s2-lore-discussions

[vast drift]

||From the documents that are loose, it is understood that he has neurological problems, in addition to the fact that after the emissions he received in CS, I would not be surprised if they had an effect on him.||

||the ward ending is literally 1984||

[unique lark]

anyone bugged on visions of truth? ||when defending malachite, i got hostile factions side quest (from the scientist, which is weird since im defending their base)||

[vast drift]

||That's normal and it happens because Ward takes the power and forces them to hate you.||

[unique lark]

||even if im not on ward side right?||

[vast drift]

I mean when you're on Scar's side

[unique lark]

ohh got it, thanks mate!

[onyx hare]

I've got some painfully basic questions about the thing I just did in Dead Frequency, if someone can help me out 🙏

|| do we know what the dish does at this junction of the story? why did we turn the dish on? What were we here for to begin with, I thought it was just taking the mole captive? ||

[junior patrol]

||Is that really the case? I was playing as a sparker and I thought I'd just killed a few of their soldiers during the fight vs ward.||

[remote sorrel]

I should reminded me that I should repost it here,

All ending Spoilers.

||The ending where you AS skif to INSIDE you let the Zone embrace itself, Little does He know it wants to expand and eventually contains the whole Earth making it all eventually the Zone, FAUST WARNED US THROUGH THE WHOLE GAME||

||In the Spark ending scar salvages the Zone making it Altering peoples Vision and what else making it "the perfect place" but only in someones mind.||

||In the strelok ending he contains the Zone and doesnt want anyone in or Out, letting the Zone pretty much live on upon itself.||

||in the Ward ending they Control the Zone, basically max Security and law and even get skif a one way Ticket Home but due to Agartha the true Intentions are unknown.||

[last tinsel]

What we know so far about X-Project:
||
X1 - ?
X2 - ?
X3 - Cordon (HoC)
X4 - ?
X5 - Agroprom Undergrounds (HoC)
X6 - ? (possible HoC "Cold Island" DLC)
X7 - Generators (HoC)
X8 - Pripyat (CoP)
X9 - ?
X10 - Radar (SoC)
X11 - SIIRCA (HoC)
X12 - Cooling Towers (HoC, unfinished, probably in DLC)
X13 - ?
X14 - ?
X15 - Orbit Station (HoC)
X16 - Yantar (SoC)
X17 - Malachit (HoC)
X18 - Dark Valley (SoC)
X19 - CNPP (SoC, possible HoC DLC)
||
Where do you think missing X-Labs are located? Are we gonna find out all of them in the future?

[stiff summit]

he only becomes a fanatic in spark and ward endings, he just does what he always said he wanted and becomes a true guide in the other two, he's just really in tune with the zone which is why he is a good guided he knows better paths everywhere and that's why he can be anywhere before you, at least that's my head canon

[undone widget]

meanwhile me, sprinting in a straight line over hills, anomalies, mutants, with maximum endurance artifacts and chugging non stop evergy drink every 2 minutes

the only way faster is to throw a bolt into vortex anomaly and go after it

[stiff summit]

https://i.imgur.com/ZMCLgID.jpeg yeah I wanna see richter do this

[rotund jungle]

Ngl I don't think any of the endings are an improvement upon the zone before skif showed up

[dawn ledge]

Yeah. I agree, none end with “well, thank goodness that guy showed up and saved the day!”

But if a player wants the Zone to be as close to as it is now without exploding into new areas of the world, frying everyone’s brains, or handing it to a group and entity that has already caused a disaster with their experiments, you’re stuck with ||Strelok||

[rotund jungle]

Well in his, everyone in the zone will die off without supplies from the outside world
I think the ward ending is the only one that could end "happily"

We don't really know what Agatha and her people are monitoring people for
It could very well be a temporary thing to make sure former stalkers don't cause issues in the civilized world

[hot garnet]

agreed

[rotund jungle]

Then again ig streloks barrier could also be a temporary thing
Maybe the dlcs will revolve around stopping him

[hot garnet]

I would enjoy that ngl

[rotund jungle]

Or at least skif trying to escape

[dawn ledge]

Given the “presence” they give Agatha any time she appears, I don’t think she has any good motivations. It’s very Cyberpunk 2077 corpo vibes.

||I’d probably be more inclined to support them if their failed testing didn’t just reactivate the Monolith chaos. It just shows they can’t handle power, even when intentions are positive.||

[rotund jungle]

Oh yeah
She's definitely doing awful stuff
All the homies hate Agatha
Buuuut
She could be stopped in a future dlc
Just sayin

Also none of that evil shit would fly if korshunov or zotov were still alive
Rip those two

[spring depot]

Anyone know what the deal with Scars Altered Toast is and why it's quest marked?

[long horizon]

Does anyone else think that Scar is a bit of a terrorist?

[sullen quarry]

Spark deadass feels like more of a terrorist organization than Monolith LMAO

I almost wanna work with the Ward just so I don't have to tolerate him and his literal gang of assholes

[long horizon]

Yeah when you meet him he turns people into zombies. Straight up wild.

[sullen quarry]

Wait wha? I thought they were just kinda... diverting them or some shit

[final bolt]

None of the factions seem that distinct to me in stalker 2. They all have some grey area morality

[sullen quarry]

Think it's because the story feels so on-rails sometimes

Like Skif can't really enlist with any of the factions and learn their inner workings. Aside from the most obvious story factions.

And even then. You're just allying with their objectives but still being a total free stalker

I think even Degtyarev could join Duty or Freedom to some lesser extent. Marked One absolutely could

Like, from my experience; Skif plays like a lone wolf merc sometimes more than a proper loner, especially with some of his dialogues. Kinda like a young Scar maybe?

[rotund galleon]

is their potential that skif was a stalker agent all along

[undone widget]

ward ending kinda implies that because you can see through his eyes on a tv

[warm aspen]

Does anyone know what the canon ending is for te primary story?

[hollow gate]

I gotta say, I got the ||Strelok|| ending and I'm currently questioning if that's really a good ending. Like, yeah ||he contains the zone, but the zone doesn't contain itself, it still will grow and potentially swallow the whole planet||. What's your opinion, chat?

[warm aspen]

I got I guess the "Project Y" ending and as from what I have read is probably the weirdest and plot twist style thing. Even in the game it walks through your entering of the zone as a repeat.

[spring depot]

When does that happen?

[hollow gate]

I think there's no "canon ending" until we get the DLC, that's what I've heard at least

[warm aspen]

I don't know I can't seem to find a canon ending. I think Skif's ending makes the most sense in a time warp way but all of them either imply there won't be another Stalker game or Skif's ending being the best one because there is a lot you could do still

[spring depot]

Skif's ending would be the canon one, it's the one that directly involves him, not just him facilitating other peoples goals. But then again, his ending implies the zone is changed into something better, but then again, Faust showing up looking pretty chuffed implies otherwise. Faust creates a loooot of mystery in that cutscene and throughout the whole game so he'll likely be quite involved in the DLC/next game

[hollow gate]

||Skif's|| ending is, in my opinion, quite the opposite to what you're saying. ||Skif's|| ending gives developers the opportunity to make more games and possibly even spinoffs, since ||he just lets the Zone be free and that means letting the Zone spread, because the Zone wants to spread... Wouldn't be surprised if we see a Stalker game happening somewhere else than Chernobyl Exclusion Zone...||

[spring depot]

I swear to shit if it's in America I'm done with Stalker

[warm aspen]

Yeah I don't get how we get an achievement for killing faust and he appears as the doctor. It didn't make sense. I understand Faust is a modified controller in human form but how tf we literally kill him and he just takes appearance for the doctor. Not to mention we literally PULL the c conciouness off his body at Duga.

[hollow gate]

Fukushima would be an interesting setting, not gonna lie

[spring depot]

Did we actually kill him? And that was only to key to activate the visiograph, not any pyshic life energy or whatever

[warm aspen]

I was pretty sure the green crystal when you put it into the Scientist base with Scar it is a representative of the c conciousness?

[spring depot]

Ehh, wouldn't make sense. It was no where near as devastating as Chornobyl, got cleaned up super fast and is still safely inhabited, also no mystery, nostalgia or allure to it

[spring depot]

No, it just activates it. C-C is in the Noosphere, not in a physical object

[warm aspen]

yeah thats what I am saying

[spring depot]

Then you gotta work on how you say things because it really came across that you said the opposite 😂

[warm aspen]

So if it is a fake it would make sense how the doctor was faust in a way.. we'll see with the DLC lol.

[spring depot]

DLC might be following completely different things though, might even get one telling us what Strelok was up to before the game, or how Richter lost his guide clients

[warm aspen]

IT ALSO MAKES SENSE WHY HE ASKED YOU NOT TO KILL THE MONOLITHIANS IN THE HOSPITAL!

[spring depot]

It is damning, but then again it also aligns percectly with the doctors personality, as we've been informed of it. Maybe Faust was doing the long con, or maybe everything just lined up perfectly

However, the doc saying it was really hard to choose between letting Skif die and killing Strider, that to me is the most damning evidence. Should be a pretty simple choice, let Skif die, you're next

[hollow gate]

But Doctor being Faust doesn't make sense in one very important thing: Why did Doctor (Faust) send Strelok to kill the C-Con and destroy the Monolith

[spring depot]

Who knows when he took the docs identity. Could have even done it when we were in the monolith hosp

[hollow gate]

Was about to say that, maybe the SoC Doctor and HoC Doctor are two different people and Faust took his personality sometime after the og trilogy

[warm aspen]

Maybe way earlier than that Faust took the Dr identity to spy on Strelok and if he was able to actually dupe the scientists into merging into C con because once they had died and become one, their control over the real life stopped and became nothing more than a consulting body so if Faust was able to trick Strelok as well into letting the Zone "be" idk

I wasn't sure where I was going with that lol

[spring depot]

Thing is, if Faust was the only succesfull Controller, was he ever under full Monolith control? He's a master illusionist himself, how would he come under another illusion? And if not, then why such reverence for the Monolith? If yes, then I doubt he'd have anything to do with the doc during his enslavement

[hollow gate]

thing is, Doctor actually tells Strelok the Wishgranter is a spoof and that he should go find a decoder in Pripyat and use it to get into the lab inside the CNPP to kill C-Con, there is no benefit for Faust here

[warm aspen]

no no I am horrible at articulating I mean to say since he was the only good controller, the illusion of the monolith was pushed by Faust and it was the easiest way to control people idk ?

[spring depot]

So you're saying Fasut 'was' Monolith?

Faust is a true believer in what he's doing, genuinely cares about his brothers, albeit a bit twisted but still, so he would have genuinly believed in the Monolith, but perhaps Monolith is what he called the zone

[ornate venture]

happyfeet99 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[hollow gate]

the worst thing about the Stalker 2 story is that we don't really know what is a retcon and what was planned to happen from the start. Was the Doc being Kajmanow planned from the beginning or was it a retconned? Was Faust really planned as far back as SoC or was he just crammed into the lore in Stalker 2? Lots of questions...

[violet musk]

My thoughts exactly

[spring depot]

I don't think doc is a retcon, a retocon is when previously established facts in the lore is discarded for something else. Like Strelok is suddenly Irish now for no reason

[warm aspen]

I didn't get mad something in the last message was bad I didn't use profanity lol. Anyway, I agree with what you are saying. As Faust thinks the "monolith" was sent to kill him in Skif's ending but he never really died even when you "killed" him he didn't die he showed you the way the zone appears to him- it is all electrical impulses and activity,a whole nervous system.

[spring depot]

Doc being Kaimanov is a twist. But considering just how long it's been since the last Stalker game, I'm pretty sure all of Stalker 2 is original for the game, and don't forget the OG story was scrapped so who the hell knows what it would have been

[warm aspen]

Or better yet- The zone itself is manifesting itself as Faust.

[hollow gate]

I mean, there is a scene where Faust shows how the Zone really looks...

[spring depot]

My only question in Skif's ending, if a free zone is what Faust wanted, then why did re-enslaving his brothers help bring that about, why become the doc to achieve it, and why is there no mention of how this will help his god afterall

[spring depot]

Don't forget, he's an illusionist. Who knows what we saw

This just goes to show how fucky things get when you bring illusions into a story

[warm aspen]

The monolith purged almost everyone as its whole gig is defending the monolith so if Faust was to reactivate the monolith troops like strider it made carrying out securing it easier who knows

[spring depot]

But the Monolith was destroyed and the Wish Granter taken to SIRCAA, why wouldn't the Monolithians just be swarming SIRCAA and standing guard over the remnant of their god?

[violet musk]

So, the monolith is no more since Skif is in control.

[hollow gate]

cause they weren't under Monolith's control yet, the whole "monolith is back" gig happens after Dalin activates the Wishgranter

[spring depot]

We didn't see if that was the case, I'd like to think so but who knows

[warm aspen]

They didn't though at least not in my game. Even when we destroyed it someone was still controlling the monolith. I really think Faust is monolith because even when we destroyed it they monolith didn't just return to normal.

[spring depot]

Yeah that's when I'm talkiing about

[spring depot]

But if Faust is the Monolith, why does he worship the Monolith? He's crazy but not self-obsessed

[warm aspen]

idek

[signal egret]

Did you finished the game? Because I know something

[spring depot]

All endings but Scars

[hollow gate]

my theory is that Faust was created as a sort of embodiment of Monolith. The rock being the "spiritual" leader and Faust being sort of supreme commander that commands the Monolith forces across the Zone, giving orders, planning operations etc

[spring depot]

They were working on the Controller program before C-C went in weren't they?

[signal egret]

So, Faust was a normal stalker who wandered into The Zone. But until CC was taking live human beings to test back in the early days. Faust was captured to be used like lab mouse. Ended up being very human like Controller that everyone can get their mind without killing them like Normal Controller does.

[hollow gate]

they were, and I think that controllers were just repurposed after the C-C was created

[spring depot]

The story states that pretty clearly though

[signal egret]

It's just sad that Faust was innocent person ended up being lab mouse to human controller

[spring depot]

So Faust was not made to help C-C, he was made before. But in regards to what Faust was doing before C-C and Monolith, that goes waaay back into an area we know almost nothing about, there's only speculation that could be had with it. Let's try and focus on what we can gleam from the evidence presented to us

[signal egret]

I said to myself, the story has so many plot holes. If Faust all long for Monolith, why didn't we see him in previous stalker games?

[violet musk]

It's sad that my boy strelok dies

[spring depot]

Having said that, Faust did say that he was the Voice, and Strider was the Banner of Monolith, there might be something in that line

[signal egret]

Get Sterlok ending
That's %100 Canon ending for next dlc I think.

[spring depot]

If we saw someone that supposedly high up in the older Stalker games, his story would need to be resolved much earlier, and he'd lilely have to be a final boss fight before destroying Monolith otherwise people would be like, well what the hell happened with Faust? and wait 15 years for an answer

[signal egret]

Because there will be story dlcs

[violet musk]

Doubtful

[hollow gate]

Faust couldn't have been made before the C-C, since he said that he was a normal stalker, who took "one false step" at some point indicating that it happened after the Zone was created, with the Zone being a creation of C-C itself. They most likely turned him into a Monolithian first and then made him into a controller. That's my theory

[warm aspen]

Or Faust became a controller and used the monolith to control people and such too?

[spring depot]

But was the controller program even in action after the zone was made?

[signal egret]

Yes

Apparently, "come to me" line is his voice

[hollow gate]

one simply does not "become a controller", you can't mutate into being a controller, controllers were all man made

[spring depot]

If he was that good, why not just turn his brothers back into monolithians from the start rather than try to convince them in that debate with Strider?

[warm aspen]

I thought so too?? if thats he case I wouldn't be shocked if the Project Y ending being the canon for DLC

[hollow gate]

Definitely, I'm 99% certain. All the mutants were used by C-C to protect the center of the Zone, along with the Monolith

[spring depot]

Project Y?

[warm aspen]

The skif ending gives you the achievement alled "Project Y" and it says you are continuing Dr. Ks research

[signal egret]

Mfs created whole new universe

[spring depot]

Some were by-products of radiation and were not man-made (ignoring the rads being put there by man of course)

[warm aspen]

"Project Y: Go through with Dr. Kaimanov's initial plan."

[signal egret]

The doctor's reveal was like wtf

How Sterlok was friend with him

Mf is backstabber

[spring depot]

Ah right

Another question, if Faust (his actual physical form) was the doc, and we chose to shoot the doc, what was Fausts plan there? I don't remember, to those who shot the doc, was his body there after the emission clears?

