Game Informer March Cover Revealed – Metro Exodus

@jun_aka_pekto: do I need to install net framework? Do I need to uncompress the files, then put them in a gamedata folder I created so they can be overwritten?

Can you think of any reason this is not working?

Unless you make a video of the steps you took and uploaded it to YT, it's hard to say. I don't recall ever installing .net framework for any of the STALKER games, much less CoC.

Most of the folder dropping should take place at the main CoC directory where the game executable (Stalker-CoC.exe) is.

Damn Glitchspot. ;)

@jun_aka_pekto: I swear to Christ this is an act of god. I’m not new to modding, I’ve been doing it for years with dozens of games so a video wouldn’t show you anything different than what is required. I know what I’m doing, something up there just doesn’t want me to enjoy modded CoC. :(

You do need to unpack the zip file you downloaded (I use 7-zip). 7-zip will create a folder with the unpacked files and folders. If the unpacked files have a gamedata folder, you drop it where the CoC gamedata folder is, not inside. That would cause an overwrite because two folders with the same exact gamedata name is not allowed in the same folder. The contents from one would transfer to the other....and join the files already there.

See my screenshot. That's where most folder drops are.

This is where I've moved CoC to (after I've patched to most recent version):

Here is Absolute Nature unpacked:

I copy the above and paste it into CoC Patched folder, then going inside it looks like this:

I run the Stalker.exe from there, and I get vanilla every single time. What am I doing wrong? It doesn't ask to overwrite when I copy, which I'd imagine it'd have to do as it can't be both, and for which it did with CoP and worked. It has to be one or the other I figure, yet the files that vanilla CoC runs off of are not of the same format as in the AN gamedata mod folder so they co-exist instead of overwriting and the game functions as if nothing has changed. I've looked online for some way to extract these files that come compressed with CoC into a common file type as in the AN gamedata folder to place them in a gamedata folder I've made so that they can conflict and ask to overwrite, but have come up empty to find this program as the link is dead.

I have a laptop, and while it has integrated graphics so the game won't run past the title screen at least I can see if it will work there so as to rule out myself as the problem. I'm at my wits end, but I appreciate you sticking by me and trying to help. :)

Would changing the CoC folder name not allow this to work?

@MirkoS77: Your CoC game folder is missing the appdata folder. Did you start a game and save (not quicksave) it before mods were applied? Don't install any mod until after you saved a game in vanilla CoC. After a mod is installed, start another new game.

Also, take some screenshots of the vanilla CoC so you can compare them to those with the mod installed.

Did it, same shit. I know if the mod would be installed because the first time it runs it has a config menu. Plus it also says "Absolute Nature" in the lower left on the intro screen.

Actually, the CoC version of AN is Absolute Nature Redux. It's all (gamedata) folder drops which means there is no running it the first time. It should be working right off the bat if the folders were dropped correctly. Yeah, I know. It gets confusing, even to me. ;)

This is the CoC ANR:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/call-of-chernobyl/addons/absolute-nature-redux

The AN that requires running are the ones for SoC and CoP.

I just installed ANR on a pristine and patched (1.4.22) CoC.

Vanilla and ANR:

@jun_aka_pekto: Is it not possible to send you a PM? Tells me it's not allowed.

Nope. I like staying here up front. I rarely use any of the back features except to reduce the hundreds of images that pile up in my profile. Besides, all the dickheads I flagged in the past will be sending me hate mail. ;) Not that it bothers me. But, it's just more stuff to clean up.

Anyway, I think it's important you start a new game and do a save before you make changes to the current version and after, whether it's patching or modding.

The startup screen for CoC with ANR is the same as the unmodded one. If you see startup screens related to AN, you used the AN for a different game.

That means starting over and using another pristine copy of CoC.

@jun_aka_pekto: I'd like to ask a favor of you, is there some way we can have a private exchange? It may also be to your benefit as much as it is to mine. I've tried everything you've suggested and then some, believe me. I also just played with AN and know what it's like with and without.

