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

[QUOTE=LoNer1;44923156]Some Gunslinger stuff I've not yet seen in here: [/QUOTE] I really love the screen tilt when he reloads/takes out stuff

The guy making Doom's Mod Merge: Anon Edition is looking for mission ideas, if anyone is interested: [url]https://code.stypi.com/xangi/DMM%3AAE%20v4%20Mission%20ideas[/url] I put a few in, but I'm not really sure how far you can go with retrieve item, kill stalker, etc. Having Bandit missions revolving around stealing stuff would be cool, but can you set it up so you'd have to get into a hostile camp and steal their loot or something?

Man, it's been a while since i was in one of these threads. So, i'm trying to get into STALKER again and i want to play Lost Alpha, is there any way to get it like a normal mod? 'cause the 4 part .exe bullshit they have on moddb isn't working for me.

[QUOTE=DeVotchKa;44929486]Man, it's been a while since i was in one of these threads. So, i'm trying to get into STALKER again and i want to play Lost Alpha, is there any way to get it like a normal mod? 'cause the 4 part .exe bullshit they have on moddb isn't working for me.[/QUOTE] There should be a torrent linked around the download page, I thought. That contains the full installer.

[QUOTE=ghosevil;44928424]How is Lost Alpha after you get to the bar? It's just a little bit tedious and even when I waste no time running back to complete side missions/raid stashes I'm getting so very [I]boored[/I]. Does it open up?[/QUOTE] Up until the bar, you'll probably not have seen too many of the new areas, once you've advanced a bit through the Barman and Petrenko missions you'll get to explore a bunch of new maps that are pretty cool. Some of them are a bit empty but all of them have stuff going on in them that's worth finding (usually)

[QUOTE=ghosevil;44928424]Does it open up?[/QUOTE] Slightly, but it still locks you into linear progression where you can't go to many areas out of sequence or you get dumb "Hehe, treefelling in progress, can't go here!."-type messages and the game just turns you around instead of providing reasonable justification for gating you such as the gate blocking your way at the Duty checkpoint in the Garbage or Brain Scorcher at the Red Forest. As far as tedious backtracking and aimless running around goes, the X-18 operation is probably the worst, it gets less annoying after that. [editline]herp[/editline] [QUOTE=DeVotchKa;44932777]Okay, so it sounds like Lost Alpha is pretty lame[/QUOTE] It's not terrible, it just feels more like the first Far Cry than S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in my opinion.

Okay, so it sounds like Lost Alpha is pretty lame, so at present what is the best/hardest/coolest mod for SoC? I've played older versions of L.U.R.K and OGSE, have they updated/gotten better?

Man, how fucking awesome would it be if there was a STALKER movie/TV series directed by Steven Spielberg, like Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers?

No thanks. I don't really like Spielberg's style and especially Band of Brothers felt way too sappy for me. The Pacific was much better though. I'm sure there's a director who could get the style right, but not Spielberg.

[QUOTE=StickyWicket;44932862]Man, how fucking awesome would it be if there was a STALKER movie/TV series directed by Steven Spielberg, like Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers?[/QUOTE] i wanna say Coen Brothers instead but i'm not sure [editline]28th May[/editline] i maintain my True Detective-based stance

