Firstly, allow us to get this out of the way: L.U.R.K. mod is no longer in active development, and we're launching a new project on Unreal Engine 4.
For a long time now, a lot of you have been asking about L.U.R.K. 2.0. Truth be told, we were enthusiastic about the future of the mod, and all the recent developments in the STALKER modding community were extremely promising. Within the past few months, we've seen the release of the much-awaited Lost Alpha mod, as well as the source code leaks for both SoC and CoP.
We were spoiled for choice, and took a step back to reassess the direction of the mod, now we had so much more to work with. Despite all these new and exciting developments, we kept having to face the grim reality: no matter what, we'd still be working with half-broken tools, shoddy SDKs, and messy code just to make it all work.
Relatively recently, Epic Games launched their new Unreal Engine 4 on a new subscription model, making it accessible to many indie developers putting their foot in the door of the games industry. Some of us who already hold game dev jobs were already working with UE4 and enjoying its power and usability immensely, which made going back to STALKER development all the more frustrating. So in the end, we made the decision: we're going to march into the future, and carve out something from scratch. A new game that serves as a spiritual successor, but without all the shortcomings and buggy workarounds inherent to working with STALKER's engines.
This decision was based on a lot of factors - with the amount of assets we've made for LURK, we can painlessly move them over to UE4 to have a solid foundation to work with. We'd also be gaining a lot of relevant experience working with UE4, so even if we fail, we'd still walk away with something we can take into potential future careers.
However, it's still sad to say goodbye to the project that first inspired us to become developers, and I hope that you all understand that we don't make this decision lightly. L.U.R.K. has been my baby for over three years now, but now is as good of a time as any to move on to bigger and better things.
Keep on lurking, fellow LURKers. We have great confidence in the STALKER modding community still, and we know that you'll all find enjoyable mods still being released into the future for this great game series. Expect to hear from us again about our new project sometime soon!
- Panzerdraco
Team LURK Lead Manager
good luck !
I really appreciate the honesty. It's to sad to see this is not being finished, not when it seemed to be so close... Our community loses a lot with this sad news.
Best of luck on your new project. I hope it's something along the lines of STALKER :)
Oh man that's depressing. Well good luck.
I ******* knew it.
The balls on these guys.
It's like a piece of the past disappeared inside you...
Guys we'll be able to do so much more with UE4 not being constrained by a ****** engine :)
Capt.Host: it wasn't anywhere near being released, at this point it seemed like the worse option to continue sticking with Xray.
So in the future with UE4 you're saying we will explore environments similar to the recently released "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter" with S.T.A.L.K.E.R vibes? Hey im for it
We were getting updates fairly regularly, so it seemed like the project was up and running and was going places.
That's why I'm kinda surprised by these news.
Please feel free to stop advertising your **** on /sg/ since you're not working on things for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
I don't get how Xray is a ****** engine.
Sure, it's probably very unstable and bug-riddled, but aren't nearly all engines like that?
Besides, it has some beautiful features like rain. Never seen any other game making cool rain shaders.
Are you a musician? If not, let's pretend that you are for a second just for the sake of analogy:
Imagine trying to make a modern dubstep song using tools from 50 years ago - all you've got is an old Moog, a 6 track analog recorder, a lot of free time, and a deep love of dubstep. You can't get enough of that old Moog sound, and the tape distortion coming from that 6 track is the personification of vintage. You're sure it could be done, and it'd be epic.
... that'd be a hell of an achievement, but what really matters is the goal.
If the goal is to make a dubstep song using tools from 50 years ago because you love those old tools so much, then there you go. There is nothing wrong with that. It is a great way to spend your time and there are plenty of people who will appreciate it. If the goal is to make the best dubstep song you can possibly make, then you will need to fire up the latest version of Pro Tools and push your boundaries.
That old 6 track has it's place (it is irreplaceable!), but it can't do what a full-fledged Digital Audio Workstation can do.
Our vision has grown, and our goal has changed. We don't want to spend time reinventing the wheel (like editing X-Ray's sound renderer to be able to play stereo audio files) when we could spend time creating something better.
Working in X-Ray felt like tinkering with an old Chevy on the weekends - it brought me joy. We're all still here because that old Chevy is special, even though it doesn't have bluetooth and an AUX jack.
It's time to build a hot rod, though.
Your ignorant logic that, because something is old and outdated, it is bad.
That is false. It's simply outdated. When STALKER first revealed, Xray was a marvel. Times change, the engine still holds its own to this day, with LURK or without it.
Actually, I never said anything like that. I do not believe that old things are bad - they are just different. I never even used the word "bad" anywhere in my post. I believe you misinterpreted what I wrote.
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Wow, did not expect this. Good luck!
****** news. Well for SoC there's still AA2 getting new releases and getting optimized. And for CoP I'm still waiting for Gunslinger which the guys want to put into AA2 in the future so it'll be really epic.
Gunslinger in Autumn Aurora 2.1?
