STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl Mod Thread

[Sodafish]

I find the best way to do that bit is just to snipe the majority/all of them from the overhead pipes on the bridge.

 

[DraQ]

Haven't played Misery long enough, but I could never ghost back out in vanilla.

 

[MasPingon]

Level some actual criticism at STALKER's stealth system rather than vague "waaah! borked!" or GTFO.

You are so edgy I'm surprised you didn't cut yourself and bled to death yet. Funny thing, that's exactly how you express your opinion about stealth in Stalker. As I'm not a big fan of level scalling I will tell you why stealth in Stalker series is broken

- opponents field of view is way to wide, some stalkers have 90 degree fov, others 180. I got a feeling there are even opponents with 270. It makes the game way to random, when some of enemies are completely blind while others are like a fucking radars.
- opponents range of view is unreasonably far. More so, there is no difference between day and night, sunny or cloudy day
- opponents have superhuman ears, they turn hostile when they hear you even tho they can't see you, so they can't have a clue what was the source of a noise
- Stalker engine has some awful limitations. Throwing bolts doesn't make a noise, so you cant mislead your enemies by throwing them at other direction
- Opponents respawn in different places while quickloading, their favourite spots are behind your back

Deal with it

 

[DraQ]

- opponents field of view is way to wide, some stalkers have 90 degree fov, others 180. I got a feeling there are even opponents with 270. It makes the game way to random, when some of enemies are completely blind while others are like a fucking radars.

180 degrees is pretty much human peripheral vision, 90 degrees is angle in which you can more or less see what you're looking at.

In any case you should be wary of approaching anyone from within their forward view hemisphere, or, as rule of thumb from wherever you can see that they have eyes.

I haven't made careful measurements of enemy FoVs, but I would assume that 90 is zone of awareness of derpy bandits, with faces hidden inside their derpy hoodies and no actual training, while veteran stalkers and military keep attention and generally notice stuff within up to 180 degree hemisphere. Am I correct?
If not, list exceptions.

I'm dismissing claims of 270 degree FoVs unless presented with actual examples.

- opponents range of view is unreasonably far. More so, there is no difference between day and night, sunny or cloudy day

Why should opponents's range of view be shorter than player's?

I haven't made detailed tests, but the enemies seem to have trouble spotting you at night from far away, unless you do something dumb, like shining your flashlight or firing unsuppressed firearm with brilliant, clearly visible muzzle flash.

I can attest, however, that the enemies certainly aren't constantly aware of your actual location and can have their line of sight broken by even partial concealment, which makes stealth pretty fun.

- opponents have superhuman ears, they turn hostile when they hear you even tho they can't see you, so they can't have a clue what was the source of a noise

Presumably not just a homeless guy.

Again no reason to make AI impaired compared to the player, if anything the AI should have an edge because the player is and will always be smarter.

AI will generally hear you firing even a suppressed weapon from pretty far away - it's not unrealistic. AI will have trouble pinpointing your location in this situation as long as conditions are right. If you don't want to be detected, try to avoid using weapon unless necessary. That's already better stealth than in most dedicated stealth games so far.

- Stalker engine has some awful limitations. Throwing bolts doesn't make a noise, so you cant mislead your enemies by throwing them at other direction

Haven't actually tested that.

- Opponents respawn in different places while quickloading, their favourite spots are behind your back

In SoC? I don't think so. There is AI reset bug on reload I've already addressed - get ZRP - but respawn has been toned down in patches and I have never had anyone spawn behind me after reload in SoC.

 

[Silva]

Well, I just infiltrated in the mercs plant to rob the notebook, in a totally stealth manner. The problem is that the runaway is scripted to make everybody alert when you touch the damn notebook.

I say its possible to ghost characters, but its really inconsistent. Sometimes you manage to do it, and sometimes the characters see you through their asses. Yeah, I think its an aspect that could be improved a bit.

One thing I noticed is that if you keep your flashlight off, and go in the dark, its easier to get past people.

 

[opium fiend]

Well, I finished the quest again and stealth was all over the place. I can't even figure it out if they have night vision or not. Sometimes they see me across the yard, sometimes they walk right by me or even bump at me and move on. While they don't have eyes at the back of their heads, the fov can be wider than 180, most def. Silencers don't work as they do in movies, which is good, I suppose, for the reality junkies. I hate it how they sometimes zone on me upon reloading and sometimes not.

So I was no Garret, but I dropped one guarding the back door, than offed his colleague who alerted the whole damn camp. It was nice to see how they searched the area the gunshot came from and left some doors open. Then the emission came, during which I managed to snatch the laptop and hide in the pipes below. Pretty fun, all in all.

 

[Sodafish]

I think there's no question that the stealth is fairly borked in the Stalker series. Having said that I think to some degree the frustration with the stealth portions of the game stems from the greater realism re: sound travel that the game employs compared with the vast majority of titles; these range from the merely unrealistic (e.g. splinter cell/thief) to the plainly absurd (FO3 or NV). Remaining undetected amongst a group of people at close quarters whilst just moving around (let alone killing) would be incredibly difficult in reality due to making sounds.

I think far more problematic is the visual awareness of the NPCs, as many have said. Apart from the seemingly random visual arcs, there doesn't seem to be any distinction in the low-light awareness of those NPCs wearing NVGs and those which don't. This in particular was something that Metro did much better I thought.

