S.t.a.l.k.e.r.: Shadow of Chernobyl (impressions video inside)

[Spider]

btw, does anyone know how to use the attachable grenade launcher on that assault rifle? It's not an alternate fire mode, so I'm lost.

 

By default, the key "V" is supposed to be tied to grenade launchers. Haven't tried it myself though, so I can't verify.

 

(I still find it frustrating that there is no support for a five button mouse)

[Tale]

Apparently only 2 of them are 'proper' endings though, I don't know exactly what that means.

The other 5

 

It's a trap!

 

[Bokishi]

Anyone else get a bit of pausing stutter in the barkeep area?

[Pidesco]

I got S.T.A.L.K.E.R and I'm having some serious performance issues. At first it didn't seem like it would be too bad, as I got between 10 and 20 FPS outdoors with everything maxed (including AA) at 1280x960. However, no matter how much I lower my settings, I can't seem to get better performance. Anyway, after fiddling around with the settings I started to notice that the game seems to be accessing my hard drive a lot. So with task manager I checked its memory usage and I noticed that the game only uses about 300 megs of RAM but it takes about 1.2 gigs of the page file at all times. Short of very poor optimization, I can't understand what the hell is going on here.

[Pop]

Anyone else get a bit of pausing stutter in the barkeep area?

There are a few points at which the game seems to stop for a second or two, I think to load terrain or something. That happens to me just before the broken train bridge in the first area, and at the entrance to the bar town, but it's nothing terribly noticeable.

 

And just to clarify, artifacts are created by things getting killed by anomolies, right? Or are they just random?

Edited March 25, 2007 by Pop

[Tale]

And just to clarify, artifacts are created by things getting killed by anomolies, right? Or are they just random?

Relatively random.

[Pop]

And just to clarify, artifacts are created by things getting killed by anomolies, right? Or are they just random?

Relatively random.

Weird. I was wondering because when I was down in the catacombs beneath the Agroprom Research building, I found that corridor that has all the lightning anomalies in it, and there were a few artifacts there, which I snapped up. Then a bunch of bandits came in through the door I had just entered, which forced me to run down the lightning corridor, and I came out lightly wounded. The bandits, being not smart, pursued me and got slaughtered. I came back around about 3 minutes later and there were new artifacts where the bodies had been.

[Slowtrain]

And just to clarify, artifacts are created by things getting killed by anomolies, right? Or are they just random?

Relatively random.

Weird. I was wondering because when I was down in the catacombs beneath the Agroprom Research building, I found that corridor that has all the lightning anomalies in it, and there were a few artifacts there, which I snapped up. Then a bunch of bandits came in through the door I had just entered, which forced me to run down the lightning corridor, and I came out lightly wounded. The bandits, being not smart, pursued me and got slaughtered. I came back around about 3 minutes later and there were new artifacts where the bodies had been.

 

 

Interesting observation, Pop.

 

Like Tale, I was under the impression that artifacts were randomly created simply as a by product of an anomalies existence. That appears to be the lore of the gameworld. However, its hard to fully comprehend some of the details due to the not so great English translation of a lot of concepts in the game so it could be that the anomalies require some material to work with to create the artifacts. Perhaps a dead body will increase the probability of an artifcat appearing by a large percentage or make it happen more rapidly.

 

Who knows. Nobody in the zone seems to really understand them either.

[Slowtrain]

I got S.T.A.L.K.E.R and I'm having some serious performance issues. At first it didn't seem like it would be too bad, as I got between 10 and 20 FPS outdoors with everything maxed (including AA) at 1280x960. However, no matter how much I lower my settings, I can't seem to get better performance. Anyway, after fiddling around with the settings I started to notice that the game seems to be accessing my hard drive a lot. So with task manager I checked its memory usage and I noticed that the game only uses about 300 megs of RAM but it takes about 1.2 gigs of the page file at all times. Short of very poor optimization, I can't understand what the hell is going on here.

 

 

My computer woudl explode if I tried to run this game 1280 * 960.

 

Have you lowered the resolution down to 1024 * 768? That's where it runs great for me. Have you tried turning off dynamic lighting? That seems to be a major hit for some people, although for me its not a problem.

 

ANyway, if you cranked all your video settings way down and there's no improvement, then it would seem to indicate that the problem is not with the video settings as such. I've have noticed a lot of constant hard drive access on my system (the little red diskette icon in the lower right hand corner is always flashing on and off, I assume it is indicating hard disk access, although I am just guessing there, since its so small I can barely see it. At first I thought it was indicating regenerating health, but that didn't seem to be right). But for me the disk access doesn't appear to be a problem since the game is always smooth despite the constant access.

