Mods Discussion

[JRD]

Cheers... will download and try as soon as I get home... my boss won`t let me install or play games at the office, that jerk  :(

[RedRaven]

lol

[Art Blade]

good job. Thanks, Red :-X  :)

[deadman1]

@Red: Did you ever use the repairkit mod? If so do you know if I have to drop everything in my inventory before attemtping to repair something?

[RedRaven]

There are a couple of different repair mods out there, some give you a repair kit, some enable traders to do repairs and some have both. As far as I can remember with the kits you click on it then on what you want to repair, will check mine and confirm.

Which mod are you using ? if it is "Repair kit 1.1" by AUTOLOGIC then you need to drop everything you are carrying even weapons and armour, the equip the item to repair and by clicking on the repair kit it should be fixed. That mod can be found here http://stalker.filefront.com/file/Repair_Kit;98497.

What I often do is use a trader repair mod instead, it costs but it has always worked perfectly. I use that for armour but when it comes to weapons I select a weapon I'm going to use for most if not the entire game and change the line of code that dictates the rate of decline in condition. Each gun has a "condition-shot-dec" value, its always a very small number, the AK74's is 0.0001. this is basically the amount of damage the weapon takes from being used and therefore its chance of jamming. What i do is reverse the value to -0.0001 so in effect every shot 'heals' the gun.  (it's cheating I know but I still do it so I can concentrate on the rest of the game knowing I have at least 1 gun I can always rely on).  Must point out that if it is a gun used by NPC's then they will get the same benefit. Though it doesn't stop them dying any!

[deadman1]

Thanks Red, that´s exactely the one I´m using it looks like I have to do it the hard way  :) )I´m on my way out ftom having turned off the brain scorcher and my armor needs a lot of TLC  ;))

[Art Blade]

my boss won`t let me install or play games at the office, that jerk  :(

hahaha, good one  ;D

[RedRaven]

@deadman, Good luck :-X

[JRD]

Have replaced both Character Tweak and Combined files in the download section. Have tested with Retail & Steam and all ok, the "Ungh" is gone. :-X

Tested... ok now... thanks a lot, mate  :-X

[deadman1]

Just tried the Oblivion lost mod and cheeezus it´s hard  :o even playing on the "nob" setting I get killed once every five minutes.  :D

[RedRaven]

Lol. Oblivion Lost really does push the survival aspect of Stalker.
When I first tried it the lone Zombie in the cordon killed me three times in a row! He just kept on getting back up and slapping me. I did get his hand as a trophy though ;D .

When you eventually get some artefact recipe's its a good idea to save your game, then follow recipe instructions as each recipe has a certain % chance of success or failure. If it fails re-load and re-try. Some nifty new artefacts to be got with the recipe system, shame it never made it into the actual release version of any of the 3 games.

[wexer9]

When I first tried it the lone Zombie in the cordon killed me three times in a row!

Don't be a hero, run! :P

[Art Blade]

Something that might interest you guys

here a vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze8qe-wZQfc

and here the mod STALKER complete 2009 1.4.3 mod

http://artistpavel.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html

Version 1.4.3 (660MB)


If you haven't played 2007 most immersive, atmospheric shooter, or you're back for replay, this mod is for you. The world of STALKER like you've never seen before with graphics 2.0. It significantly updates the game, while preserving the original story and gameplay. The game that took almost 10 years to make is finally finished and complete.

What makes this mod different?
It was designed by professional graphic artists with rich experience in the field, following industry standards for creating interactive 3D environments. It features w@&k by many authors from Stalker community under one art direction, redesigned with new visual qualities and offered as one convenient package to reach user base beyond modding community.

[PZ]

Just so I understand correctly, this mod is for the first Stalker, correct?

The video looks great - have not had the chance to see the original.  How do you think the graphics compare?

[Art Blade]

It is for the first one, yes.

I watched the vids from the guy on youtube and he was totally beside himself with joy. When it started to rain, he was going like, "oh look, the floor looks wet! The gun looks wet! We look wet!" when switching to third person view, which apparently is a novum, too. He was also excited about the gun sounds (which did sound great) and some time he stated he could go on for hours about what was all new, enhanced and better than the original stalker SOC.

I haven't got the game, so I can't compare it myself, only vids on youtube.

[RedRaven]

Downloaded the Stalker Complete about a week before Call of Pripyat came out but as of yet not had chance to check it out, does sound like an impressive w@&k over though, still looking forward to trying it out.

[wexer9]

Downloaded the Stalker Complete about a week before Call of Pripyat came out but as of yet not had chance to check it out, does sound like an impressive w@&k over though, still looking forward to trying it out.

If you have the rig to run it on max. :P

[Art Blade]

true... if you can afford spending a fair amount of money, you'll get a decent rig for today's games. The one I have is from before xmas 2008, costed around 1,200€ and is still capable of running practically everything so far on totally maxed out settings (well, I never use AA and AF).

