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Got it around midday, installed with no problems, and was straight in at the deep end.

This time round you play a USS special forces operative, under cover in the zone as a Stalker. As soon as the intro is over you get 5 missions instantly.

So far have played for about an hour and died 4 times ;D . Plan on getting stuck into it this evening and tomorrow so will post a full review after I've had a little more time on it. Until then have created a screen-shots thread and put up a few in-game shots of what I've seen so far to give you a quick glimpse.

nice, cheers  :-X

Looking forward to your report RR. If i can find this game, i'll probably buy it, as its going to be a while before FO3 NV arrives.

Right then, here is my Opinions so far.

Ever since I read about a third instalment to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games I have been eagerly awaiting its release with a mix of child-like excitement and cynical apprehension.


Allow me to explain, Shadow of Chernobyl was the first FPS game I ever purchased, had played a few others a little but never got into them, instead I played RTS / TBS games such as Shogun & Rome Total War and X2 (space based game similar to that old school classic Elite). That was pretty much it.
When I read about SoC it sounded like a very interesting setting so I got it, and after 2 days of getting killed in every way possible gave up on it. A few months later, one bored sunday I decided to give it another try. And BAM I was hooked.
It almost became an obsession, playing as often as I could, and after finishing it immediately started again. Over the course of a year or so I discovered many great mods which made each play-through a different experience. And with 7 possible endings it was almost perfect.
Then Clear Sky was released, and at first was very disappointed by it. The atmosphere was gone, it seemed more linear in its game play and when I reached the end of the game that was it. 1 ending, and not as good as it could of been.
While it is not a terrible game to me it seemed to be more of a step backwards from SoC rather than a step forward. Consequently I only ever played it through twice before it was retired to the shelf to gather dust.


2010 - Call of Pripyat. After reading that it would be released in Germany & CIS months before the rest of the world I decided to purposely avoid all forums, reviews and the like so that when I did get it it would be all new and unkown. The only exposure I allowed myself was the screen shots and benchmark tool from the official GSC site. And those just added to my excited anticipation.

Was it worth the wait = HELL YEAH !

In the first hour of play I died 5 times ! And I was not going to let a little thing like virtual death put me off.


FIRST IMPRESSIONS

No video intro this time, instead there is a series of stills accompanied by a narration giving a brief history of the Zone. Then its straight to it, your character is a Special Forces general posing as a Stalker, your mission to locate and discover what caused the disappearance of several military helicopters.  On that premise you begin better equipped than in both SoC & CS.

The overall look of the landscape is very much the same as the first 2 games, though improved as both CPU's and GPU's have advanced allowing the developers to do more.
The controls, options and interface remain for the most part unchanged. There are a few changes though, for example Armour is now split so you get body armour and helmets, these can be mixed in any way, each armour and helmet providing it own level of protection against a variety of hazards. Also each weapon, armour and helmet displays its condition where as before you had to check it manually.
Another new feature is the 'quick access slots' these appear in the bottom left of the screen and relate to the F1, F2, F3 and F4 keys. you can assign a variety of things from your inventory to them though the default settings are for medkits, bandages, anti-rad meds and food. It also tells you how many you have in your inventory.
Likewise the weapon information in the bottom right has been improved, now at a glance you can see how many rounds in your weapon, as well as how many in your inventory your have. Most weapons have 2 types of ammo available, it also tells you how many of each type you have, as well as current firing mode and where applicable how many grenades for an under-barrel grenade launcher (if you have one that is). Under the weapon info are two bars that display your current health (in red) and stamina (in blue)
The mini-map in the top left is now circular and has a built in display to show how much noise your making and how visible to enemy NPC's and creatures you are. It also has a simple compass and a clock (no more checking the PDA to see what time it is).
Other on-screen indicators appear to show things such as hunger, radiation level, condition of armour, head gear and weapon, as well as if you are over encumbered.

Below are three screen shots, each shows the inventory screen, the first is from SoC, second CS and the third CoP.




As you can see the inventory screen for CoP is an improvement on that used in CS.

Will end saying that so far it's like they have taken the best elements from the previous 2 games to create a game that surpasses them both, it is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.
I'm going finish here for now (off out into the real world for a bit ! ). Will probably add more over the next few days as I explore and experience more of the game.

Hehehehehe... fells so good when we put our hands in an anticipated game and its keeps up to expectations!! 8)

I can feel the excitement in your words Red, and I totally undernstand you... the more I play SoC the more impressed I get.

OK, graphics are outdated and all, but gameplay is unique... the Zone is completely odd in all its aspects... the landscape, creatures, factions, anomalies etc... a truly unique game for sure.

I'm glad you are enjoying it... so far, SoC has raised the hair of my neck a dozen times, even when I lower the volume and play during the day  :-[

Keep up the impressions mate... I'm looking forward to more of it  :-X

nice review, Red, and good idea to compare the inventories with screenshots. Have fun mate  :)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS  (continued) A few more points of interest.

The A.I. so far is impressive, seen different groups of animals attack each other - best was 3 dogs, 2 psuedo-dogs and 2 boars in a feral 3 way battle of tooth & claw.

Just after searching one of the helicopter crash sites got a radio warning about an incoming Blow-out, it took 6 reloads to get to safety in one piece! Each re-load played out differently even though I ran in the same direction each time.
1 > didn't get to a safe area in time as I spent too long messing about with the map!
2 > stopped to help 2 Stalkers fend off some dogs and got shot for my efforts.
3 > got ambushed by 3 Snorks.
4 > fell down a crack in the ground.
5 > tried to evade some creatures only to stray into a heavy rad area and died from the exposure.
6 > made it to the door of the safe area to get a face full of buck-shot when opened the door.


The Blow-out waves are more deadly than those in CS. On the plus side, if you survive it the wave causes Artefacts to randomly spawn (so far all in anomaly heavy areas). They also cause the birds to drop dead out of the sky.


Artefacts
So far similar in appearance to the previous games. In SoC they are usually found on the ground close to the anomaly that created them. In CoP a detector is needed to reveal them like in CS but they have been easier to find so far. The benefits and penalties are nice and straight forward, most if not all give you points of radiation (+1 to +4).  The benefits are a little different, some increase your weight allowance (which is still 50kg). There are the usual resistance boosting ones (psi, thermal, chemical etc). And ones that increase wound healing and energy recovery.

Weapons & Equipment
The weapons are the same selection you get in SoC/CS and you begin with the same basic pistol (99% sure its a 9mm makarov) AND an AK74su, good job to because your going to need it. Bandits & Stalkers carry a mixture of guns, mostly makarov pistols, sawn-off & winchesters, viper smg (H&K mp5) and of course the AK74. So as the game progresses bigger and better weapons will appear in the same way as the previous games.
There is still the choice of 2 ammo types for the guns. They have revised the upgrading system from CS, now instead of countless flash drives there are 3 tool kits to find and give to a mechanic, Basic, Fine and Calibration. 6 kits to find, 2 technicians to give them to (you are not able to use them).
Silencers and the under-barrel grenade launchers (M203, GP-25) are still there. The 2 scope types (PSO / Susat) are there but with a twist. Both scopes are now available in a variety of different settings. There is the standard fixed rate magnification at several settings, and now some have a variable zoom like binoculars, some have night vision, also thermal imaging. This gives 4 or 5 different scopes to choose from (not yet tried them all but I think it's a great little touch.
I mentioned in the initial first impressions post that there is now Armour and Head gear. These can all be upgraded in the same way as the weapons. Upgrade bonuses get listed at the bottom of the gears stat info.

A new addition to the equipment you can use is a selection of pharmaceuticals / drugs. Each gives a set bonus for a limited period of time (almost like temporary artefacts). One increases weight allowance for 5 minutes, one increases chemical resistance for 20 or 30 seconds. And these can be assigned to the F1-F4 quick keys. 


Will end it there for now, part 3 to follow in a day or so.

looks like you had an adventurous night, Red  ;D Very funny, your six trials and LOL @ faceful of buckshot  ;D

In CS, dead birds came raining down, too. I remember the first time I realised that, because of the sound they produced when smacking the ground by the dozen  ;D

FIRST IMPRESSIONS  (continued) Yet more points of interest.


MutantsThe mutants in CoP will be familiar to those who have played either of the previous games in appearance but with some that is where the similarity ends. In SoC & CS the mutants are relative to your progression through the Story (at the start they are quite mundane and easy to deal with). Not any more ! Right from the start you will encounter the usual lower level mutants such as Dogs, Boars and Flesh's just as you do in SoC/CS. AND in the short time I've been playing and within the small area that I've moved through and explored I have encountered -

Dogs, Boars, Pseudodogs and Flesh are near enough the same as before. The animation of the boars appears to of been improved but they still die after a few hits, Pseudodogs don't seem quite as tough as they were (was able to kill 2 of them easily with just a pistol). Flesh are more aggressive. And Dogs now jump up to bite and claw at your face instead of going for your ankles.

Snorks in small packs of 2 - 4 at a time. They can be hard enough to deal with one on one, now that they are roaming around in packs they are a very deadly thing to face.

Spotted a lone Bloodsucker, I had got as high as possible on the dock - cranes and saw it crouched behind a rock. A lot of ammo later it was dead, usually they turn invisible when attacked but this one never spotted me, reckon thats the only reason I lived to tell of it.

In the centre of the Circus anomaly there is a Pyrogeist, first time I walked past that area I was spotted by something but after much looking around didn't see any creature so I ran away, when I looked at circus through the binoculars it showed a red frame around what appeared to be part of the anomaly, creeping to a good vantage point I was able to shoot and kill it without it detecting me again.

Have also read that there is a Controller in a tunnel in the area I'm in. Needless to say I'm avoiding that bit until I have better armour and weapons.

And it gets worse, I have read that there are several types of Bloodsucker's, and 2 new mutants to deal with. Chimera and Burer, both are also in some of the mods for SoC but until a face one don't know if they are the same or if they have new / different abilities. (in the mods for SoC the Chimera is bigger than a flesh and has a really long leap distance. The Burer - sometimes called a Dwarf - is about a mans height but at least twice as broad, it wears what looks like a brown robe and has some very nasty psionic powers <@JRD - and you thought the controller has mean! >. Will report back on how they both are in CoP when I encounter them.

One of the biggest changes made to ALL mutants is that you can no longer search their corpses, and there are no mutant body parts to be had either.

Great,  Red... thanks for the heads up on mutants.  :-X

Is there a way to deal with psionic powers? Any helmet with some sort of protection against psionic attacks?
(I just remember Magneto and his protective helmet)  ;)

Quote from: JRD on February 07, 2010, 10:09:44 AM
I just remember Magneto and his protective helmet

X-men comics are great :-X .

Sir Ian Mckellen played Magneto in the film, as well as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings so now I always get a weird mental image of both the characters mixed into one whenver they are mentioned ;D


In answer to you question - can't say for sure what's what at the moment but it will be that some Armour / Head gear has better psi protection than others, and maybe Artefacts & Drugs will give bonuses too. Will confirm as and when I find out.

Quote from: JRD on February 07, 2010, 10:09:44 AM
Is there a way to deal with psionic powers? Any helmet with some sort of protection against psionic attacks?

Yes, some of the upgrades for Armour suits increase Psi resistance, which I now need desperately, just been mind-raped by a controller :( .

Had just completed a short yet intense mission (the vid below shows the last part of it, which even though it only lasted 70 seconds it was 70 seconds of nerve wracking tension).



After the stairs was safe (ish), and very shortly stood out on a hill. All I needed to do was get back to the Ice breaker ship which serves as a base to operate from. Quickly checking the map and compass then off I go. Had taken less than 10 steps when a warning comes through on the radio - An emission is imminent, get to cover and wait for it to pass. When you get these warnings the nearest safe spot gets marked on your PDA map, quick look shows its near some cracks in the ground, these often lead to underground caves.

Fell down one yesterday then was jumped by Snorks as I tried to get out. So I'm running a little, then walking till my energy builds up enough to run again. The warning comes through again and I'm running out of time to find shelter. Eventually I get to the cave entrance just as the Blowout or Emission starts.

