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Author Topic: Stalker Series  (Read 88686 times)

nenjin

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #750 on: July 10, 2013, 06:27:42 pm »

Arise thread!

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/07/10/stalker-call-of-pripyat-mod-miserys-new-trailer-runs-through-huge-list-of-improvements/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=emp

This is a heavy weight total conversion mod for Call of Pripyat called Misery 2.0, that will drop the 31st of this month.

The video is 9 minutes of music, stills and text bullet-pointing features instead of showing them. Which is never a good sign to me, because it always makes me think someone with really good video production skills is covering for some kludgy, awkward implementation. There's also a lot of repurposing of other existing mods, which isn't uncommon in compilations, but comes with its own issues. 

But with these kinds of mods, it's impossible to know until you really drill down into them.

Anyways, features:

-New Radio Music in all main bases
-Improved Version of the Armory Mod, Extreme NPC Diversity
-Expanded Sleeping Bag Mod
-120 new tradeable items
-Stunning Weather Changes
-Unique Version of Atmosfear 3
-Mutant Hunting Mod, have the meat cooked into meals
-Eat or trade raw mutant meat
-Faction-based inventories, relating to their rank and profession
-Enhanced lighting and sun effects
-New mutant designs, including silent Cat predators
-Unique Version of Absolute Nature 3, presenting a breathtaking scenery
-Increased grass draw distances
-New background ambience
-Improved version of MSO
-Bringing tons of a-life improvements, and hundreds of smart terrain updates
-Complete Stash overhaul
-350 new SFX, including actor breath
-Actor PPE expansion
-Redesigned Dynamic HUD
-Drug distribution
-Create your own stash
-Enhanced Particle Effects
-Flexible Stamina System
-Redesigned Economy
-New damage schemes
-Logarythmic Repair System
-GUI Overhaul
-200 weapon profiles, fully customizable with diversified characteristics
-Optimized with sprint and handling animations
-New texture designs, including structure materials
-New ammo types
-Real life scope reticules
-Tradeable Armor Attachments
-Play as USS Recon, Sniper or Assaulter class, each with unique loadouts, special attributes and perks.
-Unique Perks
-Physics system and Zone entry points
-Enhanced Stealth Aspects, with improved AI reactions
-Distant storms and heavy rain, letting you execute stealthy kills
-Harsh economy and scarce supplies
-High difficulty
-Advanced game progression, with factions responding to your gameplay choices. Calling on their veterans to take you out if you work against their interests

Dat's a lot of features. Here's a list from their moddb page which mentions other stuff:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Been a while since I've really settled in and played some S.T.A.L.K.E.R. This might be a good excuse.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2013, 08:15:06 pm by nenjin »
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
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Lectorog

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #751 on: July 10, 2013, 07:58:42 pm »

Thanks for the heads-up.

I haven't played CoP yet, though I've played SoC. Would you recommend playing first with or without this conversion mod?
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nenjin

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #752 on: July 10, 2013, 08:13:24 pm »

Compared to Shadow of Chernobyl, CoP is a total upgrade. I've only played through it once but it was noticeably less rough than SoC in most areas. That said, I think the economy was still far too casual for a game like this, so I think it'd probably be ok to go with the mod first, since it's not really changing the story or adding a ton of new quests.
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #753 on: July 10, 2013, 09:51:16 pm »

CoP starts out rather strong and remains so through about two thirds through the game. I liked how the game expanded on some RPG mechanics like being able to upgrade guns/armour so it wasn't completely dependent on finding "uniques" like SoC. The whole new areas felt much better than retreading what we've already seen in SoC and CS and for the most part quite interesting.
There was still a lot I didn't like including that Freedom and Duty being in a truce and were rather underplayed. You'd think the two biggest and strongest factions would have a much bigger stake in the centre of the zone.
Unfortunately the game really goes downhill when you reach Pripyat. The game feels extremely rushed at that point and Pripyat for all the mystical lore that's built around it is completely empty and boring.

Also the game has a hilariously bad ending that seems like it was taken straight from a B movie.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)


That Misery mod looks rather interesting. I'll have to try it out when it comes out. I'm doubting it would replace NKD/stalkersoup for me though. SoC is the closest to my heart and will always remain the better game for me. 
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generalpie

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #754 on: July 10, 2013, 09:55:44 pm »

I've just [acquired] all three games, and I have to say, I LOVE THEM ALL
Especially CS and its faction war system. Made me feel like I truly wasn't the only person in an abandon wasteland.
Best part is, it isnt just a generic nuclear wasteland, walk to everywhere, talk to everyone kind of game
There are animals to hunt, people to trade with, missions to do, places to explore, factions to demolish(or promote), artifacts to find, and more! Its just all amazing.
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nenjin

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #755 on: July 10, 2013, 09:57:50 pm »

Quote
Unfortunately the game really goes downhill when you reach Pripyat. The game feels extremely rushed at that point and Pripyat for all the mystical lore that's built around it is completely empty and boring.

Yeah, I do recall Pripyat being a little underwhelming. I don't remember the game going fucking crazy like SoC does late game.

