Vivian on 2/8/2013 at 15:42
(
http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-misery)
It's another overhaul mod, this time for CoP, with the usual visual shine, spooky weather, extra horrible-ness, more guns etc etc. Does look pretty good, the economic overhaul in particular seems pretty in-depth, and the way the equipment works sounds interesting. Anyone tried it out yet?
Muzman on 3/8/2013 at 05:53
No. Sounds like I'm going to have to though.
Red_Breast on 3/8/2013 at 16:13
I have only played about an hour of the first game, not long after it was released, on a friend's PC.
For a person in my position, that is thinking of playing it now, I just don't know where to start.
Basically in a situation like this I'd prefer to play the vanilla game if, for nothing else, just to know what the vanilla game is like so I have something to compare against if I try a mod or two.
The whole thing is I probably don't want to play the game more than once. Probably. That might sound a little narrow-minded I know.
Are there any interviews with the developers in which they reveal the things they don't like and would like to change? I'm thinking of stuff I've read from mod makers such as the way some of the guns fire. I've read how this mod and that mod improves this gun and that gun. It might improve it in the eyes of the mod maker. But maybe it was meant to be that way?
I'd be interested in any fixes from the community that fix bad bugs that are not fixed in the latest patched version as well. That is if there are any bad bugs still in the latest patched version of the game.
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.
redface on 3/8/2013 at 22:04
Red, I just finished the game for the first time, using only the (
http://www.moddb.com/mods/call-of-pripyat-reloaded) COP Reloaded mod.
As far as I know it doesn't change the gameplay that much and is more about fixing things and making the game look
really pretty. So I recommend it.
Muzman on 4/8/2013 at 05:05
When you're talking about Call of Pripyat it really isn't like SoC where there's loads to be fixed and adjusted. There's things I wish were a little different (usually to make it harder), but that's personal preference as much as anything else. CoP is one of the most tightly made games I can remember. (which is why no Staker 2 is really sad. These guys were just hitting stride and were about to knock it out of the park, to horribly mix metaphors) Playing it vanilla you are playing it the way it was intended really. So dive in I say.
Something that spruces up the visuals a bit like Atmosfear is about as far as I'd go for a first play.
yxlplig on 4/8/2013 at 08:33
Yeah for Call of Pripyat, I tend to agree that there is no need to mod it for a first playthrough. I would even say the same thing about Shadow of Chernobyl and to a lesser extent Clear Sky--maybe with the ZRP series of mods for those two games if you insist.
Edit: @Red_Breast - for newcomers, it is advisable to play the games in the order they came out if you care about understanding the story. Clear Sky can pretty safely be skipped if you don't get super into the series. As far as modding for a first playthrough, I would say that if you are a bad enough dude, play through them all unmodded on Master difficulty. (Putting difficulty on maximum fixes some funky RPG-like mechanics that happen under the hood in SOC) Or if you are weary of the difficulty level of these games, then it would be safe to use Complete for SOC and Clear Sky, then play Call of Pripyat vanilla. Feel free to sub out Complete for Zone Reclamation Project for a truer experience. Complete reduces difficulty in many ways so it has a poor reputation among the hardcore fans.
In regards to Misery 2.0, as someone who has played 200 hours worth of Stalker (between all 3 games) and as a huge fan of AMK and Zone of Alienation, I think Misery absolutely sucks. I like almost every interesting feature they added. All the new items, the new flashlight, the headlamps, the battery system, basically all the "realism" features are pretty cool.
However the turd in the punch bowl is the move to make progression similar to something like Fallout. So rather than making every challenge in the game beatable by player skill, as was obviously GSC's intent with the original games, they create this situation where for example you can't go into an anomaly field that you naturally discovered through exploration because your suit doesn't provide enough resistance. So you'd have to come back once you've acquired a better one. Or just in general how bullet spongy the enemies are. It can literally take several headshots to kill humans. The Misery devs would prefer you avoid combat as much as you can until you can afford a decent gun. Also, I think bullet drops are too low. Expect to get most of your bullets from the trader.
