Let's drink to him once more. He was a good S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Dartboy

Professor Phobos wrote: »

Note to self: Don't go into X-18 with insufficient ammunition, because in Oblivion Lost there's some crazy red giant thing in a trenchcoat that will kick your ass.

I basically hid upstairs and threw grenades until it died. Running out of ammo is just not a good idea. What the hell was that thing?

That was Burer, I think, the super-Dwarf. There was a note mentioning him in the office where that bandit leader was that you had to take out. And yeah, he was a bitch to take down. I did basically the same thing, chuck all my grenades at him then unload with most of my ammo. People have said that the "intended" way to take him down is to equip an artifact in your pistol slot and use that to create an anomaly. However, I've never gotten that to work nor have I ever heard of anyone getting that feature working, so I don't know if the OL team ever actually implemented that or merely mentioned they were planning it.


On a different note, I picked up Clear Sky last week, but am just getting around to installing it now. For the people who've been going through it, anything I need to know ahead of time, setup-wise? Patches / any mods already out / gamestopping bugs or peculiarities I need to be aware of?

CarbonFire

Dartboy wrote: »

On a different note, I picked up Clear Sky last week, but am just getting around to installing it now. For the people who've been going through it, anything I need to know ahead of time, setup-wise? Patches / any mods already out / gamestopping bugs or peculiarities I need to be aware of?

Nothing is too critical atm, just the latest patch that fixes most of the instability (but breaks faction wars). Weight / accuracy mods can be applied to taste, but aren't terribly necessary if you played and got used to Vanilla Stalker.

Many of the simpler mods from SoC have been converted over to Clear Sky, most of which can be found here:
http://stalker.filefront.com/files/Stalker/Clear_Sky/Mods;10498

Nothing too significant of note yet, but we'll likely see an OL-like mod eventually.

As for bugs, main ones involve crashing to desktop and corrupted save files, with the occasional game-breaking script error. So save often, use multiple save files and remember that you made need to reload previous saves if the scripting goes bonkers.

skace

So... Weight Reduction mods or Night Vision for SEVA? Which path leads to a better suit of armor?

GalagaGalaxian

Blue Night Vision is awesome. But you might be able to live with the Green Night vision (which SEVA has by default)

Olivaw

So I'm starting to really get into this game despite it crashing so hard I had to unplug my computer

I've got an AK-74 which I have attached a scope to (and used to snipe an entire bandit camp from like a mile away god damn this accuracy mod rules), an awesome handgun I found near the stalker leader that came preupgraded with a bunch of junk, a spare shotgun in case I ever feel the need to shotgun something, and a metric fuckton of first aid kits, bandages, food (why?) and ammo of all kinds

I just have a few questions

1) What the hell are these flash drives for? I have two and no one will buy them from me and I can't show them to the stalker upgrade guy
2) I can't figure out how the hell to find artifacts. I know I have to flip up the dealie and I can do that, but then it just sits there, doesn't beep or boop or blorp at all. Should I be finding artifacts around every corner or are they really rare or something?
3) What is the way to manually fiddle with carry capacity? Like, what files and values do I modify to make me carry 75 or 100 kilos instead of fifty? I don't wanna break the game or nothin', but damn I'm coming across a shitload of ammo and shiny looking guns and I want to be able to carry them back to sell them for money because I am chewing through it with all these gun upgrades and armor repairs and fast travel guides

Also fuck the bandits. Fuck them. Try to take my money just to look at your heap of garbage, who's laughing now huh? Sure as shit ain't you, 'cause you're dead

canemaquilus

Bulletproof route is pretty much mandatory for the seva, because are you really going to go around with 15% bulletproof?

I don't think so.

canemaquilus

1. Talk to mechanics ask if they have any work for you. They will send you to find flash drives.

2. Artifacts, pretty rare. Detector only beeps if theres an artifact in proximity. Artifacts are typically found in big clumps of anomalies.

3. No idea.

Stolls

And that, as they say, is that.

Some thoughts about the ending. Major spoilers, of course.

Gameplay:

Armor degradation made the final fight as painfully hard here as it did in SoC. Suddenly getting hit even once meant burning a medkit, twice meant death. In fact, pretty much everything about the finale felt rushed and haphazard. Maybe it's nostalgia talking, or maybe it's that SoC was at least kind enough to provide replacement armor throughout the NPP, but something is just missing. Shadow let you go into the guts of the sarcophagus. Clear Sky let you barely scratch the surface. Maybe that's it.