After my earlier encounter with the cave dwelling Snorks I bring my rifle to the ready and slowly enter. Then a deep voice tells me to leave. As if, I know the emission will kill me so I decide to take my chances against whoever is already in the cave.....

I didn't even make it into the safe zone in the cave. A controller stood between me and safety from the blowout. Do or die time, fired a full clip on full auto at it, most hit though it did little to stop the controller from raising his hand and blasting me. The psychic assault knocked me backwards, struggling to get my bearings and get it in my sights again I started to reload, looking all around until i see it. Just in time to see his out stretched arm directing a second blast to my brain. Now I really am between a rock and a hard place because as my vision clears I can see that the emission has started. Its too late to run and hope to find another safe haven so once again I turn to face my foe, bringing my gun up I pull the trigger only to hear a hollow click just before the third attack knocks me back again. I turn to face it again, head spinning as if had drunk several bottles of vodka. In a last ditch attempt to kill him and reach the safety of the cave I pull out my pistol. Didn't even get chance to fire it as yet another blast to my now shattered mind sends me back to the floor, the noise of the emission drowning out all sound, the last thing I see is the sky, and its on fire as if the gods themselves are at war.

As the blowout ends I am staring down at my lifeless corpse being eaten by the Controller.

Great reads so far, Red, and a terrific report :-X

I never played any of these games, so I have a question about that clip - do those nasties not know you're there if you're sneaking around? Is that what was happening there? Please forgive my ignorance.

I sensed a good quality of tension all right, just watching the clip. Nice :-X

Quote from: JRD on February 07, 2010, 10:09:44 AM
Is there a way to deal with psionic powers? Any helmet with some sort of protection against psionic attacks?

Foil? ;D

That clip shows me sneaking through a nest of Bloodsuckers whilst they are asleep (would seem that big nasty tentacle faced monsters with the power of invisibility sleep stood up like horses).
How they stayed asleep through the noise of automatic gunfire 1 floor up I don't know. Often one of them on its own can give you good fight for your life, most I ever faced in the other games was 3, but I was hiding in a tower with lots of grenades.
There was about a dozen all taking a nap, and had to move through them all without making any sound at all. But before you go down and sneak past that lot there are 2 or 3 awake upstairs and I died twice trying to get rid of them! If that bunch had woke up wouldn't of stood a chance, they can move pretty quick when they attack.

Great reports and vid RR. What about respawn times? When you clear an area, do they respawn in a few minutes, or is it clear for longer?

Thats a good question Ricamundo... in Shadow of Chernobyl, the only game of the series I have experience with since I`m playing it now, I cleared some tough areas and saw no respawn. When you move from one big area to another (tha whole map isn`t loaded at once, unlike FC2) you pass through a bottleneck in the form of a guardpost. After clearing the place and returning there I saw some guards respawning, but no big deal, just two or three of them and with regular guns, so it`s just an ordinary day at the office when you face them!  ;)
I still have lots of walking to do in The Zone, so I might be speaking too soon... RedRaven will certainly give us a better answer
One thing is for sure... even if there is no respawn in tough areas like tunnels or enemy bases, The Zone is populated with factions, creatures and anomalies, so whenever you are wandering around, you will bump into trouble!!  ;D ;D


By the way Red... nice new avatar... is it the kind of helmet that prevents your brain to turn into pudding when facing a controller? Looks like made of foil heh?  ;D  ;D ;D

 Was thinking about that very topic this morning.  :)

At the moment No Idea, (and before Art or JRD start cracking the whip :P ) I can explain why I do not yet know, and why it may be hard to pin down. Just bear with me as you read on.

In Farcry 2 we pretty much knew where to expect the presence of hostile mercs, even without the great maps from Dweller_Benthos, partly because the guard posts were all marked on the map we just didnt know if it was ammo, fuel or explosives till we got there. Same with the towns and the smaller target areas like the fort and oasis, they had a boundary around them. And thanks to his maps we got to know the patrol routes used by merc vehicles. The two factions didn't go out of their way to attack the other, if not for Artblades 'Merc war' discovery it appeared to be more of a stand-off or Cold war. The mercs didn't do much and unless provoked and taunted didn't move far from the area they spawned in.

In Call of Pripyat there are 8 factions, Military and Monolith will attack everyone not in their faction, Bandits and Loners (or Stalkers) are enemies, Duty and Freedom are enemies, Mercenaries w@&k for who ever pays them and Scientists (or Ecologists) dont really have a specific enemy and use Mercenaries for firepower.
This is where it gets hard to say about respawn, even if a faction has a permanent base of operations and claims to certain areas there are also smaller, more independent 'cells' that will travel around, even going from map to map. For example if you were to kill a group of 2 or 3 Bandits as you see them following a road it is near on impossible to know where they came from, what their destination was or if it was a foot patrol doing it rounds.   Also these wandering groups of NPC's will fight their enemies when they see them, and there is also roving groups of mutants who will attack any human or mutant not of there kind.

The image below shows the Marsh Ice Breaker, on the minimap in the top left it shows yellow dots or stars. Unless you make enemies with one faction or another they are all neutral toward you, with the exception of Monolith (but who cares what lunatic cultists think of them). At the 3 o'clock position on the side of the minimap it says 17 , when I took that image there were 17 NPC's in my immediate vicinity, they are a mixture of Stalkers and Mercs, the boat is neutral ground to all and has a trader, medic, mechanic and beds to sleep in. (you cant even draw a weapon when you get within a few feet of it, if some one starts a fight outside it all the doors get locked for a short while too).


Things are constantly happening. Unless you pause the game the A.I. does what it does and life goes on.People and mutants must spawn somewhere otherwise within a short space of time there would be nothing left alive, but as to where and how I'm clueless.
At various points have seen the number of people in or very close to the Ice breaker be as low as 12 and as high as 33. Went to sleep in it for 6 hours and when I left there was hardly anyone around, came back about 3 hours later and there were different people stood about.
At the moment there are several dead boars and a dead person about 50-60 meters behind me from where I took that screen shot, planning to observe them to see how long bodies remain in the game.

There may well be some type of pattern or schedule for things like respawns, or it could all be random factors. Could even be a bit of both. This game is less populated than the previous 2, but they have made up for that by making some things tougher - Mutants and anomolies are an ever present hazard too. And dont forget the Blowout emissions too.  There is a slight benefit as a result of the blowouts, they can cause anomolies to spwan artefacts after each wave, staying alive long enough to get them is whole new story.


Not really the answer you were probably after, but all this chaos and A.I. activity should make the open world side of it pretty interesting, and make it more enjoyable to play through more than once.

Will post any further observations as I'm playing. Cant see me playing anything else for a while, at least until Metro 2033 comes out near end of March ;D

OK... thanks for the detailed description of the dynamics of The Zone in CoP  :-X

I reckon that as you wander around, you will find some company, more likely not a pleasant one though! Thats one cool side of STALKER... The Zone is alive and things happens regardless of you. You will hear and see gunfights ensuing somewhere far away and thats not just sound effects, these are NPCs reacting to each others presence, be it mutant or other factions. Since they are there with somewhat of an objective like you (gather artifacts, ammo, guns or just eliminate rival factions or mutants) the term respawn does not apply to the open landscapes of The Zone.

But here`s a straightforward question: If I clear a facility or a specific area, like Agroprom or Garbage, from all its inhabitants and leave the map, when I get back... will be someone there? Will I have to shoot them all again?

NPC's who show on the minimap as a yellow or green star are 'squad leaders', some of them will provide a service same as the guides in Clear sky, only this time they have a posse.  And at some point you get to create your own little gang of hellraisers, not sure how it works yet but should be fun.

Some npc's will move from map to map just like you can, a few times I went through the border / gateway bit between two areas to find myself surrounded by people who were going the other way. Not so bad if they are neutral or friendly but its hard w@&k escaping from the middle of half a dozen bandits.

One example of clearing an area is the bandits at the start when you have to get the flash drive from nimble, usually after a short while some more bandits come down the road that leads out eastwards towards the dark valley, kill them and either some more come down and try to occupy the car park, after clearing them out a few times there is a chance that some Stalkers from the village / rookie camp where you start the game will make there way up to it and hold the fort so to speak. Same thing happens at the checkpoint transition between the Cordon and the Garbage.

But when you kill the 5 or 6 Soldiers under the railway bridge thats that, no one else comes to claim it.

In CS I cleared out the flea market at Garbage once, as well as the train depot. The depot got re-populated quickly, bandits did spawn there. The flea marked got conquered a couple of times by different factions and sometimes was left deserted. So, what I remember from CS, roaming faction groups came from other parts of the map (passing through checkpoints) which you could not see, and started occupying locations, if necessary they fought their way in. I suspect that the respawn takes place in parts of the map you don't see, and if you go there, other entrances from different parts of the world would allow people to pass through and start wandering the part of the world you just left. Quite good solution, you could never "catch" the game spawning entities (creatures, factions) and the game left you guessing those people went in through different entrances while you were away.

It is most probably an evolution of that. The odd thing is that even though they are at war with each other Duty & Freedom share the same building for their HQ.

Witnessed an incident of NPC's spawning at last :-X .
Was all a bit odd and chaotic. As the map I'm currently in has loads of marshy area with very long grass and clumps of bushes visibility often poor.
If you can Imagine the longest grassland / savannah parts of FC2 swapping the blazing sun for skies filled with dark, brooding clouds, usually raining too (seems to be rather a lot of that in the games I've been playing recently), with darker earth-tone colours you will get the general idea. The mutants blend in well, they are also lower to the ground too which adds to the difficulty of spotting them from more than 20-30 meters away.
As a result of this I've taken to getting on yop of any vantage point available as soon as I can. It was from the top of one such large rock formation that I spied a couple of Stalkers finishing of a Snork with many shotgun blasts. They put away there weapons and set off along the bridge when 3 Bandits appeared from nowhere about 10 foot behind them. The outcome was pretty inevitable, the new group were already shooting before the original 2 had noticed their presence. They did manage to take one guy down before getting cut down by the other 2 bandits.
As they made their way to the bodies to loot them I did what any self respecting under cover special forces general would do, crouching down as low as possible raised my Vintar BC and took careful aim through the scope at the head of the bandit furthest away. 3 quick shots and they were on the road as dead as the corpses they intended to loot. Naturally I went running over after making sure the way was clear to loot all 5 bodies myself ;D

The game must be set to spawn certain factions or mutants either at random intervals or after specified events, but as they A.I. has many groups wandering around this group was unfortunate to of been in that area at that time. Have looked around all the game files could find relating to spawning but most of it is way over my head.
Did kill dozen or so zombies in one area and when returned after 3 days game time it was over run with dogs so some groups look to be scripted recurringly and others as one of encounters. Lots of mutants have been spawned so far and a lot of them are still on the ground where they were killed.
It is reasonably sparsely populated, can walk for a long while without encountering anything, though sometimes there are little fire-fights going on near every building or place of interest. Random enough to keep me on my toes, approaching everywhere cautiously with gun in hand.

Great research RR. 8) I have a couple more questions for ya. You mentioned a neutral place where the player can buy ammo, get food and sleep. Can you manipulate the time of day or night this way, as in FC2 or FO3, so you can essentially play at your prefferred time of day?

My other query is about how the game runs while you're out in the wastes. FC2 was very smooth, even with all kinds of explosions, etc going on. FO3, however had a lot of random frame judder while outside. it didnt seem to matter how powerful your GPU was or how low you set the graphics. How smooth is CoP?

In the Marsh Ice Breaker, which is the neutral area in Zaton, there is a room upstairs with a few beds in it, as soon as you enter the room text comes up on the screen saying "sleep (f)" hit f and it brings up a sleep  bar that works in pretty much the same way as FO3.
As for stuttering frame rates, I did suffer from it a few times at first but there are plenty of graphic's settings and resolution sizes to choose from so it was just a case of finding the optimum balance for your system set up, the biggest factor in this is the light setting, there are a few to select Static lighting, Dynamic object lighting, Full dynamic lighting, Improved full lighting and DirectX 10 dynamic lighting.
Static uses DirectX8, the other DirectX9, though for Improved full you need 3.0 shader support. There are also options for view distance, texture detail, shadow quality etc. And things like being able to turn off NPC's flashlights. After a few hours play with an emission and several encounters of various sizes I had got it set to run at 1280x800 resolution with high detail, the only thing I always keep low or off in any game is shadow settings. But all this depends upon your system setup.

