STALKER fans? Have you had any memorable ocurrences in-game?

You can't have a STALKER greentext thread anymore.

It's just modfag circlejerk city when it comes to STALKER. I give it 5 posts before modfags start ruining everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WikVYjAw7Hs

>>383109496
yeah almost any fucking enemy encouter in call of misery

>>383109496
the first time i played through shadow of chernobyl i played it unmodded, and didnt get a single glitch

File: image.png (790KB, 750x1334px) Image search: [Google]

790KB, 750x1334px

The game crashed when I picked up a loaf of bread. That and trying to run the game.

File: Spooked.jpg (5KB, 164x200px) Image search: [Google]

5KB, 164x200px

>kill first bloodsucker in SoC
>immediately get bum rushed by 5 soldiers

File: stokker.png (64KB, 638x211px) Image search: [Google]

64KB, 638x211px

>>383109496
>destroy wooden crates
>find Mama's Beads

>>383109819
>It's just modfag circlejerk city
For me STALKER is only fun with ZRP or AMK 1.4 (no arsenal). I tried out all other mods, but they are tryhard garbage.

File: banditcucks.jpg (599KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

599KB, 1920x1080px

when will they learn, bros?

someone explain how to play call of pripyat. I'm totally lost with that game

barians choker is rape city, just non stop spam. Gonna have to back out and get more ammo holy hell.

>>383109496
>enter underground tunnels at night
>find bandit who carries the unique SPAS-12 shotgun
>find tons of flash and moonlight artifacts
>Bloodsucker kills all soldiers
Never get sold.

>>383110545
Open your PDA and look at your objectives you dumb tripfag.

>>383110609
fuck brain scorcher woops

>>383109906
>call of misery

God, I'm still butthurt about my experience with Misery. Was enjoying it up until my first quest to take out a bandit holding.

>Playing as a sniper
>Arrive at the outskirts of the bandit encampment
>Try and get a good understanding of their patrols, line of sight, ect.
>When I feel confident enough I begin sniping, taking down two bandits
>Quicksave
>Fuck up killing a third
>He snipes me with his assault rifle across the map
>Reload
>Suddenly the encampment is populated entirely by omniscient god-men, all linked with some overmind gestalt.
>They KNOW me intimately, the walls I hide behind might as well be gossamer for all the concealment they provide
>They snipe me with assault rifles while explosions rain from the sky
>Discover the explosions are from grenades thrown by the god-men with pinpoint accuracy from across the map

Literally the only time I've quit a game and immediately uninstalled it.

>>383109819
Because the vanilla games got played to shit and mods add to how encounters may vary? Go fuck yourself, purist cuck.

Anyways
>In wild territories
>Me and Loner fighting off Bandits that are coming, we're using the first building that you see coming from the Bar as cover (you know the one that's horrizontal)
>We're doing good, but suddenly 2 Duty fags come out of nowhere
>They show off how cool they are and kill a bunch of bandits, but in the crossfire Loner gets wounded
>No medkits on me, start scavenging bandit bodies for medkits
>Find one
>By the time I found it, one of the Duty fags went up to the Loner and shot him in the fucking head while he was on the ground just to take his weapon which he immediately equips.
>Get mad but can't attack them out here otherwise the whole bar will go apeshit
>few steps into the wild territories later a grenade lands in our midst out of nowhere
>we all run for cover, the explosion does no damage but I notice the constant sound of the Fruit Punch anomaly being triggered, when I investigate I find one of the Duty guys being slouched over in it
>The retard ran to cover into an anomaly
>The anomaly is not killing him rather it's making him suffer indefinetely, there's blood all over the wall behind him, but he keeps on living and screaming in agony as he dies a thousand deaths
>His Duty "buddy" just looks at him for a bit, then leaves

The Zone giveth and the zone taketh

Spoiler alert. Not super into the games, still have yet to finish the first one, but when i played it i remember going into the second? Lab and seeing a crate floating and laughed and though "thats a silly glitch" Then it flew at me and damaged me and shit got real. Bad description but it was a great moment

I know nothing about this game, from the little I've peeked I got the impression that it was like a Half-Life style linear fps.
But from what I'm hearing from you guys it almost sounds like an open world game.
Give me the 411 anons.

>>383109496
COP
>At campfire
>Right off the road, on a ridge
>Two stalkers, one smoking, the other playing guitar
>It's dark
>Hear a ferrocious roar
>A chimera leaps 500 fucking feet
>Nails the guy next to me, dead in one hit. He never knew what hit him
>The guy playing guitar stops
>It roars again
>We both pull akms and play 30 case pick up
>It blows off at the speed of fear into the tall grass
>We stand there
>we keep standing there, for 30 seconds
>total silence
>I'm holding my breath
>From 180 degrees away, behind us, it leaps and hits my friend, silent until he strikes
>I freak out
>Mag dump
>It leaps
>I wait

I waited for 15 minutes and it never came back. The sun rose. I went on my way.

