Estelindis

I think Anita's great. However, I don't think that Obsidian need her help. They've already shown themselves to be more than capable of writing nuanced characters of both genders.

The theology sounds interesting. I agree that it seems reminiscent of Hinduism. I wonder if all the gods (or beings that are seen as gods anyway; maybe they're just the most powerful souls?) are deceptive and manipulative. If so, I wonder why. If not, I wonder what might have happened to the more truthfully-inclined gods or what they're doing.

Haha, really? Brilliant! :D I agree about this. That's why I think it would need to be considered carefully by the writers from the outset: what would be the consequences of the death of each companion, and could the plot continue without them? Perhaps the plot could carry on, but in a slightly different way. If not, then the character would have to be such that they would be able to defend themselves against the attack and escape... or maybe take the PC prisoner and have the attack start off a whole alternate way of reaching a later point in the plot. The truth is, branching plots are expensive resource-wise... but this is *far* more the case in a game that requires full voice acting and extensive art development for every area the player will see. In a game where most dialogue will be text only and the areas are hand-painted but don't need a huge slew of the things that go into modern AAA game areas as standard, there's much more room for genuinely branching plot. Of course, it would have to be prototyped first - say, in the engine's conversation editor, where narrative paths would be used in place of conversation lines and one could see there how difficult or easy it would be to branch things back together - but it could at least be attempted.

It's not necessarily all you need! I think we'd want more feedback on the topic from actual transgendered people before we could say one way or the other. It just seemed to me that it would not be the kind of thing to which the game would need to react to preserve realism and not break immersion, but I'm open to correction. Honestly, I can see how what you describe would be a poisonous trend if it relieves the developers of all responsibility for making the game react to your choices. On the other hand, it's nice for a game to leave itself open to several possible interpretations without needlessly hemming in a person's imagination.

Since when did we ask for a game that doesn't reflect our choices? You are reading a lot of things into people's posts. Personally, I have never played Oblivion at all. I would simply think that a game that includes male and female genders could implicitly include transgender, unless there are specifically transgendered things to which NPCs should react. Are there? If so, what would they be? I mean, it's obvious that city guards should react to you as a city guard if you really are one, but if you identify as a certain gender and try to look like a person of that gender, are there certain reactions you expect from NPCs? I'm sorry, but since I'm not transgendered I would need to have this spelled out for me.

That's all very well, but it depends on how the plot is written. What I would most want to avoid would be something like the "Goddamnit, Anders!" moment towards the end of Dragon Age 2. The kind of thing he's trying to do is obvious, if you pay much attention at all, but you are powerless to do anything about it even if it would make sense for your character to try and stop him. I understand that it's a fine balance between foreshadowing and making totally obvious - of course writers don't want to make these things come out of nowhere - but I would argue that if we cannot stop these kinds of actions on the part of our companions then at least we need to have had little to no way of knowing what they would do.

The only thing that really bothered me about Infinity was that in earlier versions it could be hard to notice or access certain clickables that were hidden by overlapping scenery and since there was no camera to rotate you couldn't create your own better angle to look around and grab it. It was solved by the addition of a key (was it Z or tab or somesuch?) that highlighted all clickables when held down. I hope that'll be in Project Eternity. Don't see any reason why it wouldn't be.

This was my immediate thought too. If there is some reason why this wouldn't work or make sense, I'd love to hear it. First thing that comes to mind is if there was a background for the PC integrated into the game, where your parent or guardian was an NPC and mentioned "oh, you were such an <adjective> little girl/boy," which could break immersion a bit. Can't really think of any other obstacle, though. And you could just RP such a moment as the parent/guardian respecting your wish to identify as a certain gender and describing you that way retroactively.

Somehow, his curse could have been passed on to you and you'd be forced to betray yourself! Bwuahahaha! ...or something. *sheepish look*

That scene would make sense if I attack them frontal. But what about if I take them by surprise or sneak up on them? If they're the kind of character that would sense a sneak attack, they would get a chance to defend themselves; there might be breaks in combat where they confront you. If they're not, and you get the better of them, there could be a conversation as they die.

I'd like to vote for something between option one or two. If it is possible to kill a companion any time, or at least try to kill them, it should trigger a conflict-driven scene which varies depending on a range of factors (e.g. their personality, where you are in the plot, what you know about them, what they know about you, etc). They may demand to know why you are trying to kill them, fight you, try to get away without fighting, or what-have-you. The event should impact other characters who are aware of it and care about you, the companion in question, and/or the morality of anyone involved (or general morality of killing).

Incidentally, I did not encounter any bugs, though I did find a few aspects of game annoying (controls, camera, etc). But the plot, pacing, and characters were more than enough to make up for those frustrations. I'm sorry we won't be getting a second installment of AP.

