General CoC Thread

[leaden fog]

interesting

duty decides to take control

but csky leaves

[faint viper]

Also you need to set up some aditional coordenates in case you want to overpopulate any smart

[hearty cobalt]

did you add them

[leaden fog]

yes I spawned

[hearty cobalt]

I mean to the list

[leaden fog]

yes that too

originally it was only army

the area is faction controlled

[faint viper]

You can configure some timers there and spawn amount too

[leaden fog]

yeah that's where I extended the timers to over 7 days

hate the frequent respawns of mutants, it's too much by default

[hearty cobalt]

hmm useful

[leaden fog]

interestingly didn't put dolg here

but dolg is controlling

lol

they just don't care

the faction_controlled parameter maybe indicates the "spawner" activation instead?

and any faction can control as long as they're in simulation_objects_props.ltx

so in this specific case - dolg can control, but can't respawn stalkers

and because no other faction from the parameter is controlling it, the default one is still used - army

and will spawn soldiers again

[hearty cobalt]

how to prevent it

maybe these numbers are just a priority for factions

1 low 5 high

[leaden fog]

I think it's just how many squads can populate

army is set to 5 but the max pop is 4

so in reality up to 12 soldiers can really only stay there

[hearty cobalt]

So we are just adding how many certain faction can fit stalkers there

[leaden fog]

yes

this is why it's mostly 1 in places with mixed factions

[hearty cobalt]

But if their goal is not that location, they will never go there?

[leaden fog]

if their faction is not in the file for that specific terrain, they will have no reason to go there at all

so if I put army to 0 or remove it, they will never go to the machine yard

like this church

will mostly take csky stalkers

but other factions can have only 1 squad in there

so they are allowed to mix

rookie village

you were wondering why ecologs sometimes appear here

they don't spawn here but can patrol the camp

and sit by the campfire

made this faction controlled and never saw anyone other than a few bandits come here

it would always be up to 3 bandits in my playthrough

it will be interesting to see different factions go here (dolg, killer, stalker, csky...)

[hearty cobalt]

I don't understand, why would they patrol there if you set 0

also , what is default base

[leaden fog]

why 0? I added the factions and set them to = 1

I think there's no reason to place = 0 on any of these, just delete the line

[hearty cobalt]

In case you want to backtrack

Or see what was there by default

[leaden fog]

it references what the default base parameters are

[hearty cobalt]

I removed some but later i just changed to 0 in other lines

[leaden fog]

so as you can see

if a camp uses default_base as a reference

it means it has NPCs that are job givers

[hearty cobalt]

oh just that ?

[leaden fog]

yep

so the novice camp from earlier

it also uses default_base as a reference

because it has Sid, Fanatic, Nimble and Wolf

[hearty cobalt]

noted

Check Zaton and Jupiter

They don't have camp names with allowed factions at all

[leaden fog]

I don't get it... they look ok to me

allows stalkers, csky, dolg to go there, and up to 5 squads for each

[hearty cobalt]

yeah but no camp names

like in Southern maps

novice_camp
car_park etc

[leaden fog]

oh that

those are just comments

a bit tricky to find what the right smart is

jup_a6 is yanov

[hearty cobalt]

yeah, without these sinonims it's hard to track

[leaden fog]

yes...

[hearty cobalt]

but even if you know them , none are set for any faction

[leaden fog]

need debug hud UI to comb through everything

[hearty cobalt]

only that default base , presumably Skadovsk

[leaden fog]

what does your jup_a6 look like

[hearty cobalt]

one sec

[leaden fog]

mine allows stalkers and freedom

which is fine

[leaden fog]

oh wow

[hearty cobalt]

which camp is that

[leaden fog]

that's such a desolate place lol

yanov station

1 stalker squad and 1 freedom squad

that's it lol

[hearty cobalt]

and some csky and ecologs

[leaden fog]

but those are commented out

they won't spawn

[hearty cobalt]

yeah I didn't touch a6, it's default

ohh

I think they enable once you disable brain scorcher ?

[leaden fog]

putting " ; " in front of any line in an INI or config file comments it out

I should use the ini language to show

[hearty cobalt]

I see

Apparently it's set like that for lore reasons

[hearty cobalt]

Since Monolith resurgence

[leaden fog]

green means it won't be used

[hearty cobalt]

ah

[leaden fog]

just a comment, meant to be read by the human, not the PC

[hearty cobalt]

ok

[leaden fog]

it's why you have these separators and names commented out

[hearty cobalt]

I bumped Freedom to 2

[leaden fog]

well csky is enemies with freedom in 1.5R7

so no use to put them 2 together in the same place

they'll just murder eachother

[hearty cobalt]

weird choice but I get it for balance reasons

[hearty cobalt]

csky is commented out

[leaden fog]

yep

[hearty cobalt]

your jup_b200

[leaden fog]

not sure why ecologs were a thought

[hearty cobalt]

how does it look like

[leaden fog]

wonder what smart this is

[hearty cobalt]

hmm

checkpoint

just a random guess

I will now use the newly adjusted values

mid game and just play and see

because I learned where every faction spawns and what they hold in southern maps

[leaden fog]

ahhh

no

cement factory

but why would it take a default_base

no one gives jobs there...

[hearty cobalt]

https://tenor.com/view/station19-carina-deluca-are-we-back-to-step-one-step-on-back-to-step-one-gif-25105855

[leaden fog]

no this is great progress

I wanna check out the bar...

yep, monolith can hold that place because of this file

interesting surge number... 2?

[hearty cobalt]

yeah I noticed

that is if they manage to get there

which is almost never

[leaden fog]

yes but once they do, the faction_controlled parameter allows them to spawn more monolith guys

they must be stopped...

[hearty cobalt]

I think I commented them out

I kept only Stalker and Dolg

Because why wouldn't Duty hold the entrance to their base

[leaden fog]

increased the amount of people for the bar

it was all set to 1

no wonder there's never too many folks there...

[hearty cobalt]

I think I won't change that, it has many people already hah

I always have all campfires full and patrol men around

[leaden fog]

nice

[hearty cobalt]

I think if you play on low pop it takes a while to fill all the places

[leaden fog]

mine always has almost no campfires lit and the bar is out of business

it's because 1 squad per faction can be there

[hearty cobalt]

I mostly see stalkers and duty

[leaden fog]

the duty base has general voronin just standing there all alone

I'm guessing pseudogiants fall into monster_predatory_day category...

https://tenor.com/view/dj-khaled-another-one-one-more-time-gif-4816107

why I never see stalkers, csky or any other faction than these guys at the elevator...

[hearty cobalt]

Yes bandits are always there

This really goes against stalkers "randomness"

[leaden fog]

yes

[hearty cobalt]

After few hours you learn who controls each camp

[leaden fog]

the checkpoint is a tushkano spawner lol

not even faction controlled

[hearty cobalt]

if I rename simulation_objects_props will the game read it

[leaden fog]

but army guys are always there

[leaden fog]

probably not

[hearty cobalt]

ok

[hearty cobalt]

where

[leaden fog]

north checkpoint, cordon

[hearty cobalt]

will army spawn in machine yard if I set to 0 ?