File: 1457808080076.jpg (86KB, 720x954px) Image search: [Google]

86KB, 720x954px

>>383109819
The worst faggot is the faggot that posts his obnoxious guides everywhere

>>383111210
Its several smaller open world segments all attached together, and youre free to roam back and fourth everywhere. Not a 100% perfect game but it has some unmatched incredibly tense atmosphere

>>383111210

In the original, you had several open, interconnected, mid-sized maps which made up for their size by being densely packed with locations. In CoP, you have three large, more spacious maps instead.

>>383111291
What the fuck are you talking about?
The only time those get posted is when someone asks for help on the STALKER series.

>>383111291
There is only one guide

>>383109496
Playing Metro 2033 Redux for the first time, has a lot of the same aesthetics if not the same open world to explore.

File: 1465023778782.jpg (100KB, 632x493px) Image search: [Google]

100KB, 632x493px

Monolith did nothing wrong

>play vanilla SoC
>collect 20k RU before entering garbage and talking to Wolf after first mission
>buy 5.45 Groza
>gg

>>383110818
Jesus, Misery sounds like shit.

Artificial difficulty indeed.

>>383111732
>Metro 2033
Nice Ta-
>Redux
Kill yourself

>>383111627
>>383111649
No there's some faggot that automatically spams all of them when somebody posts anything along the lines of being new.

>>383111889
>Buy 5.45 Groza
>Run out of ammo after one engagement because ammo costs and amr and a leg
FTFY

>>383111954
How is redux worse than the original?

Just picked it up via the summer sale.

File: Starting_guide.jpg (589KB, 1536x1152px) Image search: [Google]

589KB, 1536x1152px

>>383112041
>being this mad
Anyway here's an updated one for whoever is interested in doing a playthrough for the first time

>>383112171
I know the ui is awful, pretty sure they imported the shity gameplay mechanics too
The original has such great gameplay but redux makes it feel like generic cod clone #4323488

Too be fair i think you need to pirate the original these days since redux replaced it. So glad i got it on steam before that happened

>>383112234
I dont know how many times I've shot at thar thing in the night I swear to God.

>>383112171
I would show you if I had the webms. But I don't so I guess I can't prove it.

Most memorable occurrence for me was the finding and adding the glory of cheeki breeki into my life.

>>383109496

It's a story from a while ago but

>Fast travel to Yanov station
>It seems like every monster in the game fast traveled with me
>Hordes of rats, dogs, all sorts of shit was all round me as I spawned
>There was even a fucking Pseudogiant in the station itself
>Manage to kill them all, I remember being able to hit the pseudogiant with a railgun by aiming through the tiny crack between the two doors
>As soon as things seem like it's over I turn around and I get jumped by a fucking Chimera
>Good thing I'm wearing a fully upgraded exoskeleton
>Kill it
>Finally able to get inside
>There's another pseudogiant in the area fucking up shit nearby but it's not my problem

And that's all I remember.

>>383112171
The guy youre replying to is an exaggerating faggot. i have both editions and the only real difference is redux has some lighting changes and changed ai.

Better off going to /k/ for stalker threads, we also love new vegas

>>383113007
No it has changed AI (for the worse) Shit lighting, changed character designs for no reason, everything is brighter so babbies don't get afraid or miss anything, the UI looks like ass, all the guns look (effects wise) and sound like peashooters compared to the original, stealth is the LL stealth where you can just walk up to the enemies and stab them in full light

>>383112060
You have plenty of 5.45 ammo after you kill all the soldiers in the cordon with the silenced Makarov. There small booth near Bes's squad also contains at least 150 bullets. The only people who have ammo problems in STALKER are morons who can't set the fire mode to semiauto.

>>383109496
Yeah, in SoC I had just gotten a granade launcher, so I was walking back to the boat and there's this ditch like place where bandits hang out at and for some reason they didn't start shooting like always.

I approach to find like 20 veteran bandits just moshing in a cirkle, so obviously I shot at them with my brand new gl. Well I died and never managed to find anything like it again.

>>383109496
I know it's completely scripted but the time you see a random corpse blip on your map only to find it was a trap laid by a Bloodsucker was pretty memorable

>>383113396
Wait hold on
I just realized
Groza doesn't fire 5.45, it fires rifle 9mm.
That's what I was thinking of when I said, run out of ammo since that 9mm shit is hard to find

>slav game
>AKs are shit
Makes you think.

