STALKER Series Megathread: All news we get about STALKER 2 are bad jokes and concept art - Games

[QUOTE=Fables;34444868]I was kind of hoping for a zone more like WotW's to happen. Instead of giant factions you have small groups, and some of the groups are just fighting each other and are literally indistinguishable from any other group. I.E Just two groups of loner fighting each other, hell the other group might be "bandits" but there is really nothing to distinguish them as such.[/QUOTE] An empty Zone sounds fine as a concept but in practice it's just boring

[QUOTE=Zezibesh;34445001]An empty Zone sounds fine as a concept but in practice it's just boring[/QUOTE] I think he was pointing that currently all loners and bandits are like a hivemind instead of consisting of small groups with conflicting ideals instead of being all buddy-buddy with each other. So that you could run into loner groups that are fighting each other to get a bigger slice of the loot instead of them being always in perfect harmony with each other. [QUOTE=croguy;34445179]Althrough there should be conflicting groups of loner stalkers, I think bandits should remain as The Zone's own little mafia. They were always implied to be like them and presented like them in the games.[/QUOTE] I agree with that but I'd still like to see occasional stalkers get pissed off at each other and settle scores with bullets. Maybe even have some factions / people hire stalkers to whack you if you start causing trouble to a group.

[QUOTE=Muukkis;34445037]I think he was pointing that currently all loners and bandits are like a hivemind instead of consisting of small groups with conflicting ideals instead of being all buddy-buddy with each other. So that you could run into loner groups that are fighting each other to get a bigger slice of the loot instead of them being always in perfect harmony with each other.[/QUOTE] Althrough there should be conflicting groups of loner stalkers, I think bandits should remain as The Zone's own little mafia. They were always implied to be like them and presented like them in the games.

[QUOTE=Etcetera;34443464]Well, there's SGM, the closest thing CoP has to a crazy russian mod. It's poorly translated in spots, and not particularly well playtested, but it adds a whole load of extra everything and it'll last you quite a while. New weapons, quests, batshit crazy mutants, joinable factions, compound interest, new anomalies, new armours, new stashes, the works. Also new achievements. You can download 2.0 [URL="http://blackbyte.org/sgm/"]here.[/URL] 2.1 has recently been released, but I don't have a link for it and I imagine it's less polished. [URL="http://www.moddb.com/mods/call-of-pripyat-redux"]Redux[/URL] makes everything harder, reducing enemy loot, removing stashes and weapon upgrades, and rebalancing mutant health so that a controller isn't tougher than a tank. Thank god. It's fun, but difficult, and it may be a better idea to wait until Redux 2.0 comes out (although we don't know how long this would be), as it'll be adding a lot more features. [URL="http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-misery"]Misery[/URL] is in the same vein as Redux, but rebalanced to make stuff even harder. The author seems to have tried to cram the word "Misery" into every possible conversation, which is fukkin' annoying. Otherwise, it adds new weapons (although some of them seem to have misaligned sights), and you have the option of choosing one of three classes on install. I haven't played this one beyond 5 minutes, so I'm not the most qualified to talk about it. Most mods are installed by dropping the gamedata folder into wherever your game is installed, and removed by deleting that same folder. Some mods (Redux, Misery, off the top of my head) come with an installer.[/QUOTE] A really long time, sadly. Even I have no idea on estimates, but not soon.

[QUOTE=Muukkis;34444883]Aside from the "families stuck in the Zone"-thing I think that the NPC hubs could use things like NPCs playing cards (maybe even slip in a poker minigame), fixing / cleaning their guns, smoking tobacco (or something stronger if Freedom [img]http://i.imgur.com/qVAN4.gif[/img]) to liven up the atmosphere a little. [/QUOTE] Metro 2033 did a really good job of making the stations feel alive and real, and while the fact it was a linear game made this much easier, I agree with you that stalker could do with something like that. Even if it were just a few more idling animations than we have currently (talk/music/eat), it'd really improve immersion. Also, in TFW you can get rid of loners trying to fuck you over by disabling "Stalkers loot corpses". Also, roaming the zone as a Dutier with three buddies from the commander perk and tearing through any mutants unlucky enough to get in your way is a great feeling.

