|
 What is STALKER? Stalker is a series of FPS games created by GSC Game World, a Ukrainian-based developer, set in a fictional incarnation of the Zone of Exclusion, a 35km area around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant that has become warped by a series of events following the original 1986 disaster. They are characterized by their deep level of roleplaying, immersive world, excellent combat and the unique AI. The games are primarily about sitting around a campfire, sharing stories about how you nearly got killed, the rare treasures you found, and your personal tales of rejection by Duty. You can buy them on Steam or retail. So without further ado, let us get to the meat of the series. =================================================  ================================================= Welcome, fellow stalker, to the Zone. She is a beautiful, scary, cruel mistress but we love her so. What is the Zone? The Zone is your best friend or worst enemy. She is the sole provider for any number of Stalkers that walk upon her surface. Many have tried to uncover all of her secrets, but she constantly surprises even the most experienced Stalkers, and will destroy you if you underestimate her. The Zone consists of a 35km area around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant that has become out of touch with reality as we know it. Destructive anomalies litter the zone, their locations shifting with each deadly emission from the heart of the Zone. Many a careless stalker has met their untimely demise at the hands of them, assuming the mutants do not get to them first...  A brief, incomplete timeline of the major events of the Zone 1981 - A scientific research bunker is created in what would become known as the Dark Valley 1986 - There is a meltdown at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Workers living in the surrounding area are evacuated. A 30km Zone of Exclusion is set up around the site, in the interest of public safety. 1991 - The Soviet Union collapses. All major funding into the effects of the Zone are publicly stopped. Several projects are continued, out of sight of the public eye. 1999 - The Ukrainian government is concerned about illegal experiments being performed in the Zone and sends a special unit to investigate. Reports are inconclusive, but the memos of O. O. Dobrynini cause considerable disturbance among those who read them. 2001 - Public interest in the Zone is rekindled when rumours spread of the Zone acting strangely. In an area 10km from the Power Plant strange creatures and phenomena have been recorded. When a group of tourists mysteriously vanish, the Zone is locked down by the government. 2005 - Reports of strange sightings continue and seem to be occurring further away from the center of the Zone. Weather disturbances aswell as strange localized tremors are reported. 2006 - On March 6th, Blinding light appears above the Chernobyl Power Plant. Observers note that it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.. No conclusive explanation has been found. On April 12th, another bright light was recorded. This was followed by severe energy disturbances and an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale. On June 10th, in what would become known as the "Second Disaster", the first known emission occurred. Vast amounts of power erupted from the center of the Zone, increasing its size by 5km. This is largely considered the birth of the modern Zone, where the very laws of science are turned on their head. Most of the military garrisoned in the Zone perish and villages close by are evacuated 2009 - A group of Kiev scientists discover a means of detecting anomalous activity up to a radius of 10 meters. In a winter expedition, they safely manage to explore the first 1km of the Zone. 2010 - Further expeditions are made deeper into the zone. The first traces of illegal stalker activity are discovered, along with mysterious artifacts that appear to be borne of the Zone. 2011 - The golden age of Stalking begins. Embiggened by reports of people surviving in the Zone, brave fortune seekers begin to explore the Zone in hopes of making a name for themselves. Later on in the year, the second major emission occurs. During the aftermath of this, several factions begin to struggle for influence in the Zone. Thus begins the events of Clear Sky 2012 - On May 1st, the Marked One appears mysteriously in a bunker just inside the Cordon. This starts of the events of Shadow of Chernobyl. August 1st, Major Degtyarev is sent into the Zone to investigate the failure of Operation Fairway. This starts the events of Call of Pripyat  One of the defining aspects of the Zone are the numerous anomalies that you will encounter, parts of the Zone that seem to defy the normal rules of science and logic. Out of these are borne artifacts, strange constructs that give owners incredible power, usually at some expense. Some of the more common ones include: Springboards/Mosquito Balds  One of the first known anomalies, these are the most basic but do not underestimate them. They are characterized by what appears to be a heat haze surrounding the area of effect. A careless stalker walking into one will be subjected to an intense gravitational effect which can do severe damage. They can be detected using bolts or other small objects. They spawn several common artifacts. Electro  A very deadly anomaly, as it name suggests it is primarily electric. Easily spotted during the day by the blue coloured sparks that emit from it. It is much more difficult to spot during the night, so caution is advised. Fruit Punch  At first this could be mistaken for radioactive waste, but if only it were that simple. Anyone coming in contact with these will be subjected to severe chemical burns. They are usually found underground and are quite easy to spot. Avoiding them proves slightly more tricky. There are many more anomalies out there, all with different effects. Half the fun is discovering them, the other half is surviving them.  