|
|
| Page 24 of 31 |
|
|
 Posted: Sun, 26th Apr 2020 08:44 Post subject: |
|
 |
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
M4trix
Posts: 9227
Location: Croatia, Adriatic coast (I can see ixi from here)
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
harry_theone
Posts: 11179
Location: The Land of Thread Reports
|
| Posted: Mon, 7th Dec 2020 11:35 Post subject: |
|
|
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. story writer Sergei Ivanov died from COVID at the age of 66
| Quote: | Ivanov Sergey Nikolaevich, the scriptwriter for the survival-horror S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, has passed away.
Born in Kiev in 1954, Ivanov was not drawn towards creative pursuits in his childhood or youth, surprisingly. He enjoyed science-fiction books and comics, and was a big fan of Boris Stern, a Soviet writer who penned a range of fairy tales, satire, social and realistic prose.
"If they did not provoke a desire to take up the pen, then, at least, they made me look at writing from a slightly different angle," said Ivanov. "I don't consider myself, like many of those who write now, to be a writer (here, Stern was a real writer!)"
...
Simultaneously, Ivanov's creative writing was featured in magazines and newspapers, and after his stint at National Academy of Sciences, he got a job as a literary editor of the book series, VEGA. Of course, his academic research into the synthesis of digital automata and his personal passion for science-fiction overlapped with these aforementioned leaps in entertainment technology. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is based upon the book, Roadside Picnic, which describes an alternate reality where visits from aliens leave behind "zones" of strange phenomena on Earth.
Ivanov worked for the developer, GSC Game World, in 1991, adapting that text into an interactive and fully realised version of the original, and titled S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Oblivion Lost. Sadly, this has been lost, though its successor Shadow of Chernobyl released in 2007 takes from its source material and the script that Ivanov wrote. Though the reasons for the "zones" differ, the game references a handful of narrative events from Roadside Picnic, like the wish granter, and recycles terminology from the book.
Ivanov was an important link between Soviet science fiction and the video game industry in Ukraine, and without his input, we would be without one of the touchstones of survival-horror games today. |
Rest in Peace 
https://old.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/k7xbnd/stalker_story_writer_sergei_ivanov_died_from/
https://www.gamingbible.co.uk/news/games-writer-of-stalker-sergei-ivanov-has-died-aged-66-from-covid-20201207
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bronson
Posts: 1384
Location: Asteroid B-612
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Mon, 7th Dec 2020 15:54 Post subject: |
|
|
Just caught a cool documentary called Stalking Chernobyl, which details the Chernobyl site becoming a tourist destination, as well as digging into folks that consider themselves "stalkers", who explore the site.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Mon, 7th Dec 2020 17:07 Post subject: |
|
|
| deadseasquirrel wrote: | | Just caught a cool documentary called Stalking Chernobyl, which details the Chernobyl site becoming a tourist destination, as well as digging into folks that consider themselves "stalkers", who explore the site. |
/thumbsup
Looks good. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Frant
King's Bounty
Posts: 24598
Location: Your Mom
|
| Posted: Mon, 7th Dec 2020 17:43 Post subject: |
|
|
| deadseasquirrel wrote: | | Just caught a cool documentary called Stalking Chernobyl, which details the Chernobyl site becoming a tourist destination, as well as digging into folks that consider themselves "stalkers", who explore the site. |
I've seen probably nearly 1000 photos taken by a close friend who went to Pripyat (not the Chernobyl NPP) with his dad and they hired a Ukraine "stalker", a military guard who took people into the zone where no official tours ever got close to and got the speech on how to act if caught (basically the "guide" would offer a bribe to the guards that he knew, paid by my friend/his dad). The tourists are basically sitting in a bus, stops at a particular safe spot, gets out with a guide and can look around a little, then back in the bus for stopping at a couple of more spots and then leaving again. This was 6-7 years ago so I don't know how stern they are against trespassers these days.
