DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
Here's what you do for the Tail of the Pseudodog and other mutant body parts quests. Loot mutant corpses when you have the time and inclination. Then just keep a stock of the body parts at a stash or two, preferably near a trader you get your missions from. Then whenever he offers one of these fine missions, accept it, grab the bit out of the stash, take it over and claim your reward.
While this isn't true for every quest giver, I do know that Sidorovich, Barman, and Sakharov have tiered quests that give you one of each type (assassination, find an artifact/body part, clear area X, etc.), and only let you progress to harder tasks when you finish preceding ones. Quest lists reset after (I think) a day or so, regardless of how many you've cleared.
ZRP and most mods add in the ability to say you don't want that particular task, in which case it cycles to the next one. Repeatable quests still come back the next day as normal, no matter the outcome.
or! do like me and jack your Weight up to 1000, and carry it on ya at all times! lol
Is this the part of the thread where I start bitching at people to cowboy up and use a carry weight that forces them to make good, forward-thinking decisions about their equipment loadout like real men (such as me)?
TrippyJingMoses supposes his toeses are roses.But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
I have three sets of gamedata that I switch in and out depending on whether I want to play with Stoll's Pack, Complete, or LURK. In Stoll's I use 80 kg, in Complete I use 60 kg, and in LURK I use 35 kg.
The actual amount of weapons and gear I carry pretty stay the same from game to game, the only thing the carrying weight changes for me is how much ammo I can carry.
Monger its dumb to carry crap loads, but i wanna have fun and fun to me is having a couple guns to play with and not worry and think bout ugh this wont work this will. if i want a realistic game, id dress up and go out and play something. :P dont hate on peoples different choices you like having 2-3guns i like 4-5
I personally feel that a large inventory takes away from some of the atmosphere and suspense of the game, but I certainly wouldn't begrudge anyone who feels differently.
I mean, I play Just Cause 2 with unlimited ammo and a couple other cheats because I feel it turns the game from a fun 3rd person shooter into lol action movie; I'm sure others would disagree.
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
Oh. Well, our mistake. I'm sure someone in the thread considers limited inventory a good thing, though! So there!
I do. I like my STALKER experience to be as ruthlessly oppressive of me as possible. So much so that one might question my emotional stability. That was the joke.
In retrospect, it's not a very funny joke when not accompanied by my posting history in the thread.
Monger its dumb to carry crap loads, but i wanna have fun and fun to me is having a couple guns to play with and not worry and think bout ugh this wont work this will. if i want a realistic game, id dress up and go out and play something. :P dont hate on peoples different choices you like having 2-3guns i like 4-5
Here, here.
I just started playing with RPGs* in mid '09. This left a lot of catching up to do, and I did it with gusto. Vigor. Other words meaning "I figure virtual dice rolls are better than human contact". There are two key rules, bound by one all important element, that I have learned: Inventory management can bugger off, open worlds demand fast travel, and the all important of all games ever is flow/fluidity.
For me, inventory management murders this. Look, one way or the other, I'm getting every item I come across into my stash. I just am, that's how I play games. I don't go carrying every item I have into the game world, because that's silly. For me, personally, the argument of atmosphere loses weight on the basis that I do not personally run around Rambo style and always play into the game's intentions. All a limitless inventory does is ensure that I won't be making 10 trips every mile to drop off loot, and keeps the gameplay fluid and continuous.
In that same vein, fast travel and anything else forcing me to halt my questing/exploration/adventuring ruins atmosphere and game play for me.
Then again, I make myself hate games, because I insist on playing "as the developers intended", i.e. "bugs, poor game design and everything else include in the box". If they patch something in or out, thats how I play. Modding for me happens way down the lifespan of a game. STALKER will hopefully last me quite some time, especially since I have 3 iterations of it to play. :P
*I'm gonna go ahead and consider STALKER an RPG, because the only element missing is character progression. Maybe some awful hacking/lockpicking mini-game. Otherwise, its got the trappings. The delicious, delicious trappings.
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
edited June 2010
For me, STALKER is primarily a game about survival. I'll say that when you're just mucking around Cordon or Garbage or whatever that yeah, having a limited inventory will mostly just encourage people to spend a shitload of time carting loot back and forth to traders. The place where it starts making a difference is when you get farther away from safety. You have to stop and make some hard decisions about what you need to make it from point A to point B. You have to stare at a pile of loot and sort through it to figure out what you absolutely need because there's no way you're going to be back here anytime soon. There's a tension to that. A gravity. And it's rewarding to learn what it takes to prepare for whatever unexpected things you might find out there. Even more rewarding to scrape together a makeshift plan when you realize how badly you fucked up when you planned this all out.
