Suggestion to tweak two of the last Pirpyat missions for balance Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

I've found that Misery works very well with most of the base CoP missions without needing alterations, in fact usually makes them a lot more interesting. However two of the final ones in Pripyat could use some tweaking for balance and smooth flow IMHO. This is not a whine thread, just some things I really think would improve these two small areas.

== Radio Interference

Everything here is fine until you get into the building. Poltergeists are set to spawn when the player reaches certain points in the kindergarten building, which results in them spawning very close (within a few meters). Even with an upgraded helmet and psyblock, the player will be killed within seconds by their psychic aura. It is possible to defeat the poltergeists, but that involves knowing ahead of time where they're going to appear and shooting a rifle grenade at them as soon as they do. This is quicksave/quickload territory, so right now the mission is finishable but irritating.

My suggestion is to have the poltergeists spawn as soon as the kindergarten door is destroyed by the plastic explosive. This gives the player more options to deal with them, including shooting through windows from outside. I think that will still present a challenge to the player because they'll have stuff being flung at them from multiple poltergeists (you could also add extra throwable items outside to make this tougher) and there are the usual ambient Misery dangers of monsters/stalkers being alerted by the player's gunfire.

== Evacuation

This one is strange because of Strelok's AI. In all my playthroughs he's shown the same behaviour: once you've defeated the first two groups of zombies, Strelok rushes ahead of the group straight past the snorks near Zulu, and then through the open faced building near the helicopter LZ. He circles around the grassy area at the back and then heads to wherever the military squad is.

This is problematic for two reasons:

- Sometimes he gets killed because of this behaviour. Enemies usually ignore him on his way in, but on his way back he might be attacked from behind by snorks and killed because he doesn't react to them.

- If the player sticks close to Strelok to protect him, this results in the military squad thinking you've got lost. They'll hang near to the archway before the school and send you messages. If you don't rush back to find them (and especially if you get close to the LZ) it can cause some weird jumps in the quest, such as the game assuming they are all dead or starting the 60 second timer to reach the chopper.

While the mission is finishable in this state, it feels very messy and strange. I feel like I'm always having to run backwards and forwards just to compensate for the weird AI, and so the mission feels artificial rather than a smoothly flowing combat scenario. The finale of an epic struggle to survive in Misery deserves more than that.

My suggestion would be to give Strelok the same AI settings as Colonel Kovalsky.

The poltergeists have to spawn next to the player; if they spawned upon blowing the door, the player wouldn't be able to get near them to get a shot off. As you pointed out, the player will STILL have to know where the poltergeists are to engage them, except now he can't get a clean shot. The Kindergarten is definitely F5/F9 territory and whilst it may not be exactly in keeping with the rest of the game, it certainly adds a little BOO! factor like a horror game

But yeah Strelok needs to calm the fuck down.

htkblazer wrote: The poltergeists have to spawn next to the player; if they spawned upon blowing the door, the player wouldn't be able to get near them to get a shot off. As you pointed out, the player will STILL have to know where the poltergeists are to engage them, except now he can't get a clean shot.

The Kindergarten has open windows on the upper floor. The player would be able to shoot through them at the Poltergeists. It's a tricky shot with bullets, RPGs or grenade launchers might be easier, but it's a better proposition than the current one.

Overall it would be similar to how you have to deal with Poltergeist in the X8 lab by shooting through the hole in the floor of its room.

yea i agree about strelok but i had easy kindergarden, i get in with seva, with max psy protection, and allready psy block active, i manage to kill bouth poltergeists with few shots from XM8 on auto mode, posibly lucky shots.....

Are you serious??? The X8 lab poltergeist was a nightmare!!! The kindergarten ones were a piece of cake after that!

htkblazer wrote: Are you serious??? The X8 lab poltergeist was a nightmare!!! The kindergarten ones were a piece of cake after that!

The X8 lab one is fairly easy. There's a big ragged hole in the floor of the room it's in. You just need to run to the corner of the room below and you can shoot the poltergeist directly. As long as you've taken some psyblock and have a decent psi protection from your helmet/armour, you won't get fried by its aura.

