Wow, a month-and-a-half. Doesn't feel like it's been very long at all. I've managed to put out four Micro-Mods I'm very satisfied with in that time.
Forgotten Fiends in particular is one I'm quite happy with; see, as it happens the idea of a "just restore the cut monsters" mod is what got me started on the whole "Micro-Mod" idea. All the cut mutants bring something special to the game, at the very least a new-found set of strategies that must be employed in order to not be completely destroyed by a few of them.
Forgotten Finds (yes, I realize the similar names are confusing) joins well with this, since two of the restored mutants can drop sale-able items. I was actually quite surprised to see how much in the way of game resources relating to this was left in Clear Sky. To be honest though I understand why GSC took those items out: they're nothing but another way of making money and serve no real purpose other than "item you can sell". Still, it's a Micro-Mod: the choice to apply it is yours.
Stash Filler on the other hand is a must if you ask me. To me it never made much sense that you can check the same backpack as many times as you want, but until you get something off of a dead guy that says "hey, check this backpack" there's nothing in it. I was surprised at how simple that was to fix... well, almost fix. The inventory screen doesn't update when the stash's contents update, meaning you have to check a new stash, back out, then check again in order to see the items. I spent quite some time on finding a way around that but came up with nothing: too much of the inventory stuff is hard-coded into the game engine. Sad day.
Finally, Upgradeable AK-47 is just one of those "well duh" things I thought should have been in Clear Sky in the first place. The AK-47 is amazingly powerful even without being upgraded, and I understand why GSC might have deliberately not made it upgradeable... but that doesn't mean I don't want the option of using the weapon at its full potential. It's really, really fun to use too.
Now I'm not done with my modding efforts: far from it, in fact. Right now I'm working on two related mods, both in the vein of cut content restoration, tentatively titled Lost Armor and Lost Weapons.
Lost Armor has a lot more to work with than you might expect: the scientist armors (SSP-99 Ecologist and SSP-99M), as well as the mysterious glitched leather jacket which appeared in Shadow of Chernobyl (actually a wearable version of the Military grunt armor) and a lighter variant of the Bulat armor which was cut prior to the release of Shadow of Chernobyl. I'm also investigating other armors abandoned during development, including an early version of the Ecologist/Scientist armor and perhaps some of the faction-specific armor variants you see but never can obtain, such as the Bandit Cloak.
Lost Weapons has quite a bit of potential; were I an accomplished model maker or animator I could probably bring back some truly amazing things which were partially completely, never fully included or even just barely hinted at. As it is I'm limited to weapons with fully working models, but the ones I've been able to dig up so far are doozies: the longbarrel version of the Sawed-off Shotgun (TOZ-66), two easter-egg weapons taken from Fallout 2 (the .223 Pistol and the Bozar), and the one and only FN P90. Yes, the P90 was going to be in Shadow of Chernobyl at one point, and even Call of Pripyat still contains the in-game models for the P90's 5.7x28mm ammunition.
And while we're on the topic of ammunition, that's where a lot of the other restored content in Lost Weapons will come from. Some of it is stuff which was removed between Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky (7.62x54mm 7N14 and BP, 9x39mm SP5, VOG 25P grenades), but some of it is ammo you've never seen before: .223 Remington (compatible with 5.56 weapons), two 5.7x28mm variants (for the P90), and a slight surprise for me, an armor-piercing variety of 9x18mm ammo, 9x18mm Jacketed Soft-Point, which is shown in the preview image for this post.
I'll be working on those two Micro-Mods as well as a few others over the coming month. Hopefully in another month-and-a-half I'll have 4 more Micro-Mods out for you to enjoy.
Happy Stalking!
