Call of Pripyat Mod Guide by boredgunner

Mod guide from someone who has been modding the series since 2008. Most English speaking modders and guides are unaware of the majority of what's going on in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mod community, since their knowledge is generally limited to ModDB. However, ModDB and the English speaking community in general doesn't see the newest mods or most mods at all, the mod community is most active in Eastern Europe. This results in lots of poor and misinformed recommendations. Despite this, many of those mods are available in English. So here is a modding guide and recommendation list for English speaking players that is actually up to date.

Things You Need to Know

Game Version

Mods built to go on top of Call of Pripyat (CoP) simply require the latest version of CoP which is 1.6.02. GOG and Steam versions are already this version.

But then there are tons of standalone mods, many of them built using custom versions of X-Ray engine such as Open X-Ray and X-Ray Oxygen. But since they're standalone, you don't even need to own CoP for them.

Even the Steam version has no DRM

This is important especially considering the fact that you might want to have multiple copies installed with different mods. You can simply copy and paste your CoP directory to another location on your disk/SSD and run it standalone, especially after the edits listed below.

How to Have Multiple Copies of the Game at Once

The file structure of the game is as follows:

• Main Install Directory - For Steam, this refers to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat folder in your Steam Library folder.
  
  
• AppData - By default this refers to the Documents\Stalker-COP folder and its contents.

The concept for creating a separate install of the game is to copy both of those folders above into a single new folder, and edit the fsgame.ltx file to update the AppData directory reference.

To do this, you need to copy the main install folder into another folder, then copy the AppData folder (Documents\Stalker-COP) into a new folder, preferably inside this new CoP game folder you just created. Then you have to update fsgame.ltx to point to this new AppData folder. See these variables in fsgame.ltx:

$app_data_root$		= true|		false|	appdata\
$game_data$   		= false|	true|	$fs_root$|		gamedata\

The first line is telling the game to set its app data root directory to a folder called appdata\ within the main game directory. The second line is telling the game to read from a gamedata\ folder in the same location.

99.9% of the time you cannot run multiple mods together at the same time

So don't even think about using multiple mods unless you are a programmer who knows X-Ray engine very well and can manually merge them yourself.

If you want to unpack the DB files for any of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games or most mods, try AXRToolset.[github.com] If that doesn't work for a mod, use the OP2.1 unpacker[cloud.mail.ru] or Total Commander[www.ghisler.com] with the X-Ray DB plugin[totalcmd.net].

If you want to discuss S.T.A.L.K.E.R. modding with people who actually follow the entire mod scene closely, join the C-Consciousness discord.[discord.gg]

I'll end this by pointing out that Call of Pripyat doesn't have nearly as many mods as Shadow of Chernobyl, and Shadow of Chernobyl also simply has the best mods in the series.

Vanilla or Modded on a First Playthrough?

This is a common subject, and the common answer differs depending on the game community. For S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the vast majority of the community says vanilla first, but I strongly disagree and vote for modded first.

Everyone should play the game modded first because:

• It's potentially only objectively better, depending on the mod you're using - Every game has flaws and shortcomings, but moddable games have the advantage of allowing the community to improve the game. This has been done countless times with Call of Pripyat.
  
  
• You don't know if you're even going to like the game much less replay the game therefore you might as well play the objectively improved (modded) version from the get go, to ensure the highest chance of liking the game.

Here are the common arguments people give to play vanilla first:

• "You should see vanilla first, to see what the devs intended" -> Retort: None of the Stalker games were released exactly as intended, especially SoC and CS - there are mods that actually make them as INTENDED (Oblivion Lost Remake for SoC, various mods that add back cut levels and content to CS). That, and developers' intentions are imperfect as these mods show since some only objectively improve things.
  
  
• "You should see vanilla first, to see what was improved" -> Retort: Most people don't replay games, so they shouldn't take that chance. Instead they should play the improved modded version first, and if they like it, then maybe check out vanilla one day, but they don't need to play all of vanilla to understand what was improved. Hell, videos can suffice.
  
  
• "Mods change the style and alter the core identity of the game" -> Retort: Not necessarily. Simpler graphics mods and weapon replacers and A-Life enhancers don't do this.
  
  
• "Graphics don't matter" -> Retort: And? I doubt they actually believe this, they wouldn't want Stalker to have Pong graphics, but even then it obviously matters to MOST people, so might as well improve it since you can. These idiots are saying "Graphics don't matter to me, so they probably don't matter to someone else" which is an arrogant self-absorbed and almost certainly incorrect generalization.
  
  
• "I just like my vanilla experience, maybe it's nostalgia" -> At this point they've already been destroyed.

Recommended Mods for First Timers

For people playing Call of Priypat for the first time, or just looking to replay its main story, I only recommend the following mods used together, installed in the order they're listed.

