s2-lore-discussions

[pine kite]

To me it was less about that and more about wanting to keep it permanently out of the hands of all these bickering, power hungry assholes

[pulsar mural]

Which strelok was no different in his ending.

Loved the story all together nonetheless

Assuming the some, if all, DLC is will be after the story, it would make sense for strelok’s ending to be canon, and it would show skif royally screwed up and signed his own death sentence along with everyone else in the zone

[dull sequoia]

I agree. Skif's ending should have been more positive. As much as I like the theories that fans come up with, there's something very fishy about Faust,

[pine kite]

Well I guess you can say he is a schemer, but so is virtually everyone else you meet

[fathom veldt]

@dull sequoia scars ending is shining zone, where its just a dream, eventually people will die stepping into anomalie or die out of hunger, same implies for people entering zone

for noon better to describe as anonymous alcoholics drug addict's group : )) who knows they could have make it if not Faust. Poor bastards

[dull sequoia]

I know. My point is he does it unknowingly, but with good intentions. It's just that the Zone twists everything against you, like the Wish Granter did.

I'm on the roof now, with the zombified stalker, but there's no one else around. What zombified scared noon guys were you referring to?

[fathom veldt]

its not the zone, its ccon in his case, well however it is sad, but it was needed

[fathom veldt]

its in waste processing plant there is a side quest if you did not do it before, main quest will guide you there, don't remember noon guys names, need to check, once you get to the controller, and get the inductor you will have some conversation with edgy freedomers

[dull sequoia]

I just took that side quest. One dude, Blueish, is really going crazy and the other one seems fine, but freaked out and asked me to kill a creature, which is the controller.

[fathom veldt]

yeah, and then there was a scene, where Hog questions, did they turned into zombies? or you did not finished it yet?

[dull sequoia]

I didn't finish it yet. I'm just looking for North right now, I didn't get down there yet. There was another guy right near the first two who gave me the side quest who is normal, but the others on the surface and ground level of the Waste Station are zombified. I'm yet to go down. I'll let you know.

Man, they took the Waste Processing Station from Zaton and moved it to this new area, that didn't exist before, Wild Island. 😄

[fathom veldt]

ok let me know when you get up from basement and meet freedomers, Jumper his name, of that quest giver

[fathom veldt]

yeah, map is way bigger now, they change a lot of it, new additional zone

[dull sequoia]

I'm done with both quests, the main one and the side one. I put Hog and his mates to sleep and Jumper and Bluish are not zombified. I talked to Jumper after killing Hog. Bluish is still moaning, but he's fine otherwise.

[fathom veldt]

ok so it means the reason why they were zombified is due that antena and emitter connected

[dull sequoia]

That's not the problem, though. They retconned a lot of the areas and their position. Agroprom, Wild Territory and Dark Valley are gone completely. The big building from Dark Valley, Freedom's base in Clear Sky, was moved to Garbage, where Varan and his pigs reside. Zaton used to be right near Jupiter and Pripyat. Now it's moved all the way down near the Swamps and Cordon.

[fathom veldt]

i did this quest in couple ways, but last time decided to leave emitter alone to see what happens. firs playthrough i was exploring aa lot and did this quest even did not had access to wild island, they also were not zombified...

[fathom veldt]

but it its more realistic, ofc most parts are fictional as is limansk, they did this because of SoC for example is about only 10km....

i like new freedomers base, its very good place

[dull sequoia]

I'm not talking about real life equivalents, I'm talking about modifying already established areas from the previous games. It makes no sense to change them, but anyways.

[fathom veldt]

i guess its just preference, i like this way better than older ones, ofc its not even finished, pripiat is locked, a lot of zones not created yet

there were rumors before release of HoC that Limansk might not be even in game due to performance

[fathom veldt]

but still not clear in that waste processing plant what Faust did smuggled there....is it inductor....but if you do it without progressing story, there are no inductor...

[cunning lava]

y'all reckon any noontiders who were outside the zone are okay?

[jagged hull]

its hard to say "goodwilled" since he had no will in the end

im pretty sure that he did want to destroy the zone, agatha never told him about him having to be a mediator for her. in the end i see korshunov as a good leader that stayed around only because he was insanely loyal to the regulatory board

like he is all about destroying the zone and shit and the instant agatha tells him what they actually want to do he just goes along with that, no questions asked

[jagged hull]

i think its better to look at the map as a one map and not areas that are strung together. wild territory, agroprom and dark valley arent gone, theyre just lumped into other areas since the old maps were just so small in comparison

agroprom is left almost entirely unaltered and looking at how small the area looks at the map puts it into perspective i think

as for them moving parts of zaton out of the area and army warehouses/brain scorcher, its kind of weird. i think the best example of this is that the ventilation complex where dehtyaryov gassed some bloodsuckers is in burnt forest, a stones throw from duga. and halfway across the zone from zaton, where these bloodsuckers were allegedly causing trouble

[jagged hull]

skif would never just leave without a proper resolution, he has nothing to go back to. no friends, no family, no home. its why he went to the zone in the first place, to find some sort of resolution to the freak accident (maybe not we cant say for sure if its an accident) of an artifact appearing in his kitchen. the skif/project y ending makes sense for skif as he resolves his lack of a place in the world. its by no means a happy ending, but overall its probably good at least for the residents of the zone. it wont be possible for another strelok or scar to rise again and try to change the zone in some way

[pulsar mural]

He, quite literally, just wants his apartment back

It made zero sense for him to spread the zone around the world

Not only that, he’s out of the loop on everything in the zone, and in general doesn’t care.

[pine kite]

If you think that is the only thing that he went to the zone for then I think you need to read between the lines more, personally

[jagged hull]

look thats what he says but it doesnt match at all with what hes doing. if he wanted money for an apartment he couldve sold the artifact. agatha points this out fairly accurately: this couldve happened to anyone but it happened to him and he went looking for answers

besides, him being out of the loop and detached from the zone isnt a core character trait, its something that changes depending on who you side with. this wouldnt be the only case of that, if he sides with ward he starts becoming machiavelian and cynical towards the zone

the cool part is that what you describe 100% would fit skif in a ward run

[pulsar mural]

I did, that’s his number one reason. Sure, he definitely wanted some form of identity as his felt like he had a beige existence. This falls back that there should have been a true neutral game play ending

My point being is skif spreading the zone was….dumb

[pulsar mural]

That’s sort of how I took skif early on, and i honestly don’t blame him, nor do I blame him siding with the ward as much as I don’t care for them (I did for my play through) in ways, the zone cost him his home, and having it eliminated was his revenge

[ornate venture]

lihacc has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[jagged hull]

god sometimes i hate this bot idk what i even wrote.

basically i think the ward ending is the true neutral one

[pulsar mural]

As much as we love the zone, it’s an extremely dangerous place, and spreading it around the world goes against everything the zone itself stands for.

As corny as it this is to say, I play these types of games as if I myself were there, same with fallout and cyberpunk 2077, etc.

[pulsar mural]

I can somewhat agree, I believe the true neutral ending should have been kill everyone and return home, and let the zone have a “fresh start”

[raven holly]

what does "zone stand for" in your opinion? lol

[jagged hull]

skif isnt as much of a blank slate i feel like.

freeing the zone makes sense for a skif that did eventually start appreciating the zone and felt burned by everyone leading him by the nose so he went with the option proposed by the only guy who wasnt using him to advance his goals (but actually no because he was trolled)

[raven holly]

are you still pushing your "kaymanov was actually faust all along" theory?

[pulsar mural]

Giving people a chance to discover who they are outside of their normal environment, adventure, exploring the unknown, and freedom

[pulsar mural]

Put it this way, the zone has been abused for awhile now

In a sad way, eliminating it puts it out of its misery

[jagged hull]

i could see that being in the game but it fails to resolve the key issue of people with power wanting to project their own views onto the zone. in a year ward could just raise more soldiers and take over generators without skif

[raven holly]

I am not sure why you think this is what zone stands for. Zone is an otherwordly (not literally) entity that god knows what stands for

[jagged hull]

you put it like its some fringe view lol. some agree with this theory, some dont, both sides have valid arguments

[pulsar mural]

That’s my point, its been corrupted for far too long

[jagged hull]

could be a valid viewpoint but none of the characters in the games actually mention it so i doubt the writers consider it valid

[pulsar mural]

Because, in my opinion, they can’t face it, that’s why they won’t admit it

If we go by that, then skif if the one who openly admits the truth that no one wanted to hear

[pulsar mural]

Very true unfortunately

Ironically, I only went with the ward because of the colonel. He’s tired, he wants his men safe, and he ultimately just wants to go home and make sure they go home too

As much as I didn’t want to side with them, I don’t regret doing so after his reaction at duga being able to survive.

I dislike Agatha more than anything, as skif is well aware the colonel is a pawn in her scheme

[jagged hull]

tbf very few people hold the view that the zone is sentient, seems like faust and doctor are the main ones that do and they dont think that ending its existence is an alternative to just fixing it

[pulsar mural]

As corny as this is to say as well, I relate a bit to skif, which is why I’ve enjoyed playing a lot, and like the colonel due to a military family im in as well

[jagged hull]

he isnt a very special guy in the grand scheme of things so yeah he is generally pretty relatable

[neat zephyr]

It's unfortunate the Col is a dupe, he's such a chad

[delicate bear]

Hey Guys do we know why Richter has a scar on his side of his head?

[pine kite]

It's the sort of scar pattern you get from electrocution, so probably fell prey to an electro anomaly

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichtenberg_figure

[dull sequoia]

What I'm saying is, as a veteran of this series, it's confusing to me knowing so many landmarks from previous games have been moved elsewhere or simply gone.

Reading some of the replies on these channels makes me chuckle. It's like Faust brainwashed some of you or something. 😄 He is a controller, after all. He can make other people see things. That guy is more slippery than a piece of butter on ice.

[fathom veldt]

what's missing? don't remember that

[dull sequoia]

Basically Agroprom Research Institute, Wild Territory, Dark Valley, Army Warehouses. Big buildings, landmarks from previous games, have been moved: the bandit base from Dark Valley, Freedom's headquartes back in Clear Sky, has been moved to Garbage, Cordon is no longer connected to Garbage, Lesser Zone is, which didn't exist before. The Waste Processing Station, from Zaton, is moved to Wild Island, another new region. Yaniv and Jupiter are almost completely reworked. Also Zaton, which was near Jupiter and Pripyat back in Call of Pripyat, is moved all the way down, near the Swamps. To name a few.

[fathom veldt]

its changed nothing will deny it, its way now bigger, expanded, some locations yes moved, agroprom and army warehouses still in map. Yantar is not finished, aa lot of not finished things and labs...but subject to change, its probablyu lie 50 maybe 60% completed

Duty in garbage, Freedom now in Rostok

positioning more realistic, but there are just fictional areas.....if there going to be Limansk then its also going to be in different location

[jagged hull]

im just gonna repeat myself. agroprom isnt "removed", the name just isnt used because its such a small area compared to the rest of the map. idk why youre so concerned with every region needing to be subdivided exactly like it was before

also it was never really made clear where zaton is, the fact that you have to use a guide to get to the areas around jupiter suggests that it isnt close at all

[woven gyro]

Yea that is true, but imagine that you have same map for 3 games in row... Its different but in core its still the same. I found everything i wanted from previous games

[woven gyro]

You can see parts of map between Zaton and Janov in Call of Pripyat + Pripyat is right of the Jupiter...In Stalker 2 its on the opossite side of the map 😁 But i agree with you that map dont need to be same as in trilogy

[jagged hull]

whats cool is that most of what was left out from the trillogy is coming back pretty soon probably. cnpp is already in the game mostly, and jupiter is waiting to be expanded. if you go out bounds, the jupiter factory, the old oasis and some other area from cop that i forgot is present

[fathom veldt]

indeed its present, also pripiat will also be expanded, now part of it is also locked, there are still a lot of places where world can expand

[fathom veldt]

true, also size matters too, it was like 9 - 11km (hard to say)

[dull sequoia]

https://imgur.com/d9Ri5hJ

[jagged hull]

i guess i forgot how detailed the areas between the maps were shown as

either way there was no room for zaton to be in the north if they wanted to make the game faithful to the real zone (which they did)

[pine kite]

I'm not counting on anything that wasn't included coming back, unless it's announced

[fathom veldt]

🙂 https://files.catbox.moe/m0fifo.png
this is detailed

[jagged hull]

dlcs are 100% coming since they sold a season pass. gsc cant do a rugpull unless they wanna say goodbye to having their game on steam ever again and also if they dont wanna get sued out of existence

[pine kite]

Oh yeah I just mean we don't know what will be added or not in those

[fathom veldt]

he means about areas, not expansion
even if there is bridge to limansk, not necessarally it will be there

[jagged hull]

yeah and what i meant to say afterwards, is that they likely will want to add new areas for the dlcs as is pretty standart both for stalker and for games in general

[fathom veldt]

that's for sure

[pine kite]

Yes, I just don't expect they will add all the missing areas unless the expansions end up being huge

[jagged hull]

also if they kept the cut areas in the game its very odd if they dont want to add them later on

like its just a waste of hard drive space and a potential performance drain

[fathom veldt]

yeah, they just masked it with fog and it was not necessary for this story so no ofc they cut that content, wonder how long will take to wait until next expansion

[jagged hull]

probably half a year for one of them and a year for the other one. iirc steam rules say that if you sell a season pass planned dlcs have to be released within a year of the game's release or something like that

they expanded on the rules regarding season passes recently and gsc obv has to follow them. we probably will get details on the dlcs on the roadmap (as its required as per steam rules in fact details on dlcs shouldve been out even earlier but theres probably a grace period since its a recent change), its also why its taking a while to release im guessing

[fathom veldt]

well they can release arena first, which has small scope and follow those rules, don't really know how thos agreements work
somehow doubt that within year they going to release story expansion

[pine kite]

I dunno if existing things got grandfathered in or if it's only new season passes that have to follow this rule

[jagged hull]

good question, in the coverage i didnt hear how this will be implimented exactly. since this change is almost entirely just for consumer protection, id assume that it will be implimented in a way thats best for the consumer, which would probably just be a grace period of half a year or a year where valve wont be punishing developers for not following the rules

the punishments are pretty serious if you cant meet the requirements the season pass gets refunded

[jagged hull]

ok so the dlcs can be released in more than a window of 1 year but the actual release window needs to be announced as well alongside details for what content is included in the dlcs so we might be getting that with the roadmap. kinda hype

[pine kite]

Yeah I assume those sorts of details will be coming soon

[fathom veldt]

road map will be announced very soon

also patch today is incoming

[pine kite]

Hotfix today, bigger patch in the near future from what Mol1t said

[fossil depot]

OK, someone mind telling me who the crazy hobo was at the end of the X-18 mission who used the cylinder to zombify the soldiers?

[cloud narwhal]

Scar.

[fossil depot]

WTF? That's Scar?

[pine kite]

He's been through some shit in 10+ years

Play and find out

[fossil depot]

I did, I just didn't recognize him in there, since he looked so different compared to meeting him later, post-Noontide meeting...

Or maybe that's just the angle considering the cut-scene is rushed as shit.

[pine kite]

Ah yeah

The lighting is kinda weird for him in x-18

[fossil depot]

That too (though that's expected). Just never got a proper look at his face due to how quick everything went by. Literally looked like a random hobo compared to a regular stalker post-Noontide.

[young iris]

Hey, did the cutscenes skip get fixed?

[fluid cloak]

I have a question, can I get to the || Duty side of Duga to unlock the hatch with the code and get the rpg inside the tunels after I do with Scar way in the Duga. || ?

