S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: How we much am I you think you need for it, bring even more

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: How we much am I you think you need for it, bring even more

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MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

"Borov's bong. It never stops smoking. 10,000 RU."

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 01:37

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 04:05

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

"A pound of Uncle Yar's Whirligig weed. It'll get you higher den high! 420,000 RU"

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 02:04

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

your evil twin posted:

Photorealistic Zone, Particle Paradise, Arsenal Mod, gnomus scopes, Absolute Nature.

I would download the shaders listed in the OP (under the FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DOWNLOAD THIS link), then do a search for the most up to date versions of these mods. Additionally, I think Atmosfear has been released for ShoC, or something similar to it. Maybe it's included in Photorealistic Zone? It's possible that some of these mods will have redundancies or pieces that don't mesh well, so I'd look for screenshots or YouTube videos of them in action, then make a decision on what looks best to you.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 06:39

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Nitrox posted:

That excellent boots story gave me an idea. What if, every time you die, you wake up at the camp. With all your gear still on your corpse, right where you died, waiting to be retreated.

It's strange to say, but I find the first hours of the game to be the most rewarding. Because of poo poo weapons, lack of armor and barely any ammo. Anything you do is a major achievement. But then once I get some good gear, I won't drop it voluntarily just to recreate the experience. It feels rightfully earned at that point. But a game mechanic that forces a player to do something like that may be a good thing.

In fact, why not have that character permanently die? You start at the camp as a fresh stalker, with a randomly generated name and basic starting gear. You won't be able to continue any quests from your previous character until you find his body.

This may be the most frustrating thing ever or shitloads of fun. Should definitely extend one's gameplay by many hours.

So...Dark Souls?

BLARGHLE posted:

I downloaded the updated shaders and ZRP for Shadow of Chernobyl and followed the steps to use them, but they don't seem to have had any effect.

I'm running it through steam on windows 8.1. Any advice?

Did you

1. Start a new game prior to trying the mod to get the engine to load some initial files?
2. Set your fsgame.ltx to load from gamedata?

# ¿ Mar 27, 2014 01:55

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

your evil twin posted:

Difficulty

This issue comes up pretty often with new players and is actually addressed in the OP, but part of the reason you're having a tricky time is how difficulty works in Stalker. When you make the difficulty low, BOTH you and your enemies become harder to kill. Ddraig could explain better, but at lower difficulties there are artificial variables that make everyone in the game more bullet spongey and more likely to miss. Playing on Master difficulty is actually the best course, as shooting someone in the head will actually kill them, and (at least in complete and OGSE) you don't have to shoot 20 AK bullets into someone's chest to drop them.

I'm not really aware of mods that act as total conversions or game changers a la OGSE that don't also change the gun damage. There is an undercurrent of "realism" in the un-modded version of the game and this factor gets played up in pretty much every mod there is. In time you'll probably come to enjoy it, as I think most of us here do. I find it difficult to go back to the original games now and see enemies shrug off a shotgun blast or two before dropping, or seeing a sniper bullet ricochet off their head and they just keep on keepin' on. I would say your primary goal, in trying to overcome the difficulty, is to learn how to game the enemies. You can lean around corners to great advantage, but you can also do things like kill one enemy then hide in a room, and wait for groups to come at you, single file, easy pickings. Or you can kill an enemy or two, then retreat backwards to get a better view of the battlefield. If you're not comfortable sitting in one spot, or have a slow/inaccurate weapon, you can also spend time learning to flank enemies.

For instance, that car park with all the chikki brikki going down, by crouch walking you can sneak up to the dudes sitting by the fire. Drop the 2 or 3 there with a headshot, then immediately go to the right through the ruined building. One or two bandits will approach your last known location, which means you should be able to see them coming without them seeing you. You can kill them, or watch them meander back and forth while waiting for your back up to arrive and engage them (another big advantage in the game, allowing others to fight enemies for you. This allows you to take cheap shots and others to take gunfire, rather than you). After that you can run up the ladder to the roof of the building that your hostage is in, shoot one or two fellows, head down the stairs and shoot one more. By then, nearly all the bandits will be dead by your hand and the rest hopefully mopped up by your AI compatriots.

