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MagnusTheReD
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Post by MagnusTheReD »

loomer wrote: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?
The military doesn't store any fast-spoiling food like sausages and bread, that's why they can it.
They might be shipping good food ready to be cooked every week or so, but how many times do you think they will let you raid the same base?
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Post by Stark »

MagnusTheReD wrote: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.
It's a shame that 'fucked up shit happens in there whoa' is almost cooler than the silliness they put at the end.

PeZook is correct about radiation: it seems to measure your distance from the centre of a rad area. Thus, it often clicks when there's no radiation, and for a large area it can click very slowly (far from centre) but you still take a serious dose because it's such a high rad-zone. How hard would it be to just have the damn geiger counter work on 'current rad level' not some silly anomaly-detector with a different sound?
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Post by MagnusTheReD »

Stark wrote:It's a shame that 'fucked up shit happens in there whoa' is almost cooler than the silliness they put at the end.
Yeah, if there's really an expansion pack coming up, they'd better do some major plot expansion!
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Post by DPDarkPrimus »

MagnusTheReD wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:1) You can't make bread with flour and such from outside the Zone while inside the Zone? :roll:
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.
And of course, the smuggling operations that the merchants have set up to sell artifacts to outside sources and bring in ammunition and weapons to sell... those can't be used to also bring in foodstuffs. No sir.
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Post by Vympel »

Or they just pay the military to give them the food. They're called bribes. I doubt the Ukranian Army is so upright and moral that they'd refuse cold hard cash.
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Post by Stark »

Vympel wrote:Or they just pay the military to give them the food. They're called bribes. I doubt the Ukranian Army is so upright and moral that they'd refuse cold hard cash.
They had to get the AN-94s from somewhere lol? :)
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Post by Vympel »

Played some more- just got the documents from Agroprom- compalints that the AKS-74 is too accurate? If anything it's too inaccurate given the extremely short ranges you're fighting at- the effective range of the AK-74 (well aimed, that is) is 500m.

I do so love using it though.
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Post by Stark »

Does anyone think the 74 is too accurate? The 'fast firing' unique one is more accurate than normal, but things like the G36 are far better.
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Post by CaptHawkeye »

The 74 fast already makes the game absurdly easy. I've abstained myself from the G-36 as I don't want the game to become THAT laughably easy.
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Post by Arthur_Tuxedo »

If you fired enough shots at a stationary target and had all the time in the world to aim, I'm sure you could eventually hit something 500m away, but I wouldn't really call that "effective range". On the battlefield, I understand effective range to be 200-300 meters.
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Post by PeZook »

Vympel wrote:Played some more- just got the documents from Agroprom- compalints that the AKS-74 is too accurate? If anything it's too inaccurate given the extremely short ranges you're fighting at- the effective range of the AK-74 (well aimed, that is) is 500m.

I do so love using it though.
The fact that all AKs are portrayed as massively inferior to l337 w3stern GuNZ in most games irritates the fuck out of me, and STALKER is no exception. Come the fuck on - the newest, baddest, latest Russian assault rifles are apparently not accurate enough to hit man-sized targets reliably at 100 meters with a fucking scope!

While a custom american carbine can do so without much trouble. And worst of all - it's exactly the same in most games, where AKs are inaccurate, low-tech pieces of shit.
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Post by Vympel »

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:If you fired enough shots at a stationary target and had all the time in the world to aim, I'm sure you could eventually hit something 500m away, but I wouldn't really call that "effective range". On the battlefield, I understand effective range to be 200-300 meters.
Effective range

For comparison's sake, the "effective range" of an AK-47 is 300m rather than 500m of the AK-74 because of the ballistics of the 7.62x39mm round. The 5.45x39mm rounds of the AK-74 corrected this issue. That doesn't mean you can hit a target at 500m reliably with an AK-74 most of the time, but it does mean that you can rely on your bullets to not go completely out to lunch- which is what the AKs do in video games at absurdly short ranges.

The only game that was acceptable to me in this regard was IIRC Operation Flashpoint, though it's been a while since I've played it.