File: 1480244606194.webm (3MB, 960x540px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 960x540px

'Enemies camping right outside a spawn' is my favourite S.T.A.L.K.E.R. meme.

>>383113307
i'll fight you

Why is this game so hard.

>>383115254
I don't know, why is git gud

>>383113584
Modded 5.45 groza in vanilla stalker SoC, Sidorovich rarely has it in stock and it's 10K rub.

Best weapon in the game

File: 62974180_p0.jpg (740KB, 1115x1411px) Image search: [Google]

740KB, 1115x1411px

>>383118747
its a shame you never find any corpses in fires in the later games

>>383115254
>Why is this game so hard.
Partially because that keeps up the tension which is crucial to the atmosphere, partially because it features a bunch of rather unusual mechanics that it does not bother really explaining players, thus making them feel like it's harder than it is, and partially due to some bafflingly bad design.

>>383118747
I OPERATE ON ANOTHER LEVEL

So, I first played Stalker back when Shadow Of Chernobyl was freshly released (and a complete, uplayable mess) and ever since then I've made numerous attempts to get into the series. I remember playing it with Complete 2009 back about seven or eight years ago, playing Lost Alpha shortly after it was released, but never getting further than half way through SoC before something turned me off.

Last week, I finally gave it another try, decided to finally finish SoC (just with Starter pack mods, which is about as close to vanilla as you can get)... Pushed through it.

Man this game is pissing me off. So much potential, and SO MUCH FUCKING WRONG WITH IT. Jesus it's a fucking mess. And the deeper you get, the worse it becomes. The second half of SoC was just pure suffering to push through.

Do the next two games get better?
Right now I'm just fucking around in Call of Chernobyl, which is pretty damn solid as far as I'm concerned... Is there any point in going back to the series beyond Call of Chernobyl? Because fuck me the story of SoC turned out to be STUPID AS FUCKING FUCK in the end, so I'm not really tempted to go back to it for narrative.

>>383118747
>Get out of there, stalker!

File: 2014-01-26_00001.jpg (286KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

286KB, 1280x720px

>>383109496
yes, like this one, OC from 2014

>>383111210
>I know nothing about this game, from the little I've peeked I got the impression that it was like a Half-Life style linear fps.
In SoC:
It's semi-linear, with a series of larger open areas you can move back-and-forth between. It has almost an RPG element to it, actually, as you complete main and side missions, go off the path to explore the landscapes (when I say open maps, I really mean open: it's just a square kilometer of terrain or so for each of the maps). As you progress through the story, you unlock path to new sets of locations, so there are some choke-points, but you can also go out of your way to sequence break a lot of stuff and explore ahead in areas that aren't necessarily yet relevant for main story-line if you really want. Hell, there are even factions you can join and do a micro-campaign for them.

There are a few more linear locations (kinda like dungeons) as part of the main storyline. And it all starts falling appart towards the end, where you'll find out the final few locations are still very large and open, but there are no more quests or hubs and the last third of the game is just you pushing forward against increasingly obnoxious armies of enemies.

It's a really weird game, and I don't even know what to compare it to. I've heard some people compare it to Metroid Prime in terms of structure, but I never played Metroid games. It's DEFINITELY not Half-like linear.

I haven't played Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat, so I don't know what have they done with the formula there.

However, there is a mod that turns the entire franchise into one giant shared Sandbox. It's pretty good, actually. Not much in terms of story-telling and structure, but great for pure exploration and "making your own story".

>>383112041
>>383112582
looks like you found him

>>383119708
Sorry man, but it's not your cup of tea. I don't really feel the same way but I guess that's different tastes. I will disagree though that SoC was an unplayable mess on release, people seem to eternally overexaggerate the amount of bugs. Only bug that could have affected you would be the radbug, and only extremely late into the game. The only game that was downright unplayable on release was Clear Sky and that is because of the insane amount of CTDS and the frequency of the shotgun reload bug.

>>383121193
I remember going to the tunnel off the east of the carpark or whatever in Cordon
fucking white text started filling up the screen endlessly and I had to alt-f4

>>383120323
Clear Sky follows the formula you described to the point where the endgame is obnoxious and most people don't play it. It's railroady as all hell and it even features fucking boss fights, with a fucking helicopter. However, Call of Pripyat is a bit different. It consists of 3 massive areas that you gradually unlock and are free to explore them 100% when you unlock them. Endgame is just an afterthought.

In SoC is there a hunger meter of some sort? I entered a new zone and had a crossed fork and knife on the screen, it didn't appear to do anything though.

>>383121642

There is, it's simple to keep on top of though to the point I don't remember it ever going bad. I can't tell you what will happen if you decide to starve yourself.

