S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky Gameplay Discussion Thread.

jambo · Post by **jambo** » 05 Sep 2008, 02:34

Played a bit last night, was good but I had to put everything on Medium to get the game to run smoothy on a Q6600, 4GB DDR2 and 4870 512MB.

Was good after I got it going smoothly, except I forgot to save and lost the first 20 minutes of the game when I got raped by a pack of wild pigs =[.

The weapons feel a lot better than the original Stalker (not bothering with typing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.), just a lot smoother and more realistic with reloading and firing in general.

Unfortunately my session was cut short when the game crashed to the desktop. It was getting late so I couldn't be bothered getting back in and re-loading the game.

Runs great @ 1920x1200, everything looks to be in the right proportions and scaled correctly.

Post by **Abram** » 05 Sep 2008, 04:51

(not bothering with typing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.)

..save for that instance. right? :)

anyway this oen looks like it'll ahve the same fate as the first game. Mediocre reviews and somewhat unbalanced gameplay, then brought to new life with slick overhaal mods in the coming months.

I enjoyed the first one a lot but once i got a some mods on, liek Lblivion Lost and a couple texture mods, it was liek a different game, gameplay wise.

But maybe i should leave speculation be until i try it for myself... at least the file structure appears much the same as SoC, so at least modding will be simple.

I also find it a bit worrying when i read the performance peopel seem to be getting, considering the tame recommended specs.

Post by **maherie** » 14 Sep 2008, 07:46

Yeah so I've played and on my system E6600 4GB 8800GTX XP PRO the performance is fucking terrible. So far it plays like ass, and it's buggy as hell. Right now, I'm going to give it another 5 hours of play time, and if I still don't like it... it has ruined both stalkers for me.... and I went out and bought this game because I was so excited by it...

JohnnyWakko · Post by **JohnnyWakko** » 14 Sep 2008, 08:07

I have been surfing around to try and figure out if it is worth playing on my system, but by the sounds it - HELL NO.

**Hey Maherie, you think a 280gtx will be held back by our CPU's?

Post by **maherie** » 14 Sep 2008, 10:21

I have been surfing around to try and figure out if it is worth playing on my system, but by the sounds it - HELL NO.

**Hey Maherie, you think a 280gtx will be held back by our CPU's?

Yeah I would. only because when I had vista installed and I ran the windows experience, everything was 5.9 but the old CPU was only 4.8 so I think currently the 8800gtx is making my CPU slowdown already, so I can only imagine a 280.

In reference to the game, I'll let you know how I get on, but currently it's taxing my system somthing cronic.

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 14 Sep 2008, 16:10

I don't think the windows experience is that reliable. Many changes I did including from a 1.8ghz opteron to a 3ghz xeon showed little to no change ...

It seems capped at 5.9 too.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 14 Sep 2008, 17:22

Yes, from what I've read Clear Sky has about a thousand times more bugs than the original. And I thought the original was bad at times... :(

Post by **maherie** » 15 Sep 2008, 12:37

yeah this is out there.... people walking around with no heads, unable to pick things up... patch 1.05 did nothing for me but make it worse... so far it's just plain hell. Only played 2 hours of it... I'm not sure I'll make anymore...

DaFox · Post by **DaFox** » 23 Sep 2008, 23:14

Ive heard that Clear Sky has an Activation Limit. Anyone know if this is the case?

Post by **Abram** » 24 Sep 2008, 00:15

Ive heard that Clear Sky has an Activation Limit. Anyone know if this is the case?

From what I've read it does seem to have an install limit... though the numbers differ depending on region and install method. (Steam, D2D, disc) Not that any of that matters, as it got cracked pretty fast, along with the cracks for the patches.

So far it doesn't really matter to me, as this one seems more bug-riddled that SoC. I think I'll wait a while to pick it up. I Didn't really enjoy SoC when if first came out (after 6 fucking years of waiting) but I REALLY enjoy it now that useful patches and very good mods have come out. I'm expecting the same will happen with Clear Sky.

