S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky Complete

[VulgarDisplay]

I may have to try these gamed again. I played a little bit of the first game and quit because it kept crashing.

 

[DigDog]

I may have to try these gamed again. I played a little bit of the first game and quit because it kept crashing.

you and everyone else who bought them within the first 2 months of release.
stalker is also legendary for how unplayable it was.

 

[Stringjam]

you and everyone else who bought them within the first 2 months of release.
stalker is also legendary for how unplayable it was.

Yeah - I didn't play ShoC until 2009, and I think I'm probably much better off for it.

I broke Clear Sky before the first day had come to an end. Shut it down, downloaded Complete, and was able to get through it for the most part. Still bugged out at the end even with Complete, but the end is really not even worth completing. When I play though it now, I just go through the hospital and such, and as soon as I get loaded into the CNPP I quit.

Really, all of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are like that to me - - I just enjoy playing them...not completing them.

 

[shortylickens]

ASSISTANCE!!


Didnt realize but apparently I own STALKER on both GOG and Steam.

Which one works better? Keep in mind I've no inclination to run with user mods just yet.

 

[Stringjam]

ASSISTANCE!!


Didnt realize but apparently I own STALKER on both GOG and Steam.

Which one works better? Keep in mind I've no inclination to run with user mods just yet.

I've never tried the GoG version, but if you play the Steam version, make sure Steam isn't running in "Compatibility Mode."

I almost pulled my hair out trying to figure out why Call of Pripyat wouldn't run worth a crap until I ran across this.

 

[IGemini]

I got through a good bit of Clear Sky...getting to be a real pain to finish it though. I hit some kind of save corruption issue in Lemansk.

...
Still though, there is no other game like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I don't even really compare it to Fallout, because FO is an RPG with some (very shoddy) FPS elements. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is pure FPS, with great shooting mechanics, but adds survival elements. I have to say that playing Shadow of Chernobyl for the first time pretty much blew away my preconceptions of what could be done in the FPS genre, and so now I've been somewhat disappointed with every other FPS I've played since.

If "Lost Alpha" is not released this year, I don't know what I'm going to do. :'(

Metro probably comes closest to STALKER, mostly because they shared a lot of the same inspiration and production team since 4A splintered from GSC.

Doesn't look like Lost Alpha will be an official release because of that leaked demo...they're doing it as an unofficial add-on toward the end of the month. Sucks that someone had to ruin it, but at least it'll still be released in some form.

 

[Stringjam]

Doesn't look like Lost Alpha will be an official release because of that leaked demo...they're doing it as an unofficial add-on toward the end of the month. Sucks that someone had to ruin it, but at least it'll still be released in some form.

Yeah, I saw that. Don't really understand why GSC would break away because an old beta test build was released.

We will be getting Lost Alpha this month, so I'm incredibly excited about that. Whether GSC calls it "official" or not - the content is the same....it's just too bad for the team that they couldn't commercialize it if that really was the case.

 

[DigDog]

soo.. addon? how are we to run this? i thought it was going to be a standalone with the SHOC engine running it.

 

[Stringjam]

soo.. addon? how are we to run this? i thought it was going to be a standalone with the SHOC engine running it.

It is a standalone. It's not an "addon" to the existing game, but an addition to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series - but Dezowave wanted this to be a GSC sanctioned addition to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise.

It is running off a completely different initial build than ShoC, and a different render path as well (DX10).

 

[werepossum]

I've hit an odd bug in Cordon. None of my quests register; when Waleran tells me to take care of the Major's buddies, I get no quest and no map marker. Same with other quests. I did not know what/where is the elevator so I found online where I was supposed to go, but there are no troops there and no one accompanies me. Before I went online I thought it must be the military at the base, so I took them out (twice) to no avail. Another little bug there - no way can I carry 21 extra assault rifles, so I took as many as I could carry about a hundred paces down the road, dropped them, then went back for more. About halfway back the base respawned and I was shot down in the middle of the road. And of course, I hadn't saved in an hour.

I think it might be because I came in through the upper swamp-Cordon connection. I went back around and ran through the first one thinking it would be certain death with the realistic weapons mod, but for whatever reason they didn't even fire on me with the mounted machinegun, just assault rifles. Unfortunately I see no easy way to fix buggy scripts, so it looks like I'm going to lose several hours of play and enter Cordon via the beaten zone to see if that fixes the problem. Otherwise it looks as though my game is over more quickly than the first attempted play through.

 

[futurefields]

Gosh, I tried playing vanilla SoC last night started from the beginining but its so dated... even compared to Fallout 3 it feels like an really old game.

 

[shortylickens]

Gosh, I tried playing vanilla SoC last night started from the beginining but its so dated... even compared to Fallout 3 it feels like an really old game.

The controls and menu system are very clunky. Fallout 3 was much better about making everything easy to access, and keeping you pointed in the right direction.
Skyrim took it a step further with the clairvoyance spell.

 

[futurefields]

And just like the sound effects in the firefights, and the "Game Over" or whatever it says when you die... so damn cheap lol

 

[werepossum]

Gosh, I tried playing vanilla SoC last night started from the beginining but its so dated... even compared to Fallout 3 it feels like an really old game.

