S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series Megathread: Maybe someday mods releasing edition - Games

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/922/ecc39e7b-2d3e-43ae-ba06-72e141a9db30/image.png I love it

nope, only bumpmap, I also tried that when I was making addon: [WIP] Poor Man Details addon Some levels in SoC have so many weird hills and weird design that are not present in real life Chernobyl/Pripyat area, because in early stage Stalker was not placed in Chernobyl but in fake industrial area where player would visit mountains and hills. I forgot name of that place, and its really not that known time of development, just between Build 1098 and Build 1114. Most of people thing that it was short skip from Aztec demo to Oblivision Lost but truth is that team decided to jump to Chernobyl Area more for advertising purpose than story even if there where concerned that this move is not really nice/patriotic. I dont think that engine limitation was a problem to make wider maps, it was more of time/resources issue, and thats why they decided to use those early designs and just modify them to fit Chernobyl area, that also why buildings are so randomly placed and dont make much sense.

With the wonderful help of @Balathruin , we were able to trim off tons of unnessecary values and even figure out what some of the ones I was clueless about even did. Big thanks to him for the help, but the post is now much more finished, polished, and most importantly, informative.

When I was making those details for my Stalker Two-K mod I created parallax files for them but even with different settings in thm files they where not used(setting: UseParalax). You would think that bump# are used because they are there in folder, but I seriously had hard time to see them. only bumps that I really saw in game when testing where made by bump maps them self, not with bump# files. Details in stalker work really weird. When most of games render them only when player is close to hide blurred main texture, details in Stalker are used as main detail layer for most of textures. Not to mention that overall folder and files structure is confusing and chaotic, because why the hell grass/asphalt are in detail folder not in ground? Not to mention that details textures in stalker are really dense and have different variations(horizontal, vertical) that are used in game in really, really bad way stretching them over some models. Its hard to use them as some more complex texture layers without modifying maps in SDK... There is lots of meshes that need fixing but for past years no one really took care of that(eg. Dead City map that is really crappy) What I ca suggest you is to use very "deep"/hilly bumps maps in those details to simulate parallax effect. For most of time very grooved bump textures are rendered almost like parallax maps

If we were to edit the maps - would it be possible to put a parallax texture over the main textures, similar to what they did with detail textures? This area isn't my specialty so sorry if it's a dumb question, but we might be editing the terrain so who knows, it'd be a hacky solution though.

You need to generate thms for your images with either Level Editor or AXRToolset's ThmViewer/Editor: https://github.com/revolucas/AXRToolset/wiki/Existing-Plugins There is a UseParalax option for BumpMode. To make new thm, just copy, paste, rename a similar existing thm (ie. if you make _bump copy existing _bump.thm) and use ThmEditor to tweak.

We know how to generate and edit thm files, trick is that parallax is not really visible on detail textures. Not to mention that as I said detail textures are packed really dense and even with just diffuse and bumps its hard to get any proper effect like Theman want. I spend last one and half year remaking textures for Stalker Two-K Including almost all Detail textures, and even if detail textures have bump# files you really just get bump effect on them. For most of time I make parallax textures manually and even if I put totally different looking one on eg. concrete texture you still see just bump and diffuse layer. To get proper effect you would need to modify size of those details on mesh/ground or put another mask on top of it for effect like Theman want.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQLClL-f9vw&feature=youtu.be Since a goal of ours is to make weapons satisfying, one way we're accomplishing that is by making sure every weapon has a both tactical and full reload (for when your magazine still has ammunition left in it vs when it doesnt). Originally, this rewarded players who were paying attention to how many rounds were in their magazine with an overall shorter reload time. But it didn't feel like enough. So now, not emptying your entire magazine rewards you with the additional bullet in the chamber, further rewarding attentive players and creating a system that allows for the guns to more closely mimic how they operate in real life.

Does anyone here have the level converter for CoP SDK? I want to convert some maps so i can use them in the SDK. Problem is, I followed Beacon's tutorial and I can't seem to find "converter.exe" in the toolset. They are supposed to be 3 files but i found so many branches and other crap except for this.

