Octopus Overlords

Playing Stalker: SoC for the first time and have to admit I'm a bit confused and overwhelmed.

Ran into two issues and have no idea if it's supposed to be this way, but the guy you rescue in the first mission gives you two stash locations, one of them for a better suit, and another under a tunnel. So, I get to the location for the better suit, and I see lots of radiation and nothing else. I don't know where the suit is supposed to be.

So I try the other location and find a crystal, but the map doesn't clear it as finished, so I'm not sure if I found what I was supposed to find. I find this game often leads me in circles as I find the map/waypoint system confusing. Sometimes things will update as if I've completed them, telling me to return to the mission giver which then doesn't give me the option of turning it in. What gives?

The suit place its probably on the ground in a suitcase or something small. The other it usually takes a scanner to make that crystal pop out..an artifact. If you hover over it you should see it gives you some boost or stats. Suits usually have slots..some dont.

Heres a spoiler for a easy to get suit if you want a really good one easy..

I'd like to be helpful. I've played it at least twice. However, I get a little fuzzy on what things are from which game. I've played them all numerous times.

Usually, if I'm not confusing games, stashes show up on the map as three purple triangles (?) inside of a circle. Generally get notified of a stash when you loot a body. I assume that in patting the body down you find a scrap of paper with a note about the stash. They are often difficult to find. All you can do is keep checking your map until you are standing in the middle of the circle. And then start hunting around. I've seen suitcases, as Dae mentioned, sometimes under a bush, or between some rocks. I've also found stashes in tree stumps, vehicle trunks, chimneys, ovens, up in attics, etc. The main thing to remember is that they are optional. They usually don't have much in them.

That said, if this was a story "stash" and not one of the random ones, they it probably does have some better stuff.

Quests are definitely a bit messed up in those games. It sounds like you didn't actually find either of the stashes, if they are still showing up on the map.

Sorry that I can't be more helpful.

I've installed the Zone Reclamation Project, so we'll see if that improves anything. But I definitely wasn't seeing any suitcases in those spots, so it has me wondering if my game was bugged out. I've also rummaged in the houses at the beginning of the game and didn't find much for the taking.

Heres a video on how to find it. You dont have to shoot it.

Thanks, Dae. I think I found the spot. After installing ZRP, I decided to start a new game. Wasn't very far anyway, and I didn't find anything there yet, probably because I wasn't notified yet. But it's a red house? There's a ladder in the middle of one of the rooms. Silly me, I kept going around and totally didn't notice the ladder until it it was staring at me.

FYI, if you stumble upon a stash prior to being informed about it's existence, it will generally be empty. Also, the game seems to randomly pick them. So it's actually possible to get notified of the same stash multiple times. I guess once you kill the first person using it and loot it, then someone else 'moves in' and starts using it.

Man. Now I kinda want to play. I played through the STALKER Lost Alpha full conversion mod a while back. It was pretty insane. But I wasn't thrilled with the way the story played out. The first one had the best story. But the changes to the interface were greatly appreciated.

TheMix wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2019 10:27 pm FYI, if you stumble upon a stash prior to being informed about it's existence, it will generally be empty. Also, the game seems to randomly pick them. So it's actually possible to get notified of the same stash multiple times. I guess once you kill the first person using it and loot it, then someone else 'moves in' and starts using it.

Ok, that definitely explains it! I guess I must be too good at finding things.

Well, something must be buggy with my game, because for some reason, I can't sprint. Default is X, but in-game that does nothing. Or have I just not gained the ability yet? Feels like this game is toying with me.

My vague recollection is that this is one of those games that care about weight. If you are carrying too much weight, you won't be able to sprint. If you are right at the limit, you'll be able to sprint, but will run out of stamina quickly. Carrying less will allow you to sprint more. Later in the game you'll find artifacts that boost your stamina regen that will enable you to sprint forever as long as you are below the carry limit. And will possibly allow you to sprint for a little while even if you are slightly over. However, if you are carrying a LOT of weapons (because you obviously want to sell everything you find), then you'll eventually slow yourself to a crawl.

Some things important to remember/learn:
1) Save before heading back to base at a walk/crawl with a heavy load. Invariably that's when a blowout will happen.
2) If it wasn't part of a mod, there is a key that you can find that will allow you to drop your entire backpack. It should then show up on the map like a stash. This can allow you to get to safety in the event of an impending blowout.

It wasn't weight, as I hardly had anything on me. Remember, this is still fairly early into the game and I haven't had a chance to hoard much of anything yet. It was definitely a key issue with the game. Once I rebound it, I was able to sprint and get that suit. I've only done a few missions and found some stashes at this point.

This game definitely nails the bleak atmosphere of an abandoned landscape, perhaps moreso than the Fallout series. Btw, installing the ZRP did fix most of my previous issues, namely the backpacks. They weren't appearing for me somehow, but they do now.

