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

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 12:24am

Oh I see - I thought the bridge guys were much better equipped? They're certainly military. I didn't think any of them were 'on' the bridge. The guys at the bridge usually have carbines - they're not hugely accurate, though. I've never really been surprised by long range accuracy, but I'm always hiding behind something and crouch-leaning out so they've got a pretty small target.

And it appears the AK47 got cut out - it was supposed to be in (for obvious reasons) but a lot of the weapons originally planned don't seem to be in there. Almost a dozen pistols and no AK47.

This situation is actually one of the reasons I don't like the 'equipment levelling': at the start, you'll be using PMM/shotgun/MP5 for some time, and that's stupid. You should be able to do missions and buy a decent gun right at the start, instead of having to use short-range stuff for ages. The shotgun never does jack shit for me beyond 6 meters, but the AI has a lot more luck.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-03-31 12:26am

Mr Bean wrote: And then I ran into that bastard on the bridge, using a PMM blazing away at me from near max range and he puts twenty shots into me, to my zero into him. Trust me head shots are not the problem for me, but I hate having to sprint to knife fighting range just to have some sort of accuracy with guns.

Go around the bridge the first time. You will find an MP5 soon enough, and this makes things orders of magnitude easier. And AK is not far behind,and then you can actually duke it out with the military provided a good firing position.

Mr Bean wrote:Besides this is Russian, there should be an AK-47 in every pot! But I've checked! Sixteen pots, not a single Kalashnikov anywhere! Damn those other Stalkers, they must have taken them from the pots before I got there.

Useful fact: Contrary to popular belief, most Russians never owned and AK-47

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2007-03-31 12:28am

Your fucking shitting me
You mean to tell me, that Stalker.... fucking STALKER does not feature any AK-47's? The shit cheapest weapon available world wide? Fuck, in Turkey they wanted more for a decent knockoff of the 1911 than they did for a AK-47. Hell I could have bought lunch for the price of an AK-47 some places. And your telling me exactly zero AK-47's are featured ANYWHERE in Stalker?

Bah I say, time to mod myself in a Springfield 1903. Never would I thought I'd pray for a bolt action rifle but Stalker makes me swear by them.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 12:32am

That's right. Ironically, there *is* a 1911 (called the 'Kora 911' or something) in there. The weapon selection is a bit... crazy... for the Russian theme.

On the other hand, I just noticed the patch 'fixes' the Obokan, and I can now mount RPO-1 scopes on it. Neat.

DarkSilver · Post by **DarkSilver** » 2007-03-31 12:38am

Funny...I got two AK-47's, two of those Viper-5's, a buncha pistols and two sawed off shotguns....

my game loves giving me fucking guns.....but dicks me on bandages and medkits...

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 12:42am

That's an AK-74, champ.

That reminds me, whats with all the people on the various forums making up wierd names for the levels of Stalker? The fucking map tells you what they're called! What's this 'oh in the factory' stuff? The levels have names for a reason. Grrrr.

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-03-31 02:32am

Ok, started playing in earnest now (no crash as of yet)- what's up with the PDA quest system? Why is it that only some objectives I can click on to get them to give me an arrow to point in the right direction, while others I just have to keep checking the map? (e.g finding some random Stalker the Trader wants me to kill).

I mean, some of the objectives of course have no way to click on them (ie. like finding some sort of monster part or artifact) because it has no idea where they are, but is this a bug or something?

Further, should I download the patch? What's it do? Is it worth starting over for, since previous save games aren't compatible? I've only gotten the task to go to agropom and get the briefcase, so I'm not that far in- but you know, travel times.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 02:41am

The indicators only show up with the objective selected, and the extra crosshair thing next to it (it'll centre on your map, you might have to click again). Any quest that puts a dot on the map can be 'locked on' to and give you an arrow.

