Stalker Anomaly's economy is brutal but genius

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[@Just_a_commenter]

As a veteran S.T.A.L.K.E.R., I appreciate covering Anomaly. c: The economy can be crushing, but at the same time, if you're smart you can thrive. AP ammo is genuinely useful and crafting is very valuable. Playing with the GAMMA modpack makes things even better imo, but here's to hoping some people see this and enjoy some *free* fun with Anomaly!

[@garbaj]

I've been obsessed with stalker in general. Gamma looks really interesting so I'll probably give that a try soon

[@Just_a_commenter]

Awesome! I wholeheartedly recommend GAMMA once you've got a good grip on things in base Anomaly. There's so much more to enjoy and I personally love being able to put down hideout furtniture to both personalize and better equip your home base - wherever that ends up being.

[@h4m2_]

@@Just_a_commenter I tried stalker anomaly and was so confused. What do you suggest I do after loading in?

[@Just_a_commenter]

I'm happy to offer any suggestions, be as specific with questions as you need! In short for starting off, just look for the main trader at the place you spawn at. They'll offer you the story quests which will act as the main guiding aspect of your journey. Aside from that, talk to any random Stalker or the main traders to get normal missions (go grab item X from location Y, get rid of a bunch of X kind of mutants, etc.). And good rule of thumb: if you see water, don't walk in it. Tiny puddles on roads/paths are probably fine, but if it's any small body of water, it's probably irradiated, and you want to avoid those in the early game. This extends to old vehicles lying around - don't get too close as they will often be quite irradiated. Hope those tips help, but again, as as much as you need! c:

[@ExplosiveBolts]

Anomaly is a piss poor way to introduce people to Stalker.

[@Knuckles2761]

>> Garbaj found a game where you can play as Garbage Hoarder >> loot economy is genius!

[@Monster-39]

Yes

[@raphaww2413]

I really admire that you're so passionate about games that while you are playing or developing games you just say to yourself "Hey, that's cool, I'm going to share it so people can enjoy it too". Keep it up, we love what you do.

[@SpecShadow]

I remember playing older version of Anomaly, when they just dropped new storylines, and had issues with finding crafting recipes. Played on Normal (progression and difficulty), did a bunch of side jobs and finished main storylines - found maybe 3? item crafting recipes manuals....

[@RelentlessRage]

Try fighting Renegades on Swamps, as far as i know they drop much more recipes. Like, i found 4 crafting recipes from 12-15 dead renegades, quite a result Strange oversight by mod devs, but meh - whatever

[@Jamato-sUn]

I finished the entirety of Witcher 3 only drinking water. There are like 50 types of food in it I never even tried This is SO different.

[@VikingTeddy]

I hate games that give you a massive amount of stuff you never use. And even when you do get something useful, you tend to hoard them. Unfortunately that's just about every game out there. Then there is also the other end of the spectrum, with games that give you too little. But I prefer them to the bottomless backpacks. DayZ had you constantly starving until that one good run :)

[@francogaray2649]

@@VikingTeddy try also playing anomaly with the mod "body health system redux", if you are hurt in a gunfight , you have to use like 4 different medicines rather than only a bandage and first aid kit

[@JorgetePanete]

Keeping yourself hydrated 😂

[@benjii_boi]

were you playing on death march? you still end up collecting a lot by endgame but death march runs basically require any and all healing you can get since meditation doesn't heal you

[@zasterheffor]

Because those mechanics only become necessary when playing on the highest difficulty setting. You won't be expected to use, let alone understand the intricacies of any combat system when playing on story or easy mode. It isn't designed for that purpose. With that being said, when playing Witcher 3 on Death March, min-maxing and utility make your playthrough less frustrating.

[@Nipah.Auauau]

One thing I would like to see is how an economy is balanced when there are different "brackets" of purchases. Like, how do you keep the act of buying ammo meaningful when the player is buying tanks? The best example I can come up with is MGSV Phantom Pain that split its finances between money, immediately available resources from in-mission briefcases, and "delayed available" resources from shipping containers and employee assignments.

[@frostsoul4199]

the economy is technically separated in Stalker Anomaly. higher quality items aren't available for purchase from vendors until you've gained a certain amount of reputation with their associated faction. so if you wanted to buy a really powerful sniper rifle like a SV-98 or Barret M98B, you'd have to reach the highest possible tier of reputation with a faction. not only that but these weapons and armors are also really expensive, with the best exosuit in the game being 168,000 rubles. for perspective the cheapest armor, the leather jacket, is only 12,000 rubles, which you can get easily by doing a side job that only takes about 20 minutes at most.

[@RealIciing]

Alright, let me get a little more "complex" in anomaly's economy system. This video only has the basics of the economy. In anomaly, the traders' stock is limited to a reputation system, so you have to do get higher repuation with that trader's faction for them to sell more of their better weapons and gear to you and this can be done from direct tasks from faction members, leaders, and even the traders' themselves and you can also get higher reputation from indirect tasks that can benefit the faction like the story mission where you disable the brain scorcher, you not only help scientists regroup with their separated colleagues stuck north in the zone, you also help loners and freedom members get to the north of the zone to guard certain areas and allow the factions' members to return to their bases south from their missions safely, which increases your reputation with them as well. There is also an "inventory" for traders, where they will restock sold out items at around midnight, and in some cases, they will sell their inventory as well resorting in them having to wait till a new stock arrives in the zone, they will even send messages on the pda about it such as "We wont be able to restock until tommorow" for example. So in a way, for example the faction leader runs out of 5.45 fmj, the game incentives you to buy; use old ammo, wait for restock, buy ep ap alternatives or go to another trader and buy ammo there. An example is like "We dont have regular medkits, so u can buy army medkits as a replacement" As great and economy, the are some major flaws or missing things that dont exist in base anomaly such as discounts as this needs to be added by third party addons Also the fact that the repair system is VERY complex and takes a lot of playing anomaly to get the hang of it. You need specific upgrade materials that are required to get a specific upgrade and the required money + tools needed for it. That basically means the best upgrades require advanced upgrade materials which are harder to find than the basic ones and there is need for more money and better tools as there are 3 tiers of tools. The WORSE part is that almost all these items are only found on enemies or stashes which means u rely on luck to get them. And finally, the reputation system, remember when I said it can be increased tasks? Well it can also be decreased by doing tasks for the factions' enemies. This makes sense as a faction does not like you helping their enemies but it can get annoying when grinding for the best gear for endgame as u can max out the storyline on one faction's trader and then when u max out their enemies' faction's traders, you lose like half of what u maxed out in another. It's not too bad but it's really annoying when u do 24 hours realtime worth of quests to max out one and now lose the max store and have to regrind it again. I dont really hate this but it sometimes gets annoying.