[leaden fog]

they should not

better to comment out

[hearty cobalt]

I just went to sleep after helping csky take over machine yard

and in the morning shootout started

[leaden fog]

lol

[hearty cobalt]

I hate that they just spawn on top of them

[leaden fog]

yeah I made that place faction controlled but originally it was a spawner

[hearty cobalt]

I wish they spawned on the outskirts of the map if their camp is taken

how do you disable spawner

[leaden fog]

make it faction controlled or have it spawn nothing/something else

[hearty cobalt]

and how do you make it faction controled lol

[hearty cobalt]

ahh

what line is that

in numbers

[leaden fog]

not sure which one you mean

this is the machine yard file

[hearty cobalt]

what is it named there

[leaden fog]

configs\scripts\marsh\smart\mar_smart_terrain_10_5

[hearty cobalt]

oh I though that was in the document we edited

[leaden fog]

nope, those are separate files

I gotta go now though, it's getting very late

[hearty cobalt]

same

[leaden fog]

we'll get the stalker we dream of soon

[hearty cobalt]

hopefully

aand don't forger the broken textures lol

[faint viper]

let me know if you guys need any help

[leaden fog]

I want to forget, that I cannot fix :D

[hearty cobalt]

thank you

[faint viper]

🫡

[hearty cobalt]

don't have the file

tomorrow if I have time

[leaden fog]

it's usually packed in one of the .db files (configs)

[hearty cobalt]

This is how this file looks for me

I don't see "faction_ccontrolled" line

[leaden fog]

that's because I changed mine

to be faction controlled

this one originally is a military spawner

[hearty cobalt]

Oh it's custom?

[leaden fog]

yes

I changed a lot of smart terrain scripts to my liking

many months ago

[leaden fog]

there we go :)

railway bridge controlled by csky

elevator now controlled by a stalker

[hearty cobalt]

Neat

Okay but did you add these lines yourself

Faction_controlled = army

And other stuff

Could you send the file if possible

[leaden fog]

here you go

contains for all levels

I still need to do work on dead city

I'm torn between having killers vs bandits on or just removing that entirely and making it a calmer place

[hearty cobalt]

Cotz I think replaces Bandits with Zombies

[leaden fog]

I'd rather it be actual zombies and not zombified stalkers

making it more unique

as zombies don't normally spawn in CoC

nice that DoctorX acknowledged that years ago :)

[leaden fog]

I looked over it now

he did not change much...

the terrain is mostly faction controlled

default faction being the bandits still

I know it's Anomaly that changed it up

Anomaly's file

one of the bandit smart terrain (there are no bandits meant to spawn here)

[hearty cobalt]

wait so docs we changed don't do shit ?

[leaden fog]

they do change a lot

[leaden fog]

like this

it's just that CoTZ doesn't have zombies in dead city

it's Anomaly that spawns them instead of bandits

[leaden fog]

these scripts will need adjusting for CoC

but they do seem to work on a live game too

I could see monolith and bandits leaving the premises

[leaden fog]

changed up the flashlight angle and shine on hands

previously there was nothing lighting up the hands

looks a bit strange when looking at the ground while crouched though

[hearty cobalt]

So you are using anomaly script for alife smarts

Because I don't see "faction_controlled : army/bandits line in IWP scripts

[leaden fog]

nah there's only for the building across the merc base

and the default faction there is zombified stalkers

after I put those scripts in and adjusted for CoC

dead city is now, well... Kind of dead, without many corpses

there's mutants here and there, zombified stalkers, mercs are primarily sitting around their base and there are sniper positions set up as well

it's not as chaotic as the original

every single day bandits fighting mercs, army and monolith in the mix too

try this, see if it works

might take an ingame day or 2 outside of the level to settle AI the way it's scripted

so you can sleep through that period

the respawn rates are how I set everything in my CoC - 7-12 ingame days

[hearty cobalt]

Sounds nice, DC was always chaos

I think Cordon is way too busy

Bandits : Car Park, Mill

Army looming around the area, it's constant battle

[leaden fog]

with reduced spawns and 0.25 pop factor it's actually pretty nice

dark valley looks nice like this, but I do think that it should have a separate weather cycle from the other maps

like a "dark" weather cycle, where it's constantly overcast with thunder, like it was in SoC

bar finally looks busy

[leaden fog]

interesting story

this merc was one guy I guided from the dead city all the way to the rookie village in cordon

went on another quest to pop some bandits, saw one of them fighting him here

I had the element of surprise and ended that bandit, the merc has been chilling in this spot since then

and it's all because of simulation_objects_props.ltx - I enabled the merc faction to acknowledge this camp for squatting

[hearty cobalt]

niice

how did you enable it

[leaden fog]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1394662821689819257/1402359463435829410/image.png?ex=6894f206&is=6893a086&hm=331eae47d323fb5f5e07644ab531c09667ce7c1b0abcaeaac9af116624cbce04&

it's in the simulation_objects_props.ltx

the smart terrain in the marsh that corresponds to that area, I added killer to be = 1

I did make a weird scenario with the machine yard

giving dolg and army to consider it as a camp made them both hold it together

as a loner it's awkward going there as I'll only see dolg contacts, but army are also in the camp

[hearty cobalt]

yeah that's true

Best to avoid to put dolg and military in same camps

What I would like to do is to increase spawn timer

I kill the military in the machine year. Go to sleep they rush through the reeds to capture it again

Also I'm using your smart terrain zip that you set who can spawn wwher

[leaden fog]

it's tricky because AI travels around

and it's autonomous

you clear the area and there's a chance you'll see the next set of squads there because they came from Agroprom or some other place

you'd have to stop the Agroprom spawner and the Cordon checkpoint spawner to get them to stop using the machine yard

or restrict them from acknowledging it as a camp in the other config file (comment out army or set to = 0)

maybe it's worth setting them to = 1 which means 1 squad can only be there at a time

this also lowers the chance of army deciding to go there

the trouble is that stalkers all over the zone want to travel to all sorts of spots

a stalker in cordon can decide to travel to zaton

if he decides to go to a camp that allows only 1 stalker squad, no one else can go there, and it will be empty / reserved for the stalker who is on his way

[hearty cobalt]

I see

Well traveling is not a problem for me

But the respawn times

Kill them, go to sleep, bam new squad

[leaden fog]

you will see it is almost the same

you will think they respawned, but it's actually a different group that came from Agroprom or Cordon

[hearty cobalt]

Ahh nice

[leaden fog]

I think if I lower the = 5 to = 2 they might not come there at all

if some enemy faction takes hold

[hearty cobalt]

Why is that

Number is just a priority.

?

[leaden fog]

it isn't

if I set it to 1

a squad in the CNPP could decide to go to the machine yard

[hearty cobalt]

Lower number, lower priority

?

[leaden fog]

thus it will be empty

until they arrive

[hearty cobalt]

Hm I see

[leaden fog]

it's very autonomous, hard to predict the behavior

because the squads travelling to a target might change their destination at any point

[hearty cobalt]

interesting

do you play with alife on all maps on or off?

