Alpha Protocol Blog Update

Alpha Protocol producer Nathan Davis paid a visit to the game’s blog on IGN to tell us all about the game’s stealth mechanics.

In AP, stealth is based primarily on AI perception. You want to stay out of an enemy’s vision cone and stay as quiet as possible to avoid detection. If Thorton is running around out in the open, enemies can see you and attack from a pretty long distance. If Thorton is in cover, or moving low to the ground, enemy stealth range is cut roughly in half. If an enemy looks your direction, there’s a good chance he’s going to see you. So keeping out of his vision cone and sneaking around him his generally a good way to go. Hearing also plays a large role. If you shoot a gun (without a silencer) or set off an explosion, enemies will become alert. If you make a little noise, they will become suspicious and investigate. You can use this to your benefit a number of different ways. You can use a Sound Generator gadget to place a sound on anything you can see and enemies will go check it out. It’s great for getting baddies to move out of the way so you can sneak past. You can also use a silenced pistol to shoot out destructible items like clay pots to much the same effect. Also it’s very important to have quiet armor, otherwise getting close enough to someone to slit his throat is a much riskier endeavor.

Our RPG system was designed to enhance the player’s ability to do everything from shooting to hacking, but I buy skill ranks to improve my stealth abilities. We wanted to make sure that each level gave you something special, that would make a discernable difference in gameplay. For instance, one of the functions of the Stealth skill is that it reduces enemy perception. Instead of reducing vision range by one or two percent at a time, at various points on the Stealth ladder, enemy perception drops by ten percent at a time. Let me tell you, that makes a big difference! We actually tried a more linear incremental system originally. We found, however, that the best way to feel like your character is actually getting better at each level, you have to change things pretty drastically. This is a direction that you can actually see Wizards of the Coast going in with Dungeons and Dragons; where characters are essentially getting a feat or feat equivalent at every experience level.