[@sethmosier2322]

​@@RealIciing a way I have found around this, albeit tedious, is to only take missions from factions that are hostile to each other when the missions themselves don't interfere with the relationship between said factions. For instance, as a loner you can do jobs for freedom and duty, just don't accept missions like "kill x member of hostile faction". Instead take tasks such as finding documents or killing mutants

[@RealIciing]

@@sethmosier2322 It doesn't even matter, you will still (sometimes)lose reputation for the hostile faction for tasks that dont involve the hostile faction at all, I honestly think it makes sense because people cant trust someone who helps their enemies

[@dumbleking5172]

​​​@@RealIciing "The repair system is VERY complex" Imo, it isn't that bad really. By the time I got that Pz-10 duty battlesuit (i think that's the name) in my first playthrough, I got the hang of it all. Unless there's something else I'm missing. -Repairing equipment only works above a certain condition level -Repairing equipment can be pair with complementary items to boost it's effectiveness -Individual components that make up the equipment can be individual fixed up and replaced but it also requires the corresponding repair _kit_ to do so. I even got a mod that complicates the weapon parts system to be a little more realistic. This mainly separates the components durability from the gun condition. The main gun condition is dubbed "cleanliness" and the components will have much more effects on the performance of the gun, like jamming, "super jamming", barrel condition affects weapon dmg. Personally, I found the crafting part to be much more overwhelming in the multitude of different items you need just to craft one. Same with that upgrading stuff you mentioned those were much more overwhelming to me than maintains my equipment. I'm not an OG and I was really clueless as to what to do when Fanatic asked my to go to the dumpster anomaly somewhere north. I didn't know the PDA so a good hour of wandering around the north west side of the village.

[@carmygames]

Nostalgia note ._.

[@Josh-Neo]

tbh this game looks better than most modern games

[@garbaj]

it IS better than many modern games

[@diegobluc]

Well, it has a lot of soul. Runs on its own engine, different from most games who are running on unreal and the devs don't make the effort to make it look different. Same happens with project reality, an old game that has a lot of soul into it. Those games kinda look good even after some time.

[@Verchiel_]

And that's a big reason why i'm so against random people saying things like "why doesn't bethesda make their games in unreal engine, those demos from fans look so amazing and so much better". Just ignorance

[@Qimchiy]

Complex textures and simple lighting as opposed to new games coming out with the opposite. That's why Gmod and games running Source engine with Half Life 2 textures look timeless.

[@arenomusic]

It is THE RABBIT HOLE AVOID THIS GAME AT ALL COSTS IT WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE AND YOUR PC god it's so fucking good

[@zacharyk7006]

One unmentioned nugget here is that players are like water, they find the easiest path. I've seen quite a few games have some depth and complexity, and then just offer people a bypass and then be surprised when no one does the harder process. Like if anomaly had cheap guns or cheap repairs all the complexity to finding the repair components, or pulling better condition components out of another gun, you wouldn't bother with any of that. Also that feeling when you do get yourself a gun at high % and keep it that way is very satisfying and it's really a shame that something like tarkov has zero equivalent.

[@MechMK1]

Filing a damaged locking head is, ironically, one of the *worst* things you can do. The locking head is the piece, that keeps the gun from exploding. Removing material from an already compromised part will only make it even weaker.

[@Pystro]

Also, I'm no machinist, but wouldn't adding grease make filing work LESS well? Unless the added lubrication makes the filing process take longer, but somehow helps maintain the surface of the file. And the "condition" for the locking head probably refers not to durability/integrity but to having scratches and nicks that can get caught on stuff during the head's motion. I'm dubious as to whether you can even take away material *at all* on a part used to pressure-seal a tube that contains explosions, but I'm no gunsmith either.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

​@@Pystro The filing would work fine, the grease is to help move the chips away from the surface.

[@kingnull2697]

The game's not implying your character is bubba'ing the backs of his locking lugs. If you had a much of minor, but accumulated deformations & burrs around the edges of the breachface or locking lugs, removing those could drastically improve the performance/condition w/out affecting locking strength. Or something. It's video game, I wouldn't overthink it.

[@Fottrel]

