Alpha Protocol...suggestions? Spoilers abound

Ok, I'm really having a good time with Alpha Protocol and I guess I'm going to have to get a bunch of stealth shooters, because I seem to like them alot. That said, I have some specific questions about AP and would love some help:

1. I'm playing as a pistol wielding stealth artist, but I'm running out of tranq bullets and there's none for sale. I'm only past the Saudi area and it wouldn't be too bad to restart and just hit up the unlimited ammo in the weapons training area. Should I do that, or will the ammo become available again soon? I almost NEVER find tranq bullets as treasure. I've tried going to Tapei safehouse and Rome safehouse after Saudi, but neither had tranqs.

2. Okay, I'm past Saudi and I can "tag" three skills. I've nearly got the whole pistol tree and stealth tree, should I still tag these? I'm also not sure where to put my last tag skill. I was thinking sabotage because that tree has a variety of bonuses, including 50% more cash, which could be key! Suggestions appreciated.

3. Why did this game get murdered by the press? Was it super buggy? I've had several bugs, but it hasn't outweighed the absolutely fabulous gameplay. This is a very good game.

Thanks for reminding me to play this one sitting my shelf. Must not get distracted by dragon shouts....

crpgnut said:

1. I'm playing as a pistol wielding stealth artist, but I'm running out of tranq bullets and there's none for sale. I'm only past the Saudi area and it wouldn't be too bad to restart and just hit up the unlimited ammo in the weapons training area. Should I do that, or will the ammo become available again soon? I almost NEVER find tranq bullets as treasure. I've tried going to Tapei safehouse and Rome safehouse after Saudi, but neither had tranqs.

Click to expand...

Use melee in combination with stealth as well as pistol. The three of them work really well together. Neither of them kill your opponents.

crpgnut said:

2. Okay, I'm past Saudi and I can "tag" three skills. I've nearly got the whole pistol tree and stealth tree, should I still tag these? I'm also not sure where to put my last tag skill. I was thinking sabotage because that tree has a variety of bonuses, including 50% more cash, which could be key! Suggestions appreciated.

Click to expand...

Like I said, I'd go for melee or martial arts or whatever it's called. As an alternative, toughness can be quite useful, and it's also nice to have the utility skill that improves your lockpicking etc.

crpgnut said:

3. Why did this game get murdered by the press? Was it super buggy? I've had several bugs, but it hasn't outweighed the absolutely fabulous gameplay. This is a very good game.

Click to expand...

Because they expected a shooter with RPG elements, not an RPG with shooter elements. The skills of the character determines how good you are at combat, instead of simply how good you are at playing FPS games.

At least that's my theory. Like you, I found it to be a very good game. I enjoyed it a lot. I still replay it from time to time.

I second Maylander's suggestions. I tried a complete non-lethal playthrough and "failed" because I unintentionally killed one guy somewhere. I don't even know when or where that happened. Might have been a bug, too, where the game registered a non-lethal takedown as a kill. I don't know...

Anyway, to support a stealthy, non-lethal approach you should definitely continue to put points into stealth. You can neglect pistols. As soon as you have reached a certain level in stealth you will no longer need to eliminate anyone from a distance with tranq darts. At the highest levels of stealth you can pretty much activate your "cloak" skill and run up to your enemies in a straight line, even facing them, to take them down in melee. It's (almost) like an invisibility cheat.

To make it easier in the boss fights (some of them are quite challenging for a stealthy/non-lethal guy), it makes a lot of sense to build up the toughness and martial arts trees.

Technical aptitude or sabotage... doesn't really matter. Whatever you prefer to put some leftover points into should be fine. I never had any cash issues so I wouldn't focus too much on that skill that you mentioned that gives you mo' moneeehhh .

In summary if you want to continue the stealthy, non-lethal style: Put a strong emphasis on stealth, martial arts and toughness. Forget about pistols ASAP (or any of the other ranged weapon skills for that matter). Technical aptitude or sabotage = optional.

I've already killed several folks with guns, so I won't be getting any pacifist-type perks. I may just start over and go pistols (because I LIKE shooting), melee, and stealth. I need something to spend money on though, because that's at least half the fun for me. Pistols should do the trick along with the silent armor, etc.

Comment, the manual makes it seem like you get bonuses if you use the right armor for particular missions. That didn't make sense to me. I figure armor should take account on how your build is setup, not the mission. Same thing with ammo.
Thoughts?

Also, do you guys have a preference for which city to visit after Saudi? I've read that Moscow has a killer boss fight and should be saved for last.....

crpgnut said:

Also, do you guys have a preference for which city to visit after Saudi? I've read that Moscow has a killer boss fight and should be saved for last…..

Click to expand...

Yep. It's a bit strange that Moscow turns up as seemingly the default option after Saudi Arabia due to the alphabetical sorting of the locations IIRC (Moscow, Rome, Taipei). It doesn't really matter overly much in which order you do the locations. Without spoiling too much... there is something that you can do in Taipei to make the Moscow boss fight a lot easier so you might want to consider doing Taipei before Moscow at least.

Personally, I followed what I thought to be the default order and did Moscow up to the point of that boss fight which turned out to be mission impossible with my build and equipment. Then did Rome and finished it, then Taipei and finished it and finally went back to Moscow to kick that guy's ass to hell and back .

crpgnut said:

3. Why did this game get murdered by the press? Was it super buggy? I've had several bugs, but it hasn't outweighed the absolutely fabulous gameplay. This is a very good game.

Click to expand...

