• S.T.A.L.K.E.R Series Megathread: Maybe someday games releasing edition
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I just wasn't sure if you knew of those already, that's all
Sin was in the original design documents but I feel like Lost Alpha took it and ran with it... they were just supposed to be rowdy near-zombified stalkers, not mystical agents of Satan or whatever.
https://media.moddb.com/cache/images/downloads/1/174/173375/thumb_620x2000/zombie_00.jpg Blind Zombie Model addon Some people probably saw it already in Anomaly and RttN but this is proper version with better textures and modified animations.
Its a game series with good fundamental gameplay mechanics and loops, and an original setting which is rare these days with a creatively bankrupt industry. Its not the mods giving it life, because A) most mods don't really change much despite their pretensions otherwise (e.g i dont consider adding 100 variants of AK to be fundamentally adding to the game when everything else is literally identical) and B) None of the mods with the exception of kind of sort of CoC have ever brought new game content to bear (actually thats not true i can think of at least 2 russian mods that did so, but ironically they're not even that popular and anyway the point is few and far between, so people have been playing almost exactly the same game every time) I still play jagged alliance 2 every year or so, because literally everything else in the genre since is complete dogshit or noticeably inferior. 1999 that game came out.
It's a unique genre. It's a FPS with pseudo-RPG elements (roaming NPCs, inventory management, stats to track) and the setting is basically non-existent in non-linear games. There are other games with a similar setting (Metro), but nothing comes to mind in terms of a freeroaming FPS-RPGlite with the same gameplay loop.
New personal record... Whole model and first test shading/coloring in one day: https://media.moddb.com/images/members/5/4060/4059935/two-k_new_model_test_04.jpg https://i.imgur.com/awi71CU.png Now sadly long process of adding details and custom animations.... Probably replacement for izlom? Adding some clothes could be good...
I find STALKER also has rather satisfying gunplay and combat in a way similar FPS lack. Some guns are straight shit, but then it feels so much better to get one of the better guns. It feels like actual progression. It has a good blend of hip fire and iron sights, without requiring either. Plus the world is great and unique, and there isn't anything to compare it to. NPC roam around and have a life outside of serving hte player, where as all other similar game, NPC have no purpose but to be player fodder. Then the world has this weird, otherworldly apocalyptic feel, with just the right blend of reality bending elements. Meanwhile, the world outside is not only fine, but thriving. being so unique and one of a kind os what brings me back to it over and over. There's no other game out there that comes close. I know a lot of people say metro, but it just doesn't have that same feel, and the mutants are heavily downplayed through most of the game, plus it's just straight up apocalyptic.
https://imgur.com/a/88D36it Quick update thing because I playtested some features today a short while. You got to wear the psi-helmet for it to grant you protection in the areas around the psi-emitters in the Zone. You wont die instantly if you take it off if you need to do so quickly for some reason, but if it stays off you'll succumb eventually. Also the item in the F4 quick-slot is a dosimeter. Works like in other mods with similiar features, gives you your rad dosage when used. This one is the "best" one as it gives you number readings, there are others which only give you estimates in various degrees for some side-progression and immersion making. If anyone knows how to tie the audio geiger counter (i.e. the clicks) to only emit sound when you have one of these in your inventory, you're welcome to share. Been rattling my brain for a while. p.s. haven't forgotten about you wepl, just haven't been able to sit down long enough other than quick sessions.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/980afa1a-0975-4084-aaac-8938ca9b588d/xrEngine 2019-01-16 09-52-24-65.jpg https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/234bfadc-0692-4f8e-aa6c-bc454034572c/xrEngine 2019-01-16 09-54-32-21.jpg https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/e1b64a09-3ce0-4cdd-a5cf-ffffedaaafb2/xrEngine 2019-01-16 09-55-48-38.jpg https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/e0810d20-9295-4475-ad75-5369950d6dad/xrEngine 2019-01-16 09-54-02-77.jpg more progress on the radar overhaul - nothing shown is final and everything is subject to change. there are also currently a lot of placeholder models to mark locations that i'm still deciding on. keep in mind i'm not very experienced in map design. any advice/constructive criticism would be appreciated.
