Swartz Mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

2 comments by jketiynu on May 10th, 2013

So exams are over and I figure I should be giving updates at least once a month.

I'm going to be going away for a week starting tomorrow (5/10) so you won't see anything new for me for a little while. On top of that I just found out my room-mate did not pay my ISP this month (it's their part of the deal), so it's possible I may end up without internet for a while as well. Even without internet I can still get plenty done, and I'll try and use someone else's PC to give updates if I can't get internet access.

Here's whats new:

* Ignore what I said before about "LUA optimization". I asked Natvac about the things I was doing and apparently it doesn't even affect anything in the X-Ray engine. However, I have gone through some problematic scripts and fixed a few things, made functions that are faster, removed unnecessary functions, etc. I am also looking into a tool that is capable of making scripts multi-threaded. I haven't really spent any time trying it out yet, but I will make that my top priority as soon as I return from my trip.

* As you can see I'm starting to port various models into the game to replace some current ones. I haven't posted screens of it yet but I'm replacing the current knife with Mr.Rifleman's Russian OTS-04 knife, Eprdox's SVD he made for New Vegas, and various other models. Eprdox also agreed to do some weapon re-skins for me, which is great :)

* New weapons I'm now willing to confirm (not many surprises): AK5, Glock 20, MP5/10, Steyr Aug A1, PP-91 Kedr, Sako Trg-42 (there was a Trg-22 in 1.3, but I want a .338 Lapua round so I'm changing it). There are/will be others, but that'd all I'll say for now.
Depending on whether I can get someone to create some new texures based off of UV maps I would also like to add an AK-12 (comes in various calibers, what would you like to see it in?) and an AEK-918G (I'd like to replace the Vityaz with this, but it would require textures AND some modified anims.)
I've also removed some more crappy weapons that were in 1.3. I will not say what they were as I don't want to deal with any whining ;)

* Gunshots will sound nice, loud, and crisp. I'm still waiting on some advice from Daemonion regarding loud sounds, however he's very busy at the moment. I've managed to do some of this already and I'm going to be basing this off of some various information I've gathered regarding the Db values of different calibers.

* Freeplay is going to be...different, than what you would typically expect. I'm going a bit crazy with it. I have some voice actors lined up, as well as some possible help writing some new freeplay missions and content.

* I'm still working on modifying maps, but I get distracted by other features so I haven't got a lot done yet. I may see if I can get some help on this to speed progress up, as the things I want to change shouldn't be very difficult.

* I'm changing around a lot of stuff regarding the weather/Atmofear 3. Blowouts will be different than you would normally expect. I'm also making all sorts of changes to weather cycles.

* Stashes will be working differently than usual. I'm pretty sure the Misery team said they're using a different system too, but I'm pretty sure mine is a bit different.

* I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before, but in-case I haven't: you will no longer be able to easily get really good weapons right away. There are several ways I'm doing this, but rest-assured you will not be picking up some really high-grade assault rifle off a corpse right away or traveling to Jupiter right away to grab nice hardware off of Duty of Freedom. There will be a progression of weapons over time. Similar to this I'm consering doing a "rank" system where you can rank-up and maybe have an easier time handling weapons, etc. though the idea is very up-in-the-air.

* Mercs will be your most dangerous threat in the early parts of the Zone. Be careful if you decide to cross them. This does not mean Monolith will not be dangerous. Thanks to a script ported from OGSE by DDraig, they wear suicide vests. Approach wounded Monolith with caution, and occasionally be prepared for them to charge you and detonate their vest.

That's it for now. I'll see if I can manage to upload some more screens and maybe even a new gameplay video today before I leave but I'm not making any promises.