Misery mod and why you shouldn't use the " out of the box " version ( Also ways to fix these issues for the mod devs )

[Draescan]

|* Please note this is constructive criticism *|
|* Also Note that this was made as of 2.0.0 *|


As most of you know, Misery is one of the bigger name mods out for stalker call of pripyat at the moment and is recieving TONS of attention right now, especially in the excitment for the up and coming patch 2.1 . Allow me to make some points as to what it does RIGHT first.

Misery has a wonderful lack of HUD, it gives you just enough information without being intrusive and still maintains all of the core functions of the vanilla HUD.

The visuals are absolutely gorgeous, whether it's the blowouts, fog, rain, dusk, dawn, what have you...Misery sets the tone excellently.

The added weapon selection is always a nice addition to a stalker game and let's be honest, we can never have enough. Now, what are the reasons that you shouldn't JUST go with the regular moddb version of Misery?

First thing to note, the effectiveness of weapon repair kits, and the lack of weapons in decent repair. Now for those of you who haven't played Misery, and some who have, you're probably thinking meh so what? However, what you have to realize is while this mod is claiming to be downright brutal, it also claims to be extraordinarily realistic.

I don't know about you, but if I was in a survival situation, I'D KEEP MY GUN IN GOOD CONDITION! Enemies almost NEVER have a weapon that has at least 30% of it's condition bar left, and repair via mechanics is absolutely out of the question unless you are making small repairs, ie. You fire your gun like 40 times and it was brand spanking new.

Repair kits, ( while some have had their requirements lowered, most notably the kits for specific weapons in the 2.02 patch ) do not give enough of a condition increase to make using them on weapons at low conditions viable. I hate to break it to the mod developers, but weapon parts, even in the zone, ARE NOT EXPENSIVE! The Ukranian military is manufacturing these things like hot cakes, not to mention Duty and the oddball gunsmith.Heck, where do you think FREEDOM get's all of it's NATO weapons? FROM THE OUTSIDE! I'm not saying it should be as cheap as vanilla, being able to fully repair a weapon for less than 2k is BS...but fixing a weapon should not be more expensive than buying a brand new one, two tiers higher.

Enemy accuracy: Enemy accuracy is hit or miss to be honest, there are some enemies that couldn't hit the broad side of a psuedogiant, and then there's the guys ( usually toting 9x19mm rifle grip weapons ) that could shoot the nut sack off a mosquito in China. Now while this may not be an issue at first, it starts becoming increasingly annoying when you start to play at a distance. I'm not sure that these people realize this, but smaller calibers aren't that great at penetrating thick cover, AND body armor. ESPECIALLY 130 meters out from their target. Enemy accuracy is also absolutely INSANE with grenades, and they will spam them religiously if they catch a glimpse of you, and you then procede to hide to drop their trailing. I actually posted a comment regarding this, to which I recieved a childish and asinine response. ( Basically a ♥♥♥♥ off ) from one of the devs After which another user made me aware of the grenade accuracy being linked to the gun accuracy. Even with this information, which btw they are totally aware of, they give NPC's access to infinite grenades. Even though there's an option to turn off infinite NPC ammo, they will continue to throw grenades all day until you either 1. kill them 2. They kill you or 3. You move out of the AO

" Realism " : The developers idea of " realism " is absolutely misguided and placed more with the idea of " hurr durr it's hurd that means it's realistic! " =/ Did these people actually PLAY Day Z Breaking Point? Or Dark Souls 1.00? Or ANY of the CoD titles on Veteran * let's be honest, everyone has probably played them. yes they are garbage, blah blah blah * anywho, making something stupidly difficult doesn't mean it is inherently realistic or immersive. You are claiming that it is both realistic and difficult. It's neither.

The Classes: Most of you are probably going to be like " Whaaa!?!?!? How are they bad? " Here's the thing, the idea of the classes is absolutely AMAZING! The classes stats however.....not so much. Allow me to explain,

The Recon Class: Is the best example. Recon is supposed to be the stealthy character, utilizing things like suppresed AK74u's and suppressed Fort 12's while being able to maintain the highest mobility in closed breathing suits and headgear. However he suffers from being extremely susceptible to both the environmental hazards and other enemies ( NPC's and mutants ) just because he has absolutely 0 damage resistance. He has the lowest damage resistance of the classes, despite being the class suited for CQC. It makes sense that he wouldn't be the sturdiest of the classes for sure, however making him downright weak is NOT the answer. Now, this wouldn't be a problem, if the sniper and assault classes weren't so horribly balanced in comparison.....

