Clear Sky: entering Cordon

[Bakerman]

I recently got Clear Sky and I just reached Cordon. I'm actually loving it so far - I picked the game up at a time when I was longing for some Stalker-style combat, so the combat focus of the game suits me fine. However. I'm playing it at Master difficulty, so maybe I have no right to complain, but is it just me, or is your entry into Cordon past the military outpost a massive dick move on GSC's part? I tried it about four times, getting mowed down by that insane machine gun post every time. The first time it actually killed me through that thick tree near the entrance to the area.

I basically gave up, and went back to the swamps, to the other Cordon entrance, then managed to jump the fence on top of the railway embankment (because the stalkers guarding the bridge and tunnel were hostile) to get to Sidorovich.

This strikes me as not being what GSC intended... but I found it impossible to deal with the soldiers at the outpost. That said, I was quite pleased that a. I managed to find an alternate solution and b. the alternate solution didn't horribly break the game .

Anyone know what the deal is?

[Muzman]

No, even on lower difficulties it is a severe pain in the arse. Even if you manage to last a while they send troops out to get you while you hide. It's horrid.
Basically you have to deal with the line of sight really well. There's a tree or two you can keep between you and the gunner as you approach. Then there's a big outcrop of rocks which you wait behind (I think).

Around there somehwere you'll be able to see there's a gap under the big fallen tree to your left with a crate. DON'T try and crawl under there. You will get stuck and swiss cheesed almost every time. From memory around there somewhere there's another gap and you can cut straight back up the hill and be on the other side of the fence, free to continue to the village. I can't remember exactly how this works off the top of my head. But even knowing the right way you'll still probably die a couple of times in the attempt and won't avoid getting shot entirely.

Edit; yep, I just checked it. You go towards the big fallen tree and run back up the hill. It's hard to see that that's where the fence stops until you run over there.

[Koki]

There's also another way into Cordon, but if you go there you will need to sneak to Sid or Stalkers will shoot you on sight.

[Bakerman]

Edit; yep, I just checked it. You go towards the big fallen tree and run back up the hill. It's hard to see that that's where the fence stops until you run over there.

Yeah, I've just taken to avoiding that route. It's easy enough to dodge the renegades in the Swamps, and come out right near the stalker base. Makes getting to Sid a bit of a pain, since I sell most of my really juicy loot there (other traders don't seem to be giving me good prices).

There's also another way into Cordon, but if you go there you will need to sneak to Sid or Stalkers will shoot you on sight.

Yup, got it

So I started off really liking this game, until I got to the Garbage. Then, after 'accidentally' becoming enemies with the bandits, I really started to hate the game. The bandits seem to be the major offenders in the grenade spam thing that goes on, and to boot, though I had both a TRS-301 with scope and the IL-86 (I think; the NATO one), I was always less accurate than the bandits.

Just made the whole thing a terrible pain. Especially with the stupid number of bandits that hang around the Garbage, I was getting nowhere fast (current objective is following Fang to Agroprom).

Does anyone know if you can get to Agroprom via the swamps? I went that way in the middle of the night, but got turned around with the message 'you need a guide to show you through the swamps'. The little level transition arrow has reappeared on the map now though (during daytime), so I might try that again instead of braving the bandits.

Also, protip for myself: repair and upgrades are important. I felt like I couldn't hit anything with my TRS, not when scoped - but after repairing it and applying a 10% accuracy upgrade, I'm getting headshots like a pro. Makes dealing with bandits much easier.

I also had a windfall - came across a bunch of guns on the ground around one of the Stalker outposts in Cordon, including a Vintar. I will be having some fun applying it to bandits in the near future.

One final note: artefact hunting is awesome. I never bothered with it until about 12 hours in, because of the massive radiation that I really didn't want to deal with. But now I'm all stocked up on vodka and antirads I can justify it, and boy is it a rush.

(Selling artefacts to Sidorovich netted me my first SEVA suit... *fist pump*)

[Muzman]

I've heard people complain about it before, but I've never really had a problem with grenade spam that I can recall. My recent playthrough it's definitely not a problem, but that might be because I've got Complete installed and they fixed it. But I don't remember it from my vanilla runs either.

What's fun, if you want to play it like that, is joining the Stalkers and waging war on the bandits, so you've got some support (they seem to do it the best. Duty kick their arse, but don't take over their base from what I've seen). That tends to keep their numbers pretty small in Garbage.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure there is a path to Agroprom from Swamps but it doesn't open up until you do some missions for Duty, maybe the Underground mission.

[Bakerman]

I've heard people complain about it before, but I've never really had a problem with grenade spam that I can recall..