Quote from: RedRaven on February 11, 2010, 06:50:23 AM
..the only thing I always keep low or off in any game is shadow settings. But all this depends upon your system setup.

Really? Even in FC2?  :o

I love the shadow effects they created...

Yeah, me too but it took my frame rate down to an average of 12fps so dropped it for smoother game, need to upgrade my CPU when I can to deal with it all.

I know what you mean...
But after seeing shadows like in Far Cry 2 or Assassins Creed I just can`t be without good shadows... they add a lot to a game.
I spent a whole afternoon testing the right settings on my laptop to have FC2 with decent shadows and frame rate... I get poor textures, but great light and shadow effects (and fire as well)

one tip, guys: find out and use the native resolution of your monitor.

For example, my widescreen 26'' monitor uses 1920*1200 native.

Why is this important?

Because if you change it to anything different, the graphics will undergo an extra bit of processing. Could involve either the monitor itself, the vid card, or both. It will result in different unwanted changes of the game experience: It may cause the picture you see to be less crisp, perhaps slightly blurry. It may cause stutter. Extra power use. Heating. All kinds of effects you don't really want.

The most intense effects on your vid card are indeed shadows. Also HDR, then bloom effects, of course dynamic lights. Those are processor intensive. The depth of the area you see is also affecting your vid card's performance. Remember ArmA2? Lowest settings would almost wrap you up in mist... Highest settings would allow you to see details on the horizon.

Alright, hope it helps :)

Cheers Art, my monitor default and recommended resolution is 1400x900 with 60 Hz, and in my naivety I had set the game to play at 1280x800 (still a ratio of 8:5 or 16:10), thinking it would be less w@&k for my CPU & GPU. It was ok, but after resetting it to its larger default my average fps is a little higher. :-X


As for the game itself, I have now near enough done as much as possible in the first map, Zaton, and now am ready to relocate to Jupiter which is sure to hold a host of new surprises and horrors for me to deal with ;D .

 ;D nice, keep it up man  :-X :)

Just been reading about the actual incident at Chernobyl and it's effects and learned something new.
The large ferris wheel in Pripyat was never used. The wheel, and the fair ground it was part of was due to open on 1st May 1986. Just 5 days after the Chernobyl disaster. Sad really.  :(

My first impression: The big metal box which contains a lighter (zippo style), two patches (like those pilots or astronauts stick to their jackets), two big maps, a bandana, and the game disk, looks nice. 45€  :) About to install now  ;D

Installed. I nearly got a cardiac arrest when the game wouldn't start but instead present me with an error, caused by SecuRom, telling me I was trying to start the game with an image of the original CD (which was of course nonsense). After clicking the desktop icon, it worked as I had hoped. Unfortunately, there are no language options, but I thought heck, it's a Russian game anyway, might as well play the German version.  :) Looks somehow familiar, the sounds are familiar, the inventory is quite familiar... now I'm a Stalker again  ;D


Edit: car-i-dac is not the same as car-di-ac lol, typo.

Alright, I feel like Cast Away. I'm alien in an alien world. No idea where I am, I walk around and meet two stalkers. They tell me to holster my weapon, so I hit some keys and the weapon disappears. Now I am able to talk to them. I find myself asking the same questions, "where are those helos" and "have you got a job for me," no matter whom I meet. I walk down a valley on whose ground there is some kind of rotten water left over, no swamp though, and I think it was a little corroding. I guess it's a good idea to whip out my rifle, but I haven't got a rifle any more. Probably threw it away when trying to holster it, so time for a first reload. I walk back to where I had been before the reload.

There is a symbol on my monitor now showing something that looks like my body armour, and it's lit green. Then there is something else glowing, probably meaning I got exposed to radiation. I hear gunshots up the hill where I am headed, and see dogs. They see me, and we have a little dance. I do it torrero style, letting them run at me while I turn and they run past me. Then I try to shoot them in the back, or when they run at me, well, basically I shoot at them from every possible angle with my pistol. Takes a lot of shots to kill those things, but I manage. On top of the hill, four dead stalkers, so I loot them. Nothing particularly useful, some weapons, some food, some ammo. A little further up is a road, I decide to follow it. I killed three I don't know what, like big hairy pigs of sorts, with my "AK47-light" sort of assault toy rifle.

I find a compound, some kind of factory, the rooms are not interesting, so I walk around outside. I see a group of stalkers, have a chat with them, "do you know where the helos are and have you got a job for me." I see some bridge with huge pipes on top and decide to walk along there when I get a radio message with a friendly voice telling me "you are about to die." (basically.) Well, that bad weather forecast suggested I sought out some hiding place if I didn't want to get toasted. Alright, back to the stupid factory, into the room I had already seen when deciding it was boring there. I can't run, have to find out (read the manual, perhaps, or the keyboard layout/setting). I nearly jump when I see some dark figure next to me, wearing a gas mask, but he's not appearing to be after my life, and all of a sudden there are more of them popping up in that small room. Aha, the fellows I met outside needed to seek shelter, too, but they can teleport here. Or the game engine is funny. Probably the latter one. :) The emission is over, I guess it's a good idea to chat with the people I've just met: "Do you know where the helos are and, by the way, do you have a job for me?"

Back on the bridge, it looks like ripples on water, only in the air, got to be anomalies. I throw screws at them, and they pop like corn and buzz away glowing. Nice. I try to find a way through those unfriendly air bubbles and after one third of the way I can't find a gap. Well, hot-headed I dive into the anomalies, get whirled around, everything turns red, and I fight myself through until the bubble spits me out, half chewed-up. I do that a couple of times until I reach the other end of the bridge, wondering what wonders will await me there. Another compound, different looks though, and I trudge on. Until I hear "Hey, stalker, this is no place for you to be, go away as long as you're able to." Unimpressed, I walk around innocently but the guy loses his temper and starts shooting. I kill him, but he has got some friends with "revenge" written across their foreheads. So I dwadle along the wall, outside, and find a sewer entrance. A maze, and I am stuck in a tube now, waiting for my followers so I can preach some lead to them.

Just ordered my copy of the game so my first impressions will come by the end of next week hopefully  :)

Edit: The game arrived today and it´s the special edition which contains some art cards, a zone map and a soundtrack CD :-X

Looking forward to your screen captures, Art!  :-X

 :) cool, deadman, now we have a whole bunch of us playing that game :)

Alright, PZ  :)


As I sit in the tube, in the sewer, trapped, I realise it has been an idea that might deserve a second thought. Some blokes storm the sewer, with monstruous armour, throw hand grenades at me and use automatic rifles. I reply to that chitchat with a jammed weapon. So weapons jam here, too. It went "poing-click" rather than "ratatatatat" which really didn't impress the attackers. So I died the first time. With my spirit floating around my dead body, I see through its eyes how the ba$t@rd who killed me now dared to loot me. That can't go unpunished and I opt for a reincarnation: Reload.

This time no more Mr Niceguy. I sneak into the compound, now able to use my PDA I know it's somewhere NE of the third crash site I am supposed to examine. Well. I sneak past the guard who, in my last life, had warned me. I decide not to warn him. I find some concrete columns that look promising because one of them has metal bars to climb on it, so I climb up and enter a pipe. The pipe ascends, another metal ladder, and I am closer to the building. Now someone shouts something unintelligible and the music starts. Hey, they play my tune! I can see through a big gap in the pipe what is outside, and some guys run around. I shoot the first one. After probably 15 minutes I can't find more people to shoot, I have used up my first aid packs and bandages, and I exit the pipe through the gap, prone. There are guys around the corner and behind me, but I have developed unearthly skills and kill them all. The last three with my pistol, in their faces, and while I think of RedRaven I shout "that's for a faceful of buckshot, you bastards." Funny armour they have, leaving their faces unprotected... I wipe "revenge" off of my forehead and start looting the bodies. I can't believe I killed so many, I reckon it were 10 mercs (they actually were mercs, it read so on their inventory). Now I am overencumbered, 63kg is a little heavy for my fragile bones. I start sorting out not-so-good weapons and drop them until I have around 60kg which allows me to walk again. My finest finds is a pistol with a suppressor, which I can dismount, and something like a professional rifle, with a scope mounted on top. I slap the suppressor on it and think it was worth the efforts :)

I try to find crash site #3 and it gets dark, plus it rains. This must be RedRaven's territory. And indeed, I find the location with two fire balls that circle a crater in opposite directions, and I remember how Red thought something evil might be down there. So I walk down there. Nothing but flames that shoot out of the grounds, and those two fire balls that hit me once. I meet some stalkers close to that spot, and I try to be a good conversationalist: "Do you know something about those helos? Can I get a job?"

Pitch black night, rain, and hungry, I chomp some bread, gulp down some tinned corned beef and down a dry but greasy sausage, which leaves a taste in my mouth as if something had died in there, so I wash it down with two bottles of vodka. I go away from the fireplace and the stalkers. I don't want to be responsible for some people killed in a gaseous accident involving burnt-to-the-bones bodies, and the risk of a blood test the staff of an entire police department could party on simply is too high. I start seeing things, there is a huge boat in the middle of the night, lit by lightning. The safe haven... I cross the dark plain, hoping not to bump into some creatures as my body armour is worn down so badly the threads are dangling from it like a tinsel christmas decoration. It is almost midnight, and on the boat no one wants to talk to me. They are asleep, even as they sit.

The fire balls

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Alright, no one talks to me because it isn't the safe haven. It's just another boat... good if one is able to read one's PDA. Walked over there, not too far, and was presented with Stalker's version of Mike's bar:

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On that boat, everything I need (so far) is present. A medic who sells drugs, a mechanic who repairs and upgrades weapons and armour, a bar keeper who sells food and beverages, some information broker who also sells weapons and other gear, and more stalkers.

The loot I brought with me from the revenge trip also contained two PDAs and a laptop, total 4,000 credits, and a lot of weapons. I had like 18,000 after selling my stuff and spent most of it on repairs and a few upgrades. Now I'll take a nap :)

Cool - kind of reminds me of a merge between Moriarity's in FO3 and Mike's in FC2

Good write up Art.
There IS something evil in the middle of the two fireballs at the circus anomoly, but it dies easily :-X .
Good to see you got a decent rifle too, it is one of the few rifles you can mount a silencer, scope and grenade launcher on, that is providing you can find them! (can direct you to a grenade launcher if you like?).

Also make sure you always have a couple bottles of vodka spare everytime you get Cardan to fix your gear, 1 bottle usually reduces cost a little, 2 bottles reduces it more, but a third just puts him to sleep!I always keep 2 - 4 bottles in locker on the ice breaker (saves carrying them everywhere).

Hey Red :) Probably a good idea to post some hints in an appropriate topic where to find stashes so a beginner like myself can look up places for some basic gear to loot.

By the way, I sold that rifle because if it is anything like it used to be in CS then it's crap. I found those silverish AKsomething rifles though, which were just as customisable but much more reliable. By the way, any chance we could get a weapon guide somehow?

The vodka greases the mechanic, I noticed, he even talks more if you want, but I didn't realise his prices went down. But he can only w@&k on certain parts if he has had one or two bottles to calm his hands lol -- good tip about stashing bottles for him on the ship  :-X

Will get back into taking screen shots and making notes on Stashes and put them up in the "Stashes, Tips and Secrets" thread. (kinda got absorbed into the actual playing of the game and completing my missions, forgetting to keep track of a lot of things).

Will also w@&k on some form of comprehensive weapon, armour and helmet guide with relevant stats and upgrade potentials / bonuses. Though that may take a while, not seen one anywhere else on the net even from those who got the earlier release from Oct '09).

One thing I have been doing is keeping a record of all the survival tips shown as the game is loading. There is a total of 100 and so far have collected 88 of them, my aim being to post a complete list when I have them all.
So if anyone playing CoP can help me complete it I need the following 12 tips -
Have been taking a screen shot everytime they come up, re-naming them to the corresponding number and marking them off the list. If you happen to catch any of those last 12 then either write down or screen capture the info and send it me through private message. Cheers :-X .

what might be really useful: Where are those tool boxes you need for the mechanics so he can upgrade your gear.

