Funny and Scary

[RedRaven]

 So I'm asking this Stalker about the creatures he used to hunt when he comes out with this -

[smg id=1960]

Turns out he is on about hamsters !

Is it perhaps some little joke by the developers or should I be worried ?

[Art Blade]

When you feel dozens of small fangs tearing into you -- that's when you should start worrying.  ;D

[RedRaven]

Just had a bit of a weird moment.

Was walking along one of the roads when I heard gunshots up ahead, out comes my trusty AK, quickly checking it's fully loaded I approach the area slowly. As I come to the brow of the hill I see a few boars attacking 2 neutral NPC's (both yellow stars on my minimap), can also see 1 dead boar and 3 dead people.  After a few seconds one of the guys goes down, his yellow star stays on the map (meaning he is badly wounded). Creeping slowly towards him I manage to finish of one boar as the last guy standing kills the last boar.

Now I have 2 choices - 1 = take out the npc who is still standing then finish off the wounded guy so I can loot the corpses. Or 2 = try to make a friend by healing the wounded guy.

I'm in a good mood so i go over and pass him a medkit. And it worked, his yellow star turned green (meaning he was now friendly towards me not just neutral). With a warm fuzzy feeling of good karma I proceed to go and loot the corpses of his mates, then I see that the other guy is on the floor groaning. I go running over to heal him (and hopefully get another friend). He thanks me, stands up and Bingo! his star turned green too.
Then he took 2 steps past me, dropped to a crouch and with one shot from his pistol dropped the first guy I had just saved!
As I stand there in the middle of the road it suddenly dawns on me what has just happened, 2 different groups of Stalkers / Bandits must of encountered each other and tried to kill each other, the noise of gun shots will of attracted the attention of the boars who then joined the fight.
Outraged and feeling more than a little cheated I raised my AK and put a round through the back of the guys head. He had already cost me 2 medkits so one more bullet wasn't going to be much of a loss.
After looting all 6 corpses for their gear I went to sell it, it didn't even raise enough cash to get 1 medkit. And I had wasted about 20 rounds for my AK trying to help them - (Ammo is still very very expensive.)

Think in future will just stand and watch any similar skirmishes to play out, then I can clean up whatever is still left standing.

[Art Blade]

Good story  :) :-X

[JRD]

Well, one thing I learned so far: watch as they struggle for their lives and when the fight is over, finish off whoever is still alive, loot the bodies and try not to waste ammo on dogs and boars! ;D ;D

There's no real friendship in The Zone.  :-*

[RedRaven]

Normally I would of but in CoP all factions are neutral to you while they will have animosity with one faction or another this means they all show up as yellow on the minimap. In the previous games Bandits would show as red as would Military. Now unless you shot a neutral NPC and turn him and his pals into enemies only Zombified Stalkers show as red.

This also means its not as easy to identify different groups from a distance or through heavy rain, some Bandits and Stalkers wear very similar clothing.

Now I intend to employ similar tactics to Arts faction wars from FC2 and use various factions existing animosity against them both. The usual clashes are between Stalkers/Clear Sky factions and Bandits. And the long standing feud between Duty and Freedom. Monolith would shoot anyone who is not Monolith, but there presence is smaller in CoP to that of SoC/CS. Military faction was similar though I dont know how they will be in CoP as you play an undercover General. Finally Mercenaries are just that Mercenary.

[Art Blade]

[smg id=1960 align=center width=400]

Turns out he is on about hamsters !

Is it perhaps some little joke by the developers or should I be worried ?

He was wrong. It's rats. And they sound like a pack of mad dogs ;D

[smg id=2020 align=center width=400]

[RedRaven]

Savage little things in numbers, but easy prey in ones or twos.