[leaden fog]

it's on by default in 1.5R7

I think there's no way to turn it off on that one

[hearty cobalt]

In IWP you can toggle it

[leaden fog]

I'd assume the game would become a more static experience

so it would be more likely to see the same NPCs in the same area for a longer period

[hearty cobalt]

Probably, it's more taxing on the PC if it's on

but I think it's not big deal for modern machines

[leaden fog]

the CPU is a magnificent thing

turning on debug and seeing the map

every single map in the zone has alife actively making decisions and travelling

and the game runs ok for me

[hearty cobalt]

Great stuff

I don't have problem with running with that option

My PC is overkill for stalker trilogy

I'm more interestd in how things turn out with it enabled

[leaden fog]

well it depends on the engine

and how much stuff you cram into it - weapon packs, textures, weather...

interestingly the flashlights are all capable of volumetric effects

but the renderer makes them flicker a lot so it's been turned off

[leaden fog]

@quiet brook I took a look at the trade configs for 1.5R7

turns out the Veles detector would be sold by most traders, but at a 10% chance

Svarog was nowhere to be found

[quiet brook]

I also remember traders missing items that're newly added

Prime example is Spore missing the CS-3b body armor

[leaden fog]

huh

would like a chance to see what is actually missing, but I changed a lot with the detectors

generic (no goodwill) should always sell 1 echo detector (100% chance)

friend (1000+ goodwill) should always sell 1 bear detector (100% chance)

special (1800+ goodwill or heavy pockets achievement) should always sell 1 veles detector (100% chance)

and I gave 4 traders chances to sell the Svarog (Hermann 50% chance, Sakharov 30% chance, Dushman 20%, Spore 10%) at special supplies stage

I also bumped up the numbers for drug selling

vinca, antidote, radioprotectant

medics should sell a few of these and never be without any (rarely no psi block)

for places with no medics (i.e. the bar) I let the barkeep sell some

with radiation being dangerous for the player, not having radioprotectant access for days is a problem, especially for artifact hunting or deep zone raids

I'm fine with the suits not providing adequate protection

gives an incentive to buy the drugs

this does impact game balance, but vanilla CoP had easy access to food and drugs and at a very cheap price

here the access will still exist, but much more costly

[leaden fog]

@hearty cobalt loners took over the depot now

[leaden fog]

stalkers can now hold the little camps beyond the rookie village (stalker, ecolog, csky)

loners fought the bandits and are now holding the car park

if anything, adding more factions to hold a certain camp made alife more unpredictable and active, zone feels a bit more alive now

[quartz crypt]

Really cool
I tried something like this last year, adding more campfires which stalkers could sit at
How did you get this working?
Whenever I built a level using the sdk I could never get it working properly

[leaden fog]

well every one of these is considered a "smart terrain" and that is what A-Life uses to acknowledge a camp and stay at it

there are more things to it - like smart logic scripts

those are required for activities in the camp - lighting the fires, patrolling, guarding, sitting by the fire etc

there are no smart logic scripts for the little trailer and trash dump beyond the rookie village - stalkers will only stand around those terrains

I've tried creating a logic script for one of them but it doesn't seem to be working

most camps that already have logic scripts are an all-in-one package - all you can change with those is which faction/monster goes to which camp in configs\misc\simulation_objects_props.ltx

as well as the smart terrain parameters like respawn times and spawner parameters (faction_controlled parameters too)

what you probably need is to somehow add a smart terrain in the level editor itself, build the level and then configure it in the gamedata

I've no idea if it's possible to build CoC levels in 2025 anymore

some links are dead when I last tried setting up the SDK

[hearty cobalt]

Pretty good. Nice.

This is what alife is all about, unpredictable

This all is done by allowing other factions take interest with camps?

[leaden fog]

yes

need to be careful with picking them

obviously this was made differently back in 2015 to account for players who choose to play as bandits

or military

but I think the cordon in 2015 should have a lot of loners be able to wander

[hearty cobalt]

True but setting for both factions to have a presence in camps seem better than just making one faction spawns there which is pretty static

[leaden fog]

I lowered the amount of army presence too as they have higher end gear in a rather "starting-tier" area

[hearty cobalt]

True

[leaden fog]

they really only guard the checkpoint

at the south

but now rarely take control of the railway bridge

[hearty cobalt]

I'd add army to Northern Checkpoint and bridge and thats it

[leaden fog]

I set both to have 1 squad max

not like before... 5 army squads at the bridge

[hearty cobalt]

Too much

[leaden fog]

even though you wouldn't see 5, they would constantly be in control over it, and faction_controlled params would allow the bridge to be an army spawner

[hearty cobalt]

I now play with Cotz in IWP and I see that drx made good decision. I saw Bandits guarding the bridge and stalkers took over mill

[leaden fog]

I expanded that even further

[hearty cobalt]

Also northern checkpoint is empty though

[leaden fog]

killers may come to those areas too

as well as freedom and duty

[hearty cobalt]

You play cotz in iwp?

[leaden fog]

no, CoC 1.5R7

almost nothing doctor x made works with this version, so anything he made I add in bits

but the rest are my edits

[hearty cobalt]

Also he made that southern areas of the zone don't spawn high end gear stalkers

So you won't run into Military Stalkers with AS Vals

While you tickle them with pm

[leaden fog]

it still depends on A-Life travel

the spawners in 1.5R7 are balanced sort of ok

but master stalkers may still travel down to the south

I don't remember the last time I saw high end geared bandits or military in the south though

the weapon balancing is the best I've experienced so far too

I use the PM for most of my playthrough

next things I want to do that are relatively easy:

• Add the "mutant spring cleaning" quest from Anomaly's dead city mercs to 1.5R7's Dushman
• Add a mutant hunt quest to levels connected to the Bar (but not including it) to Col. Petrenko

[leaden fog]

https://youtu.be/50mvTrOrV2A

this quest and its custom script gave me a new idea for Petrenko

maybe a Wild Territory purge quest

as the script can search by a specific level

it doesn't necessarily need to be the same one the actor's in

[quiet brook]

the radio song in the end

[leaden fog]

this also shows how the PM can stand its ground against a lot of enemies

a worthy pistol

[quartz crypt]

Right yeah, I added the smart terrain, and I thought I had done everything right. Everything matched other nearby campfire areas.

I think I missed something in the gamedata? Is it just a matter of copying what you've built over?

Perhaps there's more I missed

[leaden fog]

it's in configs\scripts\your_level_name\

smart terrain scripts

compare it to like escape or whatever

you'll see there are a lot of spawners and faction controlled areas

but the real deal is configs\misc\simulation_objects_props.ltx

[quartz crypt]

Cheers
I'll unpack my work and see what I missed.
If you don't mind I'll post some screenshots and stuff for troubleshooting

[leaden fog]

that's the file you need if you want A-Life to travel to your level and take refuge on the smart terrain you set

[leaden fog]

I'll help with what I can

I don't know how to set new smart logic scripts

which is those "patrol schemes" "guard schemes", getting stalkers to light the campfire, sit by it etc

it's possible it requires actual animpoints to be set on those

so stalkers know where to stand, where to sit, lean etc.

i think that's another level editor thing

maybe @junior night knows more about A-Life behavior in a new/modified level?