It's basically an i7@2,67Ghz, 3GB RAM, and nVidia GTX260 combined with a 26" widescreen @ 1920*1200 res, and onboard 5.1 sound card (I use 5.1 speakers). The rest is not important regarding performance. Today, that rig would probably cost 900€ or less.

Oh, the monitor was not included... costed around 400€ maybe two years ago.

[Ricamundo]

Ive finally got SoC set up juuust about perfectly. 8) The Complete mod 1.44 is in and running, and to compliment it, ive added a 500Kg carryweight. Complete comes with a sleeping bag, so no more worries of the darker than dark nights. As i was browsing the mod section @ Stalker Steam forums, i spotted something called the "Sidorovich Mod". One thing ive found with the Complete is that the baddies dont seem to be carrying much if any ammo, so i was really having a problem with not enough ammo, even for my pistol. ::)

The Sidorovich mod, which is compatible with the Complete, makes Sidorovich carry not only lots of ALL types of ammo, but pretty much all of the weaponry, and armour too. 8) 8). Even better, he will give you a much better price for weapons and ammo you sell to him as wel. I chose a modified Freedom suit that has good all round protection and night vision too, as well as a really nice assalt rifle with a built in scope as well as an added silencer. A silenced Kora was my choice for a handgun, but there were several of those as well as some sweet looking shottys, and the MGL grenade launcher which doesnt turn up till mush later in the game. In fact, i dont recognize some of the stuff Sidorovich has now. Nice! :-D

Now im all set to take on more serious confrontations without dying every 10 seconds. :-X

[Art Blade]

sounds really good.. have fun, old warrior  :-D :-X

[RedRaven]

Good to hear it Ricamundo, there are a few 'trader' improvement mods available so its good you got one to drop straight in with the other mods.  In the 'vanilla' game ammo is pretty hard to come by and that all fits in with the setting and such. However the beauty of being able to mod the game is that you can approach it as you choose.
I really enjoyed the challenge of getting through the game as it is, once! When I had done that I started a new game with a few small mods giving me weapons & armour of choice, and improved abilities. That game was all about exploring areas more and finding more hidden goodies, taking my own good time to follow the story.

After that was onto the 'Total Conversion Mods' the main 3 i played are masterpieces. Priboi story, Oblivion Lost and Newsa-Simbion. Each essentially is like a re-mix of SoC, unlike music re-mixes these are actually good! If, when you have finished the game you find yourself craving more they are your answer. (along with Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat, naturally)  ;)

[RedRaven]

Who'd of thunk it! As I begin working on a guide to Oblivion Lost I stumble across a site for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. S.O.C. Oblivion Lost 2010.....


Sadly the download links are not there but should be back in September this year. Basically its a multi-mod pack built around Oblivion Lost with a whole bunch of extra improvements to graphics and sound. For a full list of its contents see HERE.


Will keep my eyes peeled for any more news and will post a download link as soon as they are available.

[JRD]

Cool  8)

Great w@&k keeping this boards up to date, Red  :-X

[RedRaven]

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO CHANGING TRADER FILES

As befits the Survivalist nature of Stalker equipment, be it weapons, ammunition, armour or food can be difficult to find in the Zone. There are 4 ways to obtain equipment.


1 - Trading with the few traders in the Zone and certain NPC's
2 - Looting corpse's for their equipment
3 - Searching Stash points revealed to you, usually from searching a corpse
4 - Finding items in crates and boxes scattered through out the Zone


All 4 methods have their pro's and cons. Trading is often the easiest and safest but can also be very costly, you will get only a fraction of the value of most items you sell and new equipment may well cost more than it is worth. In the case of ammunition this can cause real complications to your exploration. If you are too trigger happy you will most likely find yourself in a hostile location surrounded by enemies with only your knife to defend yourself. Looting is a good way to gather equipment to sell but do not expect to find quality items on every corpse. If you find weapons be sure to unload them before selling them on. In the vanilla game only you can loot bodies yet in Oblivion Lost NPC's will also try to loot them so try and be quick in getting to them before others do.


The stash points revealed from some corpses are often a good way to find rare or useful items but not always. They will always contain the same things and you can only get them when you now it is a stash point and has been marked on the map on your PDA. During the game you may frequently discover boxes and backpacks with nothing in only to later have it revealed as a stash location, then you will be able to retrieve the contents but only ONCE. After that the marker is removed from the map. This has the benefit of providing you with plenty of your own stash points through the Zone.


Hidden items that are not stash points w@&k in a similar manner but you do not need to be told of its location to get the goods from them. These are almost always a 1 use location though there are a couple of exceptions in Oblivion Lost (the blue box near the camp fire in the village at the start of the game is one such place. Every now and then items get placed in there which you can take without consequence).