[hollow gate]

Correct, almost all. All the humanoid mutants with psi abilities were. Poltergeists, Burers, Controllers. Possibly also the pseudodogs/psidogs

[warm aspen]

Pretty sure if you shot the Doc Strelok would take control of the monolith

[spring depot]

Yeah but that wasn't my question

[signal egret]

Body just vanishes

[warm aspen]

Oh idk if his body would be there. I didn't do it I just finished my first play through and got skifs ending.

[signal egret]

Like bruh

At my first play, I got Sterlok's ending

[spring depot]

So if the doc vanishes if you don't shoot, and if you do shoot, then that must have been Faust that whole time

[signal egret]

Bets ending btw

[spring depot]

Skif's ending is the 'good' one and none can tell me otherwise

[signal egret]

Watch other ones and come to me

[spring depot]

I've only not seen Scars ending and I can't imagine that being the good one

[violet musk]

I've heard ppl mentioning that's also what happens in roadside picnic

[hollow gate]

I disagree. Strelok's ending is just putting a bandaid on a real problem: the Zone's expansion. Zone wants to expand and it does expand.

[warm aspen]

Nahhhh Skif's for sure I read the others. Scar is a delusional dumbo, Ward sucks, Strelok is also a delusional dumbo

[signal egret]

Scar was once asshole, still asshole

How the hell he became so annoying

He was a CHAD in SC

[violet musk]

His brain is all messed up

[spring depot]

Not from what I've heard, but haven;t read it myself yet

Streloks ending is bad, Skif has to swallow his morals for someone elses agenda, and the Monolithians stay enslaved and all that are in the zone cannot leave, I think even Skif is doomed to stay. Not a good ending at all. It's just an ending to show 'live long enough to see yourself become the villain' trope is still pretty captivating

[hollow gate]

Best to worst endings imo:
Skif > Strelok > Ward > Scar

[violet musk]

But with the ward ending, and the woman narrating the end. Does that mean Skif was a stalker agent all along?

[spring depot]

Streloks not delusional, but he may as well be a 'free thinking' Monolithian with his choices

[warm aspen]

Well considering he was brain washed yeah I would agree which is why I think he is a delusional dumbo.

[spring depot]

No, I saw no implication that Skif was an agent at all. She offered him work with them, he barely acknowdged it and just wanted to go home.

[violet musk]

Dr. Kaymanov said it himself. He was reborn in the zone and he wants to protect it.

[hollow gate]

if Skif was an agent the scene with Strelok starting all the TVs in X-3 would've fried his brain

[spring depot]

Makes perfect sense to me. Imagine some company wants to build a supermarket on your family home, what would you do to protect it?

[violet musk]

It's just annoying they left so many plot holes

[warm aspen]

Anyone else notice when you kill Strelok he has a PDA on him that says to kill the Strelok and Skif marks it as complete on Streloks PDA? Maybe skif is the real Strelok lol

[undone widget]

ward ending

[undone widget]

what.. that PDA is from Dark.

[signal egret]

Irony was Sterlok's face so much of it changed, mf looks like twin brother of Vladimir Makarov from CoD MW 2

[warm aspen]

But why would Strelok still have it when you kill him and he doesn't give it up? and how Strelok wanted to see if Skif could see through Dark's eyes? idk

[violet musk]

I think that's when somebody else is controlling the person. The woman mentioned that Stalker agents are so proficient they don't realize they're themselves an agent being used (not controlled) to achieve their goals.

[undone widget]

Skif looked at TV, not through Dark's eyes. TV was looking through Dark's eyes

[spring depot]

That's just closure or closing a chapter, nothing to be read into.

[undone widget]

yeah. You can get a file on Strelok and other agents, his real name is blank and agent programming marked as "failed"

obviously devs want him to remain "a legend" both grand and mysterious at the same time.

[spring depot]

I found his full name online

Streletsky Pavel Konstantinovich

[signal egret]

[spring depot]

Ah, nevermind, apparently this and another option were names but neither are canon

[undone widget]

that's Polish sounding name. i thought he was Strelamir Locomotive

source: || I made it up||

[violet musk]

Only degtyarev survived among the few legends

[hollow gate]

Strelok's real name is ||John Stalker||

[spring depot]

Doesn't sound any more Polish than Ahmed sounds Saudi Arabian over Afghani

[undone widget]

||The Fastest Man Alive||

[hollow gate]

especially that "Konstanty" isn't a popular name in Poland. Paweł Strzelecki kinda does sound Polish, but I have never met (or even heard of) a person named Strzelecki... Apparently Strzelecki is a real name, the more you know lol

[spring depot]

Poland wasn't particularly influenced by the Byzantines as much as Ukraine was ay? Because that's where a name like Konstantinovich comes from

[hollow gate]

we weren't. Not to say that Konstanty isn't used at all in Poland, it's just not as popular as in the east

[spring depot]

There's always gonna be some outlying names. I once new a guy called Richard Head, poor dude

[unique nova]

Red herring

[ornate venture]

knightmire has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[cosmic crescent]

That's just the artifact he used

"If you only knew where I've just been and what I saw"

Same artifact

Yeah, and now they've explained what it actually was

[last tinsel]

Probably was too ambitious so they simplified it. I just hope they add cut content from leaked design docs/builds. Like unfinished X12 lab, clouded locations

[empty geyser]

Maybe with DLC/Expansions

[long horizon]

Naw, in that cutscence when you first meet him in that basement with the scanner thingy. He turns those Wardens into zombies.

[last tinsel]

No way they would have released it in 2022 even with no war, judging by how raw it came now 2 years later. Okay, they had to redo a storyline, but what about other game systems? A-Life? Balance? Economy? Optimization? QA? Don't tell me they didn't manage to fix those things in 2 years.

I bet in 2022 the game was like a half of what we have today. Absence of gameplay trailers from 2022 and leaked builds more or less confrim this

[cosmic crescent]

I feel like that thing just released tons of psi-energy and it fried those Wards' brains

[cosmic crescent]

Leaked builds don't confirm anything. We don't know at what state of the development process that build was created.

[long horizon]

Do you think the X facilities were always decrepad?

[sullen quarry]

Oh right I totally forgot about that

[white flare]

UNISG is deleted from Stalker 2 games?

[woven vortex]

Uh, they never appeared in any games

[white flare]

Same for Duty, only one side quest and that it is, you don’t have Any other interacțion with them

[white flare]

Oh yeah, i think it was cut concent from Clear Sky or maybe i remember it from gama

It was The internațional science reserch group

[woven vortex]

They were supposed to appear in Clear Sky but never made it in for reason I personally don‘t know

[white flare]

Hmm, im curoius to see The cut content from Stalker 2 or The story change that has been made

[deep pewter]

So just beat it for the first time myself, am I correct in understanding in my Ending, ||Strelok|| is manipulating the Zone to keep people out & in?

And now Skif himself is stuck inside, his new "home" he wanted is the zone?

[ornate venture]

chunkysquirrel8615 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[trail hull]

Bruh what I dident even curse wtf

So there is an alternate ending with lt mateus if u bring the soldier back he says wth and then tells u "I dident expect a stalker to be more loyal then my own men" he then pays u 4k and let's u keep the artifact.

[daring pollen]

How is Kaymanov Faust in the end lol?

[white flare]

Ilusion BY The zone

[daring pollen]

By the Zone? Kaymanov is long dead then? When did that happen?

[white flare]

Faust is The ||first succsesfull controler experiment from x labs||

[white flare]

The original Squad is dead from a long time and Strelok with Scar are C-Con agents

[daring pollen]

Ok, so siding with Strelok is best ending in a sense?

[deep pewter]

idk, I just did that and I was left very confused

[hidden dragon]

It preserves the status quo, basically. I wouldn't call it the best.

[white flare]

Best ending is Skif entering the POD, getting a new home (the zone) and letting the zone decide for itself What to do in te future (expending)

[blissful holly]

From all the ending choices we get, the Ward ending is the only one that even remotely approaches rationality. Every other ending is so disastrously compromised by people who are clearly under the effects of Psi radiation. We can't beat C-Cons and wrest the zone from their control, and we've basically canonized the idea that Psi radiation effects last even after the source is removed, and so C-Cons and all its thralls can make you see whatever reality they want. Knowing this, we have no way to rationally investigate the zone while C-Cons retains control, so the only reasonable choice is to destroy the zone as it exists.

[daring pollen]

So basically killing Strelok? That's how you get to that ending? I don't find Faust guy that good lol.

[blissful holly]

The seven original C-Cons scientists, now a single collective consciousness, have decided that they're the only entity that gets to investigate and interface with the Noosphere that affects literally all of humanity on earth, and they'll do anything to prevent others from understanding how they gained this control and what effects it might have.

[white flare]

I think yes, i don’t remember all choices, but you are going alone on everything

[blissful holly]

This is obviously an unacceptable arrangement, and the only thing that we can do is collect as much physical proof of the Project X experiments as we can, kibosh the entire zone to prevent them from any further tampering, and then investigate in a more controlled manner with a new set of bounds based on what we've learned.

[deep pewter]

Since you have a much better understand of all this, could you like simplify the Strelok ending?

[cosmic crescent]

Strelok gets inside the pod and gains control of the Noosphere. He decides to just contain The Zone. It wouldn't expand, but also no one gets in or out without his will.

Not sure how exactly he controls The Zone. Is that just an anomalous barrier that you can't pass through? Or do Monolithians just control the perimeter? Unknown for now, but I presume the former.

[deep pewter]

See that's what I got from it. I guess the whole protect the zone idea was those inside, will remain inside and those outside can no longer influence it.

[blissful holly]

That doesn't work with what we know, after learning of the Noosphere in X-8, the group determined that a single mind was unable to affect the Noosphere, so they moved Noosphere research to X-7, figured a way to collectivize their consciousnesses, made the generators to link their common consciousness with the Noosphere, and this allowed them some measure to interface and make changes. They attempted to make changes, the obviously didn't fully understand all the moving parts, and the resultant instabilities in the Noosphere culminated in the physical world as the Zone. Whether C-Cons is unable to correct their original changes and prevent further occurrence of anomalous energy/matter, or is just unwilling because they want to do further research, we don't know.

We also know C-Cons is unable to directly manifest either energy or matter in the zone, and have been relying on the thralling effects of Psi radiation from the controller project in X-8 to protect their interests in the zone - so why would the addition of Strelok to C-Cons would permit them to suddenly manifest such direct control over energy in the zone? It probably would not.

Strelok suddenly being able to protect the whole zone from without and within is far too pat, and probably a fantasy born of Psi radiation, same as the Shining Zone that Scar is obsessed with.

Pretty much all we do know for sure is that 1) C-Cons is utterly unwilling to relinquish control or share knowledge of how and what their Noosphere experiments are accomplishing, 2) Psi radiation can make you see or believe more or less anything, 3) The combination of (1) and (2) is entirely unacceptable, and there is no reasonable way to ensure that C-Cons is being truthful about anything in the zone, the only rational thing to do is end the experiment entirely and start again with better controls in place.

[wooden elm]

how was talking to dead strider an illusion? shining zone being fake in the end doesnt make sense

[cobalt dune]

stupid question, i havent played the game, is the scene with the waltz in the game?

[cosmic crescent]

no

[cobalt dune]

[sullen quarry]

I don't think the shining zone is so much fake as it is like a conceptual space, a transitional area between physical reality and subsonscious thought of what all zombified stalkers in the zone see as a "zone oasis"

Considering the Noosphere is the implied "Earths informational sphere of human thought and consciousness." The Noosphere is directly responsible for essentially programming human emotions and possibly even how their minds perceive their surrounding. Earth in reality could look totally different in this timeline, and humans just see it differently because that's how the Noosphere is telling their minds it looks.

[snow rose]

or dalin talking to his father or scar recording a conversation with a dead guy

i personally think that the spark ending is just like merging the reality with the noosphere so the still living stalkers can interact with the shining part of the zone where the dead stalker can also exist

[snow rose]

imo
scar>strelok>ward>skif

skif is just global apocalypse

[versed knoll]

Why scars ending is the best? isnt it spreading the zone over the entire world while streloks ending closes the zone for everyone else?

[dawn isle]

Man every time Scar talks to me, my opinion of him gets lower. This guy clearly has wet brain

[hollow gate]

Scar's brain definitely been burned to a crisp by the emissions

[sullen quarry]

It's even more obvious in the UA dub. He sounds VERY eccentric

[sullen quarry]

Not only that, he's one of the survivors of the death of Clear Sky, on Clear Sky's side. Even Nimble got traumatized by that shit.

[worthy zenith]

I think your mixing those two up skifs ending gives the zone freedom amd be able to spread world wide while scars is idk tbh

[ornate pendant]

Lots of map changes from the 2023 leaked build, Jupiter factory hurts my soul, it features a sort of complete underground section that was cut, Pripyat was a bit bigger, binoculars, NVGs

Other than that I am surprised at the current state of the game, 10/10 feels like playing SoC for the first time!

[white flare]

Yeah, i feel you, but it is quite unfortunate that they had to rewrite The story (because of The War).

But The most disapointing part is The lack of new mutants or cut content (i added a map on The channel above with screenshot and photos with The cut content of The map)

Like i saw some mutants with a quite interesting mechanics and i think one on The book (wich i didn’t found anywhere on The map)

For me yeah, The Game is great, graphic wise is The Best that i played in a long time. But that we have new anomalyes and some are pretty giant and not so many new mutants is quite dissapointing (like The zone didn’t evolve on that part)

If we see maybe new mutants in a DLC it will be nice, but i don’t know What will happen then. Because i am thinking if The DLC’s will be a separate Game (like clear sky) or will be included in The Game. If it will be included maybe The story will be rewriten again.

I hope The story expansion will be as cool as The Game itself, After almost 100 hours i am glad that i played this masterpiece, but right now i have a loot of questions in my mind

[snow rose]

most propably just a new area to explore with its own quest line
since on the map are still like two areas that are hoverable with your mouse like you could go there

But i wish there would be a way of getting to join either freedom or duty and finishing the game with them

[white flare]

Yeah, some factions get 0 atention in The Game, like Ward and Duty both want to destroy The zone but never see them togheter

Yeah, i am still exciting to see The map expansion that was presented before release (The hand drawn one)

[somber isle]

duty used to want to, but now both factions have basically been stalled out in their faction war that even with the ceasefire, both parties are up their own ass trying to screw each other over by funding bandits. spark/ward are the two logical extremes of their ideas, but actually effective

i agree that their bases could use a little love, though. at least in my playthrough both had very little to do besides randquests, especially the duty base which bugged out a quest return so I couldn't take another. also the duty guards took their job a little too seriously and didn't run from an emission so I could have some free guns, which was nice of them

[ornate pendant]

X4 was cut, it was supposed to be on the Duga section of the map

[onyx seal]

How much do you think, realistically and not game wise, the zone’s population would be split between Ukrainians and foreigners? Ngl I imagine it would be nearly 50/50

[rotund jungle]

Id say probably closer to 70/30

[sleek wadi]

Does the burnt toast that is on scars dead body have any purpose? Or is it just a call back to him burning toast when you first meet him?

Also how did scar make the zombies passive when you first meet him? He says something about teaching you but it never comes up again (atleast to my knowledge)

[limber tulip]

A DLC showing Faust's past would be interesting. For me he is one of the best characters to be reused.

[junior patrol]

Escape From The Zone

[junior patrol]

I mean technically, the ||Skif ending is the "Faust was right" ending. Same with Scar's tbh, just bc they both end ultimately achieve Faust's goal of spreading the subtle world.||

But yeah, I agree. For the amount of Monolith content in the game, it was a weird choice to ||eliminate Stridor and Faust from the plot so early... Both of them felt like key players and their perspectives should have mattered more. Ultimately it felt like Scar, Strelok, Skif & Krushanov's endings fail to address the plight of Noon at all. Scar's implies that all denizens of the zone, Monolith or not, are persistent in the Noosphere. So they at least get some black mirror version of heaven in that ending. In the Strelok ending, they become guided by Strelok, which still sucks. And under Krushanov, they just... don't come up? I would assume that is the best ending for Monolith really, but who is to say they'll be allowed to leave the former zone.||

[junior patrol]

It's kind of a plot hole bc multiple Spark members talking about living in union with the mutants. But we find if we put that to practise ingame, mutants remain hostile. And zombies (the kind we see in that cutscene) never come up & are never seen again outside of that cutscene.

[vast drift]

probably is something like (2010 90/10, 2015 80/10 and 2020 70/30)

[vast drift]

My head canon is that they were only stalkers with fentanyl

[junior patrol]

As for Duty and Freedom, it is shocking to me that there was never a point where you (siding with Spark or Ward) get the opportunity to court those faction leaders to convince them to assist in your faction's attempt to raid the generators.

