gunsmoke on 7/8/2008 at 17:26

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I have been interested in STALKER ever since I dl'ed that leaked ALPHA in DirectX 8.0 (it still had driveable vehicles!!!) years ago. I just thought my aging PC (though it was damn near top of the line when it was new) would struggle like Hell to even run it, let alone be playable.

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ @ 2.2 GHz
1024 MB PC 3200 DDR RAM
ati 9800 PRO 128MB AGP video card.

Well, I borrowed it from a friend and am happily running it @ 25-50 fps on low/med settings. Sure it's not mind-blowingly beautiful, but it sure looks good enough, and it's the gameplay that draws me into a game in the first place.

Anyway, I am so glad to finally be experiencing this game for myself, instead of playing it vicariously through all of you on this forum. I was half-expecting another 'Boiling Point', and from the minute I went on my 1st mission, I knew this was a winner. THe controls, the gunplay, the inventory management, the upgrades, it all works well and feels tight and solid. The NPC's are lifelike and believeable, the missions make sense, and don't feel like they exist just for your character's bnefit.

Anyway, few questions:
I know this gets asked a lot, but can you recommend a few gameplay tweak mods? Nothing drastic. Also, any general tips I should know of?

Plus, I have researched Clear Sky online a bit, and have come up w/conflicting minimum specs. Is it going to have the same minimum specs as the original STALKER???? Thanks, all!!!

242 on 7/8/2008 at 19:00

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Official patch 1.0004 and bardak's "bug fix attempt" for 1.0004. You'll have to google or search on official forums to find english version of the latter though. It additionally to official patch fixes several bugs (the most prominent is stash marks), also returns real names for the weapons, but nothing critical I think.



Don't be hasty. Explore everywhere. Learn weapon/armor/artifacts characteristics and use them to your advanatage. Try to not overload yourself (more than 50kgs), store items you think you'll need or otherwise want to collect in some conveniently placed container. Get Moonlight (+109 to endurance), it can be found in places with lots of Electras after midnight, it will allow you to sprint almost endlessly if you're not overloaded. Compensate radioactive artifacts with anti-radioactive ones. Take note that despite bullet protective artifact line's effect may seem negligible (top of the line Night Star and Mama's beads give only +5% to bullet proof) the effect is very noticeable at least during 2/3 of the game because you won't find armor with bullet proof more than 30%-40% until the later stages, and additional bonus of 15%-20% (3-4 of such artifacts) is great, it's half of the body armor and they don't wear and tear! Do side quests, it's fun. You'll find that each quest giver (and there is not that many of them) has limited line of the quests (like 1-15) and it's possible to do all of them, they aren't generated randomly as it may seem, the line will be restarted eventually in most of the cases though. Check my list of the best rewards if you don't want to do all of them. Beware :)




Yes. here they are:

Minimal

* Microsoft® Windows® XP(Service Pack 2)/Microsoft® Windows® 2000 SP4
* Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz / AMD XP 2200+
* 512 MB RAM
* 10 GB free hard disc space
* 128 MB DirectX® 8.0 compatible card / nVIDIA® GeForce™ 5700 / ATI Radeon® 9600
* DirectX® 9.0 compatible sound card
* LAN/Internet/Cable/DSL for Internet games
* Keyboard, Mouse

242 on 7/8/2008 at 21:00

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Actually I'm not sure they all are safe. I mean many of them are stashes, everytime you search a body there is chance that one of the containers will be filled with contents and you'll get stash mark on the map. I.e. when you have a stash mark on the map it means there is something, if the mark is absent the stash is empty. That is if you have bardak's patch installed, otherwise the stash system is bugged and there will be empty stashes with marks as well as a stash will be used more than once per game (each stash is supposed to be used only once maximum). Take note that most of the stash
contents isn't that worthy, but some of the stashes are great. Safe containers are f.e. at the stalker's bonfire in the village and later in the game in the Bar and Freedom base. Actually I think they all are safe, but I'm not 100% sure. Once I left lots of my stuff just laying around outdoor, about 5-10 game days later it's all still there.

Also, very important: don't be too greedy, there is LOTS of free stuff in the game. Carry only one weapon and ammo only for it, maximum 2 weapons. Pick up only better weapon than you have, only ammo for the weapon you actively use. You will have LOTS of money eventually, much more than you will ever need, without need to pick up every barrel you see and sell it.

242 on 8/8/2008 at 20:50

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You may safely trash the silenced pistol and shotgun, they're basically useless. H&K MP5 is good on long distances, it's quite precise. There are many upgraded weapons in the game (you'll notice arrow icon on weapons' picture if it's special). F.e. nice special MP5 lays in the very end of the railway tunnel in Garbage, it uses more common 9x18 instead of 9x19 ammo, lots of anomalies in the tunnel though. Also, I noticed that it's considerably easier to kill dog packs with MP5, just because it has much lesser recoil, higher rate of fire, and it's much easier to hit head with it than with AK.



It's not official patch that fixes some bugs that still remain in the game after patching it to 1.0004+. F.e. stash system, I wrote about it above.

Actually, it may be strange, but I think I have had considerably more fun replaying the game 2nd, now 3rd time than I had playing it first. The same thing was with Thief. I guess it's because game mechanics, and world are deep enough to guarantee you won't be able to learn it entirely during the first run through and even maybe second, and when you already know relatively good how it works, layout of the maps, your enemies, what to do and when, etc. you may concentrate on fun and experiments. I can't think of any modern game with more complex game mechanics and AI system than Stalker has.

242 on 9/8/2008 at 09:38

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Well, I found any assault rifle is far more effective even in close quarters. If you miss head with a shotgun in close quarters (it doesn't kill by one shot in torso, and I'm not sure about 2 shots) - you're dead, because it reloads too slowly.