Essentially, and this applies even more strongly to a mod like OGSE with heightened damage, you as the player want to avoid major conflicts, and if they are unavoidable, to take every advantage and cheap shot you possibly can. Until late game, running in guns blazing is liable to get you killed. Being stealthy, keeping distance, using cover, these are all skills that are actually pretty necessary until late game when you have the potential to be a walking god.

Edit: Also, I should point out, explosives are EXTREMELY effective in Stalker. The initial RGD-5 is brutal against enemies with no to low armor, but the F1 grenade and grenades from launchers murder human enemies in a huge radius. Keep a stock at hand.

MadBimber fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Mar 27, 2014

# ¿ Mar 27, 2014 04:06

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

your evil twin posted:

Heh, that's pretty much how I dealt with the car park. Also I did it solo without backup, as I think that doing it solo gives you better rewards because the other stalkers are so impressed. In ordinary STALKER, on master difficulty, I was able to accomplish this without too much trouble. In OGSE it took me half an hour of retries for me to succeed.

For the first ten minutes I was playing in Master difficulty, and turned it down to Stalker because the bandits were one-shotting me. I would use my silenced pistol on the guys round the campfire, and sometimes one or two guys that would come investigate, but other times they would all stay distant, running back and forth firing into the building. Also I can't remember how it is in Vanilla, but in OGSE the sawn-off shotgun goes in the pistol slot, meaning that I couldn't have both a pistol and shotgun equipped at the same time.

So yeah, I'm definately playing OGSE in Stalker difficulty rather than Master, as I find it infinitely preferable if it takes a couple of shots to kill me. Cause those medkits and bandages are pretty pointless if there are only two states - full 100% health or dead. Also apparently the difficulty setting doesn't affect your weapons: http://www.metacognix.com/stlkrsoc/WhatYouKnowThatAintSo.html Go down to "And no, the difficulty setting does NOT determine how often YOUR shots hit the target."

I found the weapon damage in the vanilla game to be perfectly fine, and the challenge to be decent on Master difficulty. But it seems like 90% of STALKER modders just absolutely love leaning around corners all the time. It's nice to occasionally have a good-old fashioned firefight now and again, rather than it always beeing peekaboo.

Ah, I wrote that post assuming you hadn't played through Stalker initially. :downs:

BLARGHLE posted:

No, and yes. Should I turn off the gamedata folder, start a new game, and then turn it back on?

Yes.

Edit: I'm looking at that What You Know link and happened upon this: "Those same subsequent shots have their damage significantly reduced, presumably for extending the duration of gun battles. This leads many to believe NPCs are invulnerable during their hit animations. This also applies to single shots to the same "bone" (connecting element) if you don't wait the time_to_aim amount between shots." I always wondered if NPCs took reduced damage upon being hit, since they are much harder to kill during a flinch animation. I wonder if OGSE and other mods lessen this effect?

MadBimber fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Mar 27, 2014

# ¿ Mar 27, 2014 07:22

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Ddraig posted:

My personal project for Misery is coming along well. Right now I'm just transferring the unique anomalies from Sky Anomaly to it. Thanks to TGKP on the GSC forums, I've figured out how to enable/disable anomalies randomly, so now the Zone will no longer be static. Truly weird poo poo will happen. There's a random chance you might see a second moon in the sky one day, and it be gone the next. Patches of little to no gravity, ghostly vehicles haunted by god knows what. Random screams and shaking in certain buildings that come from nowhere. In other words, putting the Alienation back into the Zone of Alienation.

Kind of pisses me off how Trojanauch seems to hate virtually everything about the stalker setting. I get the feeling that if he could entirely get rid of the anomalies/artifacts without it pissing people off, he would.

http://imgur.com/a/Sk0L6

Sadly my idea for you making GBS threads yourself to death in first person was too much to implement well, so I went for the next best thing

You can even see the aftermath of taking it, where my compadre decides to loot me.

HAHA I like your dig at Misery with the "I work alone" line. Speaking of writing though, I'd like to make the same offer to you that I did to Swartz. I'm something of a writer, and if you need the help, I'd be happy to edit and/or contribute to your mod(s). You always seem kinda bogged down with heavy work loads, and I imagine like any other modder you want to see that release, sooner or later.

