SGM - Troubleshooting & Help Guide feature - SIGEROUS (SGM) mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

First time doing this type of thing but it might prove useful for a few people.

I have played as far into the mod as I can be bothered and covered most of the bugs/annoying missions/workarounds that should make this mod very enjoyable and give it a bit more coverage.

GSC forum thread
Gsc-game.com

Downloads etc. Hosted and supported by the brilliant David Everett
Moddb.com

OCedMyToaster has an excellent playthrough of 2.1 which is quite similar to 2.2 with a few less areas.
Youtube.com

Ok to begin with I will highlight notable issues in each of the new game areas as this is where the majority of the mission faults lie. This isn't a complete walkthrough just help at troublesome parts.

Then moving on to cool mod features and general tips. If I miss anything important let me know.

PLEASE NOTE. This small help guide was based on the standard 2.2 SGM mod and may be different when using different mod editions.

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[Cordon]

* First thing to know is that there is no emission cover anywhere. To counter this you will either have to use the anabiotics you get given at the start or sleep through it. Seems crazy but it works.

* The first mission at the nearby village has some unusual ordering when it comes to completing the tasks. I will make the point here that if you are told to do something but it doesn't make sense or work at all, try just looking around for an alternative. In this case you have to find a body of Tamerlane. You won't actually find him until doing some other stuff first.

You need to go down the stairs just west of the village to discover a locked door. Only after doing this will it spawn explosives in one of the village house basements to use on the door. Inside the door you just blasted you should find tamerlanes corpse and get a usb data stick off it.

* finding the unique artifact: it's in the heavily radiated junk area near the bridge. The npcs call it "top-hat" but I think its inventory name is different. Still this is the one you hand in.

* leaving the cordon: the barrier at the checkpoint is locked and you need a key... like a lot of poor mission design the key only spawns after you check the barrier so even if you have searched the house there already you need to do it again.

[Swamp/Marshes]

* Getting the mine detector parts: check on the map at the north for a white dot that says 'hint'. It's a gap in the fence which will let you go a little more north west to some derailed train carts. There's a little cave entrance that leads to them. Beware the tunnel has a landmine which can be shot from a distance. Also beware of chickens, they explode if you shoot them.

* The machine yard: for the mission you have to locate a military cargo here. You should have a mine detector to use by now. at the machine yard you should find a spot with some wooden planks that have a gap in the landmine barrier to enter. If you don't find a gap. Very slowly approach the ring of mines and stop next to them. Your detector should be able to disable them in very close proximity. After killing all the bandits you have to search 6 military corpses scattered about the yard. Make sure you find all 6, some are well hidden and the mission only updates after searching all of them.

*To actually find the military cargo you will not be given any direction. Instead of searching for hours just go to the very top central north point of the map to the train line and it's in some train carts.

*The exit of the swamp to Zaton is heavily landmined. You can skip most by jumping on the rocks. I think the technique is to hold crouch and walk and very slowly approach the mines. Some on the minimap will disappear (duds maybe??) and you can progress. It may take a few tries but it is possible.

[Original Game Areas]

Zaton
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Now you should be out of the nonsense areas and into the familiar zones. Much is the same except a few variations and there are a few new people to give extra missions. Most people you talk to will give you something to do.

*Most significantly is that on inspecting the first helicopter you will be told you need an access keycard. You will get this later from Sokolov in the scientists bunker in jupiter so don't stress about finding it in Zaton.

When I played through, the section with Tremor drinking blood from danilla and grouse in the dock cranes hut was a bit screwy.
For one grouses corpse had disappeared and Tremors PDA wasn't there. For some reason it had glitched through the wall and was sitting outside the back of the hut. Just a heads up.

* In the Wave of Mutants mission for Noah, he asks you to get a sniper rifle for the incoming attack. He is very picky over which guns he considers a sniper rifle so just get an SVD, the Lynx version from Nimble will work too.

Jupiter
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Again, fairly straight forward with some extra cool missions.
When you are asked to find spatial anomoly to the military warehouses, it's under the excavator in the quarry.

* One mission for the Dawn faction if you join them is to kill a lair of snorks at the substation. It's actually poltergeists and after they are dead the mission won't finish even though it tells you to get your reward. For some reason there's a guy called miguel (blue map marker) near the plavni swamps who you have to escort back first.

