STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl Mod Thread

[chobbes]

Tried out Misery 2.1.1 yesterday and didn't like it. It needs the graphic overhaul of complete, which last I checked, is not compatible with this Misery release. I'm not into installing 10+ mods just to play a game so I went back to Pripyat Complete. From what I've played, the difficulty level only seems easy in Chernobyl Complete, Clear Sky and Pripyat are still too tough to play on Master.

I can't really remember how COP Complete looks like graphically speaking, as it was some time ago.
But I think that Misery's graphics is already very sharp and detailed enough, where's COP Complete aims for a more colourful look.

Misery's shades of black, brown and grey probably reflects its aim of being realistic at the cost of a more colourful Zone.
I still prefer Misery's graphics over other COP mods, even compared with SGM 2.1 which I'm playing right now.

You don't need to install 10 mods to play Misery properly. The base game is good enough.
Of course you can always install Les Miserables and The Armed Zone over it for an even better experience, but it's definitely not required.

Do share with us more about your experiences with Pripyat Complete, is it better than Misery? In what aspects do you think its better?

 

[Echo Mirage]

The Arsenal Overhaul mod has been updated. It now combined with Atmosfear 3 and Absolute Nature 3 as well as Pripyat Reborn.

Pripyat Reborn Core Features:

• Mutant hunting
• Buddy system
• New combat enemy evaluator.
• New danger evaluator.
• New help wounded, item gathering and corpse detection schemes. NPCs will pickup almost any item they see as well as artifacts.
• New agressive kill wounded scheme
• Wounded NPCs surrender
• NPC will eat medkits and bandages when wounded (If they have them.)
• Features popular AI additions from Rulix's mod such as Facer, Grenade Launcher and LIOS.
• NPC eat and drink more often.
• Completely reworked no-weapon zones.
• NPCs sprint to cover during an emission.
• A custom save game functionality that gives the ability to save any value outside of the normal save game which safeguards against save game corruption.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Yeah, I played that AO+PR combo. So far is cool. But economy is unbalanced as hell. Nimble have normal trading window. We die fast and enemies (human and mutants) too. Guns are great, with Shoker and AO it's best pair of gun mods until Gunslinger come, if ever.

And you gain money even faster than SGM allow (excluding bank saving).

 

[hivemind]

Is Lost alpha any good?

 

[Echo Mirage]

Is Lost alpha any good?

No not really. At least I didn't enjoy it. Its the bare bones of a stalker game. The scaffolding is all there but it lacks an kind of meat.
Most of your time is spent running through impressive maps in size, detail and scope. But there is nothing to them. There is very little risk since a lot of the maps are empty and even less reward for exploring. Followed very little reason to so anything but follow the main quest line. Which is now mostly an extended series of FedEx quests. And text message delivery. Run across 2 maps to ask someone something and run all the way back to tell the first guy what the other guy said. And so on.

The only thing Lost alpha is really good for is as a map resource. Many of the maps are superior to vanilla Stalker. If modders were to take a few of them and expand some areas as well as throw in a few weapons packs then it would be well worth playing.

 

[Invictus]

Well that is why the dezowave guys have stated they released the game with the finished maps but not the content they wanted to get into it. But now that they have had at least a year after r release to fix bugs they plan to have a "director's cut" where those beautiful maps have some actual content to them

 

[General Maxson]

So there is hope yet. I was fearing this will be abandoned, for all the STALKER glory it has promised and didn't deliver.

 

[Invictus]

The zone
The zone
It beacons me once more
With promises of redemption
And the embrace of wish fullfiled
Down unto forlorn corners
Filled with things best left untold
From secret Labs and abandoned bunkers
To decayed forests and Dreams untold
Scourging my way into the bunker
To save my brain from beign scorched
Oh Stalker you tease like a foreign lover
And fullfill your promises of soft kisses with deadly radiación filled lead
Nobody does it better
And makes me think of only you
When i daré play something else
Unto the Zone I go again...and hope to always stay

 

[Baron Dupek]

Was doing some wandering through moddb, found this.
http://www.moddb.com/games/neya-7

Good god, they still working on it?

