NEWSA+SIMBION_tweaked Support and Gameplay

[Grump642]

I thought I was sooo brilliant! Remember in NPP when you go up the ladder and down the hall to open the door with the decoder? As soon as you do, all those Monolith teleport in behind you. Sooo, I used TWO!! Moonlight Zone things to set a trap for them. Worked great. Well, I just came back to run through again to collect all the loot I left laying around. I came up the ladder and got killed by my own trap! Tried and tried, no way around it, I am stuck!! May have to go back to my last hard save at C-Conn. Crap

[fiznerpin1962]

I thought I was sooo brilliant! Remember in NPP when you go up the ladder and down the hall to open the door with the decoder? As soon as you do, all those Monolith teleport in behind you. Sooo, I used TWO!! Moonlight Zone things to set a trap for them. Worked great. Well, I just came back to run through again to collect all the loot I left laying around. I came up the ladder and got killed by my own trap! Tried and tried, no way around it, I am stuck!! May have to go back to my last hard save at C-Conn. Crap

Man, oh man - I feel your pain! I fought all the way to the bunker, quicksaved inside during a horror time, didn't do any hard saves in between. Then I got stupid & died. My quicksave got corrupted & I got to start all over from the AW/RF changer!

(on a side note - I carried a bunch of exploding barrels & an exploding tank with me to the door area, dropped 'em strategically at the far end. Hit the decoder button, whipped around and *wait for it....* sent two FN2000 rockets down there and boyo - did it work good!! had to send one more for a latecomer....)
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr49 ... 2u_s-1.jpg

[fiznerpin1962]

Collecting a lot of good stuff on the way to freeplay teleport. Had a real struggle letting go of a lot of it to make room for the big money items
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr49 ... _stanc.jpg

Speaking of struggles: you know the area where you climb up a ladder & two sunovabitches in Exos & FN2000s are sneaking around waiting to get you in a crossfire - before you even get to the top of the ladder? This is me trying to send Nightwatch's little monsters over the edge. Couldn't get the mthrfkrs through the railing...
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr49 ... _stanc.jpg

I swear I am ready to swim the "big water" and bonk you on the noggin NW!

[Kaidonni]

And, after starting a brand new game (twice, the first time I just got stuck, don't know how, but I could not move at all or talk to anyone or anything, just access my inventory and go the main menu), radiation does not hurt me AT ALL. And we're speaking a full reinstall of Stalker to 1.0004 and full redownload and install of Extreme mode, plus the inventory fixes. Only the rookie outfit you start out with. Go into a highly radioactive zone (the train track in Cordon, at the east end by the old train and filled-in tunnel), get doused with radiation - and nadda. Zip. El zilcho. My current game had the same problem, and a brand new restart has it too. So it can't be because I reinstalled or anything...

Don't know about the weather, but it just seems wrong that everyday has the same exact course of weather patterns. The *same* ones, no change whatsoever. This doesn't mean to say Blowouts don't happen, but on the odd occasion, after the red flashing and blackout just as the Blowout begins, the skies have not changed to any Blowout sky, they've remained the sky I had right before. Same with the Blowout Wave (in that case, the sky remained one of the two sunrise skies, can't remember which).

And now my weapons refuse to degrade, and they were degrading before, I can tell you that. But now, they have just become...immune to the passage of time and rigours of use. I liked it when I couldn't just use them indefinitely, but now, off-loading hundreds of bullets from my Nite1-SP or special Groza does nothing. I use my Groza often, and it has remained at the same level of damage for a while now. In fact, my Nite1-SP is at the exact same level, and if my memory serves me well, it should not be, it was more damaged. Besides, my Groza should be more damaged than this at the rate I have been using it...

Don't get me wrong, I really like this mod, just that these are sort of ruining the immersion for me because no one else is having these issues, and I wasn't having them before, but now I magically am. It seems like fate is against me. If I don't indulge my OCD, I have to face my game acting up... All without messing around with any files except for changing the one value to true in fsgame.ltx so it reads the gamedata folder, too. It's all the little things, they soon start to add up to one big thing. Fine if one thing goes wrong, but then another and another and...something seems wrong.

Someone please help...

