Misery 2.2: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

[Martial.Lore]

As I finished my first Misery 2.2 campaign and launched once more into freeplay, I passed the 2000 hour mark of playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat with Misery mod. Do I like 2.2? Is it any better than 2.1.1? My first thoughts...

ENVIRONMENT: I love the new trees and vegetation textures. They don't quite nerf the Sniper mode advantage in the whole game but the increased density has made the streets of Pripyat a living hell for Recon. I used to easily engage Monolith fighters on the street outside the hospital in Pripyat from the safe cover of the dual doorways in the building at the crossroads: now I can't and neither could a Sniper. The vegetation is now too dense to see through and identify (or even see) targets. Altogether, and especially with some new color, the world looks better than ever. And the zone is the more dangerous for it.

NPCs and AI ENEMIES: Some of you might already have seen my shocked discussion post about encountering over 150 enemies at the Jupiter Plant on a return visit after going through to Pripyat. I used to frequently traverse the plant during freeplay in order to travel back to Pripyat without paying Garry his due. I have yet to do so more than just that once.

Jupiter Plant is simply plain scary now and I would say it is overkill: it shouldn't require well over 500 rounds of ammo and over 30 rifle grenades just to cut through the plant to travel, every single time. There seems to be a very big mix of mercs and bandits and Monolith fighting it out at the Waste Processing Station in Zaton in my current freeplay save, also--in excess of 40 hostile NPCs (edit: I counted 50 bodies once I cleared out the remainder). Again, the zone is way more hostile than it was.

GARRY: Much of my time with the game has been in freeplay--just cruising around the zone. But in Pripyat, Garry no longer sells much ammo (or much of anything) and because ammo drops are so sparse, I have to travel back to the stores in Yanov Station or the Shadovsk in order to stock up. It sucks. Garry is almost completely useless now as a source of goods (although he does now carry a miniscule quantity of clean food). I shouldn't have to pay him 15,000 ru just to get back to Pripyat with my ammo stockpiles replenished (or fight a horrendous fight in the Jupiter Plant otherwise). It's a tax. And we all hate those.

WEAPONS and S.H.I.T.: I like the rescale on the weapon models. Some were just too big in 2.1.1. Others are now too small though, for my liking. As a Recon player who has a lot of use of pistols, I think the pistols now lack the visual heft that they once enjoyed. But at least the Skorpion is usable now without taking up half the screen. New gun sounds are refreshing too, as are some of the new weapons and skins.

I don't mind the lighter. I like the new functionality of a lot of things that were useless (cooking utensils! I love them!) but breaking down stuff in the field still seems unnecessary and produces limited reward. When I need money it is still better to haul crappy weapons back to someone I can sell to. And I have never yet pitched a tent. Why would I want to? Overall, a lot of the stuff in the mod now has a purpose that was sorely lacking, and I have always liked the Misery stores full of stuff I don't want or need.

LOOT STASHES: Most all stash bags and boxes are modified to disappear now, once looted, and so they can't be used to store stuff. Some which are crates persist but aren't always where you might want them. Contents are definitely nerfed. And the locations are all still the same as in 2.1.1, which I think is missed opportunity to refresh them properly for someone who already knows where 150+ were located by heart. Alun's journal stashes, however, now work properly and give players a good reason to think and poke around the zone for the location of each one. Still working on that myself but I haven't tried hard yet.

PERFORMANCE: I completed my first campaign with no mission crashes, a first in a long time. But I have more frequent, inexplicable CTDs just walking from one place to another during freeplay. Bad weather seems to be a contributing factor, as are NPC/NPC or NCP/AI life engagements that don't involve me. Jupiter map seems to be the most affected, but I have had Pripyat crashes too. I have had to go around areas sometimes, a long way out of my way, to avoid having a crash as I move from Point A to Point B, which is annoying because those NPC/AI engagements are often a good source of loot which I have been unable to collect. I think the mod is slightly less stable than it was, at least on my rig with my settings.


OVERALL: There are probably some other things I could add, but this is already a long read. I am still not used to the changes and, because of that, my in-game habits are still taking a hit. I like the changes until they make my life much harder than it was. I don't think the WPS should have more hostile NPCs in freeplay than during the campaign mission there, but that is not because I can't deal with them all. I just wasn't used to working hard for anything once I got into freeplay.