 

Do you have anything else running that might be hitting the drive? ANtivirus or such?

[Diamond]

Like Tale, I was under the impression that artifacts were randomly created simply as a by product of an anomalies existence. That appears to be the lore of the gameworld. However, its hard to fully comprehend some of the details due to the not so great English translation of a lot of concepts in the game so it could be that the anomalies require some material to work with to create the artifacts. Perhaps a dead body will increase the probability of an artifcat appearing by a large percentage or make it happen more rapidly.

 

Who knows. Nobody in the zone seems to really understand them either.

Actually in the novel that STALKER was vaguely based on ("Roadside Picnic"), The Zone is speculated to be of extra-terrestrial origin (and has nothing to do with Chernobyl). And yes, nobody understood the artifacts, stalkers just hunted them for cash.

[Hell Kitty]

I run the game at 1600x1200 with everything but AA maxed (AA set to 2x) without a problem. And that's with photoshop, firefox and AVG running. It's nice and smooth except when it does that slight pause when loading or whatever it's doing.

My system:

 

Athlon 64 X2 4200

2GB of RAM

7950 GX2

 

Anyway, I just completed the game, and I got what must be the "crap" ending. I rushed through not doing the non-essential stuff, so I'll do the opposite next time around.

 

For those that know, Duty or Freedom?

[mkreku]

I'm also having to choose between those two right now. I am dreading the decision though. Why can't we all just get along?! :'(

[Slowtrain]

Hey Pidesco I did a little experimenting.

 

Without the game running my page file size is 240MB. Once the game starts it grows to 1.04 GB

 

Without the game running my available RAM is 1734250. Once the game starts available RAM shrinks to 968000.

 

So the game uses a lot of page file space but it also uses almost a gig of RAM on my system (I have 2 Gigs total).

 

If you only have a gig (or less) of RAM maybe that is causing a some performance issues. Or maybe some apps are running that are sucking memory up so the game can't use it.

[Sand]

The game sounds very involved for an FPS. I might have to give it a try. How does it compare to Deus Ex. Deus Ex is my favorite FPS game of all time.

[Slowtrain]

The game sounds very involved for an FPS. I might have to give it a try. How does it compare to Deus Ex. Deus Ex is my favorite FPS game of all time.

 

 

Its quite similar, main differences are:

 

No skills or leveling, instead you make your character better by collecting items such as weapons and armor and medkits an an assortment of things and artifacts which have special abilties (its not as goofy as it sounds)

 

No linear structure. There are missions, many in fact, some you have to ask for , some are just given to you. but they all occur in the same gameworld (the zone). All of the optional missions are not required and can be failed and or ignored and the game will continue anyway.

 

Exploration is a big part of the game since it enables you to find things that will improve your character. You can get some awesome stuff right in the starting village if you want (and can find it)

 

Combat is the name of the game. There is a lot of dialogue, but most of it is just reading and then saying OK, sure or No, I don't want to, or OK thanks. You will be fighting pretty much all the time sinze the zoen is filled with unpleasant things. The combat is very good however. AIs are excellent. It seems hard at first but once you get used to it, its not that bad.

 

There is a reputation system and factions that are available to join if you want.

 

Its a very fluid and dynamic game. No place is ever really safe. You get used to living on the move.

[Sand]

I might need to see if the game has a demo and give it a try.

[Pidesco]

Hey Pidesco I did a little experimenting.

 

Without the game running my page file size is 240MB. Once the game starts it grows to 1.04 GB

 

Without the game running my available RAM is 1734250. Once the game starts available RAM shrinks to 968000.

 

So the game uses a lot of page file space but it also uses almost a gig of RAM on my system (I have 2 Gigs total).

 

If you only have a gig (or less) of RAM maybe that is causing a some performance issues. Or maybe some apps are running that are sucking memory up so the game can't use it.

 

Actually, I solved my problems with a specific config from GSC's forums. Mostly, it just stopped accessing my hard drive so much. However, the game still only takes about 300 megs of my ram despite the fact that I have a total of 1 Gb (500 megs available with the game running). Also, disabling all processes I could, just increased the amount of ram I had available.

 

Anyway, as the game is now running fine (at 1280x960 ), all is awesome. Great atmosphere and all, but I wish I could understand what people are saying in Russian. The game should have subtitles.

 

Finally, thanks for taking your time to help me.

 

 

This thread:

http://www.gsc-game.com/index.php?t=commun...r&sec_id=11

 

 

If anyone uses it, watch out for the changes to the key bindings.