Also, looking at your specs you may want to hold off for a bit.Apperently frolks with rigs that exceed recommended specs still get poor framerates... then again, if it's anything liike SoC, it won't be so dependant on beefy CPUs, but a strong video card.

PS - next patch is expected end of September.

http://www.gsc-game.com/index.php?t=community&s=forums&s_game_type=xr2&thm_page=1&thm_id=16791&sec_id=18

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 11 Oct 2008, 10:19

Just got this game, man was Stalker original WAY better or what? Can someone tell me where to get a SEVA suit other than Cordon neutral base? I'm about to get raided by the Bandits at Garbage so I need to spend the 45,000 RU burning a hole in my pocket and despite reading that the Cordon neutral base trader has a SEVA he's NEVER got one when I go there.

Post by **maherie** » 12 Oct 2008, 07:56

Yeah, I'm not 100% sure where I picked mine up. Have you gone to the freedom base to get all your weapons / amour modified and upgraded? Idid that before I get mugged and it was easy to spend the rest on 3000 rounds of ammo.

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 12 Oct 2008, 10:25

Well I ended up using a mod that keeps them from taking your cash, though they still take the gear and you have to get that back. I couldn't see jumping through hoops for GSC over piss poor game scripting.

I'm now at the Duty base and they have a SEVA for sale, though for some reason just like Sid at Cordon they charge 50% more for their suits than the advertised price. Man I hate this game so far.

I don't like the monetary system or the upgrade system either. After ringing up the bill quite a bit getting all the sub upgrades required, the final accuracy upgrade I was gearing toward wasn't possible due to the mechanic lacking knowledge of it. And no, I'm not going to wander around endlessly looking for friggin flash drives.

After loads of slow poke scavenging at the start of the game all I have patience left for is using my SEVA and Bear detector to find some artifacts, and I may even use a fan made artifact map to do that. I'll just use a realism mod that increases damage on all weapons and hope the damn accuracy is good enough.

Stalker has never been good without mods, and CS is definitely no exception. I might actually be able to afford upgrades were I to find a SEVA for free doing a mission like some say is possible (clearing bandit depot), but I really miss original Stalker where you could just go here and there and find stuff good enough to get you through the game.

p2987 · Post by **p2987** » 12 Oct 2008, 15:10

I just got out of Swamps and into Cordon and so I am still early in the game. I encountered a little bug with the PDA (unable to scroll the side quests in a table format) and so I naively (without first checking with the Official Forum) installed the patch 1.5.04 (from 1.5.01) and instantly all about 6 hours of gameplay are lost (saved games from previous versions are not compatible!).

Patch 1.5.05 is now out and I am resisting to install it unless I absolutely have to...although it claims officially that it is compatible with previous versions. I really dont wish to play thru Swamp again.

How many of you have played thru the whole game with 1.5.04? I would be doomed if I find out later in the middle of the game that I have to start all over again with 1.5.05:( In addition to bandits and mutants, there are game bugs....lol.

PS
So far I came across only 1 bug in Swamp (the "Hold the Point until reinforcements arrive" bug) but I got the solution from the Official Forum). I still have the PDA bug which is annoying but wont affect much game play.

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 12 Oct 2008, 22:38

I played through Swamp up to the autosave where you hear Sid warn you of the Cordon Military base. Then I patched from 1.5.04 to 1.5.05, and yes, despite what the GSC idiots say, you lose your saves. Patch 1.5.05 does fix some things like the bullets the fixed gunner at the mil base fires going through trees, but it seems to cause a bit more lag too. I can't say how much it fixes because I didn't play too far with 1.5.04, but I have not encountered any bugs so far.

I just completed the search for Fang mission, get your stuff back from the Bandits mission, and talk to the Duty leader mission. So thus far nothing from Swamps to Garbage, including Dark Territory and Agroprom have had any bugs. I haven't really done many side quests though, and that's where original Stalker had lots of bugs.

