Controversial USS Class Reshuffle Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Hi all,

I've been playing Misery pretty intensely lately and giving all three classes a big go I can't help but feel there's a weird distinction between Sniper and Recon.

Assaulter seems spot on as far as gameplay goes - it feels right. He's a strength based fighter used to storming with heavy plate kit on and likewise he has a high food and sleep requirement to sustain his muscle mass and high constitution. I like it.

The Sniper and Recon seem like two halves of one whole in terms of military disciplines/doctrines. Generally speaking recon/scouts are snipers and are pretty much one package. You'll have one sniper and a guy with a medium/close range marksman rifle to fight off any pursuers or take out sentries that get too close.

I propose that Sniper as a class gets scrapped as a class and is replaced by 'Rifleman'.

As far as the base stats go for carry weight, need for sleep etc etc. They all make sense as they are with Rifleman taking Sniper's stat charts.

Under my proposal I put forward a tactical shake up to balance the weapons for the classes in ways that make more sense - at least to me.

Heavy Assaulter - Proficient in weapons and heavy armor relating to medium to close range sieges breaks, tactical response and heavy weapons support.

High Proficiency - Knives, Assault Rifles, LMGs, Shotguns. Heavy Armor and Ecology Suits / Gas Masks (due to storming gassed rooms in assault/rebreather training)

Medium Proficiency - Pistols, SMGs, Carbines. Medium and Light Armors.

Low Proficiency - Sniper Weapons.

Rifleman - Background in general infantry roles. Jack of all trades and good well rounded level of fitness suited to multiple terrains. Specializing in medium distance engagements with a battle rifle with secondary skills in close range engagements.

High Proficiency - Medium Armor, Assault Rifles, Carbines, Pistols.

Medium Proficiency - Knives, LMGs, Sniper Weapons, SMGs, Shotguns, LMGs. Light and Heavy Armor

Low Proficiency - Gas Masks/Ecology Suits (due to no specialized re-breather training)

Recon - Spec Ops trained operator used to covert ops, packing light and moving fast. Stealth over strength. Used to low sleep but with high metabolism. Received a variety of specialized training in re-breathers and operating in treacherous terrains. High stamina, fast movement . Trained in most weapons systems but specializing in long range sniper missions and close quarters stealth actions behind enemy lines.

High Proficiency - Light Armors and Rebreather masks/suits (due to specialist training .eg. counter chemical/biological weapons missions). Knives, Carbines, Sniper Weapons, SMGs, Pistols.

Medium Proficiency - Medium Armors, Assault Rifles.

Low Proficiency - Heavy Armors, Shotguns, LMGs.

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I hope that you guys take this into consideration and what I've proposed makes sense. From a tactical standpoint I think it separates a few play styles and groups them into more realistic roles.

I know the current distribution is trying to sort of make it into Short, Medium and Long Range tactics but honestly I think there is always going to be a cross over as real life roles are never a catch all but do specialized things with a primary tier and secondary tier of weapon skills.

Please give me your feedback and would love to hear from the devs on what they think.

This sound very interesting man, I like it, I too know that Recons are pretty much close to Snipers since they pass through similar trainings, that was the very first thing I noticed about Recon in Misery, as far as I know he's supposed to be at least good with snipers, not poor, he even have similar properties like the sniper, he's a fast runner, does not get tired quickly, and light weighted. I was not recruited by the MDT early, so I don't know the intentions behind the classes proficiency. Maybe an older member can interfere here.

I thought about having more classes, a medic, the best with medical supplies, he can treat wounds better than any other class. An engineer, the best wit explosives and submachine guns, he can dismantle and disassemble explosives like the IED easily without steady hands, he can even craft different kinds of explosives, and maybe a heavy gunner, this is the support guy, all kind of LMGs, this will be his only specialty though :p

Edited by: mp5lng

Thanks for the feedback Mp5! Haha I didn't know you were an MDT dev member!! Haha. Well that's perfect, I'm conversing with the guy who does the one area I'm most passionate about in the mod!

On the classes - my rationale was to minimize the extra work for the team by keeping the classes at 3 (for now) but making the classes seem more authentic. Obviously the high/medium proficiency stuff on weapons can do with a further tweak but it outlines my basic thought process on the classes as they stand.