[QUOTE=DeVotchKa;44932777]Okay, so it sounds like Lost Alpha is pretty lame, so at present what is the best/hardest/coolest mod for SoC? I've played older versions of L.U.R.K and OGSE, have they updated/gotten better?[/QUOTE] AA2 Gunplay is really amazing. 10/10. Would totally recommend it. No, wait, I actually DO recommend it. [QUOTE=Ghost101;44928929]The guy making Doom's Mod Merge: Anon Edition is looking for mission ideas, if anyone is interested: [url]https://code.stypi.com/xangi/DMM%3AAE%20v4%20Mission%20ideas[/url] I put a few in, but I'm not really sure how far you can go with retrieve item, kill stalker, etc. Having Bandit missions revolving around stealing stuff would be cool, but can you set it up so you'd have to get into a hostile camp and steal their loot or something?[/QUOTE] I think I finally de constructed why COP quests were 1000 times better and entertaining than those found in ShOC (Don't know if this argument has been posted here, but, if it hasn't, Im glad it can help someone do better quests for ShOC) [B][I]The reason is:[/I][/B] They have a background to them, but that background is not given away in a wall of text like it happens in ShOC with almost every one. Take for example the "Search for" or the "Kill the". They always come with a text describing how and when the trigger for the quest happened. Next step is directly go to the supposed area and retrieve/fulfill the mission. However, in COP, most quests are given away first in the form of "Find out" or "Investigate", and here comes the fun part, which is: The player has to interact with the environment in order to find out the story behind what happened, besides, he has some degree of liberty in his actions (Rescuing the guy from that Bandit's base in Jupiter or helping out the stranded ex monolith fighters). While investigating and putting the pieces together, more information and background stuff info is given away in the form of visual and/or noise aides which is what makes COP quests look more "alive" than SHOC. The perfect example is the Duty group who went MIA inside a time anomaly. When you get near it, you hear noises and messages calling for help, and once you get the Veles detector, their bodies appear. Another example? The Oasis anomaly. You hear from the scientists the story, but you get the full picture once you are inside it. And what's more, if you've got the compass artifact from Noah you can use it to find the final artifact. Even the "Retrieve" or "Kill the" missions do have some in-game background to them. One of the last quest missions where you have to snipe a merc and a scientist has you observing the transaction and hearing comments from your Spetsnaz buddy. Not only that, but some info is also given to the player in the form of text found via items. This can be observed in a early stage in Shadow of Chernobyl when the player retrieves docs and info from bodies and or stashes located in main areas. COP goes a step beyond and places bits of info in dispersed places. The military truck containing info about the gas. The merc documents. The UAV docs. The helicopter black boxes, etc etc. So taking this into account, the following things can be done in order to make quests in SHOC more fun and entertaining: -Make the player have some choice over the final action/decision of the quest. In the retrieve PDA missions, when the PDA is finally retrieved, some *enemy faction* message could come up offering the player a better reward than that given by the player's faction boss. I imagine that the same script used for the military guys NOT being active-hostile to the player can be applied to those who are waiting for the player found PDA. -Try to move the player around areas, but motivate that movement with info left behind by whatever the player has to find. If a recon party went missing, make the player move to its last location. But for some surprise, the recon party could still be alive, so the mission would be now an "Escort recon party to X (a changelever obviously)". Alternatively, a radio message triggered by the player stepping into an area can be another option. Something like "Hey you! We have been watching you from X position! Come to X and lets have a chat (classic line)" -Leave info about what happened but in the form of visual clues. If a recon party went missing and WAS killed, say for example, inside a building, start leaving a trail of bodies with guns besides them. If possible make them not turn up on the PDA map and try to position them against objects rather than be thrown on the ground just like that. This idea can be seen in vanilla Dark Valley. When the player approaches the bandits base, the building next to the gas station has 2 bodies and one wounded stalker. If the player speaks to him, it triggers a bloodsucker attack.

Alternatively the concept of STALKER shouldn't be raped by a blockbuster director and instead be applied to a more niche, but refined artistic genre. As much as people deny respect to such movies you have to realize that the sole reason why Roadside Picnic, Stalker, and STALKER are so known today is because their presentation and feeling was unlike any other in literature, cinema, and video games. Giving it a tacky, profit-centered team with a sole interest on making the next big hit wouldn't serve much help to STALKER; You'd probably be seeing what is essentially another commentary on the poor state of Ukraine and The Zone from the perspective of an American. What STALKER needs is a good, unique, low budget, but memorable movie that will gain a following. You can't introduce it to the mainstream as the ideas it can carry and the presentation on it's own are something that most folks fail to comprehend, the fanbase of STALKER included. Remember the remake of Monolith's Whisper? That's pandering to the mainstream. And it looks like total ass.

