What are the chances of being one shot? Thread - The Armed Zone mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Hello, everyone.

With all the new weapons and ammunition that the non-player characters are able to use. I would like to know if the chances of being one-shot, by guns while wearing high tier armor and being under the effects of morphine, are higher or lower than with vanilla Misery 2.2.1?

I am asking this, because I only like to play ironman and getting one shot, always, breaks my heart.

This is my first thread. With this, in mind, I would like to apologize if I have done something against the rules, asked a rude question or have wasted the time of anyone.

Thank you.

Hello, apologies for the delay.

Getting one shot highly depends on your gear and the gun you were shot at by. If you're at point blank rang against an NPC with a good gun than you probably have no chance. All meds won't stop a bullet from rupturing your armor, only Kevlar plates can, and by high tier I hope you mean something like Berill and better. I use Berill all the time mixed with two Kevlar plates, this saves me most of the time even from high calibers like 7.62. Know this, even Ironman was gunned down

Player's armor, kevlar, steel plates, artifacts and morphine's effects stay unchanged. What was changed so far is ammo stats and NPC's resilience. They however offset one another, so the TTK is somewhat similar to vanilla when it comes to most weapons. Greatest changes are for full-size rifle ammo, which is much more powerful than it was in vanilla. These rifles apart from high damage also have much higher recoil, but NPCs usually can control recoil very well, so this might be a problem sometimes. If you see that enemy has a sniper or battle rifle (FAL, G3, SCAR-H etc) then there's a chance you'll get one-shot, especially if he has AP ammo (usually mostly in equipment of high-ranking NPCs or Mercenaries). So I'd say it's very important to remember that in battles recon is probably the most important asset of all. When you spot enemy patrol, instead of rushing them try to look them up with binoculars or rifle scope, try to see what weapons they sport and if they look high-ranked to you (enemies in heavy armor, bandits in trenchcoats and plate carriers) - if you see an enemy with a FAL or LMG who wears a fancy outfit then you know you should be very, very careful.

Most NPCs however carry intermediate caliber rifles like AKM, AK-74 or similar, and their one-shot potential is much lower. Currently on my playthrough I use a light trenchcoat and carry one kevlar plate when going stalking or two when I know I'll be in a firefight (I think I'll switch those two for one steel plate though) and I have never been one shot by anyone so far. When using a high-tier armored suit with steel plate inserts you should be able to withstand several hits, even more with morphine.

Edited by: czwarty_

Thank you both for the replies.

mp5lng you saying that you use the Berill armour did get me thinking about its effectiveness. I personally never tried it going for the CS-3a every time instead. I will try it now then. Also, by high tier armour, I was referring to the Bulat, Guardian of freedom, PSZ-9d and the Exoskeleton armours. Sorry, I should have communicated that better.

niick With what you have said the changes do not sound too bad, with respect to getting one shot. The 7.62 calibre weapons always one-shot me, in urban combat anyway, so knowing that mainly the large calibre weapons are that much deadlier does not sound that bad. I find it funny, now compared to what I used to be like, that my first purchase is almost always binoculars fully upgraded, the best investment that could be made. I do sometimes wish getting shot in the eye was not a thing though, it has a tendency to one shot even with the best protection. That is not a suggestion to remove that feature though since it makes every fight interesting and tense. There is no fun in fighting an enemy if it feels like you are fighting a baby.

I will go and try the mod in iron man then, avoiding urban combat at all costs.

Thank you TAZ team for this mod and the relentless updates.

Edited by: BankruptPhantom

I see, faction armors aren't really meant for heavy fighting, and Exo is definitely not for fighting either, it's for heavy loads. I can't comment on the CS since I've never used it, never liked it really. Berill proved itself to be super effective in almost all fights I went through, hell it kept me alive from being ripped apart by more than 10 blind dogs xD, literally! they all were surrounding me biting my ass, the armor took all the damage and lost 70% of its durability while I only lost about 30% health. Remember to use kevlar and steel plates, they're very handy when stacked together.