MadBimber fucked around with this message at 06:31 on Mar 31, 2014

# ¿ Mar 31, 2014 06:26

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Ddraig posted:

Here's what I wrote for the Hotfix:

http://pastebin.com/Uz8hzPY6

Some of it was based on specific achievements (like Marked by the Zone) etc.

There's some good stuff in here, man. I really like that you referenced Harlan Ellison. It's cool how some of those guys sound like really salt of the earth types. Linking to events from prior games is nice, too, if a little fan-servicey.

MadBimber fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Apr 1, 2014

# ¿ Apr 1, 2014 07:33

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Swartz posted:

Well, some dick beta-tester leaked Lost Alpha: http://www.moddb.com/mods/lost-alpha/news/lost-alpha-update

On the bright side it means they will be officially releasing it this month, but it sounds like it isn't done still.

Such a shame. :sigh:

I know they mention they are planning on continuing to support their release with updates to get it more stable, but I'm sad they won't be able to make the add on "official" anymore. It seemed like they were really working towards having GSC's full blessing, and now a lot of that effort has gone to waste.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2014 14:31

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

thekimjong-illest posted:

Which is hilarious considering how buggy vanilla SoC and Clear Sky are.

That's one thing that I was very aware of while I was reading the "our release is going to be buggy but we'll support it" part of their statement. ShoC had corrupted save bugs, random CTDs, horrible slow down, the radiation bug, broken quests, the list goes on and on. CS had a lot of issues and continues to have enough issues that some players are straight up unable to complete the game. LA would have to be really badly put together to somehow outdo the release versions of GSC's Stalker games.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 03:29

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Missing Name posted:

Lots of it seems kind of repetitive, going by what I've found on youtube. Very slight variations on the same thing.

Ddraig posted:

electric score with eastern style music played with synthed Russian instruments and that early electronic music feel.

Sounds about right. v :shobon:

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 15:02

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Ddraig posted:

As far as creepy ambient music goes, the alternate soundtrack (I guess) by Robert Rich and Lustmord are pretty good too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7qNsz6ZagA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fcSXk8BdjE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHxO_el_SGg

Those two are really big names in ambient, and Lustmord especially in really creepy stuff. I'd wager a number of their songs would fit STALKER, whether they were written for it or not.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 21:17

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

your evil twin posted:

OGSE seems to have some lopsided difficulty.

Part of the trouble with OGSE's difficulty is that it messes with stashes. If you turn on random stashes, you can find an exo-suit and tunder in the cordon. Even with normal stashes, starting around Yantar you can find artifacts that give you basically 100% bullet protection with only a couple of them. OGSE tries to balance this by throwing out obscenely powerful mutants, but they all fall to miniguns and easy to feed rockets. Stalker has always had a hard time with balancing late game and early game. ShoC gets significantly harder at the end, CoP turns into a cake walk almost no matter what, and CS is frustrating at all times.

Edit: I meant to ask, Swartz do you have contact info for Alundaio? I have a couple questions about his dialogue requirements and I honestly don't feel like registering on that site just to ask them.

MadBimber fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Apr 6, 2014

# ¿ Apr 6, 2014 04:42

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fSLbKSHgDo

# ¿ Apr 7, 2014 08:54

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Here's an article about Lost Alpha, with a little bit more information about the state of the game and its future. One of the devs mentioned elsewhere that its still their intention to release all content they've promised, but what comes out on April 26th will have some disabled (for the time being) content.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 10:45

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

your evil twin posted:

That's bizarre, you should be able to select the resolution on the video menu, and it should include all the widescreen resolutions. (Be sure that you are looking at the basic options rather than the advanced options.)

It is fantastic timing that I get back into STALKER again and people are releasing all kinds of great stuff. Am I right in thinking that OGSE for SOC was based on OGSM which was a CS mod?

Does anyone have any idea when the next version of OGSE is due? I know they've been working on it for ages, but I gathered that they were pretty close to a new version.

