s2-lore-discussions

[fossil depot]

Are you wearing an exo-skeleton there?

[dull sequoia]

So Grouse simply disappears from Skadovsk, regardless if you kill them with his help or not.

[fossil depot]

Yea. He's dead either ways; not surviving. Only Trapper survives, if you help him.

[dull sequoia]

Not hearing Nitro say "Sup/Hey there" and "Later/See you around" everytime I repaired or upgraded a weapon made me sad. Nostalgia.

Do Vano and Sokolov get mentioned in Heart of Chornobyl? I don't remember hearing or reading their names.

[knotty basin]

Yep, in my first game before I learned better.

[knotty basin]

It's his destiny. The Doctor has to be realized as missing for the events to unfold.

Better buy as many supplies as you can from Tremor before you can't, when this event comes.

[fossil depot]

Nope. They don't even exist; I think Sokolov goes to become a civilian airline pilot, so he wouldn't even matter for S2 and Vano, most likely not.

[dull sequoia]

Right, Sokolov left the Zone, I forgot.

[fossil depot]

For Vano:

Vano headed off to the Freedom-controlled Military Warehouses, where his cheerful personality and optimism quickly earned him the popularity he merited. Ultimately, he took charge of a small group of researchers involved in investigating anomalous areas.

So either he's working for SIRCAA/Malachite or dead...the former would be interesting, NGL.

Maybe a brain-washed SIRCAA agent? Not the typical agent, but someone mis-led by the organization to do their bidding.

[dull sequoia]

He seemed like a genuinely benevolent guy. For a computer game character, of course.

[fossil depot]

Yea, but the Wiki says he got into the wrong shit due to being too gullible, so...most likely to just repeat.

[dull sequoia]

Or maybe Degtaryev smacked some sense into him and he turned out OK.

[fossil depot]

You can take the man out of the gullibility, but you can never take the gullibility out of the man. 😏

[dull sequoia]

Truth be told, that type of people have no bussiness being in the Zone...

[fossil depot]

That includes everyone except Sidorovich and Agatha...like, everyone else is gullible to various extents, believing the Zone will solve all their problems.

So...

[ornate venture]

amon_amarth has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

notso2586 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

blueicer1 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[dull sequoia]

No, I mean the ones who believe other scammers and let their guard down around obvious jerks and psychopaths. Unfortunately, Vano is one of those extremely naive people.

[fossil depot]

Agreed, which is why SIRCAA brain-washing him with lies sounds plausible (and great plot) where Skif gets to save him from himself.

[vapid spire]

He could live in rostok with the rest of freedom but he's out on a mission similar to Zulu.

[plush condor]

we know from reading the backpack nametag on Skif that his name is Yevhen Martynenko. do we know Richter's name as well? have I not paid attention or looked closely enough?

[fossil depot]

Yea, but for all we know, he doesn't exist in S2, so...currently just unknown.

[heady marten]

Bob

[plush condor]

very helpful 🗿

[fathom veldt]

sircaa does not exploit stalkers, if you are speculating then it would be malachite since they do that

[fathom veldt]

there aren't references, and Skifs name nice observation, also in game they say that...regarding richter he just goes by richter, he is an orphan apparently and youngest stalker

[plush condor]

ah. thank you :D
Richter is babygirl so I must know

[fossil depot]

How does Malachite do that? SIRCAA is literally working for Agatha and her private benefactors, Malachite is independent.

[pine kite]

Well I think they mean to say SIRCAA generally refused to work with stalkers at all. Instead they generally have the ward curb stomp them to get whatever the institute wants

[fathom veldt]

oh yeah this -> #📸┃screenshots_and_videos message

[fathom veldt]

yeah like Advisor said, remember the vibe in sirca when Skif got access to it...and in Malachite there are few conversations about employment of stalkers to do leg work, also you can find spark dead bodies there. Ozersky i think the first one who mentions this collaboration with stalkers

[pine kite]

Yeah it's sort of an open secret within malachite that they work with Spark. The other scientists and guards seem to trust Ozersky enough to look the other way. It's commonly known they work with stalkers in general though

[fossil depot]

Ah...fair, that kind of makes a lot more sense...especially since (unlike before), SIRCAA actually has unlimited funding.

[fossil depot]

Yea, but I always thought that SIRCAA are manipulators while Malachite = regular Ecologists who just want to do research?

After all, Spark has its own agenda and might be mis-leading Malachite?

[fossil depot]

No, of course, but my point is that Ozersky is a scientist, not a bad man...eccentric, at most. He'd prioritize research and safety over manipulating to gain power, while Dalin and Korshunov literally use you to connect SIRCAA to X-7 and cause a disaster.

[pine kite]

Oh yeah. Ozersky doesn't seem to have any bad intentions. Though I would say him and Dalin and also Korshunov are being manipulated in different ways too. Helping Spark gets Malachite raided by wardens in the end. Dalin's pride and desperation for a breakthrough are being played so he activates the installation at X-11. Korshunov's sense of duty and loyalty and desire to undo what he sees as a mistake are used by Agatha. It's one of the fun things about this story that there's this web of people trying to outmaneuver one another.

[fossil depot]

Right, but that's my point...Malachite is inherently research-focused but gets manipulated by Spark. Whereas SIRCAA is manipulative by default and actually goes around phucking things up for everyone else using a PMC.

And Korshunov...I feel bad for the man, NGL. Like, he's a military veteran who's got the skills and the track record to back up his authority, but he's just used as a pawn rather than have his own authority and existence beyond SIRCAA.

Kind of like Skif, honestly...both are high-level veterans but just become pawns in someone else's games and in their endings, they both get sacrificed to the Zone.

[sage crown]

Honestly true, feel bad for Baldy, it's honestly sad he dies in canon

To think about it, all 3 of the legends of the Zone (deggy I think, Scar and even the Strelok himself) get killed in the canon

Basically everyone we once knew died

[plain pelican]

There's a confirmed canon ending?

[fossil depot]

Eh, I'm not considering any of the endings canon.

[sage crown]

It's confirmed by GSC i think, Project Y, or Faust's ending is canon

[fossil depot]

Where?

[plain pelican]

Deggy is alive in that tho

[sage crown]

Idk where, I've seen a bunch of people saying that it's canon, everyone is saying that Project Y is canon

[fathom veldt]

its not a confirmation, people just betting on this ending

but also keep in mind that next story might be pre Skif, before 2021

[sage crown]

Meh, either way it's the one that fits the most for a DLC or continuation

Like Stalker 2 in France or smth

[fossil depot]

'Everyone' is not GSC, though...

[sage crown]

Welp, it's either that or Strelok's

But imo Project Y still fits the most for a DLC or Smth and it's also the most detailed

[fossil depot]

None is canon. For all we know, Spark's could be canon; everyone being a zombie.

[pine kite]

They haven't said which, just that they had an ending in mind already before the game was shipped

That said I think if you read between the lines of the game and just think of what would be practical to follow up on that does more or less narrow it down to Skif or Strelok, with Skif being more likely to me

[sage crown]

Spark's is definitely not canon

Neither is Ward's

[fossil depot]

Based on what?

[fathom veldt]

The Walking Dead Stalker

[fossil depot]

IKR? Like...that's a new fan-fiction moment!

[sage crown]

They wouldn't make it canon, Knowing GSC they would make it either Strelok's or Faust's

[fathom veldt]

scars is definetly fake ending, there aren't any questions

[fossil depot]

Again, based on what?

[fossil depot]

Can't say yet. In SoC, we had what, 5-6 endings? Till CoP, no one knew which was true.

[jagged hull]

skif's ending is the only one that has a song playing over it. its the only ending where you actually get the heart of chernobyl (which is the name of the game if you forgot). and its the ending where you kill every other dude that gets into the pod instead of skif in the other endings.

[jagged hull]

its not confirmed that degtyarev dies he just leaves pripyat for whatever reason.

[vapid spire]

Wonder if Skif could get out of the pod. Or someone could get him out.

[fossil depot]

I know what the game's name is; regardless of what happens in each ending, I'm not considering any of them canon till GSC confirms something.

Also, game's name is suppose to refer to CNPP/X-7, not the artifact itself...

[vapid spire]

We don't even go to the CNPP in the game though.

[fossil depot]

I know.

[sullen terrace]

is there any story paths where you do go to cnpp?

[plain pelican]

Nah

[vapid spire]

There might be in a future dlc

[fathom veldt]

if you start naming a story by a building, then why not like
Stalker 2 Rent is Due
Stalker 2: Basement Mutants
Stalker 2: Zone Approved Interior Design
Stalker 2: DIY Home Renovation Chernobyl Edition
Stalker 2: Skifs Apartment 404 – Not Found

Stalker 2: Skif’s Home Insurance Fraud

Stalker 2: Skif The House Hunter, Exclusion Zone Edition

if i was in command of monolith, i would start my own business and turn everyone into real estate agents

Convert to Monolith, Get a Free Loft!

Wi-Fi included, but only connects to some weird voice

[vapid spire]

So in the next patch, npc's in the field should be able to lead you to places like in call of pripyat.

[jagged hull]

oh true they really did mean "center of the zone" by heart of chernobyl. calling an artifact that had no name before that mustve just been a coincidence then

either way, theres a double meaning to "heart of chernobyl" and i doubt that the ending that actually reveals that isnt canon.

[jagged hull]

they shouldve just called it stalker 2 call of chernobyl wouldve been way more convenient for people who are trying to download coc

or stalker 2 oblivion lost. then instead of the alpha artifact there would be a oblivion artifact.

[pine kite]

Well at least to me the title is really about the main conflicts in the game. The fact that they named an artifact that too is a slightly silly addition to that.

[fossil depot]

This.

[fossil depot]

I doubt there had been a name before, and again, the entire Zone had the allure of getting to the CNPP in the trilogy. Beyond that, the X-Network...does anyone even know about the artifact that only Strelok seems to have and know of to justify the entire game being only about the artifact rather than the entire place?

[fossil depot]

IKR? 😆

[coarse wolf]

I know Richter mentions it at least once; but even then its pretty glossed over and, iirc, he implies that he doesnt even know if Strelok still has it. So yeah, imo, definitely no where near enough story power to justify naming the whole game after it LOL

[fossil depot]

Exactly...the game is named for the 'heart' of the Zone, being CNPP for most people and the real one being X-7. Nothing to do with an artifact that was seen exactly once in SoC and never mentioned again till S2.

[clear cipher]

Weren't there some sort of leaked documents where the developers allegedly considered the Faust ending as canon?

Or this is again an illusion of the controller?

[clear cipher]

I think Spark ending has the same vibes as the endings with the Wish granter in SoC, like an illusion that is actually something else in reality.

[clear cipher]

And actually, Strelok ending seems like an irony about the ending of C-Con in SoC. Like, back then he didn't go to the pod, but now he does. So I guess it's kind of fanservice.

[sage crown]

I think, I do remember that someone said that Faust's ending is canon, and it honestly makes the most sense, because it's the one that fits the most for a DLC or something

[sage crown]

That was exactly what I thought

[fathom veldt]

trilogy is something of the past, and i think would be very lazy writing and a bit dumb if it was named like so@fossil depot, why to fixate on artifact? This ending is about the zone, a lot of telling that it is sentient it need compassion, freedom, about its heart. Well sure this is the right one ending, since it is now exactly like in a book.

[fathom veldt]

i think like so too, false endings

[clear cipher]

Isn't the meaning of the name of the whole game to contain all the meanings of this game? Because this Heart of Chornobyl is an artifact, and a place, and secrets of the Zone, and the Zone itself. And also a small reference to the name of the first game

[fathom veldt]

😄 thats funny, yes if you read books like how to repair sink, then yeah its a bout sink then. It was narrative such whole time about the zone, not artifact, you only learned about artifact at the end

[clear cipher]

Well, it's not just the artifact itself, but its actual role in the plot. Strelok had the artifact because the Zone chose him in the original trilogy, but Skif was able to take it because he is the new chosen one of the Zone. So it's not the name of game that refers to the artifact, but the artifact is part of the game's meaning.

[fathom veldt]

well Strelok also is a part of this i think like so too, he is like a son of zone 🙂

[clear cipher]

For many he is daddy

[fathom veldt]

so zone is grandfather then :D....well or Strelok a dog in a cage :))

[vital pollen]

Apart from the artifact the game also at some point featured something called “proto-anomaly” with the same name, according to desdocs

Though in “it’s named after the artifact” argument I must say we first got promo text saying something along the lines of “there are tales of Heart of Chornobyl artifact” back in like 2021-2022

But we had “the heart of Chornobyl has never been beating as loudly as now”

So I think the name of the game is both things, really, it can be interpreted as either the key artifact that is essential to the plot or the center of the zone itself and that’s by design

[fathom veldt]

oh thats very intersting to hear from you. Yes its both, I was speaking more from a story perspective, feeling, symbolic way

[fossil depot]

I got slightly confused with the ping at first, NGL.

[fossil depot]

You're forgetting that in the original trilogy, the artifact was seen only once...in SoC...in a single cut-scene, without a name. It was supposed to denote Strelok giving an artifact from the center of the Zone. Nothing was said about what the artifact actually meant or what it even was.

[clear cipher]

I mean that the choice of naming * something * of Chornobyl is an intentional reference to the title of the first game, at least I guess so

[fossil depot]

Yes...but it refers to the location...metaphorical heart. Artifact itself was irrelevant till S2's ending.

