So two weeks to Clear Sky

[Wyrmlord]

It's out in August 29 and I am really liking what they are doing with this game, based on screenshots and videos.

The sort of abandoned cities we saw in STALKER are far more detailed now. Large stretches of ghost towns. And there are now going to be regular radioactive storms, where the whole sky turns red, and that red storm approaches you from a distance.

But I suppose the screenshots will speak for themselves much better.

But here is a point of concern(from Wiki) : "When the NPCs throw grenades, a yellow icon appears on your HUD, warning you. The developers decided to do this after a lot of people had trouble avoiding grenades."

It almost seems like they are going in the direction of dumbing it down, with the original game already having quest compasses as it is.

But that aside, they are introducing some good hardcore elements:
- "Your view focuses on your weapon when reloading, the background becomes blurred."
- "One new mutant has been confirmed, the "Marsh Bloodsucker", who will be invisible. This bloodsucker was seen in the swamplands level, and has the ability to grab NPCs and the protagonist and throw them high into the air, before taking them back into the swamps to eat."
- "There will be more anomalous activity than in the previous game (with new and more varied anomalies). The anomalies, artifacts, and their detectors will be greatly varied. For example, the detector will be a device that is held in one hand, while the other holds a small firearm, like a handgun. Long-barreled weapons such as rifles cannot be held at the same time as the detector. New mutants have been added, and old ones have been enhanced. Blowouts possibly going to be included."
- Artifacts are now supposed to be much harder to find. Money harder to make.

Anyway, who plans to get this game when it comes out? What is the general consensus on it?

 

[sportforredneck]

Moar like STALKER: Cloudy Sky, amirite?

 

[Fez]

I'm surprised the deadline hasn't slipped again. I was expecting this one to drag out forever.

I was planning on getting it when it came out. I do like STALKER and this was promised to improve upon the original and fix many of the old complaints. It may also add to the modding possibilities.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

STALKER could have been playable if it weren't for the enemies respawning all the time. Kinda made all the combat pointless, I mean it was unrealistic anyway, having to empty an entire clip into someone to kill them... but then having them come back the next day? That's just rape. I just wanted to clear out an area and move on, but it was pretty hard to do that when you have to keep running back to the starting area for quests... then when you've finally got back again, you're out of ammo because of all the respawning enemies.... augh augh augh.

So, for me STALKER had two huge faults that made the game unplayable:

1. Respawning
2. Unrealistic gun mechanics.

If they fix those two in Clear Sky, then it might be a good game.

 

[Fez]

You could have fixed both of those with free mods, Matt.

 

[Jung]

Matt is new to the intarnets.

 

[DraQ]

It almost seems like they are going in the direction of dumbing it down, with the original game already having quest compasses as it is.

Almost. Luckily FPS games seem largely immune to this trend. I didn't mind the compass, as it was explaied by GPS. I also didn't mind slow health regeneration, as it's better than having to use tons of medkits.

Those promised hardcore elements sound like HEAVAN.

STALKER could have been playable if it weren't for the enemies respawning all the time. Kinda made all the combat pointless

It's better than the ability to clear out an area permanently. First, it provides constant risk. Second, it's less unrealistic than being able to create dead zones where nothing ever attacks you at your leisure. Third, this is not your grandpa's FPS of old where the point was to clear the level and move on to the next one.

I mean it was unrealistic anyway, having to empty an entire clip into someone to kill them...

Single shot mode, being in good firing position rather than circle-strafing around like a retard and good aim are your answer. You can kill almost anything, save for the most armoured opponents with helmets on, with a single, well placed bullet from your weakest gun. Obviously, placing this bullet precisely with something as innacurate as PMm or AKSU is whole other problem.

 

[Fez]

Right at the start of the game it was pretty brutal when it came to you or other characters being killed by a few shots. I can remember invading that abandoned building full of bandits a few times and getting different results because of a stray shot here or there killing someone or another shot missing.

You can up the difficulty and mod weapon damage to your tastes quite easily too. You can make even the weakest weapons far more effective, such as the low end pistols.

You can also add in some weapons and items that were missing. I put in the "over and under" shotgun that was missing and it is a useful addition early on for longer rage engagements.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Honestly, the respawning enemies were never a big problem for me. There were only one or two groups per area, and the fights were usually varied and interesting enough that it never really bugged me. The one thing that annoyed me about the game was that at least half the game time was taken up by trekking back to and from the starting area on cheap artificial-game-time-inflating errands, but apart from that, I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to this expansion.

 

[Fez]

It would have been nice if the vehicles were viable and the original vision of it being a massive open area was still intact. That would have helped a lot with the travelling. The early videos of STALKER seem so much more interesting than what we ended up with. They planned much more interesting AI and interactions between people and the monsters.

 

[Starwars]

I'm definetely looking forward to this. STALKER was flawed in a lot of ways, but it was also one of very few shooters that held my interest (and that I actually come back to to replay sometimes).

Hopefully they fixed up some of the worst flaws. The DX10 grafix!1!1! look really impressive, but I'll have to stay with DX9 (great that they're keeping support for DX8 as well).

 

[The Vanished One]

Honestly, the respawning enemies were never a big problem for me. There were only one or two groups per area, and the fights were usually varied and interesting enough that it never really bugged me. The one thing that annoyed me about the game was that at least half the game time was taken up by trekking back to and from the starting area on cheap artificial-game-time-inflating errands, but apart from that, I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to this expansion.

Ditto. I really enjoyed STALKER. Currently I'm having a lot of fun with the Oblivion Lost mod. Being a large project it's not without issues (and the english makes me frown... they need a native speaker in the team) but it's very good, and I recommend it for a second playthrough.

