S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat: Redux - Random Weapons and You feature

Welcome to another S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat: Redux article, today featuring a first look at the amazing new Random Weapons system for NPCS, ensuring no two firefights in Redux are the same!

Now, there's been a problem plaguing the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games since Shadow of Chernobyl that I had hoped would be fixed in Call of Pripyat. However, to my dismay, it was not. That problem is the issue of the lack of random chance in the game world - in this case, in the load-outs of NPCs in the Zone.

In Vanilla Call of Pripyat, every NPC has its own section inside a zone-specific or general .xml file - this section defines their name, rank, visual appearance, voice, and weaponry. Using this system means that every NPC has a pre-defined set of weaponry, ammo and weapon attachments, which will be the same every time you play. Obviously, this isn't great, and it was a dream of mine since the old days of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to create a completely random load-out for every NPC.

That dream is now a reality.

Thanks to the incredible coding skills of Marcus (Cozmo) gannebamm (with the script basics by Cozmo), it is now possible for every NPC that you can fight to possess weaponry, ammunition and attachments randomly selected from a list, according to their faction and rank.

What does this mean overall?

• Every NPC has a random weapon, assigned according to their faction and rank.
• With this weapon, ammo is randomly assigned (FMJ, AP, Tracer-FMJ etc) once again according to faction and rank.
• Finally, the weapon will be randomly loaded with attachments (such as silencers or scopes) again, according to faction and rank.

Here's a playable example:

You may fight a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. one day with a silenced MP5, shooting Armour-Piercing Tracer rounds. The next day, you might find another S.T.A.L.K.E.R. equipped with an Abakan, outfitted with a detector scope and regular FMJ ammo.
Because all of the factors are affected by rank and faction, a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. belonging to Duty, with the Expert rank may be more likely to carry Tracer-FMJ rounds with him than a rookie of the same faction, and so on.

These combinations simply weren't possible in Vanilla, and the sum of these factors should mean that your Redux experience is even more fun, interesting, and dangerous. (Especially when you're ambushed by randomly-hostile bandits, wielding weaponry more powerful than their regular crappy shotguns and pistols)

From now on, in every article until release, I'll use the Misc Corner to detail a couple of Redux features that don't deserve their own article, but are pretty cool anyway.

And so, this week:

Firstly, the news that more weapons can now use attachments. Related to the main article, many weapons have had various attachments enabled, such as silencers for almost all pistols, the possibility for scopes on weapons where before there wasn't, etc. Just a small feature that should mean you can play Redux even more the way you want to.

Secondly, armour values have been tweaked for much more realism - bulletproof vests will no longer protect your hands, feet, legs and such from bullets. This applies in varying forms to all outfits.

And finally, the news that the SEVA Suit and Curtain Helmet now come standard with a second-generation night-vision device!

That's all we've got time for this week folks, but I hope you've enjoyed it!

Cya next time,

- Beacon
Creator of Call of Pripyat: Redux