STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl Mod Thread

[cretin]

how to unsuck Clear Sky:

1. Install absolute nature
1a. do NOT install atmosfear or absolute structures. These two represent the absolute worst of crommcruac's work. Atmosfear is great in COP, but it is a much earlier, shitter version in CS and very few people seem to be aware of it because of the meme mandatory install status cromm's mods have garnered in the community. Besides, if you're anything like me, random blowouts and psystorms were amazing the first hundred times you played with them. Another 100 times later and its just an annoying mandatory 3 minute long timeout from actually playing the game.
2. Install STCS Redux https://www.moddb.com/games/stalker-clear-sky/downloads/stcs-263-redux
3. Install HUD mod of your choice. I like clean hud, but maybe you're a fag, so dynamic hud works too.
optional 4. go into gamedata/configs and open defines.ltx , find the hit_probability section, change all the values to 1. Do the same thing in gamedata/configs/creatures/ actor.ltx. This will make the game significantly more challenging as now enemy bullets dont magically have a chance to disappear or do no damage to you.
5. delete the user.cfg in appdata that is packaged with STCS redux. A bunch of mods use these settings to try to "fix" the shadow bugs in CS, but they rarely actual fix the problem and gimp you with reduced graphics settings. Launch the game and set up the graphic options however you like.
6. close the game, go back into the STCS redux archive and go to SRP optionals, and install the User Configuration Patch. This actually fixes the bugs for the most part and your game still gets to look great.
7. enjoy playing a much improved CS.

 

[cretin]

Im trying my hand at some very low level modding for CoC 1.4.22. The goal hopefully, it to have a challenging mod, "hardcore" as much as I hate using that abused term, without any of the nonsensical minutia of MISERY derivative mods like anomaly et al. I also want to make it more "roadside picnic" in atmosphere, as default CoC is a fucking constant war zone. STALKER needs its moments of brooding quiet. I also feel its a bit ridiculous when the zone seems to have the human population of a small island nation. This wont have any of the more fancy features seen in some mods, and thats intentional, both because I'm incompetent and because i feel its just a wankjob distraction from core gameplay. So none of those gay crafting systems or retarded animations that take a million years to do a routine task.

So far Ive already got a good base of mods to work from and now I'm polishing OWR3 slowly. I decided on OWR3 over the other two big gun packs because i just felt they were really bloated and a bit tacky - the quality is hugely inconsistent such as some guns having different animations for different reloads (i.e empty or not empty chamber) and others not having this. "cool" stuff like reflex sights actually end up not being cool at all, because the way they are implemented is really ugly and again inconsistent - they are lit when mounted on some weapons and not lit on others. Also they lack balance. The problem with the gun porn mods is they kind of just make a soup out of progression and weapon choice. The other choice wouldve been the FWR mod which features the original GSC models but reanimation and mirrored, but while it is cool in a nostalgic sense when it comes down to it the models and textures are very ugly.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Overall, I'm kinda wasting time right now on CoC. Just entertaining but ultimately it's nothing special at this point.

 

[cretin]

Overall, I'm kinda wasting time right now on CoC. Just entertaining but ultimately it's nothing special at this point.

do ironman runs and it becomes pretty special IMO. No point in playing it like a conventional story driven FPS.

 

[cretin]

happy balance struck. Merged textures and weather from some different mods. Not quite what i wanted, but it the alternatives werent really feasible for various reasons.

Spoiler

some of the old stalker build style vegetation:

Spoiler

 

[cretin]

this gives me major Stalker (1979) vibes

great, thats the feeling I'm going for. In the current setup theres significant numbers of mutants in the zone but not very many humans. Anomalies are also dynamic (changing positions after blowouts, random at game start), and Ive removed the detector/warning beep, so ....

 

[unfairlight]

happy balance struck. Merged textures and weather from some different mods. Not quite what i wanted, but it the alternatives werent really feasible for various reasons.

Embed your images with a direct link to the image (rmb > copy image location on imgur) and use the image button rather than the media button. Media embeds look like shit. If embedding multiple high resolution pictures, put them into quotes or spoilers to keep the post size not as large.

 

[cretin]

happy balance struck. Merged textures and weather from some different mods. Not quite what i wanted, but it the alternatives werent really feasible for various reasons.

Embed your images with a direct link to the image (rmb > copy image location on imgur) and use the image button rather than the media button. Media embeds look like shit. If embedding multiple high resolution pictures, put them into quotes or spoilers to keep the post size not as large.

thanks, done.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Will you continue to mod further? I am interested in expanding the feel. Currently I feel like the zone has too many people.

