STALKER Clear Sky

[duragezic]

I bought Clear Sky when it was released but didn't really play it until just recently. I got to Agropom and just about to head into the underground.

The original STALKER had a ton of mods, some of them quite good. I was looking for the same thing with Clear Sky but I am finding much less, and that basically every one of them hasn't been updated so they don't work since a couple of patch versions ago. I'm looking for minor weapon tweaks, additional weapons (or allowing the trader to have everything), modified nighttime (it is way too damn dark), AI tweaks like reducing the grenade throwing, etc.

Does anyone use any good Clear Sky mods that actually work on the latest patch?

I am about on my 4th day in-game, but I am still using the PB1s and the Viper 5. Both are upgraded and seem a lot better than anything else available. But when I went to Agoropom, and the Bandits robbed me to get through there, I was like "eff that" and took them out. So then the whole depot of Bandits were pissed, and although I killed them all without dieing, it was very long and hard to do. Basically, I'm finding my fully upgraded Viper 5 is not accurate and very weak. So what should I look for? And in spite of the PB1s being an early pistol, I can't find anything better.

Also, anyone know where to find a SEVA suit? I read the underground has fire anomalies and SEVA suit is needed.

Also, does anyone know what some of the weapon properties do? Like you can upgrade "Flatness" but it doesn't do anything to the four stats given.

edit: I read that if you join the Loners, there is a mission in Garbage to take out the depot and you get a SEVA suit and the Bubble artifact. I may try that. I haven't joined a faction yet. I hate that the Bandits are at all the exits to rob you, but if you shoot them they go hostile and the trader and tech in the depot are gone. I don't like bandits but I have good relations with them because I like having the trader available there. But I can't be losing my money everytime I go through there!

 

[wrangler]

http://www.gsc-game.com/index...._game_type=xr2&lang=en

Got a section dedicated to Clear Sky mod downloads and a section dedicated to discussing them with access to the mod authors in a lot of cases.

Don't mean to point someone away from AT but this really is THE place to find out about Clear Sky mods.

 

[dust]

Total Faction War, CS Enhanced, Faction Commander are just some of them and they are good. Try Smart Mod Manager to avoid headaches with the various versions, it should work in most cases. If you still have issues you can edit the system.ltx file from the gamedata folder, find the current server version line and change the variable to a higher figure. 1.504 patch needs 5, 1.505 - 6, 1.507-1.508 - 7.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Go to http://stalker.filefront.com/ and go to town.

 

[duragezic]

Yeah I've been through the GSC forums and got a few mods. I've been on Filefront Stalker Files too but a lot of them there are old and reported to not work with the newest patches.

But as Drivenbyvoltage said, sometimes it is simple to fix. Also one thing I realized is that a mod can be broken by a new patch simply if the patch modifies a .ltx file that the mod does, then by using the mod on a newer patch, you are putting an older .ltx file in the game.

I'll have to check out Smart Mod Manager.

But what I also realized is that there really isn't the kind of mods for Clear Sky as SoC. It's been out less than a year but still, most of the mods came out within a month or two of the game, then there's been nothing.

So what I think I might do is get a diff tool, unpack the game's files, then go to town doing my own simple mods, combining mods, and updating mods to the patch versions. But I think I'd need the .ltx files unpacked from each version of the game in order to know if a mod will work or not. Maybe I'll just start with mods that work on 1.507 and newer or so.

BTW, 1.509 came out a few days ago. I haven't used it yet because it has only a few fixes (mostly MP) and I don't want to possibly break the mods I am using.

 

[dust]

It doesn't even fix the third flash drive in Cordon. It's funny, all the people on the GSC forum are screaming about this and yet the developer seems to "forget" it for the eighth time in a row. They did add an AK 74 in the Swamps, as a reward, but you have roughly 4 mags of ammo for it at the Swamps. Kinda useless...

 

[wrangler]

Definately no total conversion mods like there are for SOC.

Mostly just what I call "tweak mods".

The most interesting one to me is SRP. Claims to fix every problem with the game including the third Cordon flash drive. Devs can't even claim that.

I'm waiting on a second 4890 and for Steam to release the 1.509 and I'm gonna give it another go. Wanna play it with everything turned up as high as I can. I never really had problems with it but I heard not to get involved in the faction wars pretty early so that probably saved me a lot of headaches.

 

[AdamK47]

I've been playing through the game recently. The game runs great in DX10 at 1920x1080 with everything maxed except for sun rays. Sun rays on the high setting when the game is between 6AM and 8AM bog my system down for some strange reason. If I set it to low I get my 60 FPS back (vsync on). I can't tell the difference between low and high setting anyway.

 

[duragezic]

Yeah that's the other thing; this game is an absolute hog. Much worse than Crysis. I don't think I could smoothly run the enhanced DX9 mode even, which means I can't get SSAO and most of the other goodies. My target resolution is 1680x1050. I'm not sure why because it doesn't look very good. I've seen screenshots and it can look amazing though.

I do have a legit copy of Vista. Is this one game where DX10 is actually worth it? I haven't yet bothered with it because other games have a slight DX10 benefit with too much performance loss where I couldn't even use the added features.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I'd strongly recommend checking out the Tweak Guide for the game. Goes over the different settings and how to adjust them for maximum performance and minimal image quality loss.

