STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl Mod Thread

[Taim]

Honestly, I thought True Stalker is terrible, and removes all the dynamic things that made Stalker interesting. It's a mostly linear experience that relies too much on cutscenes and has limited AI. While playing it, I thought "this is what Stalker 2 will be like, just with better graphics" which is not a good feeling to have while playing a Stalker game.

Its very true to SoC that had very limited non-roaming AI tied to certain zones, the ai couldn't roam between ai-life zones or maps like we see with anomaly derivatives. People who hail SoC as holy grail forgets about stuff like this, mostly because of nostalgia. No one also remembers the arcade shooting mechanics.

SoC still allowed for dynamic stuff to play out in the admittedly limited way it presented it.

In True Stalker there's a quest where you go to hunt a bunch of flesh and you quickly realize the entire QUEST is scripted - you literally are wasting bullets by firing them - all of the flesh are programmed to die with our without your input.

Other quests literally spawn you into the line of fire of 4 bandits at once.

I have never played such a polished mod that enforces absolutely 0% player agency at any given point. What a disappointment.

 

[jebsmoker]

If anyone wants to play SoC i recommend autumn aurora, or radiophobia for more modern[and buggy] rendition. Vanilla SoC aged poorly.

vanilla soc is perfectly fine. if you care about it being a more polished experience, then all you need is the Zone Reclamation Project

 

[normie]

If anyone wants to play SoC i recommend autumn aurora, or radiophobia for more modern[and buggy] rendition. Vanilla SoC aged poorly.

vanilla soc is perfectly fine. if you care about it being a more polished experience, then all you need is the Zone Reclamation Project

I wish ZRP had

https://www.amk-team.ru/forum/topic/9669-hud-tch-smena-ruk-pri-smene-kostyuma/

 

[cretin]

In True Stalker there's a quest where you go to hunt a bunch of flesh and you quickly realize the entire QUEST is scripted - you literally are wasting bullets by firing them - all of the flesh are programmed to die with our without your input.

I knew this mod was gay just from looking at it, but I didnt know it was that bad. That's actually appalling

 

[Konjad]

Oblivion Lost aka Shadow of Chernobyl (? The first STALKER) is the only real STALKER you can experience, everything else is a cheap imitation, mods or games.

 

[Ryzer]

Oblivion Lost aka Shadow of Chernobyl (? The first STALKER) is the only real STALKER you can experience, everything else is a cheap imitation, mods or games.

Bullshit, Clear Sky and Call of prypriat are good experiences too.

 

[Twiglard]

When installing AMK 1.4 (ENG) should I first install ZRP or is it an either-or thing?

Thanks.

 

[ferratilis]

It's been such a long time since I played AMK by itself it's hard to remember. But if you play AMK Autumn Edition, there's no need for it, just follow the instructions and you're set.

Or if you're just looking for a way to easily play SoC, Memories of the Zone might be good, it includes AMK ballistics by default (+Russian voices)

 

[ferratilis]

I just finished a vanilla run of Clear Sky and, while my experience is still fresh, have started another playthrough but with ABR mod installed, since it promises to fix a lot of problems with vanilla, namely the faction war. Some early impressions:

-Bandits are now removed from the equation when it comes to faction war, they are the default enemy (no more Garbage robberies). In vanilla, because of them, faction war can never end. Now that's possible, will see as I progress. Good change.
-Just like in CoP ABR, combat is more lethal. You can die in 1 hit, but so can enemy. No more fights against bullet sponges in the early game. This still doesn't fix the absurd accuracy of enemies, so you'll still die a lot.
-No more stupid flash drive quests for technicians, all blueprints are unlocked from the start and all technicians can do upgrades. Upgrades have also been changed so that they make more sense. This doesn't trivialize the game because you're getting less money. Overall a good change.
-Stashes were removed, now they are only given as rewards for quests. Random stuff can still be found in crates, making exploration useful. It felt stupid finding a bunch of empty stashes around the world, so the change is good, now the rewards make more sense.
-Carry weight was decoupled from artifacts, now they only give stamina. Inventory is unlimited, basically, artifacts just make you run longer if you want that. This might be controversial, but having just finished a vanilla run, it's a godsend.
-Because of previous change you might think that you'll become Zone's janitor by collecting every weapon. Not really, because most income comes from artifact hunting, which is what makes sense in the lore.
-You can now sell mutant parts for money, and all mutants drop them. Killing mutants now makes sense. You won't get rich doing this early, but it's income nonetheless. I like it. Mutants are not just a silly obstacle anymore.
-All weapons models were changed, some new ones were added (F2000 with detector scope, yay). Most of them are from a combination of OWR, STCOP, AO, very nice mix and they fit well together.
-NPC models were not changed, thank god. A lot of modders are so autistic that they include HD models which stick out like a sore thumb. This mod changes things more tastefully.
-Less grenade spam from SRP, this is an amazing change after playing vanilla.
-Great optimization, this is something where CoP ABR excelled as well. Sacrifice is that some effects were removed and settings menu is hidden by default (can be enabled if you desire so, but the mod creator doesn't recommend it), but now you can actually get stable 120fps with few stutters.