Can you use workshop mods without the steam version of a game?

Still deep in my heart I dream about proper jamming animation in every weapon mod where you dont remove whole mag, but like normal person just use charging handle to remove misfire/jammed case. Only in rare occasion you would remove mag, because of bad mag lips(that are actually pain in the ass in some cheap AK mags) I in other hand totally dump any Stalker work, non only on my mods, but even few projects and some small help for other users :/ I hate that time when you just cant do what you want/promise because you have normal work to do... I hope you will have better luck and have some time even on weekends to finish your project :/

I might've found a way to do this - turns out I can play animation through LUA which is actually an incredibly power function to play around with. I'll have to see if I can get dedicated jamming animations working.

At this rate you mod is going to be a Gunslinger that might actually get released

It feels weird (but good) to be compared to Gunslinger, what many would consider the holy grail of a Stalker weapon mod(although our mod includes other additions as well), but while Gunslinger's eventual release is a bit more questionable I am definitely devoted to getting this mod out even if it comes kicking and screaming. While, of course, I want another addon for the playerbase of CoC to have available to them and hopefully enjoy, but also because I have meticulously commented a good chunk of both configuration and script files with the hope to provide better English documentation that just currently doesn't currently exist (most information is in Russian). Once I get done with this mod (or maybe even before then), I also plan to do some video tutorials in the vein of short and to the point over various modding topics, all of this in the hopes that I can help the English modding community grow. As for what's being worked on..: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/c89d5c10-9abb-4d41-9baf-08dfb07e599c/Untitled.png Here is the beretta utilizing the bullet chambering system. It is now fully functioning, takes the proper amount of ammo, and is compatible with any gun that has a anm_reload and anm_reload_empty (basically two different reload animations for both cocking the bolt vs not) with no LTX changes required. Feel free to look at the documented script here: [Lua] function on_game_start() RegisterScriptCallback( "actor_.. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/2cf23003-39b6-40ff-8ba2-43405f667a3d/xrEngine 2018-06-08 21-07-56-32.png Here's also our "3D" scope proof of concept, just checking out different shaders and seeing what we can do with it. The model is obviously a placeholder. Also, big thanks to @Theman! for all the modelling, animating, and texturing work he's been doing. Me and him are in a call almost every day just working on this thing and he's doing it for free, so some of this stuff wouldn't even be possible without him.

Sorry for clogging up the thread with my crap, but I'm working on consumables and wanted your guys help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ7a6QDatH4&feature=youtu.be So far, I have increased movement speed and night vision and some additional drug effects to play around with. I want to make drugs and consumables more useful overall to allow the player to mix match effects and play around with the system. Do you guys have any ideas for other effects?

There's nothing like caffeine in the base game, is there? Lightweight drugs that let you avoid having to eat/sleep (and thus carry heavy food and sleeping bags) for a period of time but that build up a substantial amount of food and sleep debt when they wear off might be interesting. If it's not too hard to implement, something like Steady from New Vegas that'd decrease weapon sway might also be interesting.

my misery playthroughs were basically reliant on keeping my character fueled on cocaine, it was literally fuck a good gun i need to get as much coke as i can

More crap: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/bfd104cd-70c5-458c-ab1c-cae7f1720910/8dcdd68296e03f7b6b78beba5201b66f.png https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/96a340cd-6296-4df0-8950-602a8e16b450/98f2c143f53f717e92bfaa5c9980ff93.png It's possible to now have both outfits and/or backpacks effect move speed, as I figured it should be a little more punishing to be able to carry around 80+ kg of stuff.

Can you give them stash functionality as well? Like right-click to spawn a backpack container of 10/20kg capacity (or maybe infinite?)

