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

[kindred violet]

He's talking about stories untold

[finite needle]

if that took you less whan 1h then teach me your ways

takes 1 hour only to go TO the goddamn fucking compound

[visual minnow]

https://tenor.com/view/guh-cat-stoned-stoned-cat-gif-25615600

[finite needle]

always 1.8

[visual minnow]

actual skill issue then

[finite needle]

stories untold

[warped monolith]

he just built different

[finite needle]

I mean his screenshots and videos look like early 2010s creepypasta material, so his copy might be haunted

[warped monolith]

his Skif moves at 5000% speed

[lunar wagon]

i didnt know there was a stalker 2 chat

i cant show my glorious dev build rpd images

okay byebye

[peak eagle]

hmm, they already left too

[warped monolith]

[slim moth]

that was an moderator from the official stalker server

what a goofball

[lyric schooner]

this NPC is refusing to move out of the way to allow me into the base
EVEN AS THERE IS A FUCKING EMISSION

how do they even charge for this game

[uneven plinth]

Skill issue

[slim moth]

beat me to it

[warped monolith]

[lyric schooner]

so I am encounter this ... bug
not sure what to call it. upscaling bug?
reddit has it too
https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1o08dol/what_is_causing_this_and_how_do_i_fix_it/

[finite needle]

It's the upscaling, idk if there is a permanent fix, but you can temporarily fix it by either reloading a save or the game itself. Btw it was happening also before 1.6, at least to me.

[finite needle]

"You can get in only if you played the original trilogy unmodded"

[tacit glacier]

Permanent fix is to enable motion blur at atleasy 10%

[onyx harbor]

That's really suck I agree. Add to this that now, the most optimal way to loot a dead body is hover weapon > G (unload) > drag & drop damaged weapon on the ground > R (take all)... But I'm not even sure that objects despawn correctly in this game so some weapons that I dropped could become a problem idk performance wise

[onyx harbor]

I had it too for some times. First time I almost shit in my pants !

the best of the best. They made me pre order the dlc wtf

Tired of burer's op flying objects through walls? With 1.9 (well, it's not really 1.9 but we called it 1.9 anyway), discover the magic of rat swarms going through doors as well ! From Ukraine, with love ❤️

4 months to introduce a new bug, gj gsc

Who to shoot :

• you have to get close enough to recognize the outfit (can be tricky esp. Loners vs Bandits), or
• you can enable crosshair (that sucks), or
• wait for them to act and clarify their intentions first
• use a mod that features a faction recognition mechanic, like OXA for instance.

How to check your repution, this idk tbh

[random anvil]

Is stalker 2 playable without mods now?

[kindred violet]

It's always been playable

[onyx harbor]

I'd strongly advise against it though, for mental health obvious reasons

[random anvil]

Specifically the wallhacking AI

[random anvil]

Damn, any you'd recommend with the new update?

[kindred violet]

(don't listen to people on the internet)

Especially just one guy

[random anvil]

ok i listen to skif 🫎

[onyx harbor]

I agree, play the game and you will know what mods you need. But i'm still 100% positive that you are going to want to install mods

[random anvil]

Ill give it a try cuz havent played since launch

[onyx harbor]

yeah game has improved a bit since then 🙂

[uneven mauve]

I just got a DVL-10 M1... it has 606dmg what

[onyx harbor]

Mutant Health Overhaul (couldn't help myself) !

[kindred violet]

Wrong chat my guy

[onyx harbor]

for that first bloodsucker encounter, and an ez fix to bugged mutant aka burers, poltergeists

[uneven mauve]

I realized AHAHAHA

[onyx harbor]

at least

[random anvil]

that first encounter was so annoying too i remember that

[onyx harbor]

it works on 1.8, I didn't upgrade my game though so idk about 1.9 compatibility

yeah, the first big wtf for me too, I remamber at launch lmao

Grok identified and adressed mutant health issue pretty much right away iirc. But his mods not maintained coz he cooking the good stuff for us, yay

[kindred violet]

Mutant health has long been tweaked and pretty much fixed in base

[onyx harbor]

Some mutant are bugged, at least two of them. Modding their health is still relevant. I'd say that without any caliber based damage model installed, modding other mutants health is totally understandable, too. Bullet sponge is still an issue, for most players.

imo the "issue" is more about the general difficulty balance of the game, cause bullet sponge is an issue only on vet+ difficulty imo

[kindred violet]

Then simply don't play on vet

[warped monolith]

[nova lake]

I wish they hadnt react nerfed bloodsuckers health and instead just lowered their numbers

[visual minnow]

the gun balance overall is just shit

even with mods, in long range engagements, it feels like I'm equiped with a nerf gun, while the enemies can snipe me with buckshot

[icy basin]

Don't tell him about GAMMA's damage and AP falloff

[onyx harbor]

"then simply don't play on vet" i wish i was you man
ez life huh? kekw
what if difficulty setting is reponsible for other things in the game than just bullet sponginess?
But hey better be peremptory and unpleasant i guess, it's a discord server after all

[golden hazel]

https://tenor.com/view/skill-gif-20570785

[finite needle]

There is a difficulty that inherently changes the way you play the game, it's called Master. You could try that.

inb4 he's playing with version 1.2 and has never updated the game

[warped monolith]

presents a problem
is offered a solution
snarks and calls others unpleasant

it's a discord server after all

[finite needle]

More importantly, interactive fungi when

I want to be able to get the shits by picking up toxic mushrooms

[icy basin]

The only okay looking one

[warped monolith]

eat these ones to achieve immortality

[golden hazel]

Truly the method of a fungi

[nova lake]

it isnt

the only thing that difficulty changes beetween novice to stalker is prices, cash received and damage values, you arent going to get less of a game by bumping it down
the only difference in difficulty is if you choose the hardcore saves which forces you into only one save file and autosaves for you at the exit of a base, but the only one that has this is Master and Master is basically Veteran+ with forced hardcore saves

[onyx harbor]

you're all a bit delusive if you think the difficulty is handled right in S2. My point was : mods are still relevant regarding mutant health. Now anyone who plays the game will judge if they're needed or not.

[warped monolith]

time to pull out the secret weapon

[onyx harbor]

sure

[nova lake]

I liked the balancing of the bloodsuckers on 1.0, the first you encounter is a real challenge and the ones in the first missions really make you either commit to the fight or sneak or run away from it
I think they course corrected from the ammount of people who were really foolhardy and didnt want to back down

[warped monolith]

the stubborn "veteran stalker players" who couldn't handle tanky mutants and had to cheat with mods

[finite needle]

Chimeras and Giants still have too much healt even on stalker tbh

But at least chimeras in Stalker 2 are actually dangerous

[onyx harbor]

kinda funny to be called out for using mods on the gamma discord server but nvm

[finite needle]

I kinda agree with the fact that veteran difficutly in no very well balanced (in a sense that shit is more expensive to kill, that's the whole thing if you want to boil it down to the minimum). To be fair, other games level difficulty with aggression and enemy placement, which you really can't do with something that either spawns shit or moves shit around - one thing could be lethality, and iirc master does that for both parties. Mutants, now that have loot, have gone from just avoid unless needed to kill to kill to shank his guts out and sell them for more ammo, so they need to be more easily killable in general

[warped monolith]

modding is one thing, cheating is another

[warped monolith]

most games don't do difficulty right - that's why you lower the difficulty to a setting that's more fun to play

[onyx harbor]

cheating in a solo game is definitely another thing yeah lmao
You'll tell me about it ! lol

[warped monolith]

vast majority of games just do the lazy "enemy does more damage and has more health" progression as you crank the difficulty up

[finite needle]

I mean, we're talking about GAMMA players who were bragging how hardcore they were and then they lower difficulty because their ego couldn't handle being bad in a different game

[warped monolith]

I remember seeing people here claim the prologue bloodsucker was immortal

[finite needle]

It was definitely overtuned for a tutorial though

[onyx harbor]

you talking bout what you want; i was talking about S2 balance, i did not call myself "vet" or anything like that

[warped monolith]

I had enough ammo for it

also people forget it takes reduced damage when it's cloaked.

[finite needle]

Bloodsuckers are a bit too common if you ask me, individually they're fine. Just there's too many

and not enough dogs/boars

[onyx harbor]

there we go. that's it. Then there are mods. but man dont cheat man play vanilla i guess lmao

[warped monolith]

yes, that's it - lower the difficulty

swallow your pride

and have fun

you got nothing to prove

[onyx harbor]

man i'm done with you lmao
you don't want to understand, fine
let's say i have ego issues

[onyx harbor]

i am having a lot of fun with the game bro
I was just asked which mods would be advisable, I answered, and since then you're on my back man let it off lmao

[warped monolith]

I thought you said you were done

[onyx harbor]

dude is relentless

[iron prawn]

How do I install stalker 2 on my steam deck?

[icy basin]

Uh
You check if it's compatible first, then just install it?