[clear cipher]

And I mean, the game's title includes all of this at once. And the location, and the artifact, the secrets of the Zone, and so on. But if we talk about relevance, then throughout the game it makes sense to reveal the secrets of the Zone. Before meeting Strelok, Skif has no motivation to go to the center of the Zone, so the "location" also does not have much meaning until the last third of the game.

[glad dagger]

Literally the longest quest in the game: collect journalist stashes -> u get OP stuff in the end a flash drive with text "Streloks is bad/suspicious" you pick up more guns -> the end of the quest.
I wish there was more to do with it.

[fossil depot]

I mean...Skif literally has no motivation to anything except get his house back. And to do that, he still goes to the center of the Zone in the Ward ending, so he would've gone there either ways.

You think Korshunov and Agatha wouldn't use him as their personal one-man-army? Skif (just like prior protagonists) wipes the shit out of everyone he meets...and Skif is literally trailing Korshunov like a puppy after fighting through Granite.

[clear cipher]

But Skif, in the beginning, never knew that for the sake of the apartment he needed to get to the center of the Zone. On the other hand, if we believe in the theory that the Zone was trying to direct Skif, then yes, he needed to get to this place initially. But he also needed an artifact, although this is secondary.

[fossil depot]

Technically...he did have the artifact till someone ruined things. And even if the Zone didn't direct Skif...plenty of other idiots (Hermann and the group that hired Nimble) did.

So yea, I guess he was just supposed to sell the artifact to SIRCAA and get out, but, eh...I guess in that way, you're right that he wasn't supposed to go to the center, but...you can take the man out of the Zone, not the Zone out of the man.

[clear cipher]

Group that hired Nimble was Faust guys....

[fathom veldt]

thats correct

[fathom veldt]

House is really some fake motivation 🙂 which you can learn in projection room, house was never a kick for Skif to enter the zone. Its more related to the his past, and current boring meaningless life and further discovering more bout zone, its heart etc...too lazy writte essaay now :))

[fathom veldt]

its very interesting, i wonder who left message on the wall in streloks stash located in agroprom, was it strelok, was it journalist...

[fossil depot]

Yea, no, I get that, but in Ward ending...he just takes keys and leaves without a second thought (which I honestly found weird, NGL).

[fathom veldt]

its not weird, its just bs. It fits very nicely with story in other endings, except ward, which will not see anymore. Agatha said very clearly about skifs motivation and giving keys....i mean you should give papers :)) of ownership 😄 not keys....anyways fake ending

[fossil depot]

I mean...well...papers = abstracted from the lore, so we can assume they just gave those to him, but the ending makes sense...since Skif's unknowingly an agent...they own him either ways.

Personally, I'd guess parts of all the endings are canon in some or the other way.

[fathom veldt]

he isn't an agent, i think you did not understood ward path

[fossil depot]

I mean the final scene...where they show Skif's perspective on a monitor, just like Strelok did with Dark. They're literally watching the Zone through his eyes, meaning he's an agent in some way.

[fathom veldt]

well here is a spoiler || this was the goal of group to control/spy people over the world, that;s why there are so many newer generation generators on mainland all over the globe || but he wasn't an agent, and i mean what idiot would choose to work for them, since it was pretty obvious what they want from earaly in the game

so this ending kind of good fit for and idiot, who warned himself not to enter zone, n while if he wanted to get house, he could have just filed with gov and be compensated like the others were, but no he entered to help to spy/control others including him to get house...great logic right?

[fossil depot]

Yea, true...it doesn't make any sense, NGL...but I guess neither does the rest of the plot. 😔

[clear cipher]

Nah, an apartment in Kyiv is everything you can dream about

[errant epoch]

The way I see it, Skif was already at a low point before his apartment got destroyed. Regardless of whether or not he could get a new place, he wanted answers.

[clear cipher]

I actually think that the government would have only restored the walls of his apartment, and he would have had to buy all the stuff inside himself. The explosion was in the kitchen, so he would have had to replace the refrigerator, the stove, maybe other things. There would probably also be problems with the water supply and gas. In addition, while they were repairing his apartment, he would have had to live somewhere.

Or, in fact, if the government knew that these were all anomalous things from SIRCAA and the Group, they could have just bought the artifact

And takes a non-disclosure agreement

[fathom veldt]

wouldn't say all, just there are few things which is out of sense 😄 but as everyone believes they go with project y so others does not really matter, just few things from them

[fathom veldt]

yeah, this is what i tried to convey, room filled with smoke, one stalkers go to zone to discover themself and all that richter speach

@fossil depot any thoughts on writing on the wall in streloks hidout?

[jagged hull]

ive noticed that people who say the story is too simplistic or stupid also somehow miss the elements of it that arent spelled out literally

[fathom veldt]

let me guess it was illusion 😄 your usual explanation 😄

[jagged hull]

no i didnt mean to say that about you, you explained skif motivations accurately its just that a lot of the people that critique the story miss that and call skif stupid or something

[jagged hull]

no i have learned a new explanation called retcon. everything is retcon

[fathom veldt]

but it was 😄 in projectino room :), but not whats been said

[jagged hull]

its kinda in between the lines but people still miss that or ignore it for some reason

[fathom veldt]

i don't know about what you are speaking, it was just about logic and motivation and ending where it will not go anywhere further

[jagged hull]

skif doesnt say it outright he just acknowledges what agatha says and moves on.

[fathom veldt]

there is no need also to say this, this is how it works in reality, anyways there aren't any logic regarding this and it makes no sense in this path, in other paths house thing is heared like only once or twice

[jagged hull]

i dont think its that bad the ward path was never pitched to skif as something thats internally rewarding, its just an easy way to get a material reward for him. it makes sense if we think that skif sees ward as the good guys, so with his military experience he feels like hes done his duty and is back in square one with a few more adventures under his belt. and ofc the entire world is now under surveillance but hes just a soldier that doesnt care so

still a more statisfying ending than spark

[fathom veldt]

but it is not a reward what he already could gotten without effort and risk, thats a logic

[jagged hull]

i believe that he got a house thats a bit nicer than his old apartment

[fathom veldt]

good reward would be stocks in groups companies, some rank being part of it :))

[jagged hull]

i doubt that any insurance would do that or the government or whoever couldve repaid him for that

[jagged hull]

i mean wasnt he offered a high rank and to keep working for ward but he denied it?

[fathom veldt]

but we talk bout house :)) this makes no sense at all

[jagged hull]

what are you talking about here if only the house matters i dont get it

[fathom veldt]

we were talking, you interupted with different things 🙂

well not interupted, but jumped into and talked about differt things

[pine kite]

He doesn't immediately accept but Agatha tells him to think about it. She basically offers him Korshunov's position

[glad dagger]

can u remind me what it sazs

[fossil depot]

I haven't seen that, honestly.

[ornate venture]

talhazaar has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[fathom veldt]

@fossil depot you should have, its th is -> #📸┃screens_and_videos message

[glad dagger]

I think it is kinda obvious Strelok wrote about the Doctor

[fathom veldt]

my thought was also like so, but if these messages for amnesia purpose, that he won't forget maybe he should have written aa name then...suspicious

[fossil depot]

Did Strelok write them? Like, the hideout was shared among the group, right? Strelok, Fang, Ghost, Guide and Doctor?

[clear cipher]

But the question then is, what exactly is the Doctor behind? I mean, what is Strelok accusing him of? Ward's notes at the Chemical Plant say that the Doctor organized the Scanner scheme. The Doctor's notes say that there are agents outside the Zone. But what did Strelok know about then?

[pine kite]

Well Fang and Ghost are dead by the time that is written. You only find evidence that Strelok has been there since the SoC days basically. I think it makes sense

[pine kite]

My thought is perhaps he learned something about Project Y and didn't agree with it. By the time of HoC at least Strelok wants the Zone to remain exactly as it is forever.

As far as I can tell Doctor's plan was simply to release the zone from anyone's control, but he couldn't do that on his own and so had to manipulate others into doing the things he needed accomplished

[fathom veldt]

its question if it was Strelok who wrote it, its more intriguing if somebody wrote about strelok this message. as you know, he left there himself a recording with his name, where he was working, but left ambigues message, what attack? and just wrote him...if he is afraid so to be amnesiac again, he would have written doc or kaimanov

[fathom veldt]

yeah, but it does not count as an "attack", and writte "him" if he becomes amnesiac again, then i guess this message would not make sense to Strelok?

[clear cipher]

Well, could Guide have written this? In fact, he was in SoC so little that I even forgot about his existence

And maybe the goal wasn't to counter possible amnesia, but just as a daily reminder

[vital pollen]

I don’t think we even get proof Guide is a part of the group and not just working with it occasionally / is known by its members

[heady marten]

I think the first time Strelok meets Guide is in SoC, at the old farm stead in Cordon, with Fox.

If Guide was part of Streloks group, I am sure he would recognise him when he meets him.

[plain pelican]

Fox is alone

[heady marten]

Depends when you meet him. He is alone before x16, but Guide is with him after x16... IIRC.

[plain pelican]

Part of the main story to meet him no?

[heady marten]

Unless they have been killed, in which case you pick up the PDA from his corpse.

[clear cipher]

Yeah, I mean, he have so little time, it would be nice to see him mentioned in S2

[heady marten]

What do you mean? IIRC. He c was part of the c main quest in SoC...

Something to do with documents you got from x16..

That's about all I can remember

[plain pelican]

He was part of main quest before you even go to the garbage

[heady marten]

Who guide?

It was fox, that you met on your way out of cordon, no?

[plain pelican]

Yeah im talking about fox

[vital pollen]

Fox disappears when Guide spawns, you never see both at the same time.

[vital pollen]

Good point about recognition but wouldn’t be the first time Strelok is not being recognized by someone they know.

Guide knows Ghost, he knows of Strelok (but maybe did not meet directly, true) and he knows where Strelok’s hideout is. He was either a direct member or someone very closely associated with the group.

[vital pollen]

unless fox is dead by the time he should disappear, then his logic does not run so you will see a body but anyway it’s not a lore discussion, more about mechanics

[heady marten]

Been years since I played, but I remember needing to go see him after x16.

Either way. I think that was the first time you see him, and he wasn't a part of Streloks group, iirc.

[pine kite]

Based on what you hear in clear sky and the general implications in SoC I always got the feeling that Strelok was the organizer of the group but didn't go meeting other people often

[heady marten]

Probably associated. As I think host says sending someone your way to guide...

So am associate for sure.

[pine kite]

I guess that also lines up with him in HoC really he's just rolling solo this time

[vapid spire]

So is this the actual doc's plan or faust's plan while he was pretending to be the doc?

[clear cipher]

Faust, I suppose, but he used the Doctor's face and that's why Ward's notes have the Doctor's initials

[vapid spire]

It's kinda crazy how deep project y went where even small time npc's like Nestor and Chornozem were involved.

[vapid spire]

I missed these notes cause I went with spark first.

[clear cipher]

If I'm not mistaken, the notes are at the Chemical Plant, next to the medic. I picked them up on my first playthrough, when I was going to the Strelok and Project Y endings. Strange thing is that I didn't pick them up on my second playthrough, when I was going through the entire Ward route, because the door was closed and I couldn't get through, if I'm not mistaken

[vapid spire]

I don't think you can enter the door to the medic and trader even they hate you.

[clear cipher]

I mean, there's a door next to the medic, it's not the door to the medic himself. In short, when Ward takes you prisoner, then you go to get your things and there will be a door with a window, through the window you can see two tablets

[vapid spire]

Fun fact if you took the spark path and try to invade the chemical plant, a random sniper can one shot you.

[dull sequoia]

In all of my playthroughs he got killed by blind dogs not too long after talking to him, way before talking to Guide.

[last quartz]

So, like what is ||Faust|| I'm honestly, pretty damn confused

[mossy maple]

He is a controler with the ability of dropping your framerates and crashing your PC

[last quartz]

Ah, a controller, who looks like a human

[clear cipher]

He is inside your video card

[vapid spire]

A stalker who was given controller abilities in lab x5.

[last quartz]

Ohhhh

[glad dagger]

it gives me headaches, so it works

[mossy maple]

And then was connected to the Monolith and basicaly became their leader

[last quartz]

Is duty and freedom still in yk?

[vapid spire]

How'd he do that again?

[pine kite]

Well that was what mdst wanted him to do. He turned out to be an effective and charismatic leader in his own right

[blazing vine]

what the hell is the Strelok ending..
I just completed the game for the first time.
ts creeped me out
is everyone just locked in/out of the zone now..?

[pine kite]

Yep. He's keeping the zone safe, just maybe not in the way I would have initially pictured

[blazing vine]

.....yeah that's...
I don't know how to feel about that.

how many endings actually are there?
I just want a count. not what they're called/how do you achieve them

[pine kite]

4

[blazing vine]

...huh
now you've got me a bit confused.
I'll probably replay the game though

[ornate venture]

artsiom7046 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[pine kite]

Well you can have the chance to see some quests and cutscenes you may not have the first time too, even earlier in the game

[vapid spire]

I mean it's better than sircaa using the noosphere for mass survelance or spark putting the zone in a fake wonderland illussion.

[blazing vine]

well you just spoiled everything
thanks
could've atleast turned the ping off

[vapid spire]

Dude everything has been spoiled in here for months now.

