S.T.A.L.K.E.R

[xawery 0]

What I really hate though are the damn monsters spawning around you when you wake up from the cutscenes. There's hard and there's unfair. You're so disoriented it's you can't do anything for a second or two, and that's plenty of time for two bloodsuckers to do you in.

Incidentally, it wasn't until much later in the game that I realised I was running Oblivion 1.2 rather than 2.0. With a sigh of resignation I started a new game, not exactly looking forward to trudging through the same sequences. I must say though, the difference is enormous. They've really done a massive job on tweaking the engine. Now the days are actually bright! The AI throwing nades is a very nice addition as well

[CosmicCastaway 0]

Aye, that bugs me too. Some of the later areas it seems like someone added a zero into the spawn scripts by accident, so instead of one creature you get a pack of ten. Nice to look at from a distance, until they start heading over in your direction...

[USSRsniper 0]

Aye, that bugs me too. Some of the later areas it seems like someone added a zero into the spawn scripts by accident, so instead of one creature you get a pack of ten. Nice to look at from a distance, until they start heading over in your direction...

After a while i got sick of this, when you wake up ten monsters near you, so i got myself minigun and used ammo trainer, now i can easily clear up th area from mutants, and then switch to normal gun

[xawery 0]

Aye, that bugs me too. Some of the later areas it seems like someone added a zero into the spawn scripts by accident, so instead of one creature you get a pack of ten. Nice to look at from a distance, until they start heading over in your direction...

Too bloody right! In version 1.2 you only got freakish amounts of enemies after waking up, but 2.0 seems to enjoy throwing humongous packs of mutated creatures at you every chance it gets. Allow me to illustrate

When I started this game I took a little detour and went straight to the Dark Valley. I scored some nice weapons there, cleaned out the hideout and went on with the game (and let me tell you, it really doesn't like it when you take a different route). After the little talk with the barkeep I went back to the hideout to get the second electronic key. The place was still squeaky clean since my last visit so I helped myself to the keycard and went on my merry way. I jumped in the truck and drove to the oh-so-secret lab. As soon as I drove through the gates I heard the tell-tale howl of a bloodsucker. Before me, all sorts of nasty little creatures skittered across the road. I drove like a madman, rushing through anomalies before they could do too much damage. I took a sharp left and planted the truck into a concrete pipe in the courtyard of the second base. I got out, dizzy and bleeding. I turned around, only to witness a pack of seven bloodsuckers, a couple of pseudo-giants and an entire horde of those damn ratlike-creatures run straight at me. Naturally, I was dead in a matter of seconds.

Still, the cacophony those bloody creatures made isn't very likely to leave my mind soon.

[CosmicCastaway 0]

You just know you're boned really:

[im]http://www.arseaboutface.com/stalker/stalker_beasts.jpg[/img][/img]>100kb

Radiation from the NPP is currently the least of my worries:

img]http://www.arseaboutface.com/stalker/stalker_npp.jpg[/img]>100kb

[xawery 0]

Jesus Christ on a bicycle... You know, I find those images very discouraging. I haver really enjoyed OL because it makes you much more vulnerable: just a few rounds of any weapon will take you down, but a well-aimed shot will take down an enemy as well. It's kind of like the OFP trade-off: you die quickly but so do the enemies. Of course, you're usually outnumbered so the game is still challenging and rewarding - you have to use cover and your wits.

But this whole end-boss business... It doesn't fit the game at all. The first time I came across Burer was in version 1.3. Back than he was still indestructible so you had to use a well-placed artifact to take the bastard out. That was pretty nifty. But then I got gang-raped by two bloodsuckers right after waking up, and I thought: "did the modmaker really want to shaft the player with this or is this just some error in the scripts?" Throwing powerful enemies by the dozen is just plain frustrating. Their strength lies in the fact that they are rare. The first encounter with the bloodsucker in the Agroprom was nothing short of frightening. If cartloads of them are dumped on your head, well... they lose their appeal.

Then version 2.0 came along. Packs of bloodsuckers, pseudogiants and other scum... What's the fun in that? Burer has been reduced to a heap of flesh that took a number of clips and a grenade or seven before it went down. The whole "use cover, flank" routine had been replaced with "put your most powerful weapon on auto and keep that finger on the 'use medkit' button". No fun at all.

And now your screenshots... Jeez, that's just depressing. In a sudden bout of masochism I read through some of the 600+ pages of the OL thread on the Stalker forums and it appears that the maker of the mod had intended it this way. Apparantly, he thinks that impossible=hard=challanging=fun, rather than impossible=frustrating=uninstall. It's like the godlike AI in ArmA 1.0: sure, the fact that they can kill you while you're 1000 m away behind a bush makes the game hard, but fun? No.

