scientist quests - taking measurements Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Hi all, so I saved my scientist quests till I have a decent enough suit. Im all done but taking the measurements at anamolies where you have to protect a squad.
Unfortunatly I realised after some time that the squad in front of the bunker has been slaugtherd by mutants...when I talk to Hermann about it or I try to hire new people I just get a failed quest.

Is there something I can do besides loading a way way earlier safe?!

sincerely

Jonny

You could try spawning them using the built in debug tools. There's a RECENT thread about this and an old thread specifically about spawning Topol. If I remember correctly, there are two Topol squads, a basic squad (pre completing Topol missions) and an armoured squad (post completion Topol missions). I don't know either script line though, you'll have to dig. I'd imagine that you'd have to spawn them BEFORE acknowledging their absence to Herman otherwise the console will expect him to be dead and it'll get buggy. So if you've already spoken to Herman about hiring a new team etc, reload an older save and I'd advise you to just do it right and complete the missions normally.

You need to keep an eye on anyone you want alive and make multiple hard saves regularly. Topol's squad are the hardest to keep alive, multiple chimera, pseudogiants, and dogs frequently attack them. If you've saved frequently, you can reload without losing too much and try getting out of their alife to save them. Or help them fight off the danger, whatevers easiest. And sorry if this seems a bit patronising

EDIT Here's the old thread :

Moddb.com

Edited by: htkblazer

thanks stalker, I always thought they are invincible untill the quest is triggered or something..

Its not Topol and the stalkers, it's actually the 2nd Duty squad I hired.
1. I hozed down the mercs on top of the bunker, thats usually the very first thing I do when I come to yanov
2. did the mission with the conductor from kopachy tunnel - no stalkers survived
3. hired duty members to protect the bunker. Hozed them down (I try to have both freedom & duty hostile towards me. I have never succeeded with the man of balance achievement, so I give duty traders PDA to Freedom leader so at least duty treats me hostile.)
4. Hired new Duty squad
5. did the "place scanners" quests
6. One morning duty squad is dead

I checked my last saves and I think I'll just continue playing, as far as I know the taking measurements quest just gives some cash which I don't need any more of...I hope I can still get the scientist achievement and the kickass detector?

Can I suggest - I think you're missing out, a lot!

-The guys on the bunker spawn later in Jupiter and form part of a mission that you will miss if you kill them early.
-Topol and his squad can be saved easy from the controller, plant a bomb in front of the train before you collect the altered insulator and the controller will spawn and die, OR, run out after collecting the artifact and VOG him immediately!
-If you don't complete all the scientists missions, you will not get the either of the scientists achievements nor will you get access to Anabiotics, Veles, or the Svarog detector from Herman.

Man of balance is the way to go, it encompasses the most achievements available and has the best rewards, including keeping ALL story characters alive and it's definitely worth backtracking for. The rewards from the achievements alone make it worthwhile and frankly just running around killing everyone makes for some pretty boring, soulless gameplay. That is not what Stalker or indeed Misery is all about. Try the FULL Misery experience here:

Do the following before travelling to Yanov.

-Sell Morgan's PDA to Owl
-Achieve [Detective] prior to arriving in Yanov
-Take on the "Three Veles Detectors" mission from Owl prior to leaving Zaton
-Also note:
****you must have sided with Stalkers on the Shadovsk and successful defended Shevenko and disrupted Morgan's Transaction****
****do not under any circumstance allow Strider into your switch distance until step 16**** (stay the hell away from the south west of Jupiter)

Do the following IN ORDER upon arrival at Yanov.

