ExclusionZone

[sterile briar]

Welcome to the Exclusion Zone

I invite you all to step into the early stages of a project that aims to blur the line between history and fiction. Drawing inspiration from the Roadside Picnic and STALKER universe, this evolving Arma Reforger experience brings the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to life, blending real-world history with the chilling allure of science fiction lore.

While still in development, the project has already laid a solid foundation as it now enters it's second year of development. The terrain design reflects a commitment to historical accuracy, and new systems like a functional Geiger counter and dynamic radiation mechanics are beginning to take their final shape. These early features hint at the immersive and atmospheric world I've been building—a place where the echoes of the past collide with the mysteries of the Zone.

This is just the beginning. Explore what’s been done so far and stay tuned as the Exclusion Zone continues to evolve.

Check it out on the Workshop: https://reforger.armaplatform.com/workshop/62855D73B2B75CF6-ExclusionZone
ExclusionZone is a 1:1 scale representation of the real innermost zone, set in the year 2030 after flooding of the Dnipro. The terrain is a little under 500sqkm total (including water) and the mod size is under 1.8gb

[sterile briar]

https://discord.gg/dccT5zD3vG

[dusty yew]

https://tenor.com/view/stalker-stalker2-stalker-moonlight-gif-2397780957781461553

I’m sorry but I need to know how is the radiation and Geiger counter gonna work, this looks fucking awesome

[sterile briar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNMMwYsd9aE&ab_channel=BoogieTheUnit

[wraith flume]

is it only me or is there no ground on the map?

[sterile briar]

is the paper map currently broken?

[flat rose]

@charred hedge

[wraith flume]

no the ground on the terrain, but now i’ve disabled all other mods except the dependencies of yours and the game keeps crashing

[wraith flume]

yeah the crashing issue is on my part probably but i can’t explain the ground disappearing, could it help to redownload the mod?

[faint gorge]

I had the same issue, are you on series S? I wonder if it's somehow hardware incompatible

[wraith flume]

yeah

and somehow it doesn’t work without the modern humvees mod, meaning it crashes when it’s not activated or downloaded

[faint gorge]

I'm also on series S, that's super strange

[wraith flume]

yeah, i thought maybe if i delete it it might go away but nope

[sterile briar]

I haven't had anyone else on series s with this issue (yet) and it shouldn't require any mods outside of the listed dependencies for just the terrain, there is a second mod addon for this that adds ArmSTALKER 2 to the terrain

listed above in the info, this is unrelated to any A3 terrain.

[sterile briar]

the mod is compatible with multiplayer servers only at the moment, launching it from scenarios at homescreen will cause issues. With a terrain this size it's critical to have navmesh streaming enabled in your server config otherwise it will cause high ram usage, and I'm not sure if this is on by default in single player mode.

[wraith flume]

oh alright, so that means i need the game pass to play it

[sterile briar]

I'll have a server up sometime today if you can join, I'll post the password in the exclusionzone discord

if you still get issues that way I can collect the server side data and see if I can spot the issue

[wraith flume]

yeah sorry i cant justify buying the game pass for this, maybe some other day

[sterile briar]

not at all

you'll need to have the test-dev box checked in your search parameters

[sterile briar]

Also, if you are playing this solo you will need to go into the server menu, hit host, and set up a LAN server. It will not launch from scenarios in singleplayer mode without issues. I will fix this at some point.

[sterile briar]

I don't have the permissions required to pin it 😬

[ripe lance]

They should upload it as a pve scenario

[gleaming oar]

In dedicated server will work ?

[sterile briar]

yes, or locally hosted

[sterile briar]

would only really be possible if the authors of the building mods I use gave me permission/the assets to use without mod dependency. creating my own replacements is a possibility for one of the dependencies when I have the time

[nimble jasper]

Looks awesome man, keep up the great work!

[sterile briar]

sizeable update coming soon

[sterile briar]

1.3 broke scripts for a dependency, waiting on it to be fixed. Terrain update coming after

[sterile briar]

Terrain and Scenario mod have been updated for 1.3, pls check change notes

[sterile briar]

Rostok arena is open for #ReforgerRumble !!!

[flat rose]

@hexed grove

[frozen marsh]

@sterile briar is it on the workshop at this time?

[sterile briar]

make sure the testdev option is ticked in search and it'll come up

[frozen marsh]

How well does it run on consoles?

[sterile briar]

console players make up close to 70% of the players on the servers running it, so....

