Shadow of Chernobyl discussion

[JRD]

Have something to share about The Zone in this first game of the series?
This is the place to irradiate your thoughts:

[wexer9]

Awesome; this is one of my favourite games of all time. :)

[spearhead_22]

One of my favorites too, but I have never been able to finish it!  :(
First time was coz of the game crashing because of some bug in the Pripyat region and second time I had installed the 1.006 patch and everything was fine...but one day, my Windows crashed!! And unfortunately, the save files were deleted too. Dunno when I am gonna try for a third time.....God knows what's gonna crash this time!  :P

[Art Blade]

lol, don't jinx it!  ;D What you described is basically why I never touched that game. I played Stalker games though, Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat. CS being quite alright and they fixed issues with patches, and CoP was just great.

[Ricamundo]

My copy arrived today. I installed it and patched it to V1.0005, which seems tp be the best of all the patches as far as single player is concerned. I also installed STALKER SOC Complete, which has updated the graphics quite a bit apparently.

Early impressions are good. Im a bit surprised that it seems to use the exact same maps as Clear Sky, so its all eeriily familiar.

I also installed the ABC sleeping bag mod, but i cant get it to w@&k, unfortunately. I was hoping to find a carryweight mod, although if i cant get the sleeping bag to w@&k, any other mods may also not w@&k. Pity, as the sleeping bag and carryweight mods are a great help in CS. :( UNlike the other 2 games, i got no detector to start the game, and i havent seen one for sale yet either, although its early days. ;)

[Art Blade]

I hear you can find artefacts without detectors.

[Ricamundo]

Ah ok, maybe you dont need one, and that makes a bit of sense, as i have 4 of them already. 2 came as payments for small missions completed, and i found 1 inside a crate, and another was just lying there inside a small anomoly, which i grabbed at the cost afterwards of a medkit.

[RedRaven]

As far as can recall a lot of artefacts in SoC are out in the open and easy to see. however its the anomalies you need to beware of as some are lethal and almost impossible to spot.


As for carry weight think I posted a Character Tweaks mod in the download section a while back that takes it to 100kg. But if that is not enough will write up instructions on how to change it later tonight.


While on the topic of mods any requests ? I can do a fair bit but nothing involving texture maps and such at the moment as need to re-learn that side of it.

[Ricamundo]

Hi Red. I had an extended play session today. :-X Overall, lots of fun, but where are the armorers?? So far i know of only 1 trader, that being the old guy in The Cordon. I did install a carryweight mod, but neither it, nor the sleeping bag mod w%&k. ??? I followed the install instructions and changed the "False" to "True" in that litle notepad thingy, and yet still no sleeping back and stiill 50Kg. Could the "Complete Mod" have anything to do with it?

I am finding the map and missions a bit hard to follow, and unfortunately, ive had a few mission fails because i took too many on early on and have gotten bogged down in rather desperate combat with either bandits, or military units. It seems to be that you really can only make money finding and selling artifacts, ans its a bit of a waste of time lugging around any more than 2 or 3 shooters. BTW, is there any way of upgrading guns or armour? I have a couple of nice assault weapons, but one is now pretty much clapped out and neither have scopes, which i miss a lot. So far no sign of a sniper rifle, even tho you see one on the hero's back in the beginning cut scene. :'(

EDIT  I found your combined mod with the 100kg carryweight and that hasnt worked either. Doh!

[RedRaven]

Will be installing SoC later so will be in better position to assist you.


Only Syd is in the Cordon. Next one is 2 areas up.


My first few games were a case of more death through inexperience than any other game have played before or since. Avoid the military to the south AT ALL COSTS (about 8-9 of them I think, all lethal to starting characters).


Will pm you when got it going and help you with mods so you can maximise your gaming fun and minimise frustration and many, many deaths.

[RedRaven]

Oh boy that music takes me back, and I had forgotten how cheeky Syd is. Any way, enough with the reminiscence and on to the task at hand.


@ Ricamundo - Stalker Complete v1.4.4 has its own Sleeping bag integrated into it, looks just like the ABC one too. That could explain why you had problems getting it to w%&k.
It can be downloaded from HERE


As for the Mods folder, that is put there by patch 1.0005 so you can ignore it, all player based mods go in the GAMEDATA folder (which is basically the db files from the disc unpacked into a usable format).


When it comes to Weight allowance, Run speed, Jump height and such all of these are controlled by the values in the 'actor.ltx' file (which is found in gamedata/config/creatures folder). For Weight allowance you also need to change the value in the 'system.ltx' file to match the value in 'actor.ltx' (found in gamedata/config).


