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

[loomer]

Personally, I had a hard time with ammunition. I don't buy it, so when it comes to dungeons... Yeah, I run out of ammunition for the G36, swap over to that 9mm firing assault rifle, run out of ammo for it, swap to a silenced .45 pistol, and then just scavenge AKSU's and SMGs.

[Stark]

Really? How much ammo do you carry? The underground sections often don't have many badguys, and you can easily carry 700-800 rounds for a single gun instead of two guns with a few hundred each. I ran out of ammo a lot at the start, but once you've got something as accurate as a G36 and hide and lean, you should be headshotting all the way to the bank.

However, this is one of the reasons I keep all the 'unique' guns at the Bar - you never know when you'll need a 5.45mm gun, and most of the bases are absolutely chockers with it.

[InnocentBystander]

You ran out? How is that possible? I was constantly encumbered by the huge stores of ammo, grenades, and health packs I carried around! Enemies generally drop a lot more ammo than is needed to kill them. I admit I was running low once or twice during the zombie area, but that was more because i had dropped over 900 AK rounds to use the more powerful NATO rifles and the vendor only carried 360 rounds or so. Without a scope I found killing zombies was extremely ammo-expensive at range, but even they drop plenty of bullets.

[MKSheppard]

Say, how is radiation poisoning handled in this?

E.g. you can absorb some radiation poisoning and survive other than losing some hair and vomiting if the doseage is low enough, while walking into a hot spot, and sucking down 500 REMs in an hour kills you dead 95% of the time.

[Vympel]

I haven't played at all since my last post (focused on Shivering Isles) but despite Stark's usual torrent of high-standards too-easy cantankerous whines ( ) all the firefights I've been in the early game are fun as hell. Hiding behind the junk at the first army checkpoint and getting into a shootout with the soldiers- I must've expended so much damn pistol ammo before I killed any one of them. When they went down from a head shot it was fantastic.

[Stark]

Say, how is radiation poisoning handled in this?

E.g. you can absorb some radiation poisoning and survive other than losing some hair and vomiting if the doseage is low enough, while walking into a hot spot, and sucking down 500 REMs in an hour kills you dead 95% of the time.

Oh it's lame 'rad bar' stuff, where your 'rad level' translates into 'damage per second', and simply eating pills makes you okay. There's nothing awesome like collapse, weakness, hallucination, or permanent damage.

Oh and the geiger counter only has two noises - clicking, and clicking LIKE MAD. There's almost no way to know if the radiation is 'dangerous', as some areas with LIKE MAD radiation don't seem to build your 'rad bar'.

And Vympel, my cynicism is motivated by dashed hopes. These things could always be better, dammit! AND AVP DOESN'T WORK!

[DPDarkPrimus]

Oh and the geiger counter only has two noises - clicking, and clicking LIKE MAD. There's almost no way to know if the radiation is 'dangerous', as some areas with LIKE MAD radiation don't seem to build your 'rad bar'.

The clicker tells you if you're near anomalies.

[Stark]

Wrong. The UI makes many kinds of beeps (PDA up, PDA down, anomaly, and geiger clicks) and I'm talking about geiger clicks. That's why I used the words 'geiger' and 'clicking'. It detects radiation, not anomalies, which is a totally different UI noise.

EDIT - and to repeat, the geiger counter is either silent or playing 'slow clicks' sound or 'click like satan himself' sound. It clicks when there is no danger, and clicks really fast when there is very little danger. This is TOTALLY UNINFORMATIVE. It also doesn't matter because an hour into the game you'll be pretty much immune to radiation and there's no negative effects anyway.

[loomer]

I run out because I only carry around 2-300 rounds for one at most. I aim for the chest to make it a little harder, so that does make it easier to run out. I'll go for a headshot if I'm in trouble, sure, but when you can sprint up to an enemy and shoot them in the face if you want and you use cover well enough, you need to make it more difficult.

[PeZook]

Radiation is one of my biggest gripes with the game. If I was to choose what the devs should expand on next, this would be it. Next would be food (either take it out or expand the system into something sensible), medkit use and lastly - gun balancing, AI accuracy and such stuff.

Radiation should look something like this:
1) An informative geiger counter, with a display, which you would have to actually turn on, that would tell you how many millisieverts an hour you are taking, and what dose you received, and you'd have to reset it to take a fresh measurement. This kind of interactivity would immerse you into the game better, while not being much of a drag.

2) No fucking "rad bar". All you have is your counter, and it's display, which is feedback enough (unlike the health bar, which is necessary)

3) Proper symptoms for different doses. They can do it for Controllers which wacky stuff happening, why not for radiation? Little doses would cause minor inconvenience and leave no permanent damage ; high doses would cause you to be permanently damaged in some way (like worse, blurred vision, more severe bleeding, etc. - that would be awesome). Of course, there needs to be a "recovery mechanism" that would allow players to repair their crippled characters. But it should be expensive, non-portable and only available in advanced medical facilities.

4) Protective clothing should become useless quickly when damaged.