[raven holly]

As a big fan of the series since the original release in 2007, I'm 100% in support of this change as it reflects the real world and works much nicer. I've also visited the Chornobyl Zone irl so it's extra nice to see some of these places in game

[ornate venture]

zayebrak has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[main rapids]

Idk

[ornate venture]

boobieconnoisseur.2 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[dull sequoia]

What real world? Apart from Pripyat, Jupiter, Yaniv, Duga and the CNPP, the rest of the areas mentioned in the games are fictional. Also Zaton makes sense being near Pripyat and Jupiter like it is in Call of Pripyat, because, in real life, there is a wet area just north of Pripyat, that looks surprisingly like Zaton from Call of Pripyat.

Here is a complete map from Call of Pripyat:
https://imgur.com/d9Ri5hJ

And here is the real life equivalent:
#📸┃screens_and_videos message

[jagged hull]

theres also a wet area to the south-east of pripyat so both locations are equally viable lol

to the southeast of cooling towers to be more precise

as for the map having few real places, stalker 2 addressed this by adding more of the villages that were evacuated after the disaster

you can find one of them that has a war monument that exists irl and the locations mostly line up

besides the map doesnt need to be 100% accurate, just having the main locations be in accurate spots (unlike soc where the cnpp is north of pripyat if we take the map literally) goes a long way. most of the innacuracies that are there are mostly because the devs wanted to really faithfully recreate the areas that were there in original trilogy. i guess that if they had a blank slate the maps would be very different

[dull sequoia]

I don't need the map to be accurate, because it can't be accurate. Almost nothing from the game has an equivalent in real life, so accuracy is mostly irrelevant. I was referring to consistency between the games themselves, that's all.

[jagged hull]

hm i wonder if GSC considered the logistics of how project y was being done logistically

like how does the person doing it get access to the neuroprogramming lab. its implied a few times in the story that the way to generators is still blocked by anomalies

not to mention the monolith guards and granite (monolith mightve not been an issue its not clear whether all monolithians are free before the signal in hoc, with granite it might be different since they seem to be completely inhuman)

both monolith and granite wouldnt be an issue if faust is the one doing the work tho. theres probably a way to get to generators as well since marshall managed to get there as well

[dull sequoia]

What do you mean Granite Squad seem to be completely inhuman? Based on what?

[jagged hull]

they dont speak and they have been there for 15 years

more than 15 more likely thats just the minimum since they were in the lab with korshunov when he was still working for project x

[dull sequoia]

I think we are reading too deeply between the lines. I remember them screaming, but maybe only when they died, I can't tell exactly. It's unreasonable to think they were stuck there for 15 years. And if they are not human, what are they? Ghosts? Even mutants need to feed.

[little gazelle]

Granite Squad was the very first monolith to ever be turned as they were turned when the 2nd incident happened. they're Korshunov's personal top squad. Korshunov was there but he had Psi protection which i guess none of his "top squad" had? idk lol seems a little odd i guess but idk how well Psi was understood at that point.

[fossil depot]

I'm confused...MapGenie shows the 'Brain Scorcher' is now in STC Malachite, so like...Red Forest is completely uninvolved in that shit now?

And the Malachite Checkpoint is the Barrier?

[little gazelle]

they've stated that they had to make changes to the map so they had to move things around even whole locations

[fossil depot]

I know that, I don't mind the changes, I'm just wondering about consistency or plot changes as a result of that...and hence, my question being that now, Red Forest is irrelevant in relation with the 'Scorcher'?

[little gazelle]

yeahhh it's a little odd they chose to move it over there when it used to be in uhh, where was it even again, above the Red Forest?

[fossil depot]

Yea, at the north-eastern end (going by what I read about the CS Red Forest being the western part of the SoC one).

[little gazelle]

like you had to go through the forest then you got into military warehouses and then up to the place i forgot what that map was called.

[fossil depot]

No, you went to the Military Warehouses, crossed the Barrier and went to the Red Forest, climbing your way towards the facility.

Except now, the Military Base from the Warehouses is in Burnt Forest, which kind of implies that the Red Forest was just skipped by Strelok on the way or maybe it was just a detour due to the current route via Malachite being blocked off by anomalies or some-such.

[little gazelle]

i feel like i remember there being a way from warehouses into red forest

like you could come from Rostok into there at the south and then the west had a way to the forest

maybe i am mixing the games lol

i must have been thinking like in SoC you could go to Rostok then into warehouses but in Clear Sky you couldn't even go to Rostok

and then it's in Clear Sky where you could go to the warehouses from the forest

[fossil depot]

Yea, that's the Barrier.

[little gazelle]

the warehouse military building is in uh, Chemical plant now

[pine kite]

Well there's the red forest from SoC and the red forest from CS and warehouses went to both

[fossil depot]

Clear Sky, you went to the Red Forest and THEN to Military Warehouses. Also, right about the Chemical Plant...I mixed that and the Burnt Forest up... 😔

[fossil depot]

Yea, true, but different entrances, no? The CS entrance put you at the SoC Mercenary Camp. While I don't remember SoC's entry.

[little gazelle]

SoC's entry from whereto?

[fossil depot]

From Rostok to Military Warehouses...or maybe it was via Yantar? I honestly don't remember SoC that much in these cases.

[little gazelle]

rostok in SoC lead to Yantar and to Warehouses

CS had no Rostok

[fossil depot]

Yep, so CS used Red Forest to dump you into the Warehouses. So technically, Red Forest has an entry to Rostok, but I think CS version was more of uh...convenience than an actual to/from way...especially since most of Yantar was like...open as hell, no boundaries.

[little gazelle]

yeas which took you to the merc camp or what it was at that point lol.

[fossil depot]

Was a Freedom/Duty camp there, I think...a bit away from each other, but you got greeted by Freedom at the entry and Duty further in, I think?

[little gazelle]

at the entry/exit above Bloodsucker Village

[fossil depot]

Yep, the 'Dead City' entry/exit in the original draft.

Also, 30-second slow-mode can die.

[pine kite]

Yeah in CS it went from the edge of red forest to the Merc camp at the bus stop. The only other exit was the one that led to Rostok in SoC but it just went straight to the garbage checkpoint

[little gazelle]

in SoC you'd see Freedom being killed by some Duty when you'd enter Warehouses from Rostok

[fossil depot]

Yep, so now I'm wondering that since the SoC/CS/CoP area transfers are now mostly invalid, I guess the Malachite Checkpoint is now the original Barrier and Red Forest is unrelated to the original pathing for getting to the 'Scorcher'?

[fossil depot]

Yea, Skull's Group, I think...the ones who want to blow up the Military Base and destroy Freedom completely. Though different entry point, so I guess Freedom just vacated the 'Camp' and Mercenaries took over there, while Duty and Freedom were left fighting elsewhere in the Warehouses till things went to crap.

[little gazelle]

they would try to destroy Freedom at Warehouses but only if you helped them.

[fossil depot]

Or you could help Freedom destroy that little group and Voronin would simply not care due to them acting out of protocol.

[little gazelle]

i mean that was how it was supposed to work but i remember doing that and then the Duty in Rostok turned hostile

[fossil depot]

Bugged out, or did you accidentally fire a weapon in Rostok?

[little gazelle]

bugged, i read it was for other people too

it's a little funny how The Ward was able to manhandle both Freedom and Duty and Noontide into a truce lol.

like Duty and Freedom was so used to fighting each other but the threat of The Ward they stopped as if they were afraid of conflict so you would assume that the Ward actually have power to back that up, compared to what they have.

[fossil depot]

Well...Duty and Freedom are limited due to infighting and loss of members...and considering how Strider exists, I guess Degtyarev achieved the 'Man Of Balance' in CoP, resulting in most members of the groups leaving...so no strength to fight. Noontide is the same...depleted numbers and strength.

While the IPSF has practically unlimited funding and resources and man-power...so yea, they actually have the power, it's just not seen properly in-game due to lack of population.

[little gazelle]

but the ward is not the IPSF

[fossil depot]

Uh...?

[fathom veldt]

It was disabled by Strelok and Ward cleaned a zone a bit, and decommissioned this apparatus, its not functioning anymore

[little gazelle]

IPSF is basically the military at that point as that is seemingly who they're replacing

[fossil depot]

I know, just wondering about the route and Red Forest's actual role/appearance in relation to the now S2's map positions.

[little gazelle]

but it is weird that we didn't know anything about the Ward before S2 Despite Korshunov being there at the 2nd Incident in person.

so it's like what, mans went and built up a whole private military in the meantime lol

[fossil depot]

Right, but the IPSF/Ward are literally the same, no? Considering SIRCAA is the research branch and the Ward/IPSF are under Korshunov's control?

Or did I mix things up?

[fathom veldt]

they problably introduced this (along other new factions) to explain story, fill gaps in incosistency

[fossil depot]

Technically, PMCs exist, and since he's working for SIRCAA/Agatha/the benefactors, more likely he's like Colonel Quaritch from Avatar...relatively independent with loyal men, but still an employee of the corporation.

[little gazelle]

according to a wiki page, Ward is considered the armed branch of SIRCAA

[fossil depot]

Right, but SIRCAA is literally a government-authorized entity (I know, private and vested interests, but governments would have a stake too)...so I always figured SIRCAA was like...an international, government and privately-funded research agency, with the IPSF being the border guards and the Ward being mid-point between stalkers and military...working in the Zone manually.

And it would literally be functionally impossible for the IPSF and SIRCAA/Ward to not intersect with each other.

[little gazelle]

IPSF seems to be like funded by more than one government or something maybe according to some reddit guy lol.

they seem to mostly be guarding the zone while the Ward is deeper inside the Zone

[fossil depot]

Yea, it's 'International', so right in the name, but SIRCAA/Ward wouldn't exist without government support either. Even small fish like Sakharov and Ozersky would need government support...

So yea, I consider the IPSF as regular soldiers, border guards. Ward being special forces (whatever that means, considering the Zone decimated both Spetsnaz and Military stalkers), so Spetsnaz replacement and SIRCAA being a monolithic research group.

And Korshunov as the leader of both, since IPSF literally has the laziest job when not catching stalkers and unlike before, they're not corrupt due to having unlimited funding.

[little gazelle]

i just don't think that IPSF is necessarily on the same side as Ward

my next run i'll do for the Ward like the whole run so i can learn even more about them

and a part of me also questions the relationship between Ward and SIRCAA because we KNOW, that Ward soldiers is sent to SIRCAA who then experiment on them like lab rats

[fossil depot]

Their conflict would be disastrous for both the IPSF and SIRCAA, because the benefactors would want results and any infighting would cause major problems.

Seeing how smoothly everything goes and how the IPSF and the Ward don't phuck around with each other, you know they're on the same side.

I agree with the whole 'Ward soldiers don't get experimented upon', but then they have plenty of soldiers, like Skif, to experiment on. Many of those 'soldiers' are freelancers or come to the Zone for various reasons...no shortage of rats.

[little gazelle]

i felt bad for the Ward guys who i went out of my way to not kill during some side mission i got at Camp Icarus. the medic there wanted me to save some deserters or something and i didn't kill them but then he finds out they're being sent to SIRCAA and he knows what for and genuinely seems upset that he couldn't help them get out of the zone.

[fossil depot]

I don't kill them either...because I know that whether it was the Ukrainian Military/Spetsnaz or the Ward/IPSF...they're just stuck there and can't do shit about it. I only shoot if shot at; mostly, I help any NPCs I come across unless they're hostile (Bandits are literally the worst and they're now permanently hostile due to me having killed so many of them in self-defence)...

And I feel most bad for Korshunov...like, the man cares for his men and their lives, but he's stuck there under Agatha. And NGL, I feel bad for Agatha too...she's just a tool for the greater powers.

Now Hermann...that's a proper weasel.

[little gazelle]

i was surprised to see how little Hermann mattered

i at least expected to see him again after SIRCAA but noe

[fossil depot]

That's the whole point...he's just a weasel, a little tool to spurn you towards/from specific goals. Small fry in the whole thing.

Same thing in CoP...Ozersky ruled, AFAIK, with Hermann being a background guy except for the Oasis thing.

[little gazelle]

i would also have liked if there was downsides to being an ass to people like all the unique guns i'd give back and stuff

next run i will be a Bastard like the Ward often are.

[fossil depot]

It's the Zone...you're getting screwed either ways.

[vale zenith]

Posted this question in other chats too but nobody replied
After SIRCAA when you go back in the noontide base you can find khors's PDA and he's talking to quiet about having a gun to give you, has anybody found said gun?

[fathom veldt]

not sure, but after SIRCA he is dead, so maybe in stash? or have you already rescued lodocka from Quits camp? i think there is special thing

[vale zenith]

I will have a look in the building, but on a first run i couldn't find anything

[fathom veldt]

some gun is in Quites camp after sirca events, don't remember what it is, or check if you have new stash location on map

[cold glade]

Right, small essay to vent my thoughts, but i'd argue that there is no good ending in Stalker 2.

With the Ward the world is placed in uncertain hands.

With Spark the zone/world is placed under a great illusion, a falsehood dreamt up by a man with a questionable sanity.

With Strelok the Zone is cut off from the world, leaving everyone in the zone without the supplies from outside to maintain consistant food supplies. a mass famine is likely to follow and only a hardy handful will survive until they too die from whatever reason.

And with the Doctor you subject the entire world to the zone, with all it's destructive consequences along with it.
Roads and railways will become unusable due to all the anomalies. just walking down the road will become a daily danger.
all supply lines will likely break down with little hope for recovery in the short term, meaning wide spread food shortages and lack of vital components required to make modern day function. Not to mention the effects on local wildlife around the world.
and god only knows how the Noosphere will effect the internet.
it'll be a manmade hell on earth, and possibly the best ending to be making a sequel on.

[fathom veldt]

here we go again 😄

[cold glade]

Again? i assume this is not an original thought here then...

[fathom veldt]

similar 🙂 just one question, why you think its uncertain about ward ending?

little adjustment, whole world does not become zone, only certain points all around the world, just like in the book

[vale zenith]

Thats a vs vintar but it's always in quiets shop, you can even get it very early on with a little patience, what i am on about is the gun that khors talks about, he's supposed to do something for quiet but wants to finish the gun he has for you first, or something along those lines

[fathom veldt]

yes i know about what conversation you are talking, don't really remember if there were. Also it can be that one in his camp. How do you get it btw early in the game? Not even sure how do you know about him existing there early

[hardy orbit]

Ward legit replaced military

[pine kite]

IPSF replaced military in the sense that they are there to keep people out of the Zone. Clearly they do not do any better of a job despite the big wall. Ward is more like a private army operating specifically in the interests of the board running SIRCAA

They clearly have some sort of government sanction but they definitely do not work in the interests of the public

[vale zenith]

I am on my second playthrough, and I'm sure it's not the vss in quiet's camp, you can get that one by shooting it and getting close to the door and pick it up from there. Khors's is talking about the gun, a gun that he is working on for you, so I'm pretty sure it's nowhere near quiet's camp if khors was working on it before SIRCAA

[fathom veldt]

ah exploitation, if it is not that one, than you should have received stash location from him or from Quite (in their common agreed place), really do not remember this trivial thing

i can just tell you this, if there were no stash location, its either that gun in Quites shop, or there is no weapon for you...its just how game logic goes

[vale zenith]

Idk, if there is no gun it would be quite disappointing

[fathom veldt]

its most likely that gun in quites camp, but why would you be disappointed? 🙂

[vale zenith]

The conversation in the PDA makes it sound a lil bit more special than just a standard vss that quiet has in his shop for half the game.

[fathom veldt]

might be he did not even finished 🙂 turned into servant again....or dead if you follow certain line. Not sure about your curiosity about this item, if you think named guns are the best ones, they aren't, they are just unique, best weapons are Kharod/GP37 (modified)/dnipro

in ward line probably he is just considered dead, not sure, never shown, on other ones you kill him....

