Faction bias

[Fireserpent7]

the more i play the game the more i just start to question why the devs are so openly biased towards the bandits, Easier spawns, better weapons and armor, more control over the map and resource farming location, literally the bandits have the game on easy mode and the devs seemingly do it on purpose.

For the people claiming there is no bias, look at the dump, the fool's path,and army warehouse, the dump is bandit territory just by looking at the spawns. The stalkers have no equivalent to the dump. The Fool's path and army warehouse drop the same materials, however bandits have direct safe access to both army warehouse and fool's path, stalkers only have borderline safe access to army warehouse, so bandits have half of army warehouse and fool's path to farm relatively safely, while stalkers only have half of army warehouse to farm relatively safely, the bandits have roughly 2-4x the safe farming areas in this specific example.

[DarkRey]

Travle time dosent matter as mutch as you think it dose. Theres about a 1 minute difference between faction travle time and before you mention swamp im in the north farming read forest i hevent had the need to go back to swamp since i left swamp exept for doing the covanent join quest.

As for late game farm after backwater gets relesed thats the only zone that drops red quality artifacts and that zone is mutch closer to the stalker camps then bandits. Theres also speculations that Chernobyl will be one of the dungeons (Even if its just speculation just see how close that is to a stalker camp).

Ou and XxEyeDragonxX thats the russian map not our map. There are some diffrences between them like less events (orderlies is not a thing is our version), less shelters (some are there but have black holes at the entrance of the shelter so fun) and the bubbles dont work.

As for the comment of better weapons and armor.
For weapons you can have my monalith sig if we can get your AS Val. Val is just better its not like its the meta gun right now. Armor is the same for everyone right now. I can link the faction specific armors but do remember there is a armor and weapon rebalance patch comming so these are pre nerfed/buffed armors stats.
Duty:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/773170311976976394/1065341521869672468/image.png
Freedom:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/773170311976976394/1065341581705617489/image.png
Covenant:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027012517970575370/1057223721271701534/image.png
Mercenary:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027012517970575370/1057223721628225597/image.png

[XxEyeDragonxX]

Origineel geplaatst door Lil Bunny:

This discussion is getting heated for some reason. Everything I've stated previously and on this one is purely based from experience and my opinion as to give a good deal of information for everyone:
1. My friend and I spent a good time farming swamps (takes less than 30 mins tbh), cordon, dark valley, forest, graveyard, and army warehouses. We have every weapon and armor, and the good attachments, in the Bar aside from the HK rifle, a couple not worth it shotguns, and the L86 machine gun thing. You could say we crafted and tried everything from the swamps to the bar and decided which weapons is worth keeping and nice to use. North is a different thing so let's just ignore that for now.
2. Cordon - Don't really have anything to say on this one. Pretty balance IMO IF you ignore the next maps. Bandits are above, stalkers below, there are 2 anomaly areas in the northernish part of the map (south east of bandit base) and a bio underground thing near the stalker side (left side). Nothing special, anyone can just go there and be relatively safe. Or not. It depends.
3. Dark Valley - now the problem starts here. There's no point in comparing the number of camps/dens per map as you only really farm around 15-25% of the map at any given time then you go back to store your stuff. You take note where mutant spawns are and where the soldier thingy camps are. You clear them and make a cycle as they don't take very long to spawn. Rinse and repeat, go back to your base, you're done with the area.
- the thing is. comparing dark valley with agroprom... Dark valley looks pretty messy. We kind of wandered around in agro doing quest and comparing dark valley. We had comments like "this is their anomaly area? looks pretty neat and easy to traverse". We did traverse that area and could easily run straight with anomalies left and right. Dark Valley anomaly spots don't feel and look like that lol. You go in the anomaly area with a goal, a purpose, and a dream. I had a few good backpacks lost in the blackholes there >:(

4. The Dump - oh boy oh boy this one sucks hard for the stalkers. Remember that good ol bandit base in cordon? Yeah it's very much closer to the The Dump than Garage. Stalkers need to walk all the way up to get to the Dump from the BOTTOM of Cordon. Bandits can die in the entrance to the dump and get back there in a minute or two. Bandits also camp that entrance frequently so it was only an option for my friend and I to use that route if we have nothing to lose. Most of the time we use the route in dark valley to get back to Garage, takes much longer but is a lot safer.