I hope more from the team have a look and comment. I'd like this to be a serious consideration for the crew if they see it has merit.

Edited by: D_Money

That's okay more classes is just my own idea, I thought about it long time ago since I started playing Misery, it could be applied for future updates, but not 2.2.

Right now most team members have their life things to deal with, if you can't hear from them it does not meant they are ignoring you, it's just life, they do take the community opinion in consideration, you just need to give them time.

No I figure as such - the devs deserve a relaxed approach to further updates now as I'm sure it's been a hard slog these couple of years. I'm not proposing to drastically alter an update on the eve of it's launch.

The way that Misery will be awesome is if it IS a slow burn refinement process. Funnily enough mods that have a DEDICATED crew working on it have the privilege of releasing something better than a base game. Over months/years of listening to the players that play it - it can actually be a bloody masterpiece unlike the crap we get given today by so called AAA devs.

Each dev team has his own way of dealing with projects, MDT do the best to make Misery close to a complete new game rather than a mod, but without forgetting about the core STALKER game which is why this team exist

Personally I'd take a minimalist approach and just give the standard Recon a medium proficiency in Sniper Rifles, same as the Assaulter. Having played all the way through the game as an Assaulter using an SVD, I can relate that medium proficiency is enough to make a weapon viable. Low proficiency sucks, especially for low RPM sniper rifles where accuracy is the single most important thing.

I go back and forth between recon and sniper because I cant decide which one i like the most but changing the sniper rifles for recon to medium would be great in my opinion. It would help with my back and forth dilemma since i want to be a stealth based character and use sniper rifles.

Edited by: PringelZ

Those who want to be a scout sniper and be proficient in both CQC and Sniper weapons could just copy the individual weapons from the other class' class_diversity folder into their C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stalker Call of Pripyat\gamedata\configs\weapons folder. AFAIK that would give you the specs from the other class. Once you find the balance of weapons you like copy your entire weapons folder over into the class you prefer and future loads would give you those weapons. Keep in mind all those folders will be replaced when subsequent releases are installed.

Good advice.

As long as MISERY isn't planning on going the same way.

A Scout Sniper proficient in both CqC and Long Range Weapons would be the only class worth playing if such were included.

We are unable to discuss work in progress and future plans by the NDA we sign when invited to join. No mod can be tailored to please everyone, but fortunately xray is easy enough to do some custom tweaking by many to create their own more ideal situation. In this case if you spend a few minutes backing up the original weapons folder and a few more listing out which weapons you think should be copied, you could probably fine tune the choices and all in under an hour. When next version is released you just take your notes and repeat including the new weapons. Someone might like your mini-mod and a new class could be born

A Scout Sniper proficient in both CqC and Long Range Weapons would be the only class worth playing if such were included.

Regular Snipers already have high proficiency in shotguns (a close quarters weapon) and sniper rifles, with medium proficiency in assault rifles. Recons already have a long range option in scoped carbines, which are adequate for any fight not taking place at extreme long ranges. Assaulters can use sniper rifles and all CqC weapons decently well already.

I pretty much agree. Sniper really should use a silenced pistol for up close, but anyone can snipe 200 yards with a weapon they are at least medium proficiency with. I like the classes enough as is. Still, no reason someone can't tailor a class to call their own if it makes them happy.

I totally endorse more classes choice ! Example :

Assaulter : Assault Rifle w GL/Pistol — Heavy armor

Breacher : Carbine w GL/Shotgun — Heavy Armor

DMR : Carbine w Scope/Shotgun — Medium Armor

Sniper : Sniper-Rifle/Revolver — Medium Armor

Recon : SMG w Silencer / Pistol w Silencer — Light Armor

Commando : Pistol w Silencer / Knife — Light Armor

At the very least I'd love to see a "bonus" fourth class - The Veteran. This character would excel at using OLD weapons, WW2 and Cold War era weapons would go great in his hands, and he would be good at hunting etcc, but any modern technoLogy he would have a negative bonus for!