If the anomalies don't get you, the mutants surely will. The Zone has a number of mutants within it. Some of the most common are: Blind Dogs  Heavily mutated remnants of the canine population of Chernobyl. These dogs have become blind, but have prospered in the Zone by utilizing their enhanced sense of smell and hearing. They often attack in packs and are quite cowardly on their own. Fleshes  Mutated pigs. These animals probably underwent the most dramatic changes. Becoming more insect-like in nature, they have a hardened carapace and heavily mutated external features. They are mostly peaceful and will leave you alone if you leave them alone, but can become aggressive if threatened. snorks  These are believed to be what remains of the military that were caught in the blast of the first emission. Heavily mutated, they are mere shadows of what they once were. They move around on all fours, unable to support their weight standing upright. They are characterized by very strong tendons in their legs that allow them to jump great distances. Often travel in packs, a very deadly mutant. Many more mutants have been reported, but not by credible sources. =================================================  ================================================= As the Zone increased its allure to the general populace as a place to find fame and fortune, various factions sprung up who share common interests and beliefs. Clear Sky (defunct)  One of the first groups to penetrate the Zone, they were primarily concerned with investigating the zone and its effects. Unlike Ecologists, they were not hesitant to use force where necessary and often contracted PMCs to help them with their inquiries. Ecologists  One of the most persistent groups in the Zone, these groups of scientists believe the Zone to be a great gift to humanity and wish to study and conserve the Zone wherever possible. They believe the secrets the Zone contains have untold benefits for humanity. Loners  The so-called Free Stalkers of the Zone. These are stalkers not particularly affiliated with any group. They tend to look out for each other and try not to get involved in the petty squabbles of other factions. Bandits  The antithesis of the Loners, these are a loosely organized group that believe in every man for themselves. If there's money or good times to be had, they will be there. They also have kickin' rad taste in music. Mercenaries  Private soldiers often hired to do the bidding of other people. They have a mysterious presence in the Zone, hinting at a larger conspiracy at work. Whether it be private citizens or foreign governments, if they have the money they will get the job done. Freedom  Anarchists and revolutionaries, Freedom believe that the Zone should be open to all, for both technological and scientific advancement and for every man to prosper from its bounty. This ideology has brought them into direct conflict with... Duty  Mainly composed of former-military, and other people who have seen the horrors the Zone can inflict, Duty firmly believes that the Zone is a blight upon the Earth and wish for it and everything it spawns to be destroyed. Often considered to be fascists, they believe that force is the only language the Zone understands. Monolith  A very secretive group of religious fanatics. Not much is known about them or their beliefs, but they seem to be operating from the heart of the Zone and are unusually well equipped. =================================================  ================================================= Q: I hear these games are buggy pieces of crap and run terribly A: While this may have been true at one point, thanks to the vast amounts of community support and mods the games have risen from their humble beginnings to become (reasonably) polished works of art in their own right. The X-Ray engine is a relentless arbiter of system performance. Any bottlenecks your computer has will be found and mercilessly attacked until it brings it to its knees. In (general) order of importance the most important things you will need are: 1. A good CPU - the higher clock speed the better. Dual/Quad Cores are very under utilized. The brunt of most of the work will be done on one core, with a second core being used for background tasks. 2. A good I/O speed. Solid State Drives are obviously the best, but a fast hard drive will also increase your performance. The game pulls data from the hard drive constantly, so the faster the better. 3. RAM - the more the better. Left to its own devices it will eat all the RAM it can get hold of. 3. A graphics card. Stalker games are usually not the most graphically intense. If you have a semi-decent card you will be fine as far as GPU power goes. 4. A sense of patience... the X-Ray engine can be a finicky, frustrating thing to work with, but thankfully there are many people out there to help you with whatever issues you have and most are fairly easily sorted out. Some general performance tips: HUGE loving DEAL RIGHT HERE! DOWNLOAD THESE SHADERS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! Shadow of Chernobyl The Marked One is incredibly short. Your default eyeline is, for some reason, lower than every other human by default. You can change this by setting the "camera_height_factor" value in the actor.ltx file from 0.85 to 0.94 - enjoy your normal sized Marked One! Clear Sky/Call of Pripyat For Clear Sky/Call of Pripyat, if you're using Full (enhanced) dynamic lighting, turn SSAO, Sun Quality and Sun Rays down to LOW. The quality hit is barely noticeable, but you will get a significant boost in FPS. You can also lower vision/lighting distance. Setting these to about 50% will not make a huge visual difference (but this is a matter of preference) Q: Help me I keep dying and I can't shoot straight, what the gently caress is wrong with this game? A: Calm down. You're experiencing culture shock. While you may be used to games where you can take a faceful of lead and keep on trucking, the Stalker games do not operate in that manner. Take your time, find some decent cover, and try your best not to be flanked. Bullets are generally lethal in these games, and if you take too many hits you will die a horrible death. Aiming is a bit finicky (but there are mods for that), but the Stalker games utilize actual ballistic models for their weapons. Weapons are affected by travel time, drop, the phases of the moon, and whatever voodoo curse Sidorovich has placed on them. Q: I can't find the basement and/or the rifle, where are they? A: Chances are pretty drat good you're looking in completely the wrong place or for the completely wrong thing. The Stalker games, when they got translated to English, came with a few relics of the original language that never really got adequately translated. Thus "attic" became "basement" and "shotgun" became "rifle". As with most things in this game, there are simple, quick fixes to remedy those problems. Q: Prefetching? What's that? A: GSC, with the best intentions of the world, decided to do people a solid when they made their