Down in the Zone (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.)

[Orv]

So I grabbed CoP, because, ya know, the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. didn't destroy all of my soul.

I'll be back eventually with anecdotes and failure.

Edit after 10 minutes of gameplay: Yeah, it already has me in its clutches. My first thought upon exiting the brush was "If I shoot these pigs, it might alert people in the area that shit be up."

Godsdamn you GSC for making such a compelling series.

Edit after an hour: Knuckles got himself shot in the face, ending my first mission for what's his face. The mob boss, essentially. Am I screwed in that line of work?

Edited September 24, 2010 by Orvidos

[Thompson]

/cry

[Wrestlevania]

Yeah, that's really disappointing. Confusing, too, as I don't understand why GSC weren't able to secure the IP rights in order to complete the sequel.

Anyway, I'm interested to see what they do with their MMO idea. The tension in STALKER could have worked well adventuring with friends I reckon, so maybe their MMO will be able to recapture that.

[youmeyou]

It took way too fucking long for me to realize I could throw bolts at anomalies to trigger them and mark a clear path. I only found out through a random load-screen hint. I even did the mission when the guy leads you through a fire field. Why did he make me follow his crazy meandering path; why didn't he just give me a fistful of bolts and tell me to go crazy? I do love that they brought in that element from the short story. It really adds to the feeling of being a risk-taking explorer and crawling through these anomaly patches to find booty. And the emission storms are such a great element. They take whatever you're doing and add an incredibly level of tension to it. Especially if you're not in cover.

Ultimately the one thing I miss from SoC in CoP is the sense of danger in the environment. In CoP the danger is very localized: anomaly zones, bandit/mutant camps... in SoC it was usually a bad idea to run anywhere as you'd probably get sucked up into a gravity hole. It made the world feel hostile and unforgiving. I guess it works storywise as the events in CoP happen later and after the major force causing the zone has been neutralized. But I still kind of miss that tension and all the sudden deaths that happened in SoC.

[brkl]

Heh, I think the short story and movie are considered part of Stalker's manual.

[Erkki]

On the other hand, CoP has some amazing sections in Pripyat, that was totally lacking in the first game. The one place where you had to sneak up on the bandit stronghold or whatever was awful though -- stealth doesn't work in that game very well. Man... wish I had some time to replay the games... been wanting to do that for years.

[feelthedarkness]

I think clear skies is a little unfairly maligned. The Complete mod fixes a lot of the problems. The one sort of issue, is the bandit respawn around the dump is brutal, your pals can't hold it, and you can't fast travel around it until much later on.

Also, I don't know how you could be into STALKER and not know about this, but just in case. The People's Soup mod:

30+ Locations: Cordon, Swamp, Garbage, Dark Valley, Forgotten Wood, Not Reconnoitered Territory, SRI Agroprom, Bar, Wild Territory, Yantar, Military Warehouses, Radar, Pripyat, CHAES1, CHAES2, Sarcophagus, ATP, Red Forest, Limansk, Hospital, Old Village, Generators, Underground Research Agroprom, Lab x18, X16, X10, Varlab, Cave, Labyrinth, Merv, Zaton.

- 14+ Mutants: jerboa, rat, leech, marsh bloodsucker, a chimera, elktrohimera, controller, kink, poltergeist, fire poltergeist, byurer.

- 13 Factions: Loners, Military, Mercenaries, Bandits, Environmentalists, Duty, Last Day, Freedom, representatives of the "C"-consciousness, Monolith, Clear Sky, Hunters, Avengers + dealers and repairers (even rumors of the presence in the Zone of women).

- Huge number of weapons, from fists and knives to heavy machine guns and grenade launchers.

- Great variety of armor, with the possibility of upgrading.

- 5 types of detectors. 15+ anomalies. 4 mobile teleport devices. 45+ artifacts.

- Huge number of quests (200 to 300 hours of content). Unique quest caches.

People Soljanka - this is not a game, it is - virtual reality. Here you are guaranteed a different experience with every game. Here everyone can find something to their liking."

[racingfreak92]

That mod looks interesting... but jesus are the directions confusing and the download options are awful. The torrent is <10kbps, and that russian file site is almost as slow.

[Erkki]

Also, I don't know how you could be into STALKER and not know about this, but just in case. The People's Soup mod:

It's easy: just play the games, don't read gaming sites. Well, I only know about STALKER mods thanks to this forum and RPS, now I know about this one too.

