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

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-20 10:26pm

So long as I can walk around an open area killing fucked up zombies and soldiers in ruined buildings I think I'll be happy until mods come out.

Sadly, Eastern European games and game-breaking bugs seem pretty common. Guild 2 anyone? Hell, basically any game released by JoWood anyone?

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-03-21 12:31am

Quoting a post from Penny Arcade forums:

My god the AI in this game is fucking awesome. The military just assaulted the town I was in and was systematically clearing it out until the stalkers rallied and pushed them back. I had assumed that the all of the military grunts were dead (As the NPC's had pretty much resumed what they were doing after they had executed any wounded military grunts that had gotten left behind. Though in retrospect the guards were going nuts, checking the entire area bit by bit.) when all of a sudden the guy I was walking past took a bullet to the head and died. It turned out that the military stalkers fell back, left a rear-guard to cover their retreat while they found places to snipe at the town from. Needless to say I was impressed. The military also won because they managed to put down most of the more heavily armed guards before the NPC's in the town could figure out what the hell was going on.

Sounds sweet.

Also, apparently almost all voice acting in the game is Russian (subtitled), with only the most important parts delivered in (heavily accented) English. How's that for immersion?

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-03-21 12:36am

Very good- I stood at a campfire watching a bunch of Stalkers joking away in Russian. I only knew they were joking because it ended with laughter

Post by **fgalkin** » 2007-03-21 12:39am

Stas Bush wrote:I liked it. Now waiting for the METRO game on the same engine.

From what I gather, it won't be that good. Better than Metro-2, of course (anything is), but still not good.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-21 02:10am

I'm really enjoying the game. It looks a bit naff, but that just means it runs on my puter. I haven't even bothered going back with the flashdrive yet: I've been following clues north for miles, just blowing away bandits and helping my mates (if you heal the first loner, and save a wounded guy at the first fight, turns out they love you). I haven't had any crashes yet, but I'm using static lighting so I'm not really taxing the game. Luring people into anomalies = win.

Resinence · Post by **Resinence** » 2007-03-21 03:27am

Later on you can lure bandits into radioactive areas and they all stop suddenly, say something in russian, and sprint off looking for a way out with their geiger counter going nuts

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2007-03-21 04:40am

I'ld like to return the flash drive to the trader, but I think the door is bugged cos it isnt opening. Either that or it is closing hours for the damn thing.

I've found Bandits do a heck of a lot better than neurtals simply because they band together, while various neutral NPCs are awesome they really cant handle 15-30 times there number over a period of a few hours.

Post by **K. A. Pital** » 2007-03-21 06:36am

From what I gather, it won't be that good.

The core developers are all from STALKER, the universe is one of my favourite post-apocalypse settings, the book author is closely involved... what can go wrong?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-21 10:20am

It's really starting to bother me that communication is so limited. The loners love me, but I can't organise or command them in any way. Not even 'holy shit there's like a dozen bandits coming clear out guys'. Or 'meet up with my other homies here so we can wtfpwnzor the guys over there'. And the huge spawning armies of bandits is fucking LAME. In my first trip to the Garbage I killed upwards of 40 bandits... and there are maybe half a dozen loners on the map. Also, picking up guns always resulting in a non-automounted, empty gun (apparently on death bullets teleport into the pockets of the victim) is sad. I want Hitman style rolling gunbattles with constant scooping of new guns, not having to stand like an idiot looking at a corpse diddling around getting ammo.

Also, 'the NPCs never run out of bullets but always drop maybe 12' is deeply lame.

With some kind of tactical system, the game would be awesome - but as it is, you can't even work with allies who are fighting: they just fight alone and ignore you. I'm not talking SWAT-level interaction, just the ability to spontaneously form battles like the first mission. 'Attack here now' or 'take cover here now' would pretty much cover it.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2007-03-21 11:53am

Well fuck, the door to the 1st Trader is bugged so I cant get to him. And without the ability to buy ammo I cant fine enough of the damn stuff for my weapons so I have a reasonable chance of survival. Especially against those damn soliders in the institute.

I've got 15-20 artifacts (picked up some damn cool ones too, being able to sprint for 20 minutes is rather nice), but I need to sell a bunch of them to a) free up some wieght allowance b) get money for +10kg of ammo. I've got ~2k rounds for my pistol, but really I dont use it very often and with carrying so many artifacts I cant keep all that with me.

I've got a save back when the door opened, but that is virtually at the start of the game.

I doubt this is because I have, gasp, Daemon Tools installed since SecurRom just doesnt allow the game to start if it detects it.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2007-03-21 12:01pm

Stark wrote:It's really starting to bother me that communication is so limited. The loners love me, but I can't organise or command them in any way. Not even 'holy shit there's like a dozen bandits coming clear out guys'. Or 'meet up with my other homies here so we can wtfpwnzor the guys over there'. And the huge spawning armies of bandits is fucking LAME. In my first trip to the Garbage I killed upwards of 40 bandits... and there are maybe half a dozen loners on the map. Also, picking up guns always resulting in a non-automounted, empty gun (apparently on death bullets teleport into the pockets of the victim) is sad. I want Hitman style rolling gunbattles with constant scooping of new guns, not having to stand like an idiot looking at a corpse diddling around getting ammo.