[jagged hull]

im pretty sure that brain scorcher area was retconned to not be a part of the red forest back in CS

[jagged hull]

its a good chance that the IPSF is also a retcon, they mightve retroactively replaced the ukrainian military. maybe im reading into it too much but some of the rotten bodies in the neuroprogramming lab have IPSF uniforms. it might be worth it to look into any documents that suggest when the IPSF was founded

[pine kite]

IDK if it is meant to be retroactive in the lore, but the art book commentary does confirm that they were originally military, but considering certain real world events they decided they weren't going to have the player shoot soldiers in the game. So they were a somewhat late addition compared to the other factions.

[jagged hull]

one note, its unclear whether the entire world turns into the zone or if its just localized areas of anomalous activity like in roadside picnic (imagine several zones that take up a 30km radius or smth). if its like in roadside picnic its not nearly as destructive

[pine kite]

The bodies in the lab may just be a function of replacing all the military uniforms with IPSF

[jagged hull]

yeah i might just be reading into it a bit much. still youre right about them being 100% just replacements for the military due to irl reasons

[jagged hull]

as far as we know sircaa/ward are both funded by the regulatory board. its not a government organization, it was mentioned that they did research in the zone while the government was too weak to do so themselves. theyre the ones behind project x, and when that failed they formed sircaa and ward

[pine kite]

As far as moving the setting forward ten years goes I think it makes sense to have the perimeter security be an international effort anyway, so it lines up even if that means there isn't a huge amount of lore about them

[jagged hull]

yep 100%

[fossil depot]

I know that.

[fossil depot]

Again, I know, I'm just wondering about the route changes that would've occurred due to that...since in SoC, you had to go through the Red Forest to get to the 'Scorcher'...while now, the Red Forest can literally just be bypassed since it's irrelevant...

Hence I'm wondering what path Strelok would've actually taken to disable it and then move on to Pripyat.

[fossil depot]

Yes, my only point was that the Ward and IPSF are simply different branches of the same organization with different goals, where the IPSF takes care of the border and the Ward are the 'special forces' that actually work inside the Zone.

[jagged hull]

i dont think i made myself clear in this case. according to CS, the brain scorcher just isnt in the red forest. the brain scorcher and red forest are 2 separate areas

[fossil depot]

Uh...wasn't CS Red Forest just the western part of the SoC version? Or so I read somewhere that said so, with Strelok going through the eastern part, beyond Forester's home?

[jagged hull]

just one of the many map retcons in the series. such as the cnpp switching from being north of pripyat to south of it in cop. in the end its also probably better to look at the older maps (especially CS and SOC) as showing progression, not the layout of the zone. the distances between maps are probably a lot bigger than what is shown on the map

[jagged hull]

ive never heard of this honestly ill try to find a source.

oh ok the wiki calls radar the eastern part of red forest but it doesnt cite any source

[fossil depot]

Yea, I'd read it years ago, but didn't know where I'd done so.

[jagged hull]

lots of people refer it as that but im sceptical of this

[fossil depot]

Well, in SoC (which is technically the sequel, so that'd take precedence over CS), it's still labelled the Red Forest, so I just presume that the 'inaccessible cliffs' are just anomaly-ridden inaccessible areas of the other areas, so, since they're both named the same, I guess different parts, but same area.

Like how SoC's Pripyat and CoP's Pripyat are the same but different areas shown in-game.

[jagged hull]

besides limansk is to the east of red forest in CS so its not quite the eastern red forest

[fossil depot]

Uh...I thought Limansk was to the west/north-west of RF? The 'bridge' is literally at the western-most edge of the map, with the tunnel that Strelok blew up being north.

[jagged hull]

oh shit lol yeah i mixed up east and west i got brain scorched

[fossil depot]

Yea, that's a major skill issue. 😏

[jagged hull]

im reading that apparently the english translation is based on an older version of the game and that the translations based on newer versions call soc red forest radar like in many freeplay mods

[pine kite]

Based on the original game geography it makes sense at least

[jagged hull]

wdym

[fossil depot]

Actually...it makes slightly more sense in CS, even if the story in SoC wouldn't...

So technically, the Malachite Checkpoint becomes the Barrier, then you fight through to X-10, disable the array, then get back and pass through the Red Forest's northern collapsed tunnel to go to Pripyat.

Which makes a lot more sense considering S2's rearrangement.

[pine kite]

Just that based on the game map in SoC/CS, CS Red Forest looks to be directly west of Radar/SoC Red Forest

[jagged hull]

it does look like that but i just noticed that if you look at the cs map it seems like theyre 2 separate forests

both geographically and colour wise

[pine kite]

Yeah. It's kinda weird still. S2 map is still more weird in this respect.

[jagged hull]

i just assume strelok did take the road to the north in the brain scorcher area and took some roads that we dont have access to rn

[fossil depot]

That too, most likely.

[jagged hull]

the main thing that makes this confusing is how does the way to prypyat actually get blocked by the brain scorcher

it might just be an installation that sends signals to other psi emitters beyond the red forest, to areas like yaniv and jupiter

[fossil depot]

It's supposed to be a network of arrays, with SoC's just being the most relevant to the current cause.

[jagged hull]

would be nice to see more of that in the game, there arent rly visible psi emitters in those areas or at least they arent noticeable

[fossil depot]

Well, uh...isn't that partially explained by the small emitters (the ones like you disable in the Swamps) strewn all around the area with Zombies nearby?

[jagged hull]

ive not seen any similar ones in yaniv or jupiter or at least ive not noticed any

[fossil depot]

Not there, hence partially explained. Like the Monolithian Gathering at Malachite...

I suppose all the emitters relied on each other and shutting one down either disabled the dependency or broke the chain, leading to others being errored out and shut down. As for being in-game...well...probably just not shown, but existing in lore.

[jagged hull]

yeah i assumed that they functioned differently to the ones in the swamps since those can act independently and are very weak by comparison

[fossil depot]

Yea, true, but same technology, different programming. Regular ones programmed to zombify people, who got too close to the 'center' while CS ones made to do the same, but to protect the CS base.

Actually, those little traps make the Zone so much more dangerous and the Group as significantly more sinister.

[jagged hull]

i was wondering, can c-con actually do anything in their state of non-existence? are they just ghosts with no power or do they actually have influence

it just seems weird that project y was basically done by a single person using the tools of c-con

[ornate venture]

gumapelvaler1an has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[ornate venture]

kennii3175 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[heavy coral]

How do I get a good ending I'm currently at zaton half way through it feel like I messed up on some vital cutscene options

[real leaf]

Hard to say if there's actually a "good" ending, in good s.t.a.l.k.e.r. games fashion
However don't worry, the endings are decided very late into the game and you'll guess it by yourself!

[dull sequoia]

It looks like many believe Strelok's ending means famine and, generally, very bad times for everyone in the Zone. If Skif could kill hundreds of Monolithians on his own, do you really believe the Ward alone, without anyone else's help, couldn't storm the CNPP and murder Strelok in his pod, like Strelok did when he steamrolled through the Sarcophagus, the Monolith Control Center and the rooftops of CNPP before getting to the C-Consciousness? I know Heart of Chornobyl makes the Monolithians look like Terminators, but they all die like the rest of the stalkers. Strelok's ending has the easiest to break failsafe out of all the others. And, as much as I hate to say this, he definitely deserves a bullet in his skull, something which he will likely get in the future.

[heavy coral]

I just don't want a stupid ending as for cutscene etc so what's some tips on making sure a "sick" ending happens and also once you finish the game can you replay anything?

[real leaf]

I'd argue there are no stupid endings, really. Just follow whatever you wanna follow, listen to the characters you wanna listen to and that sounds the more in-tune with what you want basically!
And no there is no post-game. However the game will explicitly tell you when you reach the point of no return, leaving you the opportunity to go back and finish side missions or exploring if you wish so. You can't miss it!

[heavy coral]

Perfect ! As an Australian this was my first stalker game and game of the year for me 🇺🇦✅️

Whats the next stalker I should buy for xbox next gen ? Least buggy one 🤣

[real leaf]

Enjoy it! I'm sure you'll have a blast. Also the story is really long, don't worry the endings are pretty hard to miss once you get relevant choices, and it happens late.

[dull sequoia]

SPOILERS: ||The only ending which is universally categorized as bad by pretty much everyone is Scar's ending. If you want to avoid that at all costs, at one point during the game, towards the end, when Scar breaks you out of a pod, and asks you something, you get two responses. To lock yourself out of his ending, always choose the dialogue option "Life is for the living".||

[real leaf]

^ yeah agree, but imo hard to miss, by that point I think most of us have decided whether or not we wanna go through with him 😂

[dull sequoia]

True.

[jagged hull]

if your main mission is still at zaton youre very far away from the ending lol

play it by ear. trust no one. question everything. try to find out things for yourself as much as possible to try to avoid getting lied to

make sure to at least skim through the documents you find. some of them have very interesting information

especially the ones found in labs or in other important places

[compact ermine]

I think Scar ending is the best ending

[dull sequoia]

In a sense, I guess it's reasonable to view it as such. Kind of like the Matrix.

[sullen terrace]

is Marshall a named character from the original trilogy?

[dull sequoia]

No, I don't remember him. The fandom also doesn't list him.

[sullen terrace]

I'm just wondering who he is since scar has his memories i think

[dull sequoia]

When is this specified? I can't remember.

[jagged hull]

in the neuroprogramming lab, next to where scar was sitting in the cutscene

there is a pda. and also the cutscene shows it. a television shows memories of an attack on the chemical plant and a graphic showing memories being uploaded from marshall into scar

[jagged hull]

he started being somewhat important way after CoP. he wasnt even one of the more important spark members, he was just there when the chemical plant was attacked and he managed to survive and decided to hide in the northern parts of the zone (i.e. generators where he eventually was brainwashed)

brainwashed isnt the right word they just took his memories, gave them to scar and let him rot

at least thats what the evidence tells us it mightve been a bit different

[dull sequoia]

Having a different personality implanted in him would make sense for two reasons: 1. Scar wasn't a loon in Clear Sky and 2. He probably would have become a zombified stalker or a monolithian if he was just let there.

[jagged hull]

its not quite a different personality. he has been sitting there in the neuroprogramming lab since CS, and he was release only after this reframing. essentially he was in a coma and he think that instead of being in a come he went through what marshall did

its not a porting of the personality, his dialogue in CS is actually remarkably similar with him being cynical and sarcastic a lot of the time its just not noticeable since its not voiced

[dull sequoia]

Scar talks about working with the Iskra Science Team, which was comprised of Topol/Poplar, Mace, Snake and Spirit. I don't think he mentions Mace, but he does mention the other 3 being attacked by the Ward and Snake being the one to blow himself up with a grenade.

[ornate venture]

lihacc has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[sullen terrace]

is it explained somewhere how duty deteriorated so much in a decade?

[dull sequoia]

The current dev team don't like them. Easy to see. 🙂

[jagged hull]

yeah exactly he thinks he was in marshall's place but he was just being idle in the neuroprogramming lab

[jagged hull]

they were already deteriorated in CoP

[dull sequoia]

There was no Marshall in Call of Pripyat, so I don't know where they came up with that character as working with Topol and his guys and, essentialy, under Hermann and Ozersky.

[jagged hull]

marshall just joined spark later. he wasnt working under the scientists as far as i know, just alongside the other spark members

does he just mention this in dialogue? when exactly if you remember i want to see his wording on this maybe

[dull sequoia]

That's not true. There was no sign that Duty were deteriorating. If anything, both Freedom and Duty lose an increasing number of members, who start joining the free stalkers if you don't become friends with any of them. Also, if Zulu survives, Voronin sends him to the center of the Zone with a large Duty squad. So Duty is just fine in Call of Pripyat.

[dull sequoia]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwLFGg9ZDyw&ab_channel=CaptainCigar

1 hour and 11 minutes.

[jagged hull]

wdym fine, their quartermaster sold weapons to bandits

either way if dehtyaryov sides with freedom duty is indeed kinda done with being a serious faction that probably was just the case

[dull sequoia]

Are you serious? 🙂 Because Morgan sold some gear to bandits? Lingov also betrayed Freedom to the Mercenaries in Clear Sky, but the faction didn't deteriorate.

[dull sequoia]

That's not the case. If Degtaryev sides with Duty, they also kill Loki and kick Freedom out of Yaniv.

[jagged hull]

i just mean that if in this timeline duty is a bit of a joke it probably means that dehtyaryov sided with freedom

[jagged hull]

ok so what this probably means is that marshall was saved by spark and later helped them find a new base. marshall is not mentioned as one of the founding members in this document:

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

[dull sequoia]

Which is why it's clear that the current dev team sympathize with Freedom. They have been mentioning "svoboda" in interviews at any chance they got. They don't like Duty.

[jagged hull]

both are pretty silly factions so it makes sense that they want to end the conflict and just let the one they like exist in a form that isnt boring

theres been a bias towards freedom since CoP i believe, they were shown as the good guys since they let duty stay in yaniv when they had the chance to just let them die

[jagged hull]

realistically both are just subsets of loners that are fairly weak in military terms its just that they have a bit of soft power. especially freedom in hoc since they run the biggest trading and leisure hub

they dont have much of a place in main story conflicts seemingly

[dull sequoia]

The current developers also like to murder or render irrelevant plenty of past characters.

[jagged hull]

all of the deaths are done very well and at a point where the character can not be or does not need to be developed further. if they didnt kill of at least some of the characters id suspect they were nostalgia baiting but they did the right thing and got rid of a lot of them

the new characters they created like richter, korshunov, dalin and faust are just as good as strider or scar. id say let them do as they please

besides its very much in line with some of the games themes. as players of the trilogy, we see scar and strelok as legends but one of them is a kindof nuts and is actually a c-con goon and the other is a bit of a psychopath who actually hates you. its meant to kinda make you stop idolizing these characters and let new ones in

i think theyre trying to depict the idea of the previous games being legends that arent entirely accurate to what really happened

killing those characters off severs the connection with the old legends and lets the game go in a new direction away from the same protagonists

[dull sequoia]

For me, personally, Richter is insufferable. He has a snakey vibe to him, just like Faust, but I think he hides it better. He is always in the right places. Korhunov is an alright character. It's not about idolizing past protagonists, but they didn't give them good closure. If Strelok's ending is canon, than it's OK because you'll most likely see more of him and probably have to end him. Degtaryev, in my opinion, was the one the get the shortest end of the stick. He is treated as an average guy. He is even mocked by letting other characters call him Deggy. Also, Nitro and Cardan joined forces and opened a big tech shop in Yaniv, interested in working on a vehicle that was supposed to operate within the Zone. Where are those two? They simply vanished.

[jagged hull]

i think deggy is just endearing an not an attempt to mock him. he will 100% have a bigger part to play in upcoming dlcs, the what we saw was just a sneakpeak of the corps faction. i am still assuming that skif's ending is canon, but even in that case strelok has a pretty neat ending to me. we find out what, his actual goals are, and we see that he has actually gone off the rails.

[dull sequoia]

Having Cardan and Nitro build a vehicle capable of operation inside the Zone would have been a great way to avoid all of the obnoxious running you have to do in Stalker 2.

[jagged hull]

as for richter i dont think hes a plant of some sort i think there is something else that would explain him being in convenient places. the most simple explanation is that hes just shadowing skif kindof for the first half of the game so he doesnt die. skif is a rookie after all. also richter genuinely did believe that skif was worth saving. he saw something in skif and its heartbreaking to see him react to skif siding with ward

[real leaf]

The game has multiple characters referring to the fact that Richter knows everyone and everything. He's been travelling the zone at length for like 10 years and made connections so it makes sense

[jagged hull]

yeah just like skif gets to know most of the people richter knows in like 2 weeks lol

[dull sequoia]

It would also make sense for him to be someone you shouldn't trust. Especially in the Zone, but that's my opinion, anyway.