whoooops

[QUOTE=Cutthecrap;44933455]I think I finally de constructed why COP quests were 1000 times better and entertaining than those found in ShOC (Don't know if this argument has been posted here, but, if it hasn't, Im glad it can help someone do better quests for ShOC)[/QUOTE] While I liked the CoP quests a lot, they, particularly the examples that you mentioned in your post, have a major flaw built into many of them, which is that : A. They aren't very repeatable. If they rely on exploration / figuring something out,you can only really *click* that realization once and then it's done on automation, it doesn't have either much replay value or offer very much challenge, which is pretty damning in a [I]Freeplay[/I] mod that basically tosses the story out of the window. B. This is kind of linked to reason A, but the examples you mentioned, also lacked [B]player input[/B]. They were neat to discover on your first time through the area, but as said, once you figure out the gimmick, there's just that, you just go through the motions without the chance to rediscover it again and since missions like that are not very shooty-shooty oriented or don't have alternative ways to do them, it's not something I personally would care about doing after the first time in a freeplay mod. What I [I]did[/I] like with the CoP missions is that they were interlinked in many cases and affected the dynamics of the levels, either the spawns or the general power balance in the local region or they affected how entire mission chains were going to play out. For example, the side you're going to pick for the Ranger Station mission is dependent on what happens in The Raid mission, and if you have to do the mission for the mercenaries, the nature of the mission will also change, from assaulting the transaction to protecting it. Well, the basic premise is still technically same, you're shooting dudes, but it's kind of different. Also if Morgan stays alive, he will affect the spawns of Yanov Station. The general sentiment I want to put out with my post here though, is that freeplay mods are pretty reliant on [B]replayability[/B], hence some CoP-style quests would kind of get old super quick if there's not enough player input to make the mission varied on subsequent playthroughs or the ability to affect the game world via choices put into those quests.

[QUOTE=Muukkis;44933694]While I liked the CoP quests a lot, they, particularly the examples that you mentioned in your post, have a major flaw built into many of them, which is that : A. They aren't very repeatable. If they rely on exploration / figuring something out,you can only really *click* that realization once and then it's done on automation, it doesn't have either much replay value or offer very much challenge, which is pretty damning in a [I]Freeplay[/I] mod that basically tosses the story out of the window.[/QUOTE] I'd say that the main issue is that CoP has barely any repeatable quests and that SoC has almost no detailed quests. When you merge the two you essentially get CoP, but with a major replayability factor. Now, if somebody was to add more detail to the current content rather than funnel more and more of the same content in SoC, that'd be the best thing ever. SoC already has some, but they're usually one or two per map, while CoP has a metric asston of detailed quests.

[QUOTE=Muukkis;44933694]While I liked the CoP quests a lot, they, particularly the examples that you mentioned in your post, have a major flaw built into many of them, which is that : A. They aren't very repeatable. If they rely on exploration / figuring something out,you can only really *click* that realization once and then it's done on automation, it doesn't have either much replay value or offer very much challenge, which is pretty damning in a [I]Freeplay[/I] mod that basically tosses the story out of the window.[/QUOTE] Yeah, I also thought about that while writing it. They only apply when a storyline is introduced. The Freeplay mod then should focus more in AI improvements rather then on quests themselves, so then the fun factor would come from totally different situations each time the player repeats a quest. But that area is waay out of the majority ability. I look forward to a new era of freeplay when Call of Chernobyl is released. So Alundaio, finish the damn job ASAP plz. :( [QUOTE]A. They aren't very repeatable. If they rely on exploration / figuring something out,you can only really *click* that realization once and then it's done on automation, it doesn't have either much replay value or offer very much challenge, which is pretty damning in a Freeplay mod that basically tosses the story out of the window. [/QUOTE] I was just thinking about that one where you find the stalker group attacked by the bloodsucker and after you rescue that guy he offers you a gauss rifle (which is a con obviously). That surely doesn't need a previous storyline, it can be done on the fly and what's more, if it was done in the vanilla game, then modders can look up how it was done and then repeat the same process to other maps/quests.

[QUOTE=Cutthecrap;44933455]AA2 Gunplay is really amazing. 10/10. Would totally recommend it. No, wait, I actually DO recommend it.[/QUOTE] Could you link it to me, maybe in a PM, for when i get home later?

