Scots Taffer on 25/2/2008 at 01:59

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Tried to get back into this on Friday night, I don't think the glass or two of wine I had impaired my abilities too much but I was basically getting my face owned every three seconds or so.

I was retrieving the documents from that ex-hospital or whatever and was dying CONSTANTLY. I avoid conflict wherever possible and in entering the place I had forced a bunch of soldiers to follow me around the outskirts of the building where I ran past an anomoly that pretty much wiped out 4 or 5 of them. Thank Christ, because these fuckers can take a few bullets to the head before they drop.

After picking up the doco's I exited the building to find a fresh fuckton of troops waiting to one-shot kill me, so I legged it for the nearest manhole and backtracked through the emptied sewer system and took - I imagine - the long route to the bar.

Well, enroute to the Bar I essentially got my ass kicked about thirty times trying to pass by the factory that I'd help liberate earlier - there was a squad of rebels or whomever waiting near the traincars at the cross-over point between levels, meaning sneaking past them was impossible. Ugly midnight firefights eventually made me ragequit and I'm wondering:

Do I drop difficult levels?

How do I shotted bad guys? :(

Is this game really difficult or am I just sucking after months of nongaming?

Bjossi on 25/2/2008 at 02:50

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If you want to avoid getting your ass shot at, keep distance from the nearest enemies. But if that is unavoidable, then use trees, cars, etc. for cover when under fire and run like hell when the enemy has to reload.

Bjossi on 25/2/2008 at 03:01

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The damaged armor you use is the reason why you get owned all the time. The developers changed the armor in the attic from a stalker suit to a merc suit in one of the patches, a merc suit at half strength doesn't allow you to get hit often before you die.

If you got enough cash and can't find armor anywhere, buy a new one from Barkeep. I think Sidorovich sells them too.

Muzman on 25/2/2008 at 03:07

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This sounds like getting through to the bar the first time (documents from the army at Agroprom south) and yes it's really damn hard, particularly on veteran.
Once you get there though much more of the game opens up and you can get more stuff if you know where to look. That's not much help. As said, if your merc suit is down that low it's not protecting you more than a bandit jacket, maybe even less. Try and get a few healing and bleeding artifacts then at least you can back off and recover in a pinch. I've had good success with surprising and scattering guys with a grenade or two and then sprinting for my life when I haven't got much ammo or decent weapons.
(I's too slow)

Scots Taffer on 25/2/2008 at 03:35

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Ah, here's where I admit with embarassment that I've no idea how to use the artefacts and that so far I haven't really thought about them. I have a collection in my inventory, maybe four different ones, not sure if I have an anti-radiation one which was really putting me off using them as I have few antirad hypos.

But if you say I can suit up with a new armour at the Bar, I'm almost there and can slog through this final stretch. I actually made it to the Bar but timed it in a bad way so that I couldn't help out a faction getting mobbed by mutants and without thinking, reloaded so that I'd get the chance - forgetting how hard it had been to get beyond that firefight.

The perils of not being a frantic quicksave-loader.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I had more or less been approaching battles in the surprise attack-retreat-heal-regroup-resurge attack method, but without utilising any artefacts and sticking to whichever meaty automatic weapon I'm using at the moment.