Reply With QuoteI'm with you, Piggy. I was so looking forward to this, but in view of all the problems/glitches I think I'll put LA on the back burner til things get sorted out. I just hope the devs are on top of it.
Yeh after reading the comments I think I will wait for a while until it hopefully becomes more stable.
I'm with you, Piggy. I was so looking forward to this, but in view of all the problems/glitches I think I'll put LA on the back burner til things get sorted out. I just hope the devs are on top of it.
Indeed, cos after reading some of the early impressions, this sounds bloody well awesome. Got a real hankering for some more Zone action. I mean CoP was good, but it didnt reach the same heights as the original, that feeling of being somewhere strange and beautiful.
And dangerous.
Had to try it (even while knowing that my saves will be broken ~soon by patches).
Awesome ... except that is quite buggy, but it was not supposed to be ready so that is understandable.
Some observations:
* the threats (count and variety) of the zone (anomalies and mobs) seems to have gone up considerably(highlight: getting nibbled to death by a herd of rats ... instant flashback to one of the videos in original game)
* the threat and abundance of human opponents seems to have gone down
* much more crap to explore (even the first area has a tunnel system connecting various places)
* visually pretty much completely redone - most places do not have anything in common with the original places
* additional game mechanics added - liking all of them so far
... just wish it would crash less.
Last edited by zombe; 22nd May 2014 at 12:37.
Thanks for the review, zombe! I've been waiting to hear more details about LA and am glad that a patch is being released to fix most (if not all) of the problems. I think I'll wait til all the bugs are ironed out before d/ling this one, though I'm really impatient to start playing it!
Very true. I have so far spent about 8 hours on the game. Have explored about 5 maps, and sort of been rushing through them to test out the story line for Dez.Originally Posted by zombe
Had to try it (even while knowing that my saves will be broken ~soon by patches).
Awesome ... except that is quite buggy, but it was not supposed to be ready so that is understandable.
Some observations:
* the threats (count and variety) of the zone (anomalies and mobs) seems to have gone up considerably
* the threat and abundance of human opponents seems to have gone down
* much more crap to explore (even the first area has a tunnel system connecting various places)
* visually pretty much completely redone - most places do not have anything in common with the original places
* additional game mechanics added - liking all of them so far
... just wish it would crash less.
Here are a couple of other things that are worth mentioning:
* To find the BAR in Rostok is not easy. When you see where the original sign for the 100 Rads bar used to be, just turn left and then go around the corner of the shed there. Finding the entrance to Rostok is a completely different story.
* Bandages are a lot more rare now, so using medkits more is not uncommon.
* Stalkers will sell stash locations or info for a price. Chat to them on your PDA to find out more.
* Ammo, keep it all! Stash it along the way as you explore. As you will always at some point come back and it's just a pain when you run out of ammo. However this is focused on your main weapon. Your secondary (in my opinion) does not need as much ammo.
*Remember to attach ammo to your belt, or else you will get into a bit of trouble when in a fire fight.
*Vehicles:
Keep all fuel cannisters you can find.
Vehicles can turn over very fast, so be careful.
Most vehicles can be damaged very fast, so also be careful about driving into anomalies or anything really.
Stick to the roads! Vehicles can stall, so try not to get stuck and play around with gears.
Driving with manual gear shifts is much easier actually.
There will be some drivable vehicles on some maps, when you find a car, store it somewhere!
Don't keep the throttle down as it'll use much more fuel this way, rather "coast" the car. Gravity can be a handy thing.
I cannot state this enough, STAY AWAY FROM ANOMALIES when in a vehicle.
Helicopters will do a lot of damage to a vehicle very fast. So drive with evasion in mind. When you do get hit, get out of the car, run to the boot and fix the car. For now fixing a vehicle does not cost anything!
*When on foot, and a helicopter notices you, you will die fast. So look for shelter ASAP.
*Selling weapons can be worth it, so think mule and use that 50kg weight limit.
I'm not focusing on the story too much. Rather focusing on finding errors / bugs. So I have been playing with a different state of mind. And so far it has been amazing. Almost all maps have an underground area, and it's almost always a very large underground area. Go explore and enjoy how amazing some of these underground areas look!
I'll add more details when I can.
Dia I'd recommend you download it now, and then the updates as they arrive. Then start playing it when you feel like it.