[USSRsniper 0]

Jesus Christ on a bicycle... You know, I find those images very discouraging. I haver really enjoyed OL because it makes you much more vulnerable: just a few rounds of any weapon will take you down, but a well-aimed shot will take down an enemy as well. It's kind of like the OFP trade-off: you die quickly but so do the enemies. Of course, you're usually outnumbered so the game is still challenging and rewarding - you have to use cover and your wits.

But this whole end-boss business... It doesn't fit the game at all. The first time I came across Burer was in version 1.3. Back than he was still indestructible so you had to use a well-placed artifact to take the bastard out. That was pretty nifty. But then I got gang-raped by two bloodsuckers right after waking up, and I thought: "did the modmaker really want to shaft the player with this or is this just some error in the scripts?" Throwing powerful enemies by the dozen is just plain frustrating. Their strength lies in the fact that they are rare. The first encounter with the bloodsucker in the Agroprom was nothing short of frightening. If cartloads of them are dumped on your head, well... they lose their appeal.

Then version 2.0 came along. Packs of bloodsuckers, pseudogiants and other scum... What's the fun in that? Burer has been reduced to a heap of flesh that took a number of clips and a grenade or seven before it went down. The whole "use cover, flank" routine had been replaced with "put your most powerful weapon on auto and keep that finger on the 'use medkit' button". No fun at all.

And now your screenshots... Jeez, that's just depressing. In a sudden bout of masochism I read through some of the 600+ pages of the OL thread on the Stalker forums and it appears that the maker of the mod had intended it this way. Apparantly, he thinks that impossible=hard=challanging=fun, rather than impossible=frustrating=uninstall. It's like the godlike AI in ArmA 1.0: sure, the fact that they can kill you while you're 1000 m away behind a bush makes the game hard, but fun? No.

They got it wrong, jsut by adding mroe enemies not going to make game better and more fun. thats why i stick to AMK.

[OmniMax 0]

My review of STALKER (note: I only read the first page of replies):

I just finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R. two days ago and I was fairly surprised in that it was a modern game that I enjoyed. It was as if Half-Life, Fallout 2, and System Shock all had a giant orgy and out came STALKER.

I was a bit confused by the first page about the graphics being dated and the game being linear/boring/etc... because mostly in part the claims that the game is sub-par is untrue.

The game uses gracious amounts of bump mapping and other DX9 features and boasts excellent graphics, what is there to bitch about? Not to mention the engine is in-house and not licensed, which these days is pretty impressive upon itself, especially given

STALKER's graphical beauty. I do admit though, many of the features of the game's graphics did remind me of Half-Life 2, which doesn't bother me because I thought Half-Life 2 and the Source looked excellent.

And while we're on the topic about graphics I should probably make mention of the terrain. Specifically the research that went into making of all the buildings and gates and rails, et cetera, et cetera. Take a look at pictures of real Pripyat and take a look at screen shots from the game. It's almost as if they went there in radioactive protective suits, took pictures of the buildings and used them as textures! So the game isn't based on the Unreal 3 engine, so what? You're all playing ArmA which isn't quite so aesthetically pleasing so quit your bloody bleating.

In terms of the game play being linear... So what? For the game to have any sort of consistent plot, story, or meaning of what you're supposed to do, there needs to be a plot and you need to follow the game along. It's interactive story telling. This isn't some Will Wright sandbox game where you wave your willy around. There are actually quests that aren't linear where you can do them ad infinitum until your brain explodes (in the same vein as Oblivion).

And while we're talking about Oblivion, whoever thinks Oblivion looks better than S.T.A.L.K.E.R. seriously needs their eyes checked. When I bought my new 22" LCD and cranked the settings in Oblivion and went outdoors for a stroll with the 200mb

enhanced visuals mod I was left unimpressed. I then proceeded to uninstall the game from my computer because it was fucking boring. Two words: level scaling. (You know what I'm talking about)

I tend to like the game because it is hard as tits. Nearly all the guns until you reach near the end of the game are inaccurate as holy hell and the way the game makes everyone vulnerable as in two shots you're dead gives the game a sort of firefight style gameplay reminiscent of ArmA.

The game has its flaws, mainly what I'd like to call Fallout 2 syndrome. What do you do once you've found all the weapons, armor, do all the side quests, join Duty, kill Freedom, and beat the game a few times? The replay value is sort of lost but there is a mod out there called Oblivion Lost which makes the game a lot more interesting and more difficult, including having enemies come into the safe zones like the 100 Rads bar and shoot everyone up.

And one last thing: the game is scary. Resident Evil or any of those console games have absolutely nothing on STALKER.

