Comments - hhiker

Lurking and let'splay.
(Just occasionally. You can find'em here Youtube.com)

Workaround works! <3

The LA minimap compass is 2-colour - red and blue. (As opposed to white/red or black/red where the ONE coloured end would indeed indicate north).

Blue is north, red is south.
#JustEasternEuropeanThings

I'll spam another clip of mine starting at the document-pickup montage (20:22) - Youtu.be

No, under "normal" gameplay you're supposed to open the codelocked door in order to to go into the lab.

If for some reason you get into the lab with that door closed (I, for example, did it on purpose to mess with the standard mission sequence), then an easy way out is to stand very close to the door, lean to side, and as you glitch through it, hit the keypad.
Like this: Youtu.be

Can confirm :)

nah, once they spawn, they all spawn. Look at the wiki list posted below, it has screenshots of the exact places (I got some wrong).

ed. the one called "report" is what I referred to as "bedtime reading". It can be tricky to see at first. And "contract" is the one in the attick. "Complaint" is in lower level of one building (easy one), "letter" is in upstairs hallway of one building.

Yup, that one is just a decoration. If there's one in the attic (my memory is fuzzy), then that one was on/in a desk.
But the "bedtime reading" document is in one of the other buildings - upstairs, little room (it also has some metal boxes in another corner).

Two more places to look: a metal desk on one building's balcony - lower shelf; on top of those control panels/ computing units that stand around (jump to see the top).

- Did you look in the attic of the building that is like Autopark from ShoC?
- Did you notice a bandit's bedroll with a bunch of vodka nearby (2nd floor of one building)? Look in a narrow gap between a crate & the wall; that bandit must enjoy some bedtime reading.

With the duty guy, try talking to him again. (I remember something was up with triggering his release, but can't remember what exactly.)
ED: also what he says -->

With the safe, once you hit the first number, reverse the wheel - click on the opposite side. That switches to the next slot.

[personal biased opinion]
Whether the bandit suit not working was a glitch or just a consequence... you still get the password from the drunken bandit's corpse. You might not like the outcome/solution but the alternative options/ faisafes are there and the missions remain solvable, even if not the way you wished. (There is ONE variation where you have to use player knowledge to get x18 code because a certain message isn't triggered... but this ain't the situation at hand.)
[/personal biased opinion]

You can cross the distance from base to the darkscape gates on foot. It takes some plannig and probably a few tries.

Here's how I've done it:
- make sure my weight and artifactery is optimized for sprinting (try to make it to the x18 entrance - you can dump excess gear in one place, plus you can ambush npcs who come after you from there.)
- when on the move, you have to dodge/ zigzag, no running in straight line (this won't help if someone is shooting from 1 meter, but it messes with the aim of faraway enemies. Helicopter fire can be dodged up to a point too.)
- when choosing your trajectory from base to gate, make sure there's lots of differenr terrain, vegetation, and big objects that block the chopper's view (the big rocks on the hill are a good example)
- if you're stuck in the middle of the base, getting out can be tricky - stick to roofs, hidden corners, ets.
- my trajectory from base to gate looked like this: from base entrance, across the road, into the meadow (landmark - helicopter wreck), through the thin woods, aim at the rocks, keep dodging (I've met military patrol there); once at the rocks, use them as cover, then dodge downhill, aim for the dump yard, maybe use its comcrete fence as cover; keep on moving towards the bushes ner perimeter (watch out fr anomalies!), through the bushes, aim at the gate, aaaand levelchanger.

Manual saves are your friend, use them when in safety.

*my experience is based on prior builds, I haven't completed that run in 1.4005 [ED: SINCE 1.4005, sorry.]

ED:
Also, like others suggested, fighting off all the military before leaving the base will remove some variables.
Also-also, the on-foot approach is very viable for Darkscape as well - on foot you can choose terrain with more vegetation, use the rocksides as cover, bypass military from afar, take a brather in the river caves at mid-point...)

Also: to toggle HUD off & on ingame, press - and + on numpad. (I'm not 100% sure if the PDA chatter shows up in that case... trial & error needed.)

Indeed. (The realization hit with a delay and I was too lazy to edit then.)

My memory is fuzzy whether there was any variation with the label in different LA builds... It just worked so I never inquired. Some other default mappings were jiggled around recently, hence the confusion.

Double checked in-game now, and it's the other way around - the function works, the mapping is the same (shift), but the label is incorrect (Walk). So, to remap low crouch key, remap "walk".

And while I was launching the game, the panic apparently resolved by itself. [shrug]

Simply remap your keys (options --> controls).
The moves are the same, but the new default keys have mixed things up.