[iron prawn]

Without steam

[warped monolith]

apparently Stalker 2 is not on the Steam Deck "compatibility" list

[royal mural]

🍿

[nova lake]

the only problem with the bloodsuckers in 1.0 is that they were spammed due to the inexistence of A-Life, they are still too common to be fair
they were tuned very well, at the start the bloodsucker is seen as a boss, that first encounter hammers into you it's a bullet sink and quite hard at the beggining, and the subsequent story encounters always let you avoid those fights so it's reinforced, but it becomes easier to fight them by the middle and once youre at the ending bloodsuckers are as easy to fight as dogs due to all the gear and upgrades
it was really satisfying feeling that ladder, and tanking their health so GSC can spam them was the bad decision here methinks

[iron prawn]

Lots of games aren't on the compatibility list

I want to talk to someone who has played stalker 2 on the steam deck

There is a patch for it apparently

[iron prawn]

Apparently it isn't good though

According to YouTube

Poor performance

[finite needle]

The mother of all issues is the lair system, which imho is the perfect example of stuff that sounds great on paper but is meh in practice. In short, Bloodsuckers can spawn with lairs and can go conquer areas and make new lairs. The reason they are very prominent is exactly that they're stronger than lesser mutants/regular stalkers and keep reproducing, "flooding" the zone, so they need to be weaker, same for the burers. The other problem with the system is that even nerfed they are still too strong and are still too prominent and so on.

The other issue I have is that somehow they decided that the rat swarm is a mutant that can spawn in the world. I wish it was not the case.

and honestly burers, rat swarms and bloodsuckers should be moved in the same tier as chimeras, giants and polters and just never spawn as a random encounter/lair, or be considerably rarer.

[warped monolith]

rat swarm should 100% be a scripted thing that only happens in specific areas

[torpid relic]

it really makes no sense for a ratswarm to show up in a field area, in some random bunker or tunnel sure. Also if the lair system exists how and why didnt they expand on the Task system? go out and destroy a lair or something, clean up the zone a bit, but then again the whole task system was underbaked af from the launch and hasnt been touched since.

[tacit glacier]

bruh

Apparently X-18 isn't an emission safe area.

[finite needle]

Tha's great news

[warped monolith]

[tacit glacier]

Where is Nullmoxy saying stalker 2 will be way better than anomaly on release

[finite needle]

Such a strange bug though

[nova lake]

already is!

[finite needle]

If I can be 100% honest chief, the fact that in Stalker 2 I don't lose my weapon when I get shot makes it better than Anomaly

[tacit glacier]

Walking into an area and facing 12 burers makes it better too?

mf don't even care for stamina they just steal your gun and shoot you with it
Or spam yeet items at you through the walls

[finite needle]

I have never found 12 burers, BUT I have faced 12 bloodsuckers and that is indeed one of the few thins less funny than the gun dropping mechanic

Difference being one is probably not intended, the other is a core gameplay feature someone thought it was good

[tacit glacier]

Woe be upon you, the bloodsuckers that can

knock you over and stun lock you

Who tf came up with the knock over mechanic

[nova lake]

skill issue

[lyric schooner]

it's a bullet sink
I think this should never be part of any game design
I'd rather fight multiple non-spongy enemies than one guy where bullets feel like confetti

[tacit glacier]

This

[lyric schooner]

if they want difficulty, add more enemies. don't make a sponge

[nova lake]

yhea early on, why shouldnt it? do you think every mutant should die with at max 5 shots at any stage of the game?

[tacit glacier]

The original bloodsucker wasn't a bullet sink

[finite needle]

Next patch: Bloodsuckers spawn more frequently but need considerably less ammo to be killed (stunlock zone)

[tacit glacier]

It jumped you in the agroprom underground, used shadows and invisibility to its advantage and made you paranoid

[lyric schooner]

yeah bloodsucker was hard to hit, not that they were a tank

[nova lake]

hmmm, do you perhaps play Serious Sam?

[tacit glacier]

But two well placed shotgun shots would put it to sleep

[lyric schooner]

we just disagree fundamentally if you like bullet sponges

[nova lake]

[warped monolith]

tough enemies are fine as long as you're not having to face dozens of them at the same time because of the wacky spawn system

[nova lake]

the point is that the original blooscukers were the ruler for progression, they were hard to deal with and forced an actual break in how a player thinks at the beggining of the game until you had the resources and weapons to fight them

[finite needle]

To be fair bloodsuckers are the funniest thing to obliterate with a semi auto shotgun

[lyric schooner]

none of this means anything to me because I know bloodsuckers from OG

[finite needle]

and they (with burers) stop being a factor as soon as you get a SPAS

[nova lake]

they are designed bad bc they arent how they were in SOC

are we dead ass

[finite needle]

Average freedomer:

[lyric schooner]

they were not sponges back then. And nobody likes bullet sponges now

[tacit glacier]

Like I could download stalker shadow of chernobyl, put the game on master, speedrun to agroprom and record the bloodsucker encounter.
It just drops dead. It was scary at first but once you understand the mechanic, they were menacing but counterable enemy.

Stalker 2 bloodsuckers have a dumb ass roar mechanic that exposes them if you are facing the right direction
Can knock you over for some dumb reason (should've just made them have the blood steal ability from call of pripyat)
And just run around like a stray dog without any form or strategy that they used in the previous games.

[finite needle]

To be fair, having enemies that just charge at you in a straight line like the originals woudl feel VERY underwhelming

[warped monolith]

new bad, old good yapping moment

[tacit glacier]

Not to mention they uncloak, try to hit you, stand in place for a few seconds, then run off

[lyric schooner]

they are designed bad because bullet sponges are bad.
I referenced the OG only because you seem to imply game has to be designed that way.

[tacit glacier]

Trilogy bloodsuckers rushed at you, uncloaked, made their hit, and ran off in one smooth motion

[nova lake]

players would complain a lot more if they didnt uncloak ever

[tacit glacier]

Nobody ever complained about original bloodsuckers

[nova lake]

why are bullet sponges bad at a baseline?

[tacit glacier]

That wasn't something that had to be fixed

[finite needle]

Yeah, in 2008

[nova lake]

Ive heard a list of complaints, actually

[lyric schooner]

if you want bullet sponges go play destiny or some RPG where bullets tickle

I am always on the side of "you die fast, I die fast" when it comes to shooters

[finite needle]

Bro we get it you don't like bullet sponges we ain't even talking about that

[nova lake]

I think youre being intentionally obtuse becuase you actually dont have an argument that isnt just "HURRR enemies shouldnt take more than 3 bullets to kill"

[lyric schooner]

we deadass have someone who likes bullet sponges

if you want harder encounters, make more enemies. make them faster. make them smarter.

[nova lake]

I said the thing I like about bloodsuckers is how it forces you to face them diff at the beggining and has you obliterating them in 2-3 shoots in the end

how does that equate to me liking bullet sponges

well liked

[lyric schooner]

don't take my words for it. everyone complained about mutant health, and they have to make mods for it.

[nova lake]

yhea, and they were wrong for it

I dont care

[tacit glacier]

If ballistics in stalker were properly set up then the bloodsuckers would drop dead at start of the game no diff as well
But for some reason its light looter shooter core where an ak deals less damage than an end game weapon for some bizzare reason.

[lyric schooner]

I didn't want to use the word looter shooter but you're right

[tacit glacier]

There is also the fact for some reason mutants "wear kevlar vests" because they have armor points set up which makes mutants resistant to the only ammo that was supposed to target them, HP rounds.

You deal more damage with armor piercing than with HP

[warped monolith]

damn, just like the OGs who woulda thunk

[tacit glacier]

Except in OG's it wasn't that bad

[lyric schooner]

except in the OG bloodsuckers drop dead fast

[warped monolith]

mutant monsters in my sci-fi setting having thick hides? Preposterous

[tacit glacier]

Like you could go through the entire game with the AKM

[nova lake]

not really no, at least not without a serious ammount of annoyance and deaths

[tacit glacier]

True, but I managed it

[nova lake]

and in SOC, you didnt have pick ups late game for 5.45

[nova lake]

you can also manage it in S2 tho...

[lyric schooner]

the hurdle is basically when power armor is introduced, then you can only focus on making headshots

[warped monolith]

if challenge runs count then Doom shouldn't have any weapon other than the pistol because you can finish the game with it

[tacit glacier]

mf CNPP was hard

[nova lake]

so it is for every stalker game, except COP the worst one

[warped monolith]

again a very funny part of stalker 2 community lore
make cheats to reduce mutant health instead of lowering the difficulty

because the gamma-coded "stalker veterans" couldn't take the idea of having to play on a lower difficulty

[lyric schooner]

because lowering the difficulty would make gunfights uninteresting

mutant fights are another category

and with mods, you can choose that

[finite needle]

Eh in SOC you pretty much picked up guns from the bodies and used that, you COULD finish the game with the AK-74U if you wanted but so you can with Stalker 2, same level of annoyance. The fact that the weapon choice is tier (feel) based and not bullet based is one of the few complaints I can actually agree on, but for reasons that are possibly different from most people

[warped monolith]

normalizing damage per caliber would end up causing even less variety in player choice

tiering guns was a weird design idea either way

[finite needle]

9x39 weapons are already in a weird spot anyway

[warped monolith]

but I don't know what I would have personally done

[nova lake]

for what Stalker is supposed to be around, which is having very tight progression of equipment that scales with the story, I prefer this approach unless you have a surplus of weapons
you can still tier weapons when you have so many choices but you gotta do it by very carefully dispensing them at stages of the game, and Stalker 2 likes giving you the opportunity to find late game stuff speccled across the map

[warped monolith]

I mostly pick guns by personal preferences, not performance

[nova lake]

I'd say tieing the damage to calibers forces you to actually design the weapons a lot more realistically as that will auto balance them (Like how its done in E5 Brigade), but for how GSC wants guns to work, doing this would be chaos on progression

[lyric schooner]

bullet based damage, like Ready or Not. I am okay with that.
Though then progression would probably be tied to optics, attachments, and recoil upgrades etc.