Id like more interactive NPC's Like when you kill a chimera with your knife stalkers would go like "holy shit its that guy who killed a chimera with his knife"

[QUOTE=StaT;34445964]Id like more interactive NPC's Like when you kill a chimera with your knife stalkers would go like "holy shit its that guy who killed a chimera with his knife"[/QUOTE] Well, in CoP once you complete certain quests NPCs occasionally mention it (the bloodsucker nest, for example), but that just seems pretty hard to script.

[QUOTE=Etcetera;34445987]Well, in CoP once you complete certain quests NPCs occasionally mention it (the bloodsucker nest, for example), but that just seems pretty hard to script.[/QUOTE] I liked the fact that they didn't outright jump on your dick and fellate the player for being such a great guy but instead referenced the events without even knowing who it was. [QUOTE=Zezibesh;34436293]I don't really want this after seeing how the maps in CoP turned out to be (Zaton and Yanov are boring).[/QUOTE] I have to say this : A single, large map with no loading screens in between the areas (except the labs) would be [I]amazing[/I] for a true stalker experience. Imagine packing 2-3 day's worth of food, ammo and other supplies when you're heading off to do an artifact hunt / going exploring a location as part of a "deep raid" into the Zone without any quicksaves in between. You'd have to sleep / spend the night in relatively hostile territory and really plan out your moves. Maybe you've already stashed up front ammo, medkits and food into stashes along the route and checked from the map where you'll head if you run into problems along the way. There'd be more incentive to put some thought into your loadouts when you want to take with you everything you need but also be wary of taking with you items which will just weigh you down too much and prevent you from picking up extra loot / running away if you end up in a situation you can't just solve by fighting. Further, you'd think about every encounter thoroughly before you move to engage : Even zombies or bandits can get lucky and place a few aimed shots at your head and sometimes engaging them is just an unnecessary risk. Stealth would also get a new meaning if you happen to run into a mercenary patrol in the dark but you're running low on ammo and supplies so you just want to sneak past them. Every now and then (once a week,maybe) there'd be a military chopper flying over the Zone, dropping Spetsnaz operators or just scouting for large mutant formations. You'd want to keep a low profile and definitely not carry a large weapon like a PKM / RPG when you see one. The choppers wouldn't really give a shit about poorly equipped lone stalkers but they might shoot you with the autocannon as they pass over you if they think you look like a threat. [editline]herp[/editline] Also played some Misery. Damn, the Hobo-phase is strong with this one :v: [t]http://i.imgur.com/kXzXK.jpg[/t] [I]Scouting around the sawmill[/I] [t]http://i.imgur.com/tuFbR.jpg[/t] [I]Later trip to the Sawmill. I only killed one zombie when I snatched the tools so where the hell did the rest of them go ?[/I] [t]http://i.imgur.com/W7Ppw.jpg[/t] [I]Oh god help me![/I] [img]http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-gonk.gif[/img] [t]http://i.imgur.com/5ygsV.jpg[/t] [I]Trying to help some rookies being ganked by zombies that are attacking the Skadovsk. Unfortunately I didn't check my mags and I only had 1 round left. That shot landed in the zombie's neck which wasn't enough to kill[/I] [t]http://i.imgur.com/R0URD.jpg[/t] [I]I've got you now you sonofa-[/I] [img]http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-clint.gif[/img] [t]http://i.imgur.com/C9uWZ.jpg[/t] [I]..............[/I][img]http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-gibs.gif[/img] [QUOTE=Thorny;34447033]muukis, i believe that if you don't kill all the zombies at the sawmill, those ones despawn and you get a lot more spawning in the general area of zaton[/QUOTE] Hm, thanks for the info. There's a lot of debate on it like some say that if you kill them all their spawns increase and others say the opposite but I hope the thing you said is true. The zombies in Misery are a lot more threatening than in most mods (though Redux zombies come close) so the "survival horror" aspect gets quite a lot of boost.

