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[Chiggs]

I'm taking my sweet time with this game.

Anyway, I've noticed the further you progress, the weirder shit gets. Like Poltergeists just flying around outside (one chucked a red barrel at me while I was fighting some mercs in the train yard). Mutant rats getting sassy, and all sorts of weirdness. A-Life rocks!

Here are some interesting screenshots:

1. Why the hell is this bloodsucker labeled as a "friend?"



2. Stupid pooch gets exploded by an anomaly.




3. Mutant rats getting sassy at X-18; then getting dead. I thought they were removed from the game?




Oh, and by the way, what does the hand radio do? I nearly died getting it, so I'd kinda like to know. Oh, and I found a guitar. Yee-haw!

Bonus Creepy Picture:

 

[Amzin]

Man, after taking out the

Spoiler

military base south of the starting camp

, I can't tell any difference between aiming the the iron sights and just the crosshair. The sights just obscure more and seem as inaccurate. Also: That place had soooooo much loot, with promise of loot to come!

 

[Avalon]

Man, after taking out the

Spoiler

military base south of the starting camp

, I can't tell any difference between aiming the the iron sights and just the crosshair.

Yeah... I actually find the iron sight very useful at close range though. Makes it a bit easier to get those headshots.

 

[Borys]

1000 posts, awesome.

We will catch up to the God of War 2 thread very quickly now.

 

[Confidence Man]

Saw this at VoodooExtreme (for the week of March 18-24th.) :

1) Stalker: Shadow Of Chernobyl - THQ - $39
2) The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $27
3) World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack - Vivendi - $39
4) World Of Warcraft - Vivendi - $20
5) The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts - $37
6) Supreme Commander - THQ - $41
7) Titan Quest - THQ - $16
8) The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $30
9) Titan Quest: Immortal Throne Expansion Pack - THQ - $28
10) Battlefield 2142 - Electronic Arts - $39

Not too shabby.

 

[Sinatar]

STALKER outselling the Sims and WoW...

Holy Shit

 

[EviLore]

Saw this at VoodooExtreme (for the week of March 18-24th.) :

1) Stalker: Shadow Of Chernobyl - THQ - $39
2) The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $27
3) World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack - Vivendi - $39
4) World Of Warcraft - Vivendi - $20
5) The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts - $37
6) Supreme Commander - THQ - $41
7) Titan Quest - THQ - $16
8) The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $30
9) Titan Quest: Immortal Throne Expansion Pack - THQ - $28
10) Battlefield 2142 - Electronic Arts - $39

Not too shabby.

Awesome. Totally deserved.

 

[Borys]

STALKER outselling the Sims and WoW...

Holy Shit

That was its launch week. I'd say it is out of the top ten now (2 weeks later).

 

[Sinatar]

That was its launch week. I'd say it is out of the top ten now (2 weeks later).

Well neither SupCom, CoH, TQ Exp, Prey or any other major PC release in the past 6+ months has cracked the top spot. It's impressive, period.

 

[Borys]

Well neither SupCom, CoH, TQ Exp, Prey or any other major PC release in the past 6+ months has cracked the top spot. It's impressive, period.

True.

There is a CoH expansion coming BTW. It's on the cover of GFW magazine.

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

 

[Dot50Cal]

Wow I never even ran into those rats....I gotta patch this baby and go through on the hardest mode now

 

[Prime crotch]

I just watched this.

Is the gunplay still like they described in the review? Enemies take a ton of bullets to bring down, etc? Other than that, the review was really off, and also proof positive that people truly don't want better AI. "The AI flanked me and pulled out every trick in the book! I had to quicksave every two minutes so I didn't die!"

STFU.

Guns have stats they are not accurate like other games as in the bullets go straight, they're realistic to some extent. If you nail a headshot on a enemy that's sure death otherwise it takes some bullets, depending on the gun to bring them down since they have armor and so on.

 

[Dot50Cal]

No real spoilers here, Just suggestions regarding weapons.

As you get to the Garbage your Viper 9 will probably be your best friend. Fast rate of fire, and its spread usually hits someone in the head on the third shot if you do 3 shot bursts. I found it to me much better than the AK looking rifles.

Though!! When you first head to Agroprom complex (underground) to Streelok's stash be sure to pick up the Custom AK there at his stash. It has an INSANE rate of fire and the ammo for it is plenty in the area your in at that time. I missed out on it my first run though which made me rather pissed when I found out how good it was.

