Have they fixed Stalker?

[tigersty1e]

When I first read about this game, I heard that some things were broken, such as getting fps to drop down to single digit out of nowhere and sidequests being broken.

With all the patches, is this game still broken?

(don't give away any spoilers)

 

[HamburgerBoy]

No, not really. You'll still run into the occasional little bug (collision problems with enemies and other stuff) but nothing major.

 

[TheVrolok]

I played through it 2 weeks ago with the latest patch and didn't have any memorable problems.

 

[mundane]

I have the latest patch, and only suffered one crash so far (~12 hours). I haven't noticed FPS drops, and while some of the sidequests can be annoying (oh, I have a time limit not just for the quest but to trudge back across kms to claim my reward?) there's nothing obviously broken about them.

 

[CitizenSnips]

I was always rather annoyed by the fact that the retail unpatched version had no degrade for the armor. I had played through a considerable portion of Stalker, then the first patch came out, and oops, saved games didn't work on the new patched version! Oh, and now your armor degrades like a snowman melting in the sun.

I still really like the game, don't get me wrong, just irked me that the game shipped out so buggy. Can't wait for Clear Skies.

 

[Sylvanas]

Played through it recently with current patch 1.0005 and I didn't experience any problems.... I'm on Vista 64 aswell which it apparently had major problems with on release.

 

[SexyK]

I'm about 3/4 of the way through it an there are still some minor, minor quirks, but it's definitely worth playing. I'm really loving it, but I'm glad I am playing it now and not at first release.

 

[Oyeve]

i played months ago and never even completed the first mission. I should give it another go.

 

[lozina]

I tried playing it months ago but never got over the fact that bad guys respawn infinitely. That still happen? It's a shame because the game felt really great and immersive, I wanted to play it so bad but the infinite guys thing... comon this isn't Nintendo anymore

 

[SexyK]

There are some areas that become repopulated with hostiles if you leave the area and come back later. It's nothing like the COD series where you have an endless stream of bad guys to kill. In fact, I think its more realistic than most games. The Zone is a hostile place and obviously if you are in hostile territory, you can't expect to kill everything then never have to worry about more people entering that area again. The world is very dynamic and once you get past the first few missions, which are harder because you have shitty gear, the game is very well balanced IMO. Can't beat the atmosphere, nothing comes close.

 

[lozina]

Originally posted by: SexyK
There are some areas that become repopulated with hostiles if you leave the area and come back later. It's nothing like the COD series where you have an endless stream of bad guys to kill. In fact, I think its more realistic than most games. The Zone is a hostile place and obviously if you are in hostile territory, you can't expect to kill everything then never have to worry about more people entering that area again. The world is very dynamic and once you get past the first few missions, which are harder because you have shitty gear, the game is very well balanced IMO. Can't beat the atmosphere, nothing comes close.

Well, there are many examples but the example that pissed me off most was the second zone with the big train station- they call it the Bar or something? You walk out of the train station towards the zone with the research lab and there is this train tunnel with bad guys swarmed around it. Like 6 or 7. I kill them, loot their stuff and find I am overweight with loot. So I walk back the 100 feet into the train station where there was a box and I place my loot inside. I walk back the 100 feet to where I killed the badguys and... wtf- another 6 or 7 guys in the same spot. I repeated this and again the guys respawned. I uninstalled the game right then and there.

But yeah, the atmosphere was a big plus to the game

 

[mundane]

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: SexyK
There are some areas that become repopulated with hostiles if you leave the area and come back later. It's nothing like the COD series where you have an endless stream of bad guys to kill. In fact, I think its more realistic than most games. The Zone is a hostile place and obviously if you are in hostile territory, you can't expect to kill everything then never have to worry about more people entering that area again. The world is very dynamic and once you get past the first few missions, which are harder because you have shitty gear, the game is very well balanced IMO. Can't beat the atmosphere, nothing comes close.

Well, there are many examples but the example that pissed me off most was the second zone with the big train station- they call it the Bar or something? You walk out of the train station towards the zone with the research lab and there is this train tunnel with bad guys swarmed around it. Like 6 or 7. I kill them, loot their stuff and find I am overweight with loot. So I walk back the 100 feet into the train station where there was a box and I place my loot inside. I walk back the 100 feet to where I killed the badguys and... wtf- another 6 or 7 guys in the same spot. I repeated this and again the guys respawned. I uninstalled the game right then and there.

But yeah, the atmosphere was a big plus to the game

The Hanger. The second wave you saw were likely reinforcements from further back on the map, and not actual respawns, though. In my experience, it takes at least a significant portion of a 'game day' for enemies to respawn - although it can be a major annoyance if you have to frequently travel through bottle necks.

I quickly learned not to pick up every little trinket, and maximize the kg-ru value ratio.

 

[Martimus]

After the lastest patches, the SM2 HDR problems went away, and most of the bugs are gone too. I don't think you will have any issues with the latest patch.

I still can't get the family rifle sidequest to work. I keep going to the spot where the rifle is supposed to be, and there is nothing there. (This has happened in three games, maybe I am looking in the wrong place?)

 

[mundane]

It's underground, back of a shipping container - fairly hard to see, and it's actually a shotgun.

 

[SexyK]

Originally posted by: mundane
It's underground, back of a shipping container - fairly hard to see, and it's actually a shotgun.

Bingo. You have to go under the overpass and work your way past some electrical anomalies to find it. It's definitely there though.

