Help for a newbie STALKER

[db1331]

I got the STALKER bundle a few months back and am just now starting to get into SoC. I'm loving it so far. I'm playing with the Complete 2009 mod, which seemed like a unanimous must-have. What about the LURK mod though? And the LURK Weapons and Weather mods? Are they must-haves as well? Any worry about the weapon mod breaking the balance of the game? Also, is there anything you know now that you wish someone had told you when you were starting out? For instance, I just read this morning that you have an infinite amount of markers you can throw down to help spot anomalies. That would have been good to know...

Lastly, how feasible is it to play the game like a stealth shooter-crouching through a bandit camp and picking people off undetected with a silenced pistol, that sort of thing? I had a little bit of success with it early on. I saw on the LURK page that it touts "Stealth AI." Is LURK essential if you want to be a sneaky little stalker? Thanks!

[kataras]

I think you should play vanilla before going on to mods like LURK that change things. Even Complete deviates from vanilla (has some cheats incorporated) but as far as I remember not too much. There are mods like the Absolute textures mods that don't change the gameplay but I think those are incorporated into Complete.

I guess what you need to know is that you can unload ammo from the guns you pick up ( I didn't realise it first time I played), ctrl+shift makes you crouch even more, don't shoot everyone on sight and if you shoot, shoot for the head. Also, always carry a shotgun.

Stealth is broken in vanilla and I never tried LURK but I would be surprised if that doesn't just reduce the vision of the enemies. Try to sneak through any camp and it's an exercise in frustration.

Don't worry so much about mods now, play it, explore as much as possible and when you re done with the vanilla, you can start looking at the many mods.

[GunnerMcCaffrey]

I don't know anything about LURK, but it's just about impossible to play stealth in either the vanilla or Complete versions. Practically speaking, silenced pistols in SoC aren't actually silenced.

The only bit of advice I'd give is that ammo types really do make a difference. So don't go wasting, for instance, armor-piercing rounds when normal jackets will suffice.

[db1331]

you can unload ammo from the guns you pick up

That's GREAT to know, thanks. Also, too right about the shotgun. That puppy has saved my butt on more than one occasion.

I haven't found any special ammo yet (only a couple hours in) but I'll keep that in mind. So if stealth is basically impossible, is there ever any real reason to do any travel/scavenging at night, or should I just be sleeping 'til morning?

[GunnerMcCaffrey]

Ambiance. Preference. Your own personal story. Weather effects in Complete. A couple of my most thrilling moments in the game happened at night.

Visibility does play a role at night, just not enough to support a full stealth run.

[L_No]

Like Kataras said, stealth is quite difficult to pull off. If possible, I'd always carry some anti radiation medication around, it's really useful, especially in the beginning.

[GunnerMcCaffrey]

Oh and later in the game you'll get access to suits that have night vision, but the game won't tell you this is an option. I don't remember how to activate it, but look online for what suits they are and how to turn it on.

[db1331]

Oh and later in the game you'll get access to suits that have night vision, but the game won't tell you this is an option. I don't remember how to activate it, but look online for what suits they are and how to turn it on.

I was just looking into this. I accepted a task to ambush a bandit patrol shortly after entering the Garbage. Bad news is, it's the dead of night, and I keep failing the task because I can't see a damn thing except the occasional muzzle flash.

I think I'm just going to start over and use my newly gained knowledge to do things right from the start. I probably should have explored more and geared up better before entering the next area anyhow.

[Fumarole]

Don't carry too many weapons, find a rifle you like and perhaps another that uses ammo found abundantly in the area you're in and you're good. Eat all the food you find when you find it, there's no reason to carry around a bunch, perhaps a few sausages for emergency purposes only.

[DaftPunk]

Complete mod lowered game difficulty.

[Xari]

It's not a good idea to play with Complete, unless you intend to play only through it once and really can't deal with the difficulty of the AI, since it makes the game a great deal easier. ZRP is a mod dedicated to fixing all bugs, you should get that and play vanilla first, then move on to more challenging overhaul mods such as LURK and AMK 1.4 (my favorite).