games. To improve performance, they decided to make the games preload all the data you will need in order to play the game smoothly. Well, that's the theory. In practice this often didn't work out the way they intended. Multiple people have issues with prefetching, as it's usually very unselective about what it loads, and if not properly configured (usually by mods) it will load every single file in the game into memory. As you can imagine, this is a bit burdensome and can reduce overall performance. Thankfully there's an easy solution for two of the games. Simply add -noprefetch to the launch options of Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky and all your prefetching blues will vanish. Call of Pripyat involves a bit more work, but that will be covered later on. Q: In which order should I play the games? A: Most people would suggest you start with Shadow of Chernobyl. Out of all three of the games, this is probably the most story driven and atmospheric of the three. From there you can either go straight to Clear Sky or skip it, if you're not feeling particular daring, and go straight to Call of Pripyat. The relative merits/pitfalls of each game will be discussed later on. Q: These games are too easy/I want the full experience A: For the most part, the Stalker games have difficulty settings that actually make sense and are fair. Some mods may change this (most don't), but in general you will always want to be playing on Master difficulty. This removes the artificial restrictions that other Stalkers have, like having only a 40% chance to hit you, it increases the damage done by all weapons considerably (this is for both you and other stalkers - they can kill you quicker, but they will drop like flies too) and generally makes the AI slightly better. If you're an extra masochist, turn the crosshair off and rely on your iron sights. =================================================  ================================================= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmp2gchZEao http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6ffYNIwfqc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tGvj4B9_00 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3Hqqh3CwXU More cool stuff to be added at a later date Ddraig fucked around with this message at May 11, 2012 around 10:12 |
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 05:19 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2013 14:30 |
|
|
================================================= =================================================     The one that started it all. Set in the year 2011, a mysterious unidentified man is found in an abandoned truck on the outskirts of the Zone. He is later revived and knows little of his past. His PDA has only one entry: Kill Strelok Playing through the eyes of the Marked One, the goal of Shadow of Chernobyl is to find and kill Strelok, whoever he may be. Being the first of the three games, it is often considered to be the most basic gameplay wise (although thanks to modders this has become far from the case). Make no mistake, though, this game is not your average run of the mill FPS. Out of the box it has an amazing amount of complexity and intrigue to keep you interested. It is also considered the most atmospheric and scary of all three games. The Zone is truly a mystery in this game. =================================================  ================================================= Q: I hear I need mods to play this for the first time? A: Not quite. While Shadow of Chernobyl falls short in a lot of regards when it comes to polish, it's definitely playable out of the box, fully patched, and for hardcore purists this may be the best option (with a few caveats) That being said, many people consider a certain mod to be "essential" for a first playthrough. More on that later. Q: People keep dying! Help! A: That's not a question. The Zone is a very unforgiving place, and many of the "plot essential" NPCs can meet untimely demises through roaming bandits, mutants, or just plain bad luck. Fortunately, you play a rather cold-hearted bastard and it's not these NPCs you need, but information they have. If they do die, you can get this information from their lifeless corpse (along with everything else) Q: I want to party with Duty but they won't let me. Why? A: Ignore that rear end in a top hat in the hangar. He's a bit of a douche. Q: How do I join a faction? A: Unfortunately for all practical purposes you cannot. You can, however, be an influential figure in the ongoing conflict between Duty and Freedom. Q: I need some help starting out. Any advice? A: There is quite a useful item in the starting village. Stalker rewards exploration, and by keeping your eyes open you can find numerous items that will help you survive easier. If you want relatively easy money, once you get to the Bar and the surrounding areas you will have the opportunity to put the S in to S.T.A.L.K.E.R and loot some nice stuff. Sidorovich is a bit of a ripoff merchant and has a huge markup on his goods. You can usually trade with other stalkers for items you need at much cheaper prices. =================================================  ================================================= These are what give Stalker their infinite replayability. Some of the more popular include: Stalker Complete Part of the Complete family of mods, the goals of these are to make Stalker into the polished game they feel it should be. This includes bug fixes, updated textures, new shaders, and a bunch of other neat stuff. That being said, there are a few caveats and people have a few criticisms of them. If you're just playing Stalker for the first time, this is the mod for you. AMK Considered the Grandfather of all Stalker mods, this is a bit of a beast. Rather complicated to install, it adds a lot of new features to the game. Blowouts now occur, cut mutants are added to the game (along with new ones), the a-life system is restored, and firefights are now incredibly lethal. You may think you're hardcore, but this will put it to the test. Based on AMK is the rather excellent Zone of Alienation, which is designed for hard-core players who want an incredibly detailed simulation. Zone of Alienation Oblivion Lost Largely based on AMK, this aims to turn Stalker into a more horror-centric game. More polished than AMK, but with a few questionable features. Narodnaya Soljanka/Stalkersoup The biggest Shadow of Chernobyl mod to date, this thing is truly insane. Based off the popular Russian