Lucky . I've downloaded Complete, but I really want to do a vanilla run through. Goodness knows why, though...

I managed to take out the bandits at the depot, but, sure enough, the Stalkers couldn't seem to care less, and about three minutes after I left to get my reward (a SEVA suit... lol), the bandits repopulated it.

I mean... to be totally honest, I think the STALKER series could be the best shooters out there if GSC just got their act together. The fight for the depot was amazingly fun and tense - and having fought through a few bandit mobs to get there, I was down to using scavenged pistol ammo to finish off the last of them. The thing I love about STALKER is that it offers you no help as a player - but that's one thing, deliberately and maliciously ignoring you is another. When I take out 17 bandits without dying, I don't want to have to do it again next time I feel like crossing the garbage!

Ugh. Rant over . I'm looking forward to Call of Pripyat... from what I've heard of it!

Also... I've finally got a radiation-dispersing artefact as a reward for killing the bandits. Time to start making use of artefacts . It was all I could do not to sell it - Sidorovich was giving me 10800 for it. But I'm filthy rich by now anyway. Just naturally a miser...

[Muzman]

Well you don't have to kill them all every time you go over there.
It can take some coaxing to get the stalkers to properly occupy the base. They have to occupy all the various camps around the Hanger first (most of the priority ones will be mentioned in the faction war page I think). Once they do they'll often launch the assault themselves. Win that fight and they move in.
The bandits still come back sometimes. But the guys can often surpress them by themselves, which is handy.

[Bakerman]

No, that's true. I just feel it necessary. Also, having freedom of movement around the area would be nice . I guess not having captured the side-camps is the issue, but I was given the 'we've secured the garbage, now take out their base!' mission as soon as Stalkers captured the two entrance points from Cordon. And managed to complete it, and get my reward. And now bandits have retaken the depot, and the mission's appeared again. I think I'm just gonna ignore it this time...

[242]

This strikes me as not being what GSC intended...

I believe it was intended. They clearly wanted to make player search for another way after he/she realizes the one with the machine gun is virtually unpassable.

[Bakerman]

Problem is, there isn't really another way, unless you count a lucky jump over a fence in the middle of nowhere (I walked all the way east to where the gap in the fence was in SoC). Unless it's possible to blitz the Stalkers without getting killed, but that doesn't seem to be any better of an idea than braving the minigun. And when you arrive, Sidorovich seems to assume you've outwitted the military.

Aside: I have now made my TRS into an awesome, unstoppable killing machine of headshottingness. Though it's a moot point against those grenades .

EDIT: Quote for SoC: "Get out of here, Stalker!" Quote for CS: "Vam, bam, thank you, Mercenary!"

[Koki]

I believe it was intended.

That's because you're a fanboy.

[Muzman]

No, that's true. I just feel it necessary.

Have some pity. They've generally only got pistols and shotguns and can't hit the broad side of a barn at ten paces. Unless you've got to go through them to get to a crossing point or something, just keep walking.

What's more fun is trying to join the bandits. Haven't quite managed it yet.

[242]

That's because you're a fanboy.

Oh Koki, FYI, I'm not interested in Stalker anymore. Hopelessly degraded to console games.

[Bakerman]

Have some pity.

The bastards took near on 10,000 ru from me when I first entered the Garbage... call me vindictive . I've actually found them to be quite a threat anywhere off that main road - although now the ones at the vehicle graveyard are gone for good it's a bit easier. But yes, the lack of decent loot is a good deterrent. Those ones in the Dark Valley, though - wow. The garage is still littered with scoped TRSes from that fight .

[Koki]

Oh Koki, FYI, I'm not interested in Stalker anymore. Hopelessly degraded to console games.

As if that's news.

[Dia]

I quit!!! I've been struggling to play Clear Sky (retail version) for the past week and this is the joy I've experienced with this damned game:

- After 3 re-installs I attempted to patch the game (using different patch versions each time) but the patches only served to bog down the game to the point where it was unplayable.

- Having the objectives to stand at designated points at the entryways to Garbage waiting for relief that never comes no matter how long you stand there (I was up to about an hour - I just let the game run while I did other stuff - nothing happened).

- Getting robbed (and probably raped) by the bandits in the underground room at the Flea Market afterwhich I had nothing but a pistol and little ammo. I tried dumping all my weapons, gear, and items before I went down to the room at the Flea Market thinking to come back & collect it all again so at least I'd have most of my stuff, but due to a glitch that I read about, the game freezes and crashes if you try to unload too much stuff, so you're still pretty much left with nothing and still have to try to make it thru the bandits to get to Agroprom with almost nothing but a smile.