For now I think it will take a while before all the bugs get fixed. It seems like as soon as Dezowave released the game many of the members took a break. So it's vintorez and Dez doing most of the work with Tejas helping out where he can. I promise you though, even in it's current state: The game is amazing.
Just save frequently, and think logically.
One more tip that might be worth mentioning:
Just because an NPC is showing up RED on your minimap / PDA does not mean that it will attack you. So don't go on a killing spree. Read all the messages that come through but still keep your weapon at hand.
Thanks for the tips, Axon! I'll probably be downloading it today when I have a chance. Thanks again.
It's a pleasure.
If I can think of any more tips I will post them here.
*Try and keep all mutant parts and artifacts. As later in the game you get a artifact merger device... keep this in mind. And also mutant parts sell for a lot in Yantar.
Having played it for a while ... a long while. So, in no particular order, my thoughts:
I strongly recommend waiting for a patch - that said, it is still fun when you are willing to get your hands dirty hunting for game-breaking-bug workarounds and such. It is very-very buggy (~early access stuff ... afaik they released the early access as some, more broken, build leaked) with lots of gameplay issues (your Google-fu needs to be strong).
* going from DX10 to DX9 solved nearly all crashes ... but, DX10 was quite broken anyway.
* various UI actions will crash the game
* ... repair / upgrade: using third party hotfixes to fix some of it.
* ... nearby contacts list still crashes: don't need to know anyway
* artifact merging: cannot use as the UI just does not work.
* over time your inventory gets polluted with undroppable garbage: regularly upping my carry limit to compensate.
* certain big event in the bar area is broken - game breaking. Need to get a third party bugfix installed before entering the area (event time, does not matter on earlier visits) - no ingame workarounds.
* need to use no-clip (frequently) and god mode every now and then to work around bugs.
* used memory scan based cheat tool to return money that gets lost when you get jailed (the wrong amount of money gets returned).
- The Good -
* surprisingly pretty
* quite big ... to say the least
* just awesome atmosphere
* reasonable amount of human opponents (few and logically local)
* the belt ...
* upgrading ... excellent money sink.
* sleeping bag ... quite useful.
- The Bad -
* all ingame cutscenes are just terrible (some deep in fan-wank territory) ...
* ... also broken. If you stand in the wrong place when it triggers then all hell breaks loose (pretty much always unrecoverably - so, save often as you do not know when you hit a cutscene trigger).
* not enough side missions to fill the absolutely pointless story forced traveling, a'la:
1. dude X sends you to C ...
2. you go A->B->C ... oh, you do not have a key - go ask dude X for a key ...
3. grrr ... C->B->A ... "give me the fucking key you shitstick" ...
4. A->B->C ... and the maps are huge and throughly explored at that point. It's really-really stupid.
* the chopter chase ... fuck that shit. Just shoot it down. Get a car as for a while you get sent around all over the place doing pretty much nothing along the way nor in any of the destinations ... it is just a forced game mechanic.
- The Ugly -
* all the artifacts you find in the wild are garbage compared to what you find by other means
* lack of merchants (the ones that sell stuff).
* empty space (missing anomalies / useless loot).
Areas so far:
* Gordon: the starting area
* Garbage: does not look even remotely like the original ... much better. Original had a massive f* war in here and lots of bland landscapes - not any more.
* Agroprom Res. Ins.: Mostly unchanged, but better. Somewhy the all important stash is not in a hidden location anymore.
* Great metal factory ... good luck finding the fucking Bar (follow the road and notice the two "Bar" signs ... too bad i arrived at night). The lack of shortcuts (especially exit) is rather silly.
* Construction site: nice, but with some gameplay issues.
* Dark Valley: failed the infiltration mission and opted to sneak-kill every bandit ... lots of fun. X18 is different, hard to say whether it is better of worse.
* Darkscape: let the pointless running around continue and escalate to new aggravating heights. And fuck Sin. Some nice places on this map and an awesome unmarked stash.
* Forest: skipped it entirely :/
* Lake Yantar: somewhy, i really like this map ... this map having one of the upgraders is an additional bonus.
* Great Swamps: another good map i highly enyoyed. PS: being mean to Military does not break any scripts
* Dead City: lots of ridiculously powerful artifacts found in the pockets of the recently deceased.
