What I like about it is in fact the difficulty and lack of resources (STALKER games always become so boring and easy since every fucking AI has an arsenal I can loot). But was it really necessary to have so many goddamn different cleaning and repair items? Jesus.
I'm playing vanilla right now and ever since I found this upgraded assault rifle in Strelok's stash, I feel like Rambo. I just demolished the military base from earlier and that one near the starting village.
Not that gun fights aren't tense, I'm still pretty squishy.
I don't know why I'm trying to kill the guy, I should give him a medal. This gun saves my life on a regular basis.
Well maybe you'll have that opportunity.
I'll give Misery another chance when I get back to my computer. The mod has some atrocious item bloat (good luck repairing stuff), but I can deal with that if they fixed shitty ballistics. Seriously, they were so bad. Mosin-nagant head shots simply made guys flinch. I don' care its the starter sniper rifle, it's a 7.something bullet and it hit the the bandit wearing a hoodie in the head. If I want meat shieldy enemies I'll play Fallout, and even then I mod it so enemies and myself die to realistic wounds.
Oh and making the STG44 a useable weapon is... ugh. Like the mosin works. But the 44? Really?
Yeah. They added "depleted uranium" ammo, too. The idea being it acts as like AP+1 to deal with exoskeleton enemies running Level 5-rated armor. Except I've also been finding .45 ACP in it too. *facepalm*
Because when I think of AP, I think fuddy-five.
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
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Fleebhas all of the fleeb juiceRegistered Userregular
edited January 2014
Does Misery still have those roaming unkillable lighting anomalies? Every game (well, all 3 of them anyway) of 2.0 that I played I couldn't stick my head outside of Skadovsk without getting one-shotted. Even if I tried to run away the bloody thing followed and would get me eventually. Made it so frustrating I threw in the towel and haven't played since.
Does Misery still have those roaming unkillable lighting anomalies? Every game (well, all 3 of them anyway) of 2.0 that I played I couldn't stick my head outside of Skadovsk without getting one-shotted. Even if I tried to run away the bloody thing followed and would get me eventually. Made it so frustrating I threw in the towel and haven't played since.
AFAIK it should be fine? That sounds like a poltergeist, but they don't spawn in the wild at all, and all of the upper-level mutants (Burer, Psuedogiant, Chimera) only begin spawning in the wild after you complete a series of jobs involving mutant hunting. That actually sounds like a weirdly bugged game, I don't think that was intended to happen even in previous versions.
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
Misery is all kinds of weird. The massive fps loss when mutants sight/attack you. The horrific item bloat, dumb starting weapons but it is super impressive what they've been able to do
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
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Fleebhas all of the fleeb juiceRegistered Userregular
Does Misery still have those roaming unkillable lighting anomalies? Every game (well, all 3 of them anyway) of 2.0 that I played I couldn't stick my head outside of Skadovsk without getting one-shotted. Even if I tried to run away the bloody thing followed and would get me eventually. Made it so frustrating I threw in the towel and haven't played since.
AFAIK it should be fine? That sounds like a poltergeist, but they don't spawn in the wild at all, and all of the upper-level mutants (Burer, Psuedogiant, Chimera) only begin spawning in the wild after you complete a series of jobs involving mutant hunting. That actually sounds like a weirdly bugged game, I don't think that was intended to happen even in previous versions.
No, the thing that hunts me isn't a poltergeist, I know I can kill those. I've never run into anything like this in vanilla. It uses an electrical zap and it doesn't levitate stuff. I usually encounter it around the helicopter crash site in the toxic swamp.
And searching around I can find no mention of this thing anywhere. Maybe my copy of the mod is haunted O.o
It sounds like those ball lightning anomalies, there's one in a train somewhere in vanilla and I think a few more. I don't know why it's following you tho it should have a set path.
Fleebhas all of the fleeb juiceRegistered Userregular
It's really weird. It looks like a beam of blueish light shining down from the sky, and it moves at about walking speed. When it gets close to me to creates like a dust vortex above head height. Takes about four seconds from the start of the vortex formation until the attack, which is a lighting zap and psy damage. This thing follows me EVERYWHERE. It won't follow indoors, but it will wait for me outside. I've started three games and this has happened every time. Haven't tried v2.1 yet so I'll give it a shot.