i've played a ton of stalker anomaly and a lot of its idiosyncrasies and difficult economy mechanics had become so normalized for me that it is very interesting to see them highlighted in this way. for the past week i've become completely addicted to the anomaly modpack "GAMMA" which i think takes a lot of anomaly's disparate systems and unifies them brilliantly. it's more challenging in some ways than base anomaly but it's also all completely tweakable so you can customize how much of a challenge it presents. for instance, I don't like campfire saving so i turned it off but i'm using the mags redux mod so i actually have to worry about packing magazines and consider how many magazines i should carry with me. side note: imo mags redux actually does some amazing butterfly effect re-balancing of tons of guns because while a good rifle may have a small 30 round magazine in vanilla gamma, with mags redux you can usually just go buy higher capacity magazines which makes so many guns way more viable! gamma's biggest change imo is how it re-emphasizes anomaly's crafting and repair systems. in gamma, traders do not sell weapons. the only way you can get guns is by finding them and repairing them yourself. the toolsets you find in anomaly are heavily gated behind zone progression, so to actually find expert tools for some of the more powerful recipes you need to find them north of army warehouses, which means you need to go shut off the brain scorcher. it makes that anomaly quest feel like PROOF that you are becoming a damn good stalker, because now you can start thinking about tier 3 NVGs and possibly even exoskeletons if you can make it past the goons in radar. also, stashes are ALWAYS empty unless they've been marked by other stalkers as quest rewards, so memorizing all their locations is nowhere near as cheaply rewarding as it is in base anomaly. it made stashes feel rewarding again instead of being sort of a memory puzzle chore you do while traveling. once you're actually surviving, you find yourself relying on traders less and less. i basically make all my own ammo now, breaking down looted ammo and then using the materials to craft ammo for the caliber of the guns i'm actually using. i make my own medicine, occasionally stopping by doctors to pick up uncraftable base medicines. i make my own repair kits, cook my own food, and craft my own equipment. it's a euphoric feeling, being self-sufficient in such a hostile place! long excursions can become far longer if you know how to replenish your supplies in the field. after about 20 hours of gameplay, i'm fairly comfortable with my gear and resources and i find myself feeling like gamma is actually being very generous! it heavily heavily rewards knowledge and planning in a really satisfying way. FOLKS GO PLAY GAMMA hot tip: go hunting for the Moonlight artifact once you're getting comfortable in the midgame. getting a moonlight up to high efficiency grants *90%* psy resistance. controllercels are seething

[@matking898SVK]

Trilogy first

[@Fottrel]

@@matking898SVK agreed. anomaly and its mods are kind of like (very, very good) fanfiction. someone unfamiliar with the source material could enjoy their experience but you really need the context to fully appreciate what anomaly offers. shadow of chornobyl, clear sky, and call of pripyat remain *excellent* games to this day. they're a lot more concentrated too. i love anomaly but it will absorb hours of your life disturbingly easily and the mainline games are a lot more time efficient if you are an adult who cant afford to spend 16 hours a day gaming.

[@keysmith7047]

Was not prepared to see someone talk about Anomaly in 2023, the game is still challenging no matter the difficulty. One of the biggest money savers is maintaining your items, like stones to repair your multi tool instead of paying 5000 roubles for a new multitool on survivalist economy difficulty.

[@Mekose]

I actually really liked the feeling of maintaining my items. For those that don't know, you can use things like gun spray or lubricant to keep your weapons durability high, but you can only use them when your weapon durability is high enough. For example, you could use gun spray to repair 5-10% but only use it if your weapon condition is 90% or higher. It makes sense that a well cared for and oiled gun wouldn't damage itself to the point of needing machining tools to repair the parts and it gave me a connection to my items while also giving a specific use to a lot of different items. It also made me more cautious because if I get into a long fight my items condition would drop below the point I could use maintaining items to keep their condition high.

[@PeninsulaCity2024]

The game hits different when you play with no hud and no camera zoom when aiming. Probably one of the game's finer points: You can make it super casual, realistically hardcore, or anything in-between per playthrough. And thats just with the vanilla settings. I do hope S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 continues what it started with a great base game (even if its is not at all like Anomaly) and modding support.

[@stevebutters306]

Kids today and their anamoly... we played vanilla like real men! And we cried over gamebreaking bugs and shoddy mechanics like real men! I am very happy stalker is getting wide attention now, it's always been one of those niche games I loved that I couldn't understand why it had no real love outside of the subreddit and modding community.

[@colbyboucher6391]

I mean, the real important thing about vanilla is actually getting the story the devs were trying to tell (and the gameplay for that matter- it wasn't as obsessed with hyper-realism as people who've only hopped in with stuff like Anomaly would assume). I liked Shadow of Chernobyl's weird-ass attempt at trying to convey that a human being isn't a gun mounted on a camera, even if the end-result is only that the starting pistol should be a legendary meme status weapon. I like that to really aim well you need to get in a stable position and let your dude aim, rather than just abusing KB/M controls. By being hilariously inaccurate it felt more believable (most people SUCK at landing shots in a real firefight). It was such a weird mix of janky misguided "realism" and realizing that your best chance was to sprint up behind the enemy and drop a grenade at their feet like an action hero.

[@stevebutters306]

@Colby Boucher I play mainly CoC or vanilla, I don't really vibe with anomaly but enjoy watching others play it. I spent a lot of time in DayZ when I first became a pc gamer and it completely burned me out on "look around for some specific shit you need for 3 hours" type gameplay, I like it simple. Get 3 sets of tools and some vodka for Cardan and you're good to go, for example.

[@kmieciu4ever]

@@stevebutters306 I also played OG Stalker when it was released. I respect what the modders are trying to do with Anomaly, but I feel it has too much micro-management and busy work. And that is coming from a veteran EFT player. For example I wiped out Duty faction base and most had weapons in 15% condition. They could spray at me using full auto all day long, but only dropped 10 bullets on death. That is simply lazy game design.

[@stevebutters306]

@@kmieciu4ever yeah a lot of it is difficulty for the sake of difficulty and any criticism of that issue is met by your usual darksoulsbro style response.

[@blooocki]

Also... Every S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has since a long while unofficial gamefix patches. Called Zone reclamation project and sky reclamation project. Call of Pripyat didn't really need that tho.

