Keen.
And I even thought about designing some levels. grinning face

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-12-27, 19:50:

I used a mouse and keyboard and didn't notice any issues with the controls.

For reference, I played the GOG version on the Athlon64 system from my signature. No special tweaks or anything.

Thanks for the reply. Maybe I'm going crazy, but I swear the mouse feels slightly busted in that game every time I play it. I've tried the original CD release, the GOG version, and even the original PC demo. Oh well. Thank you for sharing your experience!

dr_st wrote on 2021-12-27, 19:38:

I recently played BG&E and I can attest that it's mouse handling is top-notch (it has other problems, but they don't have to do with control).

Indeed! I adore BG&E. Just a lovely game with great gameplay, story and characters. Minor quibbles aside it is one of the few multiplatform (or console ports) 3rd person platformers that work well for me without a gamepad.

Oh, and on topic....

Dune 2000, Emperor: Battle for Dune, C&C Tiberian Sun: I got a craving for the old Dune RTS games after catching the new movie (which was amazing) so I dug out my old discs, booted them up and... promptly uninstalled both of them after a few hours each. I never finished them back in the day and now I remember why. Dune 2000 is probably the worst RTS I've ever played, a slower, more tedious, and more infuriating version of Command & Conquer without any improvements or interesting mission design to make up for it. Seriously, the missions just drag on, and on and on. Emperor is both better and worse. At least it is fast... if anything it is now too fast. But everything feels like it's made out of tissue paper, and the campaign is just a bunch of skirmish levels stitched together.

Desperate to have my RTS fix I finally loaded up Tiberian Sun - for the first time in nearly 20 years - and while not my favorite in the C&C series, this was so much better than the Dune games. The engine is nice, if a little janky, and the presentation is beautiful, featuring cool looking voxel units and a catchy soundtrack. I've finished the GDI campaign and am about half way through the NOD campaign and haven't had too many swear-inducing moments. Some of the missions are straight up bullshit, don't get me wrong, and faction balance is broken as hell (seriously, NOD get subterranean APCs, long range artillery, Obelisks of Light, and two kinds of super weapons - GDI get paper airplanes and railguns that kill friendly units... yay) but it is a huge step up from the original C&C games in my opinion. I tried the remastered versions of both C&C1 & RA1 back in June and made it about half way through each campaign before they broke the needle on my bullshit detector, even with those QoL features. Whoever designed some of those missions needs to be covered in honey and dropped on an ant hill. Oh sure, give me no Construction Yard, no War Factory, one refinery and one harvester, and tell me to overcome a fully functioning NOD base without abusing engineer rushes or wall bugs. Sure game. I have no idea how I did this perfectly fine when I was 15 grinning face

Desomondo wrote on 2021-12-27, 19:14:

Hey Joseph_Joestar,

Did you play Sands of Time with a controller or M/KB? I only ask because I've tried playing this game multiple times on different systems over the years and have always found the mouse handling in this game to be terrible no matter what mouse I used. It's like the game doesn't register very small mouse movements, similar to mouse acceleration or the dead-zone on a joystick or something. I haven't tried any of the sequels but Beyond Good & Evil uses the same engine (I think) and doesn't have the same issue.

I played it on the original XBOX with the Controller-S.

Desomondo wrote on 2021-12-27, 23:49:

Dune 2000, Emperor: Battle for Dune, C&C Tiberian Sun: I got a craving for the old Dune RTS games after catching the new movie (which was amazing) so I dug out my old discs, booted them up and... promptly uninstalled both of them after a few hours each. I never finished them back in the day and now I remember why. Dune 2000 is probably the worst RTS I've ever played, a slower, more tedious, and more infuriating version of Command & Conquer without any improvements or interesting mission design to make up for it. Seriously, the missions just drag on, and on and on. Emperor is both better and worse. At least it is fast... if anything it is now too fast. But everything feels like it's made out of tissue paper, and the campaign is just a bunch of skirmish levels stitched together.

Dune 2000 was meant to be a remake of Dune II in the Red Alert 2 engine, and that is exactly what it is. It is, more or less, a beat by beat remake of the original game so it has pretty much all of the original failings, including the mandatory turtling and long winded slugfest most of the levels are. If you don't have nostalgia for that game, you won't like it, period. That's why it was never a big success..