>>383121193
>Sorry man, but it's not your cup of tea.
It's not that it's not my cup of tea. On paper is the absolute game for me. It's purely the incredibly flawed execution that bothers me.

>I will disagree though that SoC was an unplayable mess on release, people seem to eternally overexaggerate the amount of bugs.
AHAHAHAHA NO. You are wrong. I don't think you have been around playing the game back then, because otherwise you'd never say this. It's actually impossible to UNDERSTATE the amount of shit that was broken on the release version. It was a joke. Even if it did not break your entire playthrough, the number of things that just did not work at all (like entering the fucking Stadium at the end of Pripyat triggering a cutscene then magically just teleported you to Chernobyl, half of the monsters not actually appearing in the game at all, game not triggering the "meet with Doctor" questline making literally ONLY ONE ENDING avialable (the most retarded one, "I want to be Rich") etc...
And all of that is ignoring the sheer amount of crashes, collision detection errors, A.I. bugging out locking player in place etc... Yeah, it was a mess.

>>383121356
So is there ANY point to playing Call of Pripyat when you can explore the same maps in Call of Chernobyl these days?

>>383121642
Yes. The meter itself is invisible, but once you reach certain threshold, a warning will appear. First green, then yellow, and finally red. Once it gets red, your health starts to drain away, slow at first but gradually faster and faster.
I think it also effects your stamina replentishment rates. If you are hungry, your can't sprint as long and your stamina recharges slower. With red hunger I think it does not regenerate almost at all.

Fun fact, you also have TWO life-bars in SoC: physical and mental. Most people don't notice through the entire game because of how poorly implemented it is.

>>383109496

The first time I played Shadow of Chernobyl.

>Spend about 30 minutes running around doing shit
>Go through the two loading screens to do the steal military documents for trader
>By this point have only silenced pistol and mp5
>Sneak onto base and into office building where documents are
>Get spotted on second floor, rolling gun battle through building, whole base on alert
>get documents try to go back down to front door, Russian soldiers piling in and covering door
>only a few medkits and no more MP5 ammo
>pull out suppressed pistol and run to the roof
>Remember seeing ladder on back of building earlier, start looking for it
>Climb down and haul ass while Russian soldiers are still looking

Hey /v/, about to install Call of Chernobyl + patch.
Any mods/addons I should download for a great first-time playthrough?

>>383122306
>Any mods/addons I should download for a great first-time playthrough?
There is nothing that I think is NECESSARY for CoC, but there are a few nifty addons that add a bit of extra stuff, and of course you can always try out some graphic, texture and re-shade plug-ins if you want it to look fancy.

Give me a sec, I'll try to find the list of plugs that I'm using right now, I'll post it and give you some thoughts on them.

>>383109496
Is there any fix to stuttering and low fps especially in highly populated areas? Stuttering starts when I start running. I'm playing vanilla CoP

>>383109496
Not enemy related but the first time I experienced the storm I was in awe. Not to mention sitting around campfire with fellow stalkers. I was fully immersed.

File: stalker guide v1,42.png (1MB, 1536x1250px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1536x1250px

>>383110545
First you play the FIRST GAME, then the second one. After that, you play CoP, and know what to do.

>>383112582
That guide's a bit old. Here's the more recent one.

>>383122907
What are your specs? Especially vanilla games shouldn't be a problem this day and age.

Still, the good old options tweaks always help:
-Lower SSAO, Sun Quality and Sun Shafts to LOW.
-disable soft particles and smoke effects.
-disable Tessellation.
-do NOT use in-game AA.

Still problems? Lower Shadow Quality, Grass Density, Object quality and Drawing distance, all just a notch or two.

You could also try the Starter Pack for a nice visual AND performance boost.

>>383122306
>>383122695
OK, here it is. Again: I don't think any addons are necessary for CoC to be enjoyable. But if you want more stuff or better looking stuff:
You might want a weapon collection mod. There are two main ones available:
Arsenal Overhaul and STCoP Weapon Pack. There are endless and fruitless arguments about which one is better. General opinion is that AO gives you MORE weapons but somewhat lower quality and has balance issues up the ass, while STCoP is better balanced and more grounded, but does not give you fun stuff like the fucking minigun AO offers.
I went with STCoP.

Outfit Addon just gives you a fuckton of new armor and variants, and is generally just very good. Remember to install it only AFTER AO/STCoP)

Then there is a set of interesting mods by somebody calling himself DocX.
DocX questlines are very good: it just adds new quest-line chains for each faction, and also enables you to switch faction. Can't see why you would not use this one.
DocX Dynamic Faction Relationships is a little more weird one. It makes the relationships between faction change over time - forging aliances, breaking out into new wars. It's interesting, but also makes the game widely unaballanced and potentially unfair. Up to your consideration. I skipped it for now.