Edit: (looked it up)

I found one, some fine-tuning tools, west of those two circling fire balls site. On my PDA there it is the white circle marking areas of interests. Unfortunately I don't have the English version so my location names might differ, but those landmarks are the same, anyway. Well, you enter that small compound, go to the end of the path, go inside the building and leave it on the opposite side of the path that led you in, and there are some crates. On one of them you'll find the tool box.

There were mercs, you could give them food (I believe it were tin cans, bread and sausages, 9x each) so they let you in and find the box, or you kill them (what I did  ;D)

Well, now I'm quite a bit into the game (still a beginner, though) and it's got me hooked  :-X

Somehow I manage to survive without needing to resort to savegames. Died a second time due to stupidity... I was so keen on getting an artefact I didn't realise my health got eaten away by the claw anomaly.  ;D

They even show humor (if you want). I had to investigate a strange light on a shipwreck, it was an artefact. Once I had it, some stalker popped up out of nowhere and tells me how he needed that very artefact because it was the only thing that could help his dying friend. You can chose what to say: Give it away altruistically, tell him you got it but won't give it away, lie to him ("haven't got it"). My first reaction was to tell him I've got it but won't give it away. So that bloke told me I'd regret it, and I get attacked by a couple of bandits, whom I killed. Back on the ship I cashed in 3,000 credits reward. Then I decided to reload and give it away. The guy thanks me, the other bandits show up but leave me alone. I follow that guy with "my" artefact and watch him sell it to my employer. Nice. I'm told I was a bloody idiot. (hehehe) So my instincts w@&k well in that rotten world  :)

I've been upgrading my stuff (last upgrade session costed me 22k) as far as I could, even had a special weapon "scout" ordered to find a sniper rifle for me, and indeed I now have got a decent rifle (20k) but no ammo (yet).

Fun game :)

Quote from: Art Blade on February 19, 2010, 09:19:20 PM
even had a special weapon "scout" ordered to find a sniper rifle for me, and indeed I now have got a decent rifle (20k) but no ammo (yet).

Take it you mean Nimble, upstairs in the ship?. One tip for ordering from him - Save your game before placing the order, order item of choice, sleep downstairs for 24 hours then go see what he has for you, if you don't like or want it just re-load.

So far there is 1 pistol, 3 close assault weapons, 2 assault rifles, 2 sniper rifles, 1 suit of armour with helmet and 1 exoskeleton suit. All items are a little different to the regular version got through traders or looting, differences range from non-standard calibre rounds, improved stats such as handling, fire rate & accuracy, some have larger ammo clip capacity. Though as of yet I have never been offered more than half of what i payed for any of them by anyone.

Yeah, Nimble. Well, the sniper rifle was just testing what he could do, didn't know there were different models. I played around with two savegames, sold everything, and got two times (don't ask why I did it two times) a combat suit. Not bad, but I never used it, I reverted to the quicksave, did some more exploring to find more valuable artefacts, and right now I've received my first exo-skeleton for 60k. Even without upgrades, it allows for 80kg cargo load and exceeds the combat suit in almost everything. I used to use those in CS, too :)

I'm really enjoying the game now. Cool thing, you can solve riddles without having to pay for hints, all the time. I had to find a way to organise some toxic gas and I accidently found the spot, found two more spots (two keys needed to open a box with the gas canister inside). I've now achieved some respect, and an entry in my stats (detective, it's called here).

And it's not always raining  ;D

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Quote from: RedRaven on February 20, 2010, 09:08:55 AM
So far there is 1 pistol, 3 close assault weapons, 2 assault rifles, 2 sniper rifles, 1 suit of armour with helmet and 1 exoskeleton suit.

This game is interesting because you have really a lot of weapons you can loot or buy, but that Nimble guy adds even more. On top, all weapons are excessively customisable  ;D

I've received three assault rifles so far: Storm, FT-200M, GP37. And two close quarters combat weapons (shotguns): Eliminator (looks cool, somehow reminds me of the MGL of FC2) and Karbonator (which is just some kind of SPAS).

Maybe we can really put up a weapon guide (without listing all those common modification options) and experiences with those weapons... (which weapon is good for which kinds of targets)

Ahhh, choices... :)

Oh, by the way, the pistol you get is not as good as the black kite (Desert Eagle) in comparison.

Crazy. "the pistol" I meant was "Alpine SIP-t M200" unique weapon. Now I've got a "Steppe Eagle" which is a modified black kite... lol  ;D And another pistol called "march" which is a modified UDP.

There are loads of individual weapons that guy can get for us, it seems  :)

I spent a couple of hours now in the game, started Thursday evening and then playing from Friday evening to Sunday night (well, I did sleep some, hehe) and Monday afternoon until night. So far, I have completed more than 50 missions, killed around 130 people and about 100 mutants. I survived around 15 emissions and died during one of them. (Alright, I had misread the PDA and thought I was safe inside a building inside the yellow marker, but the marker disappears if you have reached the location -- I was exactly on top of it, one floor above that shelter.) I died once trying to fetch an artefact, ignoring the heat anomalies eating away at my armour. And I got killed early in the game when I tried to hide in a dead end sewer, within a massive merc camp... they got me with grenades, and I had a jammed weapon... they even looted me when I was dead. ;D But ever since... I haven't died any more  :-*

I might add, I didn't have to resort to savegames to avoid death, I mainly use savegames to actually save my game progress, you know, just in case. I reload them sometimes when I experiment with upgrading armour and weapons: Too expensive and irrevocable an error to risk. Also, I use savegames when I play around with different dialogue options, when I want to find out what would have happened if I had chosen otherwise.

My main motivation to advance some sort of quickly is to get to Pripyat, the third and last map, where the upgrade tools are the mechanics need to be able to offer tier3 weapon and armour upgrades. I want to be able to run in my exoskeleton, so I need those tools. Without tier3 modification, I can only walk. Of course, I also want to see how much cooler those weapons and armours I have will be when upgraded to the max  :)

But I can't just walk to some guide and say, "hey, take me to Pripyat." Same goes for Jupiter (second map), from Zaton I can't just go there. So I start in map one, advance to map two, and finally get to map three (I'm close to getting there now). Why can't I just go there? Because there are no doors nor a taxi nor an airport... I need a specific guide. The guide will only be able to lead me to another map if I have incredible amounts of money. Although, when you start the game, a trip to Jupiter is essentially possible, for 3,000 RU a oneway trip, but for you those 3,000 RU are a fortune. You simply can't afford it  :) So I tried to earn some good money. Which requires equipment. And that costs money... so I focus on looting my brains out whenever I see dead bodies or after I killed someone. Usually people aren't hostile, until you make them turn hostile, for example by "accidently" killing a few off a group... And of course that incident when I entered a guarded base where I was not exactly liked the moment I entered. My first death. My first blood-thirsty yet cold-blooded revenge. My first ten kills. HEHE.

The next thing is, I needed to carry the loot to Owl or Beard on the ship, or I tried to sell my stuff to whomever I met (most people seem to have a fair bit of barter money). At the beginning, I couldn't carry everything I found due to weight limitations. Which meant pick what I deemed worthy and leave the rest behind. And then I had to walk (!) back to the ship. Which usually involves a couple of incidents, like mad pigs, boars, dogs and whatnot to be all too happy to see me, they tried to nibble, hug and suck the living daylight out of me. Very much to the dislike of my personal body armour... More often than not, I spent my recently earned money on repairs. Weapons and armour repairs cost a lot... So I learned from that and decided to be a lot more careful, keeping my gear intact as best as I could. Which also means, no senseless shooting of whatever moves (or doesn't) because weapons degrade fast while you use them. Anomalies eat your armour. Bullets eat your armour. Heat eats your armour. Acid eats your armour. In fact, almost everything eats your armour. And the more severe the damage, the more expensive the repairs...

I reckon by now you've got the picture why it isn't just a walk in the park to make money and stay alive. Oh yes, there are artefacts, I heard they are worth lots of money, and they don't weigh much. Good idea to go collect artefacts. But you need a detector. You see, there are four detectors in the game. You start with the cheapest possible, which cannot detect all artefacts there are. Even if you are standing on top of them, you can't see them hence can't collect them, unless you get a better detector. And almost always, artefacts are surrounded by more or less dangerous but still dangerous anomalies, and yes, they eat away at your armour. And your health. So collecting artefacts might lead to sudden death... your own death, that is. By the way, I've watched bandits with a detector inside an anomaly field, fishing for artefacts... you're not the only one out there who knows they are valuable.

Alright, once I got some money, I didn't want to take an ill-fated chance with a guide to a new map whose unknown surprises might kill me on arrival if I wasn't properly equipped. So I spent my money on better gear. Prolonging my departure to Jupiter. Along the path, I happened upon something valuable to the guide, who then told me a trip would cost only 1,000 RU from now on. Tempting... But there were side missions and all, and they are all fun. Not a single mission I didn't like :)

You can imagine it is both a thrill to stand your man in the nasty world there, to gain money, gear and fame, but it is also seeming to slow you down on your intentions to get away from the kindergarten map to the high school part of STALKER world. That's where I'm now, and I have a feeling it's about time to graduate... Pripyat, I'm coming  ;D

Wow, you sure do get through things fast - great read, Art!  :-X

*Pling* 6,600th post: Now.  ;D (just saw my stats there to the left, hehe)

Thanks, PZ :)

The summary you just read might give you guys the impression I have just entered the second map, "high school," while in fact I am about to leave that map, entering Pripyat hopefully quite soon (well, "varsity") hehe. The guy who will be the guide to there has already left his place where he was like nailed to it all the time. I already know I'll have to use a tunnel, which needs to be cleared of mutants first (job taken, execution pending), and then I'll need a "closed" suit for the violent environment therein, and I shall be gathering people whom I'll lead to Pripyat. I have already befriended Freedom (a faction) so well... just a couple of things to do, like packing for the trip.  ;D

Enjoying your impressions thus far, Art, fun reading :-X

Quote from: Art Blade on February 23, 2010, 11:56:08 AM
just a couple of things to do, like packing for the trip.

Don't forget to pack plenty of heat and your lead-lined undies ;D

Didn't play much yesterday, but today a few hours. I like the game for teasing me so often. Hehe, you know how very much I would have liked to be able to "just" walk to Pripyat, fetch my tools, and go back. Well, the game is not just that easy. It sometimes works like "I want that" and the game goes "alright, under one condition" and then there are sub-conditions... For example, find a way to pripyat. Alright. Oh, the mission goal has changed, because new info has popped up when I visited that place where I was supposed to find out something. Which led from A to B to C... then I had to assemble a team. Minimum three people crazy enough to join me on a suicide mission to Pripyat. I was lucky I met a group of ex-Monoliths which I decided to put under the wings of Freedom (could have been Duty, too). Freedom needed to be friends enough with me to agree.

Fortunately we had some good deals before, so they already were my friends. I could have earned an achievement "friends of Freedom" but that might have caused trouble with those who dislike Freedom (and their friends) so I decided to make a deal with someone else, who was not related to either faction. So far, I am a "friend of Stalkers" which is good, no one taking offense, and just friends with Freedom. I'm still neutral (a bit chilled kind of neutral, though) with Bandits, and I'm neutral with Duty. I can walk among humans (except Monoliths, who are at war with each and everyone but themselves) without getting shot. Mutants are really a force that alone makes life hard enough, I don't need extra enemies, and Monoliths are yet another force I could do without, hehe.

So the leader of Freedom gave me the ex-leader of the ex-Monolith group to join my going-to-be-ex team. I had helped a guy with a bandit problem, so he was the next candidate. Only he needed a closed environmental suit (so did I). Now I had to find that suit. Back to Zaton... get one suit for him (and for me). On my return, I needed a third guy, ex-soldier (well, still soldier, but he lost his group). That guy needed a suit of his own, and the game somehow foresaw that. So of course, I had to do a little sidejob... find a plant for the scientists who would in return give him a suit. I grew slightly impatient when I finally had assembled my team. I thought, "a quicksave, and let's just go and see what happens next" and then I got teleported right into the mission (glad I did a regular save before that, in case I want to replay from there). However, I was planning to just check out what happened, but the mission was intense and interesting. So I kept going. I thought it was just a little tunnel... it was a bloody maze and full of hazardous stuff and mutants and Monoliths and anomalies and a power cut which needed to be fixed etc...

