one of the other hubs for a few levels and return later with better equipment/skills/etc.
 

Seda

Member
The_Technomancer said:
Well the plan was to do a regular run as a regular Freelancer, then do a Recruit Tech Expert, and finally a Veteran Operative. How much more difficult does Recruit make the game?

Sounds good. Recruit makes the first locale quite tough, but by the time you gain some levels, it's not too bad.

XiaNaphryz said:
Don't forget that after the opening Saudi Arabia missions, you can go back and forth between the main mission hubs. You don't have to finish them to completion before jumping to a new one, and doing it this way may give you additional dialogue options as well as give you the chance to be better leveled up towards the end of each hub. So if you're stuck/aggravated by a certain level, go to one of the other hubs for a few levels and return later with better equipment/skills/etc.

Yeah, I got stuck on the Rome boss on my original Recruit hard mode run, so I went to Taipei to do most of the missions, and came back. Boss was much more do-able then.
 

Patryn

Member
The_Technomancer said:
Well the plan was to do a regular run as a regular Freelancer, then do a Recruit Tech Expert, and finally a Veteran Operative. How much more difficult does Recruit make the game?

If you cheap out and focus almost solely on pistols and stealth, it's not bad at all. It claims you start with 0 points, but if you choose all the Recruit dialogue options in the opening, you'll end up with I believe 11 points to play with, so you're not going to be totally helpless. Just makes those extra tutorial missions a bit more difficult (especially the stealth one).

Also, frankly, recruit makes the whole story make a lot more sense if you think about it after beating the game.
 

gillty

Banned
This game is really really cool, doesn't deserve the negativity that it got at launch at all.

I can't help but think how different the reaction to this game would have been if it launched prior to Mass Effect 2, and on a more supportive publisher.

The character movement and control is really the only thing that negative aspect for me, other than that the game is superb. I even don't mind the dice roll combat like I thought I would. Top notch game, and its a shame it will more than likely never see a sequel. Obsidian is really talented, they just can't seem to get a game out there technically complete.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Yeah, I've heard that stealth is the way to go if you want to breeze through the game. I like to "roleplay" with my characters though, so the plan was for the Freelancer to be guns and melee focused, the tech expert to be...well...tech and sabotage based, and the final Agent/Operative run to finally go with the "easy" route and make him a melee/stealth ninja.
 

Seda

Member
The_Technomancer said:
Holy shit this game opens with SEG-AAAA

Have fun! Enjoy a truly under-appreciated game. Not the most impressive technically, but really pay attention to dialogue, characters and the relationships between them. Those are the game's strengths.
 

Patryn

Member
You really need to switch your recruit and veteran runs. A tech recruit is just asking for misery, if you ask me. It's possible, but it'll be very, very difficult.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Also for those people who just picked up AP on Steam, you may need to do some .ini tweaks to address any mouse or stutter issues you may experience. Look through here:

http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?showtopic=55163

Note that after making .ini tweaks, you should set the changed files over to read-only to prevent the game from possibly resetting/undoing your changes.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Wait...what just happened? I was all escaping from the facility and then I broke into a room and a dude was like "congrats, here's your mission" and I was like "yeah, cool" and then the game was like "LEVEL UP!" and then it crashed :-/
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Valru said:
Honestly I'd just play it with a controller, far more satisfying and natural experience, in my opinion.
KB/M was perfectly fine for me after the quick .ini tweak and some sensitivity adjustment.
 

MaddenNFL64

Member
The_Technomancer said:
Wait...what just happened? I was all escaping from the facility and then I broke into a room and a dude was like "congrats, here's your mission" and I was like "yeah, cool" and then the game was like "LEVEL UP!" and then it crashed :-/

Well, restart that shit, and get moving son! No time to sulk about a crash. The game just started!
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
MaddenNFL64 said:
Well, restart that shit, and get moving son! No time to sulk about a crash. The game just started!
In all seriousness though, why are all my conversation options for the dude on the screen basically "Lets go" or "I don't need training, lets do this" and not "who the fuck are you and why was I knocked out in there?"
 

MaddenNFL64

Member
The_Technomancer said:
In all seriousness though, why are all my conversation options for the dude on the screen basically "Lets go" or "I don't need training, lets do this" and not "who the fuck are you and why was I knocked out in there?"

Because your character is smart as fuck & gets whats going on.
 

gillty

Banned
As a solider archetype I had the option to do character development stuff/training before proceeding to the mission after "escaping".
 

MaddenNFL64

Member
Valru said:
As a solider archetype I had the option to do character development stuff/training before proceeding to the mission after "escaping".

