I wish there were more stalkers, and especially Monolith, with the sort of endurance that one had. It would be entertaining to have some occasional rare encounters with those sorts of mini bosses in Anomaly to spice things up.

Yeah I don't know why it was so empty. Empty of Monolith. Empty of loot. Empty in general. Kind of appropriate for Monolith though haha. I passed through "central" Pripyat every now and then in prior months though up until this raid I steered clear of the Palace of Culture. I killed a lot of Monolith in other parts of central Pripyat but always thought those were random patrols. Maybe some of those Monolith I killed in earlier times were from their base and I was softening it up without knowing... I don't know. I like shotguns, however I generally favor them for mutants. Also in some prior S.T.A.L.K.E.R. videos I made some person(s) asked me to try varying my loadout a bit so that is why I am experimenting with weapon combos that don't include shotgun lately. For this raid specifically I wanted to use the "Hammer", however my good condition upgraded one is in Zaton right now. I chose the special AKS-74U because it was available at my main Jupiter stash, I haven't used it much, and it seemed suitable because I anticipated fighting stalkers way more than mutants in this trip. When I go north of Zaton I will most likely use the Hammer - my favorite shotgun - because most of the enemies up there are mutants.

@@RRCMRico yes, using different weapons are fun

Generally during these sorts of enemy base raids, the trader and mechanic (if applicable) tend to do that hehe. As such, instead of hunting them down, I just wait for them to find me and hope they don't steal my weapon. In CoC one of these dudes from the Freedom base at Army Warehouses actually stole my primary from me XD

Interesting. I will experiment with that. My guess is in full crouch (or prone?) the reduced surface area so-to-speak means the mutants have less chance of hitting you. Worth a try :-)

@@RRCMRico hey thx 4 the sub💯 Danke

Until you mentioned them, I actually wasn't aware of them. Thanks for mentioning them. Hopefully I found the correct pages for these on Moddb. I don't anticipate me playing these, however I am glad they exist. Some quick impression(s): Expedition www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly/addons/expedition-graphical-overhaul-addon-for-anomaly-151 This is pretty, though it looks a little too much like an early access tactical shooter I might see on Steam these days. Redux www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly/addons/stalker-old-world-redux-152 I'm more likely to play this one than Expedition. I anticipate this to be less likely to crash than Expedition, so that helps. I like these sort of throwback mods, and in general I have a soft spot for games with throwback elements in them. On the topic of crashes, one of the many reasons I still play Anomaly vanilla is the stability. It very, very rarely crashes. Right now I can't remember the last time I had a crash in it. I hated the crashing I got in late CoC and early Misery 2.2 with the Armed Zone. I only have so much "spare time" these days for gaming and try to use it as best as I can.

I will do that. Thank you for the tip :-D I am glad you enjoy the content :-]

Recently I was in Jupiter on one side of the Quarry and I'm pretty sure a bullet flew by me that was from a firefight between stalkers on the other side of the Quarry or even further away. It was unsettling and awesome haha. Great sound work in this mod :-)

Anomaly has campaigns, however as I have not played them I cannot speak to the quality of them. I don't typically gravitate to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mod campaigns because the main appeal of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for me is its replayability and emergent gameplay, and after finishing the main 3 game campaigns I just haven't felt the need for anything remotely linear like that in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I still have a pile of things I have yet to do in Anomaly and gradually doing those things fuels my continued interest in it. These days I find that all games I have played so far get boring eventually if I play them enough, and even classics like Anomaly and Breath of the Wild and so on can get boring eventually.

I see other people use companion stalkers as mules, however outside of Skyrim I haven't wanted to do that because it feels quite silly haha. The ecologist proto-exo suit I use does not have an option to use a backpack like some other suits do in Anomaly. I haven't played Gamma so I don't know how suits and inventory are handled in that.

