STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl Mod Thread

[Maschtervoz]

I like to think that one day I will manage to install and finish Clear Sky. It really triggers me that it's the only STALKER I've never finished, and my brother kept shilling some mods that supposedly fix it to me. However, every time I think of it, I remember the boring and overlong bandit/merc/whatever genocide sections, the lack of properly spooky shit and the general unfinished feeling the game reeks of and I just can't force myself to go through with it. Doesn't help that the last time I actually tired it, it kept crashing in the Cordon.

 

[General Maxson]

Yes I remember that there was new version, when new Arsenal Overhaul 1.2 for CS come out. Was so good I even finished Clear Sky again.

Pripyat bugfix aka Pripyat Reclamation Project? I'm surprised. I though there's no such thing for CoP because it's already good in vanilia.

Speaking about Clear sky - There's Reborn Doppleganger released. People are praising the mod but translation is slow because people, who translated it before, were disgusted with previous Reborn parts.
Yes, Reborn was "modders gonna modders" full of wacky and stupid stuff, and Doppleganger was fkng brutal difficulty (Misery is piss easy compared to that one) but creator made patch and it's playable.
Reborn - new story and stuff like artifacts. Whenever I see "new artifacts" in mod description - it become my favorite until mod reveal to be complete shite.

Well there are SOME bugs in COP... This fixes them. As far as mods go I'm mostly exploration/atmosphere/survival horror fag. That kind of mods I like the most. Where I explore interesting and creepy locations which possibly contain good loot and fear for my life and having enough supplies to make it back to the "base". I guess Misery and Autumn Aurora should be my choices? And Lost Alpha DC when it's out?

Maschtervoz you should definitely use SRP that I linked in the previous pages, as at least you won't rage quit because of the bugs. I know some people wouldn't like CS, or other Stalker games, but I enjoy them very much!

 

[Maschtervoz]

Thanks for the rec, I'll probably give it a try in one month or so, since right now I'm a bit burnt out in regards to stalking after my recent ShoC playthrough.

You might want to be wary of Autumn Aurora if you have low tolerance for lore breaking outfits on NPCs. I left a sample one page back, if it doesn't trigger you, it's a decent mod to try out.

Misery is too grindy for my tastes, though I heard that the old 1.2 version is supposedly way better and less bullshitty. It has some good features in terms of atmosphere and survival, but the dev went fully autistic about enforcing "RPG-like progression" through gear, that ultimately translates to farming 100 boars and bloodsuckers until you can upgrade your gear to farm 100 mercs, until you can upgrade your gear to farm 100 controllers and so on. I only managed to get about halfway though until getting bored with the routine it encourages.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Yeah, Misery 1.2 is all about cuts (in money income, damage resistance for both sides etc.) I remember that I barely managed to buy suit for Pripyat tunnels. and ended with ~50k while other mods re finished with few times bigger sum.
Similiar mod - PGR (Pripyat Gameplay Rebalanced) cuts in income, every gun found is garbage and else.
Both make pistols useful.

And Clear Sky crash when some update on Win7 is installed (KB2670838). On DX10 mode.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

How do you fix that bug in misery 1.2 where Uncle Yar starts shooting zombies for no reason during that one quest?
As an obsessive completionist that really gets on my nerves.

 

[Baron Dupek]

CthuluIsSpy
Shoot them until they all die?
Or use these fixes. Sry, no drag'n'drop fix this time.
Or you might "borrow" this file from other mod for that mission, then restore old file when you're done.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

CthuluIsSpy
Shoot them until they all die?
Or use these fixes. Sry, no drag'n'drop fix this time.
Or you might "borrow" this file from other mod for that mission, then restore old file when you're done.

More like shoot them til I die.
I will try to implement that fix, thanks.

 

[Silva]

I don't remember Yar getting psycho in that part. In fact, the first time I got there was in Misery 1.2 and I got surprised all those zombies ignored us. I'm playing it again, BTW. I never get tire of replaying Misery 1.2.

Oh, and how is Last Alpha these days ? I remember after the hype subsided the consensus pointed to a half-assed experience with empty maps, lame critters, lamer story, and lamest cutscenes.

Has it got better since then ?

 

[Silva]

The original idea of Stalker seemed awesome. Then the game that followed was lukewarm. Tried my best to get into it with and without mods but never got grabbed by it. Too many gamey aspects and zones that felt too contrived. Not to mention the amount of combat, lack of outside influence into the zone and feeling that it was all too limited. Perhaps I like my Roadside Picknick a bit more monocled. The wierdness and atmosphere of Metro 2033 combined with an open world and reactivity was what I really hoped for but never got. Lost opportunity.

Still, seems loads are even now playing it so it might just be me.

Trash, while agree with your overall sentiment (I too hold Roadside Picnic as the best stalker work, and I too couldn't play the original Stalker so big was my disappointment), there are mods these days that not only polish the original games, but also improve a lot over them. Autumn Aurora for SoC and Misery 1 for CoP are awesome, man. I'm sure there others out there I haven't even tried yet. I recommend giving these a try.

On the other hand, its weird that a mod based on the original Roadside Picnic haven't come around yet. It would be awesome.

 

[skacky]

Lost Alpha hasn't changed much and I'm afraid the Developer's Cut they're working on won't change anything major.

 

[DraQ]

How do you fix that bug in misery 1.2 where Uncle Yar starts shooting zombies for no reason during that one quest?

Uninstall.exe

 

[chestburster]

I like to think that one day I will manage to install and finish Clear Sky. It really triggers me that it's the only STALKER I've never finished, and my brother kept shilling some mods that supposedly fix it to me. However, every time I think of it, I remember the boring and overlong bandit/merc/whatever genocide sections, the lack of properly spooky shit and the general unfinished feeling the game reeks of and I just can't force myself to go through with it. Doesn't help that the last time I actually tired it, it kept crashing in the Cordon.

