STALKER, doot doot doot doot doo, you are my stalker girl

Rolo

testsubject23 wrote:

Oh, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, how I love thee. SoC remains one of my all time faves... hard to say quite why. Unmodded there are parts that seem almost designed to infuriate the player, but those parts are still completely outshone by how awesome the rest of the game is.
The first time I went through X18 was probably the most terrifying moment I've experienced in a game. They really know how to build tension.

I started playing Clear Sky again last night, inspired by all the recent STALKER threads... got near the power plant, and then got the hell blasted outta me by Monolith. Whoever taught those bastards how to use grenades is on my list.
I was a bit disappointed to note that there (seems to be) a point of no return in Clear Sky, much like SoC, where you can't go back to the previous areas to repair and resupply. So I'm stuck at the NPP with fucked armour and almost no ammo.
Does CoP have the same game mechanic?

only towards the very end, really

Fyndir

Rolo wrote:

only towards the very end, really

If memory serves CoP gives you a big warning about it beforehand, so you know it's coming and can put it off for a while?

Then again, my memory didn't serve before. :rotate:

vsove

STALKER is the best game ever.

When they had the pack on for 8.74 or whatever, I bought four copies and gave them away. MORE PEOPLE MUST PLAY STALKER.

testsubject23

Fyndir wrote:

If memory serves CoP gives you a big warning about it beforehand, so you know it's coming and can put it off for a while?

That's what's missing from CS and SoC... I don't really mind not being allowed to get back, as it does add a certain extra tension to the endgame, and it illustrates that you're really going "off the map" - what little trade and civilization the Zone has is left behind. But I'd have preferred a warning, or a hint of some kind.
If I'd had sense, I'd have stocked up on ammo and repaired my suit before hitting Limansk, but I wasn't expecting it to be the final run just yet.

Now I'm faced with the choice: try to finish the game without armour (which so far has been an excercise in frustration), or go back and repeat the whole Limansk level & onward. Thankfully I've been fairly paranoid with my savegames - SoC taught me that much - so I do have the option of just backtracking. Seems a waste, is all.

Fandyien

i'm having a p hard time with COP

collecting tools finding all the missions, etc

Fyndir

Fandyien wrote:

i'm having a p hard time with COP

collecting tools finding all the missions, etc

I started a playthrough on Master after seeing you talk about it, so my advice is now up to date and relevant, let me know what you're having trouble with.

Some tips and spoilers to try and generically help you out.

Spoiler:

Mod that lets you sell regardless of condition is really helpful, it scales the sale price with condition, but just being able to sell the damaged guns instead of leaving them all over the map makes MUCH more sense.

Stash in Izumrudnoye (just under the edge of a wrecked building) contains a TRS 301, this one usually ends up marked on my map early on.

You can have two large weapons, the secondary slot is no longer restricted to pistols, hunting shotgun + good rifle = excellent times.

There are some good mission lines to power through early on, like the one about disappearing Stalkers, after the full line you end up with medical supplies spawning in your stash box at the baseshipthing.

Be sure and do all the helicopters in the first area before going to Yanov, one of them gives you maps and gets you a discount from the guide.

Tool locations for first area

Spoiler:

Sawmill and Substation Workshops, Sawmill involves mandatory fighting against zombified stalkers, Substation Workshop does not require fighting, but can be a good source of loot if you can handle the fight well.

In other news, CoP masterpiece theater continues.

Did the bit where you

Spoiler:

sneak past sleeping bloodsuckers

and as soon as I got outside I get the emission warning on the radio, where's safe to hide? Oh, right, the entrance to the place I just came out of, which has corpses, and is creepy as fuck.

God. DAMNIT.

Edit:

Hint from my current playthrough, RE Veles:

Spoiler:

Bear gives you a Veles detector after a mission line.

Additionally, Veles detectors can be found with the stalker groups that are hanging around near anomalies, I just got two by coming up on such a group as they lost a fight against bandits.

Killed the bandits, took the loot for myself, that's my quest able to be completed if I don't mind leaving myself without a good detector, which I'm not willing to do since a single trip from anomaly to anomaly in the first zone netted me more than 30k, with the help of the veles to find those artifacts.

Fyndir

Ok, so, much though I was the last poster I just hit the point of no return in CoP and I had remembered incorrectly, again, it doesn't give you a big warning.

Spoiler:

Do not do the mission involving the radio being jammed / the missing squad (I think it only triggers after you've been inside X8), that is the point of no return.

DivideByZero

That bloodsucker nest in CoP is one of the most sphincter-puckering sequences in gaming, bar none.

I love how CoP lets you stumble onto random encounters with difficult, scary mutants crazy early in the game.