1. Upon arrival at Yanov, visit the quarry and see Splinter, allowing you to immediately confront Flint/Magpie.
2. Turn Flint/Magpie into Freedom.
3. Do Uncle Yar's mission.
4. Pay Vano's Debt.
5. Complete all mutant hunting missions. [Mutant Hunter achieved]
6. Investigate position B...whatever, the bunker with the Burer. Return Sokolov's note to him.
7. Acquire a Meatchunk and Koloblok for Garry. Beard sells both.
8. Complete all of the Scientists missions, including Oasis and Jupiter and kill Black & co. at Jupiter Plant [Research Assistant achieved]
9. Scientists should now sell Veles - give three to Novikov and give Herman Jupiter documents.
10. Visit Owl on Shadovsk, tell him about the detectors. Sell the remaining Jupiter documents [Trafficker of Information achieved]
11. Tell Gonta about Magpie. [Courier of Justice achieved]
12. Visit Hatchet and hire him.
13. Once Owl is ready, tell him "No Sultans!", and get Beard a Compass (and one for yourself) and the Svarog [One of Ours achieved][A Friend of Stalkers achieved]
14. Return to Cooling Tower and collect Duty Founder's PDA with Svarog. Tell Scientists.
15. Back to Owl (sigh) and sell him Duty Founders PDA [Man of Balance achieved]
16. Return to Yanov and offer to ransom Mitay. Travel there via Strider and offer to help him. Save Mitay and fast travel to Yanov with him. [Diplomat achieved]
17. Ask Freedom to let Strider join. Fast travel with Freedom to Strider and watch cut-scene. Fast travel back with Strider after. Strider is now safe.

Whilst it seems like a lot of work, I believe you need certain achievements to "up" your reputation amongst factions, most notably Man of Balance and by doing missions for factions ie Yar's mission. I have however heard that this is not enough sometimes (possible reasons being the Freedom guy you blew up the other day) so do try not to fucking kill anyone before hand! Also noteworthy is the fact that I can't entirely remember having to give over Duty Founder's PDA to Owl to get A Man of Balance or if it was just Morgan's PDA. Try it yourself, let me know. Could skip a few steps that way.

Edited by: htkblazer

wow thanks thats some good info Stalker, I think I'll have to start a new game for that though, I messed up most of these things by going to jupiter as soon as I had the 10k. There I ambushed those guys to generate better gear & cash...now I have ~500k and dont know how to spend it...even my bad cocain habit isn't enough!!

are the mercs on top of the bunker the ones for the "one shot" mission?

No, that's in pripyat. Black and his buddies will ambush you as you look for information in the Jupiter Plant Administration area. Just stick to bandits and Mercs (not story line Mercs) to hunt for loot. One thing I forgot to say, you shouldn't spend too much time around the gas station or the workshops in Jupiter, stalkers always end up fighting and killing hatchets crew, keep them out of your alife!

You can hire Spartacus' Loners instead of Hatchet's mercs. That also counts as a neutral option for Man of Balance. That assumes Spartacus survived the two prior missions he's involved in of course.

I also got Freedom to accept the Monolith stalkers without having the Diplomat achievement, just the Man of Balance, Hunter, Friend of Stalkers and One of Us achievements.

On rewards: with the above I saw that the Freedom Guard armour was available for sale in Yanov, so it's possible to get that armour without siding with Freedom. However the Duty PSZ-9d armour wasn't for sale, and to get that I think you have to side fully with Duty. My guess is that the difference comes from the Freedom rep bump you get from helping Uncle Yar.

I hate it when I do a quest and side by default with one faction or the other. They always shoot at me there after(from the other faction of course).

That aside. The best neutral path is Sparty. You get the mission from Beard in Zaton to go check out some deal. As long as Sparty is alive, he stays the fudge out of the other ship and chills with Pilot. Safe from random emissions and A-Life attacks etc.

On that note, hope that helps clarify things =D

Lomlom wrote: You can hire Spartacus' Loners instead of Hatchet's mercs. That also counts as a neutral option for Man of Balance. That assumes Spartacus survived the two prior missions he's involved in of course.

I also got Freedom to accept the Monolith stalkers without having the Diplomat achievement, just the Man of Balance, Hunter, Friend of Stalkers and One of Us achievements.