I'll be honest, I really liked the way TFW added experience and perks for each level. Getting to level 3 without pretty much winning was hard, but the perks there are just about amazing. Man, I remember when I was a Bandit Commander with one Yosh and two Vadim's. And they each had Bandit Exoskeletons. The Zone was ours.

muukis, i believe that if you don't kill all the zombies at the sawmill, those ones despawn and you get a lot more spawning in the general area of zaton

[QUOTE=Muukkis;34446100]I liked the fact that they didn't outright jump on your dick and fellate the player for being such a great guy but instead referenced the events without even knowing who it was. I have to say this : A single, large map with no loading screens in between the areas (except the labs) would be [I]amazing[/I] for a true stalker experience. Imagine packing 2-3 day's worth of food, ammo and other supplies when you're heading off to do an artifact hunt / going exploring a location as part of a "deep raid" into the Zone without any quicksaves in between. You'd have to sleep / spend the night in relatively hostile territory and really plan out your moves. Maybe you've already stashed up front ammo, medkits and food into stashes along the route and checked from the map where you'll head if you run into problems along the way. There'd be more incentive to put some thought into your loadouts when you want to take with you everything you need but also be wary of taking with you items which will just weigh you down too much and prevent you from picking up extra loot / running away if you end up in a situation you can't just solve by fighting. Further, you'd think about every encounter thoroughly before you move to engage : Even zombies or bandits can get lucky and place a few aimed shots at your head and sometimes engaging them is just an unnecessary risk. Stealth would also get a new meaning if you happen to run into a mercenary patrol in the dark but you're running low on ammo and supplies so you just want to sneak past them. Every now and then (once a week,maybe) there'd be a military chopper flying over the Zone, dropping Spetsnaz operators or just scouting for large mutant formations. You'd want to keep a low profile and definitely not carry a large weapon like a PKM / RPG when you see one. The choppers wouldn't really give a shit about poorly equipped lone stalkers but they might shoot you with the autocannon as they pass over you if they think you look like a threat.[/QUOTE] Everyone would love this but a game like this wouldn't be a stalker game anymore. Think about vanilla. You can cross any map in less than ten minutes. To make a map large enough for it to take several ingame days to cross would mean more distance between interesting locations and thus more uninteresting, dull landscapes with nothing of substance. Look at ArmA 2. Huge map, hours of hiking in clone-forests. A "true Zone experience" sounds enticing but from a realistic and game design standpoint it's silly to even to think about. And don't even mention Bethesda maps, those are boring and full of cloned content.

[QUOTE=Zezibesh;34447158]Everyone would love this but a game like this wouldn't be a stalker game anymore. Think about vanilla. You can cross any map in less than ten minutes.[/QUOTE] Well sure, if you just run from one end to another when you are already familiar with the territory. The maps should be designed to make you more cautious and discourage you from just running at full speed the whole time. The placement of military checkpoints, minefields , environmental hazards and anomaly fields should be designed so that you'll have to be more cautious when trekking through the levels and thus take more time unless you know the entire map by heart. Besides, when I said the treks might last several ingame days, I meant with all the activities like taking into mind blowouts, artifact hunting, combat, exploration and such. Sure, you CAN run through the map faster but if you're going a "no-save"-run then chances are that you're not going to just rush your way across the maps but try to conserve your stamina. Not to mention that if you're going to go artifact hunting, chances are that those locations are spread across the map instead of being in only one direction so you'd have to visit all "corners" so to speak. If the next STALKER game also adds more survival elements like the [I]need[/I] to sleep, then you're probably going to have to sleep "in the field" as well. [editline]herp[/editline] Yeah, I understand where your skepticism towards Stalker 2 having just "One big map" is coming from but c'mon, SoC style maps aren't going to cut it anymore.

