Full concept MODIFICATION of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat that touches every game aspect including textures, sfx, music, weapons, A.I., items, weather, mutants, difficulty and much much more!
Are you ready for a re-thinking of a core aspect in the game?
VANILLA STALKER
Uses medkits as instantly healing items that can spam-heal you - even during firefights.
Even without any kind of hindrance or negative effect. Something that totally diminishes a good game challenge. (And also it is not very realistic).
MISERY 1.1
Alters the medkits into items that are far less effective during combat scenarios.
In most circumstances these are not even items that will aid you during firefights (as it should be).
With less healing effect and MUCH SLOWER healing rate the medkits where turned into restoring items used in RELATION to firefights and not DURING them.
MISERY 2.0
Takes this even further:
Medkits have been altered to have no aiding attributes in relation to firefights.
They are unpacked and applied only when you have the time somewhere safe to focus on your overall health and condition.
Their possitive effects are now even slower than they ever were.
During combat scenarios you can still apply bandages (as in real life) only this action will now hinder your fighting capabilities for a moment - so think twice before taking care of yourself if not completely safe and behind cover.
You will have your weapons auto-holstered while handling ANY type of item in MISERY version 2.0.
STIMS
MISERY 2.0 introduces Stims as our new combat related defensive equipment.
If wounded you must patch yourself up with bandages to stop the bleeding but you now also have the option of injecting chemicals to your body for some pain and shock reducing effect letting you soldier on for a while. But this comes at a price as not only ignoring wounds and bodily harm but also powerful chemicals creates negative effects for your overall strength and condition.
Still these Stims are not instantly healing items as their possitive effects come into play at an EVEN SLOWER rate than the version 1.1 medkits. Use them wisely and ONLY when you feel safe behind cover during the fight.
The "USS Recon" applies bandages, stims and medkits faster than the other two classes. This is one of his 2 special perks.
are you guys changing the AI cuss i'm sick and tired of enemy's seeing me in pitch black darkness when i cant see anything at all. all i see is the flash from their barrel of the gun then i lose them of where they r
This is going to make combat very interesting.
Combined with the QRS for the backpack, I can see run and hide becoming my favor tactic
Yeah, we wanted to enhance the element of "having to back out of firefights from time to time". Thanks to trojanuchs great balancing we have accomplished just that.
You guys are doing some pretty amazing work.
Looks like the Zone is going to be a lot crueler place.
I like what you are doing with the medkits. It really makes artifacts a viable, and pretty much necessary option if you want to stay alive for an extended period of time.
Hehe you haven't heard yet thou what we did with the artifacts :)
Generally - we are trully devoted to liberal agenda, thus you can already start getting used to the fact that "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" available in the Zone regardless of commodity that you're after (be it health restoration for ex.).
Agressive capitalism - that's what places like that are usually full of :)
i am in love with you man =}
So if I use a medikit during a combat with some bandits or mutants there will be no effects? And this stims now reminds me of the Stimpaks on the hardcore mode of Fallout New Vegas...
Let's just say that you'll find medkits not really suited for in-combat usage.
Well, I think I will use the USS Sniper then :)
Oh yea, let the games begin. This really heats thing up for the combat system. I am impressed. Can't wait for the end of the month. :)
Can you guys explain a little more the differences between stims and medkits/bandages and the in-game effects they have? Maybe I'm just mis-reading it, but I don't quite understand. Also could you show us the in-game icons? The ones you have in the image above look fantastic. :) Do they have in-game models (if no: what are the in-game models?)?
I know this has been discussed before, but any chance of these items getting animations? That would be a fantastic addition!
I have a side question which I may ask at a later point, as it pertains more to the design approach overall, but I'll keep that to myself for now. :p
Good work!
The ingame gui icons are the ones that you see in this picture.
They share the same mesh which is a metalic syringe like the one on the right.
Animations for these would be cool but ALOT of work to look good. A mod in itself.
I'll leave it up to troj to answer the use and conditions of these items but I would gladly answer any design question that you may have.
Good to hear about the icons :)
As for the other question - it's a little difficult to ask because (as you may see below) I still haven't quite grasped the concept of the syringes vs the medkits, but I'll try and ask it anyway.