5) This is absolutely essential: NPCs and animal should react to radiation properly, not chase you straight onto a pile of debris hot enough to boil eggs in minutes. Also, if you become disfigured, NPCs should comment on that and other things should happen to reflect that skin is coming off your muscles.

That would make the game more interesting, though the maps are a little small for this kind of system to work perfectly. It would take some tweaking.

In other news: has anybody else noticed that by the time you get to do missions for the Barkeep, bandits become inredibly accurate with their MP5s, pistols and shotguns?

EDIT: Oh, also, Stark is wrong. The geiger counter has at least three levels of clickage.

EDIT2: Oh, also: you should carry batteries for your gear. Though the night vision goggles should be silent, dammit (if you look closely, using night vision actually increases your "noise level bar". Which is fucking stupid.)

[Stark]

Yeah, I always expected the zone environment to be 'hazardous', in that you could seriously fuck yourself up by being unprepared or taking risks. Instead we have laughable anomalies and trivial radiation. You can even simply drink some vodka and run through large rad zones and then perhaps eat a pill and you're fine - you should collapse and die under high-level bombardment. Instead of being an invisible killer that can insidiously build up over time (and even if you treat the symptoms you're still irradiated) it's just 'lol radpack I'm fine'.

I also want radioactive objects and radioactive dust - running without breathing equipment through radioactive dirt/underground tunnels etc should fuck you up longterm through ingestion.

EDIT - really, three samples? I've been paying a lot of attention - is it a very infrequent click I may have missed, or a faster one? I've found so many spots with 'really fast clicking' (which should mean 'dead in seconds, even brief exposure is dangerous') with no rad-bar change at all that I may have missed it?

[InnocentBystander]

Travelling towards the reactor itself is a heavily iradiated road. You spend a lot of time in what I'd term 'medium radiation'. If you've got good enough radiation resistance (like the scientist suits) plus scrubber artifacts (-rad) you can sit in much higher radiation without building any. Plus, if you accidently (or purposesly) move into a hotspot it will clear away the radiation after you leave, meaning you don't have to bother taking anti-radiation drugs.

[Stark]

Actually that's probably one of the worst ideas - that the 'radiation resist' artefacts actually remove the raditation from your body. They say 'oh they make you bleed' or they eat your stamina or whatever, but they constantly fix your radiation... making radiation even LESS of a problem than it was.

And I test rad areas without protection, of course. I'm not saying 'duh the geiger counter is clicking but I don't feel anything due to my massive resists'.

[PeZook]

Yeah, I always expected the zone environment to be 'hazardous', in that you could seriously fuck yourself up by being unprepared or taking risks. Instead we have laughable anomalies and trivial radiation. You can even simply drink some vodka and run through large rad zones and then perhaps eat a pill and you're fine - you should collapse and die under high-level bombardment. Instead of being an invisible killer that can insidiously build up over time (and even if you treat the symptoms you're still irradiated) it's just 'lol radpack I'm fine'.

The idea tha vodka somehow makes one more resistant to radiation is very Russian, though. And very, very wrong.

I also want radioactive objects and radioactive dust - running without breathing equipment through radioactive dirt/underground tunnels etc should fuck you up longterm through ingestion.

That would be great - a piece of awesome loot you kill to get, and then your geiger counter goes crazy when you finally take it.

EDIT - really, three samples? I've been paying a lot of attention - is it a very infrequent click I may have missed, or a faster one?

It's actually much more fluid than just three samples, from single clicks every second or so, through two or three, to intermediate clicking,to clicking like mad. Though often the "slow clocking" and "fast clicking" zones are so close that you can hear no difference. Try approach a pile in the Garbage slowly, and you'll see.

[loomer]

The idea tha vodka somehow makes one more resistant to radiation is very Russian, though. And very, very wrong.

Could the vodka have that kind of iodine in it, maybe? The one that's supposed to help limit radiation damage?

[PeZook]

The idea tha vodka somehow makes one more resistant to radiation is very Russian, though. And very, very wrong.

Could the vodka have that kind of iodine in it, maybe? The one that's supposed to help limit radiation damage?

Even if it did (which I doubt), ingesting iodine only limits damage to the thyroid by preventing radioactive iodine from being accumulated there. All other kinds of radiation damage would be completely unaffected. Not to mention that actual iodine would be orders of magnitude more effective than fucking vodka

[InnocentBystander]

Actually that's probably one of the worst ideas - that the 'radiation resist' artefacts actually remove the raditation from your body. They say 'oh they make you bleed' or they eat your stamina or whatever, but they constantly fix your radiation... making radiation even LESS of a problem than it was.

And I test rad areas without protection, of course. I'm not saying 'duh the geiger counter is clicking but I don't feel anything due to my massive resists'.

I found radiation to be a HUGE problem when hiking up to the Brain Machine at the top of the mountain. They also like to put the good stuff in patches of extemely painful (instant red style) radiation areas. Most of the other resistences are almost useless, save Radiation, and Bullet Protection. I ask, who here has ever taken chemical damage?

[MagnusTheReD]

I ask, who here has ever taken chemical damage?

I think you get chemical damage from the Fruit Punch anomaly. I'm not sure though - I never walked into one.