[blazing vine]

and i didn't read any of it. I just wanted a bit of understanding to what i saw
if you want to argue im outta here

[vapid spire]

Just be glad I didn't mention the 4th ending.

[blazing vine]

what now i need to have rights to not know???
damn. what a world we live in huh

[jade furnace]

That's the ending I just got last night lmao

[jade furnace]

I haven't experienced the other endings yet, so might as well not read up now that you mentioned it

[blazing vine]

yeah. you shouldn't
i already forgot what he said tbh but still pmo
imma just not look lmao

[pine kite]

He did ask specifically not to have details of the other ones shared in response to his question

[vapid spire]

Didn't see that. Sorry.

[jade furnace]

I personally add spoilers to my text if it's pinging someone, just to be safe.

[blazing vine]

short term memory finally helped yay

[blazing vine]

good behavior.
anyways how long do y'all think it'll take me to beat the game on my next playthrough considering i had 43? hours on my first

[vapid spire]

Just reload a save before you go to x15.

You can experience al the endings without replaying the entire game.

[blazing vine]

....uhhh
yeah about that i have 1 save.

[jade furnace]

I currently have that save point, but think I will just get Strelok's ending and take a break from this game. Maybe replay it from the start once it gets enough patches.

[vapid spire]

You can get the 4th ending if you're on the strelok path. Just don't kill the doc.

[jade furnace]

Yeah, I got the 4th ending first. So I'm just not going to shoot the guy. Luckily I literally have a save point right before that happens.

[vapid spire]

Im replaying the game from the ward path cause there is a bunch of stuff I didn't see on the spark path.

[vapid spire]

You should always make multiple hard saves in these types of games.

[blazing vine]

figured

[jade furnace]

Just make a hard save at Subtle Matter quest next playthrough, to experience the other endings.

But yeah, save often.

[blazing vine]

I do.
i had max saves at one point

but then i realised there is a limit so i started limiting to 2
and then i started saving over just 1 so that's that

[jade furnace]

There is a max save amount? I thought quick saves auto delete, unless if you had too many hard saves.

[pine kite]

There's a limit for hard saves but it is quite high

[blazing vine]

quick saves yeah
there is a save limit though

[jade furnace]

Quick saves delete pretty quickly if you hit F5 frequently, which no shame in that, it's what I did. Wanting to test some encounters that lead to instant death...

[last quartz]

Honestly, I can't help but wonder what the hell the monolith is at times

[ornate venture]

weskin1910 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[clear cipher]

Funny stone

[last quartz]

HESR ME OUT THO LIKE WHAT THE F IS THE START WHO LEADS IT

Now that I think about it it's definitely the c-conciousness

[fathom veldt]

it was Faust

[last quartz]

Oh sad

[fathom veldt]

why? well he wasn't alone, Scar helped him, he said it was for thining Ward, but well..we know all that he is c-con agent

[pine kite]

And several people wanted X-11 reconnected to X-7 for their own various reasons

[vapid spire]

From what I understand the wish granter is the thing that can initially makes someone a monolith solider but the actual voice of the monolith is a series of emitters controlled by the x-network. So when the alpha artifact activated the generators, the x-network turned back on which reactivated all the former monolith members.

[fathom veldt]

that voice is c-con btw, and wish granter is a bit dualistic thing, its whole complex which was a monolith installation, and this device was created in dualistic purpose, speculating that elite members can receive orders (enforsing delusion) and clever way for curious stalker who went to far as a trap

[fathom veldt]

i guess Faust outsmarted Dalin

[vapid spire]

I don't think it was explained how Faust hacked into the x-network, Skif just mentioned it.

[fathom veldt]

Faust. Why do you think he gave you back scanner which you brought into sirca 🙂

[vapid spire]

Also isn't C-Con dead or are they really just an AI.

[vapid spire]

Its cause he knew Skif wouldn't bring it back to Sircaa

[fathom veldt]

wtf

[vapid spire]

but they don't go into detail how he hacked into it.

[fathom veldt]

yeah...he knew, as did scar, strider, korshunov was expecting....not to mentions spy in noon and sirca

[clear cipher]

Why do you think you got these things, emitters, in the Sphere and on the Wild Island?

[fossil depot]

They're living people, how would they be artificial intelligence?

[clear cipher]

Maybe he means the Representative

[pine kite]

There's a lot of ambiguity as to whether it's really c-con, some sort of digitized imprint of them, or a remnant of them that still exists in the noosphere somewhere. Though I tend to believe the latter

[fossil depot]

Yea, but even then...they're all natural people whose consciousness is now part of the noosphere...still not artificial.

[vapid spire]

Yes. I mean Strelok did kill them.

[vapid spire]

Induced illusions.

[vapid spire]

Faust is able to communicate through the emitters?

[fossil depot]

Again, the Group is real and their bodies are dead, not their minds in the noosphere.

[vapid spire]

I mean sure if you wanna believe spark.

[fossil depot]

No, even otherwise. What Faust shows at the Duga is part of the noosphere as well, not just random illusions.

[vapid spire]

Faust's power is literally making illusions though. He's basically a smart controller mutant.

[fossil depot]

Yes, and you fight the actual illusions in his fight. The whole 'connecting to the mind' after the fight is not just an illusion. Or at least that's not what it seemed to me.

[clear cipher]

Not really, but I think that Monolithians don't really require direct control all the time. Like they get commands from a voice in their head, but often act autonomously. The emitters put them into the Monolithian state, Faust gave them a command with his controller powers and they just went to do their usual Monolith things, like guard the center of the Zone, etc.

[clear cipher]

I think that Strelok killed them, the Representative program and MDST remained. It seems to me that Subtle Matter is a fake (or completely different from what they say)

[vapid spire]

That's what I meant by the Representative being an AI and not a mind living in the noosphere.

Its also possible that MDST is speaking through the representative.

[clear cipher]

I don't think so, the Representative was on Faust's flash drive, but Scar had direct instructions from MDST on his PDA

[vapid spire]

I don't think they explained how the visiographs or how Faust's key worked.

Like the one at the clear sky base just showed records of dead monolith soldiers but the other one's spoke with the representative.

[clear cipher]

Well, it seems that the Malachite visiograph was assembled by local scientists using MDST and Scar/Spark. Perhaps the Representative is also a digital key that allows the activation of C-Con technologies?

[fathom veldt]

you can't kill what's not there, those bodies are just mediators, their minds already exists in plane, so if you talk about Strelok kiling them, no, he only severed connection and c-con lost direct influence/control if thats dead for you then they were dead when they stepped into pods.

[fathom veldt]

that's why you are insomniac, mdst is dead

[clear cipher]

This is sophistry. There are no examples of communication with their "mind existing in plan". And only seven scientists died in the pods, headed by Dalin's father, but C-Con was born, who still needed these bodies. And there is no example of existence "without a body"

[fathom veldt]

lol, thats whole concept

[pine kite]

The lab under the orbita station was trying to demonstrate the elder Dalin's theory that the mind could exist separately within the noosphere

[vapid spire]

How do you know all of MDST is dead when they were literally telling scar was to do on his pda.

[fathom veldt]

notes man...i mean what else to tell

[vapid spire]

These notes had to have been recent to the story though https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Message_to_Scar_from_MDST

[clear cipher]

So what? There we see the memories of the Doctor and Strider, who, well... The question of his life is debatable. I can say that it is a digitalized consciousness, a cast of his personality. How does this relate to the noosphere, if we literally use cartridges on which memories are imprinted? Are you saying that in order to connect to the noosphere, you need a special cartridge/disk, anything, on which brain signals were once recorded or something like that? Sounds doubtful, but maybe it'sjust me. Concepts remain concepts. Kaimanov, for example, initially rejected Dalin's idea about Subtle matter. So the question of the life of C-Con and other personalities in the noosphere is at best still a debatable issue, but not the absolute truth.

[clear cipher]

It seems there was a note that the MDST was supposedly disbanded because it was compromised. But you know how it is, the people themselves could have stayed

[vapid spire]

Wasn't that lebedev's note?

[clear cipher]

Maybe, don't remember

[vapid spire]

If it was some MDST had to have stayed behind since clear sky happened a long time ago.

@clear cipher was it this https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Lebedev's_Last_Order

[clear cipher]

In any case, the nature of the MDST remains unclear. It seems in the old design documents it was the Ministry of Defense and Secret Technologies. Now they created the Wish Granter (or specifically their engineers did it), and also gave Scar instructions. I don't think they are dead, they could be scientists who became allies of C-Con, and then decided to revive their projects.

Also, it's obvious that someone had to bring Scar back to life after the events of Clear Sky, so secret C-Con shards definitely exist.

Because in any case, regardless of whether we acknowledge the existence of C-Con in the noosphere or not, we proceed from the fact that C-Con cannot control anything, whether they are dead or have simply lost control.

[pine kite]

How would Strider's memories of what happened at SIRCAA be on the card if that was all the card was doing? Theoretically not impossible but seems pretty unlikely he was in X-3 between then and when he dies. They're referred to as signature cards so I assume that what they do is allow the machinery to locate a specific person's consciousness within the noosphere

[clear cipher]

Then other questions arise. What actually happens to the Monolithians? Does their "consciousness in the noosphere" become disconnected from the "body"? Why didn't Strider remember becoming a Monolithian again? And how do we classify Monolithians, as biological automatons then? Why do we see the Doctor's memories, but not his consciousness? Do you think that these cards could be programmed to retrieve only certain memories from the noosphere? Also, the question arises where we divide the noosphere as a repository of information and memories, and the Subtle Matter as a place where active consciousness as a subject of thought can exist. Strider was unaware of his own death, yet he "remembered" the pain in his neck when he was told about it. I can agree that the cards could access certain layers of the noosphere to retrieve the Doctor's memories or Strider's consciousness, but it still doesn't sound very much like the Subtle Matter. Or maybe that's what is meant? For me it's just not like life outside the body.

[pine kite]

Lots of great questions that I wish were answered anywhere in the game

[sullen terrace]

is faust dead? in skifs ending when doctor is revealed to be faust, he has normal eyes, so isn't that final scene in the subtle world, not the real world?

[plain pelican]

Well ig it depends on the ending

[fathom veldt]

when they become monolithians, their personalities being wiped, memories, identity....if you talk when doc killed strider he was a zombified already....

[fathom veldt]

yes he is dead, if its subtle world its questionable, there is such explanation or simplier its just a cinematic teaser for next story.
most people who thinks he is alive basing on the cinematic video of ending...where flashbacks are being shown...

[clear cipher]

Or Faust just always pretended that he was blind, because he can do illusions, uuuuuuuuuuu

[sullen terrace]

in the cutscene after the faust boss fight, doesn't faust show skif that he can 'see', just not how normal ppl see

[fathom veldt]

i mean its not a story for 12y olds, he become blind in duga, and not exactly he is blind....he can see pretty well, just a bit different than normal human :))

[fathom veldt]

yep

[clear cipher]

Well, it just means that he actually sees. But we're talking about his eyes. As a creature that can make you see things, that doesn't seem too complicated make you see grey pupils

[clear cipher]

This is not just based on a scene that could be a flashback. The scene itself shows that Faust=Doctor, and we see the Doctor after Faust's "death"

[fathom veldt]

he did not really used this "make you see things", you only seen once when he was defending himself and shown every other monolithian as him

[fathom veldt]

it can mean other things also, its called symbolism. there is one analysis, who says its subtle world, but i more believe its just a teaser.

[clear cipher]

So it turns out he actually makes you see things lol. And he does it both times, the first and second time he storms the Duga. But then he also makes you see the whole place on top of the Duga and stuff

[fathom veldt]

not things. only one thing

[clear cipher]

Wow, it's symbolic when the guy who makes other people look different changes his appearance

[fathom veldt]

ah you want of those, who are basing faust is alive because you saw some cinematics of flashback and a teaser which repeats that all will be revealed, and also pretending to be a scientist 😄 taking memories somehow...yeah...very believable :))

[clear cipher]

In fact, several people at one time. And again, whole scene on top of Duga

[clear cipher]

Yes, it is very unlikely that a person who can make you see something makes you see something

[fathom veldt]

well that's just it, nothing more, and game kind of shows you when you are under influence of psi and pretty clear you can distinguish it

[clear cipher]

This is Faust telling you that you are under his influence. Also, if you take Faust's hand, you will die and nothing tells you about it

Btw, this is a symbol of the fact that Skif succumbed to psi influence and did not fight

[fathom veldt]

its a little joke dev's put in the game, also refers to his akward step

[fathom veldt]

it isn't. it seems the only illusions induced faust was on you...jeez, why need to fixate on something that hard...jesus christus, you are the skif, you are making choices, how hard to understand that...

[clear cipher]

This is not difficult in principle, not much more difficult than the symbolic Faust and the Doctor, who symbolize nothing

[fathom veldt]

well what a hell they should symbolize, they are just people, one is stalker in controller project another one is senile scientist who feeds mutants with bread like some old lady

people go crazy about Faust, and thinks like he is some god, all controllers die, all mutants...all stalkers

[clear cipher]

Yes, maybe it is not a symbol at all, but simply showing that Faust=Doctor. Who knows these symbols?