I was really expecting more from them after Sircaa went kaplow. At the very least, Duty making some concessions to help Ward with Sphere.

[vast drift]

there are stalkers that talk about conficts between Freedom and Duty

[junior patrol]

In retrospect, I think I was expecting the game to end slightly differently? I was definitely thinking a new faction war would coincident with Sircaa's collapse & I really anticipated Faust & Stridor being more central to the plot. I wasn't expecting subtle matter or for the Spark faction to be glorified dark starkers.

[vast drift]

but there isnt a concflict

[junior patrol]

I suppose I am thinking of the end of Soc, with the factions scrambling to make moves.

The conflict is mostly settled bc Duty and Freedom are expecting Ward to reinforce the treaty. But I guess the conflict going cold post treaty is a valid way for it to end. It's just very noninteractive.

I would have enjoyed being able to sway the faction leaders to pledge their forces to your cause

[vast drift]

I mean there is a dialogue that literally mentions that there are fights but there isnt fights

[junior patrol]

Yeah I know what is in the game, lol

They have a proxy war through the Shah and the Comissary, which are just bandit versions of Freedom and Duty basically

[vast drift]

yes,|| but after monolith returns one of them moves to Cordon||

[junior patrol]

But if you weaken the Ward like you do through the Spark quests, then Ward shouldn't be an obstacle anymore. We should be able to see a faction conflict heat up in real time as we progress deeper into the zone.

[vast drift]

yes, thats what i mean

[junior patrol]

??? What there isn't a real faction war tho. Npcs saying something is very different from encountering groups of freedom and duty stalkers engaging one another and trying to take points of interest

Honestly when the dev was talking over the great swamps footage and mentioned faction leader divisions and factions changing locations, I thought that is what we would see.

I wouldn't say I am disappointed but the lack of faction conflict in the open world like that is a pretty big miss considering just how big the world is, now.

[vast drift]

yes, and thats what brokes the inmersion for me

[junior patrol]

Valid, same. The big one for me was killing the bandit bosses and there being basically no resolution or way for me to resolve the conflict.

The main quest sorta just farts on the garbage area questline in favour of bringing the action to the wild island and Zaton

[wooden wren]

My guess is at least parts of that is due to the broken A-Life 2.0
Can't have faction wars without working AI can we?

[ornate venture]

gwynnethstar has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[sullen quarry]

Excuse me? I think the broken A-Life has something to do with all the shop type NPCs disappearing from places like rookie village

[tranquil parcel]

NPCs disappearing in ROOKIE village is caused by the SIDE quest for SIDOROVICH about the OASIS, if you complete that one, NPCs from ROOKIE when you move away will dissapear.

[sullen quarry]

Well alright. Is there a story reason for that or is it literally a bug

[tranquil parcel]

bugged

[proud idol]

So I did the big SIRCCA mission and after I passed through Zayssia to give the emitter to Scar and a little later Zayssia said it had fallen, honestly I don't really feel like reloading a save and doing the missions to rebuild it but should I?

[wooden wren]

It was touched upon already but Gamma discord has dug into the code and it is in fact there. It's just not working for whatever reason.

[ornate venture]

comptonkingz has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[hollow gate]

I don't think the story is "extremely weak". Quite the opposite imo, it really expands on the OG trilogy. It's just that some plotpoints were not expanded upon enough. Mainly the Noon, tho I believe the "Cold Island" DLC is gonna expand upon it

[opaque ember]

they really should make an extensive side mission about how that merc that was helping hamster actually survived and now its ripping off doors of buildings or having a stash bag surrounded by it after "dying" by the door in zalyssia raid

[zenith fable]

Is the stranger from that initial trailer gone from the game?

[worthy swan]

Endings are all well done. The final act pulled off a metal gear solid 4 bringing together so much lore into the endings from the previous games

[flat dust]

Does anyone know if the ISPF trades with the locals or if they just starve because I can't imagine they can get a helicopter into the zone easily and I don't think it's possible to get to a place like malachite in one day from a place like the checkpoint in the lesser zone

[last tinsel]

If you are talking about the guy on the roof from the trailer, he was supposed to be ||Strelok|| and the person you killed that he talks with you about is ||Doctor (Kaimanov)||

[unique wagon]

is this spoiler territory?

[sullen quarry]

I think the majority of people that don't have anything wrong with the story itself have more of a gripe with lack of faction depth or involvement. Common opinion I'm seeing and it's my own opinion as well, is the fact that the only factions that don't just feel like a dying cliques in this game are Ward and Monolith. And Ward are just a corporate-funded and corporate-interest private security firm in the grand scheme of things.

[unique wagon]

how do I spoiler tagg??

[sullen quarry]

Double || your intended spoiler text

[unique wagon]

|| wait did wish granter transform its essence in alpha artefact and revived monolith??? ||

[sullen quarry]

Pretty sure it was Fausts doing. The timing was just incredibly coincidental

[hollow gate]

It's always been ||Strelok||. Just with hair

[last tinsel]

Source to this? It's not present on the leaked desdocs map legend

[ornate venture]

gwynnethstar has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[sullen quarry]

I know, Wolf. I've got such a stalker vocabulary.

What I'm trying to figure out is what was Skif seeing in the clear sky bunker? With Faust and the scanner and all that. Illusion?

[distant heart]

Cold island DLC….?

[hollow gate]

that's the name I've heard, probably referencing the northern part of the zone

[undone storm]

+1. I thought that the faction storylines were bugged and weren't triggering. Now that factions have no quests

[slow helm]

is there still ||sakharov || in game?, is there his lab?

[undone storm]

no yes

[slow helm]

so, is there anybody in his lab?

[undone storm]

If I'm remembering it's the correct lab, but the it's closed.

It's the lab by the swamp and a factory

[slow helm]

oh,i was hoping to sell my artifacts there

[undone storm]

Yeah, no. Best way to sell artifacts is via generated quests, imo

[slow helm]

thanks

[slow helm]

sorry if im annoying, what about yaniv lab? anybody there?

[undone storm]

near Yanov station? also empty

There are 2 vendors at Yanov station

[slow helm]

hawaiian still there? lol

[undone storm]

ofc

[slow helm]

what

[undone storm]

ofcourse

[gleaming bolt]

hey guys quick question || After bringing the emiter to Dr lovotschka realising he hand a hand in the monolithians he starts attacking me but i cant attack him is this a bug?||

[undone storm]

yes

[gleaming bolt]

||that he attacks or that i cant attack him?||

[undone storm]

I think the first one

[rigid bison]

I need some help recapping myself on the storyline. But pls do not spoiler main plot further.

||Me and Spark went to destroy Duga and kill Faust, to stop Monolith once again.

Question: Why does Skif need that ruckus with C-Consciousness and Representatives? What possible interest or profit Skif has from wandering further and following Scar's crazy plans?||

[undone storm]

He's bored and goes with the flow

The only motivation for Skif in this game is getting a new apartment and doing something fun. Wish i was kidding

If Strelok was in the Stalker programme. And being exposed to "mental programming" a second time - kills you. Why did he not die like Dark did?

[hollow kindle]

is it necessary to use X7 suit in X7 fights? Or it will be needed later?

[hollow kindle]

oh so it looks like it's not necessary to have it xDDD

[blissful holly]

Yeah it doesn't make sense since we definitely see Strelok getting STALKER programmed at the end of CS - unless GSC is gonna try to pull a "actually you never met Strelok, it was also just C-Cons/Faust, Strelok and Doctor were both psi hallucinations designed to give you the illusion of choice, all that mattered to us was that in the end the zone still exists - so long as Scif is satisfied and stops being a danger to the zone, we don't care what he believes."

Again, I hate that Psi illusions are basically a literary catch all for them to invent whatever explanation they want, we have no grounded reality anymore, no sense of dramatic irony in the story anymore, everything can be hand-waved with "oh it was an illusion the whole time" because psi radiation is so perfectly powerful.

The suppressor should have been a magneto helmet, otherwise speculating about the story is dumb when everything can just be washed away at a moments notice with "lol jk it was all a psi illusion"

[undone storm]

It was in the first trailer ever released. And in the first game even

[undone storm]

Yes. This is a classic hole of "it was all a dream"

[covert skiff]

whats scars toast for?

[safe moth]

does anyone know how to respawn hamster? i really dont want to reload a previous save as im too far ahead

[fathom moat]

it is possible to not kill monoliths in hospital?

[bold siren]

i just did the strelok ending, wtf happened im so lost?

[left kite]

You definitely can, but it requires a lot of save scumming in my experience. Or just being really properly timed with their patrolling. Have to be willing to wait around for a minute to let people move.

[fathom moat]

yeah, i just run past them, a little speed run

[stoic portal]

There are lines throughout the story that suggests skif came for more than just a flat, he came for the truth, and its also mentioned he's pretty aimless and doesn't really have any idea ambition, he finds something greater than himself in the zone

[stoic portal]

|| It's pretty clear, just like every other faction/character, they hide their true intentions from Skif and simply used him as a tool for their own means ||

[bold siren]

is there any ending where you dont get played?

[stoic portal]

|| Dr.K's, Skifs lines to richter right before you go up the red fortress show he's found a new purpose in life and interprets the artifact finding him as the zone crying out to him for help ||

[stoic portal]

|| If you get strelok's PDA it still says his mission is kill the Strelok, and he killed the original c-consciouness even though they exist in the noosphere, Dark could have been around for a while still seeking out strelok from the original programming, plus you see lines and lines of dead Stalkers while on the way to confront Scar ||

[bold siren]

||wait i completely forgot about the artifact, what ever happened to it? also that sucks i killed dr k tbh, that sucks||

[stoic portal]

|| I believe it becomes part of Faust's pendent, but I could be wrong there, the only artifact that truly matters is a the heart of chornobyl ||

[bold siren]

||and thats the artifact in that place where strelok got in the pod?||

[stoic portal]

|| yep ||

[bold siren]

||so the artifact that landed in our house isnt important? at all?||

[blissful holly]

We have no way of knowing if that ending is getting played or not, either. Everything to do with Faust is open to question - he's a literal psi generating human controller that can make you see whatever you want to see.

Strelok does correctly point out that we don't know who the "someone" in control of the zone is, if anything, and the common thread for all the endings - except Ward's - is that the zone gets to continue existing, which seems to be the only goal of all other stories, it'll make up as many narratives as it has to, fill as many psychological needs as it can, create the illusion of purpose for anyone and everyone, so long as the fundamental goal remains the same - the zone gets to keep existing.

[stoic portal]

It's still better than all other endings || in the wards ending, its clearly shown Agatha is part of the C-concsiouness or some manifestiation of it ||

[bold siren]

so strelok is just a slave to the zone? it sounds like he loves it so much

[stoic portal]

And the other endings show where you have to || fight strelok, he's clearly lost it ||

[blissful holly]

Yeah, again, because the effects of psi are lame and all encompassing, you can handwave any eventuality, any event, any choice, as "an illusion" of psi radiation - destroying the zone, ending the experiment, is the only logical course of action - nothing can be trusted without the ability to effect controls on the effects of psi radiation.

[stoic portal]

yeah but with || skif's ending, it truly puts the zone out of anyones control with zones appearing all over the world, granting free access to exploit, study, or simply escape there ||

[blissful holly]

There's nothing to study, everything is inherently a lie where psi radiation is involved.

[stoic portal]

Yeah but it's clear not everything is psi radiation

[blissful holly]

No it isn't - the story progressively shows you again and again and again that psi radiation effects persist even when the source is removed, and it it can perfectly replicate human perception to whatever it wants, make you even outright believe in ideas it wants you to.

[stoic portal]

Idk man, the dialogue I read the PDA notes show its not

the previous games also counteract that point

[blissful holly]

PDAs written by people disastrously compromised by psi radiation.

[stoic portal]

Im talking about PDAs written before that, you find them in the late game in addition to memos and notes

[blissful holly]

They needed to make psi radiation caused by a power source and detectable with the right equipment, and stop when the power source is removed, and put actual devices to prevent psi interference.

Having faust be a literal magician that can make you see and hear anything he wants you to just because was narratively stupid, allowing Psi radiation to perfectly replicate human perception to whatever they want was stupid. Nothing matters anymore because of it.

We have hard physical evidence that your senses cannot be trusted and will be actively manipulated by the zone for its own ends, and you'll have no idea that it's even occuring.

You can't even have a functional story in that framework.

[stoic portal]

Guess we didn't see the same things then, everything seemed pretty straight forward to me after reading the dialogue, pdas, and notes careful

[haughty jewel]

which game is scar from again?

[stoic portal]

Clear Sky

[bold siren]

who is agatha?

[stoic portal]

Umm how far are you in the story

[bold siren]

i beat the game

[stoic portal]

She's the blonde hair lady you meet at SIRCCA

[bold siren]

oh yeah i completely forgot about her

[long horizon]

That lady killed Skiff, not anytime soon but he gets cancer from that drag from that cigarette.

[wooden wren]

Cancer from all that radiation? Nah
Cancer from that one time Skiff stood to a woman with a cig? Yeah!
Lol

[left kite]

So, just to make sure I'm not lost in the sauce.

||The Monolith are no longer being controlled by C-Consciousness, but Faust? What is their directive after the "death" of Faust? I was a bit confused as to why the last few Missions if you choose Spark involve fighting so many Monolith soldiers, as apposed to say Ward. With Scar being a C-Consciousness agent, you'd think they'd be aligned, unless it's Faust going rogue.||

[muted rover]

Theory I came up with regarding the ||Project Y/Skif|| ending (i have no idea how accurate this is): ||I think that somehow, skif is being unknowingly influenced by the monolith or faust or whatever, and when skif hooks himself up to the c-conciousness machine, faust takes over and causes the Zone to spread across the world. we already know that faust wantd to zombify/monolithify the entire Zone via the Duga, so this seems like a natural "step 2" to this plan. faust keeps calling skif the "Monolith's Envoy" but we never get an explaination as to what that is (unless i wasnt paying attention). I think that the future DLC (which will take us to the CNPP according to leaks) will be a new chunk in the middle of the campaign where skif gets to the bottom of the Envoy stuff and gets control of his mind back. maybe then we'll get an actually nice ending for once lol||

[warm aspen]

So why is there so much cut content for eerything?

I amno clipping around the damn map and everything looks done. What the heck is going on? Why did this stuff not ship? Generators? CNPP? Death Valley? come on

[wooden wren]

Rumours and leaks say the game was much different pre-Russian invasion in 2022.
A lot is said to have changed, most notably the story.
That's probably part of the reason. Another part is probably them thinking of DLCs ahead of time and preparing the areas from the start.
That's my guess.

[warm aspen]

I know of these rumors. It is a lame explanation. They have so much opportunity here with this sandbox! I even found where the Strider sniping off the CNPP is. The helicopter the other guy shot down is even ontop of the CNPP. Come on! And why is there an achievement that says visit all places in the Zone what even is the whole map anyway if you can't even access any of these places without going underground to te point of no return in the store anyway.

[wooden wren]

I don't think it's such a bad explanation when it probably meant they had to redo A LOT of stuff. I would in fact not be surprised if that was why the game released in such a broken state.
The same thing happened to Cyberpunk according to rumours. Keanu Reeves came in, they rewrote the story and left a lot of stuff in an unfinished state for players to discover with a ton of bugs to boot.

[ocean shore]

What is the best ending in your opinion?

[warm aspen]

Skifs, leaves room to continue the game series.

[ocean shore]

OK, I’m gonna give you two options. Which ending would you pick? Strelok or kaminov And also have you completed the game?

[warm aspen]

It isn't about "an option" it is about how I just told you Skifs is the best in my opinion. Yes, I beat the game and got Skifs first try to find all the other endings were stupid.

[warm aspen]

Which ending did you prefer

[visual lynx]

Ready for multiplayer can't wait to make all you stay playing single player.

[warm aspen]

You act as if you are much better than everyone else. The game can't even run smoothly enough for competitive FPS. You should know this.

[visual lynx]

Doesn't matter the play ground. Shotty aiming lag drift if we all got it it's equal. Where's the multiplayer so I can be the Stalker King

[fresh hound]

I really hope there's a ng+. Especially if you chose one of the more passive endings... where not everyone ceases to exist....

Also in the future multiplayer is there going to be separate worlds? Yaknow, depending on the endings? Or will it take place BEFORE the endings? And if it's before when on that timeline? I'mreally curious now 🤔 👀

Also Stalkers I thought try to help everyone... unless they just hate the world? Not fully experienced in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. storyline... need to watch a synapses of it to fully understand i guess

[mossy vessel]

Talked to duty’s leader and he says something about joining them…yet you can’t LOL

[inner moth]

Cause Skif is that chill guy who doesn't need to join a faction. He just wants to buy a new apartment

[neat zephyr]

Let me get this straight, the 2nd Caribbean experiment happened in 2019, and skif enters the zone in 2021. Was he just sitting on the artifact for 2 years?

