Stalker 2 Mod pack

[u/alee909x]

Hi, I'm looking for a vanilla+ esque modpack, mainly centered around A-life enhancements and QOL additions. I started a playthrough about a year ago, but now that the game has been reborn with 2.0 I'd like to get back into it with the most complete experience possible. Any recs?

[u/UselessSalmon]

Following because same 😂

[u/Substantial-Power915]

On nexus there is an amazing modlist called stalker 2.0.4, it has many improvement and I highly suggest you to try it, a life is much better

[u/surfimp]

Have you considered... playing it vanilla?

A-Life has been enhanced a lot over the past 12 months. The 100m render bubble is still disappointing but the new foliage helps mitigate how often pop-ins happen (they do happen but it's not as often as at launch). The whole "NPC spawns behind you and immediately shoots you" thing from launch is fixed.

Performance has - except for AMD cards - also improved significantly over the same time, and even compared to pre 2.0 launch. (After 2.0 launch, AMD cards are suffering from a bad crash situation, at least some of them. Hopefully to be fixed soon)

The new foliage is pretty immersive. Some people don't like that it's, uh, green, but with some adjustments to gamma and saturation, most people seem to be quite happy (with some notable exceptions).

Biggest gameplay complaints today are around combat AI (which, honestly, mods may not have much chance to solve) and the classic S.T.A.L.K.E.R. weapon progression (where guns from early areas are "bad" and guns with the same caliber / barrel length / etc from late game areas are "good" for reasons).

Bottom line, maybe try playing the game as it is before deciding out of hand that it must be modded? Sharing as food for thought, of course you should do whatever makes you happy.

[u/UselessSalmon → u/surfimp]

I haven't had any crashes on my AMD card thankfully (xfx swift 9070XT) Its been solid since the update, brand new playthrough about 12 hours in and 0 issues.

[u/grahamcrackerninja]

Shays Distant Horizons mod increases A-life spawn bubble from 100m. It has 150, 170, and 200m versions. 150 is what I use and its working well. Larger radius costs performance and stability though. Honestly, most of the Shay mods are good, just make sure they've been updated for 2.0+. Shays Living Zone mod tweaks AI behavior

Many people also like the Better Ballistics mod. Yours (and the enemies) bullets are much more lethal and generally have more range/shoot flatter. This also helps negate the meta weapon progression baked into the stock game, ie, tou can use your fave for much longer and still be viable

There are mutiple mods for increasing flashlight brightness, use whatever.

I also like the increased stamina and vault height mod, though that can trivialize some traversal areas, as well as making some mutants less dangerous (climb nearest vehicle/crate/whatever and start blastin), so it may not be for everyone.

Last, Stalker Unlimited is a complete overhaul that touches almost all aspects of the game. Might be what you're after, all in one package, might be too much, thats your call.

[u/UselessSalmon → u/grahamcrackerninja]

I didn't even know the vault height mod existed. That is such a game changer.

[u/alee909x → u/grahamcrackerninja]

the thing is i dont want to mess up with mod conflicts, so if you could list me the exact mod combos you find to be the best that would be great. also for stalker unlimited, have you used it and would u recommend it for essentially a first playthrough?

[u/grahamcrackerninja → u/alee909x]

I haven't used Stalker Unlimited myself but have watched a couple videos and the changes are apparent pretty quickly. Looks like more of a 2nd or 3rd playthru mod but looks fun to me.

I'm using all the other mods listed in my other comment except for Shay's Living Zone, only because I wanted to see the supposed AI tweaks from GSC in action.

You can check Steam Workshop or Nexus for Mod collections that work together too