☢┃stalker-general

[wintry pumice]

Welcome to the club

[lilac trellis]

on my bloodlines souls except mine

[lilac trellis]

time for nightly 8 hour s2 session

[ebon blade]

https://tenor.com/view/popcorn-popcorn-time-popcorn-eating-eating-popcorn-interesting-gif-11729246431680786864

[tall briar]

Hardware rt when?

[weary hedge]

#📜┃ask-gsc
There is a system bud.

[shell flax]

Ive seen like 3 people who only exist to ask about RT

[weary hedge]

you can get ray reconstruction and a ton more visual benefits if you use the ultra plus mod

https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/484?tab=description

[wintry pumice]

yeah but that's a mod though..

[weary hedge]

i was close to being like, biatch how'd you get helper role

[random star]

I see stalker in my dreams now

[weary hedge]

but ultra plus is a dope mod anyway, everyone should run it 😂

[random star]

I had a dream where I've finally found the last few artifacts I need

[wintry pumice]

I help by shooting down people's hopes

[weary hedge]

I am still waiting on le patch :(

[proper edge]

Patch today hopefully 🙏🏻

[robust plover]

hey, is it possible to change the scope on the margach d12 or it just stays with the unique one?

[ornate igloo]

do you want to talk about your cars warranty?

[proper hornet]

when’s the battle pass getting added

[blissful plume]

Hi guys, does anyone know when we'll be able to access the iron forest? Or when multiplayer will be added?

[subtle spindle]

no

[boreal coyote]

Happy paddy's day stalkers

[floral elm]

Le patch day?

[boreal coyote]

no patch, today we honour saint Patrick

[ornate igloo]

whats that

[boreal coyote]

....

he brought Christianity to ireland and got rid of all the snakes

[ornate igloo]

ah

[boreal coyote]

there were never actually snakes though, its supposed to be a metaphor for Pegan gods i think

[ornate igloo]

yea i dont know anything about ireland

[boreal coyote]

we drink a lot and hate each other, that's all anyone needs to know

[ornate igloo]

oh okay

[boreal coyote]

😂 😂

[ornate igloo]

sounds fun

[wintry pumice]

by snakes, you mean non alcoholic drinks?

[wintry pumice]

[boreal coyote]

possibly 🤣

[north holly]

Hello

[plucky pasture]

hardware ray tracing ?

[indigo oriole]

Another day without patch

[dusky sequoia]

it's only 12

[indigo oriole]

So ? They said next week. And last day of “next week” was yesterday

[wintry pumice]

Not in the shining zone

[indigo oriole]

Smartboy

[boreal coyote]

what do you think is going to be in this patch?

[wintry pumice]

Crushed hopes

[indigo oriole]

Minor fixes but I’m on Xbox so when they said they will add weapon attachments before point of no return I’m hyped 🤣

[boreal coyote]

so all the hype is about weapon attachments? 🤣 you're hoping for chocolate sprinkles for a sh*t flavoured cake

[indigo oriole]

I couldn’t care less about ur meaningless opinion 🤣🤪

[boreal coyote]

oh so you wanna be disrepecful about it? thats not very nice

i'm hurt

[indigo oriole]

But u started it boi

[boreal coyote]

no sir, i made fun of the game, you made fun of me and now im sad

[indigo oriole]

I can sense some Dalin father vibes

[indigo oriole]

No u’ve got dog avatar so ur the Boss

[boreal coyote]

that dog would fk you up

he's the boss, not me

[river chasm]

Pets are always the one in charge

[indigo oriole]

Jokes aside I’m not counting on some next lvl A-Life 3.0 shieeet

[indigo oriole]

And I wouldn’t mind it. I’m just avg peasant

I think Stalker could be some next lvl Alien type shiet Zone Sim but they didn’t make it that way.

[maiden grotto]

Fixes

[sturdy verge]

Omgggggg you are purpleeeeee gg congrats

[boreal coyote]

please don't remind me of how pathetic i am 😂

[weary hedge]

Rog2.0[Officially Purple]

[sturdy verge]

Never hahahaha 😆 😂

[warm stone]

they stated that this patch will make mutants hunting more rewarding

what that means though....is anyone's guess

[wintry pumice]

bloodsucker bacon time

[sturdy verge]

who, me?

lol but yeah welcome to team purple 😄 hahah

[boreal coyote]

who, me?

[river chasm]

I don't think they promised that for this patch but said they were working on it at least

[distant spindle]

Would love some nvg's down the line,some new guns and more side quests

[warm stone]

yes, you are correct. I was wrong. Just checked. Sorry. They are working on it, but they stated " too early too say anything about it"

[graceful pier]

Hi, would be any update today?

[swift scroll]

patch will be pushed this month.

[river chasm]

I think it will come in time, but only after the foundation of the game is steady

[maiden grotto]

Helmet colour...

[maiden grotto]

That's one way of putting it.

[river chasm]

I just don't see a point in adding more on top when the fundamentals still need plenty of work

[maiden grotto]

I was commenting on the steady part... The game is a shallow mess at the moment.

Steady is the biggest understatement of the year 🤣

I wasn't knocking you 🙂

[vapid galleon]

con-tent

need-mo-re-con-tent

Like Anomaly. This game is nothing unless it's a huge sandbox. It's just the next story game to play. That's it

[river chasm]

Yeah? That's the point of this series

[vapid galleon]

Yeah?

🤣

[river chasm]

They have all been built around the main stories. There is side content and some sandbox elements, but they are not the main attraction (except in CoP I guess where the side missions are the only good stories)

[smoky hawk]

I dont think "the point" of stalker is to be a sandbox

[serene barn]

it's not i'd assume

[vapid galleon]

what the point of stalker

[serene barn]

that is why it ends on the ending lol

[river chasm]

To be a science fiction first person shooter with a main story and some light RPG and sandbox elements. That's been the pitch of the series the whole time.

[vapid galleon]

Is it a story game where you walk more than usual? 😂

[smoky hawk]

you can talk about stalker much like you'd talk about an old CRPG, it's tied to it's stories, exploring the zone, it's existance and how people operate and deal with it

[serene barn]

just because someone isn't whispering Lore into your ear when you're limping between Rostok and the Red Forest doesn't mean it's not a story based game.

[distant spindle]

Agreed

[river chasm]

No matter how you decide to play the games, you have defined beginnings, sets of critical missions, and then an ending

[vapid galleon]

No matter how you talk about it. CRPG? when you look at the gameplay you basically have a game that is full of nothing and has very little variety

[maiden grotto]

Is just the way it was done.

Was so poor

[smoky hawk]

when you look at the gameplay and how the game is designed it does share a lot of similarities, how the game is overall balanced, how the content is distributed, how the quests are designed, the damage system and armour is modeled after resistances to different types of damage and building a character build around equipment

[vapid galleon]

at an insufficient level

[smoky hawk]

sure

[river chasm]

I do think that they should improve the design to make those things feel more meaningful, but that's separate from being a sandbox or not

[vapid galleon]

I did a quest and I'll look at the next one on the map. Oh look! 2km away. Now in an empty grassland and a game with a perfect A-life system, should I walk to the guide or the next quest 😀 This is why this game is supposed to be a sandbox. If it doesn't need it, why is the map so big?

[hoary crest]

Of all the things I see people complain about the map is just wild to nitpick not gonna lie

[maiden grotto]

I agree, I use ballistics mods to make the weapons feel like the weapons the are supposed to be.

[river chasm]

There are a lot of things to find that are totally unmarked and no quest will point you towards

[smoky hawk]

are you saying that if it isnt supposed to be a sandbox the map should be small and railroady?
that would be against it's CRPG root design however, should Fallout 1 be a straight railroad with choices in its dialogue only because its not aiming to be a full sandbox?

the game having a lack of content is one thing, but it needing to change core parts of itself to be more sandboxy is diff altogether

[hoary crest]

Its an open world game.. How much more sandboxxy can it get?

Moreover, the map is excellent to wander around in

[maiden grotto]

The map design is really bad actually. To much is blocked off by impassable cliffs etc etc and sorry locked.

[river chasm]

I think Jupiter Pripyat, and part of Duga are the only things blocked by story progress

[hoary crest]

I... I don't see cliffs being impossible to scale being a bad thing tbh, thats just how geography works. Its a bummer you can't get into Pripyat from the off, but outside that, nah, I have very few complaints

[vapid galleon]

It's good that the map is big. But this map is not just for walking on. Dring energy, spawn one, shoot, use medkit, continue for 2km. Nice CRPG 👍

[maiden grotto]

Duga is accessible after lessor

[serene barn]

your tasks is literally the same stuff as it was in the previous 3 titles. it now being 1 big map without loading screens doesn't suddenly make it a sandbox

[river chasm]

I think the map rewards the curious at least. But I can see how it would be annoying if you just want to travel from marker to marker

[smoky hawk]

so you dont walk around the make, use items and shoot enemies in old CRPGs?

[weary hedge]

people sometimes conflate the terms open world and sandbox as if they were the same thing

[maiden grotto]

It's actually small and feels over populated...

Can't go 5 feet without seeing something

[smoky hawk]

are you saying this invalidates what Stalker does to its quest and balance design?

[serene barn]

well, Chonobyl-2 is accessable at any time. but there is parts of the city that is not accessable until the final assault has been done.

[smoky hawk]

you seem to think that Stalker veering into CRPG designs somehow is incompatible with it also having sandbox designs

[vapid galleon]

ahahaha since you started to deliberately not understand and ask pointless questions, I guess I can continue watching my series

[smoky hawk]

you said the point of stalker was the sandbox, and I disagreed, and you started talking about its lack of content which doesnt touch on its sandbox or crpg qualities

I dont know what you want from me brother

[vapid galleon]

map desing is bullshit, that's it. Insufficient content

[smoky hawk]

sure, but that doesnt have anything to do with it being a sandbox or not

there IS lack of content, you know how you fix it? by making more quests and random encounters

[empty hare]

Idk man, i love DayZ so big semi-empty stretches of map don't really bother me. I get where youre coming from though

[vapid galleon]

just wait for it to develop

or continue Anomaly

[smoky hawk]

how a lack of content touches on its sandbox qualities, I have yet to understand

[smoky hawk]

I mean, you could start by playing something good

[river chasm]

Anomaly isn't going to help with a lack of worthwhile content

[vapid galleon]

at least it's better than Stalker 2

[smoky hawk]

❌

bad bait

[weary hedge]

heres how stalker isnt a sandbox - sandbox games prioritize player freedom and agency, often without any strict objectives or narrative

openworld games all are about freedom of movement, which is what stalker offers

it doesnt really give you agency, and the story is very linear and a huge part of it

[vapid galleon]

Stalker mods are better than Stalker 2

[river chasm]

Yeah some of them but only the good ones

[weary hedge]

you dont even really get creative freedom in how you approach stalker missions

[maiden grotto]

I hate dayz, but like stalker lends itself to a more expansive map, that is empty, with constant fear of the next looming encounter growing with more loot artifacts you collect.

Combat should be rare and deadly, and the map actually needs to be bigger.

[smoky hawk]

true, but youre gonna have to talk about the GOOD mods first

[empty hare]

I 100% agree. The growing anxiety over losing what you have to truly deadly threats is what makes games spooky

[vapid galleon]

yeah and then let's brag about the map being big

[empty hare]

There should be a sense of real accomplishment and relief like "holy sh*t i cant believe i survived an encounter with xyz, im all busted up better head to safety"

[weary hedge]

there were concepts that were cut before release which would have added side activities, such as an artifact market under the slag heap, interconnected tunnels to help you traverse the map etc

[maiden grotto]

They have improved the spawn simulator... it's not every 1 minute now for the most part...

But everything feels to close together...

[vapid galleon]

:D

[vapid galleon]

Continue with bandages and medkits in Stalker 2. That's all

Infinite number of bullets hitting your body and that disgusting effect

[maiden grotto]

These will get added in time... they said they was going to add cut content...

But that didn't mean they still won't leave stuff out though.

Would be interesting what they bring back though.

[vapid galleon]

and then use bandage and medkit and continue

[maiden grotto]

There is non of that...

[smoky hawk]

I dunno if theyll add back the black market in the Dump but I hope thye do

[maiden grotto]

Only time will tell...

