What's everybody playing?

[Ikawaru]

So I've read side missions are only available for so long, but is there any warning which ones you'll miss if you continue on, or can you at least revert to a save to do them if you missed any? I think I also read your allies can get killed or leave you for various reasons if you don't keep them happy. Have you had that happen, or is it pretty easy to keep them? This is one of my main concerns, and why I said earlier I was hoping there isn't a lot of micromanaging. It's because I plan to progress to harder difficulty modes.

You can revert to previous saves anytime yes, but it's kind of pointless to do so if a particular mission expires, as every mission you assign to teammates is pretty standard; find food rations, ammo, or medical supplies. Even if you miss one another similar one will pop up, it's pretty basic and I usually just have my team find food rations and medical supplies (I can craft shotshells myself) because I know not to take stuff like that for granted in a survival game. You simply have to have some logistical common sense to survive in most SURVIVAL games. Yes, allies can die in a mission but I only assign my team missions if they have a 80%+ chance of success so I never send them on real dangerous missions which net rewards I can most certainly find myself when I myself go on a mission, as I stated, I already managed to build everything in my base so it's not like I need to risk teammates death for pointless net gain.

And yes, you gotta keep your team happy but that isn't too hard, just build stuff that provides comfort for them in base and give them double rations after they successfully complete a mission and occasionally do something in a dialogue option that makes them happy and they shouldn't rebel, but of course only recruiting people you like helps big there.

Common sense really, but you probably do need basic managerial skills in resource allocation and scrounging (your PDA device picks up resources in zones, which I usually comb thoroughly and acquire before I exit the mission) to get through smoothly but I've learned that many players don't have that and just want to play like GTA or Doom or something.

 

[Frag Maniac]

You can revert to previous saves anytime yes, but it's kind of pointless to do so if a particular mission expires, as every mission you assign to teammates is pretty standard; find food rations, ammo, or medical supplies. Even if you miss one another similar one will pop up, it's pretty basic and I usually just have my team find food rations and medical supplies (I can craft shotshells myself) because I know not to take stuff like that for granted in a survival game. You simply have to have some logistical common sense to survive in most SURVIVAL games. Yes, allies can die in a mission but I only assign my team missions if they have a 80%+ chance of success so I never send them on real dangerous missions which net rewards I can most certainly find myself when I myself go on a mission, as I stated, I already managed to build everything in my base so it's not like I need to risk teammates death for pointless net gain.

And yes, you gotta keep your team happy but that isn't too hard, just build stuff that provides comfort for them in base and give them double rations after they successfully complete a mission and occasionally do something in a dialogue option that makes them happy and they shouldn't rebel, but of course only recruiting people you like helps big there.

Common sense really, but you probably do need basic managerial skills in resource allocation and scrounging (your PDA device picks up resources in zones, which I usually comb thoroughly and acquire before I exit the mission) to get through smoothly but I've learned that many players don't have that and just want to play like GTA or Doom or something.

So what difficulty mode are you on and how many are there? I read they added an update because many were saying the game is too easy or too hard. Supposedly it allows you to balance difficulty via 3 categories, Survival, Combat, and Management.

 

[Ikawaru]

So what difficulty mode are you on and how many are there? I read they added an update because many were saying the game is too easy or too hard. Supposedly it allows you to balance difficulty via 3 categories, Survival, Combat, and Management.

Default difficulty, I did not change the slider.

*Word of caution!*

I'm at the end of the game now right before the heist and actually had to use the Radiation Chamber and enter the Fractal Timeline because I made a lot of dumb decisions and lost some teammates. I thought I could just keep playing and doing missions and the game would eventually allow me to recruit various types of characters with lots of different options. Wrong! Every character you run into is vital and needs to be recruited and you actually have to make sure their disposition towards you doesn't get worse than *Bad* or they will leave and you will not get the best ending, so you have to think very carefully every time you make a decision and don't **** them off too badly. Luckily I had tons of Chernobylite saved up so I could alter the timeline. Now lets hope I can still do the side missions for these characters because I still do not have all the 'Tools' and 'Files' needed to get best ending.

So yeah, being a skilled survivalist simply is not enough, you have to actually gauge every characters disposition and make the right choices to keep them all or you're gonna be screwed later so if it is your 1st playthrough be sure to take note of that and will save you some headache later.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Default difficulty, I did not change the slider.

