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S.T.A.L.K.E.R is an amazing game...

Topher

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I just started stalker and have been skipping all the side missions because i hate traveling back to turn them in. Is this a bad idea?
 

Fez

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Some of the side missions are worth while. I tend to ignore most of the generic "gather X items" or when someone is asking me to fend off bandits in the Garbage again.
 

Sceptic

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DraQ said:
there is one of those destructible boxes on the roof just before the bridge.
Fuck. I completely missed this one.

On a related note, I just love how STALKER encourages using odd and improbable routes for your benefits
Yes. There are about 3 or 4 different ways to get across the Cordon without going through the military checkpoint, depending on whether you like stealth, anomalies, radiation or jumping. The rest of the game is full of this too, much more so than CS. I really, really liked that.

Speaking of poking around in Cordon - did you find Walther P99 there?
Maybe. Frankly I don't remember. I changed handguns more than I did my main weapon as I kept changing my mind about which one was the most suitable for what I was doing.

I think my favorite early game find was the upgraded AKM (not the silenced one, the other one). It was love at first sight, especially since .45mm ammo is so common early and mid-game. I kept using it and by the time I got to X16 I had worn it out almost completely and it was jamming like made. That's when I switched to a GP37 (I had amassed enough .56mm ammo by then) and that stayed my main AR until I got the FM200.

compare with Desert Eagle, or it's customized version "Big Ben", which is insanely powerful, very accurate when firing single shots, but with kickback so ugly that it takes seconds to reacquire target after each shot.
Big Ben is awesome but it's not a handgun, it's a backup shotgun when your main weapon is an AR. At least that's how I used it. Always at close range, the accuracy meant I didn't need to aim with ironsight to hit, and the damage and stopping power is pretty good. When in a pinch it was always a much better deal than trying to switch to the threaded SPSA (my favorite shotgun). Also, at close range the kickback isn't as disrupting, especially because you usually want to move away from the thing you just shot anyway.

Fake endings were great, plus they granted a bonus of being able to behave all :smug: each time you encountered a retard complaining about the game kicking him in the balls after he failed to ensure the good ending due to him being stupid.
I always thought it bizarre that people could so completely miss this. Didn't they notice they still had one MQ mission uncompleted (namely "Find Strelok")? Did they not take the PDA from Ghost? Did they not TALK to anyone and just rushed to the Brain Scorcher? And how did they survive the Scorcher without the psi-helmet, in other words without talking to Sakharov and being told about Ghost and X16? There are so many threads that lead to the real ending I'm having a hard time imagining anyone being able to get to the end and so completely miss all of them.

Also, my complaints about it not being what we got are valid - they should have gone more the "Roadside Picnic" way, less "Shoot Monolithians" way.
Yeah I agree. I guess my attitude is more "that's a shame, it could've been so much better, but oh well I'll live with the flaws". Maybe that's why I like CS more than you do as well, even though I completely agree with every criticism you leveled at it; I'm just more easily able to detach it from SOC and how the sequel to SOC should've been. Sorry, I guess I'm too newfag for you ;)

Topher said:
I just started stalker and have been skipping all the side missions because i hate traveling back to turn them in. Is this a bad idea?
Yes and no. You don't need money that much (it's pretty easy to get very rich very quickly) but OTOH there's no repair and being able to stock up on several SP99M suits makes the game much easier. There are some very nice items (including high level artifacts) that you get as a reward for some advanced missions. I'd get ZRP and turn off mission respawning though.

Fez said:
Some of the side missions are worth while. I tend to ignore most of the generic "gather X items" or when someone is asking me to fend off bandits in the Garbage again.
You must be thinking CS. There are no "gather X items" missions in SOC (it's always one of the item) and I don't remember having to fend off bandits in Garbage, except a couple of fixed missions.
 

DraQ

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Topher said:
I just started stalker and have been skipping all the side missions because i hate traveling back to turn them in. Is this a bad idea?
Depends. Side missions (fetch/kill/defend X) are generally only worthwhile for loot and reputation, so they should only be taken when they don't require extra legwork.

On the other hand some loot obtainable that way is unavailable in any other (tourist suit, steady supply of GL grenades and AP ammo), reputation affects inventory traders are willing to sell you and some "side missions" may turn out to be not quite "side" ones, after all.

