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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl ⚠️|☢︎T|⚠️ Don't Be a Menace to Bloodsucker While Trying to Catch an Olive in The Zone

Going to try again today. For those not experiencing lots of crashes can you share settings you’re using?

Also, do you know how much gpu/cpu the game is using?

Earlier people said my 3080 doing 4k, epic settings, dlss quality, and frame gen may make the game work at 60fps but it’s over abusing the card to make it crash? Never had this happen. Even with RE4 remake for example, I can max it and hold 60fps even with 12GB used for textures or whatever.

So should I do something like either:
1080P, epic settings, dlss quality no frame gen?

Or 1440P mix of high/medium settings, dlss quality, and frame gen?

I want to not have to reload the game a ton of times with the stupid shader compiling.
Just saw this.

I'm on a 4070 Super, 16GB RAM, and now a 5700x3d. I'm playing on 1440p with all Epic settings, DLSS Quality, and FG turned on. I'm not sure what usage I'm getting but the next time I play I'll turn it on and let you know.

I only got my first crash today after roughly 32 hours.
 
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Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Had about a hour and a half session before I had to stop but no crashes.

Dropped it to 1440P, high settings, and a few on epic. Dlss quality and frame gen on.

Installed mods too. There’s a performance one so I think that may be helping?

I also got less weight, better sprint, and less gun wear.

Feels more previous stalker games now.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
18 hours on the game clock. A fair bit into the game, but no idea how much is left lol. Ending the session for the night.

This game has its hooks embedded into me very firmly. Love the world, sense of exploration and mystery/horror in every new location I explore. And after some meandering in the first few hours, the plot is finally taking a cohesive shape and a central narrative and goal that multiple factions are gunning for.

I know this game has multiple endings, I wonder if it's one of those cases where I can cheese it near the end, or have my decisions since the start been tallying up.

Probably not in The Ward's good graces, I've gone against them pretty much every opportunity given.
 
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Had an encounter with two bloodsuckers at the swamp at night. Even with a mod to reduce their HP it wasn't a good time.
Without obstacles to funnel in their aproach they're a pain.

I also met a chimera for the first time. I didn't survive. It throws me on the ground and kills me before I can react.
 

Yerd

Member
I think I have played all, but never finished any of the previous stalker games.

I'm hooked on this one. We shall see if I can at least see an ending.

Foreigners using US slang, just slightly off, in this game always amuses.
 
Ran into a broken main quest. Last objective is to talk to someone in a bunker but the door remains sealed. But I checked Reddit and apparently it's possible to mod in console commands and use that to fix it.

It's New Vegas all over again, baby! Using console commands to fix broken shit. Gotta love PC gaming.

Edit: it worked perfectly, and the mod also disables the shader comp at every boot. Thank god for that
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
wind of freedom armor


Damn, this is really helpful, thanks!

That armor (and even the other high raditation proof armor that can also optionally get the lead container) sounds nice, though i'm not sure if it's possible to visit the area again after the story mission there is done. Will give it a shot later.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Ran into a broken main quest. Last objective is to talk to someone in a bunker but the door remains sealed. But I checked Reddit and apparently it's possible to mod in console commands and use that to fix it.

It's New Vegas all over again, baby! Using console commands to fix broken shit. Gotta love PC gaming.

Edit: it worked perfectly, and the mod also disables the shader comp at every boot. Thank god for that

The only reason I’m not going all out with mods is the fear that my save file is bricked the moment the game receives official updates.

So far I’ve only installed the lower mutant health mod.
 

GymWolf

Member
Now that's a face only a mother could love.



S-T-A-L-K-E-R-2-Heart-of-Chornobyl-Windows-Edition-2024-11-24-20-55-52.png
Looks like nancy pelosi after a glow up.
 
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The only reason I’m not going all out with mods is the fear that my save file is bricked the moment the game receives official updates.

So far I’ve only installed the lower mutant health mod.
Yeah that's a reasonable concern.

But I'm not installing cheats, I'm just enabling the Unreal Engine console so I can bypass game-breaking bugs. Like the one I mentioned was a locked bunker door (which are supposed to automatically open), so I enabled noclip and clipped through the door to continue.