Which reminds me, I need to install Armed Assault.
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Post by MagnusTheReD »

DPDarkPrimus wrote:And of course, the smuggling operations that the merchants have set up to sell artifacts to outside sources and bring in ammunition and weapons to sell... those can't be used to also bring in foodstuffs. No sir.
I believe that most of the artifacts are being bought by the scientists, while the merchants only smuggle artifacts for private collectors, which order a single, specific artifact - and it's nothing you can't deliver by smuggling it out of the Zone on foot, past the cordons.
It's not enough to establish a sufficient flow of food into the zone.

Although I agree that you can bribe soldiers for weapons and ammo - after all, that's exactly what the Soviet soldiers were doing in Afghanistan when thing gone shitwards - namely selling ammo and fuel to the enemy! But as hinted in the game, they usually bribe lower ranked soldiers behind the backs of their officers.
This is enough to bring several crates of ammo into the Zone every now and then, but it's still not enough to feed the local population!

Regarding the Abakan, I think they bribed a higher ranked officer once for a few trucks of guns, which is perfectly reasonable, but to assume that they can bribe enough high ranked officers to smuggle several dozen tons of flour into the Zone every week... it just doesn't sound reasonable to me...
But that's my opinion, what do you guys think?

P.S. Sorry it took me so long to respond - a busy day... :?
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Post by MagnusTheReD »

PeZook wrote:The fact that all AKs are portrayed as massively inferior to l337 w3stern GuNZ in most games irritates the fuck out of me, and STALKER is no exception. Come the fuck on - the newest, baddest, latest Russian assault rifles are apparently not accurate enough to hit man-sized targets reliably at 100 meters with a fucking scope!
I absolutely agree with you!
Given I was born in the GREAT SOVIET MOTHERLAND (in Ukraine, namely 8)), I absolutely DESPITE all that Russki-tech hatin' that goes around the media!
And why doesn't the Abakan gets the respect it deserves?!
It's an awesome gun after all - they even say that despite its overall complexity it still remains as indestructible as the good ol' AKM! Which is pretty fucking amazing if you ask me!
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Post by Netko »

PeZook wrote:The fact that all AKs are portrayed as massively inferior to l337 w3stern GuNZ in most games irritates the fuck out of me, and STALKER is no exception. Come the fuck on - the newest, baddest, latest Russian assault rifles are apparently not accurate enough to hit man-sized targets reliably at 100 meters with a fucking scope!

While a custom american carbine can do so without much trouble. And worst of all - it's exactly the same in most games, where AKs are inaccurate, low-tech pieces of shit.
Ironically, one of the games that models the guns in question most realistically is America's Army. The AK47 is somewhat more inaccurate then an M16 there, but within the bounds of reason - if you manage to target someone when prone and aiming, you're going to hit, regardless of the weapon used. The more advanced weapons on both sides seem to have pretty much the same accuracy, as it should be considering the ranges involved.
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Post by CaptHawkeye »

The only game that was acceptable to me in this regard was IIRC Operation Flashpoint, though it's been a while since I've played it.
Yeah, but Flashpoint lost it in some other places. Remember the silenced Mp5 you could snipe with? Reloading LAWs? :lol:
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Post by PeZook »

The problem in Stalker is the "equipment levelling" system, where every gun you get must be progressivelly better than the last one, in order for the system to work. Since there is no other levelling scheme, this is the only thing that makes stalker RPG-ish.

Which, I think, isn't necessary. I would for one would gladly trade the "dozens of guns" model for a "few guns, each with their own character". Implemented properly, it would work wonders. Of course, to model some of the guns properly you would need some sort of a "handling system" - that is, some guns would be prone to breaking if you handled them roughly. Otherwise, the AK would not be the AK we all know and love, but just an assault rifle with cool looks and somewhat clumsy sights.

Just what "rough handling" would mean gameplay-wise is up to discussion, however. If it worked this way, though, players could choose guns based on other factors than "damage, accuracy, scope, silencer?"

Equipment levelling could still be done with gun mods, attachments, customization. How cool would it be if you could repaint your AK into a camo scheme, for example, and duct-tape a camping flashlight to it?

