╓☢stalker2™-chat-not-gamma-keep-waiting

[worthy arch]

btw this game should get us worried for Cyberpunk's sequel... fuck UE5 -.-"

[tacit mortar]

https://tenor.com/view/stalker-stalker-clear-sky-clear-sky-monolith-monolith-exo-gif-13594799489985857333

DISGRACEFUL, BROTHER

[worthy arch]

I need Monolith memes

and Faust memes, to cope. F**k that guy 🤣

[heavy hedge]

https://tenor.com/view/bolt-stalker-gif-3044331008598214195

[tacit mortar]

https://tenor.com/view/stalker-monolith-ryan-gosling-cold-falling-snow-gif-7493567383040129594

[warped monolith]

https://tenor.com/view/stalker-stalker2-explaining-gif-25555840

[tacit mortar]

https://tenor.com/view/alinity-balloon-pop-kiss-love-you-gif-21634948

https://tenor.com/view/stalker-fortnite-fortnite-dance-monolith-сталкер-gif-18905167

[worthy arch]

lmfao I just realized they gave this guy a Leon S. Kennedy haircut in this trailer clip to avoid spoilers and it worked, at least for me

[tacit mortar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atm0GwWs6lw

ACTUAL MONOLITH BRAINWASHING

[worthy arch]

lmao wtf

[tacit mortar]

😍 MONOLITH 😍

[worthy arch]

yeah I am kinda mesmerized

anyway I gotta say, the scientists in stalker give Umbrella a run for their money when it comes to be batshit insane 🤣

[worthy arch]

I am getting a lot of gmod shitposting vibes from these, love it hahahah

[pallid mirage]

changed a mods name (not contents) and saves won't load, doesn't matter which save, even after reverting change and restoring backed up saves. that's not good.
also notice longer wait before compiling screen shows
edit: it was 2 mods forgot to change one back. it was number removal, so maybe load order issue

still freezing 😭

[digital plume]

they stole his hair ...

[digital plume]

oh look skif getting punched in the face ... again

[heavy hedge]

https://tenor.com/view/stalker-dance-ethosaur-nonagon-demolisher-gif-27678955

[worthy arch]

try to delete the game settings folder, it's somewhere in C:, look it up online

[naive copper]

Малю монолита что бы в гамме не было вирусов

[pallid mirage]

Thanks, I'll try that

Now it freezes at the license agreement

[pallid mirage]

even deleting whole appdata and verifying didn't help. everything is bacl the way it was, and all of the files have been refreshed, i don't get it

[worthy arch]

you deleted this folder C:\Users[WINDOWS USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Stalker2 and rebooted the game but didn't work? weird ;/

if you don't see one of these folders try to enable view hidden items in any windows tab

or just rename the mods to what they were? there has to be a config file somewhere that expects those file names

[pallid mirage]

I've deleted everything and renamed the mods, and I've gone through a few times, I didn't miss any. I'm trying without any mods or anything now, I just have to wait for this compile, and it still might not work

yeah, appdata complete Stalker2 folder

I've been combing every file looking at time modified. I thought renaming them would reverse whatever went wrong, but something got saved once those mods names were changed and I can't pinpoint it

And here I have to wait for a compile and I know it's probably going to freeze because it still hangs right before compiling screen shows, didn't do that before

It wasn't even a change I needed to make, I'm so dumb. I literally just put the cherry on top of my modlist.
Anyway, done complaining, back to it

[harsh veldt]

you're not running skip intro mod right? had a weird hang up similar after placing an older mod version in the folder instead of the new one, removed skip intro and it compiled, added back and it was good

good luck either way sounds like a fun time

[pallid mirage]

I might actually have it in my merge. You mean skip intro cutscene, or skip compile?

[harsh veldt]

skip shaders sorry

my thinking is that it attempted to load shaders and shaders it attempted to load no longer existed because of the old mod version

[pallid mirage]

I had that in my ini, which I removed, waiting for compile.

[harsh veldt]

this is all speculation obviously but i hope it helps or gives you an idea at least

[pallid mirage]

I do have tweak which skips dev logos still enabled

[harsh veldt]

in theory that shouldn't matter but could

[pallid mirage]

But don't know. recap for, the issue is a black sceeen hang before compile, which wasn't nearly as long before, and loading screen (new game or old save) freezing before the needle even moves, and my fans go quiet.
After this shader compile , I've refreshed completely, aside from that skip logo tweak, and Ultra+ is still in there. So if it still doesn't work, I have no clue

Will report after compile I guess

[west moth]

[manic thorn]

Здравствуйте

А все таки, где лучше графика

В сталкер 2 или в гамме ?

[icy tide]

stalker 2 if you have a supercomputer from roscosmos

[manic thorn]

If you play on ultra?

[icy tide]

itll look amazing but youll have 5 fps the game is terribly optimized

[manic thorn]

Agree

Bugs are still present

The developers still haven't finished the original trilogy

In terms of bugs

[pallid mirage]

So no stalker this weekend. Gotta reinstall, and that probably still won't fix it, since verifying didn't

[west moth]

[plush perch]

anyone else have problems that firemode selector doesnt work?

[pallid mirage]

So if all mods, reshade and other third party files are removed, game is reinstalled and appdata is scrubbed, then what could possibly have changed that is still causing freezes?

[wary orbit]

Try a Pineapple Pizza with Anchovies. That'll brighten your day

[pallid mirage]

Thanks? Turns out I just had to restart my pc

[hollow basin]

First time i see the trader at the exit of wild island 4 playtrougths and didnt even see him

[abstract lagoon]

Bro they tell you to go talk to him

[wicked adder]

Yeah, but he leaves pretty soon after you visit tbf

If you’re just directly doing main story

[hushed garden]

couldn't agree more

[lunar gyro]

pineapple and ham pizza, trust

[wary orbit]

i will find you and forcefeed you this pizza for a decade

you will learn to love it, you will beg for it

[abstract lagoon]

NEVER

ID RATHER DIE

[wanton arch]

wtf is this floating salt shaker by my gun

[warped monolith]

biological warfare

inject nacl via bullet into your enemies

[mint holly]

I'd starve to death before eating that

[ionic narwhal]

weight artifacts increase weight, but it seems not the encumbrance threshold, any of the artifact mods increase encumbrance too? i modded the base carryweight to 40kg in my playthrough

[tacit mortar]

Honestly, it'd be super cool to have depleted uranium rounds as a special ammo type

For all I know, that could be the lore behind AP rounds in the zone lol

[true yew]

Unlikely, it's more convincing if local AP rounds are made from the zone's steel. Steel is highly recyclable and much more common

I'm not fully certain, but didn't the fuel rods exploded/burned in the disaster?

[west moth]

The reactor lid was thrown into the air and landed sideways. The fuel rods and moderators stick out: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/53/02/3e/53023e609028e311ad58e0d0b77b49b0.jpg

Pieces of fuel and graphite from the moderator were thrown out around the reactor, small bits and dust landed far away

A fuel rod:

Graphite: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Ejected_graphite_from_Chernobyl_core.jpg

Bionerd23 has fascinating vids on yt

All the shit melted and flowed below the reactor, forming "lava": https://external-preview.redd.it/GLBdevyhZ1gY1c8D8HMqy5FILoq6SnV6RX2mJbq8gDE.jpg?auto=webp&s=242d40886bc91e246011174b433f55a3434fdd14

https://media.wired.com/photos/59335a05a88f414d9a8c7ba9/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/Chernobyl-Nuclear-Disaster_9_1.jpg

[true yew]

Someone def died taking this photo

[tacit glacier]

That the infamous Elephants Foot?

[tacit mortar]

Depleted Uranium comes from used up fuel rods. Those are most often not stored directly on sight, instead at a designated storage facility.

The disaster would surely destroy fuel rods in the reactor at the time, but there's definitely depleted fuel rods laying somewhere.

[true yew]

Huh, ig depleted uranium ammo is plausible then

[wary orbit]

Most DU in use is a byproduct of enrichment processes, only a marginal amount is gained from spent nuclear fuel

that said DU munitions aren't even used in any of the weapons we handle in Stalker 2

[proud ruin]

https://tenor.com/view/chernobyl-not-great-not-terrible-average-gif-14312851

[vestal falcon]

hello

can someone hhelp

[jovial berry]

Yes, what do you need?

[wary orbit]

That'll be 5 Hypercubes and a can of Tuna.

[sage wolf]

Hey guys. Is the diamond exo actually the best armor in the game?? I’ve been hearing tell of a liberty exoskeleton that sounds pretty nice too, as well as the X7 suit

[true yew]

So I checked the stats...
Between the diamond and liberty, the liberty has 0.2 less chem/therm/elect protection but has 4.3 phy protection compared to diamond's 4.0 (idk about upgrades)

X7 on the other hand is related to a main story quest, very light, same stats with diamond but more chem/therm/elect protection but no psi protection

[sage wolf]

Hmmmm

[late kernel]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1255788825758793880/1328732313466699786/IMG_20250113_222419_172.jpg?ex=6787c5e6&is=67867466&hm=1995e0b3ec820262fe0a39c1f47bfc84f8a4d1cc7ee253240eaa5b9cddbf0506&

[sage wolf]

So is the bear detector just the best detector in the game?

[ruby acorn]

you mean the monolith

[covert eagle]

Uncle ben got frame gen'd

[tacit glacier]

He'll look even worse once 50 series drops with mfg (30 into 120)

[wicked adder]

Matter of opinion I guess. Veles is meant to be better, and I prefer it

[plush perch]

i wanted to ask everyone in this chat... what do you think of stalker 2?

[warped monolith]

it truly is one of the games ever

[plush perch]

it sure is

[abstract lagoon]

It's good. Don't listen to the haters who have only played gamma

[plush perch]

im literally one of those haters though. genuine question, why do you like it so much? what keeps you playing?

[warped monolith]

I like the exploration, I'm not a sucker for ultra realism or CBT levels of difficulty. I like the setting, the references

combat is a decent mix of challenge, bullshit and cheese (both in favor and against me)

[sharp sleet]

I'm enjoying my time with it, its really nice to just sit down and walk from point to point, happily getting distracted by things here and there, story is engaging, ukrainian voice acting is very good, and I don't think I'd like it as much if I hadn't turned off 90% of the hud (only healthbar is visible) makes it feel much more exploration focused when I have to navigate off the map

[warped monolith]

Can't say much for the story but I'm not expecting genius-level writing anyways, so I'll take whatever they're serving

[warped monolith]

you know what I wish we had? An option to show status effect icons (like hunger, bleeding, weight etc) without having to show the entire health bar/stamina/radiation gauges

[sharp sleet]

yes! 100%

[warped monolith]

low health has a visual effect on screen, so you know you're dying
If you're bleeding, there's blood trickling down the screen, so you know you're bleeding
if you're irradiated, there's... stuff... on screen. so you know you're irradiated

But there's nothing to tell you you're hungry outside of the UI elements

idk maybe Skif should say something like Henry does in KCD. I'm feeling quite hungry

or something even sillier, like hearing Skif's stomach growling lmao

[sharp sleet]

i'll be honest i'm not such a fan of the on screen radiation effects, but thats a minor gripe

[warped monolith]

Me neither, but if that's what they chose to show us we're taking radiation damage, I can live with it better than not showing anything and me having zero clue I'm about to die

I think I'll just let go of my pride and enable the health thing on the HUD. Better than having to turn it on to check every 5 mins and then turn it off again

might as well leave it on.

a "workaround" for it would be a mod that creates a keybind for you to check your vitals, temporarily showing the health element on the HUD for a few seconds and then hiding it again.
But I'm no modder.

