Walk In The Dark part 4
Written By Uncle Boom / Screens by Uncle Boom
^Penguin and Rostok in the background, as we made our way to the Freedom Base in the East... Bandits will be killed for going to Rostok by Duty soldiers.
So, if you watched the video at the end of part 3, you saw that we went to the freedom base, hung out, bandaged a guy, met Tort the Beautiful English speaking Bandit, and basically just waited until sunlight.
^Tort, stylishly using the Squat animation, just hanging out at the Freedom Base
Penguin, Tort, and Ermolai (the stalker who stuck me up in the first place) had some business to attend to... something about taking some stalkers for a ride, and taking their artifacts from them... They left me as a lookout at the trade gate of the Freedom outpost, however I could hear them on the radio just fine. I set my volume a bit lower and took the opportunity to reflect on the previous night, and my first real adventure in the ArmStalker terrain, Alpha Zone.
^Center of the Image you can see stalkers standing in the mist... They are being robbed by Penguin. It's Gop-Stop-O-Clock apparently...
I had seen so much, yet all in a small corner of the map, it felt like an exciting relief to finally escape the confines of the cordon and the tunnel... I had not learned too much about the server yet, and the issue with the Loner was not something I was willing to accept as the norm on the server... The size of the map was awesome, the environment, the fog, the glowing anomalies...
It was all so exciting to me - after only seeing it in videos for all these months before. I was thinking of my friends, mostly the guys from the Neutrals, and the Hunters... These players were folks who had known me the most over the previous months, even to this day we share memes and jokes in our group chats... I had expected to meet them first - as they are the players who keep the rookie village safe. But - they are not here. Where are they? They are supposed to also help newbies find work, and to stay in gear, to help if they need it... no, rookies have no help it seems.... To me that isn't right, and nothing has changed to this day from what I know - I have only ever seen a well known Hunter, Aborigen, giving missions there... and Good On him, I wish I was nearby that day. Neutrals like Aborigen are pretty much the admin reps for Novichki, without them, new stalkers are forced to stay in cordon longer due to lack of money and hardships, and always need to fear bandits, who due to the RP rules, can kill if they try to run at less than 150m - apparently EVEN in rookie village, while the bandits also deal directly with Sidorovich!
- Now - don't be afraid - this is work in progress, and also - locking bandit player roles from dealing with Sid, or creating a community with a more robust Neutral faction - is all very easy with Arma 3. Everything can be tuned or modified, at some level. Your favorite server will be as different as the players themselves are. However, this lack of neutrals on the server, this total lack of organization at the start area - is very confusing... But at the time - things were in flux, a new registration was about to be closed and a new batch of dumplings would be added... maybe someone would help then...
The map was mysterious, I had not seen much of it at all yet, I felt. So many new places, but familiar ones, so much distance to cover, and players could be anywhere... or worse....
I knew that among some of the guys I know from the community, there would be guys willing to help me.... But.... Help with what? .... What was I here to do? ... I was here to see the server. I am not afraid of any of the dangers here, but I know that in order to work with me, some of the guys will at least be risking the cash needed to keep me shooting.... I desperately wanted to know a secret to earning money. I had asked Penguin how they went about earning money for the server but, he didn't really answer... Probably because for him it is a bit different, he is a bandit, stealing PDAs (6k a piece)and other kit from stalkers and selling it - that is probably how he earns his way. It would be different for me... Hunting... and Artifacts...
^One of the First Generation Artifacts, although the new models for them are not yet in the game. There are also some new ones.
I had already found many artifacts, but I lacked the tools to handle them... How could I begin to earn money here when everything is so expensive and prohibitive? ...I knew I had to make this situation work. People were here, daily Stalkers were coming and going from the Freedom base, standing in small circle, buzzing in their Russian language. Some Freedom officials, charged around the courtyard, boost jumping in their exo suits, a more direct route to the trader... Most stalkers in the base wore the same Loner clothes... there didn't seem to be any other faction members just hanging out. I went to the trader and bought some cigarettes, walked up to the top of the lookout towers. The sun was rising, and the thick blue fog of the night was slowly becoming thinner. The Sounds in the Zone were familiar, but still very different, and the foliage update made back in 2.1 makes everything seem as such to the eye as well.
^Left to right, Ermolai with his new stolen helmet, Penguin, and Tort.
The Bandits returned, Tort and E headed into the gate while Penguin explained that he had to log off. Before he did, he dropped me a AKS with 3 magazines, and told me to be careful. Ermolai as well, in an apology for the trouble earlier, dropped me a nice vest of armor. After exchanging Thanks and partings, he simply told me to "Wait" - then turned and ran out of the gate from the base, into the morning mist, into the Zone...
I haven't seen him since.
It wasn't a mystery that we were concluding our adventure. Now, alone in the Freedom Base, I found a place out of sight and gathered my thoughts. I Remembered something that Penguin had told me, that Bandits sometimes go to Freedom base... I need to avoid bandits at all cost, because I can't speak with them - so I cannot RP... They will kill me. ...The Freedom guys started looking at me funny from the barricade, 3 of them in a group with a seperate 4th looking directly at me... Time to leave. I went to the trader, and made sure I had enough bandages.... sadly I wouldn't need them.
Leaving the base, I oriented North, and followed the road.
SERVER RESTART IN 5 MINUTES
How did I miss all the warnings? I hurried to get out of the radiation, because in order to log out, and therefore have a save on your character, you must wait 60 seconds for the combat log timer...
I logged out next to a busted old bus stop that looked like a port from Stalker...
When I logged back in, I was standing in an anomaly!
(To watch a long video of this route and how it was SUPPOSED to go,
check out Alone in the Zone, in our videos section here at moddb!)
Stay Tuned next time! I am frustrated and run to Rostok, Meeting Duty and then being escorted to the Bunker!
Thanks for Reading!