You mean the Dinosaur Aren't you a USS special agent? How can you not be proficient with secret squirrel spy gadgets ;-)

Thtat's why it would be more of a bonus, easter egg sort of class, for those who love using the old weapons!

And hey, why can't it be some badass 60 year old retired Soviet era secret service guy?

The expendable dinosaur they don't mind sending on a suicide mission to the Zone just hoping to be rid of him LOL

I also would love additional classes, I would really like to see a Heavy Gunner/Support and Medic classes, they should fit pretty cool around, who knows what the future Misery updates have

Edited by: mp5lng

An engineer, the best wit explosives and submachine guns, he can dismantle and disassemble explosives like the IED easily without steady hands, he can even craft different kinds of explosives.

Awesomeness itself.

With a perk which makes his explosives to ignore 50% of enemy armours, and another perk which makes him 25% more resistant to explosive damage while making him 45% more vulnerable against bullet damage.

So, Explosions?

Additional classes... You guys gave me an idea.
What about making a side-app (cause, i think, that would be easier than making that ingame) which would allow to make your own class in old good rpg-style? Ya know, skill points, positive/negative perks and all that. Mix your own class_diversity set of files and then copypaste it to the right place.
The only thing needed for that is actual packs of files for all kind of proficiency with equip and consumables. App itself could be done easily.

Edited by: Caffeine_Zombie

^ Give that man a cookie. I was thinking about this Idea for a looong time. It would actually make the gameplay more diverse as every player would create a character that he likes the most. I picture it this way. You have a limited amount of "training points" which you can spend on increasing your efficciency with every kind of items (weaponry, armor, repair kits, medicine, artifacts and so on). Then you could choose for example up to three perks, some of which block your choice of other. For example you cannot have a perk that makes you carry more (muscularity) and at the same time eat and sleep less (toughness).

TL;DR I think an idea of creating your own class is awesome and I would like to see an app for it.

megashooter wrote:

TL;DR I think an idea of creating your own class is awesome and I would like to see an app for it.

By then Misery should just be it's own game.

I agree that the classes are kindda unequal in terms of balance and realism. For instance, recon is good with closed breathing suits. Seems legit, if you're a scout, you're supposed to go through areas that are difficult to cross. However, since closed breathing suits are SO damaging to stamina in misery, and since playing recon is an eternal fight against stamina, closed breathing suits are never a really good choice for recon unless you're forced to.

My suggestion would be the following :

- assault stays the same. It's fine as it is.

- sniper gets high proficiency with medium armor, and low proficiency with every helmet : which makes sense in terms of realism. They loose the high shotgun proficiency, and get the handgun one.

- recon gets high shotgun proficiency instead of handgun. Gets light armor high proficiency.

That would be for the imposed classes. But I'd love to get a character build option ! Doesn't need to be an in game experience system, just buidling your character at the begining of the game

I have to say that weapon and armour proficiencies don't seem to be the bigest factor in how distinct a class feels to me in gameplay. While it's true that low proficiency will make sniper rifles suck, and also make assault rifles/carbines suck at long range, apart from these the differences seem minor, especially between high and medium proficiencies. I almost always carry a shotgun as an Assaulter even though the Assaulter 'only' has medium proficiency; a Saiga or Protecta is still badass.

Carry weight, running speed, stamina, stealthiness and food/sleep requirements always stand out more to me when I'm playing.

Higher/lower damage resistance doesn't really make much difference since ANY damage is really bad news in Misery. Meds don't seem to matter much either. The main difference I see in med proficiency is that Army Medkits are actually worse than standard ones for an Assaulter (presumably he can't use the bandaids and antiseptic creams properly because of his big clumsy Assaulter sausage fingers) because they weigh more but heal the same.

So that leaves the basic physical differences as the most defining features. It seems hard to find room for a new class in there, or to really shuffle things around because we already have a simple theme: the fast weak guy, the slow strong guy and the heroic Captain Average. I'm not sure what you could add into that.

One concept might be to drastically increase the advantages/disadvantages of proficiencies, but in practice would that really have much effect? When was the last time you used a carbine as a Sniper, or an assault rifle as a Recon? Players tend to use their class speciality weapons anyway regardless.

Edited by: Lomlom