Next problem: COPPER CACHE spawns. The most spawns I've gotten in the right side of The Dump is around 8. In the left side (bandit) I've gotten about 15 in just a portion of their big ole cache area and when I found one, the beeps won't stop and they're beside each other xD then I die bc there are bandits obviously. After that, it's like 0-3 per cache area in the right. Going back to bandit side of the map is only viable if it's only early in the run and we don't have much items.. We usually go back to base with only 30-80 copper wire at a time just to be safe from friendly banditos. Some runs we literally have 10 pieces of copper wires because there are no spawns even after getting 80+ crappite and 150+ molds lmao. And ofc there's that random bandit constantly camping but as we've stated earlier, that's pretty much the same case for the bandits. I hope. Now add the time stalkers need to spend from the bottom of Cordon to get to The Dump SAFELY and the time they spend farming in their side of the Dump, and then the time to go back to Garage. That's a whole lot of hours over there. Alternatively, people could use the Bar instead of Garage since (it seems like) the distance is shorter to get there but there are also risks so it's up to the person. You could turn this whole scenario around and look at the bandit's perspective. However, the time spent is much much lower because the spawn in Cordon is just right there. It's also easy to invade both sides of the Dump as the bottom entrance is near the bandit and stalker side. Only downside I could think of would be the anomalies in the bandit side BIG copper area. But anomalies really ain't that hard if we use 101% of our brain so there's that. Biggest argument here is about the TIME investment required to get there, farm, and back safely.

Lastly. Most bandits IIRC are the experienced dudes who played in the Beta Testing. Funny thing is people played Bandit Faction in the Beta Testing because it is indeed much convenient lol.

- Not sure if this discussion is worth making a report so im cutting it here for now and observe everyone :D

I just read all your comment and I finally find a stalker that really exposes things and has tried several things to be able to compare them, unfortunately I can't say the same since I try to stay as far away from stalkers and that includes their maps .

Since I can't compare the position of the anomalies for not having been in dark valley (I've only been there once and for a mission, so it's better not to count it) I'll take it for granted, I could disagree saying that there are many areas in the forest where you can keep a Straight line isn't something I found easy but it sounds a bit like an excuse hahaha.

with dump... I can give you the reason we are closer, not by much if you count the turn we take to get out of photon-2, but we have better access and I admit that because it is the truth.

Moving on to the caches... sometimes I can find that on the left side more caches appear (it's also further from the central entrance so it could be a bit because of that) but usually I find more or less the same caches on both left and in right.

And as for playing the beta... I didn't know about this game until it was recommended to me so I can't comment on that.

Even so, I am glad to be able to read such a complete opinion and not the simple "bandits have it easier for everything" or "they have more of everything" which is what annoys the most.

and I forget the campers... I think I've seen a couple more bandits camping than stalkers, but I haven't seen that much of a difference either (at the entrance from the cordon there are more bandits camping but I usually find that it's the opposite at the entrance from dump I don't know if something similar happens to you)

[XxEyeDragonxX]

Origineel geplaatst door DarkRey:

Travle time dosent matter as mutch as you think it dose. Theres about a 1 minute difference between faction travle time and before you mention swamp im in the north farming read forest i hevent had the need to go back to swamp since i left swamp exept for doing the covanent join quest.

As for late game farm after backwater gets relesed thats the only zone that drops red quality artifacts and that zone is mutch closer to the stalker camps then bandits. Theres also speculations that Chernobyl will be one of the dungeons (Even if its just speculation just see how close that is to a stalker camp).

Ou and XxEyeDragonxX thats the russian map not our map. There are some diffrences between them like less events (orderlies is not a thing is our version), less shelters (some are there but have black holes at the entrance of the shelter so fun) and the bubbles dont work.

As for the comment of better weapons and armor.
For weapons you can have my monalith sig if we can get your AS Val. Val is just better its not like its the meta gun right now. Armor is the same for everyone right now. I can link the faction specific armors but do remember there is a armor and weapon rebalance patch comming so these are pre nerfed/buffed armors stats.
Duty:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/773170311976976394/1065341521869672468/image.png
Freedom:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/773170311976976394/1065341581705617489/image.png
Covenant:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027012517970575370/1057223721271701534/image.png
Mercenary:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027012517970575370/1057223721628225597/image.png

I know that this is the Russian map but it is the only version I have on hand and no one seems to make a western version so I had to base my coments on that.