I love Bethesda maps. The Capital Wasteland was filled to the brim with interesting places, even if the caves were copy pasted.

Holy shit, Darkscape in RMA is fucking intense.

i would like it personally if there was more 'boring area' between interesting areas in STALKER 2. I like the idea of crossing a huge forest in the dark if there are mutant/NPC spawns there, and maybe little interesting things dotted around.

[QUOTE=Muukkis;34447270]Well sure, if you just run from one end to another when you are already familiar with the territory. The maps should be designed to make you more cautious and discourage you from just running at full speed the whole time. The placement of military checkpoints, minefields , environmental hazards and anomaly fields should be designed so that you'll have to be more cautious when trekking through the levels and thus take more time unless you know the entire map by heart. Besides, when I said the treks might last several ingame days, I meant with all the activities like taking into mind blowouts, artifact hunting, combat, exploration and such. Sure, you CAN run through the map faster but if you're going a "no-save"-run then chances are that you're not going to just rush your way across the maps but try to conserve your stamina. Not to mention that if you're going to go artifact hunting, chances are that those locations are spread across the map instead of being in only one direction so you'd have to visit all "corners" so to speak. If the next STALKER game also adds more survival elements like the [I]need[/I] to sleep, then you're probably going to have to sleep "in the field" as well.[/QUOTE] But the majority of the players don't play "no-death" runs and such. Run out of food? Just pop that bandit you're bound to meet, he'll surely carry something. Encountering enemies also makes planning with supply selection worthless. Why pack carefully when you can take everything from corpses? Ammo will never be an issue when using 9x19, 9x18, or 5.45x39 ammunition. If you're not horrible at the game you can kill most human enemies with 2-3 rounds, and you'll surely find more on their corpse. Without buying any ammo I had around 3000 rounds for my gun by the end of CoP. And the alternative, less human enemies? Either that means an empty world with no threats (anomalies don't count, I can't even remember when I last died to one) or much, much more mutants. That would mean more varied design but how many greatly differing designs can you actually make, without resorting to silly designs like Fallout?

One large map would be fun, but I already know it wouldn't be implemented properly at all. I've played CoP enough to know that GSC can make large maps, but they're rather uninteresting to say the least. Zaton was pretty cool, Jupiter was great in some spots, and then Pripyat had so much potential but instead was very lacking. I'd personally prefer to have SoC esque maps that are a bit larger in size.

You have to remember, that a big reason that you can run through CoPs maps so quickly, is because they removed random 'nomalies.

I personally think the Zone would be much more interesting if the anomalies were randomly placed (ala AMK or FreeplayStart) and had different strengths and life cycles, as well as being harder to spot without a detector. (because come on, they're really fucking obvious in SoC) In the PDA's encyclopedia, some of the entries say things like "this anomaly's lifespan is about a week on average", so obviously it was meant to be like this at one point. I think it'd keep it from being so damn easy to just sprint through once you've played through the level 3 times.. It'd also be kind of neat if certain anomalies would 'move' or follow a path, like the elektra tunnel in Cordon or Agroprom Underground. Anomaly clusters should still exist of course, and it'd be a lot harder to make a profit in STALKER if you'd only be able to find artifacts around these randomly generated clusters.