And speaking of game-breaking bugs: I just came across a completely broken quest. A town is under attack but the enemies aren't out in the open - they're stuck inside the safe zone because the safe zone door is locked, which means they can't be killed. And there's two friendly NPCs inside the locked safe zone that have quest icons, but if I clip through the door, then they don't progress the quest when spoken to.

Very frustrating. Here's hoping this week's patch fixes these problems.

Edit: I think it's fixed. For those searching the internet, it's a late game quest in Zalissya called On The Edge and here are the steps I took to fix:
- Clipped through locked safe zone doors using the following commands
Code:
UETools_Ghost
Code:
UETools_Walk
- Stood next to enemies and used following command line to kill nearby enemies in the shelter
Code:
XKillNPCInRadius 500 -99999999999999999999999999 -1000
- NPCs will now talk to you, so continue the quest as normal and finish it up
- Once the quest is complete, leave town ON FOOT. When you hear the radio stating the town is safe, turn around and return to town. Again, the safe doors are locked but clip through them and speak to everyone.

Now try leaving again on foot to another zone and you shouldn't receive a radio message that the town was wiped out (which was the other major bug with this quest).

Good luck!
 
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GymWolf

Member
You enjoying the game? I still havent started it with all this talk about about the broken respawns.
I'm enjoying the game more than i expected, but if i have to be honest, it just feels like a more atmospheric, slightly harder, more janky mix of far cry\fallout.

A lot of the elements i thought were the core of the experience are undercooked or downright absent or broken.
 

The Cockatrice

I'm retarded?
I'm enjoying the game more than i expected, but if i have to be honest, it just feels like a more atmospheric, slightly harder, more janky mix of far cry\fallout.

A lot of the elements i thought were the core of the experience are undercooked or downright absent or broken.

Are the respawns as bad as ppl say or theyre just standard far cry type of spawns.
 

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
Are the respawns as bad as ppl say or theyre just standard far cry type of spawns.
I think other than some bugs, it's like Far Cry 2. Meaning if you kill some soldiers in a camp, by the time you've looted everything there's a good chance they'll respawn and the same goes for mutants.
And wile this would be ok (with a few tweaks) in most other games, in Stalker we are expecting a lot more. Personally I'm putting the game on hold because it's too good to be played in this state.
 

GymWolf

Member
Are the respawns as bad as ppl say or theyre just standard far cry type of spawns.
The only type i had was like clearing camps or bases and after a while enemies respawning, very annoying but it doesn't happen all the time thank god.

I'm honestly more annoyed by the fact that enemy ai during combat very rarely act smart, they are a bunch of idiots most of the times, this is definitely not the stalker experience i was promised, the survival part is also a joke, you have legit more ammo, food, antirad and healing objects than fallout on easy mode, the whole game is clearly undercooked.

The decent gunplay (against humans, creatures fight is absolute dogshit) and atmosphere and wachy stuff in the world are what hooked me but the game for now would be a 7 at best.
 
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The Cockatrice

I'm retarded?
The only type i had was like clearing camps or bases and after a while enemies respawning, very annoying but it doesn't happen all the time thank god.

I'm honestly more annoyed by the fact that enemy ai during combat very rarely act smart, they are a bunch of idiots most of the times, this is definitely not the stalker experience i had promised, the survival part is also a joke, you have legit more ammo, food, antirad and healing objects than fallout on easy mode, the whole game is clearly undercooked.

The decent gunplay (against humans, creatures fight is absolute dogshit) and atmosphere and wachy stuff in the world are what hooked me but the game for now would be a 7 at best.

I see. Good to know. Think Ill wait for 2-3 patches then.
 

GymWolf

Member
I see. Good to know. Think Ill wait for 2-3 patches then.
I think you are gonna wait for longer if a-life really isn't even in the game.

What this game manage to do is making me curious to try the old games but i don't wanna deal with patches and shit so i'm probably never gonna do that, i hate fixing games with mods or modding in general.
 