[junior night]

yes, a normal smart cover with a specific animation set

smart_name_animpoint_number

it's default priority is very low, so you have to reference in smart terrain configs into a smart terrain logic so that you edit the priority

[leaden fog]

ok, but does that need to be edited and built in the level or can it be configured?

[junior night]

it has to be built in the level

you can spawn smart covers in anomaly with scripts, but not in CoC or its forks

[leaden fog]

what a shame

it is strange though... A lot of smart covers exist in 1.5 R7 for stalkers to use "as cover" like they did in clear sky while fighting

don't know if xr_sanya and Vlad built it in the levels or if they were already there, but disabled

[junior night]

just on rookie village + cop maps?

or it's all levels?

[leaden fog]

all levels I think

you would rarely see it but

[junior night]

i don't think they're disabled, NPCs very rarely use combat smart covers because there are static covers that are there after compiling the AI grid

[leaden fog]

stalkers can take cover in that version

behind a tree, boxes, rocks...

go prone etc

[junior night]

yeah, 1.5 kinda fixes them

[junior night]

you don't have to calculate static covers if you want to use smart covers heavily

but the AI will be more stupid and brain dead

[leaden fog]

yeah, which is why it rarely is seen in 1.5R7

the AI is more aggressive in that release

so there's no way to create new animpoints then? On smart terrain that wasn't normally used by stalkers (little trailer beyond the rookie village, trash dump anomaly camp)

[junior night]

If the priority for smart covers was slightly higher than static covers, you'd see a lot more NPCs using smart covers

[junior night]

if it's not anomaly, then there's nothing you can do about it other than using the SDK

you MAY be able to add it using ACDC, but it can break shit

[leaden fog]

wait

all.spawn?

since you mentioned ACDC

[junior night]

yes

[leaden fog]

or did you mean decompiling / recompiling levels

[junior night]

no

you can handwrite new sections for new smart covers

[leaden fog]

that would be crappy to do

knowing the exact coords...

[junior night]

tbh, you can just ctrl c + v another smart cover section

[junior night]

coc has debug stuff for it

coords, lvid, gvid

and i don't recommend ACDC because it MAY break all.spawn

it's a red and blue pill situation

by "breaking" I don't literally mean everything will be broken

some critical elements are subject to that

[leaden fog]

whatever I want to edit I don't want to sacrifice my playthrough for it, already broke and deleted 2

[junior night]

if that's the case, then don't edit all.spawn

[leaden fog]

I already edited it once for the radios

and that's working ok

[junior night]

The game checks if the save file corresponds with the all.spawn that was used to save the game

[leaden fog]

yep, needed a new game when I added the radios in

[junior night]

if it doesn't match, it'll crash with a
"SAVED GAME DOESN'T CORRESPOND TO SPAWNS - DELETE SAVED GAME"

[leaden fog]

it didn't crash probably because I only added things

but the radios didn't work on the save

[junior night]

acdc afaik doesn't change the spawn registry

[leaden fog]

I'm guessing I'll need to edit that if I want to add custom NPCs

liiiike... Snitch for the bar

[junior night]

Custom NPCs can be added via configs and beh

no SDK needed for that, or ACDC

[leaden fog]

nice

that's good to know

[junior night]

beh for adding gulag jobs for those NPCs without the SDK

[leaden fog]

thanks, this gives good insight

[faint viper]

Thats what I always do when I add smart terrains, smart covers, etc

And if you want to add npcs the safer way is via ltx scripts

Just pic one in your map, create a spawn section and the script in xr_effects that creates the npc. Then you call it via ltx

I have some tutorials for this in my youtube channel, but these are in spanish

[leaden fog]

really happy with the tasks_clear.script

this opens up a lot of ideas for area clear quests

it seems to be by far the most compatible script with CoC that is from Anomaly

this is what I was looking for originally I guess...

could make a "hunting trip" quest for Wolf - target area being the darkscape

as there's otherwise no particular reason to go there

(other than the occasional bounty hunt)

[quartz crypt]

Hey, sorry for leaving this so long.
I'm still familiarising myself with what I've done, but I've made several smart terrains and covers allowing stalkers to sit at more campfires.
What else do I need to do to get this working?

[junior night]

reference it in smart terrain configs

under [exclusive], you can create new jobs and reference ini files to them

e.g:
[exclusive]
your_job_name = your_file_path_to_logic_file.ltx

don't put "scripts" in the file path, otherwise it'll be "scripts\scripts\your_file_path_to_logic_file.ltx"

inside the file, add your new job so that common NPCs can use it. it would look like this

[logic@your_job_name]
active = animpoint@your_job_section
suitable = true (can use condlists if you want)
prior = X (a number)

[animpoint@your_job_section]
cover_name = your_smart_cover_name
use_camp = true (true/false)
turn_on_campfire = true (true/false)

You can add additional parameters if you want into your job section, but it's optional

@quartz crypt

[quartz crypt]

Thank you very much. I'll give it a try

[junior night]

If there is anything wrong, let me know.

[quartz crypt]

Do you happen to have a filepath for that?
I opened my folder in VSCode and couldn't find what I was looking for.

I sometimes feel like I'm missing some key existing files which I can use as a base to add additional campfires.

[junior night]

just look at how existing smart terrains do it

not all have it as they don't use it

you will get used to it

[quartz crypt]

Ok this was a good breadcrumb to follow. I couldn't find the relevant file in my sdk or backups, so I had to unpack all of the CoC database files again to find it.
Thanks for the nudge.

So once I've added my entries to the script I just need to build the map and drop these files in the gamedata
Are there any other steps I need to do?

Apologies, I don't get a lot of free time since having kids, so I'm pretty slow with all of this 😛

Regarding the smart_terrain numbering:
5_7 is used for the Cordon farm base. I want to add a campfire spot to Fox's Campfire over the road.
Can I reuse 5_7, or is it better to to use a new number?
Is there any importance to the numbers?

[junior night]

it can be any number

cover name isn't based on smart terrain's name unlike path_walk and path_look for waypoints

[quartz crypt]

Cheers
Can't wait to get more time to work on this more. You've unblocked me.

[leaden fog]

sorry I couldn't be of much help, the level editor is something I don't know well enough, but MFB already explained everything correctly already with the config files

I made some config changes to 1.5R7 in terms of smart terrain and simulation_objects_props

Noticed the Yantar complex repeatedly spawns zombified stalkers, which isn't quite right if the Miracle Machine goes down

removed the respawns and added a few factions to decide to stay at the area if/when they want (ecolog, csky)

I'm also close to figuring out why pseudogiants appear at the bar - it seems to be the zoo_monster or monster_special parameter in simulation_objects_props - removing both should disallow pseudogiants (probably chimeras as well) to go to those spots

[leaden fog]

it is actually zoo_monster that is used as a community for "neutral" or docile mutants, like Noah's pseudodog / Doctor's pseudodog

so it's monster_special_day / monster_special_night that allow pseudogiants / chimeras to come

[quartz crypt]

Well I built the cordon level and copied the gamedata level folder over to my copy of CoC
I also copied over my config/scripts/escape folder with the added esc_smart_terrain_6_6 camps and animpoints.
I haven't noticed any stalkers heading to my campfires sadly. And the map is buggered.
Any thoughts on this?