I'm about to try wiping out the Bandit base to see if it nets me a fee SEVA like I heard one person say. First I want to add a few mods though, like a sleep mod, realism mod, accuracy mod, and trader mod that gives you pricing shown in the trader menu. I found a sleep mod but all the reviews I read on it said it causes problems.

I might add a flashlight mod too or just make my own to increase flashlight distance, esp if I can't find a working sleep mod. I never thought I'd need a sleep mod because original Stalker was never too dark to need one, even with the Weather Overhaul mod that made nights darker.

If you're a good ways through the game on 1.5.04, I say just play all the way to the end and do take some Fraps frame rate readings along the way. That way when you start a new game, you can compare frame rates and bug fixing if you decide to install 1.5.05 to see if it's worth it.

p2987 · Post by **p2987** » 13 Oct 2008, 03:52

I guess I will continue on with 1.5.04 and see how far I can go. If I cant make it, I will stop playing this game and maybe wait out for a few months before patching up to whatever the latest patch at that time and start all over.

I am not using any mods. My general philosophy is: installing a mod might solve 1 problem but might also introduce another of its own. So......
(PS I was able to finish the original Stalker right out of the box without any patch or mod...and I did complete lots of side quests too.)

Post by **maherie** » 13 Oct 2008, 10:16

I didn't loose anything but money (1005 RU) I stashed it all in the tool box up in the wrecked building, and it was there when I came back to after being mugged.

I wiped out the bandit base and No Seva suit for me. so I'm not sure if that's going to work for you.

I'm with above, no mods for me... mods mess up everything. But I agree the mods do look great and add much needed positives to the game.

On the night time, once you have the seva suit, it has night vision, and it rocks, I love night time now... night missions are the best.

Can anyone tell me, is the area still there near the bar? Im keen to duel for money again, but don't want to rush there as I'm taking my time checking everything out.

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 14 Oct 2008, 00:35

Well I find Stalker has always needed mods to be enjoyable, you just have to do your research on which ones to avoid, but you can never be 100% sure. If you go to a site like stalker.filefront.com though, there ae lots of coments on the more popular mods and they always say if there are any issues with them.

Stalker mods install and uninstall easily, adding a separate Gamedata folder to the main game directory. It's rare to have a mod that causes problems not be easily removed to correct it, unless of course the author states you need to remove certain things from your player inventory like custom silencers on weapons and such before uninstalling it.

I now have a SEVA I got free btw. You need to join the Loners at their neutral base in Cordon, then in chatting with their leader he talks about their mission to wipe out the Bandits, at which point you can agree. You won't actually get a task to kill the Bandits at the depot until you head that way though. It comes on screen well before you even get to the Cordon/Garbage gateway.

For completing this task they will give you the SEVA, the top of the line 1500 RU detector which shows the actual location of the artifacts, and 10,000 RU in cash. Not only that, since Loners are pretty neutral, you'll only have Bandits as enemies after joining them and some, like those guarding gateways, won't even shoot on site, they'll just try and con you out of some money.

I'm using the following mods:

AMK's Sleeping Bag (w/ English translation)
No Garbage Mugging (only steal gear not cash)
Flashlight Extender (trimmed down from 50m to 20m)
Ultimate Weapons Collection
Fair Trade
Full Upgrades Weapons & Armor

Sleeping Bag, No Garbage Mugging, Flashlight Extender and Fair Trade are working fine. Ultimate Weapons has a small bug in the Vintar scope showing in the upper left corner of the screen, which will probably be fixable by simply removing the reskinned texture for it.

Not sure if it's a bug, but Full Upgrades is not allowing me to upgrade the SEVA at the Swamp or Loner mech stations. It may just mean I need the flash drives, but all mechs are supposed to do all upgrades with this mod. I may just add one of the All Flash Drives mods to it.