How do you/did you go about designing a medical system like this with a lack of in-game mechanics to support it. By that I mean, if you look at something like DayZ, they have painkillers, morphine, blood packs and epi-pens, but they have a system to support it (blood loss, broken limps, shaking, etc). STALKER has a distinct lack of effects (you can only bleed and lose health pretty much).
Moreover, especially in your mod, the difficulty makes it so that you can die very easily, sometimes with one bullet. Even against mutants they do terrible amounts of damage, versus the zombies in DayZ again, which take a longer time to "kill" a player, but can also do physical damage effects (such as broken limbs).
I guess my first question is (perhaps naively without having played 2.0): do the syringes and new medical mechanics really work in the STALKER engine, or are they just jerry-rigged for a new/different experience?
And my second question: would it be possible to make a more overhauled system in a later version: including things like differentiating between blood loss and health (HP), broken bones (slower movement, blacking out), fear/anxiety/shock (weapon sway, blurry vision etc) so that you could, eventually (if possible) have mutants acting in a different way to guns i.e. mutants could have physical effects (broken bones, blood loss, shock etc) and bullets could cause more immediate effects (HP loss) and perhaps even different effects based on your armour and the ammo type being used against you. (for example regular pistol rounds may cause physical shock instead of hp loss).
From stuff you mentio the broken limbs thing is the only no-plausible atm.
The rest of the stuff including 'shock' effects or variated feeling from getting shoot from various types can by achieved to large degree thru 'clever' usage of existing mechanics (engine is not that limited) + some dose of custom scripting which we have applied.
I guess you'll have to wait a little to judge how well we managed to do it and we'll have to wait a little to receive more of your really cool, critical feedback (g8 thx for that btw).
Is it possible to add new stats? I saw a mod, somewhere (possibly Lost Alpha?), had added a "thirsty" stat to keep track of. I don't exactly know the details of it, but could that theoretically be done? And then perhaps have that stat only effected by certain ammunition types and melee attacks (if the game can actually tell what a melee [or mutant] attack is).
Again this is just more a broad question of curiosity. :)
I don't know! lol. Just some curious thoughts of mine as I don't like when mod makers have to jerry-rig effects due to engine limitations. I'd prefer a well implemented mechanic over a "cool" poorly made (no fault of the author) effect.
sorry if my questions confuse you :p
pt2
I don't know if anyone already mention this, but you can try and take "Far cry 2" animation for "Stims" and modify it a little bit, with little work it might turn up great.
For medkits we are using a heavly modified (sounds, camera effects, timings) ui script from this movie:
Vimeo.com
Using medkits in combat is now not only pointless due to actual healing ratio but also due to vulnerability during the 'blackout' phase when player is focusing on unpacking the medkit and patching himself up.
Using a stim is much simplier as you only need to put your gun away for a moment and inject yourself.
All in all we are really making sure that you have a good reason to purchase and take both: stimpacks and medkits on your mission and using both types of equipment only in appropriate scenario.
It seems like the stim packs serve the same function as the default healing methods then but with added side effects? (I apologise if I still don't understand the conceptual difference) From a personal standpoint though I'm not liking the effects shown in that video. It seems to break immersion in a very intrusive way (the black out part mostly), so I hope you guys have improved upon that.
Regarding stims: yeah you get the right picture (+ I'll add that these are properly rebalanced, 'default' healing methods).
Regarding medkits: it would be of course awesome to have an animation here but as you well know its beyond the reach of Stalker modding.
'Blackout' form the movie is not more immersion breaking than sleeping is - it also 'portrays' what normally should be an anim of player laying down on bed and closing his eyes.
Key thing thou for that is set it so that blackout doesn't seem to be 'a result' of item usage (like on the movie) but rather a 'representation' of complicated usage-process itself which requires attention-focusing. Its a subtle change but makes a huge difference immersion-wise.
Sleeping has a very good reason for blacking out. Unless there is a technical reason for having the black out there it seems as if your character passes out using the medkit. It seems as if you're going for a sort of "10 minutes later" fade out effect, but personally that just gives the wrong impression. I'd much prefer to just have a sound and camera effects to represent the action.
I understand completely that you are limited, but it's a real shame you could get animations working for it. I'd hate to see it disturb the immersion because it's a fantastic mod.
