I’ve been having a hard time committing to playing anything recently. After a lot of staring at my library I decided to give S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly a shot. It’s a game I wanted to try for a long time now so this seemed like a perfect time to do that.
Long story short, it’s been a pretty enjoyable experience so far. Slow methodical pace, disempowerment and not having to care about saving the world is right up my alley and something I wish more games focused on.
Initially, the game felt somewhat clunky (and still does to some extent) but I was able get used to the flow, new additions and changes pretty quickly. It’s a modded Stalker experience, not like I expected a flawless and perfectly polished product.
There are only two issues that really stood out to me for now. First: player status UI could use some work. Information about bleeding, how hungry or thirsty I am etc. should be provided in clear an straightforward manner instead of leaving me guessing based on vague bars, icons or audio/visual effects. I understand that some of it is intended as part of the experience but it makes no sense to have players guess about some stuff then provide food descriptions with exact numerical values for satiety or radioactive pollution changes.
Second: lack of a proper manual, in game or otherwise. I shouldn’t have to scour the web to find out that I need to have and use the compression thingy to pick up a sleeping bag off the floor or how to set/pick up your personal stash. Again, I get that figuring stuff out is part of the experience but some of these things are not intuitive.
I’m still early into the game (about 10 hours) so I’m sure there will be other things I’ll have to get used to, most of the new stuff however was easy enough to figure out on my own. None of the issues are experience ruining, game work well (as long as I don’t screw up mod installs) and gameplay is good old Stalker with changes I’d like to see in more games. I like it.
Oh man, are you playing vanilla Anomaly? It’s a solid place to start and all, but the rabbit hole goes deep when it comes to modding. STALKER has a huge modding scene, especially in Eastern Europe, and there are tons of plug-and-play modpacks out there. If you’re into the game and want a more elaborate, more refined experience there is a metric ton of content out there, whether you want more survival/scavenging stuff, a vanilla+ experience with just better graphics or a classic unhinged STALKER Soup.
Mostly vanilla, just some custom settings and basic mods (LASS, UI bars to see hunger & thirst, additional quest templates). It’s my first time trying it so I don’t want to go too deep into modding until I work out a solid baseline for what does or doesn’t work for me. I’m sure I’ll create a customised monstrosity soon enough.
Is there anything in particular you’d suggest to check out? Can be anything as I’ll pick and choose anyway but it would be nice to know something that’s tried and tested to start with.
Making your own custom modlist is definitely the most satisfying thing, although I recommend using some kind of vanilla+ mod pack as a baseline just to save time. Last year when I was playing and modding STALKER Anomaly I used the now-defunct HACR, but it lives on spiritually as Null Point. That should be a good moddable baseline. Back then when I was hanging out in the HACR Discord I put together this document of some mods I liked that I added on top of the pack. I haven’t played or updated that document since last winter though and there’s been some new cool stuff.
Otherwise there are tons of YouTube videos out there that list like, Top 10 X-type mods for STALKER Anomaly, those are a good way to find new stuff. ModDB is full of nice mods, although unfortunately a lot is moving to Discord now. Hang out in the STALKER G.A.M.M.A. Discord server, that’s (unfortunately) a place where a lot of new cool shit gets posted. There is an engine mod on there that gives true Picture-In-Picture scopes with negligible performance hit, if you care about that stuff.
Also, make sure you know your way around some kind of text-comparison program like WinMerge or your favourite code editor because you’re going to have to merge some scripts and make your own patches if you’re building your own custom modlist.
Appreciate the links, I’ll check them out once I’m ready to for more changes. I will most likely stick to a fully customised mod list as I tend have rather particular (dis)likes and going with packs can be more annoying than helpful (still find them useful as a reference point though).
Thanks for the pointers, looks like my journey is about the get started for real.
I almost forgot! You may already be using them, but you’re going to need a version of the modded exes as many mods depend on them. They are already baked into the PiP engine mod if you go digging on the GAMMA Discord, but if you don’t then grab them here. Use the MT-Test version if you don’t use the PiP exes, it has more performance. (I can’t live without PiP anymore though).
But there is a ton of stuff you can add, an entire Toxic Air/Gas Mask system like in Metro is available if you want and so much more. If you like having companions around the TALKER mod lets you hook up AI to get dynamic dialogue.
I’ve seen couple mentions of modded exes but didn’t pay much attention to them (mostly due to no info beyond “they exist” when I saw them). Now that I checked the repo it makes more sense. You’d think technical improvements like this would be included in the base package but I guess they have their reasons for not doing it.
One thing I’ve noticed about Anomaly mods is: their mod descriptions suck. There might be a sentence or two about what a mod does but most of the ones I checked have no specific details about features and lack any info about requirements. I thinks some of it has to do with ModDB treating Anomaly addons differently than “normal” mods, giving them less space to work with but regardless of the reason, searching through mods is much more of a guess work than I’m used to. Looks like previous modding experience spoiled me quite a bit in that regards.
I actually checked the weather mods you mentioned but decided to skip them exactly because of the limited descriptions. Like, I don’t know if Atmospherics is a replacement or an addition to existing weather types and I don’t want to replace the vanilla weather if it’s the former (it’s too early for that). Seems like I’ll have to dig deeper to figure out what I’m interested in.