It's really weird. It looks like a beam of blueish light shining down from the sky, and it moves at about walking speed. When it gets close to me to creates like a dust vortex above head height. Takes about four seconds from the start of the vortex formation until the attack, which is a lighting zap and psy damage. This thing follows me EVERYWHERE. It won't follow indoors, but it will wait for me outside. I've started three games and this has happened every time. Haven't tried v2.1 yet so I'll give it a shot.
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Fleebhas all of the fleeb juiceRegistered Userregular
It's really weird. It looks like a beam of blueish light shining down from the sky, and it moves at about walking speed. When it gets close to me to creates like a dust vortex above head height. Takes about four seconds from the start of the vortex formation until the attack, which is a lighting zap and psy damage. This thing follows me EVERYWHERE. It won't follow indoors, but it will wait for me outside. I've started three games and this has happened every time. Haven't tried v2.1 yet so I'll give it a shot.
I can confirm through limited play testing that this doesn't occur no more. However the ballistics in this game are still fucking broken as shit because if I can shoot some mook wearing a god damn leather jacket w/hood in the head neck and chest 3-4 times with a bolt action rifle and maybe kill him, and then load up the save again cos I died and then shoot the same guy from 50 meters away with a .45 pistol and kill him with a single shot in the chest is all kinds of broken.
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
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Fleebhas all of the fleeb juiceRegistered Userregular
Ok so you ran into it too? Whew, thought I was the only one and was starting to question my sanity.
It's really weird. It looks like a beam of blueish light shining down from the sky, and it moves at about walking speed. When it gets close to me to creates like a dust vortex above head height. Takes about four seconds from the start of the vortex formation until the attack, which is a lighting zap and psy damage. This thing follows me EVERYWHERE. It won't follow indoors, but it will wait for me outside. I've started three games and this has happened every time. Haven't tried v2.1 yet so I'll give it a shot.
Is vanilla CoP perfectly fine or does it need any mods to make it more stable/balanced?
Yeah, there's no problem with vanilla Pripyat; in fact it's the most stable and bug-free entry in the series. You could use CoP Complete for the extra niceties, but the game's fine on its own.
MISERY, however, just turned me off with the complete lack of anything useable. I think the Oblivion Lost mod for Chernobyl had it right, balancing challenge with enough supplies to keep yourself from getting screwed over, but MISERY's scarcity isn't what I want to deal with right now. I'm much more in the "fast action shooter" mood right now.
I'm playing through with Obvlivion Lost myself and I agree. Perfect mix of difficulty, new weapons and enemies, relatively scarce items and lots of shooty shooty.
I'm considering replaying CoP, but kind of want to change it up a bit without increasing the difficulty too much. Does Misery make the game a lot harder? Is there another mod that would be a better fit?
I'm considering replaying CoP, but kind of want to change it up a bit without increasing the difficulty too much. Does Misery make the game a lot harder? Is there another mod that would be a better fit?
Misery makes the game not fun. As expansive and impressive it is it simply isnt fun anymore. You could try smrter which hasn't been updated in two hundred years
I'm considering replaying CoP, but kind of want to change it up a bit without increasing the difficulty too much. Does Misery make the game a lot harder? Is there another mod that would be a better fit?
Even though its a couple years old Call of Pripyat Complete is a good choice.
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ShogunHair long; money long; me and broke wizards we don't get alongRegistered Userregular
I just started up a round of CoP + MISERY and I'm loving it. CoP needed to be more challenging and this feels great. I'm slowly getting used to the tons of items and I kind of like it. I feel like a real scavenger going for every scrap I can find. I found a series of stashes that got progressively better. I took a jar of gold teeth off a dead stalker who had painstakingly carved these teeth out of other dead stalkers. Then I bought a bag of cannabis and used it at a psy anomaly but died anyway.
MISERY also makes the game look absolutely stunning. I can't wait to dive in deeper.
I just started up a round of CoP + MISERY and I'm loving it. CoP needed to be more challenging and this feels great. I'm slowly getting used to the tons of items and I kind of like it. I feel like a real scavenger going for every scrap I can find. I found a series of stashes that got progressively better. I took a jar of gold teeth off a dead stalker who had painstakingly carved these teeth out of other dead stalkers. Then I bought a bag of cannabis and used it at a psy anomaly but died anyway.
MISERY also makes the game look absolutely stunning. I can't wait to dive in deeper.