[junior night]

wtf that's weird

try increasing the priority for your campfires

the game takes even a slight increase in priroity seriously

as for the bugged map, check your map texture .thm and its format

[junior night]

Assuming you did everything correctly, it should work

@quartz crypt

[quartz crypt]

That's a great suggestion, cheers.

[quartz crypt]

Thanks I'll have a look at that
I just used the Build option, and then noticed the only file in my gamedata with an updated date stamp was Levels, so I thought I only needed to grab that (and my configs)

[junior night]

level.ltx, you mean?

[quartz crypt]

The l1_escape.level file (name may be incorrect) I mean.

[junior night]

ok

[quartz crypt]

So I've got a screenshot of my level folder which doesn't contain a .thm file
Is that something that should be built using another sdk option?

I'm going to add a couple more smart terrains in one area and give them all priority 100. (I assume higher is better since I've spotted a lot of 40s and 100s in the config files.

My understanding is that I only have to have the following smart terrain files if I'm adding a new campfire:
configs/scripts/escape/esc_smart_terrain_6_6_smart_logix.ltx
configs/scripts/escape/smart/esc_smart_terrain_6_6.ltx (Where I mention the above file in the [exclusive] section)

Anything else I could be missing?

[leaden fog]

wait a sec... where is the priority set?

in simulation_objects_props.ltx?

[junior night]

inside smart terrain logic

those jobs have a default priority, you can find them in scripts

[junior night]

.thm is generated by the SDK when you import .tga files and then compress it to .dds

btw, for UI textures, I'd recommend using no compression

in the sdk - it should be 'R8G8B8A8'

[leaden fog]

ah prior

well that is for actions within said terrain

I'm not 100% sure if the simulation_objects_props.ltx parameters are priorities or how many sim squads can be in a designated camp

this file is also important for A-Life to "acknowledge" a smart terrain

but in this example, I thought csky = 5 means up to 5 clear sky squads can visit and sit around the camp

which is what I definitely see through playing

2 killer squads, 2 csky squads

(last guy was patrolling, off screen)

@quartz crypt I think you have everything but the section for simulation_objects_props.ltx which should be [esc_smart_terrain_6_6]

it should reference default_base (as from what we gathered, it's a stalker camp) so [esc_smart_terrain_6_6]:default_base

probably this name instead

[junior night]

nah, it's priority for normal squads

or scripted squads if they can target multiple smart terrains

max population is stored inside smart terrain config file

you can also use min_population to force a select number of squads to be actively using the smart terrain

and if you don't know about sim_avail, it basically disables the smart terrain and it also disables its spawns

[leaden fog]

interesting

@hearty cobalt you were right - those numbers in simulation_objects_props.ltx do mean the priority, not the amount of squads

[hearty cobalt]

@leaden fog ah so smart terrains need to be edited manualy

[leaden fog]

well now we know how AI prioritizes travelling to which spot...

Tom can set his new terrain to have 10 (or higher...) priority on the stalker faction for example and spawn a smart squad in to test

[hearty cobalt]

Nice, so 0 is "no interest at all" 5 is "priority"

?

[leaden fog]

yep

5 is the top priority in comparison to the other terrains

usually I see 1-2-5 but I think the number can go as high as you want

just no reason to do that

the bar finally turned into a chill place - mutants don't appear every day around the checkpoints

pseudogiants and chimeras are looking at travelling to truck cemetery or wild territory

[hearty cobalt]

Niice

How do you set mutant priority

Same like for stalkers?

[leaden fog]

yes though this is challenging

I don't know what monsters fall under which group exactly

looked all over the scripts, configs... can't find anything that ties a boar/flesh to monster_vegetarian

it makes no sense to me

[hearty cobalt]

Predatory could be carnivores

[leaden fog]

I assumed monster_special_day and night are pseudogiants, chimeras, controllers, burers

but I'm not 100% sure

need to know how that's referenced

[hearty cobalt]

If you and Tom are up for some smart terrain edits we could do some ideas

[leaden fog]

zoo_monster is a community for docile/neutral mutants

[hearty cobalt]

Like a small mod/addon for IWP

[hearty cobalt]

Yeah

[leaden fog]

like doctor's pseudodog / noah's dog

[hearty cobalt]

Predatory night is chimera yi think

[leaden fog]

I think that's a bloodsucker but I could be wrong

chimeras are like pseudogiants - top tier so I think they would be special

it's hard to tell really

nothing online that I can find that helps with this

[hearty cobalt]

Hmm best to ask experts

[quartz crypt]

Ah so that file doesn't dictate random squads that can spawn there. It'll actually spawn everything I put in the list?
Earlier I added a bandit and stalker squad thinking they wouldn't clash

[leaden fog]

ok found it, was just not looking correctly

it's in configs\misc\squad_descr.ltx

some levels have their own descriptions

which could explain why rarer mutants reside in the north

**[simulation_bloodsucker]:online_offline_group
faction = monster_predatory_night
npc_random = bloodsucker_weak, bloodsucker_black_weak, bloodsucker_normal, bloodsucker_red_normal, bloodsucker_black_normal, bloodsucker_strong, bloodsucker_red_strong
**

1 example

and burers can be zombied_night...

as well as snorks

[quartz crypt]

Oh that's great, I did wonder about when my _camp_2 would be referenced

[leaden fog]

they will clash eventually

if you allow both to acknowledge the camp

[quartz crypt]

This is all great guys. Thanks

[leaden fog]

I'm thinking of kicking Freedom out of the garbage depot...

they keep sitting around there with bandits

[quartz crypt]

Ok I'll let that stay if it just means both will wander to it.
I was just concerned it would spawn them at the same time

[leaden fog]

not nice when needing to fight them and not Freedom

[quartz crypt]

Yeahhh, the friendly fire would be inconvient
Maybe only the most northern Garbage camps would be for freedomers?