The Jupiter Plant is another matter. Given how often I used to blast through there to get back and forth to Pripyat in freeplay, the possibility that I might no longer be able to do so is frustrating. I shouldn't have had to deal with over 90 gun zombies (which are useless bloody enemies in the first place) and no one should ever have to face 8 burers simultaneously. That is just wrong. If the Jupiter Plant is now off limits in freeplay because of this, I will be unhappy. Further examination of what exactly the Misery Development Team have done to change the spawns up there is required.

CONCLUSION: Thumbs up, mostly.

PS Pseudodogs have been nerfed. I am convinced of that, even if I'm wrong. Happy days....

April 20, 2018 Edit: I have, since this report, uninstalled Misery 2.2 and reverted to a back up copy of 2.1. I found Misery 2.2 to be unstable to the point of unplayability during freeplay in the Jupiter map. I literally would take two steps from Yanov Station towards the Jupiter factory, intending to travel to Pripyat, and the game would crash, 100% of the time. I still have not had my experience with Misery 2.2 verified by anyone else, so I can't rule out the possibility that my problem with the mod was unique.

[Milk]

I started experiencing frequent crashing, I wonder if it's related to the weather too.

[Chinggis Khaan]

Give me some advice from recon to recon please.
What armor do you use, and, do you usually take out camping tools whenever you go out?
I have a bulat Worst choice i could make but i don't mind the weight or stamia at all since now im relatively safer.

Nice review btw.

[Martial.Lore]

Originally posted by Cæsar:

Give me some advice from recon to recon please.
What armor do you use, and, do you usually take out camping tools whenever you go out?
I have a bulat Worst choice i could make but i don't mind the weight or stamia at all since now im relatively safer.

Nice review btw.

Thank you. I don't like that Misery offers little protection for Recon with high proficiency ratings. The ecologist suits are nice for going into anomalies but terrible to fight in. The SEVA suit now becomes available very very late (it didn't appear in a store during my recent campaign until I was in free play) and provides only low daytime camouflage.

For this reason I prefer the Sunrise suit. Only medium proficiency but much lighter to run in and it has a high daytime camouflage rating--perfect for getting around the Zone quickly and relatively safely. I found the heavier armors just required me to use stamina stimulants all the time to get around and out of trouble quickly.

I used to use the Recon high proficiency gas masks with the Sunrise until I started trying to beat the game with no deaths. But it's too easy to get headshot so I have been using the highest rated Sphere helmet instead (medium proficiency). It's a compromise between weight and again speed and stamina regeneration.

I only use the weapons designated as high proficiency for Recon. Rifles for hard targets and pistols for many mutants. Taking down a bloodsucker with a single .357 Magnum round while on the fly was the outstanding piece of memorable gunplay from my recent campaign.

I like to get back to base and haven't tried camping yet. I do not go out at night unless it sounds like something really very interesting is going on--it's too hard to safely find the bodies to loot and my iron man habits have stuck with me. For the same reason I don't like thunderstorms or mist. As a Recon trying to stay alive and in one piece, I like to see and hear what's coming at me!

I play with no UI visible or crosshair (reticle)--just the helmet effect. That means iron sights or lucky no-scoping, calculating how far I can run before needing to stop to regenerate stamina and frequent reloading after a shot or a series of shots. I check my inventory to identify which ammo I have loaded and keep track of ammo stocks, health, bleeding and injuries. I have played this way for a long time now and it doesn't hinder me at all--I feel more fully immersed in the Zone instead.

[Chinggis Khaan]

Originally posted by Martial.Lore:

Originally posted by Cæsar:

Give me some advice from recon to recon please.
What armor do you use, and, do you usually take out camping tools whenever you go out?
I have a bulat Worst choice i could make but i don't mind the weight or stamia at all since now im relatively safer.

Nice review btw.

Thank you. I don't like that Misery offers little protection for Recon with high proficiency ratings. The ecologist suits are nice for going into anomalies but terrible to fight in. The SEVA suit now becomes available very very late (it didn't appear in a store during my recent campaign until I was in free play) and provides only low daytime camouflage.

For this reason I prefer the Sunrise suit. Only medium proficiency but much lighter to run in and it has a high daytime camouflage rating--perfect for getting around the Zone quickly and relatively safely. I found the heavier armors just required me to use stamina stimulants all the time to get around and out of trouble quickly.

I used to use the Recon high proficiency gas masks with the Sunrise until I started trying to beat the game with no deaths. But it's too easy to get headshot so I have been using the highest rated Sphere helmet instead (medium proficiency). It's a compromise between weight and again speed and stamina regeneration.