*Word of caution!*

I'm at the end of the game now right before the heist and actually had to use the Radiation Chamber and enter the Fractal Timeline because I made a lot of dumb decisions and lost some teammates. I thought I could just keep playing and doing missions and the game would eventually allow me to recruit various types of characters with lots of different options. Wrong! Every character you run into is vital and needs to be recruited and you actually have to make sure their disposition towards you doesn't get worse than *Bad* or they will leave and you will not get the best ending, so you have to think very carefully every time you make a decision and don't **** them off too badly. Luckily I had tons of Chernobylite saved up so I could alter the timeline. Now lets hope I can still do the side missions for these characters because I still do not have all the 'Tools' and 'Files' needed to get best ending.

So yeah, being a skilled survivalist simply is not enough, you have to actually gauge every characters disposition and make the right choices to keep them all or you're gonna be screwed later so if it is your 1st playthrough be sure to take note of that and will save you some headache later.

Yeah, like I was saying, I've read the characters you recruit and keeping them is key. I also just read the game ramps up difficulty at the end game, so I'm not surprised by what you're saying. I assume since you just bought it you also got the update where you can balance difficulty beyond the difficulty mode you select by tweaking Survival, Combat, and Management adjustments? Have you played with those settings at all? I really have no idea how that's done.

One of the things that made me apprehensive about this game is that it seems to be a bit deeper in RPG nature than most Survival Horror games, and I wanted to be sure what type of game I was buying. So was your mistakes unfixable via reverting to a prior save, or had you passed a point of no return?

I just read that Chernobylite actually is a real substance, and a byproduct of the Chernobyl melt down. Strange that one of the most valuable resources in the game would contain such high levels of one of the things you're trying to avoid the most, radiation. I guess that kind of dichotomy is common in these nuclear apocalypse games. Do you have to take antirads just to carry it without taking damage? If so, this could mean even more micromanaging than I anticipated.

 

[Ikawaru]

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No, I did not mess with the difficulty slider at all

Paragraph 2

So far, as I said, I was able to alter the timeline after entering the Fractal Timeline and keep all the characters because I had tons of Chernobylite Crystals saved up, but there's still some missing items needed to get the best ending and I'm not sure yet whether I can do more secondary quests for these recovered companions, I will try later tonight. Yes, upon reflection, it is quite RPG heavy and decisions you make are quite vital to the outcome of the game, perhaps a bit much so for the average survival horror fan.

Paragraph 3

I never once had a major radiation problem because you get a gas mask fairly early and the game world has handed me plenty of filters and I never once crafted any so that isn't a problem if your are base level proficient in survival instincts. I've been heavily irradiated numerous times but it is not hard to craft anti-radiation supplies.

 

[Frag Maniac]

So there's only one slider to adjust both difficulty level AND the balancing of Survival, Combat, and Management categories? Or perhaps there's a difficulty slider for each of those categories, which now that I think of it, seems the logical way to do it.

Congrats on getting your crew back, that must have been a relief.

 

[Ikawaru]

So there's only one slider to adjust both difficulty level AND the balancing of Survival, Combat, and Management categories? Or perhaps there's a difficulty slider for each of those categories, which now that I think of it, seems the logical way to do it.

Yes there is a difficulty slider for each category.

I just beat it and got the "Best" ending possible and I gotta say, it wasn't as exciting as I hoped so my advice for anyone who wants to play it would be to just act natural and accept whatever outcome you get on the 1st playthrough and you can always replay or reload if you want to do it the "proper" way. I did manage to get every single Trophy on my 1st playthrough and I think that is a first ever for me, especially as I never was a huge trophy buff and never bothered to try to obtain every trophy imaginable for the games I play.

So yeah, my summary of the game would be that it is an adequate survival horror game with great atmosphere but it's a bit heavy on the RPG "Every action has drastic consequences!" side. Pretty solid crafting capabilities, upgrades, and loot hunting so the positives outweigh the negatives. I'm clocked at 24 hours play time so it's not super long but there is a good amount of content jammed into it, especially with all the reactivity in dialogue options.

 

[Frag Maniac]

For those of you whom haven't played Chernobylite, be wary of spoilers in the following post, not all are spoiler tagged.

