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Finally finished Stalker: SoC

Invictus

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,789
Location
Mexico
Divinity: Original Sin 2
The Stalker series isnt defined by its gameplay mechanics or story, but by its athmosphere and unique setting. When the game is good (Labs, Pripyat) it is damn awesome, and when its mearly average (fedex quest, so so ending) it is better than 90% of the first person shooters, not to mentio Call of Gears: Battlefest or whatever
Even the best games of the first person style (Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Bloodlines) have rather shitty mechanics but they are superb games overall
I rather have an imaginative game that tries to innovate and explore concepts like emergent gameplay than the usual fps drivell
 

Cadmus

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
4,264
fuck you guys, use the spoiler tags.

Anybody knows how to fix the game crashing every 40 seconds around lab X16? Got all them patches installed.
I started fucking hating the fetch quests in this game, too.

The engine is kind of shit, it gets more and more sluggish as the game progresses same as Gamebryo
 

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,804
fuck you guys, use the spoiler tags.

Anybody knows how to fix the game crashing every 40 seconds around lab X16? Got all them patches installed.
I started fucking hating the fetch quests in this game, too.

The engine is kind of shit, it gets more and more sluggish as the game progresses same as Gamebryo

Game didn't crash on me even once during my play-trough. I used gog version with ZRP mod which fixes most of bugs.
 

Nomad_Blizz

Arcane
Joined
Dec 18, 2014
Messages
332
Did you use the Complete mod? It fixes a lot of bugs, improves the lighting, among other things. The main reason I play stalker is to enjoy the atmosphere as you're going from one place to another...and by god, they did that so well.
 

Gerrard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
11,922
Clear Sky in a nutshell

Or you could not be a retard, go back to the swamp and use the other path. Oh but no one in the game tells you you can do that so it's shit.

Clear Sky system requirements:
A functioning brain
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,149
Play on fucking Master if you don't want bullet sponges. Cheekis these days. :rpgcodex:

Still takes a whole magazine to down a late game enemy to the chest, a sniper rifle to be sure of getting a headshot past 30 feet, and they kill you with 2 shots/1 headshot only stopped by the magical 50% bullets disappearing into the ether shield.
 

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,804
Play on fucking Master if you don't want bullet sponges. Cheekis these days. :rpgcodex:

Still takes a whole magazine to down a late game enemy to the chest, a sniper rifle to be sure of getting a headshot past 30 feet, and they kill you with 2 shots/1 headshot only stopped by the magical 50% bullets disappearing into the ether shield.

what magical bullets ?

maybe you mean bouncing bullets of surfaces ?
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,149
The way STALKER does difficulty is that bullets magically dissapear based on a behind-the-scenes dice roll. IIRC 50% of enemy bullets that are fired on Master difficulty simply cease to exist and can't hurt you. On easier difficulties its something like 80% of enemy bullets AND 50% of your bullets do nothing at all. Even with perfect aiming they would not hit and deal no damage.

The only restriction on this insanity is that there is a certain number of feet away that bullets will always hit. I believe the range changes depending on weapon, so 50% of shotgun shots disappear at 20 feet while rifles are good to 40 feet or somesuch (numbers completely made up though). This is why CQC is a literal instant death zone while at mid range combat is fairly random between almost instant death or completely no damage.

Also IIRC your shot damage goes down the faster you fire in full auto, which is why lots of body shots is useless and you are forced to rely on single headshots.
 
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Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,804
The way STALKER does difficulty is that bullets magically dissapear based on a behind-the-scenes dice roll. IIRC 50% of enemy bullets that are fired on Master difficulty simply cease to exist and can't hurt you. On easier difficulties its something like 80% of enemy bullets AND 50% of your bullets do nothing at all. Even with perfect aiming they would not hit and deal no damage.

The only restriction on this insanity is that there is a certain number of feet away that bullets will always hit. I believe the range changes depending on weapon, so 50% of shotgun shots disappear at 20 feet while rifles are good to 40 feet or somesuch (numbers completely made up though). This is why CQC is a literal instant death zone while at mid range combat is fairly random between almost instant death or completely no damage.

Also IIRC your shot damage goes down the faster you fire in full auto, which is why lots of body shots is useless and you are forced to rely on single headshots.


hah then what i was saying after all is true and i am no madman.

I specified that in close proximity short burst can shreed through my armor like nothing also that when i do the same my own bursts need like two full magazines to kill dude.
 

skacky

3D Realms
Developer
Joined
Mar 5, 2013
Messages
2,506
Location
The City
Still takes a whole magazine to down a late game enemy to the chest, a sniper rifle to be sure of getting a headshot past 30 feet, and they kill you with 2 shots/1 headshot only stopped by the magical 50% bullets disappearing into the ether shield.

Use AP rounds against Monolith exoskeletons, especially the 9x39mm weapons (Groza, AS VAL and Vintar BC) which obliterate everything even when fired in the chest. That and the Railgun is a guaranteed one-shot kill against almost every humans.
 

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,804
Still takes a whole magazine to down a late game enemy to the chest, a sniper rifle to be sure of getting a headshot past 30 feet, and they kill you with 2 shots/1 headshot only stopped by the magical 50% bullets disappearing into the ether shield.