Once again thanks for tips and recommendations, they are extremely useful.
Yes well, development on official Anomaly versions is extremely slow, and so Demonized releases his modded exes on a much faster development cycle.
Yeah, the modding landscape is very messy. A lot of presumed foreknowledge, very user unfriendly and also very scattered. Nexusmods for Anomaly is largely unused, ModDB is a mess and a lot of stuff is now scattered across various Discords, sometimes with important patches and additions buried deep inside threads with absolutely zero discoverability.
I would personally recommend some weather mod, I find vanilla weathers pretty underwhelming in comparison. There are a bunch though, Melancholy Weathers is close to a 1.0 release. But I have that opinion about most things Vanilla Anomaly. It does its intended job extremely well, which is to be a stable and unified platform for modders (compared to the mess of Call of Chernobyl-based mods that preceeded it), but it’s fairly lacking without add-ons. Although I may just have been ruined at this point, I have played and modded Anomaly a lot.
Another thing I forgot was the Mod Configuration Menu. A lot of mods will also depend on that for configuration. It’s so easy to forget all these absolute bedrock foundational mods, sorry! Here is another must-have: Beef’s NVGs.
Final recommendation (for now) is Dark Signal Audio packs. These are some of the best sounds you can find for Anomaly. They work fine with the other audio mods from that sheet I linked, you can futz with the load order in MO2 to decide which should overwrite what.
Let me know if there is something else specific you’re looking for, I can go back and sift through my stuff and refresh my memory. But I think the absolute best way to get a baseline grasp of what exists out there is to download some modpack(s) and look through their mod list. Even if you decide to build from scratch yourself later rather than use something as a baseline, it will help clue you in into what mods exist.
Man, the rise of Discord had such a tremendous negative effect on online communities it’s not even funny. I hate it.
I’m not against replacing vanilla weather, I simply want to familiarise myself with the original before doing so - just like with gameplay additions. I get your pain though, when I start modding I tend to go pretty hard myself so going back to vanilla experience can be difficulty.
I don’t have anything specific in mind, I usually just play something, take note of what bothers me or should be expanded on and then start looking. That or just browse at random until something catches my eye. I’ll probably just start with checking out the mods you linked alongside your personal list and go from there. I haven’t really modded Stalker since CoC so I don’t have a specific vision in mind like I do with other games I play, I’ll just figure things out as I go.
I’ve been having a hard time committing to playing anything recently. After a lot of staring at my library I decided to give S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly a shot. It’s a game I wanted to try for a long time now so this seemed like a perfect time to do that.
Long story short, it’s been a pretty enjoyable experience so far. Slow methodical pace, disempowerment and not having to care about saving the world is right up my alley and something I wish more games focused on.
Initially, the game felt somewhat clunky (and still does to some extent) but I was able get used to the flow, new additions and changes pretty quickly. It’s a modded Stalker experience, not like I expected a flawless and perfectly polished product.
There are only two issues that really stood out to me for now. First: player status UI could use some work. Information about bleeding, how hungry or thirsty I am etc. should be provided in clear an straightforward manner instead of leaving me guessing based on vague bars, icons or audio/visual effects. I understand that some of it is intended as part of the experience but it makes no sense to have players guess about some stuff then provide food descriptions with exact numerical values for satiety or radioactive pollution changes.
Second: lack of a proper manual, in game or otherwise. I shouldn’t have to scour the web to find out that I need to have and use the compression thingy to pick up a sleeping bag off the floor or how to set/pick up your personal stash. Again, I get that figuring stuff out is part of the experience but some of these things are not intuitive.
I’m still early into the game (about 10 hours) so I’m sure there will be other things I’ll have to get used to, most of the new stuff however was easy enough to figure out on my own. None of the issues are experience ruining, game work well (as long as I don’t screw up mod installs) and gameplay is good old Stalker with changes I’d like to see in more games. I like it.
Oh man, are you playing vanilla Anomaly? It’s a solid place to start and all, but the rabbit hole goes deep when it comes to modding. STALKER has a huge modding scene, especially in Eastern Europe, and there are tons of plug-and-play modpacks out there. If you’re into the game and want a more elaborate, more refined experience there is a metric ton of content out there, whether you want more survival/scavenging stuff, a vanilla+ experience with just better graphics or a classic unhinged STALKER Soup.
Mostly vanilla, just some custom settings and basic mods (LASS, UI bars to see hunger & thirst, additional quest templates). It’s my first time trying it so I don’t want to go too deep into modding until I work out a solid baseline for what does or doesn’t work for me. I’m sure I’ll create a customised monstrosity soon enough.
Is there anything in particular you’d suggest to check out? Can be anything as I’ll pick and choose anyway but it would be nice to know something that’s tried and tested to start with.
