S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

[deuxhero]

I thought it was referring to the semi-random positions within fields of anomalies.

 

[Iucounu]

By the way, in Call of Pripyat, Strelok mentions that anomalies are not static. They change and shift after an emission.
GSC could've developed this further into a gameplay mechanic. Shifting anomalies that change location and can become even more dangerous after an emission...

That was in relation to the particular anomalies in the air that took out the helicopters AND the large emission that happened at the end of SoC (and also at the beginning of CS). It makes absolutely no sense within the context of the world, because it would be impossible to set up any bases (and it also does not happen during the game). And also because it's an incredibly annoying "feature" that just makes moving around the world a pain in the ass, having random anomalies on common paths is something that the devs clearly went away from if you just look at the map design between games.
Leave it to retarded "omg so hard" modders to come up with stupid shit like this.

It's just modder autism.

I shouldn't be exaggerated, of course.

One nice use I think is to open or close access to easter egg locations, for example a small cave with high end loot that becomes inaccessible after the first emission. Things like that may add replay value.

Or you could risk being trapped inside an area for a few days because an anomaly is intermittently blocking the way. The Long Dark has a mine like that where the electric elevator only works during auroras, so if you become trapped inside without enough food and water you may die before the next aurora lets you out. But it needs to be an interesting area, so you don't get bored waiting. Perhaps you could pass time scavenging for food or similar.

 

[NecroLord]

By the way, in Call of Pripyat, Strelok mentions that anomalies are not static. They change and shift after an emission.
GSC could've developed this further into a gameplay mechanic. Shifting anomalies that change location and can become even more dangerous after an emission...

That was in relation to the particular anomalies in the air that took out the helicopters AND the large emission that happened at the end of SoC (and also at the beginning of CS). It makes absolutely no sense within the context of the world, because it would be impossible to set up any bases (and it also does not happen during the game). And also because it's an incredibly annoying "feature" that just makes moving around the world a pain in the ass, having random anomalies on common paths is something that the devs clearly went away from if you just look at the map design between games.
Leave it to retarded "omg so hard" modders to come up with stupid shit like this.

It's just modder autism.

I shouldn't be exaggerated, of course.

One nice use I think is to open or close access to easter egg locations, for example a small cave with high end loot that becomes inaccessible after the first emission. Things like that may add replay value.

Or you could risk being trapped inside an area for a few days because an anomaly is intermittently blocking the way. The Long Dark has a mine like that where the electric elevator only works during auroras, so if you become trapped inside without enough food and water you may die before the next aurora lets you out. But it needs to be an interesting area, so you don't get bored waiting. Perhaps you could pass time scavenging for food or similar.

Make it enhance the survival horror aspect of STALKER, even though STALKER is not a survival horror game.
Only rarely was I ever in a situation of having to manage my resources and consumables.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

Is it me or the weapons animations feel like recent Call of Duty? Why do all FPS these days share the same animations like for reloading for example?

1. it looks nothing like COD animations, which are 3x as violent, fast and twitchy as this. you have to have zero clue of what cod animations are like to say this.
2. it's simply the times to have more realistic and tactical guns and animations, which makes perfect sense since this has taken off massively in recent times.

 

[Gerrard]

There's a stream with gameplay right now

https://www.twitch.tv/xbox

 

[motherfucker]

I feel like you people are looking at CoP with rose-tinted glasses. Most quests in that game boiled down to "get to a specific area, go through a scripted sequence, quest completed". I accidentally did the bloodsucker building before getting the actual quest and seeing how easy it is to sequence break killed my desire to explore on my own completely. All anomalies are, once again, designated areas, there's always gonna be some artifacts on the ground and a hidden underground entrance with more artifacts and a stash or optional quest. It was the most on-rails shit ever, you open the map and see all POI's marked for your convenience, just visit all of them and you've seen all there is to see in the area. Vanilla CoP had practically zero A-life, it all was shitcanned in favour of hand-curated sequences. If anything, what we're seeing right now is perfectly in line with design philosophy that started with Clear Sky(hospital, anyone?) and was refined in Call of Pripyat. We were never getting another Shadow of Chernobyl and it was pointless to even hope for it.