Meanwhile my friend and his dad went to all the cool places like the school with all the gas masks on the floor; he got to pick up plenty of souvenirs (illegal) like children's school books, drawings etc.), the theater, the bathing hall, the apartment complexes, pretty much most Pripyat places that you could see in Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. They paid handsomely for that experience but damn it, looking at all those pictures (we sat at his place, drank some beer and spent hours watching his photos on his TV and talking about what he had experienced). The photos were just ridiculously awesome for a Stalker: SoC fan like myself. If I had the money I'd go there and get the same experience.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
"The sky was the color of a TV tuned to a dead station" - Neuromancer
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Wed, 30th Dec 2020 06:55 Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
HubU
VIP Member
Posts: 11310
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65039
Location: Italy
|
| Posted: Wed, 3rd Feb 2021 03:58 Post subject: |
|
|
Apparently, the Anomaly mod that combines all the locations from the series in a big survival-like sandbox-y way has received a meaty update with lots of improvements (performance-related also):
| Quote: | Anomaly Developers has released a new version of its standalone mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly 1.5.1 aims to be the most stable and customizable experience. This mod uses the Monolith 64-bit engine, which is a custom fork of the X-Ray engine. Moreover, the mod is highly customizable, with hundreds of settings that can be tweaked in the options menus.
In STALKER Anomaly, players can choose from a variety of ways to play the mod. You can play story mode with 4 chapters of interesting quests, sandbox mode if you prefer to make up your own story, or the combat intense warfare mode where factions fight for influence and control over different areas of the zone. |
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/stalker-anomaly-1-5-1-released-brings-3d-pda-companions-wheel-optimizations-more/
https://www.moddb.com/downloads/stalker-anomaly-151
Haven't really played it properly yet, but I shall do it *soon-ish-ish* 
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
vurt
Posts: 13652
Location: Sweden
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
vurt
Posts: 13652
Location: Sweden
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Wed, 3rd Feb 2021 18:27 Post subject: |
|
|
curious, what is your recourse in such a situation, do u contact them and ask them to add credits ?
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
vurt
Posts: 13652
Location: Sweden
|
| Posted: Wed, 3rd Feb 2021 18:39 Post subject: |
|
|
i made a comment, either remove it or give me credits.
it has happened before, and with Stalker.. if these guys are russians it'll be a shit show, they won't care or they'll tell me to fuck off or something most likely + they'll have a bunch of fanboys who will side with them. been there.
i warned them about the texture ""artist"" who makes grass. if he's stolen from me, he might have stolen from other games or mods.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Wed, 3rd Feb 2021 18:58 Post subject: |
|
|
cant they claim they took a high def picture of the same plant or does a texture have a mdf or a digit u can identify it by ?
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
vurt
Posts: 13652
Location: Sweden
|
| Posted: Wed, 3rd Feb 2021 19:05 Post subject: |
|
|
that two of the same types of plant will look 100% identical in its structure (leaves, flowers and thorns in 100% identical places, identical color variations etc) is absolutely impossible. It never happens in nature. The plant is also heavily edited by me, and often that is rather sloppily done to be honest hehe, so yeah it's easy to prove. my oldest file i have with it on Nexus mods is most likely 5 years+ old. this mod is one year old i believe.
Edit: the ferns are also mine, and one of the bush textures, from my Skyrim mod.
Edit 2: ok got a PM, the guy who makes the mod was actually pretty nice and apologetic.
It's running quite smooth on the highest settings, easily 60FS with SSAO, AA.
It's not very immersive / sloppy when it comes to the characters or AI, there doesn't seem to be any. I started shooting at my guys (my faction), killed off one, no one shot back. Shot the leader / quest giver, no reaction.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Thu, 4th Feb 2021 10:13 Post subject: |
|
|
Anomaly is pretty much the biggest standalone mod right now. Call of Chernobyl hasn't been actively maintained for ages, so Anomaly took the crown.
The Anomaly discord and community in general is huge, as most of the mod makers for CoC moved to Anomaly over the last couple of years.
