STALKER ... *with* vehicles...

[MinionZombie]

Woot! http://stalker.filefront.com/file/Ve...Enhanced;80145 Make sure to download the patch as well: http://stalker.filefront.com/file/Ve...ed_Patch;80214 This can run at the same time as the Traveller mod I posted earlier, so that's good. The vehicles enabled here are invincible, so drive through as many anomalies as you want (other vehicle mods have destructable vehicles though). You have to tweak one file to add new commands to change camera view, but that's easy if you follow the instructions - and knowing where you STALKER save games are saved, that folder, knowing where that is will help in this situation). It places drivable vehicles in each area, placing vehicles where they should be. Vehicles with flat tyres, those won't work, the ones that look newer or out of place, those are drivable (it will also say you can get in). Once in, press "J" and you'll start the engine. It's also possible to stall the engine. I did a reverse j-turn and when I slammed the accelerator the engine cut out, nice little touch. There's no handbrake though...so don't park your car on a hill. Just thought any STALKER fans out there would be interested in giving this mod a go, I've been playing with it the past couple of days. I tell you, it makes those long walks/runs a hell of a lot better.

[Tricky]

I may have to be checking out this stalker malarky when my new rig comes next week!

[MinionZombie]

I may have to be checking out this stalker malarky when my new rig comes next week! Dude, I highly recommend getting STALKER, it should be pretty cheap now, you should be able to get it for £18 at most - play.com is where you wanna go. I got the special tin edition due to a pre-order re-jiggle of stock, long story, but I got the special version for the price of the normal version...which I chuffed about. *ah sweet, the Lord of the Rings episode of South Park is on MTV, sweet!* Anyway, it's a great game. Make sure you patch it to the latest version, which helps, there are flaws, but the world design is freaking sweet. It's proper creepy too. I played through it for the second time recently, now going through again with vehicles enabled. The first half is more exploration heavy, finding new areas, talking to people, trading and such (the RPG elements), with shoot outs and such thrown into the mix, the second half is much more about action, than exploration. So it's kinda half 'n' half, but it's bloody good I say. I think with your new rig it should be pretty darn high up on the graphics settings, if not maxed out...it should look bloody good on your rig (a tad dated in areas due to the delays in production, but the world detail makes up for that in spades). A must have FPS basically, flawed but still awesome I say.

[EvilNed]

Truth be told, I really do think the world of STALKER is a bit too small for using vehicles. Sure, together it's kinda big. But there's no single area big enough to warrant a vehicle. Except MAYBE the Garbage. I like running through the game, but I'd rather have something like a bike or a motorcycle, not a car.

[MinionZombie]

Have you tried the vehicle mod? Some areas really need a car, especially if you're going over old ground to meet people or whatever, some areas don't require a car, it's a 50/50 situation. Basically, now you've got the choice, and if you've already played through, it adds a new layer to have fun with.

[EvilNed]

No, I haven't tried it but I never thought any area was big enough to begin with. Where am I gonna use the vehicle in the Agroprop? The Dark Valley? Cordon? And Yantar? Yantar is small as hell! There's no use having a vehicle there. I always thought the areas were just perfect for exploration. If you add vehicles into the mix, wouldn't it take away alot of the exploration?

[MinionZombie]

*ug* vehicle facist. You don't have to do anything, the point is you should have the choice to drive if you want. And when you've already explored somewhere, do you wanna keep trudging back and forth through it, or would you rather hurry the hell up and have a car to drive the long roads? There are plenty of areas where you can drive a car if you want, this mod allows you to have some fun, you don't have to do drive if you don't want to, but now you can - if you do - but why bitch about it when you haven't even tried the mod? Not all areas are going to be great for cars, but some area ideal for driving to save time when you're playing through for your second or third time. It should be down to player choice in the end of the day.

[EvilNed]

Sure I understand the fact that it's my choice, but wouldn't it be really dull if people always stopped debating as soon as someone said "But it's your choice." "Hey, I voted for Bush?" "What the HELL did you do that for?!" "It was my choice." *End of Argument* See my point? Anyway, I'm kinda glad they didn't include vehicles to begin with because that would have taken away a large part of the game. It's not that big to begin with, but now that you have to walk it feels even bigger. I don't find it annoying or tedious, I like the landscape and the atmosphere. So trudging along the routes is quite nice to me. And as I said, the areas are just too small for any vehicles to bring anything to me. If the game world had been one large continuous one, I would have loved them tho. But I hate games where I ride along in a vehicle, then I enter a loading zone...