Nah everyone has that.

It's a must even for the veteran playthrough. Lot's of extra dossier, xp, free ammo, gadgets, money etc.

It'll save you nice bit of cash.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
XiaNaphryz said:
KB/M was perfectly fine for me after the quick .ini tweak and some sensitivity adjustment.
What settings did you use? My current problem is that I can't find the sweet spot between "molasses" and "the slightest twitch moves your reticule three feet to the left"
 
Having an absolute BLAST with this game. Almost done with the second area after saudi arabia, only russia left... This game its fantastic. Having scored it for only thirteen bucks just makes it that much sweeter.
 

MaddenNFL64

Member
DigitalDevil said:
Having an absolute BLAST with this game. Almost done with the second area after saudi arabia, only russia left... This game its fantastic. Having scored it for only thirteen bucks just makes it that much sweeter.

This game can get ME2 levels of replay addictive. While ME2 was due to the classes & "I didn't go as asshole as I could, time to push it", AP's is due to the incredibly deep branching storyline. I can't believe they pulled it off. So much work.
 

Gvaz

Banned
Fixing framerate stutter/mouse issues
You may not need this if you have patch 1.1.

Backup your APEngine.ini (Documents\Alpha Protocol\APGame\Config), try changing the following settings

Code:
MinSmoothedFrameRate=20 
MaxSmoothedFrameRate=30
OneFrameThreadLag=false
UseBackgroundLevelStreaming=false
OnlyStreamInTextures=true

Fixing walking/crouching animations
In APGame.ini (Documents\Alpha Protocol\APGame\Config), try changing the following settings

Code:
InteractDistance=250
CoverWalkSpeed=75.f
CoverRunSpeed=125.f
PlayerRotationSpeed=80000.0f
MoveSpeedNormal=240
MoveSpeedScoped=80
SprintSpeed=320

Category Fun! said:
http://youtu.be/kHLXnyY537c

Tips and Tricks

Here are some tips gathered from the previous thread.

General tips:
- Remember, it's an RPG! You can't be good at doing everything. You'll only be able to max out 3, maybe 4 skills. Plan out your character accordingly.
- You get 10 points per level, and you finish at around level 20. There are some bonus points here and there.
- After the tutorial hub (Saudi Arabia), you have one chance to reset your points and reassign them.
- When you start as a Soldier, Tech Specialist, or Agent you are not locked in to the skills they have by default. You can remove ranks in skills to put them somewhere else if you want.
- Rank 5 Stealth grants always-on Awareness, which is a huuuuge fucking advantage that every character should have, whether you plan to play stealthy or not. Knowing where in the room and what direction everyone is facing before you open the door is an advantage that cannot be stressed enough.
- The Sabotage skill is very useful, and everyone should have at least one or two points in it. If you don't want to bother with hacking minigames, one point in Sabotage will allow you to use EMP charges to bypass the minigames.
- Toughness and Technical Aptitude are both very useful skills for any type of character (Toughness especially, since it's the only way to increase your health).
- Recruit is not a difficulty setting! Playing as a Recruit means you start with less AP, and everyone in Alpha Protocol thinks you're kind of a chump. Don't play Recruit on your first time (And for god's sake, don't play Recruit on Hard difficulty).
- Forums poster Lynx has made a guide for finding all the Intel in the game. Beware of spoilers!

Guns:
- I know the camera is behind your dude, but this isn't a shooter. Don't try to play it like one.
- For all builds, level up at least one gun or else you'll have a real miserable time of it. There's no way to avoid every encounter. There will be boss fights. Pistols are probably the best weapon in the game, and chain shot can make quick work of most enemies and even bosses at high ranks.
- Guns are going to be really inaccurate and unusable unless you level them up. When you start off the reticle is huge and it feels like you can't hit anything. By the end they're all completely overpowered as long as you invest points into them.
- With pistols and assault rifles, being patient and waiting for your shot to settle down is always faster than trying to shoot rapidly.
- SMGs are for running and gunning. They have a crit meter buildup which increases the more you hit people, and goes away when you reload.
- Shotguns do more damage/knockdown the more you hold it down before firing. It's ideal for knocking down people and then stomping on them.

Stealth:
- Stealth is determined by sight and also NOISE. Wearing quiet armor (like street clothes) will prevent guards from "seeing you through walls". Use a silencer. Crouch everywhere.
- For stealth, the pistol is really the way to go, and maybe a bit of shotgun or assault rifle in the early going as a panic-button-option (not for recruits though). sabotage will help with hacking and improve your gadgets. Even if you don't want to bother with hacking, one point in Sabotage will allow you to bypass the hacking minigames with an EMP charge.
- Assault Rifle + subsonic rounds won't alert the guards with noise. This is handy for taking out turrets and alarm panels. In my no-kill stealth run I used this for taking out turrets stealthily.