If what you say is true, does that mean that we could have the advantage at the beginning but we lose it in the north? I have no idea, I don't know if I'll get there at some point

[DarkRey]

I will say something more about cashes there can be only so many on one map at any point in time so if you or your faction clears one side of the map then you have to go to the other side so they respawn on your side.

[DarkRey]

Weight no i agree with the op lets talk about sub faction spawn inequality. It takes way to long for basement dwellers to reatch the north then the surface dwellers. :P

It might be a joke but it is a thing.

[lx]

guy, you say in all your comments, that at best you know only one side of the matter.
then you say, this proves you right and the op wrong?!?!
make a smart thing - do not post your self-righteous comments,
and do not copy the walls of text.

[Von Gamerstein]

Origineel geplaatst door DarkRey:

Travle time dosent matter as mutch as you think it dose. Theres about a 1 minute difference between faction travle time and before you mention swamp im in the north farming read forest i hevent had the need to go back to swamp since i left swamp exept for doing the covanent join quest.

As for late game farm after backwater gets relesed thats the only zone that drops red quality artifacts and that zone is mutch closer to the stalker camps then bandits. Theres also speculations that Chernobyl will be one of the dungeons (Even if its just speculation just see how close that is to a stalker camp).

Ou and XxEyeDragonxX thats the russian map not our map. There are some diffrences between them like less events (orderlies is not a thing is our version), less shelters (some are there but have black holes at the entrance of the shelter so fun) and the bubbles dont work.

As for the comment of better weapons and armor.
For weapons you can have my monalith sig if we can get your AS Val. Val is just better its not like its the meta gun right now. Armor is the same for everyone right now. I can link the faction specific armors but do remember there is a armor and weapon rebalance patch comming so these are pre nerfed/buffed armors stats.
Duty:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/773170311976976394/1065341521869672468/image.png
Freedom:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/773170311976976394/1065341581705617489/image.png
Covenant:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027012517970575370/1057223721271701534/image.png
Mercenary:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027012517970575370/1057223721628225597/image.png

What do you mean orderlies are not a thing in our version? The main story involves them, and if you decide to save linden at least for Stalkers the Orderlies get camps in Dark Valley and Dump

[DarkRey]

XxEyeDragonxX whose using this interactive map https://en.stalcraftmap.net/maps/general
If you look you can see that theres events called "The orderlies' shelter" guess me and everyone else that i play with skipped that part or your talking about different camps.

[Private Ash Ketchum]

I am currenty wondering about faction balance in the Northern territories EU server. There is just not enough players in the endgame to do reasonable matchmaking (there are usually 1 - 2 "clusters" fotr Yanov etc.). So you keep meeting the same players very often (the same phenomenon is visible in Army warehouse even). Good matchmaking ends sometime before Rostok. So the thing is that disciplined group of end game Covenants for exmple may in theory dominate the EU north. And there is nothing to counter that. Which is kind of interesting

[Fireserpent7]

Origineel geplaatst door Private Ash Ketchum:

I am currenty wondering about faction balance in the Northern territories EU server. There is just not enough players in the endgame to do reasonable matchmaking (there are usually 1 - 2 "clusters" fotr Yanov etc.). So you keep meeting the same players very often (the same phenomenon is visible in Army warehouse even). Good matchmaking ends sometime before Rostok. So the thing is that disciplined group of end game Covenants for exmple may in theory dominate the EU north. And there is nothing to counter that. Which is kind of interesting

from what ive heard the north is pretty much empty compared to the rest of the game, i havent bothered going north yet

[Private Ash Ketchum]

Origineel geplaatst door Fireserpent7:

Origineel geplaatst door Private Ash Ketchum:

I am currenty wondering about faction balance in the Northern territories EU server. There is just not enough players in the endgame to do reasonable matchmaking (there are usually 1 - 2 "clusters" fotr Yanov etc.). So you keep meeting the same players very often (the same phenomenon is visible in Army warehouse even). Good matchmaking ends sometime before Rostok. So the thing is that disciplined group of end game Covenants for exmple may in theory dominate the EU north. And there is nothing to counter that. Which is kind of interesting

from what ive heard the north is pretty much empty compared to the rest of the game, i havent bothered going north yet

"Empty" does not mean you play alone there (that is impossible I quess), empty means you have only very few "clusters", for example just 2 and you meet the same players often.

