s2-lore-discussions

[tacit crater]

I went to the Sphere and was still able to do Invisible Threat. Try that.

[cerulean marlin]

Good is a question of how you define it, i think ||streloks|| ending is the best for the zone. ||It can now live without outside interference (untill the stalkers find a new way in without getting shot up by Monolith). The zone with or without c-conc has never shown expansionistic tendencies so I have a hard time believing the doctor/Faust ending will be canon.||

[cunning kelp]

||Agreed. The zone needs to be left alone from outside sources. All this talk of “helping humanity” is bs.||

[cerulean marlin]

Humans can and will be part of the zone but most of the ones left inside the walls will have to shift approach from taming or profiting of the zone to live with it. It's also a prime setup for a different zone in dlc/sequel

[cunning kelp]

||don’t know if we will get DLC cuz the final choice has us not being able to continue.||

[cerulean marlin]

||The strelok ending let's them continue Skifs story, it can start right after the credits or like some months after when Skifs settled into the new life. I would guess Faust will pop up and start some shit.||

[cunning kelp]

||If they continued skiffs story it would make all the other endings mute.||

[cerulean marlin]

Which is the way the previous multiple endings have worked

One needs to be canon unless they do added content during the main campaign, which i really hope they dont do

I'd rather wait a few years for a CS/COP-like expansion/sequel

[cunning kelp]

Wonder how the player animations will look from another POV. I seen our shadow sprint

[cerulean marlin]

Yeah the MP is gonna be interesting...

[cunning kelp]

Desync and latency.

[mellow bolt]

does anyone know how to fix?

[patent wagon]

||It can’t be the Skif one because he is in a pod||

[stoic portal]

Anyone know if there is a way to get into the Iron forest? Just noticed it registers as a found area on the map

[wise venture]

Yea the quest arrow is bugged. He's in a shed next to where you got the collar from the mutant

Far as I know it's the only bugged marker in the game, anyone know others?

||It was funny strelok had just a normal ak on him, I was waiting for some crazy unique weapon drop||

[dawn isle]

I think it's a callback to the end of SHoC where he just uses a normal AK-74SU to shoot up the pods

[wise venture]

||Good point. Scar did have the unique Gauss Rifle tho. I kinda wished the Strelok fight was the final boss and his fight was a bit tougher tho. The ending dragged on with infinite monolith spawns||

[tacit crater]

||The part of The Boundary where you find a way into Pripyat has the marker bugged. There’s a small dirt patch between two roads where the actual trigger is, around 10 or so meters away.

[finite moth]

I wish we could keep going after the ending. I was planning to restart but being able to explore further with the gear I get at the end would be nice

[cunning kelp]

It would be another year or couple months if they do that for all the endings

[magic crypt]

Man strelok gets to manipulate space-time after years of stalking and we dont at least get a lil thingy to toy with endgame like exoskeleton with a bit enhance jump, or an artifact that makes us blink slighlty like at 1/3rd of what strelok does

[finite moth]

Yeah. I'd like to see the world based on various endings.

[magic crypt]

Wouldnt those be fun? Not be strong but just a lil extra from the base movement

[finite moth]

I guess I'll be starting a new game. Hopefully this time the broken quests won't be so broken hehe

[magic crypt]

I already started 2nd too, but on one hand im slightly exhausted and worried if quest breaks again

[cunning kelp]

Kind of spoilery my dude.

[magic crypt]

Its not spoilery channel?

I thought so maybe from it being story channel

[finite moth]

If people don't want any spoilers, even minor ones, they shouldn't be in these channels. They are clearly labeled as such.

[autumn granite]

i reckon due to what Strelok has done, he knows how to send codes from his PDA to open certain teleports

[ornate venture]

wulul has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[cunning kelp]

I miss duty tbh. Feels empty without the older factions around

[autumn granite]

Duty is still doing things, they just had to move their base from Rostok to the Cement plant

[cunning kelp]

I hate dealing with wannabe duty ie warden

[autumn granite]

Ward aint duty, and will never be, you can be hostile to Ward while duty still likes you

[cunning kelp]

Oh I tried being a good guy on my first run, liked spark but oooh boy did they turn out to be nuts.

[autumn granite]

I went Strelok my 1st run

[finite moth]

i have 2 more weeks of work and then 3 weeks off. I will save my second run for the 3 weeks off. This way it gives the dev's some time to patch a few more things. Hopefully some of the broken quests i couldn't do will work on the second run

[cunning kelp]

Same

[finite moth]

it's kinda funny that some of the mutants are harder to kill then bosses.

[cunning kelp]

Pain….

So do the mutants still get affected from the blow outs?

Did anyone else try their damndest to save strider?

[supple seal]

Yes...

But... such is the will of the Monolith.

[cunning kelp]

[normal pivot]

noontide having a happy ever after would've been great, but such is life in the zone indeed.

[supple seal]

Such is the gift of the Zone...

[manic harness]

Ye I want noon back 🥺

[mossy vessel]

Tbh I’m confused as to why killing Faust didn’t break the connection again

[leaden kraken]

Because he wasn't killed, duh
He's not just a controller, he's basically a retcon, plot twist machine. A dangerous tool that frankly writers should just put aside before they break everything and make the story one large unsatisfying convoluted mess.

[foggy vapor]

Does anyone know when chemplant was taken by Ward?

[agile ether]

Does anyone know where to get RPM-74 bullets consistently? I can’t seem to find the bullets even on the trader at pripyat

Oh and does breaking noontide’s / monolith canisters in their praying contraption does anything at all?

Been stumbling upon some of it during my playthrough

[foggy vapor]

Idk, you just sort of amass them over time. If you didn't side with Ward you can get ||a 5.45 RPM for the ending sequence||
Also this is the wrong channel to ask that
Use #☢┃stalker-general

[agile ether]

Thx, been doing exactly that rn

[foggy vapor]

Like what year?

[azure aurora]

Fellas, at what point should I use the VAL?

[steel sinew]

Whenever you can have a steady stream of 9x39 ammo

[sweet marsh]

in call of pripyat strelok went on to work at a institute outside the zone, why did he return to the zone as a stalker? (havent played stalker 2 only watched all the cutscenes)

[foggy vapor]

Play it, it's described in a PDA entry

[sweet marsh]

my laptop would melt

[foggy vapor]

I don't remember it 100% but my recollection is he fled the SIRCAA because either he disagreed with what they were doing or someone was trying to kill him, I could be confusing with cut content though.
He then went back to the Zone for whatever purpose

The PDA entry is in his hideout in Ahroprom underground

So, uh... why exactly does Nimble wear a snork mask on his shoulder?
My current theory is he might be looking for Clear Sky members? As he was kind of inspecting the one dead snork's face and so got a reputation of a Snork hunter maybe?

[hasty creek]

how do i kill the pseudogiant on the quest legends of the zone like ive used 22 granades on it all the explosive barrels and literally all the ammo i have

[hardy otter]

Any insight into which suit people installer the suppressor on?

[woven vortex]

You can upgrade every suit with it, multiple times

So, during the later part of the game, Duty and Freedom are appearantly at war again, however, there is no indicator why and its only hinted on by dialogue in Rostok. Did I miss something?

[cerulean marlin]

My guess is this is missing a-life content. There's a lot in the code with "lairs", more or less bases that spawns faction members, they can take over other lairs and checkpoints so there's a back and forth. But since were relegated to 80m with non consistent spawns at the moment I'm guessing the faction war isn't working at all.

[woven vortex]

My assumption is that its cut content

Similar to the defense missions (except zalissys) that seemingly were supposed to happen but never did

[simple crypt]

so how much radio protection is 1 artifact with weak on it? like how much artifact radiation does taht cover?

[cunning kelp]

So why does monolith rock white and black camo? Is it meant to be urban pants?

[simple crypt]

can i kill both the shah and roosevelt? then come back and kill varan?

[dawn isle]

From what I know, the devs were running out of time, and had to use an extremely CPU intensive method of rendering some things which didn't play nice with the A-Life that is also extremely CPU intensive

[cunning kelp]

Is that why when I turn a corner I am dealing with a squad worth of monoliths?

[dawn isle]

Yeah. Basically right now there's a thing that spawns in stuff dynamically, but it's not well tuned yet

From what I know they had to publish the game when they did, or otherwise never publish it at all

[woven vortex]

Well theres no official reason to why, but they operated near the CNPP and Prypjat so urban would make sense

[woven vortex]

Yes

[simple crypt]

i hate bandits and criminals. will kill all if i can

[cerulean marlin]

It was a memory issue, then additional bugs happened just before release

https://insider-gaming.com/what-happened-a-life-2-0-in-stalker-2/

[wraith lantern]

Assault on Duga is broken. I chose ward and cannot progress past taking the check point. I destroy the two PSI emitters, kill the rest of the guards, fight off two small waves of three soldiers each, and then the game just sits there.

[last tinsel]

First or second? Faust should spawn on top of the tank outside and psi-hit you, then quest will progress

[crimson palm]

Honestly there is a chance that ||strider isn't dead||, I mean can we really trust what we saw with when he ||tried to kill Doc||? ||Maybe it's just another illusion projected by Faust.||

And why was ||Strider sent to kill Doc in the first place||, even Skif is asking that

[last tinsel]

Maybe, ||Strider knew Doc was actually Faust, so he was after him|| or ||Strider was after Strelok and Doctor was in Strelok's group, so he went after him, just like Skif||

It's kinda sad how Scar turned out to be. Completely crazy. Even turns out ||he was an brainwashed agent even before events of CS||

On top of that his ending is the worst

[solid skiff]

why is scar crazy?

[last tinsel]

Completely delusional

[slow star]

In the mission deal with the devil should I kill the people that varens wants me to or do I give him my money?

[last tinsel]

Just do what you seem more appropriate

[ornate venture]

dewpa has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[cerulean marlin]

Hes been imprinted with the memories of Marshal, one of the founders of the old, proper SPARK, that seemingly sent him off the deep end

[cerulean marlin]

This is a bit of theorycrafting but kinda makes sense. ||Faust realized hes going about things the wrong way after your fight at Duga, he realizes Skif is a true envoy of the zone/monolith, and frying everyone with Psi emissions isnt what the Monolith/zone wants. Fighting against skif is fighting the zone. He shifts focus on something much more dangerous, manipulating Skif into spreading the zone worldwide. He probably breaks with Monolith at that point, he was always a willing participant, not brainwashed, him being a controller. Breaking away from Monolith is probably a no no from their POV. Also having a controller not following the monolith is probably a major threat to them. They send strider to kill him, knowing thats faust, not the doc the whole time.||

[lone osprey]

I have a concern, not related to the story but lore wise: Where does ammo and canned food keep coming from? In the first game it was said by Sidorovich that the military at the Cordon were smuggling ammo in from the mainland. Hard to believe they were shipping ammo for the entire population of the zone but ok. Now what? I covered almost the whole map and I have yet to find an ammo production facility or a tuna factory.

[cerulean marlin]

Theres tons of smuggling in and out of the zone, theres some notes (forget which game) stating stalkers are entering or have been entering from the north/Belarus, not just the cordon side

[cunning kelp]

Faust needed to die anyways he was too far gone.

I am curious if the zone is sentient, the way strelok goes on about it made me think.

[primal geyser]

So is the Kiminov Faust thing just open to interpretation, or was Faust shape shifting just to manipulate your decisions. He can turn other people into copies of him so not a far stretch to think he can imprint someone else as a disguise. I kinda figured he would somehow survive Duga but I just don't understand the end video of them being the same person

[cunning kelp]

Ugh god that ending, has my brain hurting

[brave iris]

I think from the point of view the game feeds you deliberately the information you want to hear. So if you follow through the with the ending, Skif basicaly says that he percieves the anomaly Zone created in his flat as a cry for help.

||As for Faust being Kaimanov, I think its up for interpretation that the Doctor has not been himself and was Faust instead some time after end of SoC as Strelok and him had a falling out, so we can speculate that Faust has replaced him along the way. Or he was Faust all along, given his abilities to keep mutant dogs at ease in his vicinity. All things considered you def do not kill Faust at Duga, though how he is able to show you the vision of Duga by proxy is something that we will probably have to understand later as I kinda suspect that Faust's story is faaaaaaaaar from over.||

[primal geyser]

That was half the reason I went with Kaiminov was thinking since he caused the zone, and had the most time to think it over, think what he could do different, all the shoulda coulda woulda he went over it for years so I figured he would have the best idea of what to do with the zone, that's why I didn't end up with Strelok ending.

[verbal kestrel]

So in the official trailer "The Stranger" with the long hair and black SEVA Suit was ||Strelok ||all along ? Why did they change his model for the trailer ?

[simple crypt]

what do i do with lex the legend?

[unkempt walrus]

I have a little dissonance.||In the basement of Agroprom, we learn from the documents found and later in the conversation with the professor that Faust was one of the objects of the controller's programs. Moments later, after the fight with Faust, he tells us that he was once a stalker himself. ||Plot hole or something I don't know

[autumn granite]

could be he was a stalker for a while before joining the monolith, makes sense he'd willingly join considering his psychic powers

[unkempt walrus]

I just finished yesterday and I got a question about something
||is Strelok completely turn to crazyness or maybe he just accept his faith since he already receive a purpose in SoC to join C-consciousness?
And officially what is the canon end it’s really this one ? ||

[autumn granite]

my theory is that Streloks long time in the zone and even starting SIRCAA he came to a conclusion that the Zone will always be used and abused for greed and power as long as humanity can get in. Thus he chooses to just shut all access to and from the zone and severing humans from it in the long run, cruel in the moment sure because of all the militiary and scientific personnel with lives outside the border but now his beloved zone will not be tarnished by exploitative special interests

[cerulean marlin]

Him acting as the mediator is not the same as the C-conc, he always disagreed with their "mission".
Strelok also saw all the horrible shit Ward/SIRCAA was going to do when he was a consultant and left them. Theres a note in the old stash in agroprom where you find his ak74u that more or less says it outright, and that he needs to get to the mainland and go to ground.
He comes back as he understands he needs to do something to stop Ward/SIRCAA from gaining controll over the zone. Even if he isnt under the influence och c-conc he has a strong connection to the zone.
My theory around Skif is that he was "called" to the zone as soon as he touched the alpha artifact, maybe even imprinted to unconsciously push toward saving the zone. In the Ward ending all your flashbacks are when you "betray" the zone by helping Ward/SIRCAA which seems to push for this, showing your "failures". Im guessing the Zone felt the threat of SIRCAA and the alpha artifact was a call for help. It stands to reason Strelok also heard the call for help and went back to the zone.

[undone storm]

Penetration on weapons is the most important stat

[bitter radish]

is the ward ending a 'bad' ending?

[bitter radish]

after you first meet him and get scammed, he will move to a camp in the swamp where you can talk to him again

[wise mountain]

I can be wrong but you get brainwashed in that ending

[bitter radish]

it didnt feel like you get brainwashed but it deffo feels like something happens after you black out with the whole tv screen zoom out in the c-consciousness spire thing

also who/what the hell is Agatha? is she some sort of projection from the noosphere? she has the whole green hologram thing going on but idk

[last tinsel]

I mean, they experimented on humans. Usual controllers were humans once too (prob grown from human embryos). They were surgically mutilated and purposely stripped of all human emotions, feelings, etc, just to be obedient monsters. Faust was a stalker, who they took and experimented on, without stripping human qualities

[last tinsel]

She interacts physically with Skif at SIIRCA, so at least there she is real one. She is also present physically at Chem Plant. But in X7 yeah, some shady stuff going on

[wise mountain]

I am still researching for the ward ending, for me it’s the most confusing

[bitter radish]

yeah but at SIIRCA and later at X8 or wherever it is she first appears as a green hologram like thing before overlaying a solid 'flesh' and in SIIRCA you when you shoot holo herman that brings up the question of A: how does skiff hold a holographic pistol? or B: how does a real pistol affect the hologram?

[last tinsel]

It looks more like induced phantoms stuff of Faust, or Monolith. Monolith also makes you feel things as if they were real af, but in reality it's an illusion

[bitter radish]

the analysis i like the most is that the tvs are more being used as surveillance on everyone more than brainwashing. Agatha lets Skif go and basically gives him VIP status with the Ward and now they are keeping tabs on him through the noosphere.

[last tinsel]

I bet we will get to Agatha in future expansions. She is outlined too well to be a forgotten secondary character

[bitter radish]

She has great character design. Brought in as a secondary character but has enough shit going on to make players go "nah what the hell is going on with you"

also why is Richter's mp3 player a quest item? is there some use for it during the whole ending or is it just "here is the weight of your sins asshole"? same question for Scar's Weird Toast? Also what kind of freakish arch-anomaly did scar venture into to get this reality warping gluten slice?

[wise mountain]

Can be true

[hardy otter]

Does anyone else feel like freedom and spark are basically the same faction. I don't really see what's different about their goals except that freedom has become passive in this game.

[autumn granite]

Spark wants the "shining zone" to come, Freedom just wants the zone to keep on zoning

[last tinsel]

I bet they left Freedom and Duty only because they are too canonical to be left out. Spark vs Ward is the new "Freedom vs Duty 2.0"

[hardy otter]

I feel like it's a missed opportunity. I've never been a huge freedom fan but I remember when they were planting IEDs to blow up military convoys. I don't see why that's changed.

