Conrad Gray

In AP, Thorton's conversation responses all roughly correspond to Bourne, Bauer, and Bond. However, are there any other spies, secret agents, or other similar covert operatives in fiction with distinctive personality archetypes that's different from Professional/Aggressive/Suave and could be used to characterize Thorton? Bear in mind someone such as Sam Fisher or Solid Snake or Gabe Logan wouldn't work because they're already video game characters.

No comments?

Well, I'm done with my first playthrough, and I feel like watching films. What non-James Bond/Jason Bourne/Jack Bauer flicks capture the sort of espionage setting and tone of AP? I'd say: Spy Game Body of Lies Traitor The Recruit Syriana Vantage Point

I know, I'm just speaking in generalities. The "mainstream" video game market is often as uninspired as Hollywood films. Not that the games aren't enjoyable, or even excellent. Just not inspired enough to keep on revisiting previous franchises.

I've found some online discussion of doing a campaign set in the AP universe with its factions and characters. Anyone tried that yet? Some links: http://www.crunchyroleplaying.com/2010/06/...filiations.html http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=519188

The ability to knock down enemies off of elevated platforms.

Given how uncreative the industry is nowadays, it's only a matter of time before almost any IP gets a sequel, prequel, remake, reboot, or spiritual successor. Of course, I'm still waiting on Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri 2.

Enough with the finger-pointing. The failure of AP was everyone's. Sega for being a lame publisher. Obsidian for being a developer with notoriously overambitious and buggy games. The modern-day audience for being dumbed down, partly by console-gaming. Bioware for being the EA of western RPGs. Ion Storm for making Invisible War. Enough with the blame game. None of it will get us an Alpha Protocol 2 (or 3).

I'm not too worried. I can wait 5-10 years for the IP to pass on to a more capable publisher. Or maybe Obsidian will dissolve and Chris Avellone and some of the devs will form yet another company.

1) This isn't placing any truth in rumors it's just asking about how a hypothetical game mechanic would work. 2) This thread was made scant hours before the announcement. 3) Well I was just wondering how AP's end-game save is different from Mass Effect's because it seems to me that AP saves only prior to the final boss fight, not after it so it never saves your ending.

Not to mention the whole "year long delay but you can't work on the game during the delay" debacle.

OOC: Actually, quite a lot of the info is preexisting, and can be found either on the wiki or on Gamebanshee's AP coverage. Organization: Veteran Combat Initiative Aliases: VCI, VetCo Origin: United States Founded: 1998 Organization: Private Military Company / Security Firm Ideology: Protection and safety for a price Background: Founded by a handful of ex-military professionals, the Veteran Combat Initiative (VCI) is a private military company and security firm. It operates multiple tactical training facilities, and has participated in dozens of conflicts and peacekeeping actions around the world. Boasting that it trains more than 60,000 people a year, the VCI takes special care to recruit specialists and various experienced military personnel as advisors and instructors. Among the world of PMCs, the VCI is considered to be something of a paradox. It is simultaneously both the employer of renegades, loose cannons, and "dirty cops", yet still renowned for its effectiveness and discipline. In the wake of the 2009 public scandals regarding Xe (formerly Blackwater) and the Strategic Combat Corporation (SCC), as well as investigations into other private military corporations, the VCI has kept its brand untarnished, excelling in its operations. Of course, critics are quick to point out that because of the types of veterans who tend to make up most of the VCI's force, the company is mainly used in the most anarchic and violent of warzones, including the Congo, Somalia, and Colombia. In such locations, little nuance exists in the rules of engagement and civilian casualties are unfortunately not high in the priority of the VCI's clients. Critics charge that under such conditions, it is unable to accurately judge the reputed discipline of the VCI. Though the VCI is relatively old in the world of PMCs, it has remained dynamic even in the current wave of new, energetic companies founded by experienced former mercenaries such as Trans-Global Operations (TGO) based in Miami and Spades Company based in Maracaibo, Venezuela. This professional rivalry has often carried over to battlefields, where members of different companies operating in the same area may experience conflict with each other. Leadership: Conrad Marburg, a former U.S. black ops operative and Chief of Security for the Halbech Corporation, is the Chief of Operations for the Veteran Combat Initiative. His early career is unknown; he is known to have been associated with classfied groups including Delta Force and operated in South Asia in the '70s. His tenure at Halbech ended in 2008, but his connection to them remains; VCI currently has a contract with the corporation. Marburg continues to partcipate in VCI field operations, including past missions in Kuwait, South Africa, and suspected involvement in an oil refinery explosion in Moscow. He is known to be an austere leader who respects professionalism and loyalty, and only allows his employees only one chance to prove it. Marburg is currently in command of VCI operations in Rome, where it is rumored that he is creating his own private unit. Outside of Rome, the enigmatic SIE is in charge of VCI operations, headquartered in Moscow. Not much is known of this ex-Stasi agent, other than for her seemingly unquenchable bloodlust. She was recruited into East German Intelligence at a young age and trained to be an elite agent. Following reunification and the dissolution of the Stasi, she became a freelancer. There, the trail becomes cold. An attempt in 1990 by the CIA to capture her for the Federal Intelligence Service of Germany resulted in the deaths of almost twenty people. Her loyalty to the VCI is somewhat tenuous- SIE has been known to work for the Egyptian Arms Consortium, the Russian mafia, Burmese drug lords, the North Korean government, and Jamaican pirates. Though she has much in common with Conrad Marburg- secret past, desire to partake in operations despite their age- she is reputedly not on good terms with her fellow VCI commander. Membership: The VCI mercenaries are, with little exception, former enlisted soldiers. The US Army, Mazi, and the Deutsches Heer are the main contributors of VCI manpower. The VCI recruiters prefer soldiers with dishonorable discharges -- borderline types that won't find employment in non-violent occupations. Once in the VCI, these roughneck men and women are expected to behave professionally- until certain points during missions, when the situation calls for it, and they are let loose to wage war wildly and indiscriminately. Following the downfall of the SCC in the wake of the arrest and conviction of its CEO, Jonas Goodbond, a large number of its former members were quickly hired by rival companies including the VCI. The mercenaries have also been able to acquire a large variety of state-of-the-art weapons and armor with powerful anti-fragmentation plating thanks to the dismantling of the SCC, formerly the largiest private military contractor in the world.