@jun_aka_pekto: I know I'm being a bit of a pest, but here's a video I just made to show you exactly what I'm doing.

See anything wrong?

A couple things. You should be starting a new game every time. I don't know if you just didn't show it in the video. But, you should be configuring a new character (faction, character image, starting location) whenever you start a new game.

When you copy the ANR folders to the CoC folder, start first with just the gamedata folder. Don't copy the Optional folder. Instead, you open up the Optional folder. There, you will find two more folders. One should be taller grass (I think) Enhanced Ground Details and the other should be Green Taller Denser more Varied Grass. Each of the two will have a gamedata folder if you open them. It's those gamedata folders you need to drop into the CoC folder.

Keep digging deeper into the folder structure of Taller Denser...... until you see the gamedata folder.

You weren't too far off. So, you should get it working although ANR might seem underwhelming at first after all the trouble you went to. I would if I had the same problems you did. ;)

@jun_aka_pekto: finally got what I'm looking for. I found a Reddit posting on how to increase grass density and radius through console commands (r__density__radius x, and r__density__density x), with x being preferred value. This was my main issue, I wanted the landscape to be populated with grass heavily and to some distance and now have it. Apparently the 1.4.22 patch doesn't bring up the Absolute Nature splash screen that allows for tweaks anymore, it must be done through console commands. Or at least that's how I'm getting it to work.

Honestly, I'm unsure as to whether AN is even working, but I got what I'm looking for regardless. It's a workable solution. Have had a few great storms and the atmosphere seems to be as it was when the mod wasn't installed (or maybe it was?) which I loved. Also installed AO, Structures and slightly increased bullet damage. Time to finally go STALKING.

Thanks for sticking with me and for your help, I really do appreciate it.

No sweat.

AN (v4.04) for CoP does have grass characteristic set up before installation. I think it's just ANR for CoC. I think ANR is based off the older versions. I'm hoping there is a newer version based on v4.04 in the works for CoC.

@jun_aka_pekto: so I'm early game and have by luck procured an M-16 and was able to but an ACOG scope along with a starting MP5. Hugely helpful, but I'm no longer using the traders buy damaged weapons mod, as while it helped early on, it made the game far too easy, imbalanced it, and negated any economic considerations. Thing is, I don't know how to get money and I can barely keep enough ammo, much less repair my weapons.

You said kill Monolith, but I'm unsure where they are. Aren't all weapons somewhat damaged? It seems they need to be near 80% or so for traders to buy. Right now I'm just trading in ammo from other weapons and am farming at Wild Territory as the bar is near there. What advice do you have to get some early semi decent moolah using terrible gear? There's a suit I want for 14k.

I like playing as an ecologist. I started out at the Jupiter bunker with an MP5. Right next door is the SAM site with its zombies. I knocked off the latter and gained some decent AKs with scopes and sights plus a Bear (Tier 2) artifact detector. I also looted the SAM site buildings (undamaged pistols, good-condition RPG-7 with two rounds, ammo) and sold them.

It was hard to find artifacts with the Bear in Jupiter. The Bear beeper sounded and the indicator pointed to it. But, there was nothing on the ground which means I need a Veles (Tier 3) detector. So, I moved to Zaton where hopefully, artifacts are easier to find. Zaton is next door to Chernobyl NPP. Monolith and army/Duty patrols come down and visit regularly.

The easiest errands are clearing out mutants. You can both harvest the mutants and get the reward for killing them. You can also sell mutant parts and meat to other stalkers.

As for scavenged weapons..... Unless I like the weapon, I unload the bullets and drop the guns. Ammo is very expensive in CoC. So, yeah. I'm on single-shot mode for now. So far, my moolah is at 16k RU. Not much. But, I haven't done that many errands either.

I had a chance to get an HK G36. I knocked off a Monolith who had one. Unfortunately, a Duty guy scavenged it before I can. I'm still stuck with an AK-105 (with scope and sight).