[bitter radish]

ngl i kinda wish there was a monolith ending

[hollow gate]

there kinda is. skif's ending is a monolith ending imo

[mighty willow]

probably to avoid spoilers

[unkempt walrus]

I thought that children were best suited for this type of experiment. That's why I thought that the period when Faust belonged to the controller program was his childhood years.

[autumn granite]

actually they used convicts etc in their experiments, which horribly mutated and gave psychic powers to dangerous psychopaths and sociopaths, the more finished products however could've been the result of tube-embryos

[last tinsel]

It doesn't align with the timeline. By the looks he's in his 35s I'd say. So, he was born around time CNPP incident happened. Project X was just starting at that time, even if existed at all

[cerulean marlin]

Faust is at least 40, prob 45. He lost his eyesight in the zone and was somehow picked up for the controller program.

[hardy otter]

Faust does mention being a stalker at some point

[open thunder]

Last phrase from Agatha means that
they changed direction from making perfect human to just give them toy and keep them under control?

[gusty lotus]

How do you get the skif ending?

[eternal vortex]

||You side with Strelok and talk to the doctor, but you don't shoot the doctor as per requested by Strelok||

[gusty lotus]

Okay thanks

[eternal vortex]

I dont know if you get the same options on the Ward playthrough, but im in the midsts of doing that, sort of.

[gusty lotus]

I got the scar ending my first play through and really enjoyed it so i’m playing through the game for a second time but on veteran difficulty

[eternal vortex]

||Okay so here's a better description if you sided with Spark initially. There will come to be a mission where you go into a facility within the burnt forest to see into the Noosphere via a device. You will talk to Strider who died earlier before. You can say what you please with him. After Scar will confide in you and try to rev you up into seeing things completely their way. There will be an Option to tell him off and it'll have Strelok's mark. You must click that option in dialogue.. There will be another choice later in, late late. Strelok will tell you the Doctor is a danger to the zone and cannot be left alive. Leave him alive. You will also get into a confrontation with Strelkok later on.|| This is the Spark's way.

[gusty lotus]

Okay i will do that

[solid skiff]

i have a question, there are 4 endings right?

also scar is a f nutjob

[cunning kelp]

Yes there are 4 endings

[brazen plank]

||Scar and Osama Bin-Laden are the same people||

[warm stag]

If garbage becomes under attack dk atm but since I hate the ward won’t they just attack me if I go to defend?

[flat dust]

Yeah scar is a nutjob 100% he's crazier than Caesar from FNV

[hardy otter]

Seems the zone got to our boy Scar

[haughty jewel]

Where is the emo guy with the long black hair in the early trailers, I haven’t seen him yet

[young tangle]

so, what did ||kaymanov|| orchestrate and what didn't he

[solid skiff]

is there a canon ending?

[warm aspen]

we don't have a confirmed ending yet

[solid skiff]

then witch one do you think is the canon one?

[warm aspen]

Skif's none of the other endings make logical sense for how the game was displaying narrative idk

[last tinsel]

Skif's ending doesn't make sense gameplaywise, you cannot continue playing as him in an expansion, cause he is stuck in the pod

[warm aspen]

he asked me what I thought, I gave an opinion. And if you had paid better attention, it had him in the end replay the beginning of the game the only difference was him touching the alpha artifact and seeing everything he did before realizing he did it as it had scared him.

[last tinsel]

Gamedesign logic >> narrative logic. Maybe for Stalker 3 they can retcon Skif's ending to be the canon, but as far as S2 is concerned, Streloks ending is the only possible ending by the gamedesign

Unless "story expansions" they talked about are not actual expansions, but side-stories added in the middle of the plot

[warm aspen]

Strelok's ending is bad and it just was lame "bad guy brain washed me I will show them" ahh ending. Only for him to do it to everyone else becoming a zone overlord. They all aren't good ending's even when I saw Faust at the end of Skif's I was still mad about it. Maybe he is a metaphor and is used for story telling at the end IDK. Even more interestingly the zone expanded to the world. I wanna know what happens with that?

[open terrace]

im really curious how does killing "doctor" lead to streloks ending?

[solid skiff]

the only difference to get one or another is killing the docotr right?

[worthy zenith]

No where does it say you have to play as skif for a dlc after skifs ending, we could just be another stalker

[old oyster]

Im curious about one thing, How they found that much electricity ? The nuclear reactor is still on ?

[mossy vessel]

So I sided with noontide at sircca. What’s the difference here?

[half tangle]

a-life feature is missing from the game, as a lot of other content, think of it as an early access

in the future i think they will make more stuff happen

[timber dawn]

I was thinking about this and degtyarev, if they go that route, its mentioned ||he survived but headed back to pripyat||, so possible we could play as him

[cerulean marlin]

Strelok didnt Brainwash everyone, he did take control over Monolith to ensure the borders of the zone. His motivation is making sure the Zone isnt misused by people like the Ward/SIRCAA, which he was a consultant for before realizing they are really bad news. Now the greedy people inside the zone needs to shift from profiting of the zone to surviving WITH the zone. Streloks ending would let us see a very different zone after a few months when the inevitable initial faction wars calmed down.

[vale haven]

Ya know that makes me realise, Streloks ending basically just lets them recreate the games status quo without the messy questions that external politics brings. Because people could still sneak into the zone when the C-con were around and they had a gestalt of 7 minds to keep track of everything but still had to rely on all sorts of secondary measures.

Still gonna have people crazy to risk the anomalies to get in, still gonna have people able to figure out ways to get supplies in, but the monolith can replace the military/ispf in practical terms and the narrative can focus in on stuff like the faction wars and finding old secrets, instead of “outside factions trying to take over the zone for themselves” like was the plot for 3 out of the 4 games. Makes a lot of sense from a meta perspective.

[magic crypt]

the doctor ending is the only one where skif ||enters the pod himself|| right?

[hollow gate]

yes

[lament pulsar]

so why is it always "Kill THE Strelok" and not just "Kill Strelok"

[autumn granite]

probably because alot of folk call themselves Strelok to scam/gain unearned rep in their stalker careers, saying THE Strelok meaning the first one the unique one

[solid skiff]

for me the only endings that would make sense from a gaming perspective would be the strelok and ward ones as they are the only ones that let skif go around free, cause i dont think they are gonna change the playable character

[cerulean marlin]

I mean they did change character for each game in the old series, but even swapping characters in the other endings seems off. Degtaryev is a possibility but I think we will se more of skif in the bigger expansion that they said will be clear sky sized. A remixed zone ala Strelok ending makes a lot of sense for that tbh

[solid skiff]

the dlc are gonna be all the cut content meant for skif story

[cerulean marlin]

The first one maybe, but they specifically said there will be a clear sky sized expansion

[kindred fossil]

How about DLC-like free content? I believe it was mentioned game is going to get some free content, right? Like some side missions?

I believe that either Skif and Strelok ending might be viable. First trying to revert the changes and contain the Zone with different protagonist, second maybe with some faction wars for remaining resources. Freedom and Duty are so under utilized.
The more I think about it, I guess Ward ending might be suitable too. Even with Skif. It wouldn't be the first time when someone returns to the Zone

[open terrace]

not sure if i corrected myself here or not, but i meant more-so how does killing doctor end up leading to strelok wanting to take control of the zone? and why would he tell you not to shoot doctor? im guessing he didint know he was faust?

[worthy zenith]

Do you mean the guy who left us that named Dnipro ar?

[timber dawn]

yep thats the one, i doubt they will go that route, but it is a possibility

[worthy zenith]

Mm maybe thinking about it, with skifs the zone is expanded ward has no reason to stay and enforce the other factions not to fight each other directly and could be the start of the zone wide faction war where you have what's left of whatever that factions called to do something. Idk if skif gave the noontime back there freedom to aid in that idk.

But with that same line of thought MP could be just that factions war pick your faction and fight for it too so who knows. I just can't wait to see what's the canon ending or if they just do dlc that's during skifs adventure in the zone.

[violet musk]

Ever thought the expansions won't be the aftermath of the ending?

Or maybe Degtyarev will continue the story

[warm aspen]

Sorry I didn't use exact verbage and used term "everyone" instead of "the monolith" yeah all are good points but even then Strelok is still punishing people. The game tells you to do as little killing as possible at the beginning of the game. But hey, yeah, I would encourage locking everyone in a box too if I was in charge of it.

[violet musk]

God I'd hope this is the case, bring back the good old call of pripyat

[violet musk]

Or Faust manipulated the scene in order to make it look like he was on Skif's side, to have Skif trust him for the ending

[granite crystal]

does anyone knows the song name that plays during Kaimanov ending? The same song is in accolades trailer

[left kite]

"Life is for the Living" or "Eternal Spring" was such a cool way to frame the choice between Spark and Strelok. I've seldom played an RPG where (regardless of who's right or wrong) every available choice feels cool and interesting.

[eternal vortex]

Because Strelok tells you to kill the Doctor if you originally sided with him.

[left kite]

Does anyone know if you can run into The Ninth at wild island? For me I didn't see him there, only way later in a main story mission.

[unkempt walrus]

You will meet him later in the story

[radiant harness]

Strelok means Gunslinger in ukrainian
it is Kill The Gunslinger basically, since his nickname is The Gunslinger

[left kite]

If you mean at the ||Monolith hospital|| I saw him there. I'm Moreso wondering if he can be encountered again before ||The noontiders are reactivated as Monolithians||

[lament pulsar]

ah so a case of the translation not working well

[radiant harness]

basically, and it stuck around, since saying Kill The Strelok is cooler

[twilit flicker]

During ||Happiness for Everyone|| mission, during the "get to the radio station" part, when i try to jump down a hole in the floor, the screen goes white even though sound is still playing, but the game is unresponsive and crashes after 30s. Any ideas?

[fluid cloak]

Maybe, there one of thouse anomalies that gives flashes and some bug( anomaly)

[outer aspen]

is this a bug? trying to get into pripyat but getting insta killed around this area: https://imgur.com/a/nSdS2cn

[fluid cloak]

I think it's a anomaly, trie and go around it maybe or restart the game, should fix it.

[outer aspen]

have tried many paths, still get killed. restarted the game and loaded an older save

[spark jewel]

Just completed the game, sided with Strelok and killed the Dr. Anyone know what happens if you spare him?

[cerulean marlin]

There a whole different ending possible

[spark jewel]

Wharr damn. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow, cba going through the finale again atm

[magic crypt]

So faust can actually control the zone? He can also dematerialize himself and travel through the noospehere or something? Or is that if you get in the pod?

[magic crypt]

Its completely different

[spark jewel]

Ooh awesome. I shot him because he had an axe in his hand, I thought he might’ve killed me if I didn’t

[magic crypt]

Nop, looks like u have no idea, so i think its worth it even more to try that ending, it shows u something u would habe never known otherwise too

[spark jewel]

Now I am definitely intrigued! I shall do this

[spark jewel]

Anyone else feel disappointed that Duty and Freedom were non existent for the story? Surely they would be trying to make moves in the Zone just like everyone else. I know about Ward forcing them into a peace treaty but they’re still the biggest factions

[slow pelican]

no, it's ok, old factions die out, new ones take their place, things change

[spark jewel]

Yeah true but wouldn’t it make sense for Freedom to ally with Spark and Duty to ally with Ward? Thus the old factions are still relevant

[wooden crow]

I just got that skif ending and reading all the notes in the lab i realized there is an emergency release for pod 1, just saying... But the only one who knows this would be skif. Unless someone gets inside the generators and makes some diggings

EDIT: The release is remote, from outside the pod.

[sacred stirrup]

The guy in black clothes in the trailers is strelok?

[ornate venture]

loopus9758 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[worthy zenith]

Lost in the sause oops

[oak kelp]

Im actually dissapointed that 4 endings leads to the same outcome

Btw why duty exists? They just sit in their base, doing nothing while Warta is literally better version of them

Freedomers are capitalists, when they were anarchists mostly

I get a feeling that in stalker 2 only 2 factions exists and thats warta and spark

[whole jewel]

I just received "Veles" detector from vodka scientist(or his assistant? Not sure)
How long is it left until point of no return?

(P.s. nevermind, just checked... It's still a loooooong way)

[last tinsel]

So this exactly reinforces the Streloks ending - Skif is still in the Zone and he knows there is emergency release, shit go south so he can come back and release Strelok out of his pod

Moreover - Strelok's ending ensures that we still have hostile faction in Monolith (Spark and Ward are destroyed) which serve as guards to person in a pod. Fate of Monolith is not clear in Skif's ending, he is not protected by anyone in that pod - anybody comes and throws him out. Who's the antagonist faction in the case of Skifs ending? Game has to have at least one

[rose pasture]

i just got the skif ending too, we couldnt see his face :c
can i just drop questions in here? because it would contain a hard spoiler i guess 😅

[slow pelican]

yeah

[rose pasture]

ok, so it was kinda sussy that the doctor's body wasn't there after the emission, so him showing up in the ending is reasonable to me.
but how in the hell is faust there and how does he know him?! more questions than answers 😂

[torn burrow]

Throughout the game you see Faust using illusions to "duplicate" himself. Project his image onto the Monolith soldiers and also screw with Skif at Clear Sky's base and at the Duga. Either Doctor and Faust worked together, or, what I find more likely, is that Faust took over the Doctors identity at some point to project the Doctors image onto himself to manipulate Skif.

[rose pasture]

yeah after watching some explanations for that ending, you notice in the cutscene that the doctor and faust aren't in the same frame. so yeah what you said, another illusion. that also explains why there was no body. either the illusion just went poof or faust doesn't care about emissions and just walked off 😂

[old oyster]

Faust really don’t care about emission, that’s literally how he escape almost every time (island, clear sky base, doctor house (lol)

[rose pasture]

oh yeah you are right, the first time the emission went off at wild island he just went for a stroll with the lads

[torn burrow]

I mean Mutants don't seem to care much about Emissions, would make sense given that he has Controller powers. Probably shield him from the Emission.

[rose pasture]

honestly faust was super annoying at the start but after the cutscene when you beat him i thought he was pretty chill

[old oyster]

But émission are like a big psi fog or something like that so that clearly his controller power who carry his ass

Anyway if we are able to go inside the capsule at end that mean we have psi 5 level of protect like scar or the Colonel so why we can walk outside during emission !

Not fair

[rose pasture]

but still when did faust replace the doctor? or have we always been talking to faust and the real doctor is long gone? so many questions

ngl this was some bioshock level story telling, crazy

[cerulean marlin]

Most likely weve always talked to faust in S2, The doctor WAS/IS real but thats not him. The Mercs when youre looking for him describe him (the doctor) walking straight through deadly radiation and taking rounds point blank without flinching or reacting. That doesnt sound like a normal human...

[rose pasture]

Good catch

[unkempt walrus]

I wish we could have more choices in the game for change some part of the story… there is one point i disagree and for me it’s useless:
||the part when you go to monolith hospital for “help/save” strider and in all case who lead to his death his like no sense…even if we talk with him in the noosphere after, we should had a way to help him cause except this, the story completely forgot him… even if he was alive it wouldn’t change any end events in all case in my opinion…||

And second thing which I don’t understand…
||During SIRCAA events you have a choice to do, side with the ward or monolith(yes it’s monolith logo who appear) this choice is like stupid… even if we help them they stand against us, okay they have been brainwashed, but why made this choice with the monolith logo in this case, especially if the only consequences is that you are less seen good by the ward after…
I don’t know it looks like some part of the story has been cuted||

[hollow gate]

||Strider is supposed to be a tragic character in the story. He was the first Monolithian who we see setting himself free from the control of the Monolith and he was the leader of Noon. He was also the first person we see to be under the control of the new Monolith. He is a symbol of a desire to be free and trying to live on despite your past. He wanted to do a good thing and even then Zone did not let him fix his past mistakes and made him and his men its slave once again.||

[unkempt walrus]

||Yes okay this is a reasonable pov, but the way he die it’s not fair to the character he is actually, even if the terminator mode moment is rly cool, the way the doctor/faust or whoever he is kill him is like it miss something for make it good, and even in the noosphere I don’t know what to say to him I already tell him the truth on my first game, but is lying to him a good thing honestly ?||

[hollow gate]

||Basically Skif tells Strider that only he died and his men were fine. Strider then is happy that the Noon "protected their new life" and that is all that matters to him. This tells us he, even in his ghost form, doesn't know what happened after the experiment. He also tells you that "they are now free, masters of their own destiny" and that "Noon will remember what Skif has done for them".||

||Is lying to him a morally good thing? I don't know. I personally lied to him, just to not break his heart over the fact that he and his men once again fell under the control of the Monolith, since Strider said, on multiple occasions, that he doesn't want to be a puppet ever again.||

||Even the soundtrack that plays during the cutscene is aptly named "An Empty Puppet"||
||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJLWw6T5MHw||

[paper kraken]

grrt

[old oyster]

Not bad for a duty

[spark jewel]

When we see the memories of the Dr, Strelok turns up to what I presume to be the Drs hideout which definitely wasnt the cabin in Red Forest. Also it seems the cabin is psi shielded (forcefield). I’m sure someone says that Faust was somewhere where he was protected from the Signal or am I getting mixed up?

[cerulean marlin]

Faust is Immune to the Monolith Signal, he follows the monolith of his own free will, and yes the cabin seems to have the same tech as his Psi stuff

[spark jewel]

Hmm perhaps they were working together but then again, if anyone knows how psi radiation works already it would be the Dr

[high wren]

hello, just beat the game, anyone else kind of underwhelmed by how quickly the ending approaches after you arrive at ||Yanov||?