[vapid galleon]

Stalker 2...

[subtle spindle]

that would be impossible to impliment without reworking the entire game

[river chasm]

I get those kinds of moments occasionally but they tend to become less common the further you get into the game

[smoky hawk]

I am dumb

and

youd need to rework a lot of the main quest encounters but on a combat basis you could balance it sure
stalker players play stuff like Gunslinger so its not like they want well designed gameplay

[bronze hemlock]

oh how i hate gunslinger Burers

[charred nova]

They see starfield and there like

Fucken hell bro

This shit is gas

-50iq points

[low bison]

Why in every game must we find strelok why is he always lost

[charred nova]

Bro always forgets to turn on find my iPhone

[weary hedge]

i wouldnt trust apple to have my location permanently 😂

[low bison]

SoC find and kill Strelok (except your Strelok) in clear sky kill Strelok (this time your not Strelok) in CoP get Strelok to tell you about crashed helicopters

[weary hedge]

then again i'd never own an iphone

[low bison]

In HoC you need to find Strelok again 😭

I love Strelok ❤️

[frigid hill]

jonwas has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[low bison]

I love duty and the ward more tho the zone needs to go 🙏

[azure epoch]

Hows the game now ?

[charred nova]

Ehhhh

[maiden grotto]

What are you talking about?

You saying making combat rarer but more deadly is impossible?

Or making the zone bigger?

[primal snow]

everytime i go to the chemical plant ward is hostile which is expected bc im enemies with them but then after a few seconds they all but one become friendly again and the last one just 1 shots me guaranteed before i can kill him everytime anyone know what thats abt 😭

[mellow knot]

The Rizzlok

[bronze hemlock]

it isn't that easy, at best it would just make the game frustrating in certain aspects like the first OG games

i don't want to be 1 shot from someone 300 meters away nor have less than 1 medkit for the whole game

[subtle spindle]

"There should be a sense of real accomplishment and relief like "holy sh*t i cant believe i survived an encounter with xyz, im all busted up better head to safety"
this is what i was referring to as impossible

[bronze hemlock]

besides, the accomplishment feeling comes when there is real danger, and that doesn't exist when saving whenever you want is a thing

hell, even the OG games didn't have that much of a feeling

you would only be happy if you reloaded 7 times because you had to use 2-3 medkits

And let's not talk about base Anomaly.

While it is really fun to play, it is hardcore in a way that just doesn't reward you and forces you to do the same thing over and over again to get what you want unless you change most settings in the game difficulty

In Stalker 2 they tried to avoid such grinding for a bit, now you don't need to hunt for artifacts for entire game sessions to get what you need to survive and only do so when you want something that is specifically expensive

[subtle spindle]

this is exactly what i mean this feeling wont be achieved by tweaking numbers or mechanics. you need actual punishment for death

[frigid hill]

umaoff has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[bronze hemlock]

Yeah, if you want harder combat then you can play on veteran.

It will feel just like the OG games when it comes to difficulty and it won't be annoying because you will still be able to prepare yourself for bad situations

If you want to feel rewarded for surviving combat then you can set limitations on yourself once you die, like not being able to reload a quicksave and load a save where you were in a safe spot

Or even play a permadeath run if you want to suffer a bit

[low bison]

if you want something like that try stalker gamma

[river chasm]

Or any misery-based mod really. Or OP-2. Etc. there is no shortage of trilogy mods that make the game much more difficult

[low bison]

i think mods for it should exist but making that the base stalker game would just make it worse

[river chasm]

Yeah. A lot of them basically require you to already know the base game very well

[low bison]

i tried playing gamma and i swear its a masochism simulator

dont play gamma unless you like your spine being crushed

[subtle spindle]

you can just savescum through anything pretty much thats why there needs to be an actual punishment for death

[low bison]

yk save scum is low key just cheating right? its not the game that isnt hard your just cheeseing it?

[bronze hemlock]

the only problems i got with gamma is that you can't buy any weapons or armor and the artifact mods that are being used.

Fairly sure you can disable not being able to buy equipment but the artifacts can't

[subtle spindle]

even if you dont savescum death is at most irritating

[low bison]

be a real stalker and raw dog the game with no save scumming

[subtle spindle]

savescumming is the true stalker way and if youre saying anything else youre a tourist

[low bison]

average sparker

[subtle spindle]

not even

[low bison]

this is why duty and the ward are better we dont save scum we arent cowards

[raw juniper]

Is this humour, or just simple name calling, everyone has their fav playstyle, respect everyone's preference ..

[weary hedge]

In the zone, duty doesn't save scum, the mutants do hoping to get a different enemy

[low bison]

im just joking all way's of playing are valid as long as you enjoy the game

[raw juniper]

100%

[low bison]

but DUTY and the WARD are better and everyone else is a mouth breather who hug trees

[raw juniper]

We just have to remember that text doesn't always translate into intended context ..

[subtle spindle]

sure sir wrinklebutt

[boreal coyote]

the mutants have more etiquette than the ward mate

[raw juniper]

Lol, not sure about that, seems all they want to do is eat me, lol

[low bison]

i went to mutant sucky loser town and everyone knew you

[boreal coyote]

yeah well the jerk store called...

[low bison]

NUH NUH

well the super duper loser mutant monlith town called and they said your the mayor

[boreal coyote]

i just googled reprobate illuminati sympathiser and it linked me to your discord

[charred nova]

https://tenor.com/view/chudlogic-chud-logic-evil-gang-evil-gif-11587451429599961940

[low bison]

this is propaganda made by the wish granter

[boreal coyote]

silence warden puppet

[wintry pumice]

Duty is morally better but they have no funds to anything serious. Ward is just your typical military organization run by the bad guys

[low bison]

sounds like some loser stupid dumb dumb we have jeff bazos

[wintry pumice]

yeah and?

[low bison]

he is jacked and your guy is some smelly guy in a basment

[boreal coyote]

ward have no riz

they're roid junkies with little balls

[wintry pumice]

Don't talk bad about yourself. One day you will get out of the basement.

[low bison]

spark and loners are bums

[low bison]

your leader is a scizo

[wintry pumice]

At least he makes more sense than Colonel Baldy

[boreal coyote]

yours is a puppet

[boreal coyote]

he appears that way, he's just so far ahead of the curve

[low bison]

um well it sounds like we have really cool guns and amour and your a bunch of bums who need handouts

[boreal coyote]

much like donny

[boreal coyote]

your equipment is literally hand outs from daddy sirca, spark have to get their own stuff

[low bison]

im going to make a shit post. with the ward with super jacked and strong jaw lines and you as a mouth breather

[low bison]

nuh uh were just rich

[boreal coyote]

i am a mouth breather technically 🤣

my nose has been broke a few times so if i try to breath through it i sound like a pug 🤣

[low bison]

i knew it

[boreal coyote]

you win

[raw juniper]

Better than a turtle, they breath through their ass when under water, lol

[boreal coyote]

interesting, i talk through mine

[raw juniper]

Me too,

[low bison]

RAHHH THE WARD ALWAYS WIN

[boreal coyote]

😂

[raw juniper]

Sounds about right, "wards" are for sick or mentally ill people, lol

[charred nova]

Ward

Yah they ward off all the bitches

[raw juniper]

Me, I am two faced, lol ..
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1334068759916445729/1351220636416217239/zzzzz_100_f_10_ms.gif?ex=67d995c8&is=67d84448&hm=f44f828dd89d1e7a9527ad95f098e7613c35a41d7cc951ea208cbfb1a02b3b2c&

[random star]

FREEDOM IS BETTER

[wintry pumice]

Freedom is in it for the money though...

[random star]

Idc, Воля Краще

[drifting forge]

At least Duty got better tho, holding the cement factory and defending the cooling towers is pretty big

[random star]

Ward is the worst one

[wintry pumice]

What are they defending the cooling towers from? That fire tornado will roast things alive

[drifting forge]

Red Fortress is up there

They are at the new barrier pretty much

[wintry pumice]

hmm haven't played the old games, but what is that?

[drifting forge]

Holy shit that's why, go play the trilogy
Red Fortress is the Monolith base in HoC tho

[maiden grotto]

Yeah, you do... especially on veteran, otherwise you can't afford anything.

[maiden grotto]

Hippies working for the man... they are nuts.

[wintry pumice]

I thought the foundation was their base, they kept crawling out like cockroaches

[maiden grotto]

Apart from the Monolith attack, after SIRCAA.

[drifting forge]

Richter or Degtyarev tells you I don't remember which

[wintry pumice]

Also if the monolith is under C-Con control, why are we fighting them in Spark ending?

[charred nova]

Attack them freedom warrior

[surreal aurora]

I also sorta questioned this as well. But my guess is that the c-con sent out a signal but updated instructions were not given after defeating Faust at duga. Also, Faust had his own agenda which wasn't compatible with Scar. So he probably set it up so monolith still apposed them even after his "death".

[maiden grotto]

The main difference between Ward and Duty...

Duty wasn't to end it all, and not for their own greed. Although, probably impossible, we still fight to keep the zone safe, and mutant numbers down. So other stalkers are safe to do their thing.

Ward are just want to take everything for themselves, so they can be one in charge, manipulating and controlling things.

Ward are pure scum.

[weary hedge]

Ward are just a PMC group created specifically by the Foundation (which Agatha is apart of and is government affiliated)

[wintry pumice]

hmm so basically fighting 2 different monolith factions? or is it completely overtaken by Faust?

[weary hedge]

Tbf, I wouldn't be so quick to discount Ward either.

They could entirely level the zone and remove every obstacle in the form of other factions, or stalkers.

Yet they don't - at the start of the game the player character and everyone in the bar is literally shown mercy and it's pointed out the Ward dude was being nice

[random star]

I will attack everyone I see, specifically people who support Duty and Ward

[hoary crest]

Ward is paid to do a job, nothing more. As PMC's tend to operate

[drifting forge]

Damn, freedom getting worse and worse

[weary hedge]

They might not have an overarching good moral goal in other characters opinions, but the Ward people themselves may find it a moral goal (Dalin for example, more SIRCAA but Ward / Sircaa are related anyway so i count them as the same thing by extension

[wintry pumice]

Nah someone did say if they were dealing with the Colonel, things would hav been very different.

[random star]

Not a Word further, Bandit

[maiden grotto]

Doesn't matter, they work for people who want to control everything. And we'll use what the collect in the zone to do so.

Hence their ending cut scene...

Ward is the evil ending.

[wintry pumice]

And Loners outnumber every other faction

[weary hedge]

Which is my point - the colonel was three houses away. He sent who he sent, he could have gone himself

[hoary crest]

All of the endings are evil endings lol

[random star]

Strelok is an exception I hope

[wintry pumice]

why would he care personally about a squad dying, when he has bigger things to worry about like moving the monolith

[wintry pumice]

yeah, in one way or another they are all bad

[random star]

.

[weary hedge]

All the endings were people being manipulated for some goal.

Skifs ending is a benefit to the zone and faust, you basically get manipulated into going into the pod yourself

One of the other endings is with an agent of c consciousness

The ward ending is manipulation by agatha / the foundation

[wintry pumice]

nope

[drifting forge]

No good endings

[maiden grotto]

Once you have stopped playing the fairies and got over your munchies...

Stones ain't a threat... to busy in rostok getting high.

[weary hedge]

The colonel? Did you play the same game i did?

[random star]

Exactly,we love weed, we hate dooty

[hoary crest]

The Colonel legit shows more humanity than most of the rest of the characters

[weary hedge]

one thing the colonel would not tolerate is his soldiers being killed - he made that clear over and over

[maiden grotto]

I hate all of endings, none of them make that much sense, and people making stupid choices.

[weary hedge]

The colonel had actual, whats the word, he believed in the goal, his goal may not have been the truth (lied to by agatha) but he was ex-military and an actual leader. His soldiers meant a lot to him

[surreal aurora]

I think so. The C-con can still control the monolith, but only after they have been "reconnected" with the zone.

[river chasm]

He's a great person to have as the face of your operation to distract from what it's really about

[maiden grotto]

And that's why I enjoy terminating every single one of them.

