Stalker Multiplayer Tip: Use Your Ears!

…And buy a pair of GOOD headphones.

Another aspect of this game that I truly admire is the sound quality and your ability to use it to your advantage.  Specifically, with the footsteps your enemies make, you can determine where they are, their direction, their speed, and how many there are.I had a guy once accuse me of cheating because I “knew where he was all the time” and when I explained I can literally hear where you are going, if you are on grass, if you are in trees, if you are running on pavement, etc, he totally didn’t believe it, opting to believe I magically knew where he was all the time.  If I have any secret, it’s in the fact I personally know almost everywhere the enemy might want to go and then in turn move in positions that counter those positions, but with respect to my movement, I’ll go X amount of feet, stop and listen, go some more, stop and listen, and never make a B line anywhere unless I’m in a group or feel it’s completely safe.  No cheating necessary.

On the flip side, always remember to sprint and run only when you need to, because running is the noisiest form of travel in this game, running on pavement and metal is the noisiest, followed by slow walk, and crouching walk.  All of these methods make noise, if they don’t, you need a sound upgrade.

I have a surround sound system, but prefer headphones because people live near me and I don’t want them to think WW3 is under way.  So I’m not sure if the sound is that much clearer on a complete 5.1 or greater sound system compared to my Pro Sony headphones.

Also change this setting in your user.ltx file:
“snd_targets 24″ to “snd_targets 32″
This will give the sound created by enemies more depth, you can actually sense where they are before long with a little practice.  Trust me.