Stalker - The Good, The Bad, & The Ukranian

[DarkUnderlord]

STALKER works because it does all the things right that Bethesda can't.

Look at the behaviour of the wild dogs. They don't attack you. They run around in packs. They bark (well, ambiant baking at least).

When things do attack you, they lose sight of you. If you hide behind a corner and stay quiet, you can wait for someone to walk by you, jump out behind them and shot them in the back of the head.

In Oblivion, things just keep running after you and never lose sight of you. They'll even run across the whole world chasing after you and even kill themselves inadvertently in their single-minded attempts.

Then the dialogue. I've only been in the starting area so far and wiped out the car camp and things around there but the characters have, shock-horror, some actual character.

So far, not every location is the same either. You don't walk for 5 minutes and find another generic location the same as the fifteen you me before. More to the point, there are people in there you can talk to in some cases. Not just more stuff to kill.

Terrain is different. Dirt, grass, rock walls. Not just GREEN FOREST and MORE GREEN FOREST.

Graphics look better and the game runs better than Oblivion on my PC too.

It's not really quite a shooter either. The running is interesting. None of the "run and gun" business typical in an FPS. Weapons are good. Head shots seem the best. Interesting that the aim crosshair disappears when you aim the weapon. Just takes a bit of getting used to but once you know what to aim for, it seems to work.

Enjoying it so far.

 

[Ladonna]

It's pretty sad to see the guy you looked up to as the veteran Stalker, who ushered you in to the world, helped you get started and acted as a mentor stumble into a barrel and die without even being able to finish his vodka. I remember when his friend took over at the starter's camp and said Wolf had received a message and went off on some mission. Little did I know that he was lying and planning to bite the bullet all along.

I felt exactly the same. I thought 'Wow, old wolfie will be up ahead somewhere, have to keep an eye out for him' after Fanatic (I think thats his autospewed translated name) gave me the scoop back at the farm. I kept an eye out for him....And ended up stumbling across him in the dark on my way to a quest. WTF? Wolf!!! No! How? Why? I even stumbled and smashed a few of the vodka bottles in my grief.....

Seriously, I was a little pissed off. But I like your take on it Fez. Alcoholism in Russia+The Zone. A deadly cocktail. No shrinks out there for the vets.

DarkUnderlord, I feel the same way....or should say I did, until I hit lag city at Pripyat. Its still got the goods, but I am so waiting for the patch before starting a new game (Wolf might even decide to live next time around...wonder if his depression will be patched up).

 

[denizsi]

sip

All that and the SDK will be out sometime soon, which is probably beyond anything you can do with the CS in Oblivion (as most SDKs tend to be). Depending on the throughness of the SDK, you should be able to tie any in-game action to some stats and a ruleset, practically turning the game into an RPG if it's possible to implement the necessary interfaces, with appropriate quests and dialogue.

 

[Fez]

I've been holding back now and considering starting a new game from scratch with the patch that came out already and some mods to see the game at its best, but after hearing another patch is in the works it would probably be best to push on through.

 

[mister lamat]

trying to add stats to stalker would kill what makes the game so good.

 

[Starwars]

Well, the patch was supposed to be out Monday (April 9), but there have been no word from devs of the Moderator on the official forums. That Mod usually keeps people up to date with what's going on, but he haven't said anything despite all the people shouting about it.
So no telling when the patch will actually be out.

I wonder if it's the whole Doom III texture business that's delaying it.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I can't wait to start building my own PC so I can buy this game. Ahh, to have fun once again.

 

[Jason]

Look at the behaviour of the wild dogs. They don't attack you.

They will, but usually only when in packs. It's annoying when they do since they seem to be able to take more damage than most stalkers (and are harder to hit). Overall though, it's nice that all the wildlife isn't immediately hostile and chasing you all over the map like some other games.

It's pretty sad to see the guy you looked up to as the veteran Stalker, who ushered you in to the world, helped you get started and acted as a mentor stumble into a barrel and die without even being able to finish his vodka. I remember when his friend took over at the starter's camp and said Wolf had received a message and went off on some mission. Little did I know that he was lying and planning to bite the bullet all along.

Wolf bit the dust during an attack in the first 15 minutes of the game for me so I have no idea what I'm missing in that respect. Same with Fox, who was killed by those white dogs before I even spoke to him. The game has rolled on without them just fine.

 

[Sarvis]

Look at the behaviour of the wild dogs. They don't attack you.