Aside from having to restart, the only real downside is armour wear with no repair means unique suits eventually become useless. I don't actually have a problem with this (unique guns already became useless) and the other changes (economy and some drop rates) are a big positive in my opinion. No more infinite money, nothing to buy, and hundreds of bandages/medikits.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-03-31 02:42am

Mr Bean wrote:Your fucking shitting me
You mean to tell me, that Stalker.... fucking STALKER does not feature any AK-47's? The shit cheapest weapon available world wide? Fuck, in Turkey they wanted more for a decent knockoff of the 1911 than they did for a AK-47. Hell I could have bought lunch for the price of an AK-47 some places. And your telling me exactly zero AK-47's are featured ANYWHERE in Stalker?

Bah I say, time to mod myself in a Springfield 1903. Never would I thought I'd pray for a bolt action rifle but Stalker makes me swear by them.

Uh...you do know that Chernobyl was actually a normal town in the USSR, right? And that the USSR government didn't really want all it's citizens to be armed? So all weapons in the Zone are imported there. And since the game takes place in 2012, it's only natural there are only AK-74s and up

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 02:49am

Just do away with 'equipment levelling', normalise the stats on guns, and problem solved. The later guns are, if anything, TOO accurate (being 'late game' thus they have to be 'rifles +2') and by evening out the gun stats and making them more freely available you'd kill the early-game rubbish weapon problem AND allow players to choose based on style or realistic differences, not 'AKs suck' and 'this 5.56 is way more accurate and damaging than this other, similar 5.56 rifle'. Guns like the Desert Eagle *really* need to be 'fixed' - game balance has determined that it's a low capacity pistol that does heaps of damage... and has ZERO accuracy. You can miss someone at point blank range by a huge margin. 'Even worse than Halo'.

DarkSilver · Post by **DarkSilver** » 2007-03-31 02:52am

Stark wrote:That's an AK-74, champ.

That reminds me, whats with all the people on the various forums making up wierd names for the levels of Stalker? The fucking map tells you what they're called! What's this 'oh in the factory' stuff? The levels have names for a reason. Grrrr.

.....I blame a temporary bout of dyslexia.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 02:54am

Blame the Soviets for having reversable model numbers.

The actual, honest to god AK 47 was supposed to be in the game as well. Does anyone know if the LMG thing is still in?

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-03-31 03:01am

Can anybody explain to me why the Barkeep suddendly sells armor at half the price the first trader does?

I mean...the first trader has his place near the Cordon, so presumably he should have easier access to outside sources, right? Not to mention it makes money really fucking useless later on

Also, I think that Stalkers out in the Zone should pay you much less for the artifacts. After all, they want to make money on them too, and they presumably know the prices, so they'd naturally pay you a bit less. Basic economics. And why the hell won't they buy cool new guns and ammo from you? It's like a goddamned basic necessity, after all...

I agree the equipment levelling system should be done away with. Rather than awesome weapons, support equipment should matter more than anything, be properly expensive and...use batteries. It's a real fucking pity they did not include field stripping and cleaning kits for your guns, then they could've balanced the guns properly without having to resort to "rifle +2" idiocy. Like, say - the AK is a very basic gun with poor sights, but you have to beat it on concrete to actually break it. Little things like these.

Oh, and I just love it how soldiers can kill me with three or four shots, while I have to unload fifteen rounds into them, from the exact same weapon.

EDIT: Oh, and by the way. Why can't I accelerate time after the patch? This is idiotic. I had to raid the AgroProm Institute in full daylight because of that.

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-03-31 03:38am

Stark wrote:The indicators only show up with the objective selected, and the extra crosshair thing next to it (it'll centre on your map, you might have to click again).

I've tried clicking on the bloody thing a million times, but it seems totally random- case in point- I kill a Stalker that the trader asked me to kill, and there was no arrow indicating where to find him. After I kill him, the arrow points me back to the trader.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 03:47am

If you're in the 'tasks' list, each 'step' of the mission will have a line and a silly symbol at the end of the line. Ifyou click once it should 'show' it to you by moving the map to that area, and if you click again a green crosshair should show up on the 'step' line, and the target point should have the circle on it, and you should have an arrow on your compass. The 'automatic' setting your objective when you get a mission doesn't seem to work very well, but I frequently set it manually myself, change it, etc.