The Sniper Class: The sniper class is supposed to be " by common sense AND the description in the mod " The all around good class, we all know snipers use things like long range rifles and are extremely self reliant. Here's what the mod fails to tell you however. The sniper class has the most leveled playing field out the gate in terms of early game to mid game gear. He starts off with a sleeping bag,a detachable gps tagged rutsack, a fairly high powered rifle and....a....Shotgun!? Now, most of you are probably wondering, what does it matter? Well I'll tell you, Snipers are inherently going to avoid any weapon that causes excess weight on their bodies, normally due to the weight of their rifles, scopes, ammo, bipod, etc. Shotguns are the most cumbersome thing a sniper could carry as a backup. The thing that's even more irritating about this ( at least to me, I'll admit this specific part is relative feel free to skip over it ) is that the sniper has a PERK when using double barreled shotguns.....* slams face onto desk * Why the heck would a sniper be adept in using it!?

* You can skip to here if you didn't want to read the shotgun bit. I understand ^_^ *

The sniper also has medium armor skill across the board, now what does this mean? Well, for the most part it means that a sniper can walk around in an exoskeleton with no freaking problem, yet can put on a SEVA suit and be just as peachy. I hate to break it to them, but that's NOT BALANCED! Snipers travel light for a reason! It's too much exertion for their bodies if they want to keep their metabolisms down in order to refrain from using too much of their food and water up. ( I will make note that a ghillie suit is apparently going to be available in Misery 2.1 and looks to be exclusive to the sniper * don't quote me on that * ) The sniper should NOT be average at heavy armor usage.

The Assault Class: The Assault class is honestly not that bad. It's one of the better balanced classes and I'm happy to say I don't really have that many gripes with it. The main issue I have is that the weapons he should be using are sometimes classed incorrectly, as is the case with things like the AK74u which ends up hurting the class out in the field. Overall though, best class balancing they've done....Honestly, bravo, I'm being cincere here. If you did that to the entire mod, I would probably PAY for the damn thing. * it being the mod * The only issue ( which I had to go back and play again in order to find ) is that the assault classes strangely can't keep his aim centered to save his life.

Now, why am I going through so much trouble to type all of this out? Honestly? Because I want to see this mod do better than it is now, I want to see it blow EVERYTHING out of the water, not just in the stalker universe, but in the first person genre. This mod has a TON of potential, but it's not being tapped into whatsoever, and it's disheartening when I see comments like " THIS MOD IS PERFECT ABSOLUTELY NO FLAWS * Insert all caps ♥♥♥ kissing here * " Now don't get me wrong, there's NOTHING wrong with supporting these people and there's nothing wrong with you loving the mod, that's not what I'm trying to get at here. The problem is that people are ignoring the blatant issues, and giving it a high rating without looking at the facts, the mod just ....isn't....balanced.

What could they do to fix this? Simple...Let's start with my first complaint

The weapon repair costs and kit effectiveness: Now, this one looks like it might be tricky however you can fix it just by adjusting some prices. The idea would be to keep repair costs more expensive than the repair kits, but have the kits be cheaper and less effective. Easy way to do this? Make repair kits only available from 1. Other stalkers 2. Weapon traders in other words not people like Beard 3. MAKE THEM DROP FROM ENEMIES WITH A 15% CHANCE! <---- This would make weapon kits more useful as you wouldn't have to either find them in a stash * which I honestly don't even know if you can * or purchase them. Why are you the ONLY person in the zone concerned with maintaining your firearms?

Enemy Accuracy: This one I'll admit is a bit trickier, and there's honestly no easy fix, I get that, however there are some things that you can do in order to make it less annoying for the players. First things first, PUT A DIFFICULTY SETTING OPTION BACK IN THE GAME! I get that the mod is supposed to be difficult, however games need to be balanced, before you commit to such a thing. If you put a difficulty option back into the game, players can adjust the damage on the fly accordingly so that it gives the best possible experience for them. The thing you HAVE to keep in mind when creating content like this and releasing it to the public, is that you aren't making this for yourself, you are making it for your fans. People like options...they don't like to feel pushed into a corner and told they have to do things a specific way, * this is why there are so many ( and I'm quoting a REAL user created patch for this mod ) Unofficial ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Removing Patch(es) for Misery * that work on things like weapon damage and the like. If you can't fix the accuracy, fix the result of the accuracy!

