Game was already too easy on Veteran, and it was made easier after patch.

[bananas]

Veteran difficulty is a joke, and it doesn't reflect the difficulty level that we, actual STALKER veterans, want or expect. These are some changes I'd like to see on veteran difficulty, or at least in a new difficulty setting for people that used to play the original games and want a challenge:

- Increase weapon damage (both on player and enemies by at least 200%). First of all, human enemies deal no damage. I don't understand how anyone can die on a gunfight in this game. STALKER was always about careful positioning, utilizing stealth, taking fights that you could win and running away from those you cound't. There's nothing like that here. Just go around shooting, don't even bother with taking cover and you will be fine anyway. Enemies deal no damage and healing items are broken AF. This ties to my next point:

- NERF HEALING ITEMS. Seriously, wtf. Bandages HEAL? Medkits restore full health on an instance? Bandages should not heal and medkits should restore health slowly, same with food. Also:

- Make bleeding an actual threat. At least make it deal x3 damage. Bleeding does nothing in S2. In Stalker 1 it used to be something that needed to be treated ASAP, having multiple severities and often requiring multiple bandages. Bleeding does literally nothing here, you can just easily ignore it during a gunfight or outheal it with medkits.

- Make consumables more scarce. Resourses in the zone are suposed to be scarced and limited. Yet, I find myself always having too many ammo and healing items, to the point I end up selling them, when I should be the one buying them. This is not fun, I never find myself having the need to save ammo or smartly manage my resourses, they are just everywhere.

There are other things, but I think these are the most serious balance issues in the game right now. Stalker is not supposed to be an easy game, at least not in its highest difficulty. A difficulty setting called "veteran" should cater to veterans of the series. But as it is right now, there is no difficulty setting for someone who wants a challenge akin to the one offered by the original games. In fact, it should be harder than the Original games, see for example how the souls series got harder over time as their fans improved their skills.

[Necramonium™]

Rofl, go play the original stalker again, with no mods, you could shoot a enemy from the hip with a pistol from 50 meters and still win. I recently replayed it and people seem to have a completely different idea on what the game actually was.

[JoeRifle]

He is right though. It is not Veteran at all ;) No need to repeat your past mistakes.

[Arbadacarba]

My grandma beat this game on hard while knitting me a sweater

[bananas]

Originally posted by Necramonium™:

Rofl, go play the original stalker again, with no mods, you could shoot a enemy from the hip with a pistol from 50 meters and still win. I recently replayed it and people seem to have a completely different idea on what the game actually was.

Maybe. I played it like 15 years ago and I've become a far better player since. People get better over time. That why games on a series should become harder, not easier. But anyhow, there are already mods that make these changes I propose, and these mods are very popular on nexus mods, so there's definitely a lot of people who want the same thing as me. I'm not necessarily saying make the already existing difficulty settigns harder, just create a new one with all of these changes and more like that. It doens't really affect anyone else.

[Arbadacarba]

Originally posted by Necramonium™:

Rofl, go play the original stalker again, with no mods, you could shoot a enemy from the hip with a pistol from 50 meters and still win. I recently replayed it and people seem to have a completely different idea on what the game actually was.

Most are thinking heavily modded aka compete overhaul, most never even played the OG vanilla games

[Baron01]

Another troll trying to farm Steam point rewards. Do not feed the trolls!

Stalker 2 is not difficult, even on Veteran, instead it is annoying and immersion breaking. Seeing zombie eat headshot without any headgear is just stupid. Feeding 30+ shells into a chimera is equally stupid. Again, it is not difficult to run away from mutants or just jump on some elevated spot to completely neutralize any threat. It is just annoying and eventually boring. I would love to play the game with weapons of my choice. Unfortunately, current game balancing makes it near impossible because due to how balancing works in the game, later game areas require advanced weapons to keep it balanced. If you try to use Fora-221 (I fell in love with its unique version called Decider) in Red Forest, you quickly realize you need 2 headshots to kill a zombie and 3 to kill armored combatants. This completely wrecks the combat and makes it look like a whack-a-mole then a gun fight.

When it comes to consumables, especially medical supplies, I would much prefer if those supplies are more potent but bit more rare as well. Increase their selling price, not purchasing one, and let them spawn a bit less. I want more stimulant consumables especially for combat, those are sorely missing. Grenades need to be cooked otherwise they are relegated to flash-bangs that just buy you bit more time before shootings continues.

Stalker 2 does not need to be more difficult, it needs to be more fun.

[Kankaku]

Veteran prior to 1.02 was only a "challenge" because of bullet sponge. Which just made it annoying. Not challenging. Now it's just Stalker difficulty pretty much with less resource spawns which also makes it less fun.

I just switched to Stalker after realizing it. Maybe second playthrough I'll do veteran. Really no reason to do it since it doesn't change AI behavior or anything.

[bananas]

Originally posted by Baron01:

Another troll trying to farm Steam point rewards. Do not feed the trolls!

Stalker 2 is not difficult, even on Veteran, instead it is annoying and immersion breaking. Seeing zombie eat headshot without any headgear is just stupid. Feeding 30+ shells into a chimera is equally stupid. Again, it is not difficult to run away from mutants or just jump on some elevated spot to completely neutralize any threat. It is just annoying and eventually boring. I would love to play the game with weapons of my choice. Unfortunately, current game balancing makes it near impossible because due to how balancing works in the game, later game areas require advanced weapons to keep it balanced. If you try to use Fora-221 (I fell in love with its unique version called Decider) in Red Forest, you quickly realize you need 2 headshots to kill a zombie and 3 to kill armored combatants. This completely wrecks the combat and makes it look like a whack-a-mole then a gun fight.

When it comes to consumables, especially medical supplies, I would much prefer if those supplies are more potent but bit more rare as well. Increase their selling price, not purchasing one, and let them spawn a bit less. I want more stimulant consumables especially for combat, those are sorely missing. Grenades need to be cooked otherwise they are relegated to flash-bangs that just buy you bit more time before shootings continues.

Stalker 2 does not need to be more difficult, it needs to be more fun.

It needs both. I agree enemies bullet sponging is just as bas a The player bullet sponging. I want neither, I want both me and My enemies to be lethal