Roadside Picnic Addons Pack by 0x29a [1.1] (1.4.22)

Hi there!

This pack has been growing within my CoC installation for quite a while now... After watching some YT reviews in which folks had trouble with applying addons, I've decided to share it.

Hopefully you'll enjoy it.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the Roadside Picnic. I find this novel to be one of the most inspiring pieces of literature I've ever stumbled upon in my lifetime. Via the very first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. press announcement back in 2001, I've heard about the book for the first time, obtained it (which wasn't easy at all back then, almost like finding an artifact) and immediately got hooked on the whole post-apo genre.
Due to this, I feel kind of obligated to give something back. With help of many great CoC addons, I've rebalanced quite a few aspects of the gameplay to fit the book's narration and atmosphere.

This pack is definitely not aimed at hardcore veterans. It's made mostly for the rookie players. Yet, IronMan (permadeath) mode is highly recommended, not to say - required... Immersion was my primary goal when compiling this pack, and no other gameplay paradigm yields comparable amount of emotions for the player to experience.

All right, time for the interesting stuff:

1) This mod compiles contents of quite a few addons into one - relatively stable - package.

a) Immersion:

- Living Zone by Skelja ( Moddb.com )

AI is working simultaneously in all areas right from the start. In addition to the unlocked AI, this addon makes NPC's more life-like and adventurous, less predictable... There are no safe-zones in The Zone.

- DoctorX Questlines 1.25 ( Moddb.com )
- Modified Pay for DocX Questlines (tweaked a lot).

The reason is giving the player some goal at the beginning. It's rather superficial, sure, but it does the job very well. It doesn't get in your way of aimless wandering, so I'd call it a non-intrusive enhancement.
And, when you run out of "important" stuff to do, you always have a place to visit... Non-zero-sum game scenario.

- Dan's Desolation Mod ( Moddb.com )

Set both human and mutant populations to 0.25 in the main menu to feel the effect.
In the book (and the movie) there were no NPCs in The Zone. Yet, it's another universe, another rules, another medium... All and all, The Zone with more space to breath is the way I like it.
Nothing beats the view of a lone zombified stalker moaning far away on the roof of an abandoned train, in the fog, when the sun is rising on the horizon at five o'clock in the morning...

- Dan's Faction Overhaul ( Moddb.com ) (tweaked a bit)

This one makes factions mechanics (and some related AI behaviour) less nonsensical.

- DoctorX Dynamic Anomalies 2.1 ( Moddb.com )

"The Zone is a very complicated system of traps, and they're all deadly. I don't know what goes on here in the absence of people, but the moment someone shows up, everything comes into motion. Old traps disappear and new ones emerge. Safe spots become impassable. Once your path was easy, now it is hopelessly involved.
That's the Zone." -Stalker (1979)

- Infiltration Addon ( Moddb.com )

Wonderful sub-mod. Allows one to perform assassinations in enemy base Hitman-style.

- Level changers for CoC 1 4 22 ( Moddb.com )

Those violent weather changes now make perfect sense.

b) Sound:

- Muffled PDA/Geiger Counter 1.2 ( Moddb.com )

- Sound Restoration V2b2 ( Moddb.com ) ( tweaked a lot)

SR V2b2 adds a lot more variety to the game's soundscape, but it was way too loud in its original form. All the included sounds have been modified by hand using ffmpeg/sox to be truly ambient. When you sit on the cement factory roof silently at noon, you can barely hear distant moaning and gunshots... But you can feel
them all the time.

c) Gameplay:

- Deadly Anomalies V1.04 ( Moddb.com )

In the book, falling into an anomaly meant instant death. D.A. addon gets as close as it gets, and it scales according to the difficulty, too.

- Outfit Addon 1.4.6 ( Moddb.com )
- Arsenal Overhaul 3.1 (v.5) ( Moddb.com )

Due to the variety, ammo is somewhat harder to obtain and, therefore, more valuable. Trading - even when you're getting ripped off - becomes a must, especially before taking a long trip into The Zone.

Dan's Monster Mods ( Moddb.com ) ( partial )

Not fully merged - only the stealth part has been incorporated. Moving silently and staying in the shadows can give you an advantage when executed properly.

