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STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl Mod Thread

Elthosian

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Mar 14, 2012
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Also, Silva, I don't know what mod you ended up with, but vanilla SoC definitely does not have creatures jumping at you from everywhere; the game is actually very stingy with them - it takes like 10 hours of gameplay before you meet your first Bloodsucker, while in CoP you can traverse a building full of them within an hour or so. If anything, you fight humans way too often in SoC, to the extent where it gets very tedious in the endgame.

I think you're right with this, the first time I played vanilla SOC the most powerful enemies I could encounter in the Cordon and the Garbage were dogs, mutated pigs and boars, with the occasional pseudo-dog. Oblivion Lost is totally different in that sense, during my travel from the broken bridge to the Garbage I found two bloodsuckers, lots of Izloms (cut enemies added back by the mod), zombies and even a psy-dog.

CoP does everything better except the maps. Maybe it's partly nostalgia at this point, but I just like SoC's better.

I agree, SOC has some pretty great maps, the main problem is the fact looting/exploration is so stupidly designed that exploring them isn't as rewarding as it should be, going through the dangerous part of Red Forest was amazing, until I started to find lots of non-activated stashes, and the same with Pripyat, lots of explorable buildings but most of them were filled with empty containers... :(
 

DraQ

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Potatojohn said:
I don't understand how people like one STALKER game but not another

Let me explain the differences.

In Pripyat you have:

Actually meaningful sidequests with tangible consequences for people around you; actual exploration of the map thats rewarded with important findings and unlocking of quests on its own;
True.

huge expansive maps that actually realise the game potential of a live and open ended environment;
Well, not really *that* huge and expansive, but mostly true.

the activity of being a stalker per se through actual mechanics for artifact hunting/anomalies exploring and surviving (sleeping, eating, etc); a really plausible and down-to-earth central plot where you are a normal person doing what a normal person would do instead of a super-hero-like guy saving the world from some super-threat;
Those are actually common parts, of both SoC and CoP. Well, admittedly plot gets bent out of shape at the end in SoC, but earlier on it's perfectly serviceable.

Ok, SoC doesn't have sleeping, and doesn't have detectors, but eyecandy aside (anomaly fields in CoP are gorgeously twisted) getting "Souls" from whirlygig valley in Garbage was far more rewarding than most artefact hunts in CoP.



a setting that actually feels like a plausible (if alien) ecosystem oblivious to your presence and not necessarily out to get you;
Actually, there are two problems here. One that this ecosystem is often too oblivious to your presence - Zone in CoP is safe. Apart from scripted instances you don't get attacked by humans, in spite of Zone being in fact full of criminals out for loot. Bandits get into shootouts with stalkers, but they never bother you of all people.

On the other hand mutants seem far more determined to get you and far less focused on their own survival than in SoC.

To cut it short, CoP ofter forces you into the initial role of neutral bystander, but gives you no initiative to keep out of the way and if you do get involved Zone is out to get you, SoC tends to put you initially into hostile situations, but the Zone doesn't *care* about you in particular, and you are often best served keeping your head low and just getting the fuck out even if you're shot at or chased.

masks/helmet screen overlays
That's the main problem with your post - you're comparing heavily modded game that is already more polished and developed by the virtue of being "more of the same" style sequel, with its unmodded prequel.

weapons and armor upgrading and repairing.
Actually, while I love CoP upgrades, repairs took away one important element - good gear in SoC was precious. You always had to think whether the situation, even advantageous, was worth the extra wear on your weapon or suit.
In CoP you just go to a mechanic and repair stuff. If repair mechanics was accompanied by the necessity of cannibalizing same type firearms and suits for parts, then the question whether the situation is worth busting your new exoskeleton or fouling up your wonderful FN2000 would be meaningful. It would even make it worthwhile to consider using cheaper, but more widespread gear you wouldn't have problems finding spares for.

