Do yourself a favor, try G.A.M.M.A.

[Baaaal]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is an amazing game, it really is. I spent 80 hours on my first playthrough, and apart from relatively minor annoyances (some bugged quests, and UI bugs) I had an absolute blast. However, I kind of feel, as do many others that in its current state, the game lacks longevity because there is no true endgame, no crafting, no NG+, no custom difficulties, and no real economy to speak of that would entice players to come back for a second round immediately after the credits and spend hundreds of hours playing it again.

While I don't think every game needs to be infinitely replayable and played for 10k hours (truly, I have nothing but pity for people still playing Skyrim after 15 years with waifu mods), if you are looking for something I described above, you might want to give G.A.M.M.A. a shot while waiting for GSC to implement all those changes.

It's basically a completely free, stand-alone mod for the original trilogy that contains all areas from all three games, vastly improved graphics, extremely involved and difficult crafting, tons of micromanagement (limb-based health system) and great emergent gameplay using the original a-life system. In contrast with other "magic" modpacks for Bethesda games (Heartland, etc.) that take two afternoons to install only to crash in the main menu because a mod has not been updated for 2 days, G.A.M.M.A. actually works. It takes a while to install, and you need a Discord account to access the installer, but once it is done and configured, it needs a few small tweaks and that's it.

The learning curve is pretty steep (on a new game, you won't even know how to open the map because the PDA needs to be equipped manually in the inventory and needs batteries to function) but do yourself a favor and stick with it. If you give it ~15 hours to learn how the gameplay loop works, and where each cog fits, this game will give you at least a thousand hours of gameplay, for free.

I myself discovered it ~2 weeks ago and since then I clocked in almost 200 hours, and I'm not even partway through.

[TomasaurusREKT]

Publicado originalmente por Baaaal:

Publicado originalmente por ToxicDutch:

Thread #74822 about GAMMA, are you guys even getting paid for this promotion? Hook me up.

Nah, just genuinely wanted to extend my excitement to the group. Seems like only incessant whining and entitled complaining is welcome nowadays though.

Do you use CRCR? I've been chatting with Stalkers for years while playing my Anomaly modpack lol.

[Baaaal]

Publicado originalmente por TomasaurusREKT:

Publicado originalmente por Baaaal:

Nah, just genuinely wanted to extend my excitement to the group. Seems like only incessant whining and entitled complaining is welcome nowadays though.

Do you use CRCR? I've been chatting with Stalkers for years while playing my Anomaly modpack lol.

Nope! Haven't even heard of it, will check it out!

[Phoenix]

it's a neat pack of mods with fun fps gameplay in the stalker environment. that being said it actually IS a pain in the a$$ to install and keep updated, and most importantly it FEELS like a hodge podge mess of 500+ (literally) different mods thrown together. not saying that "disqualifies" it from being a ton of fun but if you're someone like me who is OCD as hell about typos, glitches, inconsistencies etc, that stuff will drive you up a wall.

best part about it though is just seeing the creative juices and hard work of dozens of modders all in one place. it's a labor of love fo sho.

[vaanomega]

Is GAMMA a sandbox mod for older Stalker games with evolving Factions, or are the faction always in the same areas ?
I would be interested in a Stalker mod that plays like a X game but on foot (because X games are Space games)

[TomasaurusREKT]

Publicado originalmente por Baaaal:

Publicado originalmente por TomasaurusREKT:

Do you use CRCR? I've been chatting with Stalkers for years while playing my Anomaly modpack lol.

Nope! Haven't even heard of it, will check it out!

It's called Chernobyl Relay Chat Rebirth. You drop the files in your ANOMALY folder, and then when in the game you can press ENTER and talk to other people online in-game!!!

You know how you see random Stalker's messages through your PDA on the bottom left of the screen? Well, now it's real people who are also playing Anomaly! Hope to see you there! Link is below.

https://github.com/8r2y5/Chernobyl-Relay-Chat-Rebirth/releases/tag/0.8.0

[Baaaal]

Publicado originalmente por Phoenix:

it's a neat pack of mods with fun fps gameplay in the stalker environment. that being said it actually IS a pain in the a$$ to install and keep updated, and most importantly it FEELS like a hodge podge mess of 500+ (literally) different mods thrown together. not saying that "disqualifies" it from being a ton of fun but if you're someone like me who is OCD as hell about typos, glitches, inconsistencies etc, that stuff will drive you up a wall.

I have experience with Oblivion/Morrowind/Skyrim modpacks that were touted as simple and easy, and I can safely say that Gamma is the only one I've ever managed to get to work lol, so it can't be that bad :D You pretty much DL Anomaly, DL the Gamma installer, click the huge ass "Install" button and wait until it's down. Then click "launch" in MO2.

