Clear Sky...Initial thoughts?

[nandersen]

nothing like the striving to make the money to buy the kick-ass muzzle break or that sweet set of NV goggles. You can also turn an assault rifle into a "long Tom", or turn a shottie into a real lead thrower. Many, many possibilities....

And the cool part is that money alone won't do much good - you have to find the upgrade specs first

NatVac's Artifact Swap minomod uses a principle not entirely unlike these upgrades.

[nandersen]

By the way, the name Lebedev? Is this also a (not so) hidden Deus Ex reference? I belive that this was the name of the resistence leader...

[fiznerpin1962]

By the way, the name Lebedev? Is this also a (not so) hidden Deus Ex reference? I belive that this was the name of the resistence leader...

I think so. Funny what kind of influence an old classic can have! By the way, remember the System Shock series?

[NatVac]

By the way, the name Lebedev? Is this also a (not so) hidden Deus Ex reference? I belive that this was the name of the resistence leader...

And there's other throwaways in names and comments, too, from images I've seen. I don't remember one guy's name, but it was something like "Boris Badinov" in tone. Some English translator has a sense of humor...

I think the upgrades in CS rely on info_portions. In SoC, the only upgrades were the attachable items. To duplicate improved accuracy or change firing characteristics like recoil, you have to swap the weapon for another one.

Funny what kind of influence an old classic can have! By the way, remember the System Shock series?

I do, somewhat. I've not had the time to finish the second game, stopping when I couldn't get it to run on XP, I think. P.S. Hi, yourself, fiznerpin1962!

I like these homages to earlier games. I'm thinking of starting a topic in the SoC section about this.

Man, I'm not recommending "going without sleep" as a lifestyle...

[audioave10]

Some of the nagging radio calls and other things with Clear Sky are
gradually being modded out. I've tried quite a few different mods
and found many improvements. Still some work to be done.

[nandersen]

Some of the nagging radio calls and other things with Clear Sky are
gradually being modded out. I've tried quite a few different mods
and found many improvements. Still some work to be done.

Yes, the radio calls are bad for immersion.
I think that the game is a bit about choosing which calls you respond to - my impression is that the devs wanted the player to fail some auto-missions by choosing others. Anyway, if you follow the storyline you'll fail at least one task before you get to Army Warehouses.
I think that my next playthrough I'll simply ignore some of the auto-tasks and let them fail. There's plenty to do for a merc anyway.
Now I'm probably pulling another toggle switch guard of NatVacs by saying this: you can get multiple stashes from the same body in CS like in SoC - so this is apparently not a bug but a feature. I'm assuming that no development team would be stupid enough to leave it in if it's a well-known bug

[NatVac]

Now I'm probably pulling another toggle switch guard of NatVacs by saying this: you can get multiple stashes from the same body in CS like in SoC - so this is apparently not a bug but a feature.

Oh, it can be both a feature and a bug. While folks argue this point for the healing/repairing of health/armor when your artifact protection exceeds 100%, it's silly that you get multiple secrets over time from a body, without any corresponding excuse (e.g., additional decryption of PDA contents over time).

I'm assuming that no development team would be stupid enough to leave it in if it's a well-known bug

I'm not sure. But my current impression is that the original STALKER development team is now over at 4A Games (site is Flash-based; I can't tell you the contents). Consider that the next GSC STALKER PC game will be on a different engine, one they can buy, while 4A Games' Metro 2033 will be on a variant of the X-ray engine.

So it's possible that a dev team would leave in a bug if it wasn't there to fix it. The ones that remain are probably swamped with putting out fires, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor.

[fiznerpin1962]

So it's possible that a dev team would leave in a bug if it wasn't there to fix it. The ones that remain are probably swamped with putting out fires, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor.

As long as it's "shaken - not stirred"