[tacit crater]

Yeah, i thought there’d be even more to do, then it’s like 5 missions left or something.

[high wren]

Probably lack of budget

[tacit crater]

Yeah, i guess I was used to having 2 days plus in game time and still having stuff to do, that when the end game came up, it went by fast. Like, after you get to Pripyat, it’s a single story mission then the endgame mission.

[spark jewel]

Yeah I hoped for more in Pripyat too

[cunning kelp]

I’m shocked no one has a functional vehicles in zone besides warden.

[hardy otter]

It actually makes less sense that the ward has vehicles in the zone. The only way to path them is to mark anomalies which change after emissions.

[cunning kelp]

The only functioning Vic I saw in the game was like 2 occurrences of 2 mi’s

[old oyster]

My theory is, they have big sensor like a veles but under cocaine, so they can see where they are going, or ye they mark them after every emission like loser

[magic crypt]

Strelok when u find him with Dark, he shows you the kill Strelok message on his phone, at that time Strelok is looking for Strelok??

also u know, strelok for someone who is so against controlling the zone, when he gets in the pod he kinda does the most controlling thing

[cerulean marlin]

He shows you Kill Strelok on Darks phone

[magic crypt]

ooh that clears it up its not what i thought

[spark jewel]

Strelok just shuts the whole thing down, no one in or out. In his eyes, that is the best way to protect her

Scar ending is brutally depressing

[old oyster]

No one in ok why not but why no one out lol

[spark jewel]

My guess is that those who have been in the Zone have the most knowledge on it and are therefore the most dangerous in regards to Streloks vision of the Zone being free

[old oyster]

Maybe

[fading fox]

I'm gonna read this entire chat and pretend to be surprised when I get to it in the game

[fading fox]

Its so that we can get a 20 bucks "Faction wars" DLC in the future

/s

[fading fox]

WAIT... is the "bad" true ending of SoC cannon?... but what about Strelok in CoP?... Omg can the role of this game can get anymore confusing 😭

[old oyster]

Man, all I want for Christmas is my bandit hq, a big bulldog n some good music !

[old oyster]

Soc cannon ending is strelok shooting conscience C pod, also after CoP he work for sircaa

[fading fox]

Yeah thats what I thought as well... but from the people are saying, it seems like Strelok is inside the pod? and also that Scar was an C-Consciousness agent all along, even in CS? Either I'm completely lost or this is peak kino (it is anyways)

[old oyster]

I think, after the big emission at the end of CS, strelok become a agent, scar become a Agent, n clear sky join monolith ?

[fading fox]

You know... if you played the previous games, it would be rather obvious that Strelok isn't a fella you can really trust to not do stupid shit for his own personal gain.

[fading fox]

Monolith existed even before, idk what happened to Scar, but as many people have pointed out, he's quite different. (surviving a third large emission might do that to you, though)
Tbh one thing I don't like is making Scar a main character, he doesn't fit into the story like, at all, especially considering his rather quiet and nonchalant (though arrogant) personality. I think it would be better if he just appeared at the end or something, just to find out what happened to him. I don't like the fact he was turned into a main character, someone else would have filled that spot much better in my opinion, literally even Strelok.

[last tinsel]

People are discussing Stalkers 2 endings

[old oyster]

Yea, strelok went inside a pod at the end of stalker 2

[fading fox]

Ayo what, the ones he destroyed? MAN this game is nuts, and I love it. I hope that my constant crashing at SIRCAA will be resolved when I return to it (decided to explore the Cordon from an earlier save instead) so I can actually play the damn game (:

[old oyster]

U have 8 pods, 7 was use by conscience C but the 8th was empty coz one scientist is a coward ! So basically everyone fightingn about who gonna go inside

But ngl, u should made a new game, ok going back to swamp give me phd, but well sircaa isn’t really that far, also don’t spoil ur ass ! Leave this place

[spark jewel]

I wonder what happened to Lebedev and if we will see him again. He knew a lot more than he let on

[old oyster]

Well idk, but I’m not giving his rpg back

[wooden crow]

It says in one of the documents near the pods that the programming of strelok as an agent has failed, therefore, i would dare to say he is actually not an agent

[old oyster]

Ofc it’s failed, that the plot of SoC, trying to found strelok when it’s u

[magic current]

I think people are reading too literally into Faust/Doctor. The Faust we see between Noontide and Duga is clearly “blind”, only after his death in Subtle Matter he has normal eyes again. During Skif’s ending we see Doc “transform” into Faust, but the clear-eyed-Faust, which indicates to me this part of ending is more metaphorical than literal. One of the first sentences Doctor says, is referring to himself as “dead doctor”. So while it probably isn’t the “real” Doctor, I don’t think it’s Faust masquerading either, but Doctor being a supernatural emanation of the will of the Zone (or something like that). Faust died, but Skif finally “opened his eyes”, and in return planted a seed which evolved through Skif into his ending.

[old oyster]

a duty that makes philosophy, what a heresy lol

[wooden crow]

If programming failed how or why is he an agent tho?

[old oyster]

Well…. I’ll go with …. Rogue agent

[spark jewel]

Strelok isnt an agent but should have been turned into one

[wooden crow]

Clear Sky: Scar interrupts Strelok, big emmision, they both are atempted to program. Scar's was successful, Strelok's failed.
SoC: Strelok destroys the C-Con... I'd say he is not a rouge agent, he is just not programed

[ornate venture]

meowrrigan has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[old oyster]

Strelok fail because, he can’t kill himself, but technically he got programmed, so technically he can’t watch tv, also where did they put scar during SoC n CoP because Marshall make spark after CoP, so they put scar in a corner doing nothing n one day they said we need this psychopath !

[cunning kelp]

Hey mods we got a scam here still.

[spark jewel]

Scar was probably in the hallway with all the brainwashing TVs for that duration. Marshall founded Spark and then died(?) then C-Con uploaded Marshalls memories to Scar. When meeting up with Scar at the end of the game, he turns a TV towards you. On it, it says Marshall >>> Scar Upload

[magic current]

Strelok's agent programming did not work because C-Con were incompetent and did not check who kills who, so the programming had a loophole. That's why he could be John Stalker in SoC, and he can watch TVs while at the same time Dark went Garry's mod.

[cunning kelp]

And our MC got immune somehow?

[old oyster]

Because we not conscience C agent

[magic current]

to those TV screens? I think they were just a physical "trigger" and the programming itself is exposure to it under certain conditions, possibly psi-induced like we see in CS ending. Skif can watch it because we are "sober", while in CS ending everyone is twitching like on some overdose

[old oyster]

Anyway next question, his spine is destroy after that no ? I mean nobody can make something like that n leave without any back pain

[cunning kelp]

Noted.

[high wren]

After completing the game I got to say after red forest, quests really go down in quality and scope

[magic crypt]

Did strelok know that the doctor was faust?

And what happened to the real kaymanov we never actually meet him?

[hardy otter]

Let's hope the future DLC makes good use of some of the under utilized areas.

[high wren]

I am 100% sure Limansk DLC is going to be there

[unkempt walrus]

No he ask to kill the doctor cause strelok want to take the control of the zone for prevent people to come and cause doctor is the creator of the zone, and he can counter his plans I guess

[magic crypt]

Thanks!

[unkempt walrus]

In a certain way strelok is right on a point in the game, you can’t trust anyone, and it’s the same for him I guess but in all of this I guess it’s the best option, even if strelok looks like to become staline, he has his own reasons and I guess the end justifies the means but it’s the better ending, in my opinion spark and ward end are just fantasy ends just for the show, but they have both no sense in my opinion

[high wren]

yea, strelok ending is the OG

[muted swift]

Why didn’t Strelok make an exception for Skif? Dude I just murdered EVERYONE for you, let me go home!

[hardy otter]

Why does the ward ending make no sense? I feel like it makes the most sense. The government of a country is obviously going to try and control it's territory.

[muted swift]

It’s more than that, the Noosphere is presumably the earth not just the zone. The lady in black can see thru everyone’s consciousness and eyes. Like the CIA watching through your eyeballs

[hardy otter]

I'm not sure it works to that extent otherwise Strelok would never have made it to the center in the first place.

[summer turtle]

actually it was revealed in HoC (possibly a retcon?) that Clear Sky and Scar were already agents of C-Consciousness lol

not many people caught it I think

it's in the second screenshot here - https://imgur.com/a/T67eBI2

[muted swift]

I mean after the Colonel enters the pod, that’s why you see your past through the tv screen, not beforehand. Strelok makes it to the generators through the red fortress regardless of ending, presumably because C Consciousness was actually totally dead and couldn’t stop anybody.

[spark jewel]

Scar was made a STALKER program agent after the events of Clear Sky. Clear Sky the faction were probably turned into the first Monolithians and thats why they disappeared entirely

I never bothered to look but I wonder if Scar has the STALKER tattoo on his arm in S2

[hardy otter]

You make a fair point. Makes me wonder how much time the writers gave to thinking about the concept of ccon and it's implications. Regardless of which person ends up in the pod the actions we see in the three games suggest that when a person becomes ccon they become a new entity. The existence of the monolith suggests it's more interested in self preservation then their initial goals. A transformation in personality similar to Dr Manhattan. @muted swift

[summer turtle]

it's said in the note that Scar is already an agent before the events of CS and Lebedev (and Clear Sky) is taking orders from Valentyn Dalin (C-Consciousness)

it's possible they retconned it

[hardy otter]

We fight monolithians as clear sky in that game though...

[summer turtle]

yeah it's confusing lol

[spark jewel]

Ohh I see that now! We need Anomalous Dugout to get some lore videos out to help explain all of this lol

[last tinsel]

Well, Skif didn't get any home in that ending, idk where he was going to go outside the Zone

[muted swift]

Sell his story to dateline! Obviously

[last tinsel]

Btw, a lot of people are confusing STALKER program and THREAD program.

A "STALKER" program are the TVs which neuroprogram people to do certain tasks.
A "THREAD" program is the transmission of a brain data remotely through psi-fields - how Strelok was communicating with Skif through Dark's eyes.

In the Ward's route it becomes clear that they are interested in THREAD - they want to spy on people.
Korshunov motivates this as the need to spy on C-Cons agents from STALKER program, but in Ward's ending we see that they now use THREAD to spy on everyone, including Skif and Sidor (not clear if they can spy on everyone only inside Zone or outside too)

[hardy otter]

I don't think they thought too much about the implications of that ability and how much confusion it adds to the rest of the plot.

[last tinsel]

I just pointed out, because some people think that Skif is/was an agent, programmed, because we see TV from his POV in the end. But it is not true. Skif was never a participant of STALKER program, it is just THREAD program now that Ward uses to see through people's eyes

[last tinsel]

I was also confused on my first playthrough, but now on a second I picked this info from Strelok's/Korshunov's dialogs

This explains why Ward is aggressive even to Ward-allied Skif inside "Troposphere Comm Station" where THREAD docs are - they don't want people to figure it out they gonna use it for shady stuff

[hardy otter]

I wonder if that ending is similar to other endings where the subject just sees what they want though.

[muted swift]

What is that project y ending? Is Skif controlling the zone or Faust? I’m confused

[last tinsel]

In Trop Comm Station you find document that explains that initial version had small radius and was only possible using that chair where Skif sat. But later Kalancha modified the tech and succesfully attached THREAD to STALKER program (so they can not only programm agents, but see through their eyes).

At least how it was put, THREAD has no capabilities to make people see things. To see things you have to either:

1. Be under an influence of global big psi-emitters - Monolith, Brain Scorcher, Duga
2. Be under an influence of local small psi-emitters - induced illusions of mutants/controllers/Faust, fake "Oasis" machine, visiographs

If Ward just uses THREAD they cannot put people into a matrix remotely, but just observe from their POV. At least ending cinematic did not give a single clue if they made anyone see illusions, unlike what is explicitly shown in Scar's ending.

[last tinsel]

Nobody controls the Zone. It was let loose, that's why it expanded

[flat dust]

What exactly was X-7 there seem to be somewhat large stockpiles of food, weapons, ammo and communication devices and what not.

[last tinsel]

C-Cons headquarters, they moved there from X-8. Explained in CoP

[muted swift]

And that’s truly the only thing Faust wanted? No power trip no ego?

[young field]

clear sky cant be the first monolothians, you literally fight monolith for like all of CS

[young field]

how do we know Agent AMS17 is scar?

i guess it really does seem that way, but thats so confusing if its true

[old oyster]

First monolith was granite squad they told us during ward end/scar end, ok so clear sky wasn’t the first monolith for sure but they become monolith after CS that’s pretty obvious

[old oyster]

Watch here #📸┃screens_and_videos

[young field]

yes, ofc they become monolith, but they couldnt be the first

[old oyster]

Yup

[young field]

that seems to change a lot if scar was already an agent, but maybe thats connected to the reason he had this unique ability to survive emissions

but CS starts when strelok’s group make their first attempt to reach the centre, what could his task have been if he was an agent the whole time the ccon didnt know about strelok yet or his goals

[old oyster]

So much theory, no answer lol

[young field]

yeah lol. maybe he was serving a different purpose which he never fulfilled or just isnt really relevant, then after strelok’s first attempt he recieves this new mission from the clear sky, and in the end of the game gets taken in once more after the emission and reprogrammed for his new mission which we see in HoC

[old oyster]

I think during Cs that was strelok first attempt to join the center, he fail coz scar destroy his psi protection with a big gauss riffle, then they both got programmed, if Scar was a agent before, C con will know strelok was strelok so I think at the end of Cs that’s when scar got programmed for his first time

[young field]

strelok’s first attempt is what causes the massive emission from the opening cutscene of CS

scar destroys his psi protection during the 2nd attempt

but also in CS they do not know who strelok or his group is, scar is sent on CS’s leads to investigate and find out who it was, which they do, so this chat log is really weird since it means CS and Ccon actually knew the whole time who it was

[old oyster]

Well, we need a big encyclopedia or kidnapped a dev because I’m lost

[young field]

i think stalker fans know more about the lore thsn the devs sometimes. there is so many inconsistencies in the lore

[hollow gate]

What we are mainly interested in are the dates in the note we find:

Comms Session Log
PDA found at the Clear Sky base

September 2011

Message from 9/03/2011
V. D.: In response to your earlier inquiry: As of September 2011, the anomalous energy emanating from the Noosphere remains unstable. The so-called Emissions are a consequence of these ongoing fluctuations. Continue monitoring and collecting data.
Kalancha: Understood. We’ll continue our observations.

Message from 9/10/2011
V. D.: To ensure the successful execution of the Cutter Initiative, you are required to accept Agent A:MS-017 into the group and continuously monitor his activity. Should any instability arise in his neuroprogramming, the agent must be compelled to seek out and terminate stalker A:LS-013.
Lebedev: Acknowledged. Initiating monitoring.

10th of September 2011 is the exact day that Clear Sky begins. You wake up as Scar in the Clear Sky base and the game begins.

[young field]

so i guess the instability in the neuroprogramming started from the emission caused by strelok

and A:LS-013 must be strelok?

[hollow gate]

I believe so

also, don't be mistaken, Strelok wasn't an agent back then as he is referred to just as "stalker", not "agent" like Scar. The ID numbers are probably just used by CCon to identify stalkers in the zone

[young field]

this seems to completely contradict what happens in CS tho

because like, Lebedev acts like they dont know who was responsible for the emission when they give scar the mission, but from this they clearly did know

[hollow gate]

people can like... lie and hide stuff from others?

[young field]

but it makes no sense to

given the importance of killing strelok, which they fail to do and causes another emission that destroys their entire faction lol

if they just said “go kill this strelok guy” in the beginning the whole mess would have been avoided

[hollow gate]

don't you think this would be kinda... weird? imagine if you just woke up in someone's house after a car crash and the guy just says: "yeah, go kill this strelok guy, he caused this all to happen"

[young field]

he’s a mercenary

[hollow gate]

yes, a mercenary, not an idiot

[young field]

thats like his whole life purpose, get told to go kill people and do it, he doesnt even need a reason just money

[magic current]

Tbh a lot of Clear Sky story doesn’t make sense

[round onyx]

Debatable given how he is in the new game

Guy has so many loose screws it makes the dude who robbed a fast food joint with an alligator seem sane

[hollow gate]

he's an idiot now, his brain literally got fried at the end of CS. I believe he was a normal person before the endgame

[spark jewel]

Oh yeah lol, I was misremembering the enemies as military. I’m not very smort ):

[marsh tree]

Who sent the threatening notes to Degtyarev in Pripyat?

[spark jewel]

The only person I can think of is Dmytro Nor, the man in charge at Yaniv Station. It is titled ‘note from D’

[round onyx]

https://tenor.com/view/testing-new-deez-nuts-ha-teeth-gif-15758045

[spark jewel]

Lol
‘Deggy, theres a note for you here’
‘Whos it from?’
‘Just says D’
‘Whos D?’
‘DEEZ NUTS. GOT HIM’

[last tinsel]

He got Marshall's memory transferred to him. There is a note in the game that says it made him very expressive as a result

[plush snow]

The trader, technician, and medic icons became red after I defended it from the monolithians in yaniv base. Why?

[old oyster]

U shoot one corps by mistake

[magic crypt]

we go into the CNPP in the ||latest missions right?|| so the dlc wont be about that area?