One of my favorite experiences in LURK was when I found myself dropping ammo to carry a unique gun back to my stash across two whole zones filled with military and bandits. I was otherwise loaded down with expensive artifacts and vital supplies, so I ended up with an empty rifle and about 12 rounds for my pistol. It was a combination of stealthing past anyone I could by dashing between trees in broad daylight and picking off anyone else with headshots and making a dash for their body under fire to salvage any ammo they might be carrying on them, even if it meant picking up and running dry their weapon. Wonderfully heart-wrenching experience.
Then again, I make myself hate games, because I insist on playing "as the developers intended", i.e. "bugs, poor game design and everything else include in the box". If they patch something in or out, thats how I play. Modding for me happens way down the lifespan of a game. STALKER will hopefully last me quite some time, especially since I have 3 iterations of it to play. :P
That's silly. "As developers intended" is rarely, if ever, the same as how it actually turns out. Take Troika. I imagine if they'd not shut down, they have continued patching their games.
Also, three iterations? There's Stoll's/ZRP, but what's the other two?
I get that, but I find myself just agitated because I could be getting on with the actual game. Granted, there is an argument that playing with inventory is a legitimate part of the game, that just isn't what I'm in it for. If limited inventory is the only way they can scare me, they're not doing it right. I mean, I understand the thought process and the reasoning, but when I actually find myself up against it, it immediately breaks immersion and reminds me "oh, yeah, playing a game... now I get to trudge around because of some 1's and 0's made to look like guns. Totally sweet." and in the case of straight abandoning things I just find myself resenting the developer for making me abandon my hard won trophies (trophies because I won't likely use them, but I earned and want them).
I should be holding a rocket launcher that actually launches bears and still be scared because of everything around me. Hell, it only takes a bullet to put you down in STALKER, its not like tension is hard to come by. I find myself just stopping in the middle of roads to flick on my light and do a slow 360. Be sure there isn't anything following me.
Inventory is one of my many, many, many items in gaming I consider archaic and artificial to the actual game. I really should just learn to mod things.
Edit: I meant 3 iterations, as in 3 entries in the series. SoC, CS and CoP. Not mods. :P
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
Then again, I make myself hate games, because I insist on playing "as the developers intended", i.e. "bugs, poor game design and everything else include in the box". If they patch something in or out, thats how I play. Modding for me happens way down the lifespan of a game. STALKER will hopefully last me quite some time, especially since I have 3 iterations of it to play. :P
That's silly. "As developers intended" is rarely, if ever, the same as how it actually turns out. Take Troika. I imagine if they'd not shut down, they have continued patching their games.
Also, three iterations? There's Stoll's/ZRP, but what's the other two?
Clear Sky. Call of Pripyat. I assume is what he's referring to.
But yeah, there's a lot of games where the developer's intention is not at all reflected in the final product, whether it be because of content that couldn't be completed or bugs that couldn't be fixed by release. V:tM - Bloodlines, KotOR 2, and STALKER are the biggest examples that spring to mind.
I didn't quite mean it that way. I can differentiate between "developer goosed it" and "developer is a goose", heheh. KOTOR2 would be a case of "developer got goosed", which is why I still like it. What was intended, what I feel when I play it, is something pretty darn swell. Nifty, if you would.
Things like inventory management, save systems, scaling, etc are "developer is a goose". If STALKER crashes, that's "developer goosed it", because they don't want it to crash, they just code like geese. Geese with a beautiful vision that makes me want to waste hours of my life in virtual worlds.
I think for most of my STALKER games, my loadout has been like:
1 AR
1 Shotgun
Handful of rads meds and bandages
1,000+ rounds of ammo of various kinds
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
Hah, a presentation I sat through recently described swell and nifty as out of date (context being the movie Pleasantville) . I was, to say the least, confused, as I thought it was completely normal to say such things. Certainly, I'd prefer to describe things I like as nifty, instead of cool.