I have a feeling that this game might surpassed Half life 2 and become the Greatest FPS of all time. I bet it will.

after reading the complete preview. it feel like whats not to like?

I forgot about your recommendation on the ecologist. I chose loner. Eh, art imitates life. For some reason, choosing loner sometimes gives a pistol, other times an MP5, this was Cordon. Where's the Jupiter bunker? I'm only familiar with SoC maps as I only dabbled in the sequels. I found the Echo detector on my way back to Cordon from the Garbage in one of the houses. Mutants do pay well (especially Bloodsucker tentacles and huge flesh eyes, they're around 3k each) but only from certain buyers. I've scavenged my weapon of choice for now and have repaired it: an M16 I've stumbled upon with an ACOG 2x scope, this puppy drops baddies in only 2-3 shots, and a pump action shotgun for close work. The G36 is my favorite from SoC, and I'm keeping an eye open for it. Ammo doesn't really sell for all that much but at least it's able to be sold, and yea, I use single shot as well, except with the MP5 where I use three shot bursts as the rounds are for pistols. Mostly I'm spending my time between Cordon, the Garbage, Wild Territory, and the Army Warehouses saving up for a better suit before I start exploring further.

Man, this game's giving me stories. I was in the garbage in the train yard, full of bandits, coming at me from all angles. I suddenly hear a siren for a storm. I try to fight my way into the building but there's just too many, both in the yard on on the rafters. So after numerous deaths and reloads I decided to try for Cordon, to take refuge in the building that you spawn into. I drink something for stamina and book it while the sound of the storm increases behind me. Finally make it, expecting to die at any moment. So it spawns me, and I'm placed right in front of five bad guys in armor that are in the building taking refuge as well. We open up on each other as the building is rocked by the storm, shaking it, making it harder to aim, fluorescent light streaming through the windows, gunfire lighting up the room. By sheer luck I take three down and two retreat. We continue taking potshots at each other around the corner, me finally killing them. It's 2100 hours, so after looting I start heading to the trader, but the guys have called a military chopper which is blasting down on top of me, kicking up dirt. Zombies are everywhere. Complete black aside from my flashlight.

Seriously, you cannot possibly script shit better than this. I feel like a complete fool I've not played this earlier. Unfortunately it is more unstable than I'd like, and it crashes fairly frequently. But the hassle is worth it. Question: can you swat these pesky flies out of the sky? An RPG is heavy to haul around.

@MirkoS77:

I'm waaay up north near the top of the map. if you look at the CoC map, Zaton is just south of Chernobyl NPP. Jupiter is just south of Zaton and just north of the Red Forest. The Pripyat areas are to the east.

Without any of the three toolkits, all my weapon and suit upgrades have to be done by Forester at the Red Forest. Luckily, he lives near the Jupiter-Red Forest portal.

There are no Bandit or Monolith strongholds in Zaton or Jupiter. But, their patrols (along with the army) visit regularly. Where there are Monolith, there are also zombies nearby. The two seem to go together.

I'm saving for an exosuit. It'll take a while because one cast cost upward of 100k RU. But, once I have the moolah, I'll venture south where you're at and buy one from the smuggler there.

I think Metro: Exodus will have a hard time matching up to CoC, especially with the UI. I'm sure you never noticed it because it's so transparent to the user. The inventory screen is well thought out compared to many other games and certainly beyond anything in the Metro games. I'm going to miss it.

I just snagged an automatic Saigal (I have the STCoP weapons mod for CoC) shotgun from a Zombie. It'll come handy.

Another thing to note is sometimes, the background chatter will mention your character by name and say there's a price on your head. Probably why some patrols made a beeline for my base and put it under siege.

Oh. I don't know what flies you're talking about. All I see are crows in Zaton. I can shoot them down if I have ammo to waste.

The meh interface/inventory screen? Definitely not STALKER-like.

@jun_aka_pekto: helicopters.

Metro: Exodus have helicopters, at least the wreckage of some. ;)

@jun_aka_pekto: so does Stalker. I’m wondering if they can be shot down.