Overall, I like everything compared to vanilla: combat is more lethal and rewarding, upgrades are now cheaper and make more sense, economy has been tweaked, faction war is not a PITA anymore. The mod has set out to make Clear Sky more of a shooter (which is what it was supposed to be, what with linear objectives and neverending faction war), and it mostly achieved its goals. I'd say this is the way to play CS for people who bounced off vanilla for whatever reason. Give it a chance. Yes, it removes some of the graphical charm, but the gameplay changes more than make up for it.

 

[Gerrard]

-Bandits are now removed from the equation when it comes to faction war, they are the default enemy (no more Garbage robberies). In vanilla, because of them, faction war can never end.

Skill issue. In my last CS game Loners took out the garbage bandits by themselves, I barely made it there in time to qualify for rewards as there were only 3 bandits left alive.

combat is more lethal.

Combat is already the most lethal in CS out of all vanilla games, and you can get deleted without warning by an unlucky headshot even while wearing the exo. It's actually fucking awful because it only means you have to reload the game more often. Why would you want it to become even worse?

 

[Iucounu]

-Bandits are now removed from the equation when it comes to faction war, they are the default enemy (no more Garbage robberies).

So you can't join the best faction? Decline.

In vanilla, because of them, faction war can never end.

Why would you want it to end?

-No more stupid flash drive quests for technicians, all blueprints are unlocked from the start

What's stupid with those quests? Removing good content is decline.

and all technicians can do upgrades.

So you no longer have to go to a specialist technician, while having fun along the way? Decline.

-Stashes were removed, now they are only given as rewards for quests.

So you no longer need to go to stash locations, while having fun along the way? Decline.

It felt stupid finding a bunch of empty stashes around the world

Not at all, the empty tree stumps etc would have existed before NPCs hid loot in them. This gives CS's stashes a time dimension, unlike CoP where most stashes are accessible from the start, like an open buffet.

-Carry weight was decoupled from artifacts, now they only give stamina. Inventory is unlimited, basically, artifacts just make you run longer if you want that. This might be controversial, but having just finished a vanilla run, it's a godsend.

Inventory management is a valuable gameplay mechanic. Removing it is decline.

most income comes from artifact hunting, which is what makes sense in the lore.

I'd say the SoC and CS lore suggests stalkers sell artifacts outside the Zone, to get the best prices. Why sell them at a lower price inside the Zone, just to finance more stalking equipment? Sounds like bad or desperate business practice.

-Less grenade spam from SRP, this is an amazing change after playing vanilla.

Grenade spam is only a problem if you stay too long behind the same cover, of course the enemy will throw grenades at you then. It's your own fault.

 

[ferratilis]

What's stupid with those quests? Removing good content is decline.

Because those quests are the typical Ubisoft-like open world tripe. Find exactly three drives, in each location, that's some modern goyslop type quest. And it's not even like you find them through exploration, it's either from a quest or having to buy stash info, which is randomized btw. Amazing game design right there.

So you no longer have to go to a specialist technician, while having fun along the way? Decline.

If that's your idea of fun, go for it. After playing vanilla once, I wouldn't want to deal with that ever again. But it doesn't surprise me you like shuffling through trash.

So you no longer need to go to stash locations, while having fun along the way? Decline.

So you enjoy trekking across the zone to pick up a few bottles of vodka or some shotgun shells only to trek back to sell them for a few rubles? Nice.

Not at all, the empty tree stumps etc would have existed before NPCs hid loot in them. This gives CS's stashes a time dimension, unlike CoP where most stashes are accessible from the start, like an open buffet.

Yeah, but not all stashes are in tree stumps, are they? CoP did it better because exploration is more rewarding on your first playthrough.

Inventory management is a valuable gameplay mechanic. Removing it is decline.

Maybe on your first playthrough, not after. And it's not like you're managing a variety of interesting items, it's mostly about how much garbage you're willing to carry to the next trader.

