First Impressions

[deadman1]

I'll do that. :-X I got a confirmation email from amazon, and in it they had a link to STALKER Clear Skies, the newest game of the series. If i like COP i may grab CS as well. 8)

Eeehm I think it´s actually the other way around, COP is the latest game in the series. Clear skies are still a very good game with, if I recall correctly, none of the bugs of the original.

[Art Blade]

Deadman is right, clear skies was before  call of pripyat. the first was shadows of chernobyl.

[Ricamundo]

Ah ok, that would explain why CS was advertised a few $ less than COP. :)

[fragger]

Have fun with CoP, Rica :)

Don't forget to keep your head down when those emissions hit, and remember your knife - it's very effective in this game!

[Art Blade]

there is a way to survive emissions: Use those pills you'll find eventually, if I'm not mistaken, taking those and staying outside during an emission for say 3 or 5 times (something like that) will present you with an acquired immunity to emissions after that.

It means that those pills will let you survive it as long as you're not immune, and after a few times there is an achievement which lets you survive without having to take pills ever again.  :)

[Ricamundo]

OK, I got the game in the post today. :-X Installed, and fired it up, and watched the longish preamble about the explosion and the missing choppers. So im on the ground and i wandered onto this volcanic like hill with flumes of something nasty emitting from various cracks in the ground. I kept checking my PDA as to try to orient myself to exactly where im supposed to go, and started off towards another area circles on the map.

There was an alarm warning of an impending emission, so i sought shelter on an old ship that was actually some kind of base of operations, i guess.

I was ordered to holster my weapon, but i dont know how, and i see no mention of it in the controls list. Is there a way to do this?

I was wandering around talking to various rather threatening looking men, when i was told to go talk to Sultan ( i think that was his name) He invited me to tag along on an attack on Beard's Stalkers, so i said lets do this. ( I have no idea what im doing at this point, if you havent noticed) We ran onto another abandoned ship in the dead of night, but my fellow attackers were ambushed by othewr stalkers who didnt seem to mind my joining the attackers, although i never fired a shot. :-[

Its still dark, and i have no idea what im supposed to do or where im supposed to go at this point. BTW is there a way of passing the time quickly by "Waiting" as in FO? I quicksaved and decided to quit and post this, so i can get a clue as to my next move. ????  One other question. Is ther any way of telling on my HUD if a figure off in the distance is good or evil?

[Art Blade]

holster your weapon by using the very same button you drew it with, i.e. push X to draw a pistol, hit X again to holster it.

Check your map (HUD)
red dots = hostiles
yellow dots = neutrals
green dots = friendlies

You can find a bed (on the ship with Sultan, upper floor, left cabin) to sleep (set the amount of hours) but careful, if you sleep long, you'll wake up rather hungry  ;) So keep something to eat at hand. Tourist breafast (tin cans) are the best you can get regarding long-lasting food once eaten and they don't weigh as much as salamis while bread is too light (you need to eat often). Don't drink too much vodka as it will blur your vision and make you fall over and pass out if you drink too much  ;D

Don't worry about this or that mission, once you're deep into the game you'll realise what went wrong or what you could have done differently, do it the next time you play through. :) Just have fun :)

[Ricamundo]

I have to eat? Wow thats a new one in gaming for me. :-()

OK, i got the holstering ok, but i cant draw a weapon. Hitting X does nothing, nor does pressing the 1Mouse key. I can see the weapons in my backpack, but i cant use any of them. None of the hotkeys w@&k either 1 2 3 etc. Argh i cant seem to figure out any of the most basic commands. :-[

EDIT.. I had to start a new game because i just cant figure out the controls for this game. I can no longer holster any weapon, nor can i draw one. Theyre all in my backpack, i just cant use any of them. X does nothing. When i started a new game i walked to the ship and was ordered to holster my weapon, but i had to drop it and pick it up again for it not to he held. Now i cant get it back in my hands. This really annoying...

[deadman1]

I have to eat? Wow thats a new one in gaming for me. :-()

OK, i got the holstering ok, but i cant draw a weapon. Hitting X does nothing, nor does pressing the 1Mouse key. I can see the weapons in my backpack, but i cant use any of them. None of the hotkeys w@&k either 1 2 3 etc. Argh i cant seem to figure out any of the most basic commands. :-[

EDIT.. I had to start a new game because i just cant figure out the controls for this game. I can no longer holster any weapon, nor can i draw one. Theyre all in my backpack, i just cant use any of them. X does nothing. When i started a new game i walked to the ship and was ordered to holster my weapon, but i had to drop it and pick it up again for it not to he held. Now i cant get it back in my hands. This really annoying...