[ED: disregard, I got it wrong]

Ah, sorry, spoke out of my *** before.
Checked the configurator, and it's not in the list anymore.
(ED: what he says -->)

When you run the launcher/configurator/app thingie you'll find 'mods' tab (along with settings and launch options). That tab should display the available mods - scroll down and tick the ones you want to activate.

One thing to double check: has Nimble returned to the village or is he still hangig out by the tunnel?
If he's still at the tunnel, talk to him, then try Sid again.

Did you take the loner's quest to recover family rifle? That should open up the door that leads to the bloodsucker nest and beyond. Once you run into that psycko brain, talk to Sakharov.

[disclaimer: my intel might not apply because my memory is **** and I mix up test versions sometimes]

Here's what happens immediately:
Youtu.be (sorry for the ****** audio)

As far as I've tried the "wrong" variations, the only adverse effect is, that you won't receive Veles's message with the X18 door code (under standard scenario that triggers when you whack Borov and access his safe). Other than that, I had no trouble carrying on with the storyline (after accessing X18 with player knowledge the rest of the storyline simply picked up as normal too).

[*depending on the build YMMV]

Ah, bummer. (My intel is inherently sketchy as it comes from different builds & fixes and my memory is ****.)
If you're willing to spend some time experimenting, try going back to the loner-vs-military fight and withhold your help - this increases the chance of Mole getting killed in the action (your hands will me clean).

P.S. if a stray bullet were to hit those gas canisters in the courtyard when Mole was walking by, that should leave your hands technically clean as well.

Your mileage may vary depending on the build but...
Have you checked what happens if you just bypass him and proceed to the underground? The mission items that are out in the open (room key, book) should be there from the start (I think? It's been a while since I've run into faulty Agroprom triggers - I'm pretty sure I've bypassed Mole during one or another test run, but not sure when).
If they're there, carry on as if you'd gotten Mole's info.

Playlist with various LostAlpha gameplay videos (some from test builds, some from released versions). Goofiness varies.

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg0Tp5EtpQmaMnhptGJSctBenshtdwgSj

Well we don't really know if it is indeed the same situation, it just rang a bell :D

This sounds like a systemic issue with the NPC missions I've ran into during testing(encountered it in 1.4005 at least). Namely, if you fail or discard one NPC's task, then take a next task from another one, the task list (or counter or tally or watever the technical term may be) gets shifted/skewed so that you cannot complete the new legit tasks.

I was able to bypass the issue by looking up the NPC I had originally "failed" and reported the new mission to them. That completed the active task (with wrong names), and if I now took a new NPC quest, I'd only be able to report it to the guy one slot behid. And so on, and so forth.
(My sequence looked like this: take quest from Dude A -> Refuse/fail mission -> take quest from Dude B -> Report that mission to Dude A -> take mission from Dude C -> report it to Dude B -> etc)

bigger S.T.A.L.KE.R. screenshot albums:
- Lost Alpha, Cordon Twilight Zone: Imgur.com
- Lost Alpha, Bar-Rostok "Twilight Zone": Imgur.com
- ShoC unmodded, random moments: Imgur.com
- ShoC with Oblivion Lost, random moments: Imgur.com
- ShoC with Oblivion Lost, Agroprom nightlife: Imgur.com
- ShoC NPP "Twilight Zone": Imgur.com
- Clear Sky NPP "Twilight Zone": Imgur.com
- CS unmodded, random moments: Imgur.com
- The ship Taras Shevchenko and fictional "Backwater Bar" in CoP: Imgur.com
- "Game Over: getting killed as an art form: Imgur.com

Sssh!
I was never here.
[retracts into bushes]

Indeed, you cannot consume a thing that influences your vitals while the effect of another thing that influences your vitals is still kicking in. (There's a delay in health items working, basically.)
Wait a few seconds and try again.

Now, if that status persists even after waiting - that's a problem.

Some working cars I've run into on Southern maps:
green Niva on Forest level (near Valley levelchanger)
military "jeep" in Darkscape, not too far from Valley exit
a white Moskovich in Darkscape, near the road, farther in the level
(IIRC there was another military-type vehicle at the cordon end of Darkscape but my memory is unreliable).

As for money, my solution is - loot everything, keep ammo and other consumables, sell more expensive food and unnecessary items to NPCs (even better - use the PDA chat to take random delivery tasks from in-range NPCs as Dawbra suggests). No buying from traders (that's just me, but maybe works for someone else as well). Oh, and choose your fights - if you're on a job, it's not very cost-effective to spend 100 rounds chasing after a pack of dogs.

I went into X18 in a very contrived and deliberately "wrong" way (Lots of Monolith were harmed in the process), and the documents were there. I did talk to Veles before I went to the lab, though.
I should have the document pick-ups on record here but I'm too lazy to check the exact times (caught one at 14:11).