I'd say the SoC and CS lore suggests stalkers sell artifacts outside the Zone, to get the best prices. Why sell them at a lower price inside the Zone, just to finance more stalking equipment? Sounds like bad or desperate business practice.

No. Traders like Sidorovich have contacts outside the zone, they're the ones who sell them. You sell them to traders. You need to brush up on your lore.

Grenade spam is only a problem if you stay too long behind the same cover, of course the enemy will throw grenades at you then. It's your own fault.

Yeah, right. Enemies lobbing grenades with pinpoint accuracy the moment they lose sight of you is great game design.

This is why an average Codexer can't be taken seriously. You'll criticize modern open world games for being too formulaic and with dumb mechanics, but any game release before 2010 will get a pass, especially if made in Eastern Europe.

 

[ciox]

Total CS Death.

 

[normie]

CS > CoP

 

[ciox]

Total COP Death.

 

[Iucounu]

What's stupid with those quests? Removing good content is decline.

Because those quests are the typical Ubisoft-like open world tripe. Find exactly three drives, in each location, that's some modern goyslop type quest.

I agree that exactly three per location is silly, but at least it's different drives, unlike CoP's three types of toolboxes. What else is Ubisoft/goysloppy about them?

And it's not even like you find them through exploration, it's either from a quest or having to buy stash info, which is randomized btw.

So what? Finding a seller of stash info is also a kind of exploration. If it's important to find drives by exploring say the ground, the modder could just have added that instead of removing the drives altogether.

So you no longer have to go to a specialist technician, while having fun along the way? Decline.

If that's your idea of fun, go for it.

Yes, roaming the Zone and encounter unexpected situations on the way (thanks to A-Life) is one of the main attractions.

So you no longer need to go to stash locations, while having fun along the way? Decline.

So you enjoy trekking across the zone to pick up a few bottles of vodka or some shotgun shells only to trek back to sell them for a few rubles? Nice.

Yes, the journey is the goal. And sometimes the loot is better than vodka, you never know.

Not at all, the empty tree stumps etc would have existed before NPCs hid loot in them. This gives CS's stashes a time dimension, unlike CoP where most stashes are accessible from the start, like an open buffet.

Yeah, but not all stashes are in tree stumps, are they?

Pipes, wall panels, boxes, they can all be empty.

CoP did it better because exploration is more rewarding on your first playthrough.

In CoP I just walked in a straight line, and quickly found one stash after another with no effort at all. In CS I got a stash icon pointing to an irradiated pool in the Swamps that nearly killed me. Much better!

Inventory management is a valuable gameplay mechanic. Removing it is decline.

Maybe on your first playthrough, not after. And it's not like you're managing a variety of interesting items, it's mostly about how much garbage you're willing to carry to the next trader.

When you're more experienced you learn which loot is worth bringing to a trader, and who pays best for each type of loot, so no need to bring everything you find. When I was too overloaded despite that I used quick travel. Not that you really need that much money anyway, I mostly did it for fun.

How is removing the weight limit helping with carrying garbage? It just lets you carry even more garbage.

I'd say the SoC and CS lore suggests stalkers sell artifacts outside the Zone, to get the best prices. Why sell them at a lower price inside the Zone, just to finance more stalking equipment? Sounds like bad or desperate business practice.

No. Traders like Sidorovich have contacts outside the zone, they're the ones who sell them. You sell them to traders. You need to brush up on your lore.

You're right about Sidorovich, maybe novice Stalkers do sell to him on their way out of the Zone. But I also recall the Mercs in Army Warehouses had their own client outside the Zone (maybe others as well?).

Grenade spam is only a problem if you stay too long behind the same cover, of course the enemy will throw grenades at you then. It's your own fault.

Yeah, right. Enemies lobbing grenades with pinpoint accuracy the moment they lose sight of you is great game design.

I can agree about some late game locations, like the Monolithians at the Limansk construction site. But in most of the game NPCs are not that effective, and they usually make a grenade joke before throwing (then it's time to move quickly).

This is why an average Codexer can't be taken seriously. You'll criticize modern open world games for being too formulaic and with dumb mechanics, but any game release before 2010 will get a pass, especially if made in Eastern Europe.

Stalker can be a little janky, but it's innovative and interesting unlike most modern games. It's not the innovator's fault if other developers make poor copies. Granted, if a modder thinks an originally good idea has been imitated to death, I can understand if he tries to do something different. But this mod sounds more like the modder tries to make CS more like one of those modern formulaic games? I could be wrong, I don't play them.

 

[Iucounu]

most income comes from artifact hunting, which is what makes sense in the lore.