Sceptic said:
Speaking of poking around in Cordon - did you find Walther P99 there?
Maybe. Frankly I don't remember.
It lies by the seemingly inaccessible upper floor window in the checkpoint by the exit.

I think my favorite early game find was the upgraded AKM (not the silenced one, the other one). It was love at first sight, especially since .45mm ammo is so common early and mid-game. I kept using it and by the time I got to X16 I had worn it out almost completely and it was jamming like made.
An excellent weapon for the early-mid game, it's also very customizable, taking underbarrel GL and detachable scope.

That's when I switched to a GP37
I have always been more of a TRs-301 (LR-300) person. Performance-wise they aren't as different as raw stats would make you believe (for example - "accuracy" displayed by game is really a compound stat based on actual first shot accuracy, accuracy loss when firing rapidly, kickback, etc.) and LR-300 is the most customizable gun in the whole game, which means that you can adapt it to about any situation.

that stayed my main AR until I got the FM200.
FN2000 is indeed an excellent weapon, if a bit inaccurate in single fire - I've found one early, in a stash near the entrance to the Red Forest.

Big Ben is awesome but it's not a handgun, it's a backup shotgun when your main weapon is an AR. At least that's how I used it.
I'd consider it more of a rifle-class firepower in pistol-sized package, for when you're totting something like Dragunov or Vintorez, which cannot be used properly in close quarters. Still, apart from taking out bloodsuckers, and maybe armoured people, this kind of firepower is rather spurious as you can kill most stuff with proper headshot using about any weapon, without suffering from insane recoil or small magazine. Still, if you want your pistol to definitely hit and hit hard if you have time to aim it, pierce military armour, plus you use something that uses the same type of ammo, like Vintorez, "Big Ben" is probably your wonder-handcannon. It's just not much of a pistol and doesn't work very well in "turn around and shoot something creeping up on you" type of scenario.

Of course, there is always Beretta - powerful, accurate, large magazine, common ammo, silencer support. It's also damn rare and falls apart after letting off several rounds, making it nearly useless for any longer trip.

I always thought it bizarre that people could so completely miss this. Didn't they notice they still had one MQ mission uncompleted (namely "Find Strelok")? Did they not take the PDA from Ghost? Did they not TALK to anyone and just rushed to the Brain Scorcher? And how did they survive the Scorcher without the psi-helmet, in other words without talking to Sakharov and being told about Ghost and X16? There are so many threads that lead to the real ending I'm having a hard time imagining anyone being able to get to the end and so completely miss all of them.
I guess they do everything, barring meeting Guide and all the resulting events. Then they go all :rage:.

:smug:

Yeah I agree. I guess my attitude is more "that's a shame, it could've been so much better, but oh well I'll live with the flaws". Maybe that's why I like CS more than you do as well, even though I completely agree with every criticism you leveled at it; I'm just more easily able to detach it from SOC and how the sequel to SOC should've been. Sorry, I guess I'm too newfag for you ;)
Oh, I love SoC despite its flaws, in the same way as I do love Morrowind. It's just that being an angry cunt is Codexia's national sport, remember?
 

Fez

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Sceptic said:
Fez said:
Some of the side missions are worth while. I tend to ignore most of the generic "gather X items" or when someone is asking me to fend off bandits in the Garbage again.
You must be thinking CS. There are no "gather X items" missions in SOC (it's always one of the item) and I don't remember having to fend off bandits in Garbage, except a couple of fixed missions.

I was thinking of SOC. By "x items" I just meant "whatever junk". The number doesn't matter if it's still a shit and forgettable quest. SOC had crappy generic quests too, just less variety and with more walking to get and deal with them. Ones like get a boar's foot, pseudodog's tail, etc. were standard fare.

I refuse to believe you could have played or read about SOC on the forums without knowing about the ridiculous bandit respawn rate driving everyone crazy. It was infamous. People made mod efforts to stop it. You must be one lucky son of a gun to have missed it completely. These mentions turned up on Google straight away and if I could be bothered to I'm sure I'd find more:

http://stalker.wikia.com/wiki/Destroy_t ... he_Garbage
http://forums.filefront.com/s-t-l-k-e-r ... -rate.html

I can remember it being discussed a lot, with people wondering if there was some sort of bandit factory beyond the fences or the world's most fecund woman pumping out replacements as fast as you and the Zone can kill them. The world was knee deep in bandits.
 