 

[Beastro]

The original Shadow of Chernobyl isn’t very polished and yes the sidequests and mechanics are a bit underdeveloped... but the atmosphere, setting and overall mood are still unmatched even in modern shooters
Call of Pripyat is arguably a better experience, with most of the best parts of ShoC and CS with its own ideas make a better game

I found CoPs larger, but fewer maps with more free exploration more of a let down. The SoC's kept you feeling like you were moving deeper into the Zone seeing more of it as you worked through different areas. CoP would have been on the same level had it 2-3 more areas like the ones they had, but the a jump from A to B to C of areas that lacked much variation didn't give you enough sense involvement and delving.

 

[Curratum]

People actually, unironically recommending Solyanka...

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I do wish there were more mods for handguns. Laser sights and scopes for desert eagles anyone?

 

[cretin]

Will you continue to mod further? I am interested in expanding the feel. Currently I feel like the zone has too many people.

yeah im still tweaking away at this and testing. Last I played with the lowest population factor, there were some ~250 registered people in the zone which is still higher than Id like, but thats spread out across most of the 30 something levels presumably, and the living zone mod enables A-life on all locations so there can end up being a lot of migration and thus a lot of chances for them to become bloodsucker food.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Have you considered having the population respawn to a specific level after a period of time?
Like say it drops down to 50 at one point. Can you have random mooks respawn after X number of days? Butnonly a small number like 15 or 20 at a time.

 

[cretin]

Have you considered having the population respawn to a specific level after a period of time?
Like say it drops down to 50 at one point. Can you have random mooks respawn after X number of days? Butnonly a small number like 15 or 20 at a time.

thats a bit beyond my understanding at the moment, and trying to find competent english references on stalker modding is like trying to find a virgin in romania. As it stands, Ive got one guys modification of the desolation mod in the fold, and the respawn timers are set at 4 days (and thats individual timers that start when the npc dies)

right now I'm focusing on trying to increase the difficulty. Also I went all in on nostalgia and changed the weapon pack tentatively. These redone classic models actually look quite good with the new animations:

Spoiler

 

[cretin]

how to unsuck Clear Sky

wauw, I'm actually enjoying clear sky

its underrated IMO. Its strangely developed this reputation as a "bad game" mostly from people who havent even played it. CS's only true sin is that its simply not as good as SoC or CoP, but that doesn't make it a bad game. Well, it was very buggy on release. But so was every stalker title.

 

[Invictus]

how to unsuck Clear Sky

wauw, I'm actually enjoying clear sky

its underrated IMO. Its strangely developed this reputation as a "bad game" mostly from people who havent even played it. CS's only true sin is that its simply not as good as SoC or CoP, but that doesn't make it a bad game. Well, it was very buggy on release. But so was every stalker title.

A so so Stalker game is miles better than 90% of the other shooters out there

 

[Tweed]

Clear Sky is a very good game with very bad bugs. You haven't had the true Clear Sky experience until you've done the final gauntlet before Chernobyl unmodded and unpatched. Whenever I tried to reload my game in the Limansk Hospital it would crash so I had to do it all in one go.

And then there's all those magical homing grenades.

 

[mbv123]

Clear Sky isn't as good because it disregards the atmosphere that SoC had for more epic action and gunplay
Zone is very populated and the Faction Wars make it feel like it's a fucking battlefield with dozens of guys duking it out all of the fucking time.
It just doesn't feel like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at all to me

 

[cretin]

well, just found out there is a russian mod which is already doing the same things i wanted to do except much more competently and completely.

https://ap-pro.ru/forum/134-89949-510#1242714

Guess ill rethink things and change tracks.

I'm really jealous of the visuals theyve achieved.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Too many mods in this game, can't seem to decide which one to pick for my replay lmao.

 

[Edija]

Too many mods in this game, can't seem to decide which one to pick for my replay lmao.

 

[cretin]

Lost world origin looks very interesting....

 

[Baron Dupek]

Hey people, do you remember this funny mod named Misery 2.2?
They released weapon pack for it, called The Armed Zone 2.0, curently in beta so dismantling doesn't work with them.
Contains 700 (!) guns.

This is epitomy of modding - so much work... for what?
What's the point?
This is something for highly populated combat heavy games, even Call of Chernobyl with maxed out NPC+mutant population is not enough for this crap.

edit
there is another surprise? Misery1 is available to download from moddb again. It wasn't there, modders were so up their ass to promote Misery2 they removed it but restored later for some reason?
https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-misery/downloads
check at the bottom, not sure if that's 1.2 patch or something else, it does fix stamina issues that was obnoxious when I played it, basically - little hunger and you can't run, at all.

 

[unfairlight]

Lots of guns but the quality is absolutely inconsistent and the balancing will be off. It's a bit of an overarching issue with weapons mods in many games.