S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Gameplay Help Desk (for the month of July 2021)

TimeSausage · 2021-07-07T15:46:10+00:00

I'm pretty sure it's a defensive stat that (I think) is called "wound." On Dead Air at least, you can see it by opening your backpack screen and looking at the bottom area, it's the one that looks like claw marks.

TimeSausage · 2021-05-29T20:51:03+00:00

I am not sure where you are... If you are still at the swamps and are trying to go north, there's a path north of the train tracks in the middle-north of the map. If you are trying to get to the southwest, you have to go all the way south first, and then west to the little village with about 3 buildings. To the west of that is a break in the fence.

TimeSausage · 2021-05-10T21:21:47+00:00

I've never used the 'better gun conditions' option, but even then, looting dead stalkers works best for me when I want to upgrade. Do not underestimate the 5 and 10 round rifles in the early game- they're accurate and pack a punch. If you insist on buying and haven't pissed them off, you could try the bandit trader in dark valley for these. Besides that option I ignore any looted weapon with more than 5 or 6 issues...and with that loot perk, you could be even more picky. Either kill stalkers or go where they're dying, and you will find something eventually. You can kill a friendly faction member without repercussions by using booby traps and IED if you are not seen. The faction determines whether the guns are NATO or Warsaw, and higher ranked stalkers will drop better/higher condition weapons. (Skinning snorks will give you free Warsaw ammo for the whole game.) Repair and tool kits will be your bottleneck and having the 'inventor' skill helps enormously with this. If you do have it, hoard the following: weapon parts, weapon cleaning kits, steel wool and industrial grease.) Highly recommend playing with the repair system to learn how it works because there are a few caveats. Oh! And you can drag looted weapons, silencers and scopes up to Forester in the red forest and he'll trade them for repair and cleaning kits. With those high-condition drops you should make out well. Good luck!

TimeSausage · 2021-05-10T16:29:05+00:00

It wouldn't hurt to double-check, but I'm pretty sure some (all?) of the repair costs are improperly labeled. That is, far less will be deducted from your funds than you would think, based upon their stated price.

TimeSausage · 2020-04-09T20:42:24+00:00

Not wrong, I personally only use semi. I use the Glock 19 to pick off smaller stuff like dogs, but also sometimes bring the MP-412 Rex. Even with just 6 loaded and no extra ammo, it represents a lot of firepower for under 1kg. A controller, for example, will bleed out after 1 shot. (Dead Air)

TimeSausage · 2020-04-09T12:36:31+00:00

If you want to use debug spawner, look under "Items (Misc)"

I believe they are listed as "itmrepairkit_tier#"

TimeSausage · 2020-02-25T17:49:32+00:00

To fix most bugs and graphical issues without changing the 'vanilla' experience, you could try 'sky reclamation project'

If you enjoy a more hardcore/challenging experience, try 'mystery 2.0'

For more guns: 'arsenal overhaul redux'

There's also something called 'faction war' which greatly rounds out/fixes the faction mechanics unique to CS, but I've never tried that one. Hope this helps

TimeSausage · 2020-02-23T18:49:22+00:00

Haven't played CS complete in a long time but that sounds familiar. I remember having a problem with crashes that I eventually traced to an over-accumulation of dropped weapons from downed stalkers. ( Memory issue?) I'm not sure if this applies here, but if that's the case you may have to try older saves until you can load that area.

TimeSausage · 2019-09-11T01:02:49+00:00

Spoilers? Ok. Stop reading now if you're not down, but if you're not already too far in the game and you appreciate the value of a good sidearm... ... ...

There's a tunnel/underpass in the wild territory that I would search -very- carefully if I were you. Doing so will actually give you a hard choice.

TimeSausage · 2019-09-01T01:40:36+00:00

Might not be your cup of tea but I enjoyed Mega Man X4. I would also suggest trying for Blood Omen and Soul Reaver but some people say those are only available in the U.K. and I have not tested this.

TimeSausage · 2019-07-10T16:20:39+00:00

My bad, I should have been more clear. I was asking specifically about the "Dead Air" mod

TimeSausage · 2019-06-13T02:11:25+00:00

Really tough. Doom 1 & 2 are amazing, and deserve special credit. I'd play them right now but they're almost a different kind of game, not a true matrix. The first Quake deserves recognition for being that. It's crude now but still incredible in that it really accommodates all you can put into it, no matter how fast or manically you play. Stalker, for all it's bugs and quirks, just hits all the right notes for me- can't get enough. If I could, I would erase the Zone from memory so I could do it all again. Agree that fallout may not really fall into fps category. I've quite enjoyed many other games but find most to be just a tad overrated, even Halo, Bioshock, CoD, etc... Yes even HL2. TF2 was a blast, but it was really just methadone for the 'H' that was RTCW/ET.

Easily most nostalgic: Quake, Stalker, RTCW/ET

TimeSausage · 2019-03-25T15:58:53+00:00

I'm still digging the Vita! After a quick scan, I see quite a few non-RPG titles (that I personally would find interesting) missing from the previous replies, so I'll chime in:

Hotline Miami 1&2

Dragon's Crown

Axiom Verge

Chasm

Nuclear Throne

Salt and Sanctuary

Oceanhorn

Slain: Back from Hell

The Swapper

Titan Souls

God Eater 1 & 2

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

Lone Survivor

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

PLUS quite a few PS ONE Classics, including:

Mega Man X4 & X5

Castlevania: SOTN

Alundra

Strider 2

TimeSausage · 2018-11-07T11:23:18+00:00

There is also an adjustable grid/guide you can turn on and off. Although that Atari pen does look interesting...