Take a look at this pic, does your inventory look like this?
[smg id=2946]

You should be able to holster and unholster a weapon by holding down the corresponding button (ie 3 for the rifle). Worst case, just press 6 for a bolt when speaking to someone  ;)

Also in this pic you see a star on the radar, that means that it´s an NPC you can speak to. Just thought I´d mention that since it can easy to miss details like that when you´re just starting out.  :)
[smg id=2945]

[Art Blade]

"X" was just a joker/place holder. How about checking the key map? There you can see which key does what and reassign them.

You can only use a weapon that is to the left and right of your armour, the left part of the inventory. See deadman's pic for reference, so you drag and drop weapons from your inventory to those spaces next to the armour.

A tip: If you find a weapon or want to throw one away or want to sell one, don't forget that they carry ammo which you can unload first. Like, don't sell the ammo in the weapon if you can use it with a weapon you want to keep, and pick up even useless broken weapons just so you can unload them and then drop the empty weapon again. :)

Hand grenades are great currency, so are scientific med packs. They are great merchandise if you want to sell stuff to people you meet, and they usually match the barter money they have.

[Ricamundo]

Thx Art. I had to start a new game and get my weapons back, then when exiting the ship base, i realized you cant use any weapon while in close proximity to the ship, you have to walk away a bit, then you get the message that you can use a gun. ::) Thats why no matter what button i pressed, nothing happened.

[Art Blade]

Ah yes.. that happened to me when I wanted to just play a little after not having played for months. I went out the railway station (savegame of a part later in the game from your point of view) and couldn't get a gun out and was really annoyed.. after a bit of walking I automatically whipped my gun out, lol  ^+-+

[Ricamundo]

I did some wandering and encountered some dogs who came after me. it was then i realized how bad the recoil is with the standard assault rifle. Just ridiculous, imho.

Anyway, i scavenged some weapons and other stuff off of some bodies, and became overwieghted with stuff. I dropped a few items and made my way back to the main ship, and tried to sell some items to Beard, and also the gun mod guy and i cant figure out the weird menu for buying and selling. Any hints?

[deadman1]

I did some wandering and encountered some dogs who came after me. it was then i realized how bad the recoil is with the standard assault rifle. Just ridiculous, imho.

Anyway, i scavenged some weapons and other stuff off of some bodies, and became overwieghted with stuff. I dropped a few items and made my way back to the main ship, and tried to sell some items to Beard, and also the gun mod guy and i cant figure out the weird menu for buying and selling. Any hints?

If I remember correctly the stufff you´re selling is on the right hand side (you´re inventory) and the you´re bying is on the left. When you click on an item it appears in the middle and then you click on "sell". I really need to get in the game again so I can be more helpful  :-()

[Art Blade]

it is basically swapping things. you drag from his offer into your open space and you'll see the cost of what you selected (what you'd have to pay). You can then drag some stuff you want to get rid of (sell) into his open space and the value of that stuff will be subtracted from the amount you'd have to pay. If you give more valuable stuff than what you're going to purchase, he'll give you the excess money. You'll see that every character you're doing business with has a certain amount of money, if you give him stuff that's worth more than he can afford, his balance will be zero and you're going to lose the excess value. Barters like Beard have more money than a regular guy.

Does this help?

[Ricamundo]

I figured out why i couldnt sell any of my extra weapons. They were in too poor a condition for the vendor to want, so i had to unload them and dump them on the floor of an upstairs room.

I guess i cant repair them myself either, and the cost involved in getting the gun specialist to repair them is prohibative. I spent 2/3 of my 2500RU getting my main assault rifle repaired, and after i realized that i only have about 100 rds of ammo for it, I went back to the gun guy to buy some more 5.56 and a box was something like 3300 RU!!

My armour needs repairing also and i cant afford that either. :-[ I would like to get in a comfort zone early on of just wandering and scavenging and selling stuff to be able to afford newer and better weapons and armour, then start taking on missions, but the learning curve for this game is putting FO to shame, and making me rather frustrated. :-\\

[Art Blade]

A few tips regarding money and doing business.

First tip of all: make friends (do missions for the Stalkers rather than for the Bandits)

Whom to do business with (buy/sell):
1) Stalker Friends (green)
2) Neutrals (yellow)

1) Vendors (like Beard)
2) Other people.


What to buy and what to sell:

Buy stuff you can't get anywhere else, like good armour. Else, try to loot as much as possible and sell as many things as possible.. try to do that for a while. Sell stuff that doesn't weigh much (limited inventory space) but costs a fortune, like scientific med packs, all sorts of medicine and hand grenades.

Find out what weapons are really worth carrying to the next vendor because stuff like pistols weigh a lot but you won't get much for them. The more broken a weapon is the less money you'll get for it yet it still weighs the same.

Use weapons you keep finding ammo for, saves you the trouble of having to buy ammo for it.