[finite needle]

Thing is, Stalker 2 is open world, not stage based like Stalker. In Stalker, weapon tiers made sense, it was also fundametally a early 2000s/late 90s game in philosophy, so you got all the futuristic cool weapons as good weapons and the others not. I get why they brought this back in Stalker 2 since is de facto a reboot of the series, but I wish they didn't.

[nova lake]

stalker was always a kind of """RPG by Equipment""" system, wherein you are continuously ditching and upgrading your gear to match with the games threats and thus doing progress

[warped monolith]

Stalker 2 is open world but it still has a storyline that herds players in a linear path

so they sprinkle gear and weapon upgrades along that path

and somewhere off to the sides, too

[lyric schooner]

stalker 2 still gates progression, sometimes more overtly than others

[finite needle]

You can easily break progression and have access to powerful equipment early if you know where to look, right now it's a hybrid system that is serviceable, but I wish it was better.

[nova lake]

like I said, a cartiridge based system could still work with progression by equipment, but like I said, you need to tighten the noose on how equipment is given which will make people upset as you tie more spawns and equipment to loot tables that unlock by story progression
besides, like I said before, it would only work if you basically copy paste the E5 Brigade stuff, which is hopelessly autistic in design and obscure in execution

[warped monolith]

eh you can only do that if you're either VERY lucky or you read/watched a guide

and let's be honest, people who watch guides to GET THIS OP WEAPON EARLY are the reason gaming in current year sucks

and they should be put down

[finite needle]

Sure but I can go get SEVA-I, a 100% condition Kharod AND tier 3 night vision right after the tutorial zone if I so wish

[lyric schooner]

I mean, they can certainly gate those equipment if they want to

but should they

[finite needle]

They didn't, and that's a big difference

we're not talking hypoteticals here, we're talking what is in Stalker, and what in Stalker 2

[lyric schooner]

I am of the opinion that if you choose to cheat or choose to mod, that is on your own prerogative in a single player game

[finite needle]

Stalker is a linear game with levels, Stalker 2 can gate progression but gear progression is like 80% open

[lyric schooner]

and watching guides on how to get OP gear counts as soft cheating

[finite needle]

and that's very different from stalker progression, where a tiered loot system was necessary to guarantee the gear progresses with the story

[finite needle]

Bro I finished the game like 5 times, I KNOW where all the shit is. I can't unlearn it.

I can just avoid to pick it up, which I usually do.

[nova lake]

if they removed it theyd be removing the stalker feature of hiding weapons 2 stages higher than you have currently behind obscure places
like the VS Vintar in the Latrine in X16 and the Good Pistol in Cordon

[lyric schooner]

yeah you still have a choice in whether you want to veer away from intended progression.

Elden Ring has this too: one could get Moonveil really early on if one knows where to look.

[finite needle]

I knew you were a dex/int player

[nova lake]

I dont think removing these spots is a good thing, but the tiered system is a lot easier to integrate and balance on a game like Stalker 2, which is why I only really support Cartridge Based System on shit like New Arsenal 7

[finite needle]

btw I would even be fine if I liked the weapons they picked as the best, but I don't.

[nova lake]

the dnipro is cool, but the 5.56 weapons all suck

the kharod is man made horros within my comprehension

but they were dealt a shitty hand, new weapons all look lame and like shit

[finite needle]

I use the kharod because it's hard to pass on a AR that can mount an underbarrel shotgun

but lord I hate it

[lyric schooner]

gotta say the weapon naming in this game is just ... whatever

[finite needle]

The weapon names are possibly the least of my concerns about weapons

unless they changed their names in racial slurs while I wasn't looking

[nova lake]

I appreciate them trying to gaslight me into thinking that they didnt just paste the HK 416 for all 5.56 weapons, but I know too much

[lyric schooner]

I know they probably avoid real names due to legal or financial issues, but I see games like Gray Zone Warfare have real gun names and eh

well we can just mod the names anyway so no big deal, just a point of curiosity

[warped monolith]

smaller indie dev flies under the radar of gun manufacturing companys' lawyers

compared to a fuckin AAA studio making a game with Microsoft money

Counter-Strike had fake gun names, too.

[finite needle]

H&K has the habit to actually file lawsuits if you use their intellectual property

hence why the MP5 is still mirrored even in Stalker2

[nova lake]

having real names doesn't matter, the guns suck, the gun wouldnt be cooler if it was name the IWI Carmel instead of Kharod, its still a mess of box shapes concealing a HK416 rip off

[nova lake]

do you think they mirrored guns bc of copyright issues?

[finite needle]

Originally very much yes, but I think they kept the design as a callback in Stalker 2 tbh

[nova lake]

no, not at all, in fact developers actually plainly said while they were developing CS, they did it like this because they liked it

[warped monolith]

zero sievert having the OUG will never not make me laugh

[nova lake]

they thought it was cool

[finite needle]

also easier to animate a gun with the charging handle on the left I suppose

[lyric schooner]

what do you think about the guns in Ready or Not

[nova lake]

I dont play RoN

inferior ass Swat 4

[finite needle]

I have no idea what ready or not is

[lyric schooner]

nah just play it. you will sweat

[nova lake]

it's a autistic "realistic" SWAT simulator

[finite needle]

yeah nah not for me

[lyric schooner]

I want games to have gunfights as intense as in RoN. The only problem is that RON AI is too cracked in reaction time.

[nova lake]

wherein the AI spray walls and you walk slower than a turtle because the developers think its very smart of them to make their game as unfun to play bc that is somehow "more realistic" and "swat work isnt fun dood"

[warped monolith]

have you played Blood?

the old boomer shooter

[nova lake]

but yhea, modern gun design really sucks and Im impressed they got a good looking gun for 5.45 late game, the Dnirpo is actually quite good looking

[finite needle]

Of course I have

[warped monolith]

alright

now imagine the hitscan cultists's cracked .01 milisecond reaction time

in a SWAT game

[finite needle]

So no prefiring dynamite across corners to just nuke the room

sounds like fun

[nova lake]

the cultists can also now sniff you thru walls and even wall bang you from a floor under you, just so you know

[lyric schooner]

their reaction time is indeed way too fast. Though it does enforce the idea that you should be properly clearing angles with leaning instead of charging in. The AI doesn't react if you just barely lean.

[finite needle]

but I guess they die in one hit so it's fine

[nova lake]

no

they are actually pretty tanky

[lyric schooner]

They die in 2 hits if you use assault rifles

[finite needle]

then I'd rather replay Blood

[nova lake]

Ive seen and had instances where someone tanks 5 9mm, this is literally just 10mm propaganda

[warped monolith]

[nova lake]

but then again, I assume they are using the testimonies of those US Marines that shoot 5.56 out the wazoo against "coked up terrorists" and requests a stronger cartridge

[lyric schooner]

yeah 9mm rounds only kill up to armor L2 (in around 2 to 3)
armor past L2 can tank 9mm very well unless you hit in the head or the limbs

[nova lake]

it was an unarmored gang member

and I was shooting his chest

[lyric schooner]

nah we have stats, armor and damage numbers

[finite needle]

See not that different from GAMMA after all

[nova lake]

anyway, using RoN has the example you want S2 ballistics to be is really eye opening

[warped monolith]

cut him some slack, at least he didn't use Tarkov as the example for ballistics

[lyric schooner]

2 hits to kill is fair for me

and sometimes I hit the limb once but it's an artery and the enemy just dies from bleeding

[finite needle]

Anyway, that's not Stalker identity to begin with. It's not a milsim realistic shooter.

The ballistic mechanics could be better but it doesn't really NEED to go all milsim autismo at all.

[lyric schooner]

it is not milsim. But it definitely wants to be realistic.

[finite needle]

it's a fast paced shooter in which you drink vodka to cure radiations

it wants to feel realistic, it's a huge difference

if it was realistic Skif would be dead only for his eating habits

considering shooting is only one part of the world, if you need to be realistic you need to encapsulate everything, not only the parts that the WW2 enthusiasts think is important

[lyric schooner]

yeah it's okay I'm sure modders will do it anyway

[warped monolith]

another funny part of stalker 2 community lore... people somehow expecting it to be a realistic sim shooter

[nova lake]

its a fast paced action adventure shooter its not supposed to be a slow paced survival fuck you simulator

it def is fun to talk with people about the game balancing of Stalker 2 and slowly realise they dont actually like Stalker and want Misery but worse

[lyric schooner]

we are talking about bullets. I'm not sure what slow paced or fast paced means for bullets

[warped monolith]

you can't just isolate "bullets" from the rest of the game design

everything has to be incorporated and tied into each other, and it has to be done in a way that meets the intended design for how the game plays and feels

[lyric schooner]

that's very vague. how does having hard hitting bullets make a game slow paced

[warped monolith]

You gotta remember Stalker 2 isn't a game made for milsim GAMMA/Misery/Anoamly turbo nerds, it's a game made for a wide audience that includes consoles

[lyric schooner]

this game has an ultimate cheat. The Threat Indicator. I can just run around the zone until I feel a threat.