[Lil Bunny]

Origineel geplaatst door DarkRey:

Travle time dosent matter as mutch as you think it dose. Theres about a 1 minute difference between faction travle time and before you mention swamp im in the north farming read forest i hevent had the need to go back to swamp since i left swamp exept for doing the covanent join quest.

As for late game farm after backwater gets relesed thats the only zone that drops red quality artifacts and that zone is mutch closer to the stalker camps then bandits. Theres also speculations that Chernobyl will be one of the dungeons (Even if its just speculation just see how close that is to a stalker camp).

Ou and XxEyeDragonxX thats the russian map not our map. There are some diffrences between them like less events (orderlies is not a thing is our version), less shelters (some are there but have black holes at the entrance of the shelter so fun) and the bubbles dont work.

As for the comment of better weapons and armor.
For weapons you can have my monalith sig if we can get your AS Val. Val is just better its not like its the meta gun right now. Armor is the same for everyone right now. I can link the faction specific armors but do remember there is a armor and weapon rebalance patch comming so these are pre nerfed/buffed armors stats.
Duty:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/773170311976976394/1065341521869672468/image.png
Freedom:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/773170311976976394/1065341581705617489/image.png
Covenant:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027012517970575370/1057223721271701534/image.png
Mercenary:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027012517970575370/1057223721628225597/image.png

Travel time does matter and will become significant or not depending on your available pc gaming time, level of experience and familiarity with the areas in the game. Right about now I'm more than confident to just run through every stalker map (save a few) since I had my fair share of vortex and blackhole hate and now have my own path to follow. There are simply areas where you have to be more careful and you wouldn't know that if you keep dying on the way to the map/keep getting killed while exploring/just outright scared because of the jump in the number of players around you that does not go away (probably someone camping). It is a big issue early - mid game. if you keep dying on that part of the game then it becomes an even bigger time investment especially if you do the "safer" path for stalkers. It becomes less of an issue once you graduate from the Dump since the farming areas become relatively closer (compared to the route of Garage -> Dark Valley -> The Dump path).

I don't really get the hype with the quest weapons you get that are faction specific. The better argument there would be the "rarity" of the free weapons each faction gets. Just plainly looking at it, it's weird Stalkers do not have the same rarity bandits have with Monolith SIG (forgot the specific rarity but it's purple/pinkish color xd) and that's about it. Kutuzov's AS VAL is equivalent only to the worn version. If that was equivalent to the Army Warehouse version then I'd partially accept the bias in Fool's Path vs Army Warehouse access from The Bar. We rushed the Kutuzov Val quest when we discovered there was a free gun (we didn't know at all) and then used it momentarily. It's great bc it uses 9x39 but if you're going to farm in Forest or Army Warehouses I'd argue that SVD or M4A1 is a stronger choice. Worn AS Val weapon tree kinda feels sad when used to farm (but great on pvp) until you get the 30 round clip and that's only available in the north and you'd better just rush VSS or a northern armor instead of rushing the clip anyways. The amount of mats you need to craft worn VAL is also laughable. At the safest you'll need like 10 rounds back and forth from the bar, at best you'll hover around 3-6 trips to the Forest to get the mats xD. Mind you this is with seeker's hawk. If you rushed the story and got the exo i'd say you'll even get less trips for that VAL

*This one's more of a question:
Do we literally just run to the still closed zones of the map when it's released? (i.e. just like running to Yanov/Red Forest from faction base). Pretty sure there are like Bubbles or some kind of pathway on each side to get to Limansk based on russian YT highlights. Not sure with Backwater.

*Also another advantage of Bandits in their North map is the bubbles that takes you right around the bottom left/bottom of the red forest entrance xD. It's a small distance of fast travel (maybe like 200-500 meters? didnt really measure) but fast travel is fast travel. Also gives you breathing room as you are now 200-500 meters safer compared to just running it back to base. Yanov has none, 0, null of that bubble so ;<.

Edit: Additional information in the laughable worn AS val crafting requirements.

[Bleepie]

gather stalkers and fight for the dump. it would be so much fun

[Bo]

So no one's gonna talk about how ridiculous it is to traverse in the graveyard? The first time i got into it, i even thought the place only belonged to a quest because no way in hell can anyone farm in that hell hole. Tiny walk way with 10 blackholes/square meter. It is almost impossible to kite mutants without running into an anomaly or two. Now tell me the cons of the dead city on bandits side.

[PotatoCal]

Origineel geplaatst door lx:

reminds me of eve online

I agree on that one