Edited by: mp5lng

I too can attest to the Berill's effectiveness, but considering I go straight to that from the torn-up Light Overcoat we start with, naturally it feels like a wonder in comparison. I still go for the Bulat once I get into Yanov with enough cash, but the Berill can keep you afloat. The CS armor is also a decent option if you want a solid compromise of medium armor & anomaly protection, but the trade-off is an upgrade tree that I find a bit lacking.

I commend anyone willing to try out Ironman mode, but it's just not for me, and that isn't just because I like a good skirmish - Misery is no stranger to ambushing you with high threats, sometimes unescapable. Recon is definitely important, but eventually you'll get those hostiles that spot you but don't open fire because you didn't see them yet, so they follow until they catch up......and then open up in full auto right at your back. Or maybe it's a variety of mutants that smell you from a mile off and get hungry - plenty of them are capable of this. Starting out in fact is more dangerous than ever with many NPCs making use of hollow/soft point ammo. If it weren't for the one Kevlar Plate Assaulters start out with for that reason, one/two shots would be -way- more common.

That's why one of my highest & first priorities in Misery is to acquire a 2nd Kevlar Plate (or upgrade suit for more artifact slots first if necessary), and swap them out for Carbon Plates ASAP. Gotta be able to live before you can get better. I've dropped down to one Carbon now that I'm in an Exo, but I'm still seeing medium & large caliber AP ammo being used against me with regular occurrence, so I still keep one on. But it's not just about taking individual hits better, but maintaining suits for longer. Without plates, even managing to survive a surprise heavy gunfight or mutant mosh pit could leave your suit in tatters further than you can fix in the field, like poor mp5lng up there. I'm not aware of a method to patch up suits bit by bit like with weapons & spare parts, and once a suit drops below 30%, I'm not sure there's any worthwhile way to save it yourself. Not to mention the obvious side effect of suits in bad condition offering much less protection. Consider keeping at least one Field Outfit Repair Kit on you at all times - they're remarkably lightweight for being able to repair suits as low as 40%.

Plates only help with the majority, obviously - I'm certain they do nothing to lessen head/neckshot damage. From there, its up to you, a solid helmet you can trust, and some luck. And that's just the human threat: Exos might as well still be trenchcoats against Controller snipes, Pseudogiant slams at close range, & Chimera swipes. The first two can be avoided from afar, but good luck outrunning the third. I feel like I don't have that option, so I must be ready for whatever comes. Just last night, I was passing by a sole loner sifting for artefacts at the gassy swamp between the Sawmill & Krug. Within moments, we were blitzed by seven pseudodogs with a pair of chimeras in close pursuit. Poor bastard didn't last 4 seconds. I did, but it took an MP5SD5, enough 9mm +P+ to outfit a police department, and in Bonesetter's words, "an injection or two". Exo w/single Carbon Plate held up at 77% in the end, but I ran that SMG ragged down to 53%. I can't imagine that going any better in a lesser suit, personally. Hostile combat is inevitable, and it won't always wait for you to find it first.

I want to apologise in advance for posting what is is very large and I am uncertain if I should post anything on this board as my answer has been answered, but I wanted to say something. If this is incorrect of me please tell me.

I got both the Berlil and CS-3a, today, and yea the Berilil appears to be better. Higher rupture protection, armour protection, and better ergonomics. I would go as far as to say that the CS-3a would be an actual rip off if not for the 3 armour attachment modules. That one more armour attachment module upgrade is the only reason I am still torn which is better when fully upgraded.

I personally just do not care ergonomics that much. Never helped me not to get one shot and you can just use epinephrine and still sprint none stop for half a day. Unless you are a very greedy or over-prepared stalker.

