steo on 9/11/2007 at 21:38
I haven't used grenade launchers much in 1.004 but they at least seem to have fixed the 'grenade disappearing mid-flight' bug. Still, I find that grenades fired from launchers are too weak, too hard to aim and too difficult to find. Since they don't bounce, you can't really hit enemies you can't see, which is the main advantage of hand grenades, plus the blast radius isn't really big enough to be killing multiple enemies at once like you can with an F1 grenade. They just seem to be so much rarer than hand grenades and so much less useful.
I usually end up using them just for the sake of it when I've built up a stash of twenty or so, but then I usually end up using 3+ grenades just to take out one monolith troop who I could just have easily have killed using bullets.
The full size, six round grenade launchers (RG6?) are even more useless since you can't sprint with them, they weigh over 6kg and still don't do any damage. As for the rocket propelled grenade launcher, well that's even more useless since you get even less ammo (5 rockets in the game IIRC) and it weighs a ton. If there was ever a point when the thing might have been useful you were guaranteed not have it with you.
I guess this was just another thing that suffered due to the rushed development of the game. Has anyone managed to make any decent use out of grenade launchers?
242 on 9/11/2007 at 22:04
Well, you're not alone. From the other hand, maybe we are too used to games where grenades explode like bombs? I'm just don't know how deadly are those grenades in reality and how big is their killing area. Maybe Stalker simulates them more correctly than majority of other games.
Anyway, yes, they aren't that useful. However the are useful against compact groups of enemies. I killed like 5-8 dogs in the Garbage with two VOGs for instance. When you shoot it at a group of people usually at lest one should be dead. Other good thing is that they weigh very little. Voronin gives 2 for every quest for him.
D'Arcy on 10/11/2007 at 02:42
I use the RPG Launcher once in the game: in the Chernobyl NPP, to take out the military helicopters and prevent them from following me while I make my way to the NPP entrance.
As for the other ones, I also don't use them very often, unless I have a lot of grenades to waste. Usually I use them against packs of dogs.
Vigo on 10/11/2007 at 12:35
I don't think they're useless at all. I stockpiled a lot of them by the time I got to chernobyl, and I put them to great use in taking down the hoardes of monolith that got in my way. One grenade into a pack 2 or 3 of the buggers and they easily fall with a brief hail of bullets.
Jenesis on 10/11/2007 at 15:40
Yeah, they seem to be better for softening people up than actually taking them out. Best actually-lethal use of grenades I've found so far is against the seated swaying Monolithians clumped around the garbage Monolith idol at the far end of Pripyat. Mainly because they don't try to get out of the way.
On a related note, I once tried to use grenades to take out a clump of stationary zombies in Yantar that were a mission target. I was rather surprised to see them turn and run away. Anyone else come across this rather unzombielike behaviour?
242 on 10/11/2007 at 16:34
Quote Posted by Jenesis
On a related note, I once tried to use grenades to take out a clump of stationary zombies in Yantar that were a mission target. I was rather surprised to see them turn and run away. Anyone else come across this rather unzombielike behaviour?
This should be fixed in 1.0004. At least readme says so.
GRRRR on 10/11/2007 at 16:35
Hm they kill stuff, so if i had some grenades and a rifle with a launcher attached id just use them on the next deserving threat, its a dead enemy more and ammo saved.
If Stalker was a normal FPS where you could carry around a range of weapons and ammo without worrying about weight and such, the grenade launcher weapon (not the attachable launchers) surely would have its uses (especially firing 20 grenades without reloading), but as it stands its some sort of novelty item, too heavy, not worth hauling around all time when it really would be only useful in a couple of specific situations.
Bjossi on 11/11/2007 at 14:23
The problem I see with the grenade launcher is that the grenades it fires are too weak. I'd pick a NATO assault rifle over a gren. launcher any day. (same goes for the attachable ones)
driver on 11/11/2007 at 15:12
The only time I use grenades is at that damn chokepoint in the NPP. What with the high radiation and concentration of enemies, they're useful for clearing out the buggers hiding in the corners. Other than that, I generally carry a couple of grenades round with me 'just in case' but I hardly ever use them.
steo on 11/11/2007 at 15:28
True, grenades launchers can be useful at that chokepoint and I always end up using the groza there since most of the enemies carry SP-5 rounds and I tend to run out of 5.56s. Then again F1 grenades do just as good if not a better job than vog25 or M203 grenades.