[warped monolith]

... you know that's an UI option that you can turn off, right?

[finite needle]

Again, you can play on master and remove that stuff

[lyric schooner]

good. A choice for people who want "fast paced"

[nova lake]

I dont see why it being a game made with consoles in mind means it cant be slow paced and milsim, console players like Arma Reforger

[warped monolith]

arma in itself is a very niche game

stalker 2 is a dead franchise being puppeteered back to life and GSC gotta show Microsoft it can make money

[nova lake]

and yet Reforger has a very healthy gamer base that plays it purely on the consoles, they are very noticeable, there is a market on consoles

the truth of the matter is

[warped monolith]

"healthy" is relative, it can have 50 players and be considered "healthy"

[nova lake]

Stalker 2 is a Stalker game, which is to say, its a fast paced action game
I expect the DLC to continue this

[finite needle]

Bro the last shooter I played is Mullet Madjack, I don't have the patience to wait in a corner to take the perfect shot on Boris (that is nigh immortal) because some coked up swat in the US wants to shoot fucking 50 calbers at mexicans and isn't happy about 5.56

[warped monolith]

not every game needs to sell 20 billion copies to be successful

[finite needle]

GAMMA is unironically my limit

[nova lake]

which is why I said healthy and didn't estimate because I def know the community for them isnt that small, at least a few thousand, maybe 10k

[warped monolith]

still pretty niche-y

either way

[finite needle]

does cruelty squad count as a swat tacticool game?

[warped monolith]

I don't think so

[lyric schooner]

it might be un-kosher to say this on a gamma server but I just heavily dislike the repairing and no one selling guns aspect of gamma
it feels like an artificial progression system because one has not figured out how to gate progression

[warped monolith]

I'm pretty sure you know the answer to this. More lethal bullets means the player also dies faster, so people can't just run and gun

[warped monolith]

I don't like it either. Disgusting aspect of artificial difficulty imo

[nova lake]

half of the server hates gamma, not new

[finite needle]

not unheard of tbh

[warped monolith]

which doesn't make sense in lore either. Why wouldn't traders sell guns to 1. make more money off of stalkers and 2. increase stalkers' survival rate so they can trade more

[nova lake]

Im only here to shill NLC7, Stalker 2 channel, and so people can send me unban requests

[finite needle]

I like GAMMA but I find like half the stuff in game to make 0 sense, and I don't think the game deserves all the glazing it gets from creators

[warped monolith]

hang out at #╟❓general-offtopic and you'll find a lot of people who hate gamma

[lyric schooner]

if nobody sells guns why are there so many guns

[warped monolith]

I innocently downloaded gamma in 2022 or 2023 I think, played for 15 minutes, thought "wow this is a huge steaming pile of shit" uninstalled and never looked back

in fact I went back to regular Anomaly immediately

[finite needle]

Well all the guns you see are either 1 - already there before the ban and 2 - the will of the Monolith, praise be

I'm stil mad about the japanese AR that is 2 years from the future

[lyric schooner]

how can someone even forbid selling guns in a lawless zone

[nova lake]

itd be cool if it was like, Goldsphere, where people make crude weaponry to get by on the lower zone but no

[warped monolith]

fallout 4 pipe gun moment

speaking of stalker mods I think I still have True Stalker installed.

[nova lake]

they literally hand you a hand loaded pipe gun strapped to a branch in it yes

[finite needle]

It's all a gimmick and I'm fine with it, I think a decent compromise would've been to be able to buy/sell maybe the weapons you can start a run with, or armor. Having to farm exo dudes in Pripyat hoping they drop the recipe because the Exos are too powerful is not very fun

[finite needle]

Such a weird choice for Bethesda to appeal to the milsim people and not realize that they want the rugged life, but also a pristine condition AR-15

[nova lake]

its not a bad idea but its smth so large you need to make the game revolve around it, make the UN an actual player in the zone and have like contraband markets and holdouts against the UN, and from there you have tons of grounds for quests and mechanics to sprout
but thats interesting so, nha

[finite needle]

There is the blackmarket mod already, but that just sells you weapons at a really inflated price so meh

[nova lake]

bandit markets should have weapons sold on import only

but that is neither here nor there

[finite needle]

I'm also very mad they made Freedom and Bandits allied for some reason

[lyric schooner]

I think Gray Zone Warfare gun progression is okay for me. I just wish that game had enemy AI that wasn't braindead and standing still.

on the other hand, Stalker 2 AI has enemies moving and flanking dynamically, BUT they run into the problem of everyone funneling towards their death if the player positions at a choke point

[warped monolith]

I don't think they tried appealing to milsim folks
look at how much people complain about the assault rifle

[warped monolith]

as you progress through GZW the enemy AI starts having crackhead reaction times, too. so you just get domed outta nowhere in the higher level areas

[lyric schooner]

I'd say a good enemy AI system would have half the enemies moving and flanking you, and the other half camping and waiting to ambush

I wonder if there's a game that does that

well now that I think about it, Ready or Not does that. They can camp for hours or flank a door from your behind.

[nova lake]

GZW is another game where I use 5.56 AP and I see a guy with a Level 1 plate tank 10-20 bullets to his chest

and then when Im shoot I need to call a helicopter home bc I keep throwing up

[finite needle]

Things you can do in Stalker 2 that you can't do in GAMMA: Sleep twice

[lyric schooner]

GZW's bullet system is broken. Only headshots count.

[warped monolith]

GZW triggered my Clear Sky PTSD, getting sniped through 5 layers of foliage by an invisible NPC with a shotgun

[nova lake]

"Mommy can you come pick me up? The gangsters are bullying me and I threw up..."

[warped monolith]

so much fun in an extraction shooter

[lyric schooner]

yeah GZW enemy AI is only a challenge when they are put into the jungle and then they become Vietnamese terminators

the trench area specifically

[golden hazel]

https://tenor.com/view/perfect-cell-fire-writing-perfect-writing-perfect-cell-writing-writing-perfect-cell-gif-17299771935638990179

Certified GSC Moment

[lyric schooner]

so this is the number of side quests per region

they really spent all their budget on the early game

I suppose the next DLC is meant to provide more

[finite needle]

Kinda outdated since I'm pretty sure 1.8 added a couple more quests to the burnt forest, but doesn't change the substance

if they keep populating the zone with secondary stuff every patch I'm ok with it honestly, if anything shows that they really needed way more time to complete the game.

[lyric schooner]

yeah I understand why some people were angry about the lack of content. The game needs more years to fully tell its story

[silver orchid]

yes

[finite needle]

Among the many issues, I think everything would've been forgiven if the game had 1 - working faction wars and 2 - the same density of content past the SIRCAA mission.

[slim moth]

that game was a waste of money

im still disappointed

[lyric schooner]

the AI still needs cooking. At least the graphics is okay.

[slim moth]

what's point in good graphics if AI can see through everything

[warped monolith]

I was gifted it and I was still disappointed

[slim moth]

and the gameplay loop seems to have not gotten any better either

just spawn camp LZ's

fuck all that. that's why singleplayer extractions are way better

[warped monolith]

they made the recoil worse

[warped monolith]

if they didn't have AI with sixth sense and heat vision I'd love to play that as a co-op pve game

alas

[slim moth]

it's crazy that Unreal Engine brags about advancements and features and the AI is less functional than games from over 20 years ago

like what sort of fucking timeline am i living in

[warped monolith]

that's more of an individual dev issue who don't know how to code enemy scripts/ai

[slim moth]

but every fucking game has dumb as shit AI/npcs

[nova lake]

its worse since they will automatically fail all of your quests if you die

[warped monolith]

BUT if we actually took all this AI-centered computing power used for upscaling and graphics and turned it instead to handling NPC behavior

we'd be gucci

[slim moth]

i'

I'd prefer maxed out 2018 textures graphics with super advanced npc's/AI and gameplay depth, over lumen/nanite/raytracing

[warped monolith]

me too, but unfortunately graphics dazzle the kids and helps GPU manufacturers sell new cards

we achieved photorealism years ago, to a point where games nowadays have worse graphics somehow

[slim moth]

Like im playing Fallout New Vegas modded, and it really doesn't take much to get immersed in game if it has a bunch of cool features

[warped monolith]

but graphics is the #1 industry driver

[slim moth]

I mean, I was also playing Metro 2033 and if you slap some reshade on it, it looks pretty modern

[nova lake]

Ive said this before and Ill say it again, a large portion of why the games industry is so prone to cutting and doing design by commitee is due to the expectation games need Voice Acting

if we stopped doing it, we'd be all the better for it

[warped monolith]

yeah but expecting the average Joe to read in the year of our lord 2026 is an insane proposition

[slim moth]

true. reading sucks

[nova lake]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1307839871687331911/1494809540884041788/ezgif.com-added-text.gif

[warped monolith]

I think voice acting is less of a budget hog than all those fully motion-captured scenes where they have to even get the actors' tiniest microexpressions because muh immershun, they need to convey the character's emoshun

this need for hollywood-levels of physical acting is the biggest problem imo

and ofc hollywood actors, too

they're expensive

but game devs/publishers love bringing them on board

[nova lake]

the problem with VA is not the fact that they are expensive, its the fact they are time prohibitive
the actors are not 24/7 at the behest of the studio, they are contractors, what this means is that the lines need to be approved, reapproved, and then shot, and if the lines are changed you just blew money, time and have no idea when you will be able to reshoot

[slim moth]

Yeah, just hire within means and use your dev crew to do voices. makes it more authentic

with a AAA game, i understand, especially with mo-cap and cutscenes they want high qual actors

[warped monolith]

I mean everything else I mention is also contractors and time-limited

and also more expensive because of the mocap gear, cameras and whatnot

[nova lake]

this means that modifying large swathes of content on the fly becomes impossible and the writers need to work within the confines of things being spoken rather than read, and that remaking or reworking content that has already been released pretty much, impossible in design by comittee unless you are expected to completely replace the old work

[warped monolith]

would be good if we had another videogame crash, but that's not gonna happen. it's the most profitable form of entertainment currently

[slim moth]

GTA 6 budget is around $3 billion dollars holy shit

[nova lake]

I actually expected GSC to have bought most of this stuff

[warped monolith]

maybe not as profitable as stuff like onlyfans but who's counting

[slim moth]

hopefully stop killing games is successful and they can't be as scummy

oooo

hnnnnnnnnnng UI looks so good

[slim moth]

i just prefer minimalistic UI..

like this is cluttered as fuck

making the best with what's there, but this could def be condensed.