* IMPORTANT as soon as the red forest area becomes available to you, go and do it. If you go to the military warehouses first the forest mission doesn't work.

* Using the seraphim detector: still working on this. Got 2 of the 6 artifact samples so far. Just check all the standard anomoly fields. My 2 so far were at the ash heap then the quarry. You may have to check the anomolys in zaton and pripyat too.

Pripyat
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Same as usual plus a few cool missions.

* If you encounter an immortal bloodsucker near the laundromat don't be alarmed. I believe there is some mission to bring him a vaccination. He's harmless anyway and at worst will distract npc people.

* WHY! at the end of the pripyat missions there will be the usual evacuation. Staying behind to do freeplay will enable you to complete the rest of the SGM content and will trigger a few new missions. The dumbest part is that once the choppers fly off the game robs you of all your money, weapons, and armor.
No idea why it does this but to work around it you can just drop all your weapons/armor before the cutscene and it will still be there. Just do hard saves regularly around this point. As for money just deposit it all at a banker. Sorted.

Or if you feel like a little editing:

gamedata\configs\mod_parameters

In the mod params file goto line 26 (possibly I'm looking at 2.0 geo)

freeplay_robbery_actor = true

change it to false.

(credit to David and Rangda for reminding about this)

Also note at the point to revive the medic during the psy attacks: he may just stand there after you talk to him. Just leave him if he does the mission still completes.

* Operation volcano: A side mission in pripyat to eliminate the monolith squad in the film theatre. I believe the squad you go with are immortal, at least at the end. When it's all done and instructs you to talk to your squad leader, he just sits there and says nothing. To actually complete the mission just go back to the laundromat and talk to the Colonel.

[Dark Valley]

Few annoying things in this section

* Finding Balthazar: like many corpse related 'quests' you don't want to waste time here as bodies despawn and break missions.
Go to the building marked and take out the guys. Just watch out for the rpg user. Inside the building on the top floor there is a little room with Balthazars body. I thought it was just one of the bad guys and went to search the rest of the factory while it despawned... Just remember to have hard saves regularly to go back to if you suspect something isn't right.

* Mysteries of the past: finding 3 documents in the factory for the freedom guy. One in the the pipe next to the water channel. One in the coal bunker up against the wall. One next to the crane near the bushes at the east side approach to the factory. Sometimes this mission bugs out and the 3 documents don't even spawn. Not sure how to fix this besides reverting to an earlier save.

DO NOT bother trying to find a way into the big building next to the yard. There is tons of radiation and nothing relevant in there besides a few crap stashes. As for the safe key you will get this as part of the same mission line for the freedom guy. However it's entirely optional although he does reward with a nice artifact.

* X18 labs: Once you finally get in here you may laugh at something, I won't spoil it but don't be too afraid.

Finding the 3 documents in here can be frustrating. One is in the computer room at the "baby growing" section. Another is fairly easy but I forget where (will check) and the 3rd is actually under a destroyable box so make sure to smash all wooden boxes you see. When you try to exit X18 it all kind of goes crazy so try to escape quickly. You will come back later to find a secret weapon (easy to find btw) and the place will be swimming with mutants, even some new ones!

[Red Forest]

DO THIS SECTION AS SOON AS IT IS AVAILABLE. Like I mentioned earlier the mission here won't update if you have done military warehouses first so don't ignore it.

Simple mission just follow the prompts. If there are no mission markers and it still gives you the original message then it's broken and will need reverted to an earlier save.

It's another body hunt mission so don't waste time.

[Military Warehouses]

Lots of shooting here so be stocked up for many battles.
Gets a bit repetitive but still fun. As for the final defense of the Dawn base, you can't win. Just survive until all the dawn guys are dead and even get some nice loot off them. It's part of the story so don't feel too bad about not killing all the mutants.

[Agroprom]

Simple area. When you do get to the underground section there is a common issue. If you get a crash when approaching a certain gate don't worry its quite common. I fixed this by changing to static lighting in the options and bumped all my other settings down just to be sure. You'll need to find a key at some point. It's on a scientists body near one of the big water tanks.

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[Mod Features]
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Some of the cool things to look out for. The rest just enjoy finding.