- Losing the objective to go to Agroprom to find the Stalkers' stash (I haven't read ahead, so I realize this objective may return once I find a way underground?). It was frustrating though because said objective disappeared when I finally waded thru hordes of bandits and actually made it to Agroprom because I ran very, very fast only to realize that upon FINALLY reaching Agroprom (it took about five reloads) I had zero cash, one lousy pistol and about 3 bullets. It's a good thing there were a lot of dead guys lying about so I could loot their corpses.

- Upon reaching Agroprom, though I had the objective to go talk to Duty, it was impossible to do so since I had to repeatedly repel bandits and mutants from the Stalker base there.

- I completed all the missions that Freedom gave me, but they STILL wouldn't let me join.

- Even though I had 12958 ru., Sid wouldn't sell me the Berill-5M suit that cost 12500 - the game kept telling me I didn't have enough cash.


So yeah; I quit!

Afaic, this game is damn near unplayable!

My Gawd! This game makes SoC look like a walk in the park!!!

Rant over. Now I can go to bed.

[Muzman]

Sounds annoying indeed. I can't remember half of the circumstances for this stuff to help much. One thing is you probably do need all the patches. There is a point where something funny happens to the graphics and everything slows down, but it's actually fine if you're not using the latest drivers (at least, this was true of nvidia cards). I can't remember what version was appropriate but ...yeah, it would have been back a ways.

Never heard of that crash when you drop stuff, fortunately. Is it just when you drop it on the ground? What happens if you go stash it in a box in one of the nearby camps?

Clear sky also gives you a realistic fog of war sim in that you will get orders to await reinforcements or hold a position that are clearly insane or never actually eventuate. Best thing to do is use your discretion and bugger off and do something else sooner rather than later
It really is pretty random when they'll come. If you don't see a squad head out from the base on the map after a few minutes, give up and go. You seem to need more than one camp in an area to be cleared to encourage any movement (and then it's usually the bandits who take off first).

[Vernon]

Sad to hear it didn't work out. Clear sky is a cruel, brutal and retarded mistress. Yet it has its rewards - the set pieces are to die for.

- After 3 re-installs I attempted to patch the game (using different patch versions each time) but the patches only served to bog down the game to the point where it was unplayable.

For performance, I recommend this guide. It will help you configure the shader settings and stuff.

Also Sky Reclamation Project is essential. Bugfixes-only fan patch. Should be official.

- Having the objectives to stand at designated points at the entryways to Garbage waiting for relief that never comes no matter how long you stand there (I was up to about an hour - I just let the game run while I did other stuff - nothing happened).

The scripts get stuck. Are you talking about the path from Cordon to Garbage? The Loner faction only want to clear that path. Their ambitions end there. they won't take out the bandit camp. I think only duty will do that if you join them (Freedom definitely don't).

You can get a mod to 'unstick' the scripts but with freedom, one way to jig them into working is by killing all the duty guys (they appear in the middle of the map too near the mine), then leaving the map and returning.

Factions are broken. If you join Freedom, you can use the quests for material gain alone. Every time you retake a point, you get a decent reward that can be spent on an exo/sniper rifle or whatever. Then hit the main quest if you can't take the Duty base

- Getting robbed (and probably raped) by the bandits in the underground room at the Flea Market afterwhich I had nothing but a pistol and little ammo. I tried dumping all my weapons, gear, and items before I went down to the room at the Flea Market thinking to come back & collect it all again so at least I'd have most of my stuff, but due to a glitch that I read about, the game freezes and crashes if you try to unload too much stuff, so you're still pretty much left with nothing and still have to try to make it thru the bandits to get to Agroprom with almost nothing but a smile.

You get the stuff back - some bandits stash it nearby and you get a quest to get it back. Sorry if that spoilt it for you but it sounds like you're past caring anyway. :P The item dropping glitch sounds like a bug. never happened for me. You need to be fully patched and using the reclamation pack at the very least if you want to play this again. Protip spend all your money before the bandits rob you.

- Losing the objective to go to Agroprom to find the Stalkers' stash (I haven't read ahead, so I realize this objective may return once I find a way underground?). It was frustrating though because said objective disappeared when I finally waded thru hordes of bandits and actually made it to Agroprom because I ran very, very fast only to realize that upon FINALLY reaching Agroprom (it took about five reloads) I had zero cash, one lousy pistol and about 3 bullets. It's a good thing there were a lot of dead guys lying about so I could loot their corpses.

Did you go underground? It should be okay. I got the quest from the Duty leader, iirc. He had some other agenda ofc, but helps you get underground

- Upon reaching Agroprom, though I had the objective to go talk to Duty, it was impossible to do so since I had to repeatedly repel bandits and mutants from the Stalker base there.

