S.T.A.L.K.E.R

So I am planning to play the trilogy.
>What should I expect?
>What order should I play them?
>General tips and such.

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Play in release order.

Start with SoC, use ZRP, Absolute Nature and Absolute Structures if you care about graphics and no other mods for your first playthrough.
CS can be skipped
CoP is fine unmodded, you might want AtmosFear for pretty shaders, just don't enable the gameplay changing options.

Play on Master difficulty, disable crosshairs, have fun.

So SoC, CS, then CoP?

Play it on the highest difficulty,not for "muh pure experience" or some shit but because when you set the difficulty lower you take less damage but so does every enemy in the game, which fucking sucks early game when you have dick all for guns with decent damage. Always try for headshots, look fucking everywhere because most of the time you will find something good even if its just a bottle of vodka. Play in release order unmoded for the best first time experience, only fuck with mods after you beat them.

I disagree, ZRP should be used for SoC for all the bugfixes.

Should I care about the story though? Like should I bother to read everything and such?

It's not like there's a heck of a lot of reading in the Stalker series, just play the game.

Ah thanks for all the info. Cheers!

>Cheeki Breeki
>SoC, CS and CoP, don't skip CS or you'll miss the cheeki breeki radio.
>Sell artifacts get rich ez life

climb on shit and look undershit
there's caches all over the place and they give you ammo,nades,guns etc.

Get really cozy

There's gotta be some must have mods

Why the fuck do people ask the question "what order should I play this game series in" when do you not play them in release order you daft cunt

Elder Scrolls I guess, Arena is trash.

Sometimes, some games don't really follow a traditional way of going about things. Some don't follow with gameplay quality or the story.

some series are better played out of order for various reasons, bad game, outdated, not playable anymore or might have games in them that are abysmal and can be skipped

If you're too put off by the janky gunplay by the time you're in Wild Territory I would say to just start over with Autumn Aurora 2

The game is still pretty well vanilla but with better accuracy and lethality.

This is just my opinion. The only thing that puts me off about vanilla STALKER is the inaccurate guns and the bullet sponges. Yes, they still exist on Master, just not as bad. Lethality and accuracy increases as the game progresses, but myself being a /k/ dude I can't really suspend my disbelief enough to play a game where AKs and Makarovs literally shoot at a 30° angle out of the barrel of the gun and hit like BB guns just for the sake of gear progression.

I find the games much more fun when you can use whatever guns you like the best instead of being forced to use nothing but a VSS or G36 in the late game.

Again, just my opinion, but if you find yourself put off by vanilla gunplay as well, definitely just go ahead and install AA2. It won't sully your experience. Just try vanilla first before you do it, who knows, you might not be as weird as I am about guns

Consult this Starting Guide,
then see the /vg/'s huge Stalker General for more tips and links: Play in the release order. Start with no mods - only latest patch, OR get the full "Starter Pack" first; these contain bug-fixers and light visual mods that can help performance as well.
Leave big overhauls for later playthrougs. Avoid the "Complete" -mods. Always play on MASTER difficulty for best realism and atmosphere, and disable crosshair.

Don't give up in the beginning! The starting gear sucks ass and first area can be a bit boring.

yes

>Autumn Aurora 2
>pretty well vanilla
no. And AA2 is buggy crap.

No, use ZRP as its primarily a bugfixer and won't detract from vanilla experience except making things less buggy
Same for Clear Sky (CSRP), and CoP (although this game really doesn't need it out of any of them)

>What order should I play them?
release order nimrod, always release order.

>What should I expect?
>General tips and such.

SHOC
>Best overall game in the series
>hobo phase kinda sucks and takes a while to get out of
>only game where artifacts are actually good and they don't gimp combat suits by severely limiting how many artifacts you can have
>get the mod that patches repair back in, seriously. It is a total meme to play without it unless you never like using unique weapons and armor again after some faggot bandit tears through them

CS
>Only game where the earlygame/hobo phase is actually the best part of the game like people say
>game gets shitty as soon as you leave the swamp
>artifacts suck and are a way bigger pain in the ass to get
>Red forest is actually good and a major improvement over SHOC's version of it
>endgame is ok
>wait for loners to take the entrance to the garbage if you don't want to give up your money every time you come in and don't want to make an enemy of the bandits

CoP
>It's ok
>the artifacts are a little better than in CS
>skips right past hobo phase, which is nice
>problem is nobody actually wants to kill you and there's no reason to make enemies with anyone so you almost never get in shootouts until late game
>maps are more boring than SHOC/CS IMO
>endgame is kinda neat

I can't really think of anything that AA2 changed besides accuracy and lethality and the addition of a couple quality of life things. But I also haven't played STALKER in years, and I played AA2 when it released, so my memory could be fuzzy

The point of not having every possible gun is because they're supposed to fit a setting theme