[weary hedge]

The only issue I have with the whole, I bet agatha lied to the colonel theory I have sometimes, why put him in the pod? we dont have much information on how much control / power he would get or if he could be manipulated

i ask this because the feeling i got were that agatha and the colonel were two very different types of people

If there was a bigger plot that he wasnt aware of, in my mind putting him in the pod contradicts that

[wintry pumice]

yes, the guy you are talking about is Zotov right? he just handles things differently. But the Colonel's primary concern is getting rid of the zone/ use the zone for the "good" of humanity

[random star]

Korshunov,not Zotov

[eternal osprey]

Does anyone know if anything actually changes after the mirror facility quest when apparently duty and freedom break their treaty? is it related to whatever faction you chose? because my first play through was with the ward (correct faction) and I feel like I didn’t notice this turn of events. Now I’m doing my spark run and all everyone at Rostok is talking about is duty and freedom being at war again.

[wintry pumice]

you won't see Korushnov in the bar

[random star]

Oh wait, nvm

[maiden grotto]

He was easily manipulated by money.

Sold his soul to the devil.

[weary hedge]

I was just pointing out that even he himself said the colonel would hang them all or whatever it was - and he had ALL the power, it's not like he got vetoed or overriden

the colonel himself knew how to play the game too, he made all the decisions, he decided to send the nice guy, he didnt get talked out of it (going himself)

[maiden grotto]

There is nothing correct about you faction...

You sell your soul for the slightest sniff of money.

[wintry pumice]

Picking a fight with the largest faction, no matter how disorganized they are, is a bad idea. Especially with Spark hell bent on destroying Ward

[weary hedge]

Spark had like seven members or some small ridiculous number and got basically wrecked at the warehouse lol

Ward was backed by the government basically, though we don't know to what extent the foundation was affiliated with them, there was some extent

I don't see Spark beating Mi-whateverthehellattackhelicopteritis flying over the zone

[wintry pumice]

Nah they have more, you won't see them all at the same time. The same reason why they don't have a base anymore

[weary hedge]

My point is realistically they posed no threat which is also mentioned in the game - the ward are playing nice unlike when they demolished like two factions prior to the game

[wintry pumice]

Ward is representing the Regulatory board indirectly, while officially they work on behalf of SIRCAA

[weary hedge]

You know the regulatory board funds both Sircaa and Ward?

[wintry pumice]

IPSF is internationally backed, but I guess they probably will cone in with more depth in a future DLC

[weary hedge]

I read what you said wrong

[wintry pumice]

yup but officially you won't find them directly linked, just like how they were behind project X experiments

[weary hedge]

i dunno if we can really say that though? i havent seen any info about the foundation outside of some hints of relation to the government (or plural) and some mention of sircaa and ward, pdas etc

[maiden grotto]

What I don't get, is that Skif goes into the zone, crying about his home gets destroyed...

Then, his ending is millions of people world wide getting their homes destroyed...

Skif is a twat, I hate the story.

[wintry pumice]

I think the government officially pulled out when MDST was disbanded.

[boreal coyote]

your dad should have officially pulled out

[drifting forge]

Lmao

[wintry pumice]

Now its just Agatha and her buddies pulling the strings of SIRCAA and Ward

[maiden grotto]

Oi oi savaloy

[wintry pumice]

They all do pull out, but here we are...

[maiden grotto]

Some not quicker than others

[wintry pumice]

Slow and steady like Duty

[maiden grotto]

Easy does it.

For DUTY

[drifting forge]

Dolga vibes are pretty good now ngl. Every once in a while I'm tempted to go back but I'm not gonna

[random star]

Honestly all that Ward stuff confuses me

[maiden grotto]

The made the story more complicated than it needed to be.

[hoary crest]

Counting up my faction patches after a wander round Pripyat...

Over 100 Monolith troopers freed from their torment 😄

[random star]

True

[wintry pumice]

Skif is mentally insane

[maiden grotto]

He's a crap character, that's for sure.

If he is supposed to be mentally insane he doesn't show it.... most of the time he comes across calm.and collected and totally in control.

[subtle spindle]

one day you say that its simple and show that you dont understand it at all, then you say that its too complicated

[drifting forge]

Half the Zone is insane

Monolith, Iskra and different bandits and loners and whoever

[wintry pumice]

I mean he stepped into the zone because he thought he will find something to get rich enough to buy another house.

[weary hedge]

Skif could be an agent with implanted memories, dude gets an Alpha artifact somehow after an explosion happens (influenced by another agent of c-con), works with one of the leading SIRCAA scientists to get back into the zone on a truck highly reminiscent of a death truck, getting hit by huge anomalous events like death trucks supposedly do, which Skif somehow sleeps through entirely

All of the endings benefit the zone / c-consciousness in some form, hell in the game you literally help turn back on the network used to track agents, Faust takes an unusual interest in you, etc etc

I could go on

His whole goal was getting a new house, and who's the only group offering him what his entire goal was? Agatha

[subtle spindle]

yeah i wouldnt discount the possibility of him being an agent but its unlikely that hes the same type of agent as other c-con agents

[wintry pumice]

I mean almost all the factions have good potential to be main focus of a DLC, but we can only hope how it turns out

[maiden grotto]

No... I say its crap because it doesn't makes sense and to many plot holes...

And it's more complicated than our needs to be, which leads to plot holes...

So how does wanting a simple coherent story, make my point of view inconsistent?

Not my fault you don't understand anything.

[boreal coyote]

i like this tbh

did you come up with that on your own?

[weary hedge]

Backup agent, the one thing that kind of confirms this for me is Faust and his dialogue and actions

[wintry pumice]

Govt offered him money too but he didn't take it..

[boreal coyote]

yeah the faust interaction is very strange

[weary hedge]

No - just bits and pieces other mentioned and then my own feeling going through the story, people putting pieces together by themselves though they may not have the full story

[boreal coyote]

its a solid theory

[weary hedge]

Like, Faust during his confrontation. Take my hand! If you do, he lets you go.

If you don't, you get up to the roof. That's a test if I've ever seen one but I don't know the motive.

Another, meeting with the doctor. Sends you on some silly errand to find a regenerator for some somehow ambushed strider

he didnt get ambushed, the doctor was faust

my money is on the fact faust knocked him out, it was all a set up so he 'saves' you

another attempt at manipulating skif, and its ALL throughout the game

[maiden grotto]

But agents worked on behalf of C-con. C-con wanted control... not expand the zone it everywhere, making the world a clusterfuck.

So Skifs ending should have been more like streloks.

[weary hedge]

strider liked Skif - there was no reason for him to attack you, unless, the doctor attacked him, or something happened, he wakes up, see's you friendly with the doctor, boom

[drifting forge]

Wonder what changed in Strelok ngl

[weary hedge]

Doctor gets to save the day. Funny he knew where the monolith base was and didnt want them hurt either, knew where the regenerator was like he'd been inside

[hoary crest]

There is one problem with Skif being an agent

[weary hedge]

Shoot

[hoary crest]

An thats what happens to Dark, if Skif was an agent at that point he would have also spasmed out when seeing the programming TV's

But he did'nt

[maiden grotto]

Shit writing.

[weary hedge]

True - but I can also seeing that coming up differently in the future, though I don't know how. Maybe they don't affect Skif for some reason

I mean you can't tell me that storm riding into the zone was normal, striking all around dudes truck yet helicopters flying in the air not long after perfectly fine

[steep maple]

The most dangerous kind of insane

[weary hedge]

Plus whats the chance one of SIRCAA's top scientists is Skifs ride

[boreal coyote]

skif is a new breed of agent? not an original?

[hoary crest]

That was obviously an emmision, but what that has to do with the TV thing I don't know

[hoary crest]

See it more likely that if he was an agent at that point, his programming was scuffed, same as Strelok's was, so whatever goal he was given becomes sort of an irrelevant aspect

[weary hedge]

That was nothing like an emission lol even visually, plus Skif slept through it and the doctor was driving into it, it was striking around his truck, the emission might have affects outside the zone but its no stronger than what you'd find inside

[subtle spindle]

thats the only possiblity. it doesnt make sense for c-con to make an agent that would fulfill a plan whose goal is the opposite of what they wanted. + c-con is dead

[maiden grotto]

How? Strelok killed C-Con in SoC, so how could he be a new agent?

No one to make them.

[boreal coyote]

doesnt have to be c-con

[subtle spindle]

if someone gets access to the equipment used to make agents new ones can be made

[boreal coyote]

he could be a dalin experiment for all we know

[subtle spindle]

nothing points to this

[maiden grotto]

It does, as they were then one in control.

No one else had the ability to do so.

[boreal coyote]

yeah but i made it up just now so could be true

[hoary crest]

Dalin does seem to have a habit of botching experiments, and I doubt getting choked out by Skif was intentional 😄

[subtle spindle]

c-con arent using some magic to do this its all stuff that anyone can do if they have the same equipment. most of it is intact in x7

[maiden grotto]

But he worked for SIRCAA, so what is the point of them making an agent?

Who works against them.

[weary hedge]

Obviously the ability was always there for something to be controlling 'things' as you literally see Faust morphed into the Doctor, you see him showing you illusions, Ward wants themselves hooked up to the noosphere or whatever you want to call it and then at the end you see them using it to monitor everyone

[boreal coyote]

you're looking t it like everything is concrete which it aint, they obviously make the lore up as they go, i dont think all the writers work as one team, it always feels like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing

[weary hedge]

You cant really explain C-Con / Noosphere / Zone without explaining Faust

some people have said that Faust is like a manifestation of the zone itself, thus what he 'allowed you to see'

[maiden grotto]

That's my point exactly, none of it makes sense, broken, and full of BS.

And why the story isn't coherent... between SoC and S2

The story is shyte.

[weary hedge]

but if thats the case then the zone could 100% have its own 'agents' or 'entities' that look like whatever it wants, just like the doctor with fausts impersonation

[boreal coyote]

this feels more fantasy than scifi

[weary hedge]

True, it's confusing, you had a psi-protection device and he still managed to show you that

So is it real? Is it fake? What is Faust?

the device was supposedly to protect you from his psi powers

[boreal coyote]

that psi protection is so dumb, im pretty sure it doesnt do anything lol

[subtle spindle]

only from phantoms and as we can see its not that helpful

[maiden grotto]

No it can't, C-con made them, then sent them out death trucks. Most of whom died.

At the end of SoC, there should have been no monolith, no way to get monolith back, no new agents, and a more wild and dangerous zone...

As the people holding the zone and noosphere back, we're killed by strelok.

[weary hedge]

in the game he used that power that made people freak out or hallucinate or whatever, supposedly to others it drove them insane or turned them over to his side i cant remember

[weary hedge]

'should' lol

[subtle spindle]

again you dont understand even what happens in soc. none of the shit to run monolith is done manually by c-con, they have systems to make new monolith agents and command them with 0 input

[weary hedge]

strelok used those systems as part of his trap, no?

[subtle spindle]

which trap?

[weary hedge]

the screens at the end, that facility is where agents were originally programmed

or something its 2am and im tired lol

[subtle spindle]

yeah those screens are for brainwashing, i forgot that X3 had those lol

[random star]

Am? What,you live in Australia?

[weary hedge]

Western Australia

[maiden grotto]

WTF are you talking about?

C-con made, both monolith and the wish granter, and the agents.

[random star]

Ah,got a question,are the stereotypes about Australia true?

[weary hedge]

Which ones? Lol

[wintry pumice]

Probably all of them

[random star]

Every single ones

[boreal coyote]

do you eat vegemite from the jar?

[maiden grotto]

Cheers, corrected, as I am on ma phone.

[subtle spindle]

idk what to say to you, have you even played soc? monolith fighters get brainwashed by the brain scorcher or something, and then commanded by the monolith automatically. how can you misunderstand this so badly

[weary hedge]

no lol some people do though

god marmite tastes like shit

[wintry pumice]

all of which are created by C-Con

[boreal coyote]

do your women look 40 at 25?

[subtle spindle]

yes and as youre aware all of those systems run automatically since they are literally all in their pods and cant do basic shit

[wintry pumice]

That's a unique stereotype

[boreal coyote]

yessir on account of the sun

[random star]

@weary hedge how many spiders are in your house?