Seriously just ignore this shit. The stalkers always respawn and you won't lose anything by ignoring them

- I completed all the missions that Freedom gave me, but they STILL wouldn't let me join.

I finished the quest in Yantar before returning to join.

- Even though I had 12958 ru., Sid wouldn't sell me the Berill-5M suit that cost 12500 - the game kept telling me I didn't have enough cash.

Yeah your game is broken.

If you want to retry at any point, hit this thread up or say something on my visitor page. I don't blame you for quitting, but there are ways around. Heaven knows I have struggled to find them.
I only just got past Limansk and I am 53 hours in. No shit. At least that's what Steam says but you have to shave off a lot of that since I accidentally left the game running for a day. Still, it took a long, long time to figure out how to finish the Freedom questline to get the exoskeleton and epic roubles.

I'm a masochist and this game catered for that in spades. If you are willing to give it another go, I would say it is worth it just for the main quest. Hell, install Complete and give that a go. Everyone makes out that it roxors the soxors and fixes third-world malnutririon so why not give that a whirl next time.

Also if you replay it, don't shoot bandits (different from renegades) or you can't access their technician.

[Muzman]

The Loner faction only want to clear that path. Their ambitions end there. they won't take out the bandit camp.

They will, for what it's worth. In fact they're the only faction I've managed to do it with.
Not that it really matters in the scheme of things.
Tooling around in the faction war is one of the more fun aspects (though Dia likely won't beleive it).

Doesn't the bandit's tech and shop still charge like wounded bulls (unless you do a job or two for them, and probably even after). I know they'll still mug you even if you are a friend. I kinda liked that part though. You're still a stranger in the ghetto, no matter what. No honour among thieves etc.

[Vernon]

Hm I couldn't get the loners to do it and was told it was a known bug. Did you play using Complete? That may have fixed it.

Thing about Bandit tech is he is the only one who can upgrade SEVA suit all the way

[Dia]

Sad to hear it didn't work out. Clear sky is a cruel, brutal and retarded mistress. Yet it has its rewards - the set pieces are to die for.

I woke up this a.m. & opened this thread half-expecting to be called 'wuss' and/or 'candy-ass', so your response was like a breath of fresh air! I quit last night out of frustration (& being over-tired), but either I'm very determined to beat this game or I have a nasty OCD.

For performance, I recommend this guide. It will help you configure the shader settings and stuff.

Also Sky Reclamation Project is essential. Bugfixes-only fan patch. Should be official.

I checked out the tweakguides and will have to implement some minor changes. I'm running CS on an older PC (still haven't ordered my new one), so that in itself could lend to bugs & glitches. I've downloaded & installed the SRP mod & will let you know how that works (or if it works, considering that the other three patches I installed gave me an fps of about 1).

The scripts get stuck. Are you talking about the path from Cordon to Garbage? The Loner faction only want to clear that path. Their ambitions end there. they won't take out the bandit camp. I think only duty will do that if you join them (Freedom definitely don't).

There are two points you're supposed to guard; the main path leading to Cordon and the path thru the tunnel to Cordon. Kinda hard to be in 2 places at once, but it didn't matter since nobody came to my rescue, so I left after freeing the Stalker hostages at the vehicle graveyard. I think I'll just stick to the SRP mod for now (if it works) since I've had serious issues with the other official patches I installed (afterwhich I had to re-install the whole game).

You get the stuff back - some bandits stash it nearby and you get a quest to get it back. Sorry if that spoilt it for you but it sounds like you're past caring anyway. :P The item dropping glitch sounds like a bug. never happened for me. You need to be fully patched and using the reclamation pack at the very least if you want to play this again. Protip spend all your money before the bandits rob you.

Thanks for the spoiler Vernon - seriously! You're right, at this point I'd rather know a little more of what's going to happen than to keep wandering aimlessly. I'm going to try to stash my more necessary weapons, ammo, etc. in either an available footlocker or in the inventory of some of the dead bodies lying around the Flea Market. Cheating? Like you said, at this point I'm beyond caring! :P

Did you go underground? It should be okay. I got the quest from the Duty leader, iirc. He had some other agenda ofc, but helps you get underground

I only made it as far as Duty Hdqtrs. in Agroprom the 2nd time I tried to play, then the game crashed & wouldn't load again, so had to re-install & start from scratch.

Seriously just ignore this shit. The stalkers always respawn and you won't lose anything by ignoring them

Just before my last crash last night I'd decided to do just that; that's when I started trying to drop my inventory & the game crashed. I remember reading about this specific glitch; I think it was on the GSC forums.