The easiest way to aquire a specific weapon or suit of armour etc is to modify the trader files. This is reasonably simple to do and does not require starting a new game for the changes to take effect. Here I will explain the process to follow in order to change the trader file so that he stocks exactly what you wish to buy and if needed how to adjust the cost of the items to make them affordable. I will be using the Oblivion Lost version of the game to do this as all the files needed are pre-unpacked from the database files the game uses. I will also make a set of files as usable examples that can be downloaded from the OWG downlaods section.


First locate the trade_trader.LTX file. This is in the games main folder. The file path will look like this -

C:\Program Files (x86)\THQ\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl\gamedata\config\misc

Scroll down until you find the trade_trader.LTX file, copy it and paste it on the desktop, this way you will always have a 'clean' version just in case something goes wrong. The file can be opened and edited in Notepad. When you open it you will see a very long list of all the items in the game. The file is divided into 3 main categories.


1 - trader_generic_buy
2 - supplies_start AND supplies_after_fabric
3 - trader_start_sell AND trader_after_fabric_sell


  The first section of the file covers all the items that the trader will buy from you and how much he will pay.
After each item in the lists is a set of values, for example - ammo_9x18_fmj   =0.4,   0.1 is the first entry under Ammunition in the trader_generic_buy.
When selling these two numbers determine how much Sydrovich will pay for each box of ammo you wish to sell. The formula is straight foward enough, simply add the two values together in the case 0.4 + .01 = 0.5 then divide the number by 2, so 0.5 / 2 = 0.25. This means that he will buy it from you at 25% of the base cost of the item. A box of 9mm ammo costs 60 so he will only give you 15 for it. Some items will not have any numbers after them, instead it will read ; NO TRADE all this means is that he has no interest in buying that item from you.
To boost your funds and get the full base value of an item you want to sell change the values to read ammo_9x18_fmj   = 1,   1. Now he will pay the full 60 for each box.




The second section is split into two parts. 'supplies_start' which covers what is available at the start of the game and 'supplies_after_fabric' which comes into effect as soon as you have completed the 'Rescue Nimble' quest and handed over the flash drive Nimble gave you to give to Syd. As you can see the lists have a few differences from each other and both offer only a small fraction of the equipment available.

As with the first section each item is followed by two values ammo_9x18_fmj   = 5,   1. The first value is the maximum ammount of each item he will have in stock, the second is the % chance of having each of those in stock. In the example above it tells us he will stock 5 boxes of ammo with a 100% of each being in stock. If it was to read ammo_9x18_fmj   = 10,   0.5 then it would mean a maximum of ten boxes with a 50% chance of each being in stock.


The third section follows the same pattern as the second but this deals with how much he will sell each item to you at. Example ammo_9x18_fmj   = 1,   6 The formula is exactly the same as it is when it calculates his purchase value. 1 + 6 = 7, 7 / 2 = 3.5 which means a box of ammo with a base cost of 60 will cost you 210. As you can see it is not cheap. To buy items at their base cost simply change it to read ammo_9x18_fmj      = 1,   1.


It is important to make sure you make the changes in all the correct place in the file. For example - if you wanted to be able to buy a Beretta pistol at the start of the game find where the WEAPONS are listed in 'supplies_start' AND 'trader_start_sell' then add the file name to the bottom of the list. You can find the file name in the weapon section of 'trader_generic_buy' as it lists everything. It should read wpn_beretta   =1,  1 in both supply and sell. Now when you Trade with him you will see his inventory contains a Beretta pistol costing 900 which is the base cost of the weapon. He already sell the correct ammunition for it but at a higher value. To change the cost simply find the ammo_9x19_fmj or ammo_9x19_pbp entry under 'sell' and change both values to 1. And if you feel 100 rounds is not enough change the value under 'supplies' to match how many boxes you want. In this case each box contains 20 rounds.


Changing the cost of items can be done in two ways, you can change the values in the trade_trader file or the way I prefer is to modify the Base value of the item. This is located on a different .LTX file depending on the item in question. For weapons find the 'WEAPONS' folder which is in the same 'CONFIG' folder, the cost value for the weapon is usually around 20 lines down from the top. For the Beretta it will read 900  ;300. You can ignore anything written after the ; as it is never used by the game.


To change the base cost of ammunition find the 'WEAPONS' file at the bottom of the Weapons folder and scroll down until you find the correct ammunition your after and change the cost value there. The Beretta use 9x19mm rounds, the two types available cost 50 for the FMJ and 60 for the PBP. I find that setting the trader sell values at 1,  1 then changing the base cost is much easier than trying to figure out what values to use in the trader sell section as you set the base cost and pay the base cost this way as oppose to inputting fractions to bring down the sell cost.


Armour file are found in the 'OUTFITS' file which is also in the same folder as the trade_trader file.