On rewards: with the above I saw that the Freedom Guard armour was available for sale in Yanov, so it's possible to get that armour without siding with Freedom. However the Duty PSZ-9d armour wasn't for sale, and to get that I think you have to side fully with Duty. My guess is that the difference comes from the Freedom rep bump you get from helping Uncle Yar.

Hiring Sparticus will kill him. Whoever protects the scientists will die eventually, it's only a matter of time. Leave him safe in shadovsk, at least hiring Hatchet binds him to the bunker instead if wandering off and reduces his chances of death as he doesn't last very long at the workshops.

Following my steps above will raise reputations with Duty and freedom equally. It's only uncle yar's mission that gives freedom just enough to accept strider, but not enough to be friends and spoil man of balance. Doing quests any other way will result in inequal relationships with either factions and you'll either get a friend of... Or you won't be able to save strider.

It is the hiring of strider (and the giving of armour to him) that unlocks the faction armour at traders.

ZoneWizard wrote: I hate it when I do a quest and side by default with one faction or the other. They always shoot at me there after(from the other faction of course).

That aside. The best neutral path is Sparty. You get the mission from Beard in Zaton to go check out some deal. As long as Sparty is alive, he stays the fudge out of the other ship and chills with Pilot. Safe from random emissions and A-Life attacks etc.

On that note, hope that helps clarify things =D

Siding with another faction does not make the other faction hate you unless you attack one of theirs first. You can literally give Morgans pda, Duty leaders pda, turn in magpie, do uncle yar's mission, hire a research squad, hire guards, take in strider, all with Freedom, and duty won't shoot you. You need to shoot duty first.

are the NPC's safe when they are on top of the bunker? I have seen them get slaughtered if they stand in a circel in front of the bunker, for the first mission with the controller and the taking measurements quests..

for me personally at some point in jupiter I would actually like both fractions to see me hostile, the last playtrough I messed up some of the "man of balance" things and ended up with duty never shooting on me unless I shot them first..

htkblazer wrote:

Hiring Sparticus will kill him. Whoever protects the scientists will die eventually, it's only a matter of time.

Spartacus patrols up on the bunker roof itself. I've yet to see any of the guys up on the actual bunker die, though all the ones on the ground end up dead. Besides, not every player will even care if he dies. Hatchet dying, Spartacus dying, what's the difference. At least with Spartacus you don't have to waste any food.

Following my steps above will raise reputations with Duty and freedom equally. It's only uncle yar's mission that gives freedom just enough to accept strider, but not enough to be friends and spoil man of balance. Doing quests any other way will result in inequal relationships with either factions and you'll either get a friend of... Or you won't be able to save strider.

As I said, I took the violent route to deal with the bandits in Yanov and I was still able to get Strider into Freedom. You don't need Diplomat to do that. Friend of Stalkers will also work. All bandits deserve to die so that's my favoured option.

The only advantage to Diplomat that I find worthwhile is that it leaves the Checkpoint and Warehouse full of neutral bandits who'll shoot mutants for you. The Checkpoint is especially useful because it's near to several areas where big packs of mutants spawn, and so it gives a good safe spot to retreat to if you get chased.

It is the hiring of strider (and the giving of armour to him) that unlocks the faction armour at traders.

Not for me. Right now in my Sniper game I've got Friend of Freedom and all the other achievements except for Trafficker of Information (Hook's corpse disappeared), I've recruited Strider into my expedition team ages ago and I can't buy faction armour from any trader. I don't have access to the exoskeleton either.

Siding with another faction does not make the other faction hate you unless you attack one of theirs first. You can literally give Morgans pda, Duty leaders pda, turn in magpie, do uncle yar's mission, hire a research squad, hire guards, take in strider, all with Freedom, and duty won't shoot you. You need to shoot duty first.

In my current game, Duty stalkers opened up on me whenever they saw me after I got Friend of Freedom.

Lomlom wrote: All bandits deserve to die so that's my favoured option.

Lomlom wrote: it leaves the Checkpoint and Warehouse full of neutral bandits

Right.