One moment you're lugging back some artifacts from a zone you cleared in Agronom or whatever the bloody place is called and you hear this low, gutteral growl. You enter one of the derelict buildings and all of a sudden this giant brute of a beast called a bloodsucker jumps out at you from nowhere as you frantically try to empty your AK-74 into it. Gun jams. You die. Baddies will randomly spawn in cleared out areas, making the game even more difficult. Also, the game had an enjoyable story line and plot.

That's my review, I hope you enjoyed it, otherwise you can piss right off.

[Deadfast 43]

Take a look at pictures of real Pripyat and take a look at screen shots from the game. It's almost as if they went there in radioactive protective suits, took pictures of the buildings and used them as textures!

Actually the developers were there .

The place is not that much radioactive anymore.

[kavoven 4]

Take a look at pictures of real Pripyat and take a look at screen shots from the game. It's almost as if they went there in radioactive protective suits, took pictures of the buildings and used them as textures!

Actually the developers were there .

The place is not that much radioactive anymore.

Some background info on that:

A few month ago I saw a docu film about the surrouding area of Chernobyl and the wildlife there is simply amazing. Many species have already returned and are enjoying the completly human-free enviroment. (Wolfs, lynxs, wild living cats...) Many animals settled even close to the reactor and are suprisingly avoiding the still heavyly radioactively contaminated zones. So the area is in ideal observing-place for pure nature

The developers of Stalker had a special permission to visit the zone and in the previews there were many comparisons between the game and reality

[OmniMax 0]

Take a look at pictures of real Pripyat and take a look at screen shots from the game. It's almost as if they went there in radioactive protective suits, took pictures of the buildings and used them as textures!

Actually the developers were there .

The place is not that much radioactive anymore.

Yeah, it depends on the plants and soil and stuff. One place can be perfectly safe and you walk a hundred meters and your Geiger counter is off the scale. Different materials absorb different types of radiation differently. I hear being inside houses is particularly dangerous due to the stagnant air but all is safe if you've got a good Geiger with you.

STALKER is the best and realistic representation of Chernobyl (in a 3d format) to date, and the entire incident in '86 is quite intriguing. It's like the fallout area is it's own little biome or ecosystem or whatever have you.

It was a good game, I plan on playing again on master, maybe try sticking to one gun the entire game or playing the stealth type role. Hard to get headshots with that silenced pistol in the beginning, though. Do you know if different suits/your total weight determine visibility to A.I?

[OmniMax 0]

I'm revisiting the Zone with Oblivion Lost 2.0.

New monsters are a treat. I like how vulnerable everyone is now and the pistols actually can hit a target with iron sights. AK-74/SU is accurate to the ranges it is in real life! Without the mod you'd be lucky to get a hit at 100 meters, but I suppose in the original design they didn't want the game to be a snipe fest because the AI doesn't deal with that well.

The military is raiding the camp you start out in and they keep fending off well. All this means is a lot more loot for me.

I'm at the gates of Agropom and last time I checked the military are kicking the loner's asses. Check it out if Mole dies later on, most of the special dudes have special weapons.

Haven't checked out this Burer business but it doesn't sound very fun.

Also if you're worried about random blowouts and sleeping with 2.0 don't worry, it's not so bad. In 2.0 your weight limit is 80 kilos now, too. Not sure about the boss business, though. Doesn't sound very fun. Where do you encounter him?

[Deadfast 43]

SPOILER (mark the text to reveal):

Quote[/b] ]You meat the first boss (Burer?)<span style='color:white'>at the first lab (X-18) in the Dark Valley. You have to kill him before you can get the documents. He's waiting right outside the room.</span>

The best way to kill him <span style='color:white'>are explosives. Shoot him few times to make him follow you, then run to the stairs that are left of the door you came with. He won't follow you there so just chuck all the explosives you have until he goes down.</span>

[Heatseeker 0]

Are the patches cumulative and can i just install 1.4?

What version do/did you guys run? I've read horrors about 1.5 and 1.6 messing up SP very bad (what i care about).

Im receiving it next monday .

[CameronMcDonald 146]

1.4 was cool for me, and was the version the mod I ran recommended.

[OmniMax 0]

Yeah 1.0004 seems cool, originally I wanted to run an older version of Oblivion Lost because I didn't want to have to deal with the random blowouts and sleeping but actually I've done a lot of side quests in the first area and right around when I was looking for Fox/guy across the railroad tracks you have to get a medkit and helped him fend off mutants; the first blowout occured in which you just follow neutral/friendly NPCs for cover from radiation and watch the red blazing sky. Doesn't happen often, not a big deal.