A bit more on topic, though: My load out is pretty basic, too. I go with 1 pistol and 1 anything else. No grenades, no artifacts. Maybe its too early in the game, but they seem more harmful than useful. Although I did figure out I can balance a Blood artifacts negatives against bandit armour, which was pretty sweet. I also carry around whatever ammunition I can and any health type items. Even though the only health items I use are vodka and bandages. If I get banged up enough to use a medkit, I'm already dead. I tend to have around 45/48g of weight, prior to hitting the bad lands.
Really, I don't need 10 different handguns of the exact same make in varying conditions. Doesn't mean I don't want to collect them. :P
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TrippyJingMoses supposes his toeses are roses.But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered Userregular
Jesus Christ you babies, I thought it was going to be an Image Results for "Nifty" with a top-down Tubgirl the way you're going on.
For all the horrible shit the internet could've thrown at me the instant I hit the search button, Nifty Erotic Stories Archive - Gay Fiction is like a god damn monacle-wearing Victorian Brit of brain-bleaching material, though, I will say that.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
Huh.
That's pretty nifty.
Yeah. It works that way.
In other news, I'm popping along with Clear Sky, and I'm really enjoying myself. I'm just bopping along and shooting mans and mutates. I like how everything is the same, but different. The Freedom camp is too funny. I love the PA announcements.
when I actually find myself up against it, it immediately breaks immersion and reminds me "oh, yeah, playing a game... now I get to trudge around because of some 1's and 0's made to look like guns. Totally sweet."
So when you're up against it, you like to reach into your 1 ton backpack and immediately find what you want and be instantly gunning mans with it. Immersion is realising that you've got your sniper rifle out while a mutant is chasing you and realising that you haven't got time to reach into your pack and get your shotgun out and you need to work out what the hell you're going to do before you get eviscerated.
This isn't Half Life guys...
Also, three iterations? There's Stoll's/ZRP, but what's the other two?
if you insist on referring to Vanilla as a version, I reckon there are three further ones, being Stoll's/ZRP, Oblivion Lost and LURK.
So when you're up against it, you like to reach into your 1 ton backpack and immediately find what you want and be instantly gunning mans with it. Immersion is realising that you've got your sniper rifle out while a mutant is chasing you and realising that you haven't got time to reach into your pack and get your shotgun out and you need to work out what the hell you're going to do before you get eviscerated.
This isn't Half Life guys...
.
Did you just tell me how I should feel immersed? Surely you didn't tell me how I should feel immersed, because that would make you the biggest of geese.
Do take note of two things: the key to gameplay for me flow/fluidity. Out of combat, a small pack brings me to the halting realization I'm playing a game when I suddenly see "EERRRRR! TOO HEAVY, ASSHOLE! DROP IT!" come across my screen.
Second, I don't take 10 tons of items with me. I take with and only make use of 2 guns at a time. I might have a backpack full of guns, but those aren't my guns to use, they're trophies. Think of looting like scalping for gamers.
Edit: Also, I'm gonna go ahead and call your example a big goose, too. Because it has nothing at all to do with how much stuff is in your pack. Inventory doesn't pause your game. It doesn't matter how many guns you have, the notion of pausing the game mid-chase creates tension. Maybe you're not like me, but its pretty damned easy to pick out a big 6 square item, or a 1 square item thats shiny and always automatically placed at the very end. STALKER auto-sorts things, and places them in specific orders. As a gamer, I expect this is something you naturally memorize, not intentionally, but just because inventory memorization is something that just happens. Christ, I've been playing the game for basically just a couple hours and I've already memorized my inventory placement/auto-sort. Even if it isn't auto-sort, that just means the items are exactly where you placed them.
Edit 2: And STALKER is an entirely different beast compared to any other "horror" game. It is an open world in which I have stashes, collect loot, there is an economy, I trade items for items, etc. No matter how you frame it, STALKER is first and foremost an open world. This is not Silent Hill, a linear experience down a corridor. It is an experience in choice making. North or West? Radiation or anomalies? Its a choose your own adventure where every adventure ends up with you dead.
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TrippyJingMoses supposes his toeses are roses.But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered Userregular
Did you just tell me how I should feel immersed? Surely you didn't tell me how I should feel immersed, because that would make you the biggest of geese.
m'sorry, was just asking
Regarding trophying, I agree, I like to have trophies too, though I choose to keep them in a dedicated stash (on the hill at the back of the Military Warehouses) which functions as a "trophy cabinet". In it I keep every gun in the game and every unique gun I have found that I don't use.