[weary hedge]

I was leaning toward them being alive in the sense of Subtle Matter being real

[maiden grotto]

Oh shut up you fool.

Is you who needs to go back and play SoC.

You haven't got va clue about anything.

You have no idea, why C-con made the wish granter and monolith...

Is embarrassing how wrong you are.

[weary hedge]

The whole, Dalinnnnn, Dig deeper........ son

thats a bit too much sense of place to be fake

[subtle spindle]

yeah that might be the case but they still wouldnt be able to build stuff for example

[wintry pumice]

They can't do things physically anymore because their bodies got destroyed by Strelok and Dr. K. But they are "alive" in the noosphere

[weary hedge]

I always got confused by that, but my memory isn't the best

First, there was a connection
Then it got cut
Agents still existed
Ward wants connection restored to track agents

Somehow faust appears

in my eyes people are far too willing to discount Faust being somehow related to C-Con or something within that purview

[subtle spindle]

but you do agree they cant just build a brain scorcher or something while theyre in the pod

[wintry pumice]

If they get complete access of the monolith, they can

[maiden grotto]

Thanks to a bs retcon in S2, which creates a lot of the mess and BS we see.

They should have stayed dead.

[boreal coyote]

faust used to be dalins fathers boyfriend

[wintry pumice]

Its just they were stuck for 10 years when the monolith was shutdown with no way to communicate with anyone in anyway whatsoever till Dalin does his experiment with the monolith

[subtle spindle]

faust has been in the zone for a while he was just a semi-braindead monolithian and probably didnt know he had powers

[hoary crest]

Wouldn't be hard to convince people to help if you're giving the appearance of an omnipotent being, just get them to do it, just give em the blueprint

[weary hedge]

Either C-Con or the zone itself has some sort of consciousness I mean, we kill Faust and then dude reveals himself as the doctor in an ending, so he aint mortal, either that or we are hallucinating

Which, if true, mean most of the endings are probably fake

similar to the strelok ending in the previous games where he blacks out and sees stuff then the next game it comes to light he was taken

[hoary crest]

Which in all fairness, we do a bunch of times throughout the game, so its a bit up in the air, the Doctor appearing as Faust could just be a plot device to trick the player

[maiden grotto]

They still had access to funds to get things done.

[wintry pumice]

Maybe Faust came out after the doctor and Strelok successfully sabatoge C-Con

[subtle spindle]

in the bossfight, we land the final shot, get pulled into his head? he does his controller thing. and then when we are out of that hallucination, and faust is dead. i think we are missing a step in the process of someone dying. we see his dead body, but not him dying if you get what i mean

[weary hedge]

this would make sense too in terms of continuation

they have to make canon one ending, or it turns out they are all just some sort of hallucination GSC can then turn into a new story

[maiden grotto]

A lot of the equipment, was built before they entered the pod as part of their experiments.

[wintry pumice]

That resulting incident split the doctor or gave him new powers...

[subtle spindle]

youre starting to get it. they actually dont need to physically be there for monolith to still be a faction.

[hoary crest]

They did say that the DLC would be a "fresh perspective" on the story, so be interesting to see how that plays out

[boreal coyote]

were gonna play as faust

[hoary crest]

Please no, that would be such a cop-out

[wintry pumice]

Its still better than Skif

[boreal coyote]

whats the squirrel thing is gsc answers? im outta the loop

[wintry pumice]

at least we get controller abilities

[weary hedge]

you ask questions and they pick ones to answer publicly

[subtle spindle]

i mean faust is supposed to be blind, he can only see the wireframe view he shows skif on top of duga so i doubt that would be fun

[boreal coyote]

yeah but whats with the squirrels

[subtle spindle]

squirrels will be added in the next update, they posted a screenshot of them in some social media post

[boreal coyote]

ohh

[wintry pumice]

some people are just nuts

[maiden grotto]

No you don't get it, because quiet frankly, you haven't got a clue.

Monolith and the wish granter were created after they got into the pods. As it all went wrong, they needed a distraction, to keep people away from them (C-con), so they could concentrate on holding back the zone, that they were struggling to control.

So they created the wish granter and monolith as this distraction.

The wish granter was a death trap for people, monolith was created to spread the myth granter.

You are so fecking wrong, it hurts my brain.

How could some be see fecking wrong and not see it.

Go back and play SoC FFS.

[subtle spindle]

ah right so if you kill c-con the wishgranter explodes and then monolithians are free?

[maiden grotto]

Don't be so stupid... seriously grow up, stop making yourself look like a idiot.

[hoary crest]

....

[subtle spindle]

idk what else to tell you youre missing the point completely

[hoary crest]

I don't think its him that needs to grow up... Just sayin'

[weary hedge]

the people who reached the middle of the zone were chosen to be either monolith or agents from memory

[subtle spindle]

killing c-con doesnt magically destroy all of the actual technology they built to run monolith or to create agents or to manage them

[weary hedge]

the agents were programmed at creation werent they? they didnt need management

[charred nova]

Think we need a dev lore break down

[weary hedge]

fr tho

[hoary crest]

That would be cool actually

[charred nova]

I think we are all too lobotomized to understand

[subtle spindle]

theres some sort of tool to send messages to them to change their orders, all of the messages from MDST had to come from somewhere

[maiden grotto]

No... some were created during the Clear Sky incident... Like Strelok, who sent out on a death truck.

Monolith and the wish granter existed before this.

[weary hedge]

i havent played the previous games cause i was like 10 when they released and now they look too terrible to play for my tastes lol

[wintry pumice]

C-Con is physically dead, Strelok did that. But they are "alive" in the noosphere

[subtle spindle]

nah this is a development from stalker 2

[mellow knot]

1.3 NOW

[wintry pumice]

probably not.

[maiden grotto]

Like I said... retcon BS... just like the subtle matter BS...

All made up, so we can fight monolith again, coz devs to lazy to come up with something original....

And the story is shit because of it.

[drifting forge]

Story is good tho

Game is peak asf

[wintry pumice]

Yeah it was sad to see Noon completely losing it after all their hard work

[subtle spindle]

this guy watched tiktok while playing the game so he doesnt understand much of it. its a bit too complicated for him

[drifting forge]

Yea

[subtle spindle]

ye thats kindof the point of the story

[drifting forge]

Lmao

[river chasm]

The story is messy enough in execution that I don't think it's great but I do think it's at least good. And there are some things that do really shine

[surreal aurora]

Just to be clear, the Monolith faction did sorta exist before 2011, before brainwashing.

The Monolith clan was originally a group of stalkers, united by their fascination with the Zone. Fascination turned to obsession and obsession turned to fanaticism; eventually, the stalkers became convinced that there was a massive artifact in the center of the Zone, a Monolith, and declared themselves its protectors, growing increasingly hostile to other stalkers. [1][2]

The faction disappeared in 2011, just before the beginning of Clear Sky, simply picking up all of their belongings and marching through the Psy-Barrier towards the Brain Scorcher, shortly before an emission. No one has heard from them since... or so they thought, as later in 2011, very aggressive stalkers began storming the Barrier.[1][2]

[wintry pumice]

that's what Rogg is calling lazy retcon, because they couldn't find anything more interesting that they had to go back to bringing back the monolith

[surreal aurora]

So saying the monolith faction wouldn't exist without c-con is sorta wrong.

[maiden grotto]

I was paying SoC on the day it was released.

Not my fault you don't know feck all.

[subtle spindle]

yeah its a bit rushed especially towards the end and some details are verg muddy

[wintry pumice]

The Monolith didn't reach its infamy till C-Con took over, before that they were just another group of stalkers

[river chasm]

The main characters and the ways they interact are entertaining enough that it kept me interested

[subtle spindle]

its unclear whether this has been retconned tbh. soc had a lot of text from earlier versions of the story that dont entirely match whats going on but this is an interesting detail

[surreal aurora]

correct, but the obsession of the artifact at the center of the zone doesn't land too far away from them guarding the center of the zone, with or without c-con control.

[maiden grotto]

Why? They controlled them. And Strelok kill C-con monolith ceased to exist and wish granter shut down.

[subtle spindle]

the strider arc is pure cinema tbh killing noontide is worth it just for that

[surreal aurora]

Because there are true believers amongst them, like Faust.

[subtle spindle]

skif helped enable some of monolith systems and there is a literal wish granter in sircaa lol

[surreal aurora]

These are details gained from Clear Sky, so take that as you will.

[subtle spindle]

might be more accurate then it sounded more like a description from soc

[solemn ibex]

I was like "man, trailers have lied, I have not met the mysterious stranger yet"

[maiden grotto]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[surreal aurora]

You can always read the wiki: https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Monolith

[wintry pumice]

Yeah but the obsession with the artifact didn't make them aggressive, pain tolerant extremely effective soldiers that C-Con turned them into.

[weary hedge]

he's right though, the colonel literally tells you that himself before you do it (he tells you they plan to use it to track agents but you see at the end of the game they want to track everyone)

[wintry pumice]

Even the Colonel kinda praises them

[surreal aurora]

They were fanatics before becoming brainwashed. As I said, it's a very very small stone throw away from staying as a monolithian even without c-con. Of course they will not be mentally connected, or galvanized by the c-con in any way, but that may not stop them from defending the center of the zone. Just makes them less organized and more fearful potentially.

[subtle spindle]

yeah korshunov was the leader of the original military unit meant to protect x7, granite.

he kinda has a fondness for monolith due to that probably

[surreal aurora]

SoC did come first, so it being a retcon isn't exactly out of question.

[subtle spindle]

i mean might not even be a retcon they just rushed soc and a lot of text describing cut content or concepts made it into the game

[surreal aurora]

True, but even CS got a lot of cuts and stuff.

[subtle spindle]

especially in the "whats going on in the zone" dialogues

[subtle spindle]

not as much the old concepts of CS are a lot closer to what was released since they already had most of the factions

[maiden grotto]

That's because retcon. And god awful shyte one

What part this do people not understand?

The Monolith was just a trap that killed people. It fed them an illusion and killed them.

Hence why, Strelok dies in the end cut scenes if you don't go the true end path through the door the key code.

The devs completely fecked the story because they don't know what they are doing.

Wish granter = Trap.... that's all it ever was, nothing more

[smoky hawk]

I mean, it was in the old lore that it didnt outright kill them, plus the concept that it is brainwashing that one can break free from was introduced in COP

[subtle spindle]

idk if you played soc but when you turn off the brain scorcher theres this voice saying come to me or something and then in cop after strelok did the shooty shooty on the wish granter theres all these monolithians saying how they no longer hear the voice of the monolith.... interesting

[maiden grotto]

But CoP is awful, and monolith again...

When it came out I was bored of fighting monolith again

[smoky hawk]

I mean sure, but would you call them retconning COP a bad retcon because its nu-GSC? or based GSC?

[surreal aurora]

The wish granter itself, definitely. But I think the story was written well enough to make you question whether or not that was it. Things being left vague is okay unless you're ready to close the whole book.

[smoky hawk]

the worst part about the story is the meta stuff that they try to pull, it cheapens the story bc now you can just say that anything incongruent was an illusion

[subtle spindle]

everything that you dont like is a retcon basically

[smoky hawk]

he is right taht they shoulodve retconned COP

bully deggy

I wanna shove him into a locker

[surreal aurora]

You mean like Subtle Matter?

[subtle spindle]

retcon soc cs and cop and then create stalker but in russia and its in a fictional city called tarkov.

[smoky hawk]

I mean all the incongruencies beetween routes in the main story and then the Skif ending which is basically cope that allows you to pick and choose what your cannon is

inb4 they just ignore S2 story and side step it all together

[river chasm]

Nah Skif ending is definitely gonna be the canon one

[surreal aurora]

So you're saying because there is no definite ending like there was in SoC that it's a bad thing?

[subtle spindle]

they left it way too open with the skif ending. it wouldve been a cool twist if it was actually clear what happened

[wintry pumice]

hell naw..

[surreal aurora]

I mean, I sorta agree that getting a cannon ending would be great, to know what to look forward to in the next setup of a stalker game, but I'm not exaclty crying over this.

[subtle spindle]

it still is decent and i like it but to get anything out of the ending we need another game

[maiden grotto]

It was created to be a diversion for C-con to left alone...