I will go with the Berlil though. That story with the vicious tickling dogs pushed me hard. Dogs are my number one enemy those guys are responsible for killing me more than anything before I realised the beast ai would start hunting at 200 range when they are in large packs. I assume. Either way that line of thinking stopped me dying to dogs, but god help me if I have not wished I would not need to cower from dogs. Not that I am going to find out if I can fight a pack of dogs, wearing Berlil, in an open field, on purpose that is. God knows those sly cowards will find a way to get me and 50 of them in an open field.

Plates are ridiculously good, especially against mutants. I think, from personal experience. I remember surviving one chimera pounce wearing a heavy overcoat with 2 steel plates, while under the effects of morphine. After that, I always just outfitted whatever armour I had with plates rather than rushing the next tier armour. I just wish I could use plates with my helmet. I have a feeling that if I could become a stalker known as the duct-taped steel head, I would be the mightiest of all stalkers, but alas.

Ambushes by mutants and humans used to be a problem for me, but I found out that the issue was not my recon skill. Rather the limited switch life distance, with enemies spawning in after I was done scouting and moved forward. So, I just set the Switch a life distance to 5k to fight that issue, now I can see some mercs from the waste processing plant even while on the Shevchenko ship, only 1 dude on one of the higher balconies. But it counts.

I must apologise for the next part as I will be discussing me doing something naughty with the mod, which is setting the A life distance to 5k. I know it was recommended to change a life distance to 150, but I did not want to go back to getting run over by packs of dogs. Which simply were not spawned while I was scouting. It has been bugging me, so I want to ask.

So, on the subject of hostile combat being inevitable. I feel I must ask if the TAZ team did something weird with mercs? Like making them omnipresent. With their vision radiuses being buffed to a thousand meters (Not exaggerating, this is the serious distance I am suspicious of) and being able to see through walls, I assume. It is just that I have been fighting mercs on Skadovsk.

Today I have literally opened the doors of the boat, not even taking a step out of the door. Only to be fired at by a lone merc. This was not a lone occurrence but has happened to me 3 times, 1 lone merc and 2 squads. I have killed 6-7 mercs on skadovsk, thus far and this is without me leaving for Yanov. They have not shot at me above the distance of 100 meters as far as I can tell though, not that I tried to see if they could shoot me at a distance above that.

Also, these specific mercs I assume are from the waste processing plant, because I found ridges PDA on one of them. Point being those villainous bastards seem so determined to kill me that they are sending their squads from the processing station to Skadovsk, just to kill me and it has been seriously scaring me. adding a sense of impending doom to whichever location I now go. Knowing somewhere someone is going to find me, who is equipped with the best armour and weaponry and that they will try to kill me when they find me. I was even shot by one while wearing nothing but an overcoat and a steel helmet, by the gas station, I had no choice but to run in the opposite direction knowing that I scouted 2 packs of dogs where I was forced to run to.

Although I must admit those cross-eyed pricks have landed 0 shots on me thus far, not for a lack of trying. As the Skadovsk ship, I feel, might start resembling cheese more than any boat. The look and smell of the rusted metal did not help in the first place, but the holes are sealing the deal.

Please send help, before the cheese boat becomes a reality.

Oh jeez, you never dealt with the Waste plant mercs? Those dudes are the worst in Zaton, and they're a large group too. I knew they'd hunt you down when provoked, but I've never heard of it going that far. It's not like Vanilla, either - in Misery they're hostile from the start, and come baying for blood from half a mile away. I've never not dealt with them once it was go time, so I've never seen a situation like this. At least at the Waste plant you know where they're coming from (although maybe not how many), but now you've given them time to spread out to god knows where.

Now Mercs by the gas station is nothing new. The Gas station is regularly occupied, and not often with good company. Sometimes mutants, but its usually Mercs, Bandits or Zombies. Even if the former two are only neutral, I make a keen effort to wipe them out before they surely open fire on some Loners. If they're not hostile, that makes it easier - Misery allows setting up mines or explosives with their detonation not being immediately traced back to you, unlike many mods. The loud ruckus might draw attention though: Activities at the Gas Station regularly alert whomever is at the Oakpine Anomaly, Substation Workshop, & Iron Pine Transformers, so you might have to act quick there before more come down the hills with guns drawn.

