S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series Megathread: The Zone will stop the Russians - Games

Doesn't CoP have a free play mod? I think it's literally just called freemode mod or something.

I don't know what Dezowaves plans are concerning this but didn't the original STALKER supposed to have that feature where other Stalkers could finish the story before you did? I would kill for a freeplay mod where you can race against other Stalkers to open up a route to the center of the Zone and compete for all the loot there. -edit- Also since the maps are so big now, some really large anomaly fields which you have to traverse through, akin to Roadside Picnic, would be awesome.

[QUOTE=Dub!;44728886]Doesn't CoP have a free play mod? I think it's literally just called freemode mod or something.[/QUOTE] What do you mean by that? I'm pretty sure after the last mission, you can chose to stay and keep playing for as long as you want instead of ending the game there

[QUOTE=DEMONSKUL;44728916]What do you mean by that? I'm pretty sure after the last mission, you can chose to stay and keep playing for as long as you want instead of ending the game there[/QUOTE] From the start I think, and with unlocked A-Life in Pripyat etc.

[QUOTE=Thomo_UK;44728936]From the start I think, and with unlocked A-Life in Pripyat etc.[/QUOTE] I am very interested in this

[QUOTE=Sokos;44728915]but didn't the original STALKER supposed to have that feature where other Stalkers could finish the story before you did?.[/QUOTE] That was pretty much hyped-up horseradish that never really materialized in any shape or form. But yeah, they were supposed to have a system where some stalkers have the goal of uncovering the Zone's secret before you did and were supposed to gather clues--->trail those clues to the next clue--->and so on until they complete the quest as well. [QUOTE=Dub!;44728886]Doesn't CoP have a free play mod? I think it's literally just called freemode mod or something.[/QUOTE] You can choose to stay in the Zone after the ending of the game but if you want an actual freeplay mod that rips out the story and lets you stalk on your own terms, wait for Call of Chernobyl. [editline]herp[/editline] [QUOTE=croguy;44729218]I'd like to wonder how they'd react when they'd find out you cleaned up house fast enough before they got there.[/QUOTE] They'd probably turn hostile or threaten you...Which would be fine, imo, because I don't like how free stalkers act like a hugbox, it'd be nice to see selfish and player-like behavior like how TFW does with NPCs that "call" loot that they feel entitled to.

[QUOTE=Muukkis;44729053]That was pretty much hyped-up horseradish that never really materialized in any shape or form. But yeah, they were supposed to have a system where some stalkers have the goal of uncovering the Zone's secret before you did and were supposed to gather clues--->trail those clues to the next clue--->and so on until they complete the quest as well.[/QUOTE] I'd like to wonder how they'd react when they'd find out you cleaned up house fast enough before they got there. It'd probably end up with a shootout of some 20 or so veteran stalkers underneath the radar, all trying to flip the same damn switch before some other one does.

[QUOTE=Sokos;44728915]I don't know what Dezowaves plans are concerning this but didn't the original STALKER supposed to have that feature where other Stalkers could finish the story before you did? I would kill for a freeplay mod where you can race against other Stalkers to open up a route to the center of the Zone and compete for all the loot there. [/QUOTE] Hah, that was a load of garbage devs came up with to justify their inability to deliver on their utterly impossible promises. As far as I remember, and I followed the development of this game since the start, GSC first stated that their AI is going to be [b]so[/b] advanced it's gonna pursuit the same goal as the player, and player will have to interact with them, feed them false info, buy them over, convince to join your cause etc. GSC promised the game where you have absolute freedom with basically one goal, and the world around you will be living, breathing, parts of it interacting with one another on their own, so the player won't be the center of the universe. A few years later, as it turned out, the media didn't forget about their bullshit and held them to it (imagine that, gaming journalism wasn't complete and utter joke back then!), so one of the devs (guess who it was, I dare you) gave an interview where he told this very sad story, that absolutely happened, no doubt, for the first time: when they playtested the world - which was absolutely complete at that point, again, no doubts, - it turned out that the competing stalkers can reach the goal of the game on their own! And the player gets left out! I believe it was a Russian journal game.exe that died some time before 2005 that first published that story. Long story short, GSC, of course, decided, that the world is not yet ready for such advancements in AI and life simulation just yet (or rather, that players would not play the game where they can be left out, but it's the same level of "do they think we are idiots?!" so may as well be interchangable versions). But unfortunately, GSC were unable to just tone it down a bit and leave it in for some inexplicable reason (I guess, there were no Eastern European wizards around Ukrainian company's HQ at the time), so they scrapped the whole thing and "had to start over, and that's why the game we started developing like 4 years ago won't see the light of day for a year more," that then turned into two and so forth, the rest of the story is common knowledge and in the end we got what we got, hardly breathing buggy fucking mess of broken promises with bright, living spirit (atmosphere) inside of its barely beating heart. So no, it was never supposed to be like that, GSC knew they were lying in people's faces.