[remote eagle]

i played that mod its ok

[remote eagle]

thats not ui from Raid into Darkness tho

[slim moth]

yeah it's from asket

[median reef]

guys,what mods/modpacks can you recommend for Stalker 2? I want less shootouts, more exploration of the zone and anomalies

[icy basin]

What's this for

[median reef]

https://tenor.com/view/серега-пират-gif-8488771408085502572

4fun

[icy basin]

Watch what you post, weirdo

[idle minnow]

oh my god

do you guys know any fix its like the sun is coming at me

[quick raptor]

there are some weird lumen bugs in this game. playing it rn and my legs are whiter than Heisenberg

[quick raptor]

and same here.

[snow smelt]

Would you guys say there are more mods and mod makers active on S2 than there are those creating add-ons for Anomaly and or X-Ray Monolith Engine based games?.

[icy basin]

Not even remotely close?
Xray modding still goes on for Shadow of Chornobyl even

[lyric schooner]

you need to install Ultra Plus mod to fix lumen light leakage issue

use the default settings.
But also set Reflection Quality and Shadow Quality within the Ultra+ mod to high instead of game.

[lyric schooner]

consumer expectations are high nowadays

gotta say though the fact that Sidorovich in Cordon gave me exactly one quest (before the repeating quests) is ugh
a shame

I had higher expectations for Cordon

[finite needle]

Yurko Fantomas now becomes hostile mid sentence and you can't complete Bubble's quest

I swear this has become the new Zalissya, every patch a part of that encounter gets fucked

[icy basin]

https://gifconvert.vxtwitter.com/convert.avif?url=https://video.twimg.com/tweet_video/HGsfXfmWAAABXck.mp4

[finite needle]

Now it's an incredibly secondary encounter that has no consequences for the game, ok, but I reckon it should work now, it has since 1.3 and until 1.7

[finite needle]

To be fair Cordon is half abandoned and people has moved to Zalissya, it is stated in game a couple times. Maybe a couple new quests and a population boom in Cordon (since the main story makes you go back anyway) would be better, but it remains an area with early game loot that you simply don't interact with in the early game, it's simply not worth it.

[finite needle]

Leshy now drops a mint condition SVDM. What's even the point of having a Mosin Nagant now

[peak eagle]

still no ammo early game

[silk nexus]

did they re-enable the ability to skip/fast forward cutscenes yet. i finished one playthrough, got a couple endings, started over after a few months to take a diff path and because my save was too tainted with various issues. just ran into different set of issues that make the situation even worse than before around halfway through and it was still unsalvagable. I've honestly just been waiting for engine update at this point since late 2025, foolish though that may be. seen like 3 issues answered with "known, won't be fixed until engine update"

legit in my second playthrough i was having a thing in the duga raid where the ground despawned beneath me if i loaded a save in there and whole segments of the area just didn't get loaded at all in general. had to go back to an older save and just finish the whole segment in one load without dying to get through it. wasn't even running mods

[warped monolith]

oof.

I don't know if they re-enabled cutscene skipping but I'd just advise you to wait for the engine update... whenever the fuck that might happen

at least only after the DLC comes out.

[silk nexus]

seen some people vagueposting that there was a date of 12/5 hidden in the binoculars april fools video, haven't bothered to verify. if it was true that'd suggest something happening may 12 which... man how am i still on this amount of hopium

[warped monolith]

inb4 it's only a binoculars update

and nothing else

[silk nexus]

wouldn't surprise me at this point

[finite needle]

Either only the binocular or a long ass 6 hours mission pack

Or nothing at all

Just reddit schizo posting

[warped monolith]

that you can't access if you progressed too far in the main story

[trim iron]

What will you do with binoculars anyway?
Enjoy the scenery of the empty wastes of the zone?

[finite needle]

idk, I can already zoom in by watching down my scope I get early game.

Also I think you could use it to tag enemies in SoC? I have to be honest, I never used one in CoP.

It's a feature that's not really useful but is a basic thing that has always been in game, and so it needs to be there

[trim iron]

If you need binoculars to tag an enemy at 100m, you need to see an optometrist.

[finite needle]

Oh I know, it's just something the game did for you and I thought it was neat

[warped monolith]

pixel fairies

also he meant the ingame feature of tagging

which... I kinda wish this game never gets

game ain't a realistic sim but I think that's too arcadey

[trim iron]

I understand what he's getting at.
My point is binoculars are pointless with a 100m radius.
Why not just tag with a scope instead

[silk nexus]

maybe if you could tag anomaly fields from a distance at least?

[finite needle]

It's not really needed because you already have the threat indicators on your hud

[finite needle]

As I said, I never felt the need to use binoculars even on the older ones since the radius was 150, which IS larger but not as much as many people here seem to believe

[warped monolith]

I think I used it once or twice in the OGs just to check if a particular npc was hostile or not

[silk nexus]

think that's about how much i used it myself

[warped monolith]

seeing a dude sat next to an unlit campfire at night and not knowing whether he's a bandit or a loner

[opaque lagoon]

hola? algunos aca hablan español o spanish?

tengo un problema con el gamma y los mods sale 493 y lei todo que debe ser 554 y queria saber si hubo un fallo o que lo hize mal?

[warped monolith]

#🇪🇸-general-spa

[slim moth]

that bug is gnarly. what an oversite

[lyric schooner]

justifying a lack of content with an in-game excuse doesn't make players notice it less tbh

[jolly haven]

hey guys where do i download LUTs and all that

[lyric schooner]

I have progressed the game to Zaton.
By this point I feel like if I'm not doing headshot with my AK / GP37, even zombie stalkers will shrug off 4 or 5 shots like nothing. (master difficulty)

traders around here don't sell AP ammo except shotgun slugs

it's starting to feel like playing GZW where nothing but headshots count

[rotund merlin]

Lol my playtime

[trim iron]

https://giphy.com/gifs/Spiegelworld-ChirBsa2nkLNOpXLE8

[south vigil]

hi guys, left the game since released due to bugs and limited mod + content. how is the game right now, anything new

[silk nexus]

they've definitely added a few good and new things like night vision goggles, couple new weapons, and some quests. There's been some overall good rebalances to things like the economy and mutant health. game also runs a bit better than before. there's still some pretty miserable bugs once you get to around the mid game and beyond though. If you've been waiting this long I would just say wait a while longer until they update to a newer version of unreal engine 5. there's supposed to be a bunch of fixes that go live when that happens and who knows, the first big dlc might be coming out around when that happens too.

[frigid eagle]

poltergeist/burer throwing objects through walls still there, very annoying in master mode since it can take off half your HP.
upcoming expansion should make the game feel definitive so I would just wait for that in summer. I decided to just play the game despite the current state so I'll have a solid reference to how the expansion and engine update changes the game.
game definitely feels more complete compared to day one (I also quit a week later on release) but I'd wait for the expansion if you want a fundamentally more complete game.

[frigid eagle]

the quest where you had to rescue 2 noontiders and have to fight a merc with exosuit tanked 3 mags of AP AR416 bullets with body shots on master ahaha
redid the quest because I accidentally shot the rescue objective, took less than 10 headshots to kill the guy

[oak iron]

Stalker 2 dlc summer whennn

[celest scroll]

Russian please

[wide pawn]

1.9 is cooked

[astral pagoda]

holy...i think i'll definitely wait till dlc drops and see how well it perform (even tho i know new glitches are gonna be introduced)

[tacit glacier]

Dude, this is stalker 2 chat, not gamma chat xd

[foggy shell]

Was just searching for a similiar issue, didn't notice. Sorry.

[rotund merlin]

are u playing with any mods

[wide pawn]

nah full vanilla

[wide pawn]

game is still fun and okay to play if you really are itching for it but it wouldn't hurt to wait more

I'm on master and the balance and random deaths are annoying but its not horrible

campfire saves would be really nice though

[rotund merlin]

i think the embarrasing part was to release stalker 2 as an official release

it was 1000% early access quality upon release

but hey classic stalker devs, release a game and wait for the modding community to fix it lol

[warped monolith]

I'm confused, because GSC isn't numbering their patches anymore

is 1.9 sealed truth?

