Hi there, stalkers.
Clear Sky is the most controversial part of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series. Some loves Clear Sky, while some definitely do not. After revisiting it after a long vacation from stalker games and becoming kinda modder, Clear Sky appeared to me not so cool, as it was back then. And I made it subjectively more comfortable for myself, it has heavy gameplay changes and despite other mods trying to make it more a survival game, ABR CS MOD aims to make it a more solid shooter (as it was intended?).
ABR CS MOD makes the game less cluttered with artificial gameplay extension and more action orientiered (yes, even more action orientiered Clear Sky). That's why the mod is defined as FPS overhaul.
I really planned ABR CS MOD be as vanilla as possible, but when I started Clear Sky, I found that gameplay is a bit fatiguing. That's the feature list of the mod as it is now.
Features:
- Infinite weight, stamina still decreases while running, no weight artifacts
- No stashes, except for the reward and quest ones
- You can't join bandits, they are default enemies
- Every mechanic upgrades everything, no flesh drives needed
- Trader tiers are rebalanced
- Light Duty\Freedom\CS\Stalker outfits are the same, buy looks, not the better specs
- Berill, heavy Freedom and CS outfits are the same, buy looks, not the better specs
- Exo, Freedom Exo, Bulat, Duty Armour outfits are the same, buy looks, not the better specs
- Bulat\Duty Armour and Exos have their own strong sides, you can run in Exo
- No bullet sponges, you have to clear locations to win the faction war
- Weapons are accurate, upgrades are cheaper
- Weapon and outfit upgrades have severe changes
- Some UI textures are upscaled, some UI icons tweaked
- Updated engine provided by PYP
- Dynamic zoom upgrades for integrated optics
- Detector scope upgrade for F2000
- Weather files from ABR MOD 2.0 based on AF3
- Expanded soundtrack and ambient audio overhaul
- Artefact hunting is useful now, prices are higher, outfit artefact slots are balanced
- Faction war messages are only the text now, to prevent non-stop chatter
- Sleeping bag from SRP optionals gives free 12 hours of sleep anytime
- No annoying emission on backtracking, it's just off (SRP's feature)
- SRP's less grenade spam optional is implemented
- Updated weapons from ABR MOD 2.0 (mostly STCOP)
- Vanilla friendly variation mod from ABR MOD 2.0 (mostly Variation Mod)
- All mutant textures were darkened to eliminate DX8 pseudo lighting
- Inventory icons have been remade
- New unique stuff added: Scar's Coat, HK UMP45, Saiga-12, M79
- Sellable mutant parts added
- Dozens of small tweaks
- Upscaled PDA maps
Question: Why can't I join bandits?
Answer: It was made because of 2 main things. The 1st one is that everything in game makes you to start a war against them: stalker quests, unavoidable garbage robberies. The 2nd thing is a faction war system, bandits respawn blocked Duty\Freedom faction war progress a lot. Now, you can eliminate bandits and renegades for good and they are never respawned.
Question: Why there are no stashes?
Answer: Also two reasons. Because I don't like its backtracking system and game has enough of loot anyway.
Question: Infinite weight? Looks like a cheaty mod.
Answer: It's not up for cheating, it's up for rebalance. Stamina is detached from the weight, so you need to use artefacts to run longer or upgrade your outfit. Now, faction war is less tedious, since you can take all the loot and sell it on the base. Faction war gives you opportunity to make more money, but it is not necessary.
Question: So faction war now is working?
Answer: It just flows much faster. Thanks to SRP and cut renegade and bandit respawn, the game is more fluent on swamps and other locations. I still had to wait for ally squads a bit, but it was never as long as it was in vanilla.
Initially devs made faction war unfinishable, so you just had to do the same over and over again until you get tired of that and go further to finish the story. Now with SRP and cut bandit spawns you can capture enemy base much faster.
All phrases about faction war were silenced, so now, when some mutant eats a friendly squad on garbage, while you capture the bridge to Limansk, you will not be disturbed by audio, only the silent text will be there.
Scripts in Clear Sky very different from CoP's (for me atleast), so I can't round the rough edges, as for me, I would make faction war not as a neveredning loop but a one time quest. It would be like - you join faction, catch all the points of interest, catch enemy base, the end of the quest. But devs made it cyclic on intention, probably some can break the cycle, I can't.
Question: Is there a way I can play for the bandits.
Answer: If I could stop Duty\Freedom expansion after joining the bandits same as cutting stalker's respawn, probably. But I don't know how technically do that. So it's better for me cut one piece to make other puzzle work.
Question: So, you cut half of the game?
Answer: Yeap, Clear Sky Lite. Nothing holds it back from being a fast pacing shooter game with some break ups for roaming and finding artefacts in anomalies. Also, wooden and metal crates are scattered around, now there is the point to keep an eye on them after all the stashes were deleted.
Question: Weapons were very inaccurate in vanilla, how it is in the mod?
Answer: All weapons have CoP's accuracy values, so now, not upgraded guns are working, also don't forget, there are no bullet sponge enemies anymore, so shooting here will be something like in ABR MOD for CoP. Enemies die fast, same as you on hard difficulties. Also, weapon upgrades are cheaper now, so you can really upgrade a couple of guns and carry them with you.
Question: What's up with the weather?
Answer: It is port from ABR MOD for CoP. For now, first five locations will have sunny\cloudy cycles with rare rains. That is the main part of the game, the bigger first half of it. Later, after getting closer to the center of the Zone, weather becomes foggy. Yantar, Red Forest, Military Warehouses have foggy weather like Zaton in ABR MOD for CoP had.
Question: Will there be separate weapon slots like in CoP?
Answer: Saddly, not. I wish it would be possible technically. Though, first slot now can have pistols, shotguns, grenade launchers. It's still a bit debating, but I thinking about using AKSU-74, OTs-14 Groza and PKP in the first slot too. So you really have close\mid range weapon in one slot and assault or sniper rifle in other. Harder difficulties enforces you to snipe enemies out, while having something like PKP or Groza against the pack of mutants seems a good choice, when you have VSS or SVD in the second slot.
Question: I'm not scared of game changes, since it's a free modification made voluntary by enthusiasts after all, when ABR CS MOD will be released?
Answer: This year for sure.