[fathom veldt]

again, thats only based on arbitrary movie in the end, which shows the begning, some flashbacks, and later on you can interpret it as you may like, as i said don't think this has much weight in story
and faust pretending being doctor really makes no sense

its just like you watched a tv show, and it shows that san goku stares at vegeta about to fight, but on next show they eat turkey 😄

[clear cipher]

Yeah, it's like we saw the actual Faust death scene where Skif shoots Faust in the heart and then sees his pulse drop and his breathing stop. We didn't see Faust create a massive illusion and then see the body of what was supposedly Faust (the guy who made others look like him)

[fathom veldt]

yeah, even if it was illusion, then there is a pda and a pendant, which lives for the long time in your game story, so really this is would be very very bad writting

besides another a trick there is that monolithians after faust death have faust name on them too, not sure if its a bug or just a trick to confuse player, but if you only kill faust and spare all of some part of monolith then their names are normal

[clear cipher]

Is the pendant and PDA proof? Of what exactly? If you think that when an illusionist makes illusions it is bad writing, then I don't even know what good writing is

[fathom veldt]

its material. well game mechanics, if you noticed when you encountered psi illusions, and you kill like some guy, on physical touch with a body, body disappears, indicating it was illusion

[clear cipher]

Well, Faust didn't make you see phantoms, he made you see the Monolithians as himself. That's why all these Monolithians bodies remain and you can search them. The question then is, why didn't his body itself dissipate? Well, because he could have just been deliberately maintaining this illusion? At the same time, psi influence is not always accompanied by sounds, or rather, they are not always reproduced together with the beginning of psi. I don't know if this is a game error or not.

[ornate venture]

oleksandr9065 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

lysqy123 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[fathom veldt]

no, explained not very clearly, someone said that his dead body is illusion. deliberatly maintaining illusion sounds a bit dumb just like whole idea. why then did not he induced you an illusion and just head shot you? why to bother with such none-sense, scorched your brain...

[fathom veldt]

depends i guess, for example if in malachite mirror then its a bit different

[clear cipher]

He doesn't need that, he needs you to lie down in a pod and make the Zone free. Besides, as a controller, he could have done it both at the Clear Sky base and during both assaults on the Duga. But also, the main characters of the Stalker games are not susceptible to the zombification of controllers

[fathom veldt]

yeah i think here you missed sequence of a character development, at that point he is not serving zone, he just wanted to be like the good old days and be with the voice of monolith. At CS base its interesting, he seems depressed and one explanation is at this point it might be just induced illusion(somehow visiograph here related), like in projection room at sircca

but it was crucial to give you that scanner, artifact most likely rigged, or there is a spy in sircaa which was not revealed...

[clear cipher]

He literally says at the end of Project Y that he blindly served the Monolith until She freed him, that's character development, what are you even talking about.

[clear cipher]

Are you trolling or something?

[fathom veldt]

yeah, but you need to follow timeline, that's after his death, a revelation

[fathom veldt]

not trolling, you just missing a lot from story, somehow fixated on a interpration, which is not explanable and with gaps

[clear cipher]

What a timeline, he literally summed up all his actions in this ending, it doesn't really matter that it's "actually" a flashback

[clear cipher]

dude you literally don't follow history, my interpretation is simple and clear even if it's wrong, you have no interpretation at all

[fathom veldt]

oh just like speaking to a monkey :))

[fathom veldt]

yeah...there is a time line in stalker...every event happens at some point, and everything changes

maybe read this first: https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/1hl85p1/the_truth_about_the_zone_an_analysis_of_the_most/
that was one attempt of explaining, though it changed a bit over time

[clear cipher]

Yeah, dude, before you talk about monkeys, learn to read yourself. OP literally writes "we do kill Faust at the Duga I BELIVE" in his post and his only arguments are muh eyes and hair, muh symbol of the fact that they are controlled by one entity. Maybe if you reread, you will understand that these are not even counterarguments, but simply an alternative interpretation. The rest is all just the same theory that I agree with, it's just that Faust completely played the role of a Doctor throughout S2
But maybe such things are difficult for you, I suppose.

[fathom veldt]

you suggesting for me to read while you did not reaad what i wrote :), nor did you understood this text, its not controlled fyi. Anyways, Faust is a stalker not a scientist, and this text is nicely put opinion 🙂 your statements are based on nothing and no arguments. let me hear how a stalker pretends being a Kaimanov? and knows so much about his life, even copying same traits :). So what is your argument for faust being kaimanov? 🙂

[clear cipher]

1). Kaimanov literally turns into Faust in the cutscene. 2). Faust, under the guise of Kaimanov, does not say any specific scientific things, so he does not need to be a scientist. In addition, we ourselves see how Kaimanov's memory records exist, so there are no obstacles for Faust to see them. 3). "Kaimanov" randomly asks to spare the Monolithians, although what does this have to do with him? 4). Strider, for an unknown reason, not only hunts Kaimanov, but even knows where he is. 5). Faust is an illusionist.

[fathom veldt]

1. basically basing this on a cinematic trailer/teaser, all other points does not really matter but anyways
2. kaimanovs records exists? :)) really. not going even to ask to explain this
3. well this is realted to a story and your ability to follow, timeline. characters change when time passes.. isn't that obvious? Its like completely his whole vibe through story, how to miss that. Not even sure you know who is Kaimanov
4. That reason is explained in story. Well you also know where Doc is, and not only person in the zone knows this.
5. iliusionist, yeah circus artist? lastly you base he is alive because you saw teaser at the end of the game....He is simple controler, not some deity, just like everyone he also is mortal.

[jade furnace]

I just like hearing people's interpretations tbh. Interesting to read on what others think.

[fathom veldt]

there are good ones and there stupid ones

[jade furnace]

I honestly don't care. They're fine either way.

[plush condor]

🫶
I enjoy reading your explanations

[fathom veldt]

i just really want to know :)) little fighting may be productive

[clear cipher]

1. No dude, you don't understand what cinematography is, a teaser or a trailer. Just because you called it that doesn't make it that way.
2. Yeah man, if you play the game to the Project Y ending, you can see Kaimanov's flashbacks, about the creation of the C-Con and all that. And even more, Skif finds the cartridge/card/memory recording (whatever you want to call it) in Kaimanov's hut.
3. Yeah man, characters change... It's like they have a starting point and an ending point to their development, not random requests that don't mean much to them. Not sure if you know what character development is.
4. Yeah, it's literally never stated in the story why Strider needed the Doctor. Not like if Faust wanted to play a scene in front of Skif.
5. Yeah, we already got it, you don't understand what the ending is about. It's like you started canceling random parts of the game because because.

[fathom veldt]

how many of you are there ? lol we. ok dude, you can go to sleep 🙂 just talking rubish. maybe play again, you will be surprised what you can find 🙂

[clear cipher]

Yeah, like if you play the game and think about it a little bit, you might even have some real counterarguments, rather than the "nothing happened" theory.

[dull sequoia]

You're wasting time with that guy. He is incapable of comprehending another person's opinion. We'll just have to wait for the developers to come forward regarding the story, its endings and confirming one as being canon.

[clear cipher]

No, well actually, it would be interesting to see the canon if it doesn't match my theory. But sometimes I just like to chat.

[dull sequoia]

Don't you see he classifies every theory that doesn't align with his as stupid?

It's nice chatting with someone who is capable of analyzing different views as well, not just blindly believe his.

[fathom veldt]

yeah really don't speak for me, specially when you don't understand

[clear cipher]

Well, I'm not against any theories, just like the dead Faust, it's just not very cool when a refutation occurs without real counterarguments. If you don't like it, that's one thing. Sometimes I just argue with such people to test myself and see if the person really wants to say something interesting.

[dull sequoia]

Like I've said, don't bother with him. Unless you want to practice writing in English, which is fine.

[fathom veldt]

you both have same opinion :))

[clear cipher]

Actually, I need that sometimes too, really

[dull sequoia]

Actually, I don't have quite the same opinion as he does. But you do you. It's what you're good at.

[fathom veldt]

not every theory, i mean theory may be a big word for you, lets try hypothesis, but it is discussion channel not some statement channel, so you kind of should present an argument for your thought

[dull sequoia]

Firstly, you need to learn to talk better English in order for people to understand what you're trying to say.

[fathom veldt]

what do you not understand?

[dull sequoia]

Just and example: "3) well this is realted to a story and your ability to follow, timeline. characters change when time passes.. isn't that obvious? Its like completely his whole vibe through story, how to miss that. Not even sure you know who is Kaimanov".

[fathom veldt]

yes, go on

[dull sequoia]

I don't have to. Learn to write so people can actually read what you're trying to say.

[fathom veldt]

maybe don't use google translate then :)), what's not to understand here?? besides it wasn't meant for you, it was a reply. Timeline matters, characters do change,"It's even presented in the game why he acts that way.

[dull sequoia]

I'm not using Google translate. This is how I speak. Writing correctly makes your message more likely to get across.

I guess you failed to understand why I gave that example. It's not about the meaning of the phrase, it's about the poor wording and spelling, something you do constantly. It was an example about form, not essence.

[fathom veldt]

i mean if you don't understand just try to clarify, not really hard to d

[dull sequoia]

I suppose those words are too big for you? Copy the sentence to Google and translate it to your native language. It would be better to do the same when trying to convey something more complicated, so it would be easier for others to understand.

[jade furnace]

First person to drop this conversation wins a free cookie

[fathom veldt]

It’s perfectly understandable 🙂 You’re just acting childish :). The grammar is a bit rough, sure, but the meaning is clear. And if you want to participate in discussion, i don't need statements which are misleading, how about respond with something more constructive

p.s. most people here aren't native speakers

[jade furnace]

FireboneE you're the winner

[fathom veldt]

yeah i think so, this needs to be dropped, really guys going in circles and accusations 🙂

[long trout]

What's up with the provocation? Not everyone is as knowledgeable in English, so, in such a case, you can try to ask for Timecop to repeat it, because you didn't fully understand it. He was trying to help either way

[dull sequoia]

He has a history of superiority complex and personal attacks. I just gave him a piece of his own medicine, that's all.

[fathom veldt]

I was trying to stop misinformation and misleading claims. Sure, my English might be a bit rough, but I don’t appreciate dismissing arguments just because of that. See I can write it when i focus :))

[long trout]

Alright, I see this is a thing that has been occuring more than once. I don't even know what it's all about because I arrived late, but please, keep it civil

[dull sequoia]

Maybe ask him to keep it civil.

[jade furnace]

Just arguing about Faust lore or something, and one dude not knowing how to accept the fact that people's opinions are different.

[long trout]

Aye, this is for the chat in general

[dull sequoia]

Not accepting other people opinions is one thing, being condescending and rude for no reason is completely different.

[dull sequoia]

It's not misinformation if it's just a different interpretation. Are you a developer of the game and know the details others don't? In that case, come out and say it.

[fathom veldt]

for sure this applies to that guy :). Again, its not statement channel. Talking what you believe is not a discussion.

[long trout]

Honestly, some parts of STALKER lore is more so speculation. It makes sense opinions differ

We'll never know what the devs meant, we can only assume

[fathom veldt]

Well, that is what i have challanged, and there no argument, just going back in circle 🙂 and you are not related anyhow, and being just condesending with your english stuff 🙂 and not even discussing here anything. So if you don't participate in that argument, then lets drop this

[dull sequoia]

It's funny how you say that, but you almost push your theory, pardon me, hypothesis, as axiomatic.

[fathom veldt]

And its brilliant why they made it like so. It would be very dull story otherwise

[dull sequoia]

Like calling him a monkey? Surely that's a theory, not a statement, no? 🙂

[long trout]

Continuing to push this doesn't seem like a good idea, ngl. Best to just drop the topic and let go

[jade furnace]

You call what doesn't make sense to you misinformation?

[dull sequoia]

Obviously. His words are gospel, don't you know by now? 🙂

[long trout]

https://tenor.com/view/monolith-preacher-games-stalker-gif-19391373

[fathom veldt]

Sure right :)) look dude, if you can't participate in discussion, just be offended and then just harrase by any reason its more like you problem 🙂

[dull sequoia]

I was subtly calling you an inside man, so you trying to stop misinformation made sense. But you didn't catch that.

[fathom veldt]

enough ok? 🙂

[dull sequoia]

Harass for any reason is your motto, not mine.

[long trout]

Bro, it's not a matter of "can't" or "won't". I told you to stop throwing fuel on the fire a while ago. Let's just drop the topic

Now

Thanks Chads

[clear cipher]

[timber forum]

What exactly is the problem here? I'll settle it with a third opinion lmao

[jade furnace]

What use is there participating in a discussion when you're being called a monkey and kept being told "you don't understand at all"

[radiant harness]

fourth opinion is that youre probably putting more effort in overthinking this than the devs did

[long trout]

Fifth opinion, HoC isn't canon

[timber forum]

It isn't really

[jade furnace]

6th opinion, apples

[fathom veldt]

do you really want to know?

[dull sequoia]

What if he is an incognito developer?

[timber forum]

Yeah

[radiant harness]

tell him to stop being lazy and work on the game

I want to see those version numbers up

[long trout]

7th opinion, pistol

[dull sequoia]

He's only working on the story, not the technical stuff.

[timber forum]

Based

[jade furnace]

8th opinion, fish

[long trout]

9th opinion, pens

[timber forum]

10th opinion, snorks (don't overthink it)

!tempmute @timber forum snork mention

[ornate venture]

🚫 The duration should be in the form of 1h10m or 1d12h30m

[timber forum]

Im a Self conscious man

[dull sequoia]

Wolf bugged out.