Lomlom wrote: Spartacus patrols up on the bunker roof itself. I've yet to see any of the guys up on the actual bunker die, though all the ones on the ground end up dead. Besides, not every player will even care if he dies. Hatchet dying, Spartacus dying, what's the difference. At least with Spartacus you don't have to waste any food.

Then pick Boss achievement and be a Bandit, it suits you better.

Guys on top of the bunker will be killed by wandering Mercs, Bandits such as jack's crew (see below) or Monolith (freeplay) The difference is trying to keep everyone alive and Hatchet's best option is still the Bunker.

Lomlom wrote: The only advantage to Diplomat that I find worthwhile is that it leaves the Checkpoint and Warehouse full of neutral bandits who'll shoot mutants for you. The Checkpoint is especially useful because it's near to several areas where big packs of mutants spawn, and so it gives a good safe spot to retreat to if you get chased.

This is nonsense. After diplomat, Jack and his crew go walkies and inevitably die somewhere else in Jupiter although usually from the "several areas where big packs of mutants spawn" as you mentioned and that's if they don't get caught up with the mutants spilling out of concrete bath area before you've even been to see them! Even if what you said was a true - kill them all and open the checkpoint up to the Duty and Freedom master and veteran squads with high end gear to protect you. After diplomat they reside there often. Also, I was under the impression you needed Diplomat to get Man of Balance or Friend of Stalkers...?

Lomlom wrote: Not for me. Right now in my Sniper game I've got Friend of Freedom and all the other achievements except for Trafficker of Information (Hook's corpse disappeared), I've recruited Strider into my expedition team ages ago and I can't buy faction armour from any trader. I don't have access to the exoskeleton either.

Exo and faction armour are high end. You need to progress further to unlock them, though I'm not sure of the exact criteria to unlock 'high end' stuff, just that if you have unlocked high end stuff and don't have faction armour - it means your reputation with that faction(s) isn't high enough. Striders acceptance is the paramount of reputation. Therefore: by having enough reputation to accept strider, that faction will unlock their armour. Having followed the steps I posted previously, I have access to all faction armour at traders.

The reputation algorithm is very straight forward numbers. If you're having trouble getting faction perks or being attacked by a faction - you have pissed them off by shooting at them, whether directly, near miss, or a stray bullet or in the blast radius of an explosion of your making (this includes barrels etc) or you've straight up murdered one of their faction. If you point your weapon at someone for too long they will assume you're trying to kill them and attack you. The player starts neutral to all factions except Mercs, Monolith, and Bandits. Gaining reputation through missions for one faction does not lower reputation with another. Period.

Edited by: htkblazer

Then pick Boss achievement and be a Bandit, it suits you better.

Why would I do that? Bandits are scum to be executed. The only people who don't attack bandits on sight are mercs, and mercs are scum too. Airtight case. I'd sooner join Monolith than be a bandit. Hell, I'd sooner strap on a broken gas mask and join the snorks.

Guys on top of the bunker will be killed by wandering Mercs, Bandits such as jack's crew (see below) or Monolith (freeplay) The difference is trying to keep everyone alive and Hatchet's best option is still the Bunker.

I've still yet to see them die up there, and in several playthroughs, though admittedly I don't go back there often since I always go to Pripyat within days of finishing the Scientist missions. But anyway, why should I care about keeping them all alive? I don't owe them any favours.

This is nonsense. After diplomat, Jack and his crew go walkies and inevitably die somewhere else in Jupiter although usually from the "several areas where big packs of mutants spawn" as you mentioned and that's if they don't get caught up with the mutants spilling out of concrete bath area before you've even been to see them! Even if what you said was a true - kill them all and open the checkpoint up to the Duty and Freedom master and veteran squads with high end gear to protect you. After diplomat they reside there often.

In the one time I took the peaceful option (which was ages ago) Jack's crew stayed put. Maybe they wandered away but came back, I don't know.

It is possible they can be wiped out by monsters or stalkers. They're actually pretty good at fending off mutants though, since I've yet to see them killed before I've paid off Vano's debt. Maybe they have immunity but I didn't think so since the player can kill them.