Mayar

Member
At the moment, if you just take the original game and install Anomaly on it, you will generally get a much better quality and better game than there is now in this part. This is one of the reasons why I stopped playing (of course there are still problems with the dialogues and the main story - they are boring and absolutely uninteresting, unfortunately this cannot be fixed with patches). The only plus of this part over the Original + Anomaly is the graphics, because yes, you can install graphics mods on the original and it will look better, but not that much.
 

GymWolf

Member
Or I could just install some mods. Theres already a few claiming to fix the spawn system but for now its a shitshow.
It's not just the spawn, the system was way more complex than that and it seems like it's completely absent.

Right now it feels like any other open world with different factions of enemies and chaos that can happen at all time, from wd2 to fc to dg to bethesda games etc, right now it does nothing unique than just random chaos events that can happen close to you.

The cities feel as fake as your worse AA\AAA open world can be, with low number of repeated lines by the npcs, ia glitching with people walking in place and general jank animations when they interact woth the world etc, people don't even react when you steal the beer or bread in front of them, i know the game was never supposed to be the new skyrim but i side-eye any dude who think this is a believable "living breathing world" or some shit, they probably never played any other open world in the past 15 years or they are just blind fanboys.
 
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GymWolf

Member
At the moment, if you just take the original game and install Anomaly on it, you will generally get a much better quality and better game than there is now in this part. This is one of the reasons why I stopped playing (of course there are still problems with the dialogues and the main story - they are boring and absolutely uninteresting, unfortunately this cannot be fixed with patches). The only plus of this part over the Original + Anomaly is the graphics, because yes, you can install graphics mods on the original and it will look better, but not that much.
Is the gunplay that much worse compared to s2?

I'm talking impacts, dead animations, marks on enemies, ragdoll, physics etc.
 
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The Cockatrice

I'm retarded?
It's not just the spawn, the system was way more complex than that and it seems like it's completely absent.

Right now it feels like any other open world with different factions of enemies and chaos that can happen at all time, from wd2 to fc to dg to bethesda games etc, right now it does nothing unique than just random chaos events that can happen close to you.

The cities feel as fake as your worse AA open world can be, with low number of repeated lines by the npcs, ia glitching with people walking in place and general jank animations when they interact woth the world etc, people don't even react when you steal the beer or bread in front of them, i know the game was never supposed to be the new skyrim but i side-eye any dude who think this is a believable "living breathing world" or some shit, they probably never played any other open world in the past 15 years or they are just blind fanboys.

Youre really selling the game buddy. I kid, thats rough to hear. Thats why I asked you, cuz I know you're more critical of games than most ppl here. Thanks for the info. I'll wait and see for now. I already have stuff to play.
 

GudOlRub

Member
This game is currently sitting at 74 on MC, but boring and uninspired games like HFW are at 89? This is why I can't take reviews seriously, man.

Loving this game so far
Playing the devil's advocate, perhaps this also has a lot to do with the technical quality of those games.

I also prefer this game but I gotta give Sony credit, playing a first party Sony game vs playing an Xbox first party/sponsored one is like night and day.
The last time I remember having a horrible time playing a game with Sony's name plastered on it was No Man's Sky, meanwhile for Xbox just last year we had Starfield and now it's STALKER... both games that I enjoy a lot but both leave a lot to be desired technically...

But I also agree with you in the sense that reviews for this game are going to vary a lot and I don't think players should blindly trust them. This is one of those games that has a more old school style to it, it will filter a lot of these zoomer reviewers that are accustomed to easy, hand-holding games quite hard.
 

Mayar

Member
Is the gunplay that much worse compared to s2?