Admiral jimbob

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The respawn really didn't bother me given that it only occurred when you left and returned to the area, and I tried my best to minimise my trips between areas purely for efficiency. Never saw the big deal really, having stuff to shoot in an FPS isn't too big a problem for me.

Though I only played once it was patched, did they respawn in-area before that?
 

DraQ

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POOPOO MCBUMFACE said:
The respawn really didn't bother me given that it only occurred when you left and returned to the area, and I tried my best to minimise my trips between areas purely for efficiency. Never saw the big deal really, having stuff to shoot in an FPS isn't too big a problem for me.

Though I only played once it was patched, did they respawn in-area before that?
Like the tolling of some great bell.
 

Fez

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POOPOO MCBUMFACE said:
The respawn really didn't bother me given that it only occurred when you left and returned to the area, and I tried my best to minimise my trips between areas purely for efficiency. Never saw the big deal really, having stuff to shoot in an FPS isn't too big a problem for me.

Though I only played once it was patched, did they respawn in-area before that?

I was unfortunate enough to have played it as soon as I could (having watched the development of it for some time before).

Shooting stuff is fine in a FPS. It was the repetitiveness (and frequency) of of it that got to me. STALKER was especially good for me because of the difference from the comparatively boring and repetitive corridor shooters I had played before. Asking me to battle the same foes in the same spot in almost the same way time and again was tedious and I ended up just leaving them to their grim fate. Good riddance. If I could I would have blown the whole building down to end the pointless struggle.

It was especially bad if you were trying to explore that area and gather some of the artefacts that tend to spawn there too or that mission request pops up just before you manage to run from one end to the other.

Getting a big fat fail from this regular, unavoidable, auto-accept quest was not fun.

Thankfully, there are countless mods for the game now, including some huge ones that greatly change the game. No need for me to ever re-live the horror of those bad old days of the bandits...the horror...the horror...
 

Gerrard

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Sceptic said:
I don't remember having to fend off bandits in Garbage, except a couple of fixed missions.
Maybe everyone just got killed. :smug:
The bandits respawn every time you enter the area, same with wild territory and mercenaries.
 

Sceptic

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DraQ said:
some "side missions" may turn out to be not quite "side" ones, after all.
Maybe that's how people miss the true ending?
Speaking of good loot from side missions I just realized Sakharov gives you the SP99M when you do all his missions, AND I think he will only start selling them after that. So doing his missions is DEFINITELY recommended.

Although... no wait, he gives it to you in exchange for the Ghost Suit, which you'd have to be pretty stupid to not have found.

It lies by the seemingly inaccessible upper floor window in the checkpoint by the exit.
Definitely missed it then.

An excellent weapon for the early-mid game, it's also very customizable, taking underbarrel GL and detachable scope.
I always had the GL stuck to it, and the scope came on and off as needed.

I have always been more of a TRs-301 (LR-300) person.
Yeah I can see why. Somehow the GP37 felt more comfortable in my hands, not sure why. This is one thing I love about the weapons, even ones with similar stats will still feel and play slightly differently.

FN2000 is indeed an excellent weapon, if a bit inaccurate in single fire - I've found one early, in a stash near the entrance to the Red Forest.
Yeah, that's the first one i always find. I never use it for single-fire, by this point I have the Vintar BC and that's my favorite single-fire sniping weapon - it's silencer, it has insanely high accuracy and good damage, good enough to headshot from a huge distance.

I guess they do everything, barring meeting Guide and all the resulting events.
Eh. Sure, trekking all the way back to Cordon is a bit annoying by that point but you'd think it would be pretty obvious by then that this Doctor guy is VERY IMPORTANT to the plot.

Oh, I love SoC despite its flaws, in the same way as I do love Morrowind. It's just that being an angry cunt is Codexia's national sport, remember?
Oh sorry I forgot. BANAL SHIT BORING RAAAAAAAAGE ;)

Gragt said:
Find The Strelok.

Edit: ah no, it's "kill".
It's both.

"Find Strelok. Kill Strelok?"

The question mark becomes awesome once you get deeper into the game and figure it out.