Rumpy wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2019 10:07 pm Thanks, Dae. I think I found the spot. After installing ZRP, I decided to start a new game. Wasn't very far anyway, and I didn't find anything there yet, probably because I wasn't notified yet. But it's a red house? There's a ladder in the middle of one of the rooms. Silly me, I kept going around and totally didn't notice the ladder until it it was staring at me.

This stash you never know about. Its a full on secret and is always there for you. In in the attic with no access to it other than a small hole in the roof you have to squat at and peek through to target.

I also always used a weight mod in Stalker. Just WAY too much fun stuff to loot and things you need.

Also you might wish to look at the Complete MOD. It makes the world beautiful...and makes blowout storms totally deadly and you have to actually take cover.

Mixing NFS:Payback and WRC5. I've been chased out fo the city with the triple run, Jess went back for a set of undercover missions and just got back out fo the city. I just defeated the Sixers (those races are getting really long). I guess I need to go after those Offroaders and those Drifters next. Or chase down some of those roaming racers.

Well I thought and thought and looked around all day and nothing came to me to try and play hahaha. I deleted tanks and ships and the launcher. Got 250 gigs free for something now.

Holy shit has Steam screwed up their interface. Maybe I can figure a way to get it back to the way it was.

I don't think so. I'm screwed because my collection is so large and it tries to load all kinds of images and links no matter what I click on.

It's painfully slow, and I doubt that a rollback is possible. The one light in the tunnel is that it's new, so issues and improvements are both to be expected.

Im trying to adjust to it. They've been beta testing a new Steam look for a while now. Im not sure this is it or just a step. Not impressed so far.

Here's a workaround courtesy of Reddit that at least provides a more minimal UI without needing to load all of those game icons:

MiniUI Workaround

Step 1 - Create new Windows desktop shortcut.

Step 2 - Paste steam://open/minigameslist into where it says "Type the location of the item:"

Step 3 - Save the shortcut to wherever you normally have your Steam icon and use it to open Steam. (Optional: Change icon to the Steam icon)

Also, here's a Youtube video with instructions on how to revert back to the old Steam Library UI:



Download link for old Library / UI files: https://mega.nz/#!22oUmarb!1-ZKIUccQzmb ... AR7Z5XvPws

With Van Helsing Final Cut on sale, I bit the bullet and bought it, and started a new character as the constructor (drones, a large follower drone, and Katarina, not to mention my combo grenader launcher / flamethrower / gatling gun / main weapon. And I decided to use controller only. We shall see how this works out.

Cant recall what I played last year. Says 14 hours though. Think Ill install it and see what it shows.

Im just going to try and get used to this slow loading mess Steam has become. Im tired of trying to stay behind the times and editing and modding and them just keep moving away from me and giving me more to do.

Well after finally figuring out my Neocore login I find I have a lvl 24 constructor. Now Im thinking I may just delete the game and not bother.

My Steam looks the same. Did you all opt in for the beta?

TheMix wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 9:45 am My Steam looks the same. Did you all opt in for the beta?

No, they pushed the update to the general public as of yesterday afternoon.

Blackhawk wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 9:49 am

TheMix wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 9:45 am My Steam looks the same. Did you all opt in for the beta?

No, they pushed the update to the general public as of yesterday afternoon.

Not this general public.

It didn't show up for me until after a reboot. It may just be waiting until whenever your Steam install checks for updates.

So, got a question about Stalker. In the HUD, you have a health bar on the bottom, and what looks like an armor bar on top? Best I can guess it means armor integrity, and currently it's very low. Does that mean I need to find new armor?

You can have your armor repaired at NPCS...well certain ones. Usually one in each mai9n camp area...not the smaller ones usually.

Oh and I'm having an interesting issue. I'm heading back from Agroprom towards the Duty Checkpoint when I get a call for help, yet when I get there, there's nobody there. The marker is on the other side of the gate which is closed.

I got them to show up once, by loading a save from right after the call, but I noticed that by the time I got there, they were already fighting whatever they needed help with and cleared it out and told me I was of no use and not to expect any gratitude. I noticed the same behavior after saving soon after the call when you're crossing back towards the train garage where they ask you to save them from bandits again. Loading the save has them already fighting the bandits as I approach. So, I think the save states are a little glitchy, even with the ZRP mod. I don't really know what to do in regards to the Duty Checkpoint.

I love the STALKER games, but you should definitely expect glitchy-ness.

Going through Van Helsing Final Cut, on casual. Already went through the content of first and second, playing through third right now, deep into Inkspace. Just killed a couple traitorous folks who I turned back into humans, then they want the artifact I used. No, thanks. Now I just have to kill ya!