[jagged hull]

richter is just looking out for skif thats all. he wants skif to see the zone like he does

[jagged hull]

everything in the game points to him being genuine. he seems like the only nice guy in the zone.

[dull sequoia]

Except if you side with the Ward, he tries to kill you.

[jagged hull]

yeah no shit because the zone is the only thing he has in his life and ward is trying to destroy it lol. he gives ample warning to you that he will do it if you side with the ward

[real leaf]

Yeah I mean there could be a plot twist of course but there isn't. To me it just feels like he saw Skif was a neutral party and quite special (the main character syndrome if you will, but done well imo!) and looked out for him. And he's the only character Skif spends that much time talking through personal issues as well (at least in the non ward path). His character arc is super interesting and makes sense in all paths imo

[jagged hull]

hes not just a yes-man that likes everything you do he is skif's conscience

[real leaf]

And obviously he'd feel mad if you side with the ward like lilhacc said, it doesn't have to be rational that's just how it is... Skif is quite brutal with him in that path since they divert ideas, and Richter realistically couldn't accept it much like you couldn't make Korshunov accept that the zone isn't harmful, subjectively speaking

[jagged hull]

i think him wanting to help skif ties into the time where he 3 stalkers that travelled with him died and since them he thinks hes a bad guide and that the zone doesnt love him or smth. helping skif is kindof his redemption arc. and in the end skif is the one who stops his alcohol binge

[dull sequoia]

This is too much fan fic. I get it. You think he's a good guy, I'm more reserved towards him. We'll see in the future. At this point, we can say anything, but it doesn't mean it's true or false.

[jagged hull]

no youre legit just a hater i think lol. there is nothing in the game that points to him having bad intentions

none of this is fanfic btw this is just what happens in the game if you forgot. skif and richter build a genuine friendship thats not just skif getting help from richter. it goes both ways

[dull sequoia]

Hater because my beliefs don't align with yours? Why start with labels all of a sudden?

[real leaf]

AND Richter guides him again. It just feels like a character arc with him evolving a bit... Idk that's just how it reads to me. Again we could have had a plot twist given that he's conveniently at the right places always but... Who knows

[jagged hull]

if hater is somehow an offensive label to you im sorry but i just dont know how else to put it. youre just paranoid of richter without any reason to substantiate it

[real leaf]

Also it's legitimate to think Richter is weird for being so obsessed with the Zone, this is why the ward path exists (and logically makes him hostile)

[jagged hull]

its reasonable for richter to be obssessed with the zone since he allegedly came to the zone as a teenager and spent his adult life there

[real leaf]

As many characters as flavours in stalker 2 :) I really feel like all paths track logically in their own way regarding how other characters react to the one you choose

[real leaf]

Yea. Escaped foster house says a lot he was probably mega young

[jagged hull]

not to mention skif's character changing with your choices. its very well done but one of the paths will have to be the right one

[dull sequoia]

For example, when Skif gets out of SIRCAA and Richter just appears at the last door out of nowhere, singing about his beloved Zone, Skif asks him where he was when shit hit the fan, and rightfully so. Richter appeared when the disaster was over, all smiling, when Skif could have died. That one interaction didn't feel like friendship to me, more like a cautious relation of helping each other because their beliefs are somewhat similar.

[jagged hull]

i mean how is richter being malevolent in this scene? they just discuss what happened and richter seems just as clueless as skif, but richter points skif towards the right direction which leads him to scar eventually who ghosted richter or something

[real leaf]

And skif rightfully reacts with anger as well. Shaking some sense into Richter

[jagged hull]

the reasonable explanation for why richter was there is that he went looking for skif after he could not get in touch with scar

[dull sequoia]

In these games, I take everything with a grain of salt. Maybe I sound too harsh regarding Richter, but, to me, there is no reason to completely trust him. Just like in the SIRCAA facilty, near the Wish Granter, when the Ward soldiers attack Skif, Dalin and Korshunov play it as if it was just a hallucination. No, I think they actually tried to have Skif killed, but failed at that point and pretented it was different.

[dull sequoia]

What do you mean Scar ghosted Richter?

[jagged hull]

i havent seen that scene in a while but i remember in the dialogue between skif and richter after the cutscene richter mentions not being able to get in touch with scar

so youre kinda continuing the investigation on your own at that point

[real leaf]

Strider I think, not Scar
OH wait no you might be right I can't remember after the cutscene

[dull sequoia]

To ghost also means to kill. 😄

[jagged hull]

hm maybe youre right im not too sure

[jagged hull]

ive never heard of the word being used in that context maybe by mob guys or something lol

but im not from the italian mafia so that is not what i meant... he just couldnt get in touch with scar

[dull sequoia]

It's just an urban slang, as far as I know.

[mild dragon]

Yo

Faust frigging got me bruh, tried to run it up the middle. Apocalypse or salvation? Apocalypse when that ball lightning hits the hospital wards!

[fathom veldt]

Faust is sigma

[compact ermine]

I always thought that joining C-con was better than what the canon Strelok did in the previous games so I went with Spark all the way. The choice was really between them and Strelok. Ward is just bleh.

[deep cove]

Team Strelok all the way.I would still join him in my other playthroughs but i have to see the other endings too.

[grave elk]

Skif ending was what I picked, instantly regretted it when Faust pulled a scooby doo

[pine kite]

Went with Project Y. Left me with a lot to think about. I was pretty happy with it all things considered. It was all about freedom and new beginnings after all.

[mild dragon]

Yeah but Faust killed a lot of my friends T_T if the zone is bad because we're bad Faust only made it worse!

I also don't fully understand how the Monolith fit into his plans now that it's all said and done?

I guess he had to pivot after you smoked him in the Duga?

🙂 Oops, I started an apocalypse.

[manic harness]

I’m gathering info btw to show you were under psych effects the whole Gabe and didn’t know(basically you were edged along down a path by zone alterations)

[mild dragon]

Hm hm

[manic harness]

I think Faust wants the zone to expand by force aka his army expanding it forcefully and perhaps a psych exposed world

[pine kite]

Well he ate it at Duga. But I think he was really under the influence of the zone and not the monolith, just wasn't really aware of it at first.

[manic harness]

So similar to skid set it free but like c con to control humanity and “live in bliss”

[mild dragon]

Perhaps because that's not what Skif wants, it will not be so violent, as implied by some folks.

[pine kite]

The ending cutscene also seemed to imply that the alpha artifact appeared in Skif's apartment because the zone put it there, not by random chance

[mild dragon]

True, she called out to him.

[manic harness]

Good good I like that brain glue because I think both worries are a red hairing. One fears opening the zone will “kill her” other fear she will destroy the world if let out”duty etc” but it’s a small spread anomalies every so often less dense and the zone is now it’s heart if greatest influence

[pine kite]

So I guess in a sense I agree that Skif is being nudged along, and so are some of the other actors. The zone wants to be free, but it can only try to get there through the actions of humans

[mild dragon]

Perhaps Faust just wanted to listen to the zone as well, yeah. In his own way.

[manic harness]

I think he doesn’t want zone freedom he wants zone control which I don’t even think the zone wants anymore tbh

Faust liked skif ending because it’s one step closer to a world id c con or zone control

[fathom veldt]

if you listend and reaad, that was he doing all along duh...until duga before his death he was thinking he was called by monolith, that's why he brake up with Strider, only in the ending he revealed that it wasn't monolith....

[mild dragon]

Well, lots of people say they're trying to listen to the zone, but only listen to themselves

[manic harness]

And I love that Faust is more related to the protagonist then most factions in the ending

[fathom veldt]

really most people played counter strike ( i am refering to new players who came to stalker)

[fathom veldt]

what is this about?

I tried all difficulties, easy is way to easy and veteran is just grindy, probably for balance would be something at stalker difficulty or more

[pine kite]

They just mean if you are new to the series or not

[pine kite]

They are all searching for their purpose in the zone, in some way or another

[fathom veldt]

easy? I think does not matter if you are new or veteran of stalker....i think difficulty is a bit rubish

[pine kite]

Oh I mean the poll question.

[fathom veldt]

ah, he asked first playthrough :)), good polling though, probably we would be able to see from global achievements how endings are dispersed

[manic harness]

no its experience with the series not game difficulty

[fathom veldt]

game difficulty changes experience, i even have a video where i put 256 556x45 bullets into chimera eyeball, thats just bs
spending hundreds of thousands for repairs (maybe exaggerating this a bit, but you spend tons of coupons on this basically everything you have :))

this experience does not define difficulty, more like grinding part, how much you have to grind to get coupons to fix your stuff and buy new ammo
that's my only negative "complaint" about the game

[mild dragon]

I ran into a quest early that gave me a bunch if Koupons because it was broken. Of course I reported the anomaly to the authorities like a good stalker... after I had my fill >:)

[fathom veldt]

which one was that? This also the point of their "difficulty" less reward depending on your chosen difficulty

[mild dragon]

It was when you defend Zelyssia from The Monolith, Gaffer rewarded me for doing something and everytime I clicked on him he rewarded me again. It was the one right before you deal with the shop keeper who won't help the defense.

[manic harness]

No your experience with the old games etc not difficulty lol

[fathom veldt]

ha ha that's a good one, its probably after they attempted to fix it

later on i just left them for dead, not really worth to try that hard for 3k coupons...

[mild dragon]

Ahh, if not me, than who? Lol

[raven holly]

Yeah repair costs are horrendous
Like I understand it's the only way to balance economy (coz ammo, weapons etc etc you can find freely, but repairs is smth you'll have to spend money on)
but still just feels so stupid when repairs after a mission cost almost the same as a reward

I honestly don't know a good solution to this problem. Coz economy is already not too hard to go around. Grinding for money is kinda easy on veteran
I think they should just increase the rewards again

[fathom veldt]

yep, the problem here is that higher risk should give you better rewards not opposite way...if only difficulty is that you have to spend more time collecting stuff and walking slowly than really its just hardly a difficulty...its nice though you get repairs for the same price of quest, buts hardly its a common case

they could add some scientists faction or just few scientist in map who would offer decent price for artifacts

[dull sequoia]

So, apparently, Richter got both Joker and Barge killed.

It would have been nice to see Cardan kick his butt after finding out.

[fathom veldt]

this is preposterous!!! Why are you accusing my good fello stalker Richter

[untold zealot]

Red in next DLC thank you

[dull sequoia]

He accused himself.

[deep cove]

Hell yeah!Red and Limansk.

[blazing plaza]

so im confused, stc malachite was taken over and i can no longer access the building? and there was no way to prevent this?

[fathom veldt]

case close, Richter not guilty

[fathom veldt]

you can enter through secret entrance, but traders will be red, you will not get good deal, not sure if guides still take you there some say its a bug, but i mean duh every base have secret entrance and they are guides....though stepping outside ward will kill you
and no way, its part of your story

[coarse wolf]

How'd you find that out? Pda or does he mention it during a quest or smthg?

[dull sequoia]

He mentions it in Rostok, before tasking you to find collars for Dvupalov. He also magically appears right in the hut near the house where you kill the bayun to get the collar. In my opinion, the guy is weird.

[mild dragon]

Do we find out what ultimitely occurs with the doctor who drives you into the Zone? I remember meeting him again at SIRRCA but then..

[dull sequoia]

Well, if you choose to shoot him, he's very much dead. If not, he is apparently set free by Agatha.

His name is Hermann. He was a pretty important character in Call of Pripyat.

[mild dragon]

I don't ever recall seeing him after my runin with SIRCA, maybe it was down a different narrative path for me

[dull sequoia]

You don't. If you decided to let him go, he possibly goes on about his bussiness, but I wouldn't trust Ward with anything.

[jagged hull]

you fell for it award

(jk you just didnt go through the ward parth, it was an illusion. hes alive and well, agatha just let you shoot him so you can let go of your anger)

[little gazelle]

i was hoping to see him again after that like maybe he's show up at a later point with some useful knowledge but noe.

[dull sequoia]

I don't understand what you're trying to say.

[jagged hull]

you fell for agathas troll. you dont actually kill hermann in that scene, you kill his hollogram. he shows up in the foundation if you side with the ward, and you get to have a chat with him over the radio a few times in the generators

[dull sequoia]

I didn't fall for anything. I didn't side with the Ward on my playthroughs and both times I let him go, I did not shoot him.

[jagged hull]

why do you speak as if you did that yourself then?

[dull sequoia]

Where did I specify I shot him? I simply listed the two options available. I didn't say what I did until now.

[jagged hull]

you didnt say it directly but you acted as if you knew the outcome. either way, its an odd detail that hes only used in the ward playthrough. agatha just saw him as useful and kept him at her side after he was given his punishment

[dull sequoia]

Of course I know the outcome. I've watched other endings on Youtube, too. What's the big deal?

[jagged hull]

if you shoot him he lives. thats what im trying to tell you

[dull sequoia]

F Ward. I'm not playing their way.

[jagged hull]

i dont like them either i just knew that their side of the story has a lot of things you dont see when you side with others and i was not wrong

the endings are only a part of what can be missed, due to this ill probably do a playthrough siding with spark until the end as well

[dull sequoia]

So, if you choose to side with the Ward, Hermann becomes their slave either way. Yeah, I was right not to trust those bastards.

[little gazelle]

so you're telling me that if we let him go we don't hear from him again at all but if we shoot a hologram of him he will talk to us again? breh

[jagged hull]

nah i didnt try that i assume that it doesnt change that tho

[little gazelle]

you said that he appaears again at Foundation though and that he talks to you at the Generators

[jagged hull]

i mean even if you dont that happens. also hes not a slave of the ward, hes a slave of agatha/the regulatory board

[jagged hull]

thats just what happens in the ward playthrough, not the other paths

[little gazelle]

that feels so, misleading and weird

you'd think someone you showed that you were willing and wanting to shoot with no hesitation, that they wouldn't wanna talk to you but if you let him go and forgive he just doesn't show up again at all

[jagged hull]

no you didnt get it

it doesnt matter what you do with hermann in other playthroughs, he just doesnt play a role. he only does on the ward playthrough

[dull sequoia]

Semantics.

[ornate venture]

andro2725 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[little gazelle]

i feel like it's you that doesn't get what i said lol.

[jagged hull]

maybe, did you mean to say that hermann shouldve wanted to see skif if he spared him?

[little gazelle]

like it is so backwards that the guy you tried to kill would have more of a role in the story than if you forgave and let him live only to disappear for the rest of the game.

they should have made it be a thing like with how if you don't kill Solder he shows up again and wants to do something for you

[jagged hull]

in the ward story, it doesnt matter what you do to him, whether you kill him or not, because in the end you dont do anything to him since its all an illusion. he doesnt appear in the story elsewhere since hes just working for agatha after he gets caught

[fathom veldt]

if you talk about herman in projection room, he is just a hallogram there, a test from agatha

[little gazelle]

so is he relevant in a ward run regardless if you let him go or shoot the hologram of him?

[jagged hull]

yeah exactly its just an illusion to statisfy skif's need for revenge (or show the lack of it depending on what the player chooses)

[little gazelle]

like in my run i never heard from him again after letting him go.

[jagged hull]

did you do the ward run?

[fathom veldt]

i don't understand question and did not read previous discussion about whaat it was

[little gazelle]

i basically jumped between the factions with almost every given choice

[jagged hull]

what ending path did you choose. he only appears after the point of no return

[little gazelle]

i helped Ward with like uh, showing them the PDA and then going to Icarus to do a thing but at SIRCAA i went with Noontide

[jagged hull]

this doesnt answer my question. either way, im 99.9% sure that in the ward ending it doesnt matter if you spare hermann or not, agatha wants him to work for her either way since hes pretty smart actually

[fathom veldt]

yes, that choice does not inffluence anything, its just reveals about you for agatha

[fathom veldt]

make a save and keep it before subtle matter quest, from there if you want you can go with ward ending or others

[little gazelle]

my first run i felt like i went around and did things for them all

[fathom veldt]

yeah really does not differ from each other to certain point, few additional quests, different aproach to slag heap, different outcomes for side quests, reactions etc

and you actually did for some part they all want same thing

[little gazelle]

and then i saved before the foundation to see both locations, then after that i saw both outcomes of seeing the Doctor the last time so i got first Skif's ending then Strelok's from the same run but i want to start over on another run sometime and try to only do things for the Ward to see how the story may change and what other missions is available through them.

i also wanna see dialogue and stuff, maybe give some guns i didn't care for the first time around.