Remember to crouch, and super crouch when shooting. You are much more accurate and harder to hit when you do that.

My suggestion is that once you get to the bar, head to Yantar first. As you past through the Wild Territory you can pick up the ... M4 looking weapon (yeah sad I know) and a ton of ammo. That weapon will pretty much be your god send until you get the GP 37, which uses the same ammo. That doesnt happen until you hit the Freedom territory which is a ways later.

Finally, this is hilarious but I never knew Night Vision was tied to suits. BE SURE TO USE NIGHT VISION IF YOUR SUIT SUPPORTS IT. IT MAKES THE GAME TONS EASIER.

I only found out about it when I hit the

Spoiler

brain scorcher

:lol

 

[Confidence Man]

When I started the game after the patch, the trader at the farm had a Tunder rifle modified to use the regular AK ammo for 20,000. I ran around doing jobs to get the cash, and of course as soon as I scrape enough together the rifle isn't available anymore, and it never came back. :/

 

[Dot50Cal]

Ouch, thats kind of a let down..But hey they made traders useful now? I had like 400,000 cash at the end of the game. Hardly used it at all.

 

[Prime crotch]

What does the 7 key do? It's labeled as Artifact but it doesn't happen anything, also how do I lie down?

 

[Dot50Cal]

Anyone know why my Stats has 0 for Artifacts, when I clearly have traded quite a few in for missions with traders? Bug with 1.0?

You cant lie down, you can only crouch, and then "super" crouch.

 

[Solo]

Saw this at VoodooExtreme (for the week of March 18-24th.) :

1) Stalker: Shadow Of Chernobyl - THQ - $39
2) The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $27
3) World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack - Vivendi - $39
4) World Of Warcraft - Vivendi - $20
5) The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts - $37
6) Supreme Commander - THQ - $41
7) Titan Quest - THQ - $16
8) The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $30
9) Titan Quest: Immortal Throne Expansion Pack - THQ - $28
10) Battlefield 2142 - Electronic Arts - $39

Not too shabby.

Awesome, and so well deserved! My favorite PC game since Half-Life 2, easily.

 

[Funky Papa]

Seriously, I love STALKER, but sometimes it can be so freakin infuriating. Right now

Spoiler

I just defeated a weird "ghost" using some grenades in the lab (x18), the one that throws you fire.

Well, after the video sequence with the rats I should be able to go back to the bar and give the stolen documents to the bartender, but for some reason the door is stuck, and whenever I try to open it, it sounds like if it's being blocked/pushed by someone. As far as I know there are no other exits.

Any idea? Here are some captures


The area I am talking about


The blocked door

 

[Dot50Cal]

;( Might wanna try reloading, making sure no bodies/crates are at the door and then try again. It could also be a merc blocking the door so be fast on the draw?

Worst comes to worst, you can always noclip through the door.

 

[Funky Papa]

Oddness. Seems like there was a

Spoiler

invisible "fire ghost"

or some shit blocking the hinges. I lobbed three grenades and managed to open it for five seconds, enough to run through it. Now I am back in the bar and everybody wants to kill me, WTF? The public-address system says that there's a killer on the loose and I think they believe it's me.

At this point I am not sure if the game is that buggy or if I'm making something wrong...

 

[Dot50Cal]

You must have killed a Duty member, possibly indirectly or you entered into their base before you were allowed to.

 

[Solo]

Anyone know how I get the special suit in X16? I can make it to the building alive, but thats about it before the psi contamination levels kill me.

 

[Dot50Cal]

Complete the scientist mission first and they give you a device that protects you. They are in the Lab, right when you first walk into Yantar.

 

[Solo]

Er, thats what Im talking about. I have a suit that the professor gave me, now I am doing his mission to find the "special suit" in X16. His suit only slows radiation, it doesnt stop it. So by the time I make it to where the map tells me this suit is, Im always dead. Or do you mean I need to do his other missions first?

 

[Chiggs]

Oddness. Seems like there was a

Spoiler

invisible "fire ghost"

or some shit blocking the hinges. I lobbed three grenades and managed to open it for five seconds, enough to run through it. Now I am back in the bar and everybody wants to kill me, WTF? The public-address system says that there's a killer on the loose and I think they believe it's me.

At this point I am not sure if the game is that buggy or if I'm making something wrong...

Okay, that's just freaking strange. You didn't happen to kill another Stalker who was down in x-18?

 

[Funky Papa]

Okay, that's just freaking strange. You didn't happen to kill another Stalker who was down in x-18, unbeknowst to you?