[jade furnace]

11th opinion, gardening in the Zone

[long trout]

You're a self-destructive man

[timber forum]

Ik, same thing

[fathom veldt]

you lost me with 10th opinion and self conscious man, maybe you are just a butterfly who dreams he is self destructive conscious man

[timber forum]

I doubt I am a butterfly, but the rest may be true

May

One can't be sure of anything nowadays

[fathom veldt]

sounds like a snork wisdom. You know what else is interesting? this -> #📸┃screens_and_videos message

[timber forum]

Journalist note?

[fathom veldt]

I was thinking like so too, SurDno and Advisor had other thoughts, which might also be true
for complete reference its in Strelok hideout, written behind obsticle, pretty sure it was not a Strelok who wrotte this

[timber forum]

If it's in strelok's hideout, it's suggesting two ppl. 1st strelok himself (maybe before gaining his memory), or the journalist (since he was known to be very efficient in finding secret stuff).

It can be strelok speaking about the doctor too

[fathom veldt]

and what attack then? Those guys mentioned more nominees who could be him/her, except journalist.
Regarding Strelok, hmm, then why he would left it like so, he even left a recording for himself with his name. If he would become amensiac again, that message would not make any sense to him right? 🙂

[timber forum]

Well, he wouldn't be having another amnesia anyway. Either way, strelok thing is not solid at all.

It can be anything

[long trout]

https://tenor.com/view/dio-jojo-anime-cartoon-japanese-gif-7432836

[timber forum]

Matter of fact, I kinda think about the journalist every time I see something written on a wall

[fathom veldt]

yeah it isn't for sure, i think keyword here is 2017 (if i remember correctly) and attack, then it would be clear who is him, right now i am thinking its a warning about Strelok : ))

[timber forum]

Not saying it's him

But seems like, maybe he wrote most of the stuff

Considering his stand

[fathom veldt]

oh yeah, for me it was also first thought that it could be journalist

[timber forum]

And even relation with the ward

Like he was so much trouble for korshonov

To the point he got an offer to be off leash if he agreed to just stay of their trail and leave

His fate tbh isn't really clear, even tho it seems like he killed himself

I still doubt it tbh

Like why would he? Unless he went crazy ofc

[timber forum]

Strelok's deal isn't really aligning with that explanation tbh

[fathom veldt]

yeah...doubt it, probably was handled

[timber forum]

The most controversial things about the current zone is the doc's truth, the ward/sircaa, and new spark.

[fathom veldt]

very curious, how, in what context here is controversial?

[timber forum]

Unclear basically. The deal with the previously mentioned sides is up to many speculations. Like the doc being someone else from the start, or him dying and being replaced. The ward and sircaa on the other hand, are shady, and may be seen as antagonists (though, if you side with them, you kinda see that they are the least evil of them all). Spark wise, it pretty clear that it's not what it was meant to be. Like they were all wiped out (almost entierly) and then Scar came in to make it a whole different thing. Scar, as the new lore suggests, is an agent. He's also been part of a big C-con agenda, and pretty much similar to Faust in his logic. He refused to believe in anything but what he initially believed in, did some real messed up things, and clearly enough (from Spark ending) he wasn't really a good person to side with.

I also believe he isn't even Scar, but a dup agent whom made believe he's Scar.

Or a whole different copy cat

Couldn't find any link that leads back to the original Scar, but it seems like strelok never said anything about him, so he's likely a dup in this scenario.

Or simply not

Who knows

[clear cipher]

Yeah, it's like Scar was actually showing you something on the TV in that hallway before his boss fight.

[timber forum]

Everything I said is my own thoughts, so don't consider it as lore, but rather a personal speculation

[clear cipher]

At some point, lore is always speculation

[timber forum]

The whole boss fight is saying agent. Him being stunned by the brainwashing devices is proof enough.

[clear cipher]

Thing is what he showed on TV BEFORE the boss fight

[fathom veldt]

oh, you really know how touch buttons :D....yeah regarding lesser evil, its really philosophical debate, probably most stalkers would not agree with that, anyways not important. One thing here, Scar was clear he was an agent in CS, but what interesting here in HoC that most people think that he went mad because of memory implantation of Marshal (hate for ward, spark, occasionally speaking as marshal), but everyone missed one thing, he god dam it survived 3 emissions, maybe memories were implanted to him to stabilize his instability (speculation a bit).
Doc I can understand, why people think he is someone else, because he is, but not because he is Faust, its like psychotic breakdown, when people start developing new fundamental traits of personality (there are even a reference in his diaries, why he is now doc)

[timber forum]

Surviving emissions is kinda an agent thing indeed

[vapid spire]

Nah it's scar just with marshal's memories implanted in him.

[clear cipher]

And here we go again

[jade furnace]

[fathom veldt]

yeah, but it has its toll, new things abou CS, well confirmation was that in CS base (in HoC) you can find that Lebedev, Kalancha was working for/with c-con

[clear cipher]

Not really? Zombies and Monolithians do that. C-Con profile on Scar says it's his innate ability

[vapid spire]

Doesn't Korshunov have that ability to?

[clear cipher]

Wait, not innate, just natural

[clear cipher]

I think the doctor from SIRCAA said that they were experimenting with his soldiers and blah blah blah, testing how much psi influence they could withstand, developing something there and in the end they were only able to do it for Korshunov. I think they genetically altered him after the accident on Duga or something like that

I'm not sure about genetics, but they definitely did something to Korshunov

[vapid spire]

So does anyone think that the current members of spark are former freedom members since their armor looks similar to freedom's? Seriously when I first saw them at the detention center, I thought they were freedom.

[timber forum]

So what? Agents of the C_con are exactly the same. The only difference is that they can be activated at will.

[timber forum]

Nope. Spark lore can be found in yaniv (old herman bunker if I'm not mistaken)

Idk, I don't remember

[vapid spire]

I'm talking about current spark not old spark.

[timber forum]

They are not related to freedom at all

[clear cipher]

But nowhere did it say that agents could survive the Emission... Of course, maybe they never tried, but like

[timber forum]

Ah new ones are of all kind

Stalkers, freedom, duty

[vapid spire]

I'm just saying they're kind of like of mix of freedom and clear sky.

[timber forum]

Anyone believing in Scar's vision

[fathom veldt]

they are mix of everything even simple stalkers, also you can find their dead bodies all over the map

[timber forum]

We can't even be sure if those uniforms was part of the Old or new spark. It's most likely post scar thing and then it may make sense that it's similar to CS. The older one may just had neutral look to simply blend in considering how they were hunted by the ward. Having a uni look at that time would've been a suicide attempt. The newer spark has the manpower to show itself, unlike the early one that was more of a secret group ish

[fathom veldt]

even in first playthrough, god damn it how i wished to strangle this guy along with nimble

[clear cipher]

They could have call theyselfs Scars faction so as not to confuse anyone

[fathom veldt]

most likely its because of memory of Marshal

[clear cipher]

For sure, but that was joke about fanatism of spark stalkers

[fathom veldt]

well 🙂 seems its inheritance of monolith :))

[vapid spire]

Spark's armor is pretty cool though. Its like blue freedom.

[fathom veldt]

there is a document about korshunov armor and emissions questions, can't find it right now

[clear cipher]

Nah, idk, but I didn't care about Scar and his acting, I really didn't feel comfortable with their conversations, like "Trust Scar, he knows what he's doing" and so on. Not like Monolith, though, but they really did look like cultists at one point.

[fathom veldt]

now they don't? its kind of a cult but like more ver 2.0. I wonder if anyonw did trusted him :))

[vapid spire]

Spark seem more like contrarians. Like they hate the ward so they follow scar.

[fathom veldt]

where do you get this? The only char was Scar who was talking about this, and on side he was helping c-con
well ok, i mean whole zone does not like ward...

[vapid spire]

Its just the vibe I got from some of the members like Star.

[timber forum]

Taking on the remnant of an existing faction is more practical

[clear cipher]

Well, they're definitely trying to not look like a cult, but more like a resistance to the "tyranny" of the Ward. In my first playthrough, I initially helped Richter because he helped me, and then not quite intentionally sided with the Ward (showed them the PDA). After that, in SIRCAA, I sided with Noontide, and saw the Spark in all its manifestation. After that, I was just waiting for the opportunity to refuse them.

[fathom veldt]

oh yeah, but from spark faction really there were much about this hate, mostly it was scar

[timber forum]

I was happy to meet scar at first and even sided with him until I started to doubt him and chose to not, then saw his real face.

[vapid spire]

I think you should know something was up with Spark when threw noontide under the bus. Or when Scar was excited to see the C-con representative at x17. The whole faction were just puppets of C-con just like Clear Sky.

[fathom veldt]

i made some assumptions about you, cult maybe wrong word, but monolithians was kind of friendly with a cult like Sin. It's a bit complicated regarding this "tyrany", its resitance only if you throw one tyrant to put another one. But really you can't help in story, you have to side with spark for some time

[fathom veldt]

red flag was for me when he brought zombified stalkers which you have met in lesser zone :))

[clear cipher]

Often to drop a tyranny to put another tyranny is precisely a point. "Ward bad" is Spark propaganda and many loners agree with it. Well, not that, from the point of view of an ordinary stalker it is true, without any Spark dids.
But Spark is a cult in the sense that they have a Scar's cult of personality and they believe in this mega idea of ​​the Shining Zone. It doesn't seems have any religious overtones, like Monolith or others.

This could be their political program, lol

[fathom veldt]

spark is serving monolith 🙂 aka c-con 🙂 which are fanatics and with religious traits. only thing here is that none of them know :)) well yeah a cult...difference here is that they aren't hostile to everyone like monolith

[last quartz]

Scar went crazy

[fathom veldt]

yeah very sexy :))

[clear cipher]

Can we help him? Donate money for treatment?

[last quartz]

We must give him bread if it is anomalous

[fathom veldt]

i will send my wallet link

[fathom veldt]

i only accept anomalous bud or crypto currency (btw mods this is a joke)

[late whale]

are blowouts specifically caused by the generators or is it its own thing?

[fathom veldt]

it will take to long to explain, but watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78fJZq2zTJo

[late whale]

it may be due to my illiteracy, but I still havent discovered the answer to my question

[jagged hull]

so is scar a project y puppet or nah

the other agents that we see (chornozem, nestor) are working on project y as well, so he couldve received orders and his match up pretty accurately

the question at the core of this is, how did he manage to go against the whole project y idea? was he just an insanely poorly programmed agent

[vapid spire]

Project Y was Faust's plan while the shining zone was MDST's plan.

[jagged hull]

the key step for project y was finding an alpha artifact and scar had the same order to find an alpha artifact so idk

but that could be it ig. what makes scar different from other agents tho, why does he take orders from mdst and not someone else like other agents

also one silly detail i noticed. the person sending orders to chornozem and nestor called himself DK. as if doctor was a name, not a title.

put this at the bottom of stalker 2 lore iceberg. doctor's real name is doctor

[vapid spire]

I think all the agents take orders from mdst. Mdst are just the other scientists who were apart of project x.

[jagged hull]

chornozem and nestor were very much so not on the mdst side they literally get sent orders from DK and they are indeed agents as per the profiles found in neuroprogramming labs

[vapid spire]

Speaking of chornozem, you completely skip over him if you take the spark path from the beginning. Though when I got to the depot he was already dead. Also when I checked back on the depot once, all the bandits got killed by snorks.

[vapid spire]

DK is probably apart of mdst or someone working with faust.

[jagged hull]

faust is working against mdst so which one is it

[jagged hull]

in game hes a very minor character but behind the scenes hes somewhat important along with nestor since theyre the main people behind the scanner smuggling scheme

thats like kinda their job in the project y thing

[vapid spire]

Then I guess DK is with faust.

[jagged hull]

or more precisely just faust larping as kaymanov

[vapid spire]

project y really looks like some 4-D chess plan with how they were trying to get some random dude to make an alpha artifact and then get it to sircaa.

[jagged hull]

actually its much simpler than that skif is just very annoying

remember they actually stole the alpha from skif. it was meant to basically be gg at that point since they had shterev brainwashed and ready to go to the swamps and pick up the alpha and run back to sircaa

seeing as hes a ward soldier that shouldnt be a problem but he got himself outed as a spy so faust just used skif instead

[pine kite]

scar and strider do tell him to use it as a way to get inside and find out what the institute is up to

so he doesn't deserve all the credit on his own 😛

[jagged hull]

yeah faust had great friends supporting him in times he needed them lol

[vapid spire]

Strider got sold out.

[jagged hull]

yeah strider got the short end of all the sticks in stalker 2

now another gap in project y is getting the heart of chernobyl. what was the plan to bait out strelok so he actually gives it up. seems like the flimsiest part of the whole thing

[last quartz]

NGL is there a way to the CNPP?

I remember glitching into the CNPP it was fun but rather empty

But is was still darn fun

[vapid spire]

I wish.

[covert crow]

I just realized something that's bothering me

So in the first STALKER game, you had to destroy the brain scorcher in order to proceed to the center of the zone, right? Like its entire point was to impede stalkers from making it to the center

Now that the map is rearranged in STALKER 2, its location doesn't really make any sense as far as impediment towards the center of the zone. Like it's basically completely out of the way now

[vapid spire]

Apparently the scorcher arc'd its signal like a rainbow from what I've heard.