[sharp sleet]

Thats what I ended up doing, its not so bad, and you can lower its opacity too

[abstract lagoon]

Story. Sidequests. Exploration

[west moth]

Yep. Something similar could be found in OG Stalker

https://i.imgur.com/QrmBbCy.jpeg

[west moth]

There are crazy vids of ukrainian physicists monitoring the inside of the old sarkophagus, they were doing mad expeditions into the most irradiated areas, most of them were allegedly fine. They had to be careful how often and how long they went into radiation

I think it took at least 10 years before they could get near the elephant foot are without immediate ded

[west moth]

Yeah it didnt, but its still deadly down there

[abstract lagoon]

There actually is a photo of the elephants foot that killed a dude iirc

[west moth]

doubt

[warped monolith]

it was called "medusa" because if you looked at it, you'd die.

[pulsar wave]

stalker 2 vr

[golden hazel]

SKEEFA WE NEED TO BLOW UP THE OUTHOUSES, FOR THE SHINING ZONE

[alpine frigate]

THATS A FANTASTIC, POINTED QUESTION SKEEFA! I SHALL NOW ACT OUT SOME CRAZY SHIT RN AND FLOP ON THE FLOOR LIKE A FISH, THUS ANSWERING ALL YOUR QUESTIONS

scar is a treat for how batshit insane he is

[golden hazel]

[golden hazel]

OHHHHHHHH, who lives in a random shack near Icarus, SCAR FROM CLEAR SKY

[alpine frigate]

As crazy and whacky and shining as he,
SCAR FROM CLEAR SKY

[golden hazel]

If slavical nonsense be something you wish, SCAR FROM CLEAR SKY

[alpine frigate]

Then prepare as he drops on the floor and flops like a fish,
SCAR FROM CLEAR SKY

[golden hazel]

SCAR FROM CLEAR SKY, SCAR FROM CLEAR SKY, SCAR FROM CLEAR SKY, SCAR-A-FROM-CLEAR SKYYYYYY

[alpine frigate]

AHA-HA-HA-HA-HA

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-cartoon-flute-gif-15077243

[golden hazel]

Somehow Scar would be able to do that

[alpine frigate]

Somehow it wouldn't even be the weirdest thing Scar has done

[golden hazel]

[solid ibex]

he's the only character that doesn't feel like a paper cutout of John Stalker the Hardass Dude Man i love him

[random heath]

The TOZ in the stone. Whoever pulls it out will be crowned king of the zone

[random heath]

Scar is fucking wild for how much personality he has compared with the blankest of blank slates he was in Clear Sky

[solid ibex]

he was really sassy in CS but that's where his personality ended yea

[alpine frigate]

turns out surviving emissions and getting your head turned into scrambled eggs a fuck ton of times does a thing to your psyche

[plush perch]

ima ask you the same thing in a month or so. i wonder if you'll think the same way

[west moth]

Sooo what do we think about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gwNrYJ5VKM

[abstract lagoon]

Why must you insist on shitting on others' fun?

[warped monolith]

to add to Goblin's question

[abstract lagoon]

If you don't like the game, fuck off out of the channel for it. Ez

Sometimes in life, people have different opinions than you

[random heath]

Got 115 hours in game so far, my experience so far has been: narratively the main quest is great, there's some way better writing than anything in the original trilogy, I genuinely hoped for things to work out for some NPCs.
The zone isn't as compelling as it was. At it's best, it's on par with CoP. It feels kind of sparse.
Difficulty is occasionally hard in the moment, but it doesn't have much strategic difficulty- I was never short of ammo or medkits, every item can be found in the world so money was only ever for upgrades or repairs (seems designed with this in mind, since repairs are a cash sink).

I like it but I don't think it's going to be one I return to frequently, even if something like a Gamma equivalent shows up.

Also fuck Ward, it's just Duty without the charisma

[abstract lagoon]

Although korshunov is great

Especially when you betray him over and over

[undone summit]

zone isn't as compelling, feels sparse at best

That's a good way to describe it. Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky, the Zone felt like a wild world, but in HoC, it actually feels explored and soon enough maybe even tamed and colonized. It's hardly the same, even with the new areas. (Though that might be nostalgia speaking)

[golden hazel]

Korshunov has next level patience, though it makes sense considering he's a former Granite member

[undone summit]

Or rather, controlled, even with shit like the wormhole in Rostok and the tornado anomaly seen in the trailer

[undone summit]

I sense I'm spoiling myself but is Granite a new faction in the game?

[golden hazel]

They were in SoC of Chernobyl

They're the Monolith Special Forces

[abstract lagoon]

WAIT WHAT

KORSHUNOV IS MONOLITH?

[golden hazel]

Well no but actually yes

[undone summit]

Wait
Special forces meant to deal with monolith or actually monolith spec ops?

[golden hazel]

They are monolith

[stiff agate]

This dude KEEPS WALKING INTO THE SAME FUCKING WALL WHEN I RELOAD AND FAST travel to where he wants us to meet

[mint holly]

I've been thoroughly enjoying the game, is it perfect? Not even close but I find the story engaging and the gameplay pretty fun

[golden hazel]

The story goes hard

It's the best part of the game by far

[stiff agate]

Nun uh

[golden hazel]

Yuh huh

[stiff agate]

exploration is

[golden hazel]

https://tenor.com/view/stalker2-nonstop-gif-7385508345518191769

[stiff agate]

I have spent over half of my time playing on exploration maybe 10 or so on story

[stiff agate]

I walk if you can’t deal with it then don’t

[golden hazel]

What are you on

You think I didn't walk through the whole map to find lore bits?

[stiff agate]

Heheheh

[golden hazel]

The main story is alright but where it gets spicy is when you pick up the pdas and letters hidden in the map

And some of the stuff is even behind story paths, like the project Y documents

[stiff agate]

Somtimes the npcs are idiots

Like why the hell do I have to walk into a wall wit u

[golden hazel]

I haven't played much on the new patch, that sounds funny as fuck

It's like the code is evolving, just backwards

[stiff agate]

HOLY SHIT HES STILL WALKING INTO A WALL AFTER 2 patches

He’s Jst standing there and I can’t get the mission done

[late kernel]

!noalife

[fallen iron]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1306683555488862319/1309254531602972753/Screenshot_2024-11-21-21-13-12-76_572064f74bd5f9fa804b05334aa4f912.jpg?ex=6740e9cd&is=673f984d&hm=4c16bf5a7fe14ff8f1b81027f51be666771f1c2eb28f8a82498b0e0f436dea10&

[golden hazel]

[late kernel]

No A-Life, No thoughts behind those eyes

[random heath]

I think my biggest problem with Stalker 2 is that I'm still comfortable in the zone. After 17 years of stalker it feels like home, and stalker 2 didn't manage to shrug that off and instill any of that fear I felt first descending into Agroprom underground in SoC. Bloodsucker? more like cocksucker lmao. Boars? Fuzzy friends.
The closest it got is frustration at how tanky some of the tougher mutants are

[stiff agate]

I gotta sleep until an emission

Holy

@golden hazel the only thing that fixes the colonel is an emission I think he might be stupid

I wonder how long I’m gonna have to sleep

Oh boy am I cookked

[golden hazel]

[stiff agate]

The only thing I can do to make an emission happen faster is sleep

I’m on Xbox

I swear I’m not lazy

I’m just waiting for an emission

[cerulean root]

In SKEEFA we trust because if not him then who else

[alpine frigate]

i sure would hope the zone is more understood and tamed by HoC if it has been 16 years since the Zone came to be. in the original trilogy, it was only 6 years since it first came about. Humanity ain't that stupid, especially if there is money to be made.

HoC feels like what Red Dead Redemption 1 felt like to me. The end of the Wild West era.

Or at least until SIRCAA screws that up, of course.

[candid thicket]

https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/1152

[warped monolith]

Fallout: Chernobyl

[split crown]

I feel the same way tbh

[patent lichen]

I thought they fixed a life…did they not?

[warped monolith]

!noalife

[fallen iron]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1306683555488862319/1309254531602972753/Screenshot_2024-11-21-21-13-12-76_572064f74bd5f9fa804b05334aa4f912.jpg?ex=6740e9cd&is=673f984d&hm=4c16bf5a7fe14ff8f1b81027f51be666771f1c2eb28f8a82498b0e0f436dea10&

[teal jungle]

It's still broken

[patent lichen]

Do the a life mods fix it tho

[true yew]

SIRCAA is the english translation of the institute right? What was the ukranian acronym/version?

Im pretty sure there was a ukranian version, cuz of the ARG few years ago

[ionic narwhal]

i was playing with those mods that make npcs drop armor, i have deluxe and the monolithians seva guys were droppin the Wanderer Suit. I havent done the journalist quests ever and i didnt know thats one of the special suits. but theyre dropping it like hotcakes. The icon is a normal Seva though, when i looked online it was a specific monolith seva

[hollow basin]

Its ritchter burnt scar explained in the game or is it still a mistery?

[short wren]

how do I delete stalker 2 mods

[coarse rain]

hey, so got stalker 2 recently and ive managed to get to the mission where you meet scar, only one problem. before i even got the mission, when i went upstares in the slag heap, the colonels model was completely gone so there was just a floating AK. whenever i got to meet scar i cant seem to get inside the building, after like 2 minutes i just teleport inside without any way of getting out, and my headlight doesnt work. should i just uninstall the game then install it again?

[empty shale]

just wondering what teh status of A-life 2.0 is? did they add it to the game yet?

[acoustic bison]

Look if any of your mods have a specific uninstall method. If they don't just delete them off your mods~ folder. You will have to reinstall the game if you downloaded something that enables the consol commands.

[proud ruin]

[proud ruin]

Spark is aliexpress clear sky

[golden hazel]

Clear Sky is ali express C-Con

[proud ruin]

Clear sky could never achieve the level of based c-con is on

[golden hazel]

[plucky onyx]

I was actually laughing way too long at that

[plucky onyx]

Lol he’s still alive, his name is Artur Korneyev

[abstract lagoon]

Was the "lol," necessary?

[plucky onyx]

Yes extremely

[abstract lagoon]

Cool

[hushed garden]

3.6 roentgen not great not terrible

[polar widget]

Spark is ali express Isis

Bunch of terrorist if u ask me

[abstract lagoon]

Ward is ali express duty

[fallow pivot]

effective duty

so effective, kicked both freedom, duty, loners and mercs asses all at once lol.

Only bested by our boy SKEEFA

[wanton arch]

Zone experrt

[nocturne fable]

Why Ai fighting Ai is so weird in this game. If they fight against the player they take cover. if they fight each other they just stupidly walk around each other while shooting.

[bitter fulcrum]

Stalker 2 has alot of issues still so it's not surprising you've had a glitch like that. (Anomaly)

Maybe do a file verification first just to make sure some anomalous shenanigans has happened there, then if that fails re install

[sage wolf]

Is the bear detector indeed just the most goated detector of all time?

[sage wolf]

Why use a Veles and have to face the proper direction when I can use a Bear and be goated 😈

[sage wolf]

wtf gives with this place on the map??? my entire playthrough it seems like these guys are getting rdy for something....... but all they ever do is hit me with the "talk to our boss" and the boss is nowhere to be found

[coarse rain]

Alr, thank you stalker

[bitter fulcrum]

no garentees but fingers crossed

[ancient flicker]

i asked this on the stalker discoprd and whant more opinons do i side with mr streleok or the ward. i like the ward as i hate the monoloth but mr strelok is also intresting

[ancient flicker]

hilka and a veles is the best imo. just run around with the hilka in hand then use the veles

[sage wolf]

Does Hilka detect in a 360 radius?

[ancient flicker]

yes and has 3x the range

[bitter fulcrum]

😭

loners get to much shit sometimes

[bitter fulcrum]

think i have a glitched artifact in the chem factory

im right ontop of it adn its not showing up

[molten osprey]

oh man

not everyone is a strelok or skif after all, some just think its fast money in a lawless area

[bitter fulcrum]

yea was not expecting such feels today

[ancient flicker]

theres is an underground bit

be carefull there are snors

[bitter fulcrum]

its limited for me though cant open anyother doors

[ancient flicker]

or try on the cat walks connecting the vats

[bitter fulcrum]

yea i did was no where near where the detector was showing its like inside the chem anomaly

oh yea dose anybody know what the key(s) for that buch of lockers goes to?