Hmm, for me it's just the opposite. Are you playing with the Complete and Realistic Weapons mods?

 

[werepossum]

Well, looks like I'm done with Clear Sky. I went back twice to older saves. losing several hours each time, and came through the southern passage which under Complete is dead simple, machine gun range drastically cut. Nothing. No troops at the grain elevator, no stalkers follow me out of the base, no main story line quests register (although side line quests do register), nada, and Valerian keeps telling me I need to take out the major's pals. After several hours searching the three possible locations for the loot case, I gave up and started going through the Wishgranter. Presto, there's the loot. I added it, and it is the loot Sidorovich needs. However, attempting to talk to Sid with the loot in my possession is an instant CTD first time, every time. Almost six years after its release and I still cannot make it through more than a fraction of the content. No wonder GSC went under; in the annals of PC gaming bugginess, this sucker tramples the Fallout games and elbows aside Daikatana to take a widening lead.

I'm so aggravated I don't know when I'll ever come back to these games.

 

[Artorias]

I didn't want to create a new thread for this but I have a few questions regarding SOC(first game)


VSYNC
Does anyone know of a way to get VSYNC working in the first game. I looked and it seems the in game options are broken, and AMD CCC has no effect on this game. I'm running a new R9280x and getting 200-600 fps in game, I don't want unnecessary usage and that's a bit ridiculous for me at 60hz. Some people say the best way to go is D3DOverridder, but I'm not familiar with that, if you know of a VSYNC Mod please point me in the right direction.

Graphic MODS
I'm playing STALKER vanilla and I love the whole design, atmosphere and the graphics are very good. However I wouldn't mind some improvement in lighting or a little more eye candy, nothing too game changing. I looked up the complete mod but I feel it changes to much gameplay wise, even though the graphics overhaul looks very cool, is there a way to just get a few select graphic mods from that pack?

 

[Stringjam]

Graphic MODS
I'm playing STALKER vanilla and I love the whole design, atmosphere and the graphics are very good. However I wouldn't mind some improvement in lighting or a little more eye candy, nothing too game changing. I looked up the complete mod but I feel it changes to much gameplay wise, even though the graphics overhaul looks very cool, is there a way to just get a few select graphic mods from that pack?

Photorealistic Zone is a graphics only mod. I tried it a long time ago and I believe I remember it looking very nice.

 

[DigDog]

does stalker take multiple mods? i thought it didnt.

 

[Artorias]

I didn't want to create a new thread for this but I have a few questions regarding SOC(first game)


VSYNC
Does anyone know of a way to get VSYNC working in the first game. I looked and it seems the in game options are broken, and AMD CCC has no effect on this game. I'm running a new R9280x and getting 200-600 fps in game, I don't want unnecessary usage and that's a bit ridiculous for me at 60hz. Some people say the best way to go is D3DOverridder, but I'm not familiar with that, if you know of a VSYNC Mod please point me in the right direction.

If anyone is interested, I ultimately ended up installing MSI afterburner which has a frame limiter using Riva tuner.

Just to give an example of before and after:

Uncapped FPS: 60+ Celsius, about 95% GPU usage, over 60% fan speed. About 200-500 FPS

Capped 60 FPS: 50 Celsius and about 20% GPU usage. Around 40-45% fan speed.

I'm glad with the results, I don't want to needlessly have my GPU going max on an older game.

 

[dust]

does stalker take multiple mods? i thought it didnt.

Well, it does, but there may be compatibility issues, You could use this: http://smartmodmanager.codeplex.com/ to filter them out.

You could also attempt to do it manually but it's hard work and there's a good chance you'll have crashes.

I usually install just one mega-mod and alter the weight attributes only, provided they are not in the mod. It's not necessary to do so of course, but my OCD dictates that I collect every damn dog tail to secure the future of my stalker kids

 

[DigDog]

i know, right? for some reason every nice mod out there decided it was ok to let you carry around 80Kg of stuff without problem.

 

[Vic999]

Well, looks like I'm done with Clear Sky. I went back twice to older saves. losing several hours each time, and came through the southern passage which under Complete is dead simple, machine gun range drastically cut. Nothing. No troops at the grain elevator, no stalkers follow me out of the base, no main story line quests register (although side line quests do register), nada, and Valerian keeps telling me I need to take out the major's pals. After several hours searching the three possible locations for the loot case, I gave up and started going through the Wishgranter. Presto, there's the loot. I added it, and it is the loot Sidorovich needs. However, attempting to talk to Sid with the loot in my possession is an instant CTD first time, every time. Almost six years after its release and I still cannot make it through more than a fraction of the content. No wonder GSC went under; in the annals of PC gaming bugginess, this sucker tramples the Fallout games and elbows aside Daikatana to take a widening lead.

I'm so aggravated I don't know when I'll ever come back to these games.

