Wallofshadows, it's my pleasure: I've played Stalker a few times through with various mods and each time was a unique experience.
Firstly, patch your vanilla game with 1.0005. There's a 1.0006 patch but do not install it unless you play multi-player. Most of the good mods are not written for 1.0006 so 1.0005 is the one to have for single-player. Any game saved under prior versions will not work. Yes, it's a shitty situation but the good news is that there's not likely to be another single-player patch to come & run roughshod over everything, not with Clear Sky in the state it's in. So...version 1.0005:
http://dlh.net/cgi-bin/dp.cgi?lang=eng&ref=ps&sys=pc&cap=sSecondly, you can choose from small mods (new weapons, armor, weapon textures, clothing, realism, etc.) that make use of the existing plot & story all the way up to a full conversion (Priobi) featuring a whole new story.
You can combine some of the smaller mods with the bigger ones but you've got to be real careful. There's a app called the Smart Mod Manager that does a fairly good job of installing mods & overseeing merges:
http://stalker.filefront.com/news/STALKER_Smart_Mod_Manager;36576Two Mods I Love:
The
Jin-Roh mod because it addressed three common complaints (weak armor, weak gun, weight limit) in one mod. You can install this and still experience what the game designers intended.
http://stalker.filefront.com/file/JinRoh_MOD;77730Once you solve the game in vanilla and again with Jin-Roh, you could move onto the most popular mod:
Kanyhalo's Oblivion Lost. It's not a real total conversion (despite how it's categorized) because you can still play the original story and experience all the various outcomes. Instead, Oblivion Lost adds some new twists like random blowouts, random weather, adds new monsters, vehicles, dark nights, sleeping bag, NPC behavior is also greatly improved.
In version 2.2, for instance, NPCs are not just there to converse with, they're your competition for food, supplies, weapons, artifacts. I'm playing this version through for the first time and I noticed NPCs scavenging dead bodies before I got to them! I'm like, "hey, I need that med kit!!" Plus, once you solve the game, OL switches into "freeplay" mode allowing you to fully explore the entire map. Oblivion Lost is HIGHLY recommended.
http://stalker.filefront.com/file/;89584For Stalker nirvana, I combine Oblivion Lost and Jin-Roh using the Smart Mod Manager. hehe
Other notable mods:
Trojanuch's Stalker Weather Overhauled. What a breathtakingly-beautiful mod. You'll want to see the sun setting & rising with this one!
http://forums.filefront.com/s-t-l-k-e-r-soc-modding-editing/348264-s-w-o-s-t-l-k-e-r-weather-ovlerhauled.htmlRealism Mod 0.9.9.2http://www.moddb.com/games/stalker/downloads/realism-mod-0992Stalker Rebalanced is an accumulation of several dozen texture mods, weapon mods, and the like to provide a...well...rebalance.
http://stalker.filefront.com/file/STALKER_Rebalanced;86763...plus the cumulative patch:
http://stalker.filefront.com/file/Stalker_Rebalanced_v104_Proper_Cumlative_Patch;89556Priobi Story is a total conversion set a number of years after the events in SoC. You play as a soldier in the Russian military.
http://www.moddb.com/games/stalker/downloads/priboi-story-v11There are dozens of other mods. Check out the GSC message board for info on all of them and to ask the authors questions & comments.
http://www.gsc-game.com/index.php?t=community&s=forums&s_game_type=xr2〈=enThis comment was edited on Sep 11, 17:14.