[silver orchid]

yes

[tacit glacier]

There is still an issue where the zone gets overrun by dozens of mutants

[kindred violet]

Didn't they say unsealed truth isn't 1.9?
But rather a 1.8.1

[warped monolith]

who said that and where

[tacit glacier]

Unsealed Truth is 1.9

[nova lake]

unsealed truth is 1.9, but the update is really minimal and more like 1.8.1

[tepid glacier]

Yo, i installed the Cinematic & Immersive ZONE collection and im wondering about Keybindings, i read on the OXA mod page that alt+0 should open a menu but it's not happening for me?

[rotund merlin]

felt more robbed buying the ultimate edition of stalker 2 on release than when i got Tarkov Unheard edition

[rotund merlin]

havent touched the game since i put in 70 hrs when it come out lol, glad i didnt

[warped monolith]

you paid up front for a promise

https://tenor.com/UJMi.gif

[rotund merlin]

yup lmao

with stalker 2 at least ik that the modding community will fix the game if the devs dont

sadly with all the updates etc it also breaks the mods each time they have major updates

[nova lake]

hmmm, if you were the game director what would you change?

[rotund merlin]

less of change rn and more of fix lmao

[warped monolith]

prioritize the "engine update" promise above all else

[rotund merlin]

actually one change

NOT USE UE5

[nova lake]

do you think S2's problem is purely its bugs?

[rotund merlin]

nope never said that thus i said "less of change RN and more of fix"

but yes rn my problem are its bugs , needs better optimization plus lack of mod support

which im sure are all subject to change

[nova lake]

my question was, if you were game director, what would you have changed, meaning what would you have wanted to be different?

[warped monolith]

he answered

[rotund merlin]

I just told u bro what dont u get

Also to add a note, i wouldnt complain about the current state if it was an early access release instead of an official release

Also im not a gaming director im a software and database developer i cant only answer that question from a users perspective

[warped monolith]

I'd definitely buy less ferraris and lamborghinis if I were the game director

[lyric schooner]

I remember that fight.
"hey let's put you into a forced cutscene and initiate a gunfight where you are standing in the open while 3 enemies shoot at you"
it's just so cheap

I decided to cheap back at it by reloading and throwing grenades through the small windows above the door to skip the cutscene

it's not the only time that happened either (the quest with a guy called Babay)

Anyone has actual experience with OXA and Better Ballistics ? Like actually doing a playthrough ? which one do you prefer ?

both seem to recommend making a new playthrough. that seems like quite a commitment so I want to know which one people prefer

[frigid eagle]

yeah these forced cutscenes and transition to combat is not very good. results on an instant death when in master mode.
wish let us walk around before the combat starts.

[lyric schooner]

the cutscene itself should include us running into cover before the fight starts

[frigid eagle]

yeah that's a good way of fixing it

[warped monolith]

preferably with our primary weapon at the ready, too

[torpid relic]

hmmm thats odd, isnt noontide base supose to be abandoned?

cause theres a fucking BATALLION of monolith there.

[lyric schooner]

is that 1st time to wild island ?

[torpid relic]

its probably my 3rd visist after sirca

[deep verge]

What's the status of the game, I held off on buying because game has not a life

Gave it a few months after release but people said not much really changed

Weird weapon balance, enemy spawn and accuracy issues, is the game any better these days?

[frigid eagle]

better compared to launch but if you haven't bought the game I'd wait for a base + cost of hope bundle. expansion comes out this summer

[deep verge]

Good to know, thank you

[lyric schooner]

I installed Shay's living zone. Perhaps everyone does. It's alright.

you can just click subscribe on steam

[novel magnet]

I disliked the extreme zone to zone gate keeping they did. I was too used to just roaming around in anomaly wherever my ADD wanted to take me.

[kindred violet]

Tf you mean gatekeeping?
That you couldn't immediately leave the lesser zone and pripyat being story locked?

It's a bit of a stupid argument since other than that the zone frankly as open as never

[grand mural]

stalker 2 would been so much better being semi-open like trilogy was..
A-Life would run so much better too.. I think.

[kindred violet]

i prefer the open world approach myself ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[odd fjord]

https://tenor.com/view/denzel-training-day-gif-16743259178450786472

[visual minnow]

https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/27?tab=description

Is this worth using?

[icy basin]

Why's it look like a shitpost

[humble moss]

Wait so theres rookie, stalker and veteran. Isnt rookie normal diff, and stalker hard. And veteran just like insane and nightmare ish?

[warped monolith]

nope

rookie is easy, stalker is normal, veteran is hard

then there's master

[humble moss]

Damn

So i need to do one more run after this, thought stalker was hard diff😂

[dusty owl]

guys , who know how fix scope ?

[humble moss]

I dont use scopes

So idk

I like my iron sight gives me more surrounding view

[visual minnow]

https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/1099?tab=files

Ended up using this instead

Performance improvement is noticable

As well as overall image quality whilst using FSR

[quick raptor]

thank you, i did try that and it looks waaaaaay better now

also, i would like to give a testimony about this game

i skipped the optional objective in that great swamps area (for psycho protec. gear) and headed off to disable the psycho beacons. i chose to go at night, unprepared and in the rain

now i'm in more pain than when i found my ex with someone else. i feel like a complete idiot for those choices, even though i've played every other STALKER game. it's like i'm getting a preview of what hell will be like

that being said, what a fucking great game. i want more misery

[deep verge]

Misery, you say?

[torpid relic]

nah nooooo way. The old way of that semi open world is 1: immersion breaking and 2: was done for technical reason. People like too hype up old A-life a lot but . . . . under the hood it was pretty basic. What i dont like about stalker 2 is how the lesser zone feels like theme park for game journos, so they can play for 5h and write some positive stuff that no one reads. I dont like how they throw bloodsucker after bloodsucker at you, and how there everywhere but thats a differen problem as NPCs just suck at winning duels against them. the lesser zone could have been a bit more chill, would have been better for the launch too as mutant health was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO overpowerd, to the point of the cave blood sucker being a near unwinnable fight.

[pliant trail]

Is it possible to play master difficulty without expedition mode?

[frigid eagle]

yes, turn it off in settings "manual saving"
it's a one time toggle if your save is master mode

[visual minnow]

Holy fuck, if this is the new engine then this BETTER be achievable in the game

[warped monolith]

doubt. but who knows

low expectations means surprises will mostly be pleasant

[visual minnow]

i honestly just want better performance

[warped monolith]

same

[visual minnow]

and for ray reconstruction to stop enabling itself

[silver orchid]

Maybe, but the problem of the map itself is by how BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGG is, not the completely open world map, just there regions that have a considerable part of em being useless

[odd fjord]

can u tell me which ones u find to be useless?

just to get some info

[silver orchid]

Zaton, it has more content than other regions but is too big (as always)

[humble moss]

Is the x18 lab guest worth it?

So far im anoyed by the invisible enemy throwing stuff and i cant even hit him

[humble moss]

I did it, thought it would give cool guns

[uneven plinth]

It’s just a poltergeist. Kill it

It annoyed the piss out of me too. I hate poltergeists

[humble moss]

Worst enemy for me

[humble moss]

Why?

I havent said anything bad

[humble moss]

I avoided it i just ran through didnt bother with it

I was so anoyed, make the poltergeist so sometimes he becomes visible, either im just blind i guess

[warped monolith]

wasn't you, was a scam spammer

they got dealt with.

[visual minnow]

Question: if i get multiple compass artifacts, does the physical protection stack?

[frigid eagle]

psi controller mission with poltergeist in the ipsf border took me over 10 deaths on master, had to redo teh whole place every time I died.
they're the hardest to deal with, both them and burer able to throw things through walls but at leaast burers only take a few headshots with good ammo. poltergeist run around so much and can spawn anomaly around you and they are hard to headshot

[frigid eagle]

I think stat caps at max bar but I'm not sure.
in master you can still get 2 tapped by baditos with full armor stat.

so I'm starting to wish they do overflow

[paper oasis]

you're in trouuuubleeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[tacit glacier]

@icy basin I call upon you to smite #╟📸stalker2™-media message

GAMMA screenshot in STALKER 2

[humble moss]

Wow the sky turned red above cooling towers, you would say an emission would happen, but nothing its gone😭 is this a bug?

[remote eagle]

nah its thermal anomaly inside of one

there is unic artefact there but u need to do timed PARKOUR

[silk nexus]

there's supposed to be a scripted emission that always happens there where you're forced to hold out and defend against zombies, might be bugged

[icy basin]

You say that like it's hard

[humble moss]

That one is ez compared to the tornado one in yanif

But once you know how to do the tornado one that one is ez to

[humble moss]

It aint, i been there but i realised it needs an emission to spawn

I think so far the yanif one was the toughest but fun

[remote eagle]

its easy your ass just can burn(literally)

[summer vapor]

I wish trees like this were in the game. This is a picture from a leaked build where the guy used a console command to make the forest thicker

The second picture is from the release version

[kindred violet]

You know some of these things are very much done for gameplay reasons right?

