Wormwood Developer Q + A - Answers feature

We've compiled a list of the most common questions since we announced Wormwood, and come up with some answers for you!
Think of this document as an FAQ of sorts, which we could potentially add to in the future - if there's more you want to know, feel free to ask in the comments and you never know!

'Why did you rebrand from Call of Pripyat: Redux to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Wormwood?'

When I started work on Redux v2.0 several years ago, I didn't anticipate it growing to the scale it has done. Tweaks and changes have grown into new, large, fully-fledged features and the extent of the mod's reworking of the game has gotten to the point where it no longer fits the name Call of Pripyat: Redux.
We have set out to make our own unique vision of the Zone, based on real-life experience of it as well as years of nearly-obsessive STALKER fanaticism, and for that, we needed a 'fresh start' as it were.

We feel that 'Wormwood' is a fitting title - it's the translation of 'Chernobyl', the proper name of the Red Forest, and it has biblical and deep-rooted connotations of poison and sickness - a representation of our goals in terms of survival and difficulty.

"The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water — the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter."

'What makes Wormwood different from other mods?'

Wormwood’s four core areas of focus are Survival, Realism, Content, and Systems.
We believe our focus on believable, non-artificial difficulty and realism separate us from other mods, along with our brand new features and large amounts of new content.

As well as this, a consistently high level of quality is our number one priority for everything in the mod - be it when writing new dialogue, creating new models, or simply polishing the mod until it’s as good as it can be.

Wormwood is a huge modification - overhauled graphics, realistic ballistics, numerous new features, hundreds of new items, new missions, levels, characters, artifacts, the list goes on and on. We’re hoping that you’ll judge Wormwood as its own entity when it releases.

‘Will you be using engine modifications in Wormwood?’

We are in the process of starting work on engine modifications for use in Wormwood, and will also be utilising the fixes and improvements from the Open X-Ray project. We’re not quite at the stage where we can talk specifically about what we’re working on, but our focus is on improving the engine in various ways, as well as hard-coding our current script-bound systems. We’re hoping to have more information on this topic in the near future.

‘Are you adding new weapons in Wormwood?’

We will likely not be adding entirely-new weapons in Wormwood - as mentioned above, our number one priority is maintaining consistent high-quality across all areas, including weapons. Adding new weapons would require more team members than we currently have to ensure this quality level is adhered to.

However, we are seriously looking into the possibility of replacing the existing weapon meshes and animations with highly improved versions, to bring the weapons in the game up to the standard we hold the rest of the mod to.

‘What levels will be included in Wormwood?’

Wormwood will include all the standard Call of Pripyat levels, uniquely modified with dozens of new interior locations to explore.
As well as the standard levels, we have converted the multiplayer map ‘mp_firestation’ into a singleplayer, transition level between Zaton and Jupiter. When you cross between the two levels on foot (rather than hiring a guide), you will go through the Firestation. We have a unique storyline, new stashes, and more for you to experience on the level, so it’s worth exploring!

Finally, we’ve created a brand new underground lab which we’re calling ‘X-12’. The lab has been made entirely from scratch, and will hopefully give you that feeling you first experienced back in X-18.

Are you adding new missions in Wormwood? Are you modifying the main storyline?

We feel the main storyline of Call of Pripyat is a solid base to work from, and won’t be modifying it. However, we are adding dozens of new and varied missions involving vanilla Call of Pripyat characters, new characters, and returning characters from the previous games.
These new missions can span everything from simple one-task objectives, to full mission chains.

‘Are you fleshing out the major factions in Wormwood?’

We’re making a concerted effort to flesh out the major factions in Wormwood - Duty and Freedom both have outposts in Zaton whose efforts you can either help or hinder throughout the game.
All the factions have roaming squads on every level, increasing the diversity of A-Life interaction vastly.
We are also currently implementing a system whereby roaming Ecologists and their escorts can be talked to, and small side-missions obtained. It is our hope that smaller changes like this will really increase the player’s immersion and enjoyment of the game.

‘Will I need a powerful PC to play Wormwood?’

We are always trying to optimise the mod wherever we can - that said, Wormwood is a very large, comprehensive modification that alters a huge amount of the game, adds a lot of new geometry, new underlying script systems, and NPCs. Obviously, these all require increased system resources. It is likely that a fairly high-end PC will be the optimal way to experience Wormwood. A fairly good bet is that if you can run other large content mods, you will be able to run Wormwood.