Sniper:
- If you want to play a sniper-type guy, the correct answer is "Pistol with Chain-Shot" and not Assault Rifle.
- There isn't a Sniper Rifle weapon class, but some missions involve using a Sniper Rifle emplacement, or allow you to have one placed in the level through Intel.

No Kill Playthrough:
- Yes it's possible.
- Melee doesn't count as a kill. There's a non-lethal takedown option when you're sneaking around.
- Tranquilizer shots for your pistol don't kill, neither do shock traps.
- Cutscene kills don't count as 'kills' in the debriefing screen. But you do get a choice to Spare or Execute most bosses during dialogue.

Hacking:
- If you're having trouble with controlling the hacking minigame with a mouse, see the .ini fix above, also fiddle with your mouse sensitivity.
- If you're having trouble with SEEING the hacking minigame codes, trying unfocusing your eyes so you look 'past' your screen. You should be able to see the parts that aren't moving.
- If you're STILL having trouble with the hacking minigame, putting two points into Sabotage will let you auto-hack any minigame with an EMP grenade.
- But seriously, the minigames are designed for a controller, they feel really good there. Use it if you have it.
- There's armor mods you can buy in the Clearinghouse to decrease the difficulty of the minigames. Keep in mind late in the game the minigames aren't designed to be completed by people who didn't invest in the Sabotage skill heavily. If they're too hard, then don't do them.

Gadgets:
- All gadgets are cheap and handy, use them especially on tough fights. They require creativity to use.
- You can increase the amount of gadgets you carry by buying different armor and getting perks.
- You can use any grenade as a mine by sticking them to a wall. Point the Sound Generator to them and guards will come running to get blown up.
- Radio Mimics instantly call off any alarm, handy for stealth characters.
- Gadgets in different slots use different cooldowns. For instance you can use First Aid back to back if you have them in 2 slots.
- Flashbangs will stun everyone in radius, allowing you to run up and do instant takedowns.

I'm Stuck on a Boss

There's no better time to use your activated abilities + gadgets than on boss fights, so try that first. Also, all bosses have an Endurance bar similar to Thorton, which will regenerate over time. The key is to be able to do burst damage to bosses.

Because there's so many different ways to play the game, post in the thread if you want specific advice for your character build. Here's some general tips:

Moscow Yacht:
If you collected some of Sis's dossier it should tell you exactly this, but she has a long reload time on her pistols. Pop out and shoot her while she's reloading. She's also fairly weak at melee. Finally, there's a long table at the back of the boat's deck that has an exposed underside; if you can force her to take cover behind that, you can just shoot at her legs as she's hiding.

Moscow Embassy:
For the end of the embassy mission, if you're a gun heavy character you should be able to dispatch everyone with the use of some activated skills and grenades. For stealth characters you may have more trouble, so you should have come prepared; you're likely to have talked to Albatross at this point, and before the mission you can go to the Clearinghouse and purchase a sniper rifle drop from him. The sniper rifle is placed on the roof of the embassy from where you started off. You can get out there by exiting the building through the second floor door, and from there you should have a clear shot on the entire courtyard, making the fight a cinch.

Moscow End Boss:
First off, the cocaine - when he snorts cocaine he gains a huge damage buff and damage resistance. There's no real point fighting him when he's high, so best thing to do is just cloak/hide if you have it. If you don't, then run away - best thing to do is sprint towards the stage (where there's health and ammo pickups), then drop down the front of the stage, repeat. After a while he'll get tired and go down on one knee, which is your cue to hit whatever skills you have and unload on him.

If you've been to Taipei and met Steven Heck you'll be able to purchase a shipment of spiked cocaine to ship to Brayko through the Intel shop; this prevents him from healing up when he's snorting up.

Rome End Boss:
Backup troops will spawn repeatedly at several points, and they use grenades pretty liberally. If you went to the West Wing, best thing to do is to peel off to the right hand side as the fight starts - there's a long wooden box to duck behind, and it's more defensible than the left side. The East Wing fight is has more cover, but again, keep moving to avoid getting pinned down by grenades.

Taipei End Boss:
The pillars in the room are perfect for setting up a gadget ambush, so use the time you get at the start of the fight to plant whatever grenades you have facing inward to the main corridor, then lure him through the trap. His trick is he'll stealth once he takes enough damage, but you can still see his outline as he runs away and you can take some pot shots.