Not to mention performance

[summer vapor]

👌

[still void]

Would love to have more games that purposely build with dense forestation

Hunt (game sucks now) has some good patches of really dense trees that are great for ambushing but also easy to get cornered or stuck in

[frigid eagle]

I think beautiful light does a bit of that, not out yet though

[humble moss]

So burned forest don't have a safehouse right? How do i activate the altered artifact there then? Since you need an emission for that

[peak eagle]

bottom left of the burnt forest is a fogged area, you need to complete a puzzle there to get the Altered Pot

[humble moss]

But it needs an emission to spawn right

How gonn do that if there aint no safehouse in that area

🤔

[peak eagle]

no emissions required

[humble moss]

You kidding😭

I thought it needed it, coes the others did

[peak eagle]

all the Altered items are there in their unique anomalies to grab, never need an emission to spawn em

[humble moss]

Wait fr?

[peak eagle]

indeed

[humble moss]

So i waited for emission for tornado in yanask for nothing and also in cooling towers💀

Dang

[peak eagle]

yup

[humble moss]

Ty now i know atleast

[peak eagle]

you're also missing the Altered Flower and Ball in the lesser zone too

[humble moss]

I have those

Only one missing is the mist one

[peak eagle]

nah there's one more, Altered Bottle in Zaton

[humble moss]

Have that aswel

Weird water

[peak eagle]

then the pot is truly the last

[humble moss]

But there are also normal legendaries right?

Do they spawn from an emission or nah?

[peak eagle]

yes, but anomalies are RNG with the rarity, you can easily get a legendary straight off the bat in lesser zone

[humble moss]

Wait what

[warped monolith]

yea you could get a legendary from the acid anomaly in the prologue if you're lucky enough

[humble moss]

Jeesh

[peak eagle]

you don't need to go further north unlike the OG trilogy, just check any anomaly

[humble moss]

Also ones you done?

[peak eagle]

yes, emissions have a chance to respawn artifacts

any named anomaly cluster will do

[humble moss]

Then ima just keep farming one ez spot

[warped monolith]

being "a chance" is kinda lame imo because emissions sometimes take forever to happen and then you still have to deal with rng...

[humble moss]

Yeh

[peak eagle]

then you get unusually lucky and get 5 of the same legendary artifact

[warped monolith]

why would I want 5 copies of the same arti

[peak eagle]

Liquid Rock supremacy

[humble moss]

I hope that wont happen to me

That be rough asf

[warped monolith]

unless there's something that increases carry weight, then I'm all over that shi

me carrying 5 titanium thingis in anomaly for max carry weight and -5000% electrical resistance

[humble moss]

Yess me to or durability

I like my endurance to i love mixing stuff

[warped monolith]

normally I go for a mix of carry weight and stamina

[peak eagle]

Oh yeah, last thing, did you collect the limited edition energy drinks? if you use them with the Weird Pot you get permanent 0.5Kg increase with each drink

[warped monolith]

"10 things I wish I knew before playing Stalker 2"

[humble moss]

I didnt know that

[humble moss]

I watched that, but its for sure more then 10 things💀

[peak eagle]

kinda hard to know, when the weird pot just makes virtually everything you eat or drink radioactive

[humble moss]

Dang i be bright green outside😎

[warped monolith]

I kinda love its effect

makes you more resistant to hunger or thirst but when you do get hungry/thirsty, it'll fuck you over

unless you unequip it before having a meal ofc

[peak eagle]

Also the weird ball acting as a physical protection artifact, but getting hit makes it weigh more for a while

[warped monolith]

would be funny if the weird pot could not be unequipped if you're hungry/thirsty

so you'd have to remove it from your belt before the hunger/thirst meter gets in the yellow

[humble moss]

I have that one on

Wait is the ball legendary?

[peak eagle]

legendary artifacts and altered artifacts are separate tiers

[warped monolith]

artifacts with "weird" in the name are unique and don't follow the regular rarity system

[humble moss]

Aah

Ty guys❤️

[unique pendant]

if 5 fps was a picture

looks sick tho

[humble moss]

I just killed 8 bloodsuckers in a row, who spawned in zaton

Shit was not fun... but the ole sweet loot

[humble moss]

Zaton aint fun now the spawns are insane how am i gonn deal with packs of 5 plus Bloodsuckers💀

One or two times is fine but all the time

[pliant trail]

To not die dont get hit

[humble moss]

Thats always the plan for sure

Saiga d never lets me down

[twilit field]

Is there any stat that has an effect on weapon/ scope sway or is it static?

[icy basin]

Wow, they wisened up to "check my bio" getting them killed

[humble moss]

Im wondering that too😭

[visual minnow]

I wish there were more unique armor sets in Stalker 2

Like maybe getting the Arena Master’s Exo

Has higher than average resistance to mutant attacks

[kindred violet]

That would just be a little broken considering how early you can do the arena lol

[visual minnow]

Yeah obviously it would have to be balanced heavily

Maybe making it so you can only do each stage of the arena after certain segments of the main story quests

Just saying

Unique armor sets would be nice

Other than the pre order sets

Maybe a unique armor set for each region that you get as a reward after completing all the side quests in that region?

I was also really disappointed when I put in the effort to get the psi-protecting suit with ward, only to find out it was basically just a normal scientific suit that you can get in an earlier mission when you first meet spark

[frigid eagle]

isn't that how it works anyway

[visual minnow]

No, you can do all of em immediately

[frigid eagle]

maybe that was a bug but I remember on release I wasn't able to do the final fight

and I had to progress through the main quest a little

[visual minnow]

🤷‍♂️

Never had that

But maybe i was just far enough in the quest

[kindred violet]

Pretty sure you can just do it all off the bat

I did it first thing every time I went to rostock on any of my playthroughs

[frigid eagle]

yeah have to be a bug, release day was messy af

[kindred violet]

probably ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[visual minnow]

Point is, the armors are disappointing

[frigid eagle]

coolness aspect or perks/effects?

[kindred violet]

I mean, the thing with unique armours is that outside of different stats you literally do not notice a difference at all playing

[visual minnow]

Little to no uniques

[visual minnow]

I notice

[kindred violet]

Bar the arm models

Which are the same as the armour they're based on

Makes 0 actual difference visually

[visual minnow]

Maybe im just used to other RPGs where you can get unique armor

[kindred violet]

Which is how most people will notice

Well, stalker isn't really an RPG :D

[visual minnow]

Just saying it would be nice

[kindred violet]

Yeah I get it dw

It would be neat

[visual minnow]

You play the role of skif, thus its an RPG

[kindred violet]

[frigid eagle]

maybe expansion answers your wishes 👀

[visual minnow]

Doubt it somewhat

[kindred violet]

No offense, braindead take

[visual minnow]

Well maybe I AM braindead

What about it?

Are you brain-ist?

[frigid eagle]

RPG elements and RPG is not the same tbh

[kindred violet]

I urge you to call a doctor in that case

[kindred violet]

[visual minnow]

Also, you can make your own choices as skif, and make skif act how you want, thus it is an rpg

[kindred violet]

Just means it's a non linear story

[visual minnow]

Now i think you’re the braindead one

Lets agree to disagree

[kindred violet]

Well, not really non-linear really in this case

As it all leads back to the line eventually

[visual minnow]

There are multiple endings tho, so no, not the same line

[kindred violet]

The divergences are relatively small

[visual minnow]

One player will most likely make multiple different choices than another

Such as killing the guy who stole the shipment from slag heap

[kindred violet]

The point is that you will eventually go through the same story beats as someone with different choices

[visual minnow]

Minor choices will deviate heavily

[kindred violet]

You don't circumvent sircaa, duga assault, heart of chornobyl

They will converge

[visual minnow]

At certain points, yes

[kindred violet]

You just approach them from different angles

[visual minnow]

But they will eventually branch off into several different endings

Thus it is an rpg

[kindred violet]

that doesn't make an RPG tho

Oh my god

[visual minnow]

So what does?

In your opinion

I know this isn’t relevant and not a reliable source

However

Google AI says it is

[kindred violet]

Okay I'm not even going to engage with that when you pull put a shitty ass AI summary oml

[visual minnow]

Its all good

Imma just agree to disagree

I have class anyway

[visual minnow]

[icy basin]

An RPG is when a DM tells you you can't just charisma your way out of an execution

[visual minnow]

Which you can basically do exactly that

Try convincing the loners not to attack the noontider in zalissya

You can’t just convince them not to

In this case, game IS the DM

[tacit glacier]

Except if the game was really an rpg it would allow you to find a way to defuse the situation.

[icy basin]

It would, with an actual check

Like in Fallout

Or perhaps Disco Elysium :^)

[tacit glacier]

Realistically a body part from the poltergeist would be a pretty convincing evidence.
"Saturday and the others were attacked by a Poltergeist, the monolithian saved one of them."
Over.

[visual minnow]

🤷‍♂️

Its an RPG to me

Has questing, exploration, character progression, choices

[icy basin]

To me it's "Shadow of Chornobyl if it was a bit shinier and aliver"

[visual minnow]

“Aliver” is a stretch

A-life needs A LOT of work

And we need the engine update

Which I am desperate for

Cuz I hate using DLSS and FSR

[tacit glacier]

The character growth in s2 boils down to getting better gear and artefacts.
RPG character growth also involves leveling up, gaining new skills, etc.
Skiff is static, he can become an overpowered killing machine right after leaving zalissya.