[QUOTE=Amez;34447643]One large map would be fun, but I already know it wouldn't be implemented properly at all. I've played CoP enough to know that GSC can make large maps, but they're rather uninteresting to say the least. Zaton was pretty cool, Jupiter was great in some spots, and then Pripyat had so much potential but instead was very lacking. I'd personally prefer to have SoC esque maps that are a bit larger in size.[/QUOTE] I really liked Pripyat. Yes, it was empty, but it had so many places that you could, against all appearances, get inside and look around. It was a lot like the SoC pripyat in that regard--quiet, forbidding place, lots of buildings you can get into. Mostly empty, but when they're not... The point is, it's a great environment, but GSC just didn't spend enough time putting stuff in it. I mean, look at SGM--Pripyat is pretty much the most interesting place in the game in that mod. Monolith base, chimeras, a building full of mercs, and a certain encounter in a hidden apartment building...

I kind of liked how anomalies weren't random in CoP, it made sense because only the most radioactive/deformed areas had anomalies. But a random anomaly here or there probably wouldn't hurt.

[QUOTE=Zezibesh;34447620]But the majority of the players don't play "no-death" runs and such. Run out of food? Just pop that bandit you're bound to meet, he'll surely carry something.[/QUOTE] This problem is present in the STALKER games regardless of of map design. [QUOTE=Zezibesh;34447620]Encountering enemies also makes planning with supply selection worthless. Why pack carefully when you can take everything from corpses? [/QUOTE] Again, it's not about map design but about proper game balance. I don't know about you but personally I'm already expecting the "Redux" of S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 that makes supplies found on enemies more scarce[/QUOTE] Regardless of map design, the game areas should be designed so that there would be only few safe hubs like the Bar / Yanov Station / the Skadovsk and their location would be less "central" to the maps so that you'd have to spend a little longer time out in the sticks kind of like Agroprom Operation had you spend quite a lot of time away from a trader. Or maybe you'd only have access to ghetto-tier traders outside the largest hub.

[QUOTE=JoeSibilant;34447729]I really liked Pripyat. Yes, it was empty, but it had so many places that you could, against all appearances, get inside and look around. It was a lot like the SoC pripyat in that regard--quiet, forbidding place, lots of buildings you can get into. Mostly empty, but when they're not... The point is, it's a great environment, but GSC just didn't spend enough time putting stuff in it. I mean, look at SGM--Pripyat is pretty much the most interesting place in the game in that mod. Monolith base, chimeras, a building full of mercs, and a certain encounter in a hidden apartment building...[/QUOTE] The area itself was amazing, all it needed was some life and things to do. [QUOTE=Lyoko774;34447711]I personally think the Zone would be much more interesting if the anomalies were randomly placed (ala AMK or FreeplayStart) and had different strengths and life cycles, as well as being harder to spot without a detector. (because come on, they're really fucking obvious in SoC) In the PDA's encyclopedia, some of the entries say things like "this anomaly's lifespan is about a week on average", so obviously it was meant to be like this at one point. I think it'd keep it from being so damn easy to just sprint through once you've played through the level 3 times.. It'd also be kind of neat if certain anomalies would 'move' or follow a path, like the elektra tunnel in Cordon or Agroprom Underground. Anomaly clusters should still exist of course, and it'd be a lot harder to make a profit in STALKER if you'd only be able to find artifacts around these randomly generated clusters.[/QUOTE] This is the anomaly infested Zone I want. Also some anomalies should be visible and others partially invisible. I remember some mod making most if not all of them invisible and randomly generated, which led to a lot of frustration. I'm not saying make it easy to run everywhere, but make it easy enough to be able to take a brisk walk without having to pull out your detector every 4 seconds.

[QUOTE=Amez;34447797]The area itself was amazing, all it needed was some life and things to do. This is the anomaly infested Zone I want. Also some anomalies should be visible and others partially invisible. I remember some mod making most if not all of them invisible and randomly generated, which led to a lot of frustration. I'm not saying make it easy to run everywhere, but make it easy enough to be able to take a brisk walk without having to pull out your detector every 4 seconds.[/QUOTE] Yeah. AMK and Freeplay Start both implement a random anomaly system. I actually ripped out FS' random anomalies to work standalone..If you want, I can dig it out and upload it somewhere.