Making your own custom modlist is definitely the most satisfying thing, although I recommend using some kind of vanilla+ mod pack as a baseline just to save time. Last year when I was playing and modding STALKER Anomaly I used the now-defunct HACR, but it lives on spiritually as Null Point. That should be a good moddable baseline. Back then when I was hanging out in the HACR Discord I put together this document of some mods I liked that I added on top of the pack. I haven’t played or updated that document since last winter though and there’s been some new cool stuff.
Otherwise there are tons of YouTube videos out there that list like, Top 10 X-type mods for STALKER Anomaly, those are a good way to find new stuff. ModDB is full of nice mods, although unfortunately a lot is moving to Discord now. Hang out in the STALKER G.A.M.M.A. Discord server, that’s (unfortunately) a place where a lot of new cool shit gets posted. There is an engine mod on there that gives true Picture-In-Picture scopes with negligible performance hit, if you care about that stuff.
Also, make sure you know your way around some kind of text-comparison program like WinMerge or your favourite code editor because you’re going to have to merge some scripts and make your own patches if you’re building your own custom modlist.
Appreciate the links, I’ll check them out once I’m ready to for more changes. I will most likely stick to a fully customised mod list as I tend have rather particular (dis)likes and going with packs can be more annoying than helpful (still find them useful as a reference point though).
Thanks for the pointers, looks like my journey is about the get started for real.
I almost forgot! You may already be using them, but you’re going to need a version of the modded exes as many mods depend on them. They are already baked into the PiP engine mod if you go digging on the GAMMA Discord, but if you don’t then grab them here. Use the MT-Test version if you don’t use the PiP exes, it has more performance. (I can’t live without PiP anymore though).
Also visually Screen Space Shaders, Atmospherics and Weather Expansion are used by many. I also really like Arrival.
But there is a ton of stuff you can add, an entire Toxic Air/Gas Mask system like in Metro is available if you want and so much more. If you like having companions around the TALKER mod lets you hook up AI to get dynamic dialogue.
I’ve seen couple mentions of modded exes but didn’t pay much attention to them (mostly due to no info beyond “they exist” when I saw them). Now that I checked the repo it makes more sense. You’d think technical improvements like this would be included in the base package but I guess they have their reasons for not doing it.
One thing I’ve noticed about Anomaly mods is: their mod descriptions suck. There might be a sentence or two about what a mod does but most of the ones I checked have no specific details about features and lack any info about requirements. I thinks some of it has to do with ModDB treating Anomaly addons differently than “normal” mods, giving them less space to work with but regardless of the reason, searching through mods is much more of a guess work than I’m used to. Looks like previous modding experience spoiled me quite a bit in that regards.
I actually checked the weather mods you mentioned but decided to skip them exactly because of the limited descriptions. Like, I don’t know if Atmospherics is a replacement or an addition to existing weather types and I don’t want to replace the vanilla weather if it’s the former (it’s too early for that). Seems like I’ll have to dig deeper to figure out what I’m interested in.
Once again thanks for tips and recommendations, they are extremely useful.
Yes well, development on official Anomaly versions is extremely slow, and so Demonized releases his modded exes on a much faster development cycle.
Yeah, the modding landscape is very messy. A lot of presumed foreknowledge, very user unfriendly and also very scattered. Nexusmods for Anomaly is largely unused, ModDB is a mess and a lot of stuff is now scattered across various Discords, sometimes with important patches and additions buried deep inside threads with absolutely zero discoverability.
I would personally recommend some weather mod, I find vanilla weathers pretty underwhelming in comparison. There are a bunch though, Melancholy Weathers is close to a 1.0 release. But I have that opinion about most things Vanilla Anomaly. It does its intended job extremely well, which is to be a stable and unified platform for modders (compared to the mess of Call of Chernobyl-based mods that preceeded it), but it’s fairly lacking without add-ons. Although I may just have been ruined at this point, I have played and modded Anomaly a lot.
Another thing I forgot was the Mod Configuration Menu. A lot of mods will also depend on that for configuration. It’s so easy to forget all these absolute bedrock foundational mods, sorry! Here is another must-have: Beef’s NVGs.
Final recommendation (for now) is Dark Signal Audio packs. These are some of the best sounds you can find for Anomaly. They work fine with the other audio mods from that sheet I linked, you can futz with the load order in MO2 to decide which should overwrite what.
Let me know if there is something else specific you’re looking for, I can go back and sift through my stuff and refresh my memory. But I think the absolute best way to get a baseline grasp of what exists out there is to download some modpack(s) and look through their mod list. Even if you decide to build from scratch yourself later rather than use something as a baseline, it will help clue you in into what mods exist.
Man, the rise of Discord had such a tremendous negative effect on online communities it’s not even funny. I hate it.
I’m not against replacing vanilla weather, I simply want to familiarise myself with the original before doing so - just like with gameplay additions. I get your pain though, when I start modding I tend to go pretty hard myself so going back to vanilla experience can be difficulty.
I don’t have anything specific in mind, I usually just play something, take note of what bothers me or should be expanded on and then start looking. That or just browse at random until something catches my eye. I’ll probably just start with checking out the mods you linked alongside your personal list and go from there. I haven’t really modded Stalker since CoC so I don’t have a specific vision in mind like I do with other games I play, I’ll just figure things out as I go.