[fiznerpin1962]

You are going to love this - It's the only thing I can see helping with your situation. Remove all residue of a bad file:

click start/my computer/local disc (C:)/program files. Find the THQ file. Right click/click delete.

Go to recycle bin. Empty it. Start from scratch.

-Other than that, I don't think there is any hope for you.

[audioave10]

Kaidonni...if your playing at too high a resolution for your system,
some mod features may not work. I've seen this before as this mod & Stalker is the baddest on a PC. Other games may be just fine but Stalker/Newsa does not care. Lower your resolution and see if that kicks in the full features of the mod. Even on this VERY
fast system I now have, I run at 1600x900 (not 1920x1080).
Its worth a try and...don't worry - be happy!

[Kaidonni]

I run my game at 1280x1024, with visual settings set to Low (okay, when I compare screenshots of High, Medium and Low, it doesn't seem to differ much) and Full Dynamic Lighting. Now, I know my weapons did degrade before, unless it's because I'm at expert ranking I don't know. The radiation thing is anyone's guess. The weather thing...again, anyone's guess. To be honest, I had weather issues in SmP 2.2.5, and in Buddie's mod compilation - same exact weather everyday. Now, even vanilla Stalker had varied weather (if I recall correctly, and I just can't remember, been so long now), and the only other mod I've played extensively, OL 2.2, had varied weather. I just can't believe this mod wouldn't have varied weather from day to day, it'd be too strange. All the effort put in in the first place tells me something is wrong on my end somehow, not with the mod itself.

As for the THQ file...er...come again? I have no idea about that, I don't seem to have anything in Program files to that end. Stalker is installed on the F drive for me (I reinstalled today, actually, didn't want to leave it on C, it isn't the standard drive for games).

[Nightwatch]

Browser problems. It took me three frozen browser episodes and two reboots today to post this, but, hey it's done finally.

You reverted from Vista 64 to XP? I had forgotten that you were running Vista 64. I was planning to go 64, but it seems increasingly not a good idea now at least as far as the gaming is concerned.

I second that, not sure if it is Vista, 64bit or Quad core (or all three!!), but though NEWSA runs silky smooth, it is too unstable for me. I recommend if you do go 64bit, have an XP partition for NEWSA and the select few other programs that are not compatible yet. I will on my next rebuild.

Back on topic, GFWL and achievements may be much maligned, but one little achievement/target is all Ultradad needs to have a go at NEWSA again
I'll do an update at end of today, looks like fiz sprinted to the C-con, only stopping to kick ass and chew bubblegum.
NW - I'm going to give it another blast, will let you know

Yeah, EggChen, good advice, buddy. Though I want to use the full extent of the RAMs by 64 bit, I should heed the advice and have an XP partition, really.

OK when a new update is available for Players Corner, I can do it then. And good luck with restart of the mod.


audioave10
Great news that you've got a full-heated game over there.
And, you're right on the spot on that Cordon-Pripyat jump option when saying that a properly radiation resistant suit would be needed. Hmmm.. good point.. need to use some grey cells on this issue. Giving a very good suit at the start would make the game easier; but without doing this, player needs to be able to stand radiation in Pripyat and beyond if North jumps were to be taken. Needs something that caters both demands.


Grump642
Too bad a situation, very bad luck indeed. It may even feel like a bit funny. This happens, you never know, I remember setting mines somewhere in Agrogrom , then forgetting them and running right into them.
If you don't have a same close to the point that you're stuck, then, until you can get out of this unlucky situation, you can change the actor immunities, (config\creatures\actor)
shock_immunity = 1.0 to
shock_immunity = 0.0

Then once you're out of that spot, you can revert to original value. (I can't offer any change in suit values now, as some suits run by scripts, I don't know what you're using now, and also it's a bit too messy to recalculate a new value which would go well with other values.)


fiznerpin1962
You've accumulated a nice stash there. And a nice pile of bodies somewhere else, infamous decoder door. You're right on that matter that you can't fire missiles through such fences in STALKER, but to be fair, I believe in many games it's like that, though I agree it's not convenient and frustrating. I've been there many times trying to fire missile/RPG through fences.