Misery really makes you feel like your scripping and scraping everything just to make it day to day which is fantastic
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
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ShogunHair long; money long; me and broke wizards we don't get alongRegistered Userregular
I just started up a round of CoP + MISERY and I'm loving it. CoP needed to be more challenging and this feels great. I'm slowly getting used to the tons of items and I kind of like it. I feel like a real scavenger going for every scrap I can find. I found a series of stashes that got progressively better. I took a jar of gold teeth off a dead stalker who had painstakingly carved these teeth out of other dead stalkers. Then I bought a bag of cannabis and used it at a psy anomaly but died anyway.
MISERY also makes the game look absolutely stunning. I can't wait to dive in deeper.
Misery really makes you feel like your scripping and scraping everything just to make it day to day which is fantastic
I am desperately trying to find a suit to replace this crappy jacket. You're just a sack of mush with this thing.
I just started up a round of CoP + MISERY and I'm loving it. CoP needed to be more challenging and this feels great. I'm slowly getting used to the tons of items and I kind of like it. I feel like a real scavenger going for every scrap I can find. I found a series of stashes that got progressively better. I took a jar of gold teeth off a dead stalker who had painstakingly carved these teeth out of other dead stalkers. Then I bought a bag of cannabis and used it at a psy anomaly but died anyway.
MISERY also makes the game look absolutely stunning. I can't wait to dive in deeper.
Misery really makes you feel like your scripping and scraping everything just to make it day to day which is fantastic
I am desperately trying to find a suit to replace this crappy jacket. You're just a sack of mush with this thing.
I have the cs3-a (The one from nimble) and it really doesn't get much better i think i can take maybe an extra bullet.
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
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ShogunHair long; money long; me and broke wizards we don't get alongRegistered Userregular
I just started up a round of CoP + MISERY and I'm loving it. CoP needed to be more challenging and this feels great. I'm slowly getting used to the tons of items and I kind of like it. I feel like a real scavenger going for every scrap I can find. I found a series of stashes that got progressively better. I took a jar of gold teeth off a dead stalker who had painstakingly carved these teeth out of other dead stalkers. Then I bought a bag of cannabis and used it at a psy anomaly but died anyway.
MISERY also makes the game look absolutely stunning. I can't wait to dive in deeper.
Misery really makes you feel like your scripping and scraping everything just to make it day to day which is fantastic
I am desperately trying to find a suit to replace this crappy jacket. You're just a sack of mush with this thing.
I have the cs3-a (The one from nimble) and it really doesn't get much better i think i can take maybe an extra bullet.
can you survive anomalies any better? I can't even get close to the guy at the boiler anomaly for a health kit before I keel over. It was a hell of an experience getting back to the dead stalker in the cave under the burnt farm.
I just started up a round of CoP + MISERY and I'm loving it. CoP needed to be more challenging and this feels great. I'm slowly getting used to the tons of items and I kind of like it. I feel like a real scavenger going for every scrap I can find. I found a series of stashes that got progressively better. I took a jar of gold teeth off a dead stalker who had painstakingly carved these teeth out of other dead stalkers. Then I bought a bag of cannabis and used it at a psy anomaly but died anyway.
MISERY also makes the game look absolutely stunning. I can't wait to dive in deeper.
Misery really makes you feel like your scripping and scraping everything just to make it day to day which is fantastic
I am desperately trying to find a suit to replace this crappy jacket. You're just a sack of mush with this thing.
I have the cs3-a (The one from nimble) and it really doesn't get much better i think i can take maybe an extra bullet.
can you survive anomalies any better? I can't even get close to the guy at the boiler anomaly for a health kit before I keel over. It was a hell of an experience getting back to the dead stalker in the cave under the burnt farm.
The heat anomalies/heat in general will kill you super quick. If you're willing to drop some resources if you hop up on drugs and stims and medkits you can sprint give him the kit and run back in the starting leather jacket.
You can get the SEVA suit helmet (curtain helmet or something) and it pretty much makes you immune to radiation
MISERY 2.1 has a lot of stupid shit, but you kind of have to put up with it because no other CoP mod does atmosphere/visuals as well. I can't go back to Vanilla after playing it, it's just stunning looking. The HUD is also fantastic.
Bubby on
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EshTending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles.Portland, ORRegistered Userregular
When was the Complete mod last updated? I saw a 1.44 version or something like that, but I want to make sure I'm getting the most current edition for my sojourn into the game. I played it for a second a year ago, but other things took priority and it got sidelined and uninstalled.