Also, I was under the impression you needed Diplomat to get Man of Balance or Friend of Stalkers...?

Friend of Stalkers can be gained by saving Mitay (either peacefully or violently), and taking care of Vano's debt (again either peacefully or violently), and killing the wounded Chimera then telling Trapper about it. In addition you need to either side with Beard (help the Stalkers at the Skadovsk and Ranger Station) or let Gonta get revenge on Flint - either will do.

Diplomat comes from peacefully saving Mitay and peacefully taking care of Vano's debt, so it involves two of the same missions as Friend of Stalkers, it is not however a prequisite.

You can also get Man of Balance without Diplomat. Man of Balance basically just means not taking sides between Duty and Freedom. You have to tell Gonta about Flint, sell the two Duty PDAs to Owl, and get either Spartacus' or Hatchet's squad to guard the Scientists. You can do Uncle Yar's mission without affecting this.

Exo and faction armour are high end. You need to progress further to unlock them, though I'm not sure of the exact criteria to unlock 'high end' stuff, just that if you have unlocked high end stuff and don't have faction armour - it means your reputation with that faction(s) isn't high enough. Striders acceptance is the paramount of reputation. Therefore: by having enough reputation to accept strider, that faction will unlock their armour. Having followed the steps I posted previously, I have access to all faction armour at traders.

It's not panning out that way in my game. I've had both Freedom armour suits placed in my stash for free which means my rep with Freedom is maxed out, but there's no Freedom armour in the trader inventories.

I also got Freedom to accept Strider before I'd maxed out my rep with them. I know this because I did it before getting Freedom to guard the Scientists and before selling them the Duty General's PDA. After doing those two missions I was given the Freedom Guard suit. From this we can tell that my reputation earlier was high enough to get Strider recruited, but not high enough to be rewarded with the free high-end Freedom armour.

If it helps the argument, I had so much money at one point I unlocked a "better stuff" achievement. All the vendors start selling better items and I had all I needed for supplies. But I think it was like 500,000 or a million rubles to hit that mark.

Oh and as I recall, you get both factions armor. As both ended up being sold to me.

Edited by: ZoneWizard

ZoneWizard wrote: If it helps the argument, I had so much money at one point I unlocked a "better stuff" achievement. All the vendors start selling better items and I had all I needed for supplies. But I think it was like 500,000 or a million rubles to hit that mark.

Isnt this the achievement your talking about?? Stalker.wikia.com

In Vanilla it only required having 100K RU, but Misery turned it into 200K I believe. And yeah, once you unlock one factions suits, you alsow unlock the other faction aswell.

Edited by: *Raubtier*

ZoneWizard wrote: If it helps the argument, I had so much money at one point I unlocked a "better stuff" achievement. All the vendors start selling better items and I had all I needed for supplies. But I think it was like 500,000 or a million rubles to hit that mark.

200,000 RU

Oh and as I recall, you get both factions armor. As both ended up being sold to me.

You can do, depending on what route you go.

Lomlom the entire conceptual difference between one of us and boss, although it only applies to zaton, is that one is out for himself, and the other, well...is one of 'us'. Your indifference to other stalkers' survival seems to me to fit the former. Also you seem happy enough to let jack's men live to protect you, when you could kill them and have duty dogs do it. Just saying.

Jack dies. Before and after Vano mission. Search this site and find the threads about how to respawn him cause he died before Vano's mission, I had to do it in a playthrough. And I'm curius that after so many playthroughs you weren't surprised to come Accross jack hanging out in Yanov during an emission after Vano's debt like "um...hi there...rough weather eh?".