When I finally got to Pripyat, all my men had died along the way. sh!$ happens, lost all my men, so what. It's not exactly a world for pussies. I have to admit, the trip ate up my exo, a wonder it didn't drop off of me. I had ingested ten packs of anti-chemical pills to survive the trip, because I was so loaded with gear I couldn't switch to a SEVA suit (I had it in my rucksack, but while it fitted nicely into my exo, the exo didn't fit into my SEVA, I was packed with around 90kg, couldn't fit that into the soft suit). Then, arrived at Pripyat, I couldn't just go back. I had to accomplish yet another mission, so I decided to go on, and that meant recover a gauss rifle from Monolith. I was part of a new team assembled there, and again, I was the only survivor. We got properly ambushed by Monoliths, and outnumbered, and out-classed regarding weapons. At least at Pripyat repairs cost Zero dough. So I had all my gear repaired and got a couple of rifles with me from the trip, among which a tuned G37 which is really a decent weapon when upgraded to tier2, when we encountered that gang of Monoliths. With that, I killed the remaining bad guys, and I already was aware of the fact that yet again I had lost all my men. Pussies. I got that gauss rifle, returned to base, had my gear repaired, and finally was able to travel back by guide. I had doped myself with a drink that made me carry even more, plus an artefact of +12kg, plus 90kg exo, plus around 10% overweight limit, carrying a total of like 130kg of gear back home lol  ;D

All that without a single savegame in between and I survived, that's why I decided to continue the game rather than resort to my last quicksave. Because it wasn't meant to be a well-planned journey, I had all that gear with me (two SEVA suits in my luggage, lol) and not exactly the proper weapons I would have taken with me had I planned it.

Then I had to find out about the gauss rifle back in Zaton. Meanwhile I had spent so much on gear, repairs and upgrades, I had easily wasted like 100,000 RU. I was so short of money I couldn't afford a guided trip, so I started selling stuff for that purpose. However, getting info for the gauss rifle, I met some incredible resistant mutant inside an old research site I used up a lot of ammo. Did that three times just to find out if it could be done easier (I reckon it was a pseudo-giant or what it's called, sounds like an old lion and looks a little beefier than a chimaera, thumps the ground occasionally which makes the earth quake and myself squawk huskily). Well, I knifed even that thing and survived ;D

Now I need a break and some sleep, to be continued by tomorrow (weekend is coming) :)

Wow, all that in just a few hours!  Sounds like lots of travel to get things accomplished.  Does it seem lengthy when you are in the game?

No. It's all worthwhile :)

When I said "a few hours" it meant like 6 or so hours. Now I have added another one or two hours and have finally accomplished what I was waiting for all the time: I found the last toolbox for my mechanic in Zaton. First thing I did was have him upgrade my exoskeleton, especially the ability to sprint and also, two more pouches for artefacts. What I find most useful is the capacity of the cargo bay (lol) of my armour: using two Goldfish (each adds 12kg capacity) together with radioactivity-absorbing Bubble and Wrenched, I can now carry 114kg. I can drink some stuff which enables me to carry even more, didn't try it with the upgrades yet, but with one Goldfish plus drink I was able to carry 130kg, should be 142kg or more by now. That should allow me to carry around the "fruit of the loot" of half a battalion for later sale  ;D

I have seen something really funny and perplexing. I was on my first sight-seeing trip through Pripyat, destination "toolbox," when I came round the building where that toolbox was supposed to be, and I heard some noise and detected anomalies inside. I don't know why I looked up, but I looked at the edge of the roof of that building when exactly that moment I heard the noise of a beaten dog and immediately after that, I saw a massive dog with white glowing eyes which probably got yanked and tossed out of the window of the second floor by god knows what. I watched the dog sail through the window, over my head, and land behind me on its gob, and then it was dead. Hmmm, nice on one hand because I didn't have to worry about that beast, but on the other hand, what on earth kicks a hellhound like that so it whimpers and allows whatever it was to fling it through a window? Dead the instant it left the building rather than breaking its neck during the process of attempting a crash landing on its nose? LOL What a surreal moment that was. I decided to pack in my rifle and whip out my knife. Something that beats a dog to death deserved the Art Blade  ;D

It was a bloody Bad Yoda (burer) so I kept pricking him with the tip of my knife until he sank down on his knees and into his own blood. Cheerio, Mr dwarf, now I'll fetch that toolbox of yours and I shall be off to Zaton... :)

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Last night / this morning (depending on where you are) I concluded my investigations in the zone relating to operation Fairway.  ;D

Without giving too much away the end section is like running the Gauntlet, countless Zombies and Monolith soldiers ambush you on your way from point A to B. The fire fights are pretty intense, nearly ran out of ammo (set off with around 700 rounds!) and by the time I had got to the extraction point my weapon had degraded by around 40% and my exosuit by about 30%. So before you set off make sure you have more than enough ammo and medkits because you will need them!

If you survive and reach the extraction point your treated to a short cut-scene then given the option to leave the zone for good or stay.


Upon leaving the zone the story gets wrapped up in the same way it started - Pictures and Narration, and it does a good job of rounding it off and bringing the whole thing to a close.

If you choose to stay then you have to keep fighting until the coast is clear to leave the area. Plenty of guys lurking around or on roof tops with sniper rifles to keep you busy for a while. Then your free to explore the zone in a true openworld fashion.

I will be starting again from the beginning but this time trying out a few good looking mods (which will report on in the mod thread)




A really enjoyable game to play, plenty of puzzles to solve, some hard some easy. Plenty of decisions to make along the way relating to the various factions. A good selection of weapons and equipment, all familiar from the previous 2 games plus a couple of nice new toys. Loads of new characters and a few old familiar faces too.

All in All an excellent continuation of the "Zone saga". Well worth playing.

My aim now is to read "Roadside picnic" (the book that started it all), then watch the film, then play all three games in chronological order - Clear Sky, Shadow of Chernobyl then Call of Pripyat. If anything just to see how it actually all flows as a progressive story from one game to the next.

Thanks for the info regarding end game, Red  :-X

I'm right now in a situation, I would like to explore but I would also like to go towards finishing the game, meaning I'm not rushing things right now.

Regarding weapons and ammo: The game has them in such a great variety that it is a pain in the neck to decide which weapons to carry around (plus matching ammo) and which to leave in the personal crate. The main problem you have to deal with all the time is carryweight. I have a fully upgraded exo and two goldfish artefacts that allow me to carry 114kg as opposed to 50kg regular carryweight. If I want to carry a variety of weapons plus matching ammo, I easily touch the limit of 114kg. The next problem is, if you have a decent load-out like that, you have no space for good stuff you want to loot. So even if you have loads of packing space, you want to keep some reserve for loot which you will happen upon. Also, there are secret stashes you can find by accident or following map markers you had received as a reward for whatever job well done, so if you are packed to your teeth and then happen upon a stash... you need to sort out your inventory :)

During the game there are three maps with increasingly stronger opponents, so the choice of weapons is roughly matching them against the opponents. While mutants can be killed with a knife (hehe) of course you may also resort to buckshot, shotguns in different flavours are a good choice. Then the human opponents have increasingly more armour you need to penetrate (if you can't take your time for headshots) which means you need armour-piercing ammo. That kind of ammo is more expensive and less easy to come by. The more advanced (expensive) your weapon, the more expensive and less easy to find the ammo.

Weapons do follow the rules of ballistics you need to deal with, but it is not as advanced as for example in OFP2. The more accurate you upgrade your weapon and the flatter the arc a bullet goes, the better you can shoot enemies with farther-reaching bullets. Better scopes, better weapons, better armour... and better enemies. The game does a nice job regarding balance, you get what you expect.

At a higher stage of the game, especially after having delivered the calibration toolbox to your good mate in Zaton, you'll be able to upgrade some of your weapon systems with an automatic target acquisition. This doesn't mean you have an automatic aim system, but it will recognise if living beings are hostile or not, showing a coloured frame around targets. If it is red, there is an enemy, white is neutral or a mutant (dogs, for example). Basically it works exactly the same way your binoculars do. This doesn't sound spectacular, but it is when you consider a pitch black night or a low-contrast image you get when using night vision. The automatic system keeps track of targets even if they hide or move behind obstacles. You can't see through walls, though. It has helped me with a silenced sniper rifle that I had upgraded witht that tracking device, I was able to take out a guard post of around 10 Monolith warriors and Zombies (those are basically armed people that stagger around aimlessly until they spot you, then they will attack) without getting seriously hurt -- they only shot at me twice before I pierced their heads  ;D

This game also has two nice little gimmicks I always liked: Cutscenes, rendered in-game, when you achieved certain mission goals, and an achievement system that resembles decorations in the army. Each achievement is listed in your PDA (stats menu, if you like) and it does encourage you and makes you feel good when you get those achievements. They have a nice picture and a description of why you received it and what the bonus of it is, for example if you manage to surpass 100,000RU cash, you get a reward that traders will occasionally offer you special gear. If you play smart, you get a lot of achievements that reflect your gaming style or match your modus operandi.

I really enjoy this game :)

Quote from: Art Blade on February 27, 2010, 05:30:20 AM
I'm right now in a situation, I would like to explore but I would also like to go towards finishing the game, meaning I'm not rushing things right now.

I know what you mean, I got a little carried away and ended up at the final stages before completing all the side missions fully.

Quote from: Art Blade on February 27, 2010, 05:30:20 AM
Regarding weapons and ammo: The game has them in such a great variety that it is a pain in the neck to decide which weapons to carry around (plus matching ammo) and which to leave in the personal crate. The main problem you have to deal with all the time is carryweight. I have a fully upgraded exo and two goldfish artefacts that allow me to carry 114kg as opposed to 50kg regular carryweight. If I want to carry a variety of weapons plus matching ammo, I easily touch the limit of 114kg. The next problem is, if you have a decent load-out like that, you have no space for good stuff you want to loot. So even if you have loads of packing space, you want to keep some reserve for loot which you will happen upon. Also, there are secret stashes you can find by accident or following map markers you had received as a reward for whatever job well done, so if you are packed to your teeth and then happen upon a stash... you need to sort out your inventory :)

Indeed, I always made sure I had 4-5 medkits and bandages, 2 antirad syrettes and a couple of tins of cat food. As for ammo would take about 20 spare clips for my main weapon system, 10 for my secondary gun and 4-5 clips for my back up pistol. The image below is my 2 main weapons of choice. Would always use the ammo with the black band around the box for my primary (top), and solid slugs for the secondary (bottom). Generally would set off with around half my weight allowance used, picking up weapons dropped by dead enemies along the way only to empty the ammo out and unless it was in near perfect condition dropping the weapon. Its far easier to build cash up with artefacts than it is selling weapons.




Although when it came to the final stages I left the shotgun in my chest and got 2 of the AS VAL (top image) rifles upgraded to the same spec, with a 30 round clip and fixed 5x scope it was great for quick medium-short range sniping on single shot, and on full auto ideal for quick bursts to the head of any ugly mutant that got too close. The shotgun (bottom image) was not as useful as it was fun to use, had great fun crouching on top of vehicles taking short bursts at mutant and zombie heads but it takes way too long to reload to be of any real practical use. A good last-stand type weapon though.

 ;D

The "black belt" bullets are armour-piercing. When you said 10 or 20 clips... I see the amount of bullets in my stack of a certain type of ammo... I carry around like 500+ per type, except buckshot. The Eliminator, your lower gun, takes some time to reload, but so does every buckshot gun. What you might not have known, the Eliminator can be fitted with a big scope, lol  ;D All you need is balls of steel to actually stop, crouch, and aim through the scope... then you can take out a lot of mutants or other people with it.  ;D

The G37 is very interesting. Built-in scope which can be upgraded to a high contrast scope, always has that cool crosshair inside, and further upgrades to either zoom or tracking device, and maxed out it has 100% accuracy. Single shot, burst of three, or fully automatic. It is decent, both as assault and as sniper :)

There are standard scopes in two flavours: cqc x1.6 with only half of the front of the scope showing colour, or 4x regular with the front part of it fully coloured: Either night vision (green) or regular (blue). And those scopes come either as big and short (NATO), or slim and long (Russian).