[GunnerMcCaffrey]

Don't carry too many weapons, find a rifle you like and perhaps another that uses ammo found abundantly in the area you're in and you're good.

This. From midgame on, depending on your play style, you might find that the ammo for your favourite rifle isn't a common drop, and not easy to buy. Since I always liked to carry a shotty (for dogs and bloodsuckers) and a pistol (to take out bandits without wasting the good ammo), I tended to always leave enough extra carrying capacity when out on missions to grab a rifle off a corpse and use ammo I find, if I didn't absolutely need to use my preferred weapon. The best gun is the one that has a clip in it.

Keep an eye out for weapon attachments and pay attention to what attachments are compatible with what makes of rifle. A middling gun with a scope, grenade launcher and more easily-scrounged piercing rounds is sometimes a better friend than a high-end assault rifle for which you only have two spare clips.

When fighting soldiers, get real good at headshots. Even the entry-level grenades don't have much stopping power against their armour.

Don't underestimate the rate of fire stat.

You can store stuff in the blue box in the bar. Basically if something is called a box, you can keep stuff there. If it's called a stash or something else, your stuff could disappear (because it isn't populated with items until you find a PDA identifying it as a cache - weird, but that's how it's done.) There's probably a list online of where is and isn't safe to use for storage.

[db1331]

What about just jumping straight into Call of Pripyat? I've seen some people posit that it's the best game for newbies, and really doesn't need any modding.

[Internet]

What about just jumping straight into Call of Pripyat? I've seen some people posit that it's the best game for newbies, and really doesn't need any modding.

CoP was the only one I've played yet, and it was great. Download the texture packs when you play it though.

[kataras]

What about just jumping straight into Call of Pripyat? I've seen some people posit that it's the best game for newbies, and really doesn't need any modding.

I think you would miss out. Soc and Clear Sky are good games in their own right, plus I think their stories, if not the execution, are better. I think it's worth playing through them in order, unless you really cannot be bothered...

As for restarting, don't worry so much. Unless you know a certain spoiler, you will not get much better equipment before moving to Garbage. If I m not mistaken with Complete you can sleep (use the sleeping bag in your inventory or buy one) so if you re having trouble at night, just sleep and do the mission during the day.

Also one more tip: explore and break open all boxes/containers etc. You might come across something very useful.

[Voon]

I advice you to get the Zone Reclaimation Project mod if you're really want to get in vanilla STALKER but Complete is okay, I guess. It's makes the game look prettier at least. And whatever you do, travel fast, travel light, find staches and stash your junk in it if you're carrying too much stuff. Sell them for ammo if you can. You can skip to Wild Territory rather than going through the Dark Valley missions for more betterer weapons first but since you're playing Complete, you can just walk into Dark Valley nonetheless iirc.

LURK is shit.

[Lukasz]

how does complete make SoC easier?

[Voon]

I don't really know, but most "hardcore" stalkers complained about it making weapons less crappy when people shoot, weapon repairs, etc.

[kataras]

I don't really know, but most "hardcore" stalkers complained about it making weapons less crappy when people shoot, weapon repairs, etc.

I don't remember about ballistics but I guess they were complaining about stuff like this:

• Sleeping Bag - It’s always in the inventory and allows the player sleep in-game.
• Faction Change and Reset - Now players have the ability to reset hostile status and join factions outside of the storyline.
• Repair Kit - A special item to the game that allows you to repair weapons and armors out in the Zone. The only way to get this rare item is to loot it from a NPC’s corpse.
• Repair Services - The bar trader and Screw now sell weapons and armor repair services.
• Elite Nightvision - Black & white night vision based on the psy_antenna postprocess effect. This one really makes you see in the dark.
• ZRP Teleport

Also has some AI tweaks but they don't look like they make it easier.

For me the thing is that it has incorporated some of the ZRP cheats, like the teleport above, so it's very tempting to use them on your 1st playthrough. There is nothing like dragging your over-loaded body across maps to get to the trader and being attacked by dogs/boars or worse...

[Voon]

Even with those, it doesn't really make the game "easier" rather than just more convienient. Heck, even the repairs option was implemented in CoP and nobody really complained about that. And... there was a teleporter? I don't even know there was a teleporter either.