This little mod 'removes' mobile flying ball anomalies that move/fly around the map.
No new game is required.
(Update information on July 21, 2022: According to the changes info of the Stalker Anomaly 1.5.2 update, the update didn't touch the file associated with this mod. As such, this mod should also be compatible with version 1.5.2)
INFO
This mod 'removes' moving anomalies (fireballs, teslas, chemical balls). By 'remove', I mean: Technically speaking, they still exist, but they have been modified in the following ways:
1) They can no longer be seen and they no longer emit light (invisible).
2) They can no longer be heard (inaudible).
3) They can no longer harm anything or anyone (harmless).
So essentially, from a gameplay and visual perspective, they are as good as gone from the game. Only one single file has been edited: gamedata > configs > zones > zone_fireball.ltx
In case you were wondering, they don't appear after blowouts and your detectors won't detect them (as intended). Whether you play with 'Dynamic Anomalies' activated or not does not matter, as that option affects only the static, non-mobile anomalies which I did not edit.
IMPORTANT NOTE
This is DIFFERENT from the 'Dynamic Anomalies' option found in the game's settings. That option determines whether or not static anomalies change locations after every emission, whereas this mod removes the non-static mobile ball anomalies affiliated with the zone_fireball.ltx file.
Pretty much, all aboveground moving ball anomalies are gone, but those anomalies in the underground labs that move around and which are not affiliated with the zone_fireball.ltx file are still around (for eg, that moving electric field at the Agroprom Underground near where the bandits gather are not affected. That anomaly is not ball-shaped anyway).
Normal static anomalies that don't move are NOT affected (including that immobile fireball that doesn't move around in Yantar's underground - treat it as a normal static anomaly) , as those are fair enough and I like having them around :)
COMPATIBILITY
If you already have the 'zone_fireball.ltx' file inside your gamedata > configs > zones folder, this mod will not be compatible with your existing mod and will overwrite your existing zone_fireball.ltx file.
By the way, I'm playing with the mod that makes normal static anomalies more visible (link) and this mod goes well with it without conflicts since that mod does not edit the same file.
INSTALLATION
After downloading, extract the rar file and copy the 'gamedata' folder into your main game's directory.
UNINSTALLATION
If you ONLY have 'zone_fireball.ltx' inside your 'zones' folder, you can just delete the 'zones' folder. If you have any other files in your 'zones' folder, delete ONLY the zone_fireball.ltx file.
This mod is safe to uninstall from an existing game. I've tested doing so and the moving anomalies came back as per normal, and my computer didn't explode and I could continue a saved game with no problems encountered.
SCREENIES (Example Locations):
![wild territory]( "Wild Territory Tunnel")
![darkvalley]( "Dark Valley")
![army warehouse]( "Army Warehouse")
![bloodsucker village]( "Bloodsucker Village")
![agr underground]( "Agroprom Underground")
RATIONALE
After multiple playthroughs, I already know how to get past the moving anomalies. But having to wait for the right windows of opportunity to move past them started feeling like a waste of time, considering I know I will succeed in doing so in the end anyway, so I removed them to eliminate the waiting time. Also, after clearing out areas of enemies, I like to take my time to explore, breathe in the atmosphere and search for random loot. Moving anomalies upset such 'take your time to explore without distractions' pacing for me.
If this is your first playthrough, my humble advise is not to use this mod for the time being so that you can experience everything the game has to offer first. But hey, who am I to judge? If you are new to the game and have decided already that you don't like moving anomalies, then don't let anyone dictate how you should enjoy your OWN playthrough :)
MODDER'S INFO
Inside the 'zone_fireball.ltx' file, the parameters that have not been commented out are needed by the game to load properly. Trying to remove or commenting them out will give you error messages and the game won't load. I've done the hard work for you already in finding out what is safe to comment out and what is not.
Finally, it wasn't necessary for me to change the light values all to zeros since I've commented their parameters out, but they are the leftovers from my 1st attempt (took me 3 attempts to make this work) and won't matter at all.
Yes I know, this is Stalker 'Anomaly' and I 'removed' the moving ones. The irony.
(buried)
"I've had multiple playthroughs and I already know how to get around the moving anomalies"
That's some weird reasoning. Then you know how to get around static anomalies, right? Why not remove all of them? If you know you'll succeed anyway why play the game? You can always quickload for infinite lives, why play if you know you're essentially invincible? I think you should have written that the mobile anomalies are simply not fun for you or something since I don't really understand this reasoning.
You say anomalies are a waste of time but you like to take time exploring, fairly contradictory. Static anomalies are also a waste of time to get around/through but that's where you draw the line. Strange choice.