Desomondo wrote on 2021-12-27, 19:14:

Hey Joseph_Joestar,

Did you play Sands of Time with a controller or M/KB? I only ask because I've tried playing this game multiple times on different systems over the years and have always found the mouse handling in this game to be terrible no matter what mouse I used. It's like the game doesn't register very small mouse movements, similar to mouse acceleration or the dead-zone on a joystick or something. I haven't tried any of the sequels but Beyond Good & Evil uses the same engine (I think) and doesn't have the same issue.

I've played this several times on several PCs. Never had any issues with any mice.

According to Wikipedia it does use the same engine as BGE, but for some reason I remember as it's only true for early pre-release builds and later used a new or heavily modified one because it didn't work well with some of the game's features.

Desomondo wrote on 2021-12-27, 23:49:

Indeed! I adore BG&E. Just a lovely game with great gameplay, story and characters. Minor quibbles aside it is one of the few multiplatform (or console ports) 3rd person platformers that work well for me without a gamepad.

Agreed. I completely missed it when it first came out, but it is still just as fun as it would have been back then, I'm sure. It's one of the few games that I bothered to write a personal review for:
https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/beyond-good-and-evil/

On the subject of games-in-progress, now I'm stuck in the middle of the last mission of Starcraft: Brood War (Omega). I have a mid-level save, but I've taken a few questionable decisions, so I'm not sure I can actually win from that position; I may need to start over. person facepalming

On Chapter 22 of Terminator: Resistance. Some thoughts now that I am neck deep in it.

The weapons upgrade system is rather cool. Many add-on chips to enhance your guns. There is an entire circuit matching system you have to follow. So let's say you pick up 20 different upgrade chips throughout a few levels of the game, you can't just install any one you like. You have to use three and they have to have matching I/O circuits to create a weapons upgrade combo enhancement. First screenshot shows the upgrade UI. This game really follows the first and second films and all the dark foreboding atmospherics that goes with that. It's not a perfect game. The crafting system is rather simplistic, but a nice added feature. Gathering resources throughout the maps can become a tad tedious, but not terribly grinding. The enemy AI can get stupid at times, but overall really enjoying the experience. Easily the best Terminator game to come along since Bethesda's Future Shock and Skynet games from the MS-DOS era. It definitely has me hooked and sometimes I'll just walk around a map soaking up the atmosphere.

Shard of Spring (Apple II)
Finished!

This turn-based RPG takes place on a single continent consisting mainly of one large island. You can explore much of the world with only a slight bump in encounter difficulty on the east side, but the dungeons are definitely meant to be completed in a certain order.

The highlight here is the combat. It uses an "action point" type system where moving, turning, attacking, using items, and casting spells use a certain number of points. Characters can continue attacking as long as they have enough points left, so by the end of the game I was getting 4-5 attacks per round from each character; very satisfying! Magic is interesting in that you have access to all spells in whatever schools a character knows, with each spell having a minimum number of spell points to cast... however, you can spend more SPs to get better results (more damage, etc.).

The dungeons were also fun to explore. They are pretty small, but I did end up mapping a few on graph paper. There's a good mix of random and fixed encounters, and some light inventory-based puzzles. The final dungeon was great, with lots of difficult encounters and a great final battle where you encounter the last boss along with two powerful dragons. I was able to kill the boss with a single spell (using all SPs at once), but the dragons were quite difficult. They ended up binding my two best fighters, and I had no SPs left to free them... it was up to my mediocre last fighter to take both dragons down on his own, and careful use of magic items made it possible. Very satisfying finish!

Like most older CRPGs I've played through, there was no need whatsoever to artificially grind experience or gold. I ended up finishing the game at level 8, while the maximum level is 20. I think the realistic maximum level here would be 9 or perhaps 10, as anything above that would require hours and hours of grinding.

---

Overall, I had a good time with this one. Simple but fun, and I'm glad I gave it a chance. Next is to tackle it's superior sequel, Demon's Winter (though I might play something a bit more modern on my DOS gaming PC first)!

I just finished off Graveyard Keeper on Steam and really enjoyed it, not surprising considering how similar it plays to Stardew Valley which I put more than 400 hrs into last year. I see a few of the DLC are on sale this week too so I might spend the $3 and grab Stranger Sins and continue on with that.

