u/Should_have_been_ded

Greetings, newbie here, just launched the game today. It's my first STALKER title too.

So first mission: go north and clear a pump station somewhere in the middle of the swamp. I arrived there and noticed the pump station is guarded by 7-8-ish people, while I only have a pistol and a knife. I'm thinking to myself "Oh, I can't go Rambo style, the game must be teaching me to stealth". After a bit of trial and error I figure out how to get on the station unnoticed.

There he is, my first victim. I approach him from behind, knife in hand thinking I'm gonna silently take him down and slit his throat, adrenaline rushing, the prompt appears, hit F, and instead of murder I initiated a pleasant chat with him. Only that instead of a hello I received a bullet through the skull.

Take two, knife in hand, I approach him, and swung the blade around like a mad man, guy doesn't die, everyone gets alerted, I'm swiss cheese again.

I swear I saw something about stealth in the modpacks, but just in passing. I think I might be missing something, how do I kill a target silently without altering everyone else? Is that a thing in this game?