Indeed. The Darcy fight was the hardest and most frustrating in the game for me because I had built my agent as a non-lethal powerhouse and was aiming to get through the whole game without killing anyone. I did my best not to kill Darcy, but couldn't climb up to the tower to fight hand to hand. Couldn't get shock grenades up there. No point in using the sniper rifle, as it'd kill him. All the while, unable to stay in one place much time at all due to grenades. After about two hours of reloading, I resorted to Chain Shot (which, although a core game mechanic, always feels like cheating to me). I used tranquilliser rounds (the only kind of bullet I've ever used in the game, outside of the tutorial). Of course, although my kill count remained at 0, the game's narrative acted like I killed Darcy anyway... As commented elsewhere: even when using tranqs, ten of them directly in the enemy's face is probably going to kill him. But still! "Your weapon is choice," right? If we manage to keep our kill count at 0 even after Darcy, then NPCs shouldn't act as if we've killed him. (Unless they're simply mistaken and Darcy's still alive, somehow? I suppose I can believe whatever I want, actually, since there'll be no AP2. More's the pity.)

I did get that perk, and I agree that 12 would be more than sufficient! However, I liked to use my inventory slots for more than just EMPs. Flash-bangs and shock grenades are very useful in a no-kills playthrough! Med kits also have their uses. However, it must be said that if one's sole aim is to be able to get through the game without having to hack directly, it is generally possible (excluding the initial hacking at the Greybox).

I found the controls for hacking extremely frustrating, personally. Particularly with the mouse, it often happened that as I was trying to click to select the right-hand character-string, it would move slightly with the clicking motion and thus select the wrong character block. Especially considering the checkpoint saving system, this had to be my least-favourite aspect of AP. Thankfully, a good gaming mouse can improve the overall experience (I played the first half with the ordinary, entry-level mouse connected to my desktop, before changing it for the gaming mouse that came with my laptop). Sure, you can use EMPs. One can only carry so many, though, and I tend to keep one or two in reserve in case I come up against any ridiculously hard locks (of the ten levers in twenty seconds variety).

Based on some of the things I read on the forum before I played the game, I was a bit dubious about Heck when I started off... But, in-game, he was pure, unadulterated funny. Brilliant character.

My favourites in terms of characterisation were Mina, Albatross, and Sis. In the case of the first two, I adore non-villainous professional types; keeping one's cool under pressure shouldn't be something only the "cold" bad guys can do. In the case of Sis, the scene with the locket was just perfect. The most hilarious was Heck. Loved the conspiracy emails and the possible replies! The character I most wish had been given more writing and screentime was Darcy. I actually really felt sorry for him - I felt his abrasiveness was armour just barely covering a severe sense of insecurity (due to his not being able to work in the field even after joining AP, since his senator daddy had to be placated). The character with the best crowning moment of awesome was Brayko with his musical boss fight! I thought the only boring character was Madison. I didn't mind that she was a sweet damsel in distress... She just seemed a little bit thick.

You can count me in as a big Mina fan. She's intelligent, level-headed, and professional - but not in the least bit obnoxious about it (unlike some "strong" female characters, whose writers seem to assume strong = bitch). Finding out her secret fact cinched things for me - and for my professional and patriotic Mike.

Well, eventually, the controls began to feel easier to handle... and it turned out to be possible to finish the game with zero kills (as listed in character statistics, anyway). There was an awful lot of boring reloading, but it was fun overall. Brilliant characters and plot, anyway. And it didn't end with "rocks fall, everyone dies!" :D

...Upon consideration, though, my aim to get through the entire game without killing anyone may be making things more difficult than they would be otherwise. :D (I have no idea if there are any plot-required killings; I guess I'll see as I go along.)

Okay, this is just going from my first day playing the game... I've spent many a happy hour playing games that Obsidian devs have worked on, so naturally I picked up Alpha Protocol. I heard it wasn't getting great reviews, but pshaw - never let a review stop you from doing what you want to do. Ultimately, though, my experience of AP isn't anything like what I expected. Yes, I love the characters... and the setting... the conversation system too... as well as the idea of a truly branching narrative. And I expected to love them. So far, so awesome. But I am just so terrible at playing the game! The amount of reloading I'm finding necessary is ridiculous - way more than even Dragon Age, or BG2 at its toughest (e.g. the big dragon fights). And it's primarily a question of controls and camera. But I don't know if I'm simply awful at using the controls and manipulating the camera, or if these aspects of the game are just lower than average. (I'm playing on Normal, by the way. My first playthrough of any game is always on Normal.) Is anyone else having the same experience, or is it all roses? Or do other people have troubles with other things?

That's great news. Having just released a fairly big mod for Neverwinter Nights (an enormous desert city tileset, to be precise), I understand that it can be a pain when one gets near the end and more issues crop up. Because one has been working on the project for so long, one doesn't want to release it with bugs - yet there's another part of one that thinks "feck it: I want to get this thing out of the door and resume a normal life, final bugs be damned!" People who aren't part of the project nagging one for progress or thinking they understand the task when they haven't worked on it can be a pain too. That's why I've avoided posting here until now: I didn't want to be bothering you! I mean, it's really easy to come across that way, even when one doesn't mean to do so. Anyway, all I really have to say is that I think you're all great for putting so much work into the mod and, both for my sake and yours, I look forward to the release of the mod!

Yeah, it's tough to choose. Personally, I'd consider myself an OC / user-written modules / module builder / custom content creator. :D