[@LuisC7]

STALKER has always been THE game(s). It never fails to deliver on being awesome

[@whcw11]

Reading the title: "not another overly analytical video essay" Noticing it's from Garbaj: "oh. His videos are brutal but genius"

[@sturmmagnunstein1008]

i do like the hobo phase of anomaly quite a bit. Learning how to repair your first weapon is a very satisfying and memorable moment; i do understand how a lot of people will find this way of item crafting/repair to be extremely contrived (you have to have the right tool first, find a bench or give the tools to a mechanic, collect the correct weapon parts, rent the bench if needed, and then replace the broken parts, and eventually use cleaning kits or glues to top off the conditions), but once you get a hang of how the economy works it will be much easier. That said, there are plenty of addons to tailor the mod. I personally like the adjustable item loot condition. It makes sense for a rookie to be using a low tier, almost broken sawed off shotgun, but a legendary stalker using a 20% F2000? Nah

[@strangebones2000]

I agree! I prefer for my weapons to drop at 50% at the lowest, guns sure don’t jam when they’re shooting at me, lol

[@enriquecadlum189]

While i appreciate the sense of scarcity in the game, i absolutely hate the rpg styled tiered loot system in the game because of how "loot drops" scale with your "player level", a thing that didnt really matter in o.g. Stalker games. It's why all you ever get are crap weapons that work perfectly fine in the hands of your enemies. When you loot that Sig550 off a Monolith stalker who was taking good potshots at you at a clean pace and at a reasonable distance, you pick it up and get a 25% durability gun that jams, has lost significant accuracy, cant be repaired and can't be sold, plus all the corpse has is less than a magazine worth of old ammo because your rank is low as opposed to whatever ammo the Monolith guy actually had, and whatever condition the gun was really in. Its artificial difficulty that only applies to the player and i don't appreciate that.I love challenging games that are set up to make you think on the move and improvise when shit hits the fan, but i despise it when the same mechanics dont apply to the rest of the sandbox NPCs. The illusion of Emergent gameplay becomes just that, an illusion. You realize the game is just stacked against you in order to feel harder, and thus instead of the world dynamically interacting with everything that inhabits it, in reality its just trying to make it hard for you to breathe. The zone cares for no Stalker, yes i know, but that should apply universally and not just the player. If a pack of bandits ambush a Duty Stalker with high level gear, said gear is looted by the bandits and said bandits were then killed by a chimera, it's the lucky day of whatever lucky Loner or Merc or whatever Stalker just so happens to stumble upon it. I want the game systems to actually converge, not just statically apply and react to me exclusively.

[@GugureSux]

Seconding this. This is exactly the problem with all these ""realistic"" sandbox mods from the past 13+ years. It's all so fake and pathetic way to bloat the ultimately pointless gameplay.

[@maxamillionjazzhands4034]

It's funny that cigs reduce radiation, because the biggest reason tobacco is so bad for you is not the nicotine, but because the plant itself is radioactive. The tobacco plant absorbs trace amounts of uranium and radon from rock layers below the soil and does not want to let the stuff go, so the radioactive tar builds up in your lungs and spit. This is why vapes are non carcinogenic (but still unhealthy for other reasons) as their nicotine is derived from specially bred tomatoes or other nicotine-containing members of the nightshade family.

[@Hinokassaudifan1]

I recently delved inside the rabbit hole that is the stalker games. And I love it too much. To the point where I started to lose track of time due to how much fun I could have.

[@blooocki]

If it's been a short while since you played Shadow of Chernobyl I would suggest to you the OGSR/OGSR gunslinger standalone mod. It's pretty much a remake of Shadow of chernobyl with cut content and some imo perfectly fitting User made dlc on top in the 64bit xray engine. There are a few different repacks of normal OGSR so if you don't like gunslinger be careful what you pick. Some of them are not fully translated or have gun mods that completely fuck the balance and I don't remember Wich was the original one.

[@gabrielmariano3930]

Another layer on how cool the economy is is how different factoons have merchants for different items (e.g., some areas do not have doctors or some factions solely sell warsaw pact guns and ammunition). Knowing where to sell and buy different items can save you heaps of cash, especially if you become reputable with those factions.

[@ashtonkilburn3276]

Stalker anomaly: the game where you get alcohol poisoning to negate radiation poisoning.

[@mitchellwright5478]

An apt description of all STALKER games; “Murder hobos fighting other murder hobos, some of which are literally fucking insane, others just want shiny rocks to sell to other people, and the military is just kinda watching them from the sidelines, think Baltimore”

[@TheBeard147]

Stalker anomaly has one of the best gunplay out there. Where each weapon is actually really good and can be used through out the game. The combat feels satisfying as each shot has great impact. Even a simple Pk can headshot a midtier bandit. There are no bullet sponge enemies which most games these days have. I havent yet played gamma, after the anomaly i might give it a try.

[@throwaway-]

you'll hate how spongy enemies can be in GAMMA

[@ItzJoyless]

I've been playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R Anomaly while waiting for S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 to release. I have to say I have been having a blast playing it.

[@sortal]

Everything being expensive is something more devs should strive for. In video games that just means that you have enough valuable purchase options to make real either/or decisions, and not enough money to cheat and buy both.

[@nuruddinshah684]

NO that not fun that wasting my time

[@Mekose]

@@nuruddinshah684 Then it's a waste of time to develop a lot of items. Like yeah it's cool that there's cheese-wheels and 50 different food items in Skyrim or Witcher, but they serve no purpose. Having a challenging economy gives you a lot of those "a-ha!" moments where you feel good because you circumvented the difficult economy in a clever way. It creates a progression curve that's based around your knowledge instead of raw numbers or grinding. At the start you suffer because you can't afford anything and don't understand the cost and usage of items. As you continue to play you progress your knowledge of the system and learn that things you thought were useless (like cigarettes) are actually useful or can be combined in clever ways. You feel like you've "beat" the system in the same way you feel good when you beat a difficult enemy. Anomaly also stops you from mindlessly grinding enemies for loot to sell because everything you loot is low durability and sells for nothing. This makes you think about clever ways to make money if you want a specific and expensive item. You may save money by maintaining your items with gun oil (only usable on items with already high durability) and have a bunch of spare machining tools that you can use to repair a broken gun and sell it for profit, for example. You may start with bad ammo and later in the game as the bad ammo becomes useless you use it to make better ammo. You may have a huge stockpile of good ammo for a weapon you haven't used, so you decide to use a new weapon. This only works in an economy of scarcity.