mod Narodnaya Soljanka (People's Soup), this aims to be the everything-including-the-kitchen-sink mod. I have not, to date, managed to play and beat this mod to completion. Installing this is almost as much fun as playing it. When you've truly gotten bored of Shadow of Chernobyl, this is the mod for you. Priboi Story The first mod from the creators of the much-anticipated Lost Alpha mod, Proboi story is a total conversion that adds an entirely new story to Shadow of Chernobyl. Well worth a playthrough. Old Good Stalker Evolution Yet another Russian megamod, this time translated inhouse by their own team! Extensive feature list, far too great to list here. Check it out! L.U.R.K. Some what in development hell, LURK is an overhaul of Shadow of Chernobyl that focuses on enhancing the base game while retaining the feel and atmosphere of the original game. =================================================  =================================================     The red-headed stepchild of the Stalker series, Clear Sky is a rather strange transitional game. Lacking the later polish of Call of Pripyat (and even some from Shadow of Chernobyl), it introduces many new ideas and concepts, many of which were later incorporated into Call of Pripyat officially, and some later added on by various mods. While most people skip Clear Sky, it's still a very good game and once you can look past the faults it's a very enjoyable experience. A prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl, you play as the mercenary Scar. While escorting a group of scientists through the Zone, you are caught in the middle of one of the most powerful emissions to ever hit the Zone. Somehow you manage to survive this, and find yourself at the camp of the mysterious Clear Sky faction. These are a group of people operating secretly in the Zone to observe and study its effects. After being hit by a second emission (you are the unluckiest man in the Zone), you find out that you have been in some way marked by the Zone, and now have a more natural affinity to it. This has enhanced your physical prowess but comes at the expense of linking your life to the Zone. The more emissions that occur, the shorter your life will be. It is believed that something or someone is causing the increase emission activity. It is your job to find out what it is. Your life depends on it. ================================================= ================================================= Q: Help this game runs like poo poo? What's wrong? A: Unfortunately, Clear Sky uses a very experimental version of the X-ray engine that hasn't been completely optimized. Shaders are poorly optimized, and the game has fundamental problems with its engine that make it far more system intensive than the other games. Fortunately there are slight cures, but it may not work for you. As a general rule, if you can get a decent framerate in the Swamps/Clear Sky base, then you will get a good framerate anywhere as these are the two worst optimized areas in the game. The biggest killers of frame rate are SSAO, and sun effects (detail, god rays etc.) Q: Which faction should I join? A: Pick whichever one interests you the most! As a general rule, certain factions are harder than others. Bandits, while having the best taste in music, are not as well equipped as Duty or the others. Ultimately it's all preference and the game will mostly play out the same, with a few minor differences. Q: Grenades?!? A: Install Clear Sky Complete, never look back Q: I keep getting slaughtered by the machine gun? What can I do? A: The most obvious thing to do would be to get out of there, stalker, and find another route. ================================================= ================================================= Unfortunately, due to the nature of Clear Sky and its somewhat lesser status of Stalker games, not many mods were released and I'm not really up to date on most of them. Clear Sky Complete Pretty much essential for this game, even more so than with Shadow of Chernobyl. Fixes a lot of bugs, polishes the game slightly, and sends the Ukrainian Olympic Shotput Team back where they belong. STALKER Shaders MAX A bit of a gamble, these are updated shaders that for some people increase frame rate, and for others half it. Worth trying if you've exhausted all options. You may be one of the lucky ones. Clear Skies (formerly Faction Fronts) (alt link to original http://stalker.filefront.com/file/F...lear_Sky;116793) Widely considered to be one of the most popular Clear Sky mods. If you've finished Complete and want more Clear Sky this is a good choice for your second playthrough. Pseudodoggles Mod The most essential Clear Sky mod =================================================  =================================================     The third game in the series, it is widely considered to be the most polished. All of the ideas from Clear Sky that worked are incorporated, along with a host of other features and neat stuff. The "definitive" stalker game, if there is such a thing. Operation Fairway was a classified military operation in the Zone that had the lofty goal to infiltrate and secure the city of Pripyat and the Chernobyl NPP. Due to reasons unknown this mission failed spectacularly. You play as Major Degtyarev, who has been sent undercover into the Zone in order to investigate the failure in the most unsubtle ways possible. ================================================= ================================================= Q: Do I need mods to play this game? A: Absolutely not! Infact for the first run it's highly recommended you use none, or just a select few. Unlike the other games, Call of Pripyat cribbed a lot from community feedback and fixes and changes from the other games and as such is the most "ready to play" out of the box of all the games. Q: I ran into a cave and now I'm dead. I should have listened to that strange voice. A: As soon as you start out you should be near some stalkers. Talk to them. They can point you in the direction of a safe zone. Q: The Doctor has gone, what's going on? A: Keep playing. Q: This crazy man in a boat is shooting at me. A: This is his way of saying hello. Don't be frightened, he's (mostly) harmless. ================================================= ================================================= Fortunately you do not need much to play Call of Pripyat. Fortunately, if you ever get bored there's plenty of neat mods to keep you occupied. First Playthrough friendly FOV Fixer Changes Call of Pripyat's