It's like when they fucked with the guns in DayZ, adding a bunch of military weapons when it should've been mostly hunting rifles and shotguns

>>Play it on the highest difficulty,not for "muh pure experience" or some shit but because when you set the difficulty lower you take less damage but so does every enemy in the game, which fucking sucks early game when you have dick all for guns with decent damage
FAKE NEWS
ALTERNATIVE FACTS
>And no, the difficulty setting does NOT determine how often YOUR shots hit the target. It roughly determines how often the NPC shots hit you, maximum if the NPC is shooting you from point-blank range, dropping off to the value of gamedata\config\defines.ltx's hit_probability_gd_novice at the distance set by hit_probability_max_dist (in gamedata\config\weapons\weapons.ltx), which defaults to a mere 10 meters. It apparently remains at the hit_probability_gd_novice value (default 20%) beyond that. Set hit_probability_max_dist to a higher value (like 100 or 1000) for a tougher game at any difficulty level.
metacognix.com/stlkrsoc/WhatYouKnowThatAintSo.html

SoC starts slow but picks up into ridiculously awesome tiers
CS is really good... until you find an unpassable gamebreaking bug that doesn't let you continue. Also loses the solitude feel of the first.
CoP is the best of the three technically since has no gamebreaking bugs, does not need a mod, it's fine on its own, and it's VERY enjoyable and atmospheric. Yet the first one has this unique feel to it.

It's an awesome trilogy. Shouldn't skip any of them, not even Clear Sky.

>There's gotta be some must have mods
there ain't.
latest patch + Master diff. = all you NEED.

The Starter Pack's good 2 have tho'

I see where youre coming, but that feeling of progression + having to swap gear were some of the minor details that made STALKERs fun &engaging to me.

People also greatly exaggerate the inaccuracy rumors. Just aim with sights, low-crouch, and make a wild guess about the bullet's travel time and drop arc. Always go for the head for insta kills.

Guns are mass imported into the zone, the only thing that triggers me is mods like Misery that add shit like STG-44s. Otherwise I don't really think it's that big of a deal for say, a FAL to be in the Zone

>you take less damage but so does every enemy in the game
But this is wrong.
STALKER has an utterly standard difficulty scale: higher difficulty levels make the player take more damage and deal less to enemies.

>cheeki breeki radio.

Holy fuck my sides on that part

I never thought that CS would make me laugh so much at dem fucking russians

so it's been years now, is there still no good mod for pripyat at all? When the fuck is gunslinger coming out

AA2 is both a huge overhaul AND a POS AMK1.4 ripoff

>CS is really good... until you find an unpassable gamebreaking bug that doesn't let you continu
stop using COMPLETE.

reading comprehension. Try it

For the love of god, play in release order, and unless you absolutely LOVE faction mechanics, avoid CS like the plague.

I loved the faction wars, but the thing is probably one of the buggiest experiences I've ever had. The last mission I crashed every street corner. Keep frequent saves if you do this one.

>When the fuck is gunslinger coming out
Around the same time as Half-Life 3

MISERY 2.11.

>When the fuck is gunslinger com
''Soon'' (tm) ;_;

>avoid CS like the plague.
no. it's better than COP.

youtube.com/watch?v=1siPgAVOAtU

Play SoC first and absorb the atmosphere. Go through the story at your own pace. Then once you get to the wishgranter, play the game again.

Difficulty effects bullet damage, you fuckbucket, so it goes both ways

>it's better than COP.
Maybe for the faction war bullshit, but if you want to do some REAL stalkan, CoP is where it's at.

>Implying that CS isn't a spaghetti code nightmare

>Maybe for the faction war bullshit,
no. that sucks.

the maps, economy, visuals and artifact hunting are way better in CS

so is all 3.
use Starter-pack.

>hobo phase kind of sucks.
This is what I don't understand. The most engaging part of the story is in the intro, when you are being introduced to the zone. From the military checkpoint to the wild dogs that attack you, you learn that the zone is serious business and shouldn't be taken lightly.

then you get an AK and you become death incarnate

even with AMK

No it fucking doesn't, stop spreading old gay memes
Cordon is a good area, but plinking away at bandits with a makarov and having no idea if you're even hitting them for a couple hours sucks

The intro serves its purpose, people that i've showed the game too skip the dialogue and don't understand what anomalies are. You don't use a makarov for more than 20 minutes if you're slow. The first mission has a few bandits with sawd-offs then you move on to mp5s and shit.

>even with AMK
AMK cranks up damages so much, that it's almost easier

>Cordon is a good area, but plinking away at bandits with a makarov and having no idea if you're even hitting them for a couple hours sucks
what kind of morons are the gamers nowadays??
Even my wife, a girl who'd not played an FPS before 2010, popped cheeki heads left&right with Mak on her 1st time, in vanilla.

no, you can leave ''ur wifes son'' jokes at door