I'll try to shutup about this Terminator: Resistance game, but man, what a freakin cinematic ride that was. Just got finished with the main campaign. I wont give anything away, but one of the best computer game finales I've come across in years. The Terminator movie I always wanted to see, but it was never made. Going to start the Annihilation Line DLC campaign today which is a side story branched off from about the middle of the main campaign and already it is quite different. You start out as an unarmed kid in the ruins. So far, no weapons, just stealth and fairly hard, but a nice twist. Best part of the DLC is the Infiltrator Mode which lets you play as a Terminator rather than a human. Looks really cool, but going to finish the other DLC campaign first.

Edit: I should have mentioned this game has multiple endings/outcomes depending on your conversation choices. Tried two different endings. I may go back for another down the road.

@liqmat - by all means, keep sharing. That does sound like an awesome game and it is now on my wishlist, waiting for a discount. winking face

Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva

I just finished this game. It took just under 58 hours to complete over the course of 47 days. It was a nice conclusion to the trilogy, but the best of the three by far was Star Trail (which I finished in 62 hours back in 2019).

The penultimate battle was actually the toughest, until I figured out the trick. The final boss battle was a breeze due to my magic users' high levels. I beat the boss on the first try in just a few minutes, by throwing max level Fulminictus (lightning) and Ignifaxus (fire) spells at her. My two melee fighters didn't even get a chance to swing a weapon.

Back to the penultimate battle. Your party faces mirror images of themselves. If they aren't defeated after a certain time, they duplicate, so you have to face two copies of yourselves. Normal combat will not work here because the battle is a stalemate until the 2nd copies come in, at which point, you will lose. The trick is to disable them as quickly as possible with spells. I used a combination of Paralyze, Ball and Chain, Bambaladam (makes opponent friendly to you, which ceases all combat from them), and Dance (opponent dances uncontrollably til exhaustion hits).

Probably the hardest and most frustrating part of the game was just before the mirror battle. You have to traverse a massive maze that I just ended up finding a solution to because otherwise it would've taken hours.

The most unique aspect of this series is the use of the German role-playing system Das Schwarze Auge. It is quite different than most conventional RPG systems. One cool feature is the magic system. Basically, all magic user classes can potentially learn any spell, depending on how much they invest in said spells at each level up. Certain classes have certain affinities, so their starting spell attributes will make it easier or harder to learn a spell. The way a spell is learned is the player's value for that spell must be at least -5. So for example, a level one character whose class gives them an affinity for spell A, but not for spell B, will have a starting value of -9 for spell A and -18 for spell B. At each level-up, you can choose to put a certain amount of spell points into whatever spell you want. It will take twice as long for this magic user to develop spell B to at least -5 than spell A. At -5, the spell will still fail often, so you actually want to develop spells to zero(0) or higher. A spell value of +8 will almost never fail.

Characters have hunger and thirst bars that must be kept in check. I personally think it is done well and not annoying, but the developers did throw in a couple of magical items (magic water skin and magic bread bag) that eliminate the need to carry rations and feed characters once in your inventory. I found the water skin in Star Trail and the bread bag in Riva.

Weapons must be maintained with a whetstone and a player who develops the skill to maintain weapons. Otherwise, they will break. You can carry spare weapons, but inventory slots are limited (as is party carrying capacity). You could fill all your slots with light items and still not be able to carry more, or have just a few heavy items and be similarly affected. But when your weight limit is exceeded, you can still move around normally outside of combat, but you lose action points in combat. Attacking typically takes 3 action points. Casting a spell costs 5 action points. Each space moved on the combat grid costs 1 action point. Combat is turn-based. Melee combat cannot occur on diagonal squares. Likewise, ranged combat (bows, throwing axe, etc) must have at least one square of separation. Spells and ranged attacks can occur diagonally so long there is a clear line of sight. Some spells can be ranged, others you must be next to the target.

Level ups can be done automatically, but for the best results, should be handled manually. It can take 20 minutes to level up a single character because there are many choices that must be made: which positive attribute to develop, which negative attribute to reduce, and which skills and spells to develop. Leveling up was my favorite part of the game. Grab a drink, take your time, and develop your character exactly how you want! They don't happen often, though (my imported characters only leveled up twice each in the whole game because they came in at level 7-9). By the end game, they were levels 9-11.

All in all, it was an enjoyable series. Nowhere near as good as Wizardry 6-8. I'd probably rank these games about on par with something like Anvil of Dawn, Lands of Lore, and Might & Magic IV in terms of quality and fun. They are much different RPGs from each other, but all about as entertaining in my book.

edit: forgot to add my endgame screenshot

clueless1 wrote on 2022-01-01, 12:31:

Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva […]
Show full quote

Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva

I just finished this game. It took just under 58 hours to complete over the course of 47 days. It was a nice conclusion to the trilogy, but the best of the three by far was Star Trail (which I finished in 62 hours back in 2019).