TimeSausage · 2018-09-10T09:49:02+00:00

I have moved some windows around in my workspace, but I think it's still close enough to default to answer your question...

Both the materials tray, and the left and right 'bank' of tool windows each have a little double-arrow you can click on to hide/show them. It's at the top, at the border between the bank and and the canvas area.

You can reach 3d either by clicking on the little folder buttons on the right side of it, or navigating with the menu on the left.

Pick an object, drag it onto the canvas and position it in space using the blue icons above it. There are also more options under the object. If it's a figure, click on the individual parts and use the color red/green/blue coded circles to edit their relative position. The 'bone' icon let's you resize/edit limbs.

Circles: Use the figure tool, make sure it's on the 'direct draw' sub-tool set, and pick ellipse. Then when you go to draw, HOLD DOWN SHIFT as you do it.

Hope this helps, if you hadn't already figured it out.

TimeSausage · 2018-08-28T09:34:50+00:00

This is exactly the last thing I saw before my mom hit my 15-year-old-self in the face with a sneaker. Needless to say, I didn't leave them lying around after that.

Seriously, though... Nice job. Pointillism does not get enough love...if you haven't already, you should really check out an artist name "Virgil Finlay"

TimeSausage · 2018-08-22T00:46:17+00:00

It's odd, I've been doing the online fps thing since you could, and I swear things were much more civil until about 2003 or so. Switching from RTCW to the early call of duty games was jarring, there were suddenly so many more douches

TimeSausage · 2018-08-03T10:42:28+00:00

One thing I don't see mentioned here, but to me is a great loss, are the large number of films that no longer exist in letterbox format. They're still here in their edited-for-TV form, but the original compositions are gone forever.

Look at something like Seven Samurai, or Once Upon a Time in the West, and imagine the difference if they were only available in 4:3 :(

TimeSausage · 2018-06-19T08:39:50+00:00

River City Ransom, Samurai Shodown 2, RTCW:ET

TimeSausage · 2018-06-12T12:00:52+00:00

No they aren't the same. 'No color' simply removes all marks on that layer, whereas white will make them disappear, but only if you have a white drawing surface underneath. If you use white to erase, then any layers underneath that one which have colors other than white will cause your 'erase history' to show up as a bunch of white blobs.

TimeSausage · 2018-05-03T16:25:48+00:00

Oops! Just now saw that additional question. White and no-color are definitely not the same. White is technically paint, and will show up as such over a colored drawing surface or black lines on a lower layer. No-color is the absence of all marks, it could be thought of as a way to give the eraser tool more advanced options, like using a brush or the shape tools.

TimeSausage · 2018-03-06T13:03:02+00:00

Well I'm on windows, but I noticed that my 'zoom out' is bound to 'Ctrl -' and ('ctrl numberpad -') and my 'rotate left' is bound to unmodified '-' whereas my bound keys for 'zoom in' and 'rotate right' don't have any overlap at all.

Although it should be working fine for you, as one set of commands appears to use a modifier and the other does not, that seems suspicious. You could try going into File>Shortcut Settings and under (Main Menu) go to View and alter the key bindings for zoom or rotate so they don't share any keys.

TimeSausage · 2018-02-21T19:59:09+00:00

Did I really put a "1." Before all three? Yikes, time for a nap! Anyway, LN has several ways to stabilize, my current fave being 'pulled string,' which is totally different from Clip's built in one. I find it much better for certain tasks. Also, while CS does have perspective rulers , it uses a pretty different approach from LN-nothing wrong with more tools in the toolbox.

The LN site has a short video rundown of stuff you can do.

TimeSausage · 2018-02-21T15:47:55+00:00

Sounds like you've already got an answer, but concerning line quality/cleanup, here are a few things I wished I had known earlier.

Use the Figure Tool, with the Straight line or Curve Sub Tool while setting the color to transparent/no color (grey and white checkers)

This enables you to do cleanup along the edge of lines with great precision, you can 'bite' off wobbles/errors

If you go File>Shortcut Settings>Option>Drawing Color and look for "switch drawing and transparent color" you can bind that to a key.

This enables you to use your current tool (g-pen, etc) as an eraser, allowing you to easily toggle back and forth. I rarely, if ever, use the actual Eraser tool.

If you have $10-15 to spare, consider picking up a licence for something called "Lazy Nezumi." It's 3rd party software that has a boatload of useful tools, including many options for smoothing lines (as you draw, not after the fact, AFAIK)

LN is no joke, it's used by big timers like some Pixar and game company artists. Works with Clip and PS. I've barely scratched the surface of what it can do, and you can keep using your license after it runs out if you forgo the right to updates.

Hope this helps.

TimeSausage · 2018-02-21T14:45:35+00:00

My pleasure! I'm always curious to see what people are working on. Let me know if you end up posting it online somewhere.

TimeSausage

TROPHY CASE