If you want to retry at any point, hit this thread up or say something on my visitor page. I don't blame you for quitting, but there are ways around. Heaven knows I have struggled to find them.
I only just got past Limansk and I am 53 hours in. No shit. At least that's what Steam says but you have to shave off a lot of that since I accidentally left the game running for a day. Still, it took a long, long time to figure out how to finish the Freedom questline to get the exoskeleton and epic roubles.

I'm a masochist and this game catered for that in spades. If you are willing to give it another go, I would say it is worth it just for the main quest. Hell, install Complete and give that a go. Everyone makes out that it roxors the soxors and fixes third-world malnutririon so why not give that a whirl next time.

Thanks again, Vernon. I'm relieved to hear that I'm not being a big fat cry-baby about this game and that it is a serious bitch. I'm no masochist, but I'm still determined to do my best in order to continue playing this beast.

Also if you replay it, don't shoot bandits (different from renegades) or you can't access their technician.

ermmmm .... they usually don't give me much choice. It seems to always come down to them or me.

On a side note: I was literally laughing out loud while at the Freedom main base listening to the verbal sparring between Ashot and Yar on the loudspeaker!!! I wish the devs would've included more of this since it seems to stop after you've completed a couple of missions for Freedom. The dialog in CS seems to be a tad more interesting than in SoC & CoP.

Thanks again guys! I'll let you know if SRP works. Keep your fingers crossed!

P.S. Another minor complaint I have is that you don't have the option to 'sleep' in CS. I really, really hate wandering around the Zone at night!

[Dia]

Update: Installed SRP and now the game won't even start. I get the initial menu, click on play, get the very first small startup screen, then a small info box flashes onscreen so fast I can't read it, then nothing.

Looks like another uninstall/re-install.


This game is the anti-christ.

[Vernon]

This game is the anti-christ.

Yep it really is hell. I just hit a massive bug at the npp but we'll cross that bridge if and when you come to it.

I think you will need all the patches. Also might sound obvious but you will probably have to delete the gamedata folder before reinstall (probably the whole cs folder to be sure). I don't get your problem with patching. What are your pc specs? What specific issues did you get with the patches? I am playing the straight steam version with srp and the pistol ironsights mod. That is all. you might consider the complete mod but that thing no doubt introduces a whole new bunch of issues.

GOD DAMN YOU GSC. Ugh. I read that the ai scripts are really poorly optimised. I have an i7 2600 with an overclocked custom-cooled radeon 4870 and this game still wanted more. D*nno what your setup is but you are probs gonna have to throw something vaguely decent at it. They put DX 10.1 into this and everything. I can run crysis almost maxed out so what gives. the tweak guuide helps a lot anyway. Anyway, keep on keeping on I will do what I can to help you kick this game to the kerb. ZONE SOLIDARITY 4 LYFE

[Vernon]

two more things. Ashot and Yar was hilarious. Also your savegame will be good for nohing after installing srp (probably)

And btw Muz, I am in complete agreeance abouut the fun you can eke out of the faction wars stuff, broken as it is

[Dia]

I think you will need all the patches. Also might sound obvious but you will probably have to delete the gamedata folder before reinstall (probably the whole cs folder to be sure). I don't get your problem with patching. What are your pc specs? What specific issues did you get with the patches? I am playing the straight steam version with srp and the pistol ironsights mod. That is all. you might consider the complete mod but that thing no doubt introduces a whole new bunch of issues.

I already learned the hard way that the whole 'Deep Silver' folder has to be deleted before a reinstall. My old PC: an AMD Athlon 3200+, 2.20 GHz, 1.50GB; I have an NVIDIA GeForce 6200. (Told ya it was old!)

The problem I have with patches (even the earlier ones) is that the game bogs down and the framerate sinks to just about a frame per second - if that! The latest, SRP, wouldn't even let my game start, no matter what I did. I blame this on my antique system, basically. It might have something to do with the retail version (vs. 1.5.01), I really don't know. Anyhoo, I did another reinstall (with no patches) and the game's running just fine .... even though she really is a royal bitch of a game to begin with. Btw, I successfully transferred all of my gear, etc., to a couple nearby dead bodies' inventories and therefore had all my stuff waiting for me (sans rubles, of course) when the bandits were done with me. (Take that you wench of a game!)

Anyway, keep on keeping on I will do what I can to help you kick this game to the kerb. ZONE SOLIDARITY 4 LYFE

Thanks again, Vernon. I'm taking a (much deserved) break right now before I go down into the Agroprom underground.


I've got a bad feeling about this .........