The penultimate battle was actually the toughest, until I figured out the trick. The final boss battle was a breeze due to my magic users' high levels. I beat the boss on the first try in just a few minutes, by throwing max level Fulminictus (lightning) and Ignifaxus (fire) spells at her. My two melee fighters didn't even get a chance to swing a weapon.

Back to the penultimate battle. Your party faces mirror images of themselves. If they aren't defeated after a certain time, they duplicate, so you have to face two copies of yourselves. Normal combat will not work here because the battle is a stalemate until the 2nd copies come in, at which point, you will lose. The trick is to disable them as quickly as possible with spells. I used a combination of Paralyze, Ball and Chain, Bambaladam (makes opponent friendly to you, which ceases all combat from them), and Dance (opponent dances uncontrollably til exhaustion hits).

Probably the hardest and most frustrating part of the game was just before the mirror battle. You have to traverse a massive maze that I just ended up finding a solution to because otherwise it would've taken hours.

The most unique aspect of this series is the use of the German role-playing system Das Schwarze Auge. It is quite different than most conventional RPG systems. One cool feature is the magic system. Basically, all magic user classes can potentially learn any spell, depending on how much they invest in said spells at each level up. Certain classes have certain affinities, so their starting spell attributes will make it easier or harder to learn a spell. The way a spell is learned is the player's value for that spell must be at least -5. So for example, a level one character whose class gives them an affinity for spell A, but not for spell B, will have a starting value of -9 for spell A and -18 for spell B. At each level-up, you can choose to put a certain amount of spell points into whatever spell you want. It will take twice as long for this magic user to develop spell B to at least -5 than spell A. At -5, the spell will still fail often, so you actually want to develop spells to zero(0) or higher. A spell value of +8 will almost never fail.

Characters have hunger and thirst bars that must be kept in check. I personally think it is done well and not annoying, but the developers did throw in a couple of magical items (magic water skin and magic bread bag) that eliminate the need to carry rations and feed characters once in your inventory. I found the water skin in Star Trail and the bread bag in Riva.

Weapons must be maintained with a whetstone and a player who develops the skill to maintain weapons. Otherwise, they will break. You can carry spare weapons, but inventory slots are limited (as is party carrying capacity). You could fill all your slots with light items and still not be able to carry more, or have just a few heavy items and be similarly affected. But when your weight limit is exceeded, you can still move around normally outside of combat, but you lose action points in combat. Attacking typically takes 3 action points. Casting a spell costs 5 action points. Each space moved on the combat grid costs 1 action point. Combat is turn-based. Melee combat cannot occur on diagonal squares. Likewise, ranged combat (bows, throwing axe, etc) must have at least one square of separation. Spells and ranged attacks can occur diagonally so long there is a clear line of sight. Some spells can be ranged, others you must be next to the target.

Level ups can be done automatically, but for the best results, should be handled manually. It can take 20 minutes to level up a single character because there are many choices that must be made: which positive attribute to develop, which negative attribute to reduce, and which skills and spells to develop. Leveling up was my favorite part of the game. Grab a drink, take your time, and develop your character exactly how you want! They don't happen often, though (my imported characters only leveled up twice each in the whole game because they came in at level 7-9). By the end game, they were levels 9-11.

All in all, it was an enjoyable series. Nowhere near as good as Wizardry 6-8. I'd probably rank these games about on par with something like Anvil of Dawn, Lands of Lore, and Might & Magic IV in terms of quality and fun. They are much different RPGs from each other, but all about as entertaining in my book.

edit: forgot to add my endgame screenshot

Congratulations on completing the entire trilogy! It's been great reading your thoughts as you've played through each. I definitely want to get started (if not complete) Blade of Destiny this year, so I'll be reviewing your posts (and maybe asking you for help haha). Do you ever plan on playing through the modern remakes of BoD and Star Trail?

newtmonkey wrote on 2022-01-01, 13:40:

Congratulations on completing the entire trilogy! It's been great reading your thoughts as you've played through each. I definitely want to get started (if not complete) Blade of Destiny this year, so I'll be reviewing your posts (and maybe asking you for help haha). Do you ever plan on playing through the modern remakes of BoD and Star Trail?