[QUOTE=croguy;44933759]SoC already has some, but they're usually one or two per map, while CoP has a metric asston of detailed quests.[/QUOTE] My biggest gripe with SoC quests is that they don't usually change the dynamics of the levels at all, be it gradually or otherwise. While simply doing things like shutting down enemy respawners from an area when you help a group take it over would probably become boring, I'm pretty frustrated that there's almost never any ways to influence the Zone other than by it resolving itself by doing the main quest. For example, I'm annoyed at seeing the constant Bandit / Loner struggle at the Cordon Car Park go on for ages with the dudes constantly respawning on the spot and occasionally exchanging shots at each other without anything being resolved. This could easily be turned into a relatively simple quest with for example the Bandits / stalkers both being able to capture it, with spawns being moved in either case. For example, bandits taking over the spot "permanently" by snuffing out the Loner leader trying to capture it in the mission, would result in them digging in deeper and having smart_terrains below the Cordon bridge right next to the rookie village which sucks if you're a loner or an enemy of the bandits but on the other hand, if you're neutral to them, they move a "junk peddler"-type NPC into the Car Park, who'll have better prices than Sid in some items as well as not having to go all the way to Sidorovich if you're around the area. Conversely, if the loners win, the Bandit spawn will be moved to the area around the houses where Fox is taking cover in the Vanilla game, resulting in the other side of the Bridge being more hostile, but the area around the Rookie Village and the Dark Valley level changer being less hostile. [editline]herp[/editline] [QUOTE=Cutthecrap;44933760]I look forward to a new era of freeplay when Call of Chernobyl is released.[/QUOTE] Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that myself as well. My hopes for CoC is that with it's expanded level hub and A-Life system it skirts around the problem spots of both SoC (the aforementioned A-Life engagements happening always at the same exact spots or not at all, and crowded as fuck level changers due to the almost non-existent amount of connections between the maps) and CoP (mostly maps being too self-contained, in that NPCs couldn't travel between maps, dynamics too much centered around the safe hubs for each level).

[QUOTE=DeVotchKa;44933835]Could you link it to me, maybe in a PM, for when i get home later?[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.moddb.com/mods/autumn-aurora-compilation-mod[/url]

To further elaborate on my idea , here's a neat concept of expanding a less known late-game quest: "Kill Oleg 'Fiend' Gusarov". That quest is given to us by Sidorovich over the pretense that Oleg, a stalker with experience and connections in Ukraine, OMON, and Spetsnaz, is attempting to take over the Rookie Village and the smuggling operations between the Cordon Garrison and the Stalkers. Naturally Sid can't bust a cap in that beautiful gas mask that Oleg has, so he hires Marked One to do that instead. In the game it's handled by Marked One simply finding out his location and shooting him when nobody is looking. Now, imagine if Marked One took his sweet time to haul ass to Rostok and do it before Oleg realizes there's something fishy going on. Upon arrival, you can't find Oleg worth shit, so you ask around. The Duty guardsmen at the Wild Territory Entrance tell you he went off to do some errands in Army Warehouses, probably an artifact hunt or a mutant hunt or something. Naturally, you head over to the Army Warehouses. The entry seems to be fairly same, but as you wonder just where the heck could he be hiding a call over the PDA very politely tells you to fuck off back to the Bar. Naturally, you press on, but are interrupted by a hidden Spetsnaz sniper waiting to take you down from a hill near the Bloodsucker Village. When you loot his corpse you gain info that Oleg and his Spetsnaz team have found out about your actions, and have entrenched themselves in a well defended location near the Warehouses. Once you reach them you have multiple options: You can take down Oleg and the grunts, return to Sid, and claim your reward. You can kill the grunts and spare Oleg in exchange for his PDA containing additional message data you can't access normally, whose contents you copy and then give to Sid as "proof" of Oleg's death. From that point on Oleg roams the North on his own. You can reach out to Oleg and ask him if he wants you in on it, and, should he accept, a new quest in which Oleg, the Spetsnaz, and you take over the control of Cordon comes into play. Alternatively, you can talk to Oleg about the problem of killing him right away, and persuade him into letting go of the ambition, bribing him, starting a street duel with him(supervised by Sparrow, whose assassination quest could show up after he makes a scene and kills one of Barkeep's errand boys in a duel of his own), or joining and starting the take over quest line from another direction. There's a lot of flexibility that can be done with the SoC quests, it's just that nobody really tried to do so.