You also had to manage ammo more stringently, because it was much, much heavier, so if you had a good gun firing unpopular rounds it was often best to just walk away from an encounter rather than risking having to abort your trip and go back to trader because you ran out of ammo.
Now, in Chernobyl you have:

Generic fetch quests given by generic NPCs through generic walls of texts;
Yes, quests in SoC are shit and most side quest related text is shit.

a map that dont rewards exploration since findings only "materialize" after NPCs tell you about it;
Not entirely true. Yes, stashes do require stash info to find any items in them, which is dumb decision, but there is also plenty of items that are not part of any stashes but may be tricky to find. Some are very worthwhile, much more worthwhile, in fact, than finding a good gun or suit in CoP where you can afford buying unique, top-of-the-line guns from Nimble pretty much right from the start (which also robbed the game of much of its low-tech rugged feel)

lots of small maps that break continuity and feel cramped; absence of the activity of being a stalker per se; a more traditional, "gamey", central plot; a setting that feels like "Radioactive Resident Evil" with creatures jumping on your face all the time from everywhere;
Which begs the question - is your SoC even patched? Because if it is, then there aren't that many mutants and enemies in the game at a time and they are used conservatively.

Second, Zone is supposed to be not a place for men. It's been that way ever since Strugatsky brothers penned their Roadside Picnic way before Chernobyl disaster even happened. It's always supposed to be a place that will certainly kill you if you ever get too comfortable with it and that will fuck you up even if you are extra cerful and lucky enough to survive. It was never supposed to be a place where you can expect to live long, it was supposed to be a place brave, desperate and plain stupid sneak into to try to make small fortune and GTFO before they die, get irradiated or something fucks them up in ways science has yet to understand. And, unless you're a military operative yourself it's also a place where you get popped if you're caught sneaking in or out, because it kills military too and they can't take out their hate on the Zone itself so they will be happy to pop the reason why they are there in the first place.

Finally, maybe it takes a Pole or Ruskie to appreciate it, but while CoP's main plot is generally tying the loose ends left by SoC, SoC does the secret labs part much better. You see, in the west you have tin-foil wearing nutjobs fearing gubmint secret experiments and shit, but barring few exceptions this is just crackpottery. Behind the iron curtain it was all much more real and much more prevalent, and SoC capitalizes on it better, because it shows little and lets the imagination run rampant, whereas CoP simply tells you a lot, but doesn't show anything to spark up your imagination.


an ARENA where stalkers fight to the death to the joy of other expectator stalkers (wait, WHAT ?);
Never bothered with it. :smug:

The fact that it was dangerous to travel through the Zone was a definite plus of SoC. A lot of people dislike the respawns in that game, but I think they served an important role - no matter how much of a packrat god you were, you could always die to a group of mercs on the roof of a building or a whirlgig anomaly in the middle of the road if you weren't careful. Like DraQ said, this was all but lost in CoP, where you can walk around in total carebear mode, and as long as you don't enter any of the "special" locations marked on your map, the worst you can meet is a pack of wild dogs.
:salute:

You can always do a simple experiment - take a map, plot a straight path avoiding major *known* anomaly clusters and walk this path. You can stop to fire at whatever attacks you but you can't actually move off the rail. Do it both in SoC and CoP (both vanilla, patched), count the times when it kills you due to anomalies in your path or NPCs shooting you up while you're in the open.

CoP is an *excellent* game, but it's both less atmospheric and easier than SoC.

I also preferred the more authentic Chernobyl look of SoC over somewhat wastelandized CoP, and pretty much the only area in CoP that could rival SoC in terms of atmosphere was Pripyat itself, and that's because of desolation (it sure helps that Pripyat in SoC, although a well designed level, was much more combat-centric experience - which was a major design mistake on part of the makers IMNSHO - if it were up to me, SoC from Red Forest onwards would be a desolate mindfuck with only sporadic, exclusively hostile, exclusively high level, human encounters and tons of unencountered before anomalies, mutants, deadlier environments and phenomena making your mind water - something like Oasis anomaly in CoP except more diverse and on larger scale - a Zone in Zone, if you will).
 

Silva

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DraQ,

Again, various things you said do not reflect the CoP game I played (bandits do attack you sometimes; Zone is not so safe because threats are really powerful forcing you to plan ahead and scout ahead all the time, scarcity is huge obliging you to make hard choices all the time, etc). In the end, I think it may be a matter of the mods I picked for each game – a great one for CoP (Misery), and a not so great for SoC (Lurk 1.05). This fact may be clouding my judgement of the games.

So, what mods do you suggest for SoC for a simulationist/immersionist fan?

I found the gunfight and sim aspects in Lurk awesome but the zone ecology seems scrambled (eg: bloodsuckers in the first map !). Oblivion Lost has a really nice atmosphere, but the gunfight seems poor (had to hit a lowly bandit 7 times to kill him) and I feel like its cramped with dubious features that not fit that well with each other. Complete seems to make the game too easy and unrealistic (carrying 80 kg in backpack ??? ).