rather narrow default FOV into something higher. Call of Pripyat Complete Largely considered unessential for Call of Pripyat, this mod has quite a few nice additions you may be interested in. AtmosFEAR An entire visual/weather overhaul. Makes the Zone look pretty, beautiful and terrifying (in roughly that order). Call of Pripyat Sound Overhaul Improves all the vanilla weapon sounds and a bunch of other neat stuff. Makes guns sound a lot more powerful. Be sure to download the latest version! Improved Svarog Display Makes one of the detectors far easier to use and actually useful. Everything Else Swartz Mod Highly goon recommended. Basically Call of Pripyat Vanilla+ - makes radiation a persistent and deadly threat, adds a bunch of new weapons, and a whole host of other neat features. Check out the page! Sigerous Mod (SGM) Call of Pripyat's answer to Stalkersoup. A huge mod that adds a ton of stuff to the game. Various versions of the game can be found. For the older (more stable, arguably better) version you can find 1.7 here If you want to try out 2.1 there's a video tutorial here to install it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-qJhRH4YLk Misery Is Call of Pripyat too smiley and happy for you? Then give Misery a shot. A highly recommended mod, it is an almost total rehaul of Call of Pripyat to make everything more dingy, depressing and just plain miserable. Features excellent sound design and a well-thought out system that allows you to play as one of three "classes". Ddraig fucked around with this message at Feb 21, 2013 around 14:46 |
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 05:20 |
|
|
If you haven't played SoC, grab it and the Complete mod and get out of here.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 05:29 |
|
|
If you're feeling the need to replay CoP, grab Swartz mod and get out of here.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 05:46 |
|
|
How do you call this a STALKER thread without bandit music?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYpSg4n6lGo Just kidding, very well done OP. Been looking forward to a huge STALKER thread for a while.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 05:54 |
|
|
I think out of the three games, CS is the only game that is still to this date considered to be a buggy mess even after modding. The mods that try to clean it up can't seem to do much with it the last time I tried them or has that changed? If not, it's a total shame because the faction warfare angle had so much potential.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 05:59 |
|
|
Naky posted:I think out of the three games, CS is the only game that is still to this date considered to be a buggy mess even after modding. The mods that try to clean it up can't seem to do much with it the last time I tried them or has that changed? If not, it's a total shame because the faction warfare angle had so much potential. Unfortunately, I've never seen a mod that completely fixes it. There will still be zones that cause crashes and weird scripting issues pop up a lot in that game. The faction mechanics never really worked out and CS tried to have some cooler set pieces than SoC but never managed to make it work. CoP got rid of most of these set pieces in favour of a more open experience so generally people pick either SoC or CoP based on what they want.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 06:14 |
|
|
Naky posted:I think out of the three games, CS is the only game that is still to this date considered to be a buggy mess even after modding. The mods that try to clean it up can't seem to do much with it the last time I tried them or has that changed? If not, it's a total shame because the faction warfare angle had so much potential. Unfortunately a lot of Clear Sky's problems seem to stem from the version of the engine they use. Fun fact: The russians tried running Clear Sky on an Elbrus and only managed to break the 50fps mark* In general the beginning areas (the swamps and clear sky camp) are the most graphically intensive/unoptimized for whatever reason (they're the new areas, I guess). If you can get a decent framerate there then the rest of the game is smooth sailing. *Fact not actually checked Endymion FRS MK1 posted:How do you call this a STALKER thread without bandit music?! You underestimate me Goon sir This is probably the best place to mention my AMK reworking I'm doing for Shadow of Chernobyl. I'm using AMK/Complete as the base and working from there. My main focus at the moment is making it look better. Complete is good but lacks some variety in npo types. As loathe as I am to do it, I'm actually looking at the NS model of making NPCs more diverse. Thankfully for everyone involved I won't be using every texture they've got, just using some of their meshes/textures to pretty up the zone and make NPCs look better/more diverse. I did try a bit of a stopgap by editing existing meshes myself.. but they don't look that great so I probably screwed up somewhere. Sidorovich and Barman look pretty at the moment, anyway. Ddraig fucked around with this message at Apr 30, 2012 around 06:27 |
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 06:22 |
|
|
Ddeaig posted:Reserved for game info You forgot to post about mods, I shall not!  Just kidding, nice op.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 10:44 |
|
|
If you're new to these games, don't forget to bind bandage/medkit quick buttons to something easily reachable, it makes a world of difference.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 11:26 |
|
|
Would it be alright if I posted some AMK mod info? It's quite a decent chunk of text including some extra mods to improve general immersion by improving the gameworld such as weather etc. If you have something planned though then it doesn't really matter.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 12:15 |
|
|
Curdy Lemonstan posted:If you're new to these games, don't forget to bind bandage/medkit quick buttons to something easily reachable, it makes a world of difference. The only way to play STALKER is with no quick keys at all, frantically going through your inventory after limping to safety.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 16:51 |
|
|
Ahh, seeing this thread is making me consider playing one of the three games again. Along with the first two Thief games these are probably my favourite titles in all of gamedom.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 18:58 |
|
|
Edit - Just ignore this, error on my part.