 

[randir14]

One of the guys from Digital Foundry played the game today and said he was surprised how well it ran on Xbox, so hopefully that's good news for the PC version as well.

Some new gameplay:

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Hag]

I feel like you people are looking at CoP with rose-tinted glasses. Most quests in that game boiled down to "get to a specific area, go through a scripted sequence, quest completed". I accidentally did the bloodsucker building before getting the actual quest and seeing how easy it is to sequence break killed my desire to explore on my own completely. All anomalies are, once again, designated areas, there's always gonna be some artifacts on the ground and a hidden underground entrance with more artifacts and a stash or optional quest. It was the most on-rails shit ever, you open the map and see all POI's marked for your convenience, just visit all of them and you've seen all there is to see in the area. Vanilla CoP had practically zero A-life, it all was shitcanned in favour of hand-curated sequences. If anything, what we're seeing right now is perfectly in line with design philosophy that started with Clear Sky(hospital, anyone?) and was refined in Call of Pripyat. We were never getting another Shadow of Chernobyl and it was pointless to even hope for it.

There is minimal A-life in CoP including (and maybe limited to) Chimera roaming at night.
CoP fixed many of SoC shortcomings including linearity and awful economy, but did it an inspired way. It left me a strange taste since the game is on all points better made than SoC but overall felt much less involved and atmospheric. It was still a fine game with good ideas and some nicely made areas.

 

[Stavrophore]

If the GSC wants to continue the state of stalker that was left with vanilla games, completely omitting what the modding community had achieved in different iterations of mods, then it's their choice, but they won't have my support. I would rather play CoC/Anomaly based packs over let say something like True Stalker that was so praised, but it was very, very static stalker game.

 

[Gerrard]

I feel like you people are looking at CoP with rose-tinted glasses. Most quests in that game boiled down to "get to a specific area, go through a scripted sequence, quest completed". I accidentally did the bloodsucker building before getting the actual quest and seeing how easy it is to sequence break killed my desire to explore on my own completely. All anomalies are, once again, designated areas, there's always gonna be some artifacts on the ground and a hidden underground entrance with more artifacts and a stash or optional quest. It was the most on-rails shit ever, you open the map and see all POI's marked for your convenience, just visit all of them and you've seen all there is to see in the area. Vanilla CoP had practically zero A-life, it all was shitcanned in favour of hand-curated sequences. If anything, what we're seeing right now is perfectly in line with design philosophy that started with Clear Sky(hospital, anyone?) and was refined in Call of Pripyat. We were never getting another Shadow of Chernobyl and it was pointless to even hope for it.

We've already been over this. CoP is literally the only game that actually has any semblance of "A-life". NPCs wandering aimlessly around the game world is not a fucking feature. If you think otherwise, that just says something about you and not the games.
The PoIs are not marked on the map until you visit them or learn about them from talking to NPCs.

 

[Iucounu]

NPCs wandering aimlessly around the game world is not a fucking feature.

I only remember that from CoP, where the exMonolithians indeed wander around Yanov aimlessly (after being recruited into Duty or Freedom I think), but that's still better than not going anywhere. In the previous games, NPCs usually wander purposefully from their spawn location towards their target location (to replace a killed NPC), which is a great feature since you can encounter them anywhere along the way, across multiple levels.

The PoIs are not marked on the map until you visit them or learn about them from talking to NPCs.

All areas are marked from the beginning, and if you hover your mouse over them you can also see the names of each (Boiler Anomaly, Skadovsk, Sawmill, etc).