I followed the development since the start along with my brother and strongly recall that they ended up ditching that idea simply because the hardware at the time wasn't powerful enough to simulate such things. Unless that was just them trying to save their asses. Still I wouldn't be surprised, shame really because the very original concept for Stalker was mindblowing. Not to say what we had wasn't good, but it wasn't what was promised so to speak. I love Stalker. But I just sometimes wish the original concepts (After the whole Aztec world with Female character thing they first started with) would or had come to fruition.

The engine being shit at cutscenes makes a lot of sense considering that CoP's cutscenes were pretty meh compared to SoC and even some of CS - which were done by an external company. I love ShoC's cutscenes because they manage to encapsulate the atmosphere you feel while playing pretty well, while LA's cutscenes not only do not manage that, but manage to make me laugh as well. Also there's a sharp contrast in quality with the story I think as you progress. It seems like a ton of effort went into recreating that feeling of mystery you get from ShoC in the beginning, and the voice acting for Sid, your guy, and a few others are actually surprisingly high quality. The buildup going into X18 was really well done, and all the while it feels kinda like it did the first time you played STALKER. And then you enter X18....and it all starts to fall apart. It didn't help in X18 that there was minimal ambient sounds, and no ambient music either.

Not to mention the like 3 or whatever times it was that their stuff got leaked or deleted or some other setback. [editline]5th May 2014[/editline] Mah Automerge!

[QUOTE=Furioso;44725858]But where's the package?? :v: I searched the building and couldn't locate it [editline]4th May 2014[/editline] There's no PDA update or quest marker or clue or anything... I'm pretty lost.[/QUOTE] Its in the [sp]safe in the basement you were locked in, along with all your stuff[/sp]

[QUOTE=Jamie1992GSC;44729714]I followed the development since the start along with my brother and strongly recall that they ended up ditching that idea simply because the hardware at the time wasn't powerful enough to simulate such things. Unless that was just them trying to save their asses. [/QUOTE] I think that was somewhat later than first explaination. The "hardware" explaination happened, I think, after the very first leak, so they had to explain why absolutely nothing inside of it reminds of the so-called A-Life as described (though there was a lot more simulation than in release). Which is funny, because that was the first and last build GSC talked about, must've felt bad for their lies.

[QUOTE=gudman;44729659]Hah, that was a load of garbage devs came up with to justify their inability to deliver on their utterly impossible promises. As far as I remember, and I followed the development of this game since the start, GSC first stated that their AI is going to be [b]so[/b] advanced it's gonna pursuit the same goal as the player, and player will have to interact with them, feed them false info, buy them over, convince to join your cause etc. GSC promised the game where you have absolute freedom with basically one goal, and the world around you will be living, breathing, parts of it interacting with one another on their own, so the player won't be the center of the universe. [/QUOTE] God I've heard this shit so many times alread. The same shit was said about the original Crysis iirc. When it's actually done, it's pretty fucking great, kind of like Mount and Blade. I'd love a Stalker game looking like this, holy shit. Or, even any sandbox shooter. Or RPG.

[QUOTE=gudman;44729659]So no, it was never supposed to be like that, GSC knew they were lying in people's faces.[/QUOTE] Okay, well, thanks for the background info. I didn't follow the games development very closely, I only jumped aboard after SoC was released. But what do you think, would this be possible today with mods? [QUOTE=Bloodshot12;44729719]And then you enter X18....and it all starts to fall apart. It didn't help in X18 that there was minimal ambient sounds, and no ambient music either.[/QUOTE] Deep down I still hope that all this is just a placeholder for something else they have been developing, since this is still an Early Access version of Lost Alpha after all (at least that's what the devs say). But, meh, we'll see I guess.

[QUOTE=Sokos;44729813]Okay, well, thanks for the background info. I didn't follow the games development very closely, I only jumped aboard after SoC was released. But what do you think, would this be possible today with mods?[/QUOTE] It would have to be heavily scripted. A-Life knows how to randomize the actions of an individual well enough, but there's no way in hell some idiot from the Rookie Village will be able to follow the dodgy pathing all the way to the MCC.

I honestly would prefer if they ditched the story and just re-tailored it to be ShoC reworked with some of the new quests like the bandit/monolith base, and focused on adding a ton of cool side quests, maybe joinable factions, etc. and open up all areas. Either that or they seriously rework the story and writing to be not shit.

[QUOTE=croguy;44729893]It would have to be heavily scripted. A-Life knows how to randomize the actions of an individual well enough, but there's no way in hell some idiot from the Rookie Village will be able to follow the dodgy pathing all the way to the MCC.[/QUOTE] Well, one can dream :smile:

[QUOTE=croguy;44729893]It would have to be heavily scripted.[/QUOTE] I guess you could try to do things like have certain plot flags cause events like Wolf leaving for the Army Warehouses and check whether they are alive or not before the next plot flag / optional quest triggers them to leave again. Have a few hardened individuals like Oleg "Fiend" Gusarov and a few others to function as these type of characters, or maybe include some generically named NPCs who'll activate at various points depending on what actions the player has or hasn't achieved.