I put in a fairly long session of Chernobylite tonight, but only have 1 of the NPCs I started with, and none recruited so far. This game takes a fair bit of study just to get an understanding of how to best upgrade your base, manage inventory, and keep your crew happy. One of the most tedious things is crafting though. I can't believe how many things require mushrooms to craft, even things that have nothing whatsoever to do with them. I'm wondering if it's some dev joke about mushroom clouds, since this is a nuclear post apocalyptic game.

At any rate I'm slogging through it, using a fairly well upgraded revolver. I also carry a stock AK, but haven't really used it yet. I gave the shotgun I scavenged to my military crew guy, but I think I'll swap it out for the 2nd AK I just scavenged off a hostile Merc. One thing I like that I just found out is you can acquire a non lethal takedown skill, which means you don't have to worry about your Psyche level dropping from unnecessarily killing people and having to build it back up all the time. The only time I've not seen it drop is when you kill some mercs that are about to kill a civilian, because it's considered you rescuing them.

I'm several days into the gameplay as far as in game time goes though, and the zones you travel to start getting stormy quicker the more days you progress, with a particularly nasty guy that pops out of a wormhole firing his Plasma Thrower at you as far as I can tell. A couple scientist NPCs I just interrogated (because they work for the bad guys) told me Pripyat looks like it will melt down in about 30 days.

So this game is vaguely similar to Days Gone in how it keeps track of time and escalates the chaos as you go. If you play it, beware of the save system. I recommend using the main menu to manual save before getting any base building started. This is because you can't count on the auto saves and quick saves to be there very long, since they are overwritten, and there's potentially a fair number of damage that could have been avoided out in the field when unexpected things happen, be it radiation, mercs, or monsters.

I panicked a bit at first when Anton died because I listened to Tanya's warning and didn't mess with the console on the first scripted mission. Then I read he dies later anyway. I'm still wondering at what point and how more inventory space is unlocked. Doesn't seem like it would be a skill trained by one of the recruits. At any rate I'm sufficing more than adequately for now using containers I built at the base. I've read you can craft in the field too, including machines that limit radiation, stormy weather, and wormholes.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I'm starting to seriously worry about not being able to get enough mushrooms to craft things with. I'm 10 days in now in game time, and I rarely see them anymore on side missions. I've only crafted one mushroom growing crate at the base so far, which only yields half of one per day, and it takes 6 just to build each one.

Why do so many important items take mushrooms to craft? This seems like idiotic game design to me.

Any suggestions on how I can solve this problem?

 

[Ikawaru]

Did you build a few mushroom and herb gardens at the start? Really helps later in the game, also killing shadows nets you some and building a Recycler helps. Mikhail can teach you skills that net more gains whenever you harvest, really comes in handy. There's also this map, I believe it was Kopachi, that gave me a bunch of mushrooms when I was running low.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Did you build a few mushroom and herb gardens at the start? Really helps later in the game, also killing shadows nets you some and building a Recycler helps. Mikhail can teach you skills that net more gains whenever you harvest, really comes in handy. There's also this map, I believe it was Kopachi, that gave me a bunch of mushrooms when I was running low.

Well I just Googled for it, and found a Steam forum thread. The thread subject was merely about harvesting them after building the gardens. The guy thought you had to manually harvest them each day, as did I, but a dev answered and said mushrooms grown in gardens you build go to inventory, but not player inventory, but storage (so he SHOULD have said storage, not inventory). This of course means you MUST build storage before building gardens or you could lose a lot of crops if you don't manually harvest every day.

The thread also brought up the scavenging skill you mentioned, but after 10 days in, and several of the red exclamation point side missions (which is how I assume you recruit new crew members), I've yet to see ANY opportunities to recruit anyone.

The thread also mentions that stats on how many mushrooms gardens cost to build and how many they yield has been updated since launch, so it seems it HAS been reported as a bit of a problem. I really think the lack of a scavenging efficiency skill with your first crew member is a big part of the problem though. It's far more needed and valuable early on than the perfect precision skill that costs 3 skill points, which I've not even had to use. Most every NAR troop I deal with I take down non lethally, and the one monster hunt I did was easily dealt with using the revolver at range with level 1 precision.

