Mk1

Yep, this works really well. Not sure how much harder it'd be without it, but this way it's a breeze.

Did you even play this game? "Trying to play this game as a shooter?" Just what do you think the AP missions, which form 90% of the game, are? Depending on your style of play, the vast majority of this game is a cover-based 3rd person shooter, or a 3rd-person sneaker a la the earlier Splinter Cells, with role-playing heavy conversations IN BETWEEN THE MISSIONS. The missions themselves are almost pure action, with the occasional conversation thrown into the major story missions, but not the side ones. Aside from choosing whether you'll sneak or not, and use lethal or non-lethal force or not, the biggest choices you make are whether you'll use a zip-line to get over a fence, or sneak into a shack to hack the gate computer instead. None of this actually makes AP a bad game, but spare me your fanboy BS. This is an action game with role-playing elements, so naturally, people are going to focus on the action.

Fallout 3 has BROKEN combat. Mass Effect shooting is EXACTLY like AP. The gameplay mechanic is the same. The AP AI is pretty poor, but then again, the FO3 AI is just plain stupid. No, ME shooting (the original ME) is not exactly like that in AP - the controls in ME, while nothing to write home about compared to the best shooters out there, are notably more responsive and crisper. The ones in AP are barely good enough that (for me) they don't detract from the game, but that's it. And neither of them compare well with the tweaked controls in ME2. On top of that, AP tries to use the same exact mechanics both for stealth-based shooting and all-out action, and they're not especially well suited to the latter. I don't know what your objection is to the Fallout 3 system, but I never had any major issue with it... Regardless, Fallout 3 doesn't need to be a better FPS than Alpha Protocol to have a "better combat system", it just needs to have a combat system that suits the kind of game it is better than AP's system fits AP... and I think it does.

I think Oblivion, Fallout 3 or the Mass Effect games all deserve higher scores than Alpha Protocol. Production values matter, and a clunky combat system should hurt your score - especially in an action game. Still, a lot of the reviews are too harsh, and exaggerate the extent to which the rough edges (no pun intended...) in AP get in the way of gameplay. Although just because in this case the scores (for the PC version, which are better than for the 360 version) aren't terribly unfair (only somewhat so), it doesn't mean that there isn't a ton of bias and hypocrisy in the game review press... Look at what those bastards did to The Witcher, for example - an 81 Metacritic score, but a 9.3 user rating and over a million copies sold on the PC alone. There are times when a big name is easily worth 15 points.

Did making Bao-Dur a Jedi strike anyone as a bit pointless, since he can't wear any armor or robes that don't restrict force powers, and he actually does just fine fighting unarmed, so an upgraded lighstaber is pretty wasted on him?

Every time your characters attack, a number between 1 and 20 is randomly generated, and then your attack bonus is added to it. If that number is equal to or greater than the Defense stat of whoever is being attacked, you've hit, and another "die" (a holdover from the D&D roots of the system the game uses) is rolled (what size the die is depends on the weapon, the more powerful the weapon the more and bigger dice are rolled), and then various bonuses - based on the character's strength, as well as on what upgrades the weapon has, and what Feats the character is using - are added on to it to determine the total number of vitality points the opponent loses. Generally, unless your damage bonus is really piddly, this means you're better off increasing your chance to hit rather than damage - you'll cause more harm if you hit with every blow for less damage, than if you hit only once every second or third swing for twice as much damage per blow. Of course, ideally you want to increase both...

Ewwww... you use automatic level up? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No, I don't. I just don't think of someone who has Stealth as a cross-class skill as "good" at it, and I decided to make a ranged killing machine with excellent computer, demolitions and repair skills out of her. BTW, did everyone who seems to be having toruble with Mira holding her own in combat actually bother to give her any of the close combat feats? It helps to make sure the enemies don't get a +8 to hit you if you want to specialize in ranged weapons...

Stealth is something Mira isn't all that great at, actually... I just leveled her up, gave her a good blaster rifle (had a few cluttering my inventory) and went off to introduce the bounty hunters to Master Rapid Shot. I had to use some medpacs, but it wasn't hard getting through them.

Mira actually does sick amounts of damage with a good, upgraded blaster rifle... Perhaps not as much as the wookie with maxed TWF, but frankly, in this game you have strong melee fighters coming out of your ass, so I actually find her a lot "better" as a result. The technical skills don't hurt either.

That's not how the d20 system works. Under standard d20, characters cap out at 20th level, and prestige classes only have 10 levels - in order to go higher, you need to use the Epic rules, which have a different save, attack bonus, feat, etc. progression. I don't have any of the myriad supplements for the pen and paper Star Wars RPG, but in SW, it shouldn't really be an issue, since the most powerful iconic characters statted out in the basic book go no higher in terms of level than high teens. Not that I mind that Sith Lords lets you go higher.

Is there a specific encounter with the two of them, or are they just part of the mob of mercenaries you slaughter at the Czerka outpost? I either missed the encounter, or killed them without realizing it.

*sigh* If I'm on Nar Shadda, doesn't it seem likely I got the shuttle running and killed the tank droid? Yes, I'm talking about the abandoned military outpost on Telos, the one with the shuttle, the tank droid, the poison gas vents, the reactor, etc. There's a large door there (in the lower right corner of the map) labeled as the entrance to the base "sub level". I'm trying to figure out if other people have found a way of getting in there before taking the shuttle, or if it's something that comes into play later. (if at all)

I'm on Nar Shadda already, but something's been bugging me: How do you get into the sub-basement in the military base you have to traverse to get from the Czerka outpost to the polar region? I've activated the reactor, and as far as I can tell tried using all consoles, found an access card of some sort (not sure if I used it for anything or not), but the door leading to the sub-basement is locked tight... Did I miss something, or is it simply the case that this is something you get back to later in the game? (if so, please don't elaborate)