So you probably didn't go far enough into the game to reach Red Forest? It's a highlight of the whole series.

 

[DraQ]

I like to think that one day I will manage to install and finish Clear Sky. It really triggers me that it's the only STALKER I've never finished, and my brother kept shilling some mods that supposedly fix it to me. However, every time I think of it, I remember the boring and overlong bandit/merc/whatever genocide sections, the lack of properly spooky shit and the general unfinished feeling the game reeks of and I just can't force myself to go through with it. Doesn't help that the last time I actually tired it, it kept crashing in the Cordon.

So you probably didn't go far enough into the game to reach Red Forest? It's a highlight of the whole series.

Certainly in terms of crashing.

But admittedly it's not far behind X18 in terms of atmosphere either (and better than anything other than X18 in the entire series).

 

[Silva]

DraQ is on fire, but I can certainly sympathize with him. The Stalker concept was always better on paper than on practice, and when they managed to realize it more or less well with Call of Pripyat, it was at the cost of atmosphere and world size.

Luckly, we have Dustbowl.

 

[General Maxson]

DraQ is on fire, but I can certainly sympathize with him. The Stalker concept was always better on paper than on practice, and when they managed to realize it more or less well with Call of Pripyat, it was at the cost of atmosphere and world size.

Luckly, we have Dustbowl.

Stalkers would be better if they had more depth, they made a pretty shallow game to what they initially promised...

Dustbowl is this: http://store.steampowered.com/app/367110/

?

Is it any good?

 

[Silva]

Just kidding.

But its good. A light game mixing sim + adventure elements with great atmosphere and writing. Just wait for them to release the "escape from combat" button update, though, as combat gets pretty boring in some moments right now. Oh, and Ive finished it in 8 hours. Just so you know what to expect for lenght.

 

[Jaesun]

I don't even remember the Red Forest. X18 however I remember very fondly.

 

[chestburster]

I don't even remember the Red Forest. X18 however I remember very fondly.

Red forest is outdoor so the atmosphere heavily depends on time of day, weather and random spawns. There is a sidequest in Red Forest to retrieve a tank machinegun which causes the player to become overweight when picking it up, while fifty snorks attack the player. It was annoying and hilarious and scary at the same time, just like walking through a muddy forest in late autumn.

 

[Jaesun]

Hmmm don't remember that. Perhaps I missed that sidequest.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I remember that quest while testing Arsenal Overhaul 1.2, mod was cool enough to finish the game.
Red Forest is also in the SGM above 2.0 but the need to play Cordon AGAIN in the other Stalker is too much...
My favorite map.
The other great map is the Limansk. So many details, nooks and corners. So much work for the rail shooter section...

Time for another impressions from the mods
Testing SGM Lost Souls edition, I think it's the best SGM out there (after SGM + Misery) or from other 2.2's but I spend some time looking for details, that make the mod better. On paper it looks like another SGM with weapon pack. But I played it and it was really cool SGM.

OGSE 0693 beta is really promising and improved from previous version.
Now every suit can be exoskeleton. Exos are more like addon for armors, that can be wear in and wear off via button under the armor slot.
And no more auto turrets

And I've found translation for Reborn: Doppelganger, biggest and best mod for Clear Sky ever created. 63 locations, nonlinear gameplay, enormous amount of new content new story...
It's amazing that R.E.B.O.R.N. started as stereotypical "modders gonna modders" full of wacky shit, textures, effects (like bolts replaced with throwing pendrives,
that turn into dog skeletons after throw, I'm not kidding) into awesome mod.
There's both teleportation (via strangely working teleports, some of them even steal your items, but only once) and time traveling!
You visit same map in different time (Army Warehouses from SHoC and CS? Garbage from CS and SHoc?) And you can get artifacts that can work as teleporters from inventory. Neat.
Once you fight against nazis, then you wander around locations from Metro 2033/LL.
Twist - Metro engine is buffed XRay engine and map conversion was rather easy, just nobody come with the idea of Stalker + Metro.
As you know - lot of recent mods (especially for CoP) change NPCs so they looks like the one from Metro series.
You get lot of money, all that spend on informations (pendrives, papers or PDAs), to get stashes location and passages to other maps.

I found other stuff like reference to Hard to be a God, that feel like Ancients in Might&Magic VI :D
More locations (63!!) than StalkerSoup/NarodnayaSolyanka/PeopleSoup, in far and less bugged mod
If you want to play StalkerSoup/whatever - download Joint Pack 2, stand-alone addon so you don't need to donwload PeopleSoup (fuckton of files and 15GB? Nothx).

 

[chestburster]

The other great map is the Limansk. So many details, nooks and corners. So much work for the rail shooter section...

Yeah I remember getting really excited when they showed Limansk in the trailers (with comparisons to the real scenes they used for reference). And then I reached Limansk in game and found it's a linear corridor restricted by radiation everywhere....So much wasted potential.

 

[skacky]

Call of Chernobyl should be released pretty soon, you'll be able to explore Limansk at your leisure then.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Call of Chernobyl will be released "when it's done". For now - it's for teasing.
For now - I think few mods give you better chance to explore Limansk better than vanilia CS.
Reborn: Doppelganger is one of them.

 

[Invictus]

Hey MM you should do a lets play of Reborn Doppelganger it looks very cool and there are only russian versions of videos

 

[Invictus]

Oh and Call of Pripyat is on sale on gog every time I see it I want to buy extra copies to give away to my idiot console buddies who dream of halo and awesome buttons