Lemansk was fun as hell. All right, so the scripted segments came closer to Call of Duty than Stalker, but that's fine so long as they're good scripted segments. Firefights were intense, there was a genuine push northward, and there were all sorts of neat toys to play with. The hospital alternated between intense and frustrating - weaving in and out of corridors across machine gun fire, good; having to fend off respawning waves of bad guys for a few minutes, not so much. Still, the scripting held together well enough, and it's nice to be able to quicksave in the middle of something important, quickload, and not have the action broken.

Story:

Right from the get go I knew, or at least thought I knew, that it wouldn't be as simple as finding and killing Strelok. With SoC as a given, this presents a paradox; Strelok had to survive to be captured by the Monolith. The fact that it did come down to stopping Strelok was a surprise, and not a pleasant one. It was obvious that Lebedev was jumping to a rather flimsy conclusion, and there were opportunities for multiple endings; perhaps even 'false' ones with Scar finding the Monolith himself, or the choice to aid Strelok's group and turn on Lebedev.

A 'good' ending is unnecessary considering what's supposed to happen next, and, in a way, I can't imagine it ending much differently than it did. Still, the whole thing smacks of wasted potential. SoC drew me in like few games ever have - I don't hesitate to say it's become one of my favorite games of all time - and the middle-to-lategame of Clear Sky is amazing. GSC had their hearts in the right place, but I think they just bit off more than they could chew, technically, and either wrote themselves into a corner or just didn't have time for anything else.

Reviewing this properly will not be easy.

Edit: Also, thanks for the tip, Demitri. The launcher did indeed come in handy for that :^:

CarbonFire

Olivaw wrote: »

I just have a few questions

1) What the hell are these flash drives for? I have two and no one will buy them from me and I can't show them to the stalker upgrade guy
2) I can't figure out how the hell to find artifacts. I know I have to flip up the dealie and I can do that, but then it just sits there, doesn't beep or boop or blorp at all. Should I be finding artifacts around every corner or are they really rare or something?
3) What is the way to manually fiddle with carry capacity? Like, what files and values do I modify to make me carry 75 or 100 kilos instead of fifty? I don't wanna break the game or nothin', but damn I'm coming across a shitload of ammo and shiny looking guns and I want to be able to carry them back to sell them for money because I am chewing through it with all these gun upgrades and armor repairs and fast travel guides

Also fuck the bandits. Fuck them. Try to take my money just to look at your heap of garbage, who's laughing now huh? Sure as shit ain't you, 'cause you're dead

1) Different mechanics want different flash drives, and sometimes you'll find drives for mechanics you haven't met yet. Just hang onto them, and make sure to ask every mechanic you run across for the upgrade quests (I think one or two of the mechanics are bugged, so you might not be able to sell ALL the flash drives). You'll usually get several thousand for completing each upgrade quest.

2)It's hard with the basic "echo" detector, and only slightly easier with the "bear" directional detector. Once you get the "Veles" radar detector, it becomes much easier to FIND the artifacts (still a pain to get them sometimes, because they are often surrounded by anomalies). You can find the Veles in shops randomly, from NPCs after joining some factions or completing certain quests, or in the super-secret cave in the NE corner of Swamp under the mattress (go a few pages back here for the details).

3) Sounds like you'd enjoy the game much more with a carry weight mod. There are several out there, but here's one to get you started:
http://stalker.filefront.com/file/Stalker_CS_Weight_mod;93834

Comes with instructions on how to install, BUT ALWAYS MAKE SURE TO BACKUP ANY FILES IT WANTS TO OVERRIDE FIRST. You can recover your settings if you mess up by deleting certain files and letting Clear Sky auto-generate them, but I believe some mods out there will alter your game saves in such a way as to require you keep using the mod to play that save. Not sure if the weight mod is one of them though (don't think it is).

I'd also suggest making a new save before applying any mods, just to ensure you don't lose too much playtime if the mod fails to work properly.

Ninja Snarl P

Professor Phobos wrote: »

Note to self: Don't go into X-18 with insufficient ammunition, because in Oblivion Lost there's some crazy red giant thing in a trenchcoat that will kick your ass.

I basically hid upstairs and threw grenades until it died. Running out of ammo is just not a good idea. What the hell was that thing?

Haha, yeah, I hated that thing. I read the briefings for the mission, though, so I knew to take plenty of ammo just in case. My solution to him was slightly less than eloquent.

I stood toe to toe with the Burer and unloaded multiple clips into his skull. Then he ran off and I shot him with my underslung grenade launcher from across the room. Sure, it burnt up some health kits, but after getting pelted with random crap for half an hour on the floor above him I wasn't really feeling up to putting up with telekinetic crap.