It would have been nice if the vehicles were viable

The oblivion lost mod has drivable vehicles, but honestly they are more cosmetic than anything and enemies don't know how attack you properly when you're using them (the APC at least).

 

[Deleted member 7219]

You could have fixed both of those with free mods, Matt.

I haven't found any that deal with the respawning or gun mechanics. I'll take your word for it that there are mods out there, I just haven't seen any.

But still, is it too much to expect the developers to actually fix the problems before they release the game instead of relying on modders to do it for them? Modders should be expected to make extra content, not fixes.

 

[Mister Arkham]

I like a lot of the changes that they say they've put into effect, and I'm glad that they're really pushing their engine further into what they initially promised us with the first games. I'll probably pick it up once I've upgraded my desktop again.

As far as the re-spawning issue goes, I'd have really liked to see a gradual re-spawn. Yes it is natural to not have dead zones and for there to be a constant level of danger, but it isn't natural to go through a zone, kill forty dogs, and then run into forty more dogs when you cross through again the next morning. If they rigged it so that the critter and human populations would level back out over a week or so of game time then I'd take far less issue with it.

 

[Fez]

I think anyone with these sorts of complaints really should hit the mod scene. There's a shit load of them now and the respawn and weapon damage were common complaints, so have been addressed with many of the mods.

 

[udm]

Respawning is a double edged sword. On one hand, it gave me more things to kill, so that's good, I won't get bored. OTOH, I always get surprise attacked in an area I thought I'd cleared 15 mins ago. No sense of continuity t here

As for weapon mechanics...what's wrong?

 

[DraQ]

As for weapon mechanics...what's wrong?

Apart from inconsistent round damage (two weapons using the same round often do wildly different damage), and maybe a bit underpowered guns I don't see much wrong - it's certainly a lot of fun to fire your boomsticks in STALKER.

 

[Mister Arkham]

I think anyone with these sorts of complaints really should hit the mod scene. There's a shit load of them now and the respawn and weapon damage were common complaints, so have been addressed with many of the mods.

The last time I played through it was with Oblivion Lost installed and I found it to have much improved the game, but the re-spawning was still something of an issue for me (no more or less than in the base game). Do you happen to know of a decent re-spawn altering mod that works in conjunction to Oblivion Lost?

 

[Fez]

If I remember I'll have a look through and see what mods I tried. I know I got fed up at one point with the spawning at that rail yard and so on and tweaked it with mods, but I'll have to check to find out the name or where you can download it.

I know some of the modifications I did myself after reading through other folks mods so I could either combine them or just take the parts I liked. As it is my STALKER is a bit of a mish-mash of all sorts now.

Filefront is always a good start for searching though if you're looking for some.

 

[Wyrmlord]

@Draq
"Luckily FPS games seem largely immune to this trend"
It's true. Sometimes I feel that FPSes have far more complexity and depth than a typical RPG these days. We now have tight limits on number of weapons, enemies who can kill you just as instantly as you them, your sounds attracting attention, blurring of the screen when focusing on a single object (like with reloading in Clear Sky),.etc. And these things are standard features taken for granted, because the FPS audience is receptive to such things, and keeps wanting more of it.

Anyway, I just hope they have more of those creepy moments that they had in STALKER. Walking in a dark corridor when suddenly a soldier with a flashlight on his head turns around the corner and then firing him down before he does the same to you is the kind of stuff that leaves you breathing "Phew".

I also like those Bloodsuckers with vision based on movement. I just stop instantly, and wait for those things to move away. No need to waste ammo and things that don't give any loot. But sometimes while running around they ram into you.

 

[udm]

Apart from inconsistent round damage (two weapons using the same round often do wildly different damage), and maybe a bit underpowered guns I don't see much wrong - it's certainly a lot of fun to fire your boomsticks in STALKER.

Never noticed the different damage done per round, but depending on where I hit, the number of shots I have to make to kill the enemy is usually standard across the board

Underpowered guns - like? The first pistol you pick up? Sure they should make that as powerful as the gauss so that you can kick the military's butt early in the game. However you do have a point there, as some of the enemies like mutant dogs are really overwhelmingly powerful

I also like those Bloodsuckers with vision based on movement. I just stop instantly, and wait for those things to move away. No need to waste ammo and things that don't give any loot. But sometimes while running around they ram into you.

Heh bloodsuckers are awesome. They've made me jump quite a number of times, and their activities and locations are not linearly scripted either, meaning every quickload and replay is highly unpredictable. While FEAR was 20% horror 80% action, STALKER actually manages to surpass FEAR in that aspect by balancing both evenly...

 

[Elwro]

I wonder if there are anti-respawning mods for the (fantastic) Polish version of Stalker.

 

[entertainer]

But that aside, they are introducing some good hardcore elements:
- "Your view focuses on your weapon when reloading, the background becomes blurred."

lol hardcore

 

[fizzelopeguss]

You could have fixed both of those with free mods, Matt.

Or just aim for the head, i had too many guns and tons of ammo on my playthrough. And you can run or sneak past most of the spawners.

But this is matt we're talking about, if there's a member here who needs to wipe his vagina, sit down and stfu... it's him.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

As far as the re-spawning issue goes, I'd have really liked to see a gradual re-spawn. Yes it is natural to not have dead zones and for there to be a constant level of danger, but it isn't natural to go through a zone, kill forty dogs, and then run into forty more dogs when you cross through again the next morning. If they rigged it so that the critter and human populations would level back out over a week or so of game time then I'd take far less issue with it.

What I would have liked is a system where the wild animals respawn, but the soldiers don't. I mean, you can imagine there's loads of rabid dogs around that continually move between the maps, but it's a bit unrealistic to imagine endless waves of human reinforcements flooding into a map once you've cleared it out.

 

[inwoker]

omg, tetris is so unrealistic.