[visual minnow]

Debatable

[tacit glacier]

With p2w stashes you can literally just go to burnt forest in the first hour and get the best suit of armor in the game

[visual minnow]

Yeah, you could

And that would be your own choice

[visual minnow]

So, since GAMMA has a leveling system, is it then an RPG?

[tacit glacier]

With that way of thinking I can call Half-Life 2 an RPG game because you can choose to loot a lambda stash or not

[visual minnow]

You ROLEPLAY as gordon freeman

So yes, to me it IS an RPG

[tacit glacier]

I don't have to hear all this, I'm a highly trained professional.

[visual minnow]

I’ve actually never played halflife 2

Even tho i own it

And black mesa

[tacit glacier]

I guess if your definition of RPG implies just roleplaying as the character of the game then there is no point debating.
Metro 2033, the most linear game out there, can be an RPG cause you can choose to go guns blazing or not.

[visual minnow]

But this is off topic

[visual minnow]

And you can do the same in Stalker 2

Thus it is an RPG

depending on your personal definition and perspective

[tacit glacier]

stalker 2 is probably the most offtopic section in the entire server

there is a mod in #1309526198833119303 that had people talk about everything but the stalker 2 mod
Baldur's Gate 3, Silksong, the whole stuff

[icy basin]

Oh I assure you, ShoC is a lot less alive than S2

[icy basin]

They got mad at me :]

[visual minnow]

WAIT

WAIT WAIT WAIT

https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/2039

BETTER FPS!?

WHAT

No Lumen!?

EVEN BETTER!

[tacit glacier]

How tf do you remove lumen

[kindred violet]

50 bucks on another vibe coded engine.ini mod

Would actually like to know how tf you'd remove lumen

[tacit glacier]

nah kotelok does shit

Oblivion Lost isn't an engine.ini it's a whole weather mod

Not compatible with DWO sadly

One of his mods adds a ton of trees to the game

[kindred violet]

Egg on my face then haha ^^

Very curious then how he went about it

[tacit glacier]

dayum

If you liked my work and want to say thank you, you can buy me a coffee :3 + you will have access to my HDR mod, with which the screenshots were taken  and my personal story of how I rode a bicycle to the real Chornobyl zone /ᐠ｡‸｡ᐟ\

mf rode a bike to the zone

How many stalker modders can say they visited chornobyl

[kindred violet]

That's pretty sick ngl

[sweet sequoia]

Hello, i have seen a gameplay of stalker 2, probably modded. I know this might be little controverse question to ask here but is it worth buying? Like i know it got better from start, but if its actually worth to go there over gamma

[drowsy umbra]

Stalker 2 is not Gamma

if you expect Gamma 2, no

stalker 2 is a story game

Gamma is a sandbox

people really need to stop expecting Gamma 2 from Stalker 2

[wheat folio]

Are most stalker 2 bugs fixed

[frigid eagle]

a lot of bug fixed, you will still notice a lot of broken stuff though

[wheat folio]

How about performance

[drowsy umbra]

depends on your Rig

[frigid eagle]

release day I was waay below 60fps, I am 60fps locked now no frame gen

[drowsy umbra]

performance is fine if your rig is good enough

[frigid eagle]

if you want completely playable performance, wait for the expansion this summer

[frigid eagle]

yeah, only problem for me is towns go 45fps

stutters are gone

[drowsy umbra]

yeah that is still an issue but I dont think this will ever change

[tacit glacier]

Towns might get better with new engine version since it'll have optimized character models.

[little knoll]

Hey where do I ask for help regarding stalker gamma? Here?

[kindred violet]

Yes, obviously in the chat that is specifically labeled as not gamma.
Certainly not the channel with support in the name

[little knoll]

Jeez who peed on your pillow mate I'm new here

Ma bad

[kindred violet]

Sorry, we just get plenty of people in this specific channel asking for stuff that this channel is not for

[tacit glacier]

This name was made specifically because new users kept asking about gamma here.
I think the easier way would be blocking access to this section for new users lmao

[kindred violet]

Probably yeah lmao

[sweet sequoia]

Yeah i mean thats why im asking. I dont know what to expect. Like i like more mechanics and immersion than gameplay in general. About gamma i like that you can find good stuff, and upgrade it, do quests to get to the better stuff etc.

[kindred violet]

Have you played the original trilogy?

It's like that

[sweet sequoia]

Hmm i see. Thanks

[copper nacelle]

hi

why i cant send my photo?

[autumn stag]

every time I play stalker 2 its like I can enjoy it until I fight my 3rd bloodsucker, mutants blow absolute dick in that game

[fallen iron]

_ _
@copper nacelle, remove your Newcomer role to:

• gain access to the restricted part of the server;
• ask for help/support with custom modlists (enabled/disabled mods in MO2);
• download additional mods for GAMMA;
• talk in the #╓☢stalker-chat (you'll need to be Rookie in order to post in this channel first)

▶️ Go to #⏩start-confirm to remove the role, but ONLY after you have successfully installed AND launched at least once the mod pack.

[warped monolith]

true

[left flax]

What the hell happened?

[kind glacier]

Stalker 2 still sucks?

[warped monolith]

define "sucks"

[frigid eagle]

it definitely sucked me in a lot

I love it, just still buggy

the new a life updates make some npcs go where they shouldn't be and die

[tacit glacier]

Based on experience so far, yeah no lumen

you can tell there is no lumen lighting because

everything is fucking dark when inside interiors

[golden hazel]

No Lumen?!?!??

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1306683555488862319/1351304623406714971/SKEEFA.gif

[tacit glacier]

Not ideal since without lumen there is no light inside buildings

[warped monolith]

if only skif had a flashlight

[tacit glacier]

Also when transitioning between indoors and outdoors you get flashbanged

[warped monolith]

eye adaptation is cancer, lumen or no lumen

[tacit glacier]

To make it look good you have to use 10% brightness which makes the flashlight work like it's fucking batteries are at the verge of death

[golden hazel]

https://tenor.com/view/vince-mcmahon-walk-entrance-gif-15930817

[kindred violet]

I wonder what it looks like on HDR

[frigid eagle]

wish stalker 2 got native lut mods insted of shaders

[warped monolith]

hopefully the engine update makes lumen better or replaces it entirely

https://tenor.com/He4P.gif

whenever that's happening

[golden hazel]

https://tenor.com/view/tanino-gimlet-hiruno-d'amour-horse-horse-of-wisdom-gif-8087630190955450711

Fuck lumen

All my homies hate lumen

[tacit glacier]

"replaces it entirely"
you fucking

WISH

If anything it'll crank it up

[frigid eagle]

I'll take hardware raytracing

[warped monolith]

I'll take a playable and enjoyable game

[humble moss]

It is though, dont know what you on😂

Just a bit more spawns

Give em some slack, they have a war going on with russia

I have respect for the devs while fighting the red coats they still work on the game🇺🇦❤️

[warped monolith]

[golden hazel]

[humble moss]

Im not clueless i know shit is going on, but i bet they will fix all the shit

Wanna see yall working on a game while also at war

[warped monolith]

yeah they'll fix it... after selling the DLC maybe

[humble moss]

Abit rough to complain on them since they have alot going on. People complain so fast and dont have patience

Give it some time

[warped monolith]

"patience"
game's been out for 1.5 years

[torpid relic]

GSC where smart enought to piss off as soon as the first tank rolled past the border and got stolen by some random farmer, but not everone could just leave ofc.

[humble moss]

So THEY ARE IN A WAR

Yall dont know how hard it is to work in that condition and it shows

[warped monolith]

they moved to czechia last year and if you're getting fucked in a war you don't go taking on ambitious multimillion dollar projects that you can't deliver

I'm not addressing that excuse any further

because it breaks the rules

[humble moss]

They delivered though, bugs are in every game, im very sure they will fix it

[torpid relic]

too be fair stalker 2 development started befor the war, like 1 week befor or what even i cant remeber

[warped monolith]

[humble moss]

I forgot im talking to clueless kids

[warped monolith]

Hope you continue enjoying the taste of a corporation's boot down your throat

[humble moss]

If you dont enjoy the game then what you doing here? Keep on complaining?

Ruining it for others?

Exactly

[golden hazel]

🍿

[warped monolith]

so... now we're gatekeeping

positive vibes only

[humble moss]

Well not exactly postive vibes if you keep on complaining💀

[warped monolith]

you're the one saying I shouldn't be here if I'm not positive

but then again who the fuck are you to tell me where I should be and what I should say,

[humble moss]

All right kid, have a good one you are right

[torpid relic]

i only half give them a pass for the war since its a war, it sucks. But i also know how quickly and profesionally moved there stuff out of country to keep developing them game. No one (other then maybe mircroslop) froced them to release the game on the day they did, one year later CLEARLY showed that the game needed atleast one more year in the oven.

[warped monolith]

that release was 100% microsoft's fault, yeah

[torpid relic]

i think so too, they were sick of the delays and are souless and want to see numbie go up no matter what

[warped monolith]

now all we can do is wait for the fixes they've been promising for over 6 months

but hey let's be positive about it

[torpid relic]

pls step on my dick and balls more master

[warped monolith]

I'm sure they'll fix everything eventually, I'm just worried about whether it'll happen while I still live and breathe