S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat: Redux - The Story Behind the Mod feature

So I recently got this idea in my head to write about why I started modding, and haven't been able to shake it. So, to be able to continue work on more important things, I quickly wrote this ramble up! Prepare for a wall of text! Enjoy!

I should probably begin with a bit of backstory, and start a few years back.
There was once a mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl named Reality Enhancement. Reality Enhancement was the first modification that I’d ever seen that attempted to bring realistic ballistics to any game. Now, SHOC was already pretty good in terms of ballistics, but RE really brought it up to scratch. As well as realistic weaponry, RE also brought an extra layer of difficulty to the game, something that immediately struck me - it was then that I realised that difficulty was an extremely important part of games for me, and that it was really something sorely missing from many. Reality Enhancement shortly became the very first Redux - finely crafted by the Redux Team (of which I was certainly not a part way back then) it was, I believe, the greatest mod for Shadow that’s ever been made, and it will always have a special spot in my heart.

Once I’d played Redux, I registered on the official forum to express my delight with the mod and to thank its makers. I received a warm welcome and began to chat with others about what made the mod so great, as well as make suggestions and help others out with problems as best I could. Eventually (I don’t remember how exactly) I ended up as a beta-tester for what is probably one of the greatest mods never-released (hopefully that will be remedied some time in the future) - Redux Extreme. The metaphorical baby of the Redux Team leader, Victim, it was his own personal modification of the original Redux base, and was designed to be as the name suggests, Extreme. If you thought the original Redux was realistic and difficult, Extreme took it to the next level. To this day I still remember starting over and over again with every new beta build, but it somehow never got boring. After a while (again, I unfortunately don’t remember much detail - it was a long time ago!) Victim stopped work on Extreme and I grew bored of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The official Redux forum grew quiet, and everything seemed dead. However, Clear Sky was eventually released and a Redux released for that (I didn’t have any involvement, CS never grabbed my attention in quite the same way as SHOC) and once again after a while, the forums grew quiet once more.

Now, here’s where I come in!
GSC Game World announced the third and final part of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy, Call of Pripyat, and rekindled my interest in the series. I eventually got around to getting a copy, and played through the story (Vanilla first, of course). I was amazed by how much better CoP was in its vanilla form over its older cousins - where SHOC was plagued by bugs and issues from day one, CoP never once crashed or bugged out on me. As I was finishing the game, it popped into my head that I should check and see whether a Redux mod was being made for Call of Pripyat - I headed on over to the forums and was sad to see it still as quiet and deserted as ever. Saddened, I began to wonder whether if maybe I could make a realism and difficulty mod for the latest in the franchise. Ideas began to spring up, and once I finished the game fully I began work on what was, at the time, a small personal modification of the game to give it that extra bit of difficulty (as even on Master, I personally find the series to be much too easy and forgiving). I never at first even intended to release what I was creating, but as my aspirations grew for the mod I decided to attempt to pass on that feeling I got from the very first Redux to the audience of CoP, who may have never had a chance to experience it for themselves. As I was wondering what to call my mod, I thought I would pay homage to my modding heroes and tentatively name it Redux. It may sound arrogant of me to even think of using the name, but I did of course first do everything I could to contact Victim and the original Redux Team asking whether a CoP: Redux was already in development, whether it was alright to use the name etc, but to no avail. I believed that I had enough of an idea of what made Redux so great to be able to do the name justice with my own mod. And so, with these thoughts in my head, Call of Pripyat: Redux was born.
The story of post-creation is perhaps a tale for another day.

And so, that’s it. I hope my rambling was relatively interesting, and perhaps it gives an insight into why I’ve poured a good seven months of my life into this project! All I know is that I’m proud to be sporting the Redux name, as the lessons I’ve learnt from the original Redux will stick with me for a long, long time.

Thanks for reading!

- Beacon
Creator of Call of Pripyat: Redux