Hope this helps you in your game. If you have any other questions and / or requests feel free to ask, I'm more than happy to tinker away and figure things out.


Over the next week I will compose a tutorial on how to tweak your weapon / weapons of choice in a variety of ways such as Self repair, Unlimited ammo, Ignore ballistic physics or even to hit your target with enough force to knock them several meters across the ground in the style of a large calibre sniper rifle (that can be fun as it looks like a round from a battle tank has hit them.


Happy Stalking.




EDIT - As Ricamundo mentioned in an earlier post the maps for SoC and Clear Sky are very similar, the events in Clear sky actually take place before those in SoC, with CoP following on from SoC.

[Ricamundo]

In my game with the Complete mod, the Gamedata folder is inside the Complete mod. There is no Gamedata folder in the main Stalker SoC folder. I found and changed the value for carryweight to 100 in the system ltx folder, but could not find it in the actor ltx folder.

TBH, it wouldnt be a disaster if things remained the way they are now. The nights arent all that dark, and ive just been getting on eith things so far, day or night. The 50 kg limit is a a pain tho. ive been in that wild area next to the base with the bar( names escape me as usual)  Ive had a blast picking up artifacts, and separating lots of nice assault rifles from their owners, but having to discard almost all of them as i also found another Stalker armour suit and ill be damned if im gonna give that up. ;D Ive had to use a ton af ammo killing packs of feral dogs and other narsties too. ::)

I took on a side mish to find a family rifle for some guy i met in the bar, and ive gone over to the exact spot he gave me, but that damn rifle simply isnt there. :D One other minor pet peeve; ive come across all kinds of stashes and metal storage boxes, and even the ones marked on my map are usually empty!

As far as the complete mod is concerned, ive seen no sign of a built in sleeping bag, and even tho i enabled things like selling guns and ammo to NPC's,  i cant in game.  :-\\

[RedRaven]

Curiouser and curiouser, not sure what's going on there but will investigate further. Only thing that I can think of is if you downloaded the exe installer version ? Will try that and see.


As for stash boxes I found that a little frustrating but in order for the box to have contents you have to be 'told' about it, that is when you loot a body sometimes you get info on your PDA about a stash.


One thing I found very handy with this game is that you can have multiple installs, just create a Stalker2 folder and install into that, at one point had the vanilla version, Oblivion Lost, Priboi story, A mix mod one and 2 installs for testing things. Maybe you could try the same ? Its more convenient than an uninstall / reinstall situation.


Will keep you posted on my findings.

[Ricamundo]

Thx Red. If i could get a bit more carryweight that would be enough, but as i said, im enjoying the game as is despite its several small faults. its nice and stable, with very little stutter. Ive had more mission fails than completes, as i find myself getting distracted and wandering around exploring instead of getting to mission locations directly. Im also in no real hurry to follow the main mish, as i belieive you cant continue free play after the game ends, so im kinda winging it ATM. :-\

[RedRaven]

No worries, I did exactly the same on my first few play through's. The main mission / story line is as far as I recall without time limits but many of the smaller side missions have to be done in between 1 - 4 days I think ?


I noticed a nice function on the Stalker Complete menu screen last night - ESC + J gives you freeplay ! Fantastic, not tried it yet though as even though its only spring the weather here in the UK is like summer so I'm getting the most from it before it reverts back to the usual grey skies and frequent rain.


If anything else comes up you want to pick my brain for feel free.

[Ricamundo]

I finally found that "Family Rifle" but i had to watch a YT vid that showed where it was. Damn i was literally a foot from it but didnt see it. ::)

My version of Stalker Complete was not an .exe it was a 7z file from Filefront. AFAIK it simply installs in the main SoC folder, so thats where it is. BTW is the Complete menu you refer to that little exe file that opens a window with a list of options? I looked in there and clicked on a few like selling guns/ammo to NPC's but they dont w@&k. I didnt see anything like a sleeping bag or Freeplay.

I did follow that link to the Complete authors site, but i couldnt get the exe download to start. It sent me to another site with a looong advertisement then ... nowt. Oh well. ::)

An interesting testament to   uhh poor programming maybe? I got a mish to kill some muties in an area next to the one with the Barman( lol never remember the names) anywho i just entered this zone and walked up to a checkpoint guarded by Freedom guys. Ok np, so i was talking with one of them, and we got ambushed by a Duty squad, who threatened me if i said anything after they killed the 3 Freedom men. I guess according to the Programmers, i was supposed to skulk off with my proverbial tail between my legs and go moan about it to the Freedom men at their nearby base. Then i would get a mish to exact revenge, along with a squad of Freedom men on the Duty bastards.