There have been rumors that if AP is to have sequels, you can keep your build of Thorton and use the file to continue your character in future games, Mass Effect-style. Now, that is all too early to even imagine. However, hypothetically, if it was true, is it even possible? The game doesn't save the result! I watched the credits and it returned to the main screen, and my last save ended up being prior to the final confrontation. I was able to play it again to try out different endings. So, does this mean that hypothetically, AP wouldn't be able to export my character? Because it doesn't seem to record what the ending is. How does exporting Shepard work for Mass Effect 2?

OOC: I was bored and decided to "flesh out" the backstories of the various factions in the game. Some of this is inspired by other games. Organization: Al-Samad Aliases: As-Samad, True Martyrs Brotherhood, Sons of the Will of God Origin: Middle East (Precise Country Unknown) Founded: 1989 (?) (Exact Date Unkown) Organization: Classified Terrorists by the US, Canada, the EU, Australia, Israel, and Japan Ideology: Revolutionary Arab Nationalism Background: Founded in the late 1980s, Al-Samad is one of many terrorist organizations of the Middle East. Despite its low profile, Al-Samad has nonetheless remained an important player worldwide, spreading cells to major European and North American cities. Originally a political group engaged mainly in the spread of propaganda and financing terrorist activities, in modern years the organization has focused its efforts in gunrunning, recruitment, and expansion, seeking any means necessary to achieve its goals. Despite this, Al-Samad is a predominantly a "support" organization focused on the expansion of its influence, rather than terrorist attacks. The 2009 downing of Air Saudi 770 is the only prominent act of violence committed by the group to date. Al-Samad means "self-reliance" in Arabic. Though it is one of the ninety-nine names of Allah and thus has theological significance common in Islamic terrorism, it has a dual meaning to the organization. Unlike most active terrorist organizations in the region, Al-Samad's ideology is not of violent Islamist jihad, but a form of Arab Nationalism formerly popular in secular Arab states such as Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. Despite claiming to uphold an Islamic heritage, Al-Samad is mostly a nationalist/anti-Western organization. Its long-term ideological goals is to establish a transnational Arab Republic "from Gibraltar to Hormuz," strengthening the Arab world so that "we may one day liberate ourselves and overcome the West." Because of this origin, Al-Samad has more in common with the likes of the PLO, than say Hamas or Hezbollah; it is also markedly less popular than religious-based organizations such as Al-Qaeda, who it sees as a co-belligerent against the West at best and a rival at worst. Leadership: The current figurehead and chief financier of Al-Samad is the Sheikh Ali Shaheed, who has claimed responsibility for the shooting down of Air Saudi 770. An enigmatic figure, Shaheed is a wealthy Saudi oil businessman with strong ties to political figures in the Middle East and the West. Over the years, he has profited from both his family's oil interests and political favors he's cultivated throughout the years with access to his oil. Shaheed's political associations with powerful Westerners and Europeans in the Middle East has not gone unnoticed- he is under surveillance by multiple intelligence agencies, including Interpol. The crimes he is suspected of include financing terror bombings in Europe and organizing the creation of terrorist cells in Europe and Asia. Organization-wise, Shaheed is considered the public face of Al-Samad and its overall strategist. Another identifiable figure is Al-Samad military commander, General Khalid Al-Aziz, a Syrian national. A former colonel of the Syrian Republican Guard, Al-Aziz fled the nation in 1995 following his involvement in an abortive ultranationalist coup against President Hafez al-Assad. A terrorist known to favor subterfuge and misdirection rather than open warfare, the general is implicated by Interpol of being involved in the smuggling of nuclear material from former Soviet states, specifically Central Asia. He is also suspected of being one of the planners behind the 1983 bombing of a bunker of U.S. Marines in Lebanon. Within Al-Samad, General Al-Aziz is known as its chief tactician, planning out specific operations as well as maintaining its personnel and weaponry. Membership: Al-Samad soldiers are loyal, but not generally well-trained. Often they are recurited by nationalist or pan-Arabist supporters, anti-Western but secularist disaffected young men. Elite agents amongst the ranks of the organization (usually identified by red ski masks) have better training and weapons than the rank and file. Because of the group's general preference for not openly engaging in violence, it has been able to largely preserve its support base rather than bleed them out from combat. Al-Samad's danger lies in their numbers, and their quick response time in calling out alarms and alerting the rest of their cells of any intruders. They are usually armed with dated assault rifles. Most of their weapons and equipment are in use by the militaries of several Arab countries.