There are so many ways you can upgrade your guns  :)

A good way of making money with weapons is once you have access to Pripyat, have the army guy repair all your gear for zero, nothing, nada... for free! Then take the guide straigt to Zaton, costs nothing to Jupiter but 1,000 extra for a non-stop travel to Zaton. There you sell your stuff and take a guide to Jupiter for another 1k. At least you get the money for the trips back if you sell some weapons like that :)

Tried the Eliminator with a scope but ended up favouring its use up close, mostly just stuck with the AS Val, armour piercing rounds and the fixed 5x optics, did at one point have the scope with enemy Id (same as binoculars) but for some silly reason sold it and never got chance to replace it.

I did really enjoy dropping bullets down onto a distant target before getting all the available Flatness upgrades. And every now and then using hard surfaces to ricochet a round into place. It is a bit hit & miss but very satisfying when the target drops  dead after bouncing a few shots off concrete pillars and big ship hulls.

There are a couple of mods that improve the realism of the in-game ballistics so will check them out and post a comparison. As Art says the ballistics are not as true to life as say OFP2 or Arma2, but they are an improvement on the physics in the first two.

Haha, billard with bullets?  ;D :-X Got to try that. Never occurred to me :)

The game offers a lot of different combat styles. Today I have played a mission that required me to clean a high building, every floor accessible, including roof and basement/cellar. Another mission reminded of the one in CoD4 which incidentally plays in or near Pripyat, and it is a sniper mission, too.

The high building (X8 Lab) is, on the floors above ground, both infested with militant Zombie soldiers and fanatic Monoliths, and below ground inhabited by mutants and ghosts. I found out I can kill a ghost with my blade  ;D

Because of the variety of weapons and upgrades of those, you can play as you wish: Stealth, Sniper, full assault, or a combination of those tactics. Erm... right now I feel an imperative urge to get a coffee into my system, I'll be right back  ;D

Much better now :)

Alright, so the game allows you to play the way you like it. In my case, the building was something I wanted to observe first, rather than enter and get killed. First I noticed the count of people somewhere around me (indicator top left of the screen shows humans and zombies and sums them up, and it indicates people that are a little outside the visual info of the map in the same HUD location) without actually seeing anyone. The weapon system of my suppressed sniper immediately reacted when I put the scope to my eye. I had those frames already in sight while the matching people were yet out of sight. Once they came into my sight, they lost their mind and head :) I must have sniped like 20 zombies that way, all inside the building, yet visible through windows. Indeed, when I entered the building, there were corpses everywhere  ;D

Then the Monoliths (or mercs, I don't remember) entered the scene and gave me the impression they wanted me to soak up all their ammo. I didn't like that idea, of course, and tried to kill them in a maze of rooms, broken stair cases and floors. I reckon those were another ten or so enemies but those are tougher than most people you encounter.

So I had sniper fun, stealth fun, and close quarters combat fun. And a slightly worn down armour. The rest was mutants and ghosts in the cellar and a few anomalies and artefacts on the roof. Nice :)

By the way, I don't know why, but I find myself doing all those fights at night. I like to sneak around at night, no stalkers around (they stay inside at night) so I can shoot, bomb, stab and hunt everything that moves  ;D

Excellent synopses fellows  :-X

Your descriptions give readers a good idea about how the game plays.

Here is a view through a high contrast scope with automatic target tracker. You can hardly see it, it's far away, but it's one of those massive dogs with white glowing eyes running from left to right, around it an imaginary box of which you can only see the white corners. It's my Lynx sniper rifle, maximum upgrades, it has 100% accuracy and 100% damage.

[smg id=2041 align=center width=400]

The next pic is that dog, I decided to kill it with my knife (two of those dogs took 17 hits from the Lynx until they croaked! But only four or five slashes from the knife...)

[smg id=2042 align=center width=400]

DONE  ;D

I've finished the main mission and I checked the "are you ready to leave the zone? (cannot return)" first with yes, and as Red mentioned, a nice slideshow with narrated events that depend on what you did finish the game. Then I reloaded and watched those helos fly away and I was left with a few Monoliths.

The first end did almost not harm my armour and I noticed the gauss rifle was the only rifle I needed, so the next turn (into free play) I grabbed all batteries I had for the gauss rifle (as someone once said, it is the perfect "one shot, one kill" weapon). But this time my exo got eaten halfways through, so I whipped out my fresh and polished second exo suit  ;D I must have used only like 50 shots during the entire show with the gauss and then the endgame was over. The place where I am now stranded is covered with bodies, I guess around 20 or 30... I need a truck for all that loot  ;D And I hope that I still have a base and someone who repairs my gear for free.

Excellent game  :-X

Haha, Uncle Jar is my new medic and mechanic, and he doesn't want money... repairs for an exo that is say 30% damaged easily cost around 8,000 RU and mine was down to 30% lol, for 0,00RU I won't complain  ;D

Cool was, when I returned to Pripyat base (here called Waschsalon = launderette) I met other stalkers, and one of them said "Wow, so you have returned?"  :-X :)

One more thing: After finishing the official part, the free play has considerably relaxed myself. I had my gear repaired by uncle Jar, stashed most of my stuff away and only took the Lynx (special SVDm-2), the SVU2-A (Max' silenced sniper), my gauss and a G37 with me. And the backup exo :) However, I pulled out my G37 and just went for a walk to the extraction point to see if there were still bodies to loot. On my way I encountered some animal mutant, a couple of Zombies and a handful of Monoliths who had taken their guard post back. I was so chillaxed that I slowly crouched, fire mode single shot, and took every oponent down with neat headshots, then continued looting as if nothing had happened. Had to use a stalker energy drink so I was able to carry around my almost 140kg of loot haha :) Going to do some trading in Zaton next, then try to finish unfinished jobs.

Really a nice game :)

Well I finally got around to installing and starting CoP. So far I have found 2 choppers, survived an emission, found a couple of stashes and done a few missions. what strikes me is how huge the map is, you can easily find yourself walking for real hours when getting around. since I played both SOC and CS all the controls are familiar, however the graphics are as you would expect far better. It´s a little early to really review the game but sofar it looks really good.  :-X

wahey! Cool, deadman  :-X Enjoy and have fun  :)

Beware the Snorks!

About the End (no spoilers intended)

I read on a different forum how some people were more or less disappointed by the finale of the game. I think this finale is just logical, if you remember your mission: Get into the zone and find out what had happened to the helicopters. Well, once you know that, you report and get out, don't you? It is exactly what happens. Investigate, find out the reasons, report, and get the hell out (and take fellow soldiers who got stuck in the zone with you). The option to say "I want to stay" or simple not to leave the zone is another cool option that fits into the game.

When I was through with the mission, I had spent one month (that's what it reads on my PDA) in the zone, got to know many people and was fascinated by all the strange stuff. No different than many other stalkers. So I decided to stay...

Since I got there, I had three bases, starting on that wrecked ship, moving to a worn-down railway station, and finally moved to a nuked launderette. I had my stuff all across the zone, if you like, and once I made my decision to stay, I organised my stuff. Making money is easy now, I don't need to sell artefacts any more, I can easily make 20 or 30k  cash out of selling weapons, ammo and pharmaceuticals to the right people. Stalkers and Freedom are friends and make better offers, Bandits and Duty are neutral, so are their deals, maybe a bit less. Travelling from Pripyat to Jupiter is free, from there to Zaton is 1k (or go straight from Pripyat to Zaton for 1k), and from Zaton to Pripyat is 5k. From Pripayt to Zaton is only 4k, and from Jupiter to Pripyat 5k. So if you take that into account, and only travel when you have stuff to sell, you can get around for little money. If you consider that people you like don't travel at night, you can time each travel (always four hours in-game) so that you meet them at night (they stay in stations until 8 o'clock sharp, then they run outdoors and do what they have to do) and if you make deals with people you are friends with, you can get a huge chunk of money out of them with pharmaceuticals and ammo. Weapons and other gear I sell to Owl at Zaton, and once there, I buy batteries for my gauss rifle from Cordon. That ba$t@rd, 2k for six batteries means 333,33 RU per shot I fire with my gauss... if you think about it, my endgame, I blew about 50 batteries, roughly 17k on ammo during a single battle, LOL  ;D But it was well worth it.

So now I'll have time to find secrets or whatever, and kick some butt  ;D

So, it's a hell of a game, isn't it?  ;)

Devs made an excellent w@&k creating and balancing The Zone with all its inhabitants and relationships... it is trully a living world they got out there...

Quote from: RedRaven on February 28, 2010, 07:33:09 AM
Beware the Snorks!

Actually I had my first meeting with snorks a little while ago. I was going back to the boat in the middle of the night, it´s pitchblack and suddenly the "the can see me" meter on the minimap turns green all the way. I hear a growl and in the light from my headlamp I see a snork, remebering Art´s tip about the power of the knife, I wipped it out and gave the snork a quick slash when it jumped me. A few seconds later, another growl, slash and another dead snork. :-X That thing is seriously overpowered, witch I´m very grateful for  ;D

Hehe!  ;D :-X Well, maybe you are. You are a ranking officer from Russia, and a secret mission... obviously Russian SpecOps are well trained :)

Quote from: JRD on February 28, 2010, 10:45:43 AM
So, it's a hell of a game, isn't it?  ;)

It is.  :)

I have just asked a stalker where I could find artefacts in Pripyat, and he said he'd look for them in the tunnels which run under the city... I haven't even been there yet! Let alone found out how to get down there.

Great graphics  :-X  The only thing I would have changed is the scope view - I like how the scopes w@&k in FC2 - the periphery is simply out of focus.  One question - do the scopes hold steady like in FC2 or do they weave about like in FO3?

Thank you, PZ :)

They are steady scopes, no taking in breath and holding it or the likes. But the bullets are ballistic projectiles, a little guessing where they might hit (they leave traces) and perhaps the seconds shot does it (if targets are far away) while short or mid distances are a piece of cake. :)

There are a few mods available with alternate and replacement scopes so will check them out and see which ones compare to FC2.

Quote from: Art Blade on March 01, 2010, 12:59:12 AM
They are steady scopes, no taking in breath and holding it or the likes.

lol, that's good - the vanilla version in FO3 makes me feel like I'm a drunkard trying to fire a gun!

Something else I kept thinking about, this CoP is even worse than FO3 with regards to collecting stuff. While it is necessary during the main campaign, it is hobby during free play.

A typical scene of free play:
I leave the base (launderette in Pripyat) carrying 10-15 drinks (in case) called "Hercules" which give you a five-minute-boost of 20kg extra carryweight. Then I carry two artefacts called "Goldfish" which give you 12 extra kg each = 24kg, and I have a 10kg buffer in my exoskeletton to the upgraded 90kg backpack. Now my entire loadout consists of 19 artefacts (10 different types, 9 of which are double), two identical exoskelettons (one backup), two identical FT-200M with target tracker scopes, one G37 high accuracy (sniper replacement assault rifle), like 1,200 armour piercing rounds of ammo, and some other stuff like food and meds. Total 75kg. Max carryweight, using all means, is 143.99 kg (144 would be overencumbered).

So I leave the base, see some mercs down the road, kill them, loot them, and am already at like 100kg. Then I notice bodies from whatever fight had happened moments ago, and I loot them. The stuff is just too good to allow it to rot away, or someone else to take it away. Now I'm at 120kg. I sigh, turn around, and walk those 500 yards back to base, have the gear repaired, stash it away, and there comes an emission. So I keep stashing away, making room for more loot, and when the emission is over, I rush outdoors and try to locate the bodies of those stalkers who had fled from the emission (why didn't they stay here with me?) and again they had tried to hide in an open staircase. So I loot them and carry the stuff back to base. I have it repaired and stash it away.

I decide I have already collected so much loot that it would be a good idea to make a trip to Jupiter and Zaton to sell the stuff. On my return and after spending 5k on the guides, I still have between 30 to 50 k more on my bank account. Like that, I'm now scratching at 700,000 RU, and most of the money is from selling loot to the right people.