- Smurth's Dynamic Hud v3.2.2.8 ( Moddb.com ) + Smurths Dynamic Hud Dynamic Breath Sounds ( Moddb.com )

No introduction should be required here. SDH is a must-have. Best played with the crosshair turned off.

-----------------------------------------

Miscellaneous stuff:

- Inaccurate Zombies ( Moddb.com )

- Patched Gore Mod 1.2 ( Moddb.com )

- Door tweaks by Asynchron ( Moddb.com )

- TRX: Dynamic News Revamp (4.3) ( Moddb.com )

- Fix emission and psy storm CoC 1 4 22 ( Moddb.com )

- Upgradeable binocular 1.3 ( Moddb.com )

WYSIWYG. Small, yet ingenious tweaks.

d) Graphics:

- Structures Redux 1.1 ( Moddb.com )
- Absolute Nature Redux 1.17 ( Moddb.com )
- S.W.T.C. - Call of Chernobyl Edition 1.11 ( Moddb.com )
- Enhanced Sunsets and Sunrises 1.08 ( Moddb.com )
- Sharpened actors texture COC 1.4.22 ( Moddb.com )
- ReShade Hex3 Edit (Insane Look) ( Moddb.com )

No DX11 enhancenments here, so you must apply one on your own if you want to. On the other hand, it works platinum under WINE on Linux systems. (Also, DX11 should be good now thanks to DXVK)

2) In-house modifications:

a) Custom damage balancing

Weapons have more punch. For everyone. And let no one be left behind... Nerfed weaponry in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series is the most frequent complaint I've heard.

Upgrading your gear in terms of armor is somewhat meaningful now (long, dangerous trips to Red Forest just to get that silly +3% you can't even feel, anyone?). While more kevlar on your body does not make you invincible, it gives you a bit wider margin for surviving all those pesky snipers hiding in the bushes near Skadovsk, or this horde of zombies ambushing you from behind that building in Pripyat... Generally speaking, fully upgraded armor actually helps you deal with situations for which you can't be prepared. Still, don't even dream about getting out alive from a point-blank machinegun fire...

b) Loadouts:

Every faction starts with a short arm suited for that particular group, and a random long arm.

Loners, Bandits and Clear Sky start with basic novice outfits - from the dialogue it seems that those are newbies, ill prepared and disregarded by their superiors. (Well, maybe except for the Clear Sky, but we all know how rich in resources those guys are...)
Duty, Freedom and Mercenaries start with regular armors; they're an experienced, reliable people, or at least that's what I get from what the NPCs are saying.
Monolith member starts as a regular monolithian, with somewhat limited weaponry due to the scripting limitations I hope to overcome one day.
Soldiers are equipped with regular military uniform, as every soldier is.

c) Artifacts:

Based on Dan's Artifact Balance ( Moddb.com ), but tweaked beyond recognition. Artifacts are rare and very expensive, just like in the book. Also, they're more faithful to their relevant in-game descriptions.

4) Installation

First, install Call of Pripyat base game.

Second, install Call Of Chernobyl 1.4.12 release.

Third, install Call Of Chernobyl 1.4.22 patch.

Finally, just copy the archive contents to fresh CoC's 1.4.22 installation directory. Replace files when prompted.

As for the HUD configuration, check out Smurth's Dynamic HUD page for detailed explanation.

If you have trouble with resolution / stuck mouse cursor, change it to your screen resolution in appdata/user.ltx

3) Known bugs:

Game can work like a charm for six hours straight, and then crash to desktop randomly with no error message at all. Be sure to limit QS number to 1 and save very often (no issue on IronMan, right?). Also, the game likes to crash when entering new area, but no worry - autosaves will be all right.

Some quests seem to be stuck when reaching certain points (mutant hunts, escort mission and such). Quick save and quick load helps in 99% of cases. Also, ask major characters for side missions before taking DocX's ones, as the sidemissions dialogue options will get disabled until "important" quest completion.

Don't get into tight spaces with your followers. Run towards bunkers doors, or be prepared for lots and lots of jiggling around... Also, some NPCs like to spawn in wrong places when starting a new game - just give them some time to get to their posts, they'll reach them eventually.

Some traders can be tricked for infinite money. I hope to fix it one day, at least if it won't get fixed beforehand. To abuse or not to abuse - I'll leave it to the player's conscience...