*Lots of new guns. Some are only attainable at certain missions or areas with unique npcs. E.G. in the sniper attack mission in jupiter the guys you kill carry mosin and kar98 rifles. Haven't found these elsewhere so pick one up if you like collecting.

Weapons change depending on the mod edition you play so just keep your eyes peeled I would say.

*NPCs can barely see in darkness which makes stealth much better. But they will see your torch so be careful!

*Custom Exoskeleton suits from faction traders. Military one in pripyat is the best.

*Suppressors for different calibre types.

*Smoke, LED, and even double grenades (using grenade kit)

*Weapon and armor repair kits. Very cost effective on high end gear.

*New mutants and different varieties make some more powerful.

*Some new artifacts. Mainly from mission rewards.

*Artifact breeders. Scientists who can upgrade your artifacts with bonuses to either, weight carried, radiation mitigation, and health and energy restoration

*Kevlar plates that can fit in artifact slots

*Bodyguards

*Joinable factions!! Check out David's great guide for this at Moddb.com

It's the SGM info file

*Exploding Chickens!!

*Sunglasses with nightvision!!

*Alpha squads that will hunt you down and most likely kick your ass (optional in menu)

*Cool Music (mp3 player probably won't work but camp radios should be on)

*Enhanced weapon, detector, and armor upgrades

*Tame mutants. Buy taming kits from the trader in the scientist's bunker. Yes you can tame pseudogiants!!

*Survival missions with waves of enemies (bring tons of buckshot+grenades)

*Damaged weapons can be put into a spare parts box at technicians to be used for upgrades. Get over 80 spare parts for a big discount.

*Mutants drop edible and highly benificial body parts. Gross. Can also be sold as trophies to Trapper.

[TIPS and HINTS]
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*Save frequently. That is hard saves for every mission, not just playing with only quicksaves. Sometimes missions don't trigger properly so this is essential.

*If you don't like the nightvision in this mod (it's crap) go into the anims folder in gamedata and delete the 3 nightvision files. It will then use the original game nightvision. You can use files from other mods if you want.

*Buy tool kit locations from owl. You can just save before and load once he tells you to save money.

*There are some small side missions that involve finding a weapon or artifact for someone. One is an incredibly powerful vintar for a guy at zulu's tower and the other is a very powerful and also radioactive artifact. You may wish to forfeit completing these missions just to keep the items.

*Get a shotgun with a ton of ammo for mutants.

*Most landmines you can shoot to detonate from a safe distance.

*If using some of the teleport anomolies (not the big spatial ones) holster your weapon first as you may drop it otherwise.

*There can be a lot of running around in missions so ask stalkers what they are up to so you can use them to travel about.

*Check the pda map if you can't find mutants you are tasked to kill.

*Get a scoped weapon with infra red targetting for use on people.

*Be careful with grenades around allies. Especially the massive blast radius on double grenades.

*use repairs kits instead of spending huge amounts on exoskeleton suits or top level weapons.

*use USB sticks to discover stash coordinates.

*remember to carry psychodelin drugs as there is a limit to the amount of medkits and other drugs you can use before they become toxic. The oval logo on the right middle screen shows this. Also they are used in a couple of missions.

*sell alpha squad weapons for a ton of money

*avoid buying custom weapons from Nimble as you can get better stuff elsewhere i.e. alpha squads

*use perches or ledges to avoid being overwhelmed by mutants. Happens a lot.

*Beware the psy-bush next to the dredge station!

*DO NOT upgrade accuracy on weapons that already have full accuracy. (G36k sniper edition for example) It will misalign the sights.

*disregard bankers, aquire wealth elswhere. There's better ways to make money than on interest.

*Metal containers can be jumped on or hit a couple times with a knife to open them. Sometimes you get med kits buts its usually pistol ammo and bandages.

*Some wounded npc guys will explode if you approach them. You will be able to spot this better later on. Not sure why, they may have sat on a landmine or even alpha squads leave them as a trap.

*enjoy

PROPS

Mainly David Everett for hosting this awesome mod and being very supportive with translation and technical help.

The folks at sigerous.ru for making the mod.

The GSC forums for their patience.

Good Hunting ....... cheeki breeki