That's what it's whole point was... Monolith were then creatures to spread the myth of the wish granter.

C-con was behind it all... when they died, there was no way back...

Not unless your the devs and ruin your own law, because your so awful at righting a story, that you can't keep it consistent.

[surreal aurora]

what we need is a decoder

[river chasm]

It's the only one that got the lyrical music track treatment, if nothing else. Also none of the other endings really leave any interesting plot threads open for the future.

[smoky hawk]

no, Im not saying that, Im saying its a bad thing that the rules of how the unniverse works are bent from ending to ending, what can be true in the Strelok Ending is a lie in the Ward Ending and not even brought up in another ending, it flip flops beetween what is and isnt real and at the end of the day its a crapshoot what is right, because the skif ending, you can say ho this ending is real, the others were all illusions meant to trick everyone involved

its meta stuff to try and cope about a point by point, straight ending, and that everything lines correctly

[subtle spindle]

yeah theres no way its not the canon ending the whole game was leading the player down the path of doing what skif did. also its the only ending where skif actually gets the heart of chernobyl artifact

[smoky hawk]

the incongruencies are bad bc it cheapens out believability in the story, if they cant keep their own rules straight theyll just pull a random new one out of their ass to solve any problem at hand

[subtle spindle]

is this about the subtle matter thing being true in one path and wrong in the other?

[smoky hawk]

I dont care which ending ends up being canon but I wish they kept the same world rules in each ending

[maiden grotto]

What kind of a pathetic statement is this?

It's not my fault the devs can't keep their own story coherent.

Seriously.

[surreal aurora]

I think perhaps you're not putting a lot of stock behind the concept of the Noosphere. Whether or not Subtle Matter exists within that concept and such. I think it's a bit of a stretch to call it a retcon because the c-con, despite it's unethical means of control, really did help to halt the spread of the zone. Without the c-con, there is no telling what would have happened. Therefore the c-con has to somehow survive for us to be able to tell another stalker story. Or something needs to replace it.

[boreal coyote]

i think ive played something like that

[subtle spindle]

man you literally deny all story elements introduced after soc that you dont like lol

[smoky hawk]

correct, true and based

[subtle spindle]

based? based on what

[smoky hawk]

your moms approval

[surreal aurora]

I get it, but this is also a hallmark of older games with multiple endings. I think it's reading too much into to say that the other endings were just illusions. It's meant for you decide which ending is the correct one based on your actions and head cannon. However, to keep the main cannon going, the devs will have to pick a definite ending, or create a whole new one which they may do in a DLC. I find nothing wrong with this, I like multiple endings, but you have to face the reality that to continue the series you have to pick one.

[boreal coyote]

they should also build it on unity, make it an online pvp extraction shooter where all the vital info is stored client side to make it super easy for cheaters to prosper

[smoky hawk]

storing stuff client side is actually based and badass and you are uber small soul

[subtle spindle]

they should also attract a playerbase that is bad at games so they blame every loss on cheaters but dont get me started on this. i have way too many good ideas

[smoky hawk]

I hope they story my Stalker 2 multiplaye stats client side

[boreal coyote]

i found a tarkov cheater guys 🤣

[hoary crest]

Oh they've already done that, don't you worry lol

[boreal coyote]

i know you dont mean me, i'm an excellent player, not to brag 😎 😂

[serene barn]

hmm didn't all the trilogy games come out just a year apart? seems like they might have all been rushed out so maybe things weren't finalized in the lore

[maiden grotto]

No C-con doesn't have to survive.

The zone went wild and got more dangerous.

The zone should have keep on expanding with each emission, as C-con was not around to push it back...

And why not have something sinister come through in one of the emissions and hid it self in one of the dark places?

Then have noontide be one of the factions fighting this new threst or something.

And the wall that was built didn't do anything, just got swamped and became part of the zone.

But no, the same old shit in the previous games... monolith again.

S2 story is full on lazy bs.

[surreal aurora]

There was a lot of this from what I understand.

[serene barn]

like boatloads of cut things and story no?

[smoky hawk]

S2 story is a lot but lazy is not one of them, they go for pretty high effort concepts, the Monolith is reused but its a new angle and recontextualization, plus the game isnt about just the Monolith, its about what to do with the Zone, and if anyone should own it or use it

[serene barn]

frankly the whole thing about how according to Rogg, that the Monolith Wish Granter would kill people after showing them a vision just feels so...so damn pointless, like who is gonna be telling literally anyone that they had a vision before they god damn died lol. not to mention if C-Con built it KILL it should god damn just do that with literally no extra bullshit.

[boreal coyote]

donny should own it

[maiden grotto]

Is lazy on the fact they didn't try anything new. Or move beyond monolith as a bad guy...

[river chasm]

They tried a lot of new things...

[smoky hawk]

Ward and SIIRCA is pretty new, as well as the Shinning aspect of the Zone, they also did something new with the Agents and Scar not actually being Scar

[surreal aurora]

Something sinister? The last thing Stalker needs is a tangible monster of the week encounter. Perhaps an existential threat that is more metaphysical than not would be okay. But Stalker should play into the concept of the Noosphere and it's metaphysical properties. Some ideas like from Solaris (1972) would be interesting, though not directly replicated.

[smoky hawk]

S2012 SIIRCA is like, WAYYYY diff from S2 SIIRCA

[subtle spindle]

no man you dont get it its lazy and bad since he didnt like it.

[maiden grotto]

That's the point though... it was a death trap to keep people away from the pods and C-con.

So they could concentrate on holding the zone back

[wintry pumice]

I mean how many times will you have to fight the monolith....

[serene barn]

another thing is if not the Monolith, who else? there wouldn't just happen to be a brand new private military that isn't the Ward.

[subtle spindle]

im not disagreeing with this but vasim made some very good points

[wintry pumice]

Strelok went and closed the monolith chapter, but 10 years later here we go again

[surreal aurora]

it's very likely the wish granter brainwashes, or at least primes them by stripping them of the psi-immunity.

[maiden grotto]

Something spilling through with c-con gone... New nastier mutants or entities...

A million things other than the same old shyte...

[serene barn]

but killing people who were incredibly skilled to make it past mutants, bandits, and the gawd damn Monolth forces actively trying to keep people out of the place by killing people in cold blood. just simply do not make any damn sense love

[hoary crest]

Man wanted more spongy mutants than guys to gunfight with, really.

I can feel my braincells dying reading this chat, holy sh*t

[river chasm]

I do think that what vasim said is the core idea though. Even where they reuse concepts, the original games are about what the zone is and how it came to be. S2 is about people fighting over what they think it should be and how it fits into humanity's future

[surreal aurora]

They could bring sin back, which is a bit more interesting as a bad guy than monolith at the moment I guess. I get it though, if the Monolith are the constant bad guys in every game, it does get kinda tiresome as a concept. Introducing new "bad guys" would be a way to go, but I don't think you'll get Monolith completely out of the picture since they are such a focul point in the story.

[smoky hawk]

sin sucked

[subtle spindle]

sin was an extremely edgy concept tbf it wouldnt fit in a modern stalker game

[smoky hawk]

it would if done right

but sin wasnt

[serene barn]

wasn't Sin just, dudes bein evil? lol i forgor

[smoky hawk]

you are a sin

[subtle spindle]

along with that they also kindof take care of alot of the older characters, strider is dead, scar is dead, strelok is dead, monolith and noontide are basically wiped out. i think that gsc has a pretty much clean slate to create new stuff

[serene barn]

😔

[maiden grotto]

Yes it does...

Because monolith, fighting to death to protect it. Gave the illusion that the myth of the wish granter was true.

It was a genius trap... as a diversion.

[surreal aurora]

it doesn't have to be sin, though I thought they were sorta interesting by how they tired more physically into the zone than any other due to the half mutant status.

But I don't think it should be "Monsters spilling out from somewhere" which doesn't make any sense. The Noosphere isn't a monster generator.

[maiden grotto]

And anyone who got too close was killed

[subtle spindle]

yeah every monster was created by experimentation pretty much except the wild animals. so there would have to be a new c-con or something

[serene barn]

the Monolith had to have been kept up in numbers though because people literally teamed up against the monolith. like they had to get reinforcemenets and the only logical thing as a source of reinforcements is literally to use whomever was skilled enough to make it to the wish granter in the first placeeee

the Wish Granter is literally still a diversion, a bait, a lure. because anyone who damn got to it did not come back

[maiden grotto]

Yes... clear sky incident... those that weren't killed. Went to the tv's.

It's not hard to figure out

[subtle spindle]

yeah this whole idea of wish granter/the monolith being bait doesnt contradict the wish granter turning people into monolithians lol

[surreal aurora]

correct, but it didn't just kill them. That would not have been very economical. Very likely it just brainwashed them or at least stripped them of psi-immunities before the actual brainwashing process.

[maiden grotto]

Same for stalkers, those not killed, went to the tv's and brain washed

[serene barn]

dude i hate that you say "it's not hard to figure out" as if that prevents anything else from being true lol.

the monolith literally has people in all 3 games and the games span how many years?

[subtle spindle]

like a year or so

[surreal aurora]

I don't think any of this is so easy to figure out, but that is by design. It's something I like about the Stalker story as well, you have to discover and find these things.

[subtle spindle]

dark and twisted timeline where strelok becomes a monolithian and commits genocyde on the ukrainian people.....

[maiden grotto]

Pretty much, whatever want killed, by the Monolith or the wish granter, got brain washed.

[surreal aurora]

There are whole theory crafting youtube channels as well, and a lot of things are plausible as well.

[maiden grotto]

It does when you have to make up BS to justify it.

[surreal aurora]

precisely!

[surreal aurora]

I hate to break it to you, but story telling is "Making shit up" as a way to put it. You don't like what they came up with, do better then.

[subtle spindle]

tbf spark is a bit of a play on the cult concept that sin was meant to be but a bit more charismatic, without the half-dead stalkers

[hoary crest]

Stop feeding the troll mans

[frigid hill]

rainthunderspark has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[serene barn]

reeeee

[surreal aurora]

woops

[subtle spindle]

nah he cant do better he has to every day wake up and talk in discord about a game that he doesnt like

[surreal aurora]

Yeah, I got that feeling as well. They are different in that they don't have OP artifacts on them, but they definitely were a cult theme.

[maiden grotto]

Making shit up to justify breaking your own lore...

Because your too lazy to come up with something new.

Brilliant. That 80 million well spent.

If people want to know why the gaming industry is mess.

This thread. To many people accepting 2nd rate shyte and defending devs who can't keep their own story coherent

[frigid hill]

rainthunderspark has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[serene barn]

son of a

[wintry pumice]

[subtle spindle]

the story around spark is also pretty interesting in hindsight. usurping the imagery of another faction to reach other goals is a pretty interesting concept

[boreal coyote]

@serene barn no salty language please 😁 🤣

[wintry pumice]

I mean it is run by one of the founding members..

[weary hedge]

Do you guys think the implication of the c con hard drives in the cloud meens they are always active. So granite sqaud and the bois were just waiting all this out. Until their magnum opus mutant could emit to the outer perimeter again and link up the ex-soy... I meen monolithians back up to their apple accounts(c con as subtle matter.)

[subtle spindle]

scar wasnt one of the founding members. neither is the other guy, marshall

[surreal aurora]

though I did hate the fact that monolith shot at you given that Scar was an agent. But when I played more and thought about it, Faust probably set it up to oppose Scar anyways. Two different goals in mind I think.

[subtle spindle]

i mean nobody knows who the agents are apart from c-con so it makes sense

[wintry pumice]

Uhh Marshal was the one of the original Spark along with Spirit and two others I can't recall

[surreal aurora]

tbf, the idea of subtle matter isn't proven. We haven't proved whether or not it was an illusion or not. The C-Con may very well be dead, but there is something in the noosphere that is keeping an eye out over the zone. They know who you are, for example. I think we will learn more about stuff like this once we get more DLC.

