Thinking of trying this again.

[Boge]

I love the atmosphere of Stalker and love the survival ideas behind it. I've played through SoC Complete and thought it was good, but just too much of a plain shooter. I want more struggle, a harder time finding equipment.

I tried Misery 2.0+ on release and maybe shortly after. It felt imbalanced with mutants chasing me down from across the entire map. I also wasn't too happy with the amount of items there were, seemed unnecessary. But the concept of it, the difficulty and struggle about it appeals to me.

Is there something else I should try? What setup should I go with? I really don't care much to play Vanilla, and I know I won't play it a second time. So what's the best one time playthrough?

[trikster]

You could try Zone of Alienation for SoC, but it's quite hard and - from what I've heard - crashes like hell right now.

Another option is waiting for the release of Misery 2.1 (in beta stage at the moment), which shouldn't take too long.

As a matter of fact, there are many mods out there, and you might want to take a look at David's (translation of Russian Stalker mods) profile at moddb:
http://www.moddb.com/members/davidme

[Grimminski]

I Work Alone is like MISERY lite.

[Boge]

How long until the official release of Misery 2.1?

[trikster]

Hard to say, we're still planning to include one new feature so it can take some time. Not too long though.

[Boge]

I don't mean to sound rude, but when you were planning a release by the end of the year and that didn't happen, "Not too long" is the same as "soon". I'll be watching for it none the less. Thanks.

"As defined by Blizzard Entertainment: "Soon" does not imply any particular date, time, decade, century, or millennia in the past, present, and certainly not the future. "Soon" shall make no contract or warranty between Blizzard Entertainment and the end user. "Soon" will arrive some day, Blizzard does guarantee that "soon" will be here before the end of time. Maybe. Do not make plans based on "soon" as Blizzard will not be liable for any misuse, use, or even casual glancing at "soon."

[trikster]

No, that's understandable. However, contrary to AAA companies we don't have too much time on our hands, we take care of Misery in our free time (and for free, btw). Since this it done in this manner, it is bound to take some time especially if we're planning to release a build that is as safe as it gets. And "soon" in our case means the time we deem it bugless, which shouldn't take too long actually. Beta 2.1 is much more stable than anything we've released so far, but truth be told there are some problems we need to deal with. So you can chip in by playing the beta and giving us feedback regarding the balance, gunplay, etc. and providing us with crashlogs when you encounter a crash. In a word, if you want it sooner than later, check out the beta and help us root out its problems.

[sePL80]

I also am waiting for Misery 2.1 to arrive. I recently bought CoP on gog.com and am now playing it on my 1st playthrough with the Reloaded mod on hardest difficulty setting. -> There is a lot of dying there, I have to load savegames regularily because of me dying. But the atmosphere is great. I don´t know how the balance is in the vanilla game but with Reloaded, money is scarce and enemies are tough. The graphics have also been overhauled. Sadly I had several gamecrashes, don´t know if it is CoP or mod problem though. In about 15-17 hours playtime I have played so far, there were maybe 6 crashes. So it is ok, I think. I plan on finishing with Reloaded mod and then playing again with Misery mod.
See you in the Zone....hopefully not as a zombie.

[Boge]

trickster, I totally would. I just don't think that Misery will be for me. I'm hoping, but not expecting. I tried 2.0 when it released and my first experience was getting charged by a pack of dogs that saw me from way too far away in my opinion. I don't know how much of that has changed in 2.1. I know you guys want it hard, and I totally respect that. But 2.0 wasn't "hard" for me, it was not playable. I guess I don't want to have that experience as a beta because then I'll be wondering if any of it has changed in the actual release and I'd have to try it again. I think I'd rather just wait.

By the way, I know you guys are just doing this on your free time. Many PC gamers, including myself, consider mods a HUGE reason to keep playing on PCs. You guys are the reason behind that. I appreciate it to an extreme amount. So I don't mean to be critical or rude in anyway without letting you know how awesome you, and other modders are to PC gaming.

[trikster]

M2.1 is significantly easier in my opinion than M2.0 but still hard and unforgiving. And remember that you can make the game suit your preferences by tweaking some gamefiles. So I'd encourage you to try it out, it wouldn't hurt to give Misery a second chance. :)

[Boge]

I absolutely will. Just not sure if I want to deal with some potentially game ending bugs.

[Draescan]

LURK for Shadows of Chernobyl....Great challenge but still logical difficulty without all the crazy amount of items that you would get from something like stalkersoup. TONS of weapons, GREAT facelift for the game, and enemies " humans and mutants " act more like you'd expect them to. Less trained enemies are worse at keeping track of you whereas high ranking military will talk less and keep track of you based on sound and last known posiitions as they attempt to surround you.

[Draescan]

As far as Misery goes, 2.1 BETA is a step in a better direction, however Snorks, and artifacts are still unbalanced as hell.

[trikster]

Thanks! While I tend to agree that artifacts require some more work, I don't see why you think snorks are broken. Care to elaborate?
Oh, and regarding artifacts I'm thinking about class overhaul that would make them extremely viable. But we'll see whether the team accepts my idea.

[trikster]

On a side note: why some people consider LURK a great mod remains a mystery to me. I don't see anything compelling in it myself, but maybe that's the effect of playing multiple overhaul mods before trying it.

[Boge]

I've already beat SoC. I'm not playing it again, just like I won't be playing CoP again. I want the best playthrough. I don't care if that's Vanilla or some overhaul, or what. IF you were to play this game once and once only, how would you play it?

I tried Misery 2.1 beta and it's still too hard for me.