But I do wish they re-arranged the map better.

Like army bases being south of rostok intead of north just feels super weird.

[covert crow]

perhaps the zone itself rearranges itself over time lol

[vapid spire]

A giant spatial anomaly would explain how the cement factory moved from jupiter to above zaton.

[long trout]

And the Barrier is useless as well, yeah

[covert crow]

I was thinking more of like a schroedinger's box sort of thing. Like it doesn't have any one certain form until you actually observe it or something lol. Spatial anomaly works too.

[clear cipher]

It's a bit hard to explain, but there are some things I can guess. First, during the original trilogy (specifically CS and SoC), the Red Forest and Yanov were similar to what the Iron Forest is now — a zone of increased radiation and anomalies that you can't enter. Then, second, the original map wasn't exactly an exact location, but rather safe locations where you could exist. Like, the nature of the Zone is dangerous and chimeric, some locations were inaccessible, and C-Con was doing everything it could to hinder everyone. There are no direct paths. And that's why the Scorcher was previously located as if in the center, although in fact stalkers simply couldn't pass through the Red or Iron forests. At the same time, the passages through the locations themselves could be associated with danger, so I think that the strange location of Agroprom and warehouses is more likely associated with safe paths that were available to stalkers.

[covert crow]

that sort of makes sense and gives the more linear feel of the original stalker an actual purpose vs the complete open world of stalker 2

[long trout]

The TrilOG maps are exactly the way they are though. Even if it's area-based, the places between them still exist

It's a retcon, pure and simple

[clear cipher]

Well, I didn't say they didn't exist, I said they were probably inaccessible due to high anomalous activity and other things, and so the stalkers used it as a path at most.

[long trout]

Doesn't explain the rearrangement though

[covert crow]

It would be interesting if someone made a video on youtube, starting from the rookie village, and made a splitscreen walkthrough as accurate as possible through the map

[long trout]

Someone did

[covert crow]

oh wow

[long trout]

Including all possible routes of Marked One, Scar and Major Degtyarev

I believe it was Anomalous Dugout who did

He also noticed this problem

Like, what's the point of the Barrier if it's on the opposite side of the Brain Scorcher?

[clear cipher]

And the different relative locations are dictated rather by which side the safe path began from. Although, of course, in the original trilogy there is no mention of such nonsense, but it is still a way of explanation. Like, go right to get to the left, etc.

[covert crow]

is this it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s0zNK9JnNQ&ab_channel=AnomalousDugout

[long trout]

Yeah, but the TrilOG has that too. You can see the path you take to get to the next area

[covert crow]

yeah this is a good video

[long trout]

Yup, that's the one

Pretty interesting vid

It wouldn't be the first retcon in HoC though, so yeah

But it is a major one

Because the layout of the Brain Scorcher and the Barrier makes no sense

Anomalous Dugout also went over for what reason GSC may have decided to change this

[covert crow]

It could be easily explained away though by weird zoney asspull

[long trout]

True, if we had any proof of this happening

[clear cipher]

I would simply say that the location of the Barrier is not fundamental now, it was now simply on the left, not on the right.

[covert crow]

yeah like it would first need to be canonically acknowledged in-game

[long trout]

There's also the theory of the previous games being stories due to the new collection being called "Legends of the Zone"

Still doesn't explain why the Barrier is trying to protect nothing

[covert crow]

Interesting

[long trout]

Like, in CoP's map, we do see cracks in the earth

And we also hear earth moving in the TrilOG at times

It could be possible

But there's nothing confirming it

[clear cipher]

Ward's secret workers actually rebuilt the map while you weren't looking, to confuse you and prevent you from reaching the Heart of Chornobyl

[long trout]

Those dastardly Warders

[clear cipher]

Stalker, provide photos of your credit card from both sides so that Spark can counter this monstrous conspiracy.

[fathom veldt]

in short, both, but recommend to watch this guy, he explains it very well

[fathom veldt]

devs wrote about this, they did this to be closer to reality, n its because of new map size which is several time bigger now, though some grey bearded veterans would say they could have done it better. Regarding "center", you probably mean cnpp? well that place was cleaned by ward and generators they are now destroyed for some reason.

[covert crow]

Ah I see. Well it's nice the devs have acknowledged it

[vapid spire]

I mean they probably didn't have to move any locations from zaton since zaton in HoC feels bigger than the one in CoP.

Like why did they move the krug antenna complex all the way to the burnt forest.

[rain coral]

to more accurately fit the real life location of the antenna complex iirc

the Zone in HoC is supposed to be more accurate to the actual layout of major landmarks such as Krug, Duga (even though it's been flipped for some reason), Yaniv, etc

previously the games (except for CoP) mostly focused on a more or less direct South-to-North pathway for gameplay so the progression was clear to the player

CoP did a more or less opposite way, North to Southeast, but it wasn't as linear as a path.

[vapid spire]

So is there actually a burnt forest in the real chernobyl with an antenna complex?

Is the cement factory also a real location east of chernobyl?

[fathom veldt]

beats me, but keep in mind, map is right now only like ~60% filled, so there will be more. And if you compare size of trilogy, probaly CoP is the biggest one, it would fill like maybe 1-2 sectors? too lazy to calculate

[vapid spire]

Which is bigger, zaton in CoP, or zaton in HoP?

[pine kite]

Yeah I believe it was actually constructed for the cleanup effort

While I respect the desire to make the macroscopic geography more true to life I still don't know that I agree with moving some locations like waste processing plant, brain scorcher, and krug so far from where they were before. At least since it doesn't feel like a lot was really gained from moving them. I'm not too bent out of shape about it either, it was just sort of a strange choice

[sullen terrace]

my head canon for map changes (since some paths in the original trilogy don't make sense with the geographically accurate map) is that psi hallucinations and teleport anomalies forced the og protagonists to take the paths they took, also that safe paths have changed over the decade, since anomalies have completely changed locations due to a decade of emmisions

also generally in video games i believe its fairly common that gameplay ≠ lore/cannon

Strelok definitely did all the things he did in SoC, but theres no way he killed thousands to get to the center of the zone in the actual lore

[fathom veldt]

i mean you can fit whole map of trilgoy all combined in quarter of HoC

[sullen terrace]

i think the zone in HoC is 1/8 or 1/4 scale of the actual chernobyl exclusion zone irl too

[fathom veldt]

well question is, does it matter? WPS in swamp does not make sense ecologically :)))

[sullen terrace]

also considering the swamps location, as shown in HoC, it doesn't make sense that the bandits wanted control over it in CS

CS specifically chose the swamps bc of how little stalkers go thru there, so its not like the bandits would be able to steal much from the very few passing stalkers

a bit unrelated, but does anyone else re-watch the HoC endings just bc of how amazing they are

[pine kite]

Yeah I don't think it matters a ton. Some of the changes make more sense than others. WPS is at least not too far from the swamps still

[jade furnace]

Yeah, I recorded the 2 endings I got and rewatched them yesterday.

[sullen terrace]

they all give me goosebumps still

[jade furnace]

Same

[pine kite]

All are extremely well made. I was prepared to be disappointed by the scar and wars ones but they are very good cutscenes

[sullen terrace]

i love how none of the endings are either good or bad (except scar ending, its just bad)

in terms of it being a good/bad (outcome) for skif/the zone/the world

[jade furnace]

Strelok's ending seems depressing to me. The one where the Zone is free, music that started playing felt pretty majestic.

[vapid spire]

Strelok's ending is the one that does the least amount of damage to the world though. Even though Skif kinda gets screwed in the end.

[jade furnace]

I know, but I was mostly looking at Skif's point of view like you mentioned, and the fact that the legend is gone. But technically not I suppose, he's the Zone himself now.

[gusty pelican]

I find Skif’s reason of going in the zone a bit funny

He’s just going inside of Chernobyl bc he needs a new crib

[sullen terrace]

there's a theory that the alpha artifact that was found in his laundry basket made him an agent of the zone

[fathom veldt]

yeah, true bs

[jade furnace]

Man just needed a quick buck by going to Chornobyl to get that crib, nothing wrong with that

[vapid spire]

I kinda like that Skif's motivation is simple.

It also highlights how valuable artifacts are in the stalker universe.

[pine kite]

There's something sort of bittersweet and uncertain about the Skif ending but it does feel like it ends on a more hopeful note than the others

[fathom veldt]

There is nothing GSC can keep a secret that will not come into the open.

[jade furnace]

Yeah, it's the first ending I got, and I felt the same way when I saw that last cutscene.

[pine kite]

Heard a line from a book that reminded me of it on the radio today, it was something like "Life is meant to be lived, not contained and inventoried for the sake of safety"

[fathom veldt]

sounds like its from bible but in another words. people will not understand this, zone must expand everywhere then they will find it : ))

[vapid spire]

Skif ending is basically hope that all of humanity will adapt to living in the zone.

Regarding scar's ending, does the "shining" affect the whole world or just the zone? Cause I assume it's just the zone.

[pine kite]

That was my assumption too

[vapid spire]

Gotta ask why mdst was leading scar to do the shining zone. Like did they think something else was gonna happen?

[jagged hull]

its not that bad of an ending if you we consider that only areas around other generators are affected. it seems that some were near urban settlements, but once the situation stabilises the entire world will have access to the scientific possibilities that zones like the chernobyl one can provide

[jagged hull]

the goal of MDST/c-con was stopping the zone from spreading and keeping the situation in control. effectively zombifying everyone in the zone is a pretty good deal if you dont want more people snooping around

[clear cipher]

I actually think Spark ending is Scar's sick interpretation of C-Con's plans

[jagged hull]

yeah i doubt that scar was taking orders from mdst, it was probably faust/doc

[fathom veldt]

In that ending, zone is still caged and only affects CEZ. They weren't leading, or at least there aren't any mentioning's, anyways how could they if they are dead. Scar really wanted c-con back, like a child at Christmas in a presence of c-con representative. Also c-con chose him as mediator, very loyal agent 🙂

[pine kite]

Some of his orders were reframed to include getting the artifact to SIRCAA. I think he may have been basically operating off two sets of programming at once which probably didn't help his mental stability

[ornate venture]

xjachu97xpl has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[jagged hull]

wait hes a mediator? mediator for who? isnt c-con dead

[vapid spire]

Mdst is probably alive.

[jagged hull]

also one more thing, who implanted marshal's memories into him?

[vapid spire]

Probably mdst.

[jagged hull]

if mdst was still running around x7 im sure that the neuroprogramming lab would be slightly more neat

and new agents would still be made. its more likely that someone is acting in their name, these messaging systems meant for giving orders to agents probably are just automated and the sender is always MDST

[vapid spire]

Gotta wonder when marshal joined og spark since he was not in call of pripyat.

[jagged hull]

this is another issue as well, scar could only have new memories implanted a while after ward took over the chemical plant

by then c-con was long gone obviously

[vapid spire]

It was mdst. Even the represenatative in the foundation mentioned mdst working for them after they died.

[jagged hull]

hm id have to hear that for myself the representative isnt always truthful

[fathom veldt]

in a pod its a mediator

[fathom veldt]

it was mdst, but i am suspecting it was because of a thing that he survived 3 emissions, maybe a mean to stabilize his psyche

[fathom veldt]

nop. dead

[jagged hull]

so they were still at that point running x7 or what

[clear cipher]

We have a whole Zone with a bunch of labs and other objects, why do they need X7? Besides, Marshall's note said that he was going to the North, so their location is uncertain

[vapid spire]

Who put Marshall's memories in scar then?

[vapid spire]

Maybe that implies they're in the cnpp.

[clear cipher]

It's doubtful, since Ward and SIRCAA pulled the Wish Granter out of there, so it's likely that they cleaned everything up there

[vapid spire]

It still could be used as a hideout.

[clear cipher]

Maybe, I still laugh a little about the fact that there was a whole laboratory of controllers next to Strelok hideout

[fathom veldt]

not really sure about where this is in timeline :/

[jagged hull]

yeah i feel like they didnt think this through

[vapid spire]

Plus the cnpp is gonna be in a dlc so there has to be something in there.

[jagged hull]

marshals body is literally in x7

and the screen that scar shows skif proves that he was reprogrammed there

[clear cipher]

It's as if that serves as the slightest proof that the MDSTs are currently based there.

We've known since Clear Sky that Scar was programmed there

Although he could just lie there and chill

I would venture to suggest that in order for someone else's memories to be implanted into him, he had to be moved somewhere.

Have you ever actually considered that the TV corridor is actually a weird idea? Like they actually ran out of space and just put TVs there and dumped bodies

[jagged hull]

oh im not saying theyre based there im just saying that MDST has little to do with contemporary scar

[jagged hull]

i mean sure its possible to make up reasoning for it but the screen was there for a reason. are you saying that they rewrote scar's memories in zaton or something and that somehow lit up a screen in x7?

[jagged hull]

yeah its a bit weird but they just wanted to maintain parity with the cs cutscene. it would make sense if X7 wasnt purpose-built for c-con, like if they were short on space

[clear cipher]

Uh, I don't know what we mean by that? They gave him instructions, but then, I guess, they had no contact? The idea is that the agents would operate completely independently of C-Con, so their presence is unnecessary?

[jagged hull]

i doubt that MDST is around at this point. they mightve set him up as an agent, but any new orders received by scar are unlikely to be from MDST

there is someone who is working against MDST who has access to tech that can give new orders to agents, namely chornozem and nestor.