 

[opium fiend]

What is Metro?

 

[Zewp]

Metro 2033. A Russian FPS that focuses on a destroyed Russia with all the civilians living underground in the metro tunnels, as the overworld is inhospitable.

 

[opium fiend]

Looks cool, I'll check it out.

 

[Zewp]

It's a pretty good game for a linear FPS, with pretty amazing graphics, but just be sure to google the FoV fix as the native FoV is only 45.

 

[Multidirectional]

google the FoV fix as the native FoV is only 45.

And don't forget it's vertical FOV, not horizontal, because people tend to do something crazy, like set it to 90.

 

[DraQ]

I think there's no question that the stealth is fairly borked in the Stalker series. Having said that I think to some degree the frustration with the stealth portions of the game stems from the greater realism re: sound travel that the game employs compared with the vast majority of titles; these range from the merely unrealistic (e.g. splinter cell/thief) to the plainly absurd (FO3 or NV). Remaining undetected amongst a group of people at close quarters whilst just moving around (let alone killing) would be incredibly difficult in reality due to making sounds.

I think far more problematic is the visual awareness of the NPCs, as many have said. Apart from the seemingly random visual arcs, there doesn't seem to be any distinction in the low-light awareness of those NPCs wearing NVGs and those which don't. This in particular was something that Metro did much better I thought.

Highlighted the important part.

And I've never seen any example of blatantly unrealistic visual perception in STALKER (apart from everyone seeing everything several frames after reload in SoC, but again, ZRP).

 

[Fatty]

So I decided to add some FPS to my life. Started with Half-Life 2 because I got it free at some point during some Steam thing. What a chore that was. Did people like that game in general? Couldn't be bothered to read reviews. It was a forced march to finish it just so I could erase it and never worry about it being on my HD again.

Started Stalker SoC last night with no mods. Man now we're talking. Right out of the gate I got half eaten by some dog thing then basically instakilled by a guy with a sawed off shotgun. My FPS skills are terribad but after bulldozing thru HL2 I was used to just going in guns blazing wherever. It was hilarious, I just sat there like for 5 solid seconds. "WAT? Bullets work when they're pointed at me? Does not compute"

Started a new guy. Got killed by the shotgun again but at least this time I went around to the side of the compound to get killed. Sorta stealthy-like. This time I was smart to save right before the assault so I tried again and let the rest of the guys do most of the work. Got a couple kills and sort of got the hang of things. Headshots FTW, for sure. Then I promptly walked into some...thing...and blew up or something. I guess you avoid the reality bending popping air stuff.

Forgot to save after I won so I did the compound again, this time Rambo-style and actually cleared it solo! I was left with...an actual sense of accomplishment. Odd feeling.

So far so good. This game is really fun. Nice to be off the goddamn railroad that was HL2, and to actually get killed for being stupid. Looks like Fallout-style bartering is in too .

 

[RedScum]

Then I promptly walked into some...thing...and blew up or something. I guess you avoid the reality bending popping air stuff.

That would be an anomaly. Horrible creatures, i avoid them whenever i can.

 

[Surf Solar]

They posted some new update on the Misery moddb page:

I am not sure if I like that to be honest.

 

[Tagaziel]

Then I promptly walked into some...thing...and blew up or something. I guess you avoid the reality bending popping air stuff.

Or you can read the novel the entire franchise is based on: Roadside Picnic.

 

[Darklife]

Curse you people for making me want to play STALKER for the millionth time. And to think that we should have been playing a new one this year.

 

[Zewp]

Curse you people for making me want to play STALKER for the millionth time. And to think that we should have been playing a new one this year.

Considering that there were talks of Bethesda buying the IP, I think it might be a blessing we're not getting a new one.

 

[Darklife]

At least something would happen with the series. As of now it appears that GSC's founder shut down the project to sell books from the game universe. o_O

 

[Sodafish]

Curse you people for making me want to play STALKER for the millionth time. And to think that we should have been playing a new one this year.

Considering that there were talks of Bethesda buying the IP, I think it might be a blessing we're not getting a new one.

Oh deity, no

 

[Jaesun]

And to think that we should have been playing a new one this year.

No one will miss that console abomination they were working on.

Good riddance.

 

[Darklife]

From what I remember the Xbox version was just a possibility, the lack of which ultimately made Grigorovich abandon the project.

The videos and concept art looked pretty damn solid.

 

[DraQ]

I fucking love STALKER engine, the first one was fast, efficient, malleable to system specs, and looked great.
Second one pretty much likewise plus god rays and awesome rain.

Excellent lighting system, good, not forced special effects.

Then I promptly walked into some...thing...and blew up or something. I guess you avoid the reality bending popping air stuff.

Or you can read the novel the entire franchise is based on: Roadside Picnic.

This.

Background and everything are different, but the themes of cordoned zone where law of physics durp up in places and mureder you horribly, as well as people sneaking in and out to scavenge mysterious stuff are common to both S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and its literary inspiration.

 

[Gord]

Is there a decent animation replacer for the Stalker series?
Usually I don't care about that sort of stuff, but something about the animations in the Stalker games feels very wierd.
It's the one thing about the graphics in the games that I find a bit lacking.