Basic Alternative Combat Overhaul, Neoteric mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

4 comments by DarkStarMarineCorps on Oct 8th, 2012

For the past month, I have been rebuilding the entire mod using more up-to-date components and other mods. Currently it is a prototype that is using the following:

Cromm's mods:
Atmosphere 3
Absolute Nature 3
Absolute Structures (SoC and CoP versions)

Others:
Call of Pripyat Variation 1.2 and some textures and models from 1.3

Soon to be combined:
Voron spawn mod
Alundio's AI script package

Textures:
So far the mod has had almost zero issues at all and works very well on any settings, with the addition of HD textures from many textures located through out the many mods for the game, this includes older mods such as PRIPYATAN, SMRTR 0.41, Call of Pripyat complete, Shadow of Chernobyl Complete, and random weapons textures found on Filefront/Gamefront's STALKER department. So far the mod is a beautiful mixture of textures long forgotten or hardly used for anything other than just changing one single weapons appearance. As for characters appearance, that depends on what ever the Variation mod decides to spawn, but a few of the textures are from other mods (those I cannot name off the top of my head but I will surely dig around and name the mods and their creators). So far, many of the characters using the new textures look great. I have kept the red eyed "Merc" soldiers simply because of a strange hidden lighting effect that the visors produce at night, this adds a bit of a creepiness factor to Pripyat where "mercs" are commonly found, such as the hospital, the high school, or the Service center. Other mercenary textures are, and will be asked to use, since a few of them belond to CrowhiteWolf  (I absolutely love the textures he has for the Mercenary faction), along with other textures that I have found. As for weapon textures, many are left over and re-used Complete textures due to their level of Bump-map detail and the general quality of the texture, while others are taken from other mods to make the weapons appearance not so boring and vanilla looking. As for the environment, Absolute Nature 3 lite and the Normal version have been added along with the Absolute Structures pack from both the Call of Pripyat version and the Shadow of Chernobyl version, giving a very crisp and realistic looking feel to the game.

Weapons and combat (weapons that have been tweaked):
Combat has been tweaked again, AI is now even more accurate due to the editing of User.ltx's AI script lines at the very top (I will release the numbers I use around 5:30 Eastern US time) and the editing of each weapons individual accuracy and AI handling. I have also made adjustments to the creature files to improve their vision and reaction time, at the moment (this is for reference of attack distance) They are capable of shooting from the Skadovsk almost to the burnt farm stead with impressive accuracy, but this all depends on the weapon they own. As an example, an AI character using the AKS-74U will very seldom hit anything at long range, if the character were to shoot from the Skadovsk to the farm stead, he would miss about 3/5 of the time, the only time he would hit something is if he gets a lucky hit, but if he uses something like the AN-94 Abakan, he will only miss 2/5- 1/5 of the time, making him a threat to contend with, especially since I somewhat nerfed the effectiveness of the Armor suits and beefed up the damage of special ammo and the weapons that use them. If an AI character uses 5.45x39 Enhanced AP ammo, which has a large hit impulse and penetration, will almost surely kill the player in a Berill within two to three rounds on easy and normal (its obvious that any higher difficulty will kill the player instantly).

The SVD has been tweaked and changed to be the SVD Lapua, and now fires the massive and powerful .338 Lapua sniper rifle round, however this comes at the cost of it being very rare, expensive to maintain, and has a very small capacity of 5 rounds. The nimble version is just a basic SVD sniper rifle, for those who prefer age and commonality over Modern and rarity, the only differences between the two are accuracy and power.

The LR300 has had its name changed to the D.S.W. Mk.66 MCAR, its reliability is higher and maintains its customization as before except the removal of the sound suppressor/silencer option, but it is heavier and more cumbersome to use, but its cheap and almost as common as the AK74. It makes an excellent starting weapon for those new to the game, or if you just want to play with it, since its very cheap to maintain and very common among low level STALKERs and bandits. Only real disadvantage is it cannot fire 5.56x45 AP ammunition, heavy (10.35KG), and cannot use a silencer.

The AN-94 abakan is accurate, low in recoil, reliable, and has a fast firerate, but it expensive and expensive to maintain. Its advantages is that it can fire 5.45x39 Enhanced AP, use a silencer, and attach a scope. Its most commonly used by Veteran STALKERs and VERY common with lower level Protector members (and special forces units of the faction). 

The M92FS Beretta's name has been changed to NGM-939P, and uses 9x39mm Rifle ammunition in a 10 round clip. Accuracy raised and is now common with high level STALKERs, lower level Bandits, and some mercenaries. Everything else has been kept with the weapon.

All other weapons have had AI handling and accuracy tweaks done to them to increase the AI's ability to kill their enemies in combat.

AI:
Not much to report. Accuracy has been raised through User.ltx and the weapons files to where they can actually hit and kill what ever they are killing. Their vision has been increased from 1.0 to 7.35 for "vision_free" and other non combat states, and 7.20 for all combat. All characters have had their rank and experience level increased for difficulty reasons. This allows for more intense combat and AI intelligence level at the moment until I can integrate Alundios AI script into the game (AF3 and the scipt package used bind_stalker.script and its a bothersome task to make the two compatible). Until that can be done, the soon-to-be-released prototype will have more accurate AI that are higher in experience and use the old vanilla combat tactics until I can merge that one specific script file. If I could, I would see if the MISERY mod has the file, but I am hesitant of touching that mods stuff since its so complicated and the team if very touchy about their stuff being used.

Conclusion of update:

Close to releasing, just need to merge a few things to make it playable, like the AI script with AF3 and the Voron mod with AF3. The process should take about a week or more to complete, but I hope I can finish it.

- DSMC