Ok let me be more clear. It's not wealthy client that unlocks high end stuff, though it unlocks a lot. I'm talking about the criteria that unlocks the exo and ksvk etc which you do not have access to, yes? I don't know what this criteria is, the first exo I saw was just before leaving to go to Pripyat. You gave Morgans pda to Freedom, yes? Because I know in vanilla, freedom gives you a suit for that. That doesn't mean you have maxed out your rep with them, they give you it anyway. You say they got strider though so your rep is obviously maxed out. So you may very well have access to faction suits BUT you haven't unlocked the high end stuff yet. When you see and exo, you should see faction armour. That's my theory. I don't mean to patronise you but the faction armour, although is not rare, also is not common. A bit of f5f9 at traders maybe.

As for diplomat, sorry I was mixed up. I spent a lot of time working out how to get the maximum achievements hence my step by step guide and for Man of Balance, Friend of Stalkers, AND Leader - you need diplomat. Diplomat again raises reputation with all factions and you'll need it to get strider in without siding. Sorry I get so caught up with trying to figure all that out I forget you don't have to get ALL the achievements. So yes you do not need diplomat for friend of stalkers or leader or man of balance, just them all! Sorry :-S

htkblazer wrote: Lomlom the entire conceptual difference between one of us and boss, although it only applies to zaton, is that one is out for himself, and the other, well...is one of 'us'. Your indifference to other stalkers' survival seems to me to fit the former. Also you seem happy enough to let jack's men live to protect you, when you could kill them and have duty dogs do it. Just saying.

There's a reason it's called the Loner faction. Loners are unaffiliated Stalkers who are primarily out for themselves, but unlike bandits they won't stoop to murdering people who don't pose a threat to them. Loners might do one another a favour once in a while, they might also team up sometimes for protection, but in the end they're Loners: drifters and chancers who came to the Zone to make their fortune. Some are good guys, some are jerks. For every Spartacus and Grouse there's a Tuna and a Snag.

They're also all in the Zone illegally and as a USS agent, it's not my job to care about them.

I usually do kill Jack's men. As I said, I don't care for getting Diplomat. I'd rather kill the bandits, and then sell their gear.

Jack dies. Before and after Vano mission. Search this site and find the threads about how to respawn him cause he died before Vano's mission, I had to do it in a playthrough.

I've yet to see Jack get killed before I've been able to do Vano's mission. If I've just been lucky then all that means is that Diplomat is worth even less to me.

In any case surely the easy way around this though is just to accept Vano's mission the instant you get to Yanov. Then if the bandits die that's not a problem.

And I'm curius that after so many playthroughs you weren't surprised to come Accross jack hanging out in Yanov during an emission after Vano's debt like "um...hi there...rough weather eh?".

I nearly always kill him myself, that's why. I've only taken the Diplomat route once in Misery.

You gave Morgans pda to Freedom, yes? Because I know in vanilla, freedom gives you a suit for that. That doesn't mean you have maxed out your rep with them, they give you it anyway.

Freedom can give you two different suits of armour in Misery at two different reputation levels They give the weaker of the two, the Wind of Freedom suit, when you get Friend of Freedom. You can get Friend of Freedom in several ways but selling Morgan's PDA to Loki is one of them (Friend of Freedom is much easier to get in Misery than in vanilla). Freedom only give you the Freedom Guard suit when you have sided with them on every possible mission. The Freedom Guard suit is their final reward. It's the same story with Duty, only obviously with their own armour types.

You say they got strider though so your rep is obviously maxed out.

As I said earlier, you don't need maxed reputation with Freedom to get them to take in Strider. I got them to accept Strider before sending Freedom to guard the bunker and selling them the Duty general's PDA. My reputation was not maxed out at this point because they hadn't given me the Freedom Guard suit. Only after doing those last two missions did they give me the Freedom Guard armour, and that armour is the reward you get for maxing out your reputation with Freedom.

