S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games and mods for them

[DoPo]

So, I've not actually played any game of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series but I am really interested in trying them out. I plan on starting with Shadow of Chernobyl and them moving onto Call of Pripyat, as that those are the most common recommendations I've seen. Although some do recommend Clear Sky with mods.

Anyway, that was the intro - pretty much all the recommendations I've seen do advise to get a mod. However, there seem to be a lot of mods and some aren't developed any more, some are. One place online I saw did say that STALKER Complete should not be recommended to new players any more as it has been surpassed by other mods.

So, this is all to say that the mod situation is confusing. Especially since I can't judge what the changes they introduce mean, as I don't know the game.

So, I'd like to hear your recommendations for each game.

One thing I can say is that I've seen gameplay of the L.U.R.K. mod which I did like - dynamic weather, for example, and some polished textures. However, it seems to be tailored for some people who do know the game. I'm fine with the difficulty added, I just don't want to waste time on stuff I am somewhat expected to be familiar with - for example, the reduced weight limit means I'll have to choose equipment to carry carefully, but I don't really know what's worth it until I play for a while. If some features could be changed/tweaked/disabled, I'd gladly go with L.U.R.K., though.

 

[TallestGargoyle]

I've played around in LURK and its one of my favourite mods for it. The other one I might suggest is Lost Alpha. This is more akin to a fan remake than a conversion mod, as many of the maps are changed, mainly to be larger and more varied, and the story is played around with a bit.

Probably best to play that one after beating the base game, or the base game with LURK, 2009 or Oblivion Lost. All of those mods add a lot, including weapons, areas, NPCs and NPC features, AI, lighting engines, weapons, but they're closer to the original game than Lost Alpha from my initial experience.

 

[Totenkreuz]

I didn't use a mod for any STALKER game other than the "Misery" mod for Call of Pripyat and I remember loving it.
But I remember it being hard as nails aswell so you might want to learn how the game itself plays out before trying it. The gameplay for all 3 of the STALKER titles are somewhat the same, so when you finally get to the third one you're probably already a seasoned veteran and might aswell try the misery mod.

Have 'fun' and cheers to radiation.

 

[The Madman]

It's been a while since I've replayed the STALKER series so I'm pretty rusty on the mods front, but here's a pretty snappy website that contains some helpful info for newcomers: LINK

I understand they're considered pretty outdated by more modern mod standards and that some people dislike some of the changed made by them, but the Complete mods are still a solid foundation if you don't want to have to tinker with modding anymore than necessary but still want a more updated experience over the base game. LURK does seem like the more updated equivalent but not having tried it myself I can't speak for its quality. Still if you want minimum fuss Complete is still an option.

My favourite of the STALKER games would be Call of Pripyat, but both it and Shadow of Chernobyl are fantastic experience and if you like sort of slow, ambient, challenging shooters you're in for a treat.

Incidentally I do NOT recommend the Misery mod. I tried it and didn't like it myself, it's singular focus on difficulty made the world lose some of its flavour. Good if you've already played the game and want something harder, but otherwise I disliked a lot of the changes it made.

 

[ThatOtherGirl]

It's been a while since I played STALKER of any sort so this might be a bit outdated, but I would start with the STALKER Complete mods. They smooth out a lot of bugs without changing much from the base game. It is basically the best way to get close to a vanilla experience sans crashing to the desktop every 30 minutes, or at least it was. If that is not the case anymore you want whatever mod can get you as close to a bug free vanilla experience as possible.

After that there are all sorts of mods, just pick one and go with it. Lurk and Misery are good, but they are also completely unfair so expect that.

It doesn't really matter which order you play the games in, but Clear Sky is easily the weakest. COP is my favorite but others like SOC more.

 

[Poetic Nova]

It's been a while since I played STALKER of any sort so this might be a bit outdated, but I would start with the STALKER Complete mods. They smooth out a lot of bugs without changing much from the base game. It is basically the best way to get close to a vanilla experience sans crashing to the desktop every 30 minutes, or at least it was. If that is not the case anymore you want whatever mod can get you as close to a bug free vanilla experience as possible.

The Reclamation projects for each game are pretty much the only mods I would personally recommend, since I like my games as vanilla as possible.

Though, I vaguely remember a mod that improves the shaders aswell, making them alot less resource heavy compared to the vanilla ones. But I'll be damned if I can fnd them back.

It doesn't really matter which order you play the games in, but Clear Sky is easily the weakest. COP is my favorite but others like SOC more.

