Any essential community patches or fixes i should install for first playthrough?

>>715784483 (OP)
stay the fuck away from gamma

>>715784524
i want to play vanilla first before i try overhaul mods, just heard its very bugged and maybe there are essential community patches which fix it without changing much

>>715784483 (OP)
ZRP maybe I think that just fixes various bugs? But I played SoC vanilla when I first had it and it was fine. Just remember to play on master difficulty, you die fast, but so do the enemies nothing is bullet spongy.

>>715784483 (OP)
yeah, install the stalker gamma community patch. it's free btw

Try uninstall.exe, best way to enjoy SHITTER.

>>715784671
>Just remember to play on master difficulty,
am i being trolled here? I recently read thats a myth and a meme in stalker community

>>715784906
Maybe I got memed too then because I played SoC on master and it was as I had expected i.e. high damage taken and killing most NPCs in a single headshot with a pistol.

>>715784483 (OP)
yeah ZRP is kinda all you need but even the original steam versions with the latest patches are perfectly playable
>>715784906
no he's right, however master difficulty seems to be the agreed upon default option and people report having a better experience with it, the game is not really difficult anyway if you played quite literally any FPS before (as soon as you get your hands on a scoped rifle it goes from 9/10 difficulty when you are stuck with a shitty makarov to like -4/10)
here's the table that summarizes the effects of difficulty change

>>715784483 (OP)
100% vanilla

>>715784483 (OP)
Really just any graphics overhaul. /v/ has always hated it, but Complete 2009 worked fine and I never really understood the hate other than that it wasn't an absolutely autistic difficulty increase

Zone is female

>>715784906
It was always a meme. I genuinely believe the intent was to troll people into having a really hard experience for no reason.

>>715785846
The Zone painfully castrates any man that enters. Only women can stalk.

>>715784483 (OP)
ask /sg/ for help if you encounter any issues

>>715787363
Based /sg/ enjoyer. Honestly, they’ve seen every crash, bug, and save-corrupting anomaly that STALKER can throw at you. Just be prepared-answers range from genuinely helpful tech support to “delete system32” level trolling. Still worth it if you can't figure out why Duty guys are breakdancing in the bar.

>>715784483 (OP)
Apply 4GB Patches on the execs, since these are 32 bit execs that are limited to 2GB of RAM.
Other than that
Zone Reclamation Project for SOC
Sky Reclamation Project for CS
Pripyat Reclamation Patch for COP

>>715784483 (OP)
SoC feels so junky, and all the weapons look like they're made out of PVC pipes. I just downloaded CoP and jumped straight into playing it. I think the Gamma mod improves the weapon issue but by then it's already a different experience

>>715784483 (OP)
>>715784610
good hunting,stalker

>>715784483 (OP)
No, just latest patch.
If you're skeptic, get Starter packs .
Avoid the Enhanced Editions.

>>715784610
You heard wrong. It's not 2007 any more.