[fathom veldt]

yeah if you want full experience that would be a good way

but to certain point there will be not much difference

you can use UE_Tools, i did not bothered for third and forth paths to loot bandages from stashes, just spawned kharod with everything and battle armor, don't see point looting when the story what is interesting

don't know about what guns you talk, really same, unless you speak about Combatant rifle provided by korshunov, then it is not ward path

[little gazelle]

no i mean like trying out things like the Fora because by the time i got one i was using the GP37 and it just had better stats i think.

or guns like the Buket which is really good for being an early available gun and only using 9x18

i also want to keep the uniques that you can return

since i was a goody two shoes in my first run i returned all of the ones i found from side quests etc.

[blazing plaza]

at what point did col kroshunov get his face messed up?

[little gazelle]

when we do a thing that turns the Duga on Monolith is attacking Ward there in mass iirc, that is how he gets injured

[fathom veldt]

huh? return where?

[little gazelle]

There’s some unique guns that you’re asked to retrieve for people but you can keep them instead

[fathom veldt]

ah 🙂 i have not returned them 👿 but never used them 😄

[little gazelle]

like the Drowned AK, i wanna keep it this time.
or the Decider Fora-221

[ornate venture]

baaaal44 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[heavy coral]

I've just done all the sircaa missions when ward is attacked when will I see Pripyat feels like a lifetime to go 🤣

[half tangle]

am i the only one disappointed with how we got a 4th game and for the 4th time we end up fighting monolith?

where did they (once again) get 100's of soldiers, exosuits and weapons from?

[spare geyser]

Honestly, no - but just because of how well written Strider is imo

[compact ermine]

How does Dalin get in the deepest shitholes in the zone while wearing a suit and tie? Does he teleport?

[spare geyser]

Dude secretly locked in intense duel with Richter for popping up in odd places

[slow light]

Psst, hey, I'm here to get you out

[slim monolith]

Honestly I feel his death was rushed

[spare geyser]

I think his death was fine, but it's the rest of the story that went on for too long

[pine kite]

I do wish you got some more direct interaction with him earlier, even if it was through optional stuff. But yeah I think that part of the story was well handled

[dull sequoia]

You still have a looooong way ahead of you and the craziest and most annoying jogs are only about to start. This story is so padded out, it's not even funny,

[half tangle]

i agree on that but strider and noontide don't explain the 100's of unnamed combatants conjured up for the 4th time in zone history

monolith felt weaker in call of pripyat compared to the previous 2 games, it felt like they were finally set up to be "gone" or less important only for s2 to throw that buildup away and make them the main antagonist with endless manpower and ressources again

[spare geyser]

Monolith troops during the runup to the finale felt like they were made of wet paper when faced with endgame weapons tho lol

(Except the extremely annoying Granite dudes in that horrible final room)

All in all I think the story feels too scattershot / inconsistent as a whole, but Strider, Korshunov, and all the endings are really good

[spare geyser]

Lowkey wish the Monolith troops didn't have this clumsy robotic voice acting

[manic harness]

They need solemn voices

[placid blaze]

Whats the current of all Faction relations to other factions?

[jagged hull]

its somewhat bugged ingame i believe. ive seen mercs be friendly with almost every faction

[fathom veldt]

they are kind of neutral with most factions

[jagged hull]

except with the faction named "skif"

[fathom veldt]

yes, but player faction always like this, pretty neutral, on other side would be monolith who are just enemy with everyone, and other factions in-between vary variable with their likings

but anyways....besides random encounters by a-life factions are brain dead and nothing to be done with them

in this case conflicts among skif and mercs are most likely because of strelok and his hired mercs

but in yaniv met they are kind of friendly :))

[sterile sky]

The final room was fine for me, the problem was the stairway of death just before

I went in with a Kharod fitted with a 203, Dnipro, Saiga, and Strider’s SVU
I had to burn so much ammo for each of them to keep the gauss guys on the upper level suppressed

Ended up using all of my 40mm grenades to take them out

[jagged hull]

wandering mercs arent friendly 90% of the time. some of them are bugged and dont attack you but other than that they are hostile

[fathom veldt]

ok thats weird, they should be neutral to loners/player, unless interest conflict

[jagged hull]

stalker 2 represents them as being much closer to the bandits than other games in the series

[placid blaze]

Well…mercs are mercs

[ornate venture]

nuclearkitty has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[balmy salmon]

Soo, with C-Con being gone for good and Subtle Matter being another illusion, who is speaking "Come to me" during the SIRCAA mission? And who is controlling the Monolith afterwards? The Zalyssia guide gets clear instructions to destroy the town, which could be Fausts doing - but after the second Duga mission that's off the table too. So who is calling the shots for the drones to follow now until the ending?

[spare geyser]

I don't think Subtle Matter is just an illusion per se. If a fixed recording of C-Con's thoughts and ideas lived on, then I think it was still them at least for a time?

[pine kite]

It seems like it is real, it's just not a true afterlife in the way Scar thought it was

[compact ermine]

tbh we dont know

we see a bunch of force ghosts in the spark route the afterlife may well be real

only thing we know for sure is that skif isnt there yet by the time the credits roll

[pine kite]

It's deliberately not answered definitively, though I feel confident it's not 100% made up at least

[spare geyser]

Agree that it's not 100% made up, but it's not real in the way that Scar wanted it to be, and the ones who live on through it are nowhere near the people they were in life

I wish Dalin had more screen time after his conversation with the Representative

[balmy salmon]

I mean the point is, it doesnt matter if suibtle matter doesnt exist at all or if it´s memory imprints (that would make the psi-cartridges rather pointless thohgh) or something. C-Con is 100% dead, and Faust either dies or loses access to the antenna depending on how you look at it through Kaymanov ending.

So what is the conscious being that is supplying monolith with goals and orders? By the logic of how they were freed when Strelok killed C-Con in ShoC, it feels they should regain autonomy after the second Duga raid.

Also: Spirit and a few other ex-monolith who were shielded during the signal dont revert afterwards out in the open, that means there is no high-power psi signal around to re-enslave them.

[pine kite]

Well, Faust's plan was to activate the Duga to turn everyone into monolith, but he never actually achieves that so I don't see why it would end after you kill him. The psi emission that fries the Ward during the first assault is the work of Spark, not Faust. The monolith control I think is coming through the whole x-lab network after Dalin brings it back online from X-11

It is pretty confusing though since you never really get an explanation

[balmy salmon]

makes sense, the antenna is probably irrelevant at that point. But if we assume the X-Network link goes both ways, with his controller abilities he could fill the same functional role on the network that C-Con once occupied for the drones.

But then he is gone, so to me it feels there is no one to hold them enslaved anymore. Same goes for the agents. It´s been over 10 years since strelok burned it all down, so who sent Dark after Strelok?

[spare geyser]

On Faust, I feel like it's not meant to be literally him but when the rest of the game's cutscenes play out pretty literally... Ehhhhhhh it gets unnecessarily muddy imo

I really wouldn't have minded fewer endings if more of these pivotal characters got more screen time. I find them just as limited as they are interesting

[jagged hull]

my understanding is that the signal activated programming thats in their heads, like flipping a switch or something

[jagged hull]

the thing with the skif ending is that the faust "reveal" could be argued both for and against, we really need more information for a definitive answer

[jagged hull]

keep in mind that the monolith were still fullfilling their objectives in cop when the c-con is already done. they go back to the same mode here. its even mentioned that after the loss at duga their forces are just going back to the north, its like their default state

[real leaf]

A bit late sorry but who are the other ex-monolith who are shielded from the Signal and don't turn back like Spirit? He's the only one I remember but I'd love to know if there are others

[frosty tinsel]

spirit

[marsh tree]

From watching others stream with the English dub seems a bit odd to me that Agatha is the only character that speaks with a Slavic accent.

[frosty tinsel]

or ai

[deep cove]

Surprisingly English voice actors are good too.

[slow light]

Are they?

[deep cove]

Except the monolith

[slow light]

The English VA in trilogy is far superior as they aren't just randomly American, Scottish, British

Just doesn't feel natural

[deep cove]

Indeed

[slow light]

I played with English VA for about half an hour and couldn't hack it

[fathom veldt]

sounds a bit schizophrenic?

[pine kite]

The main cast are all pretty good in English. Everyone else is all over the place.

[sullen terrace]

i find it funny how in the intro Dalin sounds like a monologuing villain, but in the game he comes off as a huge nerd (for the eng dub)

Korushnov, Nimble, Strider, and Faust were very good for the dub imo

[jagged hull]

no the english voice acting in the trilogy is a joke. the overdone slavic accents sound horrible and are impossible to take seriously

[fathom veldt]

might be so, for me after first playthrough (re)watching some videos in english was very weird

[ornate venture]

neko07176 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[waxen abyss]

I still can’t forget the Doctor’s scene from SoC the first time i heard its English version. Instead of this melancholic poetic feel the original had (and the patched ua dub did) English sounds like a drunk joke.

[spare geyser]

I think he sounds fine. He still slips halfway into monologuing villain mode occasionally mid game imo

I feel like Nimble got too little screen time to stand out but Korshunov, Strider and Faust were definitely all well done - plus Skif himself

[jagged hull]

the main thing i dislike in the stalker 2 english version is that some people have slavic accents and some have anglophone accents. theres not even consistency within the main cast, i remember agatha having a pretty thick accent meanwhile the characters people have named here as the best ones have pretty neutral anglophone accents

my favourite contrast is faust, he sounds very charismatic in the english version, his classic mantra of "you cant kill god, just like you cant kill the sky above" or however it goes sounds sooo much better in english

i think some voice actors are the same for both the english and ukrainian versions like richter and agatha which is just a weird choice

[raven holly]

someone told me you don't actualy need to kill them all, just run to the door. If you're talking about the last granite squad

[sterile sky]

Tried that, got obliterated by the aforementioned Gauss snipers in spite of my diamond exo & 2 compasses

[raven holly]

But with gauss + staying on top (don't drop down), and hiding behind cover, even on veteran it wasn't too hard for me, like took 2-3 tries. Just remember that you can shoot through the thin metal plates

[raven holly]

Also, physical protection is capped. No reason to use 2 compasses. Even 1 compass only makes sense if your exo gets worse condition. Coz 5 bars of protection is the max you can get

[raven holly]

(but it's important to be able to sprint for this strategy, so if you picked up a fresh dia exo without sprint mod, it's better to use X7 which you can also get just before that)

[raven holly]

this strategy works really well coz even on veteran, with good enough armor, gauss will not one-shot you. So you try to one-shot with gauss, get shot with gauss, hide behind cover, heal, rinse and repeat

[placid blaze]

Are mercs still hostile to some factions

[brave stratus]

They seem fine with bandits

[raven holly]

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1ihg97b/skifs_true_motivation_spoilers/

more interesting theories about the skif's ending, this is much more theoretical though

but if anyone hasn't read this one below, I strongly advise it, it's brilliant
https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1hl85p1/the_truth_about_the_zone_an_analysis_of_the_most/

[fathom veldt]

this should be pinned here, really annoying to "debate" with people who thinks everything was illusion : ), just comes with stupid ideas and can't back up or explain cohesively, faust is alive, there were no doctor etc...

though would argue few thoughts like

• "Why would the Zone want us to kill Faust?"
• "Perhaps this experiment was the Second Caribbean Experiment, which caused anomalies to appear in random places outside the Zone"

zone did not wanted to kill Faust, he was in a way, that's true sort of, but at that time before his death he though he was following monolith, anyways ward would have killed him, zone just was seeking help from Faust, Kaimanov and Skif

zone expanded because of lack of ccon presence which is natural enemy to the zone which seek control and containment. CONTAINMENT, hmm who else did contained her? 🙂

[spare geyser]

Maybe the Zone sent us to deal with Faust just because he was misguided. The Zone's call for help was for its liberation, not dominion over others - which Faust went all in on.

[sterile sky]

What actually happens to the person in the pod at the end of the game?
Korshunov certainly seems to think he's dying for the cause, but we hear Strelok talking after he's sealed inside

[raven holly]

wait he actually talks? I never noticed. Maybe it's before it gets full of liquid and stuff

I don't think any of them stay truly alive

[sterile sky]

You hear him on the radio, telling the Monolithians to stand aside

[raven holly]

oh right, forgot about that

[raven holly]

well, he's probably talking the same way we can "talk" to C-con. Doesn't mean they are alive

[fast thorn]

The Zone is a place of international interest, it really shouldn't surprise anyone to see more than just Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans there.

Also Scar's English VA is superior to his Ukrainian one.

[dull sequoia]

The C-Consciousness members were very much alive before Strelok killed them at the end of Shadow of Chernobyl. Of course Strelok is alive in that pod. He is on life support.

[pine kite]

I'll die on the hill that the main cast EN actors are good. Mostly it's random NPCs who I think are bad

[jagged hull]

we've been through this, youre just disregarding a whole ton of proof in favour of faust masquerading as doctor

its ok if you dont agree because the proof isnt overwhelming but that goes for both sides of the debate

[brave stratus]

Hey guys
I just finished playing Stalker 2 story
It's quite a journey

[jagged hull]

its very well established that the main thing setting faust apart from others is that he DOES NOT follow the monolith

[brave stratus]

Been playing two playthrough, each with different ending and sides

[raven holly]

Yeah fair, forgot that part. So it is probably possible to leave the pod and stay alive

[raven holly]

Could you repeat the proofs? The only thing I could see as an argument is how Doctor turns into Faust in the Skif's ending. Nothing else comes to mind

[raven holly]

Like in parallel? Wow that's crazy

[jagged hull]

hesitating when having to pick between strider and skif and controller sightings by the mercs in red forest are the main ones. also we never actually see faust die, we see his dead body but that can be explained by other chicanery

[royal flame]

Can I ask why no one has tried to lay the Zone under siege?

[radiant harness]

have you tried laying a siege to the Bermuda Triangle?

[royal flame]

No, but I bet if I put a sea wall around the outside of it i'll be fine

[raven holly]

Having to pick between strider and skif? Sorry I'm not sure what you mean

[jagged hull]

theres just not much of a reason to. ward already has the capabilities to control whatever areas they need to have access to, and they cant just take the whole zone for themselves since ipsf is there

[jagged hull]

when skif comes back to doctor with the monolith regenerator and strider is doing his monolithian things, he starts getting choked by strider and doctor hesitates for a long while before killing him when obviously if he didnt do that he would just die because strider was there to kill him

also its kinda weird that strider was there to kill him in the first place. from what we know, monolithians stopped receiving orders and just returned back to their original programming of protecting the center of the zone

[royal flame]

Why bother going through a middleman who takes a cut of the profits when you control 100% of their fresh food, fuel and water supply?

[jagged hull]

what are you getting at?

[fathom veldt]

well he does 🙂 till some point until he dies. Regarding yours

• "we've been through this, youre just disregarding a whole ton of proof in favour of faust masquerading as doctor"
  go ahead prove it 🙂

[jagged hull]

i have done it before and i am doing it yet again

[raven holly]

The much simpler explanation is that doctor is being a doctor and just really dislikes killing people, especially the ones he just tried so hard to save

[royal flame]

Why bother going through all the effort to trade or war when you can just starve out the waring factions?