PS. I definitely want to give Clear Sky a go when I have free time. Hmm... maybe I should give up on L.A. Noire and play Clear Sky instead.

[racingfreak92]

I lied, the torrent picked up to like 150kbps. Not amazing, but at least it wont take a week to download now.

Erkki I recommend the "Complete" line of mods for STALKER games (you can get them from moddb, or http://artistpavel.blogspot.com/). They add graphics improvements, bug fixes, and new features like weapons/expanded AI behavior. I dont know if I would play with them the first way through, but on the 2nd time through they are def worth it if you arent into the more radical mods like Peoples Soup/Oblivion Lost/Etc.

[Erkki]

Erkki I recommend the "Complete" line of mods for STALKER games (you can get them from moddb, or http://artistpavel.blogspot.com/). They add graphics improvements, bug fixes, and new features like weapons/expanded AI behavior. I dont know if I would play with them the first way through, but on the 2nd time through they are def worth it if you arent into the more radical mods like Peoples Soup/Oblivion Lost/Etc.

Is there even a point to playing Clear Sky without the Complete or some other mod? I once tried, but it seemed quite broken early in the game.

[racingfreak92]

I played it all the way through with no mods and no major issues. The only things plaguing the game were its design flaws, mainly the frequent re-spawning enemies, more linear gameplay, and a story that shows initial promise but ends up pretty meh.

The only big bug I can across (besides CTDs) was some error that prevented me from getting the next quest, but I only had to go back like an hour. Also the final boss getting stuck in some level geometry, which made the ending much easier. For me, bugs is the STALKER series were almost always technical (bad performance, memory leak, script crashes) and rarely in-game bugs like broken quests and such (and Ive played each game through on vanilla).

COP really showed that GSC was learning, there were higher production values, more clearly communicated missions and more coherent mechanics. I think its in the top 5 tragedies in modern gaming that they were shut down.

[racingfreak92]

There are so many good mods for SOC, and Peoples Soup is not one of them. First off just installing it is a bitch, the instructions are GOD AWFUL, and then the download methods are even worse.

The mod does a lot of things similar to other overhauls for SOC, mainly freeing up the AI so they travel, fight, and spawn more. Then it adds in more factions, gives each leadership, traders, so on. Unlike most other mods however this one adds a signifcant amount of new areas to visit, but they are all late game.

The negatives so far (I just discovered Streloks Cache) really outweigh any of the promise. There seems to be no interest in balancing areas, giving a sense of progression, or protecting story line encounters. Unlike other mods this one also seems to create a lot of problems; the anomaly randomizing is painful, and now bullets always ricochet no matter what they hit.

The English translation is hilarious, but hardly helpful or coherent at all. I dont think anyone who isnt closely familiar with SOC could even play this mod given how bad all the quest text is.

Most Stalker mods are pretty hardcore, but this one is so player unfriendly it borders on unplayable, I really recommend staying away from it.

[feelthedarkness]

I haven't gotten too far into it, but the party line on it is that it doesn't get good until after "The Cave." (whatever that means).

I think fighting to understand the system was what first made me love STALKER. It DARES you to enjoy it.

[racingfreak92]

I haven't gotten too far into it, but the party line on it is that it doesn't get good until after "The Cave." (whatever that means).

I think fighting to understand the system was what first made me love STALKER. It DARES you to enjoy it.

The Cave is an awful level they put in early on before you can do quests for Sidorvich (sp?), it kept causing my game to crash so I skipped it but the part I played was not fun.

I understand the system its just poorly done. Like it regularly spawns the boss-type monsters, such as the pseudogiant and chimera, anywhere it wants - like right in front of you as soon as you start the game (which led to me dying, then quitting out and starting again - great 1st experience btw), or in the middle of the agroprom base during the military attack. Or it decides that a blow out will make about 4 dozen zombies appear and attack you - within the first few hours of the game, so just hope you have enough ammo.

Or what they do with Streloks stash... thats really fun.

Also a lot of the game REEKS with unprofessionalism. The controller now uses sounds stolen from HL2 zombies, the mp3 player feature (which why the hell is that even included) is just a bunch of pirated songs they threw in there, and the TVs in the game loop some crappy photoshop pictures of mutants with Russian captions, and then 15 seconds of a Porn.

[thainatos]

Installing STALKER for the umpteenth time, so I can try my hand at this.