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ShogunHair long; money long; me and broke wizards we don't get alongRegistered Userregular
Biggest gripes with MISERY so far are the devs are little kids and apparently like to move stashes and everything around as often as they possibly can. I've been told of three different locations where I can find a sunrise suit in MISERY 2.1 and all of them are wrong. I know there is a Sunrise suit somewhere in Zaton can I just please fucking have it?
Also what is the deal with radiation sickness? I seem to have this last tiny little bit that will not fuck off. No matter how much water, beer, tobacco, or radiation drugs I use it won't go away and it means I can't sleep. Even if I go to the doctor on the boat and pay the cunt I'm still sick and can't sleep. Is this a bug? I'm not carrying any artifacts or anything that would irradiate me.
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited January 2014
That's accommodating the target audience of Misery: those who want an unfamiliar and unpredictable Zone.
It's not really a mod you are meant to slap on and have a grand old time. It's for that special brand of masochist.
If you demand player empowerment (or even fairness) I would not, personally, install Misery.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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ShogunHair long; money long; me and broke wizards we don't get alongRegistered Userregular
That's accommodating the target audience of Misery: those who want an unfamiliar and unpredictable Zone.
It's not really a mod you are meant to slap on and have a grand old time. It's for that special brand of masochist.
If you demand player empowerment (or even fairness) I would not, personally, install Misery.
No I love the increased difficulty. Call of Pripyat when it was first released was the easiest of all the STALKER games. It took two-three circuits of Zaton collecting artifacts before you were kitted out in everything Nimble had to offer + upgrades. The only thing I don't like about the increased difficulty is that the MISERY devs have essentially removed artifacts and artifact hunting from the game. Their value is cut in half, you cannot get anywhere near most of them even with gear, and you can't use the artifact to help you get more artifacts. Even with solid armor and three fireballs on me I can't get anywhere near the boiler anomaly to check for more artifacts.
Artifacts, anomalies, and the hunting/exploration thereof is a huge, integral part of the STALKER series. To gut this in the name of ,"we want it to be harder" is nonsensical. You've basically removed one of the most important parts about the STALKER world and I don't understand why.
I also love the increase in items but hate how difficult the devs made it to sort through anything. It takes me 20 minutes every time I get back to base to sort through all my shit because everything has eight different properties it affects and also has three paragraph description. I wish some basic things like cigarettes and the various tool/repair/cleaning/sewing/whateverelse kits could have been a bit streamlined for ease of sorting. Overall I would say the mod is a net increase. I was frustrated yesterday morning because three separate guides all referring to MISERY 2.1 had this dang sunrise suit in the wrong spot. I still haven't found the bloody thing but I have Nimble's suit now. Sadly when you order it doesn't seem to come with the helmet anymore.
edit: after looking at the ecologist suit I'm wondering if you could hunt artifacts using that. I might reload one of my saves and buy it instead of Nimble's suit and give it a go.
edit 2: an ecologist suit is required for misery 2.1 I think. I picked one up instead of Nimbles suit (84k vs 89k) and I've been doing a ton of artifact hunting. Suit weighs a ton and has shit for armor though. Mercs are suddenly springing up all over the place and its hell getting around. I'm working on the basis they intended you to have multiple kit outs so I'm working on getting another suit and helm.
When was the Complete mod last updated? I saw a 1.44 version or something like that, but I want to make sure I'm getting the most current edition for my sojourn into the game. I played it for a second a year ago, but other things took priority and it got sidelined and uninstalled.
That's the most recent version. An update is supposedly in the works, but there's no current ETA for it.
I'm trying out a new mod for SoC called Autumn Aurora 2. It has its share of problems, but a dearth of foliage is not one of them.
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
The short version is that some intrepid modders (and supposedly some former GSC devs?) have taken the SoC alpha that leaked years back and updated and polished it into a finished, modern release. It's STALKER closer to its original form, before it got stuck in development hell and whipped into something approximating shippable shape by THQ's firm but loving hand. It's the game that could have been, but never was.
It's also completely standalone, which is fucking crazy.
I've only played about an hour of it so far, so I can't speak to it in much detail yet, but it seems pretty solid. It definitely feels more prominently like an RPG in its structure than the shipped SoC, which was clearly aimed at shooter fans. It actually opens with two menial fetch quests before directing you towards a firefight. Interestingly enough, it also features completely different voiced dialogue from Sid at the beginning of the game. Marked One is even partially voiced for a minute. There's also some mechanical changes. There's thirst in addition to hunger. I think necessary sleep might be thing, but I haven't gotten to the end of the first day yet. You need to equip individual stacks of ammo to your belt for them to be available for reloads, like some mods have played around with. There's a lot of incidental spam to your PDA, from bad jokes to virility pill advertisements. Cordon also looks very different, despite most of the landmarks being the same. Much more overgrown. It's the same game, but it isn't at all. It's fascinating, and you should all check it out if you feel like playing some more STALKER.