I really do hate how controllers disarm you with their psi attack in OL, though. They can attack fast enough that you can't even get a rifle reloaded between hits so a quick, direct solution is usually out of the question. If you don't have grenades or a grenade launcher attachment, they can be a major pain.

Zhaosuke

Aye, il drink to that

top notch game

Morkath

Dartboy wrote: »

Professor Phobos wrote: »

Note to self: Don't go into X-18 with insufficient ammunition, because in Oblivion Lost there's some crazy red giant thing in a trenchcoat that will kick your ass.

I basically hid upstairs and threw grenades until it died. Running out of ammo is just not a good idea. What the hell was that thing?

That was Burer, I think, the super-Dwarf. There was a note mentioning him in the office where that bandit leader was that you had to take out. And yeah, he was a bitch to take down. I did basically the same thing, chuck all my grenades at him then unload with most of my ammo. People have said that the "intended" way to take him down is to equip an artifact in your pistol slot and use that to create an anomaly. However, I've never gotten that to work nor have I ever heard of anyone getting that feature working, so I don't know if the OL team ever actually implemented that or merely mentioned they were planning it.


On a different note, I picked up Clear Sky last week, but am just getting around to installing it now. For the people who've been going through it, anything I need to know ahead of time, setup-wise? Patches / any mods already out / gamestopping bugs or peculiarities I need to be aware of?

You can also just wait until the burer turns around, and shoot him in the back. He is only telekinetically protected from the front.

Cronus

I'm still fairly early in the game playing my first time through and with no mods, and I've got to wonder if it's worth it to carry around a shotgun and the ammo. Should I just carry more ammo for an assault rifle? I do like the shotgun for use against wildlife, but it seems fairly useless.

CarbonFire

Cronus wrote: »

I'm still fairly early in the game playing my first time through and with no mods, and I've got to wonder if it's worth it to carry around a shotgun and the ammo. Should I just carry more ammo for an assault rifle? I do like the shotgun for use against wildlife, but it seems fairly useless.

Yeah shotguns are never overly effective against armored (or distant) human targets. Much better against mutants however, especially the auto shotty (and to a lesser extent the pump shotty). Taking a shotty with you underground or into the Red Forest is pretty essential.

Madpanda

The garbage night trader doesn't want to wake up, its now 3am and on the rare occasions he wakes up for a second (usually after alt tabbing) he gives me the whole "dude its too early to sell guns, come back later". Any other place to buy guns in Garbage or am I pretty much screwed till the next area?

Also has anyone found a pistol iron sights mod for clearsky? The only one I've found was wrapped up in a weapon damage mod.

randombattle

Why would you buy a gun?

ProPatriaMori

Morkath wrote: »

Dartboy wrote: »

Professor Phobos wrote: »

Note to self: Don't go into X-18 with insufficient ammunition, because in Oblivion Lost there's some crazy red giant thing in a trenchcoat that will kick your ass.

I basically hid upstairs and threw grenades until it died. Running out of ammo is just not a good idea. What the hell was that thing?

That was Burer, I think, the super-Dwarf. There was a note mentioning him in the office where that bandit leader was that you had to take out. And yeah, he was a bitch to take down. I did basically the same thing, chuck all my grenades at him then unload with most of my ammo. People have said that the "intended" way to take him down is to equip an artifact in your pistol slot and use that to create an anomaly. However, I've never gotten that to work nor have I ever heard of anyone getting that feature working, so I don't know if the OL team ever actually implemented that or merely mentioned they were planning it.


On a different note, I picked up Clear Sky last week, but am just getting around to installing it now. For the people who've been going through it, anything I need to know ahead of time, setup-wise? Patches / any mods already out / gamestopping bugs or peculiarities I need to be aware of?

You can also just wait until the burer turns around, and shoot him in the back. He is only telekinetically protected from the front.

I did it by running around next to him with radiation-producing artifacts and then unloading an AK magazine into his face. I don't know exactly how it worked but every time I made myself into a little mini-Chernobyl the fucker would try to run away from me.

Made that fight a whole lot more satisfying.

Madpanda

randombattle wrote: »

Why would you buy a gun?

Just to see if he had anything fancy like the other trader (who manages to stay awake 24/7) hinted at. I got tired of waiting for him so I just moved on to Dark Valley.

DrKissinger1

Is anyone else having a really hard time getting Clear Sky to run well? I reinstalled SoC for kicks, and it ran at Full Dynamic Lighting with barely a stutter. It would only lag a bit if I sprinted too quickly across open landscape before the game could render the scenery. I went into CS's graphics options and made them identical to SoC: Full Dynamic Lighting (no DirectX 10). In this mode, any level takes an inordinate amount of time to load. It will actually sit at the "SYNCHRONIZING" screen for 2-3 minutes before jumping into the swamp. Even then, the game becomes a slideshow when I attempt to swivel the camera at all.