[leaden fog]

this can also create that offline/online A-Life scenario - you come close to the camp (250+ meters, whatever your switch distance is) and they get switched online (spawn in) and immediately shoot each other down

I like to think of it as 1 side sneaking in and attacking the other

but realistically they spawn right next to each other and start fighting

looks like I was right about this monster faction

talk about walking into Jupiter from the Red Forest...

the helicopter at that evac position proves to be very useful

[leaden fog]

The flea market and bar outpost? No way... I removed Freedom's presence from those, as well as Monolith, which sometimes somehow manages to find its way

[quartz crypt]

Banished from the garbage I guess. Haha

[quartz crypt]

Ok that's definitely what I wanted to avoid

[hearty cobalt]

Are you using anomaly scripts

I want to give Bandits and Stalkers to fight over depot

Also make freedom go to southern parts less

Since their faction is focused on barrier and north

Also give Clear Sky less presence since their faction was extinct almost

I play IWP with Cotz and spawns seem different

[leaden fog]

not really but I like how dead city has been transformed completely

I implemented the "secure base" quest

Dushman tells you to clear the whole area of mutants

and it works

I am using some scripts from Anomaly

https://youtu.be/50mvTrOrV2A

I used the same script (tasks_clear.script) for other quests (Petrenko - Wild Territory Purge, Hunting Trip in Truck Cemetery)

it was the answer to my very first question in this server - making a quest target a specific level for mutant hunting :)

also did one for Wolf

Hunting Trip - Darkscape

[hearty cobalt]

Nice

How do you know names of all smarts

Some don't have names

[leaden fog]

I go into debug mode

for the game

then turn on debug hud and map spots

it shows all the smart terrain names

just need to make a note of it all and I'm good

[hearty cobalt]

ahh nice

[quartz crypt]

I'm up for smart terrain edits to learn more.
But my time these days is limited, so I'll be slow to complete tasks 😛

My goal is to make A LOT more campfires in all maps usable by the AI. I feel like it'll really change the experience

[quartz crypt]

Hmm, if I'm trying to add a small camp to Fox's house, would this clash with how the simulation_objects_props.ltx is setup?
Or should I not worry

[quartz crypt]

Ah in this case I'm not really importing anything. I got the SDK from Bangalore and it just has a rawdata folder full of .level files and folders.
when I'm finished with my changes, I simply hit Build and then I get a .level file but no files that you've mentioned.

;camping
[logic@esc_smart_terrain_6_6_camp_work_2]
active = animpoint@esc_smart_terrain_6_6_camp_work_2
suitable = {!surge_started} true
prior = 1

[animpoint@esc_smart_terrain_6_6_camp_work_3]
cover_name = esc_smart_terrain_6_6_animpoint_kamp3
use_camp = true
turn_on_campfire = true

[animpoint@esc_smart_terrain_6_6_camp_work_3]
cover_name = esc_smart_terrain_6_6_animpoint_kamp4
use_camp = true
turn_on_campfire = true
How does the config/scripts know to use esc_smart_terrain_6_6_camp_2? Do I not need to remove _work from everything?

If I can understand all this and pull this off, I'll gladly make a document on Moddb for other people to follow

[leaden fog]

if that is a separate smart terrain from 6_6 it might be better to name it under a different number...

you'd have to reference it like this for now

[esc_smart_terrain_6_6_camp_2]

[quartz crypt]

Hmmm maybe you're right.
Cheers for the input

[junior night]

You need to click 'Check New Textures' under 'Images' subwindow.

Make sure to put your texture inside 'import' folder in the SDK's root folder

[hearty cobalt]

True, there are so many fireplaces around the zone but not all are used.

I want to make the zone less predictable. For example I'd like to make Clear Sky faction rare in the zone since their group disloved after CS.

So I'd leave their presence in the swamps but significantly.reduce in southern maps

[leaden fog]

that's what I see in CoC 1.5R7

swamps mostly, rarely other levels

0.25 pop factor 33 days in

I think it's a balancing issue to allow stalkers to go literally anywhere

you need mutant hunt quests and contract kill quests to be in separate areas

normally stalkers gather in settlements, any human made structure/area, while mutants are mostly in the open wilderness

underground is a different story

[leaden fog]

https://tenor.com/view/noice-nice-click-gif-8843762

I had to rebalance boar HP and resistances - they have much better armor and health than fleshes, which makes them very formidable as a south zone enemy

Now it still takes quite a few bullets to kill them, but all 3 boars charging at a single time should now die to ~30 5.45x39 bullets shot at them

[hearty cobalt]

As it should be I also want to return duty to Checkpoint to bar

[leaden fog]

seeing 7 boars at a time with the original tanky health is just not worth the bullets

[hearty cobalt]

True

[leaden fog]

and flesh die a lot faster

now stalkers stand a decent chance against a few of the boars

[hearty cobalt]

Also why some stalker walk of to some wildernes fireplace and just stand there

[leaden fog]

SoC you could one shot a boar with a PM

I still won't make it that way as it's too easy lol

[hearty cobalt]

Was Boars health intended to be like that?

[leaden fog]

I think they were overbuffed in the later trilogy titles

CS/CoP

shotgun still owns them but what if you want to use a rifle?

the ammo is very costly in CoC 1.5R7 because of progression

buckshot is very cheap, but you shouldn't be restricting yourself to use a shotgun

[leaden fog]

smart terrain + jobs tied to the terrain

I did that for the trash pit

noticed that the trailer beyond the rookie village gets a lot of zombified stalkers standing around there, so I put those to 0

[leaden fog]

I think I'll put that to high priority, lately it's been looking pretty desolate

for duty

ecologs + stalkers took the car park in my last save

I still don't know how we wanna do places like Radar (pre / post brain scorcher disable)

I know SoC did something cool with the place

after the disable, the army guys would've probably been a scripted spawn, while stalkers would be allowed to travel and visit camps in that level

[leaden fog]

the reason they stand there is because there's no campfire job that exists for that terrain, so I can't make them sit around the fire or light it, they'll just look like they're waiting for someone or watching the area

[hearty cobalt]

Just like SoC, I'd put Military at the Antennae area

And near the broken wall road

Lower parts should be left to mutants and random squads of other stalkers

I would also reduce ecolog squads coming to southern areas taking over places that in reality wouldn't benefit them

Like Village center, Car Park, Farm. Mill etc

[leaden fog]

well they don't take them over, they only reside for a bit and leave

maybe it should just be lower priority

but I still want them travelling around

[hearty cobalt]

Hmm maybe a priority 1

Not 3 or 5

Why would they reside in stalker camps realistically unless just passing by

[leaden fog]

well you wouldn't travel such long distances in 1 go, would you?

unless you're the marathon running player

taking refuge in nearby camps is logical

but I do agree it should be rare

and not constant

it's not their camp anyway

[quartz crypt]

Does Build cover all of these options?

[hearty cobalt]

True, I agree with all you said

[quartz crypt]

[default_territory]:default ; Use only if smart supports both stalker and monster jobs
[default_base]:default ; Use only if smart supports stalker jobs

Would default_territory support stalkers sitting at campfires? Or would it not get used?

[quartz crypt]

And also, if I make changes to any of these files, will I need to start a new game?
esc_smart_terrain_6_6_smart_logic.ltx
esc_smart_terrain_6_6.ltx
simulation_objects_props.ltx

[leaden fog]

don't use territory

if you want stalkers to use the camp, use default_base instead

[quartz crypt]

ok got it. I'll need to rename that smart terrain as you've said.
But I can at least test my 6_7 camp above fox's hill.