You can read about the developers thoughts on the design of their mod here:
(
http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-misery/forum/thread/misery-20-feedback-lets-talk-whats-okay-and-whats-not/page/4#869418)
But basically I think this mod kind of misses the point of Stalker, and tries to take the game in a direction it probably shouldn't go.
Dia on 4/8/2013 at 12:27
Thanks for the Misery 2 review, yxlplig. I've spent hours in the past playing SoC, CS, & CoP, first the vanilla originals, then with various mods. The only mods I found worthwhile for each and all three were the Complete mods. I'd tried the first Misery mod and it turned out to be too glitchy for my PC, so I quickly uninstalled that one. I agree about playing the games in order; I'd only played SoC on my old PC, but the ending kept glitching and CS was too buggy for my old PC so I went on to CoP. When I finally got my new PC I started all over again and ended up playing all three in order. Several times each.
I was looking forward to Lost Alpha, but heard rumors recently that that 'mod' was actually going to be released as a standalone game(?). Also still waiting to see/hear more on Survarium; kudos to Oleg and damn Sergey for screwing things up so badly that we'll probably never see Stalker 2.
Red_Breast on 4/8/2013 at 14:19
Thanks redface, Muzman, yxlplig and Dia.
I probably should of made it clear in the first post that I was only talking about Shadow of Chernobyl for now. One thing at a time but I'll bear in mind what was said about the other two games.
I had a little look at some mods yesterday after making the post. I did grab the latest ZRP and then came across the Complete series. I tried to downloaded Complete for SoC but the download failed. I do know the reason for the failed download, a problem of my own making, but perhaps I should take it as a sign!
I think I'm just going to start playing vanilla. At least I will when I have the game. I have to buy it first. I do have Steam but prefer a physical copy (optical disc). I've had a Steam account since 2004, when Half-Life 2 needed authentication, but I've never purchased a game through the service.
Before playing though I will have a look at what ZRP can do. For example I've never been fond of head-bob which I believe it fixes so I'll start with vanilla and if I find the head-bob too much I'll fix it.
I'm not too bothered about the graphics although some of the screenshots I've seen of Complete do look nice. I'll be able to max out all the graphic settings in the vanilla game menu anyway and I think I'm right in saying it includes native widescreen resolutions.
That is a shame about STALKER 2. I was reading about Survarium yesterday. It seems that triple AAA single-player games are few and far between these days with Survarium being MMOFPS. I'm not particularly clubbable although I did play a lot of Quake 3 and Tribes 2 online, plus a few hours of Thievery, back in the day when those games were new.
I'm intrigued by the following comment regarding Master difficulty yxlplig.
Quote:
(Putting difficulty on maximum fixes some funky RPG-like mechanics that happen under the hood in SOC)
I'll have to read up a bit about that. Some of the highest difficulties can ruin the game experience because it makes the game so hard whilst for others I prefer to play on the highest setting. The first Half-Life comes to mind here.
I must get on for now before the local supermarket closes. Thanks again.
yxlplig on 4/8/2013 at 16:40
Quote Posted by Red_Breast
I'm intrigued by the following comment regarding Master difficulty yxlplig.
...
I'll have to read up a bit about that. Some of the highest difficulties can ruin the game experience because it makes the game so hard whilst for others I prefer to play on the highest setting. The first Half-Life comes to mind here.
I must get on for now before the local supermarket closes. Thanks again.
In Shadow of Chernobyl (maybe Clear Sky too?) there is a system in place to increase player survivability, but it also increases npc survivability. Headshots have a high chance of doing body shot damage and non head shots have a chance of doing 0 damage. So the player doesn't die instantly, but the enemies will be kind of tank like. Combined with the horrible starting guns that can hardly shoot straight I think it kind of gives a poor first impression of the game to a lot of people.
On Master the player and NPCs are all highly lethal. If you go into the game understanding that Stalker is more about positioning yourself well and taking guys out from cover then it can actually be easier to play on Master.