I found some old beta of previous project (CryZone: Sector23 aka ShoC on CryEngine) but I'm affraid of installing it.

 

[Rolk's Drifter]

After clearing the brain scorcher (and another fucking lab filled with Burers -.- ) I'm now in Pripyat and get constantly ambushed by always the same Monolith guys. It gets a bit tiresome and I'm not really in the mood anymore to keep on playing. :< Too much linear shooting galleries.

I hear you. I played this last part just to get at the end, having little joy myself. And the fact the end is so lame only serves to discourage me from trying again.

Stalker really epitomizes that saying "what's important is the path, not the destiny" or something.

The endgame can be horrendously painful if you follow the expected path. It's not however as linear as it may first appear. In Pripyat for example, instead of following Duty down the center and right, you can go left which I find more fun. You could probably even stealth your way through it with a bit of luck. Or if you do follow Duty, then just before the underground car park there is what I believe to be a school house. It has 2 monolith in but there is also some rubble you can jump up which leads onto a roof. It's a pain in the ass to jump but it's definitely a more interesting route if you've never been.

Getting into the sarcophogus can also be a bitch but if you go right and chill out instead of rushing down against the wall it's a much nicer experience. There's even a scripted event which is pretty cool. More importantly though, it's how you get the As Val SNIPER. Yup. It's in the game. And it's beautiful. But even that doesn't compare to knifing helicopters:

Spoiler

Also, just in case anyone wants to finish the teleport level quickly, I found a route that skips almost everything. The first teleport is the one that goes to Sid. Takes around 4 minutes:

Spoiler

Silva I rarely save scum but sometimes it's important when I'm messing around or experimenting so I'd hate for that option to be taken away from me. Having to keep going through the same things over and over just to try something out really kills my experience. It's why I'm not as big a DS fan as I could have been. I get an idea, try it but end up in frustration/boredom. But if I'm playing normally then yeah, I try to ironman as much as possible. And I recommend people try it if they haven't. Stalker is definitely at it's best when things are tense.

Was in the Sawmill, though my rifle (Mosin?) was good for zombies but nope. It was surprisingly innacurate and 2 bullets in the face was not enough sometimes

It's been a long time since I've played Misery 2 but sniper rifles were always kinda shit in my opinion. The power to speed ratio is woefullfy underwhelming. Especially considering how many enemies you often have to face. However there are some really nice rifles in the game. The KSVD (?) is a beast and a lot of fun to use. If you're lucky, you might find a Sig Sniper which is gorgeous. I'd actually recommend spawning one in just to try it out. But for most of the game the best snipers, as usual, are assault rifles unfortunately.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Yeah, I'm playing Assaulter now in Misery 2.1.1 + The Armed Zone and indeed assault rifles are better.
Plus - more revolvers. I really like revolvers and there's bunch of them in TAZ. Loaded with incidentary ammunition they're fine antimutant tools on all distances.

I have no idea how but I managed to buy SP-99 ecosuit in Zaton and gather enough money for another one. Without Les Miserables that decrease prices of tools significantly.

EDIT1
I found my idea for 2nd playthrough for Clear Sky
http://www.moddb.com/members/akabond/blogs/want-it-to-merge-cs-mystery-with-cs-ogsm-look-no-moore
I made what was required here and so far - it's really good.

 

[retamar]

So, just finished Shadows of Chernobyl with Complete 2009, after reading part of this thread seems like people really despise the mod.
I have to admit that enemies IA seemed little bit blind and retarded, I do not really know if this is because the mod itself.

Anyway, any advice in mods for Call of Pripyat?, I rarely play a game more than once. I normally just enhance graphics and install fixpacks, but maybe some tweaks and extra icing on the top wouldnt be a bad idea this time.

 

[Baron Dupek]

So, just finished Shadows of Chernobyl with Complete 2009, after reading part of this thread seems like people really despise the mod.
I have to admit that enemies IA seemed little bit blind and retarded, I do not really know if this is because the mod itself.