[leaden fog]

if you want both all monsters and all stalkers to use the terrain, use default_territory (keep in mind what you're doing, this means all stalker factions and all monsters)

[quartz crypt]

What would be the disadvantages of doing thaT?

[leaden fog]

to get them to sit at campfires requires the smart logic script to be used

[quartz crypt]

ah ok.

[leaden fog]

well depending on A-Life travel

one day you can see zombified stalkers

other times you could see loners, dogs, pseudogiants, chimeras, bloodsuckers, burers, freedomers, bandits etc....

it's really random and not a good idea

for default_territory to be referenced, you usually want to also type in the communities you don't want to go there (i.e. monster_special_day / night)

I have also figured out how to bring the zombies back, apparently they are missing from squad_descr in CoC 1.5R7

[quartz crypt]

This is all great to know. Cheers mate

The unnarmed zombies? God I miss those

[leaden fog]

yep

Anomaly has them of course but

I made them spawn in dead city

never saw them though

I think what's happening is that they are spawning, but they have no place in the game world (GSC pun hehe), thus they are forced to leave and despawn :(

[quartz crypt]

Haha nice yeah. Abominations

You probably should get deleted too, since you know, you're the summoner.

[leaden fog]

lol

[quartz crypt]

Is there a way to speed up my noclip movment in demo_record?

Oh its control apparently

[leaden fog]

yeah ctrl

you can use Q and E for smooth rotations

I used that for panoramas

[quartz crypt]

In simulation_objectsion_props.ltx, do you have any explanation about some of these values?

sim_avail = {+story_mode_disabled} true, {+esc_reach_trader_complete} true, {+coc_freeplay_start_after_story} true, false

I assume a random campfire in the wilderness should look like

sim_avail = {+story_mode_disabled} false, {+coc_freeplay_start_after_story} true

[hearty cobalt]

I renamed all camps in Cordon for easier orientation

for now I'm doing just priority for stalker and commenting out those that I think shouldn't go there

didn't touch the smarties scripts yet

[quartz crypt]

Oh that's cool
Do you happen to have your files lying around?

[hearty cobalt]

You want those where you set priority for camps or smart terrains ones in level folders?

[quartz crypt]

Just any files tied to cordon and its smart terrain I guess

So I can steal your ordering and brains

If you guys want to test a smart terrain do you just stick the priority to 200 and sit there waiting for Stalkers?

[hearty cobalt]

I will send you a file with names I gave to smart terrains in Cordon

[leaden fog]

this is like a variable that's added/removed depending on what happens in your save / game start

this can be triggered through quests as well

[hearty cobalt]

I bumped some priorities to 2 and Duty checkpoint in garbage to 5. I don't know when will it be noticeable

[quartz crypt]

Oh so this could be blank and the game would just add it the next time you saved and restarted?

[leaden fog]

no

[quartz crypt]

Oh I see a lot of prior =40 and 100 in my files

[leaden fog]

sim_avail will be 0 until the condition from the list is met (or all conditions)

it's a condition list to be exact

e.g. there's probably a condition for the brain scorcher task completion, it gets added (+) when the player turns off the scorcher and completes the task

the 30 odd monolithians that spawn in immediately in that lab is likely dependent on that same condition - it's what causes them to spawn in

that same condition can be used to allow other stalker factions to start visiting the area

the problem with this is that you cannot have any A-Life travel to the level's smart terrains (sim_avail = 0 on everything by default) until the condition is met

there's a different file that determines what squads will spawn where on a new game, but will not respawn in the same way

example - Rookie village

Lab X8 building is another good example

kill all zombified stalkers and Monolith there - they will not spawn back

[quartz crypt]

Ahhh right

This is great guys.

So would priority 200 by the highest priority for this smart terrain? Or would 1 be the highest?

[leaden fog]

200 would be highest I think... That would probably be the first action A-Life does in the camp

[quartz crypt]

Cheers.
Ok I'm going to build this, pop all of the files on my laptop and then lie in bed waiting for some guys to sit at my campfire

[leaden fog]

I still don't understand it completely but

pri_b306 (CoP version) is the Lab X8 building

sim_avail should become true / 1 if the task condition is met (the Lab X8 document hunt task is complete)

I think the ", false" is what it is otherwise

this is why we see stalkers (mercs, loners) travelling to the place

after the quest

it won't work exactly the same for CoC due to the difference in scale of the game world

CoP has 3 levels so it's easy to have A-Life be here and there...

and it probably works per level only

CoC works globally for 32 levels

AI travel behavior is different

[hearty cobalt]

@quartz crypt

Note that this is with CoTZ mod

For IWP

Should be the same

Cordon smarties are all named except two that are along the road to Northern Checkpoint ot Garbage

[hearty cobalt]

try to sleep for few days in game

Should speed things up and spawn more stalkers

[hearty cobalt]

Thr priority file seems to be effective

First I noticed stalkers in Mill, 3 of them although 2 were in the building and on constant alert

Next I met Military at the Northern Checkpoint after assigning them priority there

2 stalkers took over Depot and 3 or 4 at Flea Market (building across the Duty checkpoint in Garbage.)

3 man Duty squad appeared and are going down the road from Duty Checkpoint to south Garbage. I wonder what's next

Quite interesting

[leaden fog]

exactly

I actually kicked the army out of the Cordon, they can only go to their south checkpoint which always has a squad

the military stalkers seem to be travelling more often now, not sticking to an area in the Cordon

and more loners / neutral-to-loner factions are taking up the west side of Cordon in my save

[leaden fog]

I changed the foggy weather to be more dense and have no sun

[hearty cobalt]

Basically I slept for about 8 hrs so this could be a reason that stalkers filled this place

I didn't touch rest of the maps much as it seems they were nicely balanced

I barely touched CoP maps

Just disabled Ecologs and csky in a place or 2

[leaden fog]

I want stalkers to visit the pig farm in dark valley

it seems to be isolated

[hearty cobalt]

I used to see stalkers there with Duty

But in my CoTz playthrough it's empty

[leaden fog]

yep

[hearty cobalt]

Duty checkpoint is still empty

I will still keep an eye on it

[leaden fog]

i put mine to dolg = 5 and there's a good amount of them

I even had a crazy ass action movie sequence with a captain of theirs - asked me to guide him to the rostok checkpoint, from the cordon-garbage checkpoint (1800 RU)

it was a good reason to go together - stormy weather, cats, boars and bandits fighting us on the way to the checkpoint

and we made it there alive

it was really good to play

[hearty cobalt]

haha niice

I'm still waiting for Bar-Garbage checkpoint detachment to show up

It's already better now and I see more action

[hearty cobalt]

Did you guys figure out how to give jobs to camps/fireplaces

Most of them.have stalkers just standing

Or simply guarding far fsr away from squad leader

[leaden fog]

they need the smart covers

it's done in the level editor or manually placed in all.spawn

[hearty cobalt]

[quartz crypt]

I'm very familiar with placing them in the level editor
And I'm happy to help with this

But do we need to do this in the all.spawn as well?