*Cue horrible flashbacks to getting Clear Skies to even run*

I'm personally in the camp of the first game is the best, actually ended up being one of my all time favorite games.
COP, I consider a great game aswell, but sadly lack hardware to run it, unless I want to run into horrible lag in friendly camps.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

First game really throws you for a loop. While I don't think it's hard, it's unforgiving of stupidity. I know a lot of games can make that claim but there will always be the chance that if you don't know the movement patterns of factions/mutant over maps, you'll find yourself between a rock and a hard place. Hell, the very first 'mission' has you joining a squad to take down 8 bandits in a camp, and you'll realize quite quickly that a shotgun burst from them can end you. The game pulls no punches. Until you get a rifle, every pistol feels woefully inaccurate ... and anything but head shots is at all that useful. Even when you get that rifle, some rifles useful for long distance kills you'll noticeably have to correct for range ... meaning taking enemies out from distance can be frustrating with the first tier sniper rifles you're likely to get. Movement is punishingly loud, there's no real 'stealth kill' so much as quietly getting into position, kill one or two guys, POSSIBLY get to 'hide' somewhere, and then set up an ambush... so the stress is always there.

You have encumbrance rules in the game that you'll be eternally reminded of. Shotguns, while useful for mutants as they tend to engage up close, begin to annoy you for that reason. That SPAS and all those shells, will chew up a lot of space and typically useless against most human enemies. So a lot of the time you're tempted to dump in favour of that Dragunov/Tunder pairing, and carrying a wealth of bullets and med kits.

They're games of tough choices. Just what door do you take to attack that position crawling with enemies? Do I want to turn this into a long distance shooting engagement that drags on for AGES, or do I sneak up (hopefully) to destroy and maneuver about the enemy efficiently giving them no place to hide? Very little is scripted, and whether your patience or the quicksave/load buttons wear out first will likely determine whether you'll pick up the games again for another whirl. You will spend a lot of time looking at buildings in a distance, knowing you have to get in there and dreading where to make your approach.

Minor RPG elements with artifacts, which will make or break you in many engagements with the enemies. Sometimes it pays to have that rarely used artefact on your person. Even if it inflicts radiation damage you can't mitigate when equipping them, if it means decreasing bleeding injuries for instance. As bleeding will kill you quicker than a bit of radiation sickness. But you'll need to deal wth either eventually.

I suggest the first game, ignore Clear Sky unless you *must* learn the background lore (you don't), and then Call of Pripyat. Clear Sky is a prequel, and CoP is a proper sequel that finishes the tale. So CS is ignorable.

Oblivion mod is pretty good ... but Clear Sky will likely fuck with the skills you build up in SoC when going onto CoP. And CoP is pretty darn mean. I really don't thinmk you should play it until after you complete CoP .... it's a prequel, so no point playing it in between. And the change to the mechanics was... unwelcome.

 

[Jack Action]

SoC is easiest on the hardest difficulty. Lower ones make your bullets randomly vanish into thin air. And the Reclamation Project removes an unbelievable amount of bugs and minor annoyances that add up to "fuck this" while playing vanilla.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

The complete Mod is best. Stalker SoC i consider one of the greatest FPS of all time and the most innovative game when it was released. shame Stalker 2 cancelled but its now possible that since GSC is back. please give us Stalker 2

 

[Bombiz]

So, I've not actually played any game of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series but I am really interested in trying them out. I plan on starting with Shadow of Chernobyl and them moving onto Call of Pripyat, as that those are the most common recommendations I've seen. Although some do recommend Clear Sky with mods.

Anyway, that was the intro - pretty much all the recommendations I've seen do advise to get a mod. However, there seem to be a lot of mods and some aren't developed any more, some are. One place online I saw did say that STALKER Complete should not be recommended to new players any more as it has been surpassed by other mods.

So, this is all to say that the mod situation is confusing. Especially since I can't judge what the changes they introduce mean, as I don't know the game.

So, I'd like to hear your recommendations for each game.

One thing I can say is that I've seen gameplay of the L.U.R.K. mod which I did like - dynamic weather, for example, and some polished textures. However, it seems to be tailored for some people who do know the game. I'm fine with the difficulty added, I just don't want to waste time on stuff I am somewhat expected to be familiar with - for example, the reduced weight limit means I'll have to choose equipment to carry carefully, but I don't really know what's worth it until I play for a while. If some features could be changed/tweaked/disabled, I'd gladly go with L.U.R.K., though.

Do you remember where/what site exactly said that Complete shouldn't be recommended cause it has been surpassed?

 

[the December King]

It's been a while since I've replayed the STALKER series so I'm pretty rusty on the mods front, but here's a pretty snappy website that contains some helpful info for newcomers: LINK

I understand they're considered pretty outdated by more modern mod standards and that some people dislike some of the changed made by them, but the Complete mods are still a solid foundation if you don't want to have to tinker with modding anymore than necessary but still want a more updated experience over the base game. LURK does seem like the more updated equivalent but not having tried it myself I can't speak for its quality. Still if you want minimum fuss Complete is still an option.

