STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl Mod Thread

Watched the Stalker film last night, I must say that I actualy prefered Solaris as a scifi movie but with all the ties to the stalker videogames series it was quite good and the evolution of the zone concept with the chernobyl incident to make a FPS was astounding to say the least. I couldn't say much about the acting (as all characters appear to always act as defeated people trying to justify their existance) but the dialogues and the camera work where superb. I almost feel about this franchise in the same way I feel about "do androids dream of electric sheep?" and Bladerunner; they are all supposed to come from the same source and basicaly have the same core concepts but their executions are VERY different...but somehow their differences make them each unique and equaly interesting and worthwhile entertainment.
After just having watched Elysium it is always quite striking how american movies (and to a certain extent western movies that include western europe) tend always to go for the "what does it all mean" movie themes or saving the world or whatever, while easter european movies and games always seem to have a setup which is not quite ever defined and much less explained, they are scifi backdrops for the realities of human conditiom where the supernatural or unexplained elements almost always remain as misterious as when they where first presented but the way the main characters react to it is the reflection of who the characters really are rather than what said phenomena is supposed to be...
Deep stuff to base a videogame on...

 

Invictus, I recommend you read Roadside Picnic from the Strugatsky brothers. Its the work that originated the "saga", and its the best one for me, much better than the movie (I dont like it) and better than the games. I was always bugged by the movie in a way I couldnt exactly put my finger on , until Ive read the book again and then things got clear:

- the movie looks like a sunday morning sermon by the local father speaking in full latim. It proselitizes a certain "thing" and wants the spectators to reach for it and almost makes you guilty for not doing so. But its never clear what is it. It almost suggests something in the likes of "if you´re really worthy, you will know what all this mean and will be saved in the end". Its feels religious and manicheistic to me.

- on the other hand, the book dont make judgements. It simply shows the protagonists dillemas in relation to the harsh life in and around the Zone, and the consequences of their choices. Like ripples on a pond. Then it dissects and comments on these outcomes, but it never judges them, nor tries to give some "higher" meaning for one choice over another, etc. It feels much more imparcial to me.

 

Invictus Thanks! If I record anything interesting I'll post it but I'm a bit burned out on Stalker at the moment. That knife, yeah it's ridiculously powerful. Not in Mis 2 though.. in which it seems to have magical resuscitating powers on the enemy. I did a quick bullet sponge test with a Fort 12 at the Merc base in Zaton. BTW you can kill an exo-dude in two headshots with 9mm ammo so I don't think they are too spongey. But the last merc was wounded on the floor so I went to finish him with the knife.. must of hit him 3/4 times but he got up straight away and killed me. I have no idea what's going on there.

It's interesting what you say about the East/West thing. I don't watch many films so I haven't noticed it myself. Sounds almost like that old saying about "show don't tell". Seems to me that western culture has become more 'telling' than 'showing'. Not sure why. Maybe it's an art vs business thing. Or insight vs intelligence. Definitely something I'll look out for and give it a good old pondering. I can't recall the last time a western game put a spell on me. Maybe early Mount & Blade but that was Turkish so.. that probably doesn't count either. It's definitely been a while that's for sure.

As for the source/execution dichotomy, have you heard that saying about the blind men around an elephant? Where one dude feels a leg and thinks it's a tree but another feels the tail and believes it's a snake. I believe it's Indian or maybe Tamil. Either way that always struck me very deeply and I'm reminded of it all the time. Especially when it comes to art because that's the kind of art I love. The stuff that's more testimonial than journalistic. It says here is what I experience rather than here is what I know. Or at least doesn't claim to know it all. I guess it's very much how Silva described the book. Some ideas can be so complicated, so large, it's just too big for one individual to fully grasp. Like the elephant. Bah, I'm rambling. Sorry. Something about the source being like the elephant and the different executions are like the blind men. Blah de blah de blah. Maybe. I dunno. It's late. I need sleep.

 

Heh no need to apologyse over getting a little whimsical Rolk's Drifter; belive me after trying some other threads and reading all the drama queens cursing at each other over regenerating points or who loves Sawyer I quite enjoy having a mature philosophical conversation over one of my favorite series

 

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I've searched my old HDD with all that stuff I've gathered for few years (documents, articles, addons, mods, patches etc.) and what I've found?
Some mods for STALKER like this one - it's called Dezerter 2 beta but good riddance with looking for other versions. I've found only one page with links to dead torrent file and some page (rapidshite kind of) with one 3,5GB file and limited download. Fuck.
Did I mention that it's sequel and there is older one? Guess what - also dead torrent file and this friggin' rapidshit.

Most impotant info - it's based on Sigerious Mod 1.6, you know what to expect - lot of stashes etc. There is also other version of the mod where the whole zone is covered in snow and there is some red zombies and stalkers with Metro 2033 clothes.
What I liked the most is that TOZ (hunter shotgun, vertical barrels, with 2 shells) is deadly and that's my favourite weapon.
And loading screens got jokes (mostly old and adapted to STALKER universe) instead of hints, like sending good wishes to Sidorovich on 8th March or Freedom guy that send Mercenary's jeep to the river bottom with excuses "b-b-but water has reached the geese's bell".
Music in the menu is ho ri ble. Some mix of techno, chore, metal and vanilia theme. Srsly.
Also nice thing - traders offers depend on your reputation. If you're rookie with few points then you got basic stuff. Shoot more stuff and got better one.

Damn.
I should learn the russia lang, there is some nasty mods for STALKER (and also Wizardry 8).... someday...

First few screenshots were made on low details. Mostly because previous mod for CoP got screwed performance and I didn't changed setting after removing.