Find places with artefacts. They're usually not important for yourself, but will bring the most cash if sold to Beard (he pays highest prices) and those artefacts will respawn. Remember that and keep visiting those locations to collect more of them. Get a decent scanner. Later on there will be a mission rewarded by a prototype scanner which isn't as useful as you might think, it does show dangerous areas but you can hardly see the artefacts, so keep another scanner once you're close to picking up artefacts, it will help you see better.

Repairs:
Once you found those repair kits for your drunken blacksmith on the boat (or the guy at the train yard) he'll be able to do better upgrades and he'll give you a discount. Find those upgrade kits asap. There are 2x repair kit 1, 2x repair kit 2, but only 1x repair kit 3 if I remember correctly, so decide whom to give #3.

:)

[Art Blade]

By the way, I think selling hand grenades to fellow stalkers (particularly team leaders) and other people will pay off rather well while selling them to arms dealers will be worth a slap in the face  :-() Find out who offers most (like vendors vs regular guys) for a particular item and try selling those to the right people. Always observe their barter money, else once they're broke they still take your stuff but regard it as a gift and bugger off.

[Ricamundo]

Thx Art. I have been doing a little better now with my cash flow. I did a couple of missions for other Stalkers, one of which netted me an artifact, which i sold to Beard. Ive also started looking for tools for the drunk gun repair guy, and found one set of tools out of 3, i believe.

I found a shotgun, which ive using as my primary weapon, along with a good handgun. I also got a modified AK in the suitcase i recovered for the Stalker buddy, so thats my back up weapon.

Luckily ive found quite a few med kits and radiation kits. one thing that continously happens is i get irradiated, so im using quite a lot of anti rad meds. Those Emissions are a pain too. I ran into an abandoned building yesterday, and i still died from the Emission, argh!

How do i find Artifacts? I have one of those detector thingies that beeps quite a bit as im out wandering around, but i never actually see anything lying on the ground. Are they buried? Invisible?

There doesnt seem to be any fast travel in this game, which is a shame, as i spend so much time travelling, and because of Emissions, and becoming overweight, i cant really wander too far away from the Sverdosk, or whatever the main ship/base is called.

One other question. Ive been trying to get onto this plateau, where one of the missing choppers crashed, but the only way up is apparently by following this guy Noah(?) He showed be the way to follow him past some kind of invisible barrier, but when i tried, i died. >:( Also, there's a stash in an area of burned houses, that are still emmiting a huge amount of heat, and every time i get too close i start to burn. I didnt even see where the stash is, but i would like to solve some of these issues, if you can remember what you did.

[Art Blade]

Those Emissions are a pain too. I ran into an abandoned building yesterday, and i still died from the Emission, argh!

You can only survive in locations indicated, follow your compass. Those are usually small rooms inside buildings or that stalker base ship.

How do i find Artifacts? I have one of those detector thingies that beeps quite a bit as im out wandering around, but i never actually see anything lying on the ground. Are they buried? Invisible?

You can't find them without detectors. There are several detectors, you start with the worst (beeps only if carried in your hand and doesn't show all the artefacts that are actually there). The next will beep even if pocketed and show a general direction, and the third is the best which will actually display a dot where the artefact is (it can be under ground or on top of you in a building and of course right on the ground).

There doesnt seem to be any fast travel in this game, which is a shame, as i spend so much time travelling, and because of Emissions, and becoming overweight, i cant really wander too far away from the Sverdosk, or whatever the main ship/base is called.

The fast travel is called a guide, a stalker.. each base has a guide hanging out there. It will cost you :)

One other question. Ive been trying to get onto this plateau, where one of the missing choppers crashed, but the only way up is apparently by following this guy Noah(?) He showed be the way to follow him past some kind of invisible barrier, but when i tried, i died. >:(

Yes, follow Noah. When you watch carefully which path he takes (the camera follows him) you'll see that he walks around invisible objects (massive anomalies) and then jumps off the cliff. Try to walk the exact same path and.. jump :) There is some kind of invisible portal down the cliff which will teleport you to the plateau.

Also, there's a stash in an area of burned houses, that are still emmiting a huge amount of heat, and every time i get too close i start to burn. I didnt even see where the stash is, but i would like to solve some of these issues, if you can remember what you did.

You need armour that is fire-resistant or artefacts that protect you (requires armour with pockets to put in those artefacts so they w@&k, carrying them around in the backpack doesn't help). The stash is on the roof of the house on the edge that points towards the cliff.

I haven't played it for quite some time, but that is what I remember :)

[Ricamundo]

Thx again Art. I did manage to follow Noah this time, and get onto the plateau and to one of the choppers. I had a great battle at some large building complex(cant remember what it was called,) where i had to go and get intel on a bunch of mercs hiding out there.  No matter how stealthy i was someone always saw me, so i ran for cover and took em out 1 at a time until they were all dead, then proceeded to grab everything i could carry and get out of there.