[QUOTE=Thorny;34447582]i would like it personally if there was more 'boring area' between interesting areas in STALKER 2. I like the idea of crossing a huge forest in the dark if there are mutant/NPC spawns there, and maybe little interesting things dotted around.[/QUOTE] I'd like that mixed with Wild Territory style areas. Out of all the places in the entire series that is my favorite for some reason.

[QUOTE=spekter;34447918]I'd like that mixed with Wild Territory style areas. Out of all the places in the entire series that is my favorite for some reason.[/QUOTE] I'd love to see more areas like Clear Sky's Red Forest and the cut Darkscape. Large, open levels, plenty to explore.

What I think would be a really awesome stalker game: Save points, better a-life, random anomalys and a working stealth system with some variables you can change. Makes you be more vary of a risk because you can't just save-scum (Term picked up from blabs, means save before hard parts or all the time.) Better a-life to make things play out differently everytime to make it not be stale or make you unable to run everywhere with no worry of danger. Random anomaly to make you unable to sprint everywhere, and a working stealth system so you can hide from gun-fights and to not take the unnecessary risk of getting in every gun-fight and then having to reload a previous long ago save. I'm thinking that, part of the stealth system could be like metal gear solid, with a percentage on the chance that you're seen. You could decrease this percentage by getting camo, or going prone. Then you would maybe have to drop using a stronger armor, for the lack of money to buy camo for it. For this stealth system to come in use, you would have to make combat harder. Right now with the current system, you can just quick-save and then if you die there's no worries. This is the reason they should implement a save-point system. Then there's the combat difficulty, honestly it's fine right now. Getting killed with a few bullets and the enemy too, is the best from my point of view. The enemy AI could be better though. Using more flanking techniques, trying to outsmart the player, stuff like that. I also think it could do with doing things a litle more tactically. Like healing is not done by spamming a button. I'm not suggesting having a minigame, but maybe something like having applying a medkit take a few seconds to apply, having bandages be more needed. I think we all want stalker to be more survival based, which is done by creating a need and then having the player need to fulfill it. Not fulfilling this need should have a penalty, therefore drawing the player to want to fulfill it. This could be hunger, getting enough ammo, repairing armor or other things. The thing about ammo(among other things) scarcity is that, it's really hard to get right. Either you have enemies carry a little bit of ammo and having them take a few hits, or you have to have them carry fair amounts of ammo, but take more bullets. Each of these systems have flaws. It seems stupid to have them carry little ammo, because you don't go in a gunfight with 2-5 bullets, and in the gunfight itself, they probably use about 2 magazines. You could just say "They used all the other ammo.", but what if you caught them off guard? They would still only have 2-5 bullets. Then you would have to have them have actual ammo counts and have them loot ammo, then it would probably get a bit expensive on your system having to load and unload all this info. Then there's having them have a lot of ammo, and this get boring in the long run, because you would have to make the enemies bullet sponges as to make the numbers get even. Then you would even have to make the player still be fragile, however this would create a "false" difficulty. It can get frustrating unloading on enemies and just getting hit 3 times and die. Then giving player as much health as the npc's, this would just make long and tedious firefights, and it would make the game too easy. Now, thinking of all this, there's also the economy problem, seeing as killing enemies is not the only way to get ammo. You would have to make money scarce too, and it would be done best if, selling weapons grant little profit, quest don't always give money, and when they do it's not too much, just enough to cover food, reparations, ammo and then some, and then have things cost a bit more. Speaking of a quest I thought of a little system to keep things from being tiring and repetitive. Soc's quests were too boring and reminded of eachother, the quest were simple enough that it would be better with a random system, but they didn't so it kinda rids it of the replay value. Boring quests that are the same each game. CoP's were an upgrade but it still had it's flaws. They're a bit too unique, again ridding it of it's replay value. They're great and exciting on a first playthrough, but on future playthroughs you might not want to do them, due to feeling like they're long and unmysterious. Here's where my system comes in. It's a "slot machine" so to speak. Mixing different parts. It would be like "Do X at Y with Z condition and get Æ reward." This could create "Kill mercs at Abandonded Farmstead without being seen for a Accuracy upgrade". Of course they don't have to be simply 4 variables or simply just 1 part. But this is just the basic jist of it. They should also not show the reward as it might lead to the player turning down the quest and keep trying until a money reward comes up. I think this is all I have to say. Hope you read all this. There's probably a lot of errors or some oversight, feel free to argue with this. [B]Edit:[/B] Oh wait, I forgot a thing. With the hunger system I was thinking of, the penalty for not eating should not be death. This would lead to player getting very annoyed, and it would be unrealistic. What should happen instead is The player should shake making aiming harder, not be able to sprint very far or at all. Maybe make it so the players vision gets distorted for a little bit, instantly stopping if gunfire or something of the sort happens. I'm sure in real life you wouldn't concentrate so much on your hunger if you hear shots around you. It would just lead to the player having a hard time engaging in combat and having the player have to evade pretty much every enemy. Thus creating another use for the stealth system.