[foggy vapor]

It happens in 2021, did you watch the opening cutscene?

Is Scar ||Marshal, the same way Strelok is Marked One?||
Who is ||Marshal if not? Did C-Con just give Scar Marshal's memories because they're bored?||
Also why doesn't ||Scar just go after Strelok to kill him, isn't he a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?||

[snow rose]

Scar's ending is the best ending and skif's ending is the worst ending
Change my mind

[snow rose]

my guess is that the multiplayer pvp will basically be duty vs freedom and thats when you will be able to "join" them

they keep talking that the treaty has ended and teasing some kind of new faction war so yeah i think thats propably for multiplayer

[daring plume]

there is not going to be multiplayer open world, its just gonna be call of duty stalker skin

[fresh hound]

Oof

[graceful halo]

I just got the ending with strelok going into the pod, is that one of the good ones?

[empty anchor]

None of them neither good nor bad

They are just whatever they are.
Also what really is important is not the outcome of ending itself, but how it was played out, how they got there

[ornate venture]

courier7990 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[empty anchor]

And in the end after thinking, and knowing everything from all endings, the outcome for me is that the biggest drive in the story that led to all of these endings was || the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. program. Everybody was a stalker program brainwashed agent one way or another. Including Strelok, Scar, and Skif ||

[jagged elbow]

its normal soldear desapear when you loot the stash? the quest says to help him but he doesnt say anything

[grave lintel]

||People who finished the game? I was with scar at the beginning and I went with the guard at the end, I just killed dalin, ritcher, there's only the kolonel left you like me? I'm at the cental now||

[old grotto]

So I'm gonna ask here what I asked in another channel. What reason does Duty have to be in the game? I love Duty, but they're pointless as far as I can tell.
Like, at no point in the story do you need to interact with them, and their side content is sparse and meager to say the least.

[grave lintel]

Who are the important characters with whom they are

[worthy swan]

Definitely one of the more finite endings. Like if you wanted the series to end there it kinda could. Having a strelok ending alone is just amazing.

[graceful halo]

I feel like more could have been done with them, although there could be future possibilities if any story dlc come out
Because there's reigons that you can't access, the Iron Forest for example

[blissful holly]

We don't have a reliable narrator in the game - everyone is disastrously compromised by psi radiation and there's nothing in the story that can protect you from its effects or demonstrate that you aren't under its influence.

Psi radiation being able to perfectly replicate human perception was a dumb place to take the story. Nothing matters anymore, nothing can be verified, everything is a lie, everything can be handwaved as psi-illusion. We have no agency in the zone anymore because we know that nothing we experience can be trusted.

Strelok and Scar are both part of the STALKER program, and both have been made to believe whatever is psychologically satisfying for them to act in the preservation of the zone. Nothing they say can or should be trusted.

The ward ending is probably the most complicated of them because we know nothing about Agatha, but it shows us that Skif is now part of the STALKER program as well, and the "ending" he experienced is in all likelihood a psi-illusion made to psychologically satisfy Skif.

Doctor/Faust is just an agent of the wish granter, and delusionally believes that manufactured purpose from a manufactured god is happiness and should thus force everyone into this condition of servitude, regardless of their willingness.

The only lore explanation that makes sense is that the zone protects itself (whether it's the C-Cons doing this or the zone has its own "intelligence" enough to allow self-preservation, whose to say), and it does this by manipulating the perception and understanding of the zone by the humans who can influence it, always to one end - that the zone gets to continue existing, and those who end up in control of the people in the zone are thralled to the zone's influence.

The only reasonable thing for anyone to do, knowing all that we know going into the ending, is to destroy the zone - destroying the pod and generators was the only real choice we had, but it isn't an ending we can choose.

[normal pond]

That's why I went Ward on my first run.
Even from Skif's POV - Zone destroyed everything he had so he should be inclined to want payback.
Agatha is a weird one indeed. The ending left me with wanting more. Also I am wondering if this ties into the scrapped storyline where the zone was expanding and taking over the world.

[rotund sonnet]

Why couldn’t strider have an ending where he blows up the whole facility freeing his brothers forever

We could have saved him when we spared the monolith members in the hospital

[grim tide]

where can you find the swimming pool location?

[wide umbra]

I just finished the game and wtf.... not what I was expecting

[open terrace]

does sakharov appear in stalker 2? im guessing hes probbaly well either retired or died of old age :(

[flat dust]

I have not encountered some with that name so I would assume not

[warm aspen]

Because why would you want to live in a fake reality hallucinating you are talking to dead people in an external realm you don't have access to. Skif's ending is the best because the zone is living as demonstrated by Faust. I would not be shocked if the "zone" was the physical extension of what c conciousness is.

[stoic portal]

Do you just say the same thing every time someone has a question about the story?

Swear to god I just read the same thing you posted last night

[worthy zenith]

I agree with you skifs ending is the best turned from wanting payback for his home to understanding the reason his home was destroyed in the first place was a call for help by the zone, and we don't know if the zone expanding be just like the zone now or might be free to do different things, maybe some places are mutant free or more rich environment for study we don't know.

[stoic portal]

My guess would be mutant free, because weren’t many of the mutants experiments or mutations due to radiation?

Maybe some mutants, but not nearly as bad as the ones that appear in the og zone

[worthy zenith]

Who says there isn't any body being exported from the zone being test apon or other places doing the same thing idk. I doubt the dlc with be after the game ending but I hope the dlc is like that and skifs ending has the most potential.

[worthy zenith]

Idk that deer thing is new i think idk what caused that into being

Then again I want to dive into the lore deeper to see if I can predict what they would do for the future of the game

[stoic portal]

For all we know there could be a new zone in Fukushima or three mile island or something like that, nothing says one of the zones didn’t appear around another nuclear power plant

[worthy zenith]

True, I just can't wait for more. I'm addicted

[blissful holly]

Faust is a trained monkey that has controller powers. He can make you see whatever he wants you to see. Why would you trust that anything he shows you represents reality when you can't actually test it yourself. He straight up says that he preferred the psi-illusion induced purpose of the monolith to the reality of being responsible for himself.

[blissful holly]

Dvupalov tells us that Project X had nothing to do with the original Chernobyl accident in 1986, and that the exclusion zone was chosen as the location for Project X after the fact because it was already a high security area that no one actively wanted to go into anyway, the creation of the anomalous zone didn't happen until 1996.

Perfect place to hide your humanity altering science experiments (though the generators being above ground is kinda wack, anyone can see them with a satellite, the United States/NATO would be up the entire asshole of Ukraine let alone the zone figuring what happened and what those things are doing).

[plush jetty]

||after x5 labs did spark attacked me? it was their suits.. or im missing something||

[blissful holly]

If you have the Korshunov's badge they do, some spark guys think you're a spy/traitor and want to take it from you, Scar tells them that you're a good guy that made a mistake, you'll probably kill them if they try, but he won't tell them they can't.

[plush jetty]

interesting. i thought after helping strider and scar in sircaa and sided with Spark this wont happen, but badge is still marked as quest item.

also i wonder if me showing ward badge in malachite for access has anything to do with it. they thought i was with Wards

[warm aspen]

Yeah this whole "faust is a controller and psi hallucination" theory is the most annoying one when contemplating theories for the plot line. Find something more original that isn't a reguritation from trying to be right and just enjoy the possibilities presented in the game. Even faust says strider is the leader and faust is the speaker of the monolith. This isn't some crazy matrix game. As shown to us in game, Faust shows you what the zone looks like to him, a nervous system. Yes he changed the time for you to your preference but it still doesn't change the fact in Skifs ending Faust comes out to be the doctor at the end. Faust also wasn't always a controller either in the game he literally tells you he was a regular like Skif and was caught up in some bad stuff. He is the onyl humanoid controller to work found through documents in the game. Even furthering your response to "He straight up says that he preferred the psi-illusion induced purpose of the monolith to the reality of being responsible for himself." is because as mentioned previously he was a human. He isn't some all seeing being that is of perfect existence either. He has desires too like Strelok, Scar, and the Ward.

Whole theme of the game is extortion of the environment in the name of greed, fame, and commentary on the human condition

[blissful holly]

That's what the book was, this isn't that at all.

Faust being a controller isn't even a theory - the entire main mission sequence with Dvupalov is entirely about Faust being the first (and as far as we know, only) human controller, and in this mission we learn learn that they managed the effects of psi radiation to induce perfect illusions, and that the illusions can persist even after the source of psi radiation is removed. I get that this was supposed to be about Faust's powers of creating copies of himself, but this fundamentally alters everything we thought we knew about the zone.

Faust literally makes you see the world from a different perspective, changes your apparent location, changes the time of day, appears as an entirely different person and makes everyone around him believe that he's a different person - ALL WHILE I HAVE THE SUPPRESSOR EQUIPPED - Dvupalov is the only living person who knows anything about psi radiation, and the suppressor is the one thing he knows of to curb its effects, and it turns out it does nothing and Faust can recreate your reality at will - and not only can he recreate it, you have no way of knowing if and when he's doing it.

From this point on what's left to contemplate? C-Cons/The Zone won. Turning off the brain scorcher/rainbow emitter did nothing, it was too late, too many people were already thralled to the will of C-Cons and it continues to make more and new sources of psi radiation that have effects we can't prevent and can't quantify - the experiment is now entirely outside any semblance of control. Everyone who sticks around long enough is eventually exposed to psi and some new reality, some new idea, is created for them that is compatible with their psychological needs, and it always requires the zone to exist, and they'll do anything to prevent losing their needs being met by their manufactured reality.

It happened to Strelok, it happened to Scar, it happened to Faust, it happened to Dalin, it's happening to us.

Again, giving psi radiation this much power in the story was stupid - it was fine when it just made you see whacked out hallucinations that eventually turned you into a monolith zombie, but now it's just a stupid all-encompassing power that makes telling a coherent narrative impossible.

[cosmic crescent]

Is Strider's shell casing supposed to fall through your hand, signifying that what you're seeing isn't real, or is it a bug?

[warm aspen]

if he dies in your storyline it means you are talking to him in the noosphere

[warm aspen]

yeah everything you said was something I said or similar to what I said a reply or two ago but good job

[cosmic crescent]

Yeah, but when he gives you his shell casing, it just falls straight through your hand. Is it just supposed to be signify it doesn't happen physically or is it a bug? In the trailer, the shell casing lands normally on your hand, but I guess they could've changed so that it wouldn't spoil

[warm aspen]

it isn't a bug

[blissful holly]

Yeah you said it and then immediately dismissed it as if it isn't important, when obviously it is - I'm underscoring the point that psi illusions are stupid, the suppressor not preventing these things from happening to you is stupid, everything in the zone is stupid now - all four endings are an illusion. Everyone has been brainwashed by C-Cons psi-illusions for their own ends.

[stoic portal]

This dude has been ranting about his psi induced theory for days to anyone and everyone even when it isn't relevant to their question

[warm aspen]

I had a hankering I read his first response and immediately got annoyed. It just is so uncreative. It is unoriginal and was something I caught onto the first time you attempt to kill Faust and it spawns phantoms. Yeah sure, I get the idea Faust is actually a humanoid controller programed by C conciousness and he is probably acting on their behalf as even the alpha artifact is actually just a piece of the wish granter at SIRRCA. Anyway, it even says in game the monolith was created to protect c conciousness and Faust has the c conciousness on his neck n whatever. Anyway, it just is boring because it just leaves a lot left to be desired and speaking as a theory as fact is annoying because the devs haven't even explained what the canon ending is. Not to mention learning more about the lore Strelok was sent to kill himself which is why in Skif's ending you mark he killed Strelok on his old ass PDA. Anyway, I think there is a lot of unknown as what is what. I think this Thukker guy forgot to acknowledge even in the game notes it says the suppressor helmet doesn't even work right / is unsure of how well it works. I remember that very specifically in my play through for Skif's ending.

[stoic portal]

Yep I literally mentioned all these things to him and he still denies it just for the sake of being right lol

[blissful holly]

None of this addresses any of the extremely concrete problems I have the story, in any way.

[warm aspen]

yeah.. I had a feeling haha I can't wait for the DLC to come out and are able to freely explore the CNPP, Generators, etc. I have to noclip. Bro he came back.

[blissful holly]

You guys keep writing off everything I mention because you don't like that it makes the stalker story sound stupid, and well, stalker 2's story is stupid now, unless the DLCs heavily walk back what psi radiation is capable of.

[stoic portal]

someone's mad

[blissful holly]

lol yeah, you guys, talking about me in the third person instead of just responding to my points, because you don't have any.

[stoic portal]

I responded to you last night dude, and you dismissed us, and now you're saying we're being dismissive lol

[blissful holly]

Link me the post and I'd be happy to walk thru whatever you've said point for point.

[stoic portal]

bro so lazy he ain't even willing to scroll back up in chat

[blissful holly]

That's what I thought lmao.

[stoic portal]

please make me a 40 min+ youtube video essay explaining your theory

[warm aspen]

There is no point to be made on any part? The devs haven't even acknowledged what the canon ending is not to mention bro we get it. The psi illusions was dumb as a ox of rocks. Yes I was pissed off how Faust ended my game, yes I was definitely angry but the more I thought about it (as I have explained what I thought) I stopped caring because even with Skif's ending we are definitely going to get more DLC. I get what you are saying and understand I personally don't care for the "everything is an illusion it's all false" theory anyway because it is boring as you said makes the story bad. I don't think they'd do that to their franchise.

[inner moth]

So far skif's ending is more interesting to me

[warm aspen]

@blissful holly so yeah I get it and what you are saying makes sense but as each of our opinions are well, only opinions and not fact we just have to wait for it all to come out. We get it. I was mad at this initial presentation too.

[inner moth]

But I dislike how the rest of the endings are just open ended (kind of) and it ends the story there

[warm aspen]

I thought so too. Imagine skif just rotting away talking to himself in Scars ending (gross), Strelok becoming the new monolith (lame as a box of rocks goes against literally everything he stood for), the ward becoming the new stalker program was stupid as paper but still definitely intriguing and skifs ending actually getting some sort of justice to the idea the zone is a sentient being possibly even the physical manifestationof c con due to how the zone was created at all or the break between the real world and noosphere idk.

I would not be shocked if the DLC is a skif story expansion and we destroy the generators to end the zone

[stoic portal]

I believe they DLC's are already titled I read somewhere online

[warm aspen]

mmm I'll take a look I heard something about Limonsk but that was it

[stoic portal]

"Echoes of the Past"
"Shadow of the Monolith"
First Story Expansion Will Be About Very Origins Of Zone
Second Story Expansion Will Be About A Mysterious Artefact Found In Zone

[warm aspen]

oh that sounds so based I am in

[stoic portal]

Could be different but this is what I read, my guess is as well seeing how well the game sold, and their definitely in no rush to make STALKER 3 or some kind of spin-off, I'd expect more than 2 DLCs

[warm aspen]

Honestly I want to know more about wish granter and monolith. I want to know more about them specifically because they always caught my attention in the way they are being controlled as Strider literally shows you in the game. I can't stop watching that cut scene. It is probably the best cut scene imo and the Scar talking to the skull in generators is a close second haha

[stoic portal]

I've only done Strelok's and Skif's, I just didn't have a desire to do Scar's or Ward's because I simply just don't agree with their objectives after having playing all 4 games. I thought Strelok's ending was going to be way different

[warm aspen]

Right??? that's what I thought too. I played the game how I thought it should be and got Skif's

[stoic portal]

I was doing Strelok's and was like aw man, we're gonna save the zone, and then was like "oh fuck, oh no, what have I done"

[warm aspen]

I said man Strelok is back? We taking this place down for real, also Strelok: mmm I am now in charge of monolith hahahahah

[stoic portal]

I reloaded my point of no return save and then did Skifs

[inner moth]

Strelok back then: I want to contain the zone and learn it's secrets

Strelok now: I am za monolit now

[stoic portal]

Once again, as you mentioned before @warm aspen seeing the "Kill the Strelok" on Strelok's PDA when I did Skif's ending was eye-opening

[warm aspen]

Yeah I had to dig deep in the lore archives I forget ehwat older STALKER game but when you play as him he doesn't know who he is or what he is doing in the Zone because C con brain washed him to kill himself but he doesn't know that in that game but I guess eventually found out and decided to kill C con but he still is and always will remain an agent of c con like Scar as in the Skif ending you use the visographs to damage him. I remember I just stared at the PDA that said kill strelok on Streloks PDA for a good few minutes contemplating wtf I did lol.