[clear cipher]

They was agents too?

I mean, they was, so what's the point for them

[jagged hull]

im not sure what you mean

[clear cipher]

Chornozem and Nestor are agents, just like Dark One and Scar, they are facilitating the scanner scheme that Faust/Doctor, Herman and the alleged MDST have organized, they can't be independent here

I mean, they have agent profiles in X7

Or did I misunderstand you and you meant someone else?

[jagged hull]

oh ok your last message was just a bit unclear

MDST and project y participants are directly opposed, the goal of MDST was to contain the zone and maintain secrecy around what actually happened and project y is the opposite

as for outside support for project y, i dont see a reason to suspect that it wasnt a grassroots plan. nestor and chornozem being agents is very convenient as they basically run garbage, more financial support/political power wouldnt be needed

[clear cipher]

So you think that Chornozem and Nestor were actually Project Y agents?

[jagged hull]

seeing as they had orders from "DK" on their PDAs that match the steps outlined in the project Y document, yes.

its not that i think thats the case, its as good as confirmed and makes sense in the story

oh ok nvm the project y document literally names chornozem and nestor as part of project y

* Lab X3 (destroy all the documents, as well as any evidence of reframing agents and using couriers).
* Provide scanners (Nestor).
* Provide Alpha Artifacts (we’ve got a number of faded ones – more than enough).
* Duga Comms Center (replace the microchips with external action modules).```

[clear cipher]

But as agents, they were actually acting based on the program given to them by C-Con/MDST. In fact, I think their loyalty to someone's plans doesn't matter. Even if Nestor and Chornozem were on the side of Project Y, at the stage of the scheme with the scanners they still had to cooperate with MDST, Scar and Faust, albeit indirectly. Like Herman took the scanner out of the institute, Nestor hid them and took them outside the Zone, Herman already brought the scanner back to the Zone through Skif. I don't remember what Chornozem has to do with it, but he's still going to die from Ward.

And through Skif the scanner got to Faust

[jagged hull]

im sure that if MDST was still around they would try to do something about random people giving orders to their agents which is one of the main reasons i believe theyre not around. faust does whatever he wants with the tech that c-con/mdst left behind

[clear cipher]

Well, C-Con didn't suspect that they accidentally brainwashed Strelok, and, what's more, their programming actually didn't work and Marked One/Strelok runs to destroy them

[jagged hull]

c-con did suspect it but it was a bit too late

[clear cipher]

I think the idea of ​​autonomous agents means that they don't actually need to monitor what their agents are doing, because they're going to do what's neded anyway, whether they want to or not.

[jagged hull]

i mean they still did have systems for monitoring them, like the ability to see through their eyes or just track them, so they probably werent completely hands off

[clear cipher]

Well yes, the Thread project or idk as it is in the English localization
But I don't think they were watching everyone at the same time

It's like you know, they could have, but they still didn't do it

[jagged hull]

im not implying that

[clear cipher]

Also, this technology was also in the hands of Ward, so maybe MDST or other guys lost access to this technology

[jagged hull]

MDST was originally a corporate body used to manage the research done by c-con scientists, i rly doubt that after so much time has passed since their little project went to shit they still have the resources to meddle in the zone's affairs

especially since the regulatory board were responsible for creating MDST in the first place

[clear cipher]

There was a note at Clear Sky Base that they were compromised. So, even though they were disbanded, by MDST I mean just some remnant of the former C-Con forces. Like scientists who didn't go into the pod, but worked on something else for C-Con. Because it seems to be stated that not only C-Con has escaped from the control of the Regulatory Board. And they don't need a lot of resources, just free up the agents to do their thing.

Although, I also think that in fact the note at the Clear Sky base was simply to cover their tracks and MDST was simply hidden from prying eyes.

[fathom veldt]

by doctor (Kaimanov), at that time mdst is gone. Also good doctor was invited for this mdst-c-con group, but he declined

[clear cipher]

It was probably Dvupalov who said this, not the Doctor.

[fathom veldt]

he is no how related to those research. Though thanks to him we have Faust 🙂

[clear cipher]

He literally created Faust as part of the MDST

[fathom veldt]

no he didn't, it was his research, each scientist has his own scientific field

[clear cipher]

A figure of speech, his works still created Faust and it was during the time of the undoubted existence of MDST. He also spoke about him often and about that MDST created Monolith

Although I'm not sure about Monolith and MDST, I clearly remember it, but I can't find it

[fathom veldt]

sort of yes, it was monolith installation how they called it, but its also a bit collaborative work. Clear Sky also had their input

[jagged hull]

thats hard to determine, there is a note saying that the research in X5 is cancelled and if they want to continue their work they have to join mdst. seeing as dvupalov didnt even believe skif when he told him about faust, im fairly sure that dvupalov stopped working there at that point

[fathom veldt]

he is not aware of few things, it was Dvupalov research though, but he didn't created it, this is learned in project leash quest line, i have somewhere recorded if you want to re-listen, not sure though if it will allow me to upload here. Yes and I also doubt his relationship with MOCT, not clear

Just to think about it, we also can't say for sure say that CS worked for mdst(c-con), we just bacally learned that they had relationship....but how far it goes and how involved ?

[jagged hull]

i think its safe to say that they were employed by mdst

or potentially just the same with the X5 researchers. given a choice to join or leave, seeing that CS leaders worked in X8

X8 outlived its usefulness as much of the research probably stopped as the main defence systems for c-con were in place

[jagged hull]

tbf MDST slowly closing down labs paints a pretty good picture of why labs are in the state they are. most scientists probably got up and left when MDST decided they werent going to be needed. not sure why the labs still have documents in them. maybe they didnt expect the scientists to leak the entrance codes? or for people to find those entrances and break in

[crimson plank]

is there any interesting lore that the journalist brings with the dlc stashes? i know he has a bit of story but i dont have the dlc so i dont really know much about him

[jade furnace]

Depending on who you sided with, apparently the end result of that guy differs (kind of). But he basically went in to Zone like everyone else. In the end, he wanted to have it known to the entire world (forgot what it was but he discovered something that he wanted everyone to know about) and so wanted to info to be sent out/leave the Zone. But Strelok caught wind of this, and given how his ending is like, he ||killed the Journalist so anything about the Zone won't go out into the public.|| That's what happened in my playthrough, when I was going towards the ||Strelok/Doc ending.||

Maybe someone else can explain this better because don't really remember much details. But I remember that last stash I found of the Journalist, sad result. The lore isn't that deep, but I found it interesting knowing about the Journalist as a character.

[pine kite]

He's a character from the ARG so if you go watch Anomalous' video on that it'll explain more about him too

[jade furnace]

It's the Anomalous Dugout channel? I might as well check it out later.

[pine kite]

Yeah

[jade furnace]

Is it that video titled 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: A look back at the ARG's Story & Documents'? I have an attention span of a squirrel atm, want to know where he talks about/mentions it for now but can't find where in the video.

[pine kite]

Yeah. He's kind of involved throughout though

But starts being talked about in the Cypher section, where he's mentioned as a journalist who started investigating the disappearance of students around the anomalous area in the time soon after the second disaster

[jade furnace]

Ah, just now got done watching that part. And if that's the case guess I will just save the video for tonight lol.

[ornate venture]

_yander has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[late falcon]

The main thing he discovered is ||the existence of several generators installations build all over the World by the Regulatory Board||

Also in relation to the ARG, we now know that the thing SIRCAA was looking for was the alpha artifact.

At least I believe so.

[crimson plank]

so that's how skif ||managed to spread the zone worldwide?|| pretty interesting

seems to reinforce canonity of his ending

[late falcon]

Yes, I think so. The fact that they exist is also mentioned after SIRCAA in the Ward storyline

[crimson plank]

btw i love your videos, i hope your technical issues with stalker 2 get fixed!

[late falcon]

Thank you, still working on it but no luck so far...

[edgy patio]

You think Strelok ||we kill is a doppelganger, like in zone folklore?||

[sharp raft]

Eh, kind of right? The goal was to restore the Project X network and make it function again. The Alpha Artifact could have been something they discovered later that they had to find to complete their objective. So yes

[sharp raft]

Btw, Anomalous, you ever wondered what's up with all the SIRCAA bunkers being bringed into the Zone in the Ward Ending?

[pine kite]

Since it was discovered originally in '95 I guess I'd think they knew what the alpha artifacts were at least. It seems like they were trying to find another way to produce one than by repeating the original experiment. I guess Scar's dialogue does imply it had some undesirable side effects.

[jagged hull]

sircaa should have known about alpha, they were the ones that rediscovered the lab below current sircas that was used with the alpha

[jagged hull]

wait, whats the chance that the info about alpha was fed to hermann and then to dalin? i seem to remember hermann wanting to take credit for alpha, could he have been given this info as part of project y?

[late falcon]

yes

[pine kite]

I'll have to see when I get to that part of the game again but I think the modern version of the scanner was his invention. Or he feels like it was his work anyway and that Dalin was stealing credit for it.

The artifact farm was also an attempt at producing an alpha but it seems to have been a total failure. Why is not really clear. Maybe it can't be produced by the normal interactions that occur in the Zone

[late falcon]

Correct

[fathom veldt]

what do you mean by total failure? It is successful it seems. Or is it still talks about alpha, btw Kaimanov in his project y mentioned that they have several faded ones, which is enough for the plan

[pine kite]

Well either way it did not seem to produce what they wanted. I believe the inability of the farm to give the institute what they wanted was what led them to repeat the Caribbean experiment

[fathom veldt]

ah, never thought in this way :), that artifact farm was a means to get alpha, thought it was just for study. I wonder why they killed Spark in chemical plant...did they had like an a. artifact

[fallen vapor]

So are we thinking that Skif’s ending will be canon?

[jagged hull]

well whoever made the alpha for the first time thought that the only way to make it was via a carribean experiment, one of the documents mentions this iirc

[ornate venture]

lihacc has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[jagged hull]

one of the good things we got was how all of this scifi BS connects together and what it does

[fathom veldt]

Suslov, c-con scientist including bad doctor i think maybe someone else. You know its called sci-fi, where one part of it is fiction :)) , there weren't any single fiction which was really explaining everything and connecting anything to anything, don't think it suppose to, its just a dream 🙂

[jagged hull]

you get what i mean

you dont need to interpret my words like its the skif ending or something

[fathom veldt]

nah, you are not a teaser like skif ending :)), but i don't think that with this story part anything is explained completely :/ sure revealed something

[jagged hull]

i think theres a pretty clear picture of the timeline of discoveries that the scientists made and what tools they used to overcome problems

kaymanov diaries explain pretty much the whole history of their research into the noosphere, at least the main branch of it

[fathom veldt]

speaking of a. artifacts, where the hell they all come from, clearly not only from caribean experiments, or they just happening every friday.
did i missed the part when they did this learned to do in more controlled way, apparently sirca were not aware of this

[fathom veldt]

for this missing cold island....suspecting in next story

[jagged hull]

idk about the spent ones maybe whoever wrote project y was talking about the results of the second carribean experiment

as in they formed in a few places at once around the world but not all of them were needed

so with that cleared up, i dont see why there would need to be more than 2 alpha artifacts in the history of the zone. 1 was used when building up the x-network initially, lost somewhere after that, maybe sidrovich has it, idk it doesnt matter, and we all know where the second one is

tbf if my interpretation is true this moves up the timeline for all of the project y schenanigans quite a bit closer to the beginning of the game than i initially suspected

i think at this point it would be useful to look at the ukrainian text of the document and see if it is any clearer. not a job for me though

[fathom veldt]

second carribean i think was what Dalin was attempted to replicate. but project y already had several alpha artifacts according to its "plan" document...lol who writtes a plan like this like kaimanov

[jagged hull]

i think the second carribean experiment is the one dalin did, the first one was back in the 90s

[jagged hull]

some of what agatha says implies that there were several alphas created out there and only skif went to the zone, might be just me. as for project y having them, as i mentioned before i think the ukrainian text might be clearer

wait... what is this about external action modules in duga in the project y document and how does that relate to "freeing the zone" if we think that its written by kaymanov?