They will, but usually only when in packs. It's annoying when they do since they seem to be able to take more damage than most stalkers (and are harder to hit). Overall though, it's nice that all the wildlife isn't immediately hostile and chasing you all over the map like some other games.

The trick is to get them running straight at you, then headshot them at point blank range. Has to be point blank range, because most weapons I've gotten so far aren't accurate enough to headshot them any further away...

 

[Fez]

You can do that or just empty the shotgun into them. I keep a shotgun with me just for dealing with the wildlife.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I'd think you'd want a shottie with you anyways. They're supposedly great weapons, aren't they?

 

[Blacklung]

I find it's much easier to use a .45 caliber pistol from a distance. If you steady yourself and aim for the forehead then you can drop the bastards with a single shot. Mastering the art of the headshot in this game is wonderful. I can drop soldiers from almost 50 yds away with the silenced pistol.

BTW, is it just me or do enemies seem to miss you more when you don better armor? With the exoskeleton it's almost as if they are trying not to hit me.

 

[Fez]

At close range against the unarmored Stalkers or most of the wildlife they do great. You can't miss and the sucker is blasted before he can react. If the extra ammo types were more common (hopefully patches or mods will help), such as the slugs and darts, then they would do well against most things. I had some fun gunning down the tougher Stalkers with the slugs and darts before it ran out.

I wish I could carry the sawn-off in the pistol slot.

 

[Sarvis]

You can do that or just empty the shotgun into them. I keep a shotgun with me just for dealing with the wildlife.

Odd... I thought I replied to this already...

I've got pretty bad luck with the shotgun for some reason. I tend to do better with the pistol, even the crappy starting pistol.

That said, when do I get something better than the Fort M12? (I think that's it... Fort something at least...)

 

[Blacklung]

Yeah the shotgun seems to be a pretty hit/or/miss weapon for me. I usually go with an Okoban set at auto at close range. Reliable, fairly accurate, lots of ammo, and easy to replace. Not a great sniping weapon, but it does the trick.

 

[Fez]

Make sure you are using the shotgun at close range if it is the sawn-off, unless you want to pepper them with several blasts. The others are more useful for standard fights.

There are a few different pistols, you'll find one or two different ones if you are lucky or brutal in the first area, but you will get many more after the bridge area. The leader of the bridge checkpoint has a custom pistol, I think. I am not sure if it is any better than the rest. The military camp in the opposite direction has a shitload of weapons. I suggest killing and robbing some of them and then wiping them all out with their own weapons. You get some decent ones around the bar area, including another custom one that is very useful. Once you get to the .45 and the pistol made to take rifle ammo you can use it to take out most things.

 

[KreideBein]

Is there any way to get the custom Thunder S14 (the one which uses the same ammo type as the AKM 74/2 and the Obokan) without going on a rampage through the Duty base? The normal ammo for the S14 is absurdly rare until the Chernobyl NPP.

 

[Bradylama]

I think the commander at the bridge has a customized sigt-p, and it's got an expanded clip for 15 9x38mm, so yeah it's pretty kickin before you pick up any .45 pistols.

 

[Fez]

Cool, I couldn't remember what kind of weapons he had, but I remember being pleased with the loot. I dumped it later on for the modified rifle ammo using pistol. I'd have killed that guy just for him demanding a toll.

 

[Bradylama]

I think the UDP makes a better pistol than either of the Deagles, really. The .45 Black Hawk is too inaccurate and slow, and the rifle ammo is too heavy to be lugging around for pistol use. I liked the UDP because it handled well and was easier to get headshots with.

 

[Fez]

I was using a rifle that used the same ammo sets as the pistol at the time, so it made sense to swap it over. Now I only carry one spare clip's worth of ammo for it as there isn't any point in having it other than when something goes wrong. The masses of pistol ammo only take up room. I'm considering dumping it altogether and would have done already if there was an uzi or sawn-off I could put in that slot.

 

[Blacklung]

Go to that mod site then. There are a couple of mods which let you put shotguns or smg's in the pistol slot.

 

[Fez]

Sweet. Is the Filefront site for Stalker good to use then?

 

[Bradylama]

In some states, a sawn-off shotgun can be classified as a pistol if the barrel length doesn't exceed a certain amount of inches. It makes a bit of sense that the sawn-off could be used as a secondary weapon.

 

[Inziladun]

Sweet. Is the Filefront site for Stalker good to use then?

It's the best site I can find so far.