Alpha Protocol: Balance is a Bitch

[Azarkon]

First run-through: Max martial arts & stealth. Everything was easy peezy then I ran into Omen Deng. And then Brayko. I raged.

Second run-through: Max shotguns and assault rifles. Everything was easier peezier. Took down Brayko in what I thought was a pretty cool fight.

Third run-through: Max pistols. All bosses died in 1-2 hits. I was speechless.

Did anybody at Obsidian even bother to test Chain Shot?

Don't have enough time to post a general review yet, but there you go.

 

[BirdsCanFly]

Oh yeah, you don't even need max Chain shot, 1 level in it will basically kill everything.


(Not to mention shadow operative -> stealth kill 5 guards without them noticing, in THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING ROOM with NO COVER)

 

[SuicideBunny]

max brilliance+max shadow op=whee.

 

[Azarkon]

Well, yeah, for most of the levels. But you're missing a critical piece of the puzzle: Chain Shot, without which the bosses will make you rage.

The most overpowered build in the game is Pistols, Stealth, and Technical. Guaranteed. The build is less powerful than pure Assault + Toughness at the beginning of the game, but since the beginning is so easy it doesn't even matter. At the end game, you will become a god. Here's the only two tactics you need.

Against mass enemies: Shadow Operative -> E E E E E -> Brilliance -> Shadow Operative -> E E E E E. That is, if you want to even bother taking the enemies down rather than just running past them.

Against bosses: Chain Shot -> Click Click Click Click Click Click -> Brilliance -> Chain Shot -> Click Click Click Click Click Click.

Refresh every 45 seconds. You will literally be able to finish the final level by just running through and 1-hitting all the bosses you come across.

 

[SuicideBunny]

chain shot 1 is sufficient, while you need max brilliance and max shadow op, and not really needed because all the boss fights will have possibilities to trigger so, and with the exception of mechanical bosses like the apc and copter, they will not see you.

 

[Roguey]

First run-through: Max martial arts & stealth. Everything was easy peezy then I ran into Omen Deng.

How was that a problem? I had max martial arts when I ran into him, activated Fury, and gave him a beatdown so fast that the game glitched and he was stuck with a sliver of health that would never go down. I had to restart and beat him up a little slower.

 

[Mangoose]

Oh yeah, you don't even need max Chain shot, 1 level in it will basically kill everything.

Yeah, but you'll need to have strong pistol skill or an uber damage pistol if you want to be able to sneakily tranquilize people you don't want killed while not alerting everybody else.

 

[Azarkon]

First run-through: Max martial arts & stealth. Everything was easy peezy then I ran into Omen Deng.

How was that a problem? I had max martial arts when I ran into him, activated Fury, and gave him a beatdown so fast that the game glitched and he was stuck with a sliver of health that would never go down. I had to restart and beat him up a little slower.

I think I did Taipei first and only had basic fury when I met him. Didn't seem to make a dent on his health at all. By contrast with chain shot and/or assault and/or shotguns, it was easy with only a few ranks in the skills.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

I think its been established that obsidian doesn't balance games since Kotor 2, where you could beat up sith lords with your bare hands.

 

[Felix]

But thankfully, those are easy to change by ini tweaks, just need someone.

 

[Mangoose]

Yeah. There's a guy on the Obsidian boards perusing the inis as we speak.

For example:

I've lowered amount of damage dealt by any boss (well, actually the variable common for all bosses on hard) and upped damage dealt by regular grunts. And it's only because all bosses are so overpowered.

It was in APGamedata.ini:

HardModePawnDamageIncrease=0.25; <----- I've upped that to 1.50
HardModeBossDamageIncrease=0.10; <----- and decreased this to -0.80

http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?sh ... 5422&st=45

 

[Jim Profit]

I think its been established that obsidian doesn't balance games since Kotor 2, where you could beat up sith lords with your bare hands.

I never played kotor 2, but kotor 1 was only easy with a walkthrough. On it's lonesome it was healthfully challenging.

Those tiefighter side levels were the worst.

Darth Malik is only easy if you know you can basically leave him powerless by using life drain on all his test tube jedi.

 

[oldmanpaco]

I think its been established that obsidian doesn't balance games since Kotor 2, where you could beat up sith lords with your bare hands.

I never played kotor 2, but kotor 1 was only easy with a walkthrough. On it's lonesome it was healthfully challenging.

Those tiefighter side levels were the worst.

