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STALKER V1.1 Patch beta leak (+free-play)

suleo

Scholar
Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
473
I liked STALKER but the ridiculous amount of monsters (for my taste) combined with the horrendous respawns killed it for me.

I wouldn't mind giving it another shot if there was a mod that completely removed the monsters (perhaps besides mutated animals---those make more sense than ... mindflayers and insect-like humans) *while* keeping the storyline intact. So far I haven't found such a mod...
 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
I thought STALKER did fairly well in the mutants area actually. The only things that I find really out of place were the zombies, which were neither scary or interesting opponents in themselves. I also didn't like the snorks much. They could be scary as hell (since they're fast), but the design is not very good.

The bloodsuckers are pretty over the top, but still likely my favourite mutants in the game. I really thought they were scary, and I think a lot of it was due to the fact that you can kinda see their eyes sometimes even when they're invisible. A pair of eyes heading fast towards you = scary in my book. They also couldn't be found all over the place which was nice (though I will say they were still featured to much in my book).
I also liked the animals though, and you're right in that they feel like the make more sense. It's also nice that the first animals you meet (blind dogs) can actually be deadly if they manage to surround you

The respawns were the worst at the Garbage though it was partially fixed in a patch, I don't find it nearly as bad now as I did when the game came out.

What bothers me quite a bit in the game, is that even though I find it does a pretty good job of keeping combat lethal and so on, there are still a few places where the game goes Rambo, and you have to fight literally *loads* of opponents. The fights can be fun, but it really detracts from the desolate survivalist feel. The fights where you have companions to fight along side are a lot of fun, but the fights where it's just the Marked One vs a lesser army of soliders/STALKERs/bandits/Monolith/whatever tends to break the believability a bit.
 

Fez

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,954
I'm starting a new game with the STALKER aliVe mod to see how that improves things. It promises more interesting STALKER and faction AI. I've heard good things about this mod, so I'll see what kind of changes it will make. So far I've had one nasty (but fun) surprise with it.
 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
Yeah, I think I said this before but I really like aliVe for providing a sort of "tweaked" version of vanilla STALKER. It almost doesn't feel like you're running a mod, because it just pushes a few things a bit more (as well as add a few things here and there). Most bigger mods just unleash everything, which can be fun for a while, but seems to miss the subtlety which is really important to STALKER in my opinion.
There are still a few things that I think could be pushed a bit further though in aliVe (still like to see a bit more wandering NPCs from different factions), but it's still my fav mod that I've tried.

BTW, just found this interview on A-life with the lead programmer guy. http://aigamedev.com/interviews/stalker-alife

Very interesting if you're interested in "behind the scenes" on A-life.
 

Major_Blackhart

Codexia Lord Sodom
Patron
Joined
Dec 5, 2002
Messages
18,303
Location
Jersey for now
I want to see several new weapons in the next stalker game: a revolver (.357 mag or .44 mag, Russians actually have a cool looking .357 mag revolver already), a Saiga 12K (semi-auto shotgun that uses a clip), a bolt action rifle (maybe a more modernized version of like a mosin nagant or something), and finally an AK that uses 7.62x39mm ammo, and not just the 5.45x39 stuff. I'd also like to see a variant in the submachinegun range, maybe a PP-90M1 or OTS-02 Kiparis. Something like that, just to add to the flavor.
Maybe even some Nato gear to be used for the Merks, not just the LR300, but maybe SOCOM16's (modified M14), M249 Saws (use 5.56 nato rounds, prolly too much tho) and maybe a Nato sniper rifle like the M21 or M40. Don't get me wrong, the LR300 was cool and all, but damn did it get boring quick. Plus, it just wasn't enough variation for me.
 

Fez

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,954
More variation shouldn't be too much to ask now they have everything in place for it. It could help add to the random, non-standard and scavenger nature of it as long as the weapons were sensibly distributed. It's annoying that in vanilla STALKER there are some weapons that are disabled for no reason. Some of which could have added some nice variation to the start of it, like the cheap but useful up and under shotgun that I added back in and found to be very nice to use early on. It'd have been good to see other rookie stalkers use it from time to time too.

So far the STALKER aliVe mod seems quite good. The factions seem able to go out and attack camps, take and hold territory and so on. Better than them sitting in one spot while they wait for the endless bandit and dog respawns. It shows what could be done with the engine and the game.
 

Annonchinil

Scholar
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Messages
844
Alright for my second playthrough I already decided on the Nuclear Snow mod, but what about aliVe and Oblivion Lost, are both of them compatible and how good are the changes that they make? If I can choose one which would you recommend?
 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
I tried out Oblivion Lost rather long ago, and if I remember it correctly it's one of those mods that just seems to want to bring everything on you. Again, if I remember correctly (and I might not) it was way to hard for my subpar FPS tastes, and the blowouts annoyed the fuck out of me after a while.