Maybe for low-end artifacts. But if you find a good one that drastically increases your capabilities, why would you rush to sell it? Wouldn't it be better to benefit from it for as long as you stay in the Zone, and not sell until it's time to leave?

 

[Ol' Willy]

Recently did a "knife-start" run of SoC.

The idea is that you start every map without any equipment and use only whatever you could get on the map. So,you start the game as usual, but before transferring to Garbage just drop everything you have in some container. And this before every map.

For my run, I allowed only artifacts to be carried with me constantly - which puts them to a good use. Also, underground levels are considered to be the part of above levels, like Agroprom + tunnels, Dark Valley + X16, and so on.

Cordon is done as usual, I only did stick around before midnight to grab stamina artifacts. Also don't kill any soldiers like I usually do.

At Garbage, don't trigger the shakedown scene - the trio of pseudo-bandits won't turn hostile. In fact, if Yurik is killed, the trio splits and they just wander around the map. I had one of these guys fighting actual bandits at car cemetery.

You should have few stashes marked in your PDA, so makes sense to run around and grab some supplies. I had a stash with yellow jacket in the east of the map (you also can find bandit jacket in the train) and picked gun from some dead guy. Ammo is not really a problem, but I didn't go for 9x18 MP5 because of hardcore radiation.

Agroprom is easy, just wait until soldiers kill all stalkers and move to inner courtyard. Then grab merc armor, plenty of loot in corpses, and then it is a piece of cake.

Dark Valley could be hard as it has no traders and plenty of bandits around. In my run A-life helped me and spawned two bandits and dogs right as I entered it - they killed the Dolg guy and wandered off, so I got myself a nice AN-94 to go. I cleaned the smaller factory first to stock on looted ammo and then went to the Borov HQ, you can also find another merc armor in the armory there.

Wild Territory looks really tough. You have plenty of mercs waiting for you and no ways to actually get anything at all. At first.
Running past snipers is easy, the guy below could be bypassed without problems, and two guys next too. In my run I was very lucky to have the stash in cabin above on eastern side of the map. It has merc armor, AR-15 and ammo. After this, all goes smooth - though scientist didn't make it.

Yantar is piss easy, just dash to Sakharov and buy whatever you need from him. He has orange suit and SA-80, but I didn't need it as zombies dropped AR-15s with 100% quality.

Warehouses - easy too. You don't even have to stick around, but I did. Picked guns from dead Svoboda guys at the entrance, bought ammo, looted Svoboda arsenal - and I was set to go.

Radar is where you really had to work. I dashed past all Monolith guys to the forest, dodged dogs, knifed some zombies (since they're as good as blind) and thus got at least some weapons for myself. Then I go back to the first Monolith sniper, he dies, I pick Dolg armor.

Now I have armor, AR-15 and whopping 25 rounds for it, plus one grenade. I go back to the first Monolith outpost with five guys to kill them and get loot ammo. They already forgot about me and were cracking jokes around the fire. Here I was either lucky or just got good - two went down by grenade, two got headshots and fifth survived for longest, but not for too long. After that just clean the road from Monolith dudes with minimal ammo usage and grab their supplies, slowly but steadily. The map is good and you can aim better for headshots. The guy at the end of the right turn (X-10 from builds) has G-36 which helps.

In Pripyat, I stick around with stalkers to let them kill stuff and die, grab all the loot I can find and then move west. This allows me to bypass more Monolith guys and get decoder with good armor in Hotel. You can get more ammo and weapons in Pripyat but I didn't think it was necessary.

Then, I treat the rest of the game as a single map. ChAES-1 has no reasons for you to stick around, just dash to the entrance either the regular way or speedrunner detour way.

Sarcophagus-1 without armor, isn't it cool? If you did regular way on ChAES-1 you should have at least some weapon, if you did speedrunner one you have nothing but the knife. So shoot or knife the sniper in the first hallway, and make sure you get at least 10-15 rounds for Gauss. Reload if not. Then the mad dash to hidden exoskeleton. If you collected your artifacts right, you should have +20% bullet res on top of exoskeleton native 60% which means that you barely give a fuck about people shooting at you. The rest of the game is tedious, but quite doable, given plenty of 9x39 and 5.56 ammo around.

About artifacts, I carried on me a lot of them.

Five to soak radiation. Usually I equipped all five only to quickly cleanse myself, and only one to offset radiation from another artifacts. Even five -30 rad artifacts are not enough to keep you clean if you go in really hot zones (like aforementioned exoskeleton secret), but, for example, two -30 keep you clean at most of modestly irradiated places.

Five regen ones. Sometimes used if I had to save some medikits or didn't have any.