[@IsItZoltan]

Clearly he hasn't found the economy secret of mutant parts and artefacts *laughs in Ecologist*

[@UsaKen_PMC]

Nah i prefer selling mutant parts to Hunter

[@noplesnono9656]

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it >Do Quest for random NPCs, The typical stalkers, not the traders and leaders >Profit

[@judsongaiden9878]

1:04 There are if you're not hostile toward everyone. The more friendlies you're friendly with, the greater the opportunities to get paid (oftentimes for relatively easy work). For example, responding to Lukash's distress calls to help Freedom defend the Barrier against incursions always yields good rewards. Decent if it's zombified stalkers, better than decent if it's Monolith goons. 3:14 Who the Foxtrot uses kerosene to clean the tools they use to fix guns?! Sure, kerosene CAN be used as a solvent, but consider the risk (insert Ian Malcolm quote regarding "could" versus "should"). It's usually only used as a solvent in wasteland-type places IRL, so I guess it fits for that purpose in the Zone (though the consequences aren't depicted, like kerosene-soaked items catching fire when you light a match, etc.). Anyway, this is something that irritates me about this mod. I thoroughly enjoy-joy it over all, but there are details I find annoy-noying. Like how you can disassemble guns but can't reassemble them. And how the parts requirements for repairs don't actually make sense because it would technically be easier IRL. Industrial grease makes sense, though. And I'm also not a big fan of some of the reload animations, especially the "wrong-handed" ones (reloading with the shootin' hand instead of the support hand).

[@marauderofrock]

I start playing stalker anomaly a week ago, and this is incredible mod with huge in-game settings to play with. You can change all game economy, but I think medium difficulty pretty good balanced. I also love repair system with these parts and how you need to maintain you gunz and armor.

[@krischurch3763]

It has been so much fun for me. I hope you have fun playing too

[@browal14]

I actually found it was just easier to pay to repair a weapon then buy stuff to keep it above 80-90% because finding the tool kit is painful and you need it to even start i had an easier time doing tasks and harvesting meat to sell to the garbage butcher for cash

[@B3rten]

I'd love an "openworld sandbox" Stalkerlike but for the Metro series. Maybe with persistent factions having control of places like the reich and red line fighting eachother and the stations actually switching control or even be able to take control of a station yourself and become the leader of your own little faction. So many possibilities for that series imo.

[@OperatorMax1993]

As a fellow Stalker player, Im my opinion, the "ultra hardcore realistic immersive" mods like Misery, Radiophobia, Anomaly and Gamma Are pretty much responsible for forever dividing the community between "traditionalists and progressivists" I wanted to like Anomaly, I really do, but I just gave up, the game wasn't fun or challenging, it was just tedious and tiring (item bloat, things costing fortune after fortune, loot from enemies being 0%-1% durability, enemies touching you leads to losing your entire health, your character's breathing being more annoying than the panting in the OG trilogy, etc.) "Why yes I'd like to play a apocalyptic survival adventure game that has been modified to be like Tarkov while also losing every bit of the original game's true identity" - statements made by the utterly deranged Mods like these, most players these days are just Tarkov players forever blurring the line of "what is Stalker about anyways ?" This madness has to stop, Stalker is not Tarkov and it will never be Tarkov, or some "hard but rewarding punishing experience" We have all been played for fools I just hope Stalker 2 retains the classic gameplay where it's not a tedious slogfest with bloated inventories and dying in 1 shot or mutant attack or bleeding every single time (which from the trailers, is promising)

[@xxsleipnirx1]

you are speaking right out of my soul, while I do have to say that Gamma is a well put together addon for what it achives to be, I just fucking hate it. Gamma is the reason why I cant watch Stalker streams anymore cause 8 out of 10 streamers either play Gamma or EFP. It shakes me to the core everytime I see that health UI. If I want to play Tarkov, I play fucking Tarkov and not another game thats been modded to shits so it looks like Tarkov

[@OperatorMax1993]

@@xxsleipnirx1 I know right ? Seriously Why can't people enjoy the games for what they are without modifying them to be like an other game ? Why do we have to blur what stalker is about ? That's the issue, it feels like everyone is obsessed with Anomaly and Gamma And then people even go saying that Stalker 2 should have features from Anomaly and Gamma which is just infuriating

[@yourmanjimbo]

Yeah me too bud. I like anomaly but only when using 50 different mods that make it like the originals. Kinda annoying how my favourite franchise is just becoming known as Tarkov but single player.

[@somavekony5436]

man stalker anomaly is still the best game especially from the point immersion like when a bandit jumps on me from around the corner always hitting the headshots and to add a lillte more immersion to it i will probably just also happen to have a spontanius frame drop so i cant even defend myself. truly the greatest game!

[@garbaj]

such is life in the zone

[@Rdboun]

Such is to be pranked by the zone

[@PantherCat64]

This is the best “making field decisions” game I can think of to date. It’s awesome.

[@John-pe6fw]

Yup. Smokes, curing cancer since 1945

[@realjames1]

this man gives me more info about games than me actually playing games

[@NexusWarior211]

You can't be serious...

[@Nothingspeshalwaysfresh]

RIP Volodymyr Yezhov. We’re still out here running it up all these years later.

[@SpaceDoge103]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has all of this but allows you to ignore most of that, and just the essentials like repair kits that allows you to use on the go. Hoarding is also encouraged when traders or even other stalkers have side quests that want you to give them certain items. Having a companion is super benificial too, letting them carry all the things you never use but will for a task.

[@captainjirk9564]

I usually save up my money to buy or pay to repair new weapons, because it usually ends up being more economical between the money you'd spend on supplies for repairing parts and repair kits and investing in mechanics. Actually, I rarely buy them but it's cheaper to ask a max level mechanic to repair it for you than try to repair it by yourself. The self-repairs are better for maintaining condition. It seems like a really big cost up front, but it's rewarding to have functional equipment.