On an unrelated note, does anyone know how to increase the chance of finding a stash on a body through treasure_manager.script? (shoc)

[QUOTE=croguy;44934301]To further elaborate on my idea , here's a neat concept of expanding a less known late-game quest: "Kill Oleg 'Fiend' Gusarov". That quest is given to us by Sidorovich over the pretense that Oleg, a stalker with experience and connections in Ukraine, OMON, and Spetsnaz, is attempting to take over the Rookie Village and the smuggling operations between the Cordon Garrison and the Stalkers. Naturally Sid can't bust a cap in that beautiful gas mask that Oleg has, so he hires Marked One to do that instead. In the game it's handled by Marked One simply finding out his location and shooting him when nobody is looking. Now, imagine if Marked One took his sweet time to haul ass to Rostok and do it before Oleg realizes there's something fishy going on. Upon arrival, you can't find Oleg worth shit, so you ask around. The Duty guardsmen at the Wild Territory Entrance tell you he went off to do some errands in Army Warehouses, probably an artifact hunt or a mutant hunt or something. Naturally, you head over to the Army Warehouses. The entry seems to be fairly same, but as you wonder just where the heck could he be hiding a call over the PDA very politely tells you to fuck off back to the Bar. Naturally, you press on, but are interrupted by a hidden Spetsnaz sniper waiting to take you down from a hill near the Bloodsucker Village. When you loot his corpse you gain info that Oleg and his Spetsnaz team have found out about your actions, and have entrenched themselves in a well defended location near the Warehouses. Once you reach them you have multiple options: You can take down Oleg and the grunts, return to Sid, and claim your reward. You can kill the grunts and spare Oleg in exchange for his PDA containing additional message data you can't access normally, whose contents you copy and then give to Sid as "proof" of Oleg's death. From that point on Oleg roams the North on his own. You can reach out to Oleg and ask him if he wants you in on it, and, should he accept, a new quest in which Oleg, the Spetsnaz, and you take over the control of Cordon comes into play. Alternatively, you can talk to Oleg about the problem of killing him right away, and persuade him into letting go of the ambition, bribing him, starting a street duel with him(supervised by Sparrow, whose assassination quest could show up after he makes a scene and kills one of Barkeep's errand boys in a duel of his own), or joining and starting the take over quest line from another direction. There's a lot of flexibility that can be done with the SoC quests, it's just that nobody really tried to do so.[/QUOTE] Those are some good ideas, you should put them into the pastebin for him to go over.

Anyone requested gunporn? LURK <3 [t]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/13/12990/r700_01.jpg[/t] [t]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/13/12990/render08.jpg[/t] This thread is getting slow again!

[QUOTE=LoNer1;44943764]Anyone requested gunporn? LURK <3 [t]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/13/12990/r700_01.jpg[/t] [t]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/13/12990/render08.jpg[/t] This thread is getting slow again![/QUOTE] @_@ I haven't played LURK since one of its first versions a few years ago. I haven't looked into it since - is it actually worth playing this time around ?

[QUOTE=Furioso;44945590]@_@ I haven't played LURK since one of its first versions a few years ago. I haven't looked into it since - is it actually worth playing this time around ?[/QUOTE] It didn't update yet :v: Expect it to in ... what, start of 2015?

[QUOTE=LoNer1;44943764]Anyone requested gunporn? LURK <3 [t]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/13/12990/r700_01.jpg[/t] [t]http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/13/12990/render08.jpg[/t] This thread is getting slow again![/QUOTE] too much cool shit, I just want to play damnit

God damn it! My heart, that remington is gonna give me a stroke!

[QUOTE=Ghost101;44928929]The guy making Doom's Mod Merge: Anon Edition is looking for mission ideas, if anyone is interested: [url]https://code.stypi.com/xangi/DMM%3AAE%20v4%20Mission%20ideas[/url] I put a few in, but I'm not really sure how far you can go with retrieve item, kill stalker, etc. Having Bandit missions revolving around stealing stuff would be cool, but can you set it up so you'd have to get into a hostile camp and steal their loot or something?[/QUOTE] I have a mission idea: You're tasked with hunting down a Stalker named "Sgt.Doom" and forcing him to work on his Mod Merge again.

Welp, i've pretty much given up on getting into Stalker again. Lost alpha wasn't working, AA2 wouldn't work, OGSE, which i used to have, isn't working and i can't even change my settings on vanilla without it freezing. Fuck this.

Is your copy of STALKER the right patch version? And is your user.ltx edited correctly?