Balobam fucked around with this message at Apr 30, 2012 around 19:27 |
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:05 |
|
|
Rather Dashing posted:Ahh, seeing this thread is making me consider playing one of the three games again. Along with the first two Thief games these are probably my favourite titles in all of gamedom. There's just something about this game, a combination of the whole isolated feeling, the insanely well done immersion and the fairly well sized areas that just makes the games something else. Cannot get enough of them.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:07 |
|
|
I'm currently running through Clear Sky with the Complete mod. No game breaking bugs yet, but some of the faction missions/objectives are still buggy. I like the improvements to the weapon handling animations, but prefer SoC and CoP.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:14 |
|
|
Awesome OP, great job! I played through SOC with the Complete mod for the first time last year on an ancient 7900GT / single core system and absolutely loved it. One of my favourite aspects of the game was the item descriptions: every single piece of armor you get details how it's specially built to withstand heavy fire, or with a special ventilation system to prevent radiation, before notifying you that whatever you're wearing is completely inadequate as the Zone will squash you like a bug anyway  Tip for new starters: stick with it, the game gets way better once you get an hour or two in and you get a proper automatic weapon and some decent armour.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:18 |
|
|
Balobam, Ddraig is working on a pretty major overhaul of AMK right now which will probably deprecate those instructions, just so you know. Jay-Zeus, I think pretty much everyone agrees that SHoC and CoP are the true gems of the series - the real disagreement is whether Clear Sky is worth picking up and playing. I feel that yes, definitely, it is, despite some intractable bugs it's more S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and it is sort of uniquely betweeen SHoC and CoP as far as the technology of the engine and the gameplay design decisions go. E.g. flash drives to upgrade gear instead of tool kits, but gear is upgradeable... Faction wars that change depending on how you do things there (including "gently caress this, I'm ignoring the factions entirely" which doesn't break the game or anything, if you find it too much to worry about)... Inclusion of periodic threats, improved A-Life from SHoC (though Complete and other overhaul mods to SHoC do make its A-Life better than the stock Clear Sky). An improved ballistics engine, though not used to its full capacity at all - they didn't really get the stock gun behavior "right" until Call of Pripyat, but the ingredients for it are there in Clear Sky and thus modding the ballistic behaviors makes it go from poo poo to CoP-level fun. Clear Sky, their reach exceeded their grasp and so it is a little buggy, a little unoptimized, a little more demanding than it should be, some segments are outright annoying (like a certain scripted event where you lose all your poo poo and have to get it back with dog-poo poo equipment). They really perfected what they started in Clear Sky with the release of Call of Pripyat, that's uncontested... But we're not getting more S.T.A.L.K.E.R. from the devs. We just aren't. So I feel we should be a little kinder toward the "middle child" of the series and enjoy it for what it is. It has a pretty good story, in my opinion, and it works as a prequel to establish the events of the other games.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:24 |
|
|
Having never actually beaten the first game but played through most of it like four times I think it's finally time. Also I need to just play Clear Sky on the easiest difficulty and grit my teeth so I can call it done.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:25 |
|
|
Agreed posted:Balobam, Ddraig is working on a pretty major overhaul of AMK right now which will probably deprecate those instructions, just so you know. Done and dusted. Convex, I couldn't agree more. I remember I bought SoC as a blind purchase years back just because of the cover and by the time I finally got it working I just didn't find it fun. Boring, even. Then a friend came over some time later that week and started playing it and he had a great time with it, and so did I watching, so I figured I'd give it another shot. One of my best gaming decisions right there, opened up the amazing world of the Stalker series to me. I still remember my first encounter with the bandits, desperately trying to murder them with viciously thrown bolts, not realizing they were for anomaly detection. Which in vanilla is fairly pointless since you can see them all.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:30 |
|
|
As much as people disregard Clear Sky I think it has some of the more interesting straight scripted sequences in the series. While it is more easily forgettable than either SoC or CoP, if you're a fan of both you can find something to like in CS. I really wish there was (or is?) a mod of some kind that removes the story elements and focuses solely on the Faction War elements, because the idea has a ton of potential that never really took off. I think CS most adequately presented the zone as "war torn" in that aspect, since you are constantly reminded of the death of your friends everywhere you go.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:34 |
|
|
Agreed posted:But we're not getting more S.T.A.L.K.E.R. from the devs. We just aren't. So I feel we should be a little kinder toward the "middle child" of the series and enjoy it for what it is. It has a pretty good story, in my opinion, and it works as a prequel to establish the events of the other games. weren't they planning on releashing a new stalker game sometime this year or did that plan just bombed?