Looking through the game files (namely scripts\dialogs_jupiter and configs\gameplay\dialogs_jupiter) it seems the only requirement to get Freedom to accept Strider is a function called "is_actor_friend_to_freedom". This doesn't refer to the achievement, but to whether the NPCs consider you 'friendly' - i.e, if Misery still had the minimap, Freedom npcs would appear as green dots on it if you were friendly to them as opposed to the neutral yellow. 'Friendly' is not indicative of maxed reputation, just high reputation.

for Man of Balance, Friend of Stalkers, AND Leader - you need diplomat

You don't need Diplomat for that. As long as you've done Uncle Yar's mission, have all the other positive neutral reputation boosting achievements and haven't done anything to piss off Freedom, they'll take in Strider. I've done it recently in the playthrough before my current one, as an Assaulter in the latest version of the mod. I still have an old Assaulter save so I could take some screenshots of my PDA if you want proof, or you can try it out for yourself from a new start.

Edited by: Lomlom

to be honest I have never used the faction suits. in early game the sunrise or clear sky are very good especially with the stamina upgrade, after that SEVA for recon or Bullat for assaulter. after pripyat exo I guess..I miss the merc suit from SoC =/

I've been killing the mercs on the scientist bunker and killing vanov's bandits since I played vanilla, gives a lot of nice weapons and decent meds/repair stuff & cash to buy a better suit..I really want the man of balance achievement though, so next playtrough I will follow your instructions, htkblazer.

Its always kind of difficult with these kind of "exploits" in a game, if you were not supposed to kill this or that but it gives you an advantage like good loot.

Moddb.com

this stalker says that we can whack Noah after he is done showing you the teleporter..he carries the two compass artefacts
has anyone seen the compass in this misery version?

unfortunatly the heart of the oasis is not useable due to insane radiation...even though recon might be deal with it, have to try

Compass also has insane radiation, you can modify them so that whilst they have insane radiation, you can carry them safely. I already posted the how to so I'll dig it out and post it here, sorry I'm not at home right now. Yeah don't whack poor Noah, better to get his ending! :-)

EDIT : Moddb.com

I followed your steps so far, got the courier of justice after telling flint to freedom. I even payed of vanov's debt, however I am certain that I will blast those fools away sooner or later, same with the container warehouses

htkblazer wrote: Compass also has insane radiation, you can modify them so that whilst they have insane radiation, you can carry them safely. I already posted the how to so I'll dig it out and post it here, sorry I'm not at home right now. Yeah don't whack poor Noah, better to get his ending! :-)

EDIT : Moddb.com

Thanks bro, I think artefacts are a bit useless now, besides the electrical ones most are very heavy and the containers as well..and its not really worth carrying around 8kg more for some stamina which you can get trough camelbacks ect.

Edited by: Keksfront

Yeah I agree. I carry compass for roleplaying purposes really and I would keep the heart of the Oasis but then you miss out on the scientists quest. When you get an exo though, it's definitely worthwhile keeping a flame and a compass for the insane bullet proof and endurance perks. Nearly invincible! And as for bandits, by all means slaughter them once you've got diplomat :-)

DAMN IT I just went back to zaton and did the noah/helicopter mission which I completly forgot about before...on my way back I hear shots from the substation workshop, when I go check it out the place is riddled with mercenary corpses. as I slowly advance trough the corridor I get jumped by some cats from behind...what a MISERable day

I guess I will ask Spartacus to protect the sciencists then. By the way arent there 2 type of teams for the bunker, the "mercs" which are on top of the bunker and some other squad which is doing the measuring ect?

Also Topol has only two buddys left, I hope at least I come back in time to loot their corpses

Ach don't worry too much, as Lomlom points out, you don't NEED to save everyone. I just like to, adds challenge. Yeah the mercs on top of the bunker turn on you later and topol and his men do the measurements with you and reward you for it. They also get kitted out with high end gear after too. Try save them at least lol

htkblazer wrote: Try save them at least lol

Those guys are bro-tier, I don't like seeing them die (even though they often do).

There's two good practical reasons to keep them alive as well. One is that you get better rewards from their missions if they are all alive at the start and finish. The other reason is that it makes the measurement taking quest so much harder if you only have one or two of them still alive. It seems to take longer for them to take the measurements, and it's less guns to fend off the mutant hordes at the Fen. I did it today with just Topol and it took forever with constant interruption.