 

[randir14]

Very brief clip showing an NPC interaction for the first time. Gone are the giant boxes of text, now it's more modernized. Around 36:45

 

[Gerrard]

NPCs wandering aimlessly around the game world is not a fucking feature.

I only remember that from CoP, where the exMonolithians indeed wander around Yanov aimlessly (after being recruited into Duty or Freedom I think), but that's still better than not going anywhere. In the previous games, NPCs usually wander purposefully from their spawn location towards their target location (to replace a killed NPC), which is a great feature since you can encounter them anywhere along the way, across multiple levels.

You don't actually provide any argument as to why that is a great feature. How does that improve the gameplay?

The PoIs are not marked on the map until you visit them or learn about them from talking to NPCs.

All areas are marked from the beginning, and if you hover your mouse over them you can also see the names of each (Boiler Anomaly, Skadovsk, Sawmill, etc).

Huh, must've been some mod I used the last time I was playing CoP that did this.

 

[Iucounu]

NPCs wandering aimlessly around the game world is not a fucking feature.

I only remember that from CoP, where the exMonolithians indeed wander around Yanov aimlessly (after being recruited into Duty or Freedom I think), but that's still better than not going anywhere. In the previous games, NPCs usually wander purposefully from their spawn location towards their target location (to replace a killed NPC), which is a great feature since you can encounter them anywhere along the way, across multiple levels.

You don't actually provide any argument as to why that is a great feature. How does that improve the gameplay?

It adds almost endless variation. And not just during replays, even in a single game you never know where you may encounter replacement NPCs. But I think you already know about this.

 

[luj1]

They are so focused on tech and presentation that gameplay suffers

I'm almost certain this will be nowhere near the original

 

[Stavrophore]

The fact that they had chosen nighttime as their gameplay showcase for gamescon is pretty worrying. A lot of detail, not only graphical detail[the demo looks unimpressive, but its console+vid compression], but AI movement and animations can't be really seen. IMHO i don't have high hopes for this, and i don't think even patches will help. We will see though.

 

[Gerrard]

NPCs wandering aimlessly around the game world is not a fucking feature.

I only remember that from CoP, where the exMonolithians indeed wander around Yanov aimlessly (after being recruited into Duty or Freedom I think), but that's still better than not going anywhere. In the previous games, NPCs usually wander purposefully from their spawn location towards their target location (to replace a killed NPC), which is a great feature since you can encounter them anywhere along the way, across multiple levels.

You don't actually provide any argument as to why that is a great feature. How does that improve the gameplay?

It adds almost endless variation. And not just during replays, even in a single game you never know where you may encounter replacement NPCs. But I think you already know about this.

You are just repeating yourself. How does that "endless variation" improve the game? The answer is: it doesn't, because those NPCs being there or not don't affect anything.
In fact, CS would be the only game where the "A-life" can actually affect your playthrough in a non-superficial way, for example Loners taking out the bandits at garbage entrance, saving you the trouble of dealing with them, and even then this is basically the extent of influence. But to know that you'd actually have to play it more than once.

 

[deuxhero]

The fact that they had chosen nighttime as their gameplay showcase for gamescon is pretty worrying. A lot of detail, not only graphical detail[the demo looks unimpressive, but its console+vid compression], but AI movement and animations can't be really seen. IMHO i don't have high hopes for this, and i don't think even patches will help. We will see though.

And that YouTube's compression hates night scenes.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Iucounu]

NPCs wandering aimlessly around the game world is not a fucking feature.

I only remember that from CoP, where the exMonolithians indeed wander around Yanov aimlessly (after being recruited into Duty or Freedom I think), but that's still better than not going anywhere. In the previous games, NPCs usually wander purposefully from their spawn location towards their target location (to replace a killed NPC), which is a great feature since you can encounter them anywhere along the way, across multiple levels.

You don't actually provide any argument as to why that is a great feature. How does that improve the gameplay?

It adds almost endless variation. And not just during replays, even in a single game you never know where you may encounter replacement NPCs. But I think you already know about this.