Because everyone reviewed it for the game it wasn't instead of the game it was. This happens to a lot of fun games which are actually pretty good games if you ignore all the labels and just play them.

crpgnut said:

Ok, I'm really having a good time with Alpha Protocol and I guess I'm going to have to get a bunch of stealth shooters, because I seem to like them alot. That said, I have some specific questions about AP and would love some help:

1. I'm playing as a pistol wielding stealth artist, but I'm running out of tranq bullets and there's none for sale. I'm only past the Saudi area and it wouldn't be too bad to restart and just hit up the unlimited ammo in the weapons training area. Should I do that, or will the ammo become available again soon? I almost NEVER find tranq bullets as treasure. I've tried going to Tapei safehouse and Rome safehouse after Saudi, but neither had tranqs.

2. Okay, I'm past Saudi and I can "tag" three skills. I've nearly got the whole pistol tree and stealth tree, should I still tag these? I'm also not sure where to put my last tag skill. I was thinking sabotage because that tree has a variety of bonuses, including 50% more cash, which could be key! Suggestions appreciated.

3. Why did this game get murdered by the press? Was it super buggy? I've had several bugs, but it hasn't outweighed the absolutely fabulous gameplay. This is a very good game.

Click to expand...

1.) You'll find a lot of tranq ammo - especially when you don't need it. It can also be bought in limited quantity.

2.) Pistol is the best for the boss fights. Apart from that it doesn't matter. Everything canbe useful.

3.) - Most reviewers suck.
- They expected something else. AP is an RPG with shooter elements.
- It's not that buggy. The inventory has some annoying but harmless issues. Saving inside a level sometimes doesn't work as it should. If that happens exit the game and try again.

crpgnut said:

I've already killed several folks with guns, so I won't be getting any pacifist-type perks. I may just start over and go pistols (because I LIKE shooting), melee, and stealth. I need something to spend money on though, because that's at least half the fun for me. Pistols should do the trick along with the silent armor, etc.

Click to expand...

Compare the item / armor stats carefully before you spend money on mediocre stuff. Maybe it could make sense to save money for the really expensive gear.

My observation was that you always find weapon attachments you don't have yet. So when the cheap stuff is full you'll get the expensive add-ons. I'm not sure whether or not selling the rubbish influences this ...

Comment, the manual makes it seem like you get bonuses if you use the right armor for particular missions. That didn't make sense to me. I figure armor should take account on how your build is setup, not the mission. Same thing with ammo.
Thoughts?

Click to expand...

You do get bonuses for killing nobody (or even remaining undetected) in certain missions. Certain characters aren't happy if you kill US agents or foreign police men.

Also, do you guys have a preference for which city to visit after Saudi? I've read that Moscow has a killer boss fight and should be saved for last…..

Click to expand...

Amateurs!
Why don't you play all 3 parallel?

AP's replay value is very high btw. You'll certainly want to play it again. Make sure to create enough savegames, in case you want to go back.

Gorath has a good point regarding boss fights: Pistols are, by far, the best boss fight weapons due to the incredible output of the special ability (especially at higher levels).

Even the Moscow boss fight is a breeze with high level pistol.

Martial arts pretty much rocks at everything else though. Then again, most weapons get the job done.

I always go, Stealth, Pistols and the one with Camera Invisibility (Sabotage?) with No Kills. The lack a Tranq bullets, just like Deus Ex is frustrating, unrealistic and immersion breaking. I've never understood why devs do it, many times I just add more Tranq bullets, just for the sake of more realism.

Necro-ing this thread, but I just started AP again with a stealth/non-lethal build and got stonewalled by Sis. I start in an ambush so I can't use my invisibility, and I'm not doing enough damage with hand-to-hand before she takes me out. Any ideas how to get through this?

I can't add much to the pacifist discussion but can only comment that I greatly enjoyed the game. It has a few 'breaking' clipping type bugs where (I think it was tanks) would get stuck and the only fix was reload - but overall I think it was far better than any game released last year.

Philistine said:

Necro-ing this thread, but I just started AP again with a stealth/non-lethal build and got stonewalled by Sis. I start in an ambush so I can't use my invisibility, and I'm not doing enough damage with hand-to-hand before she takes me out. Any ideas how to get through this?

Click to expand...

What weapon skills do you have?

I have 9 points in stealth, 3 in Sabotage, and 3 in MA. I'm carrying a pistol and an assault rifle without skill. I'm not wearing any armor to keep my sound profile as low as possible. Until now I've always run away if discovered until the heat dies down but that isn't possible here.

Aha. So you basically don't have any of the combat skills that can be activated. Some of them, such as MA, Pistols and Toughness are incredibly strong.

Dealing with her (or a few of the other bosses) without any such skills will no doubt be tough. In her case, running away should still somewhat work, as she will enter a "ranged mode" where you can basically turn it into a cover-shooter type of thing and just wear her down. Run away whenever she comes close again to make sure she's always at range.

I just beat her… I hid behind the table and lobbed a couple of incindiary grenades (that get a small damage boost from Sabotage) that destroyed her armor and brought her down to about 25% health, then charged in and smacked her up. Checked stats afterwards, 0 kills.

Pistols are very strong. Only skill you really need for combat.

Yep, mainly due to the active skill. If you're going for 0 kills, you also have to use a lot of martial arts, as you are restricted to expensive tranq bullets.

This was a pretty decent game, back when I played it. Not sure if I'd ever replay this, but it was really enjoyable.

MA works for all the regular enemies, I just have to be more prudent with the bosses. I just beat the russian main boss and had to choose my opportunities carefully then hit him hard with Fury and an epinephrine shot, 2 bouts of that and he was toast.