And met up with Seven again. A little annoying.

TheMix wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2019 10:04 am I love the STALKER games, but you should definitely expect glitchy-ness.

I am loving Stalker, even with all the glitches. Something about it really makes me feel giddy. I've installed both Absolute Textures mods, and I'm somewhat disappointed that while things are pretty crisp when viewing at a distance, it's as if they simply saturated the textures and gave them a higher resolution, because when you get up close to them, they look very washed out, are very grainy and lack definition. It's as if they aren't any better than the original textures and even worse in some respects. And I'm playing it using their Ultra textures. It's just strange.

Still in one of my ruts. Worst ever. Longest ever. Sometimes I just get mad in what I try but most times Im just indifferent. Im blaaaaah. I have zero feeling in the game. Im just moving and pushing some buttons on my keyboard and mouse. Im not happy or mad or anything..just nothing. And no matter what I install I get nothing from it except a little from a random game. I was getting through Pre Sequel but wasn't greatly enjoying it. Just made me smile some. More than most everything else. I install a game a day to test to see what I might find passable. Even old stuff Ive enjoyed greatly or finished 3 times I try. But even from them I get nothing and delete in a few minutes usually.

This sucks.

Just got notified someone signed in to my EA account. (it was for one the the Sims games).
Only info in there was my birthday.
I created a new password but I figure they can get that as they had to have used my email account that was my sign in.
I doubt I'll ever use it again anyways.

Kasey Chang wrote: Mon Nov 04, 2019 3:54 am Going through Van Helsing Final Cut, on casual. Already went through the content of first and second, playing through third right now, deep into Inkspace. Just killed a couple traitorous folks who I turned back into humans, then they want the artifact I used. No, thanks. Now I just have to kill ya!

And met up with Seven again. A little annoying.

I want to go back and finish this some day, but saves are broken for me. Even if I reinstall, restart with a new character or load an existing one, it just won't save the game correctly. When I exit and go back in - no save, right where I was before.

Really? I just resume game and it's right there.

Just finished the "campaign", winning basically events in all three adventures.

They have an "endless" mode where you get random missions on a map with difficulty modifiers called "adventure map". The limitations are serious, like "No Katarina", "no heal potion" (only HP stealing), and so on. Some even have time limits (can be really tough if you rely on luring away a few enemies at a time). If you get killed, you fail the "adventure". Winning gains you "fate points" which can be combined with a ton of gold to forge epic items. There's even an arena that pits you against wave after wave of tough enemies. I think I made it to wave 7.

I know I play as a bounty hunter through 1 and 2 all the way through. Doing "constructor" this time is interesting, as this guy relies on mana to drop minions (spider mechs and orthocopters) as well as power his combo weapon, and that means you need every sort of enhancement that replenishes mana.

Not sure if I want to play it again as yet another class-type though.

This Stalker talk got me interested so I reinstalled it and the Complete mod. But the UI / interface is not how I remember it. I got used to the one from the next two games...one of which was basically Stalker 1 all over again. I only see the armor on my guy and not in a slot also worse is I cant tell what gun I have equipped. I traded with a NPC and thought it kept my guns that I have equipped separate from my INV ones so I sold them all...then I didn't have a gun at all on me. I was very lucky I had missed looting one dead guy so got a shotgun back at least. Very bad UI. Eh.

You could try the Lost Alpha mod. It doesn't even require you have the games. It does bring some of the later interface changes to the first game. It also adds a ton of other stuff (vehicles). Be aware, it's glitchy as hell. Also, it changes the ending; I did miss the original ending. But it's HUGE. It will keep you occupied for a while.

For grins, I bought Rogue Trooper Redux and started playing. I remember having the original on CD (or was it DVD?) and it was fun. This is basically "remastered" with longer and better cutscenes, and improved interface and textures and whatnot. It's scratching my "mindless action" itch.

One annoying thing: I had dual monitors, and when it started, it AUTOMATICALLY picked double-wide resolution, which is NOT how I play games.

Tried to play a little Solstice Chronicles, but didn't like it that much. I think the drone buddy is a bit too annoying.

I bought Grim Dawn when it was on sale. So if I really want to I can play that to scratch my "Diablo-like" itch if I don't want to keep playing Van Helsing.

Kasey Chang wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 3:38 am I remember having the original on CD (or was it DVD?)

probably CD? PC game publishers resisted moving to DVD for a very, very long time. i don't remember DVDs finally being the norm until after the 'small boxes' became the standard. i remember getting Psygnosis' _Lander_ (modern version of Lunar Lander) in 1998 and it came with a CD and a DVD version, but they were well ahead of the curve. it was probably another seven years until i got another game on DVD.

EDIT: Rogue Trooper came out in 2006, so is actually (likely) on DVD.