Graphically, I think Absolute Nature and Structures Redux flat-out improve the look of the game. I also use something called Enhanced Sun.
And that is all I personally found necessary.

A lot of people use a mod that allows you to sell guns in bad condition, some like to use more hard-core mods like WARFIGHTER or Call of Misery that make the game unfairly difficult, there is a massive addod that adds roughly 2000 new artifacts into the game but it's in beta and buggy as fuck...

None of them seem necessary to me. just STCoP/AO, Outfit Addon, DocX Quest-lines for content, and Absolute Nature and Structures Redux for textures. Then you can use an Re-shade of your liking if you really want.

>>383123431
what's the warfighter mod like?

>>383123431
You've been incredibly helpful. Thanks a whole bunch - I really appreciate it!

>>383123710
>what's the warfighter mod like?
I haven't tried it. Honestly I'm pretty new to this: I only finished SoC few days ago and then jumped right into CoC, I've learned everything on the fly. I avoided the hardcore mods because even "vanilla" CoC is giving me enough grief as it is. I'm hardly a veteran Stalker player or modder.

I have to say though, CoC feels to me like nearly the Stalker I dreamed it would be. I'm having a blast. I guess it can get old pretty fast, and there are still some frustrations I have with it, but especially when exploring locations that weren't in SoC it feels almost perfect at times.

>>383123759
You are welcome. You might want to google up some other CoC modding recommendations for comparison.

Oh yeah, and two minor notes.
A) I strongly recommend going into PDF menu right at the start of the game and turning the "Anomaly display" filter OFF. I think knowing where all the artifact-spawning clusters of anomalies are from looking at the map diminishes the stalker-like exploration A LOT. I prefer to find these artifact-birthing anomaly clusters by actually exploring the levels.
B) get an artifact detector as soon as you can. You can buy it from scientists in Yantar and I think Jupiter locations.
C) STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM DARKSIDE. It's the most stupid, pointless, annoying place in the universe. Just don't go there. It should have not been included in CoC, it's a trap location.

>>383109819
Dude, the game is 10 years old, and there's been constant discussion about STALKER since then. Of course people are going to talk about mods, there's nothing else new to talk about.

>>383123759
Oh, and one last thing. I forgot to mention two more DocX addons that might be interesting to you:

DocX dynamic anomalies makes anomalies re-shuffle at periodic times, redistributing them randomly. It's a great idea in THEORY that could really elevate CoC to a whole new level (static anomalies being my biggest complaint about the game) but it isn't executed entirely well: only re-shuffles small gravitational anomalies that don't birth artifacts. Seems to have a lot of issues too, development has been halted until the next version of CoC is released.

DocX Desolation Addon makes reduces the spawn-rates of NPCs and some mutants drastically, making the game feel more true to the movie/books (default CoC is very densely populated by NPC's and wild-life, even on 0.5 spawn rate). It makes the game much more atmospheric, but it also makes it harder to find quests and makes you wonder around alone for long stretches of time.
Better atmosphere for sure, but also potentially duller gameplay. It's up to you if that sounds appealing.

>>383109819
Its an old game, but.. shit he was right after all.

>>383109496
Thousands, I did a SoC playthrough with every overhaul there is and there is still fuel in the tank.
Currently playing call of Chernobyl.

I remember that one time when I was at Agroprom in midnight.
It is my favourite place to hang out and enjoy my autism. I just patrol the area fend off mutants and stalkers. When I killed the stalkers I pile up their bodies in that irradiated garage and put their guns and ammo in two stacks in the room where the loners chill.

>Being grim dark cozy, Headphones on, some Dark ambient music playing
>It is raining ingame and lightning illuminates the area for a split second
>I stand in that bridge corridor that leads to the other building and look for spoops
>lightning
>See bloodsucker casually walking to the entrance
>Rookie starts shouting and shooting at that thing
>He growls and I hear him go invisible
>Fucks that rookie up in one hit
>I run towards the main room
>Bloodsucker didn't eter the room from the stairs but came up the stairs from the garage
>Fucks up the guys behind me in one hit without even running around in between like the stupid AI normally does
>Blast him with strelok's tuned AK all the while
>Stalkers are dead, now it's my turn
>I run out onto the stairs and jump down to circle him through the garage and engage him with my last 20something shots and 2 bandages
>Gone
>Hear growl from upstairs and run into the toilets
>I hear his breathing, the rain and the occasional thunder
>It's time
>Run out and look up the stairs to engage him
>He comes up the stairs from garage and gives me some Hentai style tentacle action before I can turn around

>>383109496
Yeah
>do quests for the bar keep and the fat dude at the beginning
>after a few realise they are fucking radiant quests ala Skyrim
>stop doing the quests

Cool moment.