I do let's plays over on the LP subforum. Previously someone did let's plays of the STALKER franchise, but they played through SOC completely vanilla, they played CS using the Complete mod in order to try and fix bugs but ended up with it being the most hilariously buggy experience imaginable, such as levels where no enemies or friends appeared and stuff. (In fact that bugs meant they couldn't even finish the game and had to post someone else's video of the final level and ending.) I'm getting awful tempted to do let's plays of the STALKER franchise, but using a bunch of mods like OGSE and OGSM and so-on. Be a few months till my current LPs are finished though, hopefully the new version of OGSE will be out by then.

I'm calling the Lost Alpha LP for myself. If anybody wants to fight about it, we'll fight at dawn. You lose if you get hit by a dog and warp into the sky :clint:

# ¿ Apr 18, 2014 16:20

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

your evil twin posted:

Note: the film is a long, slow art film. Visually impressive though.

(I quite like arty films, and I liked Tarkovsky's film Solaris, but I did find Stalker a bit disappointing. Its a couple guys wondering around in empty fields, supposedly surrounded by danger that we never actually see. Seems bizarre to do an adaptation of Roadside Picnic and not include any anomalies or artifacts.)

Allegedly, the first recording of the film had more "special effects" to show anomalies, but the film was ruined by being improperly developed. Hard to say if that's true, and it doesn't matter since it doesn't even exist in some back storage room or private collection. But the thought is kind of entertaining.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2014 11:53

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Sometimes when the xray engine runs but the game fails to start you can still get a crashlog, so it couldn't hurt to try that. Additionally, I have been able to get around it by starting the game from a different shortcut. While loading it from the steam menu would crash Clear Sky regularly, loading it from the start menu or the actual game's folder wouldn't. I have no idea how/why that would change. Such is life in the Zone.

Ddraig, do you have PMs or an email address I could send you something?

(It won't be lovely fanfic, promise)

# ¿ Apr 24, 2014 10:58

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Ddraig posted:

e:

"My idea was you were smuggled covert ops and betrayed by the stalkers/bandits and they robbed you and planned to take your 'virginity' as all bandits try with clean shaved military guys, since the zone is a wiener fest. Before that you just got away with a knife you had in your boot when they got attacked by mutties and thoughwounded you fled to the lonely house and passed out there. Just to find that the residents did not approve of you crashing their pad, since you ate their porridge. I said before right, seeing the torment of coughing and fear I think it was rather after that. Now hardened by the ordeal you have nothing to life for but to complete your mission and recover your honour, else your mission report might be quite a read.

The zone surely lacks women... "

---Misery Fanfic

I think the next thread title is going to be "You sure gotta purty cheeki breeki"

What is this person even trying to say? Why do all women in the Zone immediately need to be raped? :psyduck:

E: oh butt bandits...still stupid.

MadBimber fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Apr 24, 2014

# ¿ Apr 24, 2014 15:50

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Saturday, I think.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2014 09:26

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Really? Hahahaha oh that is amazing. And here I thought they were having issues only due to the size of the installer. Some websites still have the files online, that guy might be in trouble.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2014 11:10

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

There's been a couple images floating around explaining, these two popped up in ModDB's comment section recently.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2014 11:46

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

I decided to upgrade my computer the day before Lost Alpha came out. Unfortunately, I didn't install the motherboard software properly and I need to troubleshoot before I get it running again. Except I can't trouble shoot because I work until Wednesday. Please enjoy Lost Alpha in my stead.

:negative:

# ¿ Apr 28, 2014 06:29

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Even though I can't play, it does my heart good to see all the confusion. It's like ShoC's original release, all over again. :allears:

# ¿ Apr 29, 2014 05:23

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

I wouldn't talk with a guy who is obviously pre-emission, either

# ¿ Apr 29, 2014 12:26

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

For people experiencing crashes and other bugs, there's a thread on the GSC forums with some fixes.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2014 11:11

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Looks like there is going to be a patch to fix bugs released some time around the middle of tomorrow by the LA team, hopefully it'll fix lots of the CTDs and slow down people are getting.