Thank you. I'd be happy to field questions if you have any. As for the modern remakes, I bought BoD awhile back on sale but haven't given it serious time yet. I've heard lots of bugginess issues exist. I will eventually buy Star Trail too, and would like to play each of them. Not sure when, they are fairly low on my priority list at this point.

Cheers!

Edited to add info about my next game (I didn't want to have two posts twice in a row)

Next game candidates:
RPGs sorted by GameFAQs rating -
Might and Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Darklands
Legend of Grimrock 2
Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar
Wizards and Warriors
Underworld Ascendant

FPSs sorted by GameFAQs rating -
Doom 2016
Tomb Raider 2013 (not a FPS, but I categorize it for purposes of my games spreadsheet)
Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Bioshock 2 Remastered
Terminator: Resistance

I have pretty much settled on Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. I'd already played it about an hour when a buddy gifted me Terminator, so I had to check it out too. It looks sweet and performs great on my modest system. With stock settings maxed, my GTX1650 Super wasn't breaking a sweat at 1080p 60Hz. I maxed out performance using some Unreal Engine 4 tweaks which finally put some stress on my GPU, then disabled intro videos. It's ready to go after Stalker is finished.

Got a sudden urge to replay Resident Evil 4 for the first time in a very long time, and it was 5 bucks in the Steam sale so I grabbed that HD 60 FPS-capable PC version. As much as I tend to gravitate toward playing my games on a computer, this one is just making me want to dust off my Wii and play it there again, instead. The keyboard & mouse controls are just so clunky and I never feel comfortable aiming guns with a gamepad (I need that mouse pointer precision).
Feels weird saying a game plays better in an almost 15-year-old Wii port than it does in its modern PC port but RE4 is kind of a weird game, I guess.
The opening village fight is just as tense and terrifying as I remembered, though. Control quirks aside, this game holds up really well.

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl

I'm a little over 7 hours into this and so far so good. It's really atmospheric and fun, but can get a bit challenging at times. Also, it can get confusing, between mission objectives, knowing where to go, and when they're completed and where to go for rewards. I think it's just the game interface that takes getting used to. Sometimes the map is hard to read or I can't find myself or the objective without tons of zooming out and in and scrolling around. I'm just about comfortable with the interface now.

I've reached The Bar and turned in the documents from a previous mission. Now just trading and beefing myself up and deciding if I want to take on any side missions or not.

There was a point when I reached a military blockade that I needed to pass to get to The Bar. They told me (not in the TALK interface) I wasn't welcome and couldn't pass. So I backtracked for an hour and tried some other things. I came back, got the same answer. Then I decided to TALK (hitting 'F' key to enter talking interface) and was able to tell them I needed to get to The Bar and suddenly he's okay with letting me through. These kinds of things annoy me, but now that I see how it works in this game, I know some things to try if I get stuck again. rolling on the floor laughing.

Wonder what you'll do when you encounter the following:

Get out of here Stalker
I said come in don't stand there.

Looks like a new ver of OGSR was released a couple of days ago:https://github-com.translate.goog/OGSR/OGSR-E … &_x_tr_hl=en-US

clueless1 wrote on 2022-01-06, 02:06:

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl […]
Show full quote

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl

I'm a little over 7 hours into this and so far so good. It's really atmospheric and fun, but can get a bit challenging at times. Also, it can get confusing, between mission objectives, knowing where to go, and when they're completed and where to go for rewards. I think it's just the game interface that takes getting used to. Sometimes the map is hard to read or I can't find myself or the objective without tons of zooming out and in and scrolling around. I'm just about comfortable with the interface now.

I've reached The Bar and turned in the documents from a previous mission. Now just trading and beefing myself up and deciding if I want to take on any side missions or not.

There was a point when I reached a military blockade that I needed to pass to get to The Bar. They told me (not in the TALK interface) I wasn't welcome and couldn't pass. So I backtracked for an hour and tried some other things. I came back, got the same answer. Then I decided to TALK (hitting 'F' key to enter talking interface) and was able to tell them I needed to get to The Bar and suddenly he's okay with letting me through. These kinds of things annoy me, but now that I see how it works in this game, I know some things to try if I get stuck again. rolling on the floor laughing.

I've beaten it around half a dozen times. First time around just when it came out. It was Fallout 76 level of glitchfest. Kinda matched the tone of the games with anomalies and changing rules of physics. Also, trading and beefing up in advance is a little pointless.