Realism: Honestly, just make it the mod overall more ergonomic, it's not difficult as you've done a fantastic job with the HUD, less time in menus, more time playing. Less micromanaging, more shooting bloodsuckers. And just overall increase the quality of the AI of the mod. The enemy AI is unforgiving to the point that it actually breaks the rules your own classes have set in place....Those being: The assault's damage resistance, The Recon's speed and ability to have quieter footsteps, and the Sniper's ability to maintain a steady aim with weapons. This tears the player out of the immersive experience with a " Lost to the zone " message and a loading screen....Guys.... LOADING SCREENS = BAD when you are trying to make an immsersive and realistic experience, the more time you can keep a player in the action, the more immersed they will be.

The Classes:

Recon: Make this class the middle ground, keep his weapon skill set exactly where it is, including his need for sleep and nourishment, but make him average at damage resistance! He's in close combat for a reason, while he is a stealth character, he would be trained in keeping himself going with adrenaline to help ignore pain. Increase his max walk weight to that of the sniper's. This class is meant for guerilla tactics, naturally he would do his best to have as many tactical options available to him as possible, attachments, ammo types, different helmets, etc. Increasing this weight allows this to happen.

Sniper: This class needs to be the most susceptible to damage, and have NO skill in heavy armor whatsoever. On that note, he should be the most accurate mutha Fmmmhmm out there when he's in the low crouch stance, with ANY weapon, however he should suffer increased condition reduction from use of weapons he has little to no skill with. Make his only REAL skill with weapons, long range rifles, smgs, and pistols, this reinforces the idea of keeping your enemies AWAY from you, as you have no " one shot " means to take them out at close range if they sneak up on you. Lower their max walk weight to that of the recon's....Snipers would travel light and your setup for the sniper's metabolism reinforces this idea.

Assault: Make him have even less weapon sway with weapons he's skilled in, and make it flatout IMPOSSIBLE for him to drop his weapon. Reason for this? It makes him appealing vs the other classes with the aforementioned changes....Dropping your weapon will literally get your head torn off, if you give the assault class this ability, he can pull rank just as hard as the others.....Lower his need for sleep to medium, while I understand he's supposed to need a lot to keep going, it doesn't make for good gameplay. Food requirement is totally fine where it is however.

There you go, the current issues and all the ways they could fix them. I know these aren't exactly overnight things, however quite a few of them are...but honestly I really wish they would take a look at this. I know they are probably NEVER going to do ANY of these things, much less all of them, but it would genuinely make the mod more enjoyable and available to their fans, and really, that's who they SHOULD be doing this for.

Now on that note, am I telling you NOT to get Misery? NO! Completely the opposite actually. I recommend that anyone who desires a bit more of an immersive experience grab Misery 2.02 or 2.1 when it's available as soon as humanly possible. On that note, I recommend NO ONE play the " vanilla " version of Misery. It NEEDS fixes to make it both playable and enjoyable for people who actually enjoy a challenge, but don't like to sit in a loading screen every two and a half minutes. If you need to know where to find such fixes, send me a message, or post here and I will be more than happy to link them for you.

Even those of you who like Misery as is, ( I'm not going to judge you, it's all a matter of taste ) You should STILL download these fixes, as it makes the game MUCH more stable across all machines. Fixes quests, Makes A - Life run more smoothly in the background, there's really no reason to skip over these things. Hopefully the developers will implement them. ( AND GIVE DUE CREDIT! )

[Draescan]

Цитата допису Mon:

Цитата допису Mantis:

Eh, if they do, it better be an addon, otherwise call of chernobyl will be just as crash happy as misery is.

Misery didn't crash allot but it did stutter allot even on my ssd. I was playing Misery like a year ago on my old PC haven't tried it yet on my new computer. Waiting for new update before playing again.