I think maybe I'm getting immersion and atmosphere mixed up, personally, I like the same feeling as Monger's been talking about, actually having to weigh risks, but maybe that's atmosphere rather than immersion...
Second, I don't take 10 tons of items with me. I take with and only make use of 2 guns at a time. I might have a backpack full of guns, but those aren't my guns to use, they're trophies. Think of looting like scalping for gamers.
This is okay because there are obsessive-compulsives out there who need to grab everything. It can become a grind eventually but that's fine.
On the other hand, if one wants to carry a lot of weapons and ammo into a fight, there are a few things to keep in mind. STALKER uses multiple ammo types, so it's easier to handle different situations without bringing 6 different guns along. I'm replaying Fallout 3 and it has this annoying problem. Also, SoC may feel like an open world, but the progression in guns and ammunition used by the enemies is fairly deliberate, so if you don't use the weapon type of choice for a map, you're stuck bringing a thousand rounds of your own -- if you can even acquire enough to begin with. Finally, I think CoP is best played as a series of mini adventures, so it lends itself to picking two guns to play with each time (say, a sniper rifle and subgun, an automatic rifle and shotgun, or LMG and pistol) and setting off. Just zipping around with every weapon cheapens some of the fun you can make out of CoP.
I think it's fine as long as you know what's going on like Klash, and aren't abusing it to bring a lot of guns to a fight. And that's only because you don't want to weaken the experience so much you end up thinking "OLOL what is so great about this game?" Of course it's your game so you can break it if you want, but don't come complaining to us!
This is okay because there are obsessive-compulsives out there who need to grab everything.
In Clear Sky and CoP, I have a version of every gun fully upgraded along each upgrade arc. And I keep the pistols and rifles in separate, dedicated stashes.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
What is all this stuff people need to carry? I've usually got plenty of space for stuff, unless I start overloading on looted medpacks or guns. But really I rarely loot weapons. They don't sell for that much. I kept some backups around in SoC since there wasn't a repair system, but weapon degradation was never an issue for me. I had to toss a couple of guns here and there, but for the most part stuff would be reliable even after loosing a third or quarter of its quality.
Right now, starting out in Clear Sky Complete, I pack light usually. I like to do a bit of recon for big missions like hitting bases, so my loadout is usually tailored for the job at hand. I probably use a pistol a lot more than most people too, but pistol ammo is light and it's everywhere. It's not a big deal to carry a thousand 9x18mm and I'm having a blast with my upgraded Makarov. I may tool another one up on a different upgrade path to play around with. I carry a decent bit of shotgun ammo, usually about a hundred rounds and maybe three or four hundred rounds for whatever assault rifle/SMG I'm carrying. Some medical supplies, artifacts, food and maybe a bottle of vodka or two and I'm still nowhere near my weight limit.
I'm thinking about having a MP5 refitted for 9x18mm, and upgrade it for ammo capacity, rate of fire and accuracy. Then with my Makarov I'd only need to carry one kind of bullet and my shotgun shells. I got a lot of mileage out of the MP5 in SoC. I wonder if it still has the same kind of legs in CS?
I used to struggle with the weight limit until I realised how much all that vodka I was carrying weighed. Now I do the manly thing. When I find a bottle, I drink it right there and then.
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DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
I used to struggle with the weight limit until I realised how much all that vodka I was carrying weighed. Now I do the manly thing. When I find a bottle, I drink it right there and then.
Yet another reason that the STALKER world is so engrossing: that's exactly what I do when I find vodka bottles in real life! Realism!
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
Posts
Easy Peasy.
ZRP and most mods add in the ability to say you don't want that particular task, in which case it cycles to the next one. Repeatable quests still come back the next day as normal, no matter the outcome.
Because I'm tired.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
The actual amount of weapons and gear I carry pretty stay the same from game to game, the only thing the carrying weight changes for me is how much ammo I can carry.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
I mean, I play Just Cause 2 with unlimited ammo and a couple other cheats because I feel it turns the game from a fun 3rd person shooter into lol action movie; I'm sure others would disagree.
In retrospect, it's not a very funny joke when not accompanied by my posting history in the thread.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
I had to draw the line when I realized I was carrying like 15,000 rounds of assorted ammunition.
Here, here.