[subtle spindle]

Spark Scientific Research and Investigation Group. Topol, Spirit, Snake, Mace. Spark is no more. Those who claim to be them now are just fakes. The original founders of Spark were killed by the Ward. And if it wasn't for Marshal, I wouldn't be here either.

he was in the original spark but he wasnt a founding member

[serene barn]

go on and explain to the crowd why the theory that builds on the idea of the C-Con wanting a flow of reinforcements by luring in Skilled Stalkers to then scramble their brains into making them fight for the Monolith to protect the C-Con and their experiments and research. is BS and has no logical ground, but your theory of how the funny bright bulb that talks to people in their heads and shows them funny youtube shorts just to kill them when the credits roll is somehow not a silly goofy ahh theory

[boreal coyote]

https://tenor.com/view/popcorn-guy-relaxing-popcorm-popcorn-gif-26404903

[subtle spindle]

its left somewhat wague as to not make scar seem completely delusional. i think that theres elements of both strelok's and scar's theories in the reality of how subtle matter works

[surreal aurora]

I agree. I personally believe there is something akin to it, you are a known entity without ever meeting the representatives. So there is something to it, but the shining zone was a lie.

[maiden grotto]

Understand simple basic English.

It's primary job, was to "ACT AS A DIVERSION TO LURE STALKERS AWAY FORM C-CON SO THEY COULD LEFT IN PEACE TO HOLD BACK THE ZONE AND THE NOOSPERE, AS THE WISH GRANTER WAS A TRAP SETUP BY C-CON"

The fact some stalkers may have survived was secondary....

If Monolith didn't kill people and captured them, they would also get brain washed.

The primary purpose of the wish granter was to act as a "DIVERSION"

It's so simple to understand.

[wintry pumice]

Yeah but he was there to watch them all die at the Ward's hand pretty much unprovoked and besides Spark still does work with Scientists for money but their main intention is now the shining zone and the Ward's demise

[subtle spindle]

yeah what scar achieved is just straight up a scam but if what faust showed skif, his way of seeing when he is blind, is real, there is more to it than we know

[wintry pumice]

Spark 2.0 is just more actively involved in the zone than the old spark was

Especially with Ward in their cross hairs

[serene barn]

breh understand simple english while you can't understand that just because it's not a damn man trap with a big wedge of cheese on it, doesn't mean it is not a diversion or a lure or a trap lmao.

a Diversion can still have another purpose than simply killing people.

[surreal aurora]

I'm hoping we see more of this in the DLC. I'm very eager to see this roadmap.

[subtle spindle]

basically all of spark died, including marshal, then scar got this idea that he has to avenge spark planted into his head so he recreates the faction essentially. de facto everyone from the original spark is dead.

[maiden grotto]

Well your an idiot then and don;t know feck all.

[serene barn]

the fact it's even programmed to send you Text to Speech texts straight into your dome and play you a little AI generated video on what cruel torment that it could inflict on you based on your wishes and maybe your horoscope is just even more proof that it was not simply made to just kill people.

[maiden grotto]

https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Wish_Granter - First line. The wish granter was a trap

I sick of talking to people who haven;t got a fecking cluye what they are talking about.

[subtle spindle]

traps dont actually have to kill whatever theyre trapping. like mouse traps. or beartraps. or maybe theyre not traps since they dont outright kill the animals they capture

[wintry pumice]

Since Marshal's memories were transferred to him, his intentions also became his. He simply set out to establish what Marshal was trying to do which is revenge on Ward but I guess kinda with C-consciousness's blessing

[serene barn]

like think about it for 2 damn seconds Rog. why would the C-con do all that extra stuff if all they needed was a thing to fry your brain on the spot and end your free trial of life

you're just too damn hung up on the idea that "oh it definitely only killed people"

[wintry pumice]

I mean they still do fry people with their emissions

[subtle spindle]

i mean keep in mind scar is an agent that still has an objective that we dont entirely know. that will always take precedence over anything

[surreal aurora]

The very fact that the legend of the wish granter was spread around tells you that it wasn't meant to kill you outright. The idea was to draw the strong and capable to convert to Monolithian control to then serve the c-con.

[serene barn]

yeah but like the emissions happen because their tech is not able to hold off the power flowing into the world from the noosphere. that's why they have to release the Psi buildup to prevent them blowing up or something.

[subtle spindle]

yeah and if all they needed the wish granter for was killing people they wouldve just fried them with one of the variety of doodads and thingamajigs they made to do exactly that that we see in the games

[wintry pumice]

He's an agent even before clear sky but something must have changed if they needed to put Marshal's memory in him

[subtle spindle]

tbf they also could just be megalomaniac mad scientists that make shit just to make it.

[serene barn]

"In reality, however, it is much more sinister. The Wish Granter is a trap created by the C-Consciousness to protect their secret. After a 'wish' has been granted, the Zone expands by 5 km in all directions. The wish 'granted' is an illusion or a violent trick, often brainwashing the victim into seeing the Wish Granter as a divine being and turning them into a Monolith cultist in service of the C-Consciousness, willingly or not." the same wiki page on the Wish Granter's lore/overview

[sharp sierra]

I do find it weird the ward killed them, there's no point to it, just tell them to clear off this is our base now.. Though that assumes the ward actually killed them and it wasn't fake scar who as a c consciousness agent probably would have orders to kill of scientists and those helping scientists.

[subtle spindle]

nah the raid on chemical plant really did happen other spark members who are actually real write about it but you do provide an interesting question of why ward did that

[wintry pumice]

Mystery is how it happened for the last 10 years when the C-consciousness was killed or stuck on the noosphere with no way to control their equipment? Was it just an automated process?

[maiden grotto]

They do if you want to keep people away from you, so you can stop the noosphere from spilling in.

So many people, who are a thick as anything, not got a fecking clue what they are talking about.

And it is why the scientists (C-con) are not nice either... because of the extreme they went too...

And why I killed them at the end SoC

[serene barn]

from what i can tell, it's made to look like Scar was made an agent only when Clear Sky found him in the Swamp after the dude SURVIVED an emission where people have previously not.

i hope that we will learn more about what things Clear Sky really did in regards to Agents and why they went after Ghost and Fang.

[subtle spindle]

my understanding is that whoever is behind project Y (either faust or doc it depends on who you ask) implanted new memories into scar to make him into a viable agent for completing the goals set out for him

[wintry pumice]

Yeah but you see a PDA in clear sky base or somewhere, where it says they will be sending in an agent to take care of Strelok. I think it is Scar but not completely sure

[serene barn]

iirc the number id IS scar's

[subtle spindle]

yes it is and strelok is also only referred to by his agent profile number

[serene barn]

but seemingly? they already refer to Strelok as another Agent ID

[wintry pumice]

Yeah

[subtle spindle]

tbf this also makes barely any sense

[serene barn]

which wouldn't line up with the events because Strelok doesn't become an agent until AFTER the end of Clear Sky the game

[subtle spindle]

this just feels like an oversight honestly

[serene barn]

a little yeah

[subtle spindle]

i think they wanted to be sly and mysterious and not use streloks name and just forgor that he didnt have his agent id card number yet

[wintry pumice]

Strelok was their agent from the beginning but broke free due to faulty programming

[serene barn]

like it feels like the originals who worked on the old games, just isn't with GSC anymore. so no one has any real idea of what the lore previously said

[subtle spindle]

that could be a possibility if his sole life goal wasnt to go to the cnpp

[serene barn]

hmm no i don't think so. Clear Sky the game is the first game that happens in the Timeline of Stalker.

[subtle spindle]

i mean even if its the first game things happened before CS. namely the formation of duty

[wintry pumice]

Which happens first? Clear sky or Red saving Strelok?

[serene barn]

Strelok is trying to get to the center of the zone in Clear Sky, Scar stops him but both are hit by a big seeminly special emission.

[timid forge]

Yet it's weird how there's areas that don't exist in shoc that exist in cs.

[subtle spindle]

its not weird at all its actually explained pretty clearly

one of the emissions from the beginning of the game blocked of routes to certain areas (rostok) and opened up other ones (red forest, limansk)

[timid forge]

Why does there exist the tunnel from great swamps to cordon in cs, but not in shoc?

[subtle spindle]

oh as for the maps themselves its just gsc not caring about consistency all that much

[serene barn]

in the credits or what it is, we see Strelok in a hallway with loads of other stalkers, all in the middle of being brainwashed, or wiped. and then SoC happens where Strelok is sent out on a Death Truck. but something with his programming was messed up because apparently they did not know that HE is Strelok so they gave him the mission to Kill The Strelok because the C-Con knew that someone named Strelok was actively trying to enter the center.

[wintry pumice]

Wasn't duty found when the government refused to send reinforcements during the first noosphere incident?

[timid forge]

Yes, that.

[serene barn]

and not only does the programming seem to get undone, but he regains his memories. unlike all of the Monolith for example.

[subtle spindle]

i dont remember the details but i think this is pretty much it

[maiden grotto]

Clear Sky that is, when he became an agent and sent out on a death truck

[serene barn]

maybe they just fry the brain in a different way when they make them an Agent as part of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R program

[subtle spindle]

strelok very famously does indeed lose his memory and never regains it

[serene barn]

different way that allows them to retain memory.

[maiden grotto]

Nope

[serene barn]

you literally see him remembering the Doctor and the places he went to when he has the flashbacks in SoC though?

[maiden grotto]

Not as far as ibam aware

[serene barn]

least i think you see him remember. because he sees things he did.

[subtle spindle]

i mean he gets flashbacks that pretty much it. he doesnt know who he is apart from that. its not a complete mindwipe just a more medical type of amnesia instead of monolith brainrot

[maiden grotto]

That's because his coding wasn't complete or it fecked up

[serene barn]

i also feel like Scar is not entirely wiped either because he remembers having to stop Strelok once

just that Marshals memories were implanted into his and he thought they were his own.

[subtle spindle]

yeah after all he still calls himself scar

2 people in 1 basically.

[serene barn]

i wonder if that picture that Strelok gave the Doctor, is in the X Lab where Faust was kept while they created him, is there for a reason other than "hey you've seen this before"

[subtle spindle]

when is this picture seen i want to see it again

[maiden grotto]

Maybe... who knows, so much has been reconned... no way to know for sure.

It may have been his instruction all along.

Seeing as agents were sent to disrupt and do all manners of things

[serene barn]

maybe i am remembering the whole thing about him remembering being a theory.

[subtle spindle]

i dont remember scar mentioning strelok much at all but i didnt play the spark ending so i mightve missed that

[serene barn]

i wonder if Scar is also supposed to have the S.T.A.L.K.E.R tat or maybe he doesn't as Clear sky seem to have made him an agent far away from C-Con's normal place of operation for making agents

[serene barn]

you see it laying in the a room where it's believe Faust was kept in. in the X-Lab in Agroprom.

[subtle spindle]

tbf stalker tatoos are never seen anywhere else other than on strelok i think they kinda forgot about them

[serene barn]

we do see it on Dark

[subtle spindle]

oh yeah strelok shows it to skif i frogot

[serene barn]

oh and uhh, on a dead as frick body in the Death Trucks in Generator at the end of the game.

[subtle spindle]

as a side note those tatoos are completely stupid why would secret agents that are meant to blend into stalker communities be given these extremely distinct tatoos on a very visible part of the body

[serene barn]

at least in my Ward Run, Korshunov pops open the thing and a body almost falls out and you see it on them

[serene barn]

riiight. lol.

[subtle spindle]

at least they didnt remove that completely lol. im sure that initially it was just put there as something eye-catching for the intro cinematic of the game

[serene barn]

at the same time. maybe people would have more concerned about it if they started finding something equivalent to a Synth part inside of people sometimes. than what seems to be like a popular tat amongst the Stalkers in the zone?

[subtle spindle]

i mean theres no synth parts agents are physically no different from normal people

[serene barn]

yeah but what i mean is if the Agents had to have something that could make it clear to their master, that they are an agent, it works

like it's a tat and people don't know that this would mean they've had their brains scrambled and are now secret undercover agents out doing missions with no one else knowing.

but if people started finding mechanical implants in people from time to time?

[subtle spindle]

ig for now its not a problem but eventually people like strelok would start figuring this out and it would be common knowledge in some years

[serene barn]

i also feel like maaaybe he would have decided to tell people what it had meant

well or maybe not because it could be limited to how many loners etc would believe that he put a stop to the whole thing

[maiden grotto]

https://youtu.be/m45zGBxPaf8?t=571 - Watch the video... I got it the right time hopefully (9:30)... C-con literally tells us that programming went wrong, and they are looking into why?