[random jolt]

What's your in game display settings (gamma, brightness and contrast)? Map looks so nice

[sage wolf]

Currently not at home but I will send them when off work!!!! I don’t remember changing much from default :3 I just adjusted the brightness slider to be honest to what the game suggests. And yeah. But I will send after (:

[west moth]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/381329194338222081/989745049015287848/unknown.png?ex=67893028&is=6787dea8&hm=6f1c46c4b5571a518b363e973168aa5a1cd91c81d08454b1747bc763ba9d3c92&

it just works

[storm bay]

16 times the artifact detection rate

[empty shale]

wondering what the status of A-Life 2.0 is? did they patch/fix it yet? my slow connection sucks to download 160 gigs hoping to find out if its worth it yet lol

[west moth]

#1310675708091301930 message

Gem haz not a life

[bronze urchin]

Can one replace a meaningless life with non-existent Stalker 2 ALife? Asking for a friend.

[west moth]

I cant tell cause i have not a life

[timid oyster]

A life?

But the life has not a game

[empty shale]

word ty

[west moth]

A life is not a game

[teal tapir]

Hello, got a question

Did all the steps, pressed now install/update gammma. Dont see total progress moving or anything and seems cant press anything on launcher is it nornal? how long usually takes? Should i close and start again?

[warped monolith]

[abstract lagoon]

#1026866080347603065

#🔨base-gamma-support

[wide mantle]

is there mods that scratches that itch with guns, gunplay and a-life immersion?

[wanton arch]

Actually the atmosphere in stalker 2 in some places are straight chill, like specifically those flat areas like zalissya and zaton.

as a person who played the older games long after the release I hold the take that the older games had a much scarier and dead atmosphere.

you OGs know the best though so tell me ur input

[wanton arch]

if u do find some make sure to let me know, the "A-life" kinda dissapointed me.

it was funny seeing some npcs spawn in and I could just run back and despawn them.

and ye the fps issues too but the game is nice in my opinion, and spoiler: ||faust boss fight sucked ngl (fps drops and felt anticlimatic||

[abstract lagoon]

For gunplay, I use maklanes

[vapid hatch]

https://tenor.com/view/condestável-condestavel-wojak-doomer-wojak-scary-wojak-gif-12758665197812043739

[wanton arch]

[haughty grove]

Same but this is the sequel effect

You cant really fix it without radically imagining the idea of stalker and pissing off every fanboy (and earning less money probably)

[wanton arch]

anyone else locked from advancing the arena fights?

i cant sleep it off, went days and did quests without, then go back and it still wants me to wauit?

[wary orbit]

main story advance it

[jovial berry]

I just had a dream that IGN reviewed Stalker 2 and gave it a 4 lmao

[random heath]

I did get the vibe that the game knew this and was torn between changing things and keeping things the same.
Like how in some areas it's entirely new, yet you turn a corner and are suddenly you're in a perfect recreation of somewhere from the old games.
Or how the narrative has a theme running through it of being obsessed with the past. Almost every character is trying to recapture the past, and the ones that are trying to find a future (||SIRCAA and Strider||) fail utterly and come to a horrible end.

[split crown]

maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, I just got to the Duty base and was finally able to find the SPAS-12 and Raging Bull via the trader there, and I'm disappointed in both guns' reload animations; the Colt .357 mod for Anomaly has spoiled me in a reloading sense due to your character reloading each bullet based on how many rounds you've fired lmao - meanwhile Skeefa just reloads all rounds no matter how many you fired off for the Raging Bull . The SPAS-12's reload animation just isn't as impressive as I thought it might have been. Guess I'll just buy the Raging Bull and mess around with it for a while since I only have money for one purchase.

[mossy grail]

stalker 2 has a black barkeeper. that is atleast a 7 in IGNs eyes

[molten osprey]

Female shopkeeper, 8 at least

[mossy grail]

game gone woke gone sexual

[tacit mortar]

Is there any news about when the next patch will be?

[warped monolith]

oshit moderator in stalker 2

[plain surge]

should I delete the mods after I merged them or they can stay?

[wanton arch]

If anyone is good at writing stories please pm me 😊

[queen fossil]

Launching the game after a long time, damn it runs so much better now. Not sure I want to continue the story because of the chance of being soft lock but this is finally playable.

[split ridge]

hey i need some help, im having some issues actually getting the game to run and the guides and troubleshoooting arent helping

[queen fossil]

Being new to the game, not sure I can help you :/ Maybe download the mod made to help performance ?

[split ridge]

issue being i just installed everything, and is still trying to do the initial launch

[queen fossil]

Do you have an error message ?

[bitter fulcrum]

just found the rhino revolver

whats the ammo swap caliber is it a shotgun caliber or another?

[rose lion]

You need to progress to a certain point in the main story

[quartz scaffold]

I like the game. But the shader preparation at the start of each round is a pain in the arse. The mod to skip this doesn't work for me. Does anyone have a similar problem?

[hybrid scroll]

GOD I LOVE BEING REACTIONARY YES INJECT PURE VITRIOL IN MY VEINNSSS

Have the anti-sjws found the game yet?

[wanton arch]

Maaan

[alpine swan]

hi folks, who can upgrade 5th artifact slot for operator exo? I can't find any technician unfortunatly

[cosmic gate]

Not really. Just go and make yourself a cup of tea or something. Also, it takes a minute or less. If it takes longer then your PC may need some upgrade.

[quartz scaffold]

Do you really think so? I don't think my pc needs such a massive update. 6800xt, 32 GB RAM. The CPU could perhaps be better with a 5 3600.

[cosmic gate]

As far as I know, shader compilation time depends on your CPU. That Ryzen 3600 is getting old for games like Stalker 2.

[quartz scaffold]

Okay. I still have a 5 5600x in the cupboard. Maybe I should install it and hope that it runs better. Or is it also too old?

[random heath]

I'm on a 5800x and it takes about 30 seconds

[quartz scaffold]

Thanks for the info. Then it really must be the CPU. I'll install the other one at the weekend. Haven't felt like doing the BiOS update yet.

[west moth]

It's the pre-calculations of A-life systems

[cosmic gate]

It should be slightly faster but don't expect much. I think that shader compilation likes threads. My barely stable 13600K, with 20 threads, compiles the shaders quite quickly. Half a minute or so.

Out of curiosity, why are you using 3600 when you have 5600X in the box?

[quartz scaffold]

So far, I haven't felt like doing the BiOS update, which is mandatory for my motherboard. And to be honest, I haven't needed the new processor yet. Apart from Gamma, I only play old Paradox games. That's been great so far.

[cosmic gate]

That's an illogical logic, but hey, whatever rocks your boat 😄

[quartz scaffold]

It's very easy for anyone to change a graphics card. Upgrading a processor with thermal paste and such... is a different matter for me. I also find it difficult to update the BIOS. That's why I've refused to do it so far.

[past sluice]

My shader comp fails about 90% of the time, i usually have to use task manager to close the game first time around then second go I’m able to play

[mint holly]

Bios update really isn't that scary, unless you have unstable power which is prone is going out you really have nothing to worry about

[cosmic gate]

Frankly speaking, you would have to bash the motherboard with a baseball bat to damage it, so don't worry. It's quite easy and fast.
Same with BIOS. If you don't live in an active war zone with frequent loss of power there is nothing to be afraid of as well.

[west moth]

We live in the zone?

[cosmic gate]

Reinstall the game. If this does not help then reinstall the system.

[quartz scaffold]

Thanks guys. I also know that the fear is unfounded. Fortunately, there are already great instructions for this. My electricity is running quite well in Germany. (So far...)

I will try the exchange tomorrow!

[past sluice]

It’s not that big of a deal, many have reported the issue i doubt it’s on my end. was just offering him an alternative to a bunch of work since the game runs fine

[cosmic gate]

Well... Many people report this issue because many people's desktops are in dire need of cleanup or OS reinstallation. Windows can be shite and collects "bugs" faster than pornstar collects STDs. That's somewhat unrelated, but I recently had to do a reinstall of Windows because it didn't like NordVPN so it bugged the hell out of some DNS nonsense and couldn't even connect to the internet via ethernet cable...

Again, if there are problems with shader compilation it means that there are problems with your PC.

[past sluice]

It’s a widespread phenomenon and the game runs fine, I think more likely it’s some software incompatibility. They have a specific error message for this issue for a reason, I think

[random heath]

It happens to me occasionally

[cosmic gate]

I'm not trying to sound aggressive, but you are not special. Many people, without these problems, run the game on the same hardware and software. If it works for them then there is something wrong with your system. The sooner you realize it, the better.

[past sluice]

You don’t even know what my hardware is haha. I just see a massively widespread issue, with over 100 threads on Reddit alone, plus a popular mod to bypass shader compilation entirely, with no issues in game and I don’t feel the need to search to fix a problem that takes 30 seconds to resolve when I launch the game

Just saying if he doesn’t wanna tool around his pc he can just close it once and play normally, if he wants to do your suggestion fine. Just threw out an alternative perspective

[cosmic gate]

If you're not using some obscure engineering samples of CPU/GPU or something like a beta preview of Windows, then you run the same hardware as a lot of people who do not have a problem. Your laughs are pointless. Just clean up your system instead of blaming the developers.

[past sluice]

Ok, thanks but I didn’t really ask for help. Not even bashing the devs or the game. You’re being defensive over nothing

[quartz scaffold]

In his defence: He wasn't complaining about shader preparation. That was me.

[cosmic gate]

I'm not trying to help you as much as trying to debunk your comments about the game being the problem and it being a well-known bug or something. Like I said, it is not. You, and a lot of other people, use unstable systems that need cleaning up.
The same goes for being defensive. I'm not defending the game or the devs, but saying that the game is improperly coded and thus glitched is indeed a form of accusation.

[past sluice]

I’m not really looking to argue. The game runs great after I close it once and that’s good enough for me. I’m sure my system isn’t perfect

[arctic cedar]

Shat are your opinions on stalker 2?

[warped monolith]

[proud ruin]

https://tenor.com/view/chernobyl-gif-20369672

[wicked adder]

About what i expected from a Rushed game made by a company famous for EuroJank

[calm plume]

Anyone has an idea how to edit savefiles? So far I have come to the conclusion that they are encrypted, but I would like confirmation from anyone else who is concerned

To be exact, the .sav files stored in the save folder in appdata can not be read by SPSS, it's all corrupted encoding, and checking some other encoding formats via Notepad++ yielded only more incomprehensible lattice

[west moth]

Don't worry, Orku is just being Orku. Hope you can solve your problem

[tall current]

im getting some screen tearing and v sync kills my performance for some reason

[warped monolith]

have you tried disabling v-sync ingame and using whatever equivalent your gpu's control panel has?

like a frame limit option or similar thing

[tall current]

i've limited it but i haven't enabled g-sync. let me try doing that

[warped monolith]

give it a spin, hopefully it does the trick

... but if it doesn't work, I have no idea what to try next

[tall current]

oh yeah it's already enabled lol. ill just try fixed refresh

[tall current]

sloved it by setting my monitor to "gaming mode"

[white moat]

is game good yet

[warped monolith]

no

[late kernel]

The "yes mans" will say it is

[tall current]

wtf why is it locked

the hell am i supposed to do

[mint holly]

when opinions different than mine exist

[bitter fulcrum]

ah ive reach that too

its bugged i talked the the general and got stuck in a convosation loop

think its one of those hard lock quest buggs

[tall current]

just got locked out of a main mission

[tall current]

its kinda hard

[tall current]

from when do i have to restart

[bitter fulcrum]

dont even know if that works, im tired ill try again tomorrow and see what happens, unless im told otherwise

[tall current]

i cant even bother to test that right now too

ping me if you find a solution

[lunar gyro]

that ghosting is crazy

[lunar gyro]

noclip through it?