[raven holly]

They also use stalkers to get artifacts and stuff. Besides, it's not like ward has trouble conquering stuff when it needs to

[jagged hull]

again no one rly wants that in the zone? the ones who do just dont have the resources

[jagged hull]

i think this just paints doctor as someone who is very indecisive and would have a hard time surviving on his own

[fathom veldt]

if this is your argument then you are a lunatic, fine for opinion though.
again you missed a lot in a plot

[royal flame]

In the Rookie village, i heard an npc talk about how sidorovich paid someone, then raise the prices of first aid kits to take most of the pay back.
Just restricting the supply would cripple everyone and make them much less likely to be hostile

If a day of bread goes up a few 1000%, suddenly things get difficult

[brave stratus]

Feels weird when you arrive in Cordon on late game you see all stalkers wearing Exo

[jagged hull]

lol that edit

anyways i just think this overinterpretation of the ending is just ridiculous. what is the ending trying to do other than recontextualising the story? why even show faust in the ending there if its just a red herring

[raven holly]

there's a whole bunch of lore about how doctor saves people out of nowhere, saving people is what he does

[jagged hull]

its not like the zone has open borders sidrovich manages a serious smuggling operation. still dont know what youre getting at

[brave stratus]

Especially in Rookie Village, people wearing Exos and these guys were veterans

[fathom veldt]

you are interpreting falsly everything wrong and keep telling this over and over again 😄 really nobody cares

[raven holly]

yeah that thing is really silly

[fathom veldt]

fyi why Doctor did not killed Strider is a reason and you are the only one who missed that 😄

[brave stratus]

It's call Rookie village not Veteran Village or Master Village

[fathom veldt]

"faust did not followed monolith" what a joker 😄

[jagged hull]

ok tell me how does faust showing up in the ending for not much of a reason in the ending enrich the story

because in my eyes it doesnt, and only the literal interpretation is successfully recontextualizing the story

and no "doctor and faust were on the same side" doesnt count especially if you say that he followed monolith lol

[brave stratus]

I get Sidorovich is an asshole but killing off your business competition who are just doing helpful trading is just too much jealousy

[jagged hull]

goal of monolith: protect the center of the zone
goal of faust: fry everyones brains so everyone is friends with eachother

how does fausts goal coincide with monolith's?

[grave elk]

I remember one of the NPCs mentioning that Sid is going kinda crazy so it checks out

[raven holly]

I would just expect a bit more hints throughout the story if the literal interpretatin was the correct one. But Faust & Doctor seem like totally different people

[brave stratus]

Seriously what is up with every Bloodsuckers become common enemy

[fathom veldt]

stop drinking

[raven holly]

wym?

[brave stratus]

During the mission on Ward side, you gotta rescue some Ward unit, there's 3 Bloodsuckers inside the facility

I can consider that as a boss fight

[jagged hull]

if you dont want to discuss the stalker 2 story feel free to stop responding 🙂

[grave elk]

You can sneak past them lol

[jagged hull]

theyre sleeping you can just go past them. and yes thats how they sleep

[brave stratus]

But when I'm roaming outside finding loot and artifact, there like two Bloodsuckers looking for kill

[jagged hull]

i think theres a gap in our understanding of faust's controller abilities, the devices set up near doctor's house might have something to do with it

[royal flame]

If you control a basic resource everyone needs to survive, it's really easy to assert control over someone.

[jagged hull]

keep in mind that in the ending doctor turns into faust only when stepping out of bounds of the influence of the device that forms the dome around his house

[brave stratus]

Bloodsuckers usually alone when outside open area for hunting, but two of em is too much

[fathom veldt]

really you are not disucssing it but just vomiting your opinion and you can't back up from lore, just spitting random things. Faust is not following monolith...even in ending he said he was lol (in the begining also)...maybe learn to listen first. Do you even understand that 10 years passed in the zone?

[jagged hull]

thats pretty much what strelok is doing but other than that no one wants to control the whole zone

[grave elk]

I'm waiting on the next patch to start my second playthrough, Did the Dr. and streloks endings so Ill probably do Wards next

[brave stratus]

Damn GSC made muties into bullet sponges

[jagged hull]

and what are you doing? i dont consider just denying every single thing i propose discussion

[royal flame]

It would be like trying to deal with someone in trade and negotiate with someone who has control over your oxygen supply? Relatively small action could cripple everyone

[fathom veldt]

there are events that happened and they can't be ignored, and you just put on it your story : )) you understand? If you have good insights wouldn't say anything

[jagged hull]

just listen to what he tells skif on top of duga. he even implies hes against monolith, "now youve come for me, envoy of the monolith"

[royal flame]

You cut off the water supply to the zone for more than a week and that's it, entire factions are crippled

[jagged hull]

there is no water supply people just drink bottled water or purified fresh water from rivers

[fathom veldt]

just read what @raven holly posted above in his links. Dude, you can't be cohesive with your "explanations"

[royal flame]

You tried swimming in the rivers? And I was refering to the bottled water

[fathom veldt]

radiation genius

[royal flame]

Just stop the smuggled water and you can exercise your will over someone. What they gonna do, Not drink water?

[jagged hull]

how can you say that faust is a monolith follower when he himself says he angered monolith and now youre after him because of it jesus

[fathom veldt]

lol....maybe play again

[jagged hull]

again who wants to do that? no one is denying what youre saying

[jagged hull]

just take 2 mins out of your day, watch the cutscene again and stop repeating the same take

[fathom veldt]

just read those links very carefully and rewatch all scenes and remember timeline and you will understand

[jagged hull]

no, you just pay attention to the story of faust and stop spouting your very surface level view of him

an entire section of the game is made for you to realise hes not just a monolith preacher yet you keep repeating the same view

[royal flame]

So none of the factions never thought to cut off supplies to someone who was trying to kill them?
No logistical sabotage?

[fathom veldt]

🙂 everyone came to same conclusions, and you are such unique 🙂 not understanding story....fyi Faust first lost "connection" to monolith in swamps timeframe, listen to his recording in one of the beacons

[jagged hull]

no i am not the only one who thinks this you just ignore everyone else lol

[fathom veldt]

who else?

[raven holly]

yeah the devices are def a bit weird. Could be a hint at something. And how he turns the moment he leaves. And well, we only meet doctor after we kill Faust

[jagged hull]

i dont keep track of everyone but a while ago some moderator came here and was very convinced even without me saying anything. also in other discord servers. in fact reddit and this discord channel are the only 2 places ive seen where there is any opposition to a direct interpretation

[jagged hull]

also another odd detail, doctor has moved to a different house since soc. in his flashbacks we see an entirely different building. just another weird detail. might just be that they wanted to stick to the continuity of not changing the old cutscenes with young strelok

[fathom veldt]

🙂 some mods only just finished game, and really there are new ones.
Well you really can't read, i mean there are no other way to interpret it 🙂 it was just said in the game :))

[jagged hull]

🙂 well you really cant see, i mean theres no other way to interpret it. 🙂 it was just shown in the game

this is how you sound btw

[fathom veldt]

let me here again your comparison that Ukrainian veterans being monolith

[jagged hull]

this offends you only because you can only see monolithians as brainless soldiers lol

[fathom veldt]

go on :DD

[jagged hull]

i dont see a reason to pursue this avenue of discussion as youve shown before that you do not understand or acknowledge metaphors in media

[jagged hull]

also dont put words in my mouth, ukrainians have nothing to do with this, its just a more important topic for contemporary ukraine as they have a lot of veterans now. how theyre treated in society and their place has not changed since the end of ww1 and its unlikely to change in the future

[fathom veldt]

here is litle puzzle for you, you say that faust did not followed monolith, how come then in the end he sais he did? (thought not only reference)

[jagged hull]

where does he say this?

[fathom veldt]

mhm 🙂 that's what i am talking about, jsut read it, how hard is th at

[jagged hull]

damn sorry i dont know every line off the top of my head. while you refused to respond mainly, i have found an answer to your little puzzle

faust, in the skif ending: "i used to serve the monolith blindly, until she opened my eyes"

essentially this denies that he follows monolith. he stopped sometime in the past and is now following his own goals, whether is project y or something else

[fathom veldt]

yes, but do you know what cohesive means? Timeline is important, when something happens, thats the main thing though.... Project Y (project why :)) is a project of Kaimanov though. Anyways, that he was following monolith and thought like so is until the DUGA death, some in swamps references, some in the begining. Thats called a belief, just like you 😄 lol believes in something, Faust also did believe, well fasle belief though...

just a quick ref, you can watch/play yourself: #📸┃screens_and_videos message

though that scene is very mystic...

[jagged hull]

we never really know if its kaimanov's project tho, authorship is never claimed

also, having read the document again one line jumped out at me

Provide Alpha Artifacts (**we've** got a number of faded ones – more than enough).

who is "we"?

[fathom veldt]

it was claimed this, this whole story is following project y trails, people also argue this is why its cannon (including me), since it ends how it started.

[jagged hull]

what are the project y trails you speak of?

[fathom veldt]

really don't know this who is we, need to see original note

[fathom veldt]

scanners, looking for his agents etc

[jagged hull]

its a new document seemingly so it cant be c-con. as for the note you can look it up yourself, its just a rough outline of what needs to be accounted for proceeding with the plan

[jagged hull]

oh i thought you meant that this was being worked on since kaimanov was still a scientist by trade and not a doctor. what really makes this hard is that we have no timeframe for how long this has been going on

[fathom veldt]

its possible that not only one author is of project y

[jagged hull]

doctor never associated himself with anyone other than strelok and his group, at least on paper

[fathom veldt]

no, this was later, after he dropped his kaimanov name and what is related to it

[raven holly]

I mean there were a couple of agents like Chornozem, Nestor. I would not read too much into it, could be rather a mystery they would reveal in dlc's / next game

[jagged hull]

yeah thats what i figured. still its unclear how long this has been ongoing which is rly annoying

[fathom veldt]

you mean next story? they probably have it on paper already, till its implemented a year maybe, don't think its comming soon, since its very complex game

[jagged hull]

as i understand it the agents couldve been acting as sleeper agents until they start receiving messages from mdst which probably can be done through whatever systems c-con used as well

[raven holly]

are you replying to me or lihacc?

[fathom veldt]

it could be this also "we", him and his agents : )), its possible

[jagged hull]

its still odd that by this logic dark, chornozem and nestor were out there while soc/cop was happening and they were just rly unimportant and managed to not get themselves killed for 10 years

[raven holly]

yeah chances are they were controlled, it was not a cooperation out of free will, but can't really say for sure, so far we know very little about project Y, hopefully we'll know more later

[raven holly]

yes, this is also what I was thinking. has a simple explanation, or could be retconned by future creators of stalker 3 to mean something more complicated

[fathom veldt]

that's for sure

[jagged hull]

obv theyre agents their free will is very limited. as for not knowing about project y, we know everything but the logistics of how it was set up but that can be filled in pretty quickly

[raven holly]

oh wait, Dark was also in the list of Y agents?

[fathom veldt]

yeah its not really clear, don't think need to think about it, anyways we will not find out without next expantions, could mean a lot..

[jagged hull]

no he wasnt but he was an agent, and they stopped making those since someone killed the foremen of the agent factory

[fathom veldt]

agents with different masters 🙂

[jagged hull]

this is a bit of a stretch in my eyes, theyre not much of a team or a group, everyone part of the plan apart from whoever runs it is just a tool.

on the other hand, if its faust doing the work, its pretty clear who "we" is

[jagged hull]

theoretically new agents could be made but it would be logistically very difficult especially for a single person. he would have to capture someone, drag them to generators, into the neurolab, all without getting wiped out by the granite squad and whoever else is around on the way there

[raven holly]

actually I started thinking about Scar and I'm confused. He was a c-con agent since after end of Clear Sky, so all of ShoC, CoP etc. And they gave him Marshall's memory. Spark was clearly post-CoP, as in CoP we only saw pre-Spark. But in CoP there was already no c-con. So who made Scar into an agent? By whom is he actually controlled? I haven't done the spark path

[jagged hull]

scar was turned into an agent before clear sky

[raven holly]

oh right

[jagged hull]

after clear sky he got captured again, and they just kept him sitting around somewhere. this is where it gets fuzzy, its kindof unclear what his goals are. on one hand, he is officially a part of project y, on the other, what is he doing trying to bring about his shining zone?

[raven holly]

wait, Scar is part of project Y? Was he in the list too?

[jagged hull]

read this https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Message_to_Scar_from_MDST

if this doesnt confirm it idk what does

[fathom veldt]

but thats private groups/agatha purpose, to have complte influence, and really its not problem for them, generators are all over the world, anyways what happened in chernobil it was just testing grounds silently perform experiments, they have this techonology for sure, like projections(induced illusions) and such

[raven holly]

Project Y notes
https://www.reddit.com/user/PalwaJoko/comments/1hrfh5f/project_y_notes/

[fathom veldt]

not all the time, 3 years missing :)) probably inconsistency in story, he was made by MOST or MDST in english

[jagged hull]

are you implying that the regulatory board is partially responsible for project y or

[raven holly]

MDST is c-con, not project Y

[fathom veldt]

not related at all, kaimanov and group are opposite goals like + and -

[jagged hull]

c-con is dead mdst is just an alias in this case. think of it as someone using someone elses phone number

[raven holly]

like MDST/MOST are the guys that worked under C-Con like the Dvupalov, and probably Lebedev etc.

[raven holly]

but yeah it's an interesting note. I can't piece it together

but then again, it talks about activating visiograph and so on. This is C-Con's goals, not Project Y's goals

[jagged hull]

c-con is dead they have no agency at all. you might be right about him not working for project y tho

[raven holly]

so could actually c-con sending messages from noosphere? could they do that? or maybe MDST is still operating and trying to help c-con, just much decreased, maybe a single person or several

[fathom veldt]

Faust lost voice of monolith (reference from swamp) at that time even....but really need here to understand what called him wasn't monolith (ccon) but zone, but since his goals did not aligned with kaimnovs project so voice stopped talking.... (false belief)

[jagged hull]

mdst might be another way of saying the regulatory board (agatha's bosses) and thats also a likely outcome

[raven holly]

hmmm I can neither deny nor confirm that theory

[fathom veldt]

yeah this is very mystical....i don't believe ccon is dead :)) but who know how the heck this techonology works, i know that representive said that they lost control once Strelok destroyed their bodies

[raven holly]

Like, before c-con was created, these scientists were originally working for the Board. But then MDST became fully on C-Con side I think. But yeah Board contacting as MDST is def more believable than Doctor

[jagged hull]

c-con might still be alive in some sense but they have no agency left from what we can see

[raven holly]

also not sure what this means "Use Orbita Station to recruit scientists."

[jagged hull]

from what i understand, the board is the overarching organization that cared about the research in the zone and they used other organizations like MDST, SIRCAA and ward to fulfill their goals

[jagged hull]

i understand it as showing subtle matter to scientists to prove to them that the shining zone is real

[raven holly]

My understanding is they were the original creators / managers of the whole project, then c-con & mdst went "rebel", and they created ward/sircaa to get control back. Actually could be just ward, sircaa might be more independent as it was influenced by Strelok and Dalin later on picks the opposin side to Ward

[jagged hull]

i wouldnt say that they rebelled c-con just messed up a bit and things got out of hand

[raven holly]

ahh wish I could also read it in Ukrainian, now feel extra sad that I accidentally deleted the save slot where I completed my 1st playthrough, for the Kaymanov's ending lol

[raven holly]

I am pretty sure about the rebelling part but I have no arguments lol. Not sure where I heard / read it

[jagged hull]

i mean the board cant mind control everyone there will always be people who defect, especially when theyre so hands off and refuse to interfere directly. the regulatory board is more like illuminati in this case, the invisible hand or whatever

at least thats the impression i got with how its implied that agatha is just as much if a pawn as skif or korshunov.