[QUOTE=Tinter;34448543]I think this is all I have to say. Hope you read all this. There's probably a lot of errors or some oversight, feel free to argue with this.[/QUOTE] There's a lot of good ideas but limiting your savegames is something that I don't really see fitting at all in PC games, especially ones that are "open world". For those that savescumming is a problem, they should just unbind the quicksave key, really. [QUOTE=Tinter;34448543] It seems stupid to have them carry little ammo, because you don't go in a gunfight with 2-5 bullets, and in the gunfight itself, they probably use about 2 magazines. You could just say "They used all the other ammo.", but what if you caught them off guard? They would still only have 2-5 bullets.[/QUOTE] How about this : The enemies will have 2-3 magazines / clips by default, maybe a bit less when they come "online" near you. If they start firing and deplete their ammo, they'll generate a really small amount of rounds when you loot them, but if you catch them off guard or kill them quick, you'll get more ammo. Swartz mod did a pretty interesting solution : Enemies carry "surplus" ammo which is shitty, more inaccurate and eats through your gun a lot faster. I think a good balance between no ammo at all and having LODS would be to make the more scarce military grade ammo more desirable if you don't want to have your gun go broke in field conditions. [QUOTE=Tinter;34448808]I think you misunderstood me, I mean just limiting where you save, like somebody plays the game. Saving only at safe places. Like GTA, you can only save at safe houses. Of course this game a bit different in that there's not constant danger about, but you don't always think of the risk of going outside. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you.[/QUOTE] I know what you meant but then the game difficulty would get dumbed down significantly like Call of Pripyat did just to accommodate people that don't have the discipline to not save-scum. With the current system, both those that want to quicksave and those who want to restrain themselves can have their way and the game doesn't need to be rebalanced to be easy enough to be played without quicksaves so it'd be more hardcore to those who have the discipline to not-savescum.

[QUOTE='[Green];34443279']From what I can understand there's two versions. One makes you run like a mofo on speed while the other makes you the fatass. I wouldn't mind running fast, the mod itself looks pretty. I'm not sure on the details though and all that is gathered from talk in this thread. I'd need some more info on whether to patch the mod or keep it unpatched.[/QUOTE] There's a section in the FAQ that tells you how to change the stamina thing if you don't like it. That way it'll be back to the regular no drain on running/walking, drain on sprinting system.