[tall current]

what tool to use

[lunar gyro]

one of the console enablers on nexus

[tall current]

okie danke

[lunar gyro]

kein problem

[bitter fulcrum]

yea its the quest line mission script itself i think it bork both me and corpsie are at the same spot i talked to the characters there and ended up locked in convo

[tall current]

first bug i've encountered that actually pissed me off

[mint holly]

yeah that sucks. I have only had trouble with one quest and its quite an infamous one

[lunar gyro]

my most annoying bug was defend zalissya quest failing while im in the middle of doing it

[wanton arch]

dyatlov posting hours

[golden hazel]

Good ol Stalker 2: Heart of Zalissya

[gloomy yacht]

same.

actors either clip through the floor or yeet somewhere unseen and then they aren't in range/loaded at all, so they don't voice their lines and the game stalls

[plucky onyx]

The bug that annoys me is when someone is talking through the radio and all of a sudden it sounds like they are just talking next to your ear

[nimble coral]

spoiler talk for the road to salvation, is it even possible or worth it to do stealth?

[wicked adder]

No, its never worth it to do stealth and its usually not possible

[nimble coral]

do you piss off and become hostile to the wards on sight either way though?

like if you wonder upon a group of wards while roaming out in the wasteland, will they become hostile on sight if you complete the mission stealth or not>

[wicked adder]

No

Neither ward Nor spark will become properly hostile until an unavoidable story choice

and after that you can't Un-Hostile the faction you didn't choose

[split crown]

Stealth? In STALKER 2? You're funny :^)

NPCs see you from miles away

[gloomy yacht]

Npcs have ultrasight, ultrahearing, ultrasmell

[split crown]

NPCs in the Zone are mutants in of themselves

[wicked adder]

Theyve got the NVG that were cut from the game, inside their eyes

[nimble coral]

So I can literally massacre everyone at the factory area for the quest to rescue star's people and the roaming wards out in lesser zones etc, will not shoot me on sight?

[split crown]

yes

[wicked adder]

Yep

[nimble coral]

pretty sure the ai has thermal vision nvgs considering how well they see

[wicked adder]

if they did, it would make a main quest uncompletable, so they can't

[gloomy yacht]

nah, because they always got their headlamps on, you'd go blind in nvgs with a headlamp on

[wicked adder]

Its for Psychological warfare purposes

[gloomy yacht]

lol

[nimble coral]

I guess the "stealth" is suppose to ensure the whole base doesn't swarm you. Which has its own benefits if you were able to do it

[gloomy yacht]

they sure do got eagle eyes too and i gotta know how foliage in the game is just invisible to everything but skif

[split crown]

implying NPCs even have to use their eyes

[gloomy yacht]

:sniffs: :aims: (headshot)

[nimble coral]

yeah that's annoying af. Didn't they advertise something about the ai not seeing through foilage or something like that?

[gloomy yacht]

yeah it was in the notes, but it didn't feel like it helped much

[nimble coral]

I tried playing the game without the compass on but turned it back on once the ai could laserbeam you from miles away even through foilage. Also thank god damage dropoff/range is a thing.

[split crown]

I even use Maklane's mod for better gunfights which is supposedly aimed at making it so NPCs aren't just total aimbots; however, I'm not even sure how well it works because it still seems like most shots I take from other stalkers result in hits whenever I peek out from behind cover.

[nimble coral]

They hyped up stuff about the AI and it turned out to be like this is beyond disappointing

[plucky onyx]

You can literally skeefa also

[wicked adder]

https://tenor.com/view/stalker-2-stalker-scar-spark-meme-gif-6112129495284371231

[nimble coral]

also mutant loot is a life saver, makes killing mutants actually worth it

[split crown]

100%. Being unable to loot mutants was just "why...?"

[nimble coral]

It was a thing in shoc not sure about clear sky but it wasnt in cop which sucks

[split crown]

yea was gonna mention that I realize it wasn't in CoP, but once you've experienced the feature in other STALKER games or modpacks, you won't wanna play the game without it lol.

[nimble coral]

And it further helps with s2's grindy economy

Im upset we havent seen npcs looting their kills in s2. Itd be a great feature but one that gives more immersion

[split crown]

True

Would also be a nice QoL feature to be able to talk to literally anybody instead of just squad leaders (but I'm pretty sure the "only able to talk to squad leaders" is an OG STALKER feature so). I also miss having more options in the dialogue to chat with NPCs about + the PDA chat spam

[plucky onyx]

Will be a vanilla feature later I think, check out the mutant trader post in rostok

[split crown]

Would be interesting.

But then again, if they implement their own mutant looting feature, I'll probably have to start another new game due to removing the current mutant loot mod.

[elfin pilot]

anyone knows how to install Herbata Mod loader as DLC?

[molten osprey]

Yeah it was already a OG thing that the guys told you to talk to the leader. I mean it makes sense, when i would lead some guys trough the zone and some guy on 10 cans of nonstop starts talking to my rookies i would be like huh

[split crown]

Understandable. My ADHD brain is just constantly looking for more side quests and other points of interest to pick up from other stalkers lol.

[west moth]

Stalker 2: We have not a life

[bitter fulcrum]

We want the slav life

[west moth]

That will be the DLC

[bronze urchin]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Episode 2: B Life

[west moth]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 3 confirmed !!!!!1!!1!1!!

[bronze urchin]

I think I know why A Life never happened; they removed the Cheeki Breeki from the code. That was the Life Bringer.

All those Gamma players…smugly gorging themselves on Cheeki Breeki while we S2 players don’t even get A Life…sad state of affairs, my friends

[hushed garden]

maybe one day ill return

[queen fossil]

As a huge fan of Stalker OG and Gamma, I started playing yesterday with a modded Stalker 2.

Ennemies spawning litteraly 30meters from where I am ?! How is this playable ? There is not infiltration or sneaky kills if they can spawn like that if I move forward ?! Is this normal ?!

I'm playing with Shay's Living Zone and some other mods, thinking it'd be enough.

[ivory coyote]

I have a almost vanilla game regardind gameplay and never saw npc spawing that close to me since last update

[bitter fulcrum]

yea re loading a save didnt work still stuck

[ivory ginkgo]

STALKER 2 i love cause the anomalies are so much cooler

they put more effort into making the world more enviornmentally intruiging and dangerous

however i find it extremely unbearable that the only way i can quickly kill mutants is magdumping them point blank with a saiga-12

against human enemies yeah its cool but you can literally just spam grenades

also i wish they didn't give you so much loot, i check one building i walk out having more food than a UN ration truck

[gloomy yacht]

zone should stop using koupons as currency, the real currency is sausages

[random heath]

Freedom must have set a real good weed to coupons ratio to get everyone to buy into their crypto scheme

[queen fossil]

That's weird then, and everything is in high in my settings, it shouldnt do that 😦

[peak eagle]

real currency is all the bread that stays intact and edible

[gloomy yacht]

The zone truly is a miraculous place

[tall current]

ha noclipping through the door doesn't let me proceed the mission

time for gamma

[west moth]

Talker 2: A life well wasted

[mint holly]

Id hope you have some back up saves you can reload and retry the whole area, otherwise idk

[stuck condor]

Stalker 2: No Game No Life

[tall current]

i have a lot of back up saves thankfully, reloaded a bunch but the entire mission is massive so im not bothering doing it all again, for now at least

[mint holly]

also to add to this I haven't had this happen to me either since like the first big patch. im not sure if it could be a mod causing it or what

[mint holly]

yeah that makes sense, I had to redo a whole mission cause I couldn't turn it in and finish it, turned out I had to turn in the optional ojectives and stuff in a specific order otherwise id be softlocked from ending the quest. defiently good to have alot of saves

[warped monolith]

too bad we can't name/label them

[mint holly]

yeah its sort of a mess

[gloomy yacht]

agree. i wouldn't even be feeling the absence of named saves so bad if there weren't softlocks turning me into a paranoid saver

for all the good it did me, i'm still softlocked. i've tried to recover my pre-sircaa state three times now, but have to win two coin tosses to dodge the softlocks during dialog, and i've lost every time.

[late plover]

seriously whay kind of BS is this? im stuck for over 30 min on shader compiling with 100% cpu on first game start

[gloomy yacht]

good lord that's waaaay longer than it should be

[warped monolith]

immediate PTSD and flashbacks to New Vegas

[acoustic wedge]

i have to close the game twice before it actually lets me into the main menu lmao

[gloomy yacht]

:tears up: vivid memories of both FO3 and NV crashing so constantly, I used the save manager mod to implement aggressive autosaves. Casm i think it was called

[west moth]

[warped monolith]

F5 before and after every fight, hard save before interacting with any doors

[gloomy yacht]

i've had decent mileage with the skip shader precomp mod, as long as you let it comp once and aren't changing the settings, as the description suggests, you can get around it. but if that's your first load, i don't see a way around it

i wish there was a way for games with shader precomp/precache to save their deterministic inputs and like.. idk, checksum that, hash it, so that they only ran if something changed.

it seems like they invalidate too aggressively or don't even bother to check for drift, more likely

[warped monolith]

you're clearly asking too much of UE5

[gloomy yacht]

I thought UE5 was the new hotness, I'm way out of the loop on engine salt

[warped monolith]

it is the new hotness
and it's awful

No one wants to license idtech engines anymore, so my entirely clueless opinion is that a new CryEngine is what the industry needs. But I'm guessing people will just stick to UE5 because it enables laziness

[gloomy yacht]

I don't know sweet fa about game engines, really. I don't even know enough to be dangerous. Stalker 2 is my first attempt to even mod for something unreal, except deus ex, which is pretty ancient and has robust tooling because of how old it is

at least i think OG deus ex was unreal? I may be making shit up

No, I got it right. UE1 lol

I'm a modder with dev aspirations, but I code for a living so I want to get into it. I hadn't formed many opinions about UE5 outside of what I've seen from Stalker 2 community + modding. Folks are largely critical, seems like

The barrier to entry on modding is.. fragmented. It seems consistent to things that are UE5, but there's a lot of UE specific noise. </yapping>

[west moth]

Pls code us A life

[gloomy yacht]

Can someone please settle this once and for all, who is right about A Life. There's clearly things referencing A Life, so the issue is, what, it's bugged out? it exists but is misabeled? Doesn't do what's on the tin maybe? I missed the bus on A life, I didn't play CS or COP, i don't even really understand what it is other than vaguely. It seems like it's faction dynamics + AI + spawning + global faction state?

With how distilled a lot of Stalker 2's mechanic choices are it would shock me little if they just redefined the design goal of A Life and put the conversation at an impasse, because people seem pretty unsatisfied by what they're describing as A Life

[mint holly]

I think thats sort of the issue is everyone kinda has their own idea of what qualifies as a-life and where that line is drawn

so I think the whole thing is kinda dumb

[gloomy yacht]

it's got people super hot in the forums, I had to stop reading it, not that steam's anything but a cesspool on a good day

slow train wreck energy though

[mint holly]

the AI overall is clearly worse than previous games, thats for sure. but as far as everyone asking "is there a-life yet" like what does that mean? if it means is the AI on par with the previous games then no

and tbh im doubtful it ever will be due to preformance and such

[gloomy yacht]

I'm always optimistic about stuff, even if the vanilla dev team hasn't delivered a lot of times modding provides.

That's not to say they should have to or people shouldn't be justifiably in their feelings with it, but it seems like something people can come to some kind of standard definition of and then implement. And by standard definition I mean like at least 8 different interpretations, and in fighting splits between fans who don't think it should work way A2-b

[hollow basin]

Traders in this game are kinda lame compared to the OG where my dude hawaian

[peak eagle]

same place, just not as hawaiian

[hollow basin]

What npc in zaton they said he had to exit the zone because of a disease

[peak eagle]

Isn't that a Gamma only thing?

