s.t.a.l.k.e.r. game release!

b3anh3ad

im running this game on a pentium d 2.8GHz 1GB of ram and a 7800gtx and when i had it on 1280x1024 with everything right up and full dynamic lighting on it was really jerky, but i found that all i have to do is bring the texture quality down to half way(nothing else, including grass and sun shadows) and now the game runs great, couldnt be better, never had one crash since i bought it. dunno if this will help anyone else but its worth a try

madrab

madrab wrote:

just got the game there the other day & i still cant get into the zone, that fecking bandit camp/outpost that you have to get past before the Garbage, is ther another way round? is there a way to fool them? can i get other stalkers to help me? why is the feckin trader closed, i need to buy stuff!

anyone?

Dooom

Are you talking about the group of chaps under the bridge madrab? If you haven't shot at them yet, I believe you can walk right up to them with your weapon holstered and bribe them to let you through. Other than that, there's a tunnel over to the left of them, or there's a gap in the wire up on the train tracks on the right (follow the fence and you'll come across it).
Or you could always try taking them on, just make sure you have a big enough gun.

As for the trader door, that's a bug. I think the new patch fixes it, but if not apparently a grenade or two might fling it open. Have a gander around the official forums and I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of threads with solutions on the same thing.

/edit: Ah, unless you mean the group of chaps guarding the gate that leads to the short path to Garbage? You've to get a special mission off the trader (once you get the door open..) iirc, then walk up to the main guy guarding the gate and he'll let you through.
I think you can walk right up to him and he'll let you through even if you don't do the special/story mission but methinks that might screw up the game a little bit (ie. gate won't open again after you do the special/story mission).

Sand

I think he means the relatively challenging amount of bandits guarding the exit from the Cordon to the Garbage. Very north of Cordon.

Short answer, theres no way around that Im aware of. I found it to be rather tricky, but I was using a sawn off shotgun. Which was dull witted. Id reccomend doubling back and picking up an assault rifle of either a bandit or a soldier, with a good 100-200 rounds of ammo. Dont bother with a shotgun or pistol tbh. Enemies in the next few areas should drop plentiful ammo. Look out for soviet sniper sights as well. Should only upgrade when the TRS assault rifle becomes available. IMO anyway.

The good news is when you clear the checkpoint, it stays cleared - some Stalkers moved in during my game and held it open. Which was nice.

Dooom

Ah right sorry, I'm thinking of the very north of Garbage going into the Bar.
I remember the place now, was a bit annoying alright but grenades make it a nice bit easier.

madrab

Sand wrote:

I think he means the relatively challenging amount of bandits guarding the exit from the Cordon to the Garbage. Very north of Cordon.

Short answer, theres no way around that Im aware of. I found it to be rather tricky, but I was using a sawn off shotgun. Which was dull witted. Id reccomend doubling back and picking up an assault rifle of either a bandit or a soldier, with a good 100-200 rounds of ammo. Dont bother with a shotgun or pistol tbh. Enemies in the next few areas should drop plentiful ammo. Look out for soviet sniper sights as well. Should only upgrade when the TRS assault rifle becomes available. IMO anyway.

The good news is when you clear the checkpoint, it stays cleared - some Stalkers moved in during my game and held it open. Which was nice.

yeah thats the spot i have like 3 bullets in all my guns

Dooom

Back track and pick up some more ammo. The military outpost south of the starting camp usually has 3 chaps patrolling up and down, you can lure them up a bit and try and take them out (once you get some more ammo) and then you can rob their weapons.
Make sure you don't lure them into the starting camp though, otherwise you'll be dealing with a bunch of pìssed off Spetsnaz soldiers...

/edit: Or alternatively, once you have the trader door opened you could just buy some more ammo. That's probably the easiest way to avoid being shot quite a bit.

madrab

Dooom wrote:

Back track and pick up some more ammo. The military outpost south of the starting camp usually has 3 chaps patrolling up and down, you can lure them up a bit and try and take them out (once you get some more ammo) and then you can rob their weapons.
Make sure you don't lure them into the starting camp though, otherwise you'll be dealing with a bunch of pìssed off Spetsnaz soldiers...

/edit: Or alternatively, once you have the trader door opened you could just buy some more ammo. That's probably the easiest way to avoid being shot quite a bit.

managed to open the door, buy ammo & get through the camp

thanks for the help

Paddy@CIRL

There's a trader, lol ?

