How to make Anomaly more challenging Thread - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

What is this about?

From the feedback I got so far, one thing became very clear. Some people like a harder, more challenging experience than others. So here is a set of tips how to make the game much more challenging without removing too much of the intended Anomaly experience.

How to set it up?

It's recommended to start from the original settings that ship with Anomaly Repack.

1. Open the file "gamedata\configs\axr_options.ltx" with a text editor like Notepad or Notepad++
2. Find the section that starts with [mm_options]
3. Find the following settings and change them to the settings suggested here:
   • alife_mutant_pop = 0.75
   • alife_stalker_pop = 1
   • enable_ai_die_in_anomaly = false
   • enable_hardcore_economy = true
   • enable_heli_spawn = true
   • enable_mask_hud = true
   • enable_mechanic_feature = true
   • enable_outfit_drop = false
   • enable_rank_loot_option = false
   • enable_shoot_effect = true
   • enable_sim_on_all_levels = false
   • enable_slot_hud = false
   • m_c_w = 50
   • multi_rewards_goodwill = 1
   • multi_rewards_money = 0.75
4. Save the changed file
5. Start a new game in Anomaly and experience it in a way that's somewhere between the Anomaly experience and the Last Day experience.

Dont forget ironman and save at campfires, for ultimate hardcore experience. The option "campfire save: conditions" -what it do exactly?

Just starting out with your great mod! Thanks for making it

Would you mind explaining what these options do, especially the following ones:

• enable_mechanic_feature = true
• enable_outfit_drop = false
• enable_rank_loot_option = false
• enable_shoot_effect = true
• enable_sim_on_all_levels = false
• m_c_w = 50

Enable mechanic feature could be delayed repair. That means when you give an item to a mechanic it takes a certain amount of ingame time to repair it.

The outfit drop enables the dropping of outfits, although usually in very bad condition. If you turn it off no outfits will drop which makes it harder to get armor and use the disguise system.

The third one is loot condition dependent on rank: that means that Stalkers who are experts and more experienced will drop better gear that is in better condition. That makes the game way easier since when you kill an experienced Stalker you can get a weapon in a fairly good condition.

Enable shoot effect could be increased recoil, I'm not sure about that.

Enable sim on all levels could be Full-A life, which means that there will be firefights and stuff when you're not around. I'm not sure about this.

The last one I don't know about.

Also I should mention that most of these options can be tweaked from the game options ingame and need to fiddling around in the files.

Edited by: Edicije

does weapon heat work? that's literally one of the best features! why did you keep that quiet?

Weapon heat is something that sounds cool, but you will almost never experience it during normal play. You have to shoot several magazines in full auto to get any notable effect, something not many people will do, maybe very late into the game when it doesn't matter.

Reduce number of ammo sold by traders and you will get most realistic experience you can imagine, and for 90% of time you will be sitting between rocks counting ammo like money after paycheck(this for today, this for food, this for tomorrow, this for bills, this for rent, this for car fuel...)

Artifacts prices need to be toned down,even the cheapest non-radioactive ones go for 10000 RU+ which is the price of a good helmet

apparently people have been getting drops of two artifacts at once, like, one junk one and another normal one.

Edited by: OG_Grinskin91

I would not touch artifacts prices. After all this is reason why all those stalkers are there: to get rich on artifacts, and honestly most of mods and game it self forgot about that. Instead I would change elements related to artifacts:

• Make anomalies more deadly, so player would need to seriously watch out when he want get artifacts.
• Separate artifacts to 3 categories instead of 2: 1. rare but expensive ones with good stats 2. more common but with medicore price and more radiation 3. Junk empty artifacts.
• Remove visible anomalies areas from map so player would need to spend more time searching for artifacts by him self.
• Add smaller anomalies areas that spawn artifacts all over the map so player would be forced to use detector more often when traveling.

Is there a way to adjust ammo drops to be more realistic? Like for instance in Dead Air if you turn on I want to shoot you get ammo drops that make sense, as in people actually drop ammo like they're carrying 1-2 clips instead of 1-2 bullets.

folder: configs\ai_tweaks\loadouts

I'm voting for configs\misc\death_generic.ltx. NPC inventory is not the same alive and dead.

It sounds like a good idea to increase the ammo found on corpses, I'll put it on my todo list and change it in an upcoming update.

Will it be an optional extra? I’ve found the ammo spawns are fine, there’s usually a full clip in the weapon and a few more spare on the guy, I feel it would kinda negate the need to buy ammo which might throw the balance off somewhat.

Edited by: OG_Grinskin91

It would make Anomaly even easier and I think it should be optional. Also, I'd like to ask seargedp to consider putting TRX Fresh start addon as a default in Anomaly.

I've been talking to Tronex and Fresh Start will be included in the next update. It's an amazing improvement and like all other TRX addons a very polished and high quality contribution to the supported mods.

after playing for a while I've realised how easy it is to maintain your health even on the recommended settings, I think this is due to the multi use medkits. Because you find a fair few lying around. once you've picked up a few you're set for the forseeable future. I'm not sure if it would be worth either using single use again and making them cheaper, or, buffing the price on them as they do seem quite cheap too.

I agree the multi use medkits are a little overkill.

Playing with day-time radiation on also makes the game significantly harder. I used to play Last Day with it on and it took a little getting used to but I started to really enjoy it. Pretty much makes you have to wear a gas mask all the time but you'll want to take it off in firefights because they get damaged so easily and are expensive to repair.

I would limit medkids to max 2 uses.

I also would modify them by keeping the same price for normal medkit but bump price of military and scientific ones. Normal medkit could also have slower health recovery. Military one should contain adrenaline because it was made to use in combat so it would boost stamina for short time but after that your hunger will be WAY bigger. Scientific medkit should contain lots of drugs and heal almost anything but it would make you dizzy and hungry even more.

I would not limit their numbers, after ammo and food health supplies are top priority in zone, and they are small and easy to smuggle so there should be lots of them anyway.

yeah, exactly what paranoiia said. just need to debuff them so they dont make you invincible for a while.

I'm fine with the multi-use medkit, the greater issue is not the medkits but the lack of things shooting at me to deplete my supplies of ammo and medkits.

What exactly does hardcore economy do?

Does enabling it require a new game?

Edited by: TruBluAussie

I'm not sure if you need a new game but I don't think so. I've been playing with it but it decreases mission rewards drastically. Probably makes stuff more expensive as well.

It doesn’t decrease quest rewards, just makes everything purchasable more expensive