[hollow basin]

No i just went to zaton ant they said that

[peak eagle]

Well anyway, you'll figure out later that he keeps saying that but he doesn't go cause he doesn't have one, hawaiian still there

remember it's the same dude for a decade between CoP to S2 and he's still there lol

[hollow basin]

It just found it weird because in the old games we had a lot of charismatic traders like sidor,the mean duty guy,hawain and now its just jhon npc

[alpine swan]

hi folks, there is undeground stash with Zubr-19 Blueprint in the Duga, Underground. I'm doing second run for Ward and thus this stash is not accessible by normal means. Is there UETools command to noclip / fly?

[hollow basin]

If im not wrong you can only get it if you side with spark

[bronze urchin]

If you want noclip, you currently need a mod to do it. This is a simple one that you can use: https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/304

Noclip command on: XSetNoClipGSC 1 1000
Noclip command off: XSetNoClipGSC 0 1000

[alpine swan]

thanks guys, much appreciated

[split crown]

is there a command to actually alter the fov in-game? Because the in-game setting for fov appears to do nothing from what I've seen.

[shadow sedge]

i updated my drivers. im getting like 30 more fps. but my game crashes

GG cant have shit in the zone

[mint holly]

You have to edit it in a file if you want to go beyond the in-game menus limit

Unless you mean your in game settings actually don't do anything, then I don't know

[bronze urchin]

There's this mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/22?ref=nostick.fr&tab=description

But I haven't used it.

[split crown]

lemme check it out, thanks

[split crown]

Gotcha

[umbral jay]

This is probably a dumb question but will there be a GAMMA for Stalker 2 down the line?

[warped monolith]

maybe in 2077

#📢announcements message

[woven onyx]

Has A life been fixed yet. I remember they made some patches a long while ago but havent seen additional news after

[hushed garden]

yes 15 years

[bronze urchin]

https://tenor.com/view/water-spray-stop-sprinkle-water-gif-12639877674493562634

[woven onyx]

[split crown]

they've put a bandaid on it for now, but it's still a far cry from what it ought to be

(2 opposing factions will basically just spawn out of thin air maybe 50-100 meters away from the player at random intervals of time; sometimes it's 1 grp of stalkers fighting 1 grp of mutants)

[queen fossil]

Played 7 hours of modded Stalker 2. I gave up, this is nothing like the incredible experience I have on the many mods based on Anomaly, included Gamma.
Will try again in a few years.

[warped monolith]

You're looking for a different game and you won't find it in Stalker 2

[split crown]

yeah, I feel it tbh. Still gonna keep playing S2 ofc, but the game is just a shell (hopefully with ample room to improve as time goes on) compared to other previous STALKER modpacks currently available.

[true yew]

What if the DLCs are called:
STALKER 2: Dark Sky
and
STALKER 2: Call of Limansk

[dusty dove]

STALKER 2: The Lost Roadmap

[lime umbra]

comparing a game to a mod pack
its like skyrim vs the average 2000 mod modpack

[split crown]

when the modding community puts out what gamers want in their games vs. the buggy unfinished slop that Bethesda dishes out on a silver platter

yeah, I'd say it's a viable comparison for sure. Modding communities generally make games much more worthwhile from my experiences after all these years.

[warped monolith]

tens of thousands of man-hours collectively packed into a mod 15 years in the making... if it weren't better than Stalker 2, I'd be very concerned

[gloomy yacht]

yeah plus the talent pool of modding is unsustainably beyond the scope of a company run by todd howard

[warped monolith]

or a company run by anyone, period

[gloomy yacht]

accurate

i just want to throw rocks at anyone who keeps emil pagliarulo on the payroll

couldn't narrative direct out of a wet paper bag

[warped monolith]

you're gonna need more rocks now that Microsoft owns Bethesda. The paper trail probably got 3 times longer

[gloomy yacht]

i think i could be forgiven for thinking that would translate to them making a good game but yikes

i couldn't have been more wrong

[warped monolith]

dunno if it's long enough for the acquisition to affect their games' quality

[gloomy yacht]

No, I doubt it was. I'm not optimistic we've hit the bottom though, like it could get worse

[mint holly]

But modpacks like GAMMA aren't like traditional Stalker.

[split crown]

Correct. They go even further beyond.

[true yew]

Do you even like the game at this point or do you just prefer your own fanfics

[warped monolith]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1063755770027573252/1316188196719038527/steam-laugh.gif

[split crown]

why do you care what I do or don't like? I played the OG trilogy, and I enjoyed them in all their buggy jankyness. However, after discovering mods for STALKER games some years ago, it's become a real treat to see just how far the x-ray engine can be pushed to the limits. As such, that's why I've got hope still that STALKER 2 can be improved even further down the line - especially once GSC releases the full modding toolkit for the game.

[warped monolith]

that's hardly "what gamers want" though... it's what you want
these mods massively shift the game's focus. And not everyone wants the cbt milsim experience

[split crown]

I enjoy how mods can flesh out the STALKER experience even more.

[split crown]

I never mentioned milsim experience.

Pretty sure most gamers care about decent QoL features.

that's mainly what I opt for - QoL features.

[lime umbra]

what in gamma is a qol feature over the ogs ?

[warped monolith]

I am mentioning it now. It's one of the main features of Anomaly (and gamma by extension) and other mods like EFP (which Gamma, by pure coincidence, also has)

[split crown]

Being able to repair gear for one is nice. Can't repair anything in the first STALKER game.

[lime umbra]

that was only in soc

[split crown]

???

[warped monolith]

can repair gear in this one

[lime umbra]

the rest of them had repairs

[warped monolith]

unless you mean repair it yourself, for which there are already mods available

[split crown]

yes repairing the gear yourself.

[split crown]

There sure are, and that's a nice QoL feature currently available thanks to mods. 🙂

[warped monolith]

and they even follow the absolutely moronic anomaly/gamma logic of "this item can repair weapons from 80% and up" and so on

[split crown]

yup

[split crown]

There's also the disguise system.

Can't disguise in any of the OG STALKER games.

[lime umbra]

i dont see that as a possitive feature if im dead honest

[split crown]

Why not?

[warped monolith]

I never felt that was much of a qol improvement. It's got huge tradeoffs and isn't a clear-cut better choice compared to visiting a tech and paying them for repairs. It's veeeeeeeeeeery situational

[lime umbra]

you expect me to believe theres an area were everyone is tracked through a pda
that you can disguise yourself

i find gammas EU banned weapon trade more believable

[split crown]

True, but it's also nice to have the ability to repair items yourself instead of constantly running back and forth to a mechanic each time you need things patched up

[warped monolith]

sultan
yeah?
this weird loner just walked up to a truck in the edge of our territory and is sitting there for a couple mins
what about it
I just noticed that the same pip in my pda map is now shown as a bandit
must be a glitch in your pos handheld

sci-fi equivalent of "must have been the wind"

[lime umbra]

literally

[split crown]

You can look at it that way; however, do you expect literally every single stalker to manually check his PDA each time he visually sees another stalker approaching him just to be sure it's an ally and not a spy?

[warped monolith]

I can definitely imagine stalkers on guard duty doing that

[split crown]

Sure they'd be more alert, but this is grounds for more realism than a video game imo

but yeah I could see guards being more alert about that sorta stuff compared to your average stalker

I'm just a big proponent for modding freedom, and I enjoy seeing where mods can take games; if you don't enjoy modding then play the game how you wanna play.

[alpine swan]

are there any settings to disable or decrease ALife in 1.1.3? I have some loot to be carried from Duga to Malachite and it is a pain in the ass. Every time I head to Duga for my loot there are constant spawns of Military, Mercs etc directly in the empty field. Respawn rate is simply insane

[arctic marsh]

have we seriously not gotten fuck all in terms of updates from GSC still?

They takin the whole year off?

[split crown]

Nope

guessing they'll have another massive patch to put out whenever we hear from them again

[arctic marsh]

Was kinda hoping for a roadmap update by now...

[wicked adder]

Presumably they’re on holiday

[true yew]

Holy shit, you can actually see the generators' emission

[wicked adder]

You might get a chance to seem em up close

[tacit mortar]

https://tenor.com/view/stalker-clear-sky-shadow-of-chernobyl-strelok-scar-gif-15094744

What it's like to see an emission up close

[wicked adder]

Scar seems to be fine…

And he got to eat several emissions

[tacit mortar]

||He's also effectively a free-agent monolithian. He was brainwashed by C-Con just like the Monolithians.||

Which is fine if you like that kinda stuff lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BKHq7v7bWI

[wicked adder]

Yes but that’s only after he eats like 2 emissions in clear sky

[true yew]

This is what would Strelok write

[west moth]

[fallow pivot]

ya'll think they'll add Lymansk later?

or do you think they'll leave it out.

[scenic quiver]

Whats more common, to choose and pick different compatible mods or some combined mod pack. It Takes some time to track and keep up with different mods. Espacially without mod tools. And not knowing what Will break when The next patch releases. There are some really dedicated and skilled modders. But if you are like me it just seems complicated to get mods to work togheter and what patches to use

[fallow pivot]

Lol. Once you reach ingame playtime of 6 days/ 01 hours and 38 minutes, your ADS stutters forever until you download cheat menu to restart your ingame time to 0 days.

its apparently been an issue since the first month or so and it can be recreated and fixed by downloading a 3rd party cheat engine.

What the fuck GGG.

[covert eagle]

First I'm hearing of this

[fallow pivot]

https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/254?tab=posts
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1643320/discussions/0/592882992704167506/?ctp=3

I can guarrantee most people dont reach over 180 hours in a single character.

[covert eagle]

"
Update 2 : retest again ; loaded a clean save> directly walked back to the ship to pass time and it happened again around the same time ( save time 3d 00h 49 min )."

Doesn't seem consistent enough to for sure say the time is the issue imo

3 days vs 6 days

[fallow pivot]

Regardless. It's not an FPS issue because without ADSing my FPS is really high

and it only becomes an issue at that specific time frame. Also its exactly 2x the time of others reporting it happening to them.

anyway. this game already has so many fuckin problems and Ive had to troubleshoot. From major memory leaks, story mission choices. Good god.

Update. Yep. Once you reset the ingame time to 0, the issue stops.

[true yew]

Coming back as a happy stalker

Impatient to wait for Scherba

[true yew]

I should check how much I've actually played

[tacit mortar]

There's been leaks really early on that one of the DLC's is something like "Ghosts of Lymansk" or some-shit

It's all but officially verified

[queen fossil]

Hi everyone, I try to give the game a chance but why the fuck can't I sleep in any bed I found when I'm asleep in the middle of the night ?

Is there any sleeping bag I could buy ?

[split crown]

This mod adds in a sleeping bag you can buy from technicians. https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/1005?tab=description

[queen fossil]

Perfect, thanks dude, will install this fast.

[split crown]

No prob

[wary nimbus]

Using it already, sleeping bag is cool asf. But needs to be manually tweaked if you are using mods for changing the length of the day

[split crown]

Oh is that why time doesn't move forward when I use the sleeping bag?

[wary nimbus]

Yes, by default it should fast forward for around 8h. Check the mod details, there is a tutorial about sleeping bag and modyfing it when using time mods

[split crown]

gotcha thanks

[wary nimbus]

But seems that Nexus site is down atm

[split crown]

yea just saw

[warped monolith]

nope, just the "last patch of the year"

[warped monolith]

wait, why have I been tagged here

[wary nimbus]

Wtf XD propably by a mistake, sorry 😅 Idk how it happened

[alpine swan]

hi folks, I have 3 purple stashes in this area (Pripyat). But there is a fence and no way to get there. What am I missing please? Is there underground entrance somewhere?

[sage wolf]

guys, wtf is going on here????? im in an open field and there's some sort of psi anomaly thing?? basically theres about 500 mica artifacts on the ground that are all fake?? surely there's a real one somewhere....right??

I solved the area but man what a trip - I thought I was about to be the richest stalker in the zone XD

[trim iron]

Check this area:

[night quarry]

Is Stalker 2 worth 75 dollars?