I sincerely thought I would never see anything major STALKER-related ever again. Mods, sure; other atmospheric Russian/Eastern European shooters, of course; maybe even Survarium would be good. But I was quite sure STALKER itself had reached the end of the line. Seeing this... I honestly don't know how to process it besides awe. The mere fact that the SoC alpha was released was odd enough - I remember it being surprising even then - but that a team took said alpha and worked it into a finished product? A standalone finished product? It boggles the mind, in the best way possible.
Stuff like this is why I play PC games; you just don't get surprises like this without a healthy mod community. Downloading now. Thanks for the heads-up, @Monger!
ShimshaiFlush with Success!Isle of EmeraldRegistered Userregular
I do recall reading about this about a week ago but mostly dismissing it. I didn't realize that it was actually a competent release. Just assumed it was something inspired by the original alphas and trailers. I guess it's really the real deal.
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Yeah. They added "depleted uranium" ammo, too. The idea being it acts as like AP+1 to deal with exoskeleton enemies running Level 5-rated armor. Except I've also been finding .45 ACP in it too. *facepalm*
Because when I think of AP, I think fuddy-five.
AFAIK it should be fine? That sounds like a poltergeist, but they don't spawn in the wild at all, and all of the upper-level mutants (Burer, Psuedogiant, Chimera) only begin spawning in the wild after you complete a series of jobs involving mutant hunting. That actually sounds like a weirdly bugged game, I don't think that was intended to happen even in previous versions.
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
No, the thing that hunts me isn't a poltergeist, I know I can kill those. I've never run into anything like this in vanilla. It uses an electrical zap and it doesn't levitate stuff. I usually encounter it around the helicopter crash site in the toxic swamp.
And searching around I can find no mention of this thing anywhere. Maybe my copy of the mod is haunted O.o
Handmade Jewelry by me on EtsyGames for sale
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I can confirm through limited play testing that this doesn't occur no more. However the ballistics in this game are still fucking broken as shit because if I can shoot some mook wearing a god damn leather jacket w/hood in the head neck and chest 3-4 times with a bolt action rifle and maybe kill him, and then load up the save again cos I died and then shoot the same guy from 50 meters away with a .45 pistol and kill him with a single shot in the chest is all kinds of broken.
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
He is the lightning anomaly!
God has come to the Zone.
Noooo. Pssssh ignore him. Come outside with your buddy buttsnoy there are no lightning anomalies here at aaaall
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
Aww yeaaah.
Kiss my ass, Butt!
I blame you @Dr. Chaos.
MISERY, however, just turned me off with the complete lack of anything useable. I think the Oblivion Lost mod for Chernobyl had it right, balancing challenge with enough supplies to keep yourself from getting screwed over, but MISERY's scarcity isn't what I want to deal with right now. I'm much more in the "fast action shooter" mood right now.
Why I aughta..
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
Misery makes the game not fun. As expansive and impressive it is it simply isnt fun anymore. You could try smrter which hasn't been updated in two hundred years
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
Even though its a couple years old Call of Pripyat Complete is a good choice.
MISERY also makes the game look absolutely stunning. I can't wait to dive in deeper.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Misery really makes you feel like your scripping and scraping everything just to make it day to day which is fantastic
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
I am desperately trying to find a suit to replace this crappy jacket. You're just a sack of mush with this thing.
Shogun Streams Vidya
I have the cs3-a (The one from nimble) and it really doesn't get much better i think i can take maybe an extra bullet.
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
can you survive anomalies any better? I can't even get close to the guy at the boiler anomaly for a health kit before I keel over. It was a hell of an experience getting back to the dead stalker in the cave under the burnt farm.
Shogun Streams Vidya
The heat anomalies/heat in general will kill you super quick. If you're willing to drop some resources if you hop up on drugs and stims and medkits you can sprint give him the kit and run back in the starting leather jacket.
You can get the SEVA suit helmet (curtain helmet or something) and it pretty much makes you immune to radiation
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
Also what is the deal with radiation sickness? I seem to have this last tiny little bit that will not fuck off. No matter how much water, beer, tobacco, or radiation drugs I use it won't go away and it means I can't sleep. Even if I go to the doctor on the boat and pay the cunt I'm still sick and can't sleep. Is this a bug? I'm not carrying any artifacts or anything that would irradiate me.