Anyway, any advice in mods for Call of Pripyat?, I rarely play a game more than once. I normally just enhance graphics and install fixpacks, but maybe some tweaks and extra icing on the top wouldnt be a bad idea this time.

Yes, AI has flaws because Complete do opposite to cheating AI and make it blind.

CoP don't need any mods, like CS or SHoC.

For your requirements I think this will be good.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/arsenal-overhaul/downloads/arsenal-overhaul-25-with-mso

More guns, better AI (more livealike, not cheating or blind) and AbsoluteNature for look.
I would install it but I almost finished Misery. Almost because last part is such a slug...I'm in the Pripyat in X8, so slow, so much reloading due close contact with PSI enemies...Stalin help me...

 

[Utgard-Loki]

you could wait for gunslinger to come out. which should be soon.
ish.

www.moddb.com/mods/gunslinger-mod

 

[retamar]

So, just finished Shadows of Chernobyl with Complete 2009, after reading part of this thread seems like people really despise the mod.
I have to admit that enemies IA seemed little bit blind and retarded, I do not really know if this is because the mod itself.

Anyway, any advice in mods for Call of Pripyat?, I rarely play a game more than once. I normally just enhance graphics and install fixpacks, but maybe some tweaks and extra icing on the top wouldnt be a bad idea this time.

Yes, AI has flaws because Complete do opposite to cheating AI and make it blind.

CoP don't need any mods, like CS or SHoC.

For your requirements I think this will be good.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/arsenal-overhaul/downloads/arsenal-overhaul-25-with-mso

More guns, better AI (more livealike, not cheating or blind) and AbsoluteNature for look.
I would install it but I almost finished Misery. Almost because last part is such a slug...I'm in the Pripyat in X8, so slow, so much reloading due close contact with PSI enemies...Stalin help me...

So, Arsenal Overhaul+ Absolute packs (nature, structures and scopes) + AtmosFear + Massive Simulation Overhaul. Do you recomend any mod manager for STALKER? I am not that good at messing with mods. Also, how does effect to loading times? Because complete 2009 was a little pain in the ass in this sense.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Finished Misery 2.1.1 + The Armed Zone as an Assaulter.
Oh boy, the last part was short but intense.
The amount of bullshit that appera from time to time is infuriating.
I try two other mods mentioned in this thread and I delete this miserable garbage. Finally, I'm free...

So, Arsenal Overhaul+ Absolute packs (nature, structures and scopes) + AtmosFear + Massive Simulation Overhaul. Do you recomend any mod manager for STALKER? I am not that good at messing with mods. Also, how does effect to loading times? Because complete 2009 was a little pain in the ass in this sense.

There's no such thing like mod manager. All you do is to edit fsgame.ltx and set "gamedata" value from "false" to "true" and then drop "gamedata" directory into game directory. You can't install bunch of mods and enable/disable as you please. Play one mod at once. Want to try other? Delete "gamedata", drop other mod gamedata and that's it.
You need to have advanced modding knowledge to merge mods to working state.

you could wait for gunslinger to come out. which should be soon.
ish.
www.moddb.com/mods/gunslinger-mod

Soon? I though this mod stuck in limbo, heard other modders use it in their own mods.

So far - I'm waiting for Wormwood, which supposed to be "Misery done right" with Zone of Alienation elements (magazines system).

 

[Obama Phone 3]

Tried out Misery 2.1.1 yesterday and didn't like it. It needs the graphic overhaul of complete, which last I checked, is not compatible with this Misery release. I'm not into installing 10+ mods just to play a game so I went back to Pripyat Complete. From what I've played, the difficulty level only seems easy in Chernobyl Complete, Clear Sky and Pripyat are still too tough to play on Master.

I can't really remember how COP Complete looks like graphically speaking, as it was some time ago.
But I think that Misery's graphics is already very sharp and detailed enough, where's COP Complete aims for a more colourful look.

Misery's shades of black, brown and grey probably reflects its aim of being realistic at the cost of a more colourful Zone.
I still prefer Misery's graphics over other COP mods, even compared with SGM 2.1 which I'm playing right now.

