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

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2007-04-01 08:22pm

How has that realism mod been going Stark? So far i've been having a blast with it. Except that the AK-74/2 is vastly overpowered. They need to implement more noticeable recoil on the guns.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-04-01 08:28pm

Actually I haven't been playing much Stalker lately, and I never installed again to use that mod. There's some movement on the forums toward a better 'more recoil, less conefire' system, but unless the next patch addresses the ridiculous NPC spotting and accuracy bonuses it'll make the game retardedly hard. It'd be better than now, however - I've never bothered finishing the game because it gets to easy for me to keep playing, if you know what I mean. Killing hundreds of well-armed, armoured guys without a scratch = game is broken.

I'm curious to see what people are able to do with the gamedata files - the easier it is, the more likely we'll get a mod that simultaneously fixes the broken parts without making it objectionable in other ways. What's Res up to?

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2007-04-01 08:36pm

Pfft, I never finished it because of all this damn mod and patch experimentation.

I'm not much of a stealthy guy, so I never used stealth that much in any game. But STALKER was always a game that seemed, in its development, to put emphasis on it for the sake of survival. So I had prepared for it to play in such a way. (One guy vs. 20 or so Russian soldiers in a straight shoot out should not result in that one guy winning.) Unfortunantly, STALKER does eventually allow you to become a one man army of death, genocide, and utter destruction.

As it is, stealth is of course impossible, since the AI can see you through walls and hear your fucking NV goggles. It will be nice to see it improved. While at the same time, increasing the challenge of one man run n gun/Dirty Harry style gameplay.

Another minor fix? Bodies, they stick around too long. In my game, northern cordon looks like frigging Omaha Beach.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2007-04-01 09:10pm

Stealth? Please, I wish, sometimes Mr Private can hear me sneaking up if I'm walking, sometimes he's fucking spiderman. It's hit or miss, but the people in damn NBC gear should be oblivious to everything they can't see.

On another note, I've just entered the Garage, I've got enough ammo to kill god, life is finally looking up. Everything is still inaccurate as hell, but I've final adjusted to "stalking"(hur hur) my pray through the zone and taking out entire bases via the simple method of popping one guy, throwing a grenade at the rest and booking it until they calm down.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-04-01 09:12pm

Heh. If you suggested to FPS kiddies that heavier (especially sealed) armour should come with a stealth and observation penalty, they'd have a fit. Even Rainbow Six had heavier armour = louder, and in things like the science suit it'd be awesome if your audio cues were distorted.

But hey, your hands never change to match your armour, so ...

EDIT - that reminds me - it's sad that you never need to used closed-circuit life support. Many suits have it, and the fluff suggests it's necessary, and much of the radiation is going to be particulate. It'd be nice if you could press the 'helmet' button to seal up your suit, and get serious penalties to detection, reduced vision, etc but be largely immune to the particulate radiation.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-04-01 10:42pm

The SEVA suit looks like it's totally sealed- I just pretend the helmet itself is transparent one way.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-04-01 10:55pm

Yeah but there's no game effect: it's not like if you go into a rad-zone in a merc suit you get poisoned faster (other than the 'armour resistance'), or if you use the middling suits you get poisoned faster unless you use your breather. All those modelled-on air tanks, and no ingame utility - it'd be double-awesome if it gave you sensible penalties to observation as well. The science and SEVA suits should sound really strange.

Resinence · Post by **Resinence** » 2007-04-02 03:13am

I havent really been playing much lately either, but if you tell me what the "problem" is I can probably change it. More accuracy but heavier recoil?

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2007-04-02 08:15am

More accuracy on the initial burst and single fire. The hip fire accuracy, as well as the non existant barrel climb on guns is once again helping to make you a one man army. And the AI units Vasily Zaytsev.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2007-04-02 08:56am

Just a quick note: the patch seems to have fixed my trashing problem, or at least made it rare enough that the game is playable. So far I haven't gotten very far (second area only), and while I love a lot of things about the game the faults are obvious and nasty as well.

- The already mentioned accuracy system that needs to be overhauled (maybe could be tweaked to be more like AA's system which is similar, but superior)
- The auto-snipers are very annoying so far, I hope that the advice saying they get easier later on is true
- I don't really like the way far too many NPCs get shot after you do the interaction with them (ie. you come around again to the same spot). So far, Wolf's scouts at the farm got slaughtered, Fox got eaten by a new pack of dogs, 2 loner patrols I had dealings with got wiped out, that group at the start of the garbage zone that you help fend of the bandit raid got wiped out by a bandit auto-sniper patrol... Its nice that npcs don't have god-mode, but with the constantly respawning enemies (and yes, after a while some of those locations look like a D-day landing), it seems like NPCs have a death sentance over them sooner or later.

Anyhow, I'm liking the game so far despite the faults, however I would rank it around 7/10 instead of the reviews that put it into 8 or 9 territory.

MagnusTheReD · Post by **MagnusTheReD** » 2007-04-02 01:07pm

Stark wrote:Also, Magnus can kill people with a sniper rifle! HOLY CRAP HE'S AWESOME! Doing that is somehow hard in a game that's laughably easy! I just love people who enjoy showing off.

Are you deliberately misinterpreting my words or what is it?
Show me exactly where have I ever stated my "WTF ME TEH ROXORZ!!1!!1" skills to be somehow unique or superior to anyone else's?
Where have I implied that I'm the only one can snipe people in this game?
I never claimed any of the above, I only said that sniping with the VSS is very easy and I find it faster than to get involved into firefights every time.