[young field]

so he was brainwashed twice

[cerulean marlin]

No, nothing at CNPP, but i also feel that area is pretty tapped out for content with the wishgranter gone

[haughty jewel]

How much more story do I have…on “legends of the zone”

[cerulean marlin]

Like a little less than a third left, but theres less sidcontent when you get to pripyat so that part is faster

[haughty jewel]

Dang..I’m sad it’s coming to a close

I just reached over 50 hours

[magic crypt]

there is no close yet there is 3 more runs at least

[haughty jewel]

They’re all worth doing?

[magic crypt]

i mean, if u solely care for the last cutscene u can just watch it up, but u can do different smaller choices overall too so u get different paths in some quests and stuff

[haughty jewel]

I think I’ll come back and do another playthrough when a life is fixed

[magic crypt]

i found it fun when i restarted even though when finished my 1st run i didnt expect to

[rugged wedge]

Should have chosen the glorious Monolith

[rugged wedge]

I'm pretty sad there is no more freeplay after ending

I mean, it makes sense from the storytellings perspective but still kinda sad

Hope the DLCs offer some more sandbox

[half tangle]

shouldn't the sultansk be designated as a bandit base, not a stalker one? like the slag heap?

[cunning kelp]

That would require like another year of work due to all the endings, some of them wouldn’t work.

[magic crypt]

im starting my 3rd run for 3rd ending

[hollow gate]

Scar's ending just isn't compatible with freeplay. Same with Skif's ending

[magic crypt]

same thing

[magic crypt]

but true, at least if we get ng+ option on the same save slot after we finish all the way to an ending..

Honeslty even if ng+ was just keep your blueprints and money i wouldnt mind and everything else reset

[snow hawk]

Which one is the correct ending?
The one that makes you kill all former protagonists.

[hollow gate]

we don't know. we don't know the canon ending yet

[magic crypt]

Strelok or skif probably (skif is kaymanov ending)

[snow hawk]

That was a statement

[hollow gate]

most likely skif's ending is the canon one, gives GSC the most wiggleroom to make further DLCs and games

[snow hawk]

Zone ftw

Next wishgranter is gonna be in New York

[magic crypt]

But, i understand it right? The one who goes into the pod at the end, controls the zone? Fully?

[cunning kelp]

Eh……

[magic crypt]

And all that the c-conc made?

[snow hawk]

There is no controlling the zone, any such version is a mind trick

[magic crypt]

I mean how strelok or skif extend or close the zone?

[cunning kelp]

The closes to controlling anything would be monolith and maybe moving around anomalies?

[hollow gate]

uhm, ackshually, you can control the zone, that's exactly what the ccon did in the og trilogy ☝️🤓

[snow hawk]

She broke free

[magic crypt]

Maybe its more taking the place of c-conc and all they made, mainly, with some of the zone or he can just affect it?

[cunning kelp]

The C weirdos I don’t know much about and their grand plan. The 7 got killed but as you know things didn’t change.

[hollow gate]

they did change tho. the zone was no longer controlled. that's why emissions in call of pripyat happen basically every other day. they weren't a common occurence before strelok shot up the pods. that's why the emissions in clear sky were such a big deal, because clear sky scientists supposed they were an "immune reaction" of the zone to something bad happening. and they were right, emissions were used by ccon to slow down strelok

not to mention the whole monolith faction being controlled by the ccon through the psi installation called... the monolith

[cunning kelp]

My brain hurts from trying to understand all of the story, doing my best watching YT vids

[magic crypt]

their "known" grand plan was to use the noosphere to remove negativity in humans

and they made the monolith and all other psi-machines to defend themselves while theyre in the pods, is that right?

its an interesting merge of IRL lore and game lore

[cunning kelp]

Ik that much

[snow hawk]

It would help if you guys played the OGs

Or you can watch a lengthy YT video explaining everything that happened in the OG games but I still think you wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate for example Monolith if you haven’t gone through dealing with them yourself

For a new stalker just getting in to the lore meeting a “Monolithian” wouldn’t have had any impact. I was like whoa! Monolith!

[cunning kelp]

I played the first game long ago

[snow hawk]

Have you played the (objectively superior Anomaly and mods for it, like gamma or EFP?)

[cunning kelp]

No

[rugged wedge]

Yes and no, because then they have to come up with another protagonist

[snow hawk]

Oh man I suggest when you beat this, go and download either gamma or EFP. You’ll realise first hand just what alife means and I promise you’ll have an awesome stalker experience. Those games are actually survival games, S2 is nothing of the sort

[rugged wedge]

I'd say Streloks ending might be the canon one, defo not the Guard and Scar one

[snow hawk]

I don’t think there’s a definite correct ending. That said Skiff’s way is killing every guy you played as in previous games so I kinda think if any that would be the right one

[cunning kelp]

I already beat the game twice I’m
Fine with it rn

[rugged wedge]

I think GSC said there is one canon ending tho, but yeah it's prob gonna be either Skiffs or Streloks ending

[snow hawk]

Yeah but still if you haven’t played those I mentioned I suggest you try, the graphics are only a little bit behind S2 honestly

Gunplay and options are far superior

So is everything else concerning loot and consumables

[rugged wedge]

Tbf Gamma gave me a huge burnout to Stalker which was healed by Stalker 2

Its just so authentic to the originals, even though survival and gunplay are behind the modpack

And EFP is just too much Tarkov in Stalker for my preferences

[snow hawk]

Fair enough, I am in the other boat that likes more complexity in a survival shooter game and less or preferably no arcade mechanics which stalker 2 is full of. But I digress, the beauty of the Zone in S2 kinda makes up for the lack of depth but replayability is = to those of Far cry

[acoustic kelp]

I finally got all the endings, except the Ward ending because i think its foolish to stop what is just going to inevitably come back when another government or two will recreate

Scar's ending seemed so good and hopeful at first when i saw that scar and richter talked to skif only to reveal the campfire bit at the end eas projected into his head.

I dont think the shining zone was the afterlife itself made manifest, i think the afterlife was an inevitable thing because of the noosphere's mere existence being able to store countless or pretty much an infinite amount of mental imprints made by beings throughout time on the planet, nehat the shining zone became was a way to interact with the dead but only within the perimeter of the zone.

Its nice that being in the zone at that point makes you no longer likely to die as quite a bit of the zone's mutants were subconsciously compelled to attack outsiders. Yet as hopeful as it is, it doesnt feel right. There was going to be an afterlife, even if the shining zone didnt exist. But the shining zone just feels like it complicates life.

I feel that the Skif ending, or Doc ending was better as it meant that a shining zone did not need go be necessary. Instead of the dead being confined to the Dead Valley as their only spot of interaction with the living world, it was everywhere.

Psychics, psychotronics, zones, were all inevitable. Now that its everywhere, its a chance for mankind to embrace a new world and change maybe for the better.

[snow hawk]

Devs simply can not allow a definitive ending

[acoustic kelp]

Strelok became selfish of the Zone, claiming to know what was best when he demonstrated he only wanted it to belong to him. Own it. Wield it.

Doctor and Faust even being alive around around in Skif's ending I think puts my prior point of the Shining Zone being redundant

[acoustic kelp]

I think that would be the best case. If they were to make another game afterwards, inwould expect however to have each ending result the same way. Expansion across ghe world being inevitable.

[snow hawk]

So that they can move from always modelling Pripyat and the exclusion zone. Stalker 3 considering Skiff’s ending could be taking part in any part of the world

[blissful holly]

Why is there going to be an afterlife even without the shining zone? The whole point of the shining zone is that it was an idea manufactured to abuse the human desire for immortality.

[acoustic kelp]

Because the noosphere already stored the imprint of the individual's mind, as the noosphere is a sphere of information created by the imprints and neurological activity of all life on earth

But yea, the shining zone being a manufactured lie to abuse the desire for immortality fits more

Rather than the Shining Zone being a zone in which the dead can speak, when it was already the case in Dead Valley.

[blissful holly]

The one actual recording from a scientist working in X-7 about 'imprinting' said subtle matter was "bad science" that couldn't be repeated, and that he suspected his colleagues talking about it were being influenced.

[acoustic kelp]

I dont think that means it isnt real, just that there was more than what those who believed about it led others on to believe

[blissful holly]

The obvious implication there is that it wasn't real and was a tool of psychological control. The first time you use Faust's crystal to talk to the Rep, the rep tells you a fantastic story that is everything you want to hear, how your every mistake is forgiven because everyone is immortal.

[young field]

i hate the “expansion across the world” ending

[acoustic kelp]

Yhat confirms my worst fear then

[blissful holly]

But that isn't how the universe works, no matter how bad you might want it - life is temporary, bad decisions often have permanent consequences, forgiveness isn't always possible. "All you have to do to have everything you've ever wanted is relinquish control to me" is the classic Faustian bargain.

[acoustic kelp]

I got all endings, and lnowing that strider is dead in everyone of them, and now knowing for sure that the Shining Zone is bullshit, i will mourn the death of strider proper

The first one i chose was the Kaymenov ending, funnily enough. Even then I feel as though it just sped up the end.

[cerulean marlin]

Ive changed my interpretation of the SKif ending. If you watch whats happening in the lab, thats probably meant to be the Caribbean experiment that messed up SKifs apartment, it didnt just happen wherever he was living but all over the world. It doesnt mean the zone has spread over the world. It also fits with the doctors words. Then when faust revealing himself it sounds like the zone is free as in no one is controlling the zone any more. It could either be that you didnt have any ambition to control the zone, or you dont have lvl 5 Psi protection like Korshunov (and Probably Strelok).
Meaning you might be dead. Scar is most likely dead in his ending, all it did was to "Zombiefy" the zone so that stalkers thought they see a happy place but theyre just shambling around, OR its just skif thats shambling around and everyone else is dead...

[acoustic kelp]

Nah, in scar's ending, he didnt use the Heart of the Zone, so it would have only zombified skif in that end. Because skif used the Heart of Chernobyl, he then chose to let the zone be free and expand. It would make sense for that since Strelok also used the Heart in the same manner.

[cerulean marlin]

True about Scar, but theres really nothing saying the zone expands in the SKif ending

[acoustic kelp]

Well it was the cutscene where psi measurement devices detected anomalous cropping up rapidly across the world, skif's flashback to his apartment being an indication of the same thing about to happen to others as sudden rifts in reality begin to form randomly across the globe.

Skif pretty much used the Heart to unshackle the zone and engulf the world in a reality bending shitshow

[cerulean marlin]

The Alpha artifact is there, the lab were seeing is in the Duga, unlikely that they have a running lab there at the time of the Stalker 2 ending. They are pushing the buttons and activating the Alpha artifacts (which spawns a teleport anomaly) and then the anomaly reports start pouring in. I dont think that is happening now, its showing what led to the disaster in you (skifs) home.

[young field]

i never thought about connecting faust from the game to faust from the german legend but now it makes a lot of sense

[magic crypt]

the shining zone is just psi-illusion

[acoustic kelp]

I know, i already acknowledged that

Scroll down from that post, youll see it

[magic crypt]

My bad i read half

[acoustic kelp]

No worries

[cerulean marlin]

This is also an argument that the skif ending is exactly what Faust wanted and he played us like a fiddle. With no one in control of the Zone hes probably the most powerful thing/being in the entire zone.

[acoustic kelp]

What ending could be the most hopeful? Cuz i dont see the ward doing anything worse than delaying the inevitable or even doing what faust did and tale controller abilities for themselves

Its pretty much let the zone become uncontrolled, let strelok turn it into his playground, let the c-con reaffirm control forever and zombify anyone who enters the zone and create an endless night for anyone unfortunate to wander into it like a trap, or let the Ward only delay the inevitable while they act no bettee than c-consciousness.

[cerulean marlin]

Oh the ward has control over the X network, which is control over the STALKER program, your basically giving Agatha unlimited undetectable brainwashing and control. Sure the zone is not a "zone" any more but there will come nothing good of their control. Also agatha belongs to the same group that funded the X labs at the start, soo you know, they have no moral stops. I would guess renewed experiment with brainwashingpower would lead to another disaster. I mean i dont think Agatha is someone you want to put in control of the conduit to the Noosphere...

[acoustic kelp]

So no matter what, the end is the same. Everyone loses, even if they think they win.

[cerulean marlin]

I would think Streloks is the best one, It will let us see a zone where greed for the zone isnt the main driving factor, sure it will probably be factionwars over resources for a few months, but then survivors need to look for long term survival. It could be a very different zone if they continue that ending. It lets them remix it quite well.
Im sure that either Faust will show up and mess things up, or people find new ways into the zone though. So its like a "rest" period for the zone 😄
But yeah, futility is a part of the story

[acoustic kelp]

Id honestly rather live in Strelok's Zone then

Tho i don't know if Faust is actually gonna come back, especially of Strelok has dominion over the Zone. If anything, Faust may have to find willpower to even reisst strelok if he was alive. And thats to say nothing really about the fact that Strelok could easily manipulate controllers to target whoever poses a threat, and most likely being only faust.

[cerulean marlin]

Faust is immune to monolith/C-conc control. He was with Monolith of his own free choice. But yeah, i could see him trying to free some old brother or doing some guerilla war against streloks control

[acoustic kelp]

Also im kinda hopin one of the DLC will be letting me play as a mutant or something like it, or maybe an extension of the story where Skif would get it in his head to obtain controller abilities and fight Faust with his mind instead

[acoustic kelp]

Truly tho, bugs aside, Stalker 2's story is tragic in every way, horrific in more ways than one, and well crafted. Not really on the level of Cyberpunk's, but still damn good.

And its true to the source trilogy is spawned from. Im glad i played it, even getting strelok's ending. Its the most hopeful id say.

[kindred fossil]

Right? Like most people said that Scar behaves like not the Scar from CS. Near the end we know why. Ward goals seems to differ from the organisation above them and SIRCAA and that's uneasy alliance (even though Ward is essentially hired), at least that's what I've felt. ||Well, even among the SIRCAA Dalin seems to be a morally good person in the end, but I don't trust Agatha at all. Seems like Korshunov doesn't, too.|| All dots actually connect together. Even Scar being brainwashed in the CS already kind of makes sense - if you count the CS cut content from early builds. Might've been an inspiration there.

Anyone considered 5th ending as a start of the DLC? Maybe this is the way?

[cobalt sandal]

5th ending? I know of Spark, Ward, Strelok, and Skif- what's the 5th?

[acoustic kelp]

Maybe one where strider lives and enters the pod, or even fights faust using controller abilities

Who knows, maybe an ending where skif, using the heart of chernobyl, makes it so every living thing on earth is connected truly and not under any single group or person's rule. All free and the C-Consciousness dissolved

Tho that one sounds a bit too cheesy, who knows where theyd take it.

[cobalt sandal]

Also, am I the only one who feels that Faust wasn't actually all that bad? By the end of the game I didn't trust anyone with the responsibility of the Zone and wanted it left alone because it's too dangerous to try to exert control. I got bamboozled by Strelok's ending and just went through and got Skifs.

[acoustic kelp]

I truly dont know how to feel about Faust

He is beyond the definition of Good or Evil. Hes terrifying, to be honest. Hes that cosmic horror embodied as a man who retains his sense of self but wields vast abilities like a controller. And with a mind as twisted and transcendant as his, its hard to tell if he even really ever died.

With human creativity as his paint and his powers the brush to the world as the canvas, who knows what the hell is really happening

[cobalt sandal]

Like, I was not at all on Faust's side until the fight with him and he has the one on one with Skif. And I dunno if I missed something but he seemed to make alittle too much sense during that conversation and by the end of the story I just felt that, all sides were sour.

[acoustic kelp]

Id honestly rather been turned into a Controller and live underground, scrounging for scraps

[cobalt sandal]

him being able to essentially be one with the Zone was terrifying, but I wasn't expecting him to have the voice of reason on what to do with the Zone. Out of all of the factions, he seemed to be the only one who was geniuenly just wanting it left alone. Ward and Spark wanted to capitalize it in their own ways and Strelok just uses Skif as a tool to claim the Zone as his because he grew obsessed with it.

[acoustic kelp]

Hea even more terrifying for the fact he was apart of Monolith, but resisted the brainwashing, due to his augmentations by C-Con's whims, knowing the Monolith was artificial from the start.

Feels almost like i heard Griffith's tone in Faust, or maybe a devil true to his name.

I do hope the DLC would be something like playing as Faust as a continuation of the story from his perspective and what would have really went on outside of Skif's point of view, or even something like Skif or Whomever fighting Faust using similar abilities or maybe something like Burer Telekinetic abilities for the contrast to Faust's Telepathic power

Even if its not these, id still play whatever they put out as DLC

[cobalt sandal]

Tbh, I just wish we got more conversation with Faust, he's kinda jsut there, you here him talk a few times, have like 2 conversations with him and that's it. And with the rest of the story he seemed way more important than that

[acoustic kelp]

True

[cobalt sandal]

his english va also has a voice of gold imo, I could listen to him for hours lmfao

[acoustic kelp]

Maybe there will be a new ending with Faust as the one to enter the pod

And id wonder what hell he'd unleash

[cobalt sandal]

that'd be cool, a dlc where it gives you the option to side with him

[acoustic kelp]

Ye

[kindred fossil]

I mean introduced as a part of the dlc

Maybe no one in the pod, maybe Dalin, maybe Faust, maybe breaking the last pod but I am not sure how they could rewrite the story to give such ending. Faust one seems quite interesting

[high wren]

guys, why does Strelok have long hair in gameplay trailer?