Wait, are you telling me there was another stalker in X18? Uh-uh. I may want to reload the mission...

 

[Chiggs]

Wait, are you telling me there was another stalker in X18? Uh-uh. I may want to reload the mission...

I've seen one before...that might be what happened. But what happened to you just sounds glitchy.

 

[Dot50Cal]

Er, thats what Im talking about. I have a suit that the professor gave me, now I am doing his mission to find the "special suit" in X16. His suit only slows radiation, it doesnt stop it. So by the time I make it to where the map tells me this suit is, Im always dead. Or do you mean I need to do his other missions first?

.....Stop progressing to the final maps before completing the story quests

 

[Funky Papa]

I've seen one before...that might be what happened. But what happened to you just sounds glitchy.

I think I know what happened. After talking with the shop keeper Wolf's substitute asked me to help the local stalkers to defend themselves from an expedition of heavily armed mercenaries. I think those "mercenaries" were duty soldiers, even if they had no badges. Loaded the game before accepting the mission and now everything is fine.

 

[Amzin]

Ok, this is probably just glitchy PDA shenanigans, but the whole stash marking thingy is not working quite right. I'll hear the beep when I find a new one from searching a body, and my PDA icon will flash, but it won't update my diary. So I have to manually look on the map for a new purple thingy.

And then when I do get to the stash, sometimes the icon will go away after I search it, sometimes it won't. If it doesn't, does that mean I actually missed something, or shall I chalk it up to buggyness?

 

[syllogism]

Ok, this is probably just glitchy PDA shenanigans, but the whole stash marking thingy is not working quite right. I'll hear the beep when I find a new one from searching a body, and my PDA icon will flash, but it won't update my diary. So I have to manually look on the map for a new purple thingy.

And then when I do get to the stash, sometimes the icon will go away after I search it, sometimes it won't. If it doesn't, does that mean I actually missed something, or shall I chalk it up to buggyness?

It's buggy, but it definitely will not disappear if you don't take all the items.

 

[Amzin]

It's buggy, but it definitely will not disappear if you don't take all the items.

I took everything I could find, but I think I'll double check the ones that are still there before I head to Garbage. After pillaging that army base, I have plenty of resources to mess around with now.

 

[Prime crotch]

Er, thats what Im talking about. I have a suit that the professor gave me, now I am doing his mission to find the "special suit" in X16. His suit only slows radiation, it doesnt stop it. So by the time I make it to where the map tells me this suit is, Im always dead. Or do you mean I need to do his other missions first?

Same problem as me you have to do the main sotyr mission of going to the lab first. Then you'll have a new mission to get an item that will block that contamination.

 

[madmook]

Oh jeez THAT'S what the little beeps are for when I loot bodies... I always ignored it and then I was wondering how the PDA knew about all those "hidden" stashes... lol

And thanks to whoever put the link that tweakguide up... the nointro and noprefetch are handy-dandy.

 

[Chiggs]

And thanks to whoever put the link that tweakguide up... the nointro and noprefetch are handy-dandy.

What does noprefetch do?

 

[madmook]

What does noprefetch do?

When you are at the loading screen (especially for first loads after booting into the game), there's a section at the beginning where it says PREFETCHING. The -noprefetch parameter makes the game completely skip this step, thereby shortening the loadtimes. I haven't noticed any negative effects of using this, either.

 

[Chiggs]

When you are at the loading screen (especially for first loads after booting into the game), there's a section at the beginning where it says PREFETCHING. The -noprefetch parameter makes the game completely skip this step, thereby shortening the loadtimes. I haven't noticed any negative effects of using this, either.

Awesome. I'll be sure to give that a try when I get home.

 

[EekTheKat]

I finally found a suit of armor that does not make me look like a

Spoiler

crazed Intel engineer :lol I'm now wearing the Duty quest armor, though statistically I think it's a slight downgrade over the green scientist suit

I wanted to keep the

Spoiler

Military healing suit, since it had that cool looking gasmask attached to it too

but wound up

Spoiler

turning it in to gain faction with freedom

This game just needs a few more patches to fix everything up, despite the poor execution (buggy quests, poor performance, memory leaks) the groundwork is there for a very solid game.

 

[LazyLoki]

Oddness. Seems like there was a

Spoiler

invisible "fire ghost"

or some shit blocking the hinges. I lobbed three grenades and managed to open it for five seconds, enough to run through it. Now I am back in the bar and everybody wants to kill me, WTF? The public-address system says that there's a killer on the loose and I think they believe it's me.