My fondest memories of SoC were all connected to Dark Valley and the Lab X-18 quest line. I remember how utterly and absolutely terrifying it was when I played it for the first time.
I remember (it was ages ago) how utterly confused was when the pyrogheist locks you in the lower room. I could not figure out how the kill the thing (I did not realize at the time you can kill even regular poltergeists, I thought the electric clouds roaming the level 2 were just mobile electric anomalies). Eventually "solved it" by grabbing an RPG and firing it at the emitter mounted under the celling. Which worked! (Only on second playthrough I've realized what a moron I was and that I just happened to kill the pyrogheist in the explosion by accident).

I remember climbing out only to find out it's dead in the middle of night, the whole place is swarming with military, and I lost most of my ammo and med-kits in the pyrogheist fight.

I remember the desperate run through the lower valley at night. The little flashlights following me. All of that: some of the most tense moments I've ever experienced in an FPS, comparable only that one memorable Operation Flashpoint mission.

Shame it kinda goes downhill from there on.

>>383125659
The structure of the quests is sufficient. It's not an RPG: the quests are just excuses for Stalkering.
It's just a shame the economy in SoC is broken and that the quests feel completely unecessary and superficial.

>>383125246
Have you ever figured out how the artifact spawns work in CoC?
I managed to find two artifacts spawing outside of the set anomaly clusters so far: one on the roof of one Rostok factory (between Bar and Duty camp), and one in the middle of Dark Valley bandit base. I've found both by absolute accident.

I really wonder how often does this happen, if these are predetermined or random etc... It's frustrating the hell out of me.

>>383123332
What is the best overhaul mod to go with for someone who has played each game a few times?

Complete is a pile of shit

>>383125838
I had the same experience, except in Agroprom facility. I was outta ammo and medkits when I walked out of sewers, so I ran like hell after the documents, wasting two soldiers with knife kills, then grabbing docs and running like hell, drinking energy drinks back to garbage, while soldiers were shooting at me and screaming.

>>383126386
>What is the best overhaul mod to go with for someone who has played each game a few times?
Starter packs exist for each game, but they really just improve the looks and tidy-up the bugs and shit, so if you already played the games a few times, they won't change anything substantially.

Misery is true to it's name. It just makes the game miserably hard. If you really enjoyed the core mechanics and want to suffer, you could go for that.

Lost Alpha is... well, I only played the original short after the release. I haven't played the director's cut. But the original started fine, the complete level overhauls in particular were really, REALLY amazing, but eventually the focus on (absolutely RETARDED) story, bugs and annoyances like completely broken vehicles, insane amount of walking/backtracking due to new level size, some truly awful new levels, and atmosphere-shattering cutscenes eventually drained my will to continue playing.
That said, as it features completely overhauled levels, I'd say it's the game that adds most completely new stuff into the game. Shame it destroys some of it, like all the Lab visits.

Finally: Call of Chernobyl is probably your best option. It's just combination of all existing Stalker game levels into one giant sandbox with infinite quests, factions (you can start as memeber of any faction, including Monolith and Bandits), and tidied up mechanics from CoP. There is not much structure to it, but it allows you to make your own story and enjoy the semi-emergent aspect of Stalker the most of all the mods. Feels like an appropriate giant end-game for the series.
Just boot it up, take a couple of quests, wander around looking for artifacts. It's good.

>>383126583
I remember on my first run, I stealthed the entire base and only got discovered on my way out. That said, it was an exercise in frustration.

On my recent playthrough with Starter Pack, the stealth option was not available. I don't know what exactly did the modpack screw up, but the Soldiers would INSTANTLY spot me the very second I emerged from the underground. There was literally no physical way to avoid the alarm.
Had to shoot my entire way through the base, clear it out entirely since otherwise the enemies would magically always know my location and eventually corner me.

That pissed me off. I eventually said "fuck it", lowered difficulty to normal and wasted everyone with Strelok's rifle. Burned through half of it's durability in the process, which bit me in the ass later on.

So... I have to ask, despite how negative some people may seem to be towards mod discussion:

Is Lost Alpha Director's Cut worth playing?
I can't find ANYTHING about it. No discussion, no reviews, anything. I know Lost Alpha was a disaster, but I was curious if the directors cut improved it.
And if not, are there any other mods that take advantage of the fantastic new maps Lost Alpha made?

>>383127889
Did they spawn outside of the anomalies? if yes I have no clue, didn't even know this is possible.

I guess artifacts have a chance to spawn after every emission like i vanilla.