EDIT - just to confirm, you *doubleclick* on the step you want to 'lock on', and it puts a red arrow thing on the list and and arrow on your compass. If you haven't patched, there were all kinds of problems with missions and objectives and stuff, so you should patch up.

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-03-31 04:15am

Awww. But there's a Stalker suit you can get in the starting area in the unpatched game that is replaced with a Merc suit in the patch

Not to mention I just blasted my way through the cordon with nothing but a PMm, killing like, six Ukranian Army soldiers and taking all their AKS-74Us ...

(which for some reason have metal, ribbed magazines = ie. 7.62x39mm rounds, as opposed to the 5.45x39mm rounds they should have)

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 04:21am

Everyone kills those soldiers with a PMM. They fail at demanding tolls.

But if you're too lame to play without 30% armour at the start, you'll have to put up with broken missions.

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-03-31 04:36am

*grumble*

Bah patching. Stupid non compatible save game BS ....

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 04:39am

How do you think us mod-friendly people feel? Any changes to the datafiles, and bam no more saves.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-03-31 04:45am

Stark wrote:Everyone kills those soldiers with a PMM. They fail at demanding tolls.

But if you're too lame to play without 30% armour at the start, you'll have to put up with broken missions.

The MERC suit is just fine for the start. It's not like there's that much radiation or mutants, and it protects from bullets just as well as a STALKER suit.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 04:49am

But no blurry useless night vision!

That's what makes a proper suit for me - a vision mode that doesn't work so good but has a massive drawback.

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-03-31 05:09am

Stark wrote:How do you think us mod-friendly people feel? Any changes to the datafiles, and bam no more saves.

Well I started playing again post-patch, and lo and behold, no more problems with quest selection/ arrow-marker. Thank god.

It's also a lot harder to kill that pack of mutant dogs in the "clear area of mutants" sidequest in the starting area- it's not like they're a real danger, it's just a pain in the arse to be swarmed by them.

The Merc Suit is just fine, indeed. What happens when night falls anyway? Do you have a flashlight?

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-03-31 05:13am

Vympel wrote:
Stark wrote:How do you think us mod-friendly people feel? Any changes to the datafiles, and bam no more saves.
Well I started playing again post-patch, and lo and behold, no more problems with quest selection/ arrow-marker. Thank god.

It's also a lot harder to kill that pack of mutant dogs in the "clear area of mutants" sidequest in the starting area- it's not like they're a real danger, it's just a pain in the arse to be swarmed by them.

The Merc Suit is just fine, indeed. What happens when night falls anyway? Do you have a flashlight?

The MERC suit has a flashlight I think. Activated with the "L" key.
Can anybody tell me if there's a way to speed up time post-patch?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-31 05:13am

You've been playing without the flashlight? What about the dark interiors? The scary monsters? Flashlight defaults to 'L', and it never runs out thank christ. 'N' is vision, the stalker suit has a crap NV setup and the SEVA suit has some purple thing that goes 'PING' and alerts everyone.

I also noticed the dogs seem to be harder to kill - pre-patch it seemed every shot from a PMM killed one, now it's much harder. I'm also glad a game finally has animals that don't attack like orcs - they use highspeed sweeping attacks in packs, they don't stand in front of you and chop-chop-chop.

EDIT - all suits have flashlights you crazy people! Sure, the leather jacket is a headlamp from a camping store, but still.

The patch notes say '*' speeds up time, but it doesn't seem to work for me. I never used this function: what's it good for?

PS Shouldn't night be a bit longer? It doesn't really get dark until 2000, is that normal for the Ukraine?

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-03-31 05:44am

Stark wrote:The patch notes say '*' speeds up time, but it doesn't seem to work for me. I never used this function: what's it good for?

Well, for example, if you want to do AgroProm stealthily and just happen to wander by when it's 10 A.M.
Boy, I could've killed for timeskip when I got there

Stark wrote:PS Shouldn't night be a bit longer? It doesn't really get dark until 2000, is that normal for the Ukraine?

The game takes place in April, right? So it should be pretty much normal.