[raven holly]

I agree

[fathom veldt]

there is in this chat here this message originally in Ukrainian if you have patience looking for it

[raven holly]

but Agatha could be the Queen I think. There are also some implications she's an AI

[raven holly]

did you mean to link to a message? or you just meant the Ukrainian chats

[fathom veldt]

sorry, but not exactly a pawn, more like a bishop : ))

[jagged hull]

no difference, both bishops and pawns have no free will and are being moved around by someone

[fathom veldt]

yes, in ukrainian language IN this chat, i had problems with english pda's, wrong translations, still doubting about real Faust name : )) but other people already also believes like so...also in wiki

[jagged hull]

korshunov might as well be a rook

[raven holly]

yeah I wish wiki also had pages in Ukrainian

[jagged hull]

i mean idk i think who faust was before he became a controller is of very little concern especially since he was just a stalker seemingly

[raven holly]

I am a native to be clear so could read & translate if there are any doubts regarding the differences between the translation & original

"I think you're right about Faust dying, though. With Skif in the pod believing Faust is alive, it effectively does make Faust alive in a sense, via Skifs hallucinations and will on the Zone."
Probably not exactly right but an interesting theory

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1hl85p1/comment/m5aob7w/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[fathom veldt]

a stalker named Sickle, you also learn that he was stalker by talking with him at DUGA. Monolithian, later on with Strider they formed Noon

[raven holly]

also an interesting detail, not sure if it's real, did not check, but could imply something big about the Doctor

"He looks young (or at least he has dark hair and no coat) when you first meet him and when you fight Strider in the basement. Then, when you confront him outside the house and during the ending, he is wearing his Shadow of Chernobyl outfit and has white hair."

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1hl85p1/comment/m3n8vyo/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

but could be just engine misbehaving ^^

[jagged hull]

this outfit comparison is just such a stretch lol he just was inside so he didnt wear a coat, like a civilised person. unlike most stalkers

[fathom veldt]

i wish too...awaiting for it....also would be nice to have sound recordings too

[raven holly]

yeah probably

also I'm a bit confused about Strider wanting to kill Doctor. Forgot a little coz didn't play in a while. Is it explained who sent him to do it?

[jagged hull]

nope. not at all. its a very suspect situation. as i mentioned before, monolithians allegedly just returned to their basic instructions of defending the center of the zone, but strider wasnt having it apparently

at least thats my understanding, they might have programming but they have no leadership so theres no reason for them to be doing specific stuff like killing doctor

[raven holly]

an interesting paragraph, this comment is very big and has a lot of interesting stuff:

"Unfortunately, I think he also fell under psi-influence, seemingly at the Clear Sky base when Nimble first guides him there (listen to the last audio log at the base), and started to work towards reviving Monolith. He thought bringing back the Monolith would make him and his brothers happy, but what he really needed was freedom."

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1hl85p1/comment/m3oernx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[fathom veldt]

its because Kaimanov wants to free zone, and ccon wants to contain it

[jagged hull]

yes but how does c-con know this. and how are they giving him this otder

[raven holly]

but do you think ccon can still control monolithians, after the Signal at the SIRCAA? Because we don't see it anywhere else, only Faust controlling them I think

[fathom veldt]

through rock, who knows, actually i don't believe ccon is dead, there is that 😄

[fathom veldt]

no, as representitive saaid thay lost this once bodies kililed by strelok, but who knows, they still possible can communicate?

[raven holly]

so who made strider wanna kill the doctor?

[fathom veldt]

i am speculating here, it aligns with ccon or ward really don't know anyone else, but its ccon it makes more sense

but need to know that at that point he is zombie not strider

[jagged hull]

zombies arent competent fighters, meanwhile strider is very competent

but yes essentially not much of his old self is left, only for a second while his life is slipping away he regains clarity

idk the simplest explanation for how the monolith works is that if theyre not getting direct orders from c-con, theyre just programmed to protect key areas, like pripyat, cooling towers, generators etc

[fathom veldt]

probably misread, about what time event you both talking, sirca or docotors house, because later on he is complete zombie, fried brain

[jagged hull]

somewhat explains what was happening in cop. not sure how preachers play into this

[jagged hull]

i mean he doesnt look like one at all, zombies are never shown to be particularly strong unlike strider when hes mind controlled

also zombification is an irreversible progress and for a second he becomes sober when he gets stabbed in the neck so he did turn back

[fathom veldt]

he is very weak in doctors house though, he tried to fix him (such is the way of guilt)....really the only mysterious thing is how the hell that noosphere and pods interact, ok they upload mind, the fck then bodies are needed? as i understand its one way in ccon case, but maybe not in skif/shram/kaimanov? since they are not merged with anyone so hypothetically possible to go back to body?

[fathom veldt]

probably its mind upload from his psi imprint + using regenerator to restore damage; he also might not been restored....

[jagged hull]

probably yes, they can go back. from trying to read through how this is meant to work, people are needed to interact with the noosphere, to send out signals or something and multiple people are needed to have more brain power or something. its all just predicated on this mystical brain power in the end

[fathom veldt]

yes but noosphere and zone has two way communication hmm

[jagged hull]

another thing is that those pods werent designed to be something you can get out of

[fathom veldt]

when was it said? don't remember

[jagged hull]

when was his mind imprint even made i never got that

[jagged hull]

its mostly implied. i concluded this when kaymanov specifically mentions that you can leave the pod in orbita

what am i on about, its not implied, its just common sense. c-con never planned to leave the pods since they wanted to merge consciousnesses

its like turning back a soup into its ingredients...

[fathom veldt]

thing is that pods are weakness : ), someone can still kill skif, kaimanov etc

[jagged hull]

yes exactly which is why i think skif ending has a bright side to it. no one will be able to usurp the power that the zone provides

if the stalkers in strelok ending are smart enough theyll team up and just go to generators to kill strelok, unlikely in the scar ending but the same could happen in the ward ending once some internal power struggle takes place in the regulatory board or ward or sircaa

[jagged hull]

and ofc c-con knew this, which is why monolith exists

at least partially, they were needed to protect their installations in general

[compact ermine]

I think the bodies in the pods serve no function anymore. The conciousness is uploaded to the noosphere and they can function fully without bodies. Strelok messed up C-con not because he killed their already basically dead bodies but because he damaged the central x network node while doing it. The representative say that the node was damaged by Strelok during the spark path endgame.

[jagged hull]

i think i need to dig in to kaymanov's diaries again their plan was described their in detail

[fathom veldt]

ah so i mixed things here a bit, yeah its more likely because of node, not bodies. really those bodies makes no sense to me

[jagged hull]

i think the bodies are still somewhat of a power source, keep in mind that kaymanov did need to be replaced by something and that something was a power amplifier that would substitute him and let c-con do their business

in the end we might be missing some key pieces since all of this is scifi technobabble thats completely unreal

[fathom veldt]

but he did not stepped in, probably it was enough -1 scientist mind to form ccon

[jagged hull]

no it wasnt enough so they used an altered variometer. quoting:

It seems Dalin intends to swap out my (empty) Pod with Suslov's apparatus from the Caribbean Experiment. I'm surprised they haven't thought about constructing a Variometer large enough to replace all eight of us.

the heart of chernobyl is the same thing but 8 times stronger or something and its why strelok and skif can go into a pod alone and have all the power thats needed

[fathom veldt]

yeah most of it was explained in previous game, really its sci-fiction : ), i already posted this here, but you probably did not seen, this is also inspiration from reality -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere
but still makes no sense, even in reality though we have no such technology YET, you and your body is like a water and a glass

[fathom veldt]

yes, but his pod was empty and still ccon was formed, you can see pod empty in kaimanov ending , the only two pods had names, kaimanovs and dalins

[jagged hull]

just read the quote. they replaced kaymanov with another power source. im not disputing that their plan worked

(i mean not really since kaymanov played the hero and started shooting the damn thing)

[fathom veldt]

its still was not explained why, this part is left out

[jagged hull]

its not fully explained but its plain to see that something was going on there, even before kaymanov started shooting red lights were flashing everywhere

[fathom veldt]

you trying to say that bodies used as amplification source?

[fathom veldt]

it isn't, but its character development, he had doubts and later after that guilt was primary motive. who knows even he is dead , it seems so....this is just mind fck

[jagged hull]

yes that is whats written in a few of the documents

[fathom veldt]

its probably from before, don't remember this, or did not paid attention

really everything so complex and twisted everyone has their goals, beliefs
that's why this game is the best

[jagged hull]

Suslov has built an interesting contraption he calls the Variometer. It is an electromagnetic psi-amplifier with a modulation unit. Its output power is actually similar to that of a human brain in active state. It allowed us to perform the Caribbean Experiment, which was aimed at testing the hypothesis of the Noosphere's existence.

variometer is the metal ball thing in the generator thing in the center of the pods that skif or strelok replace with a heart of chernobyl

[fathom veldt]

ah yes, now i remembered, though human brain has like 20W power irl 😄

[jagged hull]

well in the stalker universe brains emit some psi radiation so thats the power thats being talked about i think

from what im reading, brains and this thing emit alpha psi radiation, that can affect living beings and the alpha artifact can convert that to beta psi which is electromagnetic so maybe thats why they could interact with the noosphere?

[fathom veldt]

yeah i know what that is :), yeah this sci-fi is a bit weird

[jagged hull]

im imagining the noosphere as another set of fields like electromagnetic ones which cant be sensed but people can affect them in certain ways

not sure if thats the framework the writers imagined as well but it seems the closest to conventional science

[fathom veldt]

The noosphere (alternate spelling noösphere) is a philosophical concept developed and popularized by the biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky and philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Vernadsky defined the noosphere as the new state of the biosphere,[1] and described it as the planetary "sphere of reason".[2][3] The noosphere represents the highest stage of biospheric development, that of humankind's rational activities

a bit of pseudo science

[jagged hull]

yeah i read that page and the issue is that gsc used a basically philosphical concept meant to explain our place in the world and added even more pseudoscience to it

[fathom veldt]

its fine i think, it makes it very rich game

hmm...but if Faust was successfull experiment...who else in the zone is also like him...

[jagged hull]

i really doubt that there are more of these human controllers out there. it was a lucky coincidence that faust was a monolithian for a long time and probably didnt use his abilities, and when he did break free he had goals that were focused on the zone itself and not the whole world. keep in mind that he was part of a supersoldier program, specimen like him were meant to be used in wars. someone with powers like his could conquer the world

in my eyes if there were more people like him it would get into power creep territory which isnt healthy for upcoming stories

[onyx seal]

I wonder if the zone has been around long enough for a full adult to be born and raised in it. A literal "child of the zone" would be quite the interesting character

[fathom veldt]

its very natural to repeat experiment, just like with the mutants, same author. Where did you get this super soldier program?

[jagged hull]

richter grew up in the zone hes kinda like that

[fathom veldt]

he wasn't, he is only for 10 years in the zone

[jagged hull]

he ran away from his foster home so i assume he was still living with his guardians/foster parents

i assume he was 16/17 when he left, at least he spent most of his adult life in the zone

[fathom veldt]

there were some references in lab and toys and recordings on a child (some experimentation), but its not clear was it a child or was it about Faust in some temporary regression state

[jagged hull]

the quote is from a damaged fragment of an article, but its easy to fill in the gaps of whats being talked about considering that this is found in agroprom underground

The main flaw in the Universal Soldier program lay in the Project X scientists' failure to preserve the test subjects' reason and humanity during brain manipulation, prioritizing basic…

this is commenting on controllers being mutants basically, and faust is the specimen that addressed this

[fathom veldt]

yeah, but there were no link between faust and soldier program

[onyx seal]

Briefly confused faust with agatha in my head lmao. She's just C-CON 2.0, right?

[jagged hull]

controllers are the universal soldiers. at least thats what i assume since this is found in a lab that produced controllers

[fathom veldt]

yep, well probably private group technically owners, not a manager-representative

[fathom veldt]

there were really no link between that, its just that he was a stalker called Sickle

[jagged hull]

also this is like the only time the universal soldier program is mentioned so it would be an awful red herring to leave lying around in a lab that produced controllers

[raven holly]

but what stops others from killing the skif's body?

[onyx seal]

Perhaps an attempt at the same project. She's clearly, explicitly non-human in any way we understand it though

[jagged hull]

oh i never assumed that controllers were made from scratch, theyre probably made from other stalkers too. there are notes mentioning other failed experiments that seemingly were conducted on adults

[jagged hull]

well, skifs goal was just to free the zone, nothing else. when c-con was killed, did the zone disappear?

[fathom veldt]

no, Faust is the first one we really get to know that he was turned into controller, others were mutants
https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Sickle

[jagged hull]

do you think they just grew those controllers from scratch?

[raven holly]

huh yeah, but in a way faust / other monolithians are children of the zone coz they have no memory of past lives. Or well Strelok is child of the zone coz it gave him life. I'm not sure when it happened tho'. Is it when he comes all beaten up in doctor's cutscenes / cutscenes from ShoC?

[fathom veldt]

they have this technology like Faust controlled illusions, where she can project her self...well she doesn't feel human, but thats how corporate bi[c]hes are (men including : ))

[raven holly]

wait where is this info from? I don't remember

[jagged hull]

also no there were others

Prototype 8. High post-implantation mortality; survivors show no telekinetic abilities. Outbreaks of self-harm.
Prototype 11. Deemed unsuccessful at the development phase.
Prototype 17. Displays extreme aggression, prohibited from reproduction. Final specimens sent to reclamation lab for preservation. ```

faust was just the only one that was a success

[jagged hull]

wiki says its sourced from a post by gsc, check the wiki page

[raven holly]

I think there are also hints that she could be an AI

[fathom veldt]

yes, the only one successfull, but really there might be more, its only naatural for them to repeat experiment until they get this right (though there were no reference)

[jagged hull]

im not denying that possibility in universe but i dont see why gsc would want that

[raven holly]

but why couldn't zone free itself, why did it need Skif? Does it mean that Skif works as a kind of connector for the zone? And if he gets killed, the zone looses some of its power / freedom. But yeah it's highly theoretical

[fathom veldt]

really, don't think there aren't any ninja who can kill skif, korshunov, scar : )) same strelok did to ccon bodies

[fathom veldt]

most likely not

[jagged hull]

others try to impose their will on the zone, control it somehow, but skif gives agency to the zone itself somehow and it just spreads, and once it spreads you cant destroy the zone

some people use the analogy of this process damaging the noosphere somehow, where it starts to interact with how we see the world, suddenly people's thoughts and memories start having effects on physical reality

[fathom veldt]

induced illusions - as projection fits better, but who knows. what hints are you talking about?

[raven holly]

lemme look up some discussions I had in the Ukrainian channel

[fathom veldt]

You are Ukrainian? can you get a screenshot from Nimbles(Шустрый) chat with Sickcle(Серп)? you should have it...

[raven holly]

I am, should it be in my PDA after encounter with Nimble? Coz I am pre-swamps in this playthrough and accidentally deleted my first one lol

[raven holly]

ok this is the msg, lemme translate it now #❔┃сюжет message

No, they use the Stalker program not as control but as monitoring and projection of the matrix. Literally the same as Spark.
Agatha herself, I'm 90% sure that it's just AI

There are a lot of hints at this. Her appearance comes from nowhere, she wasn't in the room when we came. Her cigarette has no smell (which is what Skif says), and she also asks Herman "What am I". And the whole ending of The Ward is an allusion to the Matrix, which is literally hinted at by the scene with the monitors like in the Matrix, and Agatha herself is literally Agent Smith or that main grandfather from the Matrix that Neo comes to. I don't remember his name.

She also threw in phrases like "This should be expected from people" like she herself is not a person and such behavior is not typical for her

In short, if you listen carefully, then most likely she's just an AI made by an NDI. The goal of the NDI is to build an ideal humanity, to complete Project X. And it is obviously not up to a human to manage all this, because all people will live in the illusion of happiness. And Agatha, as an AI, cannot have needs, so she is the perfect candidate.