As for Mercs in general, Mercs in Misery are just genuinely that good. Lore-wise, they're supposed to be next-level foes, and probably at least on par with Monolith. In fact, for the first time ever, they might be, since TAZ gave them weaponry superior even to most Monolith. TAZ didn't do anything to Mercs beyond giving some of them premium loadouts, but it might be enough. Even the initial Waste plant group should have some noteworthy hardware among them, especially Hook & Ridge. Oh wait, sounds like you dealt with most of them already. Might be hard to tell though, since Mercs will spawn with regular occurrence in Zaton afterwards anyways. The only good news is that Mercs are only chummy with Bandits so all other groups will help fight against them.

Merc presence is surprisingly low in Yanov compared to Zaton, although I'm not sure if that might change somewhat after Black's team ambush at Jupiter.

I'm quite honestly amazed that you dared to turn on A-Life to such an extreme degree. That sounds like CPU hell. Guess you've got a great rig. However I've seen bad stuff happen with certain mods that allow this setting. Quest/Game breaking stuff. Stuff like NPCs or bodies spawning (because of A-Life being everywhere, of course they will), and then getting killed by things that weren't supposed to find them in the first place, and then their bodies vanishing by the time you get around to them. Misery even at recommended switch distances is notorious for this in all 3 Zones. Grouse gets buggy or MIA if you start his quest and don't get to the next step in a timely fashion, and Noah's almost guaranteed to vanish at some point - He and his doggy disappeared almost immediately after my first run-in with him, and I had to spawn a Compass later to wrap Beard up. Topol & his crew are severely vulnerable from the moment you set foot in Yanov, as they get directly attacked by Pseudodogs on a regular basis. Its recommended to help them and the scientists out ASAP. I hesitated even a little last playthrough, and half his crew were already gone on my first visit. Strider and his stranded squad aren't as quite as likely to get attacked, but if even one of them is gone by the time you try to recruit them into Duty/Freedom, it'll be too late - they'll glitch out into regular Monolith and gun down your unwitting recruiters, then leave you alone and sit back down like nothing happened. Hilarious, but f#%ked nonetheless. By now I'm sure you get the picture.

I understand the threat of multiple dogs. I really do. They wouldn't be so bad if they just ate what they killed to sate their hunger, but they just relentlessly kill and immediately move on to the next target. Same as most mutants, really. But at least you hear Dogs coming, so there's a chance to run. Maybe not Pseudodogs, since they tend to get quiet until they reach you. IMHO, though, the real danger are Cats.

Dogs band together in packs, and come at you from one direction. Pseudodogs are harder hitting and more constant, and can close the gap faster with semi-predictable lunging attacks, but like dogs often come from one direction. But Cats can come from multiple directions at once and are entirely silent - if they don't come at you from the front, they WILL hit you first before you notice them. Its often just a few at a time, and many dance around you before they get down to business so they don't all come at once, but there can be as many as 5-6 at once. They also strike as quickly as Pseudodogs, but whereas Pseudodogs go for raw damage, Cats major in tearing your $#!t up. In other words, they shred your armor apart like few mutants can, while making you bleed over and over and over and over. Heavy bleeding in a tight spot can be an easy killer, and even Morphine might not work fast enough if your health is also low. Small survival kits may be the only immediate answer - keep at least a couple handy to stop bleeding the quickest coupled with healing, while also providing calories to compensate for any recently used stimpacks & blood loss prevention. As for your armor.....well, hope they don't get you too bad. Multiple clawings can make quick work of lighter suits, and if they manage to spring their attack on you just as you get stuck smoking or something else that stops you for a moment.....hoo boy.

If you want, I can tell you how I deal with the Waste plant dudes on a regular basis.