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-01-06, 04:59:

clueless1 wrote on 2022-01-06, 02:06:

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl […]
Show full quote

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl

I'm a little over 7 hours into this and so far so good. It's really atmospheric and fun, but can get a bit challenging at times. Also, it can get confusing, between mission objectives, knowing where to go, and when they're completed and where to go for rewards. I think it's just the game interface that takes getting used to. Sometimes the map is hard to read or I can't find myself or the objective without tons of zooming out and in and scrolling around. I'm just about comfortable with the interface now.

I've reached The Bar and turned in the documents from a previous mission. Now just trading and beefing myself up and deciding if I want to take on any side missions or not.

There was a point when I reached a military blockade that I needed to pass to get to The Bar. They told me (not in the TALK interface) I wasn't welcome and couldn't pass. So I backtracked for an hour and tried some other things. I came back, got the same answer. Then I decided to TALK (hitting 'F' key to enter talking interface) and was able to tell them I needed to get to The Bar and suddenly he's okay with letting me through. These kinds of things annoy me, but now that I see how it works in this game, I know some things to try if I get stuck again. rolling on the floor laughing.

I've beaten it around half a dozen times. First time around just when it came out. It was Fallout 76 level of glitchfest. Kinda matched the tone of the games with anomalies and changing rules of physics. Also, trading and beefing up in advance is a little pointless.

What do you mean by "in advance"?

Hardspace: Ship Breaker

Still haven’t pinpointed what keeps me playing this game but it’s a great way to zone out for a few hours.

I hope the devs plan on creating a way for players to design their own ships to break, would love some huge complex multi reactor vessels with tied in systems.

Puzzling out the order for safe breakdown to maximise profit would be great….also it gives me yet more ways to obliterate ships face with tears of joy

clueless1 wrote on 2022-01-06, 11:12:

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-01-06, 04:59:

clueless1 wrote on 2022-01-06, 02:06:

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl […]
Show full quote

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl

I'm a little over 7 hours into this and so far so good. It's really atmospheric and fun, but can get a bit challenging at times. Also, it can get confusing, between mission objectives, knowing where to go, and when they're completed and where to go for rewards. I think it's just the game interface that takes getting used to. Sometimes the map is hard to read or I can't find myself or the objective without tons of zooming out and in and scrolling around. I'm just about comfortable with the interface now.

I've reached The Bar and turned in the documents from a previous mission. Now just trading and beefing myself up and deciding if I want to take on any side missions or not.

There was a point when I reached a military blockade that I needed to pass to get to The Bar. They told me (not in the TALK interface) I wasn't welcome and couldn't pass. So I backtracked for an hour and tried some other things. I came back, got the same answer. Then I decided to TALK (hitting 'F' key to enter talking interface) and was able to tell them I needed to get to The Bar and suddenly he's okay with letting me through. These kinds of things annoy me, but now that I see how it works in this game, I know some things to try if I get stuck again. rolling on the floor laughing.

I've beaten it around half a dozen times. First time around just when it came out. It was Fallout 76 level of glitchfest. Kinda matched the tone of the games with anomalies and changing rules of physics. Also, trading and beefing up in advance is a little pointless.

What do you mean by "in advance"?

Before you get to the point where you can use the better equipment. Once you get there, you generally get better loot than what you can buy.

Trading is generally pointless in SoC in my experience.

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-01-06, 15:26:

Before you get to the point where you can use the better equipment. Once you get there, you generally get better loot than what […]
Show full quote

clueless1 wrote on 2022-01-06, 11:12:

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-01-06, 04:59:

I've beaten it around half a dozen times. First time around just when it came out. It was Fallout 76 level of glitchfest. Kinda matched the tone of the games with anomalies and changing rules of physics. Also, trading and beefing up in advance is a little pointless.

What do you mean by "in advance"?

Before you get to the point where you can use the better equipment. Once you get there, you generally get better loot than what you can buy.

You might want to explore this for your own on a first playthrough.

You are close to getting the second best combat and best non-combat armor (SEVA suit) for free (well there is the exoskeleton, but you can only loot it from a stash in Pripyat), as well as guns which you can carry you to the endgame (TRs-301, GP-37, SPSA-14). It's also better to hold onto the unneeded artifacts until you get to Yantar.

Trading is generally pointless in SoC in my experience.

Gotcha. Thanks, man. At least trading can net you money in place of added weight. winking face