What mod best mixes a good zone ecology and high-simulation gameplay ? What is the “Misery” equivalent for Chernobyl ?
 

DraQ

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DraQ,

Again, various things you said do not reflect the CoP game I played

And CoP you have played in no way reflects vanilla CoP, so you can't have meaningful comparison here.


So, what mods do you suggest for SoC for a simulationist/immersionist fan?
That actually may be a bit of a problem. I'm using Polish versions of all STALKER games for various reasons, starting with availability, ending with original VOs being left intact for improved atmosphere.

This means modding my STALKERs is almost inevitably going to create a big mess for me to clean up.
Even ZRP for SoC which is more of a massive bugfix/feature re-enabler than actual mod forced me to mess around XML files fixing dialogue strings and even doing some minor on-the-fly translations, because it made quite a few NPCs spout string IDs at me instead of, you know, dialogue.

tl;dr:
I'm not well versed in wondrous and expansive world of STALKER mods, ask someone else.
 

Raapys

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Jun 7, 2007
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I love both of them, though I find the first one to be more atmospheric and with better( although more linear) maps/locations. No other games out there quite like them, unfortunately. And now we're not getting any more.
 

Silva

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Ok, I startet a new SoC game, this time with the Complete mod.

Despite some weird things I dont like (60Kg backpack, no head bob), its the better experience Im having until now. The ecology finally makes sense (no chupacabras in the Cordon), graphics and sound are top-notch, and the gameplay is balanced (despite a bit on the easier side). Im finally having time to actually paying atention to the surroundings and the atmosphere is simply amazing. Now I understand what you guys said about it. ANd its really more faithful to Roadside Picnic than CoP is.

Thanks for iluminating me, guys. Right now I still think Misery CoP is the ultimate stalker experience, but SoC is starting to grow on me. Lets see what happens. ;)
 

Elthosian

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Mar 14, 2012
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Silva, about the weight, you can tweak it following this tutorial:

http://gamebanana.com/tuts/3327

I would recommend 30 kg for normal running and 40 kg before being unable to move, perfect to avoid being tempted to hoard lots of guns to sell them later. Assuming Complete doesn't mess up too much with the actor files it should work just fine (it worked for me with the Oblivion Lost mod), but you just in case you could make some backups.

Also, seeing how you hate the annoying stash system as much as me, check this little mod:

http://www.gamefront.com/files/2183...hadow_of_Chernobyl_Stashed_Compatibility_pack
 

Gurkog

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SoC was a better experience, but CoP was definitely way more polished. I just wish I could 1 shot kill everything with headshots in CoP. I started the series with SoC on highest difficulty and it was a ball busting experience. When I started a new play through it felt extremely easy though - so the game is probably correctly paced with difficulty ratcheting up to maintain a challenge the whole way through. CoP was probably a bit too easy because the spawn sizes are smaller and relatively safe paths. If SoC had repairs and modifications like its successor it would be a much better game. Carrying 5 guns around to compensate for degradation was rediculous.
 

Cowboy Moment

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Feb 8, 2011
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Silva, while 60kg is a bit overkill, you'll learn to appreciate it in the later parts of the game. In CoP, each map has an easily accessible hub with all services available. In SoC, there are maps with literally no friendly presence, and more sophisticated equipment (like ammo for high-tech weapons) can only be bought and repaired in a few places. That's actually another thing CoP lacks, the feeling of being stranded in a dangerous place, all alone and far away from civilization, and having to make do with whatever you've brought with you, scavenged, and looted off enemies' corpses.

Well, the endgame sort of goes overboard with this, but eh, it was obviously rushed.
 

Carrion

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I may be alone in this, but I thought SoC's endgame was brilliant. Almost all shooters tend to end in anticlimax, really, but SoC just picks up the pace and also has some of the best and most tasteful endings I've seen in games (the fake ones included). Almost all of the other parts of the game felt clearly rushed or unfinished, the best "dungeons" excluded, but the ending was intense. The game's probably worth playing for that alone, even if the earlier parts don't seem that interesting. Clear Sky, on the other hand, has an ending that feels like it was put together in fifteen minutes.
 

Raapys

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Yeah, it has a great ending, and the moment(s) leading up to it. The game really changes once you get past the BrainScorcher, feels like finally going behind enemy lines. But it also arguably loses much of what makes it good.