A patch & another NO-CD check and I've been flying through, really enjoying it now, running everything at full specs and it does look fantastic, not in the same way HL2 looks fantastic just in its own way, environments are amazing.

Just entered tunnels and some invisible mutant attacked me, paused, saved, exit to windows. He can't get me here.

mewso

One of the weaknesses is that it's easy to miss things. For example you can trade with the guy you meet at the very start. A trade button appears below him. Same with the barman later.

If you think those invisible guys are scary then wait til you have to go to the deserted lab to get the documents. One of the scariest places in a game methinks.

0ubliette

i just got to the part where you have to meet up with 'ze mole'. F*ck me! Its bloody difficult. Anytime i approached the compund before i could even get IN, id hear gunfire and then bam, mission failed mole is dead. I had to go around the compound, i chucked a grenade over the wall, and i think i actually downed mole myself with it, but didnt kill him, cause when i finally snuck in he was just wounded on the ground, but theres like 10 stalkers in the compound nd i just keep getting reamed. The aiming is so frustrating in this game. Im shooting at a stalker no mroe than 15 feet from me, hes dead in my iron sights, and the bullets just seem to pass through them :mad: I know theyre supposed to be double hard bastards but for gods sake...

5uspect

When I got to that area I followed yer man to the compound where Mole was trapped. But I couldn't get past the guards and everyone else was getting gunned down. So I scouted around the side and ended up at the lab compound where the documents are (basically I think mole shows you a tunnel into here plus some other info). So then I ended up scouting around that lab compound also (I like scouting!) and managed to sneak in the back unseen and grab the documents.

As Musician says its very easy to miss things but I think its great cos its gives it huge replay value!

Canis Lupus

Very impressed by this game so far. I actually love the guns. Not as daft as Brothers in Arms. Just perfect imo. Most fps = you running directly at the enemy whilst firing and just repeat process till enemies die. This game forces you to use cover and cos the AI is actually quite good at flanking you you're forced to move often as well. I really like it. It's such a nice change. First impressions of this game so far are all very positive.

BazMcG

Only played stalker briefly on Vista.. Hoping the crashs that occured where down to Vista and not the game, going to try it on XP soon. Looking hot tho.

yoyo

Have completed this game on Vista without a single crash Am now re playing it at Stalker difficulty level, great game, would highly recomend

Nick

Kenpo

Hi, anyone having problems loading a save point - just after you have been killed?

I have to close the game and re-run it after I die.

Canis Lupus

yoyo wrote:

Have completed this game on Vista without a single crash Am now re playing it at Stalker difficulty level, great game, would highly recomend

Nick

Isn't stalker the "normal" mode? What you do, play the game in easy first?

5uspect

Kenpo wrote:

Hi, anyone having problems loading a save point - just after you have been killed?

I have to close the game and re-run it after I die.

Did you patch it?
I had issues with quick save and quick load before I patched.
F6 = quick save
F7 = quick load

johnny_ultimate

The more I read about this the more Im tempted to buy. My PC is no powerhouse: AMD Athlon 64 X2 1990MHz, 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 7300 SE
1024mb memory. Anyone running successfully on similiar specs?

mewso

Someone asked for pics. Here are some links. Didn't want to p-off anyone with a slow connection:-

Stalker 1 - nice shot with different light sources.
Stalker 2 - shot of the factories in the bar area 1 (one of the few places you feel safe)
Stalker 3 - shot of the factories in the bar area 2
Stalker 4 - shot of the factories in the bar area 3
Stalker 5 - the sun is starting to set and it looks cool
Stalker 6 - more of the setting sun
Stalker 7 - and yet more
Stalker 8 - starting to darken as evening approaches
Stalker 9 - and it's time to go sleep it off
Stalker 10 - or visit the deserted lab and spend money on new underwear

5uspect

johnny_ultimate wrote:

The more I read about this the more Im tempted to buy. My PC is no powerhouse: AMD Athlon 64 X2 1990MHz, 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 7300 SE
1024mb memory. Anyone running successfully on similiar specs?

I'm running it on a 2.66 P4, ! gig or RAM and a 128MB 6600gt.
Runs well on directx8 (Static lights) with the occasional judder out in the open. Minimum 30 fps.
RAM is a major factor with it I've heard.

Thanks for those Musician. It does indeed look prettier.

yoyo

Isn't stalker the "normal" mode? What you do, play the game in easy first?

