RCOM Public Beta 1.02 file

The goal of this mod was originally to make the weapons behave more realistically. In the 10 years since then, I have added other features that make the combat more realistic in general, including changes to the AI, mutants, armor, upgrades, effects upon getting shot, and many more things.

Some great S.T.A.L.K.E.R. modders created the ultimate Stalker sandbox and released it as 'Call of Chernobyl'. Since this became the defacto latest Stalker game, I decided to rebuild RCOM from the ground up and move it over to this wonderful new Stalker game. I hope you enjoy it!

************************BETA FEEDBACK*********************************

*************************INSTALLATION**********************************

Copy the the folders "gamedata" into your Stalker Call of Chernobyl installation directory.

When loading RCOM for the first time, you'll have to start a new game for the AI effects to take place properly. Before starting the new game, go to your options menu and toggle "Hardcore AI Aim" on or off. Turning it on or off will have the same effect in RCOM. This is make sure the RCOM aiming values take effect. You can also manually check the AI aim values are proper in the "user.ltx" file located in your CoC directory, under the "appdata" folder. They will be at the top of the file and should read...

ai_aim_max_angle 30.0
ai_aim_min_angle 1.0
ai_aim_min_speed 4.0
ai_aim_predict_time 0.28

...if your numbers look different, it might be from loading a save game from before you installed RCOM. Doing this changes the AI's ability aim at moving targets. They will be strange/buggy if you don't use these values, as the vanilla/default ones are intended for far less realistic ballistics.

I also suggest you set both iron site aiming and crouching to toggle mode, since you'll spend so much more time aiming down iron sights and crouching behind cover than you did before.

*************************COMPATIBILITY**********************************

RCOM alters more files than most weapon/combat mods. This is because most combat mods miss things that I didn't. For example, there is a reason why RCOM has new model files, and it's to properly associate CoC's different models with RCOM's armor levels and NPC armor upgrade variations.

I will support RCOM bugs reported on moddb, but not bugs created by merging other mods with RCOM.

************************RCOM FEATURES*********************************

This is a feature list of all features in RCOM by MacBradley. I've spent a lot of time fine tuning gameplay factors. There are thousands of changes not specifically mentioned in here, but this covers the major concepts.

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****** Weapons & Ammo ******
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- Improved gun accuracy, recoil, & reliability to something more similar to their real life counterparts.

- Weapon handling is now more realistic. Weapons with better handling will aim down the sights faster, have less sway, and be easier to turn quickly with. The shorter a gun's barrel, the less it zooms. The difference is slight, but enough to make shorter weapons a little easier to handle in close quarters. Weapons have different sway improvements depending on bothe stance used and the specific weapon, as well as movement speed. All of these changes help make every weapon more suited for the roles they were designed for, without making them useless for other roles (like in the Vanilla game).
- More realistic Ammo accuracy, ballistics, and armor; standard rounds do more damage, but armor piercing rounds will penetrate armor better, so use ammo appropriate for your target when possible.

- Iron sights are now aligned much better

- All weapon upgrades have been redone to work with RCOM weapons. The upgrade effects are more subtle now because the non-upgraded guns don't suck to begin with in RCOM.

- Weapon stat bar formulas have been altered to better reflect the gun's abilities and uses in RCOM.

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********** Armor ***********
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- Edited damages for Stalkers & player; Unarmered targets should be incapacitated with 1-3 shots most of the time. Damage varies with the location of the shot.

- Armor system has been revamped in way not seen in STALKER until now. Damage is now calculated on whether armor has been pierced by a bullet or not. In vanilla and other mods, both armor pierced and unpierced damages are calculand whichhever yields more damage was the damage the game dealt. That strange system has been revised. I measured all of the game's calculations in spreadsheets for quick comparisons and out-of-engine testing. This is easily the most important feature in bringing the RCOM style of gameplay.

- Armors are based on real real world classifications (II,III,IV). 9mm won't penetrate II, but 9mm AP will. 5.56 won't penetrate III but 5.56 AP will, ect. Each suit's description mentions it's starting armor level.

- If armor is penetrated, the damge done is slightly reduce by the armor. If armor is not penetrated, significantly less damage is done. With that said, armor is much more realistic now. High armor levels can let you win a firefight where you were a fraction of a second slower than your target, but it won't make you invincible.

- Armor coverage is location specific. If a bullet hits an NPC's military helmet, they'll take damage but live. If it hits them in their exposed mouth/jaw area, they'll die.

- Upgrade system allows the addition of limb armor and/or up to a full armor level increase altogether, depending on the specific piece of armor.

- NPC armor has been revamped to be the same as the players (when wearing the same outfit/helmet), with NPC's having a mix of unupgraded and upgraded armor. This means that you'll have a general idea of how armored the target your shooting at is, but you won't know exactly. They might have their armor upgraded up to a full level higher and/or added to the limbs of their suit.

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************ AI *************
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- The Ulitimate AI goal in RCOM is to make them as similar to a human player as possible. They will force you to play STALKER more like an online game; Use cover. Watch your angles. Lean around corners. "Slice the pie". Try to flank enemies one at a time. Ect.

- AI are much more accurate and dangerous in general. Their accuracey is very dependent on their stance and movement. An NPC aiming from a stationary position is far more accurate than one walking, let alone running.

- NPC reaction times and firing intervals are much closer to a human's, and are dependent on their distance to the target. They'll adjust their aim faster in close quarters and fire shorter burst when they are further away.

- AI movement speed is now equal to the players.

- AI track moving targets better and more realistically now

- Enemies no longer know where you are you leave their line of sight, and they don't automatically see you within a certain distance like in the vanilla game.

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**** Realism/Immersion *****
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- Movement speed is slower and more realistic, for both the player and NPCs.

- Improved HUD, which makes the icons smaller, removes the minimap, and only shows the bare essentials, including no shown ammo count. If you want to know how much ammo is in your magazine, you'll have to empty the gun to see from the inventory. There's no magic bullet counter in real life, so you have to improvise. I also removed the beep sound when an NPC gets within a certain distance. You'll have to find them on your own now.

- No more warning shows on screen when you have a gun jam, it just jams, just like in real life.

- You restore health very slowly in general, and medkits reduce health much more slowly but over longer periods of time.

- RCOM has "hit fx" and unique deaths. Details are in the following section...

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********** Hit FX **********
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- There are brand new screen effects to indicate health levels, bleeding, and radiation levels.

- When shot, the player will have new hit indicators and visual effects. If hit hard enough, the player will stumble, shake, ect. All hit animations are dependent on where the player is shot and how much damage they took. Surviving a headshot will make you the player dizzy for a bit. Getting hit in the arms will slightly jolt aim. Getting hit in the leg will cause you to stumble, simliar to what happens when you hit an NPC.

- If the player is hit in the arm, there is a chance they will drop their weapon. This is currently not implemented for NPC's, but being tested.

- Player deaths are now much more interesting. Sometimes they are instant, and sometimes they are slow. Sometimes there is time to fire off a couple of rounds on your way down and take an NPC to hell with you.

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********* Economy **********
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- No changes for now.

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****** Variation Mod *******
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- Darkenneko made a great mod which diversifies the NPC's appearances in the game. This is include in the mod. I've also edited added variations to NPC armor upgrades.

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****** Gnome's Scopes ******
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- Gnome's beautiful scopes that he created for Shoc and CS are included in this mod. They are much more immersive than they blacked out vanilla scopes.