Junior Adventurer's Guild - April: Alpha Protocol

[gerey]

Are there any mods for AP that make it less poopy?

As far as I'm aware, no. There's two mods on ModDB that do slight alterations to some aspects of the game and UI, and then there's two additional "mods" on the Nexus that let you skip the intro and splash screen.

The game never had much of a modding scene (likely because it's next to impossible to mod).

[Ratcatcher]

Strife, "immersive sim" based on the Doom engine. It's not really an RPG, nor an actual imsim, but I think it's worth taking a look.

Excellent fucking game. No really, go play it. Nowadays we're accustomed with all kind of weird shit being developed with Doom Engine but back then this completely blindsided me and I think it holds up pretty well.

There's Strife Veteran Edition on Steam, money goes to the original dev iirc and it's ben updated for those that don't want to fiddle with cpu cycles and such. I wholeheartedly endorse it.

[gerey]

If Strife is a-go, then I'd also suggest Ashes 2063 and Ashes Afterglow.

The first is a mostly linear FPS in the vein of Duke Nukem, but set in the post-apocalypse. There are a smattering of side quests, optional maps and upgrades, but that's about it.

The sequel, on the other hand, is a whole another beast. The world is divided into huge maps connected via a hub area, you can purchase a variety of gadgets and tools to further open up maps, you can upgrade your arsenal, and there's side quests and choices aplenty (some of the choices are baked into the gameplay, you can knock out an NPC instead of killing him by bashing him with the crowbar instead of killing him).

I am shilling the games here because I believe everyone should play the Ashes games at least once.

[wndrbr]

At least it's not a 'third wheel exit strategy'

[Oyster Sauce]

Goddamn you, Obsidian



Edit: just holding left click and pressing esc once will bring up the menu if you're having this issue

Anyway here's my generic stealth man

[WhiteShark]

@Oyster Sauce I don't recall having that issue when I played, but maybe you could write a script with AutoHotkey to ensure Esc is only sent once.

[Vergil]

Just got my teleport stone in Two Worlds. Pretty cool being able to put down a diegetic fast travel point wherever you want. Trying to get enough gold to get a pair of robes that will let me dabble in necromancy early. Being able to combine low tier items with duplicates to increase their stats is pretty addictive too.

Completed the Alpha Protocol tutorial.

[J1M]

For a challenge, try playing Alpha Protocol without any guns. Stealth and brawling abilities are fair game.

[Oyster Sauce]

For a challenge, try playing Alpha Protocol without any guns. Stealth and brawling abilities are fair game.

I saw the aiming reticle in the tutorial and immediately started punching people instead

[rusty_shackleford]

For a challenge, try playing Alpha Protocol without any guns. Stealth and brawling abilities are fair game.

My first time playing I made the silly mistake of thinking I could play it as a stealth game until the fucking FORCED COMBAT SECTIONS

[J1M]

For a challenge, try playing Alpha Protocol without any guns. Stealth and brawling abilities are fair game.

I saw the aiming reticle in the tutorial and immediately started punching people instead

I did this in my only playthrough because I thought the knife animation was good and it made the boss fights more interesting.

[Vergil]

For a challenge, try playing Alpha Protocol without any guns. Stealth and brawling abilities are fair game.

My first time playing I made the silly mistake of thinking I could play it as a stealth game until the fucking FORCED COMBAT SECTIONS

It's got that freaky vanilla Human Revolution boss battle design.

[J1M]

For a challenge, try playing Alpha Protocol without any guns. Stealth and brawling abilities are fair game.

My first time playing I made the silly mistake of thinking I could play it as a stealth game until the fucking FORCED COMBAT SECTIONS

Back on task, agent. That license to kill is not cosmetic.

[rusty_shackleford]

For a challenge, try playing Alpha Protocol without any guns. Stealth and brawling abilities are fair game.

My first time playing I made the silly mistake of thinking I could play it as a stealth game until the fucking FORCED COMBAT SECTIONS

Back on task, agent. That license to kill is not cosmetic.

I don't like that they simply let you make a character that can't beat the game. It gives a false impression of how you can play the game, as you couldn't possibly know better when creating the character. Hell, considering who the developer was you had full reason to believe you could play it nonviolently.

[J1M]

My first time playing I made the silly mistake of thinking I could play it as a stealth game until the fucking FORCED COMBAT SECTIONS

Back on task, agent. That license to kill is not cosmetic.