[pliant heron]

Will ||Zotov|| always be hurt in "Wishful Thinking"?

[young field]

scar behaves differently because he survived 3 emissions and was brainwashed (a 2nd time?) with marshall’s memories

[flat dust]

I feel like Richter is our only true friend

[acoustic kelp]

Richter really is a kind soul, if he got into the pod, maybe he would have made the Zone a loving place with the heart of Chernobyl

[spark jewel]

How did Richter get the burn on his head?

Also I feel Strider was a good friend until he went full Monolith again ):

[kindred fossil]

That's why I mentioned we know why. 🙂 I assume it's not even Scar anymore, it's Marshall with Scars body and name.

[kindred fossil]

For me Strider felt like the only totally sane and honest character. He just wanted to live like a normal human but knew couldn't handle the life outside and would do better if he stays in the Zone and helps others like him, give them all purpose. I believe he did that well. Not much, but a honest work.
I wonder what would happen to him if he ever lived to become sane again (if that's even an option). Guess we'll never know.

Even Richter had his little bit of craziness, even though he is the best guy, real friend (most of times). Wonder if he'll stay alive during the DLC.

[spark jewel]

Yeah definitely. I was quite sad when he died, I couldn’t wait to find him and help him after the events at SIRCAA but he became unstoppable Terminator

[hardy otter]

@kindred fossil Strider was the best. That moment after the doctor hit hard. But upon reflection, it was for the best. We as players are just so much more capable of understanding the gravity of the monolith brainwashing because we had that friend.

[kindred fossil]

Yeah, Strider's change is a plot-explaining device I guess. For stalker veterans it's obvious psi-emitters of all sorts control Monolith. For newbies, they won't even know why is it so important for Strider to disable the emitter on Shelter (I'm not sure, I play in different language than English) and why restarting Monolith was such a big deal.
On the other hand, why are we able to see Streloks wishes in the first place? Parallel universes? Possible outcomes given persons personality?

[spark jewel]

Is it safe to say that the Signal goes quiet again after whoever gets into the pod? Will we have Noontide back for round 2?

[last tinsel]

Not in Strelok's ending atleast, he still have Monolith under control

[spark jewel]

Oh yeah actually, I forgot about that. Nasty Strelok

[last tinsel]

Dalin explained it right after that sequence - Monolith had some psi-imprint of the last visitor, for some reason

Or something like that, it was showing you something that was intended not for you

[kindred fossil]

So, basically speaking, these were potential outcomes prepared for Strelok in case he did chose wish instead of going full rampage against some funny glass tubes, right?

[spark jewel]

I was really hoping we could get to see what it is like to enter one of those Spatial anomalies from the previous game (cant remember which) hopefully we will get to see in the expansions. Maybe make it into a puzzle to exit or find a compass

[last tinsel]

I think so

[solid skiff]

i need the dlcs now to fuel my stalker story adiction

[kindred fossil]

Honestly I thought that in the SIRCAA would be a space anomaly instead of simple teleport. I think you're talking about the ones like Duty team was trapped in CoP, right?

[last tinsel]

There are a few spatial anomalies in this game too. With puzzles too. Just find them

[spark jewel]

Yeah thats the one!

[spark jewel]

Wharrr really? Do you go inside of it?

[kindred fossil]

I remember they were the only places where lore-accurately you could get a Compass. They broke up though when approached with Svarog, maybe they're close to extinction, as Veles is Svarog now 😄

[last tinsel]

Yes, there is one spatial arch-anomalt

[spark jewel]

Damn I missed it

[kindred fossil]

||Mist, I suppose, right?||

[last tinsel]

Yes

[spark jewel]

I loved the lore about the compass and its relationship with that certain anomaly. The artifact chooses you kind of thing

[last tinsel]

I have found a sequence of smaller teleport anomalies with a parkour puzzle which gets you into an interesting location

[kindred fossil]

I guess Oasis is kind of space anomaly too - the ventilation complex one, not X-3

[spark jewel]

That puzzle was great, really felt like I’d unlocked one of the zones secrets

[muted swift]

I wish they had explained what happened to Strelok going north so many times. Something changed him to become this “my way or death, you stay put Skif” jerk

[rose pasture]

He went gambling for sure

[last tinsel]

Well, at least in one of those raids he found that Heart artifact and in the other one he was near locked door leading to C-Cons representatie (after which he ordered his group to create a decoder for the door). So he was atleast once at Death Valley (or whatever that location near Generators called, where Heart artifact supposed to spawn), and atleast once inside CNPP reactor building.

It's not clear how he bypassed all the Monolith, Brain Scorcher. Maybe they launched brainscorcher AFTER he did go that deep?

[stiff lotus]

I'm fairly certain the implication was those trips were the events of the previous games.
+1 trip to find the heart, maybe, or maybe he found that elsewhere

[last tinsel]

He talked about trips even before OG games, Strelok visited north many times before SoC and CS happened

[stiff lotus]

Im not sure that's possible. The first times they travelled north were the reason for the emissions that followed, the first of which being at the start of CS

Unless he travelled north and the C-con just didnt care the first few times

[last tinsel]

Look for cinematics of SoC. He was at CNPP atleast few times before CS happened, and SoC starts right after CS ends

[stiff lotus]

the second emission was the c-con's direct response to his group getting too close to the CNPP
why would they have done nothing the previous times

the fact that they got past the brain scorcher for the first time is a major detail, as well
you're suggesting he casually did so multiple times before that?

[last tinsel]

It is confirmed that Strelok did at least 2 raid to the North prior to events of CS:
In the first returned to doctor with the Hearth artifact
In the second he returned all the bloodied and doctor was treating him

Either in the first or the second raid he found out about secret door at CNPP, and ordered to prepare a decoder.
The next time he went north - are the events of CS.

[last tinsel]

I am not suggesting, it is literally explicitly shown in the plot of SoC

[stiff lotus]

I'm not entirely sure it's clear those events happen before CS, myself.
Doesnt feel like that tracks with what we know about the events of CS and SoC but maybe I'm missing something

[last tinsel]

End of CS is the beginning of SoC, where he was programmed by accident and sent in death truck

[stiff lotus]

Im aware.

[last tinsel]

There is no other option, those raids happened before events of CS because after CS he lost his memory completely and would never know about door/decode

[stiff lotus]

Im not sure I follow why it couldnt have been after SoC-

he re-learned many of these things during and after the events of that game, and is stated to have wandered the zone for a long time investigating the shining zone

Though I dont remember the specifics about the decoder, now that I think about it-

[last tinsel]

Because in SoC yo use decoder assembled by Fang to open the door to Monolith control room. Fang is already dead in SoC so he made it before events of SoC

[stiff lotus]

but from what I recall they're stashed near the brain scorcher, implying they havent gotten past it yet when they first obtained them

though the fact that they know they'd need one does imply someone's been there already, I suppose- Hrm

I just find it hard to believe they casually wandered their way up there several times with no ill effects

[last tinsel]

In one of the raids he returned barely alive, I wouldn't say he had no ill effects

[stiff lotus]

unless they managed to wander straight into the CNPP's most secure, protected location, realized they need a decoder, and left all without being noticed

[stiff lotus]

I mean no blowouts or other responses from the c-con/monolith

again that was literally why the 2nd emission happened, so why did they seem to not care before that?

[tacit crater]

The wiki gives conflicting information. In the page for Strelok, it has his group cross the Brainscorcher only once, after finding maps of the Pripyat Underground, when they reach the code locked door. The C-Con realized how close they were and released an emission, wounding Strelok and having to have Doctor heal him. The second time he gets past the Scorcher, he goes alone in the events of CS. In the page for Strelok’s Group, it has them make multiple excursions passed the Scorcher, with the final trip having them reach the code locked door, and the CCon noticing them, releasing the emission, etc.

[stiff lotus]

unfortunately fandom wiki's are notoriously messy

but that would seem to imply, to me, that the 2nd emission happens the first time he reaches the CNPP, he barely gets out alive, then returns later in CS, gets brainwashed, and then SoC happens
so anything else must have been after SoC, or a retcon, if it involves him travelling to the CNPP

again maybe he found the heart elsewhere- Im not sure we're told where he got it?
if anyhting it'd more likely be in one of the x-labs

[last tinsel]

If you read the docs/inventory description of Hearth in S2, it says art spawns in Death Valley

[stiff lotus]

I dont think the item description does- maybe some notes I missed/glazed over does though

[last tinsel]

He was atleast one time at CNPP before events of CS where they found the locked door and returned to create decoders. There is no other choice, cause him opening that door and killing C-Cons in pods is canon now.

[stiff lotus]

Im very hazy on what strelok does during CS other than nearly dying, and then getting brainwashed at the end- but would it not be possible for him to be getting the decoder during the events of it?

TBH I'm not 100% sure how long, chronologically, CS is.
days?

according to the fandom wiki (so take with copious ammounts of🧂), the events of CS begin on september 10th, and then SoC begins in May of the next year

[last tinsel]

In CS they placed the decoders into stashes on the way to CNPP, one Radar one Pripyat. If they knew they need decoders, they already knew about door, so they have been previously at CNPP already

[stiff lotus]

what i'm suggesting is the 2nd emission, at the start of CS, is when they figure that out, and by the end of CS, they've obtained them

[last tinsel]

Probably yes, emission at the CS beginning cinematic is probably the one provoked by them reaching the door

[stiff lotus]

as far as I know that's objectively what happened, and would probably be the first time.

[last tinsel]

Yes, he returned very damaged (probably by emission), but there is other cinematic showing him returning with Hearth, which preceeds this.

[stiff lotus]

and we know that happened before hand? Not just that we saw it out of order, or what have you?

I'll have to see if I can find the note/description you're talking about, I am curious where it came from
I did skif ending so my playthrough didnt take me through dead valley

assuming that's what it appears to be- I cant seem to find anyhting by that name on maps but I see videos about it that looks like the path to generators

infact the entirety of generators isnt marked on this map wth

anyway- if that is where it came from, I suppose it's possible he went there before trying for CNPP but that doesnt make a ton of sense to me- It feels like something he'd look for after the events of SoC

Im not sure how he'd find out about, or care about something like that until after he's discovered C-con

rewatching the cutscenes, they do seem to be in order, based on the context, and he does come back witht he heart before he comes back injured...
that's bizarre

[last tinsel]

It cannot be between CS and SoC, cause Strelok lost memory and forgot even who Doctor was. After SoC he was stuck in Pripyat and was rescued by Degtyarev in CoP, and then went onto collab with SIIRCA. The only possibility is before CS or after SIIRCA.

[stiff lotus]

I never suggested that it be between CS and SoC- that's just about the only time it definatly couldnt have been
and it probably wasnt during SoC because he's the player character

so it would appear to be before CS. Maybe there's something explainign why he was looking for it that I'm unaware of.
It definately feels odd knowing what we do about his motives at the time

[last tinsel]

Nice, I found references

Strelok's PDA in S2 says the following: "А ведь Сердце Чернобыля было со мной, когда я впервые добрался до Капсул в Х7 на Генераторах. <...>"
Which translates directly to: "Hearth was with me when I first reached pods at X7..."

[stiff lotus]

the line "if only you knew where I've just been and what I saw" means he was somewhere of significance when he found the heart, which is perhaps obvious, but I dont think we're ever actually told where, or why, or if we are, I missed it-

[last tinsel]

Doctor's diary in S2 says: "Стрелок ненадолго оставил у меня Сердце Чернобыля — артефакт, который он раздобыл в очередной ходке на Север. <...>"
Which translates to: Strelok left Hearth with me - artefact he found in the recent raid to the North

[stiff lotus]

doesnt help that the item in question is also the subtitle for the game, makign searching for information on it almost impossible, lmao

[last tinsel]

Note is dated as 2010

[stiff lotus]

yeah I believe you that it was before CS now- IM just curious about where/motives, now

[last tinsel]

Also, from dialog with Richter:
"Если найти самый редкий артефакт — Сердце Чернобыля, научишься понимать Зону, как если бы стал с ней одним целым. Если верить Проводнику, в Мёртвой долине. Только обычному человеку там не выжить. Нужно либо оборудование, которое ещё не изобрели, либо быть как он."

Which says that according to "Guide" (legendary stalker which you meet in SoC), Hearth can be found in Death Valley.

[stiff lotus]

Hard to piece together how he'd end up heading towards generators before presumably ever even approaching the CNPP, but clearly he did

[last tinsel]

https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Guide
According to wiki, Guide was the one who helped them get to the North multiple times, but no references unfortunately.

[stiff lotus]

honestly you'd think the c-conciousness would be even more defensive of that place then the cnpp, given that's where lab x7 actually is-

feel like that raises evne more questions than it answers personally, but

maybe he was poking around for ways into the CNPP, generators arent that far north of it afterall.. hmm

[last tinsel]

Generator are closer to Pripyat than CNPP and I don't think anybody knew about Generator/X7 anyway. It was just hostile environment people named Death Valley

[stiff lotus]

you can visibly see the CNPP from generators. maybe a kilometer away, if even that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORMjyPeZ8dc

[last tinsel]

If Strelok's groyup was visiting CNPP from Pripyat, they have to go through Death Valley anyway, look at S2 map

[stiff lotus]

im not.. contesting that they didnt go to death valley...?

Im not even arguing at all- I'm curious about why he'd be poking around for the heart before CS

[last tinsel]

That's where they found Hearth probably - they were making ways to CNPP through Death Valley, on first attempt they found Hearth, on second reached CNPP and door

[stiff lotus]

it'd feel a bit anti-climatic if it was just a random artifact he found with no context for it's importance

he seems to know it's importance when he shows up to doc with it- I guess that might be a DLC/prequel hook though

[last tinsel]

Well, Doctor's diary explicitly says, that he made some tests to determine properties of Hearth after Strelok left it to him. And found out that artifact was magnifying psi-field of a wielder tenfold. I don't think Strelok's group knew what that artifact was prior to testing it

[native kernel]

See we allowed to,post spoilers here?

[hollow gate]

about a month I believe

[ornate venture]

purrshr00m has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[acoustic kelp]

Even after getting Skif's ending, i dont know of Faust was there or that was just a narrative device to call back to his statement that all things kept secret will inevitably be discovered.

I can only really take it as that and whats to come is stalkers being able to walk out of the zone with the horrid secrets many like Ward and Project X groups wanted to remain secret

Id have to think the same of Doctor's "presence" there, as i dont think either Doctor or Faust was there. It was just a narrative device to show the best ending was one where noone controlled what would otherwise be used to subjugate mankind

[last tinsel]

I don't like Skif ending because Stalker for me will always be associated with frozen in USSR time abandoned surroundings of CNPP. Going out of Chernobyl Exclusion Zone will be the end of the series for me, if GSC gonna expand story that way.

[acoustic wigeon]

i do indeed also hope that the Strelok ending would be the real one

[old oyster]

They both sux for a next dlc or stalker

[acoustic kelp]

I also thought about it, Scar's ending is basically what would have happened if Strelok entered the pod and agreed to help C-Consciousness. Tho instead of there being 8 total, it was just the one guy who restored the group's control over the zone.

Honestly it feels like they just recycled that ending choice from the original first game, but they did it a bit better that tackles existential questions through the abuse of mankind's fear-filled quest for immortality.

Strelok back then would have been no different than scar now, the difference really just being beliefs. But the motivation of controlling the fate of mankind is still there.

I think to make it more hopeful, not only for the fate of mankind to remain free in spite of the zone's expanse, is to have a DLC where Skif gathers the motivation to change the Zone according to what we would want it to be changed into, or to even destroy the last pod like Strelok destroyed the original pods. But this time, cutting off C-Consciousness and dooming them

Also if theres gonna be another stalker game, gotta right it after the events of 2 but keeping the choices vague enough to where a mix of each of the endings occured but not enough to where it makes the zone vanish or expand (and i mean expand too much). Or hell, make a game from the perspective of a mutant. Could be any of the humanoid mutants or even a man with mutant powers.

[magic current]

I really hope so too, but I'm afraid Skif "secret" ending will be the canon one if SoC if anything to go by.

Even tho Strelok's ending is just a return to status quo, with Skif ending Stalker just ceases to be Stalker. There can be no Zone without the "regular" world as a juxtaposition, anomalies stop being anomalies if they are "regularities", artifacts stop being special etc.

Unless those dots all over the world are just "microzones", or not everything turns out as it seems to be. I dunno, my Duty is to go with Strelok.

[neat hazel]

Does anyone elses game crash when trying to talk to an npc or loot? i can't seem to play the game anymore because it won't allow me to progress at all.

[lime bay]

yes I'm facing this currently

[granite saffron]

So you are telling me the most pivotal story section in the game is ||a series of halflife references!? sector c test lab, hazard course, put this thing in the beam, experiment gone wrong|| Honestly i'm not disappointed, that sequence was so incredible from start to finish hahahaa

[last tinsel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F1ma_0vwog
Canon now

But yeah, I really had strong Half-Life vibes from SIIRCA

[spark jewel]

Stalker: The Black Mesa Incident
The crossover we never expected!

[granite saffron]

I did not expect that at all, and it felt like they were writing it specifically to appeal to my nostalgia at times hahaha. So good.