They made a mistake, and programmed him to kill Strelok, himself.

[serene barn]

might've been a theory i remembered instead then.

idk when it was i last played SoC, might've been 2023 or something

[maiden grotto]

Strelok was heading to the centre of the zone... and was brain washed at the end of it (clear Sky)... I.e the cut scene with the TV's... But his programming went wrong, and was ordered to kill himself...

Sent out on a death truck, and that was the start of SoC.

[serene barn]

i find the part with how the zone would expand when someone made a wish to the wish granter though as listed in the wiki

oh hey

[maiden grotto]

You got a linky for that, would like to read it.

[serene barn]

the Brain Scorcher was one of the things they used to make agents with

[serene barn]

it was on the same page you linked me earlier for the Wish Granter lol.

[boreal coyote]

i vaguely remember hearing this in a lore video

[maiden grotto]

But for the most part, the zones expansion really came from the C-Con losing control, emissions, and the zone growing bigger.

And it may well be, that they are concentrating on the Wish granter and and an emission seeps through as they are not concentrating properly.

[serene barn]

i feel like the zone expanding 5 whole km each time a stalker makes a wish seems like a weird thing that the C-Con likely wouldn't even want to happen as it would make thezone expand thus more people would come into contact with the zone over time

it's interesting that they actually sent more than just 1 out to kill strelok like it sounded like they did more than just Strelok, accidentally, and Dark

[maiden grotto]

It's probably C-con allowing it to grow, to make it harder for people to get to the centre... "Damn, it's not big enough"

[serene barn]

like i wonder how many others are left still trying to do that before we do

[serene barn]

ehh idk, with the zone being bigger, their defenders, the monolith, would be spread out thinner so people would be more likely to get through perhaps.

[maiden grotto]

Each one sent out, had a different job to do. Could have been anything, that C-con needed done.

[serene barn]

and it wasn't like they just let people get to the Wish Granter either like, no you had to fight your way there

[serene barn]

yeah absolutely, i just mean it's interesting to think about how many they possibly could have sent out after these 3 people.

[subtle spindle]

theres no proof of the zone expanding in the games its just a lie by c-con

[maiden grotto]

Yes, becaue they needed it to be a trap... And to keep the illusion it wasn't trap, they made monolith to defend the hell out it, mumble something about it, and true to kill everyone... or brainwash them...

Thus strengthening the myth of the wish granter.

[serene barn]

idek remember if that expansion thing was said in the game itself.

the C-Con in SoC says that the Monolith was originally just people who they made promises to, then later they turned them into what they then became.

i still feel like the Wish Granter was uses to make people agents and just kill.

like just seems like a whole lot of extra for just death trap to me.

[maiden grotto]

I don't remember it either.... I always rember it being, that emissions were noosphere bleeding through, as C-con lost control, as they were struggling, as their was supposed to be 8, not 7.

Which is why in SoC, Strelok has the option of joining them in the 8th pod.

And the zone expansion was to do with the emissions, especially the big ones, IIRC.

[serene barn]

i do feel like i remember hearing super emissions doing it but iddddk lol.

admittedly the second time i didn't listen as much as the first time.

i wonder if Dugout is gonna make more videos on the events of 2

[maiden grotto]

Nope... First and fore most, it was a trap, it was built by C-con for the purpose, to keep stalkers away from them. As the in video I posted, they stated that mankind is not ready for what they know.

It was all an illusion... And you get the chance to not buy into it, when the choice comes up.

watch the video... will explain many of the things... Or play the game, SoC for me, is by far the best one...

I absolutely love it.

[serene barn]

listen i have never said the Wish Granter was NOT, a trap

sometimes you make a trap to kill the target, sometimes you make a trap to hold it in place. potentially while a group of monolith haul your body off to get brainwashed by the tvs.

[wintry pumice]

You see the proof in game, you will see a dilapidated wall before you encounter the new wall built to keep outsiders from coming in

If you go south of Zalissya

[serene barn]

i played SoC twice and Clear sky twice. just CoP once.

[wintry pumice]

Deggy hater

[serene barn]

i wanted to replay CoP to feel the power that the PKM was supposed to have in 2 😭

[wintry pumice]

I feel like they could have added a bit of pistol variety

Gimme my Desert Eagle

[serene barn]

yeah i would have liked another semi auto handgun that was better than the UDP but maybe weaker or ideally stronger than the APSB

i mean, the APSB is great and all but, it's basically a machine pistol.

with what felt like a bad delay because you could single fire it because you had to hold it long enough to do the full burst

sometimes i like my pistols going bang bang bang and not bababang

[charred nova]

Deagle

Bring it back

[maiden grotto]

People were screaming at me, trying to tell me when I was talking shyte. With people saying it wasn't built by C-con.

As it turns out, I was bang on the money with the whole lot of it. Every single wish granter ending in SoC, shows Strelok dying, or disappearing into the black void never to exist anymore.

Just look up stalker endings, you get to see all of them. You get to see what the wish granter is.

[serene barn]

who the sheet said the Wish Granter wasn't built by the C-Con to hide their search history? lol

i did get one of the Wish endings until i remembered "wait didn't i have a thing that mentioned a door?" and loaded a save lol.

[vernal lily]

Testing wolf right now: Shіt

[serene barn]

don't remember which one i got. but i did see a video with them all and what you had to do to get them.

[serene barn]

knowing how i played the game it was likely greed..

[wintry pumice]

Shit

[vernal lily]

you can say shit here, but just not the F word

[wintry pumice]

Shity Wolf

[vernal lily]

Shіtty wolf

[serene barn]

the bot wasn't letting me even say bs earlier and it also just feels like it only cares sometimes.

[frigid hill]

machturbo7 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[wintry pumice]

Bullshii

[vernal lily]

Bullshіt

[wintry pumice]

Hey it's warning me, why is wolf letting you go?

[boreal coyote]

bull ish

[wintry pumice]

Dog shit

[vernal lily]

I kissed Wolf on the mouth yesterday

[maiden grotto]

@serene barn Really? This is what I was arguing against. Stupid stuff like this, like monolith were run by computers.

No, C-con gave specific instructions for Monolith to follow. Defend this area, attack here... You see it at the end of Clear Sky, with monolith getting target instructions on who to shoot.

[serene barn]

the Monolith was just a machine, a machine built to use Psi radiation to show people a big rock monolith but it was basically just a hologram. the machine then in my opinion and according to the Wiki, would make someone see a vision, while the body of the person seeing the vision, being moved elsewhere to either become another soldier for the Monolith ranks or an Agent.

the machine itself was physical though, made out of highly advanced technology.

[maiden grotto]

yes, I know it's machine... I mean how many times have I said C-con built it?

[serene barn]

instructions sound like they were sent out on frequencies that only the Monolith could pick up on, either Psi radiation or encrypted radio ones.

that Flashback Strider shows us also reminded me of how Haephestus from Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West sounds lol.

[maiden grotto]

Yes, but the point is, those instructions were given by C-con. They wasn't automated.

[serene barn]

i would at least think so yes but idk if we ever get told specifically that the signal ceased on the date of whatever it was when Strelok installed some AC into those pods.

and idk exactly if the signal full on did stop because there is still Monolith in CoP which happens after SoC.

like it sounds like the signal only stopped for some of the Monolith forces.

[maiden grotto]

Do we really need to be told every single little thing?

Was it not blatantly obvious at the end of Clear Sky, with the targetting, that it's all bout C-con controlling everything giving instructions to Monolith etc?

you played the game twice you said? you pay attention?

[serene barn]

you don't lean from SoC or CS about what killing the C-Con does for the signal lol.

like it's only in CoP that it's made clear that something happened to some of the Monolith, but i wanna know why it wasn't ALL of the Monolith that got cut off in the same way.

[lilac trellis]

whoops

[maiden grotto]

I'm not talking about killing C-Con FFS! follow the conversation.

"monolith fighters get brainwashed by the brain scorcher or something, and then commanded by the monolith automatically." - This... This is what we are discussing

Which is utter BS.

[serene barn]

the Monolith doesn't even know what they did, they talk like they just woke up from a coma as if they weren't really there while they were monolith.

i uh

did you see me say anything about how they monolith didn't receive any type of instructions?

earlier you said the point was they didn't get automatic instructions which i agreed with

[maiden grotto]

It really helps if you actually reply to the point you are make... cos you not replying to anything, just sends converstations off all over the place...

[serene barn]

for them to even have been given automatic instructions there would have needed to be a system in place that literally tracked everything and that just sounds like too much

[maiden grotto]

Agreed.

[serene barn]

meanwhile the C-Con probably can literally watch over anywhere in the zone as if looking at a live feed, thus give out instructions on the fly as a battle rages

i don't wanna rule out the idea that intructions didn't go through something else first because we know what the C-con sounds like, but in that flashback of Striders it sounds more, inhuman.

[loud wadi]

Is there a stamina mod that only affects jumping and knifing? The running stamina is a bit low but acceptable. The knife taking up a third of stamina is unplayable. It is the emergency backup when I cannot run away and should not be affected nearly as much as it is now.

[maiden grotto]

No, of course they used equipment to do it. I don't think anyone on the planet has said so.

[serene barn]

well you sure did make it sound like it was from the C-Con like directly, from the C-Con

"oi Strider my boy, i need you to put a hole in that guy, 469 meters out to your left"

[maiden grotto]

FFS! They are controlling them directly.... They are the ones giving the instruction... not the machine

[serene barn]

i am almost sure that i remember that the Monolith had ranks

[maiden grotto]

I am talking to you via my fecking comnputer.... It's me directly talking to you, not my fecking PC

[serene barn]

meaning they had squad leaders.

i feel like C-Con only gave basic instructions and then Squad leaders would figure out the how of things. to then make the soldiers do.

[maiden grotto]

Or as Clear Sky showed, commanding individuals when needed too.

[indigo oriole]

I know u hate me for asking but is it possible they will release this f in patch this week ? 🤣

[serene barn]

like i think the flashback of Strider is an example of an intruction coming through from someone or something else.

[maiden grotto]

Bring out the giant rubber ronnie

[wintry pumice]

Preachers are the ones who receive orders IIRC

[maiden grotto]

Could be the case.

[indigo oriole]

My asshole is not a two way street boi

[maiden grotto]

Who says your getting a choice 😛

[indigo oriole]

I am cuz ur not the boss beach 🤷‍♂️

[maiden grotto]

Readies the knock out hanky 😄

[indigo oriole]

Bomboclaaat

[maiden grotto]

Time for nibbles, and watching some Through the Darkness

Good series 🙂

[maiden grotto]

Possibly...

But thinking about it, I think they do command directly to monolith, without a machine... as its probably through, psi radiation fields... and this only possible as the as connected to noosphere via the pods.

Either way, C-con gone, no more monolith

[terse ravine]

whats the name of the song played in streloks ending?

[river chasm]

_SET_MODE --CONTAIN

[slender trench]

I'm a bit disappointed that there aren't more anomalous areas.

[river chasm]

Like archanomalies? Me too

[slender trench]

With a map this big, there should be more. The Wandering Lights was one of the coolest things I unintentionally discovered, and I wish there were more areas in the game that really blurred the line between science-fiction and the supernatural.

[sharp sierra]

Hope they add more weapons and mutants to the game (and nvgs) I'd love an SKS or AKM incidentally Ragman has an AKM. Also spitfire seems to be an akmsu judging by the ak47 mag and folding stock

[nimble idol]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iVPVnbg36aU&pp=ygUTc3RhbGtlciAyIHJwZyBlYXJseQ%3D%3D
INCREDIBLE 🔥

[nimble idol]

I would love an SKS or SHAK12

[misty sinew]

Doing my second playthrough right now and game has felt to me it not "being" a stalker world, but trying to simulate it. Idk. The fact that so much space on the map is empty doesn't help the case.

[misty sinew]

I'd love more than 50fps on 7900xtx lmaooo

[ornate sable]

Complete opposite for me, felt more like the Zone because of the space, like it was finally what it always should have been whereas the older games had to compress everything into smaller regions.