[QUOTE=Sokos;44729813] But what do you think, would this be possible today with mods? [/QUOTE] Maybe you can simulate that. There's this mod for CoP, MSO that is partially implemented into Mysery2 that does a lot of it in terms of interaction, and it surprisingly works - NPCs get unbound (to a certain extent) and wander around minding their own business as assigned, find and even sell artifacts (maybe not really, but I've seen some mods where they [b]actually[/b] do that). But that's a lot of scripting and the engine can get overloaded. At the end of the day, a lot of people tried to accomplish "THAT OLD STALKER". Even brightest of minds in modding. And they all accomplished either something very wrong and had to scrap it and do something else (think Soup) or reached the goal partly. ShoC engine is the most versatile and tolerant to modding of all three, and at the same time it is the absolute worst in terms of A-Life. Now, what I'm going to say may sound disrespectful towards GSC, I hope they fucking close altogether. Considering the release of Lost Alpha, future release of their tools, [b]leak of sources[/b], the community will have a powerful tools on their hands. And with GSC out of the picture, no one will pursue mods that will use their stolen engine sources, as no one of the copyright holders will really care enough to fight over something you can't possibly ever hope to monetize. So at the end of the day, we actually might get something very close to Oblivion Lost. Some day.

[QUOTE=Muukkis;44729946]I guess you could try to do things like have certain plot flags cause events like Wolf leaving for the Army Warehouses and check whether they are alive or not before the next plot flag / optional quest triggers them to leave again. Have a few hardened individuals like Oleg "Fiend" Gusarov and a few others to function as these type of characters, or maybe include some generically named NPCs who'll activate at various points depending on what actions the player has or hasn't achieved.[/QUOTE] Well, stalkers should move up the food chain in smaller amounts before and in large waves after the Scorcher shuts down. Seeing stalkers try to reach North before the player however is just baffling; going past the Barrier/Scorcher Limits is considered heavy taboo and everyone that talks about it can recall a story of a guy just falling flat on his face or getting his brain fucked for life, so any independent minor character's effort about traveling to the Scorcher and/or clearing the labs before the player does should technically be impossible.

[QUOTE=gudman;44729959] Now, what I'm going to say may sound disrespectful towards GSC, I hope they fucking close altogether. Considering the release of Lost Alpha, future release of their tools, [b]leak of sources[/b], the community will have a powerful tools on their hands. And with GSC out of the picture, no one will pursue mods that will use their stolen engine sources, as no one of the copyright holders will really care enough to fight over something you can't possibly ever hope to monetize. So at the end of the day, we actually might get something very close to Oblivion Lost. Some day.[/QUOTE] Isn't GSC already basically dead at this point?

[QUOTE=croguy;44729981]so any independent minor character's effort about traveling to the Scorcher and/or clearing the labs before the player does should technically be impossible.[/QUOTE] I don't know, there was this bit about R.M.A. where some stalkers tried to get past the Brain Scorcher by learning the timing of the discharges of the Brain Scorcher. One of the stalkers died, one survived intact and one got his brain fried, which is why he got reduced to something almost like a zombified stalker and then he ends up shooting himself. I'd imagine that there are still stalkers who try and fail, considering that there are zombified stalkers in the Red Forest, meaning that people have tried and failed to do that. Regardless, there's still the possibility of underground tunnels, like the one Strelok used on his second trip toward the Center of the Zone that could be utilized by enterprising stalkers. [QUOTE=Tureis;44730010]Isn't GSC already basically dead at this point?[/QUOTE] They're still running their book and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. merchandise departments if I recall correctly, they just lack a game development team. So essentially they're like a car without an engine. The electronics still work, the windshield wipers function and you can sit inside listening to the radio but it's not moving anywhere.

Also, part of GSC worked with dezoweave on Last Alpha, according to their official mod page on moddb Maybe they will merge?

Anybody know how to apply those cubemap reflections to weapons in ShoC? I know it's not the best but I want to try adding it to some of the weapons to see how it looks.

Anyone know where to find/buy a GP25 underbarrel grenade launcher in LA?

How did one nerf the zombies in Dooms merge for CoP again? They're killing everyone everywhere. I'd deal with it but the AI isn't smart enough to aim for the head :v:

I increased the bullet resistances on some mutants in LA and suddenly they are dangerous again. Now I just need some sort of AI tweak to actually make them keep attacking you instead of having them run away and forget about you

[QUOTE=proch;44730505]How did one nerf the zombies in Dooms merge for CoP again?[/QUOTE] Change their health_restore value to something like health_restore_v = 0.000003(vanilla value). IIRC the problem with Doom's CoP Merge was that zombies had some insane health regeneration values which made them almost impervious to all damage. Yep, Doom's CoP Merge has by default the zombified stalkers' health restore set to 0.001 ;0.003 which is significantly faster than normal, which means that you'd have to put a lot of damage to them in a short period of time to down them, lest they would recharge soon back to full. That's probably a leftover from Ceano's CfP that both Doom's Merge and I Work Alone/Misery 1.2 shared features with.

Thanks a lot!