Most of the time I get ammo from the weapon when I kill them, but sometimes the ammo magicly teleports to the body. It appears inconsistant on when it occurs.

Also, 'the NPCs never run out of bullets but always drop maybe 12' is deeply lame.

Amen. It makes me cry inside when I kill someone and pick up ~16 AK arounds, and then kill someone else and get 16 shotgun slugs. There is no concept of how much better some ammo types are, or how much of the stuff you will use.

Fire hosing with a shotgun is simply imposible and stuff simply dies in 2 hits as long as it is pointed at them in under 15 metres. But with anything with an automatic setting, unless you score a lucky headshot (hard at range) you sure as hell are going to use more than 2 rounds to kill something.

With some kind of tactical system, the game would be awesome - but as it is, you can't even work with allies who are fighting: they just fight alone and ignore you. I'm not talking SWAT-level interaction, just the ability to spontaneously form battles like the first mission. 'Attack here now' or 'take cover here now' would pretty much cover it.

The kicker is; soliders & bandits will work together and do so rather well for AI, so it isnt like it is imposible with the AI they do have.

But the suicidal gimps you get saddled with for a very large chunk of the starting game sure as hell cant.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-03-21 06:13pm

Man, fuck bandits and their magical respawns. I kill five of them, I shouldn't have to kill five more of them two minutes later. I only have a pistol, a shotgun, and about 50 rounds for my SMG. I can't even equip my grenade.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-21 06:54pm

Xon wrote:Most of the time I get ammo from the weapon when I kill them, but sometimes the ammo magicly teleports to the body. It appears inconsistant on when it occurs.

Yeah I've noticed this now - it seems I simply never got 'loaded' guns for the first few hours of the game. Still, they're loaded with perhaps 8 or 9 bullets, not really what I'm looking for 'track ammo usage'-wise.

Amen. It makes me cry inside when I kill someone and pick up ~16 AK arounds, and then kill someone else and get 16 shotgun slugs. There is no concept of how much better some ammo types are, or how much of the stuff you will use.

Many bandits don't have a PMM but still have more than two dozen 9x18 rounds... and SEVEN bullets for the AK74 they were hosing you with. Of course it's 'loot tables', as the 'harder' guys seem to consistently drop better shit (on my first trip below the agroprom all the guys were dropping 20-30 rounds, so I've got HUNDREDS now.

Fire hosing with a shotgun is simply imposible and stuff simply dies in 2 hits as long as it is pointed at them in under 15 metres. But with anything with an automatic setting, unless you score a lucky headshot (hard at range) you sure as hell are going to use more than 2 rounds to kill something.

Sadly, the weapon spread and auto seem to be totally broken. With an AK74, even single shots are pretty damn inaccurate. I've luckily killed someone at 20+ meters with the sawnoff, but can't do the same with an AK74. Bullets seem to go 'high' very, very often, and for someone who uses irons as much as me that's irritating.

The kicker is; soliders & bandits will work together and do so rather well for AI, so it isnt like it is imposible with the AI they do have.

But the suicidal gimps you get saddled with for a very large chunk of the starting game sure as hell cant.

Yeah - like in the Garbage, you save that Bes guy and his mates (letting Bes die to steal his silenced AK74 of course). Then you walk off for a bit - and come back 5 minutes later. They're all dead, there's like a dozen bandits in there and it's a fight for your life. I haven't done much 'backtracking' yet, but it looks like the whole game is going to be bandit-filled in no time.

However, I've only gone back to the trader once (to drop off flashdrive) and I don't have ammo problems. In the odd bandit squad elimination I'll chew through a lot of ammo, but I've got 300+ PMM rounds, 200+ 9mm and 150 AK74 rounds. Silent pistol + headshot = clear underground areas without danger.

Also he calls you up to give you 'missions' even if you don't go back, so fuck him. Money is useless anyway.

DPDP - there are even 'spawnpoints' where you can see squads of bandits all stand on the same spot waiting to go attack someone. When I started playing I had no idea that 'constant waves of spawning bandits' would be such a major part of the game, and all those lone stalkers with PMMs are basically dead meat. And yet then you go places where the loners have half a dozen armoured and armed guys fighting the military.

EDIT - has anyone tested the 'stash' functionality? I tried, but I'm miles away from my test stash now. If you can leave stuff in boxes etc with a mapnote and there's a good chance they'll be there later, then cool. I've got piles of crap I don't want to lose, but I don't want to carry everywhere either.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-03-21 09:16pm

Well, with the help of half a dozen fortified fellow Stalkers, I managed to draw the bandits away a couple at a time and take them out. Then I went out and took out about eight of the stubborn ones and moved on to the next area.

Now I'm finding much more ammunition. Although I have a feeling these new monsters I'm fighting are going to make me spray it all.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-21 10:30pm

Psycho mantis guys ftw?

