242 on 15/11/2007 at 10:48

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Translated by Don Reba from (http://www.dtf.ru/articles/read.php?id=48760&page=2#gsc)


Games are developed in slow stealth-steps. It seems, everything is very gradual, almost still, however, looking back, one realizes that the turtle is slowly, with the tenacity of a tank, catching up to speedy Achilles.

October brought much new to Clear Sky. It is not only work on gameplay and the engine. It is such a slow monotonous process that there is little desire to talk about new revolutionary changes. Therefore, we will leave programming and game design aside. Let us get to those things that are visible here and now.

The most notable change is the implementation of smart covers and new battle animations. A "smart cover" is a kins of "smart object", used during battles. They give characters information regarding the proper use of covers, and to the player they give a fresh experience (try getting a bot in cover while he is shooting with one hand, without looking - not so easy anymore). At the same time, the ability to hold a weapon with a single hand, switch hands, combine the use of a pistol with, for instance, an anomaly detector, expand the number of animations and behaviours.

http://www.dtf.ru/articles/image.php?id=28824&publ_id=48760

http://www.dtf.ru/articles/image.php?id=28825&publ_id=48760

Fights have become more interesting also because the AI now uses grenades. We have listened to complaints received after the release of the original STALKER. As a result, we now hear more swearing from players during battle scenes - the difficulty level has been raised considerably. The player can no longer camp in one place and pick off naive characters.

The development of the new patch has taken more than usual, even by our standards, due to hard work on Clear Sky. The changes have mostly dealt with the multiplayer side of the game. The game is yet to be balanced for the patch with the promised freeplay.

Autumn is the time for harvest, for review. For farmers it is time for toil, for game developers - the time for game shows. The end of October has been marked for us with "Game Territory", where we presented "STALKER: Clear Sky" and ran multiplayer matches with the original game. All in all, everything went fine, especially considering that this is in may aspects a non-game exhibition, and few of our colleagues have taken part.

"Igromir" has been more challenging for our PR department. We started in advance, but the last preparations ended up being made as usual - at the site. But this is a subject for another diary, for November.

242 on 15/11/2007 at 16:56

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:) :)

"Games are developed in slow stealth-steps" - really weird sentence.

Swiss Mercenary on 15/11/2007 at 21:38

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Igro standing for "Game" and Mir for "World."

No doubt in some way affiliated with the Mir supermarket (:confused: ) chain I can recall from when I was in Russia. A long time ago.

clearing on 20/11/2007 at 06:42

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Yes. You are right :D