Almost forgot - Merry ChriOSHIETSORKZ

 

What the hell? Is that guy wearing a Crysis armor?

 

modders gonna .

 

Decided to give Stalker OGS Evolution mod a go (for SoC). At first I had to deal with horrible crash fest worthy of Stalkersoup. As it turned out it was fault of graphical improvement applied with the mod (Sunshats, SSAO etc, etc) which you can thankfully turn off, so game runs fine now.

It has quite confusing begining though, you start with no weapons (not even a knife) and different initial mission from Sidorovich. Translation is dodgy as fuck so I had to basically quess what I have to do. After doing two new missions for Sid (Find artifact, patch up idiot who decided to shoot at military chopper) you will finally get a knife and makarov from Wolf's men. Makarov is worthless piece of crap so my suggestion is to head where Tolik was (Guy who ask you to give him first aid kit in vanilla) and get yourself granade from "set cache" there (those are not changed from vanilla so you can still find granade and silenced makarov there), waste 3 military guys who patrol area near rookie village and loot their AKs. Rookies should be able to deal with any soldiers military will send to retaliate... and if not, well, more loot for you.

And then "real" game begins. Anomalies are invisible (like in Priboy Story) and you don't start with any detector so you have to be careful. Avoiding anomalies is doable but OGSE devs decided to pull more artifical difficulty from their asses and included automated machinegun turrets. Like in vanilla, your first real mission is to get documents from military base and there are at least three of those turrets. They will waste you in split seconds and are almost impossible to spot so "military base raid" mission is even more of savescumm fest than it ever was. I'm not exactly ok with it but OGSE seems like quite nice mod so far so I think I can live with bullshit like magical turrets with sniper-like accuracy.

 

A friend of mine got all 3 Stalker games on Steam dirty cheap and now he is getting started with SoC. For his first playthrough he wants to try the Complete 2009 mod but I had forgotten its hideous english speech, anybody knows how to switch that to russian or a mod he could download to get the original russian speech but keep the english subtitles and descriptions?

 

Good.

http://www.metacognix.com/files/stlkrsoc/

 

Hahahha thanks DraQ I thought so as well but he played the Complete mod and that is the way he wants it. I already installed Misery 1.2 with ny tweaks on his CoP so that will put some hair on his chest
Oh and read the Lost Alpha holliday update and seems we might see the game in 2014, sure wish it would be around april

 

IESVS FVCKING CHRIST, slap some sense into him, man!

 

I tried believe me but he is coming over from Far Cry 3 and Skyrim so I rather he just eases into it

 

There is nothing wrong with Complete unless you have autism.

 

I don't mind it much myself but it does make the core gameplay a bit too easy, I prefer Autum Aurora 2 but I don't think it is bad and the nice graphics do make it more palatable to modern gamers

 

There is unless you have Down's.

 

Srsry why he even bother with this series if he do something like this? What next? Installing Misery 2.0 because it's nominated in Moddb TOP100?

Using Complete is like covering bread with excrements with though it's Nutella.

 

I WANT TO BE A HEADSHOT.

 

You are seriously mongoloid if you enjoy vanilla SoC beyond the element of walking around not seeing shit which defines the series

 

Did you turn on your monitor?

 

Ok, I think I will officially ditch Oblivion Lost for OGS Evolution. I managed to get myself some really decent gear but game did not changed into cakewalk simply because how the mod is "designed". Like I said earlier, anomalies are invisible, I'v just bought scientific anomaly detector which marks anomalies on your map and that means you have to stare on your map instead scanning your surroundings, and this can easily get your killed since mutants can rip you to pieces even if you have exoskeleton. And then your PDA map does not show mutants as a contacts, you need biodetector for this, and it means another radar/map thingy on your HUD to stare at (and be killed while you are staring at it).

OGS Evolution did not change enemy spawn points so you will know what your are going to encounter in certain areas if you played vanilla or oblivion lost. But this time you have to adjust your strategy for the type of enemies your are going to fight. Bandits have high caliber low armor penetration weapons which probably won't kill your Maked One with exoskeleton but it will completely rip your armor to pieces and you will have to spend fortune on repairs. Military and Mercenaries use armor piercing ammo which is more dangerous for heavy armoured guy but won't cost you as much in zonebucks. Spetsnaz is Groza armed death from above so I just run when I hear them landing from a chopper.

Anomalies do change their positions after blowouts like in Oblivion Lost but OGS Evolution added quite cool "PSI emission anomalies" here and there. They are completely invisible and undetectable and everyone who goes through them will completely trip balls and shoot at random (for player they fuck with your vision and create those ghostly apparitions like those you can see near Brainscorcher). Happy fun time to have your companion suddenly lose his shit and go trigger happy (you can ask loners to follow you and do some zone hiking with you, you can even give them simple orders through walkie-talkie).

And finally - GUN pr0n. OGS Evolution have shitton of weapons and I'm pretty happy with that because I hate using same gun for too long. Also, OGS Evolution added MG42 so that's double win.

 

I don't need ton of guns when I got trusty shotgun (TOZ hunting shot from vanillia) and kalashnikov.

Only with there will be more rifles like Nagant or Kar98k but not using rare sniper ammo.

 

Gun porn is for pussies. Real men use knife.

 

Where is fucking Lost Alpha? Fucking modders. Still hoping to release it as Stalker 4? Waiting for this for like 3 years now. Brings back the memories of waiting for original Stalker.

Oh, CoP is the best from the three. Just sayin'

 

Yup, CoP has the deeper and more polished gameplay.

But I wish some modder fused SoC with CoP so we have the second deeper gameplay with the first better atmosphere and sense of isolation.