Going by the previous Metro games, helicopters are nothing more than props in the scenery.

In STALKER: Call of Chernobyl, they can be shot down although you'll piss off whatever faction they're from. It's not just the army that has helicopters. I think the Mercenaries have them too based on my actions at Limansk. I shot one down and the mercs got pissed off. ;) I should've left it alone even if it was shooting at me.

@jun_aka_pekto: are you still suffering crashes? I tried something and haven't had one since (adding -prefetch to the end of the target line of the Stalker.exe shortcut, this also has gotten rid of stuttering). I wasn't able to go into Truck Cemetery without this fix, apparently it addresses memory shortage issues.

What good are PDAs? It says they could hold useful info, but there's no way I can find to read them. They're only worth 1 RU to sell. Also, do suppressors affect weapon stats (velocity)?

I've seen that fix before. I haven't tried it though. My crashes are infrequent enough. But, I might try it anyway. I've been to Truck Cemetery without problems in my previous install of CoC.

PDAs vary in the price traders are willing to pay for them. Owl in Zaton usually pays 200-300 RU for them. In CoC, they're only good for selling. The storyline might use them though.

I'm not sure about the silencer. But, I would think it would have a negative effect on weapon stats. I don't use silencers unless it's integrated like the one on the Vintorez.

@MirkoS77:

Oh. Did I mention you can sell the mutant body parts nobody wants. I think the scientists at the bunkers buy them. But, if they're too far away, I just peddle them to the neutral factions who visit regularly, like the army guys.

@jun_aka_pekto: mutant parts are what can bring in the most money that I've found, that's why I'm hanging around Yantar and Aprogram to try to farm and sell. I stumbled on a VSS Vintorez which beats the M-16 in stats quite a bit and is silenced, but the 9 x 39 SP-5 ammo costs 3168 RUs for 30 (standard rounds), much more than 5.56 standard. At least at Rostok's trader. I also got a bolt action sniper rifle that uses .338 Lapua JSP ammo and can take out enemies from FAR, but the price for 20 rounds is absurd (10608 RUs). Got an amazing telescopic sight, though.

Having one problem: all of the NPC side quests for me have been bugged. I accept a mission, complete it, then then there's no dialogue when I talk to them again except "I couldn't complete the mission". Have you had this problem, and if so do you know of a solution?

Ha Ha! You ran into that problem too? No biggie. The person you talked to switched to someone else nearby. Check the white crosshairs in the minimap. You'll find it points to a different person from the one you talked to earlier.

Great thanks. I'll try that.

I think in my next playthrough I'm going to play as a different faction, preferably one that isn't very well liked. There's too many allies wandering about, much of the maps I've been to have just been empty wandering which can get to be a bore plus I can't much use my gear which is the main reason I enjoy playing. I've upped the mutant and stalker count in options to 1 (or 1.5, can't remember) but still seems fairly low.

What would you recommend is a faction that has more enemies than friends but not so much that I can barely move around the map? I'd rather stay aligned with Duty because Rostok would be a bitch to deal with without, and that's one of my main stash areas. Also, do you play with sleep deprivation on or off? Are sleeping bags one use items only? And have you tried the dynamic factions mod? That sounds like it would be interesting by keeping you on your toes not knowing if allies have turned into enemies or vice versa, but it also sounds like it has the potential to be frustrating.

1. Freedom or Mercenaries. Take your pick. It should be in your PDA:

I'm fine with Ecologist. There's enough bad guys visiting my locations. If I want more bad guys, I just visit Pripyat and other strongholds such as Chernobyl NPP. They keep me busy.

2. I keep sleep deprivation off. I didn't have that in CoP. So, none in CoC either.

3. I have yet to see a trader who has a sleeping bag. But, I haven't traveled around that much until now. I just bought an exoskeleton from Nimble. He's a long way to reach from Zaton.