[@captainjirk9564]

Of course this is different in Gamma

[@donatodiniccolodibettobardi842]

Stalker Anomaly: When "vasyanstvo" meets perfection.

[@IrontMesdent]

Vanilla crafting has some strange economy balancing, but a lot of mods do try and address them. Large caliber rifles like a mosin requiring one of the most expensive repair kit is non-sensical compared to reparing a PKM or even some SVDs or SVUs. Instead, a mod changes the shotgun kit, a much cheaper repair kit, to "Historical and Shotgun" kit. Tools are also hard to find because they are dropped by probabilities and sometimes in areas that aren't really accessible early game. So there needs to be a way to either build some from scratch or find them more reliably. But, funnily enough, this is actually not that many issues considering how the rest is incredibly well done. Sometimes, you are better off selling some items in a pinch because getting the money now will save you from more expensive choices down the line because of your lack of resources. Other times, it's better to hoard certain items to repair them. It's a fun line to thread and the reason why I come back to the game and even mod it so much.

[@testoftetris]

Is there a lore reason why smoking reduces radiation poisoning? Or is that like a known phenomenon in the real world? Seems like a very surprising mechanic to me

[@mohsinabdulshukur]

Maybe it's relaxing

[@j.j.maverick9252]

Came to comment the same thing. While it’s admirable that everything has a use, if many of them are illogical choices, it would totally destroy immersion for me.

[@radon4163]

It's just a game thing decided by GSC. I mean, vodka also reduces radiation poisoning.

[@vj-6]

I just walked around with the multitool and took everything i could from body's. By dismantling the gear i managed to carry more and still sell for a decent amount.

[@homeygfunkoffacherryfruitl4971]

I don't play the super complex mod packs like Gamma or EFP but I like to add a few mods to Vanilla to spice it up. Mainly I just have HD models, some shaders, limb damage and magazines you gotta manually equip and top off. Puts it right in that sweet spot of being punishing but not super annoying if you know what you're doing.

[@Romanian901]

Everything in anomaly is a solution to a problem the game gives you: Bleeding? Bandages Expecting to bleed due to combat? Vinca Low health? First aid kit Low health and rads? Science first aid Low health and bleeding? Military first aid Emission but you out in nowhere? Anabiotics Low health but can't wait? Stimpack equivalents of first aid kits. If you want a meaningful economy you need problems which those items solve. Also just a note: the file when new has 2 uses so you only buy one. Give stalker GAMMA a try as well. It overhauls this entire economy so it's even more meaningful

[@arseniix]

This is all so true. I played Anomaly on the hardest mode and it was a nightmare (actually, quite realistic and fun, not annoying). Basically you're broke as hell, constantly lacking in health and ammo, avoiding literally any threat and don't even bother hunting artifacts or raiding camps. Then you complete a shit ton of quests, gain some money and decent equip, and then you basically turn yourself into an artifact gathering machine. And only then money and other stuff won't ever be an issue ever. From this point it all becomes somewhat boring as there's nothing more to do in the game

[@GhenTuongHB]

Finally, the first ever youtuber I've ever watched who join Duty.

[@yourmanjimbo]

Duty is cringe freedom is based

[@ville1791]

stalker is SO damn good! i started playing shadow of chernobyl a few days ago and i plan to finish the 3 games and then move on to anomaly with gamma modpack. i feel like everyone that hasn't played this game yet is missing out so much lol

[@matking898SVK]

Yesss,finally someone playin trilogy first, yes trilogy the best😩

[@yourmanjimbo]

Average trilogy king 👑

[@ChromieZone]

honestly imo the trilogy is much more fun than anomaly The gun parts system, economy, the overabundance of different healing items, and its other additions aren't particularly fun for me and it isn't S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but to each their own

[@psychotic2563]

Best example for useful loot I have is Dayz in one particular Situation. If you have a Bad weapon/ Bad aim and you bust up an animal, It's meat will be significantly lower quality and overall less. Now if you are starving as hell you won't be happy for long. What I like to do is to take the bones and the guts for long time use. With a knife you can craft rope out of the guts and fishing hooks out of the bones. If you're in the middle of nowhere and all you find are bushes and the occasional mushroom, take down a bush for a long stick. With your rope, your improvised fishing hook and your long stick you can craft an improvised fishing rod now. Take your knife and look down on any soil and dig up a worm as fishing bait. Now you can get yourself food from any pond in the middle of nowhere. It's a long procedure but It's surely worth it. Don't forget that you have to prepare the fish before you're able to cook it (need a knife for that too, if you don't have one, look around trails for 2 stones to craft yourself an improvised knife)

[@cantgameright]

Try Radiophobia 3, it's a Shadow of Chornobyl overhaul and the economy is VERY good. Anomaly's is bloated with useless junk unfortunately, something from CoP's Misery mod that has been de-facto canonized through Anomaly; the bloat isn't de-jure STALKER canon, there's plenty of things to do in the OG games so that inventory management isn't forced to be 40% of the experience. PS: using a file to maintain a firearm doesn't make much sense, a file would RUIN it😅

[@hydrogen5624]

Playing on the EFP modpack, it's been very satisfying to climb the learning curve for crafting, although I can see why the RNG could be annoying for rare gun parts etc.

[@krischurch3763]

EFP made me start crafting

[@CrazygamersX4]

The biggest and I'm fairly certain the only issue with this way of doing things is it creates a slightly higher barrier to entry. As someone who's played through all of GAMMA and Anamaly I can say for certain those first even 2-5 hours were pretty brutal of not knowing how the whole system works and having to google everything to understand it.

[@AtocStowwe]

I love anomaly, been playing it for many years now. Only gripe I have about its balance is that once you know how to play the game- that is, once you know how to make money, how to learn about parts, how to repair, how to gain rep, etc., the power curve can be exponential. I can now start a brand-new save, haul ass up to Yanov Station, and have enough cash to start artifact hunting in about 30 minutes. It's one of those games that stops being difficult once you understand its systems and rules. It's still a super good game though. Mods can make it more unforgiving, and honestly I think I need to mod up my game in order to make it difficult again lol.

