Roughly half a year since any significant coverage of L.U.R.K., development of a project several years in the making is tiring process. Despite development hiatus and general work fatigue, we're mustering what we can to reinvigorate interest with new features and developments on the game's core mechanics, and improving it all around, along with responding to the most complained of aspects of the previous version, which I've elaborated several times before.
As of recently we've found new motivation to begin working again. A multitude of small issues have been addressed as a matter of course with our development, but do not forget that aesthetic improvements are an infinite ongoing process we're always working on improving in our free time. A multitude of changes includes nearly twice the amounts of weather instances, all instances of weathers restructured, render adjusting to remove overbearing effects of bloom, and new renderer functions such as god rays, and dynamic depth of field thanks to our friends at GSC. As a representation of said efforts, I offer this teaser:
Smooth sailing on the graphical front as usual, but much effort is being placed on gameplay innovation as well. While I can't say much for fear of what may or may not work out in the end, I can tell you that artifact hunting is being restructured ground up to fit the Clear Sky/Call of Pripyat mold, and Artifact Detectors are on their way into the game, and all of the artifact placement, as well as item placement in general is being completely redone. No more artifacts littering the ground indiscriminately. There will be a mixture of artifacts spawned from anomalies randomly, as well as placed artifacts in hidden locations that will test your abilities in exploration and platforming.
Still in the planning stage, but we plan to reimplement artifact effects, in a way we deem fitting without it being removed entirely like in the past.
A stronger emphasis is being placed on the economy, while these are tired words from my mouth, I can say that it's actually a reality now due to the restructuring of items, artifacts and supplies, the main obstacle with our efforts in the past. Locating items and artifacts is now a satisfying venture as opposed to a luxury littered across the beaten trail, expect to climb, jump, and search for hidden weapons, interesting easter eggs and artifacts scattered around the zone, and expect to explore areas you'd have otherwise never been to. We're offering true incentive for exploration now, and prospering on higher difficulties will be excruciatingly difficult if you don't take advantage of these opportunities. Taking the time to look around will be the difference between wealth and poverty. The artifact detector will not be an accessory, but a key asset in your ventures.
I don't feel as though I should have to point this out, but core aspects such as AI, economy values, enemy spawns, and basic components of the game have all been subject to tweaking. 1.2 carries low semblance to 1.1, and we hope to win back the audience that was miffed by 1.1, released in an admittedly broken state.
I know the wait has felt vague and tiresome, but rest assured you'll see the fruit of our efforts on your hard drive soon enough. Just know that premature releases are something I'm trying to avoid due to recent history (or not so recent). Thank you for your patience, and I hope you enjoy 1.2 as much as I am now when the time comes for it's release.
I am very pleased to hear news of L.U.R.K. 1.2. Keep up the good work. I wish all of you good luck in the developement.
Despite the State of 1.1 during its release, it still stands as my favourite modification for the Stalker Series.
Was 1.1 bad or something? I thought it was pretty damn amazing.
It had quite a few bugs when I plyaed it though. A lot of people missed the patch as well (without hte patch, you had stuff like Collector's psy ability pernamently affecting your mind). And with the patch, a lot of hte rewards werent given, and I eventually managed to get both freedom and Duty angry at me for some reason...
I thought the mod was fantastic, but it did have a few issues. That's why I'm looking forward to 1.2
LURK was literally one of the greatest and best mods for me out there, it featured top notch quality and the difficulty in the game was great! yes, but i can say every mod has its bugs, does it? ;)
Well thanks sweetcheeks.
Now how about helping me spawn artifacts from anomalies?
Gsc-game.com
I already did? I'd say check it? ;)
Reposting from my comment on the main page because, hey, I'm a self-important bastard!
A suggestion for artefact rebalancing - I, personally, am in favour of Artefacts having no effect on the player, but, as an alternative:
Several other mods have, to various degrees of success, had a system where all artefacts - even when not attached to the belt - have a significant negative effect: Either increasing radiation steadily, decreasing Psyche steadily, or decreasing armour quality steadily. This means that there is no way the player can just permanently use artefacts for a bonus to endurance / health regeneration, or quickly put an artefact on their belt in a firefight when it is useful and detach it when it is not. The result of this is that it is necessary to plan ahead and return to a trader as quickly as possible after the artefact has been retrieved.
In conjunction with this effect, the mod Narodnaya Solyanka also has an item (Surprisingly implemented quite well, as opposed to many new items, such as the less-than-useful MP3 player and the buggy and completely ineffective Tactical Vest) called the "Artefact Container", which allows a single artefact to be placed inside it, which negates any effects that it has - meaning it is safe to carry one and only one artefact around without fear.