 

[Dacalo]

I am playing on my second run with ABC Inferno mod. Pretty good so far, except all of sudden, my screen would flash white out of nowhere every 5 minutes or so and I am blinded for about 5 seconds. What the hell is with that? It's really inconvenient as I am shooting at hostiles and suddenly my screen goes white. I thought it was from the sun in the beginning but it has happened when it was raining too.

 

[imported_Imp]

Went through it a few weeks ago with latest patch. The HDR + Lightning artifacts were still there for me; I put up with it until near the end when I finally just went with static lighting without a single problem.

Also, the Freedom and Ecologists bug is still there. Makes things harder, but it won't break the game.

 

[CitizenSnips]

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: SexyK
There are some areas that become repopulated with hostiles if you leave the area and come back later. It's nothing like the COD series where you have an endless stream of bad guys to kill. In fact, I think its more realistic than most games. The Zone is a hostile place and obviously if you are in hostile territory, you can't expect to kill everything then never have to worry about more people entering that area again. The world is very dynamic and once you get past the first few missions, which are harder because you have shitty gear, the game is very well balanced IMO. Can't beat the atmosphere, nothing comes close.

Well, there are many examples but the example that pissed me off most was the second zone with the big train station- they call it the Bar or something? You walk out of the train station towards the zone with the research lab and there is this train tunnel with bad guys swarmed around it. Like 6 or 7. I kill them, loot their stuff and find I am overweight with loot. So I walk back the 100 feet into the train station where there was a box and I place my loot inside. I walk back the 100 feet to where I killed the badguys and... wtf- another 6 or 7 guys in the same spot. I repeated this and again the guys respawned. I uninstalled the game right then and there.

But yeah, the atmosphere was a big plus to the game

Outside the train station is one of the harder spots in the game, since you don't have really great equipment and there's an assload of bandits in that section. But it's not respawning, there's just quite a few of them to deal with in the area, but once they're dead, that's all there is to them.

I never encountered a point where enemies just respawned instantly, ever. The only time they'd come back in an area you already cleared was when you backtracked hours and hours later.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: CitizenSnips

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: SexyK
There are some areas that become repopulated with hostiles if you leave the area and come back later. It's nothing like the COD series where you have an endless stream of bad guys to kill. In fact, I think its more realistic than most games. The Zone is a hostile place and obviously if you are in hostile territory, you can't expect to kill everything then never have to worry about more people entering that area again. The world is very dynamic and once you get past the first few missions, which are harder because you have shitty gear, the game is very well balanced IMO. Can't beat the atmosphere, nothing comes close.

Well, there are many examples but the example that pissed me off most was the second zone with the big train station- they call it the Bar or something? You walk out of the train station towards the zone with the research lab and there is this train tunnel with bad guys swarmed around it. Like 6 or 7. I kill them, loot their stuff and find I am overweight with loot. So I walk back the 100 feet into the train station where there was a box and I place my loot inside. I walk back the 100 feet to where I killed the badguys and... wtf- another 6 or 7 guys in the same spot. I repeated this and again the guys respawned. I uninstalled the game right then and there.

But yeah, the atmosphere was a big plus to the game

Outside the train station is one of the harder spots in the game, since you don't have really great equipment and there's an assload of bandits in that section. But it's not respawning, there's just quite a few of them to deal with in the area, but once they're dead, that's all there is to them.

I never encountered a point where enemies just respawned instantly, ever. The only time they'd come back in an area you already cleared was when you backtracked hours and hours later.

Ya, if one sticks around long enough they'll see Bandits wander in from various areas, but they never just respawn. Same goes for other areas, such as the train Bridge. Kill the Soldiers guarding the Pass and in time more soldiers will either wander in from the southern Border or through the Garbage connection in the North to replace the dead. That's one of the great things in the game IMO, sure the Bandits or Soldiers return, but they do so in a logical manner, as if their Leaders have sent reinforcements in.

 

[Billyzeke]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
When I first read about this game, I heard that some things were broken, such as getting fps to drop down to single digit out of nowhere and sidequests being broken.

With all the patches, is this game still broken?

(don't give away any spoilers)

Maybe I just got lucky, but I never had any problems with Stalker. I bought it about a week after it was released and applied the first patch they put out, and played through 3 times without any glitches whatsoever. Awesome game.

 

[Sylvanas]

As soon as my new GFX cards arrive I think I'll play through it again with some more mods- Game of the year for me .

 

[CitizenSnips]

On my first playthrough my laptop crashed on some of the larger sections, so I had to rush through certain areas to just progress through before I got kicked to desktop. My new PC will be built soon and I can't wait to try Stalker again (on high detail settings too). Though I'm wondering who picked Duty/Freedom when given the option, and how that changes the game?

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: CitizenSnips
On my first playthrough my laptop crashed on some of the larger sections, so I had to rush through certain areas to just progress through before I got kicked to desktop. My new PC will be built soon and I can't wait to try Stalker again (on high detail settings too). Though I'm wondering who picked Duty/Freedom when given the option, and how that changes the game?

Doesn't change the game a lot, just makes certain factions hostile to you which can make following the story line more difficult.

 

[ja1484]

There are still a couple very minor, easily overlooked bugs.

If you really want STALKER done right, you need to use the correct mods. For everyone's convenience, I have compiled the mods you need in one convenient post, complete with descriptions and links to downloads. You can find that post here:

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In addition, many of you may want to look into the "Less Generic" re-skinning pack, which makes NPCs in the game, especially Bandits and Rookie stalkers, look much less alike and repeated. Find it here:

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Add those, and start a new game. You'll be amazed by how good this game actually would've been if they'd let it cook another 12 months or so.

 

[leeland]

marked for later...thanks Ja1484