>>383129165
>Did they spawn outside of the anomalies?
I can confirm that they DO with absolute certanity. What I don't know is how that is handled mechanically: what are the rules. I found two outside of anomalies in main bases, and I know a video on youtube showing two more spawning in Great Swamp.
However, I don't know if this is tied to faction headquarters, a random easter-egg like thing, I don't know if it can happen in wild territories, if yes how often does it happen etc... It's frustrating. I would LOVE to learn that anomalies spawn outside of anomalies more frequently because it would actually make hunting them down more interesting (as it is, I find artifact hunting in CoC the weakest part of the game: just memorize/check the map for anomaly clusters, then make a regular rounds checking if any new spawned, which is as routine as it gets, and makes actual exploration completely pointless. I'd love to see them spawn regularly at various distant/interesting points (like abandoned homesteads off main roads) to give you an actual reason to explore, and to walk around with your detector.

Also, fuck the detectors. They are broken and finding one above the Bear one is nearly impossible. I'm consistently passing anomalies that have clearly multiple artifacts in them but I can't do jack-shit because my bear detector can't detect them.

>>383109496
CoC
>Playing CoC as a Loner in Yanov, im attacking the Bandits at the Checkpoint
>Came from the Yanov Station, took Cover behind some Trees and started shooting
>After a Minute suddenly someone shoots me in the back, i just have time to turn before i die to see that it was a Bandit

That Guy must have flanked me and snuck up my back, getting close before he started firing. That was some suprising Ai behavior for me.

>>383129662
The flanking capacity of enemies in CoC can screw you over. The A.I. is widely unaballanced in this regard.

Recently I was doing a quest for one of the Duty generals (despite being a Loner myself) to assassinate a VIP in Dark Valley. I did not know that Dark Valley is bandit central, and I thought I'd just sneak around, get an idea of the area. Instead, I immediately aggroed HALF of the bandit population on that level. Some 20+ bandits, attacking me in the open fields west of the factory. The FUCKERS all came from the single gate of the Factory, but they actually made an almost perfect half-circle around me, attacking me from literally every possible angle.
It was the most frustrating and annoying battle I ever had in CoC.

Ironically enough, killing the remaining 15 bandits that were left inside the base was laughably easy, because while the enemies have INSANE snipping abilities (even with machine guns or pistols) and when they have you circled you are basically dead), once you get them at mid to close distance with an automated shotgun, they are a joke. Unable to hurt you.

>>383110535
Why are bandits always spawning in that train station, is it some sort of bug?

>>383130297
Nah, it's just to give the game a bit of a sense of dynamics (part of the originally intended much more sand-box-ish mechanics) and to make repeated playthrough less boring. Though it's arguable if it works.
Most enemies in most areas actually respawn regularly or semi-regularly in the vanilla game.

File: 1498275506979.gif (826KB, 328x366px) Image search: [Google]

826KB, 328x366px

>>383109496
>Playing CoC
>Pick Azazel mode ironman
>Choose to be Banditos https://youtu.be/hb4wR4-_QX0
Mfw i become snazzy bandit leader

>>383109496
I started a new game on vanilla SoC yesterday and it bugged the exit if the sewers where you find Streloks loot. I had to come out from where I entered and now is asking me to sneak into the military base to steal papers but theres no way for me to enter without being noticed.

>>383131525
How did it bug?

Also, I recommend using Starter Pack mod set, or at least Zone Reclaimation Project mod, even for first playthrough.
Also, don't worry too much about being unnoticed in the Agroprom research base. It's VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE to sneak through it anyway (at least, it's a major pain the ass) and you'll most likely end up shooting the place up anyway.

Just remember that reinforcements come once you pick up the documents. It will be time for legging it then.

>>383131525
The watchguard dudes have eagle vision, what i did was stabbed the dude in the tower immediately to the left of the sewer exit, then walked into an empty barracks room, fired a shot to get their attention, and shot them as they filed in one by one

>>383109496
>leaving 100 rads for a side quest in garbage at night
> see something moving side to side
>oooh a new anomaly, I wonder what this does
>its a blood sucker
>reflexes activate, I hit escape harder than a tree on endor.
>Heart goes from 0-100
>unpause game and kill blood sucker
>never explore at night again

how 2 get stalker to not stutter like a bitch

>>383132376
In CS and CoP, if you use ENHANCED FULL DYNAMIC -mode, set its three specific settings (SSAO, Sun Quality, Sun-shafts) to LOW. You won't notice quality difference, but your performance will skyrocket!

Another easy way to improve visuals and reduce random stuttering is to lower Vision- and Lighting distance, plus Object-Quality bar to around 50%. Again quality difference is minimal, but fps improves.

Reducing the Grass Density a point or two also may help stuttering outdoors. Some stuttering is just the game switching stuff online.