I just started playing with RPGs* in mid '09. This left a lot of catching up to do, and I did it with gusto. Vigor. Other words meaning "I figure virtual dice rolls are better than human contact". There are two key rules, bound by one all important element, that I have learned: Inventory management can bugger off, open worlds demand fast travel, and the all important of all games ever is flow/fluidity.
For me, inventory management murders this. Look, one way or the other, I'm getting every item I come across into my stash. I just am, that's how I play games. I don't go carrying every item I have into the game world, because that's silly. For me, personally, the argument of atmosphere loses weight on the basis that I do not personally run around Rambo style and always play into the game's intentions. All a limitless inventory does is ensure that I won't be making 10 trips every mile to drop off loot, and keeps the gameplay fluid and continuous.
In that same vein, fast travel and anything else forcing me to halt my questing/exploration/adventuring ruins atmosphere and game play for me.
Then again, I make myself hate games, because I insist on playing "as the developers intended", i.e. "bugs, poor game design and everything else include in the box". If they patch something in or out, thats how I play. Modding for me happens way down the lifespan of a game. STALKER will hopefully last me quite some time, especially since I have 3 iterations of it to play. :P
*I'm gonna go ahead and consider STALKER an RPG, because the only element missing is character progression. Maybe some awful hacking/lockpicking mini-game. Otherwise, its got the trappings. The delicious, delicious trappings.
One of my favorite experiences in LURK was when I found myself dropping ammo to carry a unique gun back to my stash across two whole zones filled with military and bandits. I was otherwise loaded down with expensive artifacts and vital supplies, so I ended up with an empty rifle and about 12 rounds for my pistol. It was a combination of stealthing past anyone I could by dashing between trees in broad daylight and picking off anyone else with headshots and making a dash for their body under fire to salvage any ammo they might be carrying on them, even if it meant picking up and running dry their weapon. Wonderfully heart-wrenching experience.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
That's silly. "As developers intended" is rarely, if ever, the same as how it actually turns out. Take Troika. I imagine if they'd not shut down, they have continued patching their games.
Also, three iterations? There's Stoll's/ZRP, but what's the other two?
I should be holding a rocket launcher that actually launches bears and still be scared because of everything around me. Hell, it only takes a bullet to put you down in STALKER, its not like tension is hard to come by. I find myself just stopping in the middle of roads to flick on my light and do a slow 360. Be sure there isn't anything following me.
Inventory is one of my many, many, many items in gaming I consider archaic and artificial to the actual game. I really should just learn to mod things.
Edit: I meant 3 iterations, as in 3 entries in the series. SoC, CS and CoP. Not mods. :P
But yeah, there's a lot of games where the developer's intention is not at all reflected in the final product, whether it be because of content that couldn't be completed or bugs that couldn't be fixed by release. V:tM - Bloodlines, KotOR 2, and STALKER are the biggest examples that spring to mind.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Things like inventory management, save systems, scaling, etc are "developer is a goose". If STALKER crashes, that's "developer goosed it", because they don't want it to crash, they just code like geese. Geese with a beautiful vision that makes me want to waste hours of my life in virtual worlds.
1 AR
1 Shotgun
Handful of rads meds and bandages
1,000+ rounds of ammo of various kinds
All my worlds are crashing down around me.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
A bit more on topic, though: My load out is pretty basic, too. I go with 1 pistol and 1 anything else. No grenades, no artifacts. Maybe its too early in the game, but they seem more harmful than useful. Although I did figure out I can balance a Blood artifacts negatives against bandit armour, which was pretty sweet. I also carry around whatever ammunition I can and any health type items. Even though the only health items I use are vodka and bandages. If I get banged up enough to use a medkit, I'm already dead. I tend to have around 45/48g of weight, prior to hitting the bad lands.
Really, I don't need 10 different handguns of the exact same make in varying conditions. Doesn't mean I don't want to collect them. :P
I just googled "nifty".
The first hit is...uh...
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
WE HAVE TO GO BACK
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
That's pretty nifty.
Yeah. It works that way.
In other news, I'm popping along with Clear Sky, and I'm really enjoying myself. I'm just bopping along and shooting mans and mutates. I like how everything is the same, but different. The Freedom camp is too funny. I love the PA announcements.
