Stalker+ Reprise

[Vince 49]

I've been playing a Stalker+ (Stalker w/o rifle) game for 230 days so far and am running out of things to do.  A couple of (virtual) weeks ago, I decided to re-visit the Old Spence Homestead to make some more arrowheads.  As I approached the homestead, I was attacked by three wolves.  I killed two with my bow, but struggled with the third.  As I came to, I heard more wolves coming, so started an immediate fire with an accelerant.  Standing near the fire, three more wolves came to attack me, but squealed and ran away when they got about five meters away.   Once I patched myself up, I moved away from the fire with the hope of getting a chance at them one at a time.  Fortunately, I was successful (see the attached video) and was able to go to the forge the next day.  Not remembering how many coals were required to reach the 150 degree forging temperature, I brought ten with me (I found you need eight coals for 150 degrees).  I got two arrowheads per scrap metal, so now have a total of 24.  Once I finished, I decided to sleep in the adjacent part of the structure where you need to crouch to get in.  I needed more firewood to fight the cold, so harvested the crates there.  To my surprise, harvesting the crates, revealed something I didn't expect.  I won't spoil the surprise, but suggest you try next time you're there--you may get something worthwhile!

Now I'm back and have pretty much everything I need to survive another 200 days, so really don't have any urgent task.  I like to have plenty of cat tails.  They don't decay and are relatively light (1500 cal/kg).  So I'm thinking of maybe going back to that den of wolves (aka Mountain Town Region) and harvesting cat tails from the Basin.  On the other hand, I may just save this game and start a new Stalker+ game.

If you haven't already, I urge you to try Stalker+.  It's significantly harder than Stalker, but not nearly as difficult as Interloper where everything is against you.  Rather than using the custom option, I just start a normal Stalker game and never pick up a rifle.  If you do try Stalker+, I'd love to hear about your experiences.

 

3WolvesDown.mp4

[codfish107]

I kinda already do that, but i do use the rifle when i'm specifically hunting moose or bear, i use my bow otherwise while exploring. I suppose it's just from a desire to save my ammo for big game though.

[Doc Feral]

I'm playing Stalker, I've found two rifles but I've finally got the Silent Hunter badge and never take them around. Maybe I'll keep stockpiling rifles, ammo and cleaning kits until I'll run out of saplings. Or put them in display for sale in that small shop in Pleasant Valley, that place really needs advertising.

[BareSkin]

7 hours ago, Vince 49 said:

If you haven't already, I urge you to try Stalker+.  It's significantly harder than Stalker, but not nearly as difficult as Interloper where everything is against you.  Rather than using the custom option, I just start a normal Stalker game and never pick up a rifle.  If you do try Stalker+, I'd love to hear about your experiences.

If you play stalker for more than 100 days and run out of things to do, Interloper might be the answer, since in my mind the biggest change from Stalker is the absence of rifle. You can also try some kind of sleepwalking stalker, in which you disable the "at rest recovery rate". Quite challenging.

Nice video! Last time I went there, I tried to eat the deer carcass three times, but the place is so wolfy I couldn't even approach it.

[Vince 49]

Hi @BareSkin,  I've tried Interloper, but never got beyond 15 days.  It's a lot harder than Stalker+ as you start with a few cloth items (enough for a total bonus of 2 to 4 degrees), and that's it--nothing else.  As the documentation says, everything is against you.  I found a prepper cache on Interloper.  There were a total of five lockers--every one empty!  I think of a game as something enjoyable--I found nothing enjoyable about playing Interloper.  Although I do admire those that are successful on Interloper, it's not for me.

[BareSkin]

Yep, I think interloper is best played once you have the Cold Fusion feat. After that, not everything is against you. Moving very often in the first days, and Sleeping for long stretches is still a very good friend. You're totally right, what should be played is what makes the game enjoyable.

[hozz1235]

I typically play a Voyageur-style custom game, but switched it up recently:  I chose Custom, started with the loper template, made wildlife passive & enabled rifle.  I'm enjoying it - kindda like Man vs. Nature (w/o the predators).  It's still challenging while being enjoyable (for me). 

Had quite a fright when I got lost in the fog in FM while trekking across the frozen lake.  Took me most of the day to find a familiar landmark!  Luckily, the temperature had decided to warm up a bit that day.

[Pillock]

To me, the rifle (or lack thereof) is a pretty negligible difference between Interloper and Stalker. The ability (or not) to find knives and hatchets makes far more difference, since you tend to use them much more often. But far far more than either of those things, the loot sparsity of Interloper makes it a totally different ballgame - you could comfortably reach 100 days in Stalker without crafting anything at all (not even a bandage or a natural tea remedy), and without doing any hunting or fishing or trapping whatsoever. Try doing that in Interloper and see how far you get!

[Vince 49]

@Pillock, I agree; interloper is a different beast.  As you say, you have to craft almost everything and you can't do that until you find a heavy hammer and can make it, unarmed, to one of the forges at the Spence Homestead or the Riken. 

[Vince 49]

@hozz1235, I hate to give away one of my secrets, but in the situation you describe there is a solution.  Press F8, temporarily switch to the Windows screen, open the corresponding Whiteberry map, and find the coordinates from the F8 debug screen shot (on your desktop) on the map. 

[codfish107]

8 hours ago, Pillock said:

But far far more than either of those things, the loot sparsity of Interloper makes it a totally different ballgame - 

To me, the rifle (or lack thereof) is a pretty negligible difference between Interloper and Stalker. The ability (or not) to find knives and hatchets makes far more difference

I agree. I haven't done Interloper, but i have messed around with custom settings before. I did a Voyageur with severe weather and very low resources and honestly found it harder than normal stalker.

I also agree with that, i was struggling a bit starting out in PV Stalker since i couldn't find a hatchet or a hacksaw for firewood.

[Pillock]

15 hours ago, codfish107 said:

I agree. I haven't done Interloper, but i have messed around with custom settings before. I did a Voyageur with severe weather and very low resources and honestly found it harder than normal stalker.

I also agree with that, i was struggling a bit starting out in PV Stalker since i couldn't find a hatchet or a hacksaw for firewood.

Once you make resource scarcity and weather very severe, your game no longer has very much to do with Voyageur!

The most immediately noticeable difference between Voyageur and Stalker is probably the the loot amounts, but the freezing/starving/thirst rates are also a bit higher, I think. The most important new factor to get used to, though, is that fire doesn't overcome ambient temperature in Stalker (and the game won't wake you up if you start to freeze while sleeping), so it forces a change of habits around when you need to warm up.

With Interloper, the amounts of loot available to find drop off a cliff, and the hunger and freezing rates jump way up - plus you start without matches or bedroll or any decent clothes, so the early game can be a bit frantic - that's why knowing the maps, and where to find these things (matches, especially) is really important. But the problem I have with Interloper, and the reason I don't ever play it anymore, is that important loot items always spawn in a very limited few places, so I tend to find I always go the same places early on in every playthrough. And you have to keep moving, because there's not enough food around to keep you sustained in one place until you have appropriate tools, so it feels a bit one-dimensional and limited in play-style, at least in the beginning. Plus there's the fact that Interloper entirely removes certain items from the loot tables, which makes me feel like I'm not playing with the "whole" game in Interloper.

That's why the custom settings have been such a revelation: I can make the game as difficult as -or more difficult than- Interloper, in order to maintain challenging survival aspects, but in different ways from the pre-set Experience Modes, and without the limitations and forced play-style (and abuse/exploitations of certain game-mechanics) that Interloper seems to me to compel me into.