So HOW and when can I recruit crew members ASAP? I'm not one that expects a lot of hand holding in a game like this, but it seems that detail is unnecessarily hidden.

[EDITED]
Never mind the question about recruiting, I Googled it and found I have to do the Moscow Eye mission before the one you can recruit Mikhail pops up. I got a fair bit of shrooms on Moscow Eye, some via killing Overgrown Dusters. The only thing I couldn't scavenge was a big cache that required an Anti Chernobylite Burner, which require 8 shrooms and a huge device to make that you can only build in your base. What is it with the constant shroom idiocy?

 

[Ikawaru]

I tried playing it on 'Hard' across the board and yeah, that's a no-go, feels like redoing everything but with extra tedium and it just wasn't very compelling. Oh well, I got all the Achievements and the best ending and the game has burned itself into my subconscious so I guess I'll shelve it for now and return in a year or so.

Heading on over to Days Gone (PC version best version) best game to test my now PS5 controller with and can't wait to give it a whirl, looks very neato.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I tried playing it on 'Hard' across the board and yeah, that's a no-go, feels like redoing everything but with extra tedium and it just wasn't very compelling. Oh well, I got all the Achievements and the best ending and the game has burned itself into my subconscious so I guess I'll shelve it for now and return in a year or so.

Heading on over to Days Gone (PC version best version) best game to test my now PS5 controller with and can't wait to give it a whirl, looks very neato.

Well I did some more Red Forest missions and solved the mushroom problem. I wound up with well over 100 of them and haven't needed to build more than just the one mushroom garden I have at base. The thing that made all the difference was I didn't realize if you press T to see the Info about each mission region, it shows how plentiful each resource is in it. Your crew will even bring back Mushrooms sometimes, but in very small quantities.

The weather also isn't always more severe, sometimes it is, sometimes not. The NAR troops more commonly have armor now though, so at times it can be hard to deal with them. The Black Stalker I have no problem with though, as I just look for an object I can circle around until he's gone, like a tall vehicle or big rock. At some point I'm going to have to gear myself and my crew up better though, my standard issue being a highly upgraded revolver and tac armor.

I kinda messed up socially though. I didn't know that an NPC I killed to loot, the one that was hiding from the NAR I think, was Olga's husband. I killed him because he promised me a reward for sparing him, yet gave me nothing, nor did any cache show on the map. Mikhail is also on Bad relations status with me for getting intel about Tanya instead of destroying the NAR servers, and lying to Olga. I just hope I can fix it all in the death walk.

Olga is actually on Good status with me now, and only Olivier is better at Great. I'm wondering if I do missions she asks me to do, and maybe get to Great, she'll somehow forgive me for killing her husband. I'm not even sure such an option will come up in the dialog though. It seems they use the death walk as a one stop shop to fix decision problems. I'm not sure I'm keen on a game using suicide as a tool to fix bad decisions, seems a bit extreme.

Yeah I could see how this game would get annoying on Hard mode. Just the fact that there is no preventative radiation measure in the field, and that you have to deal with it after the fact, is quite annoying I find, even on the default mode. So I'm kind of looking forward to STALKER 2 as I play this. This game is certainly worth playing though, and quite unique. I also think the stutters that happen here and there are as much due to UE4 as their coding.

I'm sure you'll have fun with Days Gone. It's often more shooter than survival horror, but is another pretty unique game.

 

[Ikawaru]

So I'm kind of looking forward to STALKER 2 as I play this.

Yeah...we may have to wait a while for that. STALKER 2 developer is GCS Game World, which is in... Ukraine.

EDIT: Looks like they are moving their studio offices to the Czech Republic.

'Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl' website blocked in Russia

The website for GSC Game World’s upcoming 'Stalker 2' has now been blocked.

www.nme.com

Still, the probable logistical nightmare of this ensures we still may have wait a while for STALKER 2.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Still, the probable logistical nightmare of this ensures we still may have wait a while for STALKER 2.

Yeah and I'm thinking with the quality of graphics in the teaser they've shown that they're probably going to want to do more scans of the area like the Chernobylite crew did to use the latest tech with drones and all that to make it look as real as possible. With the Ukraine invasion still lingering, that could be a real problem.

So yeah, it probably won't release for quite a while.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Just found this, apparently despite moving the studio, they've completely halted production of STALKER 2 to focus on helping save their employees and their families in Ukraine. This halt will continue until Ukraine wins this war they say.

