Subject: Re: My new criticism of the game. Tue 28 Dec 2021 - 22:44
Hi Ikaruss
Thanks for your comments and suggestions, as it's rare that we get them from professional writers
In answer, may I first point out that the game version you're currently playing will become obsolete next month, as 18 months of reworked text files, covering every aspect of the game, will be included in the new patch, and I'd be very grateful for comments on it, as it will certainly eliminate many of the problems you're facing
As TrueB stated, the game is still evolving, and the original dialogues were machine-translated from several Eastern European languages. We gave up trying to translate them, and decided instead to rewrite everything from scratch. After five years, the first draft of 155 text files weighing in at 4.7Mb is nearly complete
Because the merged mods came from different sources, our job has been to try to make sense of them all, and connect them together into a single, cohesive, and meaningful storyline. By necessity, and with access to text only, this had to include explanations of why events happened the way they did - and I accept that some of them are a tad overlong
But once we finish the first draft, the second draft will be a lot easier (it'll all be in English!) and we can finally focus on editing and fine tuning...
Yes, the SMS message timings are too short, so we'll see if it's possible to have their screen presence extended in the Modders Script
Regarding your comment [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] on missions, the new patch will have better text descriptions of what to do next
Re your comment [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] on Infoportions - yes, somebody needs to do this in a spreadsheet in cooperation with the game devs - but it's a massive job for a relatively luxury item, which is why nobody has done it yet...
And regarding the way text is displayed, I'm afraid we have no way of displaying text in bold, or italicized, or underlined, or in a different colour. The only editing tools we have for emphasis are capitals (which look odd in anything other than acronyms), or to use a new paragraph...
Finally, I believe you've exemplified the nature of the Zone perfectly. The game is meant to be scary, intense, and visceral, because this is the most dangerous place on earth, and no place for women or, God forbid, children. Tempers and life expectancy are short, most rookies die before getting beyond the Dump, and even an experienced stalker can die simply by letting their guard down for a moment. Stress, adrenaline, and testosterone abound, nerves are frayed, and there's a lot of swearing. It's not a game you can play easily in the dark
But I guarantee that the new patch will make the game far more enjoyable than your current version, and please let me know if there's any part of the game to which you'd like to contribute with your coding or writing skills. The game continues to evolve with each new patch, and there's still much more to do!
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pchester Administrator
Posts : 2445 Join date : 2017-06-03 Location : UK
Subject: Re: My new criticism of the game. Wed 29 Dec 2021 - 10:15
Ikaruss wrote:
I'll be looking forward to the new version, then. True I had read that they were going to move to the 64x system? Or was that much further down the road?
TecnoBacon recently posted an update explaining his current plans for the next patch and for the 64-bit engine. See [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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TrueB Master
Posts : 933 Join date : 2017-06-03
Subject: My new criticisms of the game Wed 29 Dec 2021 - 11:08
Above post:
Ikaruss wrote:
Next month?? Wohoo!
I'll be looking forward to the new version, then. True I had read that they were going to move to the 64x system? Or was that much further down the road?
One of the problems with the missions, is that some of them are word only, text only, and they are not marked in the task list of the PDA. And this is an inconvenience when you have several side missions to complete and there is no reminder, no mark, nothing. For example, now the mission that comes to my mind, is that to guide Panther to the Lost Village. Or the one to go look for Boatswain in the swamp, and take him to the helicopter. If you do the mission directly, and you focus on just that mission, it's fine, but if you carry several missions on top of it, and you are doing other side missions on the way, then you get lost.
And that's because going from point A to point B to point C, without doing anything else is boring. I take advantage of doing other secondary missions in between. And while the Boatswain mission is almost immediate and direct, there are others that are not, and well, as I said, you get distracted and then you forget and get lost if there is no reminder as in the PDA. That was what I was mostly referring to as markers on the map, or that then when you forget and look for them in the message history, it's hard to find it. If they manage to fix these details in the new version, it would be great.
Hi Ikaruss, in Advanced Options, is one where players can choose to have completed missions auto saved. I turn this on at the start, but there are some mission(s) that can be broken by intermediate saves, and here it is necessary in my opinion to turn of mission saves until that sort are completed, and then to turn mission auto saving back on again. This should hopefully address your marker suggestions. Best Wishes TrueB
TrueB Master
Posts : 933 Join date : 2017-06-03
Subject: My new criticism of the game Wed 12 Jan 2022 - 8:01
Previous post:
Ikaruss wrote:
Well, I'm going to reuse this same post for some suggestions. The truth is that I replayed this version of the game just for the level of the secret basement in Limansk, hehe... I wanted to see better the reference to the Guest from the Future series.