Eh, watch almost any plathrough on youtube and you'll see otherwise. Marshall, RICO, OCedMyToaster all had multiple issues. I've had quite a few myself streaming on twitch with it. Not to mention touching anything seems to make it about as stable as a jenga game with one base piece.

[Mon]

Цитата допису Mantis:

Цитата допису Mon:

Misery didn't crash allot but it did stutter allot even on my ssd. I was playing Misery like a year ago on my old PC haven't tried it yet on my new computer. Waiting for new update before playing again.

Eh, watch almost any plathrough on youtube and you'll see otherwise. Marshall, RICO, OCedMyToaster all had multiple issues. I've had quite a few myself streaming on twitch with it. Not to mention touching anything seems to make it about as stable as a jenga game with one base piece.

I played Misery 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1 aside from stutter i rarely crashed even with other addons or mods added to it.

[trikster]

Stutter is still present, unfortunately, and I don't think there's anything we can do about it.

The gist is, we're taking our sweet time to iron out the existing bugs and polish both new and old features. Also, translations are being worked on, and this will have a further impact on the release date. But yeah, IMO 2.2 is the best version yet, but I'm aware I'm not being objective here. Will see.

[Draescan]

Цитата допису Mon:

Цитата допису Mantis:

Eh, watch almost any plathrough on youtube and you'll see otherwise. Marshall, RICO, OCedMyToaster all had multiple issues. I've had quite a few myself streaming on twitch with it. Not to mention touching anything seems to make it about as stable as a jenga game with one base piece.

I played Misery 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1 aside from stutter i rarely crashed even with other addons or mods added to it.

That's fine, but that doesn't mean because it didn't happen to you it didn't happen to others. Not having an issue doesn't absolve them from any and all issues that others have. If you look at the discussions on moddb or even here for that matter, Misery runs like ♥♥♥♥ for a lot of people. Also, STUTTER? You know vanilla stuttered like hell right? It's just the Xray engine. It's just the way the damn thing works unfortunately lol.

[Mon]

Цитата допису Mantis:

Цитата допису Mon:

I played Misery 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1 aside from stutter i rarely crashed even with other addons or mods added to it.

That's fine, but that doesn't mean because it didn't happen to you it didn't happen to others. Not having an issue doesn't absolve them from any and all issues that others have. If you look at the discussions on moddb or even here for that matter, Misery runs like ♥♥♥♥ for a lot of people.

I know i didn't say it runs perfectly i had to tweak stuff myself to have it run smooth as possible. But like trikster said 2.2 will be the best version by far and i believe they will have better script optimization this time around. Atleast i hope so. Either way i have all the patience in the world.

[Draescan]

Цитата допису Mon:

Цитата допису Mantis:

That's fine, but that doesn't mean because it didn't happen to you it didn't happen to others. Not having an issue doesn't absolve them from any and all issues that others have. If you look at the discussions on moddb or even here for that matter, Misery runs like ♥♥♥♥ for a lot of people.

I know i didn't say it runs perfectly i had to tweak stuff myself to have it run smooth as possible. But like trikster said 2.2 will be the best version by far and i believe they will have better script optimization this time around. Atleast i hope so. Either way i have all the patience in the world.

Not denying that. I've just learned that it's better to be skeptically optomistic than blindly jumping on the hype train. Not saying you are, just that I've been burned by mods like this before. * cough * gunslinger * cough *

[Mon]

Цитата допису Mantis:

Цитата допису Mon:

I know i didn't say it runs perfectly i had to tweak stuff myself to have it run smooth as possible. But like trikster said 2.2 will be the best version by far and i believe they will have better script optimization this time around. Atleast i hope so. Either way i have all the patience in the world.

Not denying that. I've just learned that it's better to be skeptically optomistic than blindly jumping on the hype train. Not saying you are, just that I've been burned by mods like this before. * cough * gunslinger * cough *

Yeah gunslinger is a sad case maybe not completly lost but doesn't look like it will be released any time soon. I remember when misery 2.0 wasn't release yet and the hype was huge but hype is never a good thing atleast not on that scale. Look at No Man's Sky lmao that turned out bad after years of hype. But misery is a mod and it's free and i honestly think the misery team learned their lesson and are keeping it cool posting rarely and just slowly finishing the mod.

[Nefiji]

What did I find here and why does it smeel like salt.