Kaidonni
I'm feeling really sorry for you when hearing all those problems you're having with your game and the PC. I can't know which does what to another there, but as the first thing, I second the idea of audioave10 to lower your settings, and use Static Lighting to observe if there's a change.

Also, I'd further on what fiznerpin1962 suggest that, you really need a good PC cleaning, as it seems.
But, before coming to that, another point though: Why do you install your STALKER on a F drive other than C? OK, I know on normal circumstances you can install programs on any drive you wish and it's your own PC after all. But what I mean is that STALKER is a sensitive game and you are obviously having a chain of problems there. Why don't you try installing on C? So that maybe some dlls or elements on your Documents and Settings folders may find it easier to communicate with each other. There may be registry residues from older installations and some other STALKER related programs such as STALKER-Helper(is it the correct name) and alike, also some mods, as suggested, which affects dlls might have left residues which may not be possible to remove through a normal uninstall procedure, and may require manual removals.
But on this matters, I can't offer any ideas, because playing around inside Windows folder and registry is dangerous activity to advice. If you have various doubts, you can reinstall windows if you have the original disk and start everything (games and other programs, everything) with a clean PC.

[Kaidonni]

Thing is, I was playing on C drive, and reinstalled to F today just to see what the effects might be. Even tried lowering the resolution at least. It seems my dead NPC crash is, well, becoming more and more frequent, too. The only thing I can think of as far as remaining files is on C:\Documents and Settings/All Users/Shared Documents/STALKER-SHOC, those are never deleted when I uninstall. Usually the saved games, screenshots and logs. Wow...just looking, even logs as far back as October 2008 are still stored there...sheesh! I wonder if it's anything to do with these particular folders? Heck, how the game always knows to use my brother's name on the quicksave (he used to play it a while back...ahem...when we first had it, when we sort of, well, didn't have it legally... ). That was quite strange back in September 2008 when, having got the game properly, it still knew how to do that (but back then, radiation DID kill me...and in some mods, I've even forgotten I've fallen asleep with radioactive artifacts on my belt... ). I've even tested my weapons, firing magazine after magazine, and...nothing. Not from my Nite1-SP. It magically sits at the same level of decay as my Groza. Mind you, shooting at the Nite1-SP when it's dropped on the floor utterly knackers it (just two shots, that was all, from my Nitewatch Groza - and no, NOT grenades, although I bet you were thinking that ). I've just tried it on 1024x768, and, well, can't tell anything about the weather, but the radiation and weapons...and the dead NPC CTD...

Most games on the computer are installed of F drive, it's the standard. Just reinstalled Clear Sky tonight, although I lament there at the lack of underground levels...

It's like a whole host of little issues has just descended upon me. Weather, obviously, is a big immersion issue (the same exact weather day-in, day-out just...well...lol...if only real life were like that, England might have some decent summers, and I'd get to see regular storms in the evening). Oh, and that reminds me - does anyone else have this thing where it thunders and lightnings every now and then? Not a proper storm, but every now and then? Middle of the night, sunny afternoon, sunrise... I also like weapons degrading, always added a feel of realism. The radiation is just strange - maybe I'm Radioactive Man! "Up and Stalk'em!"

Recently the computer got infected with Spyware, my brother hasn't been able to rid the computer of it, it's still there. The new security measures in place are stopping it from infecting the rest of the computer, and he's already tried to get rid of it twice. In my opinion, Stalker's gameplay sort of became a bit more slow after that, more laggy. Not by much, but noticeable.

I lament with this computer...I thought Skynet was just made up. Or is this computer becoming Hal or a cylon, instead?

EDIT: Here's something peculiar. Just had a peek at the Registry, at GSC Game World, and for both SHoC and CS, there's something called UnInstConfirm, and the dialogue that goes with it asking if I want to remove all saved games and profiles. However, when uninstalling SHoC, I have *never* been asked that!

[audioave10]

Kaidonni...try a free program called "Malwarebytes" and run that.
It finds about anything bad on your PC...I love it.
There are some freaky anomalies after a blowout...
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f356/ ... -24_l0.jpg

cool stuff - The increased spawns have kept me in Cordon so far.

That skydiving APC eventually hit the ground...