4. I don't use Dynamic Factions. I think that mod affects status of safe areas. You can lose them. Not me. I like to keep my safe areas to chill out in. ;)

I try not to stray too far from the vanilla gameplay of the STALKER games.

5. Sleeping bags stay with you. Right-click, Use. It acts like a bed with a set time length for sleep. When you wake up, it's back in your inventory.

6. Why not just buy backpacks and create your own stash anywhere? I created a stash so I can have an inventory in places where I have no box/chest to store stuff in.

Some parts of the print article, not complete, nor always in order.

Thats a good read. the more i see. more it become interesting.

this is true evolution of FPS genre. from season variety to location variety to non linear Stalker type levels to linear Metro like levels to compelling storyline and its pushing graphics to limit.

this is Crysis 1 of 2018, Stalker of 2018, Half life 2 of 2018.

This could be greatest FPS of all time.

Reading the article, it looks like there will still be a lot of QTE sequences that's a hallmark or a plague (depending on how you feel about it) of the Metro games.

Fending off the dog and being fished out of the water because Artyom can't swim sounds like QTE (or a cutscene) to me.

Being open-ended isn't unique to the STALKER games. Many games have open-ended gameplay.

The crafting stations sound like something from Fallout 4 which is a good thing as is the damage from individually crafted and scavenged items. The same goes for gathering materials required to craft items.

The recognizable STALKER traits I noticed from the article is finding out side quests from chatter and the bed with adjustable sleep hours. The latter is not unique anymore because other games have it too. Personally, the modders for the STALKER games have already gone far beyond the bed with the sleeping bag which allows you to sleep in almost any location.

Finally, the statement about missing hours of expanded content if the player mainlines the critical path sounds similar to a lot of games.

I've been playing a lot of STALKER lately and so far Metro: Exodus looks more like Metro meets Fallout 4 to me rather than Metro meets STALKER. That's not a bad thing. I loved Fallout 4. So, the new Metro will be a must-buy to me as well. But, heralding it as the new STALKER is a bit far-fetched.

@MirkoS77:

I finally found a sleeping bag from a bandit. Thus, ends the longest stretch in a playthrough without one. I'm still hard-pressed to find a Veles detector. Without it, the top-tier and most expensive artifacts are out of reach.

Too bad they didn't use the commie train from Last Light. The tank gun might be good for a uh, rail sequence. ;)

@jun_aka_pekto: I didnot notice many QTE in 2033/last light.

just few short cutscene where you press E. it doesnot feature QTE fight or something like that.

@airraidjet: . wow, no HUD indicator where to go? thats excellent. glad they are not doing far cry route where giant marker show where to go.

also reading last article. its good to see miller returning. what about Khan?? he is best character of metro series. he need to be in this game.

Gotten a few as well, pretty random, but they do appear on occasion. The Veles though, Isn't it randomly spawned? No mission that you can get it from?

Finally got my VSS Vintorez repaired (with an upgraded 5x scope), but the ammo is expensive. Even using one shot at a time (headshots), I'm still burning money up as it's around 2k for 20 bullets. I have to harvest to find more money for bullets to kill stuff to afford more bullets. Endless circle. I thought they might start spawning on enemies but no luck so far so I still have to lug around the M-16.

I've also gotten and repaired an HK assault rifle with crazy stats that puts the M-16 to shame, but again, ammo is prohibitively expensive. It's not much fun having to work so hard simply to afford to use gear, and it seems the better it is, the more restrictive (hence useless as a main weapon) it becomes.

How do I find tools for the mechanic so I can upgrade my weapons further?

You're right about the previous games. I think Last Light had a few. I can't remember all of them. But, the one below was one I was able to capture from the chapter: Bandit back in 2016. I have no choice in how to kill it except through tapping E several times and that's a no-no. I was able to capture 1617 18 screenshots of this sequence. That's quite long for a takedown. ;)

Anyway, there's no mention of a swimming mechanic in Exodus. To me, that means being fished out of the water will be done either by cutscene or QTE.