All in all, most assault rifles (and pistols and SMGs for that matter) should be roughly equivalent to each other, with their own special quirks, and appearing throughought the game at the same time. I long for such a system to be implemented in at leats one game during my lifetime :P

Oh, another gripe with stalker: pistols are fucking useless as a backup weapon, if only because your character has to rack the slide every time he pulls the pistol out. The whole point of a backup weapon is that you can pull it out fast when your main runs out and unload an entire magazine into a bloodsucker that's about to tear your face off! But because of this single animation, pistols become orders of magnitude less useful.

Also, they can't be replaced with shotguns later on. Which, needless to say, sucks dick, since I only carry a rifle and a shotgun now and have to swap them out manually.
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Post by PeZook »

CaptHawkeye wrote:
The only game that was acceptable to me in this regard was IIRC Operation Flashpoint, though it's been a while since I've played it.
Yeah, but Flashpoint lost it in some other places. Remember the silenced Mp5 you could snipe with? Reloading LAWs? :lol:
The sniper-MP5 was simply a result of a lack of a truly advanced ballistics system in OFP. And reloading LAWs, well...that was just pure stupidity :P
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Post by Stark »

Pezook's comments on 'equipment levelling' echo my own - they really need to take the 'character' route instead of 'a is better than b'. I think be removing the 'leveled' availablility (ie by making all guns 'early game', simply expensive or rare or whatever instead of 'start game = everyone uses AK, late game = everyone uses G36') and even out the gun stats - basing 'accuracy' on things like barrel length and sights, not 'hurr hurr the AK sucks'. In this way, once you have money, you can simply say 'I will use the AK due to it's reliability and plentiful ammo', or whatever, and not 'like in an RPG I got this gun late in the game, thus it is better'.
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Post by Arthur_Tuxedo »

Vympel wrote:
Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:If you fired enough shots at a stationary target and had all the time in the world to aim, I'm sure you could eventually hit something 500m away, but I wouldn't really call that "effective range". On the battlefield, I understand effective range to be 200-300 meters.
Effective range

For comparison's sake, the "effective range" of an AK-47 is 300m rather than 500m of the AK-74 because of the ballistics of the 7.62x39mm round. The 5.45x39mm rounds of the AK-74 corrected this issue. That doesn't mean you can hit a target at 500m reliably with an AK-74 most of the time, but it does mean that you can rely on your bullets to not go completely out to lunch- which is what the AKs do in video games at absurdly short ranges.

The only game that was acceptable to me in this regard was IIRC Operation Flashpoint, though it's been a while since I've played it.

Which reminds me, I need to install Armed Assault.
Right. I wasn't defending the way it's portrayed in most games, just saying that 500 m is pretty damn optimistic on the battlefield with iron sights. Didn't know there was a big range / accuracy difference between 7.62 x 39 and 5.45 x 39, though. How does the AK-74 accuracy compare to the M4 or M16?
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Post by loomer »

Actually, I'm quite sick of the "Russian gear = shit" brainbug myself. It's not as accurate in some cases, sure, but by far and large it's more durable in the same cases. Less accuracy but more durability, and sometimes, wounding capacity for unarmoured targets. And isn't a current M4 heavier than whatever the Russians are using now when made officially service ready? (The M203 and other add ons.)
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Post by DPDarkPrimus »

The forth-coming patch will have a 10-15% frame rate increase, a freeplay mode for after you beat the game, and a savegame converter.
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Post by loomer »

In that case, I'll be downloading that (Almost purely for the freeplay mode.)
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Post by PeZook »

DPDarkPrimus wrote:The forth-coming patch will have a 10-15% frame rate increase, a freeplay mode for after you beat the game, and a savegame converter.
The FPS increase will be a godsend. My rig-o-crap can barely run the game as it is.
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Post by Xon »

It is kinda scary that one guy is having just as much fun modding the damn game and hasnt gotten around to playing it. However, these mods are preformance increases! Some of them improve image quaility at no preformance cost either. linky
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