I played it in the one before that one, think it was called rookie or something to that effect, aint doing to bad re playing as stalker, minted game this is lol

Nick

Edit: My pc specs for those interested:
Intel Pentium D 805 2.66Ghz
2048mb DDR2 RAM
500Gig SATA (Games on) + a 300 gig PATA
XFX Geforce 7600GT Overclocked edition 256mb
19 Monitor ingame res 1280x1024
Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit

Runs perfectly the odd hitch here and there with this config, all settings high except View Distance and some lighting, fully playable though

Naikon

Your spec is similar to mine.
Are you running Full or object dynamic lighting or static(DX8)?

Dooom

Apologies if it's been mentioned before, but I suggest checking out the review on Gametrailers.
Never in my life have I heard someone complaining about AI being too good. Not to mention his complete lack of game playing ability (watch for the shots of his inventory), and his complaining about the alleged innaccuracy of weapons, despite 90% of the time he's not even aiming at his target.
Oh, and there's comparing it to WoW aswell, and BF1942.

It just makes my head hurt too much. Watch it.

BazMcG

Got STALKER working good! Got the patch and loaded her up to XP, really good game actually and graphics work well on my 6800GT. Only thing that is bugging me now is the whole guns business. Do the guns get better throughout the game? As mine are extremely sh**te at the minute, from point blank range you need to shoot the guy extremely acurately to the head and even that sometimes doesnt kill him? Although i did notice in my inventory it shows the guns' acuracy and they all are quite bad, i have the shotgun, silenced pistol, and two submachine guns. So do they get more acurate as i progress?

0ubliette

BazMcG wrote:

Got STALKER working good! Got the patch and loaded her up to XP, really good game actually and graphics work well on my 6800GT. Only thing that is bugging me now is the whole guns business. Do the guns get better throughout the game? As mine are extremely sh**te at the minute, from point blank range you need to shoot the guy extremely acurately to the head and even that sometimes doesnt kill him? Although i did notice in my inventory it shows the guns' acuracy and they all are quite bad, i have the shotgun, silenced pistol, and two submachine guns. So do they get more acurate as i progress?

i had to bump it down to rookie difficulty last night as on stalker difficulty i found it almsot impossible to take people down. I shot one stalker twice in the face at point blank range with the shotgun (and i mean point blank, i was waiting behind a door as he walked past, both barrels in his face) and he just turned around and killed me in one hit. The aiming is hard as f*ck but gets alot more forgiving on rookie. A bit more enjoyable too i daresay, as it cuts out alot of frustration.

SeantheMan

Best gun i got before i stopped playin was some form of an AK..which was pretty ok from about 10 yards

But tbh, i find it easier to hit ppl when you turn all your MGs onto single shot and just whack away while on single shot.
Infinitely more accurate

BazMcG

0ubliette wrote:

i had to bump it down to rookie difficulty last night as on stalker difficulty i found it almsot impossible to take people down. I shot one stalker twice in the face at point blank range with the shotgun (and i mean point blank, i was waiting behind a door as he walked past, both barrels in his face) and he just turned around and killed me in one hit. The aiming is hard as f*ck but gets alot more forgiving on rookie. A bit more enjoyable too i daresay, as it cuts out alot of frustration.

Yeah i've got myself killed in simalar situations. Ok i'll try knocking it down to Rookie, might aswell if it makes gameplay a bit more enjoyable. Cheers

kaimera

But tbh, i find it easier to hit ppl when you turn all your MGs onto single shot and just whack away while on single shot.

Ditto. For shame the armor piercing rounds dont do single shot iirc.

Haven't gotten far enough into it to get any really accurate weapons. Prolly should visit a trader sometime soon.

Canis Lupus

I find "Stalker" the perfect difficulty. I die fairly often in this game which is great and nicely frustrating. No more fighting with my eyes closed as I could do with most FPS's nowadays. The guns I just love more and more. You cannot spray and pray and in general you have to tap fire 2-3 shots, resteady the gun and repeat just like it should be. I like it that I can't snipe an enemy miles away on top of a mountain with just my handgun. I get regular headshots with the AK variants and the viper 5 (only major guns I have so far) but bear in mind that even if you have a head in your iron sights the gun is still inaccurate and you can still miss, even more so if it's not totally steady.

If I have one complaint I find that the energy bar doesn't seem to sit in my view and I don't seem to notice when I get shot so I can often find myself dead without realising I needed to use a bandage/medi kit.

Enemy AI is great. Blind firing to where you were last seen. Flanking and using numbers effectively. What a game so far.