But you might wanna give it a try if you really wanna change things up. There is also a fairly new mod called the Priboi story which has an all new storyline or something.
 

suleo

Scholar
Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
473
So actually I found a way to deal with my mutant overflow problem. This was in fact a suggestion I read at the official boards.

Instead of removing mutants altogether (mutated wildlife excluded, as said before), which would be painstakingly hard and potentially game-breaking, the idea is to set muties to be *neutral* towards the player instead of the default hostile. This requires a more-or-less trivial change in one of the files. I did a quick playtest last night and this indeed turns monsters non-hostile; however, for some reason it also turned me invisible (i.e. when I started shooting at boars, they were running around me but could not hit me).

But essentially, even with that drawback, the game is much more playable for me now; all I have to do is simply ignore the muties.
 

Ivy Mike

Scholar
Joined
Jun 28, 2005
Messages
495
Location
Ground Zero
Speaking of Stalker mods, are there any mods that gives you the ability to pass time and makes you less noticable during the night? I was on the mission to acquire the military documents last night and it annyoed the fuck out of me that I had to watch the screen for one hour (or more) just to wait for night to come along so I could proceed without getting shot to bits. And when I finally decide try and enter the main building in the cover of the night I find that the AI can still see me even though it's dark and I'm outside their line of sight.

I know Oblivion Lost reduces the AIs ability to spot you during night time, but I'm not keen on the rest of that mod's features.
 

Fez

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,954
The "sleeping bag mod" lets you pass time that way.

There are ones that alter the perception of the enemies, both to your and their benefit. It means that sneaking around and stabbing people is more viable at night and the stalkers don't walk into and through anomalies like they were blind zombies. Ones that alter the sound of items too (like making the knife silent) so that a more reasonable response is produced as far as detection goes. You'll have to have a look yourself for the right mods (I'm still trying them slowly, one at a time and avoiding those "throw everything at you" mods so far), but you are in luck as there seems to be people addressing these complaints already.
 

lefthandblack

Arcane
Joined
May 5, 2006
Messages
1,287
Location
Domestic Terrorist HQ
Due to inspiration from this thread, I started a new STALKER game with mods. I have the same ideas as far as avoiding the mega-mods and have so far combined:

- weather overhaul v101
makes night pitch black, adds nice, spooky fog and more variations of weather

- float32 036a
new shaders that look better and run smoother

- weaponaddonfix
makes more weapons moddable simply by removing some ;'s

-Sanex A-life mod 4.2

- no time limit on quests

- hud and blood 1.3
smaller hud, better blood effects

- repair mod 2.5

I thought about trying the alive mod, but I seem to remember that it changed some things that I didn't really want, so I went with the sanex one instead.
I'm pretty impressed so far. Stalkers, bandits, military and mutants are wandering
all over the place creating some interesting situations. It has broken some quests though,
just sidequests though from what I've seen, so I'm not too concerned.

Here is a good one:
Some stalkers in the newbie camp decided to venture down to the military outpost, they were slaughtered pretty quickly. The military then decided to start patrolling right next to
the newbie camp. I started shooting at the patrol with the pop-gun you start with and then realized that the earlier skirmish with the stalkers had brought out about a dozen
military instead of the three that usually patrol up and down the road. I managed to kill ONE of the miiltary before I was out of ammo. So I did what anyone would do, I screamed like a girl and ran. The military proceeded to slaughter everyone in the newbie camp. I tried to hide in Sidrovich's dugout, closing the door behind me. I waited for a couple of minutes and didn't hear anything, so I opened the door. I was promptly turned
into swiss-cheese by a couple of military who had followed me inside.

RELOAD

This time I tried running down to the broken bridge, they followed me the whole way.
I think I'll refrain from shooting at the miltary until I get some better equipment.
 

Gambler

Augur
Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
767
I wish mods actually added new stuff, rather than fixing blatantly obvious deficiencies of the game. I really don't like the idea of half-baked DIY games where developers don't even try to make a finished product.

The situation is more ridiculous with STALKER, because it was in development for such a long time. I mean, I liked the game. I think it's one of the few games that actually advance the industry somewhere. But what the hell happened with that vision thing?

From the sound of it, Clear Sky isn't going to incorporate a lot of fixes from the mods either.
 

puppyonastik

Augur
Joined
Aug 3, 2004
Messages
175
Location
Northern Illinois
I found the Redux 1.02 mod to be the most intense and rewarding. Unfortunately the mod team got bored/fed up with GSC not releasing the SDK and have temporarily moved on until it's release. This leaves the most current version of the mod compatible with v1.0004, which in my opinion is not a loss at all as most of the fixes for v1.0005 are multilayer only...

