Confused about starting new game and lack of artifacts

[Mazryonh 0]

Okay, after getting the advanced AI pack and the Dead bodies janitor, I started a new game as directed on Veteran difficulty. Unfortunately, there appears to be no sign of the free-lying artifacts laying around I remember way back when I first installed the AMK mod. Is this because of the new files I've downloaded and used, or this (yet another) bug with this mod?

 

I distinctly remember seeing plenty of free-lying Jellyfish, Wrenched, and Stone Blood artifacts at the start in Cordon when I first installed AMK. Should I just re-install the whole game and then reinstall the mod as well, along with the new files, or is this normal?

SIMPLE ENGLISH VERSION:

 

1) I have started a new game with AMK 1.4, EN 2.0, Rev. 22. It can be downloaded here:

 

http://www.amk-team.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=480

 

2) I have also installed the AMK 1.4 AI Pack, including the new "Dead Bodies and Weapons Remover." Both can be downloaded here:

 

http://www.amk-team.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=7155

 

3) I have also started a new game with this mod on Veteran difficulty.

 

In the UNMODDED game (without any mods), there are artifacts scattered in random places. They are randomly spawned by the anomalies. However, in the new game I've just started, there are NO RANDOMLY PLACED artifacts. Only those in STASHES and deliberately placed by the programmers are there.

 

I know that the AI pack makes the NPCs steal your stuff, but I have NOT LEFT Cordon yet. And how can artifacts I have not yet taken be "my stuff"?

 

I remember that when I first started a new game when I first installed the AMK mod, there WERE randomly placed artifacts.

 

Is this a bug? Or just the modder's decision?

Изменено 26 Июня 2009 пользователем Mazryonh

[V_guessWho 1]

As i remember NPC have been tought to collect, store and trade items which lying on the ground or in any stalkers "secret storages" (i dont know how does it called in Eng version). Also NPC check out dead bodies and any containers they can reach in offline mod. By off line mod i mean time, when actor (player), is not on the same location as they are. And yea, npc can reach any place, reacheable by you own. so now its pretty hard to hide somthing from them)

 

And they should throw nades, if thay have one. But i could be wrong about this one....

I really dont know what does Halford mixed up in that thing which he have given to you. I haven't played Stalker for a while.

 

Ow, and i'm sorry for mixing up those tenses. Or em, whatewer it is, i dont remember.

Изменено 25 Июня 2009 пользователем Ankh{R.!.P.}.EXE™

[Mazryonh 0]

Okay, I've made a version of the original post in Simple English. I highly doubt this is supposed to be how the new files work (no randomly placed artifacts).

[V_guessWho 1]

Hmmm, maybe you should check second location after the Cordon.

Or start a new game just to check is it a bug or not.

No need to delete your saves thou)

[KewlCrayon 0]

The lack of artifacts IS because of the NPC's. They've been picking them up as they go along. They're made to loot anything of value as they travel, so chances are there wont be many artifacts lying in populated areas, only in areas unreachable by the NPC's or areas NPC's never go near. This is why when you kill groups of people you will find a bunch of artifacts and weapons and all different kinds of loot on their corpses.

 

The best places to look are areas off the main path, areas populated by mutants and areas that are full of anomalies.

 

Trade with traveling NPC's and you will find that they have lots of artifacts because of the distance they travel.

 

You can also set the stashes to rare finds only, this will give lots of nice artifacts when you find a stash.

 

I actually love it this way, it gives you something to spend your money on and actually makes it difficult to find artifacts unlike vanilla which has them littered all over the world.

[Mazryonh 0]

Ah, so "Random Rare Mode" doesn't mean that "most stashes you find will have their vanilla contents, a rare few will have random contents" as I originally thought, but actually that the stuff you find inside is actually the rarest of the rare stuff? Wow, the readme file for this mod definitely needs some work.

 

Yes, I know about trading with travelling NPCs. However, the situation I was describing was from a new game. It was all new, and yet the Cordon had no artifacts in the open whatsoever, even before the NPCs should have started working on looting the countryside, aside from that lone Jellyfish near the irradiated and anomaly-infested scrapyard where you see a flesh get gibbed by a Vortex anomaly, and the free-floating Night Star artifact north of the Bandit's car park that you have to retrieve.

 

I definitely will have a lot to spend my money on, since I just completed the "Assemble the Flamethrower" quest and discovered that those fuel canisters and Colloid Gas tanks I was blowing up regularly were actually required to make fuel for the flamethrower (they should have included that fact in the readme file too!). Now every time I want the flamethrower refueled I will have to shell out 30,000 RU and a bottle of vodka.

[KewlCrayon 0]

Mazryonh,

 

Yeah rare stashes is very very few stashes that will contain rare items, not the rarest of the rare but pretty damn good, I got that FT 200 while I was still in cordon, but never found ammo for it until I was in the dark forest.

 

I couldnt figure out the flamethrower quest, I got it as a reward from a Freedom guy, I found a bunch of Fuel Canisters around the world but I never picked em up cause they weighed so much.

 

Oh and where can I find Prototype armor? I can only get mine at Chernobyl NPP, and I can still run in it??

[V_guessWho 1]

I wonder does anyone from AMK team read this? xD

Изменено 9 Июля 2009 пользователем Ankh{R.!.P.}.EXE™

[Mazryonh 0]

KewlCrayon,

 

"Prototype" armour? Are you talking about Exoskeleton armour? I don't believe I've ever seen that in the random stashes. I suppose that's one case where the "vanilla stashes" is actually better, since if you kill enough lone Stalkers in Yantar you can get the PDA data for a stash in Pripyat that contains Fang's old Exoskeleton that has better nightvision and a 80 kg weight limit.

[ahilej 0]

Try hiding stuff in stashes, regular or made by throwing that backpack given as a reward for a 'night star quest', that are placed near the 'level changers'. Example of that is a stash under the bended tin plate at the entrance to the Wild Territory. NPC's have other 'level changers', so stashes near 'level changers' used by the player, or, by you and you only, are more likely to be keep intact and safe.

[Mazryonh 0]

Actually, after getting through to the Red Forest, I've never seen any randomly spawned artifacts, except for in the Agroprom Research Institute. I think it may be a problem with the original artifact-spawning algorithm in the original game. You can read how artifacts are spawned in SoC here:

 

A guide to artifact-spawning in SoC

 

Unfortunately the probability of artifacts spawning in is flawed and is extremely low. I suppose the fact that AMK modified the A-Life so that stalkers take the few artifacts that do spawn in when you're not in the map. I suppose a solution to this would be to make it so that stalkers only seek out artifacts when you're actually in the level, and don't do so when you're not in the level, as well as reducing the chances you get artifacts through random stashes. Right now I've got virtually no reason to look for artifacts out in the levels when I can always just check random stashes and get them.