Endgame Outdoor Fight 1:
The simplest way is just to make your way to the guard tower directly in front of where you start off - there's a door on the front side that you need to lockpick or EMP, but once you're inside there's a sniper rifle all set up.

Endgame Outdoor Fight 2:
This is a pretty standard helicopter fight - there's missile launchers lying around everywhere, and you can also damage it with small arms. Don't try your usual sneaking stuff here, just keep constantly moving, take out the guards, and start sprinting as soon as you hear the beeping noise from the chopper. Don't hide behind vehicles because they will get blown up, but there's several concrete structures you can duck behind and the chopper won't be able to hit you.


New Player FAQ

Q:I heard this game sucked! Why should I buy it?
A: Alpha Protocol was released to fairly divisive reviews, mostly because the actual shooting gameplay isn't very good. I didn't really mind it, but some people really hated it, and it was enough to piss off a lot of reviewers. The reason this thread is still around is because as an RPG, Alpha Protocol is completely unmatched in terms of choice within the story. It might be essentially a linear game, but everything you do has consequences. This isn't phoney Mass Effect-style choice; AP even reacts to the tiniest details of how you talk to people. If you act completely professional towards someone, then flip out and get angry at them they'll notice the change in your attitude. They might even accuse you of bluffing. If you have a high martial arts skill, some cutscenes change to reflect that and show you slamming heads together like Bruce Lee. In short, Alpha Protocol is great because if you can look past the flawed gameplay you'll find one of the most reactive RPGs ever made.

Q: That's a lot of words about a videogame! Can you convince me to buy it in one sentence?
A: There's an achievement for having sex with all the romancable women in the game.

Q: That's pretty sexist!
A: There's also one for not having sex with any of them.

Q: All my weapons suck! They're too inaccurate!
A: This is an RPG, silly! Your weapons will be fairly useless if you don't have any AP in them. I'd recommend putting points into at least one weapon type, since there are situations where you're forced to shoot things (such as boss fights). Scroll up to the tips and tricks section if you want more information on which weapons are best for your play style.

Q: Why isn't there any text on the dialogue choices? All I see are empty boxes!
A: That's a graphical glitch, you need to turn off Anti-Aliasing. If you have any other issues with controls or graphics on the PC, scroll up to the PC fixes section in the first post.

Q: I'm playing a stealth character, but enemies can still see me even when I'm crouching and sneaking! What gives?
A: Stealth is governed by two factors: Sight and noise. If the enemy sees or hears you, they'll know you're there. Heavier armour makes your footsteps louder, which means enemies can seem like they've "seen" you through a wall. Wearing street clothes or stealth gear will make your footsteps quieter. Check the stats of your armour to see how loud it is.

Q: That's great, but I'm trying to complete Parker's bonus training mission, and I'm stuck wearing loud armour. How do I change it?
A: If you're having trouble on Parker's bonus training mission, try loading an earlier save. When you reach the locker room, don't use the locker and stay dressed in your hospital gown. You won't make any noise in your bare feet.

This Game Owns
Setzer Gabbiani said:
So yeah also grabbed this during the sale, aside from the stuff in the OP, here are some other universal tweaks that every UT3-engine game should have. First off, in APInput.ini

[Engine.PlayerInput]
bEnableMouseSmoothing=False

This will do nothing but delay your mouse responsiveness, and if it behaves like every other recent UT3 game it's been implemented in, it will suck. Mouse smoothing is the product of days when optical/laser mice were seen as completely optional, why newer games insist on it is beyond me

For APEngine.ini:

[ALAudio.ALAudioDevice]
MaxChannels=X

X is depending on your sound card. In most cases you can have 64 audio channels instead of the default 32. If your card is generic onboard sound, 32 is probably the most you can handle, but any relatively-recent Asus/Creative card will most likely be able to handle 64. 128 channels are mostly dependant on if the game has XRAM support or not (all two of them, and this isn't one)