I tried testing my changes last night but I never saw any changes sitting the campfires I setup sadly

[hearty cobalt]

Thing is lots of campfires don't have "jobs" for stalkers

Some just stand at fireplaces

If you could give jobs to these fireplaces that are missing that'd be great

[leaden fog]

1 or the other, the level editor does that for you

[quartz crypt]

When we talk about jobs, do we just mean adding a smart cover and setting it to sit?
Or do we need additional scripting to make them use the campfire?

I did actually notice a couple of stalkers standing around near fox's camp, but I wasn't sure if that was due to my changes

[timber crescent]

Level editor generates all.spawn for you, so manual editing is not needed

[timber crescent]

Are smart covers necessary in CoC?
Because in vanilla game you don't need any smart cover for NPCs to sit round the campfire.

[hearty cobalt]

Well I have too seen NPC just standin next to campfire and away from their Squad Lead

It just looks weird, they don't even sit or anything just standing there in the wildreness

[hearty cobalt]

As I wrote above, it's either AI issue or some camp fire missing functions. Making stalker to just stand near the fireplace doing nothing at all

[leaden fog]

I've also noticed they sometimes light the campfire and other times they don't

in both cases, they only stand and guard it, they don't sit around the fire

it's not just in Cordon, it's every map

Marsh - Old Church

they have those camp_work jobs, 2 of those could be to light the campfires (there's an second one outside), the other 2 could be sitting around it and patrolling, which is what the AI does there

they have these animpoints, I believe these are objects in the level

maybe we're missing the

use_camp = true here... It's possibly set to false by default?

[hearty cobalt]

Hmm you have time to test it

Also they leave their squad and go guard the fire far away

At least if they would sit or just stand guard in a position that makes sense, like in clear sky where they would stand guard overlooking the fireplace

Like under a tree or next to a big rock with their back turned to it

Also in cordon village sometimes guards overlap eachother patrol routes or guard points

Meaning having two of them at the same spot

One in bar too, barricade next to Wild Territory transition

[leaden fog]

I've seen this

[leaden fog]

behind the sandbags? Just duty guys hugging each other, normal behavior

[hearty cobalt]

[leaden fog]

talk about watching someone's back

[quiet brook]

Those gastanks look like they're about to explode...

[leaden fog]

yeah I always wondered why some stalkers had those weirdly shaped tanks and others had normal straight tanks

not sure if that came from CoC or the trilogy

[quiet brook]

Tessellation from DX11 has to do with it

It's the same case in Call of Pripyat

[hearty cobalt]

CoP I think, issue with Tesselation

Fixed in some mods

[leaden fog]

is this where the terrain issues are coming from then?

like the bumpy edges

I just loaded in static renderer and the ground seems to be grassy on this photo

[hearty cobalt]

you are still using that 4k terrain mod ?

we need to hire someone to fix the CoC ground textures to restore them to CS quality

I chip in 20eur

[leaden fog]

yes

[hearty cobalt]

Could be that it's too high res for static to handle ?

try without them

[leaden fog]

no, that wouldn't make any sense

I think it's still largely dependent on how the terrain is built with the level

try something "old" like OLR - see if the ground textures there are also flat

I think Call of Pripyat does not have the bumpy ground like CS and SoC do

it was just the texture resolution that became a problem in CoC compared to CoP, but now they look the same to me

[quartz crypt]

We're seeing the same thing for sure. I'm glad its not just me. Haha

[leaden fog]

yeah sometimes they light these...

and this one too

I'd like A-Life to sit around this campfire, but don't know how yet

[hearty cobalt]

Yeah , they just run there to fire up the place

Weird

[leaden fog]

I actually did not see them light any of these, only when I'm away and come back

[hearty cobalt]

example

[leaden fog]

yeah same...

welcome back, dolg 💪

I think the shaders need to be redone for CoC, even with tonemap you can still see the sky sometimes is too dark compared to the land

and the whole game is dark without the tonemap

[hearty cobalt]

Who knows what they did

[hearty cobalt]

I still don't see Dolg at checkpoint in Garbage

Even though I set their priority to 5

Only Loners now guard it

But....finally the Abandoned Farm in Dark Valley has 2 Loners hehe

[leaden fog]

playing on 0.25 pop?

[hearty cobalt]

I raised both muties and stalkers to 0.75

Since it was getting lonely in the zone

[leaden fog]

I wish the kill count in the PDA never existed

even with the lowest pop count I'm now at 800 mutants and 500 stalker kills

I do not need it to remind me that my character is a serial killer

[hearty cobalt]

Hahah

I was at 0 25 pop

And zone was empty lol

Peacefull life

I couldn't get any gear, loot haha

I had to bump it up

[leaden fog]

lol

it might be because that version of CoC has limited A-Life maybe

that's why it feels desolate

1.5R7 there's always something going on even after I put all the respawns to be weekly, halved the max pop on each terrain and lowered the factors to 0.25

but the first week in 1.5R7 is like you said - very calm

good for progression I guess

for starting out with low end gear

the hobo phase

[hearty cobalt]

Ah nice for hobo phase true

But trust me I couldn't even find mutants

BUT... I play with Tronex AI combat offline simulation

Which makes AI fight offline and I used to find bodies on other maps

[leaden fog]

What are your thoughts for a custom diary tab?

write down notes and save on your PDA

I sometimes load into my playthrough not remembering what my next goal is (getting money or trying to get a particular piece of equipment, reputation with a faction etc.)

notes would help here

and it kind of aligns with SoC design with MO having his own diary

it also could act as a form of downtime when in camp, in between missions

[quartz crypt]

So did you do anything in the SDK and put down smart covers and whatnot? Or just use configs for this?

Is _work_1 needed for camps?

[leaden fog]

configs, I can't touch the SDK as not all files are present for CoC

I think the scenes or something similar to that is missing from the downloads

dead links...

I still hope team epic documents still exist somewhere out there

[quartz crypt]

https://web.archive.org/web/20190204081812/http://forum.epicstalker.com/
Well the forum is archived if you want to have a peek

There's articles on Moddb, but I never found that they answered all my questions

[hearty cobalt]

I would love diary tab, I think there was a mod for anomaly where you could write it yourself

Even auto diary would be great

[junior night]

coz not all campfires have smart covers at them for stalkers to use

you see other running to turn on the campfire because the campfire dynamic's name is smart_name_campfire_index

regardless if it has smart covers or not

[leaden fog]

well Sultan claims you don't need smart covers for campfires to be "used" to have stalkers sit around them

maybe this was a thing in Clear Sky? I kept seeing clips of stalkers randomly picking spots around the campfire, sometimes too close to eachother

[junior night]

in cop, i think they're still used

but camp_zones can arrange camp points for stalkers even without smart covers, but in coc they don't use it

and then you have waypoints that have "kamp" as their job type

don't use those, it's leftover SoC stuff

[junior night]

it doesn't work well though

stalkers seem to pick farthest points to sit on from the campfire, just near the exit of the camp zone

[leaden fog]

ok seems they are doing it automatically

just the priority is - at least 1 stalker needs to stand watch and patrol even

the others can sit around the fire