Resinence · Post by **Resinence** » 2007-03-21 11:38pm

Just ignore the first trader once you get past the garbage, once you get to the bar everything starts to pick up... but I won't ruin it.

Velthuijsen · Post by **Velthuijsen** » 2007-03-22 04:44am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:I can't even equip my grenade.

4 = use grenade

Regarding ammo spawning.
The place where ammo spawns seems to be related to two things
1) Surprise kill
2) Distance from the body that the weapon drops.

[edit]
Amount of ammo you find seems to be related to how much they fired at you. If you surprise them you get a full clip+ (rifles) or a box+ (pistol, shotgun), if they fire you get max a full clip/box minus what they shot at you (so yes they spawn ammo once they run out).
Stash functionality:
Yes items stay in a stash if you dump them in there.
I do suggest to use the blue boxes found at safe spots (First village center, the factory in Garbage, near Barkeep, Science lab, Freedom border post)

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-03-22 06:35am

I've checked the logs of the game (available in the game's folder in Shared Documents) after I just encountered another crash (a crash that lists the game as "Not Responding" in Task Manager)- I checked same the other day when I played and it was a different message which I can't remember, but here's what it says:

[error][ 1455] : The paging file is too small for this operation to complete.

WTF? It runs bloody perfectly, it's just these crashes are annoying.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-22 08:44am

I haven't had a crash yet, in half a dozen hours of straight play. I've got 2gb and a 1gb page file. Sometimes it pauses, and sometimes I've thought I've crashed, but it catches up with itself after 3-4 seconds and it's fine.

I'm really liking the weight limit. It's not 'realistic' (I've got 4 rifles + ammo) but it forces you to make decisions.

Also, from my experiences elsewhere some zones are worse than others spawnwise. Garbage is *disgusting*, with five minutes away being long enough for a dozen bandits to have retaken the hanger or junkyard (oh yeah, killing a dozen MP5-armed guys with a pistol and a sawnoff was fun) but the later levels aren't nearly as bad. Agroprom was pretty bad - the army tend to spawn near the eastern entrance - but not as bad.

I'd really like to see some logic behind the spawns. I'm fine if the soldiers chopper in, or the bandits come from offmap where they have a base or something - but army guys spawning near a gate to a level with NO FUCKING ARMY GUYS is just stupid. The 'bandit base' near the Garbage entrance to Agroprom is a campfire and four guys - but this is a massive spawnpoint with dozens of guys generated per hour. What's past the gate? Not a fucking bandit to be seen, but heaps of army guys. Where's the internal logic?

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-03-22 09:26am

Stark wrote:I haven't had a crash yet, in half a dozen hours of straight play. I've got 2gb and a 1gb page file. Sometimes it pauses, and sometimes I've thought I've crashed, but it catches up with itself after 3-4 seconds and it's fine.

I've got 2gig RAM as well- how do I determine my page file size?

Also, from my experiences elsewhere some zones are worse than others spawnwise. Garbage is *disgusting*, with five minutes away being long enough for a dozen bandits to have retaken the hanger or junkyard (oh yeah, killing a dozen MP5-armed guys with a pistol and a sawnoff was fun) but the later levels aren't nearly as bad. Agroprom was pretty bad - the army tend to spawn near the eastern entrance - but not as bad.

I'd really like to see some logic behind the spawns. I'm fine if the soldiers chopper in, or the bandits come from offmap where they have a base or something - but army guys spawning near a gate to a level with NO FUCKING ARMY GUYS is just stupid. The 'bandit base' near the Garbage entrance to Agroprom is a campfire and four guys - but this is a massive spawnpoint with dozens of guys generated per hour. What's past the gate? Not a fucking bandit to be seen, but heaps of army guys. Where's the internal logic?

What difficulty level are you playing at, btw? I ask because when I checked options it was set to "Master" by default.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-03-22 09:30am

Rightclick 'My Computer', advanced, performance.

I'm playing on the second-highest difficulty. I'll go check what it's called, but mine defaulted to the second lowest, 'normal'. I think I'm on 'veteran' and 'master' is the highest.

EDIT - Also the zombie implementation is cool. If you're in a zombie-effect area, they just keep getting back up. Sometimes immediately (too stupid to pick up their gun again though), sometimes much later, but they always come back.

Yeah, I'm on 'veteran', one down from 'master'. You choose from a menu at the start though, so it doesn't really 'default' to anything. You can change ingame, so I think I'll jack it up to master since I'm not meeting challenges unless I'm outnumbered at least half a dozen to one.

Or there's a psycho mantis guy around.

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-03-22 10:02am

Stark wrote:Rightclick 'My Computer', advanced, performance.

My page file is 2046MB.

Is this game retarded? How is that insufficient?

Resinence · Post by **Resinence** » 2007-03-22 10:23am

So, how many people here jumped when they heard the scream in the sewers and then the thing started fucking with you're head and camera?

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2007-03-22 12:52pm

Resinence wrote:So, how many people here jumped when they heard the scream in the sewers and then the thing started fucking with you're head and camera?

That was anoying, but I was kinda of expecting something like that.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-03-22 01:27pm

Is it worth buying?