[Engine.Engine]
AllowShadowVolumes=TRUE
bEnableVSMShadows=True
DepthBias=-2

[SystemSettings]
StaticDecals=True
DynamicDecals=True
DynamicLights=True
DynamicShadows=True
LightEnvironmentShadows=True
CompositeDynamicLights=True
DirectionalLightmaps=True
MotionBlur=(your choice on this one, I never liked it, but if you want it, set to true, if not, false)
DepthOfField=True
AmbientOcclusion=True
Bloom=True
QualityBloom=True
Distortion=True
DropParticleDistortion=True
SpeedTreeLeaves=True
SpeedTreeFronds=True
OnlyStreamInTextures=True
LensFlares=True
FogVolumes=True
FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
Trilinear=True
OneFrameThreadLag=False
UseVsync=True
UpscaleScreenPercentage=True
Fullscreen=True
AllowD3D10=False
EnableHighPolyChars=True
SkeletalMeshLODBias=-2
ParticleLODBias=-2
DetailMode=2
ShadowFilterQualityBias=-2
MaxAnisotropy=16
MaxMultisamples=(antialiasing never seems to really work on the software level, so just force it through CCC or nVidia CP, making whatever number here irrelevant)
MinShadowResolution=128
MaxShadowResolution=1024
ScreenPercentage=100.000000
SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=2.000000
FoliageDrawRadiusMultiplier=2.000000
ShadowTexelsPerPixel=3.000000
bEnableVSMShadows=True
bEnableBranchingPCFShadows=True
bAllowBetterModulatedShadows=True
bEnableForegroundShadowsOnWorld=True
EnableEyefinityDisplayMode=True
ShadowFilterRadius=2.500000
ShadowDepthBias=-2

Basically all the eye candy options enabled/tweaked. For a gauge on what this can run nicely on, I'm on a 5770 with 4x Edge-detect AA enabled

And if you're having problems with PhysX, or think its gay and don't want the GPU overheard, change the following to this:

bDisablePhysXHardwareSupport=True
 

hiryu

Member
I picked this up during the Steam sale. This and Darksiders are probably the best $5 I've ever spent. I'm kind of angry with myself for not paying full price for this when it came out. It's an amazing game so far, admittedly I'm only a few hours in, but I don't get the negative reviews at all. Either the console version really sucks or reviewers just give Bioware a pass on the janky stuff in their games but not any other developers.
 

Cheska

Member
I Push Fat Kids said:
Picked this up for $11.97ish on Amazon a moment ago. Hopefully it's worth it...

It really is. It was one of those games that once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. Dem choices man.
 

Kevtones

Member
Cheska said:
It really is. It was one of those games that once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. Dem choices man.


Good to hear.


I've heard such polarizing things but I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to this type of game. It seems a bit experimental (which I like).
 
well i picked this up the other day too (PC). enjoying it though it does get frustrating with the checkpoint system sometimes, on the
triad mission in tapei
at the moment and the number of objectives between checkpoints seems quite large compared to the previous missions. i suppose that's how they control difficulty.

playing a stealth/melee/pistols build though i've only fired about 4 rounds so far (tranqs) and have 0 kills, 0 damage taken and 0 alarms triggered except for scripted ones.

still have that issue like with most games of this type where the dialog doesn't line up with what i expected from the option eg. at one point the friendly choice gave a dismissive/secretive answer which i wasn't expecting and my OCD kicks in sending me back 20 minutes to replay 3 conversations again. uuuhhhhhgggg
 

LarryButz

Member
Got the game a few days ago for ps3 and so far, I'm enjoying it. Just finished the first hub and it hasn't been too bad as Recruit on Hard for my first time. Love being stealthy. Makes it all much more satisfying.
 

maxxpower

Member
LarryButz said:
Got the game a few days ago for ps3 and so far, I'm enjoying it. Just finished the first hub and it hasn't been too bad as Recruit on Hard for my first time. Love being stealthy. Makes it all much more satisfying.

If you're enjoying the stealth now just wait until you add more points to the stealth skill tree.
 
for all the "your actions change the outcome" i've noticed a few glaring omissions:

in saudi
after i did the airfield mission and knew where the missiles were, i did the weapons stockpile one and at the end of it they kept talking about having to find another way to find out where the missiles were.. :/

in taipei
did the triad mission, all KO's/tranqs including the end scene, and then i get a cutscene of my guy surrounded by bloody corpses.

i'm gonna be forgiving and chalk it up to time/budget constraints, but really.
 

amdnv

Member
Snuggler said:
Stealth and pistols are the way to go. I think most of my fellow AP fans can agree that stealth is the best way to play, blasting everyone like a maniac just isn't as satisfying as clearing a room without making a peep.
I completely disagree. The stealth abilities in this game turn your character into a magician. You can make yourself invisible, and you can enter bullet time mode to shoot six people in a row before they even know what's going on. This sort of wizardry is not satisfying to me at all.

I played the game with focus on assault rifles and loved it. Played Recruit/Hard, which makes the enemies deadly enough to keep me on the edge.
 
JumpingTheGun said:
I think I just might pick this up today. Worth it for 17.99 on PS3?

Get it off amazon. I got it shipped free for 14 bucks a couple weeks ago.

And don't worry about the shitty reviews, the game is a solid blast!
 
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