Lost Alpha Directors Cut 1.4005 was just released.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/lost-alpha/news/stalker-lost-alpha-dc-14005-release
I've recently been on a mod spree for Stalka SHOC after forgetting everything about the second half of the game and must say, it didnt age well. I usually get to the Bar and maybe a little farther to first lab to check if economy or gameplay breaks and I was very disappointed.
Vanilla
I forgot that there is a bloodsucker
and a controller in Streloks hideout tunnels at Agroprom. I remembered wrong that you meet the first controller in a lab and the first bloodsuckers in the village at freedom base. Imo that would preserve discovery and pace much much better. Gameplay peaks in the first fight vs bandits. I think you get the first optics in Streloks hideout? And PSO at Bar, afterwards it all QE pointless trash gameplay. Economy is irrelevant. Artifact hunt is like easter egging for the mentally retarded.
Complete 1.4.4 (played it in ~2009)
Same as vanilla. Prettier (grass draw distance is the single most important gfx setting there is) and comfier, with more guns. NPC throw grenades better and more often. But nothing much changes.
Complete with Gearpack Extreme Addon (dec 2017)
Wants to be hardcore, weightlimit, no minimap. NPC notice you easy at long distances. Hard hitting melee mutants. Gear rebalancing allows the economy to survive up to the Bar, but the drops are still good quality and sell. NPC grenades still as in Complete - not enough.
Autumn Aurora 2 (dec 2017)
Autistic Autizm, piss filter was not enough for these faggots so they made the zone brown from the inside. Great new NPC models in a sea of shit. Gameplay breaks before the first bandits fight: the guy helping you carries a Saiga12 with great grouping and an obscene fire rate. Its an endgame gun... Shit mod - if not for the most aggressive and grenade happy NPC. That kinda makes it playable (just try attacking the army outpust near rook village). I wish other mods would offer such aggro grenadier NPCs.
LURK
Complete trash. Enemies dont see you in bushes roffles. Ugly UI, ugly gfx. Pointless guns with same stats.
OGSE 0693
Playing right now and it looks like the comparatively best pseudo vanilla mod out there. Bunch of new content, some of it ok, a bit good, some shit. But overall just the added scope is interesting. Gear, cars, gfx, quests - all nice additions and options to cater the gameplay stats to your preferences.
Overall backtracking is retarded. Even with planning and cars.
Some content is bad, like the puppet you find that talks, or the haunted house quest. There are 2 controllers at Streloks Hideout which is retarded and completely ruins the virgin moment. I also dont like how controllers announce themselves... They are easy as pie too. Chuck a grenade and they die... Its funny when they try to herd their zombies around themselves if you snipe htem. xD. Psi burers are dumb. I dont know how to even kill them. They dont die from grenades or gun fire. Flamer maybe. There is a chimera before the Bar. Why?
Respawn rate is max 24 hours and when you set it to 24, there is a random chance to rolls over to 0 instead of 25 hours. Cant set it higher either...
There is a stalker guy at the first lab (is he there in vanilla?) which seems retarded. Nothing can kill him...
Gameplay and economy break when you get a PSO at the Bar since you can buy an SVD at 17k in the first rook village... In fact you get optics even earlier and from there on its all QE trash. Since NPC dont throw grenades well, imo worse than Complete even...
Artifacts and anomalies are better than vanilla.
Bunch of guns are pointless if you dont activate the aiming reticule.
Recommendable slightly over Complete with Gearpack despite some atmosphere ruining default settings and unchangeable shit content.
Lost Alpha Directors Cut 1.4004
Just started mucking around and it looks nice but guns drop at normal quality, so the economy is broken already... And I have a bug that the NPCs dont move after I shoot them and look at a slight angle at me when I QE them. Crossing army blockpost is trivial...
1.4005 changelog says that now guns drop damaged and its nice of them to time their release with my binge!