A quick question about STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

[Skeleon]

I recently bought Stalker SoC and am currently in the Army Warehouse area.
Now, I wanted to work for Freedom but apparantly one of the key guys is dead (a soldier named Max that I'm supposed to talk to for a quest from Lushak; he's just laying there, next to a campfire; I didn't kill him). Is there a way to revive Max? Or to do the quest without him? Is there still a way for me to join Freedom later on or do I have to work for Duty/remain a loner?
In case you're interested, the quest I'm talking about is hunting down the Duty guys in the farmhouse. I even killed them by myself but the quest already counts as failed. Even after killing all of the Duty dudes, I could not talk to Lushak about it.
Can anybody help me?

 

[Skeleon]

It's weird because a lot of people randomly died, most of them nameless stalkers, though.
I use the newest version, 1.0006 or something.

Yeah, I reloaded from the oldest savegame I still had, too, but in all of my savegames he's already dead unfortunately. I noticed that some people are replaced after a while. However, I only noticed this with "nameless" people. Can people like Max respawn, too? Should I simply wait until he does before accepting the quest from Lushak (I still have a savegame from before that)?

 

[Mortons4ck]

I would try to downgrade to 1.0005 if you can.

1.0006 patch was a multi-player patch that wound up breaking many things in the single player game. Its possible important questgiving NPCs croaking at random was part of it.

Yeah, I reloaded from the oldest savegame I still had, too, but in all of my savegames he's already dead unfortunately. I noticed that some people are replaced after a while.

Was the oldest save game you had before you set foot in the warehouse district?

 

[Skeleon]

I would try to downgrade to 1.0005 if you can.

1.0006 patch was a multi-player patch that wound up breaking many things in the single player game. Its possible important questgiving NPCs croaking at random was part of it.

Oh crud.
But I doubt I can do that without destroying my existing savegames, can I?
I think I'd rather play as Duty/Loner than start all over again.

Was the oldest save game you had before you entered in the warehouse district?

Well, I had already visited the district beforehand. My oldest savegame was from the Bar area shortly before entering the district again. I had not noticed Max being dead when I had last visited the warehouse district, so I thought "maybe he died when I entered last time". But reloading didn't help, so he either did die on an earlier visit or he always dies when I enter the district now.

 

[Mortons4ck]

I would try to downgrade to 1.0005 if you can.

1.0006 patch was a multi-player patch that wound up breaking many things in the single player game. Its possible important questgiving NPCs croaking at random was part of it.

Oh crud.
But I doubt I can do that without destroying my existing savegames, can I?
I think I'd rather play as Duty/Loner than start all over again.

Probably not. But, to be honest, I wouldn't recommend joining freedom or duty on your first play-through (assuming this is your first play-through). Joining freedom just means you'll be expending precious ammo just to fight your way through the bar, as the Duty faction will have you marked as Kill On Site.

edit: As for Max being dead, usually the areas you enter start off same, but the scripts and AI start once you enter an area. So for Max to have died, you would have had entered the area at least once.

 

[Skeleon]

But, to be honest, I wouldn't recommend joining freedom or duty on your first play-through (assuming this is your first play-through). Joining freedom just means you'll be expending precious ammo just to fight your way through the bar, as the Duty faction will have you marked down as Kill On Site.

So it's not necessary to join either of those?
I can remain a Loner and stay neutral for the rest of the game?
Would I miss anything important if I do so?

 

[Mortons4ck]

So it's not necessary to join either of those?
I can remain a Loner and stay neutral for the rest of the game?
Would I miss anything important if I do so?

You wouldn't miss anything important to the Main story line, no. They are completely optional sidequests.

 

[Skeleon]

You wouldn't miss anything important to the Main story line, no.

Huh, okay. Loner it is then, I guess.
If I ever replay this game I'll be sure not to install 1.0006 again, though.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Mortons4ck]

Give the Stalker: Complete 2009 Mod if you do. It's nice to repair items in game

 

[TheThanatos]

Hmmm I think in one of my games I experienced a similar problem. There's not any way to get around a dead quest NPC like that as far as I know. And yes the game can be completed without joining any faction. Joining a faction just give's you access to the faction's armor, and the SEVA suit is better then that. Also joining freedom as Morton said ends up with you getting the crap shot out of you every time you pass through the bar district.
On another note got Call of Pripyat the other day really enjoying it so far, though I'm still waiting for an awesome underground section like the labs.
The stalker series have to be one of my favorite fps games Ive ever played.

 

[Skeleon]

Ah, I already got a SEVA suit from somewhere (I think I found it in the Wild Territory). I should be okay then.

 

[Skeleon]

I played through the game. Quite awesome. And it did work without joining any faction, so thanks.

Give the Stalker: Complete 2009 Mod if you do. It's nice to repair items in game

Now, I actually took a look at this mod and installed it. Apparantly the hardware requirements are much higher; however, I haven't noticed that yet because I don't really want to play it like this (I get graphical glitches). It seems that I'm not the only one who experiences these problems, as this discussion (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23715249-Stalker-Complete-1432) is currently going on. I'll check back on the mod some time, maybe they'll have found a fix by then.

 

[Mortons4ck]

I played through the game. Quite awesome. And it did work without joining any faction, so thanks.

Give the Stalker: Complete 2009 Mod if you do. It's nice to repair items in game

Now, I actually took a look at this mod and installed it. Apparantly the hardware requirements are much higher; however, I haven't noticed that yet because I don't really want to play it like this (I get graphical glitches). It seems that I'm not the only one who experiences these problems, as this discussion (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23715249-Stalker-Complete-1432) is currently going on. I'll check back on the mod some time, maybe they'll have found a fix by then.

I think there was a work around that involved deleting the shaders folder in the stalker directory installing the Float 32 Mod [http://www.dfgrom.com/forums/downloads/shadow-chernobyl/14/float32-v2-0-10/]. It worked for me and although the I didn't notice a graphical difference, it seemed to run smoother and had all the other features.


edit: I know the website seems sketchy, but I've downloaded float32 from there from there before and have had no problems. Also, I got the address from the STALKER Complete 2009 blog http://artistpavel.blogspot.com/2009/04/stalker-complete-2009.html. McAfee also vouches for it. [http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/dfgrom.com/summary/]

 

[Skeleon]

I think there was a work around that involved deleting the shaders folder in the stalker directory installing the Float 32 Mod [http://www.dfgrom.com/forums/downloads/shadow-chernobyl/14/float32-v2-0-10/]. It worked for me and although the I didn't notice a graphical difference, it seemed to run smoother and had all the other features.

So... I first install Stalker, I then install 1.0005, then Complete Mod, then I delete the Shader-folder and then I install Float? I'll try it.

 

[Skeleon]

*snip*

Heyyy, I don't have the glitches anymore! Thanks, dude! This looks awesome. Guess I'll have to play through it again. :-D
I think I'll really work for Freedom this time, though.