Yes, Servalion is right. It is NOT recommended to increase switch_distance to too high values, unless you are doing only freeplay. Scripts, quests and missions were optimised in vanilla to even lower disstances, at 100-150, so increasing this causes a lot of problems, some might even be impossible to fix. Grouse bugging out is one of most common. Misery, apart from having MSO added and huge number of mutant and NPC patrol spawns, also increases the aggression level of them and the fights are often so fierce that NPCs end up moving to areas where they should not be at all, like your example with Waste Processing Plant Mercenaries at Skadovsk. Apart from being a bug-fest it also somewhat ruins the story and realism - Mercs stay at their outposts for a reason.

I personally play on 250 setting, if you have great computer and like more lively Zone then I'd say 400 is absolute limit, and even at this I wouldn't be surprised if you had some weird bugs and had to switch settings back to 250 in some places.

If you struggle with dogs I'd propose to take some light automatic weapon to defend yourself from them. Automatic is a must because almost everyone struggles with how fast they are. SMGs are the best for this job since their recoil is very low even when shooting in full-auto. High-capacity SMGs like PPSh-41 or M1928A1 with drum mags are probably the most effective against dogs, but they're somewhat heavy, they might be a hindrance if you want to carry one of them beside a rifle. There is however Bizon - often overlooked, but it's only 2.1kg and has 64 9x18 rounds in magazine! 9x18mm is more than enough vs dogs and if you shoot accurately you can kill a typical pack with one mag. If you still need something ligher, try compact SMGs - Mini-uzi, Micro-uzi, MP5K, Kedr - they're much lighter than standard SMGs for cost of accuracy, but it doesn't matter at all when fighting mutants; or machine pistols - G18, Stechkin, Beretta 93R, they're usually as light as normal pistols but have higher capacity and shoot extremely fast; their main weakness is that their recoil is pretty hard to control. Another type of light weapons is PDWs - MP7, P90 and KAC. They're effective, but not really cost-efficient - ammo for them is very expensive, especially since they have high RoF with low damage and need more shots to kill than typical SMGs, which makes you spend even more of already expensive ammo. Last gun I recommend is actually one of the best, the Skorpion vz61 - it's cheapest machine pistol in Zone (not counting Borz), it's very light, has very high rate of fire and almost no recoil. It's weakness is low-damage ammo, but a) you're fighting dogs, it's enough for them, and b) it's dirt-cheap and very light - you can easily buy more and carry more than equivalent amount of 9x19.

BTW about Mercs, we didn't change their accuracy or aggression level, the only changes are in weaponry, but they have now *less* AP ammo than they did in vanilla.

Edited by: czwarty_

He's right, a good SMG can make all the difference. Strangely enough I've never bothered with the Skorpion vz61. Too many bad memories of the "Klobb", I guess? Odder still is that there's only a couple of variants of it and relatively often carried as a backup by NPCs, so coming across the Camo version should be an easy goal.

Thing is, if you avoid combat when you can, you might not see a lot of the ones he mentioned. Of the ones he mentioned, I've only ever seen the PPSH, Uzi, Mini-Uzi, and MP7 for sale at traders. Maybe a P90, but probably not. Most of the rest I've found from other NPCs, and I'm still not seen a Micro Uzi or Kedr. Cool to know that a Micro is in the mod, although you'd think a Kedr would be more common in the Zone. I've also only seen one KAC this playthrough on a Merc, but the bastard didn't drop it - One of those cases where their equipped primary magically vanishes the moment they die. It may be Misery, but that's effing stupid beyond belief - I know he had it because he had its exclusive ammo. Grrr, it's such a good PDW, too. Just really hard to come by.

