S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Suggestions

[Catalysis]

One of my favorite game series of all time has to be STALKER. From the vicious difficulty to the original setting, there are few points that I don't absolutely love. However, there are a few points where improvement is necessary.

Call of Pripyat, the latest installment, is quite a refinement of the series. Unfortunately it hosts only three maps and Pripyat is a bit of a letdown.

Clear Sky was/is riddled with so many bugs that without modifications its unplayable.

Shadows of Chernobyl had its own issues. I'll just leave it be to stay on topic of this thread.

I have many ideas for the sequel coming in 2012 but I want to see what other STALKER fans and more importantly people who played but didn't enjoy the game would like to see.

Your thoughts?

 

[Korten12]

One of my favorite game series of all time has to be STALKER. From the vicious difficulty to the original setting, there are few points that I don't absolutely love. However, there are a few points where improvement is necessary.

Call of Pripyat, the latest installment, is quite a refinement of the series. Unfortunately it hosts only three maps and Pripyat is a bit of a letdown.

Clear Sky was/is riddled with so many bugs that without modifications its unplayable.

Shadows of Chernobyl had its own issues. I'll just leave it be to stay on topic of this thread.

I have many ideas for the sequel coming in 2012 but I want to see what other STALKER fans and more importantly people who played but didn't enjoy the game would like to see.

Your thoughts?

I played Clear Sky mostly without a mod and found the game very playable... I don't get how a game can be unplayable...

 

[Catalysis]

You're lucky then. I've played through it several times since its release and theres about a 30% chance someone will get stuck or a door won't open and you'll have to restart from an earlier point.

Which isn't a problem if you regularly make a habit of manually saving but if all you do is quicksave you are screeewed.

 

[dududf]

Put the atmosphere back into it.

Only recently when I've played SoC CS and CoP in succession have I noticed that the core elements of the game seem to be deteriorating a bit. Still very good, but not improving over time.

 

[Sacman]

I want to see... uhm... I guess well I can't think of anything I really do enjoy the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series it's my second favorite FPS of all time... it's not that it's perfect I just can't think of something they can completely fix without screwing up what makes the series so good... other than the glitches... so just spruce up the character models and were all good...

Edit:

Put the atmosphere back into it.

Only recently when I've played SoC CS and CoP in succession have I noticed that the core elements of the game seem to be deteriorating a bit. Still very good, but not improving over time.

I know what you mean I was freaking out at the climax of SoC when...

Spoiler

your in that huge Stalker battle running to the collapsed nuclear power plant on a timer than when you get there you hear an eerie Russian man talking in your ear and running through enemy infested claustrophobic dark ruins while slowly dieing from radiation poisoning and lack of armor and healing items...

it was freaking intense... the rest of the series was good but in my opinion it doesn't live up to my first trip through...

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

Spruce up the graphics, improve AI and fix glitches.

THAT.IS.ALL

 

[Vern]

Just optimize the damn engine. I loved the first game. I bought and never completed Clear Sky or Call of Pripyat. My biggest problem is that it seems like depending on the moon cycle and the astrological signs it will either run fine or completely shit out. I've played Stalker just fine on high graphics settings, try to play it a week later and it runs extremely shakily. Then, a week later, it runs fine. They're great games and I love the setting, but they're so un-optimized and buggy it's a hassle to play them.
What really kicked me was when I read that Call of Pripyat was the best version of the engine and it ran better than the first. An absolute crock of shit. I have a quad core 2.4, 6gb ram, Radeon 4770, and it constantly skipped frames and slowed down, even when I put it down to 800x600, turned all dynamic lighting off, reduced visible range, etc. The computer runs Crysis at 1280x1040 with all settings maxed at 30 fps. Not the best system, but it still shows how un-optimized the engine is.
Other than that, I love the difficulty of the games. The weapon accuracy could be adjusted, just because it's a HK G36 doesn't mean it will hit more times than an AK47 when pointed at an enemies chest at point blank range. The original had an odd chance to miss, where you could actually hit an enemey and miss, but the enemy was balanced with the same handicap. Increasing your chance to hit would increase the enemies chance to hit, so increasing the difficulty would be an advantage and a disadvantage which seems off to me. It seemed like Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat kind of fixed this which is a good start.
So if they could fix the buggy, temperamental engine, and balance the shooting aspect they could hit it out of the park. The atmosphere is almost unparalleled, the character design is great, and the weapons are fun to use.

 

[Weaver]

Make sure the game is ready for release.
The first stalker upon release was IMMENSELY unoptimized and extraordinarily buggy. It was patched over several years to finally get it in to an acceptable state. Even then, you're still best off applying some community mods after the fact to fix up the stuff they didn't bother doing. This shouldn't happen.

Anyways, I just don't want Stalker 2 released as a trainwreck in motion.

edit: Also all the anomalies from the first one just pissed me off, throwing bolts all over the place (what up with that anyways?) was pointless busy work in my opinion.

 

[Arachon]

edit: Also all the anomalies from the first one just pissed me off, throwing bolts all over the place (what up with that anyways?) was pointless busy work in my opinion.

The hell are you on about? Anomlaies was a core part of STALKER.

It'd be cool if they did something with the arficats, say, something similar to the "artifact alchemy" found in several mods, where you can combine aritfacts with eachother or certain anomalies to create new, different, artifacts.

 

[Weaver]

edit: Also all the anomalies from the first one just pissed me off, throwing bolts all over the place (what up with that anyways?) was pointless busy work in my opinion.