Code:
This mod aims to make the game of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. more enjoyable by promoting realism, tactics, and longevity. Accomplished through extensive tweaking of default files, and various items added to the game, Redux is an extensive overhaul of the GSC PC game designed to please both the hardcore, and the casual, gamer.

The largest changes to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. come in combat, where firefights are now frighteningly realistic. Weapons are more powerful, enemies are more tactful, and bullets fly true-to-life. If you're the stealthy type, an array of integrated and attachable silencers that mask your attack from the foe will come in handy, as will the ability to equip them to many more weapons than normal. Armor will be your best friend, but will degrade more and more rapidly as you take fire, and you're no longer limited to the standard array: 9 new pieces of body armor have been added as a means to protect your miserable hide from the onslaught for another minute. Even artifacts will play a larger part in your survival, as you quickly realize your belt only has room for so many enhancements.

Even the economy is against you as you struggle against the Zone itself, with stalkers paying an all-time low for jobs offered, and just as ready to stab you in the back as to pay up. Weapons in the Zone have become little more than pieces of scrap, and traders are quickly getting sick of paying top dollar for old equipment. Enemies, too, have taken to using less ammunition, and you'll be hard-pressed to keep your handful of bullets in your pocket. Your one saving grace is in artifacts, what every stalker is here for. Traders will be glad to pay out many rubles for a high-grade artifact, and it's very much worth your time keeping an eye out for them as you attempt to regain your memory.

In recent years, the area around Chernobyl has gone from unstable to volatile, and anomalies that once agitated stalkers now kill them with deadly randomness. Invisible thanks to a new wave of radiation, traders have taken to stocking special radiation detectors to combat the growing threat.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Redux aims to make the Zone into the place we all wanted it to be, but be careful what you wish for, stalker. You just might get it.

v1.0004 compatable/most up to date version here: http://files.filefront.com/Redux+v102+F ... einfo.html

The Mod's forum here: http://z4.invisionfree.com/STALKERRE

The mod may currently be in a coma, but the team still frequents the forum and answers questions.

Hope this helps. :)
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,241
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
I played STALKER once... quite a while ago. It was.. OK. I still enjoyed it. Now with my new SUPAR COMPUTAR with awesome graphix card I'd like to give it another go.

Where can you find these mods?
 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
A few places I use for my modding needs.

This site has most mods listed I think:
http://stalker.filefront.com/files/Stalker/Mods;3785

The official STALKER forums is a good place to go to check out the latest updates for mods, and gives you an idea which mods are still being updated:
http://www.gsc-game.com/index.php?t=com ... xr&lang=en

And then there is Oblivion Lost, which is a bit like the above forums though a bit less active:
http://board.oblivion-lost.de/forumdisplay.php?f=98

I think I'm gonna try this mod next: http://www.gsc-game.com/index.php?t=com ... xr&lang=en

It's based around the aliVe mod but which adds a bunch of other misc stuff. With all the graphics enhancements it will probably fry my computer, but gonna see how it works out.
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
@Starwars: A-life was such a big commercial lie.
GSC promised that stalkers will travel through areas and the battling factions will actually intelligently battling each other like taking over the territories etc

and in the end it turned out to be a complete lie

stalkers traveling through areas? yes there is a script that will work 1 time each time when you will start a new game and will show you a stalker from the beginning location - travelling through bar. just a stupid 1 time script - nothing more.

each time you enter a zone they just roll some random dice that will determine whether this territory will be controlled by this faction or this faction. you will actually never see the factions taking over the territories.
well there is faction battles but they are so artificial it really pisses me off. like it's the same script for them:
spawn at the point A - move to point B - shoot everything that has enemy tag on it along the way.

yep A-life at it's best.

if only GSC' engine was scriptable enough to have some mod that will implement all these things. but oh well...
 

Fez

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,954
@lefthandblack: Cheers for the tips. It's good to know what mods are worthwhile and what they are like in practice.

@skyway: I got pretty pissed off at seeing the final game as nerfed as it was thanks to publisher interference saying it "wasn't fun" as the open game with AI. Traditional scripts and set pieces like HL and other games are safer, I suppose. On the plus side we actually got a game rather than another DNF as Starwars pointed out.
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
Fez said:
@skyway: I got pretty pissed off at seeing the final game as nerfed as it was thanks to publisher interference saying it "wasn't fun" as the open game with AI. Traditional scripts and set pieces like HL and other games are safer, I suppose. On the plus side we actually got a game rather than another DNF as Starwars pointed out.

