FAQ: What happened on the day of release of MISERY 2?
NICOLAI: You remember this day (March 27)? We had planned for this day in such a long time.
Everything was perfectly set up and many MDT members had synchronized our clocks to monitor and support the publishing of the mod. Within the first minute 10,000 downloads were commenced and our servers broke down. Even the ModDB website could not fully support the huge amount of data traffic and our uploads got screwed again and again.
The comments section on ModDB went bananas and that whole day turned into a frustrating mess, because of the downloads that just kept piling up why the minute.
I even utilized my personal Microsoft Drive account to be able to distribute the heavy mod. However, this instantly in Microsoft locking all of my accounts, emails included, due to 'excessive and violating data traffic'. How's that for tying my hands on the day of release, right? We even posted a live feed of photos showing our rigs uploading the mod in different ways and on different servers. But enough about that. It all turned out fine the day after and our tertiary plans worked out in the end.
FAQ: How many people have downloaded the MISERY mod?
NICOLAI: Currently it's downloaded a little more than 600,000 times, but that's only the numbers that we can keep track off. This quantity of MISERY gamers result in a huge amount of emails, ideas and questions in our mail boxes almost daily. We read and appreciate every single comment, every email and every letter, but we fail at replying to them all. We've set up auto-replies to our main email to let everyone know that we got the messages. Unfortunately our mail servers are also attracting lots of spam mails, resulting in us having to disable the whole 'contact page' on the site.
FAQ: How was the year 2014 for the MISERY mod team?
NICOLAI: Like a giant roller coaster. Big things were accomplished, not only technically, but also personally. MDT grew into a large team with a good handful of people devoting many hours on a daily basis to expand and deepen the mod contents. Some of us have met and formed real life friendships. MISERY 2 got released for good and for worse. One thing I've learned is that a mod of these proportions will never satisfy anyone.
2014 is also the year where we rewarded our mod with its own official website.
We felt a need for this in order to present and deliver the mod exactly how we feel like. Some members got married, others had kids, while others quit their jobs to pursue a more focused effort to enter the gaming industry.
FAQ: Does it change anything to win an award?
NICOLAI: It does. It is hugely motivating to see a result of your efforts. We all do this in our spare time and for no financial perspectives whatsoever. There are so many perks beside building the game of our dreams for the sake of our own entertainment. It's the feedback, the critique and the sparring with our audience that keep our wheels spinning. That's why we are even here to begin with.
Having the mod rewarded with an award is a huge thing for a global team. It 'connects' the members and helps boosting the morale of a group, significantly.
FAQ: Do you receive many donations?
NICOLAI: No, none. Websites, Facebook, technical support, VK and the modding itself is all fueled by raw motivation and passion. Donations are against the ethics of STALKER modding, and violate the IP and license of GSC. We have much respect for these guys and consider ourselves guardians of the STALKER franchise.
There are some who consider it a 'donation to MDT' to be pre-ordering our newest game project, The Seed, and for that we are truly grateful. It's an honor to experience such mindset and we shall honor it by making a unique deep, and interesting game.
FAQ: Did you have plans for features that never went into the mod?
NICOLAI: Oh yes, many! People only see what we chose to include in the mod. We have a long list of features that was barely tested. There are so many things to do for this game and ultimately we had to choose some of them and leave the rest be. With the size of our team new ideas were generated daily and we knew that we had to stop at some point to actually wrap it up and share it with our community.
FAQ: How did your heated clash with West Games (AREAL) end?
NICOLAI: It didn't. They are doing their thing, and we are minding our own business.
What's said is said and we will see what the future holds.
FAQ: What is the current status of MDT?
NICOLAI: Some members are taking a well earned break, while others are polishing on the MISERY mod whenever their spare time allows. We stay in touch in our forum and discuss relevant news and topics on a frequent basis. Damjan and I went 'all in' on The Seed project, where we are passionately hard a work every single day to form a new gaming experience. We are all enjoying a very active community and motivating karma surrounding our team and projects in general. We are honored and humble to be able to take on these modding and game development endeavors.
FAQ: Will there ever be a MISERY 3 with new maps and quests?