The devs also actively develop the XRay engine port they are using, which is why Anomaly keeps getting so many new features. There is also talk on the discord of adding a Vulkan renderer at some point in the near future.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Thu, 4th Feb 2021 10:15 Post subject: |
|
|
what about the story? or you just fuck around in the areas?
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Thu, 4th Feb 2021 11:53 Post subject: |
|
|
| lolozaur wrote: | | what about the story? or you just fuck around in the areas? |
The story missions are pretty half assed and mostly consist of fetch quests or finding documents in the SHOC labs.
The interesting part of them is they unlock new factions you can start as on new games, such as the Renegades, the sin cult or a UNN observer/military force. They also unlock some new outfits and pieces of equipment that start appearing in the vendor pool after completion in subsequent games.
There was a community mod being made that aimed to expand the storylines and make them more fully featured, but such things never seem to get much traction within these big free play mods. CoC had a bunch of similar projects that never really went anywhere. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
vurt
Posts: 13652
Location: Sweden
|
| Posted: Thu, 4th Feb 2021 13:42 Post subject: |
|
|
Are people really enjoying roleplaying this as a "make your own adventure" though? how much can you really do apart from fighting other factions and doing the typical fetch quest?
if you can go anywhere etc it's like you've finished the game and you're just fucking around.
It seems like you can start on any faction from the start, there's a bunch of symbols you can select, i guess that's the faction. For some reason it does not say what it's called, you just get to see their symbol, which doesn't say a lot to anyone who's not perhaps spent thousands of hours on this and knows which symbol represents which faction.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65039
Location: Italy
|
| Posted: Fri, 5th Feb 2021 02:59 Post subject: |
|
|
I've been roaming through the anomalous giant blyatZone for some hours trying to survive whilst following the main "quest". It's nothing remarkable but I'm finding the survival experience pretty solid, it complements the games nicely with the usual sandbox randomness that can lead to both unexpected moments of glory and to complete insanity. Haven't pissed off any factions yet since I'm being a good Stalkerman, but it's a matter of time before some nasty accident happens  
Everything from the survival elements to the difficulty is fully customizable which is a plus, depending on the options it can be a punishing hardcore Misery-like experience of micro-management and instant buttsecs or a more accessible vanilla-like Stalker-like romp where you mainly care about shooting bandits and beasts. There are more items, pseudo-items and autistic sub-systems for crafting than the game actually needs to be honest, though some of them can be ignored without missing much. The technical side of it is pretty polished as well without being too taxing even for veteran systems like mine, I can actually maintain ~60fps on High/1080p (DX10, since 11 is a bit unstable) as long as I keep the grass settings in check and turn the volumetric sunrays off. There seem to be noticeable improvements with loading assets also which (partially) mitigate the typical Xrayian stuttering.
It's probably better to wait a bit more though, at least until the dozens of interesting add-ons and packs for the mod will be updated to support the latest version. Cheekibreeki idi ka mnie
@Vurt: glad that you received a positive answer from the modders, one does not simply steal from the Flora King without turning into Pinocchio!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Fri, 5th Feb 2021 19:42 Post subject: |
|
|
| vurt wrote: | Are people really enjoying roleplaying this as a "make your own adventure" though? how much can you really do apart from fighting other factions and doing the typical fetch quest?
if you can go anywhere etc it's like you've finished the game and you're just fucking around.
It seems like you can start on any faction from the start, there's a bunch of symbols you can select, i guess that's the faction. For some reason it does not say what it's called, you just get to see their symbol, which doesn't say a lot to anyone who's not perhaps spent thousands of hours on this and knows which symbol represents which faction. |
The stalker community very much enjoys freeplay mods. That's what made Call of Chernobyl so popular in the first place.
