yeah, but you are a poo bag!
BIG YARPAGE!

Anyone else experience stutterng around camp fires? Whenever I am not using static lighting, my game stutters around camp fires. :(

That's what you'll get from the mod alright. So in that case I can only recommend it.

Which faction do you guys usually join? Duty OR Freedom? And why?

And does anyone know if it is possible to get to the garbage without going through the Duty base? I HATE having to go through the Duty base just to get to other parts of the Zone...

I've decided to go with the Complete mod and the realistic weapons add on(but I will still try to beat the game vanilla style in the future) and the fire fights in the game are the most intense and realistic fire fights I have ever experienced.

not unless you're using a mod that adds new shortcuts.

Is there such a mod? It would be nice to not have to take on over a dozen Duty members every time I want to pass through just because I joined Freedom. I already wiped out the entire Duty base but Duty members keep on appearing out of nowhere.

I'm glad you're enjoying it! The weapons mod really does change the game in ways that much larger mods don't.

In SOC it's not really so much a matter of joining factions as it is one of relatively linear progression. You just go where the story takes you. Yes, your choices can have a profound effect on the outcome (or not), but joining factions isn't really something you have to worry about in the first game.

Clear Sky makes a much bigger deal about factions.
Alternative paths become available later in the game back to the Cordon. I don't recall needing the Garbage much after leaving Duty.

The realistic weapons mod does make the game a little bit easier BUT only if you use real life army tactics in every fire fight. But if a player just runs around like he is playing Doom or Serious Sam, every fire fight will be the player comitting suicide unlike in vanilla(with enemies using BB guns instead of real guns). It's still worth using though because an intense 1 minute fire fight is so much more fun than a 15 minute fire fight of just running around in circles, healing and unloadiing enitre clips into each enemy.

Yep. It's much more about avoiding bullets than firing them. Securing vantage points, trying to remain unnoticed and using what little cover you can find will keep you alive a lot longer than scoring head shots.

Yeah and the add on also forces you to ambush your enemies, flank them, run from cover to cover, and move around in a little circle if you are out in the open to avoid getting shot. The add on makes combat all about using your brain and less about other things. But when I said the add on makes the game a little bit easier, I mean't to say, the add on makes combat out in the open a little bit easier. Close quarters combat in the game is more hard than ever because the second you come around a corner, someone could kill you instantly unlike in vanilla.

Stalker SOC + Complete mod + the realistic weapons add on = a more hardcore combat experience than you can find in the Arma games, Rising Storm, Red Orchestra 1 & 2 and Insurgency.

PS
In my latest Stalker session, I saw a mutant dog bring another mutant dog back from the dead! WTF! Mutant dog cleric?

That's certainly new. Are you sure it wasn't just laying down? They do that a lot, even in your vicinity.

And yeah, up close and personal it's very much a matter of fastest trigger finger first, so to speak.

The mutant dog was dead because I killed it right before it happened.

That is definitely new. Maybe the cleric dog swallowed one hell of an artefact? Mutant dogs do that all the time.

OR maybe I killed another mutant dog and just saw a mutant dog get up after laying down? I could of just been confused.