Still, what I really hated was the ending in CoP. In fact, the entire third zone feels very hastily put together, content-wise. It has great music though.
 

DraQ

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Carrying 5 guns around to compensate for degradation was rediculous.
I never did that. Pretty much the only time I explicitly carried any spare gun, was when using Beretta, because in the Zone they are apparently made of wet paper.
The rest of the time I either carried single long weapon, or long weapons with different purposes.
Still, carrying a suit, pistol (contrary to popular opinion pistols are useful in SoC, though not as main weapons), pistol ammo, AR, AR ammo, and maybe a sniper rifle or shotgun (plus ammo), medical supplies, food and a bunch of useful artifacts filled your capacity rather thoroughly and taking an interesting new suit, weapon, artifacts to sell or a bunch of rare ammo was difficult on such occassions.

I may be alone in this, but I thought SoC's endgame was brilliant. Almost all shooters tend to end in anticlimax, really, but SoC just picks up the pace and also has some of the best and most tasteful endings I've seen in games (the fake ones included).
Fake ones were indeed good, but the reveal involved in true ones was best summarized with "lolwut.".
Yeah, it has a great ending, and the moment(s) leading up to it. The game really changes once you get past the BrainScorcher, feels like finally going behind enemy lines.
And that's the problem here. There shouldn't be enemy lines in the Zone, at least in conventional sense - are they fucking cloning monolithians there? Zone beyond the scorcher should be mostly wild. Mutants, including completely new, high level ones, really deadly anomalies (see above), twisted, altered environs, mindfucks, radiation, very limited supplies, previously unseen insanely valuable artifacts in the middle of complete deathtraps, and *maybe* an occassional zombified dude or a small squad of monolithians going guerilla on your ass. Not some fucking warzone.

Then the reveal is so fucking mundane.

But it also arguably loses much of what makes it good.
Precisely.

Still, what I really hated was the ending in CoP. In fact, the entire third zone feels very hastily put together, content-wise. It has great music though.
Yeah, Pripyat in CoP is very atmospheric and looks great at the first glance, but you soon realize there is nothing to it. Out of so many buildings only a handful can be actually entered and there are even fewer actual distinct locations. It's almost as if you were walking around Google Maps except fenced in a limited fragment of a city.

The mission quality remains consistently high, though, and ending slides are very rewarding.
 

Cowboy Moment

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That fucking lion in the Pripyat kindergarden takes my prize for the best jumpscare ever. Especially since it's not actually a jumpscare in a traditional sense.
 

Raapys

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And that's the problem here. There shouldn't be enemy lines in the Zone, at least in conventional sense - are they fucking cloning monolithians there? Zone beyond the scorcher should be mostly wild. Mutants, including completely new, high level ones, really deadly anomalies (see above), twisted, altered environs, mindfucks, radiation, very limited supplies, previously unseen insanely valuable artifacts in the middle of complete deathtraps, and *maybe* an occassional zombified dude or a small squad of monolithians going guerilla on your ass. Not some fucking warzone.
Well, yeah. I agree with the premise, though the current situation is perhaps consistent with the story. Since you shut off the scorcher, tons of stalkers have made their way up there(strangely, before you can get there), forcing the Monolith to defend themselves and throwing all they have out there. The number of monolith soldiers makes a certain amount of sense given how many greedy stalkers must have been converted in the time the scorcher has been active.

There's also rather a lot of radiation stuff up there, but unfortunately it's largely used to force the player into a tiny corridor-like path that takes him straight through the battlefield.

It definitely could have been handled better, but I think the turn from large, open-ended zones to small'ish corridor-style maps means they were running out of time/resources in development. Developers always seem to take the "just throw lots of enemies at the player"-solution in those cases.
 

DraQ

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So, ultimately, which one is to buy and play?
SoC and CoP.
Well, yeah. I agree with the premise, though the current situation is perhaps consistent with the story. Since you shut off the scorcher, tons of stalkers have made their way up there(strangely, before you can get there), forcing the Monolith to defend themselves and throwing all they have out there. The number of monolith soldiers makes a certain amount of sense given how many greedy stalkers must have been converted in the time the scorcher has been active.
It would've been better for the atmosphere to not be able to shut down scorcher, but maybe, I don't know, being able to collect the information about its parameters letting you either run back to the scientists for fine-tuning or allowing them to transmit you information required to re-adjust your psi-shielding yourself allowing for free operation in deep zone (or at least prolonged periods before you're forced to find some good cover and let your shielding recharge).