I don't like that they simply let you make a character that can't beat the game. It gives a false impression of how you can play the game, as you couldn't possibly know better when creating the character. Hell, considering who the developer was you had full reason to believe you could play it nonviolently.

Can you elaborate on what you picked that made it impossible? Because if that was a possible outcome I would have expected to encounter it given how I allocated points.

[rusty_shackleford]

Back on task, agent. That license to kill is not cosmetic.

I don't like that they simply let you make a character that can't beat the game. It gives a false impression of how you can play the game, as you couldn't possibly know better when creating the character. Hell, considering who the developer was you had full reason to believe you could play it nonviolently.

Can you elaborate on what you picked that made it impossible? Because if that was a possible outcome I would have expected to encounter it given how I allocated points.

I recall being entirely blocked from being able to progress because my dude sucked at combat and it kept throwing me into forced combat sections. Its been years since I played it.
I'd be fine if it was because my stupid ass kept getting into combat, but these were unable to be avoided. It's like if your game had a walk skill but you had to walk everywhere and could make a character who can't walk. Why?

[gerey]

Rusty fell for the rat diplomacy meme.

[Oyster Sauce]

Rusty deployed into Saudi Arabia to infiltrate a terrorist base and his first instinct was to keep them alive at all costs

[gerey]

He is a glowie, that's only to be expected.

[Vergil]

Is there really no way to skip dialog line by line like every other voice acted RPG? I can read 10x faster than the dialog gets delivered.
Also:

[Tweed]

Just got my teleport stone in Two Worlds. Pretty cool being able to put down a diegetic fast travel point wherever you want. Trying to get enough gold to get a pair of robes that will let me dabble in necromancy early. Being able to combine low tier items with duplicates to increase their stats is pretty addictive too.

Why don't you just steal everything?

[Vergil]

Just got my teleport stone in Two Worlds. Pretty cool being able to put down a diegetic fast travel point wherever you want. Trying to get enough gold to get a pair of robes that will let me dabble in necromancy early. Being able to combine low tier items with duplicates to increase their stats is pretty addictive too.

Why don't you just steal everything?

Black History Month was two months ago.

[aweigh]

Shame that Alpha Protocol won.

Maybe next time... Two Worlds!

[WhiteShark]

Roguey gave me this useful tip when I first played last year:

Something to understand about AP - left is always "suave", top is always aggressive, right is always professional, regardless of what keyword is given. Make choices depending on what stance you want for that situation, not what the keyword says.

[J1M]

I don't like that they simply let you make a character that can't beat the game. It gives a false impression of how you can play the game, as you couldn't possibly know better when creating the character. Hell, considering who the developer was you had full reason to believe you could play it nonviolently.

Can you elaborate on what you picked that made it impossible? Because if that was a possible outcome I would have expected to encounter it given how I allocated points.

I recall being entirely blocked from being able to progress because my dude sucked at combat and it kept throwing me into forced combat sections. Its been years since I played it.
I'd be fine if it was because my stupid ass kept getting into combat, but these were unable to be avoided. It's like if your game had a walk skill but you had to walk everywhere and could make a character who can't walk. Why?

Are we talking about Alpha Protocol or VR?

I understand the complaint. I went into it assuming my approach would become invalid, rather than expecting to be able to perform a certain approach.

[Vergil]

Shame that Alpha Protocol won.

Maybe next time... Two Worlds!

Verily.

[Oyster Sauce]

Roguey gave me this useful tip when I first played last year:

Something to understand about AP - left is always "suave", top is always aggressive, right is always professional, regardless of what keyword is given. Make choices depending on what stance you want for that situation, not what the keyword says.

That explains why "mission" had me snap at my boss

[Vergil]

I like that Obsidian used their legendary storywriting and RPG background to come up with a way to do the bioware dialog wheel even worse than bethesda ended up doing.

► Show Spoiler

Slack-jawed faggot ass cowards didn't put the "It's like Oblivion on steroids" quote in all their review blurbs on the store page btw

[rusty_shackleford]

dialogue wheels are better than traditional dialogue tree selection
"nooo I need to read the heckin writerinos!!"
it just makes you feel good because you imagine yourself saying some quippy marvel line

dialogue in RPGs was a MISTAKE tho

[Oyster Sauce]

dialogue wheels are better than traditional dialogue tree selection
"nooo I need to read the heckin writerinos!!"
it just makes you feel good because you imagine yourself saying some quippy marvel line

dialogue in RPGs was a MISTAKE tho

no