Sleeping is no big deal either. In game time moves kinda slowly and I have never noticed my character getting drowsy. You can sleep at 1, 3, or 5 hour intervals and if you're tired and need a safe place to rest you can gulp down an energy drink. I find it convenient for passing time (how many times in the original STALKER did you want to wait for daylight? )

But yeah, 1.0004 seems compatible with a lot of the OL mods, but 1.0005 isn't, but OL 2.0 works with it though. Apparently .5 up is just multiplayer crap for STALKER (and MP in stalker is bad )

[Heatseeker 0]

Hmm, thanks but let me try again..

Can i just install 1.4 or do i have to install 1.1 + 1.3 first?

Im quite looking forward to it .

[xawery 0]

IIRC all the patches are incremental, so you'll have to install one after another.

Where are you getting the game from? Chances are it's already patched to a certain degree.

[Heatseeker 0]

IIRC all the patches are incremental, so you'll have to install one after another.

Where are you getting the game from? Chances are it's already patched to a certain degree.

Amazon but i already downloaded all the patches, they are small.

From the bits i've seen on YT i think im going to crap ma pants playing this .

And clear sky is looking nice.

http://au.media.pc.ign.com/media/945/945039/imgs_1.html

[kavoven 4]

Amazon sells it for 9 Euros atm, but I think its 1.0

[Heatseeker 0]

Oki, i like it but i dont get it yet.

How deep of an impact do my actions have? Trader has this quest to kill some rookie for not much of a reason and its an easy task but.. if i do it will it impact bad on my rep?

Also i noticed other experienced stalkers are easy prey for dogs and bandits, if i trade bandages and medpacks with them will this increase their chances of survival?

The game is very nice but its a bit confusing .

[WhoCares 0]

I bought the game about two weeks ago. By now I am three to four weeks in-game and just yesterday crossed the border to the Army Warehouse, so I am playing rather slow.

I played quite a number of side missions, also a few of these killer missions. In one case I found the victim at a camp fire with a couple of other stalkers. I walked up and killed him with a headshot out of a silenced weapon. The bystanders reacted by a kind of standard procedure to a nearby threat or firefight, but other than pulling their weapons and scanning the surroundings they didn't react and did not engage me. So in this case it does not seem to affect your reputation. But I played just about five such 'kill the stalker' missions and also did not cause other friendly fire casualties, so I am not sure what happens if your character evolves just around these missions (they will repeat eventually).

Yesterday I had the chance for a 'serious' check of this relation mechanism, when I could have supported a Duty squad in the attack on some Freedom base. But I did not engage in the actual firefight and so I stayed neutral to both sides.

Quote[/b] ]Minor spoiler: <span style='color:white'>(Completing the side mission to kill one Freedom sniper before the attack has no apparent effect, but gives you quite some additional 'income' in the form of weapons and other equipment collected from the dead bodies after the fight)</span>

Not sure if I would have become an enemy to Freedom if I killed a number of them - I thought I'd better not try, as I might have to pass through some more Freedom territory...

So I suffer a little bit by the same confusion, but I actually like it that way. Even if it does not affect your relation if you kill thousands of neutral or faction (e.g. Duty) Stalkers I'd still 'roleplay' it that way and would do it just with a pretty rogue character.

Regarding your second question, I regulary sell spare bandages and Medkits to other Stalkers and quite a few times when I visited the region again I collected the very same stuff from their dead bodies and sold it to the next  

Quote[/b] ]Minor spoiler: <span style='color:white'>A good example for this is in my game the 'Garbage Hangar Garrison'; though one might consider this an exploit, especially if you do it to get their money with some expensive artifacts</span>

So I don't think they use them, at least not very often. But i still keep selling them the stuff - again a kind of a roleplaying thingy...  

[ShadowY 0]

It`s been a while for me but I don`t think you will come anywhere playing like that as you do whocares

just go along in the attack on the Armybase...you`ll find some nice weapons and ammo overthere when you go search all the bodies or marked secret stashes and the armory

[Heatseeker 0]

OK, i also thought about selling loot to the other stalkers, since i can loot their corpses later but that doesnt generate much money and money doesnt seem important/usefull.

From my understanding killing one single duty or freedom guy turns them all against us, being friend with Duty and neutral with freedom sounds smart.

Im also taking it slow, exploring and doing side quests, its a nice game even with a fair share of problems/bugs .

[ShadowY 0]

When you don`t start to kill or keep searching for better weapons and gear/suits you will be busy for a while  

You found out already what a skeleton suit costs or the better weapons you need for the end missions(s)?

Anyway have fun  

This is done with a mod. but when I first played it I also looted and sold alot, the rest like perfect weapons and suits I kept for myself ...so I sold almost everything I found and kept all of this to myself

The money I made is on the top right...and I still bought stuff, the rest I found etc...

The guitar I could bought from one of my victims...but I needed to do it in a special way...can`t remeber how