My favourite of the STALKER games would be Call of Pripyat, but both it and Shadow of Chernobyl are fantastic experience and if you like sort of slow, ambient, challenging shooters you're in for a treat.

Incidentally I do NOT recommend the Misery mod. I tried it and didn't like it myself, it's singular focus on difficulty made the world lose some of its flavour. Good if you've already played the game and want something harder, but otherwise I disliked a lot of the changes it made.

Seconded on avoiding the Misery mod for your first run throughs. I would also suggest trying Clear Sky, as it did have some good ideas, just wasn't as well executed.

These are my fave games, and I'm looking to mod them now, myself.

 

[Poetic Nova]

SoC is easiest on the hardest difficulty. Lower ones make your bullets randomly vanish into thin air. And the Reclamation Project removes an unbelievable amount of bugs and minor annoyances that add up to "fuck this" while playing vanilla.

Yeah. Accuracy is tied to difficulty, the lower the difficulty, the more bulletspongy enemies seem to be.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Yeah. Accuracy is tied to difficulty, the lower the difficulty, the more bulletspongy enemies seem to be.

Really? Usually lower difficulties make effective firing easier and less time consuming by increasing the damage of PC weapons while simultaneously reducing the damage caused by NPC weapons. Meaning players can survive longer to kill someone rather than be forced behind some form of cover/away from firing lines.

It's been awhile since I played SoC or CoP, but I recall that it was more so the lattter rather than both though. I don't think enemies were necessarily less damaged by PC weapons barring what skill + armour (mnore experienced Stalkers seemed tougher ... but that might simply be because of better gear), but their (enemy) weapons and the effects of them were tied to difficulty... as were anomaly damage rates. And I think anomalies on high difficulties were just as dangerous to NPCs ... it always gave me a chuckle when a bandit accidentally ran into a vortex anomaly. Shooting straight up in the air, spun about like in a tumble dryer, and splrrrrhhhh ... red giblets + corpse.

Whether on harder or easier difficulties, the same class of enemies seemed to take the same damage in anomalies.

 

[Samechiel]

Ah, STALKER. Nothing quite beats the experience of loading up SoC for the first time, heading out on the first mission, and unloading your pistol directly into the back of a bandit's skull only to have him whip around and OHKO you with a single shotgun blast.

That being said, CoP remains one of my most beloved games of all time.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Yeah. Accuracy is tied to difficulty, the lower the difficulty, the more bulletspongy enemies seem to be.

Really? Usually lower difficulties make effective firing easier and less time consuming by increasing the damage of PC weapons while simultaneously reducing the damage caused by NPC weapons. Meaning players can survive longer to kill someone rather than be forced behind some form of cover/away from firing lines.

For some reason it is kinda reversed for SoC.
While you can take less hits on the highest difficulty, same goes for the AI since the accuracy is at its best there. On lower difficulties expect battles to be terribly drawn out due to this at times.

And to add to this, dying is relatively easy even on lower difficulties. But yeah, playing on the highest difficulty is considered the easiest.

It's been awhile since I played SoC or CoP, but I recall that it was more so the lattter rather than both though. I don't think enemies were necessarily less damaged by PC weapons barring what skill + armour (mnore experienced Stalkers seemed tougher ... but that might simply be because of better gear), but their (enemy) weapons and the effects of them were tied to difficulty... as were anomaly damage rates. And I think anomalies on high difficulties were just as dangerous to NPCs ... it always gave me a chuckle when a bandit accidentally ran into a vortex anomaly. Shooting straight up in the air, spun about like in a tumble dryer, and splrrrrhhhh ... red giblets + corpse.

Whether on harder or easier difficulties, the same class of enemies seemed to take the same damage in anomalies.

If I'm not mistaken, this 'accuracy tied to difficulty' thing is exclusive to SoC.
Atleast, when I played CoP on medium it didn't seem to have the same issue.

Oh and random fun fact: AI can evade anomalies, but its disabled for some reason. One of the optional tweaks in the Reclamation project is enabling this AI feature.

I actually cant play SoC anymore without this tweak.

 

[DoPo]

Do you remember where/what site exactly said that Complete shouldn't be recommended cause it has been surpassed?

I looked through my browser history and I found it, I think

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/2tbtsg/for_those_of_you_interested_in_stalker_from_the/

NOTE Some redditors have pointed out this mod [STALKER Complete] is rather outdated and is not the best to recommend to new players wanting a vanilla experience.

I seem to have misremembered the recommendation.