Cool mod for people that don't like fireballs I guess
Static ones are fine for me and I mentioned I actually like them. In the 'Rationale' section above, I explained that I didn't wish to waste time waiting for the mobile ones to move out of the way (their windows of opportunities movement-wise, so to speak) - you know when to move around them for a safe path already, it's just that I don't wanna waste time waiting. Call me impatient.
Static ones are fine, since I can just move around them without having to wait and those are still fun for me, even if I accidentally step into one and get hurt - That's on me, myself and I. The MAIN difference between the 2 I'm trying to point out is that one has waiting time while the other one doesn't (I just don't like the waiting time even if they are not much, bite me).
As for taking the time to explore, I think I've explained it in the description. If I didn't get my explanation across clearly enough, life goes on. If I'm weird, I'm weird :)
Thanks for your comment :)
cry about it dude, stop being a little snowflake and let people enjoy a SINGLEPLAYER game like they want to, if someone just wants to play anomaly in his free time after work or just to relieve some stress without wanting to deal with this fireball anomalies then just let them play the game as they please to.
(buried)
No one's crying, I'm trying to understand his reasoning. Your pathetic and meaningless white knighting is unnecessary.
ok weeb
@Rex: Totally agree, but that's ok, really :) As long as the folks who don't want the moving balls in their game find this little mod helpful, then I'm glad and that's all that truly matters at the end of the day.
Good hunting, Stalker :)
For me it's more I've always felt like the moving anomalies have wonky hitboxes. I've been hit by a fireball plenty of times when I appear to be like 6-7 feet away from it because they're a very binary kill/don't kill, rather than ramping up and giving you a chance to move.
When I was new to the game, I once got instakilled by that fireball in the Wild Territory tunnel when I thought I was at a safe distance from it, LoL.
So, ZCP already has an option to remove dynamic anomalies, which means that it should do a similar job as this addon.
Hey there. I have not tried ZCP yet, so I'm not sure what to tell you. If ZCP has the same option, that's great :)
EDIT: I went to take a look at ZCP's page and it says:
"Added "Anomalies" menu with options to control the amount and types of dynamic anomalies."
I'm not sure, since I have not tried ZCP, but if they meant "Dynamic Anomalies" as in, those static anomalies that change locations after every emission, then that is a whole different thing altogether from my mod though, since I didn't alter the static ones at all.
The ones at blood sucker village are annoying. The tunnel one also. Thanks.
You are welcome, I'm glad this is helping someone out there. Happy gaming :)
This is a great mod. The on-rail moving ball anomalies are stupid and are yet another idea of GSG's that should have been dropped in one of the earlier builds. They just look bad and act in ways that are nonsensical to the rules the game sets.
(buried)
Didn't know stalker had rules
the fact you know so little about the game explains why you're making a fool of yourself in this comment section
(buried)
Stalker has no rules, there's something wrong with your head I feel like from all this hostility I see.
@modguyman: For me personally, the moving ball anomalies were ok during my first and second playthrough. By the time I got to my 3rd run (when I've already learnt how to get past them), having to wait for them to move out of the way started grating on my patience, LoL.
Thank you that one under the bridge going from Wild Territory to Yantar is stupid af lol
You are welcome. Happy gaming and good hunting, Stalker :)
Can't say I agree on removing them all, but the one on Wild Territory? **** yes. that **** gets me on my nerves.
I can understand your POV, but I suspect that if I were to pick and choose individually which ones to remove and which ones to keep, and if I'm not mistaken, I would either have to:
1) Alter the different multiple smart terrain spawn files (eugh!), or
2) Dive into the all.spawn file, maybe? That would require a fresh new game.
Those 2 options are cans of worms I ain't opening, LoL. Besides, I wouldn't know exactly how to with my current knowledge (or lack thereof). I honestly consider myself a tinkerer more so than a modder.
ΠΡΠ»ΠΈΡΠ½ΡΠΉ ΠΠΎΠ΄!
Google translate:
Π±Π»Π°Π³ΠΎΠ΄Π°ΡΡ Π²Π°Ρ :)
Help with potatoes :). Thanks!
π I feel ya. There was a point in my life when all I had was a potato PC to game on. Don't give up, the day may come when you will have a new & powerful PC to game on.
hey man great addon i actually found this things are so annoying i play stalker from years and i never like this flying things ever ..someone finally removed them thank you
Thanks, I'm glad the mod is helpful for you :)
not putting even more moving anomalies
bruh
Concur. Which is why this mod removes them, bruh.
I'm sorry in advance I had to ask. Is there any addon that removes anomalies completely?