For the record, I'm able to run the game in DX10 with acceptable (if not outstanding) framerates on a 4870 1GB at 1680x1050. Looks like you have the same card, though your Opteron is going to be slower than my PII X3 720 and I also have 6 GB of RAM. Still, you should be able to get it running fairly well since the graphics card is definitely the most important factor. Certain features like sun rays and draw distance can be turned down pretty low (without turning them off) and you'll see a performance improvement with a minimal quality loss. All else fails, you can just try maxing it out in DX9 mode and it'll probably run pretty well. Depends on how picky you are about things like antialiasing (turning it low/off really helps) and framerates.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: duragezic
Yeah that's the other thing; this game is an absolute hog. Much worse than Crysis. I don't think I could smoothly run the enhanced DX9 mode even, which means I can't get SSAO and most of the other goodies. My target resolution is 1680x1050. I'm not sure why because it doesn't look very good. I've seen screenshots and it can look amazing though.

I do have a legit copy of Vista. Is this one game where DX10 is actually worth it? I haven't yet bothered with it because other games have a slight DX10 benefit with too much performance loss where I couldn't even use the added features.

I have found the opposite, the game runs extremely well. Granted, I have a 4870X2 but even when I had 3850s in Crossfire the game ran acceptably 30+ fps medium - on anything like a 4870 it'll be silky smooth especially on DX10.1 which I have found markedly improves fps (and probably image quality). Makesure you run it with latest patches and latest drivers.

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: wrangler
Definately no total conversion mods like there are for SOC.

Mostly just what I call "tweak mods".

The most interesting one to me is SRP. Claims to fix every problem with the game including the third Cordon flash drive. Devs can't even claim that.

I'm waiting on a second 4890 and for Steam to release the 1.509 and I'm gonna give it another go. Wanna play it with everything turned up as high as I can. I never really had problems with it but I heard not to get involved in the faction wars pretty early so that probably saved me a lot of headaches.

Yes, there are total conversions for Clear Sky. I played through the whole of Clear Sky using an awesome realism mod but I've since formatted and don't remember the name. Userman would know. You'll have to catch him on other forums.

 

[Zenoth]

There's actually quite a good number of mods for Clear Sky, but certainly not as much as you can find for Shadow of Chernobyl. And just like Shadow of Chernobyl the Russian modding community is doing miracles with Clear Sky, and sadly most of the great Russian mods are not being translated in English or any other languages, some of them are, yes, but they're the ones that don't have lots of custom text. The general consensus for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. modding is still to this day that Shadow of Chernobyl is the best.

From what I've read one of the main reasons why is because there's no Faction Wars to deal with when doing mods for it, whilst in Clear Sky that game-play mechanic is so deeply integrated (to a hard-coded point) that doing any "complex" mods for Clear Sky will almost always end up being directly on a collision course with the scripted Faction Wars events, and so complex mods that require replacement of events and NPC locations and creature spawn points will have to be worked on a dozen times to ensure that it basically either fits in the Faction Wars itself or just avoids it, but if it avoids it then there's not much terrain left for the mod's effects to apply on, mostly deserted terrain on which nothing happens (and there's much more of that in Clear Sky than many might think or notice at first glance).

There's still however a good number of smaller-scale mods for Clear Sky, I myself know of a few, but just browsing the web and searching for "Clear Sky Mods" on Google is enough to see that there's enough mods variety. To name a few I've tried (that I remember of at least) are: Clear Sky Redux / CSEnhanced / Basix Monstrosity / CoM (stands for "Compilations of Modifications") / Ballistics Mod / S.H.A.R.P.E.R.'s various textures and graphics packs / ... and a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting about. As far as I know there's nothing as complex or as efficient and balanced in changing game-play elements for Clear Sky as you could find for Shadow of Chernobyl, such as Priboi Story, AMK Mod, Inferno and Oblivion Lost. I hope that the next Stalker, Call of Prypiat, will be the best of both worlds (vanilla game-play and the best for the modding scene as well).

 

[Spike]

I ended up with just a weight tweak (to carry more) and a trader mod that gave each major trader every weapon, and those where both after finishing it the first time. I'll watch this thread to see if anyone has a total conversion they can reccomend. I'm coming to the end of my second time playing and I think this will be it unless I can get an almost new experience.

Even without something new I think Clear Sky will go down as one of my favorite PC games of all time, even with all the initial bugs.

 

[wrangler]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: wrangler
Definately no total conversion mods like there are for SOC.

Mostly just what I call "tweak mods".

The most interesting one to me is SRP. Claims to fix every problem with the game including the third Cordon flash drive. Devs can't even claim that.

I'm waiting on a second 4890 and for Steam to release the 1.509 and I'm gonna give it another go. Wanna play it with everything turned up as high as I can. I never really had problems with it but I heard not to get involved in the faction wars pretty early so that probably saved me a lot of headaches.

Yes, there are total conversions for Clear Sky. I played through the whole of Clear Sky using an awesome realism mod but I've since formatted and don't remember the name. Userman would know. You'll have to catch him on other forums.

By total conversion I meant something like Priboi Story.

 

[cbn]

Has anyone here played the multi-player version of Stalker: Clear Sky? If so how would you rate it? Compared to BF2 or BF2142?

Also how does the sequel compare to the original Stalker game? I never played either one, but I heard the sequel has more RPG type elements in it?

 

[cbn]

Just wondering does STEAM support these mods being talked about?

Is there a way to download mods on STEAM?