I set it to Static Lighting, and the loading problem was completely alleviated; the swamp only took as long to load as any level of SoC. The framerate was significantly improved, and the game doesn't look too bad, either. However, framerate is still rather poor when compared to SoC, which ran at much higher settings and with practically flawless framerates.

Does CS tax any system much more harshly than SoC? Does DirectX 10 help the game run more smoothly (My video card can run DX10, I just haven't wanted to switch to Vista)?

zimfan

regarding SoC ending

Be Rich- Dies after being rich in his head
Be Immortal-He's like a statue or something
Zone to disappear- it's gone but he'll never see it
Secret Wish- Random
Secret of Monolith- Extra Level

is that about right?

krylon666

@zimfan - pretty much. but the last one will reveal the true nature of the zone

randombattle

zimfan wrote: »

regarding SoC ending

Be Rich- Dies after being rich in his head
Be Immortal-He's like a statue or something
Zone to disappear- it's gone but he'll never see it
Secret Wish- Random
Secret of Monolith- Extra Level

is that about right?

In the disappear ending he just goes blind. Nothing happens to the zone. Also there was the I want to rule the world ending where he gets absorbed into the wish granter.

zimfan

randombattle wrote: »

zimfan wrote: »

regarding SoC ending

Be Rich- Dies after being rich in his head
Be Immortal-He's like a statue or something
Zone to disappear- it's gone but he'll never see it
Secret Wish- Random
Secret of Monolith- Extra Level

is that about right?

In the disappear ending he just goes blind. Nothing happens to the zone. Also there was the I want to rule the world ending where he gets absorbed into the wish granter.

oh yeah I forgot about that one

Daemonion

CarbonFire wrote: »

Cronus wrote: »

I'm still fairly early in the game playing my first time through and with no mods, and I've got to wonder if it's worth it to carry around a shotgun and the ammo. Should I just carry more ammo for an assault rifle? I do like the shotgun for use against wildlife, but it seems fairly useless.

Yeah shotguns are never overly effective against armored (or distant) human targets. Much better against mutants however, especially the auto shotty (and to a lesser extent the pump shotty). Taking a shotty with you underground or into the Red Forest is pretty essential.

I use the hunting shotgun against pretty much everything effectively. Headshots are a piece of cake with it's tight buck-shot groupings.

For long distance, though, I always use a rifle of some kind.

randombattle

Daemonion wrote: »

CarbonFire wrote: »

Cronus wrote: »

I'm still fairly early in the game playing my first time through and with no mods, and I've got to wonder if it's worth it to carry around a shotgun and the ammo. Should I just carry more ammo for an assault rifle? I do like the shotgun for use against wildlife, but it seems fairly useless.

Yeah shotguns are never overly effective against armored (or distant) human targets. Much better against mutants however, especially the auto shotty (and to a lesser extent the pump shotty). Taking a shotty with you underground or into the Red Forest is pretty essential.

I use the hunting shotgun against pretty much everything effectively. Headshots are a piece of cake with it's tight buck-shot groupings.

For long distance, though, I always use a rifle of some kind.

Yeah shotguns are good if you do a lot of upclose combat. They work well on humans and monsters alike if you are close enough.

Though oddly enough they don't work well on zombies.

Tim James

Does anything work well on zombies? I had trouble with them.

Daemonion

Tim James wrote: »

Does anything work well on zombies? I had trouble with them.

I still find hunting rifle + aim for head + buckshot works great. Just get nice and close.

Olivaw

Couple more questions:

1) When does that fuck at the flea market wake up? It's almost midnight and I've been waiting all day to unload some of this loot and see what he's got for sale
2) Is there some way to speed up time or sleep or wait or something like in Oblivion? Because if there is I am going to be pretty upset with myself for not noticing it

skace

Sorry for the blur, but is this some sort of trick? I already got 1 artifact here plus rewarded 1, but it still shows another that I can't seem to find....

This is Devil's something or other in Red Forrest.

skace

Olivaw wrote: »

Couple more questions:

1) When does that fuck at the flea market wake up? It's almost midnight and I've been waiting all day to unload some of this loot and see what he's got for sale
2) Is there some way to speed up time or sleep or wait or something like in Oblivion? Because if there is I am going to be pretty upset with myself for not noticing it

The guy that you sell to is on the 2nd floor and should always be awake, he is always sitting down on his mattress though.