@@RRCMRico I have a lot of COC videos from 2018, if I can upload them u will c it is funny to c how ur companions can fight

Thanks again for the feedback and watching Gunni ! I don't know if I will check out the Gamma mod. It is on my radar, however I am still having a blast with Anomaly as I gradually do the pile of things I want to do in it. There will be more Anomaly videos this year. The next one will most likely be a raid video without commentary. After that, I am leaning towards doing another little commentary series in a different area of the Zone. In between planned attempts at recording stuff, I still gather little bits of footage as I do "typical" tasks throughout the Zone. Lately I spend a lot of time collecting supplies in preparation for doing things on my Zone bucket list.

Excellent tips in there. Thank you :-D I consider the ideal weapon loadout to be an assault rifle with an underbarrel grenade launcher as primary, and a semi-automatic shotgun as a secondary. Unfortunately there aren't that many semi-auto shotguns in the Zone, and sometimes I don't have as many shells in stock in certain areas as I would like. These days I am experimenting with non-shotguns for secondary to make use of ammo I have a lot of that I don't typically use, and to see what alternative loadouts are feasible overall. I'm having pretty good success with some higher-tier pistol options, and I enjoy the variety even if the loadout doesn't quite work out. Artifacts in Anomaly are kind of tricky in that they have pros and cons that need to be considered carefully depending on what you want to do, where you are, and what you have equipped. I think the balance is pretty good, and maybe a bit more thoughtful than other versions of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I have played so far. The additional carry weight artifacts, namely Goldfish in Anomaly, have a pretty big penalty for impact, rupture, and explosion protection and so I try to avoid using them as much as I can.

I feel like everything going wrong is the classic Zone experience. When things go well, something doesn't feel right :-P

I have no idea how I would react to a zombie in any state in reality. Hopefully I'll never find out XD

In Anomaly Bubbles are anti-chemical. I have yet to find an anti-radiation artifact :-(

Ever since the days of Misery artifacts no longer provide protection against radiation, that's why you carry all metal boxes instead of just attaching them

They are part of the "Spartan" helmet I have equipped, which is probably the best helmet overall in vanilla Anomaly. It seems to be able to handle pretty much any damage type without issue and I rarely ever need to repair it.

@@RRCMRico thanks

I just realized that you might have been referring to the night vision. I use "Headlamp w/ Oracle psy-stimulator". In vanilla Anomaly there are no helmets or suits that come with night vision as far as I know.

The npcs often doing cool things like that, and silly things at other times, is one of the many reasons I still play this game :-D

After I eliminated the original (in Anomaly) group of bandits that occupied that base months ago, I started using that stash because I didn't think they would repopulate it much. I revisited that base a few times before this instance and there were never as many bandits reoccupying it as there were in this video. Hopefully they don't disturb the stash much :-)

I have yet to find any anti-radiation artifacts in Anomaly. There might not be any :-(

I agree. Were it not for the job seeming interesting to me, I would not have accepted it.

Hola Dmitry :-D

Yeah just before that. I have some mutant related memories from prior walks through that forested area so I'm generally suspicious of it now.

Pretty sure I saw an order for companion(s) not to fight. I need to travel with companions more to get used to ordering them around. Normally I travel alone in the Zone.

I think I understand what you are saying. I'll probably avoid doing that because it is a bit less immersive haha.

Right now artifact hunting is one of my favorite things to do in the Zone :-)

@@RRCMRico free money and looks like in Gamma anomalies are Softer!😉😉

Wellll I don't know about "free". If the equipment setup and planning is appropriate, it probably could be pretty much free. It still costs time and another thing I like about Anomaly is its mechanics of hunger, thirst, and sleep really remind me how valuable time is.

As far as I know, I am using the highest level night vision available in Anomaly. It is available via a specific headlamp purchase in Anomaly. Pretty much all the major equipment traders seem to have it.

Good idea. I will try that out next time I have extra hand grenades during a similar moment. Usually most hand grenades that I use are what I find on corpses I loot while out and about. I don't typically intentionally stock up on them at any of my stashes due to weight limit concerns.

@@RRCMRico oooookkk, but u know that it will dage their equipments and suits!! thx 4 all the replies.

Yes the portal works in Anomaly :-D If I remember correctly, it was not working in Call of Chernobyl. I picked up that stash some months ago :-]

Either method has its advantages :-)

Wanted the to say the same thing. Hope your troubles get less and less by the day mate

@@undercoverlord For you too.