I'm not sure whether I should buy it or not

[sage wolf]

Also it’s SO DUMB you don’t get any kind of personal stash in the duga

Even after you get the PSI suppressor, the fact that when you meet up with Spark again at the infirmary place that there’s no stash is just criminal bro

[sage wolf]

I mean, idk. I think it’s worth the price of a full price game but $75 is steep. $60 seems more reasonable

[night quarry]

I'll have to wait for a sale then

[split crown]

probably best to wait for a sale if you haven't bought the game by now. The devs still have their hands full with issues to work on and fix as well.

[sage wolf]

I think it’s just a matter of perspective and budget. Like, if you’re really looking forward to a new stalker game and have $70 to spend, I can’t recommend stalker 2 enough. I’m coming up on 4 days played (in game save time, not my Steam time) and I still am not close to the end and haven’t even explored every region yet

The amount of content in Stalker 2 is honestly quite impressive

[alpine swan]

there is max radiation there, instant death

[hard atlas]

I’m a stalker

[warped monolith]

imo no

[wooden glade]

honestly? I find it hard to justify buying at $75 in its current state right now...

[night quarry]

I find it hard to justify buying any game for 75

[wooden glade]

unless you're willing to fix many of the in-game issues right now with mods. and even then it's still not ideal I'd say

just my 2 cents

[gloomy yacht]

I've got ~140 hours in the game and I love it but it's got major problems, and I'm on some copium because I'm an addict for the setting, i'm willing to overlook stuff I genuinely should not, at this price point

So weapon's grade copium required or.. the advice here is good, not worth it yet

Also I'm like.. one of the eight people who doesn't have really dogshit perf issues, and even people on 4080+ have perf issues which is a pretty massive indictment. Nobody with hardware on that level or above should be having issues running just about anything

[bronze urchin]

All of these reasons are why I got Gamepass version to do a first run through now and then upgrade to the 'Complete' or 'Ultimate' after DLCs drop and it goes for like $75.

Mods make it enjoyable now. Can't imagine what it would be like on Vanilla. But it's still a fun experience and glad the devs were able to produce what they did and the modders do their thing.

[gloomy yacht]

I am optimistic about it, but I don't want to pick a fight with people who aren't happy, I get it

Personally I'm pretty happy with the game, I don't know how much of that is cope and how much of it is just that I'm blinded by fandom and willingly eat slop. I don't think Stalker 2 is slop, I think it has problems but great bones. I love the writing, I think the game looks lovely. It needs some polish/oven time.

[bronze urchin]

I just think it's funny how people complain it's not like GAMMA.

[gloomy yacht]

I think it's a faulty comparison to compare any vanilla game to any modded overhaul. Modders benefit from hindsight a lot, but also it's dismissive of the work in the base game the mod didn't have to do. It pretends that work didn't happen, which is absurd.

(Edited for brevity) mods have the luxury of appealing to a fraction of the audience on a subjective take on quality/preferences.

It's not the same ecosystem as being the base game dev. But people seem to compare them a lot. </yap>
This isn't disrespect to modding, I mod just about everything I play if I can. Most modders don't try to put "us" on a pedestal. Armchair game dev modders soapboxing is a meme at this point.

[mint holly]

I love both vanilla stalker and stuff like GAMMA, its just absurd people would expect the devs to completely change what Stalker has always been like to try and emulate a modpack

There are alot of people who don't like GAMMA and all the stuff it changes and adds, there are also people who only like GAMMA and not vanilla style Stalker, they are very different

[random heath]

big deal, loads of floating trees in the zone before

[bronze urchin]

Yes, but we in the STALKER Gamma Discord. So only people here matter 😉

[warped monolith]

and even then, there are people here who don't necessarily prefer Gamma

[bronze urchin]

I think Gamma was a significant improvement over Stalker 1 because it combined everything. But I also disabled quite a bit of the modding and added my own. All about finding the balance that you like best.

I also played all the original Stalker games when they were solo and it was tough to follow/play because of glitches and other stuff. But damned if it wasn't funny running into glitches or scary af creeping around Bloodsucker village.

[alpine swan]

honestly I like A-Life in Gamma more than in stalker 2

[mint holly]

I feel like you'd be hard pressed to find someone who would disagree with you on that

[warped monolith]

Overall, I mean.

[west moth]

[trim iron]

Yeah, I can't remember, but I think there somewhere was an underground entrance. 🤔

[alpine swan]

I have tried UETools and found those stashes. These are in the underground tunnels (Olympia Cafe entrance) during the main story mission (point of no return)

[trim iron]

I thought it might be gated in story progression. I hate that they did the whole point of no return thing...

[alpine swan]

yeah, I think there are lots of people asking for NG+

maybe we will see it in the upcoming patches. I would like to try Saiga-12 Drum Mag personally in the story...

[random heath]

the wonders of the zone never cease! two warlocks! double the booze!

[keen hedge]

I think it's odd that there really hasn't been an innovation or major novel feature added to stalker 2 outside of going to an engine capable of open world. I sorta expected something I hadn't seen either from vanilla or modded before. I got a very pretty classic experince, but really should be more to the design when you have 17 years to reflect on it.

[bronze urchin]

If you're a major games studio that has been working for the past 17 years, yeah. But they announced the game, it dissolved, they stopped development and then started again in 2018.

[warped monolith]

expecting a multi-platform commercial game made in 6 years tops to have more features than a game released 15 years ago that has been collectively modded and turned inside out for tens of thousands of hours is... I don't even have words

[bronze urchin]

And then almost didn't get anything released because the country got invaded lol

[keen hedge]

I think taking the least charitable version of what I said and running like that for a zing is kinda a dick move. I wanted one new thing in the gameplay department.

[warped monolith]

it's not the "least charitable" version of what you said. it's what you said. It's right there in the message. lol

[gloomy yacht]

I can understand that perspective. I'm not trying to be generous with my speculation: when you have a thing that works, a lot of times changing it is a risk. Software (games included) don't generally reward upending formulas or taking risks. I'm not endorsing caution or stagnation, by any means, but I can understand having bottled lightning and not being clear on whether you can bottle it twice.

A core demographic of fans who like previous games could easily lead a team to continue creating things that are "more of that but modern", not really understanding where to innovate and where not to.

That's another luxury modders have. A lot of the best mods are just made because.. we wanted it for ourselves and, a lot of times, aren't alone in wanting stuff. It can be harder for the core team to make creative decisions, especially given how much friction creativity generates

[warped monolith]

It's downright insane to expect the game to have features from mods, because even the most popular mods have some extremely fringe and niche features that not everyone likes (which boils down to the core of modding - you add what you want to the game - something GAMMA had as a highlight, one of the Ms meaning "modular")

wouldn't be healthy to play russian roulette with features from mods that not everyone enjoys

while the base game can arguably be considered something that every stalker player enjoys

so they decided to stick with the baseline and iterate on it. Whether that worked or not is up to personal opinion

[keen hedge]

I don't really expect thousands of hours of mod inspired features, but I do expect expect a handful of novel ideas that compliment existing systems. There isn't really a single new idea.

[bronze urchin]

You can lift yourself over obstacles.

[warped monolith]

it's funny because it's true

Also, "more of the same" isn't automatically and inherently bad

[bronze urchin]

For STALKER, to achieve this without dying, or being thrown 5000 feet into the air, that's a monumental achievement

[gloomy yacht]

I think transitioning to a new engine had a hand in their caution. I don't think building the game in an alien ecosystem is trivial. Now this is total conjecture, but in their position, I'd lose a lot of the energy I'd normally invest in innovation just keeping my head above water learning how to do things in a different ecosystem. I expect the transition to UE5 hurt their creativity, short-term

[bronze urchin]

Don't get me wrong, the base game is not something I'd play and I still need mods to enjoy it, but that's how I approach most games these days.

[warped monolith]

and it was probably done rather late in development, which must've hurt bad

[gloomy yacht]

Insanity to do that in mid cycle

It's a golden rule of game dev, never to do it

[keen hedge]

True, but for my experience of the game I found it sorta lacking and not very stimulating. I'm not saying that others shouldn't enjoy it. But the lack of novelty completly impacted my enjoyment.

[gloomy yacht]

big if true. the fact the project didn't die outright is actually impressive. Changing engines is a well documented run-killer for studios

Now I don't want to add to the chorus of fanboys chanting "extenuating circumstances", the point of this isn't to be defensive or apologetic. It's just empathizing and saying I can see reasons why things landed where they landed.

None of which is to say that people aren't right for having different [higher] expectations

[warped monolith]

only thing to do now is hope they update the game with improvements and not just... release the DLCs and dip

[warped monolith]

but they just gotta keep in mind that it's more an issue of what they were expecting than an issue of what they got

[gloomy yacht]

I'm trying to plot out reworked artifacts right now and I feel sort of smooth brained, staring at descriptions and it's all a sort of nothingburger I'm trying to twist into something. I feel like anything I can do is going to be one of those bad fan fiction, head cannon random-bullshit-go projects.

[keen hedge]

I feel my expectations were more set from the general idea that a sequel adds or expands on design and gameloops. Stalker 2 feels in some ways as a 2024 refresh or remake. Where it just takes the loop of 17 years ago and freshens it up with a few industry standard practices. With that expectation it meets it.

[stark crescent]

why cant I see the stalker 2 mods category in here?

[gloomy yacht]

It feels like a new ground zero kinda, yeah. Like this is a fine entry point to the series, it has very basic elements, it feels weirdly polished if not for the serious issues it has. The polish it has casts a weird shadow on the stuff that is wrong with it.

Sorta bittersweet to veterans of the games

[keen hedge]

There are some pretty obvious scars in the game from cut ideas, or WIP. For example, some how speaking and trading to loners seems more of a prototype system then the orginals.

Why would you even have a dialog tree for a single dialog?

Instead of "speak and trade" that sorta ui/X stuff.

[gloomy yacht]

To be fair, trading with loners in SOC wasn't worth it 90% of the time, and I don't recall them having more than one option [that gave unique output, a lot of times]. In some ways, I'd rather just not be able to talk to people who had virtually nothing to say. That's like telling me every unopenable door in the game is locked. Don't even give me a hover lol

[keen hedge]

Oh for sure.

[gloomy yacht]

But I get you, and yeah, it feels.. vestigial, or incomplete

Not even, just underutilized

[keen hedge]

There is only rumor on the dialog tree.

Like it's intended to have multiple options.

Perhaps they might use that if and when a-life and factions get expanded on. If they ever intend to fix these things up.

[gloomy yacht]

I can't claim to know their minds but I feel like the devs clearly love their game and I think they care enough not to walk away.

[keen hedge]

But if by design you are only meant to ask rumors, or trade. It seems a simpler UI/X would have been used.

[random heath]

Weird that trade/repair are on separate keys. like there was intended to be an NPC that offered both, but afaik no npc does

[gloomy yacht]

Annoying UX quibble, bugs me ^

[bronze urchin]

I think you are right on this being a 'ground zero' and new baseline. Which is why I'm not really disappointed with what was offered.

[gloomy yacht]

It's easy to point out the flaws in post, but I see a lot of quality in the work, and I don't know how much of it is just "f it, let's ship", aside from the dynamic spawning/faction issues filed under ALife woes, and the SERIOUS gamebreakers (softlocks), along with the less serious rage-inducers (clipping loot, things not spawning) a lot of it is just death by a thousand cuts. If you take a holistic snapshot of it, I think it's overall a pretty good game, but it needed another.. idk, 3-4 months of sanding down the rough bits. The key binding issues, audio glitches, jank physics, etc. Those add up enough to influence people's perspective, if not for any single one of them, it wouldn't feel broken.

[keen hedge]

I'm thrilled to see what's done with the game in a year or two's time. But I got bored pretty quickly. UE5 temporal vaseline vision also doesn't help my desire to play alot either.

[gloomy yacht]

But it's fair to say like.. I love the fidelity of the game, for the most part. I think the audio design and visuals are good. Lighting is a little wonky, but has really cool moments. I like the effects a lot. Mostly happy mechanically, there's stuff I'd change, wouldn't everyone? It's impossible to please all of us. They landed the plane. They're in the zip code at least.

