ZoneExpanded - Road To The North mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Welcome to Road To The North!

• STALKER is made by GSC Game World,
  support GSC Game World by buying the STALKER CD keys.
  Piracy is not supported.
• My website: road-to-the-north.com
• Facebook: Facebook - Road-To-The-North
• VK: VK - Road To The North
• You can help translating ENG to RUS at: RTTN translation (RUS). (XML, only of <text></text>)
  The original English document is here.

You can support me with a small donation on Patreon to help me host the website, host file backups, pay for my hardware replacements and support me for making content:

About Road To The North:

Road To The North (RTTN) is built on top of "Call of Misery".
RTTN is made for roleplayers who love an immersive mix of survival, realism, story and interaction with interesting new characters. There are 37+ new missions, which cover most of 32 large maps in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. All maps have been placed on a completely new world map (satellite), with level positions inspired by the real life Zone. Mission updates are easy to follow,as updates can be read in the PDA and in a self writing journal item.

"RTTN has that Roadside Picnic feeling. Everyone entered the Zone for their own reasons and everyone is connected to eachother in some way. The game adapts to your choices and world events, changing dialogs and missions. Characters you meet have their own interests and personalities, some will tell you their story. Everything included is lorefriendly to stalker, based on the information we can find in the original games and will take you on a well written journey. The world's size allows you to choose your own path, the order in which you play missions and write your own story as well. The Zone is an unforgiving place and it will be difficult to survive. Take your time, explore, roleplay and.. Good hunting, Stalker."

Unique new content will surprise players who previously played the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series such as new mutants, team exploration and the ability to disguise yourself as another faction. Light campfires, cook, go hunting for mutant parts or buried treasure. Your gas mask will now require filters and some suits come with oxygen tanks. Missions have permanent consequences and unlock different paths, even the side missions. Factions all have their own roles in defending against the Monolith, which are an extreme threat and will take new territory if you let them. A mysterious new faction called "The Beyond' can be discovered.

There's a ceasefire between Duty and Freedom near the bar area. People will talk about the ceasefire and the growing tension between factions. Stalkers send eachother messages about what is going on in the world, what they find on corpses and will report the dead (Tronex addon).

Road To The North story compatible factions are: Loners, Ecologists, Clear Sky, Duty, Freedom.
Other factions are usually enemies of the main story characters. You can still play as a faction like Bandits or Monolith, to play repeatable dynamic missions (non story) for those factions.

The many features of RTTN:

• A complete, large, lore friendly and interesting new story!
• Overhauled most dynamic CoM missions and rewards.
• Find good reasons to visit extremely dangerous locations.
• You can choose which faction you are in from the start, or change factions mid-game.
• Play as a male or female character, sounds, icons and first person models included.
• Roleplay! Multiple choices and unpredictable events.
• Unlock dialog options based on events, your current faction and knowledge.
• The death of story characters will alter missions and dialogs.
• Ceasefire between Freedom and Duty at Rostok (bar) and Wild Territory.
• Disguise yourself as any faction.
• Gas masks and suits now use filters or oxygen tanks.
• High difficulty. You are just human. Difficulty is not just based on enemy health.
• Multiple endings.
• New cutscenes.
• You have your own self writing journal which contains information about your progress.
• Inventory space system, weight and also space now fills your inventory to a limit (optional).
• New artefacts, all based on the ones in "Roadside Picnic", with special abilities.
• A new faction "The Beyond".
• New enhanced campfire cooking system.
• New main menu.
• Many new characters.
• New items, including quest items and mutant parts.
• Items can be dismantled into repair parts from the inventory.
• Many new weapons and ammunition, including TAZ (The Armed Zone).
• Treasure hunt! You can find hidden stashes underground with your shovel.
• New and HD artefact detectors.
• Added completely new mutants, with their own tactics and powers, such as the Nightshade, Silent One, Blind Zombie, Bear and mutant variants.
• Mutants get a large role in missions, even dialogs.
• Toolkits can be bought once in a while.
• Defend against the Monolith to change the future of a faction.
• Redesigned the world map to place levels at positions inspired by the real life Zone.
• A female ecologist (new model).
• Fully written in English and mostly translated to Russian (only TAZ requires more).
• Take characters with you on a mission.
• Mission updates, markers and descriptions are easy to follow.
• Different enemies and spawns for most locations.
• Some redesigned and improved ui.
• Removed "black screen" of CoM while using items.
• Smart economy, discounts slightly change each day.
• Tips and hud messages to be in first person. "I am, I have"
• An optional no save spam mode.
• Toggle full interface on and off with one button. (for videos and screenshots)
• Kick loot containers.
• Configure Tronex Dynamic Tip system with the pda in your inventory.
• New dog sounds and a new additional soundtrack for the swamps.