You don't need to install 10 mods to play Misery properly. The base game is good enough.
Of course you can always install Les Miserables and The Armed Zone over it for an even better experience, but it's definitely not required.

Do share with us more about your experiences with Pripyat Complete, is it better than Misery? In what aspects do you think its better?

Pripyat Complete is an excellent game, and by far the most polished of all the Stalker Completes. It features random emissions that force you to take cover, realistic appetite cravings, and an excellent soundtrack that reminded me of Nightmare On Elm Street (when in the city of Pripyat itself). These are all the reasons why Pripyat Complete is called the most "atmospheric" of the trilogy. It also seems much longer than Clear Sky Complete, with a greater variety of environments too. This said, if Shadow of Chernobyl Complete was given an overhaul on the X-Ray 1.6 Engine, it would be the best by far. The newest engine provides a very noticeable difference in game play, especially NPC A.I., which tends to be the worst aspect of Shadow of Chernobyl. The ending of Pripyat is the best of the trilogy as well; I will not ruin it for those yet to play it.

If you want the best gaming experience from this series, I would play Shadow of Chernobyl Complete followed by Pripyat Complete, entirely skipping Clear Sky Complete. Clear Sky, which is supposed to be a prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl, had a horrible soundtrack which negated all horror elements, stale environments that lacked variety, and an end boss battle that was literally left unfinished. The short playtime makes Clear Sky an even less of a draw.

From what little I've played of Misery since this post, I still prefer the Complete mod by a long shot. The class selection in Misery isn't exactly a class selection at all; I believe that 90% of everyone that plays Misery chooses the Sniper class. Also, the cut scenes are very amateurish... They're live footage like Wasteland 2, only they detract from the game rather than strengthen the core story. Misery's textures are the same quality as Pripyat vanilla. I recommend Complete to Misery.

 

[Obama Phone 3]

Whatever it is, it's better than Metro.

Yeah, no shit. I've played all games in each series and can say without a doubt that the open world/RPG aspects of Stalker steamrolls every other FPS I've played since the original Quake. Everything else comes off as boring, hand-holding, linear garbage in comparison. Metro features some nice production values, but neither 2033 nor Last Light touch the amount of immersion that SoC and CoP create. The story is better in Metro, but it's not like story is that important in FPS's anyways. IMO, it's the combination of game play mechanics, soundtrack, and varied environments/characters that create stories in this genre. Cut scenes, storyboards, and/or dialogue only play a marginal role in crafting the plot.

 

[Obama Phone 3]

I don't understand how people like one STALKER game but not another. To me they're all basically the same game, just with some different maps and characters.

Clear Sky fucking sucked, don't bullshit yourself.

 

[Obama Phone 3]

Yeah SoC was buggy, unpolished and full of badly written text, but it was by far more atmospheric. CoP is more polished and generally better game but something very important got lost in the process.

Pripyat doesn't pick up until the final act, which is in Pripyat itself. The ending is also the best of the series.

 

[Obama Phone 3]

GSC better get their shit together soon.

Right now all we have is STALKER: Apocalypse which will never be developed due to it being crowdfunded through such an obscure platform, in addition to being blatantly ripped off from GSC themselves: https://wfunder.com/project/185#basics

$16,336 pledged out of a requested $600,000... LOL

God, that launch trailer sucks!

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

What are some good mods for Clear Sky?
Is Complete still beginner tier?

 

[Baron Dupek]

What are some good mods for Clear Sky?
Is Complete still beginner tier?

No.
Complete is never good choice for first playthrough. Use Sky Reclamation Project instead.

Well, there's not much other choices. Some mods with new campaing that have artifical difficulty (Reborn or Zmeelov). Only good one is OGSM 1.8 CM + Mystery combo, then Shoker Mod. Not much choice for now...

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I already played Clear Sky vanilla.
It wasn't great, so I am looking for a decent mod.
Apparently OGSM makes the enemy less bulletproof.

 

[Silva]

No.
Complete is never good choice for first playthrough.

Complete is never good choice for any playthrough.