While waiting for patch #3....

242 on 20/5/2007 at 09:30

Quote Posted by Martek

No, and it isn't precisely how many humans either.

Actually, minimap shows also distance to active goal :)

D'Arcy on 20/5/2007 at 13:59

Yes, but that's a different number than the one we were discussing here :)

steo on 20/5/2007 at 15:11

Ahh, that's where I got confused, I thought you were discussing that number, not that one.

mothra on 27/5/2007 at 09:51

no, they just left a few conversations in russian to preserve some of the original mood. you will have to get the russian version to have the full experience but I assume that the text will be russian, too. and about savegames:

stalker 1.00000 has different savegames to 1.0001 and 1.0003
if you patch to 1.0003 you can only use savegames already made in 1.0001.
2 patches exist:
1.0000 - 1.0003 which can only be applied to the vanilla installation and
1.0001 - 1.0003 which is an incremental patch (savegames from 1.0001 get preserved)
the savegames of 1.0000 seem ultimatley lost because the devs promised an special savegames converter script for the 1.0000 saves but it was not released up till now.

Jonesy on 21/6/2007 at 12:08

"Float32 will be released with the official 1.0004 patch from GSC Gameworld. It will be included along with their other fixes."

D'Arcy on 21/6/2007 at 12:33

Although 1.0004 still won't include the free play option, I see it will include many useful changes in SP:

Quote:

SP fixes:

1. Error with the first shot from the barrel-mounted grenade launcher. The grenade is not lost on the first shot.
2. Fixed weapons disappearing from hands after prolonged movement in crouched position.
3. Fixed crash when the player approaches someone from the Monolith's gulag.
4. Fixed Voronin's mission for elimination of a bandit.
5. Fixed random missions at the wild territories.
6. Fixed the random mission of bandit elimination at Cordon.
7. Fixed the barman's random mission of getting rid of snorks in the dark valley.
8. Fixed the error of the random mission of defending a camp when moving to another location or saving/loading.
9. Fixed the random mission of killing mutants when a pseudodog is among them.
10. Fixed the random mission of killing mutants
11. Fixed random missions with raiding character gulags.
12. Fixed the variety of goods at the bar and at Petrenko's after completing a random mission.
13. The wounded no longer run away from grenades.
14. Zombies at Yantar no longer run away from grenades.
15. Fixed the patrol path at Yantar, which looked like random crashing.
16. Fixed the patrol path at Agroprom, which looked like random crashing.
17. Fixed the mission with destroying Dolg's squad in the village at army warehouse.
18. Fixed the error at Radar, which led to completing the mission of turning off the radar without carrying out the objectives.
19. Fixed the error with repeated scene of Dolg's ambush at the army warehouse level.
20. Fixed the error with the camera flyover at Pripjat'.
21. Fixed the error with Bes, because of which he could not be cured.

And also:

1. Calculation of detail objects has been moved into a second CPU thread.
2. Optimization 10-15% FPS
3. Shader optimization.

mothra on 21/6/2007 at 13:36

upcoming patch will include the Float32mod !!!! this is additional to the 15%fps optimizations and shader enhancements !!!!

Quote:

News from the team

This is meant to become a weekly event. Here is the first update from the project lead Anton Bolshakov:

Once again, I free myself from the weight of project management and development, and would like to tell you what is going on.

First of all, we are preparing for E3 - setting up levels, animation, gameplay, voices, polishing up new rendering features, adding new features in other areas - the work is going full speed. We are preparing many interesting things and promise to make you very happy with our upcoming project.

We also keep in mind shortcomings and bugs of the original version.
Attention! We are changing the number of the patch with free play and a new difficulty level. It moved from 1.0003 to 1.0004. Now we see that we should release 1.0004 with the changes we have. Therefore, the number of the patch with free play and the new level of difficulty will be moved to 1.1.

The main reason for releasing 1.0004 is the obvious necessity in a proper standalone dedicated server, correct work with the standalone dedicated server, a remote control for controlling the dedicated server and administration of the net play, as well as bug fixing. Also important is comfortable handling of user-made MP maps. Here are the relevant bugs we have fixed and optimizations we have made lately. The main list has been posted before, but now it is expanded:

New in 1.0004:

Optimization:

1. Calculation of detail objects has been moved into a second CPU thread.
2. Optimization 10-15% FPS
3. Shader optimization.

MP features:

1. Standalone dedicated server
2. Remote control for the dedicated server
3. Max ping disconnect option
4. Self-optimizing packer for net packets. Gains better ping and traffic reduced by 50-100%.
5. Filters for server list do not get discarded.
6. Viewing available maps without disconnecting from the game.
7. Artifact counter does not show up in statistics.
8. The list of players does not get reset to the beginning when trying to scroll it. Now it is easy to vote for banning or kicking a player.
9. Corrected a few errors in determination of the cause of death.
10. Exploded grenades are not left behind in the place of the explosion.
11. Corrected activation of artifacts and the algorithm of action of the anomalous zone spawned from it.