I dig most of the new details and flora additions, but some of the extra structures in the radar complex feel a little out of place. I don't know the story or what lore you are following behind the bunker being at the radar so I can't comment on that, but the placement itself feels too crammed. If you're keen on a little world building then remember that they are supposed to be carried in by freight helicopter, the placement feels illogical with that in mind. I can see that you've stripped some areas of details like flora and such to probably accommodate the limits of X-Ray, which is fine in itself. But according to my mapping ideology at least, it is less jarring to have a "blanket" level of detailing in levels rather than having certain areas be more or less so. Consider that the player will definitely appreciate the areas that are more luscious in props and objects, but that can come at the price of having clear transitions between areas of a map. With the effect ultimately being, in my opinion, messaging the player that "this detailed area is what matters in this level", which makes the rest more like filler and also less attractive to both traverse or gameplay in. In the end it's a matter of what you consider important in a level, but it might be worth considering. Otherwise I'm thrilled that more people are messing about with the levels themselves, and I'm sorry if I come across as not digging it. Cause I am.
i asked for constructive criticism - and i could not of asked for a better post than this. so don't worry about about offending me, i truly do appreciate you giving your thoughts i hope this doesn't come across as trying to prove you wrong, but i thought i'd give some clarification/insight about some of the things you mentioned in your post. -changes to lore/locations the radar zone in its entirety are going to be no longer controlled by monolith. i wanted to have a hub zone that didn't take place in the typical rostok, army warehouses, etc. the monolith will have control of other zones, but i've more or less changed the entire feel and atmosphere of the zone. -bunker mostly just a placeholder model. i sort of had an idea of an ecologist encampment inside of a neutral stalker encampment (the compound, which was previously controlled by monolith). the idea was that the ecologists sort of settled down in that area to conduct studies on that strange pipe structure next to it which i planned to contain psy fields and perhaps some anomalies. im not sure if i'm going to follow through with this idea, but that ecologist bunker is definitely going to be replaced by more of a "forward operating" camp. -complex structures yeah i agree some of the areas in the "compound" may be a bit overdone, but most of that wasn't actually me. a lot of those structures are there in base stalker but they aren't used and the ladders aren't climbable. since adding ladders is extremely simple, i made a lot of the previously "fake" ladders useable which ending up opening a lot of new areas the player was able to reach. since being able to get on top of only one of the buildings via the ladders seemed like a waste, i ended up adding additional ways to get to the newly accessible locations. -lack of stuff in certain areas this is just stuff i haven't touched. i wanted to completely rework radar from the ground up and i started this by deleting all of the buildings, flora, anomalies, and scenery at the start of the project. as for why there are some areas i haven't touched yet - it's because i'm first fleshing out the main "points of interest" so i can primarily focus on fleshing out the main points of attraction in the area that the players are going to be spending the majority of their time in - and then designing the accompanying scenery around those areas. that being said, i do agree that the areas that aren't these "points of interest" do need attention as well so that don't feel just like dull space that the player is required to walk through just to get to somewhere interesting. a very good point to raise. once again ,thanks for the post. ps: get on steam.
Alright, well most if not all of my points are invalid after your explanations. I based my judgement with the buildings on muscle memory, which was dumb. Popped into the LE and checked for myself, sorry! Also yeah I've been meaning to, I'm busy moving apartments and all that entails right now and I have music work to do otherwise on my downtime currently. We'll get there!
More than two weeks into Lost Alpha on and off. I don't have an appropriate face for my exasperation. Every time it starts to shine - every time a MQ thread deviates in an interesting way - every time the refreshing levels give me that good vibe again something SHITS IT ALL UP. Oh, it wasn't just the balance - where Boars are the new supermutant threat extraordinaire and ammo is more scarce than a bloodsucker with tits. It wasn't the janked level transitions of "LOGGING IN PROGRESS" or suffering-of-life fixes such as "NO SAVING DURING BLOWOUT ))" and having to put ammo on the belt. No, it wasn't even when the game and save file I have been clinging too has destabilized into a mess, resurrected from an early gave by flagging the exe to use more RAM and doing the prefretch thing, which still offs itself via memory on EVERY LEVEL TRANSITION now (but loads the created autosave just fine.) It was at the point in which the quest later in the game with the bar bugged out and I was left FIGHTING TWO FUCKING INVISIBLE HELICOPTERS WITH SOME SHITTY ROCKETS VS. FLYING GOPNIK DEATHRAYS THAT INFLICT 800% BLEEDING ON A GRAZING HIT. Oh and I did it. I USED MY MIGHTY QUICKSAVE ARTIFACT TO MUDDLE THROUGH THAT FUCKING MESS AFTER THIRTY TRIES. AND HERE I AM RUNNING DOWN A SCREECHING ZOMBIFIED LITTLE-PERSON WITH MY KNIFE, ASKING IF THIS EXPERIENCE IS WORTH IT. And it is. If you like pain. Not in the stupid fucking Misery pseudo-suffering generator way, but in the continual question of what in the fuck were they thinking.