Unreachable stashes are most probably a vanilla issue. Here's a quick&dirty hack for some of them: Moddb.com

camera_height_factor                        = 0.92

to

camera_height_factor                        = 0.50

for the player in file gamedata/configs/creatures/actor.ltx

This pack is incompatible with additional monsters (tark, fish, komar, you name it). It'll crash for sure, but you're very welcome to try to get it working.

Game can crash when entering Truck Cemetery: Add -noprefetch CLI switch to the game launcher, it'll work then.

And, last but not least: spawning in front of enemies when moving between areas...
Unfortunately, I don't see an easy way to overcome this one. Better back up your save files on IronMan before every transition, or have your finger ready to press the QL button as fast as possible... Nevertheless, with this pack issue is far, far less noticeable/severe/notorious...

4) Unknown bugs:

Every piece of feedback is invaluable.

Big thanks to everyone for reporting bugs!

Big thanks to everyone for great ideas!

Changelog:

From 1.0 to 1.1:

Updated Infiltration Addon so it should not interfere with questlines

From 0.9 to 1.0:

- Military won't spawn in Swamp and Freedom Base in addition to the Rostok

- Lowered zoom for weapons without scopes attached

- Versioning rebase, overlooked the versions jump

From 0.8 to 0.9:

- Bug causing Military to appear in Rostok should be fixed now

From 0.7 to 0.8:

- Removed Dynamic Factions Relations due to the Rostok bug (didn't played well with the Living Zone addon, I guess)

- Reintroduced Dynamic Anomalies, hurray!

- Introduced various sub-mods

- Upgraded various sub-mods to newer versions

From 0.6 to 0.7:

- Due to the severe stability issues removed Dynamic Anomalies... What an unfortunate turn of events... Hopefully it'll be re-merged once it'll get fixed one day.

- Same thing happened to Rare Loot, but searching bodies will still bring less revenue than in vanilla game. In-house tweak inspired by The Rover movie ( Imdb.com ), where characters carried only a handful of ammo with them and fought against soldiers with short arms, stealth and an element of suprise.

- Fixed Bandits relations.

- Removed some additional textures that were out of place.

From 0.5 to 0.6:

- Merged Living Zone and Gore Mod addons

- Further tweaked "Rare Loot" - dead stalker's equipments were too poor, even unrealistically poor. Now it's balanced a bit better (IMHO)

From 0.4 to 0.5:

- Merged dynamic anomalies by DocX

- Added Rostok Propaganda Mute by @brainscorcher

- Tweaked "Rare Loot" by Dan so a tiny little bit more stuff comes up from dead bodies.

From 0.31 to 0.4:

- Various little balancing tweaks

- Switched from upstream DocX Desolation to Dan's modified version with longer respawn intervals

- Merged Dan's Monster Mods stealth aspect, Dan's Rare and Random Loot, and heavily modified Sound Restoration

From 0.3 to 0.31:

- Fixed Fracture-related crash on certain levels.

- Fixed armour upgrade price leftover values for some factions, most notably Duty.

From 0.2 to 0.3:

- Replaced Fractures with real (unarmed) Zombies altogether. If you like Fractures, delete configs/creatures/m_fracture.ltx file to bring them back from the dead, khe khe uhmph (caugh).

- Rebalanced player damages to reflect how NPCs are configured. There are now like three times more damage zones registered, but they all scale very nicely and in principle you should receive a bit less damage overall (at least if you're not sitting ducks).

- Rebalanced armour upgrades (for more info, look at the relevant part in description above)

- Little tweaks for starting loadouts to make them a bit more varied.

From 0.12 to 0.2:

- Fixed conserva animation and applied HUD glith fix by @SashaRed. Thanks!

- Replaced main menu music with Stalker theme from @brainscorcher main menu version. Thanks!

- Rebalanced job payments (still higher, yet more realistic and fair) (also, a bit more random)

- Decided to go with upstream DoctorX Desolation because of some perceived further maintenance issues

- Resigned from ISTCoPD completely in favour of an in-house balancing solution; more realistic, yet still well balanced. (Not as realistic as W.A.R.F.I.G.H.T.E.R, but something along those lines. Definitely more intuitive.)

- Refined starting loadouts a little bit

- Did various cleanups, like removal of some unneeded/misplaced/redundant/outdated files

From 0.1 to 0.12:

- Merging some little tweaks and bugfixes

0.1:

- Adventure begins!