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My take on this is that all half-backed features should be either removed or improved to not be half-backed. IMHO these include: 1) Stronghold Current implementation is not well integrated with the game. Like if it is mini-game on its own. It is also big money sink just for the sake of being money sink. I'm ok with something just sinking money, but then give something back too. Also tieing half of the economy to turns and other hand (hireling pay) to days is really bad implementation. 2) "Sponsored adds" by Kickstarter backers I completely understand why this was done. Obisidian needed money to make game, and needed to add strong backer rewards for people that donated a lot of money to the game. But due to this, game suffered and is weaker then it should be. Soul watching of backer NPCs is big fluff that gets boring really quickly, and NPCs themselves detract from game experience due to being "too shiny", yet totally irrelevant for the game. Especially considering that whole godlike population of Drywood consists of backers. On the other hand, kickstartered tomstones were done pretty well, without detracting from the game.

How do you trigger even first vision? With 1.04 I rested couple of times (in wildness, just to be sure), and nothing triggeres after that. Also all conversion options where used up with Durance. Are fixes posted in this thread already integrated with 1.04? EDIT: Oh, and yeah, my quest status is still "Spend time traveling with Durance".

There should also be a junk section in stash, where you could put evrrything you know for sure you will sell.

If enemies are dominantly slashers, that leather armor is actually DR9. Not bad for -30% recovery. Beats anything exempt chainmail/place, which are extra -15%/-20% to get DR14/15. If enemies are crush/pierce, Padded can be better option, since it is DR 5 against them, over DR 6 for leather, for -10% less recovery.

I think some sort of mechanic where conflict will escalate over time (modified with difficulty or as seperate diff. slider), could solve this issue. If you do too much side questing, things will get more difficult due to <insert story reason>, but player will be better prepared due to better gear and level. This would sync well with supply system and give some sense of urgency.

If you are like me and do not want to use hired adventures, then try progressing through main quest more. You will quickly find 5th companion, and progressing slightly more you'll get 6th companion. Then go back and deal with the keep and other side quests.

Shader 4.0 is for DX10, not 3.0. EDIT: Why am I replying to 2 months old thread?

Anyway, redirects to Neverwinter Nights 2 forums, located in the index of this forum, need to be changed to Bioware social site, since they now point to old closed forum.

Balanced game is on long term more fun game, since different options that have similar weight prevent players from locking themself in single playstyle due to it being more powerful or rewarding then something else. Balance is especially important for RPG genre, where you want all options to be fun, and not just some that are more powerful then others.

And you know that how?!?

The other bad thing is that game wasn't actually polished or something during delay. It just set there. I guess SEGA was too stingy to allow another round of Q&A tests during delay.

But unfortunate. Which doesn't mean that at some later date, in following years, sequel would not be out of question.

If you don't play multiple playthroughs at same time, it's not really a big deal. Since most saves are sorted by date, saves from same character will be "clumped" together.

It doesn't. Only main checkpoint save, as well as last savehouse save are the one overwritten, if you decide to play with other character. All manual saves stay fine. Also, when inside savehouse, if you do manual save after buying things from clearinhouse, reply mails and do other stuff, that info will be saved properly. Of course, manual saves inside mission are nothing else then backups of last mission checkpoint, as usual.

As someone who played with upgraded SMGs a lot: 1st priority: -Damage: SMGs have base damage around 10, so adding something like +2 to damage is around 20% increase. Still, it's not so much important to take higher damage SMG weapon over some with big penalties to accuracy and recoil. Tip: if you want to play with SMG, but don't want to fully specialize, take 4 skill levels for +3dmg bonus. Tip2: SIE has some of the best damage upgrades for SMG. 2nd: -Magazine size: One of the few weapons where this is really important, since bonus damage you get after killing someone lasts until you empty the clip 3rd: -Accuracy and Recoil: Both are important in same amount, and will help in getting more accurate short burst at medium range. Tip: Don't forget some scope. With scope you can zoom on targets you want to shoot at medium range. not important: -Stability: Base stability of SMG is good enough, and you really don't need to move too much when firing. It's perfectly OK to take upgrades that reduce stability, but increase accuracy, recoil, damage or magazine size.

The thing is, it *is* enforceable. Anytime, if they find "some reason", they can ban your steam account, and then you pretty much lose all games associated with it. Steam, just like XBOX live for consoles, can, if they want, prevent you from playing games you bought (ok, only MP part of XBOX, but if console is banned, MP is impossible, as well as patches and anything else that uses live). In both cases, games rely on service that is not guaranteed to be available for you, just because you bough the game that uses it. Any transgression, can be "fined" by revoking those services.

Well, game already has pre-order bonus content, which essentially makes it DLC capable.

If sales were good enough for SEGA, they would give green light for DLC content for Alpha Protocol, to milk the franchise. Since it won't be the case, things are not so good.

In my first playthrough I used shotguns as my secondary weapon to AR. I pretty much used them in only with room sweep for quick knockdown effect and didn't have many points at that. On the other hand, in 3 other playthroughs I used them combined with AR or pistol. In my stealth pistol + SMG playthrough there where my main weapon for tough situations for things at medium to close range (with pistol with chainshot for far away targets). I did most of boss kills with them (in both pistol/smg and ar/smg combos), if boss is the kind that likes to gets to close range.

Chain shot is overpowered, not pistols as such (they are pretty weak outside critical hit and chain shot use).

Hmm... I noticed in my game, that when I die, if I take last save option from the menu that I get "standard" enemies disappearing bug. But, if instead of that I load last save manually, I get black screen, and need to alt-tab out of game and kill its process. Of course, reloading the save after restarting the game work flawlessly. As well as loading with last save option that gives "disappearing" enemies, and then loading save manually. . I do use bUseBackgroundLevelStreaming=False tweak for APEngine.ini (to reduce "mouse twiching" issue), so maybe it could be that is causing this (haven't tested without it).

If you do have medkits in separate slots, they have separate cooldown too.

Setting UseBackgroundLevelStreaming=false in APengine.ini reduces that issue, but doesn't solve it completely.

What would I want to patch? First, to fix most common issues. Like mouse twitching. Players should not need to hack ini files in order to play game properly. Also, enemies disappearing after that when reloading last save is common too. Second, GUI needs some work. Proper hotkey capabilities to be added to reduce tedium existing with constant use of Q,Z,X,C,G keys, and to increase game fluidity in the process. Also, ESC should let you leave *every* menu. And ESC should get you out of either of Inventory, Intel or Service screens right back to the game, same should be available if you press corresponding shortcut too (I, M, P). press I, get into inventory, press I again, get back to the game. There are also some conversations that are not skippable. Flag them as skippable too. And the end, to tone down a bit hacking game. Starting difficulty is ok, but it difficulty scales up too quickly. That should be reduced. And have an option to use keyboard for both sets of cursors, as well as ability to move more quickly with keyboard in that mini-game. It's too slow and time is ticking.

I though it was obvious. In that DLC you case the place, searching for weaknesses, and pretend to be somebody else. Pretty similar to espionage work.