This new artefact attribute and item combination, in my opinion, fits what you're looking for perfectly: Artefact hunting would have to be done with hunting a specific artefact IN MIND, as merely running around picking up artefacts along the way to another quest would result in huge negative effects.
Very nice, looking forward to it.
I've always been a great fan of LURK, and have only been able to take short breaks with various other mods before returning once again to LURK. LURK was the only mod to do immersion right. The lack of HUD, the believable weapons, and the sheer beauty that was much deeper and much more satisfying than the standard approach of just throwing more pixels at the problem were truly greater than just the sum of their parts. Stalker SOUP is the latest one, and I imagine I'll be able to keep at it for 10 to 20 hours before I have to go back. LURK is probably one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, and with every view can make the monotony of the zone and the spots tread countless times still look fresh and new. It was also the only mod to really do weapons right. Damn near every weapon (I'm looking at you MP5) felt real and dangerous and palpable, a rather stark and much appreciated distinction from the high poly toy guns of other mods and especially vanilla. I could go on for pages about all the great things it's done right that I've yet to see in any other game, but rather than bore anyone who might actually read this I think I'll get straight to the point.
I've loved LURK with a passion borders on zealousy, one shared with very few of the many games I've played. However, LURK does not love me back; she hates me with a fiery passion I've never seen before or since. For everything that made me fall in love with LURK, everything that is done so well that it simply cannot be replicated, there is some horrible antithesis that reminds me just how shallow of an experience games really are. For every hard-earned artifact there are a dozen simply laying on the side of the road. For every meaningful NPC encounter many dozen "GET OUT OF HERE STALKER". And for every rewarding gunfight hundreds so thoroughly underwhelming that they arouse my pity. Over the 100+ hours I've played LURK I can only think of one truly memorable struggle (though it's a hell of a story).
(cont'd)
The content of the game stems from interaction with the environment, and unless you just want to wander around the game staring at all the pretty interaction in the environment is represented by your dealings with other people, or in this case NPCs. LURK would make an outstanding MMO, but as an SP RPG it falls flat on its face. The interactions with other people, in LURK NPCs are, well broken. The dialogue is just the same half-dozen lines of text repeated endlessly, all of the characters are completely one-dimensional, and the AI is so stupid, so broken and utterly frustrating that the only game I can think of with AI as terrible is Red Orchestra. It's so horrible that it is physically impossible to sneak ingame.
Case in point I recently tried to sneak into the military base near Cordon so as to retrieve Sidorovich's prized documents (I think he has a paper fetish). Realizing the hopelessness of going in guns blazing, I thought it would be best to try and sneak in. That night I tried just that, sneaking from bush to bush in the midnight rain with my suppressed MP5. Despite being so invisible in the darkness that I couldn't even see the weapon I was carrying the soldiers immediately sniffed me out and found me like a pack of dogs before I could even reach the outer walls of the compound. When they did find me, I sprinted up the compound wall hid against it. A conga line of 2 or 3 dozen guards cha-cha-cha'd out the front gate and walked straight toward me in a line. Every time they bumped into me I knifed them, and when I finally finished with them there was a dead soldier storage so tall I could use it as a stairway over the outer wall. I immediately uninstalled the game and have been trying to resist the urge to replay it since.
Please Draco, Holden; better graphics and a working economy are all well and good, but please, I beg you just fix the AI. That's all LURK needs and all that I want.
Great posts. Agree especially with your take on weapons.
So it's pretty much confirmed that blowouts will have to be brought back by the community, again.
And what about the weapon upgrades? Don't you dare bringing the balance argument. Once the core balance is there, it's easy to adapt something like that. Not doing it is just laziness or incompetence. (bawww you don't know ****) It's not like I haven't plunged my head in game balance for years.
No it hasn't been confirmed. Nor has it been affirmed.
Please don't waste time implementing blowouts - if you ever do change your mind about putting them in, it can wait for after 1.2 as an optional addon, I figure.
I actually do agree with that. It's a neat feature but has not to be prioritized.
Please don't touch the weapons too much. Damage and accuracy were spot on in 1.1; recoil was also, in my opinion, believable and important for the overall balance.
Also, I'm conflicted about the artifact detector. While it could in theory be a nice feature, I feel it does the exploration for you. Please don't make artifacts ONLY visible with a detector equipped, I'd like to be able to explore without one in case it spoils the exploring part a bit too much.