[keen hedge]

Stalker 2 is eyestrain simulator. But all ue games are nowadays.

[gloomy yacht]

lol i haven't had issues with it, i think i'm not sensitive to it. The AI streamlining/frame generation tech, if that's what you mean

[keen hedge]

DLSS at 1080 in this particular game gets my eyes so bad.

Maybe at 1440 it isn't so bad.

[gloomy yacht]

Idk why I don't notice it. Rose tinted lenses maybe

[keen hedge]

I'm used to playing really well preforming(generally older) engines with multisampling or downsampling from a higher resolution. Honestly most TAA and DLSS games are like this weird smeary to me that makes my eyes litterally lose focus. I warm up to it, but it's like 40 minutes each time.

[west moth]

[warped monolith]

with upscaling off the game looks like if sharpening was set to 500%

and the color grading gets really bad once you chug a vodka or two, but thankfully that's only temporary

[random heath]

and why would you ever need to drink in game? Antirads drop so often that you can use them for everything but the most minor radiation hit

[gloomy yacht]

too good to use syndrome 😔

vodka is plentiful and drunkiness lasts like 10 seconds, radiation is extra-solved

[stuck condor]

I can't drink, I'm a Muslim - one man said when he died from radiation

[gloomy yacht]

shoulda kept a skipjack 😔

[warped monolith]

Not in the early game, they don't

[split crown]

Yeah I don't understand why that is

looks absolutely horrible

[sour narwhal]

Stalker fucking 2️⃣

[true yew]

This actually saddens me, Ai is not the same

This game has not a life

https://youtu.be/t1zM3ePkYPo?si=u-mslqUutOXgpLx6

[warped monolith]

[split crown]

NPCs also weren't nearly as aimbotty in the older games

but yeah it's wild to see the drastic differences between the AI

[covert eagle]

That's because the recommendation for base texture sizes is 8k to give DLSS room to scale down in tiers

Thanks unreal good engine very cool

[covert eagle]

Also this

[split crown]

[pale ingot]

Hello guys, is there a mod for stalker 2 one life?

[proud ruin]

Stalker 2 ai is like straight out of farcry

[open hedge]

bald

[wicked adder]

That ain’t richter…

Identity theft is no joke

[proud ruin]

The zone killed his hairline

[abstract lagoon]

So I should be using AP on higher level mutants like controllers or chimera, right?

[true yew]

Dont bully him, richter is going through radiation therapy

[random heath]

Should have wished for Rogaine

[junior aurora]

anyone knows if spoiled canned food got any effect? does mutant attack you more often?

[west moth]

Great video. Hope the game gets a life

[fallow pivot]

Check this shit out.

This looks like monolith. But he was completely friendly to me while firing at the monolith outpost at Pripyat. I never got up to talk to him after the fight. Two teams of monolith reinforcements and Spark showed up before I could.

Noontide?

[sour narwhal]

Compared to modding anomaly(and by extension a lot of Cop's design) the a-life setup in this is dismal. Granular in terms of what immediately happens in front of the player but is missing the big picture of how the trilogy had functional smart terrains. Results in this glorified ADHD-fuelled spawner lol. But let's be real - thr way attention spans are these days I doubt you could reach the console audience with the same kind of a-life that the original trilogy had

[true yew]

||Holy shit, the Doctor has a nice crib||

[proud ruin]

The ai in this is so embarrassingly bad for a series renowned for its great ai

[true yew]

Will something bad happen if I accidentally drop Strider into a whirlgig?

[jovial berry]

Noooo King 😦

[true yew]

Welp.. Here goes nothing

[jovial berry]

No not Strider pls I beg you

[true yew]

I even got the achievement

[true yew]

Welp, he's not function-ing anymore. That's what you get when you betray Monolith

[solid ibex]

fish

[high spindle]

gentlemen i've found my first ||gauss rifle||
that is all

[proud ruin]

extremely rare experimental weapon
half of the npcs in end game have it

[high spindle]

yeah it does bother me how the scaling works a little bit

but i'm not modding yet, i need the TRUE E X P E R I E N C E

[obsidian thistle]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1306683555488862319/1330479808705990718/2025-01-19_18_10_22-SteelSeries_GG.png?ex=678e2161&is=678ccfe1&hm=145f0668cf5366df53d14fbde8746568da40fc7d6e070059a1cdc27fd931855b&

Found footage of skinwalker

X-files theme

[true yew]

Bro is photographing it like a fucking cryptid

[mint holly]

Scp wiki type picture

[high spindle]

guys i sniped this bloodsucker before he even reached me
the hunter has become the hunted
until these 3 rounds are gone, i am God

it did not take long

[warped monolith]

[bitter fulcrum]

finally can use the 7.62 ammo

[broken hawk]

arguably worse

[proud ruin]

No AKM

[proud ruin]

So disappointing

[mint holly]

Definitely the weak point of the game for sure. I mean besides the awful prefromance and insanely variable visual quality

[wary nimbus]

You can only use it in PKM or modified Malyuk. So sad 😞

[true yew]

Should've spent those rounds in the arena rounds

[true yew]

SCP x Stalker collab when

[warped monolith]

oh no

[west moth]

Has SCP a life?

[random heath]

Anyone know if there's a way to disable the "can't save right now" shit?

[bitter fulcrum]

interesting

[random heath]

Wish I could set an alarm for what time to wake up. Maybe Skeefa can borrow one from Deggy?

[solar patrol]

is there a way to turn off multitool degradation? it keeps asking me to shift override to dissasemble and i keep dropping gear and its getting me killed..

[ripe hollow]

Is there a guide for optimization?

[cinder sleet]

Been awhile. How’s S2 going? Haven’t played in a while in hopes of a major patch..

Nvm all I had to do was scroll up. Dang

https://tenor.com/view/key-and-peele-son-of-abitch-upset-gif-4276606

[peak eagle]

Gonna take quite a while for more major patches

[queen fossil]

I was like you 5 days ago, I sympathize. The IA is absolute dog shit and break immersion. Same for the ennemies spawning few meters from me.

[warped monolith]

I thought that didn't happen anymore

[queen fossil]

I play with Shay's Living Zone and MHM mod, maybe that's why, but it's infuriating.

[random heath]

🐍

[west moth]

SNEK

[abstract lagoon]

No step

[ionic narwhal]

Ik exploration is a big part of stalker, but man i wasnt driven to explore anything, i thought the main quest would naturally drive me through the regions, but i didnt even know duty base existed until after Duga. There needs to be more side missions to direct you places, like to meet or get acquanted with places.

[abstract lagoon]

You could also look at the map and be like "hmm. I wonder what's there." And go on your own

Nothing is stopping you

[queen fossil]

Game Design/Quest design should provide that.

[abstract lagoon]

It does for 80% of the regions. You need handholding that much? You're in the gamma discord

Go off the beaten path once in a while. It's good for you

[split crown]

I agree.

Usually I explore everywhere I can before going for main quests in games; however, a concern I have is some games can have their content ruined if you explore specific areas earlier than you're meant to. Not sure how many of these locations exist in STALKER 2, but it's something I try to remain aware of while traversing the zone.

[ionic narwhal]

I looked at the regions and i did wonder, Though what I found was just generic stuff. And the fact there is a bunch of things stopping you if you havent progressed the main quests.

It was cool to see how they rearranged all the locations though

[stable brook]

is it me or the channel is broken ? like it doesn't show on the side and i have to look through my message history to find it

[abstract lagoon]

The only ones you can't go into are Duga, swamps, and pripyat

[stable brook]

also i just finished stalker 2 after 69 hours (nice)

[abstract lagoon]

You can go to every other region whenever you want

[west moth]

Try activating it in Channels & Roles

[stable brook]

spoiler : ||i got the skif/faust ending||

[stable brook]

can't find it

[west moth]

Click channels and roles on the left side, then choose Browse channels tab

[stable brook]

thank you you're goated for this

[bronze urchin]

Modded the game to have longer nights. Get to a point where forces are invading and it's night time. Can't see anyone, but they can all see me...wish NVG wasn't left out in this game..

All the mods for NVG look like overlays. Womp

[ionic narwhal]

Wormicans NVG is p good, and its realistic, as someone whos had to use nods. All the nvg mods just depend on your lighting settings though. And yeh overlays are the best we can do without an sdk

[bronze urchin]

Yeah, I was looking at all of them. I found a console command to change the time of day.

Not my preferred choice of action, but waves on waves of an army who can see in the dark but you can't...

[fallow pivot]

Nah it doesnt have to be Quest design way at all. Besides. There's a bunch of stash markers. Those should already be enough for you to check them out and surrounding areas.

I think we've all just been horribly conditioned to be told exactly where to go or what to do. The satisfaction I got from finding loot from stashes not marked on my map were 1000% better than those in marked areas.

There's always clues too. Whether there are numbers written on walls with a nearby number pad locked door. Anomalies blocking paths with mutants guarding the end with potential loot. Dead NPCs with PDA's hinting potential stash or interesting locations.

Some of the best loot I got was because I decided to just go in one direction, stop, look and think if a place is riddled with anomalies or is dangerous, someone would have put some stashes there.

I've gotten into very exciting scenarios because I got ambushed by mutants in their lairs I accidentally walked into or accidentally find myself in enemy hideouts because I decided to just visit landmarks not marked on the PDA.

[warped monolith]

Not really. It helps, but it's not the game's job to make you want to explore. That's entirely your choice as a player

[ionic narwhal]

Overall, i would just like some structure in terms of exploration. Some dynamic encounters actually, it was nice running into npcs who had quests for that space. Otherwise in terms of exploring or no hand holding, ill jus go play GAMMA, and the slew of mods for the trilogy, and the trilogy itself.

[plucky onyx]

I explored pretty much every location before I even found nestor

I wasn’t even really purposefully trying to do that either. I was just focused on living the stalker life by hunting artifacts and loot

[alpine swan]

I wish they added a guide in the Duga location. Currently with random spawns of military and mercs right in front of you it is not a pleasant task to go into Duga for exploration

[stable brook]

When you think about it skif is fucking built different. Spoilers : ||not only he can 1 v 2 two monolith soldier in hand to hand with a fucking knife in his chest but he is able to low dif every mc (appart from degtyarev) in a 1v1 even with all the advantages they have on him. All of that while canonically using some random STALKER suit, not even an exosuit, an AR and a random ptm he is litteraly him||

[molten osprey]

||and what do deggy and skif have in common? Military experience. I think scar and strelok didnt have that||

[queen fossil]

@fallow pivot @warped monolith I hear you, but when I'm talking about Game/Quest design, it's not just the boring MMO type fetch quest, it's about environnemental storytelling and how to engage the player to explore and discover secrets/places of the game, aka level design also.
From Software does that incredibly well, Nintendo too with Zelda.

I made a thesis about walking simulator, it's one of my favorite genre to play because if it's made well, the game tricks your brain by giving you the impression of freedom. But everything was planned (almost).

When you design an experience as a game designer, you have to possibility to adress different types of players. According to Bartle taxonomy of player types, you can aim for :

• Achievers
• Socializers
• Explorers
• Killers

@warped monolith It is the game " job " to make you want to explore, because if you want to adress your game to Explorers, the whole experience should be designed to do that. I don't say Stalker 2 does a terrible job at it, quite the contrary, I find the exploration rewarding comapre to some other recent games. But still, the experience feels incomplete, because the whole game is lacking not only content, but (I know, again) life.

For example, if I explore and EVERY SINGLE NPC is saying the exact same line when I'm talking to them, that's immersion breaking at its finest. I want to explorer not only to find loot but to find interesting characters.
Achievers might be happy with this type of exploration, but Socializers who want to find interesting stories or Killers who want some challenges will be disappointed.