That said, overall the game felt way more polished compared to SoC, and all the additions SoC didn't have ultimately made it seem better to me, even though I've played SoC way more. SoC is bigger and I think has more iconic moments than CoP. But it was also was/is buggy as shit, and CoP is almost rock solid by comparison.
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

Catastrophic lolcats

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #756 on: July 10, 2013, 10:09:46 pm »

I've just [acquired] all three games, and I have to say, I LOVE THEM ALL
I also heavily recommend mods for the STALKER games. The "Complete" mod (available to each game) is great for a first or second playthrough. Fixes up a bunch of AI wonkiness, adds some much needed features like repairing to SoC, improves performance issues and improves graphics slightly.
After you've become a vet of the games mods offer even more challenge and content such as oblivion lost and the mega-mod ndk/stalkersoup. The modding scene has really impressed me with what they were able to do with the games.

That said, overall the game felt way more polished compared to SoC, and all the additions SoC didn't have ultimately made it seem better to me, even though I've played SoC way more. SoC is bigger and I think has more iconic moments than CoP. But it was also was/is buggy as shit, and CoP is almost rock solid by comparison.
SoC remains fairly buggy but at the same time received the most love from modders. With the various bug fixes and fan patches it achieves a state either on-par or slightly better than vanilla CoP. I had a few issues with CoP including a couple of broken quest and strange jittery movement I was never able to pinpoint the culprit of.
Personally I found the most buggy mess to be CS which would always be crashing to the desktop or having NPCs floating around. I've never finished CS since I had a game breaking bug that stop plot process and gave up on the game. I also joined the bandit faction in that gameplay which is perhaps the biggest mistake I've ever made in a video game. Every 5 seconds they're screaming for help and every 7 seconds they lose their outposts, argh.

I really wanted to like CS and I liked what they were trying to do but the faction war system just wasn't fleshed out enough and when the novelty wore off it became an extremely tedious slog of fighting respawning enemies every few minutes. It's something I wouldn't have mind seeing in CoP if there were more stable and clear fronts.
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Bdthemag

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #757 on: July 10, 2013, 10:17:02 pm »

MISERY should be fun, I'm just honestly surprised they're not pushing back the release date since they've always been prone to do that often. It's a good quality mod, besides a few...odd designs choices (The stamina system in particular, and the fact the artstyle is pretty much RUST EVERYWHERE.) The developers aren't really open to critique either, but eh, whatever. Can't wait to play through it.
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nenjin

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #758 on: July 10, 2013, 10:28:28 pm »

Yeah, I noticed they favor brown. (It pretty much jumped off the page when I read "taking out/reducing areas that are too colorful.") It's going for photo real with the brown frown, and I can live with it for SoC. It'll help me get immersed in this game where it might not in others.

Starting to read deeply over the mod db page. They really put a lot of work into their release materials, those panels explaining features are gorgeous. There's a lot of stuff going on in this mod, and I'm getting kinda excited to play it.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2013, 09:10:18 am by nenjin »
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti

Darkmere

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #759 on: July 11, 2013, 12:26:13 am »

Hmm. Almost makes me want to go play CoP. I took a break after CS because it was a let-down, and never got around to playing CoP. Any idea if that mod is compatible with Complete?
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And then, they will be weaponized. Like everything in this game, from kittens to babies, everything is a potential device of murder.
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Tellemurius

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #760 on: July 11, 2013, 12:36:05 am »

Hmm. Almost makes me want to go play CoP. I took a break after CS because it was a let-down, and never got around to playing CoP. Any idea if that mod is compatible with Complete?
There is a Complete mod for CoP.

Darkmere

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #761 on: July 11, 2013, 01:07:57 am »

Hmm. Almost makes me want to go play CoP. I took a break after CS because it was a let-down, and never got around to playing CoP. Any idea if that mod is compatible with Complete?
There is a Complete mod for CoP.

Ah, sorry. I meant to ask if the Misery mod mentioned above was compatible with CoP Complete. I've only done one playthrough of the STALKER games, so I don't know as much about the modding scene there as, say, New Vegas.
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And then, they will be weaponized. Like everything in this game, from kittens to babies, everything is a potential device of murder.
So if baseless speculation is all we have, we might as well treat it like fact.

Lectorog

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #762 on: July 11, 2013, 01:20:34 am »

Is there anything you want from Complete that Misery doesn't provide?

EDIT: And no, I'm sure it's not. Overhaul mods almost always require a fresh installation.
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Darkmere

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #763 on: July 11, 2013, 03:03:21 am »

Is there anything you want from Complete that Misery doesn't provide?

EDIT: And no, I'm sure it's not. Overhaul mods almost always require a fresh installation.

Yeah, good point. Looking at the feature list, I'd guess Complete is more of a... vanilla game tune-up, while Misery is more of a conversion, like FOOK for fallout. I'd probably do a play with Complete first, then one with Misery. Though, for some reason, STALKER never seemed to lend itself to replays for me.
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And then, they will be weaponized. Like everything in this game, from kittens to babies, everything is a potential device of murder.
So if baseless speculation is all we have, we might as well treat it like fact.

nenjin

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Re: Stalker Series
« Reply #764 on: July 31, 2013, 12:06:43 pm »

Just a bump to say Misery 2.0 released today.
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Cautivo del Milagro seamos, Penitente.
Quote from: Viktor Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Quote from: Sindain
Its kinda silly to complain that a friendly NPC isn't a well designed boss fight.
Quote from: Eric Blank
How will I cheese now assholes?
Quote from: MrRoboto75
Always spaghetti, never forghetti
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