EDIT: Oh, also, Stark is wrong. The geiger counter has at least three levels of clickage.

No, I think the problem isn't the clickage - on the contrary, it's pretty fluid.
The problem that the "geiger" gauge doesn't serve to actually measure the radiation! I noticed that it works like the stupid anomaly counter thingie - it tells you how far away are you from the center of the radioactive zone or anomaly, but it doesn't actually tell you how intense the radiation!
You can be walking around the Cordon and it will scream like mad, or you can sit on a pile of radioactive waste with radiation levels so high it hurts your eyes just from looking at it, and the clicking will still be the same!
That's a fucking major screwup! Who makes a geiger that tells you how far the rad source instead of telling you how intense is it?!

I also want radioactive objects and radioactive dust - running without breathing equipment through radioactive dirt/underground tunnels etc should fuck you up longterm through ingestion.

Agreed.
What is up with this shit? The place is a zone of a fucking ecological disaster on an international scale and you can just run around the place like it's your local park?!
Two major nuclear reactor meltdowns in three years is enough to make the place a fucking wasteland, and yet you have no problem of eating bread that was made there, eating sausages that were fucking made of the local mutated(!) wildlife!
WTF?!

[TheMuffinKing]

Whats so bad about rad sausages?

Seriously though, does anyone have an idea of the story behind the game? Is there an explanation of the various anomalies and devices integral to the plot?

[DPDarkPrimus]

Two major nuclear reactor meltdowns in three years is enough to make the place a fucking wasteland, and yet you have no problem of eating bread that was made there, eating sausages that were fucking made of the local mutated(!) wildlife!
WTF?!

1) You can't make bread with flour and such from outside the Zone while inside the Zone?

2) The sausage is made out of chicken and soya, according to the item description. I don't remember seeing any mutated chickens.

[MagnusTheReD]

Seriously though, does anyone have an idea of the story behind the game? Is there an explanation of the various anomalies and devices integral to the plot?

Well, there is, but it's lame and consists primarily of abstract plot devices, and it's not very clear what does it really means.

Here's another rant:
What is up with this lameass explanation about the mystery behind the Marked One?!
Couldn't they come up with something more inspiring than the retarded (Spoilers):

"Who are you? Yeah, sorry about that, we messed up when programmed you, sorry man..."
WTF? I was hoping for something grand like "You're the living reincarnation of the Zone" or something, not that sad crap they feed you at the end of the game!

[MagnusTheReD]

1) You can't make bread with flour and such from outside the Zone while inside the Zone?

Unlikely.
I remember reading somewhere that the reason why is there no vehicles in the Zone is because the ones that were already inside are out of order and the military shoots down the ones that try to sneak in.
So I doubt that the few n00bs who manage to sneak into the Zone every once a while can carry enough flour on them to feed the local population.

The sausage is made out of chicken and soya, according to the item description. I don't remember seeing any mutated chickens.

I don't remember seeing any chickens at all!
And since we've already established that food is unlikely to be sneaked inside, it's either that the chickens are not depicted, or they make the sausages of the mutated boars, which is supported by the boar head on a frying pan in the Bar.

The most logical explanation I think would be that this mysterious "maker" of food have a secret warehouse somewhere around the Cordon, where he grows his chickens, slaughters them and makes sausages out of them, all in secret.

[InnocentBystander]

The most logical explanation I think would be that this mysterious "maker" of food have a secret warehouse somewhere around the Cordon, where he grows his chickens, slaughters them and makes sausages out of them, all in secret.

Are you sure? Theres huge quantities of food available all over the place, I suspect it'd be a pretty damn big operation to supply the amount of food consumed by the folks in the zone on a daily basis. Not to mention all the canned food. Do they have a cannery too?

[loomer]

The canned food is apparently stolen from the military during raids. Couldn't the rest of the food be hijacked from the convoys supplying the military outpost in Cordon, and then hiked to the bar?

[MagnusTheReD]

Are you sure?

No, but it's the best I could come up with.

I suspect it'd be a pretty damn big operation to supply the amount of food consumed by the folks in the zone on a daily basis.

How many people are there? I don't think more than ten thousand, not including the military of course.

Lets see what do we need to produce enough sausages for ten thousand people.
First you need a hatchery - they don't take up much space for all I know.
Then you need a sorting conveyor to separate the male chicks from the females.
Then you need a big warehouse to keep your chickens. Since we're "mass-producing" poultry and don't really care for animal rights we can put the chickens in small cages where they won't be able to move at all, their bone structure will weaken for the lack of exercise, it will produce eggs with deformed shells, but this way we can squeeze shitloads of chickens in a relatively small area.
Last, we need a storage to store the food for the chickens, which raises many questions, like where does it come from, and how is it being delivered, but that's another question.
All of this should fit in an area in the size of a small factory, don't think they would have problems with finding a proper piece of land.

All in all, a smart guy should be able to arrange this.

Do they have a cannery too?

No, according to the game the canned meat comes from a military warehouse which some stalkers broken into. Apparently it was pretty big - you can find the cursed meat all over the place!