I do agree that there are loads of unnecessary mods, but there are also loads that are disabled and can optionally be turned on if it's more your thing. It's fairly robust that way in my experience. Typos are definitely there though lol.

[Baaaal]

Publicado originalmente por vaanomega:

Is GAMMA a sandbox mod for older Stalker games with evolving Factions, or are the faction always in the same areas ?
I would be interested in a Stalker mod that plays like a X game but on foot (because X games are Space games)

Normally factions stay in their own respective capitals and settlements, but there is a mod (dunno the name off the top of my head, it may be ZCP) that allows you to play "Warfare mode" where factions can capture each other's bases and even their relationships change based on that. AFAIK iT's a bit glitchy because it's not designed to be the mainline experience but it's definitely worth looking into.

[Phoenix]

Publicado originalmente por Baaaal:

Publicado originalmente por Phoenix:

it's a neat pack of mods with fun fps gameplay in the stalker environment. that being said it actually IS a pain in the a$$ to install and keep updated, and most importantly it FEELS like a hodge podge mess of 500+ (literally) different mods thrown together. not saying that "disqualifies" it from being a ton of fun but if you're someone like me who is OCD as hell about typos, glitches, inconsistencies etc, that stuff will drive you up a wall.

I have experience with Oblivion/Morrowind/Skyrim modpacks that were touted as simple and easy, and I can safely say that Gamma is the only one I've ever managed to get to work lol, so it can't be that bad :D You pretty much DL Anomaly, DL the Gamma installer, click the huge ass "Install" button and wait until it's down. Then click "launch" in MO2.

I do agree that there are loads of unnecessary mods, but there are also loads that are disabled and can optionally be turned on if it's more your thing. It's fairly robust that way in my experience. Typos are definitely there though lol.

i know, it CAN work, but trust me i've been playing it on and off since 2022 and there were (and will be) times where the install process gets borked because of things like changes to moddb, specific mods being removed, specific mods receiving updates that break the whole game until Grok (or someone in the community) can figure it out, etc.

i'm not saying that's somehow the fault of Grok or the modders or anyone really, it's just the nature of a complicated modpack where most of the mods are downloaded "live" during the install process (which has its pros as well, like always having up-to-date mods, which *most of the time* is a good thing lol)

[TomasaurusREKT]

Also CRCR makes going into scary places a bit more tolerable since you can talk to other people through your PDA so you don't feel 100% alone lol

[vaanomega]

Publicado originalmente por Baaaal:

Publicado originalmente por vaanomega:

Is GAMMA a sandbox mod for older Stalker games with evolving Factions, or are the faction always in the same areas ?
I would be interested in a Stalker mod that plays like a X game but on foot (because X games are Space games)

Normally factions stay in their own respective capitals and settlements, but there is a mod (dunno the name off the top of my head, it may be ZCP) that allows you to play "Warfare mode" where factions can capture each other's bases and even their relationships change based on that. AFAIK iT's a bit glitchy because it's not designed to be the mainline experience but it's definitely worth looking into.

I gess i cloud try GAMMA first, if they are compatible, i could focus on the Mod mainline experience of GAMMA first and then install ZCP in GAMMA

[Baaaal]

Publicado originalmente por vaanomega:

Publicado originalmente por Baaaal:

Normally factions stay in their own respective capitals and settlements, but there is a mod (dunno the name off the top of my head, it may be ZCP) that allows you to play "Warfare mode" where factions can capture each other's bases and even their relationships change based on that. AFAIK iT's a bit glitchy because it's not designed to be the mainline experience but it's definitely worth looking into.

I gess i cloud try GAMMA first, if they are compatible, i could focus on the Mod mainline experience of GAMMA first and then install ZCP in GAMMA

Just checked, apparently Anomaly Warfare is a separate install, because it's not compatible with many of the changes in GAMMA. Check out the instructions and decide which one is for you :)

[YONULBAVO STIPUD]

I have a job so I can't spent 1000 hours a week on a video game dude.

[L3d]

No, try anomaly its standalone and free merging all 3 stalker games and way more customizable thanks to addons on https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly, the main site for all things mods,

Anyway both these games have no story line so its fun to tweak like now theres 5 pack with extra mutants and zombies and one is only wildlife plus thay made a respan spawner addon oh so much stuff for anomaly. eaven an addon to tweak addons ingame.
Use mod organazer 2 from github or nexus mods another great mods site.

[Hauker~]

wish stalker 2 turned out like gamma or at least anomaly

[Baaaal]

Publicado originalmente por Hauker~:

wish stalker 2 turned out like gamma or at least anomaly

What I'm missing is at least some variability in items and mechanics. We have bread, sausages and cans of food, and that's it. I never onced had to drink either beer or water.