player1

Especially if it's assault rifle: bad stability -> big drop in accuracy when moving.

The funny thing is that 1280x1024 has around 1% more pixels then 1440x900. So it's actually a slightly higher resolution then 1440x900. And that's true 1280x1024, not letterboxed 1280x720.

Well, some people like stats and leveling. For example, in early game, SMG have rubbish accuracy and recoil, and could barely hit anything farther away from close range. But, if you add some skill in them, and buy proper upgrades, they can become completely viable at both short and medium range.

There is theory in this forum that I read, that if you do Tapei before Moscow, Heck will not give you up as failsave, since it's still possible to betray/kill other two possible handlers for end game mission, and you really need to have at least one handler for it (probably also a reason why Heck is impossible to get killed too).

From Marburg dossier:

Dynamic shadows are one of few things that actually do have significant impact on frame rate.

There are multiple ini files in game documents folder. Some of them are used for game constants. APWeaponStats.ini includes weapon stats, APDamageTypesData.ini ammo stats, APLevelChart.ini leveling info, etc...

Please post what have you tweaked in APEngine.ini.

Something I picked up from APGame.ini: HardModePawnDamageIncrease=0.25; HardModeBossDamageIncrease=0.10;

I just noticed that depth of field, even if disabled in graphics options, still applies in dialog cutscenes. This also reminded me of similar issue in Witcher, when I played it with with my old x1600pro radeon. In that game turning off DOF improved dialog performance.

While I was experimenting to see if this game would run on my 1201N netbook, I found another tweak. You see, while disabling background streaming helps a bit with instant shutter, and OneFrameThreadLag=False with shutter when frame rate is not ideal 60fps, neither helps when frame rate drops below 20fps. Since with my ION netbook frame rate can drop to 10fps or less, mouse shutters like mad and game is pretty much unplayable in that condition (although average fps is around 20 at 1024x600 resolution). What I discovered later, was that in APInput.ini, if bEnableMouseSmoothing is set to false (two entries in same file), and used together with OneFrameThreadLag=False and UseVsync=False from APEngine.ini, mouse control gets much more responsive with low frame rates.

I doubt it. Seems like a too much work for a patch, considering that current save system doesn't save full game state (enemy position, crouch/stand state and some other stuff), but only critical info.

Anybody noticed some of the ini files in Documents\Alpha Protocol\APGame\Config folder? I smell some minor modding potential there.

Heh... In my netbook test I just used same cutscene.

It's pitty that more of those options aren't exposed through in-game menues. P.S. True about bloom. Turning it off removes all 3d elements from menues.

One thing I noticed when playing with SMGs is that they are bad if enemy is behind cover. Due to spread nature of their bullets, expect 1/2 of the bullets to miss the target and hit cover. That's why they should be use offensively. It's also a reason why only boss against which SMGs where worthless for me was Leland (on normal difficulty).

Just for fun, I tried AP on my 1201N ION netbook, and it was unplayable (mostly because mouse behaves "funny", if frame rate is below 20, not somethings that happens with other games, with less then stellar frame rates). I just hope that mouse issue gets solver properly in patch. With such lower end GPU, I noticed also that cutscenes are indeed very demanding. While rest of the game was around 10-20fps, cutscenes where around 5fps. I have no idea why...

I'm pretty sure the real reason is to optimize save game size (very important for consoles). If areas are closed off, and not complete state is saved (like exact position of enemies or crouch/standing state), saved games are much smaller. Not having enemies at exact same position (as when checkpoint/save is made), and other inconsistencies are somewhat masked with use of checkpoint system (although not too well: see reports about disappearing enemies). Dragon Age, for example, has huge saved games.

^turn off forced Anti-Aliasing in your graphics drivers.

Enlighten us, Alvin. Music_Boss_Temp.upk, includes "The Final Countdown" song, which doesn't appear currently in the game, so I guess it was planned as some point as Brayko boss song.

That's pretty dated GPU. Have you tried reducing all graphics options to low, to see if it makes a difference.

In first playthrough I used shotgun as backup weapon for my solider and it was ok. Mostly used it only with room sweep active, and to conserve some AR ammo. But in second playthrough I'm having a lot of sun with sub-machine guns. At short, short-medium range they are pretty brutal if you use controlled bursts. Good sustained fire compared to AR, and great stability for when on run, make them good complement for AR, which should be used for far away enemies. They are still OK, if you don't chose them as specialization too.

By the way, it's good to know that unlocked Veterean status is saved in ProfileOptions.dat file in game documents folder. So when backup up saves, back up that too.

In my second Veteran playthrough I used SMGs pretty much all the time for close/mid-range combat, and AR for distance (and tough bosses). They where really great. Much more then shotguns which I used as secondary weapon in 1st playthrough (they only pay off when activating room sweep for knockdowns and better rate of fire). Compared to AR, they can do sustained fire (AR only does short bursts), and have good stability (so you can shoot while on run, with low drop of accuracy). Plus damage bonuses when killing multiple people with same magazine.

Please post how. Just found oggextract. Does fine job of extracting ogg files from those upk archives. P.S. Is it just me or Moscow safehouse music reminds me a lot of Mass Effect? P.P.S. Music from Brayko's boss fight is in Music_M11.upk file.