I will say what doesn't make sense is Strelok not succumbing to the Visograph damage like Scar was even though in the end of Clear Sky they both are zombified by the Visographs

here is an old old reddit post talking about the entire plot of STALKER in complete and then you fill in the gaps with events of STALKER 2 https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/4uzf59/i_think_i_found_a_loophole_in_shadow_of/

[formal finch]

Holy moly, the zone post the SIRCAA incident with skif omg what a second act

Does zalissya fully recover if I intervene? They are my favourite trading location.

[simple crypt]

who did you guys give the scanner to?

[proven zenith]

I don’t really get it

[proven zenith]

The Yaniv guy. I should’ve just used it for the hell of it.

[stoic portal]

It's a bit of a reference to the book, but also it puts the zone out of anyone's control by spawning new zones around the world

[haughty jewel]

lol when you get to the ||SIRCAA center|| it almost dosent feel like STALKER

[stoic portal]

I liked that though, it felt almost refreshing to see a fully developed part of the world || it was only a matter of time to see some newly developed high functioning place there ||

[proven zenith]

Idk what you mean

[stoic portal]

Roadside pinic talks about the zone expanding, how it will eventually encompass the entire world

[proven zenith]

I like it it’s very Institute from Fallout 4 but not inherently evil

[proven zenith]

I thought Strelok stopped that before it got too far

Like how else would a wall get built and SIRCAA gets in there and builds their facility

[stoic portal]

emissions still happen, which slowly expand the zone, if you've beat the game || you'll understand the c-consciousness still exists to some degree||

[proven zenith]

Well I know that but I don’t get how ||we are part of it||

[stoic portal]

SIRCAA claims to have emission proofed their base, thus they built it

[proven zenith]

Well they did…

It’s a very nice facility ngl but I figured as soon as I heard something “this thing will never come down” that the place’s fate was sealed

[stoic portal]

yeah lmao

[stoic portal]

|| Skif is an agent in some sense, the artifact landing in his apartment was no random act ||

[proven zenith]

Place was pretty cozy. Walled complex with new modern buildings, green grass, clean running water, security and a shield. You could stay there if it wasn’t in the middle of the Zone.

[proven zenith]

Kinda bs ngl

[stoic portal]

Which ending did you get?

[proven zenith]

The one where skif gets in the helicopter and ogles his new snowglobe which is a good little trope for control freaks

[stoic portal]

oh lmao, yeah you gotta do skifs ending to truly understand

and listen/read his dialouge very closely

[proven zenith]

All I’m sayin’ is: Give Ward a chance!

[stoic portal]

bro got the worst ending, in that ending its shown Agatha is part of the CC

[proven zenith]

[proven zenith]

I thought it was a good ending because I kept to my allegiance and didn’t self-sabotage

What difference could I have possibly made

[stoic portal]

The dialouge in Skifs ending shows what he really wanted, him wanting a "new flat' is simply just as aimless as the rest of the life, and dialouge throughout the game shows he sought the truth more than a new flat

[proven zenith]

Well I sure as hell didn’t make him leave

[stoic portal]

Joining the ward is self-sabotage because you become another pawn in their game

[proven zenith]

Not that I would’ve it’s not my circus anymore my job is done I’ve got a war to prep for

[proven zenith]

Every other option is a C-Agent

[stoic portal]

Every option is to a certain degree

[blissful holly]

Skif's ending is just becoming a pawn for C-Cons

[stoic portal]

Oh so now you decide to chim in lol, is thukker just really watching this chat 24/7 to post another paragraph again?

[warm aspen]

lmao

[proven zenith]

The zone and the technology that made it are gone what more can they do?

[blissful holly]

You don't even become a pawn for Ward in the Ward ending, Ward just becomes a C-Cons pawn and Skif gets put into the STALKER program.

[proven zenith]

I miss Duty

[blissful holly]

All the endings are different variations of everyone is a pawn of C-Cons psi illusions.

[stoic portal]

same man, wish we could join factions

[warm aspen]

I miss patch collecting I don't even know who Iam killing half the time

[stoic portal]

Who asked?

[proven zenith]

Smells like DLC. You never have to go to the NPP area but there’s a functional Duty base there.

[stoic portal]

yeah I'm hoping to pick up a a pc with a 4070 in it by christmas and see if I can make a few mods myself

[proven zenith]

Deadly anomalies, dangerous mutants, anarchists and bandits

[warm aspen]

I got a 4070 ti super and I can play everything epic with DLSS quality with NVIDIA reflex. I get a smooth average of about 80 in bases and sometimes up to 170 in the labs. With whatever raytracing thing they use in this game I think it is global illuminated ray traced shadows idk. I just can tell you the flashlight behavior definitely is indicative of some kind of path/ray trace

[proven zenith]

I have a 4060 ti

[stoic portal]

How was the game been running for you? I've been doing cloud gaming so far and it runs flawless

[proven zenith]

Free Stalkers, Veterans and Hunters

[proven zenith]

F tier performance in many places I had to bump it all the way down as soon as I reached Zalissya

[haughty jewel]

that creature when you are ||teleporting through zones at the SIRCAA center|| scared the crap outta me!

[proven zenith]

The sunset lighting is like a nuke going off

Also yeah the Psuedogiant and God knows what else

It’s like Half Life

[stoic portal]

yeah that's why I'm looking for a a 4070, I also see Thukker has been typing up his fun-sucker opinion up for a new york times article currently

[haughty jewel]

are you talking about the loading screen that freezes your machine thinking youre gonna crash lol

[blissful holly]

Better than writing delusional fan fic about things that didn't and won't happen.

[proven zenith]

No the institute suite at dusk is blinding

[stoic portal]

bro's mad and he's staying mad lmao, I guess stalker lore is all his live revolves around

[proven zenith]

I also love the wish granter paper weight that goes “come to me”

[dawn ledge]

Going to Wild Island after SIRCCA is so sad. || Noontide deserved better. Now I really can’t stand them or the Ward for the very obviously set up to fail experiment that the narration was a bit too obvious about lol||

[blissful holly]

brother you're a scar ending enjoyer, you clearly have a problem with accepting reality.

[stoic portal]

50,000 people used to live here, now its a ghost town

[stoic portal]

Didn't i tell you i got the skif ending? maybe you're the one whose delusional? Have you got your meds check recently?

[blissful holly]

good one

[stoic portal]

we do a little bit of trolling, sorry to get your goat Thukker, we could argue till the end of time, but I guess we'll only find out when GSC addresses it

[blissful holly]

yikes

[dawn ledge]

It felt like every other person at the HQ was like || what’s all this security? what could PoSsiBlY gO WrOnG. and then of course everything went wrong. ||

[warm aspen]

Beefing in the story discussion channel is crazy 😵

[stoic portal]

Faction wars in chat?

[proven zenith]

“Now it’s an amusement park”

[warm aspen]

mmm we are allies but I am unsure what side Thukker is on he doesn't have a faction

[proven zenith]

Loners be lonin’

[stoic portal]

He lives in the psi-radiation realm, maybe thats why he doesn't have a faction, he is a C-Consciousness psy op

[proven zenith]

Join Duty and help save the planet

[stoic portal]

Join freedom and smoke the magic weed

[warm aspen]

he is monolith aware of monolith activities who want to stops monolith activies but doesn't understand who he is working for just knows he has to stop the monolith activities wait this sounds like someone we know...

[proven zenith]

Join Freedom and simp for Birch

[stoic portal]

Bro sees one female stalker

[proven zenith]

And her alcohol/caffeine addiction

[stoic portal]

DO NOT LET THIS MAN INTO MALACHITE OR YANIV, he will lose it

[warm aspen]

Don't forget Harpy lol and that one scientist girl hahaha

[blissful holly]

My faction is whoever-is-in-charge-of-the-story-shouldn't-have-written-themselves-into-a-corner-with-stupid-op-psi-radiation, it's a big patch.

[proven zenith]

I hated that doctor Victoria and that redneck Wrench or whatever her name was

[stoic portal]

That ain't no faction I ever heard of

[warm aspen]

lmfao that was actually really funny

[stoic portal]

Thukker applies for writer job at GSC gameworld when?

[proven zenith]

So also remind me what Clear Sky was?

[warm aspen]

He lowkey is right but only if he ignores a couple of unknowns lol

Like.. all the endings... and the game telling you the suppressor wasn't tested and is unsure if it even works right so you don't eve know as the player.

[stoic portal]

A faction of scientists and stalkers seeking their way to the center of the zone as well as a way to understand it, their mission ended in disaster

[proven zenith]

“Level 5 Psi protection” Skif has almost a full bar in his borderline power armor and no dice in emissions

[proven zenith]

I can only imagine by the fact there’s like no trace of them left

[warm aspen]

I can't lie I am actually moderately annoyed I can't out heal an emission in my diamond exo with 3/4 bars of psi protection.

[stoic portal]

diamond exo is the best one in the game right?

[proven zenith]

Yes. It pisses me off too. It also pisses me off that the Monolith exo is the best.

[stoic portal]

I got all the other ones and they don't provide nearly the same level of pretty much anything, crazy how you can get it so early, collected the other ones for shits and giggles

[warm aspen]

Yeah, lowest weight to highest weight carrying ratio, has five slots, has best radiation protections, physical and all the rest just are slightly slightly not as good as the liverty but the fact it weighs almost 7kg less than liberty and you get almost all benefits as there is I think two diamond exos I am aware of and the second one in pripyat has better base stats than the one in the Spark bunker

[proven zenith]

I’m wondering if protection has any bearing on wear so the emission would eventually just eat through an armor that gives you a full bar

[stoic portal]

rip to the glitched shield of duty exosuit, may she spawn on a dead enemy one day

I've noticed Birch randomly has unique exosuits in her trader inventory

It's how I got the bulwark and liberty suits and then I sold the ones I found

[proven zenith]

I may have cheated because I went all that way without reading it’s in a main mission and I wanted that sprint upgrade. I also couldn’t access Pripyat for the operator one.

[stoic portal]

even with the upgrades nothing is better than the diamond

[proven zenith]

Yeah I tested that

I didn’t even know until I got it that it ass that good I thought all the suits had similar upgrades not the actual 9/10 in everything protection with Usain Bolt sprint potential

[stoic portal]

yeah fr

[proven zenith]

At the end I had full rad protection with one basic crystal artifact

That is of course not immunity to radiation as I learned in several lethal pockets at the edges of the map. It is fun to walk around in radiation and hear the Geiger counter tick but it can’t hurt you. I liked it in Metro.

[stoic portal]

Oh I got 4 lead containers, hypercube, liquid rock, thunderberry, flowerbud, and glare. Working on getting some more legendary artifacts, I got all the unique ones but its just hard with some of the downsides, would use weird water but I don't wanna be drunk all the time lol

[proven zenith]

I couldn’t get a single one of those someone found 3 extreme rad artifacts and I just wanted to snatch the one in the SIRCAA showroom. I really wanted Dalin to go “pick one”.

[stoic portal]

Just got lucky

the fire pit or whatever the hell its called in Yanton spawned both a hypercube and then a rare artifact at the same time I was shocked

[proven zenith]

The Wolfhound early game is beast. But it’s silly now that I know. You can get a falcon for free at Malachite which is better.

[stoic portal]

oh its called the circus

[stoic portal]

Didn't do much artifact hunting until I got the velves tbh, what do those two do?

[proven zenith]

I am fully behind Duty confiscating most artifacts because of how radioactive and volatile they are not even just to be anti-fun they are not to leave the zone even if they fizz out quick. Those are armored suits btw.

[stoic portal]

ah I may have used those I thought you were talking about artifacts

[proven zenith]

Wolfhound is Freedom’s from the older games, Falcon is Spark’s

As for Spark and Noontide: you have to trust someone to be betrayed; I never did.

[stoic portal]

I used the Corondum suit

[proven zenith]

I don’t like the Ward’s dollar store riot padding look

Very Corpo and ugly. Soviet winter uniforms from the 50’s weren’t even that ugly.

[stoic portal]

yeah same, the Corondum is the Monolith combat suit you get after they all || all go Monolithian and you loot their base ||

[proven zenith]

I know I had to lug that to the Sultansk

I was so happy to be almost always in the green when I was done with the Red Forest

[ornate venture]

jvskull has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[stoic portal]

I guess they just beefed the "hell" out of the monlithian in this game (you know what word I wanted to use)

[proven zenith]

I didn’t quite get their strength until they show you whatever happened in 2012 the monolith being their central coordinator that sees everything and pushes them beyond what they could make themselves do physically

[stoic portal]

I mean the fact they were able to ward off a full on military assault really shows it

[proven zenith]

So what was that event? Was that the climax of CoP? I’m like the cleanup force just perusing around in awe at the mess like “what the hell happened here?”

[stoic portal]

It's what leads up to it, CoP was the investigation of its failure and the subsquent extraction of all surviving members

[proven zenith]

Oh that’s why there’s all the crashed helicopters. I didn’t get to play past meeting the guy in the boat with the pseudodog and I wasn’t paying too much attention I accidentally skipped over the intro I think

[stoic portal]

Failed plottings/changes in anomoly fields led to inadequate support in their attempts to take Chernobyl

[proven zenith]

Well I saw that in SoC

HELIKOPTER HELIKOPTER

[misty zealot]

SoC was Operation Monolith, CoP was Operation Fairway

[proven zenith]

I know they’re separate events but it was wacky seeing the hind go wooooooo poof

[teal kindle]

t

[misty zealot]

its kinda funny they failed once and then proceed to fail the second time in pretty much the same way like its soviet afgan war over again

[stoic portal]

I guess dealing with anomolies is different than terrorists lol, one and i feel like most if they existed would consider, a fanatic group in control of anomolies and advance technologies is more of a threat

[misty zealot]

Op Monolith failed mostly because they ran into an emission in the open and everyone dies, Op Fairway didnt even make it that far when the helis fell out of the sky from aerial anomalies

[dreamy onyx]

in the building where eugene and birch are located in rostok
to the right of birch and across from eugene the is an area with two makeshift beds with a chair
it seems to imply that ||prostitution|| happens in this area

[proven zenith]

There’s also just no point in using helicopters at that stage except for dropping guys off 5 miles away

[stoic portal]

Attack helicopters for aerial support, better to have something in the air equipped with miniguns and rockets against ground targets

[proven zenith]

The hookah kinda gave me the same vibe

[stoic portal]

Barkeeps literal name is Ganja, which implies they smoke anomalous weed lmao

[proven zenith]

I didn’t catch his name and I didn’t get it

[dreamy onyx]

where abouts is that]

[proven zenith]

I don’t remember I might be thinking of other places

[stoic portal]

If you ask him about the zone he talks about how he is buddy promised to get him "magic weed" up front, he went to smoke it with his buddy and his buddy turned invisble lmao

[dreamy onyx]

prob in the bar

[blissful holly]

I appreciate stalker for its idealized vision of how individuals would interface with the zone, and I like getting to play a character in that idealized world, but irl it wouldn't take long for the world to become aware that the zone existed, and once it was, there would be an absolute flood of people, money, and equipment to fully map that mf and pull every artifact humanly possible out of it.

[stoic portal]

agreed, you would see either a full NATO force or international force come in

the only argument you could make is that its simply too costly to control (human life, resource, etc.) wise that its cheaper to contain it and allow expeditions or scientific settlements but it would be far more organized and judicious than we see in stalker

[misty zealot]

I mean, as soon as strelok turn off the Scorcher they immediately launch Op Monolith, and in CoP you find a crashed Global Hawk with NATO ties and the north being flooded with people with several stable settlements, so the thing you described already happened.

[blissful holly]

I mean, brother, we'd map ever square inch of that mf instantly, the long wiener of the US military would absolutely squash any faction war and there'd be teams on teams assigned to every anomalous field everywhere figuring out how to get artifacts to appear and looking for commercial applications, the zone would get absolutely squeezed for value - a few people getting shredded in a whirlygig is a small price to pay.

[turbid osprey]

If Strelok was programmed to kill Strelok, why didn't the TeeVees kill him?

[blissful holly]

Honestly plot hole is the only thing I can chalk up to that - Strelok's story ultimately cultimating in "LOL JK I was indoctrinated the whole time my actual purpose was to replace the wishgranter as a human monolith" is probably my least favorite part of stalker 2.

[turbid osprey]

I've spoiled myself on the broad strokes of the different endings just to see whats up but is that really his motivation?