If you haven't seen it, I recommend it as homework. It's a miniseries that didn't age well, but apparently it was a boom at the time in the Soviet Union, so it's a great reference.
I guess you are about to release the new version, and these suggestions can not be implemented. It occurs to me that in the basement, to make the reference a little stronger, include a radio where the song plays in the background.
Even the whole thing with Lightning, which is a trap, it would be interesting to change her story a little, and make her pass as in the series, as the visitor of the future. Even play with the idea that she is the character of Alisa, as in the series. Or, maybe include her as a new character?
Well, there I can think of a whole subplot that I doubt could be added. In fact, I have some other ideas in my role-playing game, very simple ideas, that you might be interested in, although again, I don't know how possible it is to include or develop them.
Going back to this specific suggestion... you would have to watch the series to understand what I mean.
Ah, the other thing is not a suggestion but rather a question: About the dream videos, or cinematics that are in the middle, that can be changed? Do you plan to change it? Because watching a GSC Game World commercial as a transition to Dead City is kind of ridiculous and pointless. The same when you travel by helicopter from the Swamp to the Generators.
I've found many STALKER shorts on youtube, made with some different engines, that could be used for better.
Like this one that I helped by creating Spanish subtitles.
Hi Ikaruss. Once, many years ago, my wife and I went to a local art gallery. One picture seemed wrong and whilst we were criticising it, an attendant said to us that rather than wasting energy on a picture we did not like, why not simply move on to one we did like; we have since followed this advice. There are many Stalker whole story mods available. One channel showcases these. Stalkersoup is almost complete; it represents years of work from translation of the original Peoplesoup, to a holistic approach in putting the text together in a rewrite whilst keeping its idiosyncrasies. Modding whole areas adding new mutants, and making the Soup of Stalker mods coherent, and enjoyably exciting with wit and scare, gives a wonderful whole world standalone free game.. But there are other games you may enjoy better. Stalkersoup is awaiting imminent completion of Levelup 3, the final part before DLC. If you have suggestions that relate to a glitch, you may find in the latest update, I suggest it is better for you to email them to TB than air them on the Forum - in my opinion. Regards, TrueB.
Last edited by Sword2012 on Wed 12 Jan 2022 - 18:54; edited 5 times in total (Reason for editing : Address)
Sword2012 Administrator
Posts : 1240 Join date : 2017-05-31 Location : UK
Subject: Re: My new criticism of the game. Wed 12 Jan 2022 - 20:06
Hi Ikaruss
You make some good points and I hope I can answer a few of them
StalkerSoup is a creation of talents from developers who truly love and feel as one with the STALKER world, including its history, and this is why credit and honour are given to GSC and its developers who invested their own passion into it, and became the figurative shoulders on which later modders now stand
It's for this reason that, in the new patch, 'In Memoriam' noticeboards around the Zone will mourn the passing of Sergey Ivanov, the original scriptwriter for what would finally become 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl', and who succumbed to Covid-19 a year ago
The boards also remember key contributors to this forum, and to the game
It's hoped that, once the game's engine becomes more flexible, we can include the new dynamic 'Voices', where the player can find scraps of reporters' notes, borne by the winds all over the Zone, which contain genuine quotes from the Zones' original survivors back in 1986. We want to remember them too
Re Lightning, more is covered on her in the new patch. Although she's
Spoiler:
gone into hiding after the fracas in the Dead City, she's still a major player in the battle for control of the Last Day faction - and unless Strelok's group stop her, then by teaming up with Monolith, mercs, and bandits, with her as their line manager, she'll be in a position to control the Zone and, ultimately, the world political scene
And now that she's given up using her slinky 'holoform', very few know who she is, nor what she really looks like...
Personal and totally unrequested opinion on time travel:
Re the use of time travel in the game, I'd have to take personal issue with this quasi-intellectual staple of science fiction and Marvel movies. Other than the occasional small, local glitch in space-time, nothing can ever happen before it happens - which unfortunately is the entire concept of 'travelling into the past to change the future' in a nutshell
I have no issues with travelling into the future, because cryogenics - or even sleeping - would take care of this but, for me at least, time is a one-way street of burned bridges. If it was anything else, then nothing would ever happen - because every single person ever born would be constantly trying to correct every single mistake they'd ever made...
(Not to mention the 14 billion years of momentum that an entire universe-full of space-time would have already built up...)
BTW, I really appreciated your video compilation which, right from the opening, took me back to the world I love while awaiting the new patch. I hope the graphics in the game can, some day, be as good as this - but in the meantime we'll have to make do with our imagination...
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