You are just repeating yourself. How does that "endless variation" improve the game? The answer is: it doesn't, because those NPCs being there or not don't affect anything.

If you don't like repetition, why do you want Stalker to be repetitive?

"Endless variation" affects where and when you encounter enemies, resulting in many more locations and situation where you can fight. This lets you play the game much longer without becoming bored by repetitive situations. It also gives you the impression of a living gameworld that's independent of the player.

In fact, CS would be the only game where the "A-life" can actually affect your playthrough in a non-superficial way, for example Loners taking out the bandits at garbage entrance, saving you the trouble of dealing with them, and even then this is basically the extent of influence.

It can happen in SoC as well. I've encountered Bandits, Loners, Military at the Cordon exit (or nearby). Sometimes nobody's there.

But to know that you'd actually have to play it more than once.

Of course, isn't that what we want? It's thanks to A-Life the Stalker games are so fun to replay, unlike most other games where nothing ever changes.

 

[randir14]

 

[Gerrard]

In fact, CS would be the only game where the "A-life" can actually affect your playthrough in a non-superficial way, for example Loners taking out the bandits at garbage entrance, saving you the trouble of dealing with them, and even then this is basically the extent of influence.

It can happen in SoC as well. I've encountered Bandits, Loners, Military at the Cordon exit (or nearby). Sometimes nobody's there.

Doesn't the game start with the military being at the outpost, and just constantly spawns bandits coming from the garbage level changer so eventually the military are wiped out? It only depends on when you go there.
I don't think it's possible for the scripted bandit event near the entrance to be wiped out by random NPCs before you get there (are they even spawned before you enter garbage?).

 

[Iucounu]

In fact, CS would be the only game where the "A-life" can actually affect your playthrough in a non-superficial way, for example Loners taking out the bandits at garbage entrance, saving you the trouble of dealing with them, and even then this is basically the extent of influence.

It can happen in SoC as well. I've encountered Bandits, Loners, Military at the Cordon exit (or nearby). Sometimes nobody's there.

Doesn't the game start with the military being at the outpost, and just constantly spawns bandits coming from the garbage level changer so eventually the military are wiped out?

It only spawns enough Bandits to replace those that are killed in Cordon, but unless you are nearby they will migrate "offline", which means they won't fight the Military (or others) to my knowledge. New Military may spawn as well (in Garbage?) to replace any from the base (or bridge?) that have been killed, but these replacements only pass by the guard post at the Cordon exit, they don't stay there.

It only depends on when you go there.

And that's the beauty of it.

I don't think it's possible for the scripted bandit event near the entrance to be wiped out by random NPCs before you get there (are they even spawned before you enter garbage?).

True, I don't think any fighting takes place anywhere in SoC with NPCs that are offline (CS is different, there you can watch "fights" all around the Zone on your PDA map).

Not sure what would happen if you are near the robbers at the same time as Military or Loner replacements passed by online, would the latter take a detour around the robbers? Might be worth investigating. I recall there are other places (like the Bar area) where the migrants use routes outside the normal playing area, that way they can avoid fights even if they are online. No idea if that's the case in Garbage too.

 

[NecroLord]

In fact, CS would be the only game where the "A-life" can actually affect your playthrough in a non-superficial way, for example Loners taking out the bandits at garbage entrance, saving you the trouble of dealing with them, and even then this is basically the extent of influence.

It can happen in SoC as well. I've encountered Bandits, Loners, Military at the Cordon exit (or nearby). Sometimes nobody's there.

Doesn't the game start with the military being at the outpost, and just constantly spawns bandits coming from the garbage level changer so eventually the military are wiped out? It only depends on when you go there.
I don't think it's possible for the scripted bandit event near the entrance to be wiped out by random NPCs before you get there (are they even spawned before you enter garbage?).

I remember getting some unfortunate Bandit spawns, but that was it.