Fez said:
I was thinking of SOC. By "x items" I just meant "whatever junk". The number doesn't matter if it's still a shit and forgettable quest. SOC had crappy generic quests too, just less variety and with more walking to get and deal with them. Ones like get a boar's foot, pseudodog's tail, etc. were standard fare.
I never, ever take any of these quests before already having the item. It's usually pretty easy to get the mutant parts (though Flesh eyes gave me trouble this playthrough - at least until I no longer needed them, then I was finding them by the dozens) and most artifacts, the only tough artifacts are Night Star and Goldfish, not very rare. I tend to collect them as I go, then when the quest's available I check to make sure I have the required items. Never take the quest and then go and try to find the item within the time limit.

I refuse to believe you could have played or read about SOC on the forums without knowing about the ridiculous bandit respawn rate driving everyone crazy. It was infamous.
POOPOO MCBUMFACE said:
Though I only played once it was patched, did they respawn in-area before that?
I guess it did, because I also only joined in after some patching (1.0003 or 4, don't remember) and never had a problem with respawning. Except on a couple of occasions, when entering an area I'd be waylaid by a dozen pseudodogs and die seconds later, but I always assumed this was a glitch and reloading and reentering the area took care of the problem usually.

ION I found a mod to turn nights darker in SOC. Testing tonight.
 

Topher

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Well, I'm having a blast with the game. I finished retrieving some family rifle and just got the mission to go to X18; and I found my first scope.
 

Sceptic

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Gragt said:
I meant the message you see at the end of the intro. I always found it fun to see "Kill the Strelok".
Ah, sorry 'bout the confusion. Yeah the unnecessary "the" looks funny on there.

Topher said:
Well, I'm having a blast with the game. I finished retrieving some family rifle and just got the mission to go to X18
Enjoy :smug:
Best part of the game is X18.

ION I started on COP and made some good progress. I love the new Bloodsuckers, especially when they turn COMPLETELY invisible, making me shoot like crazy in the general direction I thought they ran away. Only to have them reappear behind me. I like.

Side missions are HUGELY improved over CS and SOC. There's branching, there's multiple objectives, there's one mission splitting into 2, there's multiple outcomes... I love it. Speaking of Bloodsuckers the "Missing Hunter" quest is my favorite so far (including the "Gas the Bloodsuckers" one that splits from it).
 

DraQ

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Sceptic said:
It lies by the seemingly inaccessible upper floor window in the checkpoint by the exit.
Definitely missed it then.
It's not a rare gun by any means, but at the time you first enter the Garbage, it is beyond awesome, especially if you find yourself an MP5 to pair it with the pistol and know of the hidden crates containing about 1000 9x19mm rounds in the Garbage.

and the scope came on and off as needed.
The main reason for my preference of LR-300 over G36 - not only can it mount GL, but you can easily customize it for sniping or close combat in the field by attaching or detaching SUSAT scope - ability to mount silencer is just cherry on the top.

This is one thing I love about the weapons, even ones with similar stats will still feel and play slightly differently.
I like how even something like the shape of the weapon's sights greatly affects its usefulness and shooting ergonomics.

For example, Groza has rather imprecise sights, making accurate shooting at distant targets difficult, but they are located in a way that allows you to aim the gun without it taking up much of your FOV, which, along with superb handling, makes it wonderful for room-to-room combat and popping mutants jumping at you from behind.

Yeah, that's the first one i always find. I never use it for single-fire, by this point I have the Vintar BC and that's my favorite single-fire sniping weapon - it's silencer, it has insanely high accuracy and good damage, good enough to headshot from a huge distance.
Vintorez is an excellent sniper rifle, and can work as an AR too in a pinch, thanks to being capable of automatic fire (I mostly use this mode to quickly take care of highly dangerous targets I can't afford to miss, though, like guys with RPGs), but I like my proper AR to be capable of accurate single fire too - I mean, it's a selective fire weapon, single fire mode isn't there just for show.

FN2000 is pure shock and awe when you aim it at some semi-distant guy and *BRRRRAPP!* instant swiss-cheese, but I sometimes yearn for something subtler, that would allow me to pick the guy off with single clean shot, in addition to being capable of just putting a lot of holes in the target.
 