Usually a trip doesn't take long because I am so soon near my carryweight limits that I return with the stuff and start over, same routine  ;D

Alright. So there is no achievement or prize if you honestly worked your way up to 1,000,000RU as there was for your first 100,000 cash. Now that I did find out, I now no longer need to sell stuff to get rich, nor do I have to keep looting like a maniac.

I'll see if I can resist looting  ;D (of course, a little ammo and meds... hehe)

I just left the Zone after selling all my stuff. It took a couple of trips but I ended up with a little over 700 000 RU, not a bad nest egg for my retirement  ;). The end credits was quite enlighting too. (That´s all I´m going to say about that)  :P

Hehe  :) I've just returned to a savegame when I had the choice to achieve "friends of Freedom" and I did so, this time. Offered more gear, I've seen scopes for guns now I didn't know existed (one was yellow and one was blue at front and end) and a better version of Freedom armour available... who knows what else there is.

However, I have decided to do it better this time than during my last playthrough where I didn't expect the passage to Pripyat to be that long etc, losing all my men both on my trip to Pripyat and during the next unavoidable mission (retrieve unknown weapon aka gauss rifle). I want to keep at least the men on my way to Pripyat. I don't know if we can keep the men alive whom I'll have to accompany to get that rifle. Things to do this time: Prepare, with knowledge of what is going to happen  :)

Man, I've assembled the team, got that seva suit, just to find out Nitro doesn't use mine. It stays in my inventory, thanks... Just threw 20k away to have no carryweight problems on the way to Pripyat. Taking my time, I have to say, it is probably the most interesting part of the game: Try to keep your four fellow stalkers alive through all that mess :) And since it is linear (open world tunnel sounds rediculous, anyway) it is even more nerve wrecking (there really is no way back, it's a one-timer). I've already used up one exo and switched to the fresh backup. Apparently it pays off  ;D Going back into the tunnel now...

Turns out that I had saved just around the corner of the exit when I decided to write the previous post. LOL

Was good to see how cutscenes play out differently, and now those characters are still alive and interact. The gauss mission however... I tried two times, and even those different tactics (don't follow, instead climb the ladder together with the team's sniper -or- enter the opposite wing of the hospital where Monolith are supposed to surprise us) didn't pay off. All team memberes died (well, so did Monolith team). We are talking about approximately 20 enemies vs a team of 4+me. The third time it finally worked: I entered the appointed wing but went upstairs although not to the highest accessible floor. I was about in the middle of everything but on the appointed side. I killed the gauss guy (who drops off a roof and then drops his gauss rifle) who is either hard to kill or scripted to die theatrically. From my position I was able to adress all floors on the opposite side (wing) and we finally managed. On our side two dead, three alive :) But it didn't come easy. Something that helped a little was that the third time I decided to take a nap until 3:00am so we arrived at dawn. With daylight brightening up the battle scene, it was more fun.

[smg id=2051 align=center width=400]

I'm a bit of a latecomer to the Zone, so I'm still figuring things out and finding my way around, but so far, I'm impressed. Graphically, it's great to look at. Lighting and weather effects are excellent (sure does rain a lot!) and unlike in FC2, night-time is actually like night-time, ie. dark! Thank heavens for my headlamp.

At this stage I don't have much to add to what's already been said here. I got off to a bad start because I somehow dropped my initial weapon, I think while I was trying to figure out how to lower it, and some other stalker nicked off with it >:( Then I got pounced on by a pack of dogs while I was making my way towards one of the helicopter wrecks and used up most of my pistol ammo in the scrap before remembering that the knife worked better (thanks for that tip, Art :) ). Then I got killed in an emission (I didn't know about the PDA showing you where to go). Lesson learned – an abandoned guard shack does not provide sufficient protection from an emission.  Not an auspicious start to my stalking career :-\

A tad wiser, I started again, and have been going ever since. I can see that this game will have considerable replay value as there is just so much that you can do and there are so many possibilities to explore. I'm finding it a little bit overwhelming, but I'd rather be overwhelmed than underwhelmed ;D You're certainly spoiled for choice in this game regarding side missions and such, it seems to me there's a lot of different ways that you can go. There's a lot to learn as well when it comes to characters and locations.

Still early days, but I'm becoming more immersed all the time. I'm also determined to play all the way through on vanilla before I think about modding.

One niggly personal gripe - I do miss my vehicles. I'm not used to all this walking around everywhere. I'm guess I'm just going to have to fitten up some ;D That trifling irk aside, I think I could easily get hooked on this game.

Quote from: fragger on March 29, 2010, 04:58:03 PM
sure does rain a lot!

Hahahahahahahaha..... at least its not just me getting wet in the acid rain !

Don't forget about the perpetual full moon.

Nice read there, fragger mate  ;D :-X I cracked a smile when reading that you dropped your initial weapon without realising, cause I did, too  ;D Only they didn't nick mine, I just reloaded because I couldn't be bothered to keep searching the area for it ;)

And yes, the allmighty knife does wonders  ;D

Keep going, mate. You'll soon notice that a vehicle won't be of help much, and that you're far better off walking because of the stealth factor. Well, you can't leg it all the time though, but you wouldn't be sitting in your car all the time, either. So walking is it, and crouch and super-low crouch (CTRL+SHIFT by default; apparently remapping those keys screws with the game engine ie you cannot low-crouch if remapping those keys).

To get rich, sell everything to everyone at the beginning, and artefacts only to Beard, informations to Owl -- except the PDA of the stalkers you'll find inside an anomaly only detectable with a prototype detector later on in the game (Jupiter). That PDA of the founder of Duty is essential to tip the favours of either Freedom or Duty. Choose wisely whom to give it to.

That's about it. Oh, and if you are working with a group of people (not counting bandits) try your very best to have all of them survive whatever you do, use savegames a lot. The savegame is actually one single file that gets overwritten every time you press F5.

Alright, have fun... and once you're through, modding will be the next step to having even more fun  ;D

About the walking aspect - for those of you that have played FO3 - how does it compare?  I've discovered that my patience is a bit taxed in FO3 unless I use fast travel.

At the beginning you may think "wow, huge area, long walks." Then, later, you may think "I can't walk for a minute without being attacked by something" (or finding stuff you want to collect, loot, explore...). So the three areas Zaton, Jupiter and Pripyat seem huge when you don't know them, but once you know them you'll realise that it isn't quite that big at all. Travelling between maps always requires you to use a guide (in exchange for money), travelling inside a map doesn't require a guide, but at times you may want to treat yourself to using a guide (for less money).

So it is not as massive as FO3, hence you will get over the thought of being in need of a transportation.  :)

Thanks, very good to know!  :)

Cheers, all :)

@Art: You're right, after playing some more I realise that if I was in a vehicle, I'd be having to stop every few seconds to hide, check out something, or do battle. So vehicular transport wouldn't really be suited to this game. Thanks for the additional tips there too mate, very helpful :-X

Welcome :)

There is one more PDA that you should not sell to Owl, it is when you do the stalker mission to prevent a weapons deal, you sneak up with some stalkers to the facility on top of a hill rather close to the Ship (argh, I hate it not to have an English version of that game, lacking "proper" location names). The boss of the badies has a PDA, too... keep it for later on ;)

Sorry to bump this old topic, but i just found a used copy of COP on Amazon.ca for $15, so i ordered it. 8) Looking forward to giving it a go.

Because of FC2 I'm currently using my XP partition where I've also got CoP installed, so today I gave it a nostalgic go and played a bit. What I had forgot is how the graphics keep freezing once and again, not long, just enough to annoy me  ;D The other games I played recently don't do that. Just in case you're experiencing those lags, that's quite normal, you may want to reduce the gfx settings if it's too hard on the nerves  ;)

But the game deffo is a lot of fun. You can mod the game, you know :)

Bumping old topics is good, Ric - brings back good 'ol memories  :-X

Enjoy the game, and let us know your thoughts.

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)

Quote from: Ricamundo on January 30, 2011, 02:34:42 AM
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.

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

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

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!

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.  :)

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?

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 :)

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...

Quote from: Ricamundo on February 08, 2011, 03:38:15 AM
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]

"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.

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.

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  ^+-+

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?

Quote from: Ricamundo on February 08, 2011, 12:17:03 PM
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  :-()

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?

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. :-\\

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.

:)

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.

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.

Quote from: Ricamundo on February 12, 2011, 07:51:33 AMThose 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.

Quote from: Ricamundo on February 12, 2011, 07:51:33 AMHow 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).

Quote from: Ricamundo on February 12, 2011, 07:51:33 AMThere 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 :)

Quote from: Ricamundo on February 12, 2011, 07:51:33 AMOne 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.

Quote from: Ricamundo on February 12, 2011, 07:51:33 AMAlso, 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 :)

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.

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 (http://stalker.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page)

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

Quote from: .Art Blade. on February 13, 2011, 06:16:34 AM
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  :-()

Quote from: deadman1 on February 13, 2011, 08:01:56 AM
... 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

Psssst, PZ, in case he starts to post too much, I could still ban him.







^+-+ :-() ;)

Thx guys. :-X I am really atarting to get into this game. 8) I already found a Black Kite. It was in a desk in a building near one of the fallen choppers(maybe same one?) Im using one of the military shotguns, (spas 12?) It seems to do a good job against those pesky bloosucker thingies, and i like a shotgun in a corridor/room over an assault rifle. I found and repaired an assault rifle that has a 4x scope, and have several other repaired weapons in my trunk.

I seemed to have run out of missions in the first map(Zolton or something?) so i paid a guide to take me to another map(again the name escapes me) Ive already been out zombie hunting, found some radio parts for the gun rapair guy, and taken care of a debt owed to bandits( now dead bandits) by another Stalker.

I discovered that you are NOT safe from emissions under a heavy concrete overpass that was only open at one end, doh! but luckily i was close to a road checkpoint that the ex bandits had held and had a safe room for the emission event.

There's definately an RPG feel to this shooter, with all kinds of side missions, and as mentioned, ways to get discounts by making the gun guys your BFF. ;D Its been days since i played either FO game, and ill tell ya, i dont miss those CTD's so common in them. STALKER does get jittery a bit out in the open, but its extremely stable, even after several hours of play. :-X One thing ive noticed tho, is it seems to take forever to start a saved game, although its very quick to reload after dying, but from desktop to game start must be a couple of minutes at least.

Quote from: .Art Blade. on February 13, 2011, 01:15:52 PM
Psssst, PZ, in case he starts to post too much, I could still ban him.







^+-+ :-() ;)

:o





^+-+

Quote from: Ricamundo on February 13, 2011, 01:21:41 PM
Thx guys. :-X I am really atarting to get into this game. 8) I already found a Black Kite. It was in a desk in a building near one of the fallen choppers(maybe same one?) Im using one of the military shotguns, (spas 12?) It seems to do a good job against those pesky bloosucker thingies, and i like a shotgun in a corridor/room over an assault rifle. I found and repaired an assault rifle that has a 4x scope, and have several other repaired weapons in my trunk.

I seemed to have run out of missions in the first map(Zolton or something?) so i paid a guide to take me to another map(again the name escapes me) Ive already been out zombie hunting, found some radio parts for the gun rapair guy, and taken care of a debt owed to bandits( now dead bandits) by another Stalker.

I discovered that you are NOT safe from emissions under a heavy concrete overpass that was only open at one end, doh! but luckily i was close to a road checkpoint that the ex bandits had held and had a safe room for the emission event.

There's definately an RPG feel to this shooter, with all kinds of side missions, and as mentioned, ways to get discounts by making the gun guys your BFF. ;D Its been days since i played either FO game, and ill tell ya, i dont miss those CTD's so common in them. STALKER does get jittery a bit out in the open, but its extremely stable, even after several hours of play. :-X One thing ive noticed tho, is it seems to take forever to start a saved game, although its very quick to reload after dying, but from desktop to game start must be a couple of minutes at least.