NICOLAI: I cannot promise such a thing, neither can I rule out the idea.
MISERY grew from non-existent to what it is today in a few years and we are still a young team.
Our team got organized this year and the scale of the MSIERY 2 project really needed that. Now it is apparent who's in charge of translations, bug fixing, pr, and game balancing, so we have our resources well lined up like a small indie team.
You could say that we're an effective team, within the boundaries and framework of our adult spare time and real life obligations. Maybe some other modding team will suddenly contact us with an interest in bringing the MISERY mod further. We (MDT) will remain open and engaged within the community and I have a feeling that it will stay that way for many years to come.
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What questions would you like to see answered in the next Update?
Post a comment, feedback or voice your opinion in the comments below.
The Seed
Official Website / Facebook / Twitter / VK
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. MISERY mod
Official website / Facebook / VK
Thanks again and best regards
Misery Development Ltd.
Misery will remain the best out of the best
There is no Stalker without Misery :)
Who dares to "-" this comment?
He is right, I play STALKER with misery...
With The Armed Zone mod ofcourse :)
So you think Stalker wountbe Stalker because this mod ?
Of course, Stalker without this mod would still be Stalker, but nothing more. Misery is kind of another interpretation of the gameplay and Stalker itself.
Yes, tbh I can't play the vanilla CoP any more. I am so used to Misery so if I am gonna play CoP I would install Misery for sure.
Misery just improves the gameplay on so many levels that you can see it clearly and I don't see any reason to go back to the vanilla. Its not about the graphics at all, the nice textures are just a bonus, but the gameplay alterations and additions that I always wanted in the vanilla are now present in the Misery. Like the cooking feature, I wanted this sooo much in the vanilla but it the devs prolly forgot it or they didn't want the game to lean towards simulation much but I love semi realistic shooters so this was awesome addition. Thats just one example though. I'll have to write a book to describe all features in Misery and why they are good addition to the base game :D
Yeah, I love this mod!
Yeah its one of the better mods out there, its very immersive thats what I like a bout it.
Man, it sounds like a hyperbole, to be honest :P
Regardless, Misery made a rather significant contribution to CoP modding, thus becoming truly one of the best gameplay mods.
If I had to believe the many visitors on the many websites, you would have received more downloads, traffic etc., if you kept to the original game plan. Downloads doesn't mean happy users.
That's all I'm willing to say, as a follower of this mod since the very beginning.
Downloads certainly doesn't mean happy users, we of all would know that.
That's right. The ideas had been good but the execution in some aspect so horribly broken it's not funny. Misery 1 had been better. So it's difficult since M1 had been actually good but M2 fell short of too many design problems. What's the sum? good or bad? Difficult to say.
again, thank you for your hard work! imo misery is the best mod for CoP
Just wanted to say, I've been following you guys for a good few years now. The time and effort you guys put into keeping this franchise we all love alive means a hell of a lot to myself and no doubt many others.
And a quick cheers to N. and Loner for answering our questions and keeping us up to date on top of all their work!
Thanks :D
Glad to hear some news form you guys over at MDT! How is Trojunach doing with his new kid?
Hehe thanks for asking :)
It's all sweet and great. We even started to eat mashed carrot two days ago as the very first meal after milk :)
Don't forget Tourist Delight for your junior Stalker. And salty fish liquorice
Hello MDT, can you include Armed zone, All weapon and suit upgrade's, and a well categorized spawn menu with the complete stuff in it? I mean complete item spawn. including the "The Rebirth Drug" (19% healing rate) In the next update? Pleaseeeeeeeee It's hard to in track all the other mod co-exist in my install directory. Oh I almost forgot, the Ballistic armour fix too. Which explain's why the 1 artifact had 56 Kevlar protection but can't stop a small arm's fire.
Oh and one more thing, please make it playable via "static lighting settings" (Armed Zone add-on doesn't support static lighting setting with their weapon texture ,shading and polishing). I'm sorry If I offended somebody, but I had to say it. Thank you so much. Love you all and hope you all stay healthy.
Misery really needs weapons... not vanilla ones..
it needs weapons like from arsenal overhaul... ;)
With meshes and else.. this would be briliant! Only new pistol models would be great.