Well, they have all the functionality that CoC backpacks do so you can create a stash with it, and by default the stashes are infinite. I do, however, like the idea of limited capacity stashes. I'm fairly certain it's possible because the stashes are scripted through LUA, I just need to figure out how to do it. Also, what are you guy's thoughts on the description? Both the actual text description but also the "When equipped" section. Is there anything I should change? The reason I'm not using these: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/180967/65314492-f25b-4d67-b2db-066ffb248f79/d19e5a0be0584f32243d3509a84777d5.png Is because they're hard coded into the engine, and while I can change around the values, I can't add new status effects to the list, such as run and sprint speed. So that's why I'm using the description. Also, had some random ideas (keep in mind, everything is subject to change. these are just some things i thought might be cool): -Suits that effect your vision, such as maybe making it black and white or giving you nightvision while wearing it. Maybe Monolith suits do this? -Unique, rare suits that give special effects, such as: increased move speed, enemies have a chance to run away in fear, allowing additional artifacts to be equipped, multiplying artifact effects? Those are just some effects off of the top of my head, but if any of you have any cool ideas for drug/outfit effects please do let me know. It may not be possible, but I'll sure as hell try.

First of all, Vinca in real life is medical plant used for threating cancer and blood deseases. I know that its just a game, but even in "original" game vinca was not used as vision stimulant but to increase blood coagulation speed, really close to what actual Vinca do(or rather what vitamin K do)... As for effect of drugs that would make you vision better, it self It should not have that bright, blu'ish tint in my opinion. I would put slight red tint and really small horizontal blur to simulate increased blood circulation in eyes and give the same effect as you wear glasses first time(everything is sharper but you have tearful/itchy eyes for some time). You could made up some drug with description that its mix of vitamins(A, rhodopsin, E, lutein) and mutated cat samples that is still in experimental stage. I think It would be good and faster to just check what real equivalents of drugs do. For example Hercules would increase your strength but your hand would be tad shaky and after effect end you would be burn out more than normal. Bandages would not weight 100g and cost fortune, real military grade bandages weight from 20 to 50 grams and should slowly stop bleeding. First-aid kit ALSO stop bleeding because yes, bandages are main part of first-aid kit. I have no idea why some mods totally dump that from stats. As for its stats it should stop major bleeding at start and then slowly heal you. Military First Aid kit should contain morphine and adrenaline substitute, because it would be used during combat so soldier would need to stay focus. So from stats perspective military medkit would be faster at healing and would give you really small and short stamina boost. But because of that you would feel hunger after using it. Scientific First aid kit would contain some heavy drugs, it would be expensive but it would immediately stop bleeding and it would heal you fast, including radiation, but it would have some side effects like double vision and slightly lower stamina. Psy-block would act like it normally do, but I would add side effect like any antidepressant: you would be sleepy as hell after some time, forcing you to search for place to sleep. Anti-rad would not protect you from radiation but just heal you from it slowly(because its lysophosphatidic acid also known as "LPA"), but giving you side effect of small hunger(but not like misery-like mods where you take one and you hungry like you would not see food for week...) To protect you from rads I would add separate drug, like Zuplenz or DBIBB(Zuplenz is real drug that you get before radiation treatment). In terms of stats this drug would protect you from radiation but it would lower your stamina and you would bleed easier. But in other hand I would not remove healing from food... reduce it but not remove. Its not realistic but its somehow part of Stalker.... :] As for alcohol... vodka dont do crap against radiation(actually it make it worst) but again its somehow part of game, I would reduce its effect or short its time. I would keep hunger tho, because its realistic and hard to not eat something after drinking.... And as I said its really good to check what real equivalents of drugs/items do. For most of time you get nice balance between items giving them some pros and cons that would make gameplay more entertaining.

I was just using Vinca as a placeholder item to activate the effect, I had only changed the description to a different one. As for the red on the nightvision, I tried out both a bright and dark red with the nightvision property and it seemed to really mess with the effect. In my opinion, the blue/purple tint works the best and, at the very least, is an interesting effect. I'll try and expirement more and see if I can get something working with blur, though. Your suggestions about items are all pretty much what I plan on doing, actually. I just also want to add some new medicines with new effects as well.