They made a rather touching video about it to not just tell but show their devoted fans after being asked how they're doing.

'Stalker 2' development "shifted to the sidelines" amid Russian invasion of Ukraine

GSC Game World uploaded an impactful video to make the announcement.

www.nme.com

 

[Ikawaru]

Love that music. Whilst I'm largely neutral on the war, I hope after all is said and done, GSC and their friends and family remain in one piece (literally) and can finish the game. Heck, the game may even be BETTER if the crew survives and can apply all that combat experience into game design.

To stay on topic:

Chillin' out in Hot Springs.

Dangerous countryside, never go unprepared.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Love that music. Whilst I'm largely neutral on the war, I hope after all is said and done, GSC and their friends and family remain in one piece (literally) and can finish the game. Heck, the game may even be BETTER if the crew survives and can apply all that combat experience into game design.

To stay on topic:

Chillin' out in Hot Springs.

Dangerous countryside, never go unprepared.

Regardless what anyone thinks about whether Russia has any rights to anything in Ukraine, land or otherwise, this is more of an unprovoked invasion than a legit war. Russia has senselessly attacked civilians, schools, churches, hospitals, and even a large nuclear power plant. It's clear that Putin and his henchmen are lunatics that place no value in human culture. So I don't see how anyone, especially those fortunate enough to be living in a free country, can stand by and say they are neutral about what's going on in Ukraine. Even many citizens of Russia are upset about it. What's going on in Ukraine is Ukrainians defending themselves against war crimes, which is not at all a typical war, in fact it's closer to a modern day holocaust.

But yeah, back on topic, Days Gone is indeed about constantly preparing yourself for a dangerous countryside. Some complained about the bike constantly needing gas, even when the tank size is upgraded. I personally wasn't bothered by it because there's so many places that have gas cans or gas stations, and it's quick to fill up. It was in fact often a nice change of pace from the chaos for me. What bothered me more was those wire cable traps I often got caught in because my old man eyes couldn't see them in time. My rule of thumb was I'd reload the last checkpoint if the damage took my engine down to 0%. It's not really an issue though once you get the bike upgraded well, because by then, rarely does the engine get damaged to 0%.

The funny thing about this game is you'll quite often see people just post screenshots and comments on the perils experienced after first playing it, rather than say what they think of the game. I think that kind of speaks volumes that they are enjoying it though.

 

[Ikawaru]

Both sides of the conflict have nearly identical propaganda "They are modern day Nazi's! They are killing our civilians in the Donbas! They're just doing it for power and prestige!" It is beyond ridiculous after listening to both the Russian and Ukrainian MOD's (Ministers of Defense) and that's why I am neutral, because both sides sound like idiots. But Russia is probably tilted more to blame for actually launching the invasion though....

Anyway, yeah, Days Gone is amazing because it's like Red Dead Redemption but with a much better plot and theme (imo) as a survival horror fan it suits me better.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Both sides of the conflict have nearly identical propaganda "They are modern day Nazi's! They are killing our civilians in the Donbas! They're just doing it for power and prestige!" It is beyond ridiculous after listening to both the Russian and Ukrainian MOD's (Ministers of Defense) and that's why I am neutral, because both sides sound like idiots. But Russia is probably tilted more to blame for actually launching the invasion though....

Anyway, yeah, Days Gone is amazing because it's like Red Dead Redemption but with a much better plot and theme (imo) as a survival horror fan it suits me better.

You're paying far too much attention to the politicians, and not enough to the civilians. That can definitely cloud your judgement. It doesn't take a genius to figure out by the plethora of Ukrainian citizens evacuating and the sour reception from even Russian civilians, whom the victims are. What purpose is there to destroying schools, churches, and hospitals, and killing loads of innocent non military people, including women and children, not to mention jeopardizing literally everyone anywhere near that entire region by nearly causing a large reactor to melt down?

Yeah Days Gone's story and characters took me by surprise. I was into RDR2 at first, but once Morgan starting becoming too ill to believe he could even fight let alone dominate enemies, it started getting ridiculous. A lot of die hard Rockstar fans insist they know how to write good stories, but all they really specialize in is loser characters and boring in fighting.