Anomaly is basically just an upgraded version of CoC. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
vurt
Posts: 13652
Location: Sweden
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65039
Location: Italy
|
| Posted: Fri, 19th Feb 2021 04:06 Post subject: |
|
|
After some suicidal sessions I believe I've found the best combination of QoL addons to enhance the Anomaly sandbox without turning it into a massive chore: https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly/addons/nekros-addonpack
Many of these are essential, especially the Trader Overhaul Complete (since the vanilla system is too geared towards grinding), Stealth module (with improved AI), the high-quality sounds/ambience/music pack and Particles Remade in order to make firefights more immersive. I would also add a couple of modules that aren't included in there, such as the Arszis Mutant Bleeding (which makes mutant beasts bleed to death if they sustain enough damage *inserts Arnie's seal of approval*) and the Groks Craft and Repair Overhaul in order to make crafting less tiresome. There are dozens of addons that get updated every day, something interesting always pops up
Although I know the Zone like the back of my hand by now, it's definitely a pleasure to have all the maps of the three games combined into a single entity where the signature dynamic A-events can be dynamically unleashed. It's a shame that nothing can be done to make the whole thing truly interconnected without archaic loading screens, but sadly that's how the vintage X-technology rolls. Still, whether it's by completing simple tasks or by following the main route, there's nothing like venturing into the hostile decaying Stalkerian wilds, it is a timeless experience. The heavily modded F4llout is perhaps the closest to it, but for me it can't quite challenge the breekian atmosphere. Please Stalker 2, don't be too much of an embarrassment
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
vurt
Posts: 13652
Location: Sweden
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Fri, 19th Feb 2021 08:54 Post subject: |
|
|
| ixigia wrote: | After some suicidal sessions I believe I've found the best combination of QoL addons to enhance the Anomaly sandbox without turning it into a massive chore: https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly/addons/nekros-addonpack
Many of these are essential, especially the Trader Overhaul Complete (since the vanilla system is too geared towards grinding), Stealth module (with improved AI), the high-quality sounds/ambience/music pack and Particles Remade in order to make firefights more immersive. I would also add a couple of modules that aren't included in there, such as the Arszis Mutant Bleeding (which makes mutant beasts bleed to death if they sustain enough damage *inserts Arnie's seal of approval*) and the Groks Craft and Repair Overhaul in order to make crafting less tiresome. There are dozens of addons that get updated every day, something interesting always pops up
Although I know the Zone like the back of my hand by now, it's definitely a pleasure to have all the maps of the three games combined into a single entity where the signature dynamic A-events can be dynamically unleashed. It's a shame that nothing can be done to make the whole thing truly interconnected without archaic loading screens, but sadly that's how the vintage X-technology rolls. Still, whether it's by completing simple tasks or by following the main route, there's nothing like venturing into the hostile decaying Stalkerian wilds, it is a timeless experience. The heavily modded F4llout is perhaps the closest to it, but for me it can't quite challenge the breekian atmosphere. Please Stalker 2, don't be too much of an embarrassment |
One thing I usually suggest on Anomaly is changing the population factor setting to be a little higher. By default I think it goes to 0.5 which tends to make the world feel a bit too empty as Stalker squads are quite sparse in the world.
The devs like the default experience to be the bleak world with a fairly low population, but I enjoy bumping into more stalkers out in the wild. Also means more dynamic shootouts and encounters etc. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sun, 28th Feb 2021 20:58 Post subject: |
|
|
Well, I do enjoy Call of Chernobyl, sure, you're getting a lot of fetch quests, but it's nice to rise to the top of the hierarchy of the Zone while following the (basic, but at least, existing) main quest.
And the zombie mode is fun, too, albeit punishing.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sun, 28th Feb 2021 22:52 Post subject: |
|
|
| Steelone wrote: |
Anomaly is basically just an upgraded version of CoC. |
That may be so, but I can't stand the dated graphics and lighting in any of them. My favorite mod (or frankestein mod) was Call of Misery, merging the huge open world freeplay of CoC with the unforgivingness and gorgeous graphics of Misery. Sadly, it seems that it died out like 3 years ago.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Page 24 of 31 |
All times are GMT + 1 Hour |
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB 2.0.8 © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
|
 |
|
). He was a very intelligent man who was very open talking about his work on STALKER and some early ideas they had during the game's development. RIP.
I love the hump sometimes.