oh god.
i can't remember the name - but just look forward to all the fun you'll have in the lab with mile lonhg corridors and a single invulnerable npc that follows you around and permanently blocks you.
I don't know if this has been posted before, but there's a couple episodes of COPS they filmed in the USSR, and at the end of the second one there's a scene in which the russian policemen are chilling out, cooking some shaslik and playing the guitar while singing that gives me sweet stalker vibes. Plus the song they sing about themselves is pretty catchy, So here it is, minute 19:00, in case someone finds russian folk music as cool as I do.
WHERE IS MY DAMN CHEESE?! https://media.moddb.com/images/members/5/4060/4059935/tuskano_alpha.jpg
Nice work, I'd keep the old ear shape though, the pointy ears kind of makes it look more gremlin-like and based in fantasy as opposed to "mutation".
I think my fucking playthough boar killcount is over 200 already. And I just love the fact they take FOUR BUCKSHOT HEADSHOTS TO KILL. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/238143/189551e4-3980-49ad-b2c4-de06b3c7a1e2/ss_doom_01-19-19_15-52-07_(la19_country)_w_default_cloudy_18_00_to_default_cloudy_19_00_gt_18-20.jpg
I've been getting that old good STALKER itch again lately, what's the latest and greatest SOUP going around right now for some new experiences? CoC's dragging on a bit.
The big hotnesses I'm hearing about are Lost Alpha DC (see above, I don't really recommend), Anomaly 1.5 (kitchen-sink misery-lite freeplay on CoC?), and Joint Pak 2 (not fully translated yet, full SOUP catastrophe jankmess. I forgot what the last great stable SOUP-esq was, I played one that was excellent awhile back (OGSE?)
Was OGSE considered a SOUP? I've played that one, it was pretty solid
I may be confusing it. All I remember is it was expansive, it had that trademark SOUP intro of waking up on the road next to the deathtruck with nothing a medkit - and there was a mission later on (optional) where you legit stopped a clowncar of mercs or something. It was all scripted so the car actually drove up and mercs popped out - in Dead Valley.
NS 2016 is the most polished right now, with decent Eng translation. Narodnaya Solyanka mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
SGM is always good too
Yeah i played quite a bit of SGM, it was solid. Been mucking about in Anomaly, it's decent enough so far, i curse whoever introduced cats into Stalker. Also i really just don't like the Misery system of six billion items with vague uses and all your repair shit can't be used below a certain percentage so you have to do upkeep after practically every gunfight.
SGM was good, though I doubt the latest version past 2.2 will ever come out. I couldn't believe the game let me get away with lugging around an AMR loaded with explosive rounds. I also had a grenade launcher with over 100+ nades as a secondary. It was a fun demoman run
yeah this is one of my biggest complaints about LA right now...
Speaking of this. I'd like some input regarding this. For my own mod project I'm trying to strike a balance between "world-building" and "immersive" features and items, and the pure gameplay aspect of those items. Right now I haven't introduced any advanced item features so that part of the gameplay still feels relatively vanilla. But I'm considering implementing a bunch of "junk" items that gives more of a payoff than 2% repair on some weapon or such yet don't clutter too much. Things like having scientists drop anomaly scanners that give you guide articles, or having military officers drop PDAs that marks a random military squad on the map so you can avoid/go fight them. Feed me ideas and your opinions on where the golden ratio is in the matter!
I'm playing anomaly at the moment (1.3.3) It absolutely suffers from the same obsession with inventory bloat as Misery, but it's fun, and not as difficult for the sake of being difficult as misery.
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