The hell are you on about? Anomlaies was a core part of STALKER.

It'd be cool if they did something with the arficats, say, something similar to the "artifact alchemy" found in several mods, where you can combine aritfacts with eachother or certain anomalies to create new, different, artifacts.

I guess I should state that I didn't like Stalker that much

 

[Arachon]

I guess I should state that I didn't like Stalker that much

Oh D: Well I suppose that explains it then...

 

[Catalysis]

What really kicked me was when I read that Call of Pripyat was the best version of the engine and it ran better than the first. An absolute crock of shit. I have a quad core 2.4, 6gb ram, Radeon 4770, and it constantly skipped frames and slowed down, even when I put it down to 800x600, turned all dynamic lighting off, reduced visible range, etc. The computer runs Crysis at 1280x1040 with all settings maxed

Funny you should say that. I've been playing CoP and after I created this topic I fired up Pripyat only to have it CTD at the first publisher video during the intro. It worked perfectly fine for a week and the moment after I

ugggghhh.

And Clear Sky broke itself too. For fucks sake.


One thing I'd like to see is a small improvement in the dialogue. Most of it is just fine but having to hear "Don't just stand there spill de beens" 50 times is 49.5 times too much.

 

[Catalysis]

I guess I should state that I didn't like Stalker that much

Actually its your opinion I'm interested in.

 

[Weaver]

I guess I should state that I didn't like Stalker that much

Actually its your opinion I'm interested in.

What would you like to know? If there's one thing I'm good at it's spouting off my opinion

 

[PatrickXD]

I'd say... console release. That's what I want more than anything. I just have no damned money, the cheapest good PC I can find at the moment is about £700 without a monitor keyboard etc. So a console release would both bring more attention to a widely unheard of gem and, of course, more money!

 

[Catalysis]

Good news for you then Patrick.

"GSC Game World announces S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 ? the official sequel to best-selling game series ? in development now. A completely new multi-platform technology developed by GSC will make the core of the game."

Chances are it'll be available for console.


Also I figured out why Call of Pripyat decided to stop working. Gamespy is down. Theres what I want to see fixed: Drop gamespy.

 

[Weaver]

I'd say... console release. That's what I want more than anything. I just have no damned money, the cheapest good PC I can find at the moment is about £700 without a monitor keyboard etc. So a console release would both bring more attention to a widely unheard of gem and, of course, more money!

We may actually see this! Apparently their Stalker 2 engine is multi-platform for which I assume means they're going to be bringing it to consoles... unless they want a linux and mac version or something.

edit: Catalysis you ninja'd me!

 

[hansg]

One of my favorite game series of all time has to be STALKER. From the vicious difficulty to the original setting, there are few points that I don't absolutely love. However, there are a few points where improvement is necessary.

Your thoughts?

New setting. We have seen the Chernobyl setting (and storyline) now, it is beautiful, but it is time for something new. Half Life could do it; I'm sure Stalker can do the same.

The problem with the existing setting is that the story ended at the end of SoC. The other two games lack the suspense, the feeling of venturing into the unknown. My favorite level was the Yantar base and lab underneath. With the screen turning yellow and the sound changing, I really though I was having my mind scorched there... I missed such spectacular maps in the other two games, especially since we now know exactly what lies at the centre of the zone. A new setting, with a new mystery - that is what we need.

 

[Doc Shaftoe]

STALKER is unparalleled in terms of atmosphere. The only game I can think of that comes close is Metro 2033, which was took some cues from the STALKER series (fantastic book too, read it if you get a chance).

Honestly the only way they could make STALKER more engaging would be to introduce the level of immersion found in Metro 2033. Going through your inventory would have to be more than just pausing the game and bringing up a menu. It would happen in real time, and you'd have to go through your pack. I really enjoyed the real-time immersive aspects of Metro 2033.

To me, what made STALKER so unique was its blend of exploration and shooter gameplay. Some missions revolve entirely around moving your way through a dark, creepy corridor hearing sounds in the distance and knowing that you are going to have to deal with whatever is making them. Or just trying to find the key-code to the locked door while dodging poltergeists.

Part of what I enjoyed so much about STALKER was the suspense of that first playthrough. Especially once you have to take on Blood Suckers. Being out in the middle of the zone at night, hearing a Blood Sucker or a Snork growl, whirling around to find nothing there. Not really knowing what the hell was going on was a big part of the game for me. It fit with the story too.

I never played Clear Sky, it won't run on my computer. Which is odd seeing as how both the original and Call of Pripyat work.

Pripyat's investigation based missions worked to a certain extent. Trying to solve a mystery was good fun, but it just lacked the length and mystery of SoC.

Something that would make the game more enjoyable for me would be the addition of another character in the campaign. By which I mean Coop. While there is a certain point in the game where you've eventually got enough ammo and armor to dominate anything that gets in your path, there were plenty of encounters in the game that would have been impossible without allies. Being able to form your own group of Stalkers and just survive while exploring the Zone would be tremendous fun.

The following is just something I really wish would happen. A game world the size of the playable area in Red Dead Redemption, maybe even bigger. No loading screens between areas or buildings, etc in addition to a complete underground. I just enjoyed the hell out of Metro 2033, and part of me really wants to replicate that feeling of oppression while moving through the post-apocalyptic metro lines.

Also, I really liked the weapon customization in CoP. Maybe a more fleshed out version of that?