[errant monolith]

Hey guys what's the best option ? (It's about the first main quest in Zalyssya) ||kill squint or not ?||

[cerulean marlin]

Im like 90% sure now that what we see is the carribean experiment that wrecked Skifs house. t didnt just happen in his apartment but stuff happened all over the world, but its just that anomaly happenings, not new zones.
and its in the past

[tacit crater]

How did I not recognize this?!!

[spark jewel]

@long trout There is a Monolithian scammer

[long trout]

Aye, thanks for the heads-up

We've deleted all the posts

[spark jewel]

Sall good

[long trout]

Ngl, pretty funky the first thing you say after joining is that

Also offtop, so I'mma delete

[spark jewel]

Such is life in the Zone

[long trout]

And already banned

Based

[full kernel]

Hello so I just got to Down Below quest and I still haven t been to 4 locations on the map (for example duty base, and above it). Do I just have it locked or what is happening?

[acoustic kelp]

I miss original gritty scar, new blind cultist scar saddens me. The deluded old fool...

[ornate venture]

rojjter has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[short wing]

what bad word 😮

I sided with moontide over ward, is there a way to get friendly with ward again? They shoot at sight and wont let me into the chemical plant (got an radio call to come there and do a quest, cant I guess?)
I am on "in search of past glory", find a technician to install the suppressor

[cerulean marlin]

There's no main quest in the cement factory and no side quest going there either. The northern part may be visited just at the end after no return point, but if you want to explore just go there. Theres loot and stuff.

[subtle drift]

Gg guys just finished the story had a hard time understanding it fully but still a great game, waiting for improvements and later dlcs.

[last ferry]

Guys, what's the mission where the door wont open? Is it the Dangerous Liaisons?

[young field]

can someone help me understand, why scientists of “the group” created the c con to change the noosphere and remove greed, sadness, hatred etc and like stop war and stuff, but then after their experiments failed they decided to use a brain scorcher to turn people into zombies and monolith and shit

why did they basically just switch to being evil

and also why were the group doing all these human/animal experiments to create mutants while at the same time wanting to like create a utopia with no greed or war

[magic current]

because they're commies

[muted swift]

I think he’s talking about Cooling Towers right above Cement

[magic current]

that's an allusion in SoC at least

[muted swift]

Realistically, to protect themselves. Could’ve been any stalker making it past the wish granter and finding that door to pop those pods. Could’ve probably manipulated an average Joe, but they already messed with Strelok enough since he was successful, he didn’t even hesitate. The monolith soldiers were supposed to protect them

And experiments like that were pushed hard by the end of the Cold War and the iron curtain falling. So their ends were meant to be a happy ending, but the group were probably trained in a manner of the CCP expecting results no matter the means.

[vague tundra]

Man, ||I was really hoping you could save Strider and the rest of Noontide. He didn't deserve to go out like that.||

[old oyster]

My real question is ||why during ward path, strider is here, like bruh shoot him or cage him (during siircaa experience)||

[prisma elm]

||are you talking about Orbita Station quest where Skif sees him when inside the Pod? Or is there another SIRCAA sequence where Strider shows up? (I chose Ward the entire playthrough)||

[prisma elm]

||during mission after mission called Subtle Matter. You can still choose Ward.||

[dapper spindle]

Because they, spark and noontiders are invading, trying to stop the activation?

[old oyster]

Nah if u following ward path, they captured strider n 2 ward soldier bring him back to us, then he beat us n make the experience failed, no sense (why they bring strider lol that’s my point)

@dapper spindle

[dapper spindle]

Oh you mean like why he is in that exact room, why they lead him to the emitter room when he was captured nearby
Ig because they wanted to present their prisoner to their bosses

[old oyster]

Ye like that was a very bad choice

[dapper spindle]

I imagine they wanted to present the captured enemy leader to their leader for interrogation, then they might not know how many more enemies there are nearby

Guess I don't know but I imagine that once the emitter was turned on, all the monolothians were activated and controlled from other emitters in the zone even if they turned it off again

[empty marten]

||Thank you for reaching out. We’re aware of the issue you described, and our team is actively monitoring related reports in In Search Of Past Glory: unable to talk Prof. Dvupalov. We understand how this impacts your gameplay experience, and we’re working to ensure it’s addressed in upcoming patches.||

maybe I'll finally be able to finish the game

[acoustic kelp]

I hope a fifth ending gets added in where i can shoot the last pod and then destroy the generators

[fallen vapor]

I’d like an ending where we just leave the Zone alone… || no Strelok locking the place down and no Skif screwing over the world by letting it run wild ||

|| I just realized how badly Faust played me like a fiddle… It’s honestly not even funny at that point 💀 ||

[subtle drift]

Yeah but we have to wait for a dlc, since this ending is too open for interpretation

[short wing]

Oooh nice

[noble whale]

There was a soviet(i.e. a priori evil) program "X", that worked in CEZ. They created all of that laboratories which we see in the game's and also created a mutants(Probably except of snorks, they are probably a soldiers, as they have soldier uniform).
One of the group, that worked in X-7 created a plan for connection to noosphere(Information sphere, as ecosphere or biosphere), They had to do it properly, but before start doctor Kaymanov decided to leave this experiment before start(There was 8 scientist that had to do it, but one of them(Kaymanov) didn't do it). After that the zone appeared and C-con had to hide their experiments from outworld. C-con create a Monolith from soldiers who worked for them(Especially those at the end of the game in X-7) and zombies from stalkers and other people who has tried to explore the zone
Play the original trilogy

[noble whale]

That basically lead to Skif ending, but much worse

[acoustic kelp]

Well maybe not ghe generators, but the last pod should go, and C-Con should stay in the noosphere, unable to do what they set out to

[noble whale]

Btw, we still don't know if the C-Con is still alive.
In the Skif ending, we see that Faust is still alive, which means that he tricked us in the battle of the Duga and didn't show us real Noosphere. C-Con spokesman could also be programmed to be something like GPT, as we see in Scar's ending that he still responds to Dalin, and in others he won't.
And Strider is also an illusion, but more complicated.

[acoustic kelp]

I kinda find it difficult to say that communicating with Strider was an illusion itself. Id actually make the argument that the "afterlife" in the Noosphere is really just a "soul prison", especially since his reaction changes based on your choices, his dialogue as well.

Strider is trapped, made to live beyond death with the guilt that he failed to stop what was to come.

Tho C-Con's representative basically being the psychic equivalent of a pre-recorded message, that makes sense.

But i can definitely see everything that was brought about being all in accordance with Faust's plans, regardless if it was Skif's ending or Scar's.

I hope that Strelok's ending is deemed the canon one and we can get a DLC Where life unfolds in the zone, as it becomes its own closed off self sustaining ecosystem

But at least i can kill scar in Strelok's and Skif's endings.

That crazy fart had it coming, vengence for Fang

[young field]

i know all of this. not what i was asking at all.

i have played the original trilogy lol

i am asking why did these scientists who wanted to bring world peace and utopia by altering the noosphere, later just started doing a bunch of weird mind controlling stuff and causing a shit ton of people to die just to protect themself

[noble whale]

So it's answer. They just soviet pieces of shit funded by government and wanted to restart experiment(or already died in 2006) and didn't want to be shamed by people because of project X

[prisma elm]

Emissions were not enough to deter people from coming to CNPP and Generators. As shown in all games, they can be avoided, and later ignored once they developed antibiotics to survive the emission unscathed by the time of CoP. Mind control experiments ended in creation of Monolith.
They believed that key to world peace and utopia was through understanding zone and controlling it, but they needed more time while stalkers kept leaking further into Zone

[young field]

ends justify the means

[prisma elm]

consider that by the time they entered the pods and became an actual part of Noosphere, there was little left of their original, human intentions. But still, most of mind control stuff was started before the emergence of c-con, which kind of lead to multiple factions having access to same tech (ClearSky, Monolith, C-con, ecologists)

[young field]

and despite everything they did, a single dude with an AK and funny looking face made it to the centre 3 times and then destroyed them

[pale acorn]

Strelok making it to the CNPP was inevitable he has the PseudoDog in him

[muted swift]

What if the noosphere is more like the afterlife, for now contained within the zone area, and the strongest entity would be the person still alive connected in the pod taking control, including the monolith soldiers (we kind of see that in Strelok ending). But I bring that other part up because it feels like some of the definitely dead people in Scars ending were real enough in conversation to not just be an illusion to eachother, since Skif is still alive that’s why he’s by himself

[magic crypt]

Was faust in previous games?

[weary crag]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgO9_iiQ0FE&t=93s is Супер Сус not in the game ? ha? devs

i thought he was the mail cerecter no ?>

https://www.youtube.com/@planeta_pubertat/videos

[dapper spindle]

Nothing happened with Anastasia in the end they could expand the story in dlc with her

[pale acorn]

Has anyone actually tried asking the the ward guy about project fibre before breaking in?

[dapper spindle]

Yes. Seems impossible
Really frustrating

[pale acorn]

Damn

Would be funny if he just knocked you out and put you in the cell

[dapper spindle]

Spoiler || he held me in his robot arms and said "why didn't you just ask?! And I just Facepalmed so hard||

[unique thicket]

Just finished the game, turns out Deggy was always a real one

[dapper spindle]

Ye he's a nice guy

[cerulean marlin]

The STALKER program is mind control and continued way beyond the creation of monolith. It's still running in S2, there's just no new stalkers put into the program. Monolith as a faction popping up again might have changed that if skif hadn't gotten in the way.

[magic crypt]

i dont understand, how in the endings where skif or strelok go in the pod, how does it work? bcos in ward and scar endings u hear that u need psi-5 protection that skif does not have, for strelok i dont know if he does or doesnt

[spark jewel]

Супер сус dlc when

[spark jewel]

Nope hes a completely new character

[rose pasture]

I did. And he just pressed the alarm xd

[dusty mica]

Why Monolith wanted to steal Skif’s scanner/artifact and who told them he had it?

[spark jewel]

Professor Hermann (the guy who drives you to the zone at the start) sold Skif out to Ward I think

[magic crypt]

so the emissions come from the generators all this time

[pale acorn]

I mean the colonel lol

[muted swift]

Deggys rifle slaps HARD. I could’ve used that a long time ago

[spark jewel]

Yeah its great! I need more coupons and then I will recreate it

[torn summit]

I wasn't able to find much online, but what are those force fields that were on colonel, scar, and granite squad?

[spark jewel]

Looks and sounds like the Burers ability to negate damage. Most likely tech invented in one of the X labs

[lavish tree]

||is the skif entering the pod ending the canon one?||

[fading fox]

Guys is Uncle Yar in the game

[signal egret]

||Most likely Strelok Ending is canon||

[slow pelican]

not that I've seen but I had all of freedom disappear for me so idk about that one

[lavish tree]

played all endings

such a good story
||sadly the endgame feels a bit rushed||

[last tinsel]

In their endings they put Heart of Chernobyl artefact inside that machine, before going into pod. The artifact amplifies psi-field tenfold, allowing one person to operate the whole tech

[haughty jewel]

Was the doctor actually ||Faust?||

Also what exactly is the heart of Chernobyl

[sonic gazelle]

Massive spoiler ||going to pripiat. I have quest to find ghost. Didn't he died in lab in SoC?||

[rustic fiber]

Guys what you think what the true ending is?

I think to find the real ending we would first begin to get rid off the ending that are least likely and the first would be scar. I think we are all on the same page with that one.

That would only leave us with 3 other possible true endings.

[last tinsel]

Most satisfying ending: Ward
Most reasonable ending for DLC: Strelok
Most probable "true" ending/series continuation: Skif

Reasons:

1. Endless possibilites to expand the game setting/plot/characters
2. || Design docs leaks had indications that Project Y ending was proposed as canonical at some point of development.||

[last tinsel]

The artefact that Strelok found somewhere around Death Valley.
Judging by Doctor's notes, it's an anomalous version of "Variometer" - electromagnetic psi-field amplifier

[rustic fiber]

Whats Project Y? And stalker outside Chernobyl does not makes sense. The mutants are made in the laboratory’s outside it would be just anomaly’s

[last tinsel]

Project Y is Skif/Kaimanov's ending, you literally get an achievement with that name

[last tinsel]

Anything can make sense with enough fantasy applied. But outside of Chernobyl it will cease to be a STALKER franchise for me, Roadside Picnic? Maybe. STALKER? No

[worthy zenith]

Skifs is still the best

[rustic fiber]

But u don’t think they can do both new ip and stalker. I mean it was hard enough to do this one and abandon this ip would be rather risky.

[last tinsel]

STALKER was always motivated by Roadside Picnic in the first place.
And Roadside Picnic has multiple "Zones" across the world.
Maybe they decided to get even closer to the "roots".

Also, names of the last quests in S2 are heavy references to Roadside Picnic too.
"happiness for everybody, free, and no one will get away unsatisfied"

[rustic fiber]

Well that could be also.
But how is the ward satisfying? Isn’t that the most uncertainty? We could be controlled. If I remember they always said that they will control the anomaly energy not fully destroy it.
Even the scientists said they know more than we do and maybe even work for higher ups.

[last tinsel]

Ward ending is satisfying because:

1. Main character gets what he wanted in the first place - new home
2. Zone is gonna be destroyed (at least was promised by Korshunov, and he appeared to be a man of his word)
3. Anomalous energy is gonna be used for technological advancement of humanity

Downside:
They are gonna be spying on people with the use of THREAD project technologies, as was seen in the cinematic with TVs screens.
But I am okay with it since it is not a mind-control, like Monolith/STALKER program.

[rustic fiber]

So skif is one of the Agents? But when did he become one

[last tinsel]

He is not

[rustic fiber]

I thought that’s only if you’re in the project

[last tinsel]

Because you didn't pay enough attention in quest dialogs

Program STALKER - neuroprogram people to do certain tasks (agents)
Program THREAD - remote transmission of biological information (see through eyes of other people)

These programs were independent in the first place. THREAD was developed long before even CNPP incident.
STALKER only came after Zone was created. Kalancha later managed to connect STALKER to THREAD so C-Cons could see through agents' eyes.
But in general these two technologies are independent - if you can see through someone else eyes does not mean he's an agent

[rustic fiber]

So the only true ending is skifs right?

Or real ending

[last tinsel]

I don't know. But facts (and leaked desdocs) are more indicative to the fact that Skif's ending will probably end up being "true" canon ending

[rustic fiber]

Are also some leaks also how the DLCs are gonna be. If the are after the story or before?

[last tinsel]

DLCs were gonna be: ||Limansk, Cold Island, Sand Plateu||
But, CNPP, Iron Forest and North Pripyat were in the base game in those leaks, but were cut on release. So they could come first before those planned DLC locations

It is not clear, but those DLC locations were to be inserted into the middle of the story, as side-story locations I'd guess

[rustic fiber]

Isn’t does expansions? I thought they are gonna make expansion(being the map expansion) and DLC maybe something like the older games.

[last tinsel]

I have no idea. In leaks, all additional areas are marked as "DLC". It is not clear what was genuine DLC and what was story expansion.
But according the their numeration they would come before the story end

[rustic fiber]

Yea well I am not gonna touch the game for a while. It’s still a broken mess with places where I fall through the ground and keep picking guns up out of nowhere. And a life not working would not make sense to play much besides the story.
Hopefully they have least Half of the bugs fixed till 3 month’s.

Maybe somebody makes a story recap and looks through the endings

[rustic fiber]

Can you tell me one more thing. How did the representative say in one the right answer and the other nothing? Is there a theory?

[last tinsel]

I don't know. But visiographs use the same technology as all other "psi" machines - induced illusions. Seeing how "Shining Zone" and Scar's ending is just one big delusion, I'd say everything we saw before that was imaginary too

[rustic fiber]

So in one we believe it with excepting scars side and because of that he says the right and the other I don’t believe in it.
But there would be still the question why it didn’t say that even when I didnt believe that.

[last tinsel]

Everything on Scar's side is psi-illusion, including the "right answer" of representative. Basically you become as deluded as Scar himself. In other endings you don't believe all that nonses, so you see what's real - "representative" is just a psi-induced illusion (or program), which cannot answer questions it was not programmed to answer

[haughty jewel]

Did skif die in project y ending?

[rustic fiber]

Then why did dalin not hear that would the psi not give its own reality? Dalin believed in that didn’t he?

[worthy zenith]

As far as we know and with some notes saying there's a lever inside pod 1 that skifs in not likely

[fading fox]

99% that one of the DLCs will be focused around factions (Duty/Freedom) since they don't do shit. I bet they will bring back the faction wars and the DLC will expand the story to have the factions compete for power in the zone and later fight the Ward/Spark to rule it.
I can also sense a Degtyaryev DLC, just a small side-story expansion to see what funny things our boy was up to.
Honestly, I think a Scar/Zone/Strider backstory (after CoP) DLC is also extremely likely, but that might as well be it's own game at that point lmao. The DLC possibilities are unironically endless, which is amazing.

[magic crypt]

Ooooh yes, thanks!