I only use the weapons designated as high proficiency for Recon. Rifles for hard targets and pistols for many mutants. Taking down a bloodsucker with a single .357 Magnum round while on the fly was the outstanding piece of memorable gunplay from my recent campaign.

I like to get back to base and haven't tried camping yet. I do not go out at night unless it sounds like something really very interesting is going on--it's too hard to safely find the bodies to loot and my iron man habits have stuck with me. For the same reason I don't like thunderstorms or mist. As a Recon trying to stay alive and in one piece, I like to see and hear what's coming at me!

I play with no UI visible or crosshair (reticle)--just the helmet effect. That means iron sights or lucky no-scoping, calculating how far I can run before needing to stop to regenerate stamina and frequent reloading after a shot or a series of shots. I check my inventory to identify which ammo I have loaded and keep track of ammo stocks, health, bleeding and injuries. I have played this way for a long time now and it doesn't hinder me at all--I feel more fully immersed in the Zone instead.

Danm...
And i can't get past jupiter because of that danm controller, kudos to you sir.
EDIT: Just another day in the jupiter plant.
I always go there and there's a giant mutant war, first time there was a blind dog vs mutant cat i witnessed.
Now there's snorks and pseudo dogs fighting, i'd like to cut their parts off but reinforcements always come in
EDIT 2: 2nd attemp at getting into jupiter
There's 2 chimeras guarding the controller.
I.. This... Can't.

[Martial.Lore]

Originally posted by Cæsar:

Danm...
And i can't get past jupiter because of that danm controller, kudos to you sir.
EDIT: Just another day in the jupiter plant.
I always go there and there's a giant mutant war, first time there was a blind dog vs mutant cat i witnessed.
Now there's snorks and pseudo dogs fighting, i'd like to cut their parts off but reinforcements always come in
EDIT 2: 2nd attemp at getting into jupiter
There's 2 chimeras guarding the controller.
I.. This... Can't.

My best advice, once the ground is clear of small and annoying mutants, is to draw the chimeras to you near that metal shed at the junction of the admin buildings and the Jupiter plant itself (ie. bait them and then run back). The shed will provide bomb-proof protection against the chimeras while you deal with them, and if a controller wanders up with them it will also provide you the necessary cover while you kill it. This is how I dealt with 3 chimeras and 8 burers simultaneously.

[terryt3535]

Yeah, after going through Pripyat Underground, trying to get to the travel point in Jupiter Plant to traverse for free seems pretty much impossible. I think my problem is the poltergeist. I have never seen it but get the color change and hear the noise, and my health bar just slides down to nothing.

[Martial.Lore]

Originally posted by terryt3535:

Yeah, after going through Pripyat Underground, trying to get to the travel point in Jupiter Plant to traverse for free seems pretty much impossible. I think my problem is the poltergeist. I have never seen it but get the color change and hear the noise, and my health bar just slides down to nothing.

Like I said in an earlier post, I found 150 mutants up there, myself, including 90 gun zombies, a horde or melee zombies, at least 4 chimeras, eight burers, at least five snorks in a group (I found more snork bodies right outside the doors to to into the factory when I finally got down there).

It cost a hell of a lot of ammo, which would have made Garry's 15,000 ru price seem like nothing (except he wasn't available for fast travel at that point in my game). In the end I decided to reload the earlier Pripyat save and not travel back until Garry showed up.

[Chinggis Khaan]

Originally posted by Martial.Lore:

Originally posted by terryt3535:

Yeah, after going through Pripyat Underground, trying to get to the travel point in Jupiter Plant to traverse for free seems pretty much impossible. I think my problem is the poltergeist. I have never seen it but get the color change and hear the noise, and my health bar just slides down to nothing.

Like I said in an earlier post, I found 150 mutants up there, myself, including 90 gun zombies, a horde or melee zombies, at least 4 chimeras, eight burers, at least five snorks in a group (I found more snork bodies right outside the doors to to into the factory when I finally got down there).

It cost a hell of a lot of ammo, which would have made Garry's 15,000 ru price seem like nothing (except he wasn't available for fast travel at that point in my game). In the end I decided to reload the earlier Pripyat save and not travel back until Garry showed up.

Imagine all the money the sciencists could give you for all these parts!

[0scarMike]

OP is a better Stalker than me. Good hunting!

[Kensei]

I've played MISERY before, and at a point it becomes just as easy as vanilla. It just takes longer to get the best stuff. After that the game becomes soooo tedious. I was hoping your impressions of 2.2 would reignite my desire to play CoP again, but since MISERY is still as bloated with pointless crap as before, guess imma have to pass. Thanks for the info.