Problem is, doing that makes bandages totally obsolete, unless you replace vanilla medkits with stimpak like Misery. Sadly it's something I don't think I could do, but I will ask about it later. The way hunger works in the game makes this barely possible. Hunger will reduce your stamina. The rest is good info, I already tried to do something with side effects, this will help.

I'd honestly love to see something more intricate with the effects of consumables / artefacts. In it's simpleness, artefacts for instance only grant you stat boosts to immunities from anomaly effects or rupture / firearms. I'd love to see artefacts take it to the next level in your mod by also granting boosts to your character in running speed, lower weapon deterioration, higher accuracy, more range as well as to suits with more durability and such. Ofcourse there would be side-effects as well. I had someone write up a plethora of different artefact descriptions for me. You could take some inspiration from them, if you'd like? Originally they were for a mod I was working on which I scrapped due to little time. I'm sure they could be of use for you (80+ descriptions).

Actually, one thing that's just occurred to me with the stats boosts in item descriptions: put in some spaces to align the stats with each other and make them a little easier to read.

maybe a consumable that removes the movement speed penalty when you're critically wounded? so like if you have 1 health left you can still sprint away.

I always set it in way that medkits stop bleeding just about 25-40% of what bandages do, plus bandages do it quicker, so there is that nice balance of it. Trick with setting items stats is that you need to tweak also other things because you can end with situations where, like you said, some items can be obsolete. Its the same with guns and artifacts. If you set one thing to be more realistic, you need to set other things in similar way. Like for example artifacts, you can set them to be more like rpg stats boosters, but you would need to reduce their number or change their stats(so better ones would be rare) and way of obtaining them. As I write some while ago, you can remove visible markers of places where artifacts are, put more of them in some random places forcing player to use detectors more often, instead of boring travel to obvious spot and checking if there is artifact. I found out that some people totally dont get that idea and say that it would also be annoying. Yes, it would be, but in the same time player would have more reason to use detector during long boring travels between maps, especially in Zaton/Jupiter. Right now you just move from palce to place... just walking, with system like Im suggesting, you could just take out detector and search for new places where artifacts are(plus it give few ideas for new missions or rewards of coordinates to places) And as I said, in the same time you would need to tweak artifacts them self, so limit their number, or set balance between "useful" ones and radiated one, so for most of time you would find low class artifacts that are not worth much, but once a while you would find that higher class artifact that would really have big price on it and good stats, and you would need too choose: keep it and get better stats or sell it and get better gear... With drugs its almost similar way, just like with those medkits and bandages: bandages just stop bleeding, but they do it fast, normal medkits heal you and stop small bleeding but they do it slow, military ones do it fast and give you boost to run or attack, scientific ones would heal almost everything but they would be useful only after fight and they would not be cheap... Its all about looking at it from wider perspective and taking in to the account other things. Balancing is annoying job but most of modders forget that this have biggest impact on gameplay and how its set decide how player play and see game...

Although actually this brings me to a slight tangent. Let's talk about stamina. Stamina and, to a lesser extent running speed are of high importance in CoP and CoC for two reasons: The maps are really big, and there's a lot of them (in CoC). Enemies never run away. The first of these is hardly a bad thing, and there's a bunch of fast travel options available if you like that sort of thing. The second, though, is an issue - because unless Stalker AI has changed a lot since I last played the only way to resolve a combat is to murder everyone or run away. I just want Stalkers to be a bunch of profiteering opportunists who are more interested in saving their own skin rather than fighting to the death against faction enemies... I guess it's easier said than done, though.

Hopefully it can and will be added at some point. Alun already worked on better panic behaviour and brought it up yesterday. Panic for NPCs with different levels -> small - retreat: pulling back, run after enemy is not seen for x seconds ; PANIC - sprint away ASAP

That's fantastic. Monolith are pretty fearless, and I guess the more disciplined, militarised factions might stand and fight, but bandits would turn tail and run if there's no immediate profit or revenge motive.