Uhhh, but i actually decided to fight em where they threatened me, as i didnt like their attitude. I also was patient and hid behind some concrete until one by one they showed themselves and after many  deaths and many many medkits i killed them all. When i got that mish from the Freedom leader i assumed there were reenforcements of Duty coming in somewhere else, but we all ran to the area i had already cleared. ::) So i guess the programmers assumed i would be no match for 7 or 8 well equipped Duty guys, even tho i had a Seva suit, and a nice selection of guns and lots of health and patience. ::) So the mish remains unfinished and the Freedom leader keeps saying "Go talk to Max". So no mission complete and no reward fro my heroic efforts. :-D

[fragger]

Good story, Rico :-X Glad to know you don't take any :-()

[Art Blade]

Hehe, cool, Ric  ;D :-X I liked how you didn't like their attitude and took them out right away  ^+-+

Kudos, hehehe :-X

Indeed, silly of the programmers not to include that possibility. :-(

[Ricamundo]

Thx guys. ;D This is a huge and fun game with lots of side missions, sadly, many of which you'll never get to complete because of the arbitrary and unrealistically short time frames you get in which to complete them. :( I mean you get a mish from someone (Sydorovich i think) to find the tail of a Pseudodog(sp?) Wth is that? what does it look like? Where can i find one? No idea. I killed plenty of dogs, those annoying rat thingies, and even several Bloodsuckers, but never found the mute i was tasked to find, so i failed the mish. BTW i did collect several sets of Bloodsucker testicles!!  ^+-+ Sold em all to another Stalker. :-() Art, if i remember, you wrote that you never bothered with SoC as it was reputed to be really buggy, so you only played CS and CoP. I have to say that patched to 1.0005 or whatever its moniker is, this game is very stable, and with the "Complete" massive graphical update, quite eye pleasing as well. I would recommend it, despite the awkward mission programming and the , for me anywauys, inability to get any mods to w%&k.

[Art Blade]

thanks for the recommendation, Ric. Maybe one day..  :)

[Ricamundo]

Well, i finally reached the "end" of my first playthru. After reading some walkthru's, i know the Wish Granter is not the real ending, but one for noobs like me who missed a couple of missions along the way that would have allowed me to reach the Sarcoghagus and see the real ending whatever that is.

Spoiler

Let me say that the final level inside the base has to be one of the most dificult levels ive ever done. I think i died 20 times, wow. About 1/2 way thru the game, i finally realized that my install of Stalker Complete wasnt working properly. :-[ I mean the original graphics patched to 1.0005 and running at the highest settings looked pretty good for a game from 2007. When i figured out how to get the mod to w@&k i realized that my saves wouldnt w@&k, and i was  too far along in the game to start over, so i decided to finish it vanilla style, and put up with the little annoyances of it. Despite the crap carryweight, the lack of a sleeping bag, and the broken side missions, i loved it. What an immersive masterpiece!

Now  ive started another playthru, because ive downloaded the Stalker Complete v1.44 exe that is now working properly. :-X I have a sleeping bag, which is a must, since the mod darkens the nighttime to virtually black. ??? The new crosshair is much easier to see than the one i was stuck with in the older version of Complete, no more than a . to use to aim, ouch! I have my sleeping bag, which no matter what i tried i couldnt get to w@&k in the older version, same with carryweight. Going thru this game with a 50 Kg limit, only 3 vendors in the entire game, and no repair men was a challenge to say the least. One option in Complete is the ability to sell weapons to any NPC with the cash to buy em, just like CoP. :-X

Im still hanging around The Cordon mostly so i can bulk up on ammo, health and get a few reasonable weapons before venturing out of the Cordon/ Garbage areas. The new graphics look great, even tho i had to reduce the resolution so i could read my ammo remaining in the very minimalist HUD.

[Art Blade]

Good to see you're having so much fun with STALKER despite its flaws. I too loved the games, but I won't play that one I still haven't come around to get which you're playing right now. The two sequels however were great :)

By the way.. maybe you'd like to go back to your old topic for nostalgic reasons.. when you were thinking about whether or not to try STALKER and some such.. :)

[RedRaven]

So, you think your tough enough to survive in the Zone yeah?

AIRSOFT STALKER

Wins the award for most realistic Mod ever. Was unable to translate the page but the pictures are good.