So when you're up against it, you like to reach into your 1 ton backpack and immediately find what you want and be instantly gunning mans with it. Immersion is realising that you've got your sniper rifle out while a mutant is chasing you and realising that you haven't got time to reach into your pack and get your shotgun out and you need to work out what the hell you're going to do before you get eviscerated.
This isn't Half Life guys...
if you insist on referring to Vanilla as a version, I reckon there are three further ones, being Stoll's/ZRP, Oblivion Lost and LURK.
Did you just tell me how I should feel immersed? Surely you didn't tell me how I should feel immersed, because that would make you the biggest of geese.
Do take note of two things: the key to gameplay for me flow/fluidity. Out of combat, a small pack brings me to the halting realization I'm playing a game when I suddenly see "EERRRRR! TOO HEAVY, ASSHOLE! DROP IT!" come across my screen.
Second, I don't take 10 tons of items with me. I take with and only make use of 2 guns at a time. I might have a backpack full of guns, but those aren't my guns to use, they're trophies. Think of looting like scalping for gamers.
Edit: Also, I'm gonna go ahead and call your example a big goose, too. Because it has nothing at all to do with how much stuff is in your pack. Inventory doesn't pause your game. It doesn't matter how many guns you have, the notion of pausing the game mid-chase creates tension. Maybe you're not like me, but its pretty damned easy to pick out a big 6 square item, or a 1 square item thats shiny and always automatically placed at the very end. STALKER auto-sorts things, and places them in specific orders. As a gamer, I expect this is something you naturally memorize, not intentionally, but just because inventory memorization is something that just happens. Christ, I've been playing the game for basically just a couple hours and I've already memorized my inventory placement/auto-sort. Even if it isn't auto-sort, that just means the items are exactly where you placed them.
Edit 2: And STALKER is an entirely different beast compared to any other "horror" game. It is an open world in which I have stashes, collect loot, there is an economy, I trade items for items, etc. No matter how you frame it, STALKER is first and foremost an open world. This is not Silent Hill, a linear experience down a corridor. It is an experience in choice making. North or West? Radiation or anomalies? Its a choose your own adventure where every adventure ends up with you dead.
nifty
On the other hand, if one wants to carry a lot of weapons and ammo into a fight, there are a few things to keep in mind. STALKER uses multiple ammo types, so it's easier to handle different situations without bringing 6 different guns along. I'm replaying Fallout 3 and it has this annoying problem. Also, SoC may feel like an open world, but the progression in guns and ammunition used by the enemies is fairly deliberate, so if you don't use the weapon type of choice for a map, you're stuck bringing a thousand rounds of your own -- if you can even acquire enough to begin with. Finally, I think CoP is best played as a series of mini adventures, so it lends itself to picking two guns to play with each time (say, a sniper rifle and subgun, an automatic rifle and shotgun, or LMG and pistol) and setting off. Just zipping around with every weapon cheapens some of the fun you can make out of CoP.
I think it's fine as long as you know what's going on like Klash, and aren't abusing it to bring a lot of guns to a fight. And that's only because you don't want to weaken the experience so much you end up thinking "OLOL what is so great about this game?" Of course it's your game so you can break it if you want, but don't come complaining to us!
In Clear Sky and CoP, I have a version of every gun fully upgraded along each upgrade arc. And I keep the pistols and rifles in separate, dedicated stashes.
Right now, starting out in Clear Sky Complete, I pack light usually. I like to do a bit of recon for big missions like hitting bases, so my loadout is usually tailored for the job at hand. I probably use a pistol a lot more than most people too, but pistol ammo is light and it's everywhere. It's not a big deal to carry a thousand 9x18mm and I'm having a blast with my upgraded Makarov. I may tool another one up on a different upgrade path to play around with. I carry a decent bit of shotgun ammo, usually about a hundred rounds and maybe three or four hundred rounds for whatever assault rifle/SMG I'm carrying. Some medical supplies, artifacts, food and maybe a bottle of vodka or two and I'm still nowhere near my weight limit.
I'm thinking about having a MP5 refitted for 9x18mm, and upgrade it for ammo capacity, rate of fire and accuracy. Then with my Makarov I'd only need to carry one kind of bullet and my shotgun shells. I got a lot of mileage out of the MP5 in SoC. I wonder if it still has the same kind of legs in CS?
Yet another reason that the STALKER world is so engrossing: that's exactly what I do when I find vodka bottles in real life! Realism!
Howdy, bro. That's a nifty shooter you got there.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.