"It seems as if you're going for a sort of "10 minutes later" fade out effect (...)"
Yeah - you get the right picture here :)
"(...) but personally that just gives the wrong impression."
Hehe - of course it cannot on above movie. Immersion risks here are obvious here - thus its quite a challange to get away with sth like that in plausible way. We'll be looking forward to your criticsm after you try this feature in-game.
+1 on this one. I think the main idea behind a proper simulation is to recreate the Decisions we would make in a given situation.
I can only speak for myself, but I'd avoid unnecessary gunfights because I can't bandage myself when holding a gun. :)
Pity engine will not allow to adjust FOV if some medicine will be injected. FOV in 70-120 degrees range could be a nice addition.
I remember "Yadulin" stimpack from OGSM mod - it made you invincible for a few seconds but then - BOOM - your health dramatically reduces by 70%. I wonder if your stimpacks are modifying wound coef. - if you get shot you will get only a part of damage (more like morphine, promedol, noradrenaline or common painkillers) - or just healing and stamina stimulators like medkits?
Articles.latimes.com
I want to be miserable now!!!!
I don't like everything you're putting in 2.0, but damn me if this isn't Pretty Damn Cool.
That said, the drawbacks in the video look kinda bad. Using a lot of PPEs really shows up just how bad they are in stalker games (due to the severe limitations in what you can do).
FALLOUT FTW!
I need to see how someone play this mod.
Reading it make doubt about possibilty to survive in zone.
You will be seeing someone play this mod soon :)
all this sounds very cool, but i think the medkits are now unnecessary.
It may appear that way and you can choose to avoid them completely if you want. One could say that we just divided the vanilla medkits into two categories: 'Combat Related' (Stims) and 'Safe Area Restoration' (Medkits)
So..... How much for a scientific one?
Still better than auto inject stimpacks from Fallout.
Is the "End of September" release still up, or has it been pushed back to October?
That wasn't a release date, it was an ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival. They will only show an actual release date when they are 100% postitive it is ready.
Badly formulated post. Thank you for correcting me. I should have said "Is the ETA still in September, or ha it been pushed back?" Thumbs for catching my error. Bury the comment in error if possible.
I must say, this is the first innovative interesting idea to be added to STALKER in a very long time. My hats of to you.
I love you guys. This mod is going to be even more epic!!!
Oh, also I found this:
apparantly from a mod called "Gunslinger" - I can only find Russian info, and unfortunately I don't speak it! Here's a thread:
Amk-team.ru
Anyway, the mod seems to have a load of awesome animations for weapons and things and the video above has one for vodka.
Translation from Russian to English of info regarding this script. Excuse me if some mistakes are present (at least it's not a machine translation)
Author of script: Sin!
Script work is based on this scheme:
In moment of item usage, no matter how it is used - by hotkey of or from inventory, only one animation is played and then item begins to take the effect. If there is an active weapon in hands (or everything that can be held in hands) then it will be taken away, animation is played, then that was in hands before item usage is automatically goes back, that means all process is executed by pressing of one key. You can see this system in Metro 2033 or Far Cry 2. Also in tribute to the realism the introduced function can not be used with everything that goes into the mouth if the gasmask or self-contained suit is worn. So you have to take your gasmask or self-contained suit off if you have to drink or snack.
The update of script is possible in future.
*End*
Good luck with that idea, AoXo. If Russian script will be used or similar will be created it will be cool for immersion.
I don't see a link anywhere in the above thread.
Is it released yet?
The mod is frozen on 10% completion. Author doesn't know if he will go back to this mod or not. Currently he is working on Death in Candlewood game.
Oh that's a shame. I'm not a modder so I wouldn't know anything about it, but it seems like a pretty big thing to be able to add custom animations like that.
Animations are alot of work. That is the reason why animators very seldom take on any other tasks besides that. The mods that do implement new animations borrow them from an animator (like Kaplan). There are many on going animation modding projects promoted on Youtube but only a few of them are actually finished.
You should contact some of them to see if they'll let you incorporate animations as seen above for 3.0 or whatever, would really add a layer of immersion. That is the one thing that detracts from STALKER's immersion, clunky actor and NPC animations/movement. Just isn't realistic or sightly.
We might do so if one or more from the dev team soldiers on after version 2.0
AWESOME