[sterile briar]

some cool things coming for the STALKER scenario for the terrain

[steady umbra]

absolutely amazing and immersive map even with the unfilled and unfinished zones

can't wait to see the final product!

[mint sundial]

truely the best use for the ||obelisk||

[sterile briar]

https://youtu.be/QCuB6mp20Do?si=UrIxB5WqIouUL6OF

[gleaming oar]

is working with the Armstalker mod ?

[native kiln]

Does this map have ai mapping so they can navigate

[sterile briar]

yes

[sterile briar]

yes

[native kiln]

Ima download it then ig

[sterile briar]

terrain and scenario mod have been updated to latest game-version. Will be enabling mutants gm spawnable and random mutant spawns this weekend

[fallow pebble]

This map is honestly beautiful. thank you for this literal art piece

[gleaming oar]

I did not find the map in the WS, did you take off ?

I found, what between this mods

[sterile briar]

ExclusionZone is the terrain, the other one is a scenario for the terrain @gleaming oar

[gleaming oar]

Pretty cool, Like a mission ?, is ready for a test ?

[sterile briar]

its a multiplayer scenario, open world survival (like dayz stalker mod)

[gleaming oar]

Already with Mutants ?

[sterile briar]

yes, dynamic and gm spawnable using Armstalker2 from Romzet

[gleaming oar]

I will try to do some GM mission with the terrain only

[sterile briar]

big update coming this week that will remove a dependency/performance optimizations

[sterile briar]

pushed a sizeable update today: removed a 1.6gb dependency and added a ton of my own custom buildings with proper LODs and occluders, performance pass in Pripyat yielded a large gain in FPS and eliminated some major stutter spots (which were in part due to bad geometries in the dependency I removed). Updated new historical buildings, reworked underground lighting, new Zone wall, etc. Still WIP but getting closer with every update.

[olive dune]

Hey so im not able to find this in the workshop. Ive cleared all of my filters and retyped it a few times but still nothing.

[native kiln]

Try enabling test mods I’ll look myself

If you enable test mods it shows up just checked

[gleaming oar]

https://tenor.com/view/julie-happy-birthday-gif-25628507

[sterile briar]

update coming in the next few days to include more historically-accurate assets as I've been on a Blender binge the last while.

[desert panther]

Does this work on Xbox? I have only the main mod and its dependencies and it either crashes upon loading or the terrain is gone and only has floating trees/buildings.

[sterile briar]

multiplayer only

[native kiln]

Guessing Xbox itself has problems running it

[sterile briar]

console players have no issues, it just can't be run in single player mode

[native kiln]

Ok makes sense

[sterile briar]

I'll put out a single player layer for it soon

[topaz igloo]

would this map also be able to be used as a conflict map or only as a stalker gamemode?

[sterile briar]

conflict mode coming soon

the terrain can be run independent of the scenario mod on its own too, it only has gamemaster mode at the moment though. I've got to finish a few locations still that will have bases/fobs etc for use in conflict mode

[native kiln]

Did u every fix the single player think or no

[sterile briar]

i'll post an update here when its ready

[native kiln]

Ok

[native kiln]

Any updates

[sterile briar]

I'm in the process of migrating to 1.6 so it wont be updated until 1.6 is released to stable branch

also going to remake the scenario mod for it that uses ARMST platform, and release a single player version that works on console

[native kiln]

Could you make one without armslaker

Cause that’s the reason I like this map I don’t need 20 gb of mods for this kinda map

[sterile briar]

the armstalker thing is completely separate from the terrain yes

[native kiln]

Thank you I was worried you would make it so it would be strictly armstalker terrain so I wouldn’t be able to play it without mods

[sterile briar]

the terrain itself will always stay barebones, eventually once im finished enough assets I would like it to be entirely dependency free and have many more identical structures to the real-life place, but that's not going to be for a long time.

[sterile briar]

1.6 broke a bunch of stuff and 2 dependencies went poof. Will have an update with my own replacements for the missing stuff soon™
here's a sneak peek at some of the new powerplant structures

[crisp igloo]

God damn man, impressive stuff

[proven flare]

hot damn! ❤️ May i ask if you modeled the reactor building + sacopharg yourself? ive been searching for this exact model for weeks^^

[spiral jungle]

You should put a hole in the containment barrier

[sterile briar]

all the structures are made in Blender and some of the stuff in Fusion360, the current sarcophagus structure is actually a vanilla asset which I am using as a placeholder until I get around to modeling a more accurate representation of it