>>383132652
I don't really have FPS issues since I'm running SoC/CoP/CoC on a GTX 1070 and a 6600k, but it's the stutter from loading chunks or entities that really fucks my shit up. I should give those a shot though.

It's odd because I see webms of STALKER that look buttery smooth, but my gameplay always feels a tad choppy.

>>383110413
>AMK 1.4

muh nigga

I remember being at the science complex and the sheer myriad rats and mutants made it an incredibly intense survival experience

>>383132842
Give those settings a shot that I suggested.

I have a fairly low end PC in terms of GPU (i5-4690k and AMD 7850 2gb) but I can easily hit constant 60fps at 1080 with everything else maxed apart from the settings I mentioned with very minimal load stutter

File: CS Swamps fishing camp evening.jpg (466KB, 1920x1200px) Image search: [Google]

466KB, 1920x1200px

>>383132842
try the No-Prefetch mod / tweak, and the 3GB RAM FIX. That's really the best you can do in STALKER's case; it's an old engine with its limitations.

>>383132652
>people still copypasting my ancient advises
almost makes my eyes moist.

Do people really gets scared by the bloodsucker?
I though the controller was a hundred times more scary than the bloodsucker. The flying shit in the labs was spooky too.

File: SoC vanilla BloodSucker.jpg (266KB, 1680x1050px) Image search: [Google]

266KB, 1680x1050px

>>383134612
>Do people really gets scared by the bloodsucker?
Yes. Partly because unless you've been spoiled, its behavior and skills definitely throw you off guard. They are also surprisingly tough foes, and make awful noises.

But yeah, Controller is creepy too, but in different way. Quite many new players don't even understand what's happening when facing one.

>>383134612
Blood suckers can give you a big fucking jumpscare at times, because they often appear without warning and have much more dynamic placement. While the controller and the poltergheists are scary the first time you encounter them, once you figure out what is going on after the first time, they actually stop being scary. The second time you encounter either of them, you already know what to do and how to deal with them.

Bloodsuckers are less of a gimmick and more of a consistent threat. Even if you know what they are, they still are dangerous as fuck. They are not as much setpieces as the controllers and poltergeists are.

Also, while in SoC the bloodsuckers are actually plenty visible in decent lighting, in CoP and CoC they go COMPLETELY invisible. And that is a fucking nightmare.

>>383111184
Gtfo this thread, I mean ffs.

File: 1463693353705.jpg (63KB, 490x497px) Image search: [Google]

63KB, 490x497px

>>383109496

I was scared shitless on my first night exploring trip and had so many scares during it that but then I finally saw some other stalkers around a bonfire just chillin, drinking vodka and playing lovely tunes on the guitar, I'll never forget this, it was such a good feel

>>383124441
>>383124134

Awesome - I'm saving these comments in a doc and heading off into Coc. I think I might try it completely vanilla first off, to see how it is. Then launch into mods. That shouldn't be a problem, should it? I'd like to at last keep my game save and use it a bit later on.

Thanks again.

Want to play SoC. Not a total noob since I finished the game 6 years ago on vanilla, but want to spice things up with mods.
What should I get? I don't want anything too unfair or autistic, just something that adds more guns, fixes gunplay and adds better AI and fixes some bugs and quests. Also, if it isn't graphics heavy, that would be great since I'm playing on a laptop

>>383134612
They still spook me in the middle of the night, but after the first time through the underground in SoC you know where he is every time.

>>383134612
Snorks scare the shit out of me.
They're tough to kill and can leap and one shot you from quite the distance.
Plus there's always more than one.

>>383109496
Nope. Stalker is pretty bland.

File: AMK Mod Guide 3.1.jpg (645KB, 1200x1816px) Image search: [Google]

645KB, 1200x1816px

>>383135454
the good old AMK1.4 is still the definitive Stalker experience for many players, including myself. Seems to fit your description quite well, but you better prepare your anus for some rough ride too.

here's its mod guide. You can throw in the Starter Pack's visual mods if you wanna spice things up a bit, without sacrificing performance.

>>383109496
>Chilling out in Skadovsk
>Realize I need money to trick out my beefy shotgun
>Decide to go artifact hunting
>Ask a nice stalker to guide me to the Boiler anomaly
>As soon as we load in several dogs attack the group
>Pull out shotgun and start firing off shells
>Dog runs in front of me and leaps into the air
>Fire twice
>First round hits the dog
>The second round flies right into the chest of the one who guided me there
>He's lying on the floor in pain (Had RO2 death rattle mod on)
>He's crying in slavspeak
>Have one medkit
>None of his companions have medkits
>I need my medkit
>Pull out pistol and cap him in the head
I later died attempting to grab an artifact in the anomaly