[blissful holly]

Unironically yes.

[misty zealot]

he did things that makes sense to him given what information hes privy to tbh. In his perspective almost everyone he knew is not his ally.

[blissful holly]

Brother he goes full cultist "I will protect her no matter the cost - no one is allowed in or out - all the monolith unilateraly respond to my command."

[proven zenith]

The Russians would already be there

As opposed to invading a month and a half after the zone disappears

[stoic portal]

depends on who gets there first

[stoic portal]

seeing how they dug trenches in the most radioactive part of the zone (red forest) and got radiation sickness, they wouldn't last long lmao

[blissful holly]

We would fight an actual world war over the zone - it isn't like "oh isn't that interesting," the zone completely reshapes our understanding of the universe, and whoever ends up with control over the artifacts and resultant technologies is gonna be on top.

[proven zenith]

I do like the setup of having that forward knowledge and being like “Ukraine could use this” or “the zone is the perfect uncrossable natural border with the tundra” some real Belkan thinking there

[dapper spindle]

Well you see ward & SIRCAA is basically that, they almost succeeded

[stoic portal]

It would start out peaceful at first, but quickly devolve into a world war

[proven zenith]

It’d be covert (it very much is) because everyone is still without a means to one up each other reliably

[inner moth]

I'm surprised the Russian govt in stalker lore doesn't start influencing the Ukrainian govt about the zone

[proven zenith]

In the early games Russia could have been using the Ukrainian government as a proxy to loot artifacts and eliminate witnesses but of course none of it matters later because the artifacts lose usefulness as they get further from the center

[stoic portal]

they probably avoided it for political reasons, and now especially after the war with the Ukranian Cultural revival, they will do anything to resist that

[proven zenith]

I have given my theory on Chernobyl happening in the first place irl and I’ve also heard the little whisper that the East is paying off scavvers for scrap metal

Maybe in the Stalker universe they were always trying to do things with the reactor but it just exploded and the whole thing being garbage was a coverup

[blissful holly]

The reactor accident was just incompetence + physics - both IRL and in-game - Dvupalov tells the player that Project X had nothing to do with the accident in 1986.

[misty zealot]

Im not saying he didn't arrive at the wrong conclusion (because he did and fell right into CCon's ploy), but given that Doc is an unreliable narrator and Strelok does not know to what extent he is being manipulated and by whom, he really is put in a situation where he cant trust anyone. His actions made sense, in a desperate kind of way.

[proven zenith]

Games used to never fear political outcry. Assassin’s Creed was quick to frame everyone rich and religious as fascist co-conspirators and call the Mujahideen heroes. The OG MW and BF trilogies didn’t even really play on deniability if they needed it to be a misunderstanding they made it such but the wars fought were real.

[stoic portal]

yeah but everything is a tool nowdays, STALKER is now a Ukrainian national export that shows the ability to produce a best selling game while being persecuted

They even allude to it by saying Skif is a veteran, but not of what war

[proven zenith]

Well he could’ve never seen any action just had better training and experience than most I guess that would put him in a place where Russia operates also no matter what

He never mentions where he went either I assumed he meant he was on border duty for the Zone itself

[stoic portal]

I assumed it was an illusion to the ongoing war

[proven zenith]

It’s December 2021 so it’s just right there

[stoic portal]

If the zone existed during the invasion the russian army would have avoided due to international forces and the perceived cost of taking it

[proven zenith]

It would’ve been funny to see Russian armor roll through the zone and get crumpled and Chehnya’d again

[stoic portal]

not to say they wouldn't have manipulated factions like Duty to their bidding

[proven zenith]

But at the end it doesn’t exist so they go right through. Does that also remove the current no-man’s land I wonder?

[blissful holly]

His initial reaction to just destroy C-Cons and end the experiment that no one except for C-Cons have any control over was the correct one - They've basically retconned into S2 that he did this because C-Cons knew they would persist in the Noosphere without their bodies, and that they could continue to influence Strelok as a STALKER agent. If his original SoC motivation stayed intact he would be investigating how there still seems to be human influence driving the zone and ending it, not becoming the literal avatar of human control over the zone.

[proven zenith]

They could do the Fallout thing and dominate the Mercs’ payroll from the shadows

[stoic portal]

I mean IRL they invaded the exclusion zone, but were so stupid they dig trenches in radioactive land and all their troops who were occupying the area got radiation poisoning lmao, but why would you write a country into your game that directly affected their dev team's family members and even some of their dev team who got conscripted had to fight

[proven zenith]

And the vehicles kicked up radioactive dust. They made such a mess there was a radiation spike everyone thought was the reactor leaking.

[stoic portal]

It just adds bad memories even though they may want to convey a message. I've experienced loss and trauma in my life and the last thing I want to do is bring it up again, even though I warn others

[proven zenith]

I like the idea of showing a piece of the world that holds the line and shows a glimmer of green with whatever edge it has maybe that’s the starry eyed American in me

Just a little less chaos. All Quiet on the Western Front, you might say.

[normal pivot]

Whats the implication in the Ward ending that Skif's vision is shown through those monitors?

[stoic portal]

I'm American too, and as much as we have a common enemy, we shouldn't force them to bear the pain they've experienced

[blissful holly]

He was indoctrinated into the STALKER program.

[proven zenith]

I still don’t get how

[blissful holly]

"oh good you're awake" after they zorped his brain into STALKER.

[stoic portal]

Agatha is part of the CC

[frigid zephyr]

in the strelok ending, is it pretty much strelok is the god of the zone now lol

[normal pivot]

@blissful holly So who's orders was he following through the whole game?

[proven zenith]

What a terrifying idea. Whatever, my next character will help Duty clean up the mess.

[frigid zephyr]

I am going ward next play through lol

[blissful holly]

Up to that point - quasi his own, but he was being given a lot of unreliable info by a bunch of people who were already compromised by C-Cons.

[proven zenith]

It’s a slog on its own ngl I can’t imagine Spark is any better for combat

[normal pivot]

@blissful holly When did his indoctrination take place? After the ending happened and Ward won?
Did they do that to keep control of Skif since he's a powerful asset?

[frigid zephyr]

Going to wait a bit before doing a second playthrough and going to toss some mods in next time. 80 hrs is a long time

[frigid zephyr]

fighting scar was a slog like jesus dude just stood in one spot until i whipped some nades at him

[proven zenith]

I’ll load back to do the DLC but I’m quitting after that

[blissful holly]

That's the only ending where Scif blacks out - Agatha literally says "oh good you're awake" - shows you everything your character purportedly wanted to have happen, and then the game shows you his perspective thru a STALKER monitor. The obvious implication here is that Scif was indoctrinated into the STALKER program.

[proven zenith]

MKUltra when the

STALKER agents are just Redditors confirmed

[frigid zephyr]

facts

[proven zenith]

I don’t remember skif blacking out

He wasn’t a very well written character ngl

[blissful holly]

https://youtu.be/no1zsi5htNo?si=C77P7n8Qt1pfdiBm&t=216

[frigid zephyr]

to be fair the story was kind of all over the place.
I don't understand some of the choices that were made. They were just kind of thrown in your face

lets take shooting the doctor in the face
strelok is like listen to this recording
and its just some vague ass recording

[proven zenith]

That’s most games (and actual surveillance recordings) nowadays for some reason

[normal pivot]

@blissful holly Whats the point of brainwashing him if he already was sided with them? Keeping a leash on him is good since he's so reliable?
Just trying to fully understand that ending, cuz im curious.

[proven zenith]

I thought it was just his life flashing before his eyes as the energy knocks him out

But no faction will beat the evil of Sidorovich

[frigid zephyr]

sidorovich is scum lol but he ggives me the most jobs

[blissful holly]

he sends you to murder some guys that are just trying to trade, and then sends a goon squad just in case you don't follow thru on murdering some homies

[blissful holly]

Maybe it was only convenient for him to side with them this time - why not guarantee you've coopted the very capable zone inhabitor with (so far as we know) irreversible mind control that ensures he always works towards your ends?

I'm just saying the Ward ending not-so-subtly implies that Scif was indoctrinated into STALKER - maybe he wasn't, that's up to GSC to clarify in subsequent content, but from the ending we're shown, that's what we see.

The game also not-so-subtly implies that Agatha is a C-Cons representative in control of SIRCAA, so Scif getting indoctrinated into STALKER track with that as well.

[bright mist]

I might be late, but who IS the long haried guy in the trailer? Never met him in my playthrough

[frigid zephyr]

you see him if you make specific choices. I forget who it is though. it was like 10 seconds in the game and like 20 hrs in

[misty zealot]

the way I interpreted SoC Strelok is that he rejected CCon, and by extension destroyed the pods. I don't see how S2 Strelok's motivation differed, hes still rejecting CCon, he saw Agartha as neo CCon, and rejected it, he saw Doc as an extension of old CCon, and rejected it (also probably manipulated by Faust to believe this since he might also not be talking to the "real" Doc), he saw Skiff in Doc's ending as an "envoy of the Monolith", and again he rejected it. He came back to the Zone in 2017 after sabotaging SIRCAA, then seeking out Doc to talk to him at some point but it fails (and developed a personal vendetta because he thinks Doc only want to accomplish CCon's final objective in his own ways even if Doc rejected CCon), he ultimately found himself in a situation where three different factions are rushing to the Generators with intent of reviving CCon. His plan to "reject" CCon is to get into the pod himself and sever the Zone forever so no "CCon" influence can leak in, this came off as draconian and delusional because it is, but still ultimately tracks with his motivation to prevent CCon from controlling the Zone at whatever cost. It's the wrong decision, but its "wrong" in a way that make sense in Strelok's perspective.

[blissful holly]

And that road led him to the pod and the generators - why did it not occur to him to destroy both right then and there, he allowed them to continue existing and this didn't strike him as a zone-serving interest

All roads of all story lines lead to humans that are acting in the interest of preserving the existence of the zone - everyone is being manipulated to allow the zone to continue existing - the zone doesn't care who gets to be the figurehead, so long as the zone continues to exist.

[misty zealot]

I mean... thats the point of the plot, whatever route you go down, the Zone wins

[blissful holly]

Yeh that's ultimately my point - C-Cons/The Zone always win, everyone involved in the plot has been manipulated into acting in the zone's interest, even if those actions take on a different flavor, the end is the same - the zone continues to exist.

[normal pivot]

@blissful holly Doesn't it cease to exist in Ward ending?

[blissful holly]

My interpretation of that end is that scif sees what he wants to see - and what he sees can't be trusted because he's a STALKER now.

Agatha has no interest in destroying the zone, SIRCAA wants control over the zone to produce artifacts for commercial gain - Scif is an unstable element that they've brought to heel for their own ends.

[misty zealot]

yes, im not arguing on that part, im just arguing that Strelok made the correct assessment of the situation and everyone around him (because hes totally right to think everyone is compromised), he just came to the absolutely wrong course of action and played right into CCon's hands, in a way that makes sense.

[normal pivot]

@blissful holly Thought they wanted to dissipate it and harness its anomalous energy for unlimited power persay. Whats the point of keeping the zone and its instability there?

[frigid zephyr]

strelok is my lord and savior now

[normal pivot]

Also does the STALKER program have the power to make you see things completely different?

I thought agents were just brainwashed as in controllable to do bidding

[blissful holly]

That's what Dalin says, but daddy-issues Dalin just wants to find his dad in C-Cons, and who knows what Agatha wants at the end of the day, if she truly is a C-Cons representative then maybe she's just reforming the zone into something they believe will be more palatable for the world at large to permit existing.

All I know is that none of the endings result in the pod and the generators being destroyed - and that's the only logical choice to be made. Psi influence is too strong, has no means of being detected or prevented, nothing exposed to psi influence can be trusted - but that's the one choice that doesn't happen.

[normal pivot]

I feel like in Strelok's ending what exactly is stopping a new Strelok from stepping up and killing him just like he did to the origional 7 in the pods

[frigid zephyr]

I think the difference is strelok closes off the zone from everyone else

eventually everyone will die in the zone, and it will just be him and mutants

[normal pivot]

Yeah but for those left inside the zone, nothing is stopping somebody from becoming a plot armor protagonist and making their way to the generators and killing him in the final pod.

Exactly like Strelok did in SoC

all the endings feel pretty awful.
Not all endings need to be good/happy tho.
But I don't see any ending being exactly... a good outcome lol

[frigid zephyr]

i was expecting one to just be skif leaving the zone but hell his reason being there is pretty random too

[misty zealot]

yeah, every ending is a bad ending, and I think that is intentional, Korshunov/Scar/Strelok/Skif all convinced themselves in their own ending that they are doing the right thing, unable to see the truth.

[blissful holly]

Yep, and hopefully the DLCs address this directly.

[normal pivot]

ngl i would absolutely love an ending where you ACTUALLY put an end to it all.

Destroy all that absolutely power hungry evil technology. Humanity has no right having that power, nobody can be trusted to do the right thing with it.

Spreading the zone to the entire world in Skif's ending is quite awful

[blissful holly]

Exactly, but all the endings have the characters following extremely dubious logic chains for why they should be the one person that ends up in the pods controlling the fate of the zone and why it'll work out so much better this time - and it doesn't occur to any of them that this is a wrongness.

[normal pivot]

Yeah even Skif's ending which is basically (No you guys are wrong and I am right) Funny because thats what every other character also thinks

Blow up the generators, X-Labs, and find some way to dissipate the zone without leaving all the anomalous energy for megacorps / goverments to have monopolys over.

That's what id choose.

I do understand that it is a very cliche "Good Ending" tho lol

[misty zealot]

I liked it honestly because even though the execution is quite bumbling I liked the vision, the story took risks to not be a generic "good guy bad guy" ending and wasn't afraid to manipulate the player's own perspective and interpretation of events (even if sometimes it feels like a total ass pull).

[frigid zephyr]

true but my biggest gripe in general is the hard swaps in the story that don't make sense

[warm aspen]

He didn't choose to. His conversation with Strelok is telling Strelok the zone doesn't need proteection and to let the zone be as it is. And the zone decided to expand throughout the world.

[normal pivot]

@warm aspen Choosing to let the zone do its thing, is still a choice that was made by a human character.

Choosing to LET something happen is not much different than just choosing to do it yourself.

Thats the idea is that every route is a No im right and you are wrong.

[warm aspen]

Those are not the same things. Letting someone decide for themselves isn't complicit behavior lol. Did Skif know it would expand by letting the Zone decide?

[blissful holly]

Sure but this is nearly the equivalent of arguing that the cure for cancer is letting it metastasize.

[warm aspen]

it isn't this discord sucks the lack of ambiguity is annoying in here.

[normal pivot]

@warm aspen I don't think you understand what I mean.

His CHOICE that he made, and killed countless other people over, was that HE thinks that the ZONE should choose.

That is HIS choice to make that happen.

[blissful holly]

Brother if you can't abstract an argument for comparison then you're the one lacking ambiguity. Shit or get off the pot.

[frigid zephyr]

i prefer pooping peacefully

[warm aspen]

You compared a decision to letting cancer grow. You are implying Skif knew the zone would expand and destroy the world. No where in the game did it say the zone would do that aside from a possibility. This is what you both are saying. Acting as if you both are intellectuals with your reached metaphors is ridiculous.

[normal pivot]

I never implied Skif knew it would grow.
You cannot grasp what I am explaining, and I mean that in the most respectful way possible.

[warm aspen]

I don't think you understand what I am saying

YES each person is a human who did human things and humans are inherently bad yeah bro great intellectual argument everyone is self fullfilling, did you take some college level philophy courses to articulate this point?

[misty zealot]

he still got suckered into entering the pod, so from the perspective of the people manipulating him, potato potato

[blissful holly]

We have a tumor - it's mostly benign, doing it's own thing, but it has demonstrated a capability of being a problem, and there's nothing to suggest it can't spread - should we let it lie, or excise it and do a biopsy?

[warm aspen]

None of the endings do this but Strelok and even with the human morality argument it still, in the end, is wrong.

[normal pivot]

sigh okay ill explain it like im talking to a kid.

3 people want to do something to XYZ

The fourth person wants XYZ to do what it wants, whatever that may be.

Fourth person murders the "3" people.

Now the XYZ can do what it wants.

This entire train of actions and consequences makes this end up with Fourth person CHOSE to defy the other 3 so XYZ can do what it wants.

That was a CHOICE.

[warm aspen]

Congratulations you articulated what I explained to you.

[normal pivot]

That was what I said from the very beginning..... christ your reading comprehension is awful

[warm aspen]

I think you both want to think you have some superior story telling and then I explain what you said in lamens terms and you both try to say no then over explain the same thing I said. Thunkker did this earlier as well.