I got through it a few years ago with the help of a script I found. It would crash entering Garbage. The script fixed that.
This time I've got your problem. I can't see that's it's fixable without reinstalling and starting again. Thinking about buying the Steam version.
I really like the game. Mine is a CD, but with the 1.5.10 patch applied.
I've tried starting a new game, but the elevator is absolutely empty of red dots on the PDA. All other enemies show red dots, including the garage.
Pretty sure they get generated at the start, but why didn't I have that problem last time?
Weird.
Not sure I'll pursue it. I remember the hassle of finding that obscure script last time.

 

[werepossum]

I got through it a few years ago with the help of a script I found. It would crash entering Garbage. The script fixed that.
This time I've got your problem. I can't see that's it's fixable without reinstalling and starting again. Thinking about buying the Steam version.
I really like the game. Mine is a CD, but with the 1.5.10 patch applied.
I've tried starting a new game, but the elevator is absolutely empty of red dots on the PDA. All other enemies show red dots, including the garage.
Pretty sure they get generated at the start, but why didn't I have that problem last time?
Weird.
Not sure I'll pursue it. I remember the hassle of finding that obscure script last time.

That got me thinking, so I went back and started a new game. I too had no military at the elevator/factory. However, I loaded one of my first save games from the swamp before I cleared the swamp and was told to go to the Cordon with the guide. If I go immediately once I'm told, everything plays as expected. I get past the machinegun (a non-event using Complete), meet Sid, head toward the embankment, find a military squad attacking the bus stop, help the stalkers kill the military, go to Walerian, talk to the major, go back to Walerian, and THEN the military squad spawns at the factory. If I do not go immediately to the Cordon, then the game is essentially over as neither the military squad nor the loot spawn. Evidently the scripting is just extremely sensitive to time.

Mine is the Steam version, but I doubt the scripting issue is different.

 

[Vic999]

That got me thinking, so I went back and started a new game. I too had no military at the elevator/factory. However, I loaded one of my first save games from the swamp before I cleared the swamp and was told to go to the Cordon with the guide. If I go immediately once I'm told, everything plays as expected. I get past the machinegun (a non-event using Complete), meet Sid, head toward the embankment, find a military squad attacking the bus stop, help the stalkers kill the military, go to Walerian, talk to the major, go back to Walerian, and THEN the military squad spawns at the factory. If I do not go immediately to the Cordon, then the game is essentially over as neither the military squad nor the loot spawn. Evidently the scripting is just extremely sensitive to time.

Mine is the Steam version, but I doubt the scripting issue is different.

No, but the Steam version loads much faster for me.
I bought the Steam version, and added Complete.
I did some stashes and fights in Swamp after I was told to get the guide and go to Cordon, so I don't think it's that.
And the dots weren't spawned in the elevator, so that's meaningless.
Here's how I think it works:
When you talk to Sid that triggers the bus stop fight. That also spawns the red dots.
You can't get around that on the Cordon map. I tried skirting wide on both sides but heard the gunfire, and the mission failed. You have to win that to progress.
I don't know if leaving to Swamp via the machine gun entrance would stop the script, because I didn't try that.
Talking to Valerian spawns the elevator/garage fights.
I was having trouble getting past the garage (killed, out of ammo) so I loaded the save from before talking to Valerian (but after the bus stop fight) and spent considerable time in Swamp to earn money and scope my AK.
Back to Cordon, then talked to Valerian and completed elevator/garage.
Everything's ok now.
So you have to watch those triggers. Pretty sure I heard the bus stop shooting the first time but stayed away and it failed, and I was ignoring on-screen messages.
The game should kill you when those key missions fail, so you'll know and won't waste hours of time.
As it is I'm saving more often, especially before talking to important characters.

 

[werepossum]

No, but the Steam version loads much faster for me.
I bought the Steam version, and added Complete.
I did some stashes and fights in Swamp after I was told to get the guide and go to Cordon, so I don't think it's that.
And the dots weren't spawned in the elevator, so that's meaningless.
Here's how I think it works:
When you talk to Sid that triggers the bus stop fight. That also spawns the red dots.
You can't get around that on the Cordon map. I tried skirting wide on both sides but heard the gunfire, and the mission failed. You have to win that to progress.
I don't know if leaving to Swamp via the machine gun entrance would stop the script, because I didn't try that.
Talking to Valerian spawns the elevator/garage fights.
I was having trouble getting past the garage (killed, out of ammo) so I loaded the save from before talking to Valerian (but after the bus stop fight) and spent considerable time in Swamp to earn money and scope my AK.
Back to Cordon, then talked to Valerian and completed elevator/garage.
Everything's ok now.
So you have to watch those triggers. Pretty sure I heard the bus stop shooting the first time but stayed away and it failed, and I was ignoring on-screen messages.
The game should kill you when those key missions fail, so you'll know and won't waste hours of time.
As it is I'm saving more often, especially before talking to important characters.

For me the military spawned at the elevator as soon as I entered the Cordon, but only if I went immediately when told to follow the guide to Cordon. I paralleled the road to avoid the radiation and almost missed the bus stop fight, it started so quickly.

And I totally agree about game-stopping scripting failure - I have 54 hours in the game per Steam and I'm maybe five hours max into the game. Now I have to go back into the Swamp to get the good detector, sniper rifle, and artifacts, plus some upgrades, and I'm worried what else may break if I don't go straight to Garbage.