Other features I merged from existing mods can be found below.

• 64 bit engine code from Anomaly
• New weapons, grenades and armor.
• Adjusted weapon zoom (75 FOV for 1:1).
• Many new items (MISERY mod).
• Complete texture overhaul.
• Sounds and music overhaul.
• New gun sounds.
• New ammo types.
• New scope reticles.
• Weapon varations (old/rusty/modern) and scope variants.
• Start as any faction, choose your start location.
• New Vegetation.
• Improved AI.
• Dynamic tasks, stashes and dialogs.
• High difficulty.
• No minimap.
• A battery system.
• Playable music instruments
• Artefact cases, to reduce radiation.
• Drugs and medical items.
• Slow item usage, medkits take time to restore health.
• Mutant hunting and skinning.
• Armor attachments.
• Repair items yourself with kits, oils and misc. items.
• Sleeping bags
• Place your own stashes.
• Cooking system.
• Immersive fast travel dialogs.
• Global weather system.
• Dynamic tips, npcs react to the world and communicate!
• New character visuals.
• Companion system.
• New mutant (bear).
• Lootable armors.
• Light campfires.
• Kick rats and tushkanos.
• Optional Ironman mode (lose saves on death)
• Optional campfire saving mode (can only save at lit campfires)
• Inaccurate zombies.
• Loot money from corpses.

Installation:

Installation: Unpack and start Stalker-RTTN.exe, that's it! Do not place RTTN in another stalker installation, it is "standalone".

FAQ:

Q: On launch, I receive the message "A S.T.A.L.K.E.R. call of pripyat installation has not been detected ...... requires you to own a valid copy of GSC game world's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. call of pripyat?"

A: The engine looks for a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat cd key on launch to prevent piracy of the original series and support GSC Game World. CoP is available on Steam. If you already own CoP, install it once so the cd key is registered on your PC. Road To The North does not use any of the files from the CoP installation, just the CD key.

Q: MSCVP***.dll is missing?
A: Install Microsoft Visual C++ redist.

Q: My character is dying and I don't know why?
A: This is usually radiation (use geiger counter). Items like cigarettes, vodka and some medicine can be used to lower radiation. Uncheck daytime radiation in the options menu.

Q: Where do I go, in what order?
A: Missions unlock while you progress. When ready, start with the mission at Skadovsk (yellow mission marker on the PDA). This mission must be completed successfully to start the story, or it will lock the main mission. If an area is too difficult you should return later with the right gear.

Q: I can't finish the first mission (chimera at Zaton)?
A: Deal enough damage (shotgun) on the chimera to complete the mission successfully. This mission may not fail. The many simulated elements in the world are unpredictable. If you can not pass this mission for some reason, try it again at a later moment or get a cheat addon from the ModDB addons to skip the mission.

Q: Crashes!
A: send me a message with your issue. The mod is very stable. Keep in mind that high video settings like full grass distance, or making changes to the mod yourself can make it unstable. Try lowering the lighting distance/grass distance for example.
If the crash occurs on a new installation during the splash screen (without error):
1. Make sure that the installation directory of RTTN is as short and simple as possible. Some long paths can crash.
2. Create an exception for the installation directory in your antivirus settings.
3. Unzip RTTN again to ensure it was not corrupted during unzipping.