* Army Warehouse: one of the extremely few "nice" cutscenes ... which unfortunately teleports you to where you normally would not be. Very jarring. Some good pocket-artifacts around - do not leave behind.
* Countryside: pretty.
* Concrete factory: pretty much unchanged. Lots of bugs. Cannot say anything good about it - you will see.
* Radar: annoying. Only rushed through the first time. Just returned to it ... so, dunno what follows.
* V.I.Lenin ChNPP: not been there.
* Pripyat City: not been there.
* Chernobyl: not been there.
... oh, and there apparently are artifacts with +10% bulletproof cap (+ other stuff and no negative stats). At least i got one.
Thanks for the lengthy writeup.
I cannot progress past the Agroprom Research Facility, during the fight with the military there my game always crashes in different places .... (no matter which settings/renderer I use) so I visited
a few of the other maps and I can agree ... some quests are really bad, repetetive and unnecessary filler.
But I have to disagree that the contact list is useless....I always toggle it during fights to check how many enemies/alllies are still left.
Lost Alpha reminded me how much I use the feature when I accidently crash the game every few minutes...
I unassigned the key in the options now
My workaround for the pda crashing bug is whenever I use the PDA, to open all tabs from left to right and not to jump to a specific tab. That helps for me.Thanks for the lengthy writeup.
I cannot progress past the Agroprom Research Facility, during the fight with the military there my game always crashes in different places .... (no matter which settings/renderer I use) so I visited
a few of the other maps and I can agree ... some quests are really bad, repetetive and unnecessary filler.
But I have to disagree that the contact list is useless....I always toggle it during fights to check how many enemies/alllies are still left.
Lost Alpha reminded me how much I use the feature when I accidently crash the game every few minutes...
I unassigned the key in the options now
Otherwise I didn't get any crashes at Agroprom. In fact I have not had a crash related to levels / graphics / AI / scripts in a long time.
Then again I have tested this game a lot on alpha. So maybe it's that I just approach everything differently.
I'd like to mention that it's a really nice feeling to run the credits in the game and see your name among them. Feels good!
Well, then let me thank you for investing your time into this project, I really enjoyed my limited playtime.
Well I really hope we get to a more stable release soon.
In all honesty the other members of the team deserve more gratitude. I only tested. People like Bradley gave up time with his wife to help out with development. And let's not mention Dezodor who worked on map editing, music, cinematics and engine optimization. Those two were the foundation, but they could not have done it without people like liquidbronze and Cromm who both added a lot to the atmosphere...
I wish I could actually afford to donate to them.
I used the front-entrance-bulletspray-till-noone-is-left approach ... no issues for me. Most of the bugs seem to only affect a small subsection of people - which is terrible from debugging perspective :/.
Not that it is useless, just that from immersion perspective i have found that i do not actually need it. Well ... speaking of which ...
LOL, yeah, did the same after several crashes.Lost Alpha reminded me how much I use the feature when I accidently crash the game every few minutes... I unassigned the key in the options now
I get some random crashes every-now-and-then ... tried to report them (ie. did not find them is the bugtracking thread), but the built in report tool does not work and the forum registration system does not work for me either.
Currently busy with other stuff, but if i encounter something interesting - i will bother you as a proxy :biggrin:. Terribly sorry.
That's fine. I can see if I might have a bit more luck reporting it or even just helping you out if possible.
Okay, so I d/l'd all four parts (plus the patch) and for the last several hours have been having a BLAST!!! I LOVE THIS MOD!!! It's only crashed on me twice, and other than the fact that I'm at the Hangar in Garbage and can't find Seriy (no idea where to look for Mole), I've had no problems other than the couple of crashes. It hasn't crashed in the past two hours, so I'm really enjoying myself! Graphics are GREAT, and LA is just as immersive as the other Stalker games.
I've tried finding some kind of walkthrough for LA, to no avail;I'd like to know some details like where can I find Seriy/Mole. Otherwise, I'm enjoying this tremendously!
EDIT: Oooops! Just found Seriy, but alas, he's dead as a doorknob (his body was kind of hidden in some scrub brush, which is why I had a hard time finding him - I was looking for a living Seriy). But I got a new mission to find Mole in Agroprom, so it looks like I can continue. Onward!
Kudos to all who had a hand in creating LA; you guys did good!
Last edited by Dia; 2nd Jun 2014 at 22:05.