Lol yeah I know, I'm a vanilla veteran and anticipated the problem after my first encounter with Misery poltergeist aura (I was like aw fuck what am I gonna do in X8???) so I read up on some tips on here and remembered to bring psyblock. You make it sound easy though, the reality is, after popping some psyblock, you are literally bouncing off the walls down the corridor avoiding hamsters and acid pools trying to stay focused while being screeched at so you can blast the thing with a VOG! And you talk about F5/F9 territory?

htkblazer wrote: Lol yeah I know, I'm a vanilla veteran and anticipated the problem after my first encounter with Misery poltergeist aura (I was like aw fuck what am I gonna do in X8???) so I read up on some tips on here and remembered to bring psyblock. You make it sound easy though, the reality is, after popping some psyblock, you are literally bouncing off the walls down the corridor avoiding hamsters and acid pools trying to stay focused while being screeched at so you can blast the thing with a VOG! And you talk about F5/F9 territory?

It is pretty easy if you're cautious. It's hard if you try to take it too fast. It took me a few tries to get it right but I came up with a reliable method in the end. If I do each part step by step it works every time. Before going in the lab I take all the drugs I need to. Then I kill the hamsters first (that's always the first thing I do in X-8 in any case, because they can ambush you otherwise) by attracting them with gunfire and then mowing them down. Then I time my runs from cover to cover to avoid the shit the Poltergeist flings my way. I keep an eye out for the Fruit Punch anomalies since they can hurt a lot (but I guess that partly depends on your gear), I have plenty of time to do that since the tushkanos are dead so I can concentrate on the ground. Then to get the Poltergeist itself I back into a corner in the room below it, out of the lethal range of its psy-field, and just shoot at it though the hole. Regular bullets will do, a rifle grenade or RPG would also work but you can usually just kill it with bullets.

Hmm seems a lot more controlled than my approach.

"Fuck-shit-bugger-fuck-shit-bugger-fuck-shit-bugger-fuck-shit-bugger...!"

Perhaps in 2.2 I'll be more calm lol

== Evacuation My mission usually bugged but I am just ignoring it. Shrelok always stop after first 2 groups of zombies and decided to stop. He will not move no matter what. If I go too far he will die regardless. So I tends to ignore him completely and move on to free play. Don't know how to debug that mission myself. I have tried all the Alife range and none of them works.

No real problem with last couple of missions but I did modified the artifact price myself since Pripyat spawn some serious artifacts. I made hunting artifact worth the time and gear design within the system that supports it. Now artifact hunting is fun and profitable. To compensate I made them heavier so only 1 or 2 can be carried at once.

Last mission put AI down to 10. "Gentle stroll to tha choppa!"

Once everyone is in defensive positions around the choppers, put it back up and try to save everyone and get Garry's good ending. You need to kill certain Monoliths to trigger the end. Also pray that no one dies during the absurdly long cut scene.

DesertEagleV wrote: == Evacuation My mission usually bugged but I am just ignoring it. Shrelok always stop after first 2 groups of zombies and decided to stop. He will not move no matter what. If I go too far he will die regardless. So I tends to ignore him completely and move on to free play. Don't know how to debug that mission myself. I have tried all the Alife range and none of them works.

I have had similar problems here. For me it wasn't Strelok but the military who got hung up a couple of times. Another time Garry was running around outside (somehow surviving the blowout unsheltered! Obviously marked by the Zone.) killing zombies like crazy then rushing north and getting in everyone's way. I always make a hard save before this mission starts.

Right now the mission is always finishable, but just goofy.

Lomlom wrote:

DesertEagleV wrote: == Evacuation My mission usually bugged but I am just ignoring it. Shrelok always stop after first 2 groups of zombies and decided to stop. He will not move no matter what. If I go too far he will die regardless. So I tends to ignore him completely and move on to free play. Don't know how to debug that mission myself. I have tried all the Alife range and none of them works.

I have had similar problems here. For me it wasn't Strelok but the military who got hung up a couple of times. Another time Garry was running around outside (somehow surviving the blowout unsheltered! Obviously marked by the Zone.) killing zombies like crazy then rushing north and getting in everyone's way. I always make a hard save before this mission starts.

Right now the mission is always finishable, but just goofy.

There are times I don't even want to do the mission if wasn't for the free play. X8 Lab is one hell of a spawning pool for everything, during mission it is pain the ass. After mission that place feels like hemorrhoid at size of of a grape fruit. From these hall ways I have learned Giants can walk in building, and cat walk is completely soundless, snorks can jump through window ect.