[QUOTE=Tinter;34448543]What I think would be a really awesome stalker game: Save points, [/QUOTE] This is a terrible idea. [quote]For this stealth system to come in use, you would have to make combat harder. Right now with the current system, you can just quick-save and then if you die there's no worries. This is the reason they should implement a save-point system. Then there's the combat difficulty, honestly it's fine right now. Getting killed with a few bullets and the enemy too, is the best from my point of view. The enemy AI could be better though. Using more flanking techniques, trying to outsmart the player, stuff like that. I also think it could do with doing things a litle more tactically. Like healing is not done by spamming a button. I'm not suggesting having a minigame, but maybe something like having applying a medkit take a few seconds to apply, having bandages be more needed. I think we all want stalker to be more survival based, which is done by creating a need and then having the player need to fulfill it. Not fulfilling this need should have a penalty, therefore drawing the player to want to fulfill it. This could be hunger, getting enough ammo, repairing armor or other things. The thing about ammo(among other things) scarcity is that, it's really hard to get right. Either you have enemies carry a little bit of ammo and having them take a few hits, or you have to have them carry fair amounts of ammo, but take more bullets. Each of these systems have flaws. It seems stupid to have them carry little ammo, because you don't go in a gunfight with 2-5 bullets, and in the gunfight itself, they probably use about 2 magazines. You could just say "They used all the other ammo.", but what if you caught them off guard? They would still only have 2-5 bullets. Then you would have to have them have actual ammo counts and have them loot ammo, then it would probably get a bit expensive on your system having to load and unload all this info. Then there's having them have a lot of ammo, and this get boring in the long run, because you would have to make the enemies bullet sponges as to make the numbers get even. Then you would even have to make the player still be fragile, however this would create a "false" difficulty. It can get frustrating unloading on enemies and just getting hit 3 times and die. Then giving player as much health as the npc's, this would just make long and tedious firefights, and it would make the game too easy. Now, thinking of all this, there's also the economy problem, seeing as killing enemies is not the only way to get ammo. You would have to make money scarce too, and it would be done best if, selling weapons grant little profit, quest don't always give money, and when they do it's not too much, just enough to cover food, reparations, ammo and then some, and then have things cost a bit more. [/quote] Possibly make the majority of the rounds looted from enemies low quality, in a similar manner to 2033's military grade vs standard ammo. Diversification of calibres (more than just 3 AR calibres) might also help. Oh, apparently Swartz mod already did this. Personally, I'm like the idea of hubs being havens of relative safety, but also fairly boring, forcing the player to venture out further afield to get better items and the like. In CoP this didn't really feel the case. Reading the TFW thread a few days ago, one of the devs suggested the idea of a "Psyche" bar that degenerated the longer you stayed without comfort and company, and spiked downwards at things like emissions, mutant attacks and anomalies, and could be regenerated with the use of certain items, and, more usefully, by sitting down with fellow STALKERs round a campfire or whatever. It'd be hard to implement it in a way that doesn't feel arbitrary, but I think there might be some promise in it. For it to work, though, I think they'd have to be some other worthwhile thing to do while sitting round the campfire. Maybe you could build rep with fellow Stalkers or get contact details or something. Maybe you could make carry-able food (tourists breakfast, bread, etc), far less effective at combating hunger, and make it so only hubs serve truly nourishing food, or you have to cook food on a campfire or something. [quote] Oh wait, I forgot a thing. With the hunger system I was thinking of, the penalty for not eating should not be death. This would lead to player getting very annoyed, and it would be unrealistic. What should happen instead is The player should shake making aiming harder, not be able to sprint very far or at all. Maybe make it so the players vision gets distorted for a little bit, instantly stopping if gunfire or something of the sort happens. I'm sure in real life you wouldn't concentrate so much on your hunger if you hear shots around you. It would just lead to the player having a hard time engaging in combat and having the player have to evade pretty much every enemy. Thus creating another use for the stealth system. [/quote] I think this isn't a bad idea. IIRC someone was trying to make drunkenness/hunger reduce weapon handling and the like, but it didn't work. What you have to avoid though, is having a whole host of effects that just make the screen go blurry and shaky. I've seen that far too many times, be it "fatigue", "drunkenness", being shot or whatever. Running away needs to be a more viable solution, both for the player and enemies.