[Grump642]

I finally tried using a soul to increase my health by 600. It held long enough to get by the electric field. Now I can't get through the damn C-Con door!! If I wasn't so GREEDY, I would not be down here!!! Any way past the door??

Nightwatch!! Fix this damn door!!

[rockingmtranch]

I finally tried using a soul to increase my health by 600. It held long enough to get by the electric field. Now I can't get through the damn C-Con door!! If I wasn't so GREEDY, I would not be down here!!! Any way past the door??

Nightwatch!! Fix this damn door!!

Sorry Grump ""If I wasn't so GREEDY""

[Grump642]

[Ultradad]

Hello there

Had another great day and no crashes to desktop .Still hauling ass to ccp to try and beat record but dam is it hard going, i only got 8 days left and i just rolled back into bar area , 7 if i want to beat it
I made it through dark valley ok, i even got to take ammo to bes from the duty guy i saved, its all going well so far and legged it back to sids for a drink and a cig

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/mytwin.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/burnbabyburn.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/itsgonnablow.jpg

I saved village from mercs and got quest from sids and man did these fekkers make me work for it, every time i blew up a APC a helicopter came in and spanked me hard but i got the bugger in the end

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/noplacetohide.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/Gameoveragain.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/prettyexplosion.jpg

Lots of explosions and head shots later i made it back out, handed in the quest and got the hell outta gorden

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/ontarget.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/iamgoingin.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/verydead.jpg

I must say it again, i love the explosions in this game, Hats off to all you guys who got this tweaked to perfection . Chopper got stuck at ground level near village so i took him out

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/missileonway.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/Gonnagobooooom.jpg
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr127/Ultradad2008/cooleffects.jpg

Well its time for me to haul ass to yantar and get the job done

[Kaidonni]

Last night I had an epiphany - I might try to make a mod myself. There's always *something* with every mod that gets to me somehow, and I can never get minor tweaks done right because, well, I have no sound foundations. And I can never make my mind up. I like this mod a lot, and others too, but there's always something. Of course, features not working properly on my end at all or stopping working, and CTDs, are excepted (it goes without saying, they mess anything up). I've begun making a list of what I might like to see in a mod, mixing and matching. It was inevitable anyway, I started thinking about it the other night because I'm helping on another mod whose name shall not be spoken (don't want to give anything away, just minor work for me at the moment, nothing overly major). Hopefully I can come back to Newsa+Simbion, but I think this was a long time in the making anyway, I've done it with other games (although Nvidia messed up Medieval I Total War, so my modding didn't really get me very far...).

[busetibi]

thought I'd better report in for a second, freeplay is going great,no crashes in Pripyat,but alas Dark Valley is unplayable I drop down to 2-3 fps and the lag is terrible no matter what I try I just can't get going, :shrug: no great loss
Red Forest and Brain Scorcher complex is total mayhem, Military,Bandits, Monolith, Hunters (regarding Hunters, some are green with me but mostly red), Freedom, Duty, Loners, Dark Stalkers and two choppers that I just can't hit (they're flying too high and I'm trying to lead them with the rockets but to date no luck) getting a large influx of Poltagiests of late in RF, still seeing more than normal numbers of Bloodsuckers (Redhell)

my gun stash, all of them taken from Monolith killed on the road up to the RF/DV switch no one else comes up here so I'ts safe to just leave them lying around till I sell them.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2drz7vd.jpg

"I told you to leave me alone or you would be sorry"
http://i41.tinypic.com/2wlst1j.jpg

lmao, a squad of Monolith (12) spawn in, right in front of me, same time six Firebites also spawn in then a major Horror Time hits, lol I dont know what to kill first, and just to round things off, a Controller turns up. fun times
http://i44.tinypic.com/mtt4s9.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/9lfi1w.jpg
looking from both ends of the place where it happened.

awwww, how cute, I think its love
http://i41.tinypic.com/mmzo5u.jpg

that'll do for now, back to the action/slaughter

[Nightwatch]

Great pictures Ultradad. You've captured the explosions very good and the dramatic mood of the skies. Explosions are indeed are very awesome, spectacular and rather correctly depicted graphically. Hats off to EggChen on this who has accomplished (among otehr effects) these NEWSA U2 tipped missiles explosions.
Great to hear that you're having a smooth and enjoyable game.