One good anti-bleeding art to stop the bleeding if I had no bandages. Not really necessary as five good regen artifacts can keep you from bleeding to death.

The combo of three -30 antirad arts and two +600 regen ones can keep you alive if you got red radiation somewhere but have no meds to flush it.

Couple of stamina arts for running around.

Five +30% electroshock res arts, good thing to have but I barely used them. You know the bug they enable, though I didn't use it.

And the very important bullet res artifacts. Necklace is the best, gives +5% res without radiation penalty but good luck finding all five of them. In my run I was limited to 2 necklaces + 2 flowers + 1 -30 rad ones for 16% bullet res. In Pripyat you can get two stars to replace stones and have 20% bullet res.

Good thing about this run is that you really have to use artifacts a lot, juggling them in the needed combos. At this point I really wished for shortcuts to quickly put artifact combos on and off

 

[Ol' Willy]

Replayed the sequence since Pripyat for a good measure.

Five guys in exoskeletons and me, naked but with the knife. I grab the AR-15 from the first dead Monolith guy and all 25 rounds (luckily it had loaded mag in it). Now I am in the game.

Even with such disadvantage I still kill more than half of Monolith guys in the starting alley. Only one death due to sneaky Monolith guy, other than that, I wasn't even hit once. But stalkers didn't survive it.

This time I turn right, the regular route. Game spawns two Dolg guys in exoskeletons, together, we kill two Monolith guys in the kindergarten. One Dolg guy decides to die in the anomaly - because why not? The other goes down to the parking and solo (!) cleans it from Monolith. Then goes up and dies from gauss sniper. The emergent situations in the game are still hilarious.

After a brief firefight in front of the hotel (still naked), I finally go up and grab decoder and Skat armor. I can go straight to stadium and ChAES-1, but in my strategy I have to visit Monolith HQ to get two night stars.

With Skat and artifacts I am at 55% + 16% bullet res, which means that Monolith guys with 5.45 weapons could barely damage me, I can knife them for rofls. I don't clean the place completely, no need for that, just blast those who are in my way and grab two stars near praying Monolith and fuck off. They don't mind by the way.

ChAES-1 is the most annoying if you don't go the speedrunner way. You have two dead soldiers and chance to grab some Vals with ammo, but no armor or anything like that. Run forward past the wall, turn left, then left again and move west away from the most heat. Helicopters are still fucking annoying, they have so many targets yet decide to shoot at the naked guy with a knife. On this map I reloaded 5-6 times, mostly due to helicopters. But the zone was merciful and I got in.

At Sarcophagus-1, the sniper is usually the first enemy. In my run, the game is full of surprises and the first one was exoskeleton guy with a rifle. Good thing that I had Val on me, knifing the guy with G-36 is not really fun. Then I knife the sniper, grab exoskeleton later and that's it. Not really much to talk about, two -30 artifacts keep me clean so I don't have to hurry, and 60% + 15% bullet res allows tanking. Sarcophagus-1 has plenty of 9x39 ammo around, for some reason even on Master difficulty the game spawns up to 20 rounds on every deader.

Sarcophagus-1 and Sarcophagus-2 are very dark maps, AI barely sees you in the dark, and it can't hear you if you crouch and use silenced weapon, so put this to a good use. Darkness, 75% bullet res and short distances allow longer aiming times for more headshots. Usually I don't bother and spray around, but this time I think at least 60% of all my frags were with headshots.

 

[Iucounu]

Recently did a "knife-start" run of SoC.

The idea is that you start every map without any equipment and use only whatever you could get on the map. So,you start the game as usual, but before transferring to Garbage just drop everything you have in some container. And this before every map.

Sounds fun, while have to try this!

I recall you can go all the way to the Bar even without a knife, not sure how much further it would be possible to proceed.

Wild Territory looks really tough. You have plenty of mercs waiting for you and no ways to actually get anything at all. At first.
Running past snipers is easy, the guy below could be bypassed without problems, and two guys next too.

Doesn't the Merc in the corridor see you approaching? Can't remember his position.

 

[Ol' Willy]

I recall you can go all the way to the Bar even without a knife, not sure how much further it would be possible to proceed.

You can speedrun the entire game without weapons, but this run is not for speedrunning. You had to do some quests and kill people, otherwise what's the point?

Doesn't the Merc in the corridor see you approaching? Can't remember his position.

He's guarding the ladder up.

The neat thing is that after seeing you he moves out of the building and starts dancing around the container. At first I tried to knife him but then decided to fuck it and ran further.

Indeed, if he had stayed in one place the run most likely would have ended right there