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Topher

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I've just got to say lab x18 was terrible. One of the worst levels I've ever played in any game. The atmosphere was great, I loved that, but those paint cans flying at me non-stop, OMG, I just got so tired of it. Plus, it's not all that apparent that you need to shoot that one transparent floaty orange thing in the room full of other sorta floaty orange things to open up the door near the end. I got stuck there and thought the game had glitched.

Again the atmosphere was so well done but fuck those paint cans.

Another small bitch is that I've noticed that the main quest buildings have a lot of cut-off entrances; for instance, the building above the X18 lab has a side stairwell that would let you approach the whole segment in a different way but it's broken off and useless, a real shame I think. These parts could feel less railroaded and more dynamic if more approaches were made available to the player. I mean instead of being forced to come in from the bottom, where the lab entrance is anyway, you could take to long way up and around through the top floors first and work your way down.

It's one of the things Deus Ex did so well, a little too often with the air ducts but whatever, and stalker would really benefit from it.
 

DraQ

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Topher said:
I've just got to say lab x18 was terrible. One of the worst levels I've ever played in any game. The atmosphere was great, I loved that, but those paint cans flying at me non-stop, OMG, I just got so tired of it. Plus, it's not all that apparent that you need to shoot that one transparent floaty orange thing in the room full of other sorta floaty orange things to open up the door near the end. I got stuck there and thought the game had glitched.

Again the atmosphere was so well done but fuck those paint cans.
If you were a bit more perceptive, you could have killed things throwing those cans at you. Your lack of perception is not game's fault - did you think those cans were rising in the air and hitting you on their own volition, perhaps seeking lulz? :roll:
 

Topher

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...did you think those cans were rising in the air and hitting you on their own volition, perhaps seeking lulz?

You better believe I though they were out for lulz.

That's cool that you can stop those damn cans but what do you shoot at? I actually though an anomaly caused it so I went through that whole base while getting constantly pelted in the face with small metal cans, the damn things cause bleed damage.
 

Konjad

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Topher said:
...did you think those cans were rising in the air and hitting you on their own volition, perhaps seeking lulz?

You better believe I though they were out for lulz.

That's cool that you can stop those damn cans but what do you shoot at? I actually though an anomaly caused it so I went through that whole base while getting constantly pelted in the face with small metal cans, the damn things cause bleed damage.
:lol:
 
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Those things are called poltergeists and you can notice certain sparkles flying around. That's what you shoot at. Once they're dead, you get to see the whole body.
 

DraQ

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Topher said:
...did you think those cans were rising in the air and hitting you on their own volition, perhaps seeking lulz?

You better believe I though they were out for lulz.

That's cool that you can stop those damn cans but what do you shoot at? I actually though an anomaly caused it so I went through that whole base while getting constantly pelted in the face with small metal cans, the damn things cause bleed damage.
Well, at least you shown your humility there, in absence of wisdom. :wink:
 

Sceptic

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I went through X18 without shooting the poltergeists. Makes the whole experience even more atmospheric. I can't believe you were annoyed by the bleeding damage. Just use a fucking bandage! You should have dozens of them by this point.

ION I tested a Darker Nights mod yesterday and it works pretty well. I was a little shocked to see stars in the night sky, something that never happened with vanilla SOC (the sky just stays much lighter). Night's still not as dark as I would like (lighter than CS, I think also lighter than COP) but a big improvement over vanilla. I wonder why SOC didn't even use that starry sky, since it's in the data files already.

DraQ said:
if you find yourself an MP5 to pair it with the pistol and know of the hidden crates containing about 1000 9x19mm rounds in the Garbage.
:shock: OK I definitely didn't find this crate either. Love the MP5 though, most of my 9.19mm ammo went into it rather than a Walker.

The main reason for my preference of LR-300 over G36 - not only can it mount GL, but you can easily customize it for sniping or close combat in the field by attaching or detaching SUSAT scope
Speaking of snipers you reminded me of the Sniper Obokan, which I thought would make a great weapon but then pissed me off by jamming ALL THE FUCKING TIME. The weapon's reliability is atrocious and of course it gets even worse the more you use the weapon.

single fire mode isn't there just for show
I admit I very rarely use single fire mode in AR. Of course I did earlier on, before finding a dedicated sniper rifle, by attaching a scope to an AR (the fast-shooting AKM in my case) but not so much later on.
 

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