[normal pivot]

Bless your heart.

[blissful holly]

You haven't even made a point yet, you reductively said "HUMAN NATURE" as if it were a point, and then addressed nothing either of us are saying.

[warm aspen]

Because human nature is self explantory do you want a ***** essay explaining how human behavior works from child birth through various developmental stages in a persons life to articulate the deep meaning of ego and conciousness itself?

[blissful holly]

I want an essay explaining how the story fails to account for how human behavior works.

I understand human behavior just fine, I've read any number of books that explore all the aspects of human behavior and perception from loads of different angles, I want to know why this one expected that everyone would be too dumb to notice that they failed to account for it.

[warm aspen]

They didn't. They are displaying raw human behavior. It is like terrorism. One side is doing what they believe to be right and the other is responding because they were injured in conflict. Spark is practically a terrorist organization, Ward is the government thinking they are doing good in the world but hurting others in the process, then you have Strelok thinking he is saving everyone by controlling monolith but has freed nobody but himself. Even when Skif goes to science land he gets to see Strelok's visions at the wish granter. Strelok was one greedy dude. Same with Scar wanting everyone to be at peace no war, you completely dissolve the human condition with Scar's wants. Ward continues the zone as it is and lets government oversite "for the interest of the people" and Skif was attempting to make the zone do what the zone wants. All of which are inherently wrong in hind sight but this is the whole commentary about the game: we are humans, it is impossible to do perfection and to pretend we are capable of such is just as delusional as trying to harness the power something they can't seem to figure out.

[blissful holly]

All these things are exactly how they are presented to us and then the story DOES NOTHING WITH IT - we are shown that they are flawed, and rather than there being a coup de grace of understanding, everyone just goes thru with the comically flawed plan because the magic mind control device wants them to, and no one stops at any point to ask if it isn't all a little convenient that it works out that way.

[warm aspen]

I definitely thought about it because I remember at the start of the game I think it was Richter said to do as little killing as possible but conciously trying to NOT kill people I ended up with Skif. Ironic right?

[misty zealot]

its like watching a car crash in slow motion and trying to swerve out of the way you end up with the Skif ending, you will not have your catharsis, just as griga intended.

[crude trout]

i hope future dlc is treated as separate installments rather than small additions to the current story, since the original trilogy seems to be treated as 'stalker 1'

[normal pivot]

Why does Faust call you "Envoy of the Monolith"?

Isin't it implied if you do Skif's ending that you are more like the "Envoy of the Zone"?

[foggy dawn]

I notice something funny

When you first encounter wolf (who is now a guide) there is another stalker talking to about Strelok asking wolf questions because he knew him

And one of the questions was about legendary Strelok ability to sense artifacts

I thought this was a funny nod to the fact he never used artifact detector in the first game

[hollow gate]

would be a pretty good lore friendly way to retcon this lol

[foggy dawn]

I thought it was funny

I just assumed the in universe answer was there were just more artifacts at that moment of time

Like maybe for a small time period emissions were much stronger but less common leaving more artifacts

And SOC artifacts were just surface level artifacts

Like big gold nuggets that can be picked out of the river, and climate difference in the other games and you have to sift for the fine gold dust

[mossy vessel]

So like…idk is it just me or does it feel like there is barely any sides quests?

[normal pivot]

its not just you

[foggy dawn]

The first game felt far more dynamic

All the timed side quests really made you feel like you're part of the world instead of the centre of the world

[azure aurora]

what's the lore reason for a GP37 being able to make a ranged shot that a SVD can't?

[simple crypt]

how can i get access to the stash in chemical plant? all the doors are locked...

[halcyon lake]

so what ending did yall choose

i went with the ward as i didnt want the zone tbh

[inner moth]

that ending is interesting but lacks flavour. I prefer Skif's ending where the zone expanded globally.

[sacred stirrup]

Whats the characters wearing black vests? I didn't play enough to see him

[wary haven]

I dont think it's really explained why he calls you an "envoy of the monolith" but wouldn't skif be the monolith it self 🤔 or atleast be able to control the monolithians if he wouldn't let the zone chose what it wants to do

[dense heath]

Hey, is nitro from COP in s2?

[cerulean marlin]

The whole thing at Duga is Faust realizing you (Skif) is an "chosen" by the zone and that his plan to brainwash the zone with Psi-radiation isnt what the zone/monolith wants. ||Thats why he shifts focus and manipulates you into creating zones all over the world in the "doctor" ending. He couldnt make everyone get in touch with his god by forcing them to, instead he makes "everyone" have the possibility to meet his god by creating all the zones. The ending is absolutely not "Skifs ending" its Faust ending all the way. Its his win, he manipulated you, like you were warned about.||

The zone chose Skif, thats why the artifact ended up in his apartment. You were "programmed" for a purpose when you touched the artifact. That also explains Skifs kind of flimsy motivation for being and acting in the zone.
My theory is that the main purpose was to stop the Ward from "destroying" the zone. In that ending youre shown all your "failures" (where you sided with the ward) in the flashbacks. That leaves 2 endings as possible canon, Streloks and Fausts. I belive its the Strelok ending that will be canon, with a twist.

||Faust isnt dead.||

At the "doctor":|| When you shoot the doctor the Psi emitters stop working as you rush to the basement. The doctors head is towards the door, his axe on the ground.
Once you emerge from the cellar, if you look out the window you see a corpse, but its laying in the other direction, his head behind the stump so you cant see it and the axe is fastened in the stump once again. All the PSi-emitters are again active (but without the dome).
Richter is asking if you killed the doctor, dude didnt you just walk by his corpse?
My theory is that this is a trick, its either the body of the "real" doctor, or a Psi image. Faust is alive and will reappear as an antagonist or possible ally in DLC or sequel, fighting against Streloks control.||

[flat dust]

If they do an xmas event I want to be able to gift NPC's cause I think that would be really neat and it could be an alternative way to raise reputation other than interacting with them ya know. Gotta show my favorite techs some love cause let's be honest we wouldn't survive without em

[normal pivot]

@cerulean marlin What I dont understand is that Monolith and Zone are completely different things, so why is he acting like its the same entity.

Monolith is just a device, but the zone is much more.

[cerulean marlin]

Monolith is the "god" of the zone for monolithians, Faust follows the monolith by his own free will, he equates the Monolith with the will of the Zone, so they are interchangeable

[normal pivot]

@cerulean marlin Ah, yeah I guess that makes sense.

They are different, but to him they are one in the same.

Either way in a roundabout way he won. "Monolith" won. Or rather, the "Zone" won but to him it doesnt matter.

[nocturne remnant]

So, is there any information on how С-Consciousness transplanted Marshall's memory from 2012( 2013? ) into Scar's head from 2011?
Considering that С-Consciousness was already destroyed before the events of Call of Pripyat and the death of the original Spark squad?

[normal pivot]

Hm, well the STALKER network is still up and running, only C-Con was dead.

So the ability to do that to Scar is still available, but I wonder who chose to do it and why? idk

[nocturne remnant]

Yes, for now this is one of the biggest questions for me. Who and why?
What makes Marshall so special?
Well, the situation with Faust and the Doctor is still a mystery too. But at least I understood their plan and scheme with Skif and all the alpha artifacts

[normal pivot]

@nocturne remnantI don't think its that Marshal was special, its probably more like he was just a good choice, and they needed somebody that had personality and leadership qualities to raise the "New" Spark faction into power so they have a puppet to carry out their will.

Default Scar abliet brainwashed never really had personality and was mostly a yes-man doing jobs as a mercenary.

Scar in S2 is a total puppet, there is nothing remaining other than the name Scar it seems.

[nocturne remnant]

To me, the new Scar looks like a clown. It's surprising that anyone followed him as a leader lol

He literally acts and sounds like a crazy person lol

[cerulean marlin]

The scar file you on brainwashing find in s2 implies theres 300 other stalkers between Strelok and him

[normal pivot]

I just wanted what was best for Noontide, feels bad man

[nocturne remnant]

But still. Who could do this if C-Con was dead?

[cerulean marlin]

So i dont know if Scar was there WAY longer than Strelok, even if they ended up at the brainwashing place at the same time

C-con wasnt dead at the time of Scar getting caught while going after Strelok. They might have let him cook for a long time, or use an older imprint somehow stored as "subtle matter" of marshall

[nocturne remnant]

But Marshal appears after the events of Call of Pripyat. Like after 2012

[steady sundial]

Im kinda confused how is ghost kinda alive in stalker2?Or he is someone else using this name?

[normal pivot]

kinda alive? what?

[nocturne remnant]

Huh?

[steady sundial]

or its translation error. He was trying to go to limansk and u find him half dead in the tunnel in red forest

[cerulean marlin]

Hmm checking the notes it does say that ward killed the original team. Marshall might have been a c-conc agent though for all we know though.

[normal pivot]

That guy in the tunnel for that quest is "Spirit"

[steady sundial]

ok so its translation error

[normal pivot]

yeah you playing in a diff language than English or Ukrainian?

[steady sundial]

Im playing in polish and his name was DUCH and i translated it to ghost

[normal pivot]

ahhh yeah. figures.
Ghost, Spirit, Apparition, Poltergeist, Spectre. All loosly interchangable.

But yeah, its a different guy, just with a "similar" name I guess you could say.

[nocturne remnant]

This is Spirit. Member of the original Spark squad. Stalker who says that Scar never was at the Chemical Plant when the squad was killed by the ward soldiers

Still, who is Marshall?!?! 😭😭😭

[dull sable]

How far into the story am I? ||I just met with Strelok for the first time||

[nocturne remnant]

~2,5/4

[dense sandal]

The strelok ending felt a lot better after just finishing skifs or fausts ending. Having the zone controlled by no one seems better than letting people manipulate and let it free to destroy the rest of the world

[normal pivot]

ironic because Strelok is also controlling the zone in his own way.

Also there is no guarente the Zone spreading to the world is going to be absolutely catastrophic. like "Doctor" / Faust said, its a possibility that if the zone is given compassion and freedom, it will grow to be something beautiful rather than monstrous like the zone we know.

Since the zone we know was built upon endless amounts of inhumane experiments, greed and people playing "god"

theres a lot you could say is up to interpretation

But yes, it spreading and causing anomalies could cause widespread devastation in the REALLY short term. But its also quite possible long term it will make Earth and humanity better. Since the world wide "Zone" wont be so tainted like the origional zone.

But thats just my 2 cents I derived from the dialogue

[cerulean marlin]

You could argue that just opens up many new possibilities to abuse the zone

[normal pivot]

Yeah but thats the thing, every ending is imperfect for a reason. thats exactly what GSC wanted

[formal finch]

Does the lore ever explain what happened to zalyssia’s barrage balloon? My theory is ||uncle|| cut it loose to ||signal the attack||

[cerulean marlin]

Strelok ending opens up best possibilities for DLC, imho. Can Continue Skifs story, What i wrote about Faust, remix the zone etc without building something from scratch

[cerulean marlin]

It might be the whole reason they went there in force, something taken from theit holy place, but no never explained

[formal finch]

I did think of that, being as it was stolen from the sarcophagus.

[normal pivot]

I have a feeling that DLC will not continue the story, rather than add more content/zones to the game.

[gusty lotus]

||The endings do not give us answers, they raise even more questions.
Skif's ending. Was the Swamp Doctor always Faust or did he kill him at this moment? From whose body are we then removing the pendant?

Why did the Doctor join Strelka's group? Why does he only say at Agroprom that the Monolith is fiction if he knew all this perfectly well, being one of the Conscious Ones. That is, he believes that it could be true. And he also knew what the Burner was, because he created it. And he knew what was behind the closed door in the Sarcophagus.

Why did Kalancha and Lebedev break away from the group? That's why they create Clear Sky. Why did they fight the Monolith?

The developers of the Faust twist and induced illusions raised even more questions. How can we be sure that everything that happened after the first assault on the Duga was not a glitch in the inflamed brain of Skif, who is lying at the checkpoint and "inspecting". At the end, Varta shows the monitor through Skif's eyes. When did they manage to program it? Or does the institute now have access to the brains of everyone in the Zone? Who did we take the pendant and PDA from if the Doctor turned into Faust? After dying in a hallucination, Faust understands perfectly well that the Monolith is nonsense, but he was exactly the one who was rooting for the Monolith, because with it he had a purpose in life and was happy. These motives are villainous, but they can be understood, it is logical. And then he quickly changes his tune and says that the Zone is a gift in itself. The Doctor also speaks with visible rhetoric. The Doctor says that Strelok should be looked for at the Cordon, like he spent a lot of time there, because in his past life he worked through the northern exits from the Zone. This is clear from the dialogues with Sidor and the hiding places in CoP. In short, there are more questions than answers.||

[amber hawk]

||personally i believe faust represents the body of the zone, when he shows what the zone appears as, it’s like a nervous system. I think the zone is similar to an animal, it lacks a sentience but it reflects how it’s treated, because it in itself is the sphere of human thought and emotion, its like a pseudo sentience, with emissions acting as an immune reaction similar to a cough. I don’t know what this represents with faust in terms of his long term goals because it’s clear he didn’t believe in the monolith, i think he believed more so what the monolith revealed about the zone and in turn what the people in the zone want from it. I don’t believe it’s villainous per se since his controller powers probably connect him deeply with the noosphere. It’s like suddenly you can feel the emotions of an elephant in captivity. I think he has a deep connection with it and by using skif, intends to expand the zone, if people enter the zone for profit, the noosphere reflects that and since he’s the doctor as well, it implies faust has a deep respect for life. I think his goal was to almost rewrite the noosphere in the same vain as scar views the shining zone but with far more clarity and comprehension of the zone. Surely there are more good people than bad in the world so by expanding the zones and engulfing the world, perhaps the positive emotions could be reflected in on itself? Unsure. But that’s what i think. He wanted to bring forth the happiness he was seeking but understood that because of his past as monolith, almost no one would aid with his goals except those who understand the happiness that the zone has the ability to bring into the world||

[cerulean marlin]

The doctor was real before but the version we meet in S2 is always Faust. The description from the mercs is also way more like Faust than the doctor. Walking through radiation, eating two rounds point blank without flinching. Nothing prevents Faust from getting out of duga while you're out/inside his vision, he leaves his pendant on a body and makes it look like him.

Nothing strange with the doctor feigning ignorance in many things since someone finding out he created the zone will likely not end well for him., check my earlier post from today on Faust or this thread on steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1643320/discussions/2/4626981776940656691/

[pliant cosmos]

Is it a lore error when we ||see strider's flashback of Operation Monolith — he is targetting some military with assault rifle near burning BTR while saying "Target: Sova...". According to Operation Monolith plan, Sova was sniper squad deployed on the roof, so if that soldier was Sova group member, he couldn't be with assault rifle and on the ground, nor near burning BTR. Lun squad, however, could. So did developers make a mistake at this moment?||

[odd wigeon]

Small detail, but ||C-Con Representative|| explicitly stated during the main quest that ||C-Con was never "killed;" their physical forms were, but their consciousness became part of the Noosphere, whatever that means.||

[gray lichen]

so just to check out here guys, does hermann sends you to a bunch of monsters when he send you back to sircaa?

[cerulean marlin]

The later part of the main quests more or less confirms ||theyre only "echoes" or imprints, not the real thing.||

[odd wigeon]

Sure, but at the same time ||"echoes"|| with ||agents at their disposal to do their bidding regardless of their presence.|| I don't think it's an enormous leap in logic to assume any number of those ||agents|| could be involved in "continuing the project," so to speak. I think it's actually a pretty major plot device.

[cerulean marlin]

Oh yes several of the projects were still running. Like the Stalker program was pretty much running on its own, with monolith providing new blood. However it seems to be running but "not accepting new applicants" based on the state in Sttalker 2

[nocturne remnant]

It's still hard to imagine who did this to Marshall. And where has Scar's body been since 2011?
By the way, an interesting fact. Novikov survived and was in the scientists' bunker, next to which the Marshall first appears ☝️ 🤓
Could Novikov still work for C-Con?