Sounds awesome! If you don't feel like waiting on the new patch, I would recommend you just download some community patches as they do a pretty good job at fixing a lot of issues.Okay, so I d/l'd all four parts (plus the patch) and for the last several hours have been having a BLAST!!! I LOVE THIS MOD!!! It's only crashed on me twice, and other than the fact that I'm at the Hangar in Garbage and can't find Seriy (no idea where to look for Mole), I've had no problems other than the couple of crashes. It hasn't crashed in the past two hours, so I'm really enjoying myself! Graphics are GREAT, and LA is just as immersive as the other Stalker games.
I've tried finding some kind of walkthrough for LA, to no avail;I'd like to know some details like where can I find Seriy/Mole. Otherwise, I'm enjoying this tremendously!
EDIT: Oooops! Just found Seriy, but alas, he's dead as a doorknob (his body was kind of hidden in some scrub brush, which is why I had a hard time finding him - I was looking for a living Seriy). But I got a new mission to find Mole in Agroprom, so it looks like I can continue. Onward!
Kudos to all who had a hand in creating LA; you guys did good!
The game will get more confusing, but in LA the first thing to keep in mind is: EXPLORE!
Go around every corner and try to open every door you see. Some work, some don't, but in this game exploring is always worth it. It'll also take some patience.
I'm not quite happy with how the game currently explains certain missions to you, as it's not very friendly towards new players. So looking into that for now.
Have fun Dia! See you on the flip side.
Thanks Axon! I really am enjoying LA! Had to quit for bedtime last night, but I did encounter a glitch where I finally found Mole, but couldn't initiate a conversation with him. I'm going back in today but will load from a previous save (where I'm just entering Agroprom) and see if that solves the Mole problem.
As far as crashes go, mine seem to happen after I've minimized the game to my task bar and let it stay minimized while I go about other things. The crashes happen after the game has been minimized for more than an hour or so, so I think that has much to do with causing the crashes. No real problem, though. I just fire her up again and get on with the game.
I really am enjoying this!
Good! Enjoy it.Thanks Axon! I really am enjoying LA! Had to quit for bedtime last night, but I did encounter a glitch where I finally found Mole, but couldn't initiate a conversation with him. I'm going back in today but will load from a previous save (where I'm just entering Agroprom) and see if that solves the Mole problem.
As far as crashes go, mine seem to happen after I've minimized the game to my task bar and let it stay minimized while I go about other things. The crashes happen after the game has been minimized for more than an hour or so, so I think that has much to do with causing the crashes. No real problem, though. I just fire her up again and get on with the game.
I really am enjoying this!
Downloaded it earlier today and I'm really enjoying it. Haven't had any crashes so far (fingers crossed) though a military goon sank through a stairwell in Agroprom, I found him casually loitering around below. So I stabbed him.
Like Zombe I couldn't find the entrance to the Bar very easily, and found the roundabout route to get in rather annoying, really needs a shortcut, especially if you're heading to the Garbage.
I'm a little stuck in the Dark Valley at the moment: I'm supposed to find a bandit outfit at some nearby underground ruin, but I haven't been given any directions nor a map marker. Anyone know where I'm supposed to go?
:edit:
Nevermind, found the bugger. There was a caved in tunnel in the NE of the map, I could see the bodies on my PDA map and the entrance was nearby.
Last edited by driver; 4th Jun 2014 at 17:58.
Like I keep saying: Objectives are not very clear and spot on. So the trick to really enjoying this game is:
1. Explore the whole map, almost every map has a very large underground section. And it's always worth exploring.
2. Keep the PDA's Chat history close at hand as conversations with NPC'sare important and always reveal more to the mission than the actual objectives.
3. Read carefully what the NPC tell you.
4. If the enemy is red, it does not mean that he will shoot you on sight. Keep that in mind, quick save before approaching said target. And if he does shoot you, kill him. If not, try to talk to him.
@driver: I found the following site that gives some pretty valid 'tips' for playing LA. The tips have helped me greatly.
http://pastebin.com/cuKwQkeE
P.S. I never did find that underground entrance with all the dead Bandits (in Dark Valley) and ended up reloading from a previous save in Rostok so I could just buy a stupid Bandit outfit and be done with it.
Thanks Dia, that link answered my next question: How do I get out of this f-ing jeep?
Lol.
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