well yes - THQ wanted the game as retarded as possible, but GSC said a lot of lies too. I'm remembering this interview of 2004 where GSC's guy was saying that physical engine of stalker lets you move virtually any object in the game, tables, chairs - anything.
and when the game came out 3 years later - there was no physics at all.

also when stalker came out I was browsing through older screenshots and there is a lots of stuff that was cut out. especially many locations. like some houses in the forest and the outskirts of Pripyat (there were some screenshots with the city borders - they looked awesome). actually not only outskirts, but many streets of it. and I wanted to play this game mostly because of that city. thanks to the hype I expected to be getting through the abandoned post-soviet streets expecting dangerous anomalies and also exploring the insides of the buildings.
and then - BANG! I got some boring generic shooter with constantly respawning enemies in the city that consisted of 2-3 small streets with only 2 enterable empty buildings.
it's like during 2004-2007 all that GSC was doing is cutting stuff out
 

Fez

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,954
I think that time period was when they were cutting out all the stuff you saw before and essentially designing a whole new game in a more traditional mold using some of the old assets to keep the boss happy. It would have taken that sort of time to change the direction of it so completely.

There is the "perhaps compromise now and we'll get what we want in the future if STALKER is successful" to consider but then if STALKER in that form is successful what we are likely to get is more STALKER in that form. I don't know if we'll ever see the original vision from them now, only a watered down version. It's an old problem.

The fact that the idea of it has been planted could mean that someone else may do it one day.
 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
As disappointed I was in the game when it came out (and believe me, I was massively disappointed with the cut out stuff), the last thing I'd call STALKER is a "generic shooter". There's really no other game like it that I've played at least. It's also one of *very* few FPS games that I do enjoy playing long after I've finished it.
So yes, I most certainly can understand the disappointment in it, but I really don't feel it's a generic shooter.

It will always be a sad thing though that we will likely never see STALKER how it was meant to be originally. I believe Clear Sky will have *some* of that stuff, but with the short development cycle (if they actually do release it in the first half of 2008). I don't think we'll see any mindblowing changes from Shadow of Chernobyl.
I think I said this before, but what I mostly want is to have Stalkers to have some sort of purpose in the world, instead of them seemingly wandering around randomly. Maybe the faction wars will provide to some degree, and I'd also like to see them going out after artifacts and stashes (which was originally planned I think). Still, I'm keeping my expectations down for Clear Sky, though I will likely enjoy it if it stays in the same vein as the first one.

Even though I was extremely disappointed in the game, the game kept me hooked when I first bought it. At that time, it was pretty much the only PC game I'd actually bought and enjoyed since Vampire: Bloodlines.

EDIT: One thing that still baffles me is the stuff that is pretty much in the game files, completed and all, but just not in the game. I believe weapons was mentioned earlier, and there are also mutants that seems to work (as mod have enabled them again) just fine, but which can't be found in the game though I believe one of the patches enabled some of the minor ones.
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
the best -game- of 07?

*cough*motb*cough*the witcher*cough

I can agree with the best shooter of 07
just because there were no normal shooters at all.
well I didn't play CoD4 yet - so maybe my views will change.

UT3 was... somehow... boring. and too... pussy. also swearing is not necessary of course - but it was an -element- of the previous games...
Crisis is a mediocre shooter with a mediocre design. jungles? goddamn it - I hate jungles - we have them in every 9 of 10 shooters now. I don't care about dx10. I want interesting games.
Gears Of War?
fun in the beginning - but then the same gameplay kills it.

while gameplay ideas of Stalker were a pure disaster - at least it had atmosphere.
 

lefthandblack

Arcane
Joined
May 5, 2006
Messages
1,287
Location
Domestic Terrorist HQ
An update on my mod adventures.

I removed the float32 mod as it was causing my graphics card to overheat, maybe just my particular configuration, but I've had no overheating issues since I removed it.

After a few more hours of playing, the military is now in control of Cordon all the way
to the bandit camp. Everyone in the newbie camp is dead, even Wolf (a questgiver), but this playthrough I'm treating it more like a sandbox game anyway.

Not being able to see at night adds a whole new dimension. I could turn my light on, but if I hope to avoid all the roaming military and bandits I need to either hide until daylight or keep it off most of the time until I get a suit with night-vision. I just finished downloading the ABC sleeping bag mod, so I'll try that.

The enemies still respawn like mad, but with the Sanex mod, more of them roam instead of staying in the same place all the time, The Garbage is still a pain in the ass, but I'm interested in finding out what is going to happen in the Duty areas where more factions are closer together. If it turns out like Cordon has, it's likely to be a warzone.
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
there is a mod that changes only 1 single script file and makes npcs to respawn only 1 time per 48 game hours with their number cut in half
and trust me - it's indeed a good balance which makes for a good roaming through locations with only occasional battles.
 

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