Hardcore mode Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

After all the great hours i've spent on misery I find myself these days just limiting myself to make the game more difficult and rewarding. For example I make my own stash outside and hidden instead of putting it in a big blue box in a safe area that is only for you. I also never repair with technicians because i want all the repair tools you find to be good loot because you need it and not for cash. I also never artifact hunt with eco suits but instead i use normal gear. I have read people say that artifact hunting is worthless without an eco suit and so on but I can manage it with a PMK gasmask and a light overcoat. This makes it more dangerous since you cant make misstakes and walk into anomalies that bursts all your health down instantly. With this you also value something like toxic upgrades alot more and drugs makes things alot easier. Although this may be less profitable it's still good money if you manage to collect some artifacts and even if it isn't as profitable as hunting mercs and bandits it is still good fun for me atleast. Anyway getting to my point, hardcore mode, you already made rookie mode for the people who thought the game was too hard, how about a hardcore mode for us that want even more challange and I'm talking about a REAL challange, the definiton of misery. The economy should be alot worse, no stashes or alot less with not as good items in them like weapons, artifacts and repair kits. But make sure that artifact hunting and mutant hunting is still a profitable way to make money. The anomaly damage is fine in my opinion i dont think it needs tweaking. Now i understand that i shouldnt get my hopes up and it's nothing to prioritise right now but let me know what you think and if it is to be considered.

Funny fact is that similar topic is discussed in closed developer forum in latest days. Well, we are considering all possible ways to make game more chalanging and interesting to play. What will be revealed in next release and what will be postponed for future releases is yet to be deceided. I already revealed too much, don't ask anything more about this topic until next mod release, but feel free to post any opinion/feedback.

Although posts are not always read and answered immediately, most interesting ideas always find ways to development team.

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Ideas are always welcome, especially when done in such a constructive way and with detailed reasoning. I read every post made on the forum and pass ideas and valid issues along to the interested parties.

I understand that you can't talk about it and I won't ask more questions just got some suggestions. I would love radiation during the day but not as much as in dark mode. I feel like in dark mode it's just an all night playthrough which is fun and more challanging but I think having less radiation during the day. It should be like carrying perhaps 2-3 artifacts but a gasmask would neglect it. So you could quite easily go out during the day but you are required to have a gasmask or you would die from radiation poisoning and if there would ever be something like hardcore mode where the economy is harsh there would take a little while to get a gasmask espesially if there is no stashes that you can easily go pick up to quickly earn some cash. This would also lead to perhaps go hunting during the night with a headlamp and other risky things that you normally wouldn't do.

To go of topic I have another question. Is it possible for the engine to allow cooking with fires? like instead of fuel you could have flint and steel and use the cooking supplies by a campfire. I feel like in real life you wouldn't spend money on fuel when you could just easily make a campfire and cook it there but this is nothing I really care about I do like the cooking system the way that it is, just wanted to see if it could be done somehow.

Cooking mutant meat on the fires throughout the zone has been mentioned before. I think it would be pretty cool to be able to do it, but I am not sure how off the top of my head. Perhaps in the map you could make a intractable fire which you could add scripts to but I've never opened the maps for editing before.

Oh and a hardcore mode?....yeah I am looking to make a mini mod for that. It has been a while since I have looked at what I was working on for it(waiting for 2.2) but the basics are:

-Traders don't sell anything but a couple items you can't find as loot, not even ammo

-Mechanics do not repair items. You need to make do with what you find.

-To work well with that, certain items like weapon cleaning kits will have unlimited uses on their final use. The base repair is 0 on the final use, but you can add animal fat or whatever you find to bump it up

Those are the bigger changes. Post any ideas you have for anything else.

That is absolutely fantastic ideas! This doesn't seem like a very hard thing to do but i wouldn't know but it only seems time consuming to assemble every traders arsenal but that shouldn't be too difficult right? There are alot of misc items to go through and see what should be sold or not but if you'd like I could do my best to help you with that, like take notes when i play and post it on this thread for you to see. I have no experience in modding so i would like to help out in any way I can.

I LOVE IT!!!!

Great ideas. I'd love a 'hardcore mode' option in Misery 2.2 or as a mod.

The traders are easy to mod. From what I recall though only suits and the quick release systems need to be sold there. Not sure what's coming in 2.2 though there may be a few other items that need to be in there.

I have actually done most of the work for this already and play tested it enough to know that I like it. I am really just waiting for 2.2 so I can make a polished version to release.

Of course if you guys have any good ideas(that aren't super hard to implement) please do post.

Sounds terrible to run around without a upd and not be able to buy one. If it's possible and not to difficult, could you make a dark mode version with less radiation so it could be neglected by a gasmask? That would make the start really challanging and still allow you to be outside during the day. Another thing, will other stalker still sell some items like perhaps upds if you're lucky?

oh yes...that too. haha sorry, I just wrote that off the top of my head. I haven't really played misery for like...four months or something.

As to the dark mode thing....I have no idea. I haven't actually tried dark mode. I am just looking now and it seems that the file that needs to be modded is \gamedata\scripts\inventory_radiation.script

Around the beginning of the file there is a line that says local day_rad_amount = 0.05. The first thing I would try is lowering that value.

Heh this is reminding me of the survival mod I was working on before I found out about misery. I had it set up that during the radioactive rain you could protect yourself with a light starting suit but it would be damaged easily. This had the effect of dogs being dangerous long term as they would destroy your environmental protection. Seems to me that it could work well with how you're looking to play the game.

I have a question though....does having a suit on help with radiation during the day in dark mode?

edit-----------

oh no, you can find UPD devices I am pretty sure now. I don't remember if I left them on the traders or not though. Probably tried it both ways to see how it played out.

Edited by: odizzido

It would be great to have some radiation during the day and I haven't even thought about the fact that taking small damage from something like a dog would have long term effects like that. Personally about the upd thong, I would like it too not be sold by traders, although i have never tried this but it sounds awesome to roam around at night with a wind-up flashlight searching for a upd. I cannot wait for something like this and it gets me excited just thinking about it.