And don't you think that if I wanted to show off it would be kinda stupid on my part to say that my favorite weapon (the one I use to snipe people) is the "ultimate n00b cannon" on every occasion?!
If I ever wanted to show off I would boast my hypothetical skills with the SVD or something, not with the n00b cannon which is the VSS!

MagnusTheReD · Post by **MagnusTheReD** » 2007-04-02 01:12pm

CaptHawkeye wrote:And the AI units Vasily Zaytsev.

Why, what about them?
To tell you the truth I was kinda sure the AI names are random, I didn't know they (the AIs) are pre-defined models.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2007-04-02 01:16pm

How far into the game is it before you see sniper rifles? I've just finished the X16 lab mission, and while I'm now finding 4x scopes for my new NATO rifle, I'm not seeing any sort of sniper rifles (though I did find a Desert Eagle which appears to USE sniper rounds).

Also, anyone notice that a lot of the breakable boxes (esp. the wooden ones) and stashes are empty.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-04-02 01:20pm

InnocentBystander wrote:Also, anyone notice that a lot of the breakable boxes (esp. the wooden ones) and stashes are empty.

Stashes fill up when you get clued in about them. I know, pretty stupid. And what do you mean by "a lot" of the wooden boxes are empty? You mean there's loot in them other times?

MagnusTheReD · Post by **MagnusTheReD** » 2007-04-02 01:23pm

PeZook wrote:And what do you mean by "a lot" of the wooden boxes are empty? You mean there's loot in them other times?

Yeah, a couple of times you got artifacts from them - for some reason only artifacts and always in pairs. For me anyway...

MagnusTheReD · Post by **MagnusTheReD** » 2007-04-02 01:29pm

InnocentBystander wrote:I'm not seeing any sort of sniper rifles

Well, the first time you find any designated sniper rifles is in Army Warehouse, but the Freedom snipers have them.
And there's the Vintorez, just lying around over there, but I'm not sure if it qualifies for a "designated" sniper rifle.
Although it IS the most accurate weapon in the game! Except of the gauss of course.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2007-04-02 01:31pm

I've found things in them from time to time. Grenades, the occasional artifact some ammo or bandages. There was a box in the mess hall of freedom camp that had about a million cans of food...

PeZook wrote:Stashes fill up when you get clued in about them. I know, pretty stupid.

Are you positive? I attacked the military base near the starting camp to grab some documents, and found a chest with 15 or 20 military medkits, and then later after I searched all the poor russian soldiers I had murdered I got the info on that particular stash.

Most of these stashes I know about (thats how I found 'em after all!), anyway. There is one near the starting camp thats pretty much encircled by anomolies, navigated my way through the things, only to find an empty backpack. ARGH!

MagnusTheReD · Post by **MagnusTheReD** » 2007-04-02 01:53pm

InnocentBystander wrote:Are you positive?

I confirm that.
I specifically remember finding an empty chest, and after killing some dude I got it marked as a stash, so I went back and it was full.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-04-02 04:13pm

...and they're Ukrainian soldiers, dammit! They even say this through their PA system at the outpost! (in English

)

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2007-04-02 04:53pm

PeZook wrote:...and they're Ukrainian soldiers, dammit! They even say this through their PA system at the outpost! (in English )

You know what, why don't I just call them Communists? Dirty, dirty Communists.

InnocentBystander wrote: I attacked the dirty commie military base near the starting camp to grab some communist documents, and found a chest with 15 or 20 commie military medkits. After I searched all the poor dirty, dirty communist soldiers I had murdered I got the info on that particular soviet stash.

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2007-04-02 04:55pm

InnocentBystander wrote:
PeZook wrote:...and they're Ukrainian soldiers, dammit! They even say this through their PA system at the outpost! (in English )
You know what, why don't I just call them Communists? Dirty, dirty Communists.

InnocentBystander wrote: I attacked the dirty commie military base near the starting camp to grab some communist documents, and found a chest with 15 or 20 commie military medkits. After I searched all the poor dirty, dirty communist soldiers I had murdered I got the info on that particular soviet stash.

This post has been approved by The House Un-American Activities.

Pissed of Freedom in my game, looks like that was a bad idea. I can't get into the Red Forest now without getting through the Freedom ARMY gaurding it.

MagnusTheReD · Post by **MagnusTheReD** » 2007-04-02 05:06pm

CaptHawkeye wrote:Pissed of Freedom in my game, looks like that was a bad idea. I can't get into the Red Forest now without getting through the Freedom ARMY gaurding it.

See? SEE?! I told you guys, you need the VSS! I said it all along, you NEED IT!!!

No really, that's why I love it so much, I can't imagine what it would be like if I actually had to take on the whole freakin' platoon at once! N00b cannon or not, it saves lots of time and frustration to you.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-04-02 05:19pm

So I guess it's time to choose. Freedom or Duty? Duty or Freedom? Man, what pretentious names they both have...Duty is a bunch of stuck up single minded fuckers, and Freedom doesn't really want to get rid of the Zone. Both are heavily armed. Freedom have a cool base, but I'll lost access to the Bar if I join them. Who to join, oh who to join....

Or should I just say "Fuck them both"?

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2007-04-02 05:29pm

Does joining a side mean you get that cool looking armor?

MagnusTheReD · Post by **MagnusTheReD** » 2007-04-02 05:39pm

InnocentBystander wrote:Does joining a side mean you get that cool looking armor?

I don't think that there's an actual act of "joining"...
I think I joined Duty when I agreed to help them storm the Freedom base, but I got the cool looking armor (Duty's SEVA version) by making another mission for them.
It did involve stealing from Freedom, but since they never found out about it I remained on good terms with them.
So, I dunno...