[MinionZombie]

But the argument you seem to prefer having is ultimately pointless, so what's the point? And yes, I do see the somewhat-irony in that statement. Still, at least try the vehicle mod before you bitch on it. First time in you're fine with it as it's all new, but once you've done it and been back over the same areas several times within the first play through, you don't necessarily wanna play the story through a second time having to do all that running and walking back and forth again, do you? You'll never get the same wonder of exploring the second time through (which will be the umpteenth time you've been in whatever particular area), so this is where vehicles come in, to whisk you through the more boring stretches of road so you can get to the points of interest, which are interesting because they are built up or cluttered, i.e. no suitable for vehicles - because you've gotta be on foot, and that's where you explore. There's not much exploring to do along a stretch of road with just some hills and a few trees and nout else, and your stamina ends up running out so you have to walk and it doesn't recharge whilst walking so you're left waiting to get to the next point of interest. I ain't bumming down on the game, Tricky or whomever, I'm now going through the game for the third time now, so I've seen everything on offer already exploration wise. What I'm doing now is having some new fun with vehicles, it adds to the realism, because in such an area you're gonna have vehicles you can drive. The cars help cut out the low traveling points in between the points of interest, the latter which provide repeated chances to go "ooh" and "ahh", but certain parts that are in between those areas, yeah, I personally wanna get through those as fast as possible, because I choose to. Cripes, just adds some new fun into a good game, sheesh! ... can't say nuffin' 'round this place, pfft!

[EvilNed]

But there's not much land TO cover that would warrant me wanting to ride a vehicle through it. I understand that you want to speed up the game a bit when backtracking, but I don't feel the need. The game is rather small, it doesn't take a long time to backtrack. And I usually stumble into some adventures on the way while doing so. As for it adding realism, I'm not so sure about that. Seeing as it's isolated, I don't think alot of people capable of operating old, broken down vehicles like that would be abound and the gasoline shortage would be a deciding factor. I've never, ever said that you can't have fun with the mod, I'm just saying I think the game is too small for it to use vehicles in the first place. It's good that people mod, but in the end I'm glad they never put vehicles into the game.

[MinionZombie]

But that's the thing, it's a mod, i.e. for fun, that's what I'm trying to say. And there's plenty of land to cover, there are great big chunks of hills and open land to drive around on, there's big long roads to cover as well, it just adds a new dimension. Fixing the engines and filling up the gas tanks was going to be part of the game, had vehicles been kept, but as they didn't complete the vehicle part as they dropped it a fair while before it was finished, the mod only brings back what was taken out, which isn't a lot. Just a bit of fun, blimey. And vehicles in the zone is blatantly realistic, the opening video sequence features a truck full of dead bodies being driven into the Cordon. There are tanks at the military based, APCs around abouts, helicopters fly overhead...vehicles could be brought into the zone from the outside world, and that's the thing with the vehicle mod, most of the drivable cars are new or newish, unkempt but not the ones left rotting, which really are just relics amidst the landscape. Just posted the mod as it's a bit of fun, a new thing to try out, and I thought CornishCorpse might enjoy it.

[EvilNed]

I know it's just a mod, and I'm just saying that it's not a mod I'm interested in and relating to how I prefer the game without vehicles (in it's release state) as the world wasn't that big to start with. As for vehicles in the Zone, I still say there'd be huge gas shortages that would make bikes more practical. Now I wouldn't mind a bike, because it wouldn't be as big or as fast as a car and thus would only speed you up somewhat.

[MinionZombie]

Well they didn't do bikes obviously, because they nixed the vehicles before that was all done, plus bikes are much harder to program than cars. Like with GTA3 and then Vice City, and now with PGR3 to PGR4. But if you don't like the idea of vehicles in STALKER, why are you posting about them in a thread about it? The point in fuel would be that it'd be brought in from the outside world, like food and ammunition and such. Certain groups would be bringing it in and then loners and smaller factions would then buy/trade/steal what they need from these 'import chunks' - which would include fuel for vehicles. The inclusion of tanks and APCs in the zone clearly shows that vehicles are/were being brought into the zone from the outside world. It's taking stuff out that they can't do.