[Draescan]

Цитата допису Rouce:

What did I find here and why does it smeel like salt. :SYMSface:

I think you discovered a dead thread who's biggest complaints were looked at and for the most part being fixed or have been fixed. I gave input and they actually did a lot of these things. There was no salt here, just constructive criticism

[Nefiji]

Yeah, I shouldn't have necro'd.

To contribute to the topic: There are a lot of aspects in Misery, where the mod prefers gameplay balance over realism. I.e. enemies only having 0 up to 50% condition isn't realistic at all. But if you would find high end weapons in good condition left and right, it would render a huge portion of balance, the reason to make money and the merchants obsolete.

But I aggree, the mod has some subpar elements to it.

[Draescan]

Цитата допису Rouce:

Yeah, I shouldn't have necro'd.

To contribute to the topic: There are a lot of aspects in Misery, where the mod prefers gameplay balance over realism. I.e. enemies only having 0 up to 50% condition isn't realistic at all. But if you would find high end weapons in good condition left and right, it would render a huge portion of balance, the reason to make money and the merchants obsolete.

But I aggree, the mod has some subpar elements to it.

The easiest way to fix the powerful weapon thing you mentioned is just to do exactly what vanilla CoP does. Lock certain weapons from appearing before certain points in the story ( some of which they've already done ) if you just make it where your average gun is an ak or ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ar15 variant ( hell they have old warsaw pact guns that aren't any good mid game just make those stupidly common ) and then give them a chance to drop in a decent condition, not a large one just decent, there you go. Problem solved ^_^

[Nefiji]

How would you balance their worth though?

Misery has this interesting economy, where you can't just farm some bandits all day to get rich and buy the best equipment. The only way to make money is to efficiently hunt high end mutants, search for artifacts or do quests for people. And then in the end you can just buy a weapon of your choice with that money.

I quite enjoy this system.

[Draescan]

Цитата допису Rouce:

How would you balance their worth though?

Misery has this interesting economy, where you can't just farm some bandits all day to get rich and buy the best equipment. The only way to make money is to efficiently hunt high end mutants, search for artifacts or do quests for people. And then in the end you can just buy a weapon of your choice with that money.

I quite enjoy this system.

Actually I do just farm bandits and mercs all day for my cash. It's 100% possible in 2.1.1 to repeatedly sleep till the next day then go to the waste processing station over and over to farm them. Warsaw pact weapons corrode quickly, can't be upgraded, and have heavy ammo, they're already incredibly well balanced.

[Nefiji]

Цитата допису Mantis:

Actually I do just farm bandits and mercs all day for my cash. It's 100% possible in 2.1.1 to repeatedly sleep till the next day then go to the waste processing station over and over to farm them. Warsaw pact weapons corrode quickly, can't be upgraded, and have heavy ammo, they're already incredibly well balanced.

If it's already viable, how broken would it be if they dropped weapon in decent condition. You would never need to do quest/mutant hunting/artifact searching anymore?

[Draescan]

Цитата допису Rouce:

Цитата допису Mantis:

Actually I do just farm bandits and mercs all day for my cash. It's 100% possible in 2.1.1 to repeatedly sleep till the next day then go to the waste processing station over and over to farm them. Warsaw pact weapons corrode quickly, can't be upgraded, and have heavy ammo, they're already incredibly well balanced.

If it's already viable, how broken would it be if they dropped weapon in decent condition. You would never need to do quest/mutant hunting/artifact searching anymore?

I already don't need to, that's what I'm saying. With the changes I suggested you couldn't make decent money off of them as warsaw pact weapons aren't worth much as is anyways. A full condition stg won't net you much gain....In the grand scheme of things when a suit is 46k 8 guns in full condition trading for one suit is still more than fair. It would take you over 14 runs of what I do in order to get that with those changes and the chance of high durability weapons I recommended. In vanilla that's maybe 2, MAYBE.


You're actually illustrating an issue I've had to discuss a lot with people who play Misery, everyone seems to love difficulty for the sake of it. You can't just throw ♥♥♥♥ at the player and have it be REAL difficulty. That's why FTL is either loved or hated, there's no in between. There's nothing wrong with that inherently if that's the goal, but there's too much tweaking going on for me to believe that's true.