No need for apologies at all, there's no harm in asking questions :)
So far, there is no mod that I've come across yet that removes anomalies completely. However, it may be possible to 'remove' them (by making them invisible, inaudible and harmless) by tinkering with their ltx files. Well, at least theoretically.
Thanks. I really hope someday there's an addon for that.
*no anomalies but a lot more mutant and human
You are welcome. I do not know if you've tried the following yet but if you haven't, you can give them a try. They've been working really well for me:
Disable pulse anomalies: Moddb.com
Make static anomalies a lot more visible: Moddb.com
I've used both of them. In modder perspective is it hard/tedious/need a lot patching to make it work with other mods to make such mod? (removes anomalies completely)
Considering there's not too many files in the 'zones' folder where the anomalies files reside, it shouldn't be too tedious or time consuming, I'd imagine.
Using my mod's ltx file as a guide, I imagine you can comment out the light and sound values for the anomalies to make them all invisible & inaudible, as well as setting their 'ignore creatures and objects' parameters (off the top of my head) all to true to make them harmless. I can't guarantee success though, as I haven't gone down that route yet to modify all of them.
But wait, there could be a catch: disabling all of them could mean you can no longer find artefacts, which means artefact hunting quests can never be completed.
On the other hand, I think I remember seeing a switch in the ltx files that determines whether each anomaly cluster can spawn artefacts. Perhaps leaving that switch on might solve the problem- ie, disable the anomalies but artefacts can still randomly spawn?
Experimentation & playtesting need to be done to be certain, so to speak. You can just backup your existing 'zones' folder somewhere and start altering each ltx file using the guidelines mentioned & see if it works.
wow friend, what addon do you use for the hands of the exo suit? I love you
Hey there, I'm using the Thap Rework mod for the hands, which I consider a must have. Link:
Moddb.com
The mod changes not only the hands for the exo suits, but all of the hands for all the suits.
Interesting
I had a blast of a fun time figuring out how to make this work :) The beauty of this game is just how moddable it is.
A new must have for me. Framerate saver and a saves me a lot of headache. Makes the tunnel from Wild Territory to Yantar less of a dancing act to travel, makes Agroprom easier to maneuver in (even if I liked the sound that one made) and makes X-18 a bit nicer. Less noise and headache looting those boxes.
Thanks!
You are welcome, I'm glad this is helping you π
Good hunting, Stalker.
Thank ya kindly!
"Sayonara"
Reminds me in a music called Sayo-nara...
What a depressing game...
I feel ya, since it means "goodbye" in Japanese. I had some good times with those moving anomalies and it wasn't that easy to bid them farewell, sigh..
And yeah, the game can get depressing at times, especially when you find out what those zombified stalkers say when you put them down:
is there a way to keep the visual effects on?
I mean, i love looking at them. Tesla Anomalies are beautiful, but i hate navigating through their path. Even more when there's a Lurker up in my ***.
Yes, you can. In order to make them all visible and audible again (it would be weird if you can see them but they don't make any noise) but still let them remain harmless, here's what you need to do - instead of telling you which lines to edit, which would be complicated, I'll use the easiest copy-&-paste method instead:
1) Open the zone_fireball.ltx file with Notepad found in gamedata > configs > zones
2) Press CTRL-A to select everything in that file, then press either Delete or Backspace to delete everything.
3) Go to this link I just made for you: Pastebin.com
(because trying to paste lines of code in the comments section here can cause errors)
4) Copy the code there in its entirety (just click 'copy' near the top) and paste it inside your zone_fireball.ltx file. Click File > Save and you're done :)
PS: Getting sandwiched between anomalies and a Lurker can be nerve-wrecking indeed, LoL. Stay alive in the Zone and Good Hunting, Stalker :)
Late to the party, but i really wanna thank you.
you really went above and beyond to help me, thank you!
ps: yes, i got stuck between a lurker and that anomalous underpass from wild territory to yantar, lost an iron man game there.. but overall this change makes the game a LOT LESS stressful and again i thank you for removing a bit of stress from people's lives.
You are most welcome, my fellow Stalker π I am happy to help and it makes me glad to know that you are playing the game how you want to.
Helping others means helping myself too, as it gives me a chance to learn more about the mechanics behind the game: It's a Win-Win :)
That electric ball in Agroprom underground is a Poltergeist btw, not an anomaly. It can also be killed
Wait, what? That's actually a Poltergeist? Hey, I didn't know that, what with the electricity noises it's making, LoL. Okie dokie, next time I go to that place again, I'll treat it a buckshot and watch it splatter :p
Man, I thought I've got the Zone all figured out, but it's time for me to chomp down on some humble pie & learn to respect the Zone again.
Thanks for the heads-up, stalker :)