Use AP rounds against Monolith exoskeletons, especially the 9x39mm weapons (Groza, AS VAL and Vintar BC) which obliterate everything even when fired in the chest. That and the Railgun is a guaranteed one-shot kill against almost every humans.

two magazines of AP ammo not non AP ammo. Non AP ammo is joke in stalker and only works early in game.
 

skacky

3D Realms
Developer
Joined
Mar 5, 2013
Messages
2,506
Location
The City
Dude, you don't need to waste two fucking magazines with AP rounds on an exoskeleton to kill them, unless you play on Novice. Master makes enemies as fragile as you (with the exception of some mutants like the Pseudogiant). Exos go down very fast with AP rounds (like I said, especially with 9x39mm weapons WITH AP rounds). Two or three bullets to the chest with these bad boys is enough to kill one exo, and a headshot is naturally lethal. Even a Dragunov shot is enough to one-shot kill a Monolith exo with a well-aimed shot. (As a general rule you don't want to use Warsaw Pact weapons once you reach the Red Forest. Switch to NATO and 9x39).
 

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,804
Two or three bullets to the chest with these bad boys is enough to kill one exo

Played on veteran. Two full mags on chest dude from close range. That is why i had to play headshot lotery in last level.

and yeah sniper rifles are lethal
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,149
Dude, you don't need to waste two fucking magazines with AP rounds on an exoskeleton to kill them, unless you play on Novice. Master makes enemies as fragile as you (with the exception of some mutants like the Pseudogiant). Exos go down very fast with AP rounds (like I said, especially with 9x39mm weapons WITH AP rounds). Two or three bullets to the chest with these bad boys is enough to kill one exo, and a headshot is naturally lethal. Even a Dragunov shot is enough to one-shot kill a Monolith exo with a well-aimed shot. (As a general rule you don't want to use Warsaw Pact weapons once you reach the Red Forest. Switch to NATO and 9x39).

Yes, you do. I just tested the final level with an FT 200m (strongest weapon I had that wasn't a gauss) w/ AP and enemies took ~50 full auto shots to the chest point blank to kill. This is on Master. EDIT: Actually it's like 30 full auto shots or 50 shots if you burst, probably due to the screwy way the game lowers damage of successive shots.

Enemies are nowhere near as fragile as you. While I was doing this I had to spam the eat medkit button with every burst they made in order to not die (even then I still died several times while testing, probably to random headshots). I was wearing Exoskeleton armor w/ bulletproofing artifact (total bulletproof 53%), they were using GP 37s (which has something like 30% less damage than my FT 200m).

Once you factor in the fact that STALKER weapons are absurdly inaccurate it's easy to see 2 magazines wasted per enemy at mid-long range when headshots aren't factored in.

Also 9x39 isn't NATO, what are you smoking?
 
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Beastro

Arcane
Joined
May 11, 2015
Messages
7,938
The Stalker series isnt defined by its gameplay mechanics or story, but by its athmosphere and unique setting. When the game is good (Labs, Pripyat) it is damn awesome, and when its mearly average (fedex quest, so so ending) it is better than 90% of the first person shooters, not to mentio Call of Gears: Battlefest or whatever
Even the best games of the first person style (Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Bloodlines) have rather shitty mechanics but they are superb games overall
I rather have an imaginative game that tries to innovate and explore concepts like emergent gameplay than the usual fps drivell

I'm finding this with my playthrough of Call of Pripyat, Misery. Zaton and Yanov would be ok if they were two of like 6 or 7 similar areas, but being so much of the game, I feel let down compared to the first game and how iconic my playthrough of it was to me. I'm almost to Pripyat and hope that, like you said, things will get better there.
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,103
Playing this now. Doing the Arena fights.

Fight 5 in the arena (the one against 2 Spetznaz soldiers) is a motherfucker. Took me a lot of tries to beat it. The main problem is that they are wearing some kind of armor that basically nullifies your shitty rifle damage. Even after I switch to armor piercing rounds, I would unload clip after clip into their ugly faces, and nothing. Meanwhile they take you down like wet paper. Not doing any damage to them is really demorilizing.

I finally beat it by just a lot of movement, unloaded a clip here, snuck behind a barrier, caught the guy trying to flank me, unloaded another clip there, killed him finally, then caught his body flanking from the other side, and since he was crouching, unloading at him at point blank range was easier.

The next fight, 1 on 6, but against bandits with shitty armor, I beat on the first try.
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,103
Lol, just beat the penultimate fight, fairly easy, where you face the stalker in an exoskeleton suit with a sniper rifle, and you've got a knife and 4 grenades, no guns, no armor. Cute.

I figured out pretty quickly his initial route, so I hid behind one box, and threw a grenade in front of him. He turned around and ran after me behind the box, but by that point, I already had the knife out and as he rounded the corner, I performed an emergency c-section on his face. RIP.
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,103
Just completed the "true" ending of Stalker: SoC on Master difficulty.

Kinda cheated. The actual ending I completed was one of the fake ones, but then I followed a guide to complete the true ending. Not was going to try to guess which sequence the portals had to be jumped in, fuck that.

Not a bad game, all in all, the open-ish world feel and the atmosphere were alright, and the feeling of progression as you got better weapons and gear. Gunplay definitely improved with later-game weapons, as the shit you start with was just pathetic.

My favorite toys were the ones found near Gordon Freeman. Big Ben is something else.

But late game was full retard mode. Waves of Monolith bullet sponges, radioactive gauntlets, other annoying shit, portal jumping guessing games, obtuse multiple endings, the works...
 

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