Or it'll cause loads of new errors :getin:

# ¿ May 2, 2014 04:19

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

closeted republican posted:

It's from several of the prototypes released a couple years back. I don't think any mod actually used it until now, though, because it's kind of clunky and a pain in the rear end.

There are a couple ShoC mods that use that system, but all of them (that I've seen) are trying to make the game similar to the beta, so it's always for the same reason.

# ¿ May 4, 2014 02:10

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

your evil twin posted:

Not quite head-on, but these useful at all?

Not anatomically correct :rolleyes:

# ¿ May 6, 2014 07:23

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

The manual PDF on ModDB mentions it I believe, but I doubt it says it in game.

# ¿ May 10, 2014 00:28

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

All radios should play bandit polka

# ¿ May 15, 2014 14:29

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

So what's the general best method for Lost Alpha lately? Patch + Community mods, or just patch?

# ¿ May 16, 2014 12:53

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Oberleutnant posted:

So this mod is on the way and inspired by Stalker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOg0BhlIvyQ
when you get to 45 seconds and realise what game this is a mod for.

Good lord. I heard the sound and said to myself, "No. I'm mistaking that from something else. What other game uses that?" But unbelievably, outrageously, it's from that engine. No loving way.

# ¿ May 22, 2014 15:51

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

I'm wondering what kind of Jim Jones hold their leadership maintains over the team, or if each person really believes that lying about their fixes is the proper course of action?

# ¿ May 26, 2014 13:13

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Wandering around the Dark Valley, I finally ran into the poltergeists that don't have enough energy to be invisible. I saw some weird looking mutants fighting a boar, and upon further inspection it was four poltergeists slapping the poo poo out of that boar. They were mercilessly cut down. Really creepy to watch a creature without legs almost outrun you.

# ¿ May 30, 2014 13:18

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

SoylentCola posted:

Also, man the modding communinty for this is more autistic than the Skyrim one..Name me a mod that has more flavour than the vanila game but doesn't require me to quit my job to dedicate time to installing it?

Nearly all of them? OGSE, ZRP, Autumn Aurora. Most mods require you to create a gamedata folder to copy their files into and change fsgame.ltx to load from that folder. Sometimes you have to add some extra files, but then mods like that have installers usually, e.g. OGSE. Outside of SGM or maybe Stalkersoup, what mods are you trying to install that apparently take days of effort?

Edit: I guess if you're trying out Russian mods, some of them do require downgrading your game version and that's a pretty involved process, can be pretty frustrating. Big name mods, though?

MadBimber fucked around with this message at 14:31 on May 30, 2014

# ¿ May 30, 2014 14:28

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Sounds like the mod filled you both with...MISERY

:frogc00l:

# ¿ Jun 2, 2014 08:47

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Fosson posted:

Just noticed while searching for any info on the LA patch that reddit had an AMA earlier today with one of the OGSE devs. He said they're "hoping" for a July release of the new version, and holy poo poo they updated their moddb page with a ton of update notes on everything they're adding. That release is looking really good, especially the A-Life stuff and AI in general. And.... They removed the awful omnipotent insta-gib turrets!! (not that there isn't any way to remove them with the fixes found here, but I'm glad they realized that they are absolute poo poo.)

How will I find time to play both OGSE and LA?

Edit: Some of their changes are really cool! I don't think I've ever seen a mod with dynamic water puddles. Doesn't add to game play, but it's a nice touch. And they fixed some of the nonfunctional immunities/status effects, finally. Quite a few of the bug fixes they list are great, too. Ddraig you'll like a lot of what they are claiming, I think. Especially their new debugging tools.

MadBimber fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Jun 4, 2014

# ¿ Jun 4, 2014 08:44

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Hello Stalkers. Take a look at these beautiful shots.

Like what you see? Come join me in my Lost Alpha LP!

# ¿ Jun 6, 2014 19:17

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 04:05

MadBimber: Dec 31, 2006

Wow, Shoker is really, really well done. If I had the time I think I'd give COP another play through.

Edit: Does anybody know what font all the stalker titles are written in?

MadBimber fucked around with this message at 13:26 on Jun 29, 2014

# ¿ Jun 29, 2014 13:19

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: How we much am I you think you need for it, bring even more

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