Q: My inventory icons are bugged/stretched/missing and I didn't mod anything myself?
A: In the graphics options, increase the texture detail slider to maximum and (in some cases) switch to another dx(10/11) setting. This problem seems to differ a bit per system, but it seems that incorrect texture coordinates are used for lower settings. For modders: keep the ui_icon_equipment.dds size low and export with DXT1. a 4k DXT5 file caused this issue for me on a high end system.

Q: Text fonts are very small or large?
A: Text scaling isn't perfect in the engine. Fonts on screen resolutions close to 1920x1080 are alright. Extremely low or high resolutions (4K) show large or tiny fonts.

Q: How can I improve graphics of distance objects / depth of field?
A: This might decrease fps a small bit. insert the following console commands in-game (c /> r2_ssa_lod_a 32, r2_ssa_lod_b 32, r2_dof_far 1250, r2_dof_kernel 1

Q: I'm getting some FPS drops?
A: Please make a detailed report, so I can investigate it. Short fps spikes are normal in the engine. Known drops are caused by some anomalies (hd particles) and dynamic lighting (lamps). The mod is build for medium > fast PCs. on a slow pc or laptop, switch to low graphics, lower resolution and choose static lighting.

Q: Can I be a female character?
A: The included gender patch folder contains files to copy into the gamedata folder. When starting a new game you can choose from female icons (on the bottom of the icon list) which will set the gender.

Q: How do I use the gas mask filter / oxygen tank?
A: Filters are for compatible masks, which are most of them except for cloth sheet and metal helmet. Oxygen tanks are used with SEVA suits. Filters and tanks can be "Used", to set it as an active filter/tank. Depending on what you are wearing, the system will automatically choose between tank or filter. A tank or filter can receive environmental damage while using a mask. Without a filter you have no protection.

Q: How do disguises work?
A: Wear any faction suit to disguise yourself. A disguise status can be seen on top of the inventory menu. If you put on a suit in front of the enemy, your disguise will be lost. If you shoot anyone from the faction you are disguised as, your disguise will be lost. If for any reason the enemy sees through your disguise, travel to another level and they might forget you. Friendlies think you are their enemy if you disguise yourself as their enemy. Take off your disguise to make them friendly again (do not shoot back). View the faction relations tab in your PDA to plan ahead.

Q: Duty starts shooting at me when I walk into their base / What about the ceasefire?
A: If you are Freedom, or disguised as freedom, Duty will become hostile if you enter their base.

Q: Some characters do not respond to combat / are invincible?
A: This is a rare occasion when character simply may not die or initiate combat, to keep the story going.

Q: The game is too dark?
A: The following values can be set from the console, or in user.ltx: r2_sun_lumscale [-1.000,3.000] - Multiplier for illumination from sunlight, r2_sun_lumscale_amb [0.000,3.000] - Multiplier for ambient / background illumination from sunlight, r2_sun_lumscale_hemi [0.000,3.000] - Multiplier for hemi-illumination / evenly distributed light over surfaces

Q: Cat graphics stretch, or texture glitches
A: This seems to be hardware / driver / engine related beyond my control which make them appear only for some users. Switch DX version or turn off parallax.

Credits:

Thank you GSC Game World for creating S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

The game we love.