[thefrozenpoison]

I was able to install the Misery 2.1 mod and get it running. It definitely pushes my system, but if you start it at low settings you can graduate up until you reach a happy balance.  The weather patterns and atmospheric events are extremely impressive. I have it on high settings (not ultra) and the frame rate has been acceptable. Occasional hitching, but it's a decent trade-off for the level of detail. The mod really earns it's name, as it takes an already demanding gameplay model and adds multiple layers of complexity. It's survival-horror in the truest sense, as hardened economies of currency, health, fatigue, weight, shelter, and satiety, all grind up against one another, the player often being the grist. I really do feel it's one of the finest example of a video role-playing game to date, and my other favorite open-world rpg's like Fallout or Skyrim seem like cartoons in comparison. It's undeniably oppressive, and until recently I could only barely exist within it. I've spent a fair amount of time simply hunting mutated boars and dogs, as the meat/parts have moderate value. The sale of the harvested material is generally sufficient to keep the ammunition stocked, and my own dietary needs met. I don't eat Zone meat. It's irradiated, and that must be treated with drugs or vodka, and vodka's expensive. Unfortunately, so are beans, and canned tomatoes, and every other alternative. There are no easy solutions. If I follow groups of npc stalkers, I have a better chance of surviving encounters with the more dangerous mutants (Bloodsuckers, Controllers, Psuedogiants, Psuedodogs),  or rival factions (Bandits, Duty, Mercs). If my npc companion falls in combat, I am right there to loot corpses. Most of the weapons you find are in poor shape, and consequently offer little reward. This game forces you to maintain your equipment which, if allowed to fall into too much disrepair, will be beyond mend. The weight factor versus financial gain must also be considered in light of mutant attacks or radioactive blowouts. You can even modify a backpack, containing a quick release system and gps for retrieval, so that you can drop and run if you find yourself in too much peril.

 

With so much attention being paid to Souls games, I would love for folks who appreciated STALKER: CoP to take another tour of the Zone. You will regret it in the best possible way.

[Dewar]

I had a devil of a time understanding what was going on in the first Stalker game and eventually gave up on it (not my typical behavior on these sorts of things.) Maybe I should install some mods and try again.

[thefrozenpoison]

The first game is quite good, and many Stalker enthusiasts consider it the best of the series. I tend to disagree because, like FarCry2, it's the unscripted moments that grab you, often a long period of calm punctuated by some batshit chaos. Sometimes that chaos is something that you witness from across a broad valley through a scope, maybe a bandit gang being swarmed by a pack of bloodsuckers.

The first game has the capability of creating those moments, but the economies I mentioned before are so better implemented in Call of Pripyat. Also, CoP introduced the emission, a level-wide release of radioactive energy that kills all who can't reach shelter in time. This feature makes you strongly consider everything in your inventory before you step outside, forces you into close proximity with rival factions also seeking shelter, and plays against the very hoarding mentality that the other mechanics have already instilled in you.

If you decide to play the first game I would recommend the Complete mod. It better allows you to repair and sell gear, which I feel is crucial to a Stalker experience. It also gets rid of many of the vanilla game's crippling bugs, and makes the game pretty easy on the eyes too.

Misery 2.1 for Call of Pripyat, however, is geared more toward seasoned Stalkers, or people who crave a punishing experience.

[neonrev]

I LOVE the misery mod. So much. While I'd recommend playing any other stalker game before you dive into it (SoC: Complete is a great way to get into the stalker setting and mechanics in a more stable and comprehensible environment, even if the game isn't quite as good.), I'd also be utterly fascinated by trying to play that game without any knowledge of the zone setting and the misery mod on. There is sooooooo much stuff in that I can't even really get into it all. frozenpoison describes the experience pretty well, but to describe the madness further: 

Weapon and armor repairs? Now they're significantly more expensive to repair the more damaged they are at a mechanic, but there are only about 4 mechanics in the whole damn zone, so you're also going to need to maintain them in the field if you don't want them to jam up in the face of a charging mutant boar. Just grab a field repair kit you think? Not so quick, there are a range of different kits for different calibers and types of armor, a range of how much damage you can repair with a certain kit, and how many times you can use the kit. After you find a kit you can even use, you gotta consider the weight, how much you expect to be shooting on this trip, ammo/food/water/medicine availability where you're headed and how long you're going to be out if you want to make sure that kit is a boon and not a paperweight that makes you carry out less food.