Do not start the damn S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series with Anomaly or Call of Chernobyl mods. They are aimless freeplay mods meant for those who already beat the entire series. All you do in these mods is engage in faction wars to capture points (as if you're playing Conquest with AI) or nothing at all. Start any story driven series from the beginning, use common sense.

Open X-Ray Gunslinger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29BdbW8R3bI

The most detailed and customizable weapon mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. combined with the best open source version of X-Ray engine, this is the mod to play Call of Pripyat with.

ModDB Page

Story Mods

Here I will recommend mods that bring an entirely new story.

Valley of Whispers Gunslinger

This mod takes place entirely on a new map that's really well designed. You play as a stalker hired by Beard to find guys who went missing on an expedition to find the Heart of the Oasis. The quality is surprisingly consistent with the original game, feeling like an expansion pack. Gunslinger elevates it to the next level.

Download[drive.google.com]

Spatial Anomaly

Spatial Anomaly is a fairly recent but popular mod for Call of Pripyat known for its writing quality. Here’s how the mod creators describe it: “Spatial Anomaly tells the tale of the notorious mercenary Beast and his attempts to survive inside a mystical place dubbed by stalkers as the “spatial anomaly.” Inside reign completely different laws, and everything is in short supply: cartridges, medicine, drinking water, food, and even bolts. This, however, does not stop the mercenary from searching for a way out of the death trap.”

ModDB Page

Under the Guise of Death

Not well known by westerners, and for good reason since it's only machine translated and the machine translation is broken. But if you want to try a potentially very interesting story driven CoP mod that you haven't played before, this is one.

Note its DX10 renderer does not work for me, so I have to play in DX9. Remove the space in the link below before the 'ru' since the link gets blocked.

https://ap-pro. ru/forum/36-10660-1

Machine Translation[www.mediafire.com]

Freeplay Mods

Freeplay mods began with Call of Chernobyl, which combines all of the original locations (although it failed to do this originally) along with some cut SoC alpha build maps and one new map, throws it all together but doesn't provide you with much else to do.

These days, there are a ton of mods that use it as a base but remain aimless freeplay mods. The only things to do in them are menial cyclic side tasks or faction warfare if you use Warfare/equivalent mods, which equates to territorial wars and point capture, as if you're playing Conquest in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. However, the A-Life showcase here can be very impressive, if using Extended Offline A-Life or Warfare mods.

Dollchan 8: Infinity

Call of Chernobyl based and uses a newer 64-bit engine, this mod is known for its level design and providing more of a story than other Call of Chernobyl based mods, so it isn't an aimless freeplay mod.

Mod page[ap-pro.ru]
Link to translation

Call of Chernobyl + IWP + Extended Offline A-Life

If you want an aimless freeplay mod, this is the best there is: combining Call of Chernobyl 1.4.22 (unfortunately not 1.5r7 x64), with Improved Weapon Pack (IWP) which is a very large, high quality weapon mod featuring PiP scopes, and Extended Offline A-Life which is similar to Warfare but more optimized.

Unfortunately, this is not out of the box compatible with Open X-Ray. Open X-Ray + CoC 1.5r7 + IWP + Extended Offline A-Life + MLR would make for the ultimate CoC-based mod, but this doesn't exist.

CoC 1.4.22 + IWP Standalone - Download the standalone download and patch
Extended Offline A-Life 1.7.6.2 for IWP

[Satan Jugend]

Can Open X-Ray Gunslinger be actually completed on a playthrough then if its EA?

[Ray tracing is faster]

It's early access, but I might as well, thanks

[Conjour]

id say misery and gunslinger is good but its really intended for people who Really Know how to play the stalker games

[lozyl]

"Call of Pripyat is the weakest game in the series"

[Lolbit]

i have question i want to create my first mod for stalker call of pripyat i want to create new armors weapons and stuff also locations how can i do that ?

[KIMOCHIII [SLAVA UKRAINI]]

Yup, make sure you install the "Unofficial English Localisation".

[KIMOCHIII [SLAVA UKRAINI]]

I totally missed the "Warning! (No english localisation)" in the gunslinger moddb page, so hopefully installing the "Unofficial English Localisation" in the updater is enough. What it's showing now are definitely the localisation strings.

[KIMOCHIII [SLAVA UKRAINI]]

After installing everything, and updating the gunslinger mod, the game runs fine. But the gunslinger titles and descriptions aren't displaying properly. For example, the ak74 is "gunsl_wpn_ak74". The 5.45x39 FMJ's name is "gunsl_ammo_5.45x39_fmj" and its description is "gunsl_ammo_5.45x39_fmj_descr". Is there a way to resolve this? It's pretty annoying.

[WarNerve]

Thanks bud.

[Ray tracing is faster]

That step should be unnecessary.