THIS WILL BE ******* AWESOME :D
I don't think it'll be in AA2.1 as so far Gunslinger only has most of the pistols, the AKS-74U and P90 and the misc. items. It'll be a while before all weapons are finished.
The image with the announcement on the AA2 page was deleted but I remember they said they want to include it as soon as Gunslinger is released. :D
@: DemoMan89
So, basically, what you saying is: GUNSLINGER guys will port those sexy weapons AND engine features to SoC and AA guys will implement them in their mod? If so, then... THEN... OMG!!!
@: L.U.R.K team
Sad to see you guys abandoning this, but, as a STALKER modding man, i totally understand this decision. Sometimes i'm ****** at this engine to. :D Anyways, good luck in future and, please, consider releasing assets you made for STALKER community to. ;)
whats good about AA2?
I'd be lying if I said this did not make very very sad. However I'm glad that you guys are gonna try to do something with UE4, I feel that the only real shortcoming of STALKER is engine limitations.
Good luck on your next project! I hope to hear more about it soon!
Just release done weapons and working features you did there then do whatever you want.
(buried)
1) most of them aren't ported to STALKER yet
2) sorry, but who are you to say what MTindle and I should do with our work? We'll release them if we want to, but it's in no way up to you.
I mean that I do not like the prospect of being left with nothing after waiting all this time. Like for me, and for many other people who expressed their support for your mod and for those who faithfully waited release. For many, it was the hope to play a wonderful game again, but in a very nicer way this time. Please, think about it.
Best wishes, tho!
Well, I can definitely say I'm not surprised. For the past 2+ years, the only updates coming out of here were weapon renders that weren't even in the game, and almost nothing containing in-game footage.
Good luck with Unreal Engine.
Booo!
Hope you'll get far with your project. We all are still waiting for proper Stalker succesor.
If you can make a good spiritual successor that isn't a total failure or a multi-player mess while still retaining the overall feel then you would be appealing to more than us, you would be appealing to the entire S.T.A.L.K.E.R fan base and even new people.
Bummer,but good also good to hear that in the future there may be a game with the flavor of stalker..good luck guy's,can't wait to see it.
All the best to you guys!
I support you guys and i'm with you all the way. Is it possible to release Lurk as it is now or is it not playable?
It's very far from anything that'd be even remotely playable, unfortunately.
It would be good if all those weapons and sound works were given to the community to use, instead of wasted.
"Firstly, allow us to get this out of the way: L.U.R.K. mod is no longer in active development"
No ****! I'd have never guessed!
Truthfully, a part of me feels a little ashamed to be leaving something unfinished, especially after putting so much time into it. But I am in full agreement with Panzer and the team and think it is for the best. Plus, there is so much awesome Stalker stuff coming down the pipe it is kind of ridiculous.
I figure I'll be able to do a lot more in less time and effort in UE4, though, so I'm excited by that. It will be nice to work without limitations and achieve a better end result.
Anyway, sometime around the middle of October, I'll be updating the Stalker wiki and releasing a few videos with tutorials teaching some audio tricks/tips I learned in Stalker. I hope you guys find those useful!
Feel free to still PM or email me with any audio questions, of course. I'll still be around and will help however I'm able.
daemonion@outlook.com is the best way to reach me.
Is it really worth it to remake almost *all* art assets from scratch? Or to have to rebuild entire systems in the engine for moving, shooting, environment interaction, etc. This is to say nothing of what a clusterfuck AI is.
More presciently, LURK 1.1 is a laughing stock, but it still has plenty of potential. Why not scale back and release an updated patch--at least--for 1.1? ****, you guys don't even host the first (and to date, ONLY) patch for 1.1 anymore.
Well, best of luck. I can't say I'm surprised.
on time guys. im actually glad you did this. much luck on this new future project :)
Obviously, it's always sad to see somebody lose hope and end a mod.
But it is way, way worse and I'm very sure everyone would agree that it is heart-breaking when the mod ends and is then abandoned and forgotten, with no "open sources" released.
Life sucks, modding life sucks, gaming life sucks, everything sucks!
You are talented developers and I am sure you will be able to create something worth my money and time :)
Noooooooooo!
hey long as you guys tell us what the next project is, im all for it
We'll tell everyone but you. No hard feelings <3
The latest update is sure depressing for everyone who entered the LURK page hoping to see some news on development, but instead had to meet one of the worst stalker fans' fears - the end of a beautiful moding project.
But it also tells us about another kind of news every true stalker fan is waiting for - a possibility for new life of stalker legacy in a brand new project. With devs like ones of LURK it is as promising as it can be. Let us say goodbye not to LURK and its atmospheric beauty, but to unnoying bugs and obstacles for developers. Good luck guys, have fun working on whatever you plan!
We certainly will have a great time! Thanks for the encouragement.
Can't say I didn't see this coming, really. Good luck with your new project.
So, when will the Kickstarter e-begging begin?
We have no plans for one at the moment.
We need approx $15.7mm to pay for the private jet that will shuttle us to our new penthouse office in Stockholm. Pretty please? We'll totally provide a budget and alpha video after we get the money.