Assault or Sniper Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

I'm getting ready to make the first run to Pripyat with my Recon, because I am a glutton for punishment I'm also beginning to mentally plan my next play through of Misery (There are so many guns I've not gotten to use).

My question is:
Should I play Assault or Sniper?

All things being equal I'd probably go with Sniper. There are moments when my rig chugs and stutters a bit when I'm playing though (not often, maybe once an hour); it would seem to me that if I want to go Sniper, then I'll also want to edit the settings and have NPC's active further out. That whole specialized in long range combat thing. That would require more processing power, therefore the above stuttering would be worse. (I'm not really tech savvy enough to know my computer specs. It's kind of an amazement that I got Misery installed in the first place.) Any and all thoughts are most welcome. Thank you.

I would also appreciate it to know about any advice you all have for this second play through. Not in-game cannon stuff, I'm more than willing to slug it out and learn the hard way, but behind the scenes setting issues, bug fixes, etc.

Assaulter for sure.

Recon and Sniper behave almost identical. Sniper's advantage has been restricted by PC and game settings. Will have to do a bit tweak around for enjoyable sniper play through.

Sniper has a lower crouch viewpoint than Assaulter and Recon, which opens up some possibilities in finding gaps to shoot through and getting through tight spaces. When I play this is their main advantage for me.

The Sniper's advantage at range sometimes gets overstated. I wouldn't bother about changing your settings, the Sniper's perks are still worthwhile in normal firefights. Their improved accuracy and zoom is useful, but there aren't all that many places where it's super worthwhile to take a shot at really extreme ranges, and many of the nastiest fights in the game have to be fought at short ranges.

The one thing I don't like about the Sniper is that the weapon types they specialize can't mount an underbarrel grenade launcher. You could always lug an assault rifle around, Snipers aren't bad with them, but it's extra weight or means giving up either a shottie or sniper rifle. Assaulters and Recons don't have any problem with that.

Or go crazy and carry a 6 shot grenade launcher with you.

I myself if i bother with sniper (which I find the borest class) I use a high rate of fire sniper rifle... Nimble sells a quick fire SVU

Edited by: Nyayr

I used to play assaulter in the old misery. Now I only play sniper. Love headshooting anything in sight from long distance and him reloading those bolt rifles is a thing of beauty.

I played Assaulter two times, once playing trough and the other time untill the underground. Currently im almost done with Recon playtrough. Sniper I havent tried so far.

Assaulter is a good charakter, his carrying capacity allows you to carry a lot of loot, and the heavy armors are very good protection vs bullets and mutants, after you get the bullat suit with heavy helm long-mid range firefights with 2-3 enemy squads shouldn't be a problem. the downside is that in my opinion the heavy weapons (granade launcher, rpg and pkm) expect the light "ak style" mg are not that usefull...sure they do a lot of damage and can be very usefull in some quests but mostly you play with assault rifle, 2 scopes (2x and 4x), underbarrel launcher and pistol..

Streloks SIG is one of the very best weapons I have seen in misery, and thats why I ended up using it for "Months" which got kind of dull...

Im not sure but I think that sniper has medium proficency on almost everything, well all armors and I guess all weapons expect the heavy ones..which means that you can change your play style ingame if you want to be more sniperish or more assaulterish...

@lomlom cant the m16 (with fixed scope) get a launcher?

They are both such great classes on their own, and I honestly dont see that many diferences in both. The main thing I like about the sniper, is the perk that allows you to get more stuff out of mutants, while the assaulter can take more punishement from the Zone in terms of gun fights and mutant hunting.
For the weapon selection, its not that big of a deal. Its not like a Sniper cant use an assault rifle and vice-versa.

If I were you, I wouldnt care about what class to pick next, cause once you finished that, you will most likely play it again with the remaining class. At least thats what I did with all three. Kinda wish there was a fourth right about now.
Something like a recruit with no real advantages over anything, and no weapon or armor proficiencies. Combined with dark Road and Dark mode, that should be the ultimate challenge.

Edited by: *Raubtier*

I found the assault the most suitable for me, even more because I'm a similar shape IRL. I can play this character with the biggest immersion and sometimes can make better decisions in the game. In other spite, I believe it has to depend on your gaming style, but be prepared for close combat. That's when the assaulter is better due to his perks. And the main engagement range is usually below 300m, so with the usual field scopes it can be used as a poor man's sniper. Actually, that's what I do most of the time: fight in a semi-sniper mode on mid-range. Also, I prefer to lug around with a shitload of ammo, so the assaulter comes in handy with the increased carry weight.

Snipers are just the least fun to run around with, no armour speciality (besides instant death head shot/psy zero protection leafy thing), sniping over long ranges gets bored very quickly, since at insane ranges the npc's offer no return and no challenge. He either can't carry a lot like an assaulter or rush quickly a recon... and his finding more animal parts is funny but redundant later on, unless maybe with high end mutties.

The assaulter eats more and might be slower but somehow eating more adds to the fun of it, just the idea to keep that hulk going. Assault rifles are way more fun then sniper rifles and getting ammon isn't that difficult if you play wisely and willing to buy some if you need it. An assaulter can use the s-rifles and shotgun quite well, especiallly the shotguns is fun to use at times for all classes actually. The sniper feel oddly out of place in my view of stalker feel.

Only fun thing about the sniper is the deeper crouch and that he lay on his belly when deep crouching.

Deep crouching is actually just a camera hack. He doesn't do it in third person view and you can get headshotted while you THINK you're under cover. I removed that feature as it annoyed me greatly.
Other than that, whit the way I play the game, Only the sniper has any real chance of survival. Need to eliminate those hostiles long range and watch them go down without ever knowing what hit them is giving me satisfaction.

Sniper can use a Sig-550 for short and medium range combat and have a grenade launcher too. On auto it tackles most mutants that surprise you just fine and you can snipe with it some too until you find a sniper version. See my thread on alife.ltx objects_per_update for stuttering.

Edited by: jasper34

Thanks for the advice everyone. I look forward to my next run.

Don't forget to use the corrected artifact files during your next play, whatever the class. The corrections will be part of the next release, but are available on my page now.