Stalker: Call of Pripyat modding

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On a different note, I just ran a few checks with GPU-Z. Seems that Completes textures are to blame. With them on max I pretty fast (within a few seconds) max out my entire vram (1 GB just doesn't cut it anymore these days).
I guess that after some time this is too much to handle either for the engine or my hardware which is why I see the drop in fps.
Will play a bit more with textures lowered to 75%. Vram stays at ~700 MB, will see how that turns out.

Ony other thing I can think of is that it's linked to certain weather effects, which is hard to track though, as they reset on reload.

If you ask me, it's a dumb idea to get it before you acquired complete set of tools. But hey, if someone finds it fun to play this game without sprinting it's their bussiness.

And Gord, that's why I said you shouldn't max textures. When I was playing with 512 mb card I kept them on absolute minimum, and IMO they still looked better then maxed vanilla ones. You should be fine with keeping the slider at middle. Visual impact isn't that big and you can improve texture appearence with sharpening from FXAA injector.

Well I like being able to sprint, but that particular upgrade is really OP in CoP. It effectively removes the only major drawback exo has, making it very imbalanced.

Superb protection against combat damage, good protection against anomalies and environmental hazards, significantly increased carrying capacity AND being able to sprint without restrictions?

It still has shit anti-radiation protection. Don't know how much of a difference this makes in CoP, but in SoC I finished the game with the improved SEVA suit, because CNPP was such a bitch with all the radiation. But yeah, some of the tier3 upgrades are a bit wtf - I installed some weird shit on a Vintorez that allows me to see humans through walls apparently. Plus, maxed guns of any type seem hilariously overpowered in general.

Btw. Pripyat in CoP is so much more peaceful than in SoC, I've explored a fair bit and nobody sniped me from a balcony yet. There is also a distinct lack of random Monolith groups around every corner.

Pripyat is mostly empty bar some rats and the odd bloodsucker, plus specific locations guarded by large groups of Monolith.

I used SEVA because inability to vacate the area fast is fatal if someone decides to blow this area with RPG. In NPP I switched to exo because of lots of room to room combat, and before the rooftops the rooftops I switched to Bułat/SKAT because I was going to fight in the open again.

Radiation is fairly easily mitigated with proper artifacts - crystals and urchins in SoC, bubbles in CS/CoP.

Nah, only through light cover.

RPGs aside, the inability to run is just frustrating in general. It's really hard to dodge grenades with an Exo too. Plus, I never felt like I needed the relatively small armor increase in SoC - you die from a few bullets anyway, best way to avoid death is to not get hit too much.

Btw. Fuck you DraQ for reminding me of those rooftops. I was trying to forget that even existed. The "fake" endings to SoC are superior just because they don't have that sequence.

If you try to win the favour of every possible faction, the whole map turns green with friendly humans around and as the mutants are weakened, there are no more threats left in the Zone.

The idea behind CoP is that it's the last years of the dangerous times of the Zone, and now the Zone is going to be a well tamed tourist spot, except for its deep deep core. As you see from the ending slides, the Zone has been conquered and it will never be dangerous again.

By the way, it totally did not register with me until someone else pointed it out to me. There are no women in the STALKER games. But of course, why would there be women in the Zone? Unlike the unrealistic egalitarian medieval worlds of Forgotten Realms and Elder Scrolls games, this game shows what the Zone would be like if it were in real life. And the fact that there would be only men is so obvious, it does not register.

Well, frankly speaking, the same reason is for men for not being there... if we think about the same thing.

Ps. Yup, after SoC, CoP is very "friendly" place. "Green dots" bandits and other equally nice things. Years after years, SoC remains the best Stalker game, imho, imho.

SoC remains the fullest, and the most locations and enemies-filled game, I would say.

By the way, who else finds that STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl really feels like a different game every time you replay it? I played it in 2006, and I didn't think much of it then. I replayed it at a slower pace in 2007-08, and I found myself fascinated by the option to skip missions one did not like and meta-game straight to the good parts, by its rusty post-apocalyptic feel, and by its "lore". I replayed again in 2010-11, and this time, it felt like a revolutionary game in its use of a dynamic, changing world. When I was impressed with CoP, I replayed SoC for a few hours again, and I realize SoC always had some of the content for which I liked CoP.

I must say that Shadow of Chernobyl - which I dismissed as a mediocre game in 2006 - really and slowly grew on me as time went. And I missed so much. Did anyone else find Charon - the leader of Monolith, who wields a rare, rapid-fire gun?

Yup, same here. Charon (and the Monolitian base) is one of the things, that made SoC great. You don't have go there, "into the heart of the evil", but... curiosity... Same goes for "fake endings" or "grant wisher" or "special quests from trader" (e.g "visiting" the soldier post near the start of game). There is something special in the SoC. Something... dunno... "oldschool".

