I know the game is suppose to be difficult and realistic, and i'm ok with that but it all of a sudden became downright frustratingly annoying.
I really wish to finish it as i have all 3 Stalker games on GOG and i'm stuck on the first one.

Basically i've done a few quests, no issue, taking cover, being careful with my ammo and where i aim. No issue so far at all. Finished the quest for killing bandits at the garbage dump and decided to go back to the first camp so i can sell spare weapons to the trader, but the first zone seems to be overwhelmed with soldiers. I have a silenced pistol and an AK and both are useless. The silenced pistol doesn't seem like it hits anything, rarely does a headshot kill someone. The AK? That thing couldn't hit a barn door, i practically spray an entire magazine into an enemy and nothing, he just shoots back a few shots from his AK and kills me, even if i manage to kill 2 or 3 of them, more just show up and massacre me.
So far i have not run into any other armor other than what i started with.
I am not using any mods or anything like that, just the vanilla game.

So what exactly am i doing wrong and how exactly am i suppose to be clearing the whole area of those soldiers? They're literally everywhere and i can't go much farther than the bridge.

I'm trying to remember the early game correctly, so excuse me if I get things a little bit mixed up.

Early on, there is a mission where that starting town gets invaded and you need to help repel the intruders. I thought this one gets triggered while you're in the town itself, giving you a few minutes to get organized. I'm wondering if you somehow triggered that mission but left town anyway, and now you're coming back to the invaded town.

I know it's a trudge doing so, but do you have an older save you can try?

For general combat tips in those situations, especially with weapons that have lower accuracy (such as the AK47), I like to set the weapon for single-shot since the only the first shot has a decent chance of hitting anything at medium+ range. Grenades are quite helpful and you should have at least a few of them by now. I think the maximum throwing range is around 35 meters. Note that they'll notice the grenade and will tend to scatter, so if you need to flush someone out of cover then this can be a good tactic.

Later on (if you don't have them already) you'll get access to scopes for your weapons. Note that it won't help the weapon accuracy, but will help you aim. Other modifications will improve accuracy but my experience has me not wanting to waste money upgrading the AK47 - it simply doesn't get much better no matter how much you try to 'improve' it.

Nope, thats later in the game.

What has more likely happened is that they've killed the soldiers under the bridge and caused a patrol / new squad to spawn or just wandered into the patrol that walks out from the cordon barracks about half a game day in on the first day. Theres also sometimes one that appears from the garbage early game - though that might only happen when modded. The ones that come from the cordon barracks will sometimes attack the village if they run into trouble on the way (such as a boar or slow Tolik - though this is often as a result of glitches or mod content).
AMK mod is quite funny for this as you'll occasionally get a full sweep and clear of the village happening (and they are armed well - including RPGS! O_____o). You have two options here:
- Run like buggery past them and hope they dont cut you down before you hit cover, then start picking them off carefully.
- Go back to the garbage and spend a little more time there. It's likely the military patrol is heading towards the garbage (it will take them some time to transit), or they have just arrived in the cordon. Either way issues like this can often be covered by waiting around (due to the offline A-life).

Well, the only soldiers i killed were the ones that attacked me, otherwise i wouldn't mess with them yet. Guess i have to restart...again. And yes, those soldiers on the bridge were fighting some people when i arrived so i stood by the road waiting for them to finish so i can pay the 500 rubles and go through, but when they finished fighting with the other people they straight up attacked me so i had to kill them. After that when i tried to reach the village i started the game in they were literally everywhere, a huge patrol on the road (at least 9 of them) and when i tried to go around i still got attacked by some other soldiers.

Yup, those are the patrols.
The guys at the bridge were most likely firing on either the bandit reinforcements for the car park (one often is a later assasination mission), or some loners - including father diodor.
rather than restart, I'd just go back to a save at the garbage and do some more stuff there first!

Ah, I think I may be confusing 2 different bridge missions and the dump. I'm thinking of those very first missions you get in that first town, where you're told to meet a couple guys on a hillock, and go clear out that farm. The bridge I'm thinking about is the regular road bridge near where you meet that dying guy. Sounds like y'all are talking about the big railroad bridge and going into the Garbage zone.

@Sachys: I ended up restarting, playing really slowly this time so hopefully everything works out.

@HereForTheBear: I was talking about the first bridge. I only mentioned the Garbage as the direction i was coming from. The whole army problem appears in the first zone once i pass the bridge back into the first area after being forced to kill the guards because they attacked me first. Too bad i can't use the tunnel with the dead stalker to go back. Sadly that one goes only one way.

Okay, so maybe it's the aforementioned patrol from the Cordon at the south of the map. They regularly patrol with a group of around 5 or 6 guys, making a slow saunter northward up the road toward the village - but not all the way to the village - and back home again. You might be bumping into them. Or there is that mission I mentioned earlier, where the village gets attacked (but maybe that's later, as Sachys mentions). Or it's some other random wandering group. If you hover your reticle / sights over a target, the Cordon guys will have military ranks so it will be obvious if you're dealing with them.

Oh - I hope you enjoy the game. The Stalker series is quite good. Frustrating at times but it's worth it. And yes, the weapons are definitely not the 'laser guns' that other shooters seem to have. Cover / concealment, picking your battles, patience, single-shot mode... these are all things that will help you get along.

You can avoid the bridge entirely by going to the far right of it (the opposite side to the tunnel full of electro anomalies)- down the railroad is a break in the fence and further down the fence is gone. Lots of dogs nd radiation there though. No, as I mentioned theres an actual patrol that leaves the barracks - usually not long after turning in the car park mission. They patrol along the south east portion of the map - beyond the rookie village.

There's also quite a few boar on the garbage side if you head for the gap in the fence but this is much easier than going through the soldiers.

If you're looking for some easier money and ammo the farmhouse you took in the first few missions is generally over run again with bandits who are much easier to deal with.