[alpine swan]

is it possible to disable animations for consumables? It is faster to wait for stamina restores itself than waiting for energy drink animation

[stable brook]

||military experience or not he still raw dogged a colonel with an hyperadvanced exosuit, a guy who had psychic powers and a whole ass army of monolithians, a guy who could litteraly teleport and control anomalies and a guy with an em1 gauss gun and a forcefield. Military or not he is still a fucking beast||

[molten osprey]

||he definitely is, but thats because he has too. They had to make him "HIM". While strelok and scar probably had their first gunfights in the cordon back then, Skif probably already had combat experience. I would argue that some dumb monoliths are a threat to him, but taking down Faust/Scar/Strelok is a massive feat in this universe, when not even the biggest feat some1 can have.||

[stable brook]

||skif is the zone's king von||

[gloomy yacht]

the real alpha artifact is the ptm

[warped monolith]

Exploring optional areas is up to the player. The game already did its job by having those areas exist in the first place.
"Explorers" will want to "explore" because that's what they do, so more than half of what you said about that is redundant.

[jade anchor]

should I explore more or I need to go new places with the main quest line

[warped monolith]

"Explorer" type players will explore regardless of quest markers or collectibles or any other "incentive" kind of crap. They'll explore because that's what they enjoy doing.

And if someone only explores because of potential rewards, then are they really an explorer or just a "treasure seeker"?

I also think that labeling and categorizing 'types of players' dehumanizes the gaming experience by quantifying and distilling every little piece of information. The end result is... well, gaming in current year.
It's always been a business, but nowadays it's so market-driven, gamers aren't even considered human beings in most cases. Just boxes to tick for maximum profits. And even then companies are just mass producing slop after slop.

I've studied these same materials and unfortunately they had the opposite effect on me. It just disgusted me through and through. But hey, what do I know.

[gloomy yacht]

Man, I don't need much incentive in Stalker 2 to explore, I think stalker 2 does a great job of this

This is called intrinsic motivation. If you have it in a game it means your reward incentive from previous experiences is good enough to justify you continuing to do it

I can agree it's the job of the game to motivate you, but your intrinsic motivation as a player depends deeply on you.

[warped monolith]

yup. If we're going to categorize players in such a way, then for "explorers" the exploration is its own reward. There's no need for an achievement, a quest reward, a hidden stash or anything of the sort.

there might be something at that hidden corner way over there, but for "explorers" there doesn't need to be anything. They just want to go there and check it out.

maybe there's nothing but a cool vista where they can take screenshots

maybe not even that.

[gloomy yacht]

I think having things behidn a quest marker does cease to be exploration. When I find an anomaly zone I feel a sort of giddiness as I break out my scanner, not because a little map marker told me. Because the game conditioned me to hunt artifacts in the unsafe areas, and I know, most times, there will be something there. That's solidly the game's teaching me to explore dangerous places and motivating me to do that. You can argue there needs to be a quest around it, but I have the same mentality of those areas that I do of just about every burnt-up building I see, which is "could be something there"

[warped monolith]

also part of the problem is how gamers expect to be rewarded for anything they do. Games don't have empty rooms anymore. They always gotta be filled with some sort of content. Even the most meaningless shit like some dumb collectible

[gloomy yacht]

If you see any artificial structure in the zone that isn't a car, basically, and sometimes also cars, searching it is pretty heavily incentivized. Cars are antithetical to this because they're all fucking radiated

I'm climbing to the top of every tower with a ladder on it because 1) GSC npcs put shit up there most of the time and 2) sniper spot

and for me it's a 50/50 split between looking for loot/notes/lore junkie and just wanting to see every vantage point or angle, so my intrinsic motivation is pretty high. If there's a quest around it, I feel like the game is leading me on a string to a place, it sucks some of the flavor out. It's prechewed gum

I love show-don't-tell.

[warped monolith]

case in point: Elden Ring.

The only thing it does is make a line on the map from each site of grace pointing to a direction. It doesn't even tell you what you'll find following that line.

[gloomy yacht]

Elden ring was a game where I felt so intensely motivated to do everything but go where the line pointed, it's kind of insane to me that I hadn't made the comparison mentally, I did the exact same thing in Stalker

Like, I want to do everything except move the world state forward, I'm not ready. Just let me explore more.

And I think maybe the demotivating factor is scaling/gating but I'm stubborn and will bash my face against a difficulty gate early

[split crown]

I love Elden Ring, but I always wanted to make sure I wasn't fucking something up with quests and NPCs; I have a strict desire to do things chronologically in games while also committing to enjoying the exploration aspects.

[warped monolith]

There's also the detail that Bartle's theory was published in what, 96? Almost 30 years ago.
Gaming has evolved a LOT since.

[warped monolith]

That's how I do in most games as well. If a mission/quest is tagged as a "main", I ignore it until I explored all of the available map and did all of the available side missions and activities.
Mostly due to fear that advancing the main storyline might lock me out of side content. More than one game does this, and I'll never let it happen to me again

[split crown]

I'm also all about this

I will load an older save if I realize I get locked out of an area without fully exploring or completing it lol

[gloomy yacht]

Points of no return intensify.

From has a funny way of sewing points of no return into stuff that seem unrelated to whatever you can't do anymore, but the world state of from games is a gnarly spiderweb of connected npcs that is only gnarly when you don't understand their connection.

Which is to say either always, or as a new player

"why did this npc die when I did X" either you weren't paying attention OR you'll find out later OR miyazaki smug

[split crown]

[warped monolith]

if you're fresh to a fromsoft game and aren't following any guides, it can be very difficult to follow these threads

[gloomy yacht]

But since the game trolls you nonstop doing stuff like that, as a from player you come to expect it, but also it leads you into a combination of deeper mystery and frustration that you couldn't have possibly known that no matter how closely you paid attention.

imo the frustration is intended. It's meant to be a "well I will do something different next time". it expects a certain amount of acceptance of the consequences of decisions that not all players are willing to accept. I am more in the camp of "wait why did that happen" -> NOW looking it up -> "ffs, really? okay, rip"

i think what makes it frustrating is how tenuously your consequences seem connected to a decision you had any information for. most times you didn't know you were making a decision, and that's what makes people feel jilted

but from veterans also know that even the most innocuous "hmm" instead of "yes" answer can have importance to a questline

[warped monolith]

what makes it frustrating for me personally is that my time on this earth is limited and very precious. I can't be arsed to replay a game because Michael Zaki decided to make some convoluted bullshit that no one can figure out without a guide or replaying the game 3 times

[gloomy yacht]

lol

[warped monolith]

especially something as huge as Elden Ring

[gloomy yacht]

yeah, it's just like.. what do you mean i have to be reincarnated to try again, that'll take weeks

stalker 2 has a similar energy, weirdly. i kinda want NG+ stalker but i haven't beat it (softlocks 😔) so i have no clue what sort of ass pull would justify NG+

[warped monolith]

Played Bloodborne this way. Checked all NPC questlines while playing, and did the ones I cared about, either for rewards or just because I liked the NPC and wanted to conclude their story

For Demon's Souls I winged it because it's a short enough game. It's also the only fromsoft game I played from start to finish more than once

it's a short game and doesn't have a lot of npcs/quests so you can get through them all pretty quick

[gloomy yacht]

albert losing his mental in cainhurst was like.. genuinely unexpected for me because up until that point he'd been such a bro. the almost deliberate parallels to solaire really have you trusting, but it's bait.

The missable stuff with eileen. There's a lot of it in bloodborne, and it's very selective, but one thing I like about from is that questlines with subplots tend not to be mutually exclusive with others? the ones that are, there aren't many of

I like that, it kinda lets you do all the sub-stuff without locking yourself out of much. You can lock yourself out of a lot by not knowing its there, but knowing its there pretty much gets you something where nothing would be, and not a ton of choose A/B stuff

[warped monolith]

solaire is a perfect example of something you couldn't possibly have seen coming without prior knowledge (from a previous playthrough or from reading a guide)

[split crown]

100%

[stable brook]

Nah the alpha artifacts are his balls

[ripe hollow]

In "all that is left" (to find a soul artifact in chemical tanks) quest, nerd tells you to drop warden's body into anomaly. There's no marker in which, though. I've dropped him in bubbles and in vortex, but nothing happened. What should i do? Which anomaly does he means?

[latent trellis]

How do the devs still not have the roadmap out that was originally promised for December?

[warped monolith]

no idea... but I think having a public roadmap is a bad idea. I'd rather just let them cook

[split crown]

yea

[warped monolith]

still, if they promised to publish a roadmap and haven't... that's a red flag

[split crown]

having a public roadmap is a double-edged sword tbh; for one it keeps the devs set on whatever goals they have in place; however, if issues occur and they fall behind with dates, planning, or whatever have you, then they're in deep water more ways than one. Their player base will be sure to let them know of that firsthand.

[mortal gazelle]

looks like maybe they wont fix the game like we expected.

[warped monolith]

or maybe it's gonna take more time and effort to fix

... or yeah they could just release the two planned DLCs and fly off to Hawaii for retirement

[waxen geode]

Uh hai

[warped monolith]

hello there

[molten orchid]

Oh shiiiiiiiiit I found the HYPERcube

[bronze jungle]

is stalker 2 worth it?

[gloomy yacht]

similar question asked 2 days ago: #╓☢stalker2™-chat-not-gamma-keep-waiting message
consensus is "depends". TL;DR most people say it's not worth 75. I felt like I got my money's worth but it's a game with serious issues, and it depends on your rig and your personal feelings about the things that are wrong with the game.

I will continue to get enjoyment out of it so I don't feel scammed or anything. I am not unhappy I didn't wait. Would I recommend it to anyone? No, but I don't regret my purchase.

To be clear: Do I recommend it as a game, yes. Do i think that's a universal recommendation that applies to everyone, no. It has optimization problems, game breaking bugs, and several aspects of the game feel underbaked. if those are dealbreakers, wait for a patch and keep an eye on it, maybe watch for sales if you're inclined. Only you can decide that stuff.

[bronze jungle]

thank you for your response

[warped monolith]

my opinion? at this moment, no. Game needs more time in the oven.
There's been a bunch of fixes since release but the game is still not in an ideal spot.

[simple wyvern]

Tf is going on at Army Warehouse group of bandits then outta nowhere a merc group spawns then dogs 2 Bloodsuckers boars snorks

[gloomy yacht]

b life => bandits, bloodsuckers, boars.

[wicked adder]

A life is cancelled, b life is here

[wanton arch]

is this supposed to happen? found on a corpse at the farm next to the bridge in cordon

[wicked adder]

Meant to? No

But it happens to that specific npc

[wanton arch]

found on a stalker that (to my memory) you help and he survives? maybe he died in the emmision 5 minutes earlier

[wicked adder]

Yep. He’s usually in the grain silo, sidorovich pays if you kill him

Because his friend was meant to kill him, but was killed by boars

[wanton arch]

10 minutes in cordon early game 💀

[gloomy yacht]

Yeah, both times i played through that section it doubled. It's consistent afaict

[lapis escarp]

Man

these stalker 1 chatters keep kicking me out the chats ain't like stalker 2 pictures

[gloomy yacht]

smh renegade

[wary orbit]

Do you guys have time to talk about your Lord and Savior 🍍 🍕 ?

[gloomy yacht]

pineapple genetically modified to taste like pizza? what kind of religion is this

[golden hazel]

German Engineering

[golden hazel]

Just wait till microsoft tells em that the game isn't making enough money anymore and they force gsc to add a battlepass and a shit ton of microtransactions

[eager solstice]

@steel canopy (mattdavison_) has been banned for reason: Side ban hustle

[warped monolith]

could happen with the multiplayer modes, but I think even Microsoft knows that would just kill the game

[golden hazel]

[warped monolith]

if you try to do mainstream bullshit in a niche game, the few people inside that niche will leave

[golden hazel]

Not doing that will make the investors no very hapi

It's always investors this and investors that

Who knows, maybe this is the year they wake up and realize it's not investors playing their games

[warped monolith]

investors won't be happy regardless of what they do with Stalker 2