I'm talking impacts, dead animations, marks on enemies, ragdoll, physics etc.
I like the gunplay more in Anomaly, don't get me wrong, it's not the height of perfection either, it's not Tarkov. But in C2, the weapons honestly feel extremely mediocre, they feels like a toy or something. There's no stability or logic in it, and the fact that the same weapon in the hands of the player and the enemy is practically 2 different weapons doesn't make me happy. This part generally likes to cheat the player, and this is especially clearly visible now because of the bugs, if there were no problems with enemy spawning, it wouldn't be so striking. In fact, enemies see you through walls, or more precisely, they always know the player's position on the map. I probably had the funniest bug, it was when I was using a stealth trying to clear a location, climbed up the stairs to the roof of one of the buildings, killed an enemy with a knife from behind, something went wrong in the script and after a few seconds, all the enemies in this location knew where I was, and yes, sometimes they can also glitch and shoot through walls, sometimes you can even see part of their head and the weapon sticking out of the wall. And the fact that the game actually constantly scans the player's position and simply drops enemies on top of him, everyone already knows that. They try to summon enemies behind objects, cars, buildings, trees, etc. But sometimes something breaks there and the game just starts dumping enemies in front of your face. There is practically no world now.
 

GymWolf

Member
Youre really selling the game buddy. I kid, thats rough to hear. Thats why I asked you, cuz I know you're more critical of games than most ppl here. Thanks for the info. I'll wait and see for now. I already have stuff to play.
Don't get me wrong, the game still has a certain hook, it is definitely better than the sum of its parts.
 

Gonzito

Gold Member
Well I couldn't resist myself and I've been playing more hours the game even tho the bugs sometimes bother me, the game is absolute blast. Much better than many other games released this year

I cant wait for more patches to refine the game and maybe adding more stuff like night vision goggles

But yeah this game rocks honestly, the atmosphere sucks you in and it's so refreshing to have an open world that it's interesting to explore
 
For those on pc having trouble with connecting and playing with a controller.
In usb devices i saw a device: game controller for android. This after seeing some weird controller in the steam controller menu of the game. No idea what device that is and why it's there. Either way, turn this device of and you Xinput controller works.

Need to figure out what this android controller is. If one of you can enlighten me, i would be grateful. Haven't bother to go past the first Google search on this.
 

Gonzito

Gold Member
For those on pc having trouble with connecting and playing with a controller.
In usb devices i saw a device: game controller for android. This after seeing some weird controller in the steam controller menu of the game. No idea what device that is and why it's there. Either way, turn this device of and you Xinput controller works.

Need to figure out what this android controller is. If one of you can enlighten me, i would be grateful. Haven't bother to go past the first Google search on this.

Another fix that helped me, was using ds4 windows. If I dont use, the game does not recognize my controller at all, even if I disable steam input.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Some info in regards to A-life

 

The Cockatrice

I'm retarded?
Some info in regards to A-life


Other modders called bullshit on what he said. Its a mess right now on who to trust.
 
Well I couldn't resist myself and I've been playing more hours the game even tho the bugs sometimes bother me, the game is absolute blast. Much better than many other games released this year

I cant wait for more patches to refine the game and maybe adding more stuff like night vision goggles

But yeah this game rocks honestly, the atmosphere sucks you in and it's so refreshing to have an open world that it's interesting to explore

That's the main highlight for this game imo,
the world they created is so awesome, i like all the anomalies scattered everywhere.. sometimes you can find a chest, or sometimes it's part of a quest. Also so far the quests are good and have multiple outcomes, even on of the first side quests where you need to collect money from someone and bandits want their money from him, can go to several options.
I had couple of quest or events that wasn't marked on the map.. like at the start of the lesser zone you see bandits shooting at some house.. i won't spoiler but you can intervene... having not played any Stalker game before i really like it.. reminds me of Fallout games.

In the end.. even if this is gonna take a year or 2, this is going to be some amazing game, they have a lot to fix and change but the basic game is one hell of a great game.
 
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kurisu_1974

Member
I played a couple of hours and did most of the stuff in the first settlement. Not really enjoyed it much, those pigs and dogs and rats are everywhere, I can hardly hit them with the slow as fuck controller (guess I could switch to mouse and keyboard but I don't enjoy playing like that since I switched many years ago), the interface is also horrible, confusing and slow. Voice acting is weird with all those US idioms being used.

It runs and looks great using maxed settings on my 4080 but I'm not sure if I will pick it back up at this time.
 
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