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:38 |
|
|
Got bombed in stead of an MMOFPS called Survarium. Here's an RPS piece on it, which is pretty much all I know of it so far. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...xpected-better/
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:41 |
|
|
(reposting from the old thread) What the...I just started up CoP again, and I'm quite certain that the last time I played, I started the game in the lower left corner, with Jupiter to the northeast and Pripyat to the northwest. It's like the map is flipped 180 degrees around. What's going on? Am I losing my mind?
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:44 |
|
|
Earlier news.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:45 |
|
|
Gonna update the second post with some info on the games later on. Any mod recommendations and/or screenshots for all three games will be great. As for what I'm currently working on with my AMK mod, it originally started as a merge of AMK and complete but it's gotten a bit ahead of me and I'm currently reworking it to make it better, I guess. What I'm currently doing is going through the meshes/textures/spawn data and updating the various models/textures to add greater variety to the game and make SOC more consistent with the later games. My primary source for this at the moment is NS/Stalkersoup with a huge caveat that I am cherry picking textures that I feel offer significant improvements over the original, and not really adding in any new stuff that isn't in AMK at the moment (so you will have no walking skeletons or the crysis suit ingame - lucky you) This includes updating various things like the map (purely cosmetic, and will probably stay that way I want this to be Shadow of Chernobyl redone, not Shadow of Chernobyl and a bunch of other stuff) so that it also displays the areas that were in Clear Sky. Maybe once I get a bit more experience (I'm learning as I go) I can tentatively add the Call of Pripyat areas like Zaton etc. Various factions will have updated textures to the Clear Sky versions. Shadow of Chernobyl takes place after/during Clear Sky, so it seems slightly odd that the military etc posted in the Zone would have time for a uniform change between then  AMK includes a PDA news system. People in the Stalkersoup/CoP thread will know my troubles getting this in a mostly working state. There's still a few weird syntax errors, but I'm putting that on the backburner at the moment because I'm going to go crazy if I look at one more garbled sentence generator. What I have done is added some more flavour text to the PDA/ingame that links the various games together. If you've played any of the other games before Shadow of Chernobyl and you're perceptive you will definitely pick up on a few links between them. Also added more weird stories/dialog that the Stalkers will be happy to share with you. Again, all thematic. This comes with a huge retranslation of the AMK text. I used AMK retranslated as a basis because that fixes 80% of all errors, but there's still a lot of stuff that he never got around to fixing and I've worked through that and made it flow far more naturally and read better. Some of the jokes, etc, got slightly lost in translation and he pretty much did an exact translation which often loses something. I feel I've got the spirit of the translation down right, but I guess that remains to be seen. The goal of this mod, I guess, is to enhance wherever possible and not have in some of the retarded stuff that other mods can bring to the table. e: Some screenshots of the WIP project, in no particular order (there are not final, obviously):         The random name generator always cracks me up. Semen Icarus. It flew too close to the sun. Ddraig fucked around with this message at Apr 30, 2012 around 20:12 |
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 19:54 |
|
|
Play all the Stalker games except Clear Sky. I don't know what they did but something went super wrong. It might have been this.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 20:08 |
|
|
ymgve posted:(reposting from the old thread) You must be, every game of CoP I've played has started in the middle/east-ish northern edge of Yanov, with Jupiter to the south of Yanov and Pripyat to the east of Jupiter.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 20:12 |
|
|
So I'm trying to decide on what replacement music to use for my COP mod. If someone would be willing to download and listen to or try this in-game I'd appreciate it: http://www.sendspace.com/file/dmvqyp It's music someone named Sclera did for SHOC that I converted for COP but I'd like others opinions on the tracks. I'm especially unsure and curious what people think of zaton_day as my current thought is to go with something else unless people like it. Let me know.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 21:02 |
|
|
I'm thinking of firing up SoC for a playthrough since I haven't played it for a few years now. I've already downloaded STALKER Complete, but are there any other mods that work with it? I remember hearing something big about a huge mod that added new areas and things a while ago. I'd be interested if anyone knew anything about that maybe, or any mods like it that may add areas or weapons. I might do CoP instead if there's something really great for that out now though. Isaacs Alter Ego fucked around with this message at Apr 30, 2012 around 21:40 |
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 21:37 |
|
|
Naky posted:I think out of the three games, CS is the only game that is still to this date considered to be a buggy mess even after modding. The mods that try to clean it up can't seem to do much with it the last time I tried them or has that changed? If not, it's a total shame because the faction warfare angle had so much potential. My SO got CS for free as some kind of tie-in deal (I forget what product, this was years ago) and couldn't even install the thing. It's looking grim for your game if that happens.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 22:05 |
|
|
Not sure if it is welcome to ask for technical support here, but I have a thread going at GSC about space restrictor logic. Essentially, I came up with this (with plenty of help) to trigger sound files when a player enters a certain area (say, a building): code:Thanks in advance.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 22:32 |
|
|
Isaacs Alter Ego posted:I'm thinking of firing up SoC for a playthrough since I haven't played it for a few years now. I've already downloaded STALKER Complete, but are there any other mods that work with it? There are many, many mods for all the games. Call of Pripyat has SGM, which is a really fun mod that adds several games worth of content ontop of Call of Pripyat. The biggest one for Shadow of Chernobyl, content wise, is NS/Stalkersoup which adds a loving huge amount of stuff to the game, but not all of it is well done or particularly in theme with the game. It's also a bitch and a half to install and get working. I'm currently writing out descriptions for the games at the moment with links to popular mods for each of them, it should be finished sometime soon hopefully.