Oh, and that food and water and medicine I mentioned? You're going to need all of it, and hopefully a basic vocabulary of medical terms, because the zone's environmental threats (things like radiation pockets, anomalous areas characterized by intense heat, spontaneous fires, bizarre electrical effects, poisonous gases and caustic chemicals, intense gravitational oddness and possibly being ripped apart by that gravity.) are now made even more dangerous than in vanilla CoP, and also fits into the expansive world of misery's nutrition system. Make sure to count calories, because here you want every single last one. Packing food and water is less like grabbing health and mana potions and more like planning for a real hiking trip.

 

 

A home base is a very real, very personal need in this game. You go home at night. Night is utterly terrifying. You go home, you eat something, you drink some vodka to wash away the day's radiation, you feel the warmth of a lit room and non-hostile people for once, you sleep on a bare mattress and awake to the sounds of the guards outside shooting to fend off passing mutated dogs. The personal experiences in this game are hard to describe. I've only cried a few times from games, and one of them was from seeing the lights poking out of the holes in the rusted out ship that is the hub in the first zone. I was coming back from an EXTREMELY poorly fated run to the far northern edge of the map, and had been dragging my badly wounded, irradiated, over-encumbered, starving and dehydrated ass across the whole map trying to save an iron man playthrough of about 25 hours. I was half running, half staggering away from a pack of dogs chasing me, occasionally popping off shots with the damaged, jamming pistol I found on the floor, since I had no other ammo left. I had just made it over the final hill to the small valley home was in, desperate and nearly dead, when the sweet, sweet sound of guttural slavic barks and automatic gunfire rang out, and a nearby squad of stalkers opened up, and drew the pack towards them (and the snipers on top of the boat). I was tearing up as I slowly made my way into the ship, so exhausted I had to wait a second or two before jumping over the ragged edges of the ship, and it made the cheesy "welcome back stalker!" bark I heard when I made it inside so, so sweet. I came outside the next morning, and found a bunch of dead dogs, and one dead stalker, one of my rescuers I think. His friends stripped him down and left his body in the swamp. Welcome to the zone.

[Dewar]

It sounds like the OL mod is a bit too intense for me, so I decided on Stalker Complete. Is this the right place, or is there a newer 2012 download page I'm missing?

 

http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009

[neonrev]

Yep, its just a terribly confusing name. I think they were going to go for another overhaul in 2012, and got bogged down or something and just updated the original 2009 edition? If you have version 1.4.4, you have the latest version.

[thefrozenpoison]

I had a similar experience coming back from a pitched battle wiping out the starving mercenary camp. I was so heavy laden with loot that I couldn't walk more than a few steps before having to stop. While crossing the bridge by the campground, I was attacked by two bloodsuckers and just barely survived. With my armor in tatters and my health nearly extinguished, I continued to limp along toward the Skadovsk. Upon hearing the barking of a pack of dogs, I began making my way up the hill so that I could climb on top of the pipeline. As I made my way down the pipe toward home, I could see the dogs begin to attack bandits on the other side of the field. Now was my chance to make a break for the Skadovsk, and as I neared the boat, sirens erupted a warning of imminent blowout. I got inside, sold the loot, patched myself up and fixed my gear. My balance: 1 ruble.

I had a good long laugh, and wondered if I had ever experienced anything like that in another game.

[hedgefield]

Is anyone playing the Lost Alpha mod? It made a bit of a splash recently for restoring all kinds of content that was cut from the earlier versions of the game, such as upgrading the ALife system to actually work the way the devs wanted it to, while at the same time adding DX10 dynamic lighting and other fancy stuff like that. Some of the fancyness is quite taxing, but I'm having fun re-exploring the game I spent a lot of hours in years ago. The way the narrative plays out feels liek something from a long forgotten era when you compare it to Metro, but the open world is so good. I was playing for maybe an hour, doing an early mission for Siderovich, I turned a corner down some zombie-infested tunnel and I found myself in a huge abandoned underground complex. It was just there. I felt so tense moving through it like I hadn't felt in a game in a long time. Like actualy dread almost, stumbling into this unmarked dark thing. No Outlast can top that.

 

[eot]

It sounds like the OL mod is a bit too intense for me, so I decided on Stalker Complete. Is this the right place, or is there a newer 2012 download page I'm missing?

 

http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009

I would recommend just playing the vanilla version of the game. Complete isn't just a set of bugfixes, there are some major mechanical changes that (I think) take away from the oppressive feel of the game.