Maybe you could be able to turn the scorcher off later on, from some control site deeper in the zone, allowing other stalkers to enter and occupy monolith forces while you proceed.

Smaller, but more cuning monolith groups would also help the raw gameplay. The most lethal things I've encountered in Pripyat in SoC were rooftop snipers and RPG guys and, above all, a small 4-5 men military stalker squad. Silent, stealthy, well trained and bursting you with their Val rifles - silent, lacking muzzle flash, accurate, packing a lot of punch and cutting through armour like hot knife through butter.

There's also rather a lot of radiation stuff up there, but unfortunately it's largely used to force the player into a tiny corridor-like path that takes him straight through the battlefield.
Actually that wasn't that bad design-wise.

You could either run along the "combat corridor", if you had heavy combat gear, or, if you had good envirosuit and decent anti-rad artifacts, you could go through irradiated territory instead. You don't really benefit from powerful AR with AP rounds when fighting most mutants - either good shotgun, or something light, controllable and without much recoil (like good pistol or MP5) is perfectly sufficient.
 

Silva

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So, ultimately, which one is to buy and play?
Both, with mods.

CoP with Misery mod is the most intense and immersive experience I had in the series, has amazing graphics (best in the series too) and a better realized open-world gameplay. But it makes the game into a hardcore survival simulation, so its difficult and not for everyone.

Take a look here and here.

While SoC with Complete or Oblivion mod is the scariest and have the most faithful atmosphere to the Roadside Picnic novel. It also have the best central plot (if somewhat linear).

Take a look here.

In SoC, there are maps with literally no friendly presence, and more sophisticated equipment (like ammo for high-tech weapons) can only be bought and repaired in a few places. That's actually another thing CoP lacks, the feeling of being stranded in a dangerous place, all alone and far away from civilization, and having to make do with whatever you've brought with you, scavenged, and looted off enemies' corpses.

True.
 

Mackerel

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I wonder if there's a mod for Half-Life 2 to add a glasses and nose overlay for "immersion"?
 

Borelli

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I remember when i first entered the nuclear plant at the end of Shadow of Chernobyl there was this loud voice yelling something in Russian it scared the hell out of me.
And the fact that the EVERY SINGLE cultist had exoskeleton armor (the strongest in the game although i didn't want to use it because it slows you down) didn't help.
Literally the only way to kill them was by headshot.
 

DraQ

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I remember when i first entered the nuclear plant at the end of Shadow of Chernobyl there was this loud voice yelling something in Russian it scared the hell out of me.
And the fact that the EVERY SINGLE cultist had exoskeleton armor (the strongest in the game although i didn't want to use it because it slows you down) didn't help.
Literally the only way to kill them was by headshot.
ots14_02.jpg

The great fucking equalizer.

I seriously loved this gun in SoC.
Displayed accuracy might seem low and for some reason you can't put a scope on it (even though you should be able to), but if you shoot single rounds (to avoid dealing with hefty recoil) and learn to both lead the target and compensate for bullet drop, it can easily land headshots at ranges where its ironsights get too bulky to be reliable. It's also reliable, durable, has underslung GL by default, and can turn even exoskeleton wearing dude into Swiss cheese up close.

The only drawback is that ammo is heavy and not very common.
 
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Played a bit of this Misery thing now. Seems like I need a new PC for that mod, or at least a GPU with more than 1GB of VRAM, what a stutterfest, had to switch to DX9 mode to make it playable. Didn't like the new soundtrack, changed it back to old one. Hated dynamic HUD effects, good thing it's as easy as deleting some shit to get rid of it. Otherwise this mod seems like a pretty impressive work and definitely recommended for anyone who already finished CoP. It does suffer a bit from that annoying modder disease of not knowing when to stop changing shit. Snorks sound like Chargers from Left 4 Dead 2, for another example. :lol:
 

zeitgeist

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MISERY_character_select_111217.jpg


Which class is everyone playing MISERY with? I'm just about to install it, and I'm leaning towards sniper, but I have no idea if it's viable in the actual game (is there a lot of indoor areas and such for example), since I haven't played vanilla yet.
 

potatojohn

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I really don't like the way MISERY looks. Way too serious and gritty and tacticool. It's like if /k/ tards made a video game. Totally ruins STALKERs awesome aesthetic.
 

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