All I know is I would never want to explore these maps without ability to sprint. I do not hate my free time.

There is a woman in SoC in the duty camp.

Uhm, you mean some dude in the SEVA suit, called Nadia...?

It simply feels like one of those special games for me, like PS:T, Thief or Homeworld, which may have major flaws, but you play them, and you simply know that you're probably never going to experience something like this ever again. I'm not going to try and quantify this feeling, that's just how it is.

Is there a mod that adds fast-travel (between zones) to SoC?
Any opinions on good overhauls?
My biggest gripe with SoC has been the backtracking that could take ages when transversing several maps on foot.

Stallker Complete 2009 mod add a teleport feature as well as freeplay mode and some other smaller stuff (besides truckload of tastefully chosen textures, I'm generally not the fan of "re-texturing" activity that usually destroying original climate/climax, but... well... SoC Complete doesn't change too much, except crazy resolution of textures, so figures, I guess).

Ps. Hey, anyway, backtracking in the exo, is the very fine choice of gentlemen activity. Fast travel.. well... is like fast food, rarely worth tasting. But, that's taste matter, indeed.

Obviously you have a level of gentlemanliness I can only hope to achieve for myself one fine day.

Nah... I'm not the one, who beat ALL Moxxi's arenas...

No, they were superior just because they didn't have derpy reveal.

You'd think both the movie and the novel leaving the origin and purpose of the Zone intentionally ambiguous and unknowable would have clued GSC in on the fact that explaining EVERYTHING, in one huge burst of exposition no less, would not be such a good idea. In hindsight, the rooftop sequence afterwards was merely adding insult to injury.

Allow me a slight derail. What's the best mod for improving the experience of Clear Sky?

First-timer or not?

If yes, go for the starter pack: http://jumbofiles.com/lh6uylrnq5qs . It includes: Sky Reclamation Project, AtmosFear, Absolute Nature, Absolute Structures, Pistol Ironsights, plus other.

If no, I found OGSM CS pretty good. Other ppl recommend The Faction War.

I finished Call of Pripyat, and I'm not entirely sure what to think of it. I enjoyed it a lot, but I don't know whether I like how all the changes worked out together relative to SoC (haven't played CS).

Obviously, CoP has better production, more polish, and better core gameplay. You actually do what a stalker should be doing most of the time, which is exploring, hunting mutants and looking for artifacts. There's none of SoC's "here's 30 bandits spread around a huge area, have fun!", In fact, I'm pretty sure you can avoid combat against other humans (zombies aside) until the plot forces you to do it in the Jupiter complex. It's also great that artifacts and missions are the most sensible way of getting money, as opposed to carrying 10 AKs back to a trader in SoC. Anomaly flields are pretty fun, although not especially dangerous, even on Master. Mutants are a fair incline, with Bloodsuckers actually being somewhat dangerous.

Overall, I'd say that "not especially dangerous" is my primary criticism of CoP. The areas feel like a theme park, where you can generally walk anywhere with little to no fear of encountering anything dangerous. Say what you want about how annoying respawning bandits and whirlgig anomalies in the middle of the road were in SoC, they contributed to the feeling of constant danger. You couldn't just sprint across the countryside towards your destination, and expect to be fine. In CoP you do this all the time. People warn you about the Jupiter complex being dangerous, but there's nothing there, save for a few dogs and a scripted mercenary encounter. Pripyat mostly has packs of dogs and rodents roaming about. It just feels very themeparkish and compartmentalized. Walk to objective without a care in the world, complete objective, walk back to claim reward. It doesn't help that the maps are fairly small. Slightly bigger maps and a greater density of mutants, bandits, hostile stalkers and random anomalies would have helped CoP a lot.

My second criticism would be the narrative. I'm not expecting crazy plot twists and superb writing from a Stalker game, but there's basically no plot in CoP. Even though SoC's plot was a bit of a trainwreck at the end, it nicely fit with the setting and themes of the game. I was intrigued and curious while playing SoC, and this, for instance, made locations like X18 a lot better. In CoP, it was more like "eh, I'm in the neighbourhood, guess I'll go check out this crash site". You spend most of the game looking for dudes, eventually find them, and then it's time to kill Monolith again. They sort of tried to make it into a story of all the people in the region, but didn't really characterize any of them properly. That said, gathering the squad and venturing into Pripyat was cool, and the ending was definitely the game's strong point. Way better than the abomination that was SoC's canon ending.

So I'm at a bit of a loss here. I can recognize that, as a game, CoP is superior. However, I had more fun with SoC, and it was a much more memorable experience in general. Is Clear Sky worth trying, bros?

Thanks. First timer, I finished SoC (with LURK mod, at times frustratingly hard) and CoP which was as the Cowboy says, too easy. Pity. I hope Clear Sky is more like the first game in that regard.