Yes the startup is really slow for some reason, it might have to do with the fact that the game is loading as much of the current map as possible in advance in order to do away with loadtimes. The jitter you experience is just the game refilling it´s graphics memory with objects and stuff. I get that too eventhough I have 6GB of Ram  ????, you´d think that would be enough for the entire map  ::)

Quote from: .Art Blade. on February 13, 2011, 01:15:52 PM
Psssst, PZ, in case he starts to post too much, I could still ban him.

^+-+ ^+-+ ^+-+

I am enjoying the hell out of this game!  8) I found a walkthru which has helped a bit as well. Im still doing mish's in the second map, apparently called Jupiter. Ive aquired a better suit of armour, and some good weapons, and ive managed to find a couple of artifacts, one of which is called a Goldfish. This one is a keeper as it increases your carryweight, but it emits a ton of radiation. I had it in a pocket for 5 minutes then died. Doh! Now i see that ill need another called a Balloon, that counteracts the rads, but i havent found it yet, so the Goldfish is sitting in my trunk.

I still havent got the hang of the Veles detector yet. If i get caught in an anomoly, i take a lot of damage, and i rarely get an artifact for my pains. I have yet to find one anywhere else but inside an anomoly either. :-\\ I thinmk ill soon be ready to heat to the third map, Pripyat. That should be fun, and i can see ill be playing this game again and again, as i know i missed quite a lot of things in Creek, the first map.

Have any of you guys gone thru the tunnels to get to Pripyat, or have you paid the guide to take you? I tried the tunnel route, assembling a team and away we went.

I have to say the tunnels were one of the most exciting and visceral areas ive ever experienced. Just an incredible eerie dark scary dark terrifying fun dark creepy dark map as you'll ever play. 8) Now im in Pripyat, and the main shelter/base of operations doesnt have a vendor to sell stuff to, so i hope there's some shop elsewhere, as my trunk is full of interesting assault rifles and sniper rifles. Ive no idea which are the keepers and which arent worth the bother, but this 50 kilo carry weight is a pain!

There are no vendors in Pripyat, so you´ll have to go back to either Zaton or Jupiter in order to sell your loot. Have you tried upgrading your armor? I know you can get up to 10 kilos of extra carryweight that way, and you might also look into buying an exoskeleton as they will allow you to carry more if I remember correctly. The only drawback with one of thise is that you wont be able to sprint untik you´ve upgraded them to tier 3, and for that you´ll need to find the tools for calibration and give them to either mechanic. Those tools can be found in Pripyat btw.

I bought the Seva (?) body suit from the vendor in Jupter for 25,000ru when it became available, and i did have it upgraded by the Scientist in that Lab as well, but my carryweight is still only 50 kilos., altho i can carry up to 59.9 kilos and still walk, but i cant run. its funny, @ 60.0 kilos i cannot move an inch. ^+-+

On the first mish i killed a sniper on a rooftop who had an experimental weapon, that i now have in my backpack. I cannot remove it, so to whom do i hand it over to?

Quote from: Ricamundo on February 18, 2011, 04:34:19 AM
I bought the Seva (?) body suit from the vendor in Jupter for 25,000ru when it became available, and i did have it upgraded by the Scientist in that Lab as well, but my carryweight is still only 50 kilos., altho i can carry up to 59.9 kilos and still walk, but i cant run. its funny, @ 60.0 kilos i cannot move an inch. ^+-+

On the first mish i killed a sniper on a rooftop who had an experimental weapon, that i now have in my backpack. I cannot remove it, so to whom do i hand it over to?

The SEVA suit is only really useful in the tunnel from Jupiter to Pripyat, I have a modified Sunrise suit that has been upgraded by Cardan at Zaton to carry 60 kg. As for the gun you need to take that back to Zaton and show it to Cardan.

Something a bit odd happened while i was in Pripyat. I noticed that the little icon for the missing helocopter crew that had been lost in Pripyat is now not there. The mish is still listed in the mission log, i think its part of the main mission, but the icon is gone, and i cant remember exactly where it was.

Ive taken the experimental gun (Gauss?) back to the gun guy in Creek, and i also brought him some calibration tools, but the tools are still in my backpack for some reason. Apparently he still needs basic tools i think he said. (sigh).

He did give me a keycard to some place so thats where im headed next.

I cant say im all that impressed with the Pripyat map. the first 2 maps are fully populated, so you have someone to banter/trade with, but Pripyat is all but deserted, except for a few zombies and random Monolith squads, and stray dogs. The laundromat has i think 4 soldiers in it, as the squad i joined to root out the sniper on the roof are all dead. its also kind of odd that you can find all sorts of new (to me) weapons in Pripyat and no one to sell them to. :-\\

I think the basic tools (at least there is a box) are in a train wagon to the left on exiting by the front of the station, there is a light (high voltage anomaly) in that wagon moving back and forth inside, I think you can jump onto the train from a bridge, get inside, avoid the anomaly and grab the tool box.

And yes, the tunnel was outstanding, the first time was really frightening and intense, the next couple of times I replayed it because of how cool it was. :)

Thx guys. I was on that train with the electrical anomoly a while back but iu was looking for artifacts (and trying not to die) and didnt notice any tools in there, so ill check it again when i go back to the Jupiter map.

Quote from: Ricamundo on February 19, 2011, 07:40:21 AM
Thx guys. I was on that train with the electrical anomoly a while back but iu was looking for artifacts (and trying not to die) and didnt notice any tools in there, so ill check it again when i go back to the Jupiter map.

The toolkits at Zaton are located at the sawmill and the mercenary camp. I think the ones you need are the ones at the sawmill, just beware of all the zombies there though.  >:D

Yep, i visited the sawmill yesterday, and i had a chance to break in my new assault rifle, i think its a G37?? There's so many weapons i cant remember them all. ;) Anywho, after i offed about 20 or 30 zombies, i found the tools, and gave them to the drunk guy, who is on the wagon now, so i have no use for all the vodka i was hording to give him. ^+-+

Anywho, i also picked up the exo skeleton i had ordered, and had it, and all of my main weapons totally modded out by the now tooled up ex drunk. ;D Sweet! So now my carrywieght issue is gone, as its now a whopping 90 kilos up from 50. I also grabbed the mod that allows you to sprint. I aslo have the now repaired Gauss rifle and some batteries, so ill give that gun a try the next time im up against a big time baddie. 8)

Im back in the Jupiter map to finish off the Zele Detector mish, and sell of some stuff, then back to Pripyat where i think the main mish picks up again.

One little thing about selling stuff that is kind of a pain is if you have picked up a lot of ammo over time, and you want to shift it from say, your backpack to your trunk, or back again to sell it, is that you cant just click on the icon and shift the whole thing at once. It just moves in dribs and drabs, sometimes as little as 3 bullets/shells at a time, some times, 30 or more at a time. I had 1500 rounds of something i wasnt planning on using in my trunk in Jupiter, and i spent about 30 minutes moving  all of this excess ammo to my backpack in order to sell it all. Sheesh. :-\

I finished the game today. it ended rather suddenly, with a few rather unnescessary cut scenes, and a too brief run thru pripyat with a few other soldiers to the LZ where a couple of choppers awaited. I did see a window that asked me something like this is a point of no return you cannot go back to pripyat, or something like that. I assumed i would be deposited somewhere to roam freely as the game advertised but i guess i chose wrong and the far too long ending sequences started.

All in all a fantastic open world game, with lots of missions, loot, places to explore and people and various freaks to meet or kill. 8) I read a review at gamespot, in which the revewer pretty much hit the nail on the head with regards to the Pripyat map, in that the tunnels leading to Pripyat were incredibly intense and atmospheric, but once you reach pripyat, it was a bit of a letdown, which i agree with 100%

I definately will  start a new game very soon, but i think i'll play FO for a day or 2, and see if i can get at or near the end, or to wherever i get fed up enough with the CTD's to want to quit it again. ^+-+

If you chose not to take the chopper, you can thereafter do what you like, kill and loot, buy and sell.. the guys at the base will greet you and you'll hear people talk about you.. the guy in the base will repair your gear for free! So drag all your stuff there, have it repaired for free, and go sell it somewhere else :) You can get an awful lot of money like that.. and it is nice to be able to walk around everywhere (but the tunnel) :)

Thx Art. ;) I've just started a new game. I hadnt intended to start just yet, but i followed that link to a STALKER mod site, and installed a carryweight mod that i wanted to try out. Sweet! I can now carry 150kg and run, 200kg walk only, if i understand the readme. im still very light, and when an Emission warning sounded, i was able to run non stop back to the ship without tiring. A nice bonus! Now all i need is enough Ru to buy a decent weapon and better armour. Nothing like a crap AK that isnt even @ 100% repair and only 2500 Ru for a slow start. ????

That carryweight mod has been a huge bonus on this, my 2nd playthru. Ive made close to 500,000Ru, with some loot to sell yet. I've bought several weapons and a combat armour suit from the guy on the Sverdosk(sp?) but because i have the carryweight mod, i didnt bother with the Exo skel suit this time.

SLOILERS...

On this playthru ive discovered pretty much all the hidden weapons, including a stash with a weapon in Pripyat high up in an apartment building that you can only reach by climbing that tree anomaly that grows between 2 apartment highrises. 8) I opted to stay in Pripyat this time, to have a good look around, and was happy to see some Stalkers show up at the laundry. Now Pripyat is a bit more like the other 2 maps, although i havent seen any bandits yet.

Only 1 thing annoys me a bit, and thats the constant stuttering frame rates while walking/running in outside areas, but that is probably my rather weak PC's fault, i suspect.
This is a great game that has basically made me abandon both FO games, although i want to play them a bit more until STALKER CS arrives. cant wait for that one. :-D

Although I wouldn't say that my rig was weak I still have those stutters.. so it's more likely bad programming.

After Googling about the stuttering issue you seem to be right Art. its a common problem. However someone suggested turning down a few things in the Advanced Video options. In mine, i noticed the grass detail level was right up, which kind of made sense, as the stuttering seems to be much worse in the Zaton and Jupiter maps, with all that grassy, shrubby landscapes. I turned it down to minimal along with the texture level to about half way. I'll have to see if that helps.

when playing recent titles such as NeedForSpeed:HotPursuit or Borderlands or TestDriveUnlimited2 at maxed-out graphic settings without stutters it makes me wonder how the heck some people manage to program some things so badly that you think your rig was a rotten piece of junk.

Well, my PC is almost 3 years old, and because its XP, i'd have to replace pretty much everything to make it a worthy upgrade. Im hoping i can get another year or so out of it, then just buy a new PC with W7.

It'd be interesting to analyze the coding in various games. Some, like the ones Art mentioned, are probably very slick, modular and efficient, while ones like CoP are probably more reminiscent of spaghetti. If that's the case, no amount of whizz-bang hardware is going to make a lot of difference.

I have an aging PC too and on my machine CoP stuttered like crazy in outdoor areas even with graphic options turned down pretty low, whereas FC2 runs smoothly with most stuff set to medium or high, so there you go.

Quote from: Ricamundo on March 11, 2011, 04:03:39 AM
Well, my PC is almost 3 years old, and because its XP, i'd have to replace pretty much everything to make it a worthy upgrade. Im hoping i can get another year or so out of it, then just buy a new PC with W7.

I think your vidoecard is the biggest issue here mate, without knowing your exact spec I think you can get a huge boost in performance just by replacing it with something like the Nvidia gtx 460. As for the rest of the computer you can always do what I do and replace 1 or 2 parts at a time, just because you run XP that shouldn´t be a problem other than XP:s limitation of max 3 GB RAM. Just be sure to check that your power supply are strong enough.

I think that if current games are less and less likely to support XP, whatever the rest of my PC's specs are will be rendered moot. :-[ The vid card i have is an nVidia 9800GTX. Not a slouch but definately a few generations out of date. I have no idea what the PS is rated at, or how to find out, but i suspect pretty much everything; vid card, PS, MB, ram, and OS are pretty soon going to be obsolete if they arent already. Bummer. :-\\

You can find out if your rig is old if you ask a sales person in a computer shop about your components. If he looks rather puzzled at you and claims that he has never heard of those, then it probably is a little out of date.

I suspect any computer salesman, unless he's comatose would say that anything over 6 months old needs updating. :-D

 :-D

"You bought it when?  Last week! Oh my god, don't you know that.. anyway, you'll have to replace it immediately."  :-()