So the ending of The Ward is literally that humans built the Matrix.

A prequel to the Matrix

^^ not sure what's NDI. Maybe regulatory board? Or could also be SIRCAA coz in Ukrainian it's NDICHAZ, so could be like a short version of sircaa

[real leaf]

You can only loot it if you kill Nimble though
A friend and I were wondering if Sickle in Nimble's PDA is just one of Faust's soldiers and Nimble, by referring to Faust instead, points out that they're all puppets for him (ie. knows he's using sickle as a proxy). Given his controller "abilities"... This or maybe a translation error and it was meant to be Faust's old name from CoP. Or just a coincidence, but I doubt that!

[raven holly]

oh crap yeah sorry guys I am a good guy, I didn't kill nimble lol

[raven holly]

but you can change language to ukrainian, make a screenshot, and I'll translate. if you have it in your PDA

[real leaf]

No but same 😂 I only saw it when my friend sent me the PDA because we keep discussing the story/lore trying to make sense of things!
I'm not on my pc rn but if no one else posts it I'll try to get it in Ukrainian out of curiosity yeah

[jagged hull]

i think i killed nimble in my current run i could do it

[fathom veldt]

it happens in projection room, i repeat projection room, but its not the only place she appeared out of nowhere. Apearing from nowhere is induced illusion, just like faust, but refined technology it might be

[plain pelican]

Mean

[fathom veldt]

yes but for that would be nice to see original text instead of translation :/

[fathom veldt]

well :)) sort of... he left you in a middle of anomaly field to die 🙂 if richter did not gave you a bolt, what you would have done then ? 🙂

[plain pelican]

It's Nimble tho

[raven holly]

I just couldn't murder the legend that was present in all games of the trilogy and now here too

[plain pelican]

Same

[raven holly]

who else was present in all 4 games? Strelok, that's it?

[fathom veldt]

they are not the only ones though sidorovich 😄

[raven holly]

not in CoP

[fathom veldt]

oh thats true

[raven holly]

and strelok was protagonist/antagonist, while nimble was just a chill dude, just a semi-important but not really important npc in all of them lol, that's special

thank you @jagged hull #📸┃screens_and_videos message

guys do you want me to translate the whole or just some part that interests you?

[jagged hull]

i was on my ward run i let myself run wild

[jagged hull]

idk why this interested someone i just provided the text. its good that i can read cyrillic otherwise i wouldnt have been able to find this at all lol

[fathom veldt]

oh thanks

[raven holly]

from reading, Nimble calls the Sickle a Faust at some point, like "You, Faust..."
So yes, I think Faust is in fact Sickle and in his old pda he didn't care to change name lol

[real leaf]

Ohh so it is sickle in Ukrainian too... Could be his old PDA or this is just nimble calling out how much control over the others Faust has. Or Faust using Sickle's PDA to communicate

[fathom veldt]

so its not translation error

[real leaf]

But since Strider mentions he founded Noon with Faust he has had to be there for a long time, perhaps from his original group in which case... Ahhh man I wish we could get a DLC following Strider between CoP and HoC

[raven holly]

yes, the names on the left are Nimble & Sickle, but Nimble at some point writes "You, Faust, ..."

[jagged hull]

either way his exact name changes so little... we already know beforehand that he was the first member of noontide after strider, that they were close friends

[fathom veldt]

Nimble attacked you and explained he was working for Faust he came to smack you in the begining with monolithian guys

[jagged hull]

its cool ig that they didnt pull him out of nowhere though

[raven holly]

yeah could be that he's just using some other monolithian pda

but I think the truth is, they wanted a cool name for such an important character, but didn't want him to appear out of nowhere, so they made this name change

[fathom veldt]

so everything is coming together 😄

[fathom veldt]

nah, everyone used their owns, that would be just to confusing you know if you couldn't trust

[real leaf]

Yeah definitely what I thought at first especially given the folklore attached to the name Faust, at least in literature

[fathom veldt]

his name change is also related to character development just like strelok changed, just like kaimanov changed (sort of), Faust is like his super hero name 😄

[jagged hull]

yeah its still unclear though how the literature reference relates to what we see in the game. from what i can tell the connection is very loose

[jagged hull]

marked one as well. people change pseudonyms sometimes, its not unprecedented

[fathom veldt]

it doesn't, i read interpratations, really don't see any reference to it. p.s. i read all Goethe's work

[fathom veldt]

but in that case it was amensia, faust(sickle) did not lost memory

[raven holly]

fair point

[fathom veldt]

or also could be that he is no longer monolithian and did not wanted to tie to the past...could be various interprations, but fact changing name makes sense though

[real leaf]

That's your interpretation,like you said, I wouldn't say it doesn't make sense, I also read it and I can kinda see some parallels in some ways. Just my interpretation

[jagged hull]

the only connection i can see is that faust in the literary work wanted fulfillment and happiness, which is also what faust wants. and they both sacrificed their morality along the way, but thats not that special of a situation

[real leaf]

Selling the soul to achieve that / monolith is a loose connection but still is one. Summoning the demon? Monolith! :')

[raven holly]

asked chatgpt lol

"Faust, in Goethe’s Faust, is a scholar who, dissatisfied with life and knowledge, makes a pact with Mephistopheles (the Devil) to gain unlimited experience and pleasure in exchange for his soul. His role symbolizes human ambition, the pursuit of knowledge, and the struggle between morality and desire.

Calling someone “a Faust” could mean they are deeply ambitious, willing to take great risks (even moral ones) for success or knowledge, or are in a state of existential dissatisfaction, searching for meaning at any cost. It may also imply a deal with dangerous consequences, much like a “Faustian bargain.”"

[jagged hull]

that second paragraph does make sense maybe my comparison was too narrow

[raven holly]

but yeah I also don't think the reference makes thaaat much sense. just sounds cool

except I guess the search for meaning

[jagged hull]

didnt think of it in a meta sense, as in how its used in other works

[fathom veldt]

just wanted to write, its not about happiness its about pleasure 🙂 and death deny...but really don't think thats even relative important

[jagged hull]

eh its neither here nor there, he sees it as happiness and as something higher, thats what matters

[raven holly]

I think it's search for meaning first and foremost, happiness could come with it

[fathom veldt]

what i mean really to say it is not important to whom name is tied...who does not want happiness who does not want power (knowledge) and endless pleeasure in life so this moment would not stop....

well he kind of said STOP :)), he lost his voice in his head who called him

[raven holly]

also just a random question but where are you guys from, are you native English speakers or no

[fathom veldt]

yeah its pretty broad topic....the game says no happiness for everyone : ))

[jagged hull]

im from lithuania so no

[fathom veldt]

you can see from ill formed sentences' that we are not

[fathom veldt]

same here

[plain pelican]

Poland but my family is very spread out. Mainly across Poland and Belarus but have been in Ukraine and Russia too. It's a pain keeping track anymore lol

[fathom veldt]

well its in your name lol

[raven holly]

oh nice, I traced as much as I could and it's all Ukrainians but surname seems to have a bit of roots in Belarus

[raven holly]

are you from Lithuania too? all eastern europeans here lmao

[fathom veldt]

yep 🙂 just prefer not to use such term as eastern, sounds weird

[raven holly]

sorry yeah, for some central or Baltic is more preferable

[fathom veldt]

human history is very vast :)) and very tiny in cosmic scale, everything is possible

[fathom veldt]

np :)) really, just eastern sounds weird, nobody refers western europe, there aren't any division....technically....

[fathom veldt]

from which part are you?

[raven holly]

central Ukraine, but have roots from central-western and a little from south-eastern (Mariupol 😢 )

[fathom veldt]

mostly in this chat Lithuanians, Polish and Ukrainians fighting fiercely to prove everything otherwise in this channel :))

[fathom veldt]

well i have Ukrainian roots also

[raven holly]

heh nice

[dull sequoia]

Man, some of the people here are so keen to fall for Faust's machinations. The guy is a controller, for God's sake, and one of the slickest characters I've ever seen. I'm joking here, but if some of you are so easy to convince, I've got a bridge to sell you. 😄

[dull sequoia]

That's why I killed Sidorovich's goons and went and told him to his face. I never liked that bastard.

[sullen terrace]

is subtle matter just unchanging copies of the deceased?

[real leaf]

To be fair, this channel if anything shows that all of us have different interpretations and can't settle on one and all agree on it So I would say the point is kinda made: Faust's shenanigans are entirely up to interpretation (which is cool imo, I like a bit of unanswered mystery and being able to have 1000 theories coexisting)

My personal "interpretation" is that Faust played a lot of people like a damn fiddle, potentially including us/skif to steer him towards getting into that pod for that ending 😭

[jagged hull]

its not like youre not being played in literally every other ending

[real leaf]

Yeah exactly. I feel like there's no ending where Skif doesn't get played

[jagged hull]

in the strelok ending he gets completely shafted as hes stuck in there with everyone else, which is as good as a death sentence

[real leaf]

I went for Strelok in my first ending (following my gut, didn't see any spoilers) and I was like "oh. Oh okay"

[jagged hull]

at least in the skif ending he does what he thinks was right even though he was pushed in that direction by faust/kaymanov

id imagine that the pod isnt a spacious apartment but its something

[real leaf]

Yeah it definitely feels like a "main protagonist ending". This ending I didn't like much because skif looks so nervous in the cinematic like I know I have way too much empathy for a fictional character but man... He did NOT like that

[jagged hull]

i still think its the canon one. it definately has the most interesting implications for the universe

[real leaf]

99% sure it's the canon ending yeah, it certainly feels like so and is orchestrated like so. Even with the song playing in the cinematic

[jagged hull]

yep the song is also a hint towards it being the canon ending

[dull sequoia]

As if Strelok is invincible, all of a sudden. He went through the Monolith forces by himself in the first game and killed the C-Consciousness in their pods. What stops the Ward, for example, from assaulting the CNPP and killing Strelok in his pod? The Monolith? They couldn't stop one guy.

[jagged hull]

ward is stopped from assaulting the cnpp because most of their forces are dead and they cant get reinforcements. it would have to be an organic alliance between all factions

also if strelok can use anomalies to block all entrances to the zone, im sure that he can figure something out to make the generators more secure than they already are

[dull sequoia]

Then the rest of the factions, seeing what Strelok is doing, wouldn't ally themselves against him? They would just stay there and wait for their death? That is hilarious. Even Skif could just go back and shoot him in his pod. How can Strelok block all exits from the Zone with anomalies? He can create anomalies by his own will, wherever he pleases, in specific places? That's new.

[jagged hull]

watch the ending again please that is exactly what he did lol

[brave stratus]

Stalker 2 story in a nutshell is basically Skif finding a new apartment

[jagged hull]

thats implying that most of them know whats going and that they know how to counteract it. even the stalker community didnt know where the pods were until hoc

[dull sequoia]

That is one entrance shown and it looks like the one from the beginning of the game, where the anomaly was already there.

[jagged hull]

its not an impossible situation to get out of but its not as simple and easy as you put it

[jagged hull]

its not the same spot, this one is formed directly on a checkpoint and clearly it formed there recently since everyone is running

the other one was just in a random spot in the wall where there is no checkpoint

[dull sequoia]

I'm sure such an old perimeter doesn't have ANY breach in it. Also, Duty, Freedom and Spark are just going to start playing cards together, chilling by the campfire, waiting to die. Also Skif is still there. He knows everything there is to know about Strelok's whereabouts and intentions. Surely he would tell someone. And someone would be in need of his services to make the Zone accessible again.

[jagged hull]

look im just interpreting the scene directly. they didnt just show us a random breach, they showed us whats happening everywhere. as for skif, the entire cutscene is about him stopping his fight, giving up and just wanting it to be done. hes clearly angry at strelok but he doesnt look like he wants to fight so not sure about him

also what use are these endings if your goal is to just poke holes in them? if the goal was for the zone to stay the same, why even bother with endings or any story

[dull sequoia]

And if you are interpreting the hell out of that Kaymanov ending, you're just taking things directly here? You really can't imagine something out of Strelok's ending? I don't really care which one is canon, if I'm perfectly honest. The story of the game took a bad turn, in my opinion, but that's not the point. Everyone is so hell-bent in accepting the Kaymanov ending as canon that they simply disregard anything else. Strelok's ending is classified as a no-win situation right off the bat, but, the way I see, it's very easy to move the story forward from there.

[jagged hull]

i am interpreting the kaymanov ending just as directly, understanding it as it is shown. even if it isnt a no-win situation, it fails to move the story forward in any way. its pretty much the same arc as with taking down the c-con in soc

personally i am tired of stalker games consisting of you fighting monolithians and im sure that gsc want to change that too. anything following strelok's ending would necessarily require more monolith genocyde

[sullen terrace]

skif ending works best too if they want a setting outside Ukraine

[dull sequoia]

Fighting for the power Strelok's wielding currently is as good of an arc as any other and enough situations can stem from there and move the story forward.

[jagged hull]

honestly the most heartbreaking part of the strelok ending for me was that strelok kept using monolithians, i only sided with him because i thought he would eventually free them....

[sullen terrace]

strelok ending has a built in time limit till they starve, the soil is probably too radioactive to grow anything

[jagged hull]

look if its anything like the scenario you are outlining, its everyone vs. monolith which fails to utilize the other factions that exist in the game

[jagged hull]

also yeah, their time is very limited, both in terms of food and armaments. if strelok really cared about killing everyone in the zone (unlikely) he could get it over with fairly quickly if he relied on attrition

[sullen terrace]

in the skif ending, are anomalies (and psi radiation) the only things that spread worldwide? do (lab made) mutants, normal radiation, and emissions, also happens around the globe, or are still limited to the zone?

[jagged hull]

also no one else will be able to get into a pod after strelok, a new installation will need to be built

[jagged hull]

i think emissions might still be happening but mutants only exist in the zone. some pockets of radiation might exist since afaik some anomalies produce it but it wouldnt be a huge issue like it is in stalker

again its kindof unclear whether the whole world turns into a zone or if its just around the generator facilities. the news reports that are played suggest that its global, but we could be missing something

[sullen terrace]

I think blind dogs and the crows would spread world wide, something like snorks, burers, poltergeist, are obviously man made, and wouldn't spread outside

[dull sequoia]

There you go. Because you feel sory for the Monolithians and would like them to be redeemed, you wish Strelok's ending isn't the right one and that is understandable, but it's a personal preferrence so, therefore, headcanon. Which is fine.

[sullen terrace]

it would suck ass if the monolith artifact's influence spread outside the zone

[jagged hull]

do you genuinely want monolith as the bad guys for the entire existence of stalker? because i dont, they were always more interesting when they werent the bad guys

[sullen terrace]

theres already some set up for c con shenanigans outside the zone since its confirmed that there are agents that have left the zone

[jagged hull]

yeah true that would be a bit bad.

[dull sequoia]

No, of course not. But I don't care if they have to be wiped off the face of the Earth. They are clearly loose cannons. I felt sorry for Strider and his gang, but it's better for them to be dead than slaves for the rest of their lives, completely unaware of their actions.

[jagged hull]

keep in mind my view isnt some fringe belief lol. others have plenty of other reasons to not believe that the strelok ending is canon

[jagged hull]

obv its better for them to die but the process is reversible. the game also doesnt disagree with you, when strider sees whats happening he tries to shoot himself but hes too late

[dull sequoia]

Many want to take advantage of the Monolithians and use them for their own liking. Since the Monolithians will never be completely free, it's simply better to just exterminate them and move on.

[jagged hull]

i just think that the infrastructure that facilitated their control can be destroyed

the agent program was already destroyed in some of the endings, im sure the same could be done for monolith

[sullen terrace]

would the monolith artifact become inert if it was taken outside the zone while it was deactivated?