[cerulean marlin]

If you go based on the file numbers theres over 400 Stalkers in the zone who went through the stalker program. Some of those are probably alive. Hell Nestor was a STALKER program graduate

[odd wigeon]

Granted, I'm basing a lot of my feelings and assumptions on my own personal theory that ||The Group, C-Con, Clear Sky, Monolith, and at this point SIRCAA|| are all largely one in the same, or at least ||manipulated into achieving the same ends with marginally different means.|| The story largely reads (to me, again I may be reading too much into certain things) as an allegory for ||factional extremism, and how "we're not so different after all."||

[cerulean marlin]

My theory is that Ward/SIRCAA are the real antagonists. ||The zone chose Skif, and when he touched that artifact he was imprinted with a mission to "save" the zone from the ward. That also explains his kinda flimsy reasons for being in the zone and continuing to get involved. Its not as targeted as the STALKER program, but more nudging you towards what the zone needs. The zone is lost in the ward ending pretty much and all flashbacks while youre out of it shows times when you helped the Ward (made the wrong choice). The other endings shows part of your journey in other ways.
The three other endings he does save the zone in different ways, however one is clearly bad for all involved (scar), one makes the Zone global (which the zone/C-conc has never pushed for before, this is Fausts new dream), making Streloks protection of the Zone the most likely canon ending. The zone can find equilibrium somehow without outside interference (for a while im guessing, untill Faust pops up)||

[nocturne remnant]

Nah, they have kinda different goals. C-Con wanted to turn everyone into zombies and show them a dream world, SIRCAA wanted to gain control over people's minds for other things, Monolith is simply a tool to distract attention.

Nobody planned to create the Zone. But when Doctor realized he could free her using the Heart of Chernobyl, he began developing Project Y back in 2010

[odd wigeon]

See, I don't think you're wrong per se, but I want to take that a step further. ||SIRCAA/Ward are controlled opposition, and The Group have managed to put the right people in the right places over the years to have some meaningful political/military influence in just about every group/faction that could potentially affect meaningful change in the Zone.||

[odd wigeon]

I wouldn't split hairs over the wording, ||the end-goal of C-Con and SIRCAA both are essentially mass mind control. Does the 'why' really matter?|| Shamefully, ||Monolith (the faction) are the unfortunate victims - an example of what people who wield that power will inevitable do to the ones who submit to them.||

[nocturne remnant]

In this case, you are right, yep

[cerulean marlin]

It might have been the doctor that started the project of "freeing" the zone, but much point to the doctor we see in Stalker 2 always being Faust, and this was his goal, not yours (Skifs ending)

Your encounter at the Duga shows him that control is not what the zone/monolith truly wants and he shifts his approach. And also recognizes you as a true agent of the Zone/monolith. Make sense he chose to act through you instead of doing it himself

[hardy otter]

Anyone else struggling to choose between Noonish and the ward?

[odd wigeon]

Not at all, lol. I'll eventually play a Ward playthough just to see what happens, but those guys suck royally.

[hardy otter]

I'm not a huge fan of the game making me choose between the colonel and strider... both have treated Skif fairly.

[cerulean marlin]

It wont affect or lock you into an ending, you can reverse course after no matter what you choose. I would say Ward is a bit easier as you have access to their camps still.

[hardy otter]

@cerulean marlin fair. @odd wigeon why do you feel like the ward sucks?

[odd wigeon]

Personal bias, I guess. Ward's in the pocket of their corporate interest at SIRCAA, who I believe are objectively bad. Supporting them feels like kissing the boot before it stomps you out. Colonel isn't evil, I can appreciate the man and hate the institution.

[rare silo]

whats the reason the game is called STALKER? whenever i tell ppl who dont know stalker look at me all crazy 😂

[cerulean marlin]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R stands for Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers and Robbers

[rare silo]

ohhhhh!!

been playing the series for years and i had no idea 😭

[cerulean marlin]

Colonel maybe isnt evil, but after duga that man is driven purely by hate.

[rare silo]

also im wondering where Duty is based in s2? now that they're not in Rostok

[odd wigeon]

Haven't seen him after Duga; I went with Spark my playthrough. After SIRCAA though, I can't imagine him being fond of Dalin or his plans to say the least.

[hardy otter]

I guess the decision would be easier if the Colonel was not such a strong character. I do feel however like the devs rely too much on players understanding how terrble monolith use to be. The game never really elaborates on the subject and suddenly Strider is just like you have to come help us stop the monolith! Whereas I feel like Skif in tthat moment in time would just be like "yeah sounds terrible... so anyways about my house on the mainland"

[rare silo]

you see duty guys sometimes randomly, and theres an apparent war between duty and freedom later on, but im not sure where duty are coming from

[cerulean marlin]

I went with ward up to a certain point and returning after the failed assault on Duga, the dude goes nuts, and stays angry the rest of the way.

[cerulean marlin]

Cement factory, to the right of garbage

Im also dissapointed as theres a clear point in the story ||where the treaty Freedom and Duty has is now off, but nothing ever happens between them||

[rare silo]

ohh i see now on the online map wtf

i never went up there in my first playthrough when i did the strelok ending

[cerulean marlin]

Yeah theres no storymissions or even sidemissions that sends you there really.

[rare silo]

ah yeah i see, thats a bummer 😕 i always liked duty - i got a feeling that freedom and duty will be the target of future dlc though

[odd wigeon]

I guess that's at least more fun than Scar, who just goes continually more and more nuts as the story goes on. Man put on a three act play for me in old Wild Territory.

[rare silo]

wait til you get the last mission

[cerulean marlin]

Cant be easy having another persons core memories up in your head 😄

[odd wigeon]

Love to, soon as I'm done soft-locking during "Visions of Truth."

[rare silo]

there a uh... interesting encounter with scar

[rare silo]

wdym?

that mission is pretty awful, the defense part, so poorly done

[odd wigeon]

Get to Malachite, go downstairs to do plot things, go upstairs to do the raid, die approximately thirty times because I'm soloing an army of Exos, finally kill them all, and ||Scar is not at the secret entrance to Malachite.||

[rare silo]

theres a tunnel you need to go thru

[odd wigeon]

And ||Scar is not waiting at the top of the ladder for me.|| Additionally, ||after entering the tunnel, the quest marker moves back down to the basement, but the elevator button does not work.||

[rare silo]

weird, that sucks. have u tried reloading to a previous save?

[odd wigeon]

Tried a pre-entering-the-tunnel save, a pre-raid save, and a pre-Malachite-still-at-Duga-and-do-it-all-over-again save, same result.

[rare silo]

wtf that sucks, i had no issue with that

[odd wigeon]

Yeah, it's a bummer, but what are you gonna' do about it, right? I'll just wait for the next patch, no big deal. First bug I've run into all game, I'm not too pressed about it.

[dawn isle]

Assuming you followed that route, it's clear that Skif deeply regrets Strider's death

[hardy otter]

Would have loved if there was an alt path to side with faust, reinstate the monolith and cast out the interlopers.

[warm aspen]

Yall need to stop having spoiler warnings in the possible spoilers channel lmao

[simple crypt]

how can you get access to the ward base in chemical plant

[warm aspen]

side with the ward, use ghost in UE cheats or kill everyone

[simple crypt]

ssided with ward. did the sidequest to find the dead guys soul, talked to the col or whoever, attacked that train station. didnt get access after that. so wondering if i missed something or not

[flat dust]

Some ward as enemies are way too tanky gonna be real so just don't piss off ward

[simple crypt]

so is there something im missing to open that base, or is it a glitch?

[woven vortex]

finally, after 110 hours, I finished my first playthrough

got the || Strelok || ending but I feel like its a monkeys paw situation similar to SoCs || wish granter || endings

[gusty lotus]

Hi have you seen something awesome when you do the Bandit mission for barkeep rostock after if you go behind the bar where bouncer is there,s a tornado 🌪 sends ya to blue print

[undone storm]

all endings seem like that. I wondered if there's a real ending like in SoC. But no

[woven vortex]

I will make the bold claim that the DLCs might add new endings, however that's just based on a feeling

but yeah the current endings don't really offer || a future for the zone ||

[hardy otter]

I feel like the ward ending is the most reasonable of the bunch as it turns the zone into a legitimate organized effort by humanity to control the catastrophe and exploit it as a resource towards progress.

[undone storm]

Skif's ending does

[undone storm]

You really think the government would not abuse the power?

[hardy otter]

I mean, it's not going to be perfect. But there are sufficient real world examples to suggest that it's a reasonable choice.

[foggy dawn]

Meow

[undone storm]

like what?

Just a reminder. We're talking mind control stuff.

[hardy otter]

I feel like the responsible use of nuclear power is a direct compariable. We could use it to obliterate each other, but we use it to power countries instead.

[undone storm]

Nuclear power !== nuclear weapons. Two very different technologies, actually

[normal pivot]

Both Strelok's ending and Skifs/Faust open it up for continuation.

But I'd bet the DLC's will not add any sort of Epilogue, and will entirely be new zones and side content. Or at best a different path to the ending.

I highly doubt there will be DLC that takes place after the end of the game.

[primal geyser]

5d 8h 5 min plathrough, got the kymoniv faust ending.

[warm aspen]

lol

[winged raft]

I'm kind of disappointed with the characterization of ||strelok. I feel like he should be more broken and sorrowful than the way he's depicted like he is unphased by anything and almost evil||

[wet hill]

||which ending you prefer?||

[dawn isle]

MFW everyone but the Ward dude is probably a C-Consciousness agent

Remember how Skif fell to the floor and started suffering when Strelok put the whammy on that Dark guy? Also in the Ward ending, it's shown that they're monitoring Skif through his own eyes... which is something that is explicitly a thing for C-Consciousness agents

[winged raft]

||I haven't seen all of them but the one where you side with strelok has the coolest cutscene but the one where you kill him probably makes more sense||

[subtle shadow]

Is there a psi emitter in or around the red forest? Because I get crazy amount of psi radiation even with decent protective armor but knowing the brain scorcher moved south, what replace it?

[simple crypt]

how can you get access to the ward base in chemical plant?
Sided with ward. did the sidequest to find the dead guys soul, talked to the col or whoever, attacked that train station. didnt get access after that. so wondering if i missed something or not. so is there something im missing to open that base, or is it a glitch?

[modest current]

my game is crashing when trying to load the save directlybefore the "no return point" ... sad

once i get to the exit it crashed with "Unhandled Exception: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x0000000000000038"

[covert aurora]

I mean. The ||faust|| and ||strelok|| endings most definitely include a future for the zone. Really, the only one that doesn't is the ward

[woven vortex]

Spark is eh

[covert aurora]

Spark is... I think spark is probably the worst one tbh

[dawn isle]

I still wish there was a "fuck this shit I'm out" ending where you just blow up the pod and the generators and leave

[blissful holly]

Yeah I wanted an actual Korshunov ending, and not just SIRCAA (who appears to be under control of Agatha, who is probably under control of C-Cons) ending.

Burn it to the ground, it's far too dangerous to allow it to continue existing in the state it does.

[dawn isle]

That said, after I finished up at Foundation, Strelok flat out tells me that emissions are going CRAZY in the zone, though in my case, that ended up with Dalin blowing the whole mess up. Not sure how it goes if you go on other routes

[last tinsel]

It is accessible later in the main story

[gleaming bolt]

wait for the DLC for it wait until it comes out

[flat dust]

Wouldn't it make sense to add signs in English at military checkpoints and sircca considering the diversity of those employed by the ISPF and mr science man

[proud heart]

Skif's ending zones everywhere in the world. I think that would be a good sequel so stories wont be limited to the zone anymore since there are other "Zones" all over the world how will this change humanity and what not

[last tinsel]

Signs are for stalkers, not military. And stalkers are 99% slavic speaking

[flat dust]

Bruh I can't read the signs

[last tinsel]

And most of those signs on military checkpoints are from USSR times anyway

[flat dust]

._. it's a bit difficult to enjoy a game to the fullest extent when you can't read

I can write and speak English and Norwegian

I cannot speak or read the native dialect of the region

[last tinsel]

Well, it's authentic and they don't contain any important information.

If I play game about China or Japan, I don't want hieroglyphics to be translated in English, because it ruins immersion

The same with Ukrainian setting and ukrainian language

[flat dust]

You do realize modern writing is completely different from ancient writing

[brave iris]

Dont think that its neccessary to move the story anywhere else rather than in the Zone to be fair. Yea you can have the idea that the Mainland is cooked, but the Zone will always center around Chernobyl as its and always will be its center.

[flat dust]

I play in English so it makes sense to me to have the signs be in English so I can actually read them and fully enjoy the game

It doesn't matter that they contain nothing important I want to be able to read them

But I can't do that when I don't understand the language and I can't exactly learn a new language in a day

[last tinsel]

I mean if devs decided that only ukrainian signs are authentic to the setting (based on answers channel) i don't think you can do anything about it. Those are textures, not strings. A lot of work to do various versions for textures

[flat dust]

._.

[hollow gate]

Well, the only way is to learn the alphabet then. I had to do it to play DayZ (was like 12 or 13 at the time) so you should be able to do it too

[open terrace]

is it really true they rewrote the story again?

[bright mist]

I did this as well lmao. It prepped me a lot for learning Ukrainian even though at the time I didn't think I'd be learning the language but here I am.

[hollow gate]

I focused more on Russian than Ukrainian, but thanks to the fact I'm Polish and I know Russian on a pretty good level I can also understand Ukrainian pretty well lol

[neat zephyr]

Okay my biggest complaint and question about the game rn is what the hell is going on with the brain scorcher? how is it blocking the way to the center without nuking everyones brain at yantar? as well, how did scar get thru red forest and into limansk if its right next door?

[dawn isle]

Strelok's inventory: literal Heart of Chernobyl
Scar's inventory: Anomalous Toast 🤡

[dawn isle]

It's not clearly stated but there are big impassible anomaly fields all over the place in the Zone and that's why you can only reach certain places via certain routes. The Brain Scorcher covers a very large area to the point where no one thought it was possible to get by

The Miracle Machine in Yantar isn't part of the Brain Scorcher, it's it's own thing.

[neat zephyr]

thats fair didnt think about it like that

[dawn isle]

I think some translations called the Miracle Machine the "brain burner" which obviously led to confusion

Also, there's basically two kinds of emissions in the zone: normal ones, which replenish artifacts and move around minor anomalies, and major ones, which utterly reshape the Zone and every anomaly field in it

The first major one was when the Zone was created and it killed almost everyone in the Zone at the time. The second one was when Strelok's team first reached CNPP back before SHoC, and the third was when Strelok killed the pod people. After that, emissions (and thus the moving of minor anomalies and such) became much more frequent, which led to the plot of CoP

This is my interpertation based off of what we read and hear about in the games. The anomaly fields being a thing are also why guides are so valuable, they know the safe routes that avoid both anomaly fields and mutant nests and stuff

(anomalies also appear in the air, but after the events of SHoC they started moving around regularly, which led to Operation Fairway's failure; the military sent in a force to occupy CNPP but almost all the choppers hit anomalies in the air they didn't know were there and crashed)

IIRC at least one was also brought down by a Monolithian with a gauss rifle

[neat zephyr]

bruh i was trying to post something from reddit 😦 basically it theorized that the brain scrocher was a main part of the psi field network and that disabling that would cripple the network.

[dawn isle]

There is no indication of that in the games; it's described purely as something the Monolith use to keep stalkers away from CNPP

[azure aurora]

What’s the lore reason for quest items that I don’t even know are quest items being stuck in my inventory? (Thus, taking away from carry weight)

[stoic portal]

yeah I have no clue what Bubbs Pda does

[tacit crater]

Bubbs is a dead guy who you can give his stuff to his friend, who is around the anomaly Bubbs died to. Maybe that guy didn’t spawn or got killed.

[stoic portal]

no I've done that before, his pda is a quest item and it doesn't seem to do anything unless you can show it to Shah

His buddy simply asks for his body and agros you if you take his bubbs stuff

[onyx hare]

I just did jnvisible threat (taking the emitter to scar) and hornets nest (defending the sphere) was failed at the same time. Are these mutually exclusive?

[azure aurora]

the lore reason: oops

[spark aurora]

where is Solder after I take out the emitter? He was standing in one place and now hes not there

[tulip hearth]

The Pripyat technician Bolero says he was with Deggy when they found "you know what" in the Garbage, and he is envious bc we can study it as we did not make any promises to Deggy like he did. Can anyone tell me wtf he's talking about? Please reply or @ me in your answer so I get pinged in the sea of messages. Thanks guys.

[cunning kelp]

So which ending do you guys think is a good ending?

[normal pivot]

I don't think any of them are "good" endings. And I believe GSC wanted it that way.

[cunning kelp]

||The closes one is definitely strelok ||

[mellow bolt]

Im at the Mission "A Minor Incident" ||and i have to find richter to bring him the collar, but hes not at slag heap where the quest location is?????||

[spark aurora]

I am starting to be very annoyed around the On The Edge quest...the bug was fine and I was able to resolve it but the sudden FPS drop is absolutely insane...anyone know why it happens? Whole game till now I have 100+ FPS constantly and during this quest its almost all the time 5-10FPS