So, out of all these mods only one minor thing that I know to be a bug, and it's probably easily fixed. That's not bad really.

p2987 · Post by **p2987** » 14 Oct 2008, 13:34

Frag Maniac:
I am hearing a lot about this "bandit taking all your money and gear" thing. How many times do this thing happen? And exactly when and where will it happen? Do you remember?

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 14 Oct 2008, 20:12

It's early on in the game. Right after you're told to look for Fang in Garbage, then you need to go to Dark Territory to continue searching. You follow up the task by going back to Garbage to catch up with Fang. This is a story mission btw, so can't be avoided.

At a concrete ruins between the Garbage Depot and the entrance to Dark Territory there's a door that leads underground. When you go through that door is when a scripted explosion happens like the one in original Stalker when you get to Strelok's hideout.

You awake on the ground all groggy witnessing a conversation between two Bandits that just took all your gear and cash and they take off. You then have a mission to get your gear back from them, but the cash you can't get back.

For those whom have spent most of their cash this is no big thing, but for those like me whom had laboriously scavenged 45,000 RU worth of cash together and not yet found the gear desired to spend it on, it's very annoying.

The No Garbage Mugging Fix mod takes care of it, they only steal the gear, not the cash, and you can get the gear back fairly easily by locating their location on the map and killing them (only 2). Otherwise you're going to have to buy gear you want to use or something like lots of food, which some traders buy back at near full price.

You need to dump your armor, a weapon, ammo and maybe a health kit and bandage or 2 before going through that door if you want to make killing them easier though, because all that's available to use where you wake up is a pistol and a bit of ammo for it.

I don't consider the mod that much of a cheat because if you can stash your gear, you should be able to stash your cash too. In fact some places like the Loner neutral base have safes you can use, yet you can't stash the cash.

*************************************************************

An update on the mods I'm using, which are much better than the ones above. All are the same except the following:

Removed Full Upgrades & installed Mechanic Upgrades.

I now have full access to SEVA upgrades without having to get flash drives. Author claims most but not all upgrades are available. One guy said he couldn't upgrade the Winchester shotgun, but all that commented loved the mod and I do too.

Removed Ultimate Weapons Collection & installed Weapon Damage/Accuracy & Ironsights mod.

I now have a working Vintar scope and damage and accuracy levels are on par with the better realism mods I used in original Stalker. Weapons are more powerful, but not overkill. Enemies weapons are more powerful too though, so you can't run n gun. Removes onscreen crosshair and adds ironsights to pistols. Tiny white dot for aim is always onscreen though. The reskinned weapons were nice in the Ultimate Weapons Collection mod but small tradeoff.

Added better Weapon Sounds Beta 2 mod since Damage/Accuracy & Ironsights doesn't have a sound mod like Ultimate Weapons did. The sounds are much better in this mod than those in Ultimate Weapons too.

Added Sharper Textures Full mod.

OMG, this is THE mod for Clear Sky as far as an easy graphics enhancement. It sharpens most of the textures in the game, works with the last 3 patch versions, doesn't require starting a new game (saves work), and best of all, zero, I repeat zero drop in FPS and zero stutter increase.

This is by far the best Stalker mod I've ever used bar none, including all the original Stalker mods I've tried. It enhances 832 textures in the game and tweaks the blood effects. Textures include NPCs, Monsters, Items, Weapons, Vehicles, Walls, Ground and Windows.

Other than that I'm still using Extended Flashlight, AMK Sleeping Bag and Fair Trade. You can remove the No Garbage Mugging Fix mod after getting past that part of the game. All I did was remove the mod folder (Gamedata) and install all these new mods overwriting the new Gamedata folder in the process and all saves work just fine.
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The only thing that bothers me now is constantly running out of stamina. If I can't find any good endurance artifacts in Garbage I may add an endurance mod. I decided to forgo an extended carry weight mod because I've already found an artifact that boosts it 20kg and have the SEVA maxed on artifact containers.

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