Shogun Streams Vidya
It's not really a mod you are meant to slap on and have a grand old time. It's for that special brand of masochist.
If you demand player empowerment (or even fairness) I would not, personally, install Misery.
No I love the increased difficulty. Call of Pripyat when it was first released was the easiest of all the STALKER games. It took two-three circuits of Zaton collecting artifacts before you were kitted out in everything Nimble had to offer + upgrades. The only thing I don't like about the increased difficulty is that the MISERY devs have essentially removed artifacts and artifact hunting from the game. Their value is cut in half, you cannot get anywhere near most of them even with gear, and you can't use the artifact to help you get more artifacts. Even with solid armor and three fireballs on me I can't get anywhere near the boiler anomaly to check for more artifacts.
Artifacts, anomalies, and the hunting/exploration thereof is a huge, integral part of the STALKER series. To gut this in the name of ,"we want it to be harder" is nonsensical. You've basically removed one of the most important parts about the STALKER world and I don't understand why.
I also love the increase in items but hate how difficult the devs made it to sort through anything. It takes me 20 minutes every time I get back to base to sort through all my shit because everything has eight different properties it affects and also has three paragraph description. I wish some basic things like cigarettes and the various tool/repair/cleaning/sewing/whateverelse kits could have been a bit streamlined for ease of sorting. Overall I would say the mod is a net increase. I was frustrated yesterday morning because three separate guides all referring to MISERY 2.1 had this dang sunrise suit in the wrong spot. I still haven't found the bloody thing but I have Nimble's suit now. Sadly when you order it doesn't seem to come with the helmet anymore.
edit: after looking at the ecologist suit I'm wondering if you could hunt artifacts using that. I might reload one of my saves and buy it instead of Nimble's suit and give it a go.
edit 2: an ecologist suit is required for misery 2.1 I think. I picked one up instead of Nimbles suit (84k vs 89k) and I've been doing a ton of artifact hunting. Suit weighs a ton and has shit for armor though. Mercs are suddenly springing up all over the place and its hell getting around. I'm working on the basis they intended you to have multiple kit outs so I'm working on getting another suit and helm.
Shogun Streams Vidya
I'm trying out a new mod for SoC called Autumn Aurora 2. It has its share of problems, but a dearth of foliage is not one of them.
GUYS
STALKER - Lost Alpha released a few days ago.
The short version is that some intrepid modders (and supposedly some former GSC devs?) have taken the SoC alpha that leaked years back and updated and polished it into a finished, modern release. It's STALKER closer to its original form, before it got stuck in development hell and whipped into something approximating shippable shape by THQ's firm but loving hand. It's the game that could have been, but never was.
It's also completely standalone, which is fucking crazy.
I've only played about an hour of it so far, so I can't speak to it in much detail yet, but it seems pretty solid. It definitely feels more prominently like an RPG in its structure than the shipped SoC, which was clearly aimed at shooter fans. It actually opens with two menial fetch quests before directing you towards a firefight. Interestingly enough, it also features completely different voiced dialogue from Sid at the beginning of the game. Marked One is even partially voiced for a minute. There's also some mechanical changes. There's thirst in addition to hunger. I think necessary sleep might be thing, but I haven't gotten to the end of the first day yet. You need to equip individual stacks of ammo to your belt for them to be available for reloads, like some mods have played around with. There's a lot of incidental spam to your PDA, from bad jokes to virility pill advertisements. Cordon also looks very different, despite most of the landmarks being the same. Much more overgrown. It's the same game, but it isn't at all. It's fascinating, and you should all check it out if you feel like playing some more STALKER.
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 sincerely thought I would never see anything major STALKER-related ever again. Mods, sure; other atmospheric Russian/Eastern European shooters, of course; maybe even Survarium would be good. But I was quite sure STALKER itself had reached the end of the line. Seeing this... I honestly don't know how to process it besides awe. The mere fact that the SoC alpha was released was odd enough - I remember it being surprising even then - but that a team took said alpha and worked it into a finished product? A standalone finished product? It boggles the mind, in the best way possible.
Stuff like this is why I play PC games; you just don't get surprises like this without a healthy mod community. Downloading now. Thanks for the heads-up, @Monger!
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
Hopefully it's nice and stable