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 22:43 |
|
|
You linked Dirge for the Planet instead of Live to Forget? You should feel much shame. That being said, I've played both SoC and CoP several times and enjoy the poo poo out of them. Never tried CS but it appears I'm not missing a whole lot. I think I managed to be a little luckier than several of you and can't think of any glaring bugs during my playthroughs. I tried using the Complete mod on my most recent play but I'm not entirely sure it actually got used by the game files, it didn't seem to change anything. I sure wish my game looked like this when I played, I was a little shocked at how pretty this is. Ddraig posted:
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2012 23:05 |
|
|
So I had a run through of all three games recently, trying to get the best graphics without too many changes for gameplay. I present to you some shots I just took in SoC, I think they look real perty. I'm running the most recent version of Complete 2009, a long with Stalker Shaders MAX to replace Complete's shaders. I felt like Complete was a little too bright so SSM has worked as a replacement. I also highly recommend the gun balance mod that is in the same section as Complete on ModDB. Makes the game more playable in my opinion, fewer "but I shot him twice in the head!" moments. Anyway, here are the shots: A beautiful view of the garbage.  What hath god wrought?  A group of typical stalkers.  A typical end to a typical group of stalkers.  I said come in! The Bar looks good in the sun.  This bloodsucker had no idea what was coming. They're surprisingly stupid outside of CoP.  A lil electro anomaly between two train cars.  Wow, I feel like I could lift the elbow here! Some exo mook.  With the road to Pripyat open, Stalker sit down to take part in their favorite pastime of staring at fire. Edit: Oh boy looks like Imgur is making GBS threads itself today. Any suggestions on alternate hosts? Edit 2: Lordy I'm dumb, fixed my links. MadBimber fucked around with this message at May 1, 2012 around 00:54 |
| # ? May 1, 2012 00:14 |
|
|
Ddraig posted:There are many, many mods for all the games. Call of Pripyat has SGM, which is a really fun mod that adds several games worth of content ontop of Call of Pripyat. ahh, thank you. It was Stalkersoup I was thinking of. I don't really mind if some of the stuff isn't particularly well done, as long as it isn't giant untextured towers made of three polygons each or something. Gonna download it and install it tomorrow, anyone know if it'll work with other mods? I'm also interested in oblivion lost, stalker complete and arsenal.
|
| # ? May 1, 2012 00:31 |
|
|
Over the past week, I managed to burn myself out on both Xenoblade and Legend of Grimrock, so I decided to try SoC again with the Complete 2009 mod. Jesus and the loving Christs it's great. Makes me almost forget about all those times the game crapped itself trying to render rain effects on my old laptop. Pistols actually feel worth a drat now, too. The new texture work is just amazing. I can't think of anything outside of Troika games where the mod community puts in a shitload of work to make a flawed game fantastic.
|
| # ? May 1, 2012 00:40 |
|
|
MadBimber posted:So I had a run through of all three games recently, trying to get the best graphics without too many changes for gameplay. I present to you some shots I just took in SoC, I think they look real perty. I'm running the most recent version of Complete 2009, a long with Stalker Shaders MAX to replace Complete's shaders. I felt like Complete was a little too bright so SSM has worked as a replacement. Your links were just leading to the wrong page is all. Fixed it up there for you. It all looks very nice and is making me really think its time to upgrade my PC to play through these games again...
|
| # ? May 1, 2012 00:52 |
|
|
So I'm going through the AMK spawn tables and updating them, and for the Bar I notice there's an entry for "Gordon Freeman" What the gently caress  Now I'm going to have to search the Bar/Rostok for him. I was searching the warehouses and found a weird insane dude in a tower in the middle of the swamp section. I remember him because his name was too long for the name box. There are easter eggs, I guess. Ddraig fucked around with this message at May 1, 2012 around 01:38 |
| # ? May 1, 2012 01:35 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2013 14:30 |
|
|
Ddraig posted:So I'm going through the AMK spawn tables and updating them, and for the Bar I notice there's an entry for "Gordon Freeman" Haha Gordon, he's always been there as far as I can remember, he even had a crowbar and a PDA about Black Mesa. Great stuff
|
| # ? May 1, 2012 01:41 |
|