At this point I am not sure if the game is that buggy or if I'm making something wrong...

it's just a normal

Spoiler

poltergeist

.
just shoot everything in sight

Spoiler

and don't forget the anomaly-like signs of poltergeists

.

edit: not buggy, but not funny either

 

[Chiggs]

Speaking of poltergeists, please tell me I'm not the only one who has noticed poltergeists flying around outside now.

I'm revisiting a lot of areas, and I'm noticing new stuff. Like the aforementioned spooks, and the mutant rats I posted on the last page.

Spoiler

What happens when a poltergeist runs into an anomaly?

 

[Prime crotch]

Ok a small annoiance, when you get near a neutral NPC he stops and just stands there staring at you. That can be a bitch when he's inside a house and in front of the door, even worst is if you have 10 Stalkers inside that same house all staring at you blocking all the exits.

 

[Chiggs]

Ok a small annoiance, when you get near a neutral NPC he stops and just stands there staring at you. That can be a bitch when he's inside a house and in front of the door, even worst is if you have 10 Stalkers inside that same house all staring at you blocking all the exits.

Yep. It happened to me last night at the Freedom base. I had to reload because this nitwit move his fatass out of the way. I got pinned between him and two walls. Annoying.

 

[Dot50Cal]

Yep. It happened to me last night at the Freedom base. I had to reload because this nitwit move his fatass out of the way. I got pinned between him and two walls. Annoying.

Take your crosshair off them and walk away (if you can). They wont go about their business until you take the crosshair off them.

 

[EviLore]

Finished it. Appears that I got the good ending.

Spoiler

The part with the portals was hard, because apparently it was a bad idea to walk on the ground in chernobyl after rejecting the c-consciousness. So I used all my medkits and bandages by the time I got to the ladder where you climb up to the first portal, and I was low on ammo for everything except the gauss rifle and the uber sniper rifle. The gauss rifle's pretty shitty, so yeah.

Great game, though. Very satisfied.

 

[Dot50Cal]

Finished it. Appears that I got the good ending.

Spoiler

The part with the portals was hard, because apparently it was a bad idea to walk on the ground in chernobyl after rejecting the c-consciousness. So I used all my medkits and bandages by the time I got to the ladder where you climb up to the first portal, and I was low on ammo for everything except the gauss rifle and the uber sniper rifle. The gauss rifle's pretty shitty, so yeah.

Great game, though. Very satisfied.

:lol When I first got out there from

Spoiler

c consciousness

I had no idea where to go. Eventually I figured it out that the

Spoiler

blue portals

were your friend.

And yep, You got the best ending.

 

[AIRic]

I don't understand what some of you are talking about?

Spoiler

Portals and C-Consciousness

? I finished the game, but I only encountered one

Spoiler

portal, which warped me into higher ground near the Wish Granter

.

Man, I have to replay this game right now! The first time I rushed it.

 

[Sinatar]

I don't understand what some of you are talking about?

Spoiler

Portals and C-Consciousness

? I finished the game, but I only encountered one

Spoiler

portal, which warped me into higher ground near the Wish Granter

.

Man, I have to replay this game right now! The first time I rushed it.

Spoiler

If you followed the story you should have gotten a decoder in Pripyat that would allow you access to the secret lab near the wishgranter, that's where the extra stuff you are reading is.

 

[Dot50Cal]

I don't understand what some of you are talking about?

Spoiler

Portals and C-Consciousness

? I finished the game, but I only encountered one

Spoiler

portal, which warped me into higher ground near the Wish Granter

.

Man, I have to replay this game right now! The first time I rushed it.

You didnt follow the

Spoiler

Streelok quests

Do that and you'll see the true ending.

 

[chespace]

We just moved into our new house so between unpacking and crunch at work, I haven't had time to play much of anything. But when I do, I try to squeeze in an hour of Stalker before I go to bed. I love this game. It's frustrating as hell, and sometimes totally pointless too. But the actual firefights and ballistics are so satisfying, I can easily see myself playing this game for ages on the homebrew mods alone.

Anyway, I'm still not that far in the game. Still trying to look for that damn family rifle near the crashed chopper (where the fvck is the tunnel?) and droppin' military fools with the Tunder assault rifle with grenade launcher I bought way back from the Trader before I left Cordon. Love this gun. Also love the M4 looking rifle with the scope.

To get my fix, I read this thread and live vicariously and look toward a time when I have like a whole day to waste just to play this game.