Thoughts on MISERY 2.1?

[Taberone]

Is it even worth trying? Is the difficulty "real" difficulty?

Fake difficulty: For example, lets say the enemies in MISERY can take 5 RPG rockets to the face, or an entire belt of RP-74 rounds(Nothing that can be killed survives an entire belt.). Or even a headshot. You, however, die from the tiniest papercut even in a exoskeleton.

How durable are the enemies? Are they made of iron to a unrealistic extend in MISERY 2.1? I've seen a few hate comments on that, but it might be an earlier version.

[Wowee]

It's more than worth it and can be insanely difficult and unforgiving, but it's never impossible. The hardest part of Misery is the economy, especially in the beginning. Weapons you find are almost always heavily worn and cost a fortune to repair, let alone buying new weapons. Progress is quite a bit slower than with Vanilla CoP but there's also more to do to stay alive.

[Martial.Lore]

Pure brilliance. Period.

[Taberone]

Does quicksaving not work in MISERY? I keep hearing about corrupted saves.

[Wowee]

It works like any stalker game. I wouldn't rely too much on auto-saves tho, stalker games do have rare issues with corrupt savegames.

[Draescan]

Actually it's recommended that you never quicksave in Misery. In fact it's known to cause instability. As far as " real " difficulty or not.....That depends.....Sometimes it works really well, but when you are an hour and a half in and a psuedo giant spawns next to your starting area......not so much.

[Kronk]

Enemies can take some time if you shoot them from the head down but a clean headshot is always a 1 shot kill.

[Draescan]

Originally posted by NippleTwister:

Enemies can take some time if you shoot them from the head down but a clean headshot is always a 1 shot kill.

Unfortunately I've tested this and it's not always true. It depends on the calibur and the rank and armor lvl of the enemy. I've had mercs with exosuits survive headshots from the 7.62 rifles in the game. Whether this is intentional or a bug though I have NO clue.

[Tilen]

Just started a playthrough yesterday and one of the things that worry me is the fact that enemies take multuple shots to kill with the same gear you have, whereas you get killed in about two shots. That is unfair and creates difficulty very artificially. Am I wrong in this assumption?

[Taberone]

Originally posted by A strong, independent woman:

Just started a playthrough yesterday and one of the things that worry me is the fact that enemies take multuple shots to kill with the same gear you have, whereas you get killed in about two shots. That is unfair and creates difficulty very artificially. Am I wrong in this assumption?

I think that would be fake/artificial difficulty. Weapons are more dangerous to you than to enemies from what I've heard in this post, even though both of you are using the same gear.

[Kris Reddish]

It is difficult, I will give you that, but I had to turn down the range AI could engage me from, at max veiw distance I was getting sniped with sub machine guns in like one hit from so far, I could not even see them. The road I started on was right next to a building patrolled by bandits that after taking about 10 steps noticed me and then I died. I would like to get better, but crashes so much that it kinda takes me out the mood to play. Its not like the X-ray engine is not a crashy bastard to begin with and the Misory mod made it worse. I think though I noticed a quest to get a artifact from an anomoly site, and the guy was like, "just follow me" after a small cut sceen, no dice, and direction I move I get blown to bits, I cannot even move away from where it put me after the cut scene...I know they changed how the anomoly zones work but perhpas they should have not modified ones with a cut sceen that autosaves right after...

[Draescan]

Honestly everyone should lower the distance the enemy AI can engage you from. It get's ridiculous when people with pistols and submachineguns are making shots at 245 meters out. I've literally had the mercs at the plant shoot at me when I was at the industrial buildings across the bridge. As far as artificial difficulty, no matter what you say the devs will deny this and I quote " there is no such thing as artificial difficulty " There are those of us that beg to differ, and luckily there's plenty more of us out there that have found ways to even the odds.

First like I said lower the AI's effective range in the ini files....it's only going to make your life eaiser......I also suggest lowering the prices of ammo and gear as well as the repair cost. Currently it costs 4x's more to repair a weapon fully than it does to buy a brand new version of the weapon......This is NOT balanced....what the hell they were thinking I don't know but parts are always cheaper than the final product.

Second, learn stash locations with useful items in them, things like the AKM on top of the gas station are great stashes to loot when you start playing as they give you access to great materials right from the get go, I believe there's also a fireball in this stash.

The only other thing I can recommend is TURN OFF INFINITE NPC AMMO! There's no reason NPC's should be able to fire infinitely in a hail of bullets while you are stuck rationing out every single round like this is Soviet Russia back in WWII.

If you combine all of this you should find Misery much more fair and respectable playing environment for you as a gamer. Now....GET OUT OF HERE STALKER!

[Zeer0]

Misery is best described as a abuseive force it punches you to the ground and makes you eat dirt but when you gain enough cash guns ammo and armor you can take a stance but really its just a way to survive longer againts the coming storm because there is somthing always out there that will kick your ass and send you back to the ground eating dirt but thats what makes it so fun in my opinion anyways

[Draescan]

Originally posted by zeer0:

Misery is best described as a abuseive force it punches you to the ground and makes you eat dirt but when you gain enough cash guns ammo and armor you can take a stance but really its just a way to survive longer againts the coming storm because there is somthing always out there that will kick your ass and send you back to the ground eating dirt but thats what makes it so fun in my opinion anyways

For some people yes. However even you must admit it's advertised as difficult, not abusive. Honestly the higher ranked NPC's fairness is about that of the Impossible difficulty level on Xcom. I actually had an hourlong firefight ( at which I did indeed get quite a bit frustrated at ) last night on twitch. I actually went over quite a few problems with the mod and how they could be fixed while I was frustrated, but nonetheless.....The salt was strong.

[Draescan]

By the way if you would like some fixes to some of these problems that requires very little on your part.....Try this link http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-misery/forum/thread/misery-21-stiivais-misc-tweaks this user spends a lot of time fixing what the MDT team won't do anything about. I personally use some of them and swear by them.

[Tamiore]

Originally posted by PsychoMantis:

Originally posted by zeer0:

Misery is best described as a abuseive force it punches you to the ground and makes you eat dirt but when you gain enough cash guns ammo and armor you can take a stance but really its just a way to survive longer againts the coming storm because there is somthing always out there that will kick your ass and send you back to the ground eating dirt but thats what makes it so fun in my opinion anyways

For some people yes. However even you must admit it's advertised as difficult, not abusive. Honestly the higher ranked NPC's fairness is about that of the Impossible difficulty level on Xcom. I actually had an hourlong firefight ( at which I did indeed get quite a bit frustrated at ) last night on twitch. I actually went over quite a few problems with the mod and how they could be fixed while I was frustrated, but nonetheless.....The salt was strong.

Oh, come ON!
Impossible ironman is the best difficulty ever for XCOM! You only need to add some 10-20 second wave options and you are all set for !!fun!! (That's the way I played my last runs, anyway).

Back to COP-misery: NPC's don't do anything YOU can't do, really. They don't magically hit you with saw-off at 200m+. Yes, they CAN land a hit from a pistol at 150m. Once in a while. So can YOU.

The key to success in Misery is playing it smart — I can clear the waterstation merc camp (or iron forest, or whatever) without s single re-load as long as I take my time and bring the right weapon/armor.