[fathom veldt]

that skif artifact is from junior Dalin experiment. but probably there was some other way, more refined way, since they had more and depleted ones

[jagged hull]

could project y have nothing to do with freeing the zone and instead its just fausts regular old plan to do the duga raid stuff

[fathom veldt]

yes this is good question. also note that you meet first Faust in control center of duga which later on on teaser ending they focus on this emitter? he was just standing near by it 🙂

[jagged hull]

youre talking about the first meeting on the second raid right

[fathom veldt]

ah you arae still jumping to conclusions, yeah, the second part

[jagged hull]

im just clarifying the sentence was very unclear

[fathom veldt]

in the ending they really focus on that alpha in duga control center wher Faust licked it

[jagged hull]

i have a feeling that particular scene isnt from the present

im not sure what it means tho

either way if we could know what these external action modules are it could be the key to shutting down this eye theory stuff

[fathom veldt]

probably no ones does, just pointing this out

[jagged hull]

yeah it think its made to be deliberately meaningless without information that we get in dlc

[fathom veldt]

well, you there might be right

[jagged hull]

it looks too clean

i really have a feeling that these external action modules are just scifi BS related to monolithian recruitment tech. it would explain a lot of the gaps in project y that dont make sense

like again if we think that doctor was on his own along with his agent buddies planning this, how would he kill strelok and go through x7. if instead project y is just fausts zone brainwashing/liberating (depends on the perspective) homework project its very clean and fits into what we know

i guess all it takes is one line with the name of a nonsensical scifi item for me to completely ignore something for months lol

[clear cipher]

[late wharf]

The Flux Capacitor lol

[lethal kiln]

Do the military soldiers in Strider's "Operation Monolith" flashback have IPSF camo and patches? or am I crazy

[jagged hull]

ye same with the ones laying in the brainwashing hallways in x7. i think the ukrainian military has been retconned as a faction

which makes sense if you think about whats happening in ukraine rn. its in very bad taste to have the ukrainian military as the bad guys in a game rn

[pine kite]

Yeah the reasoning for making IPSF was they didn't want to have the player shooting ukranian soldiers, I guess that extends across the game

[clear cipher]

In Operation Monolith the Ukrainian military were clearly not the bad guys though

[jagged hull]

but in soc the same faction is the one that is easily bribed, doesnt mind killing entire groups of stalkers just to kill a specific one they dont like and is generally incompetent

the player is forced to fight military quite a few times just before that and as part of operation monolith

[clear cipher]

Yes, because you generally shouldn't be in the Zone. Generally, the military plays the role of Ward in SoC

Besides, it doesn't really make them look like bad guys, unless you take the view that they shouldn't do it by default. Everyone else does it too

[lethal kiln]

I know this, I've read the artbook , I just couldn't really tell in the cutscene. Good point about the X7 hallways, forgot about that.
Wish there were more ways to side with them, I really like their gear and aesthetics
Their camo colours sorta look like older Ukrainian "Dubok" camo colours

[clear cipher]

I think the main motivation was precisely the developers' reluctance to have the player shoot the military, for obvious reasons, and not that the game portrayed them as bad

[lethal kiln]

Does anyone know what the PA-10 gas mask is based on? It reminds me of metrocops from Half-Life 2 and the lens shape is similar to the Combine soldiers

Is it just the PMG gas mask with different lenses and slightly green rubber?

[rain coral]

I believe that the people in Strider’s flashbacks are still Ukrainian military, because you can find lore that explains that the IPSF replaced the Military sometime after 2012. IPSF uses what is effectively slightly modified Dubok (TTsKO) camo which was standard in the ZSU until ~2014/2015

[queen bridge]

That and it just makes sense that the whole world would be involved with the Zone.

[fathom veldt]

do you have like eyes of an eagle? how the hell do you see patches there :))
technically its military, but in hoc now they are ISPF

[lethal kiln]

They're circular unlike these

[fathom veldt]

hard to tell for me regarding patches, but its being said it is military and at that time its how they were named, later on this new military group emerged - ISPF

[lethal kiln]

Yeah

[crimson plank]

hey guys does deggy know about ||stingray 7|| in pripyat

[pine kite]

It's like down the block so I'd hope so

[worldly cloak]

What does lore exactly mean?

[vital pollen]

he literally tells you about it

ofc he knows, that's why it's a really bad retcon lol. He tried to find out why Stingray failed, can't find the reason from 5 helis and yet completely ignores another one??

I swear to god the writing in HoC sometimes makes me think it's something from AO3, no professional writer would do this after learning at least a bit about source material

[pine kite]

I dunno I've seen a lot of the things Hollywood produces

[vapid spire]

The Corps are also in a similar boat as a group that spawned off the military. except they're way cooler.

[chrome chasm]

Please, I need help with the mission: The Moment of Truth. I've completed everything, but nothing's happened for two days. I've restarted this mission three times, but the same thing keeps happening: I can't progress any further. What should I do?

[fathom veldt]

probably you mean vision of truth and this is like worst place for that, there is #❔┃seeking-for-advice channel. Probably some new patch bug? not sure where you even stuck

[sullen terrace]

did Scars teir 5 psy protection effect his brainwashing in any way?

[plain pelican]

Good question

[sullen terrace]

before the scar ending cutscene, when skif talks to him, he starts to doubt if the shining zone is real, if skif didn't push him into the pod, i don't think he would've gone in there himself

[mossy maple]

But shining zone is real bro trust me!!

[fathom veldt]

why then he would have marshal identity/memories implanted 🙂 ?
resistance better word than protection. surviving 3 emissions should have effect on his brain

[jagged hull]

i think its just that he saw what happened to his memories and subconsciously his scar side starts showing

[sharp raft]

Well, it is possible he might have learnt about it after. The debrief of CoP said that there were 5, but could be more - which turned out to be tru

Erm, unless I'm mistaking something.

I have a better question though, why was the X5 entrance changed

[jagged hull]

tbf x5 wasnt a thing up until now. seems like its the one lab thats out of place, even x3 blends in somewhat

[vapid spire]

X5 being near the aggroprom underground does explain why there was a controller down there in SoC and CS.

[native shale]

Do we actually know what Faust's necklace is? I heard in a cutscene that someone took a shard from one of the c con pods.

[jagged hull]

its a "key" for a visiograph

[vapid spire]

The visiographs connect to the noosphere right?

[ornate venture]

nozhevoy_ has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[obtuse fulcrum]

i enjoy an dislike the zone being retconned to be changed so much confusin if ur going off straight knowledge from SOC/COP
Specially with AW deep south west instead above rostok

[knotty basin]

Just consider Stalker 2 an alternate universe and not a real continuation, and you'll be less stressed.

[vital pollen]

That’s what it should have been marketed as tbh

[long trout]

Which it unfortunately wasn't

Which makes sense, obviously

You don't want to talk crap about your own game

But saying it's in the same universe?

Big no-no

[vapid spire]

I know the map is suppose to match the real life zone but they really didn't have room to put army bases between rostok and the red forest?

[vital pollen]

It's a cheap excuse. There are many shifts in completely made-up locations. Rostok does not exist in CEZ, and neither does Brain Scorcher or Army Warehouses. Changing those locations places has nothing to do with supposed "realism", it's just inability to work within existing medium.

We've got the answer from the dev interview where a level designer directly confirmed that whenever a question of coherence with past entries was brought up, it was always shooed off with "we're making a new game". They just didn't try to limit themselves. If they felt like changing stuff, they changed it, and did not bother with the question of how this new geography would work with past games' stories.

[long trout]

Which also explains why the game has so many retcons and at times feels more like a fanmade mod than an actual new STALKER game

[vapid spire]

So if they made a map that focused on the lore of the old games, where would they place zaton? Cause in CoP they said it's in the center of the zone,not next to the cordon.

[jagged hull]

its not necessarily part of the center of the zone its just an area that couldnt be accessed before the brain scorcher was shut down

it most likely would be beyond pripyat, but the current placement is fine personally even if it conflicts with the lore a bit

[vapid spire]

That would mean we wouldn't get to that area until really late in the story.

At least they put yaniv close to pripyat.

[jagged hull]

theres not rly any other place that zaton could fit and then theres the question of what would take its place

either something completely new or an equally lore-breaking location change

[vapid spire]

They really should have made a north part of the zone. They keep saying the cnpp is the center when it looks like it's the top of the zone.

[jagged hull]

idk in my head the zaton location change is fine because it fits in very well with the new location of swamps which by itself is a very memorable location

[vapid spire]

Rostok feels more like the center of the zone.

[jagged hull]

technically X7 would be the center not cnpp

[vapid spire]

The swamps should have been where the burnt forest is.

[long trout]

I mean

Technically, the CNPP is the Heart of the Zone

It's always been referenced as "the center of the Zone"

[vapid spire]

Still X7 is closer to the top than the center.

[long trout]

After all, we've also got the Belarusian side of the Zone

Then again, if we're talking about HoC specifically, then I don't even know

[jagged hull]

its been referred as the center because generators did not exist as a separate area until S2

[long trout]

This game has too many retcons to try to make sense of it

[jagged hull]

plus stalkers dont know who created the zone its a good guess that the cnpp has something to do with it

[vapid spire]

Originally I think people thought that zaton and jupiter were the north parts of the zone.

[long trout]

From the Zone Survival Guide, we learn that the Second Disaster didn't originate from the CNPP but actually 5 KM North of the CNPP

But, again, this is HoC we're talking about

It's not connected to the Trilogy, no matter what GSC says

Like, are the Generators really at the border of the Zone? I really doubt it

[jagged hull]

i think its pretty obvious that theyre not at the border its just that no one bothered to make the areas north of generators

tbf north of pripyat there is a decently sized river that wouldnt exactly be easy to cross i dont think we will get much more map expansions towards that direction

i think its the same river that is to the east of zaton

[long trout]

It's also a case of the whole 60 KM radius mention, while HoC's map is 64 KM²

[long trout]

Yeah, except Zaton is now all the way down South

While it should be above Pripyat (CoP map and IRL-wise. Lore-wise, it's beneath Pripyat)

[jagged hull]

zaton should be way south of pripyat its based on the chernobyl port which is on the edge of the exclusion zone

[vital pollen]

You would have to design the map first and the story second. Trying to put existing story on a theoretical alternative map is a pointless exercise.

[long trout]

Oh nah, it's above Pripyat

One sec

[vital pollen]

In new lore yes, CS specifically states CNPP is the center though.

[jagged hull]

again as i mentioned generators did not exist as a separate location until HoC they were right next to the cnpp in the trilogy

[long trout]

Yet were hinted to exist in the ZSG

[vital pollen]

It’s not 64. It’s a marketing claim. 64 is entire area, including all the out of bounds terrain. About 30% of that is actually playable.

[long trout]

Those rivers sure look familiar

[long trout]

So, yet again, false marketing

https://tenor.com/view/wheeze-laugh-gif-14359545

[vital pollen]

Happened before

[long trout]

But yeah, while CoP's map isn't accurate to what we see on SoC and CS' map, it is more accurate to the IRL area

HoC's map isn't accurate to either SoC/CS or CoP

I'd love to see what's around the Zone, tbh. We've only explored the South so far

[jagged hull]

the rivers look similar but thats pretty much the end of it, the area in general is based on chernobyl port especially the abandoned ships

[jagged hull]

im pretty sure some of that is coming in dlc, they focused a bit too much on adding southern zone areas like duga

[long trout]

Doesn't matter, tbh. It's built upon the IRL location. The shapes of the river are even the same. Of course, some creative freedom was taken. They're still making a game, after all

[long trout]

I honestly doubt it

Most likely just the foggy parts of the map

[vapid spire]

Exactly, what's above the cnpp before you get to Belarus.

[long trout]

Even some parts of the Zone are in Belarus

Apparently, there are more Shamans on that side of the Zone

(Trilogy lore again, not HoC)

[vapid spire]

Imagine a dlc where you start north of the zone instead of south.

[long trout]

Ikr

So much unexplored territory

What about all the X-designated labs over there?

What about the other "Brain Scorchers"?

[vapid spire]

All the games start south.

[long trout]

Maybe different factions as well?

Who the heck knows

[vapid spire]

Even CoP starts south since zaton has been retconned.

Bring back the renegade and make them more than just a bandit re-skin.

[vapid spire]

There was more than one?

[long trout]

Yeah

There are more across the Zone

That's what I'm saying. We've only seen the South. What's going on with the rest of the Zone?

[vapid spire]

Where do the games mention other scorchers?

[long trout]

SoC, when you meet the C-Consciousness representative

Again, this is all Trilogy lore

Which could just as well mean nothing in HoC

But it does make you wonder

[plain pelican]

If you know Polish, read the series starting with Ołowiany Świt. It's peak and set up there

[mossy maple]

Finished for the second time. Ward ending sucks

Project Y >>> everything

[signal egret]

same

[vapid spire]

Made sure to get that ending first

[sullen terrace]

went in blind and got ward ending in my first playthru, thought it was a pretty good ending until it was revealed that skif was turned into an agent

[vapid spire]

Though it kinda sucks that you skip out on seeing the dead valley if you take the doc/strelok path.

[plain pelican]

Ward sucks overall

[ornate venture]

iiivoidiii_51716 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[vapid spire]

You ever wonder how spark managed to get all that blue armor? Also why doesn't Scar wear any spark armor?

[mossy maple]

Probably brought them on eBay idk

[ornate venture]

g0mc has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[plain pelican]

Not everyone in Iskra wears the blue armour, some have Sunrise suits like Clear Sky used to. Its rare tho

[vital tree]

Skif was probably an agent from the start

Technically isn't an agent cause the ward use it to spy on him

[sullen terrace]

i thought c con/agatha can only spy on those who are agents?

[vital tree]

Yes but skif isn't a c con agent

He's a ward agent so to say

[sullen terrace]

skif became an agent after agatha replaced c con

[vital pollen]

I think the ending is more “now we can spy on anyone”, Sid being in one of the monitors is an indirect proof

[vital tree]

Yes probably

[vital pollen]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. program takes time to complete. Possibly weeks or even months of marinating in front of the TVs.

Skif literally couldn’t become an agent mid-game. He either was one from the beginning (and so did e.g. Sid) or the ending shows them spying on non-agents.

[fathom veldt]

not necessarily, probably depends on a aproach isn't it? if to wipe memory its one thing, another probably thing to not alter identity, memories, and lastly in case of like monolith zombies, solders can't their brains wiped clean fast?

[mossy maple]

That doesn't make any sense because Skif can make choices through the game and side with whoever hé wants