 

[Jack Action]

Yeah. Accuracy is tied to difficulty, the lower the difficulty, the more bulletspongy enemies seem to be.

Really? Usually lower difficulties make effective firing easier and less time consuming by increasing the damage of PC weapons while simultaneously reducing the damage caused by NPC weapons. Meaning players can survive longer to kill someone rather than be forced behind some form of cover/away from firing lines.

For some reason it is kinda reversed for SoC.
While you can take less hits on the highest difficulty, same goes for the AI since the accuracy is at its best there. On lower difficulties expect battles to be terribly drawn out due to this at times.

And to add to this, dying is relatively easy even on lower difficulties. But yeah, playing on the highest difficulty is considered the easiest.

Battles being more drawn-out is one problem, a bigger one is that with you being outnumbered, enemies will hit you more than you hit them, so you die a lot more on lower diffs. Also, it's a lot harder to deal with mutants, because they're melee, so the accuracy issue is non-existent for them, while at the same time stopping you from actually hitting them even at point-blank range.

Edit: ammo is also a problem, since you can't really carry more to make up for not being able to hit anything.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

For some reason it is kinda reversed for SoC.
While you can take less hits on the highest difficulty, same goes for the AI since the accuracy is at its best there. On lower difficulties expect battles to be terribly drawn out due to this at times.

And to add to this, dying is relatively easy even on lower difficulties. But yeah, playing on the highest difficulty is considered the easiest.

Weirdness ... I always thought it was a combination of experience + practiced shot placements that explained my second playthrough at higher than STALKER level difficulty and being able to quicker clear the game.

If I'm not mistaken, this 'accuracy tied to difficulty' thing is exclusive to SoC.
Atleast, when I played CoP on medium it didn't seem to have the same issue.

Oh and random fun fact: AI can evade anomalies, but its disabled for some reason. One of the optional tweaks in the Reclamation project is enabling this AI feature.

I actually cant play SoC anymore without this tweak.

It's kind of funny to begin with, but it does get annoying to just see a patrol of [insert faction here] basically destroy themselves walking through a collection of whirlygigs. Honestly, nothing makes your blood turn cold faster than that anomaly warning buzzer going off in your headphones. Watching a merc just casually stroll through a patch of it does give a certain weight of 'badass' ... right until they collapse and explode into giblets and streams of blood. No wonder why anomalies can produce so many artefacts ... raw materials aplenty.


But specifically about weapon problems, in CoP it had a kind of weird thing where at specific ranges, the enemy didn't know you were firing at them, silencer or not, even if the bullet slammed into a piece of scenery right by them. But it seems that more often than not they don't do anything until you hit them if you're a certain distance away. Which kind of takes you out of the moment. I think the game is trying to simulate a tracer heavy magazine, hence why some shots are invisible and some shots you can clearly see across their flight path, and sometimes it feels like in those occasions there's no proper feedback response. It doesn't feel like you hit them ... but it does still seem to register.

It's a weird sensation.

 

[Here Comes Tomorrow]

Yeah. Accuracy is tied to difficulty, the lower the difficulty, the more bulletspongy enemies seem to be.

Really? Usually lower difficulties make effective firing easier and less time consuming by increasing the damage of PC weapons while simultaneously reducing the damage caused by NPC weapons. Meaning players can survive longer to kill someone rather than be forced behind some form of cover/away from firing lines.

For some reason it is kinda reversed for SoC.
While you can take less hits on the highest difficulty, same goes for the AI since the accuracy is at its best there. On lower difficulties expect battles to be terribly drawn out due to this at times.

And to add to this, dying is relatively easy even on lower difficulties. But yeah, playing on the highest difficulty is considered the easiest.

Battles being more drawn-out is one problem, a bigger one is that with you being outnumbered, enemies will hit you more than you hit them, so you die a lot more on lower diffs. Also, it's a lot harder to deal with mutants, because they're melee, so the accuracy issue is non-existent for them, while at the same time stopping you from actually hitting them even at point-blank range.

Edit: ammo is also a problem, since you can't really carry more to make up for not being able to hit anything.

At Master the bullet damage is the same for the PC and NPCs. This is why most people recommend playing on Master. It's the fairest difficulty. No one gets a damage increase/decrease or has more/less health. The only thing that matters is armor really.

OT: Get a mod that fixes the problems but play as Vanilla as possible, THEN mod so that you can appreciate the changes. Avoid Complete, it's terrible and makes the game more forgiving.
Personally, I loved AMK for Shadow. Misery 1.0 was good for CoP but Misery 2.0 was pretty terrible. I dunno if they fixed it since tho. I have OGSE installed in my current CoP and I'm liking it.