Sannom

Someone would have to explain to me why I couldn't login this past week Excellent thread you made there Anarcho, really helpful for those that would like to know more about the game or are still confused about some of its features. You made some errors here and there, but I think Oner spotted all of them. Altough I must say I'm still surprised that people think there are conversation skills... Alpha Protocol gets away from a lot of the genre conventions, especially because of its secret agent theme. In this game, it is not your character who is good at intimidating or talking his way out of problems, its the characters you interact with that are sensible to one or the other approch. They all "work" but the consequences are really different.

According to that news (in french), it seems that EA will at least make the single player campaign available off-line. They don't say anything about LAN support though : http://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/2009/0003615...nformations.htm

I think it all comes down at what you expect from Alpha Protocol. I think the guy who made the preview is concerned too, and should be, but I think he sees that it is a choice of design in order to bring what is really important in Alpha Protocol. I never saw that game as having massive "spatial" freedom : you choose the mission from the Hub, and then you get there and complete the mission whatever way you like. The freedom in Alpha Protocol is really focused on Michael's way of doing things and his relationship with the different factions.

Sometimes I wonder what's Chris Avelone opinion on the graphiscs... for me, Planescape : Torment is his masterpiece. And that game, as good as it was, still suffered from big limitations in combat options, class options and equipment options. Even though some of these were due to a choice of design (no sword for example), a lot were limited because the team put such an emphasis on dialogues, story and graphics (namely : armor, ranged weapons of any sort, AoE spells, etc). Even the GUI suffered from that focus on graphics along with story.

I must not be good at reading, but is seems to me that they describe their experience in a positive way, no? Unless this article is only sarcarsm all the way of course... I kinda liked the comparaison with Mass Effect They seem to worry about the Hub system... well, they're right, less freedom on that point, I hope they won't be too harsh though. Art they're not fond of... well, it was bound to dislike to some. But I really want to see the Mafia Boos, this guy is gonna be epic (not too much of a fan of Sie for the moment).

Yeah, that's what I understood as well, I just wasn't sure for the crafting that is not enchantment. But another question if I may : when it comes to enchantment, do you still need that the character with the feat also has the spell that is in the recipe? Unless you tell me that the need for a spell was cut too, which wouldn't really surprises me since they basically played the role of the hammer in the OC, and since that one disappeared...

I have a question about it : it all works with recipe, including armor and weapon craft, and so I have a question : does it mean that we can build as many weapons and armors as we want as long as we have the metal? Because I remember the mold in the first game, you could only create a few armors and weapons because the mold themselves were really scarce. Less money to do it, ambitious new features for a game that doesn't support them from the start, and Obsidian's history with bugs? Yeah, you certainly couldn't expect something perfect!

Yeah, that's what I thought but I was confused by the only one level of Ranger that you counciled him in your first post... I see that you've edited it now.

What's "dw"?

Yeah, it is sure worrying that in all the recent previews, the guys tell that they didn't really know anything about the game, even if they say that they really like what they see. I have mixed sentiments about this preview : on one hand, they're excited, and that's good. On the other hand, they seem to think that the game could perfectly be played as a shooter. Well, it's kinda true since it is a RPG and hence offer you different ways to do things, but the way they phrase it... is weird. Well, on the bright side, it might bring people who loved Mass Effect and its action. Might not be the kind of attention we would like the game to attract, but on a financial basis, it should be good for Obsidian.

There are gamers who compares it to Deus Ex, I'm one of them and I clearly remember seeing other gamers who thought so as well. It's like a mix between Deus Ex and the Witcher for me.

Concerning the loading issues, did you patch the game? Those are extremely annoying but got reduced by a factor of 80% after patch 1.2 (CD Projekt are like Obsidian : good stories and characters, horrid optimisation and technical skills, especially at launch).

Don't you have a malus on Wisdom AND Charisma with that race??? Wow, yeah, doesn't strike as a powerful race for the class, even without the ECL! But bah, as long as you had fun with it

Guns are just things that go "clic clic" ad kill people for me. I don't care how it looks or if the developers made them cool.

Is a strength-based Bard interesting when compared to a dexterity-based Bard, when it comes to combat? Sure you might need to"waste" two feats (Armored Caster and Medium Armor Proficiency) but it always seemed as something interesting to me!

Given the number and quality of the promotional content and previews we've seen that last month, I would say they're near to completion, and the game will ship on October. If there is a delay, it won't be anything like the previous one at least (from March to October if I recall).

What does "skin tone" exactly means? I'm not familiar with the term...

First, I'm sorry for bringing that topic from as far away as page 6, especially when my question is not really important : in the numerous things I heard about The Black Hound, it is said that one of the main characters in the story hunted and finally killed a black hound, and that the protagonist witnessed this and became entangled in an intrigue around the said character. So my question : is a black hound of special significance in the lore of D&D? Is it something more special that the name suggests? Because the way Josh talked about it in some interviews, it felt important, and I felt like I was missing a reference or something. And it doesn't help that I'm not a D&D player, except for CRPGs.

Of course, something in the vein of Lionheart I suppose... even if I never played that game and heard it was flawed (especially some terrible blancing), I heard you actually gained XP when sneaking past foes... wonder how it worked...

I heard/read somewhere that stealthy characters were rewarded for unlethal takedowns... or it could be perk that comes under some conditions?

I could see it as "Why so cruel?" or "Do you think Michael's gay or something?"

Well, I could see the reasoning for ToB, but for NWN 2? That game doesn't reach BG 2's level when it comes to sidequests, I don't see how people can not reach the max of XP allowed in NWN 2. But it seems unfair. The magic resistance is what brings the +2 ECL, but the other races that has that ECL level really aren't as gifted as the Yuan Ti.

That race is cheated I say I mean, absolutely not disadvantage, sweet stats bonuses, bonus feats, armor bonus, magic resistance, etc. I can't understand how the Deep Gnomes can have a ECL of +3 and that race only a +2 You continue in MotB with your character from the OC, so that would make it a level 20 (ECL not included) start if you bring your character from the OC in MotB. But since you start at level 18 (ECL not included) when you create a new character, perhaps there is a subtetly I'm not aware of. For Storm of Zehir, I think you start a level 3 or something, for your whole party.

I think the player chooses between lethal and non-lethal takedowns, mostly. I mean, if we even have non-lethal ammo for those of us that dislike killing sprees, why not the possibility to chose between lethal and non-lethal for takedowns?

The knife is not a confirmed weapon in AP, I think there is no close combat weapon in fact. But Michael does use a knife for the stealthy executions, you just don't hit yourself with it.