[mossy vessel]

Should I keep partner? Any real point to giving it back to warkock

[compact sun]

i finished my first playthrough with sparing the Doc but then it seems like the zone expanded to the whole world or am i tripping?
Then i went back to check on full Strelok ending and it seemed kinda worse

im thinking about going back a looot to finish my Scar playthrough but i dunno, i also want to make a whole new playthrough with Ward, but waiting for a patch to fix a-life to have slightly different experience. I'm also thinking about adding more weight mode and changing language to english instead of ukrainian for brand new experience haha

[compact sun]

as another sum up, i enjoyed Call of Pripyat sum up ending slightly more than what we have in stalker 2 - like a sum up of everything you've done in the world and how it impacted it

[cerulean marlin]

That's a massive leap to assume the Ward isn't using/will use the STALKER program. Nothing is really stopping them as they have full control of the X network in the ward ending. Agatha got full control using Korshunov as a joystick. Also Agatha is part of the group behind all the X experiments. Believeing those people will work for the good of mankind an not just power is kinda naive. Also they would likely unleash some worse disaster before long

[hasty coral]

I just assume the ward ending is the most likely to continue the franchise into a possible 3rd game. In keeping with the theme that player characters appear in the follow up titles.

[rustic fiber]

I did go through the Music and isint that spoiled in the music already with Skifs ending having the same music as the End Titles music?

[last tinsel]

What's worse than releasing the Zone on the whole world? I'll take Ward's ending anytime over Skif's ending

Zone should have never been created in the first place. It's an error, abnormality. For me, any ending which leads to the Zone's erasure from existence is the "true" ending to the series.

[subtle drift]

skifs ending 4sure

[cerulean marlin]

I think the skif ending is misinterpreted by most. What it's showing is the second carribean experiment, not the zone expanding across the world. It's the experiment that made the alpha artifact appear in Skifs apartment, and apparently anomalous things popped up all over the globe. They are in a lab at the Duga, they have the alpha artifact and military, not ward guards. It doesn't fit at the time we're entering the pod.
The zone is free in that no one controls it, but there's really nothing saying it's spreading across the world.

[last tinsel]

It fits exactly well, because when you are at Duga mission you can see the Alpha artifact in the exact position it is placed in this cinematic. Faust took it there.

After Ward left for Pripyat, military overtook Duga again. Duga was under military control before Signal/Monolith happened.

Also, you find Kaymanov's note about "Project Y" which say that it was him who sent agents to outside world, to prepare and wait when "something big happens"

[last tinsel]

Also, the goal of 2nd Carribean Experiments was to CREATE alpha-artefact. In the cinematic alpha-artefact is already there, so it cannot be 2nd carribean experiment by default.

[subtle drift]

Guys does the game state what happened to Quiet and those 2 brothers you save from the controller after the Signal? You can find the PDA mentioning the brothers went to find some supplies or smth before the Signal but nothing about Quiet. His shop is just empty when you come there.

[subtle drift]

Even if it spreads around the world, so what? We already had like 4 games in chornobyl zone. Stalker 2 already expanded the game greatly and there's not much you can expand upon. Dlcs can add missing regions like CNPP, Iron forest and Limansk, but i don't know where they could go in the second game.

You can't just milk Chornobyl exclusion zone forever, Skifs ending looks interesting because of that. It's just endless possibilities for GSC and their next stalker installment.

I would very much like Stalker set somewhere else too, like I would like for Fallout to take place somewhere else than America. I'm pretty sure they're going to make Skifs ending canon and expand on him and Faust in dlcs.

[rustic fiber]

I always liked Stalker cus its not like Fallout in that the game could be real that Chernobyl is out there with those experements and the noosphere. Fallout was always a "if" not "is". Cus you know you are not in a wast land. Chernobyl is far away what has its real life zone that you cant even enter without permission. Its a mysterious place.

Expanding it outside would mean I would be living right next to a Zone.
I can understand if they dont want to do always Chernobyl but that place had always something mysterious even how the Original story was made was fitting.

[spark jewel]

I feel it would lose its soul if these games were based anywhere outside of the Exclusion Zone but after having 4 games take place in the same areas, it does beg the question as to how they could shake things up in the future if they decide to make more

[subtle drift]

Yeah, I feel like Stalker 2 is an ultimate expansion to the areas from the previous games, i just don't know where can the developers go from here.

[last tinsel]

There are unexplored lands north of CNPP / Pripyat (Belarusian lands). I've always wondered why we go to the Zone only from South

[spark jewel]

Same, S2 shook it up enough with filling in the gaps we never got to see in the trilogy as well as adding more locations

[subtle drift]

I'm pretty sure there will be dlcs exploring some regions that are currently locked

[rustic fiber]

True that they could also do. Maybe with Strelok ending? Mostly why we cant go up is there are some anomalys that hinder you getting in from north or higher than CNPP, told in the original story. The zone would extend to there if Strelok made the hole zone closed up. Also he could fixed the Anomalys there so that we can go there.

[spark jewel]

Perhaps there is nothing North of the CNPP but a barren landscape, full of anomalies and mutants and would not be survivable

[hollow kindle]

Damn I decided to go full Ward on my second playtrough and I like it so far, already way different than my first playtrough when I went for Strelok ending

[spark jewel]

I wanna do Ward too 🙂 maybe when some things have been ironed out first

[rustic fiber]

The worst part is when you pick up a new gun every 5 min without you doing it. Especially if you are in a fight. The longer the game went the worst was the experience with all the time Gun bug, sound bug like being inside and hearing Rain like its poring on you. Places you can fall through the ground. Not able to Run after you get killed and Respawn. The game is a hole Anomaly. If it was running fine with 100FPS without any upscale or FG then it would be funny to have it that buggy.

[subtle drift]

I'll wait for another playthrough until alife is implemented and some other fixes are done probably

[spark jewel]

Yeah that gun spawning bug was very annoying, especially on console where selecting your true weapon is a slow process

[rustic fiber]

Is there a Screenshot Category with spoiler?

I Got a place where i fall throug the ground and i want to know if there are others that have that too.

[rustic fiber]

Also enemies spawning always new in was frustrating. I the Missions was the Worst where you are in doing the last mission and you fight monolith. They just had places where they spawned again and again. It wasint even hiding that. Just in front of my eye a monolith, i killed him and 5 sec later another one Spawned.

[spark jewel]

The Monolith works in mysterious ways lol. And yes there is! #📸┃screens_and_videos

[subtle drift]

There's a building in Pripyat where Monolith spawn forever. It was hell. It's a big building and I thought it's just a lot of them, but after wasting half my ammo and fps tanking below 30 I understood that I had to bail. Had to use all of my energy drinks and run)

[hushed swift]

is it possible to save kolya greenish?

[azure aurora]

what's the lore reason for poltergeists to disappear entirely, but still be able to throw stuff at me when i hit em in the face with the AR a few times?

[left kite]

I helped him survive the fight multiple times, but I think he's set to be hostile for some reason.

[hushed swift]

He thinks you will attack him and you're undercover monolithian

[round onyx]

Not all that unlikely considering later happenings...

[hushed swift]

He literally says "Another one masked, you won't fool me this time" before becoming hostile

[round onyx]

Sounds like Monolith propaganda 😄

[acoustic kelp]

I hope the next stalker game still takes place in Europe but instead of Chernobyl, its in the eastern woodlands of russia's Ural mountains, ols military installations that were made during the cold war be used by Project X scientists who didnt just stop in Chernobyl. Or hell, maybe even something to do with Project Y and maybe even finally add SIN as a faction into the game

[rare crypt]

I don't see Stalker happening in Russia for a quite a long time if ever.

[acoustic kelp]

Also i do hope that sometime in the future, there's DLC or mods for Stalker 2 that lets me use Controller or Burer abilities

[quaint dew]

True, we're more likely to have a Stalker spinoff in Japan or something following Kaymanov's ending lol

[acoustic kelp]

That would be a shame, it would be a great opportunity to have an enthralling story and a metatextual commentary on the brutal authoritarianism Russia history has been littered with and how it even shows itself in iron-fisted administration and decaying military bunkers.

Even maybe some heavy criticisms of Russia's government sprinkled in like the sugar to iced tea.

[round onyx]

Stalker without the Zone wouldn't be right

[gusty lotus]

Does the admin here like history? If yes, please call him here to talk about history.

[acoustic kelp]

Stalker also could pull a Roadside Picnic and have the Anomalous Zone attract the attention of Extra Terrestrials

Could have them be confused for a special type of mutant

[rare crypt]

Given how there is even no Russian localization for Stalker 2, I doubt it will ever happen.

No reason for Ukraine developers to set their game there. Completely understandable.

[unique knot]

I'm doing a story mission called The Price Goes Up. I was told to retrieve a ||key card||, when I got there I got ||flashbanged repeatedly|| by some kind of ||flash of pure light.|| I managed to get under the building and ||turn off some kind of device and retrieve the key card||, I thought the ||flashbangs|| would stop cause I ||turned that device off|| but they didn't. I've never seen anything like this in any S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, is this a new anomaly? I thought the ||device|| created them

[quaint dew]

New anomaly, thankfully the damn thing doesn't show up as much after that part.

Was not fun playing that mission at 2 AM with the lights off, I should say, lol.

[ornate venture]

00000000. has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[vague tundra]

I hate that anomaly. I'm not sure how to deal with it beyond sprinting away and spamming medkits

Also, my bad.

[old oyster]

U need to make zigzag pattern when u run, left right left right (n wear sunglasses)

[unique knot]

HAHA lol

[unique knot]

It's super easy, the anomaly always tries to flashbang you in your face, when it begins to charge, just flick your mouse and quickly strafe away from it

[subtle drift]

Ok guys Khors last recorded message after you visit noontide base after the signal is kinda sad... rip to bro

[magic crypt]

Yes that anomaly u just stop and turn the other way momentairily when it is about to flash i dont know if there is some trick to cancel it out otherwise

[unique knot]

I tried stopping and turning, I still took damage

[magic crypt]

It either wasnt quick enough or u didnt make enough distance, but still u might take a little dmg sometimes i guess?

[old oyster]

Ziiiigzaaaaag

[magic crypt]

Essentially that anomaly summons on the direction ure going at the time so yes zigzag to avoid it

[unkempt walrus]

as soon as there is light, stop immediately and walk backwards. it works 90% of the time. Additionally, I think that removing artifacts from the bar will make the anomaly less accurate

[spark jewel]

What does it say?

[unique knot]

I'm doing the mission Deal with the Devil and I was just offered to kill someone for information because I don't have enough money for it. Should I take up the kill mission or should I keep everyone alive and make the money necessary for the info?

[old oyster]

Just kill Varan, problem solve

[unique knot]

I figured that out

[agile marsh]

Do The Ward comes from outside of ukraine? the look foreign isnt it?

[last tinsel]

Ward is ukrainian, IPSF (military) is international

[subtle drift]

Guys doesn't it feel weird that not siding with Ward punishes you most gameplay wise? You lose access to their base at Chemical plant (which is basically a middle point between rostock and duga), you lose access to icarus (however it's not that big since skadovsk is still a thing).

You also lose access to STC Malachite later, which is basically the only base in that corner of the map. Exploring the left corner and the bottom near duga (Burnt forest) feels like pain because of this. The closest base i have is either Zalissya or Rostock, and Zalissya doesn't have an armor and guns merchant (since Hamster just died when entering city hall along with his bodyguard). Also Zalissya doesnt have a guide at that point in story. So it's most optimal to just run to Rostock from duga and it's a pain because you're constantly slow due to carrying tons of shit.

Developers need to plan ahead and think about endgame traversal at that point. Maybe a base of sorts in burnt forest? It would alleviate a lot of issues.

[last tinsel]

Yeah, Chemical Plant kind of makes sense. But losing Malachite as a friendly base was a bummer.

[agile marsh]

but they use foreign mercenaries ? or the contract their own ukranian population as soldiers?

[last tinsel]

Every Ward stalker I came across had slavic name/surname. Korshunov drafts them personally from experienced mercenaries

[agile marsh]

it has to be foreign mercenaries, it would make sense, since there is so many color people in ward, ukraine black community represents 0.1% of the population , yet 1 out of 20 ward soldiers are black. Has to be mercenaries from the black sea or UK/french mercenaries

well that makes 0 sense story wise, gsc messed up there

[last tinsel]

Black people were included into stalker just cause GSC decided to push franchise into western auditory (maybe MIcrosoft requirement?)
And (previously) ukrainian military was "internationalized" because of the current ongoing war - you don't want depict killings of your soldiers, when actual soldiers are dying on the battlefield IRL.

If not for these two thing, I'd bet STALKER would be 100% slavic

[agile marsh]

absolutely 100% true and real what you say , that makes sense.
I honestly felt so annoyed when i started to see the "representation" again and again as i travelled through the zone, honestly had me researching photos of ukrainian crowds , saw like 1500 ukraine people in photos trying to find a color person and couldnt find any, researched black history in ukraine, existed but they are so few in comparison to caucasian... the only thing that would make sense is if GSC came out to clarify ,"yes they are foreign mercenaries" otherwise it feels so unimmersive to see something introduce into the game just for political reasons. Its like playing a african game and seeing 20% of the npc being mongolian, it dont make any sense

[last tinsel]

I think most of those you encounter are just randomly generated NPC visuals. They could appear in any faction I'd assume, but cause Ward is the biggest faction, you encounter them more often there. Manually put black character are only the traders on Skadovsk and south of Wild Island as far as I remember. I hope with modding SDK "weights" of each random visual could be tweaked, so then you can change it to your preferences.

[agile marsh]

true , yea that might be it, i was searching for a mod , i felt to annoyed, i need a mod to make sense out of that.
And now im worried what the next stalker games might be , imagine a stalker 3 game 30% chinese, 30% african, 10% ukranian 30% latinamerican

[subtle drift]

I mean they're mercenaries, some of them might as well be black or asian or whatever, i don't think it makes the game woke

[last tinsel]

I would not be worrying about STALKER 3 for another 15 years 😀

[agile marsh]

but they were put for a reason, for political reason, not for the game but for real life ideology, i dont want a game to start trying to lecture me about real life, making up history. If you want to make an ukranian game make an ukranian game, why replacing slaving with black is alright, but if it was the other way around it would be wrong?

[agile marsh]

true, 15 years is enough for that ideology to completely dry out , my man , you make alot of sense , i like how you think

[subtle drift]

They're not replacing Ukrainians with black people, there are like 4 +- named black people and others are just randomly spawned mercenaries, I'd say they're still overwhelmingly ukrainian

[last tinsel]

They all have ukrainian names. If they were like "John Smith" , ok, yeah, mercenery from US. But random black "Ivan Kobzarenko" is not it. The need to tone down a coefficient for those visuals

[agile marsh]

i dont know.... 1 out of 20 random npc i found its black, if it was based in real demographic , it would be 1 npc out of 1000, like in real life ukraine

[subtle drift]

That's a mistake on the developers part I think. They need to hardcode foreign sounding names for black mercenaries

[agile marsh]

stalker was always the perfect escapism, it was never meant to check anyone boxes, it was unapologetic always its own thing, i pray god GSC doesnt go the route of the falling companies who bended the knee to a small minority who dont even play videogames.

[subtle drift]

I live in Kyiv, Ukraine. I know what you're talking about. I doubt 1/20 random npcs are black. You can only encounter a couple of black named npcs, others are randomly generated for Ward and IPSF.

Developers need to represent internationality better with faces, instead of Ukrainians and black people serving in IPSF it also needs to have Europeans, south American mercenaries like from Colombia etc.

I've already seen a lot of Colombians here in Kyiv that are serving in the International Legion

[last tinsel]

I think they don't have enough facial models in the game. Many stalker I encounter look quite similar (use same face model)

[subtle drift]

Yeah. This, and also facial animations are kinda bad outside of cutscenes (during gameplay)

[agile marsh]

thank you for the info, didnt know, well that makes me slightly more at ease , maybe it will get resolved when they add more background story and clarify it. I just have to accept it .

[subtle drift]

They need to make more character models and more randomly generated character names basically, especially for IPSF since it's an international force.

[agile marsh]

we need to ask for that feature , it really needed. Even if they are foreign soldiers they have to have their own names, instead of slavic name

[last tinsel]

I doubt that's on priority list, with all the crashes, bugs, cut content, etc 😄

If SDK is good it would not be a problem to make as a mod, just need to wait for it

[agile marsh]

in all honestly, i see alife working in a near future, everyone makes alot of fuss about the alife, i have a mod that activates long distance spawning and traveling NPC, my performance seems exactly like vanilla stalker2, its totally capable to have alife in s2

[last tinsel]

Yeah, but people don't want just long distance spawning, they want "persistence" and evolution of in-game NPC (they climb ranks, upgrade gear, etc)
I don't know if GSC plans to return this feature of A-Life

[agile marsh]

no no i know, but the thing is , having long distance spawning and npc still active at 500 meters away and such , did not tank my performance, meaning the engine can handle having persistance npc

also if i remember correctly, in stalker 1 , npc have their own activities as long as your are in the same part of the map, they go inactive if you for example, went from cordon to garbage. Npc in the cordon went inactive right?

[last tinsel]

From my experience as a dev, I'd assume they encountered not performance problems, but memory problems.
Persistence means to store all NPCs data all the time in memory, and huge Zone can include thousands of those.
I'd bet they ran into a OOM problems on XBox, which has only 10GB of RAM

[agile marsh]

RIGHT! yes, does it make sense to have the npcs saved in SSD instead of ram or am i yapping nonsense?