Edited March 26, 2007 by Pidesco

[Maria Caliban]

I'm just starting out, and I've wiped out the bandits in this one area four times now. Do they ever stop respawning? Do all the enemies do this?

 

Pidesco,

That link doesn't lead anywhere interesting.

Edited March 26, 2007 by Maria Caliban

[Tale]

I'm just starting out, and I've wiped out the bandits in this one area four times now. Do they ever stop respawning? Do all the enemies do this?

 

Pidesco,

That link doesn't lead anywhere interesting.

As a matter of fact, none do that I saw on Stalker difficulty. Most "respawns" people I've seen encounter were patrols, with a real respawn (of some kind) coming a day or more later.

 

What difficulty are you playing? Are you sure they are respawns or maybe just guys that circled around behind you?

Edited March 26, 2007 by Tale

[Pidesco]

I'm just starting out, and I've wiped out the bandits in this one area four times now. Do they ever stop respawning? Do all the enemies do this?

 

Pidesco,

That link doesn't lead anywhere interesting.

 

Apparently, the forums are closed for maintenance. After they're done with that, the link should work properly.

 

Anyway, what you can do, if you're having performance problems is to change the line "Texture_lod 0" in the user.ltx file to "Texture_lod 2". Worked wonders for me.

[Maria Caliban]

As a matter of fact, none do that I saw on Stalker difficulty. Most "respawns" people I've seen encounter were patrols, with a real respawn (of some kind) coming a day or more later.

 

What difficulty are you playing? Are you sure they are respawns or maybe just guys that circled around behind you?

 

I'm playing on novice difficulty.

 

There were originally eight bandits in the car park, armed with pistols and shotguns. I've now killed about 20, most armed with assult rifles. All the 'rookies' that took over the car park when I first killed the bandits are now dead.

Edited March 26, 2007 by Maria Caliban

[Slowtrain]

Bandits don't respawn in the factory itself, but pretty soon after you wipe one group another will move in from the north. The time is somewhat random, some times more bandits will arrive in minutes sometimes not for a while.

 

Eventually the factory becomes filled with dead bandits and stalkers as they battling each other. Its a great place to go early to loot corpses for your first automatic weapons and ammo.

 

Its important when playing the game not to look at the objective as to "clear" each area. If you try that you will only get frustrated because it really can't be done. Yes, you can have some short term success, but it doesn't last very long. Do what you need to do, go where you need to go, kill when you have to. The zone is an area of chaos and you just have to make your way as you can as you explore and gather information. To me that is its coolest aspect and what makes it so entrancing.

 

On a side note, I started a new game. EVen though I am not near finshed with the other one yet. Why? Just because I don't want it to end!

 

As I have gone back to being a rookie n00b in the first area, I am amazed how easy combat is now. I wiped out the military checkpoint with my silenced pistol. lol. I can't believe I thought this was so hard the first time I did it. It just goes to show how much easier things become as we get used to them and understand them. I found some awesome stuff in the first level that I missed the first time. I'd post a screenie of my stash, but I don't want to spoil anything.

[Pidesco]

I'm having a lot of trouble with the first mission. I get killed, my squad buddies get killed; it's a bloody massacre. The best I've been able to do so far was reduce the enemies to just two guys. However, a shotgun at point-blank took me out. The AI doesn't seem too shabby.

[Maria Caliban]

Factory? What factory? I'm at the car port. It's the very first mission.

 

So you're telling me that no matter how many bandits I kill, the car port will never be free of bandits? It's one thing to have no clear cut solution, it's another to be given a goal that's inherently unreachable.

[Slowtrain]

I'm having a lot of trouble with the first mission. I get killed, my squad buddies get killed; it's a bloody massacre. The best I've been able to do so far was reduce the enemies to just two guys. However, a shotgun at point-blank took me out. The AI doesn't seem too shabby.

 

 

Your squadmates are useless. Most of the time they die in the first few seconds. Although the last time I did it they all survived, so go figure. You can do the mission solo and if you do WOlf gives you much better stuff. Its not all that much harder solo either.

 

 

The first game I played, I replayed this mission about 30 times just for the practice and figuring out what key mappings to use and to get a feel for the combat.

 

The key I found just playing it again is ammo and health. Try to get as many bandages and as much ammo as you can. Fire off an entire magazine aiming for the head, then duck out of sight while reloading. Keep circling the buildings to avoid them flanking you. If you can get inside the building where they are holding Nimble theres a short flight of stairs that makes a good defensible position. Get to the top of the stairs, turn, and fill them holes as they try to rush the stairs. They will back off when they realize you are waiting for them, but you can eventually get them.

 

Watch out for the one or two with shotguns. Keep them at range where they are much less deadly.