As far as I know, Ranking doesn't matter much. I think it just rises as you play the game. If I remember correctly, I was number 1 by the end of the game, and I don't think I did many side missions.

The side missions, I think, are just there for you to earn some extra money and supplies. Of course, I didn't do many, so maybe someone else knows otherwise.

On another note, I liked Call of Pripyat. It was really fun. However, it seemed too big to me. I liked the more linear openness of SoC because it was more lively--well, as lively as games like STALKER can be. CoP just seemed empty.

They're not random, but they might as well be. All you'll gain from them is that they'll force you to explore some more and you'll get some stuff as a reward.

I see. Okay, thanks for the replies. Looks like I won't be doing much of them.

I have no idea..I took out the Main HQ for bandits.. but I didn't hold it out long enough for my allies to capture it. So the bandits did a counter attack while i was in dark valley.

C9 beta ends on the 5th, so I'll be all over these games after that.

probably -THE- most overlooked aspect to this series is that it's also got an online mode. now it's mostly just deathmatch / CTF stuff instead of CO-OP free roaming (sadly), but anyone want to get some STALKER online battles set up?

So after reading your post a few days back I bought the radioactive pack off ebay and it has arrived (well, I have to go collect it as the postman didn't wait 20 seconds in the rain).

The radioactivity pack contains Call of Pripyat and Clear Sky, which should I be playing first and are there any necessary mods/patches?

Hopefully I too will have awesome stories to enthral all with soon!

either one, none of the games are really dependent on each other ... or at least no enough that you couldn't grasp what is going on from a skimming the back of a game box.

*edit*
just so you know, the two titles are kinda mirror images of each other:

Clear Sky is really open and free form, what story line it has is mostly there to provide a backdrop to all the fucking around / shooting people ... it plays more like a non stop string of side missions.

COP is all story line and highly linear, there are few to none side missions so once you clear an event area there is usually no reason to set foot in it again.

both are good at what they do, but Clear Sky is highly sand box while COP is narrative.

SOC is both, so that is why people tend to call it the best game (even if the other two do what they do a little better than what SOC does).

I might recommend playing Shadows of Chernobyl first, it's the least advanced in some ways (no upgrading/repairing (either that or I made a huge whoopsy on my playthrough) which will likely be a bit jarring for players used to being able to do it) though strangely the PDA is the most advanced in SoC.

Chronologically it's Clear Skies -> Shadows of Chernobyl -> Call of Pripyat.

For those who asked early, you can't wipe out factions with the complete mod in Clear Sky. I actually never played vanilla stalkers, but finished all three with complete mods. The graphics upgrades for example are a must have for me, because the games look and feel amazing (if you have strong enough machine to run it on max settings).

i highly recommend the "completes"

http://www.moddb.com/mods/clear-sky-complete
http://www.moddb.com/mods/call-of-pripyat-complete

They really enhance the look and gameplay and tweak the engine in a way to make it just more pleasurable without hurting what the authors were trying to convey... its does the absolute least changes to the game so you'll have a purely beautiful experience without worrying if your playing the game the dev's wanted you too

The complete mods are recommended in that they solve a lot of bugs, but they do have some drawbacks if you ask me. The bloom lighting effect is overdone in the complete mods resulting in the game be either too dark or too bright. Some of the music was changed, mainly the tunes playing in the menu and bar area's, personally I preferred the less annoying stock ones.

I Just beat Clear Sky with the Complete mod.. I am Currently playing Call of Pripyat with the MISERY mod installed... hard stuff...

The end...

I WANT TO BE RICH!

Fucking seriously? I played all the way to that Monolith for the character to say that he wants to be rich?

That's not the proper ending. Keep exploring that last level.

That depends on if he did the Guide quest or not. Need to do that to get the key for the door.