Kaidonni
All what you say and describe confirms my very initial guess /diagnosis that your PC has been seriously infected. By what? old tries of some cracks, internet browsing, malware that come with any sort of video/music downloads, other "freely" offered software (one always need to ask themselves why they'd offer it free). But now the question is not how it happened. That's for the future in regard to prevention measures. Now you need to clean your PC. I'm not joking and this is not an issue that you can neglect or try to bury with many efforts.

If you have the original Windows disk, you'd better perform a system recovery (not a system restore) You need to reinstall the OS, after cleaning all cleanable stuff.
If the malware had opened a hidden drive, no AV can delete it. Only reinstallation of OS will do that.

First, download the trial version Kaspersky, no matter what's said, it's the industries by far the best AV. Finds malware inside multi-layer zipped disguises. It has saved me from uncountable attacks without I needed to do anything. Well, except clicking on the "Yes" button to cleaning of the malware to go ahead.

Fully scan your PC with it. Then reinstall your OS and be very very aware of any offers of cracks or what, or any freely offered software, and downloads. Use a paid high quality AV. You cannot make any savings on this issue. Also, as far as I've heard from internet discussions, there are only a few trustable groups that offer reliable cracks for "testing" purposes. Most come with embedded trojans.

This strategy of dealing with your problems is the exact advice that you would get from any industry IT cil if you were the tell them your PC's symptoms. And thanks for detailing your problems and their possible backgrounds clearly. It helps.


Grump642
Well buddy, you've fallen into a difficult situation as it seems. It's nothing to do with greed actually It's what the game asks us after all, collecting stuff and selling them, then buying some things with the proceeds. This is the Zone economy. Anyway, about your current problem:
I guess as I understand you are now stuck inside the C-C chamber and the door is not opening to the outside the building.
Well, first of all, unfortunate news for your situation though, but there is nothing wrong with the door itself. As the door opened for you before and if it doesn't open this time on your next visit, it's not the door's fault, (it's a simple logic which all doors use as of vanilla feature, not of the mod) but it's the fault of the "main function" (namely the engine) that opens all doors in the game. If there had been a mistake in the door, it wouldn't open ever. For example Sid's door opens, but suddenly if it stops doing it, then it doesn't mean that door's logic suddenly has changed itself, but it means the engine botched something.
Well, in this situation, first, try firing a few rockets or throwing grenades at the door. Let's see if it helps to shake it into action.


busetibi
Another round of pictures from a hell.
You're having a very bloody game there as it appears. You're hitting the agme and it hits back at you in return.

[Kaidonni]

Nightwatch, I might have a talk with my brother when he comes back off holiday (he's away for the week). He has got AVG installed, and new anti-spyware measures, but like I said, he just couldn't get rid of the spyware itself, only prevent it from spreading. I can't mess around with too much because it isn't my computer. I only trust myself with games and modding, and just barely with the Registry (even then only to delete remaining stuff for games that have been uninstalled, stuff that *should* have also been removed). I've reinstalled Clear Sky, I can have a crack at playing that (not crack as in cracking the game, I mean have a shot at trying it, although I have a black bar down the side of the screen when playing at 1024x768 - but better than the FPS drop on higher resolutions). I'm also thinking about modding for Stalker itself, like I said, but that's in it's early days, have to do my research first. I suspect my brother might be considering some serious work on the computer in light of recent events, it is probably about time he defragged the drives, etc. The irony is, you know that quicksave naming thing I mentioned, whereby it remembered how to name the quicksaves? Thing is, back then, in 2007, it was an older computer my brother was using, not the one now. April 2008 saw an entirely new build, although it's possible some things were brought along with any preserved drives and files...

[fiznerpin1962]

Nightwatch!! Fix this damn door!!

Dude. You need to elaborate. Are you in freeplay yet? What electric field - outside NPP? (if you just killed the little green[C] man I know what's up) set the scene, buddy.....

UPDATE: HOLY CRAP!! ANOTHER PAGE OF POSTS WHILE I'M FRIGGIN' TYPING!! rending this post worthless....