[@nhientran4142]

inflation hits even harder in the zone fr fr

[@АлександрГаврилов-п7з]

To fix ammo you need tools which you can't buy or aquire with guarantee chance and it's still not worth when you can buy ammo. same with crafting tools like detectors. you need to find 3 types of tools (not all of them at once), recepie and components OR work for fraction, unlock thing you need and buy it anomaly designed to live in a zone for a long time but it's too much Some great ideas realized not like alternate but a skippable masochism.

[@cpt.mystic_stirling]

Still kinda nuanced to repair everything, but it at least draws in specific player who like this mechanic

[@marcelroodt]

This was a great video! In the real world, economies are based on both supply/demand and intrinsic value, so the best in-game economies will have items that have a real use. They also have sources and sinks that balance scarcity. Path of Exile is another game with a pretty great economy. Every currency item has a practical use, a scarcity (drop rate), all of which dictates the value. The value fluctuates because of what can be done with the items, and there is almost never an over-abundance.

[@lebitelexie9350]

Funnily enough, I made myself "rich" in the game by raiding enemies and madly dismantling every weapon and armor I found then hauling back the cargotruck worth of weapon parts to the repairmen to sell it. This led to some early game difficulties where I really had to count every ammo and stick to weapons that were economic to shoot (No Western weapons cause ammo is more expensive and less found on corpses, etc.) but eventually it started cranking up and once I began artifact hunting aswell I always managed to afford the ammo and supplies I need and with some budgeting I could always walk away with the suits or weapons from the shop that I wanted. (Which of course led to more effective raiding and artifact hunting). There are several angles that allows the player to succeed and its great! On another playthrough I installed a mod that made weapons looted from stalkers have higher condition because I love the idea that in the zone, your weapon is your most precious thing. Your first line of defense and the key to your survival so it makes sense that every stalker keeps their guns at least near top condition. This of course flipped over the in game economy but eh, its not my first playthrough so I can afford some shake up and the game did not lose its absolute gripping atmosphere. No matter how much money you got in your pocket, when you hear the crackling of your PDA losing connection to an impending Emission, you will panic all the same.

[@dedstring]

Youve mentioned stalker alot recently glad you decided to make this its a phenomenal series & mod

[@hometest8603]

you just gave the anwear to an early access game i swear i never thought of this

[@doltramir]

The difference between the good stalker and the dead stalker - is knowledge.

[@lebitelexie9350]

Knowing mutant behaviour, landscape and enemies will save your life as many times as a strong weapon and a few well placed shots.

[@whowhatwhydoyouknow]

KNOWLEDGE

[@RodWaffle]

Love these videos so much garbaj. thanks for making these

[@philipfahy9658]

Alright, gotta say the cigarette thing bugs me, because if anything they should irradiate you more. Smoking cigs puts alpha emitters in your lungs that are absorbed by the tobacco plants.

[@BOOMBOY1996]

I am completely new to Stalker and found by accident that you can sell Mutant stuff to a guy in Garbage, he pays very good. And with the Hunter Backpack thet he sells Mutant's drop more stuff. With that I make 20-30k RU any time I go to him

[@dontcareaboutthatok7565]

Anomaly economy does not represent STALKER at all, stalker is not about what is called "item bloat" item bloat started with a mod called MISERY who objective was to be very hard and anomaly takes basically everything it has from MISERY Nothing anomaly has is original Item bloat is from misery Different style guns is from misery Connected maps is from call of chernobyl Being standalone was a call of chernobyl feature already Freeplay also was from call of chernobyl Having mods to mod also is from call of chernobyl

[@panda896]

THANK YOU. The amount of people who think that Anomaly is the best representation of what Stalker is and that all of its contents are original is straight up disappointing.

[@kamulec4969]

ok

[@ExplosiveBolts]

Based, Anomaly is fucking trash and item bloat is a major contributing factor.

[@krischurch3763]

I love the anomaly community and been a part of it for about the last year or so.

[@SevenRedSunsOfficial]

i tried to get into anomoly, but the economy for a brand new stalker player broke me. might need to get back into it someday.

[@yourmanjimbo]

Yeah play the originals first

[@meezo9980]

@@yourmanjimbo originals are better

[@sgtrogers]

Glad to see you pick up on the stalker games, they are my favorite.

[@francogaray2649]

to be fair, if you play in tourist progression dificullty, its more easy, for example: you finished a hitman task and won around 11k roubels, if you are lucky you can purchase an AKMS (it cost around 11k-14k) and is a little unbalanced since the AKMS is a very good weapon ,if im not wrong it uses 7.62x39mm, you can easily kill almost everyone with 5/6 shots, that you can have in the very beginning. pd: maybe im wrong, i've only played like 130 hours, im not a S.T.A.L.K.E.R veteran

[@break2048]

I think it's funny that in the STALKER universe a 55,000~ rubles PKM or light machine gun, in the actual world is "only" around 620 US dollars. $620 sounds like a lot, till you remember you are buying a fully functional PKM lol. Just realize you are playing in a Post Apocalyptic Chernobyl, money is scarce enough by then.