[slender trench]

I'm kind of hoping that as they release more content and fine tune things, they will add more environmental changes or anomalies to the game. I don't expect anomalies at every turn, but the fact that there are so few anomalous areas is a little disappointing given how huge the map is.

[misty sinew]

I get what you mean, I've also always wanted Zone to be a large, explorable area with no boundaries, which Stalker 2 achieved, but my complaint is that it's... empty. Barely any side quests, non-existant A-Life so, literally, nothing is happening outside 100m spawn radius. Barely any archanomalies, no mutant lairs of sorts etc. Just some empty buildings with ammo and sausages.

[slender trench]

I honestly really enjoy the environmental detail and open spaces sometimes. It's really nice to just soak in the world during a sunset or sunrise when its peaceful.

[misty sinew]

Meanwhile me using cheat engine speedhax to move around faster lmao

[terse ravine]

just get thunderberry x2 and its basically unlimited sprint

[misty sinew]

I love the fact that artifact meta hasn't changed since OG games and endurance is still goated

[slender trench]

I can totally understand your gripe about the world with that context. It does feel that there isn't much going on from A to B at times.

[fickle cosmos]

shitteh wolf

[misty sinew]

I'm soo depressed there's no A-Life. Just freaking imagine the things they could do with the modern engine they're working on. Full on faction skirmishes, factions taking over territories, stalkers doing their own jobs like mutant hunting, grabbing artifacts, scientists exploring the area with soldier escorts, mutants creating lairs. Like there is so much untapped potential

Also the AI technology has been researched so much in the past few years

[slender trench]

That's why I'm really excited for the game's future. With the prior games, the community was severely constrained by how the games were developed. With this one, all they needed was a really solid foundation. I'm going to bet money that the mods for this game are going to get really crazy.

[misty sinew]

Imagine the things we'll get when they release SDK

Like, people created Gamma/Anomaly and other godzillion mods with the fckn X-RAY of OG trilogy

[slender trench]

I've been writing down a list of things I'd like to see in the game. It's given me much hope for the future.

[misty sinew]

Care to share

[slender trench]

-When sitting at a campfire, you can eat/drink and check your PDA without getting up. Would also be really cool if there were periodic weapon check animations or animations where you load magazines.
-Additional banter between NPCs, sharing more about their prior lives, recent experiences, and new jokes.
-Sleeping bags and sitting in most chairs.
-Enemy footsteps sound increase (I feel like it doesn't currently work).
-Enemies will react differently based on their weapons and environment. With long-range weapons, they will hang back and try to pin you down while their allies with close range weapons push.
-Sometimes an enemy in a group will disengage to try and get the high-ground, climbing stairs or ladders to get a positional advantage. It would add verticality to combat, which I personally think is needed.
-Allies no longer looting the corpses you killed. Or maybe they would sometimes try and bully you from looting your kills. Maybe you could bully them and prevent them from looting their kills.

[misty sinew]

Awesome list. Also an interesting note about footsteps, so far I haven't relied on hearing enemy footsteps in combat, aside from mutants crunching on the grass when I'm looting/looking at my PDA

[slender trench]

I have so many ideas for how combat could be tweaked or overhauled to make firefights really stand out from one another. I just have no idea how the programming behind it all would work, but I think I have a decent idea for how the logic could be done.

[slender trench]

Yeah, the footstep thing is something I have a huge problem with. With the trilogy, listening to the audio was critical to survival, so you were consistently stopping, listening, and trying to assess where people might be when hiding in cover.

I've had several instances where enemies have snuck up on me and shot me point-blank in the back because there were no audio ques to inform they were nearby. I thought I was going crazy, at first, but after it happened several more times I was certain that something was wrong.

[misty sinew]

Yeah, the footsteps in OG trilogy were a very important cue in combat.

[slender trench]

I was like, "How the hell did they drop the ball on something so important in the originals?"

[misty sinew]

Funny how this sentence can be applied to much more in this game lol

[solemn ibex]

guys, I want Sakharov back please

[drifting forge]

Real

[misty sinew]

Yeah I need my schizo genius scientist back

my goat

[solemn ibex]

I almost cried when I visited Yantar and saw an empty buncker

[plain fiber]

I mean they had the same ranking system as other NPCs but they also had field commanders with the preachers and guys like Charon.

[misty sinew]

DUDE SO TRUE

[solemn ibex]

I was running to him, like to see my uncle who I have not seen for a while and there was he not

[drifting forge]

Literally same

[slender trench]

Not going to lie, without spoiling for others, it's really sad visiting some of the older locations.

[misty sinew]

Lmaoo. Sakharov was my favorite vendor in Shoc, my sugar daddy. I always collected as many arts as possible to sell to him

[solemn ibex]

I did not visit this section until I finished the game, now I hope to talk openly about the game

[solemn ibex]

I have collected all my artefacts throughout the game and did not sell them and waited for Sakharov

[slender trench]

Idk why, but seeing what became of Agroprom cut deep. It wasn't even a level I liked.

[misty sinew]

I was expecting an IPSF HQ at the institute tbh

[solemn ibex]

ther is literally NOTHING there

[misty sinew]

On another note anyone else swapped their Voronin bodypillow for Korshunov one upon playing staker 2 or just me

[solemn ibex]

So much of the Zone I did not feel like exploring, because there was not enough of bases for such a huge map. Duga and Military Warehouse, Agroprom, Yantar and so on, are empty. So you just get tired coming back to the chemical plant or Rostock for resuply and the game punishes you very hard for not taking care of your gear

[solemn ibex]

I also felt like Ward was just Duty (but with money)

[maiden grotto]

I think the zone needs to be bigger to be accommodate them.

I feel they are all too close together.

[misty sinew]

Ward is everything Duty aspired to be. Which is kinda sad to me as an old-time Dutyer

[slender trench]

That is the vibe I've been getting so far. Why the hell weren't they just absorbed into Ward?

[misty sinew]

Nostalgia bait so they left a bit of Duty independence xdd

[scenic scaffold]

https://tenor.com/view/stalker-2-stalker-scar-spark-meme-gif-6112129495284371231

[maiden grotto]

More differences than that.

Duty just wanted the zone gone, whilst Ward want theczone fore it's secrets first, before getting rid of it.

[solemn ibex]

but you can't really do anything for them, you clear out a warehouse that Duty desperately needs and then what? not use it?

[slender trench]

At least there is a solid foundation for modders to add in quests and lore fluff.

[misty sinew]

True, this all goes back to the point that the Zone is empty with no A-Life to back it up.

[solemn ibex]

I get it, it is all details, the vibe that you carry throughout the game, we talked about it

[maiden grotto]

Everything in the game is bare basic... as they had to rush it out the door...

I mean, all npcs have 700k...

Is insane how little there is.

[misty sinew]

Imagine if we could also join factions... Which would unlock additional side quests unique to the faction and its quirks... Moving up the ranks, going on patrols, taking over territories... Damn 😔

[maiden grotto]

I'm just waiting to see what they do... it's gonna be months, until then, the vets are working on the wounded animal

[scenic scaffold]

have you tried Modular Hard Mode 2

[solemn ibex]

I will delete the game after I do another ending. Will reinstall towards October or so

[solemn ibex]

what is 700k?

[slender trench]

Same. I'm going to play Metro and Gamma after beating the game, and let the studio cook for a year.

[scenic scaffold]

I'm doing a New Game Start Loner from Duga making his way to the swamps, with A-life Found a Way, and Modular Hard Mode 2 Master mode with only campfire/hub saves allowed. Just doing side quests with the main quest deactivated and focusing on immersion and survival.

Ultra plus mod also helps with quality and performance

[misty sinew]

Ultra plus quite literally killed the performance for me but twas some time ago

[maiden grotto]

700 koupons... the currency in game.

Have you not noticed that npcs all have the same amount?

[scenic scaffold]

It's came a looooong way.

but I'm in their discord and they do detailed updates

[solemn ibex]

I did not trade with normal NPCs

[maiden grotto]

Nope... it's just a lot of things were cut from the game to get it out the door.

It feels like everything is ac place holder, for something else down the line...

[scenic scaffold]

you're not willing to try something that actually works?

[slender trench]

So much potential down the line for what's to come.

[solemn ibex]

Praying to Jeebus that is going to be like in No Man''s Sky come back story

[maiden grotto]

Try it, you'll see, unless they have updated this, which I don't think they have.

[scenic scaffold]

Vanilla is gonna be basic as hell with bullet sponge enemies. I will never go back to it lol

[plain fiber]

I'm probably going to start playing Chaos Theory again, I've been feeling nostalgic while waiting for the update.

[scenic scaffold]

and it rains loot on you. Mhm 2 takes over all the items in the world and makes it scarce and makes the economy more balanced

idk. I think modding is fun.

[maiden grotto]

But they need to get it right though.

The game has insane amounts of potential...

I am just not v sure they can reach it.

[maiden grotto]

Will probably drop tomorrow now

[plain fiber]

I think they can, it's just going to take longer that both the community and GSC would like.

[slender trench]

I'm not worried about the devs reaching that potential. Should they fail, which I hope they pull through, I know the community will succeed. The community is one of the biggest reasons why the Stalker franchise has remained relevant for so long.

[scenic scaffold]

I just like how I can get the game to a 100x better point than what it will be because of modders literally right now today. lol

and with patches implemented for future proofing.

[maiden grotto]

I use mods, but I am choosy though.

I got a ballistics mod
4hr day/night
Headlight mod
Deadlier enemies
Shops sell more useful things
Better wear and tear
Friendly repair costs cheaper

[misty sinew]

Yeah without mods I would've dropped this game day 1 lol. MHM is ass though I tailored the game to my own taste and even with its problems the gameplay itself is nice

Still waiting for someone to make an all-black AS Val retexture 🥹

[scenic scaffold]

MHM 2 is god tier imo. I've wanted to try desolation, but there is less compatibility with other mods

[maiden grotto]

Same... hate the vanilla of this game, hate the story more

[misty sinew]

The story is WACK. Like, I couldn't follow the plot for some reason, everything seemed not connected and random at times, walk from point A to B etc. But I didn't really pay much attention to plot but lore and history of the zone

[maiden grotto]

I am, because I want it to be successful...

And it should be it's own merit...

And amazing game results more dlc and map expansions...

Mod should be the cherry on the cake of excellence

[scenic scaffold]

Well the first mistake was UE5

[misty sinew]

LMAOO

[river chasm]

Stories do tend to be harder to follow when you don't pay attention to the plot

[misty sinew]

Trust me I listened through every dialogue/cutscene but that shit made no sense whatsoever and felt all over the place, lol. I sided with Ward though maybe it's better when siding with Iskra

[plain fiber]

Paying attention isn't a guarantee that a person will understand either if their media comprehension/literacy level is...sub-par.

[river chasm]

I'm just saying it's a weird complaint and admission to make in the same sentence

[plain fiber]

Fair enough.

Personally, I really haven't had a difficult time understanding the story so far.

[maiden grotto]

Me neither.

[scenic scaffold]

i never really had a problem with the story and found it engaging and fun. Especially for the setting and playing the older games it was a fresh of breath air.

Better than dying light 2 or star wars or avowed or dragon age

[plain fiber]

Honestly I've been enjoying the story as well. Feels more like GSC was trying to stylistically imitate the Stalker film.

[scenic scaffold]

Metro Exodus made me cringe the ENTIRE time. played that right before stalker 2

[plain fiber]

I loved Metro Exodus' story...

[scenic scaffold]

Miller was insufferable.

[plain fiber]

Never had an issue with Miller personally.

Also I got the good ending and it made me get all misty eyed.

[drifting forge]

He was the complete opposite of his book character lol

[scenic scaffold]

stealth and the lighting was very weird

[plain fiber]

Never had an issue with the stealth or lighting myself.

[scenic scaffold]

it was waaaaaay too bright

[plain fiber]

I really need to read the books.

[drifting forge]

They're awesome

[maiden grotto]

It was nice, it wasn't woke garbage. Very nice.

But for me the story sucked and its a complete mess.

Is why I hope they make the game right, so nice can just be a stalker, and screw the main quest right off.

Missions, artifacts, and exploration for me... oh and joining duty.

[scenic scaffold]

I would've liked him then lol