From personal experience. I did not notice that many bugs from playing with a fully loaded map. Certain things were better from my experience even.
Noah for one stopped dying before I got to him. I also remember finding out that the thing that kills Noah is his dog Lassie. I went to him once and after going up to scout out the area I went back down to find Lassie trying to kill Noah, it did not succeed because Noah is extremely tanky, but I watched it bite him straight for 30 seconds until it was no longer aggressive towards Noah. It did not bite me either just Noah. I believe Lassie has an AI issue somewhere that causes her to kill Noah. But now that the map is fully loaded Noah has never died, but I have never seen Lassie, I assume the distance somehow enabled him to defend himself. Funny how Owl mentions you killing Noah is less likely than his dog doing him in.
Also, about Grouse I have never had a bug where he disappeared, only bug I had was with him being passive to mutants. The only problem with that questline is I cannot receive the medical supplies from Tremors body.
I do not accept quests until I am ready for them for immersion reasons, so I suppose that might be helping me in avoiding bugs.
The stalkers by the research bunker also die, but rarely. The research bunker stalkers bug, in particular, is odd, because when I found their corpses, they were in the places in which they idly stand so they did not move when they died. Not to mention that the mercs defending that place were all fine and there were no mutant corpses anywhere.
Loading the full map has personally reduced stuttering, I am not sure if the game even stutters anymore. I have frame drops, but never noticed stuttering. But it does stutter when you load the game at the beginning worse than usual, but after around a minute, it is pretty smooth. This only does not work if you use dx 10, due to the memory leakages the stuttering always comes back and gets increasingly bad until crashing, but it is not there at the start.
I did not notice frames getting reduced, at least to a noticeable degree. I just had to make the graphics of the game look like shit, due to nonstop c stack overflow and memory shortage crashes. The game was stable with the highest settings with static lighting and with a fully loaded map, I just could not live with static lighting.
I just wanted to say that, to explain why I do it. I have also been doing it for a long time and the mercs at the processing station never acted this way in misery which is why I am so confused by them.
I appreciate the advice for the dogs, but I will just continue avoiding them. They are the one enemy I avoid at all costs, just because I cannot reliably kill them. Also, for weapons I have a saiga 10 to kill them, but I have a rule to avoid them, so I do. It is just that I cannot aim at dogs for anything and even if I win against them the medicine, repairs and bullets never even came close to breaking even.
L1A1 SLR was the perfect weapon, for me, in vanilla misery. It is the only weapon that I felt confident enough to fight anything, even dogs.
Tried using the SMG that nimble provides for CQC, in vanilla misery, but I failed to even kill one bloodsucker with it so I never used it again. I just use shotguns against mutants. assault rifles for literally everything but fighting over 300 meters. Snipers for combat above 300 meters. Explosives I am sure I will blow myself up and I could never control SMGs. Close range I always failed to aim them and would just end up destroying the scenery and at the medium range the fire rate was too high and the damage too low for them to be effective. I know I was not supposed to use them medium range, but I was intrigued by the idea of not having to get kicked in the shoulder every fight.
Servalion please do give some advice for the waste processing plant mercs. I do have a tactic that has reasonable success, but I just never felt safe going after them.
My current tactic for killing them is to get on the pipes at the bridge and just use the Green Dragon to kill everyone who is outside, then wait for some to go outside and if I do not see anyone leave for 5 minutes then I get into medium range, 150 meters, and scout the area again using my rifle to kill anyone I find. Then going for a final push after not seeing anyone again for 5 minutes, but I never assume I killed all of them. That assumption has brought me far too much misery when I would have gone to loot all the corpses. I do this while under the effects of morphine and wearing sphere 12 and using the PSZ-9d armour, with steel plates. Going into the plant has always been too risky for my liking, but I still go in every time. I need those tools.

Micro UZI is not on the mod. Captain flies away

I wouldn't advise Saiga vs dogs. Shotguns now have realistic spread which is very small, unless you're over 15-20m from target there's basically no spread at all, it's something most people are probably not accustomed to, using their experience from other games that tend to portray shotguns as accuracy equivalent of hairspray-lighter combo. Using buckshot #4 can somewhat increase the spread, but only by small margin. Sawn-off shotguns are slightly better at that but again at close range the spread is very small. BTW for mutants you should always load soft-point rounds. They even feel somewhat too powerful right now and it's possible they will get some kind of nerf in one of next patches, so use them till you can;)