Darth Malik is only easy if you know you can basically leave him powerless by using life drain on all his test tube jedi.

Obvious troll is obvious.

Or you ride the short bus.

 

[Jim Profit]

Obvious troll is obvious.
Or you ride the short bus.

So says the bigamist. Don't you have an std to go get?

 

[KalosKagathos]

I never played kotor 2, but kotor 1 was only easy with a walkthrough. On it's lonesome it was healthfully challenging.

Stasis/Insanity -> Sneak Attack -> dead bodies

 

[oldmanpaco]

Obvious troll is obvious.
Or you ride the short bus.

So says the bigamist. Don't you have an std to go get?

Short bus then. My apologies.

 

[Jim Profit]

Fuck that, I was manly and in kotor was an armored jedi, canderous was my sniper/could take care of himself with regeneration, and bastila healed me. (Or the nigger when she was kidnapped)

Also grenades. Grenades solved EVERYTHING. I never even bothered to find the poison shit to hide in the corpses to kill the rancor. I just lured the rancor toward a tunnel he couldn't fit through and threw grenades at him.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I think its been established that obsidian doesn't balance games since Kotor 2, where you could beat up sith lords with your bare hands.

I never played kotor 2, but kotor 1 was only easy with a walkthrough. On it's lonesome it was healthfully challenging.

Those tiefighter side levels were the worst.

Darth Malik is only easy if you know you can basically leave him powerless by using life drain on all his test tube jedi.

Obvious troll is obvious.

Or you ride the short bus.

Actually, I'll half-back the guy. There was virtually nothing hidden lore-wise in KotoR1 except for HK47's background (which needed hefty skills), whereas it was a real bitch to find out every bit of info in KoTOR2 due to some key conversations only opening up with seriously negative influence. The Malik fight COULD be difficult in KoToR 1 depending on whether your build. If you had a lightside caster (I forget their name in the game) build, you'll have no direct damage spells to hurt Malik with or to mass kill the tube Jedi with (I can't see how you'd need a walkthrough for that, they're sitting there to be clicked on). The light-side caster is essentially a buffing/healing character that makes every other fight in the game trivial by my mass buffing and easily healing the squad, combined with lightsabers by themselves guaranteeing good melee against ordinary enemies. In the fight against Malik you don't have party members (from my recollection), and hence you're stripped of utility, with only yourself to buff/heal.

I'd say that's more poor design than difficulty, as it only applies to one build (albeit a common and powerful one), and it doesn't seem like a deliberate balancing effort by Bioware. If there were more 'solo' boss fights, then it could probably be justified by throwing in a bad-guy taunt somewhere early about the lightside caster being reliant on his party-members (maybe a 'and you think you don't manipulate your little pawns...' dialogue) - then it would be a clear 'good vs groups, bad vs bosses' build. As it is, it just seems like a one-fight imbalance.

 

[Radisshu]

Yes, chain shot is overpowered.

I actually attempted melee on all the bosses at first, because of stuff didn't work out I could just oneshot them anyway. Seeing Sis getting her ass kicked by furious Mike Thorton looked hilariously wrong.

 

[Xor]

I basically branched out before discovering how broken Chain Shot was, and then regretted not specializing in Pistols for the rest of the game. My build also focused on stealth, and I had problems with every direct firefight and boss encounter in the game except for Leland.

I think I reloaded 30 times on Oman Deng before I fired up a hex editor and just gave myself 65000 health so I could get on with the game. Also got the Insurance Salesman perk which was amusing.

 

[denizsi]

In my third game, I picked shotgun. I literally walked through every fight, taking people down in single headshots upclose. It was like playing T-800 except people weren't terrified of me. When you first confront Deng, I ran straight up to him, delivered two personal shots and before I hit the final area overlooking the meeting, he was already half dead. I kept knocking Brayko out of his shoes so he didn't even have the time to get personal with me. But I didn't fight Loli Loli and MILF SIE that game.

 

[Jim Cojones]

Darth Malik

 

[TNO]

KOTOR 1 had some marginally difficult fights, but by and large the only tactics you needed was either 'activate special attack, kill trash mobs' or 'spam buffs and stims to kill boss'. Darth Malak was hard for lightside if you didn't have breach to nuke all his corpses (although, tbh, that just makes it more TEDIOUS), or if you were a dark side caster, as the designers made his stats ridiculous to make him practically invulnerable.

KOTOR2 though, I just can't imagine anyone finding anything difficult. You don't need balance when you can just walk it.