[last tinsel]

I honestly don't know how fast modern SSDs are 😄 But overhead of constant SSD read/write would be big, because that data needs to be very frequently accessed by script system and background alife simulation

[agile marsh]

mmmm yes, constant read/write would make also the CPU work overtime, and we already have CPU problems. Tricky problem , but there has to be some solution ,maybe to make far distance npc do activities but not to tick as often as close encounters, instead of NPC making decisions every 0.1 seconds, when they are 2km away from the players, instead make them slower iteration of events, so they are still active but they dont produce enough performance problems

[last tinsel]

Yeah, I guess now they are trying to come up with solutions like this, that''s why it takes so long to roll out alife "fixes"

[agile marsh]

yea, i dont think we even notice if the npc acted slower in the distance, you could still see them act like normal npcs, their main combat behavior can be untouched, their ambush , cover, engage actions can still be used.

[last tinsel]

MIcrosoft probably enforced that versions across all platforms have to be identical in functionality. That's why they can't just make "BETTER A-LIFE" switch in options for PC users.

[agile marsh]

true

[left jungle]

Unlikely. Bethesda releases beta patches for steam for Starfield [I do not care what your opinion is of the game] a few weeks before the main patch comes out so the pc crowd can test it and they can tweak things before main release.

As long as one version of the game isn't wildly different than the other, they don't care.

[last tinsel]

Using PC crowd as testers for patch, rolling out the same update for eveyone later is different than denying console users a feature cause hardware can't handle it

[vernal charm]

||is dalin dead at the end, after destroying c con?||

[serene trellis]

this was probably asked plenty of times, but have community managers or devs ever explained Scar's drastic change in appearance? He doesnt even have a scar on his face at this point

Was it just a max payne style change of look, or is this "Scar" just pretending to be the legendary mercenary Colonel Scar?

[jade ether]

scar really has lost his damned mind

[brave iris]

Alas poor Yorick

[spark jewel]

He was so creepy when he was in the STALKER program corridor. The way he turned his head towards Skif

[jade ether]

this is why I am glad I backed the ward in the first ending. cause when I saw him do the play acting in the train scene its really sinks in the fact that he is crazy

[fast thorn]

I mean to be fair, there is a black Ukrainian who's an employee at GSC, he's in the documentary. It's 2024 and we're not all isolated to our tiny rural villages anymore; people can travel the world, intermingle, fall in love, have kids, etc.

Besides, the Zone is a place of international interest; yes it's in Eastern Europe so seeing a majority white people makes sense, but I'd still expect to see some amount of diversity in a place like the Zone because of how many other countries and organizations would be taking an interest in it.

As you say though, Ward is probably also hiring foreigners to boost their ranks.

[jade ether]

also its a video game. who gives a flying hoot what color or gender they are. I mean I am all for realism but that doesn't mean I wanna stare at the same 20 balding white dude in gas masks. or some fat old dude eating a chicken drum stick.

[fast thorn]

The only instance in which it would bother me is in a game that claims to be aiming for historical realism but that shoehorns in a bunch of insincere diversity just to tick off boxes.

Basically, the way Hollywood does it, which I hate because it's so fake and inauthentic.

[jade ether]

history is debatable. unless its something so obvious its painful. then again everything is fiction to some extent. but in a game like stalker I really don't see any reason for there not to have international interest ngl. like ohhh shiny expensive rare stuff. everyone would want that.

[fast thorn]

That's my point, the stuff that's happening in the Zone would be of interest to EVERYONE, not just Ukraine and the rest of Europe; EVERYONE is going to be sending people to check it out, bring things back, etc.

Sure history is debatable, but we do have survival records, personal accounts, official documents, etc. so it's not like we have no idea.

Anyways, we're getting off topic.

Boy that story huh?

I sure loved when John Stalker busted through the door and stalked that guy in the head!

[jade ether]

I still think the ward ending is the best ending. I mean for me it makes the most sense that skif gets what he came to the zone for. like he is legit the first one to get it.

[fast thorn]

Oh it's the best ending for Skif, but it's the worst for the world at large given when SIRCAA's plans are.

Not a fan of SIRCAA tbh, too totalitarian for my tastes.

[jade ether]

I dunno who agatha is and where she came from but she is bad. but me as skif who just wanted my house back. I don't care ngl

[jade ether]

I rather have order then whatever freedom counts for in the zone. I personally don't think the zone is good for anything. so it being shut down makes sense for me at least. like I don't see it producing anything useful other then bandits and more bandits

I mean I get the lol video game appeal but if its irl I rather it be shutdown then having it exist

[limber helm]

Someone help me understand
I finally retrieved the scanner from Faust in Clear Sky.
Then all of a sudden Scar is telling me to come to him if I'm heading SIRCA. Was SIRCA mentioned in the cutscene with Faust? Did I miss something?

And it's not really clear why we need the scanner to get into Sirca?

[left jungle]

The best ending has to be|| Strelok's||. ||The zone being closed to everyone in or out is the best case scenario for everyone.|| The others are varying levels of apocalypse. ||Ward's is 1984, Kaimanov's is unleashing the apocalypse on the entire world, Scar's is you getting brain blasted and going insane, the zone is probably entirely filled with chaos.||

[agile marsh]

thats true and the amount of black people in game has to be foreign as you say, they have to give their own original name, not slavic, since in real life there is no amount of black community in the region to ever fill that amount of stalker that there are in game. its just a fix they have to do to the autogenerated names and that would make all the more sense.

[left jungle]

.. there's like 5 black npc's total in the game. what are you on about?

[agile marsh]

random loners, bandits and Ward npc, there are 1 out of 20 who are black, if that ratio is completely randomized they have to adjust either their names to be foreign or the ratio in which they appear because black people in ukraine represents 1 out of 1000 real life ukrainians, in game its 1 out of 20

[left jungle]

I've met literally 1 in 100 hours outside of zones with traders.

[hardy otter]

Richter sure went full freedom when you side with ward.

[fervent onyx]

9 rockets and 199 rpm bullets to down 1 single (collared) pseudogiant. Bruh.

On veteran difficulty

[gusty lotus]

LMAO

[prime ravine]

And that is why I feel zero desire to try playing on veteran instead of stalker. I genuinely despise bullet sponge enemies so much. I prefer when fights are very quickly lethal on both sides as the form of challenge. Maybe it's why I loved games like counter strike

[fervent onyx]

I love hard diff with Stalker. The giant is the only real bullet sponge enemy that could be a pain. Also, the rpg is trash due to it's slow reload against them. Just like the Guass rifle, it's slow rof isn't well against giants. I just wanted to test the rpg out for fun.
I just mag dump with shotguns against mutants in general. I just wanted to test the rpg on giants since they work well enough against every other enemy. Firefights end quick even on veteran difficulty

[azure aurora]

What’s the lore reason for weight limits capping out at 140?

[left jungle]

I don't think it'd be very comfortable to carry 140kg, or anywhere near that for anything more than a few moments.

[azure aurora]

Last night, someone told me that dogs can take multiple 7.62 rounds to the face because the zone makes them stronger. By that logic, is 140KG really that much?

[quaint dew]

not entirely sure how enduring bullets to the body correlates to the ability of carrying excessive amounts of weight

[azure aurora]

are you familiar with physics? if not, i suggest starting with math. maybe think about how mass, acceleration, and gravity work together

[old oyster]

Are we sure it’s 80kg n not 80lb coz 80 kg is heavy asf

[round onyx]

80Kg is like carrying a moderately sized bloke around with you all the time, like thats a decent amount of weight to be running, well, anywhere with

200Lbs is 90Kg

[last tinsel]

140 KG would be impossible to carry around

[old oyster]

Dépend, with a exo n some magical artifact it’s probably possible

[round onyx]

With an exo, yeah you can justify a bit more, but even 40Kg is gonna be a big ask to carry around without one for your average dude

[old oyster]

Well ukrainian ppl are build different

[flat dust]

I held a box that was around 4kg it was very light

[round onyx]

Now go to the gym/your home gym and try to sprint with a bar with 10X that weight in your hands

[flat dust]

To stimulate what

[round onyx]

We're discussing the carrying capacity. 80KG is a shitload of weight, effectively carrying your own bodyweight around with you on your back

[final bolt]

Wow the end game is not fun

[cerulean marlin]

I mean recent wars show packing weight of some units in combat missions goes up to 40-60 kgs (which is problematic and something western military is trying to solve)

A working exoskeleton could more than double that, Full body exos can now carry 90-100kg with the operator feeling 5% of that.

[final bolt]

finished the main game. got the doctor ending. the story felt about 15 hours too long in the wrong ways (way too many grindy dark shootouts that were more frustrating than fun). that being said, i felt the characters and lore were pretty well utilized with lots of call backs to the original trilogy. i'm surprised how little of the map is used in the main story.

i made a save before the point of no return so i can explore once they patch teh game up a bit

[hardy otter]

Yeah the end game segments were unnecessary. Reminded me of Clear Sky where I was just mashing my controls to force the ending rather then playing the game. I also felt like there was little buy in to side with spark or Strelok unless you were metagaming the story.

[final bolt]

it felt like they did a similar "bait and switch" with every main NPC in the game. They make you empathise with them, then later show them as unstable and dangerous

[hardy otter]

Besides Scar who just presents as a nut job from step 1 lol

[final bolt]

i found him a bit charming. maybe i was just naive, or too busy reading the english subs, but i gave most people the benefit of the doubt except the general who i was a little leary of

[hardy otter]

In any case, it would have been nice if the end game saved you up for one big final push on a fortress rather then a road trip across the zone after the point of no return.

[final bolt]

my exo was at 0% about halfway through the final underground shootout, and every time i found another storage room full of med kits and ammo i was like "ahh shit..here we go again"

end game shootouts aside, the amount of story, and NPC interactions was a big improvement from the CS or COP. in hindsight, only SHOC felt like it had a complete and interesting narrative

[hardy otter]

Leading up to the point of no return I was impressed for sure.

[final bolt]

Are there any side missions that involve yantar?

[marsh tree]

Is there any way for Dalin ||to survive in the Ward path||?

[muted swift]

Nah he was flaking even before that. He was kinda switching teams with the daddy issues

[fathom veldt]

first of all stalker 2 map is bigger than previous ones, there is some addition though, which one is it? secondly, doubt that you were able to comprehend first parts, as for this, based on your delulu comment longer 15h than it should be...the duck...how long it supposed to be by your not important opinion?

and by little what a hell do you mean? like its not in every poi?

[fathom veldt]

you have twisted endings , wards is || control over a zone, not gonna go into the details if you played the game you should know about neuroprogramers, agents and beginning of the creation of a zone and seeking utter control over it ||, and how so is the best ending is being closed to everyone (|| streloks ending is also a control, nobody gets in nobody gets out , just like a super prison||), scars ending is || very befitted for such character affected by time inducing mass hallucinations and gaining again - control ||, only one ending is || freeing the zone, which is faust ending, which raises a lot of questions ||?

[fathom veldt]

hmm the only one besides inside station is for the hunter and it is just one, but you have to progress with main story to open it

[final bolt]

i bet you're fun at parties

[fathom veldt]

just like you at psychiatrist circles 😄

[left jungle]

||Ward's isn't just control over the zone it's control over everyone. every one of those monitors will be used to spy through the eyes of others and control them. You can literally see that they can see through Skiff's eyes as he is leaving. There are other monitors with images on them as well and Agatha says something about " PEople do not wish for the pursuit of happiness, they need it here and now." Which is very 1984, in that there is no freedoms to live life anymore, you are being controlled by a puppetmaster. Even if it was control over just the zone, that allows them to control the rest of the world, like what c-con was attempting to do when they created the second disaster by messing with the noosphere||

||Stelok's ending is cutting the zone off from the rest of the world, those in it wanted to be in it and save for killing them all they get to live out their days there, but can't take the zone's secrets and spread them out or try to profit from them. It's making the zone be left alone, which is what Strelok has wanted.||

||Scar's ending brainscorches everyone, or at least just you and leaves you in a fantasy world|| and ||Kaimanov's/Faust's ending is unleashing the zone on the entire world which is an apocalyptic scenario. That's easily the worst thing imaginable.||

There is nothing more ||Strelok|| is attempting to do by ||closing the zone. It objectively is the best case scenario. Now the world wont have to worry about the threat of the zone and more people won't fall to the folly of trying to make it rich or use it to further some goal||

It also achieves what the IPSF was attempting to do, but now will actually work.

[fathom veldt]

maybe we should just drop this || spoiler alert || this section is kind of spoiler....their focus not everyone, just in the zone for now, but obviously they are going to use this technology outside the zone once they are able to master it since it was their journey to master a control. Yeah, but Streloks ending is also a control ending, but it sounds more like a revenge thing, like some perverted justice. Do you think you can come out normal from your brains being scorched? Left alone is hardly a thing....doubt thats going to stop curiosity, it sounds more like suffocation. And yes Scars is like so, but not only Skifs, anyone who comes in, again control technique, it just induces hallucinations . And most confusing part is Kaimanovs/faust, well would not use this word unleashing, i would say setting it free : ))

zone is not dangerous, only people in it or gaining control of it are dangerous

[left jungle]

Strelok's is a control ending and no It's not gonna stop curiosity, but the moment anyone tries to enter the zone they will be hunted down and killed. It stops new stalkers from coming in and new people from trying to take advantage of it. He's not attempting to brain blast people and he's not attempting to unleash the zone or its secrets. He's closing it off, locking it like a safe which arguably is what he wanted in Shadow of chernobyl, in a sense.

the zone absolutely is dangerous. Every time the zone grows, the destructive nature of it through emissons also grow with it. Anomalies will spread farther. The only thing that probably won't happen is the deadly mutants, but anomalies in of themselves are destructive.

And faust would see it as setting it free, but to your average person who doesn't know what any of this is. Sudden appearances of anomalies in civilian areas would be devastating. That's unleashing the horrors of the zone.

[fathom veldt]

well thats what i wanted to point it out, in sense all of them wants a control. But does not also sets you free and helps you to find yourself?

So you would say that doctor was all allong Faust?

i could debate if zone is dangerous, or people in it. Is a gun dangerous? or a person holding it is dangerous?

[left jungle]

If he was or wasn't isn't really important. He could have taken the appearance of the doctor, or like Skif has been experiencing, it's just another hallucinations, in how Faust had basically led you through the whole story. Doctor, according to Strelok orchestrated a lot of it as well.

A gun is dangerous, how you use it matters as well.

How Strelok aims to use the zone benefits humanity as a whole. Nobody comes in, nobody leaves. The dangerous people in the zone can't impact the outside world and the outside world can't be tempted by the zone's promises.

[fathom veldt]

hmm not getting this part how it is not important, for me it is the most important thing :D....i can't understand at what point or all of it was. Hmm don't think doctor orchastrated a lot, he is just another scientist who is responsible for many things, and you can experience that guilt in him over interactions with him. Gun is not dangerous, nor a rock nor a stick it is just an object, just as is the zone, it just exists. The second pat what is dangerous you should figure out. And zone changed people for better or worse or perished them forever. Regarding strelok....well people from "outside" world created it and came to it unsupervised to continue their fanatical experiments....zone it self represent i think absolute freedom

a place that nobody comes in and comes out is called maximum security prison

[left jungle]

A dangerous place that humanity has no business being in being sealed off from humanity, preventing the dangerous people and things in it from escaping is objectively a good thing. If the zone symbolizes freedom then those stuck inside of it are truly free now.

Unleashing said horrors onto humanity is a bad thing. Sure, the zone is like a gun and it's a matter of who uses it and how, but the zone also does things on its own, like move anomalies around, have violent emissions that kill you if you're caught out in them and is full of dangerous mutants that eventually will cease to exist, or perhaps not. Not exactly sure how they reproduce if at all. So the zone being a gun analogy is apt only if it's a gun that sometimes just goes off for no reason without you having to pull the trigger or even touch it

[fathom veldt]

i can just agree on one thing that all endings were some sort of an act of control, just a question whos

[left jungle]

And any previous attempt at controlling the gun has made the gun catastrophically go off.

[muted swift]

How is this a debate? When the zone grows, so do emissions. Emissions blow infrastructure and homes to hell and create new anomalies. How would you like to be driving to work and a whirly gig triggers as you drive over it? All endings were a backstab in some way, except Scar, because as batshit crazy as he is, his intentions were the clearest. You all turn into zombies if the matrix completely oblivious as he is.

I’d consider spreading the zone a bio weapon, an act of a word I think is banned here

[fathom veldt]

hmm well i don't think zone symbolizes freedom, its a bit complicated. humanity itself has created it. regarding this "good thing", well what stops it from repeating?

[left jungle]

Preventing Sircaa from doing more tests to poke at the noosphere would be a start

Trapping Dalin and a majority of Sircaa in the zone would prevent them from making matters worse.

[fathom veldt]

Scar is good example, how zone have changed him and made him what he is today. And regarding other things you mentioned, sorry maate you don't evenn know how to produce penicilin or read from usb, so your contribution to civ technolgoy is not really great : ))

[left jungle]

The zone didn't change scar. Getting brain blasted by c-con and his memories re-written by them changed scar.

[fathom veldt]

mhm, how about strelok then? 🙂

[muted swift]

Neither Scar or Strelok are themselves. All wiped away when becoming an agent.

[fathom veldt]

well the point is, regardles of sirca or birka, who stops others creaating such "terrible" "horrific" things? 🙂

[left jungle]

Strelok who broke from their control, shut down the brain scorcher and killed c-con? whoever he is now, he's the same person as he was in shadow of chernobyl, or who he became at least.