[@xamnoir]

l love Stalker games, and spent, l guess 100+ (or even more) hours in Anomaly. I use Expedition modpack, l like it, since it keeps the menu and icons vanilla, but updates the graphics and NPC skins. And got another 35 additional QoL mods installed. But my own economy setup is ... more on the maso side haha. My setup is... - traders don't sell guns or armor (only 4 weapon attachment at time), barely sell food - Hardcore AI aim and dynamic faction turned on - Trader buy price (you selling to them) is at 0.5x - Trader sell price (them selling to you) is at 2x - Item repair / upgrade is 2x - Mission money gain is 0.5x - Weapons can be only sold with 75% durability or better Problem is, that coz of Expedition or some mod l got, AI can drop 100% weapons which sell (normally) for 10-20k, so you can make money really fast. With all these limitations, l can only get guns and armor from NPCs, got a nice ammo maker mod too, which uses ingame icons, so won't crash the game, though... l did fine tune that too, needed more ammo case / powder to make ammo. Atm l play as Bandit, spent around 1 in-game month, already got an exo (repaired one at day 29), and it did cost a lot.. This though forces you to use the crafting system more. l crafted headlamp/NVG, lots of ammo, repair kits, detectors, so it's fun to play, challanging, but fun! (sorry for the wall of text.....)

[@scorpion4894]

Yeah S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is brutal and as a Veteran Loner I can tell you the economy is painful but extremely rewarding when you get the piece of armor or weapon you've been grinding, Anomaly is one of the lighter ones with economy, for instance GAMMA and Escape From Pripyat have even harder economies but they're balanced out with the stuff you can buy and improving relationship with the factions and or even the traders will lower the prices to an agreeable amount. PS. The first Army Exoskeleton that I got I didn't even buy I fixed it myself and how I got it? Painfully eliminating a platoon of the strongest soldiers and getting it from a corpse.

[@tgc517]

What I’ve learned is that economy should support gameplay

[@matt_sa]

It isn't brutal if you become a local arms dealer for the loners

[@mukulkumar8681]

Yeah one of those times where you have 300 health potions or like 50 grenades or 20 rocket launchers which you never use during the gameplay and finish the boss fight unknowingly and now wonder, did I really need to collect so much stuff ?

[@male_civ]

I love stalker anomaly for being so simple, can't afford it? Take it from somebody's corpse, a true scavenger experience

[@ArmoredStone]

I made several spreadsheets figuring out optimal ammo/meds/food/water/rad removal. Man 7.62x25mm is crap but CHEAP. PPSH start is a great start if you use single shot for most combat. 71 rounds per reload, just tap bandit heads all day long

[@gordo_loquendero]

I love stalker anomaly's prices. They remind me of those in my country with 142.7% inflation (help)

[@murdercubes4968]

I have never had money problems in this game not even in survivalist, usually you are always gonna be able to afford the basics, however getting better equipment is the struggle. I won't say it's crushing, it is a grind but a good one

[@MichusubPl]

Anomaly is BDSM and Gamma is CBT

[@iskabin]

8 minute video from Garbaj? is it my birthday or something?

[@OVTHeatmen]

What breaks this kind of mechanics are "specializations" that help you crafting more for less. Which means you are better off selling junk and buying usable stuff from others that are specialized in that

[@lukasgroot]

I like this system, my first couple plays I tried to play it like any other game. Then I played on hard with survivalist economy and now I really had to craft and repair and now I don't want to play it any other way anymore :) There are addons and modpacks that improve these systems even more.

[@reaper-1]

Mechanics are amazing too

[@YoRHaUnit2Babe]

Yeah is Eastern Bloc, Cigs are literally still everywhere to this day

[@leandrolahiteau8162]

OR you can go to progression settings and turn money gain to 2.7

[@francobuzzetti9424]

when i played this i messed with the config and i had millions by the time i understood the game, so i just bought everything i definitely need to do a second playthrough with harder settings

[@ogPunkcln]

Anomaly is great, I enjoyed my time with it. But when I started GAMMA, it's a whole new ball game. Anomaly's early game is tough, but with enough time, you can buy guns and all the things quite easily. That's why I think the balance in GAMMA is pure genius. No guns, no armor, no progression items from shops - the player needs to go out there and scavenge for scraps. It's actually super satisfying to finally build yourself a functional AK. It never trivializes the looting and workbench mechanic, making you care about the economy from start to finish.

[@serhiy-serhiiv]

As someone who's played the game on medium difficulty, that's not true at all. I ended up completely ignoring the workbench repair system because it requires you first disassemble a trillion guns to find some parts actually in serviceable condition, then you have to find the right repair kit, and then you also have to pay a technician to use their vice. Much easier to just outright pay them to repair your gear instead. Plus, if you're playing the game correctly, then you should never worry about repairing equipment more than once, as you can use gun cleaning kits and field armor toolkits to maintain your gear in perfect shape.

[@garbaj]

I'm playing on medium as well. We just have different approaches to the game

[@serhiy-serhiiv]

@@garbaj Why do your 5,45 bullets cost 1100 then? Mine cost 1620 UPD: I'm playing as Loner, that might be it

[@recoverhealth2062]

Theres no real difficulty in stalker, easy is actually harder than master since you chew through expensive ammo like there's no tomorrow. I mostly used to play on master with sniper+shotgun+fnp45 combo.

[@garbaj]

Yep, you get discounts for doing tasks for the merchants. The mechanic lets me use the workbench for free because I did a few jobs for him as well.

[@serhiy-serhiiv]

@@garbaj I have maximum reputation with loners and I don't have any discounts. Maybe that's just a bug.

[@talor831]

Ah yes, I love it when the enemy that has infinite ammo keeps unloading mag after mag of full auto fire at me, but GOD FORBID I kill him and loot his 2% wonder-pewter and a full complement of 5 decayed bullets. The scavenging of SoC was way more fun with how it handled loot and economy.

[@n_g_rafa330]

Boris will be proud

[@foofoo3344]

STALKER GAMMA has even harsher economy

[@R451Ns]

i need to redownload this game it always manages to suck me back in for months at a time

[@LuiDeca]

if u like stalker anomaly oh man you are going to love pathologic 2

[@PriMsWaRlorD]

I don’t think they know how a file works

[@Lux_1138]

I love this guy’s voice

[@amarques4091]

I wish there was more depth to DMZs inventory and economy... there's so much they could do

[@pie_flavour1]

You could make the exact same argument but with Minecraft

[@sunrisechad]

New Garbaj vid. Today is a good day