MP crash fix:

1. Fixed the currently known crashes.

MP SDK:

1. The user can create the resource file with the mod for release with a single click of a button.
2. Mods can be installed onto the retail version by simply copying the resource file.

SP fixes:

1. Error with the first shot from the barrel-mounted grenade launcher. The grenade is not lost on the first shot.
2. Fixed weapons disappearing from hands after prolonged movement in crouched position.
3. Fixed crash when the player approaches someone from the Monolith's gulag.
4. Fixed Voronin's missin for elimination of a bandit.
5. Fixed random missions at the wild territories.
6. Fixed the random mission of bandit elimination at Cordone.
7. Fixed the barman's random mission of getting rid of snorks in the dark valley.
8. Fixed the error of the random mission of defending a camp when moving to another location or saving/loading.
9. Fixed the random mission of killing mutants when a pseudodog is among them.
10. Fixed the random mission of killing mutants
11. Fixed random missions with raiding character gulags.
12. Fixed the variety of goods at the bar and at Petrenko's after completing a random mission.
13. The wounded no longer run away from grenades.
14. Zombies at Yantar no longer run away from grenades.
15. Fixed the patrol path at Yantar, which looked like random crashing.
16. Fixed the patrol path at Agroprom, which looked like random crashing.
17. Fixed the mission with destroying Dolg's squad in the village at army warehouse.
18. Fixed the error at Radar, which led to completing the mission of turning of the radar without carrying out the objectives.
19. Fixed the error with repeated scene of Dolg's ambush at the army warehouse level.
20. Fixed the error with the camera flyover at Pripjat'.
21. Fixed the error with Bess, because of which he could not be cured.

I want to say that we have opened a site devoted to the SDK - (http://sdk.stalker-game.com). We invite anyone wanting to participate in creation of MP maps and other modifications. Possibilty of contact with the developers is a unique feature of our SDK portal. It will work like this: we will gather questions, a moderator will choose 1-2 questions for each topic each week, then each lead will answer them. We hope to help modders as much as we can.

Next time I will tell you more about the free play mode and the new difficulty level - Extreme.

Quote:

News From the Team #2

The second of the weekly series of development progress reports:

And so, once again we emerge from the work and hand over another portion of information. Here it goes:

In patch 1.1 we are implementing Freeplay.

Here is how it will work:
After passing the game with one of the good endings, a Freeplay mode will become available in the menu, as well as the Extreme difficulty level.

What it will look like:
Usually, we start at the dealer's, but... no. We are no longer Strelok, and we are not going into the heart of the Zone. The player is now a newbie stalker and gets to live a regular stalker's life, without the past heroics.

Main innovations:
- The world of the game is completely under control of life simulation.
- Parameters of the simulation have been balanced for Freeplay.
- There will be no storyline missions in Freeplay.
- All levels up to and including Pripjat' will be available.
- All smart terrain has been unblocked! The simulation is no longer bound by any storyline scenes.
- The missions in the Freeplay mode are based on the mechanics of secondary quests from the regular game, but with new types of quests.
- Some new dialogs have been added.
- New types of quests are given by various factions - Stalkers, Freedom, Duty, Military, and characters - Dealer, Barman, Saharov.
- The game is for ratings, which are given out by the aforementioned factions and characters. There will be 7 ratings from each quest giver.
- Each new rating will be rewarded. Unique items will be among the rewards.
- New unique items and weapons have been added.
- The "top 100" rating has a new algorithm. Rating of all stalkers changes during the whole duration of the game. It is valuable now.
- PDA has expanded statistics - the number of enemies and monsters killed, weapons and ammo used, shooting efficiency, time spent in locations, artifacts found, items used, unique items found, and much more.

In other words, Freeplay mode is for those who wanted to walk around the Zone after passing the game once or twice. Not to run around, completing mission quests, but to just live inside the Zone. To get the rank of the rich man of the Zone from the dealer, to collect all artifacts for the scientists, or do some of many other possible things. Simulation will be different, more life-like, now that all limitations have been removed. It will be rebalanced specifically for Freeplay, and a number of shortcomings we learned about after the release will be fixed.

Freeplay in patch 1.1 is only the first step, the tip of the iceberg of changes we are making to the game for the next installment. But, more about that after E3.

Many changes in gameplay and fixes are not described here. In the next portion of news I will tell you about the new difficulty level - Extreme.

daprdan on 21/6/2007 at 13:55

Freeplay looks good...but EXTREME? That will be tough.

D'Arcy on 21/6/2007 at 14:24

Freeplay looks like an awesome thing. I'm currently on my fourth run, and yet I still haven't grown tired of the game, because I keep discovering new things. Freeplay will increase the longevity of the game even further.

mothra on 21/6/2007 at 19:13

I bet EXTREME will have more severe bleeding and bandages will not boost health. a few mods already introduced that feature (realism mod or so). and I'm glad the dev team activates the A-life, I hope there will be packs of pseudodogs attacking the military outpost in cordon :)