Many thanks to everyone who supports Road To The North!
Female character icon photos:

KaroTheStalker
EzgiCtankep
WTFSexyheadphones
Sophie V Weg (sjebberd)
Alex - Alexandr Chrome Rybak
Michaela Bušovská

Sounds/music:

Seda145 (Roy Wierer)
Songs:
-- Vanya Importent / Alex Heidern : "Addaraya - Gurza dreaming (cover)"
-- Raffaele Du Marteau : "Dreaming of Nowhere"
Voice:
-- 11linda - "female player voice effects" Freesound.org

Main menu art:

Matias Nicolas Machado

Testing:

Seda145 (Roy Wierer)
Special thanks: - Jonathan Eversen, for testing some missions, features and TAZ.
Special thanks: - ColonelRH for testing TAZ and TAZ ltx fixing

Story writing:

Seda145 (Roy Wierer)
Special thanks: - Benjamin "Razorizz" Andersson for the character "Razor" and his mixtape mission.

Dialogs:

Seda145 (Roy Wierer)

Dialogs spell and grammar check:

Benjamin "Razorizz" Andersson

Programming:

Seda145 (Roy Wierer)

Textures / Design:

Seda145 (Roy Wierer)
paranoiia8
Special thanks: - Cameron James Wellman, for creating "Nightshade" concept art.
Special thanks: - NeonQueen (FO4 Crocodile hairstyle) for the hair model used on Anna.
Special thanks: - Elles Boer, for the vector version of the RTTN logo.

3D modeling:

Seda145 (Roy Wierer)
Paranoiia8

Cutscenes/video:

Seda145 (Roy Wierer)
Special thanks: - Haskins Laboratories, for XRay material.

Translation to Russian:

Dimon12321, FlamingDuck, AV661194, [BY]Gre4ka, WakeUpDeath!, S.T.A.L.K.E.R666Z, cenak, Muraxez, Nuclearoid, Aonestr, hlgrm, ItsAPenta, Sveta Torlak, SevenRus, Kostya Chernyak, Stepan Ivanov, and anonymous users

----
Road To The North is built on top of a collection of many other amazing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mods. Because many mods have been merged together in the past, it is often difficult to find every person who has worked on the included mods. Please send me a message if I should change something in the credits, or if you should be in it.
----

Included mods:

64 bit Engine Code

Seargedp

MISERY

MDT

The Armed Zone

TAZ TEAM Mp5lng, Alex “TheTazDJ”, Kuba Wasiak, Tank1092 Alpha tester: Nezdad Kajtazaj ”Snow” Special thanks for: ky-ky, Comrade-bear

CoC/CoM

TeamEPIC, Russian Com/DA team, Junx, LostAlphaRus, Master_Boli, nik19845, cat Maxim

STCoM for Call of Misery 1.0d

bi0nicman, Sasha Tulunzhi

S.W.T.C. - Call of Chernobyl Edition [CoC 1.5]

Tronex

Stalker Two-K

Paranoiia8

TRX: Global Weather (2.2)

Tronex

Bear Model Pack for CoC v1.0

thales100, Greshnik13rs, CAHCAHbl4

Flying demon model

Greshnik13Rs

DoctorX Dynamic Anomalies 2.1

DoctorX01

DoctorX Questlines

DoctorX01

Original Guns Reanimated

r_populik

TRX - Sounds Revamp 8.0

Tronex

TRX - Dynamic news

Tronex

Female ecologist voice

SashaRed

STCoM Weapon Pack

bi0nicman, Sasha Tulunzhi

ZoneExpanded - Artefacts

Seda145

ZoneExpanded HD models

Seda145

Outfit Addon

Jack, VodkaChicken, Victor Makarin

Immersive fast travel 1.0 [1.4.22]

spikensbror

Adjusted Zoom Levels 0.6 [1.4.22/1.5b r4]

SashaRed

Simple Instruments

TKGP

Outfit loot CoC 1.4.22 v2

av661194, Shoker, dimitrian

Outfit loot CoC 1.4.22 v2

av661194, Shoker, dimitrian

Enemies Dont Always Drop Broken Guns - STCoM

crazyiscombine

Inaccurate Zombies [CoC 1.4]

Fohom

Weapon Sound Mod [STCoM] UPDATED 19/6

brankovich, Porpeta Voraz

lootmoney for CoC [1.5]

tsěsarĭ, anon