Olivaw

skace wrote: »

Olivaw wrote: »

Couple more questions:

1) When does that fuck at the flea market wake up? It's almost midnight and I've been waiting all day to unload some of this loot and see what he's got for sale
2) Is there some way to speed up time or sleep or wait or something like in Oblivion? Because if there is I am going to be pretty upset with myself for not noticing it

The guy that you sell to is on the 2nd floor and should always be awake, he is always sitting down on his mattress though.

Yeah but he keeps saying that the real trading starts after dark and there's a second guy on my map marked as a trader and he's on the ground sleepin' on his matress all the fuckin' time and when I talk to him he says "come back later now is no time for business"

So when does he wake up so I can sell this stupid junk to him

skace

Olivaw wrote: »

Yeah but he keeps saying that the real trading starts after dark and there's a second guy on my map marked as a trader and he's on the ground sleepin' on his matress all the fuckin' time and when I talk to him he says "come back later now is no time for business"

So when does he wake up so I can sell this stupid junk to him

I've never seen that guy awake. IMO, if you're looking to sell shit, I wouldn't do it anywhere except Clear Sky Base (outside of artifacts, which I'd hold for the science lab in yantar).

If you're looking to buy, nobody in garbage has shit worth paying for.

Olivaw

skace wrote: »

Olivaw wrote: »

Yeah but he keeps saying that the real trading starts after dark and there's a second guy on my map marked as a trader and he's on the ground sleepin' on his matress all the fuckin' time and when I talk to him he says "come back later now is no time for business"

So when does he wake up so I can sell this stupid junk to him

I've never seen that guy awake. IMO, if you're looking to sell shit, I wouldn't do it anywhere except Clear Sky Base (outside of artifacts, which I'd hold for the science lab in yantar).

If you're looking to buy, nobody in garbage has shit worth paying for.

God you have got to be kidding me

Why the hell would they even add that dialogue in if that guy is never awake

Why would they mark him as a trader if he never trades with you

Why are the developers of this game so good and yet so terrible at the same time

Monger

skace wrote: »

Sorry for the blur, but is this some sort of trick? I already got 1 artifact here plus rewarded 1, but it still shows another that I can't seem to find....

This is Devil's something or other in Red Forrest.

No trick, there are a few anomaly fields that have more than one. That one took a while for me to find, though. Remember that your detector doesn't tell you what elevation the artifact is at. Sometimes it's up above you somewhere. Sometimes it's in a crack in the ground.

randombattle

Monger wrote: »

skace wrote: »

Sorry for the blur, but is this some sort of trick? I already got 1 artifact here plus rewarded 1, but it still shows another that I can't seem to find....

This is Devil's something or other in Red Forrest.

No trick, there are a few anomaly fields that have more than one. That one took a while for me to find, though. Remember that your anomaly detector doesn't tell you what elevation the artifact is at. Sometimes it's up above you somewhere. Sometimes it's in a crack in the ground.

The psi-field ones are always a huge pain in the ass because of how much they fuck with your visuals making it ten fold harder to find the artifact. When it comes to those I usually just pull an Last Crusade and "Let it go.."

Olivaw

And now apparently I can't fast travel to the Clear Sky base without the game crashing and some retarded bug detector asking me to send something to somewhere

I think I am done with this game for today

Sorenson

Olivaw wrote: »

God you have got to be kidding me

Why the hell would they even add that dialogue in if that guy is never awake

Why would they mark him as a trader if he never trades with you

Why are the developers of this game so good and yet so terrible at the same time

If I'm thinkin' of the guy you're talking about, he should be up and about at least during the night. Doesn't leave his mattress, true, but he'll trade with you. Not that it's really worth it, though - if you can just make the run to either the Dark Valley or Agroprom you can get hooked up with Freedom and Duty who sell some really nice stuff.

Are you playin' virgin or patched, and what version? I'm doing my current run on 1.5.04, so maybe it's somethin' in an early version.

Monger

Olivaw wrote: »

And now apparently I can't fast travel to the Clear Sky base without the game crashing and some retarded bug detector asking me to send something to somewhere

I think I am done with this game for today

You'll be back.

They all come back to sweet daddy Zone.

skace

randombattle wrote: »

The psi-field ones are always a huge pain in the ass because of how much they fuck with your visuals making it ten fold harder to find the artifact. When it comes to those I usually just pull an Last Crusade and "Let it go.."

Well, I can tell you its not up, but I am tripping balls up here...

PS. get me the hell out of this forest

Oh and the remade red forest is 10,000 times better than the original one.

Ergandar

AAAAAAAGH

There is no military cache in that tunnel with the unarmed private soldier.

Nothing

Sidorovich is still asking for that goddamn stash.