At one point while i was unloading ammo from recovered weapons, i noticed my carryweight increased to 70 kilos, and i thought, great! i must have progressed enough in the game for my carrywieght to go up, but then a minute later, it dropped back to 50 kilos. Doh! I had to leave some stuff behind, as the mercs laptop weighed me down along with all the ammo i had.

This game is way more involved than FO, as you must eat regularly, and both food and ammo affect your carry weight. After some careful weight shedding at my personal box on the Sverdosk, im down to around 36 kilos. I still carry 2 pistols(1 silenced) and 1 shotgun and 1 silenced assault rifle. I discoved i was carrying some ammo that i didnt need as the weapon wasnt in my backpack, so getting rid of it helped.

Any idea what the best weapons are? there's so many different ones that all seem to pretty much have the same features, although i have yet to find a sniper rifle. I did find a worn assult rifle with an attached scope, but after removing the scope i couldnt attach it to any of my weapons. Ive got a huge pile of discarded weapons on the ship, as they are in no condition to sell, and i cant fix them myself.

Does it make any sense to pay the drunk gun guy to fix old weapons, then sell them to the gun merchant? Just wondering if thats an untapped money maker or not.

[deadman1]

A quick way to increase your carryweight is to drink some "hercules", it comes in a red/white bottle and can be found in stashes or bought from the medic at skadovsk. It will give you 20 kg extra for about 5 min, which is usually more that enough time to get back to skadovsk and unload.

Personally I´d say skip the shotgun., a good assaultrifle will get you along way. I use a fully modded AN-96, it´s a bit larger than the AKS you start with but can, when modded, be equipped with a grenadelauncher and/or scopes. In your case I would suggest that you have Cardan repair the rifle the scope came from as that might be cheaper than having to mod another rifle. Just remember to give him some vodka before you ask him to mod something as that will make him give you a better price for the w@&k, two bottles are just perfect any more and he´ll pass out until the next day.  ;)

Here´s the location for in my mind the best pistol in the game:

Spoiler

Go to the "Iron forest" anomaly, at the back of the compund there´s a workshop. If you crouch and look in the desk located just inside the entrance you will find the "Black Kite",  it´s a Desert Eagle that is very accurate and powerful.

For more info the weapons of COP you can check out the Stalker wiki located here:
http://stalker.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

[Art Blade]

deadman, you're starting to worry me.. You do know that your average post count is rising alarmingly, don't you?  :-D I just needed to slap you on the back, old Swede, hehehehe  :-() Thanks for your constant support :-X


As to your carrying capacity, there are also artefacts that will increase it as long as they're equipped. And overloading yourself happens quite easily when you loot something, I picked up a lot of weapons without intention, so I recommend you check your inventory frequently right after looting someone/something and dispose of broken weapons after having unloaded them.

I remember I checked what you suggested, having a weapon repaired before selling it, and it usually doesn't pay off. So the best thing to do is: Only keep weapons that are in near mint condition, the rest.. throw it away  ;D

[deadman1]

deadman, you're starting to worry me.. You do know that your average post count is rising alarmingly, don't you?  :-D I just needed to slap you on the back, old Swede, hehehehe  :-() Thanks for your constant support :-X


As to your carrying capacity, there are also artefacts that will increase it as long as they're equipped. And overloading yourself happens quite easily when you loot something, I picked up a lot of weapons without intention, so I recommend you check your inventory frequently right after looting someone/something and dispose of broken weapons after having unloaded them.

I remember I checked what you suggested, having a weapon repaired before selling it, and it usually doesn't pay off. So the best thing to do is: Only keep weapons that are in near mint condition, the rest.. throw it away  ;D

I have been posting a lot more these last few days haven´t I  ????  ;) OWG is one of my favorite communities and I´m glad that I can contribute to it. I usually only post when I feel I can contribute and/or help one of our members but I spend a lot of time lurking here, reading what members have posted. I only need to learn to stay away from PZ:s post about food until I´ve had dinner  :-()

[PZ]

... I only need to learn to stay away from PZ:s post about food until I´ve had dinner  :-()

^+-+
I know what you mean deadman, I lurk at OWG almost every day, unless I'm on the road somewhere, and even then I tr to find some kind of connection.  It's a privilege for me to interact with you guys, and when something interesting happens, I often think to myself that I need to remember to post my thoughts once I get access to a computer.

As to contributing/helping people, that is commendable, but feel free to post general thoughts, just like in the shoutbox - we're all online friends here, and personally, I always like to read the postings of other members.  ;) :-X